Top CEOs. Top business leaders. ANA Members.

ANA Marketing Maestros: Top CEOs. Top business leaders.

The Who's Who list of CEOs.

How to Be a Better CMO

ANA Marketing Maestros: How to Be a Better CMO

very interesting read!

You've got baggage....

It is funny when friends write to you about the reclusive Russian who declined the Field medal. Reminds you that no matter what you do today... you still have ties with the field you left behind.

Reclusive genius spurns math prize

these are kinds they make movies on...

Project Jill

That's Wife

The brand is in the name

Google wants people to stop googling from CNET News.com

Futuristic trends

CUSTOMER-MADE!

Institute of the Future

My dearest subject... INNOVATION

Fast Company Now: Innovation Start With the Customer!

Multi-tasking or food for ADHD?

Interesting article about Gen Y ladies: Girls Just Want to Be Plugged In -- to Everything from the Los Angeles Times.

Google Games

Fancy Games - Fast Company Now
from who else but Google.

Google As Napoleon

Interesting article from - Economist.com

The alliance against Google

Wealth of Knowledge!

The latest issue of http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/ has some fantastic articles and books - must reads for the summer.

• Sustainability - Made to Break
• Design - Idealized Design
• Retirement - Principles of wealth management
• Five lessons from "Must-Win Battles" - Lessons from successful & failed journeys
• Success to failure - Three factors that can change success to failure
• The Omnivore's dilemma - Natural history of four meals

Is it privacy or the economics?

Interesting read...

Is it privacy or the economics? from Market Watch

Tasseomancy

Tasseomancy is the ancient art of reading tea leaves. The practice of drinking tea was associated with meditation in the East and the configuration of tea leaves in the cup after drinking reflected the state of the world at that particular moment. Anyway enough about the ancients, lets talk modern times. Management today is not much different from this age old art form. Reading hidden messages, understanding & interpreting body language, I can go on and on.

Nature is supreme; as such it is not strange we expect certain traits in individuals we hire for positions. A little gray hair, stern voice & a firm grip will go a long way. Although people are people, each of them speaks their very own unique lingo, they act different, they offer different responses to situations.

The task of reading and interpreting their behaviors can be daunting. Understanding when they need help, what kind of help, how to offer and approach them for help is an art. I have wondered if we couldn’t have a tasseomant in every office that read the tea leaves of every employee just to make the managers life easy. Do we call it performance review by any chance?

Squeezing the lemon

I think hiring is by far the most difficult task in ones career? In my personal experience I have found it to be more difficult than making multi million dollar and sometimes multi billion dollar choices for corporations. It is not just identifying the candidate, but asking them the right questions, evaluating their responses and finally making the critical ‘go’, ‘no go’ decisions on the right cultural fit, right skill set, the right attitude, the energy, passion and much more. Yet another element of challenge is the urge to satisfy a short term business need or developing a leader.

I remember hearing staggering statistics on investments organizations make in developing leaders that way too often result in a regretted loss to another organization worse yet to a competitor and yet that’s not the worst scenario… try inheriting a dysfunctional team and misfit individuals only to be told ‘it is what it is’, now work it out. I call it, ‘Squeezing the lemon’. Talk about tough calls!

Alls not lost though, there is hope. I have always believed, ‘until there is hope there is life’. Squeezing the lemon is tough, but with a positive attitude and a passion to succeed there is a way. Here is what I have found works.

• Partner at every level with the team/members and their bosses
• Train the team, even if they don’t see any immediate value
• Keep trying, trying, trying and trying to show them the light
• Provide specific solutions not constructs
• Communicate to build trust
• If nothing else works make a firm, decisive and clear impression by firing the trouble makers/misfits!

Tough choice for Europe - GMO or no GMO?

From the FastCompany briefing on biotech in batteries.

A virus with a charge

Harnessing the power of genetically modified viruses.

http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2005/06/europes-gmo-trap.html
http://www.gmofree-europe.org/
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Index.htm
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ESRG.php

Career elasticity of growth & movement

As a marketer and strategist I often look at elasticities of my brands. In order to time events for the greatest impact, and improve my ROI, I juggle many balls, advertising, promotions, partnerships, equity alliances, etc.

During a recent review I noticed similarities between the elasticity of demand curve and careers. As marketers we never price brands on the inelastic part of the curve, because it would be stupid to leave money on the table. We are taught to be sensitive to thresholds where consumers question the benefit and price of the brand (the value). Lastly we learn to pay special attention to the gap between our price and that of our closest competitors.

I decided to apply the same principles to my career and mapped the career elasticity of growth!

 

The gift of risk

Only from FastCompany

Leading Ideas: The gift of risk

Interesting article.

what goes around comes around

Interesting article on the wisdom of crowds.

Workers, place your bets from Business Week.

If you remember my posting "Some of my interesting bookmarks" from June 2006

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – What about CANDOR?

I have always tried hard & practiced treating others the way I wish to be treated by them. Only recently I noticed something strange when a project with little merit received unanimous support, then again every project received kudos. I stopped to think what was really going on? It really struck a cord when I realized it was a case of you scratch my back and I scratch yours. BUT WHAT ABOUT OPEN HONEST TALK?

Most people are smart and intelligent but sometimes too intelligent for their own good. That’s when things back fire, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”; if you say good things about my project I will say great things about yours! Is this a cultural thing? Can our corporate cultures fix what our religious, societal cultures have indoctrinated us with? I certainly think so! The legendary Jack Welch of GE said it once reward people and behaviors that align with objectives and values and punish the ones that don’t. This applies as much to the top performers as the bottom dwellers in every organization.

In Search of Courage

Who else by John McCain - Some of these reprinted FastCompany articles are amazing! In Search of Courage: "John McCain"

WSJ-New-Media Power List

Fast Company Now: "New-Media Power List"

Organization & controls

I have always believed sound organizations need - internal discipline; resulting in strong brands, great people and social responsibility & and external control for strategy and objectivity; board of directors, PR people and investors. Together they go a long way! I consider myself an organization (of one) an institution (with brands ME, principles, values & purpose), so why not emulate? In my effort to get started I made the following list.

Internal control:

BRANDING (equity, quality & packaging) – First & Second moment of truth!
o What is my equity? How would someone describe me? & Competition
o How do people perceive me? What is my image like? & Competition
o How do I project myself? & Competition
o My messages, how I speak, the people I associate with, how I look, what I wear? & Competition

SKILL, TALENT & GENIUS
o How I lead & develop my team? & Competition
o How are my results I deliver & my communication? & Competition
o Capabilities I possess? & Competition
o Capacity I have? & Competition
o Time I manage, work I prioritize? & Competition

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
o How I lead & develop my team? & Competition
o My commitment to my people, my community, my fraternity? & Competition

External control:

OBJECTIVITY
o Mentors as my board of directors
o Strong partners, coaches as my investors & bankers

Let’s get cracking!

Built to Flip

Jim Collins is great! -
Built to Flip: "author of 'Built to Last: Success"

bad PR... you think?

This month's ANA had a full page ad and I could not resist but blog it.

A little extreme but effective career/personal espionage.

That Girl Emily

Manager Tools

Fastinating blog and an equally interesting podcast! Manager Tools

Conversations… conversations… conversations…

I learn more from talking to people then from anything else. Last weekend I met some one; he asked me what I did for a living. I blurted “Management”, I thought for a second… that’s my first. I typically respond with more specific about what I do or who I work for, etc. Interesting response must have been subconscious… This individual asked me what I meant by “Management”? Now I needed to respond with something that fit with my previous answer. I responded "I am in the business of leadership and people". That was the most apt answer I could think of at the time. Certainly very true! My role is all about my people, leading them, setting direction & managing change.

The World's Top Brands

The power is in name - from Business week
The World's Top Brands

Leadership is generational

There is a lot of hoopla about change management and leadership, NO denying ANY organization would not exist let alone succeed in absence of strong leadership and an effective change management program that weathers changing strategies, organizational structures, market conditions, etc. What’s worrisome thought is the perspective a lot of business graduates and business managers have about change and leadership. As life gets faster business graduates and managers expect an equally fast turn on change and leadership. It is not as fast and easy as downloading a good book on change and leadership on to your iPod listening or reading through the pages of the HBR and knowing all that there is to know about change and leadership. The Titanic does not change course in an instant! I am particularly skeptical of the turnaround experts, not to say short term goals don’t matter but they come at a cost and that cost will be adequately compensated with some depression in the long run.

We see leaders, read about them, hear about them, talk about them, even study their decisions and try to emulate them. What one takes away may or may not be the same the next person takes away. Not too long ago I had a good friend who visited a conference where the legendary Jack Welch presented. I adore Jack’s leadership and business acumen; have been a huge fan forever! When this friend mentioned he wanted to get a business degree only because he heard Jack mention ‘today’s managers need to develop people skill’, I thought what on earth! Coming from Jack sounded a little strange, the same person who had such a public divorce, which only got messier in the media... & people skills.

I believe the truth is we need all the knowledge there is, our own vision combined with a STRONG heart to be patient and persist at the mission/vision, make the TOUGH decisions. A little steering every so often, engagement and energy & the organization will see the light on the horizon. Changing people’s philosophies, ideology and thoughts takes generations. Leadership is a philosophical, Leadership is generational!

Modularity - Life’s little resets!

Yesterday was a hectic day... I woke up on time but with all the little things I had to complete I was late for my train, lucky me I still made it. By the time I reached my transfer point I was back on track. Things went smooth only until I got to office and I had to put out a fire that seemed to derail my entire day’s schedule, once again lucky me half way down the day one of my meeting was cancelled and I got an hour of my ever so important life back. I was cruising just fine. On my way back home I reflected on my day all the mini crises I had to deal with, the fires I had to put out, plans I had to make and objectives I had met.

My reflection led me to the thought of resets! How modular is life, the decoupling helps and hurts. Clearly the modularity allows for those quick and easy resets in life that enable us to reload and fire. How great is that! A perfect opportunity to reset and start all over again. Not all disruptions result in the same level of resilience from life. The classic was 9-11, life was crippled for days, travelers within the US and a number of cases globally were stranded, but things eventually bounce back.

Is our modular lifestyle offering options for resets or is life just getting more resilient from all the shocks and experience?

In an age of creativity-design-innovaiton

Posted on The Donald Trump blog - My Candidates to Replace the MBA

I am not a fan of Mr. Trump's blog but this is an interesting article by Tom Peters.

Effect of Mood on Work Performance

Knowledge@Wharton -
Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Desk: The Effect of Mood on Work Performance

Promises, Lies and Apologies: Is It Possible to Restore Trust?

Interesting reseasrch from: Knowledge@Wharton -
Promises, Lies and Apologies: Is It Possible to Restore Trust?

"Trust is critical for organizations, effective management and efficient negotiations, yet trust violations are common"

"It's okay to screw me over, but don't deceive me as well," says Bradlow. "If you screw me over and lie about it, it's going to take even longer to recover from it."

The authors say

The business of influence

The podcasts at the University of Chicago are fascinating. Here is from Steven Levitt.

Steven Levitt, Alvin H. Baum Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago and author of the New York Times bestseller Freakonomics, regaled the students with cases from his research. One example illustrated why Chicago emphasizes the importance of hard data for all kinds of decision-making.

MP3 File

Badge of shame

Ever had one of those days when you thought you worked on a presentation for a role model and intended to impress only to be pointed juvenile mistakes in the presentation? Juvenile is probably an understatement. Everything came crashing from mistakes in charts to assumptions that did not address the issue in question, the most devastating was when 'common sense checks' in the presentation fell apart!

Rough, Rough, Rough... You bounce back! Life goes on!

In any case the best thing one can do is seek feedback, take the feedback personally and apply. I decided I would go back to my role model and acknowledge my mistakes, take responsibilities to redeem myself. Work to build my equity all over again. It was rough!

No One Knows What They're Doing

No One Knows What They're Doing - interesting read

Fast Company suggests trying:

1. Practice admitting when you're stuck or don't know what you're doing (perhaps in safer environments at first).
2. Open up to others to help you begin to find answers to your challenges.
3. Begin to notice the sense of freedom that can come from not having to "know" all the time.

Vanishing enemy

Every time I listen to the news these I am amazed at the similarity between guerrilla wars (particularly the from the fundamentalist organizations) and the private label consumer product labels war games. A few years ago I had the opportunity to dig through some old data before and around the second big war. The issues of brand wars were similar then as they are now. The lions always have to keep up with the nimble young gazelles; of course the modern gazelles have sharp teeth and paws of the lion, and a large number competing for the same opportunities. What makes it particularly difficult is the modern day relationship the lions have with the gazelles, acting as customers and competitors at the same time.

There are obviously three obvious courses most organizations take to deal with the challenges, driven by their equity, their relationships and lastly their strengths. Going after the gazelles versus other lions; Ignoring the gazelles and concentrating on other lions that feast on their opportunities; or Going after other lions while keeping an eye on the gazelles in case there arises an opportunity to pounce and feast on them. All of this does not seem much different from global politicking.

Obviously the gazelle does not make for much of a feast when you are a large lion unless you can round up an entire herd, but that would be pretty tough given their agility and deceptive roles. It certainly makes best sense to drive other lions to enable proliferation of the other opportunities in the view, as long as the lions have enough cubs to go after the gazelles and limit their activity to specific regions. The cubs can keep the Gazelles busy from sharpening and penetrating their teeth into any of the lions. Much like what Queen Maria Theresa did during her reign as the queen mother of Austria.

Trust is a corporate speak for consistency

Had the opportunity to read Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a team. Pat starts with the first dysfunction, “Absence of Trust”, I felt good… that means it fits with my model of building credibility. I was interested in knowing what Pat mean by TRUST? He says trust is not about letting yourself fall on your team member and expecting them to hold you, instead it means being able to predict people’s behavior in various situations consistently, the trust that they will make predictably right choices.

I processes what I had read the thought lead me think of the only document one carries along through out ones careers from the point in time one is hired until they retire. Our RESUME! We the schools one attended to organizations and roles. Our alma maters are associated with the effort it takes to be accepted and the commitment it requires to get through. The organizations one worked for and the progression through out the career is the next major element. Once again projecting to the reviewer ones commitment, passion and consistency in delivering results. Within every role one has held individuals talk about their success, the challenges, adjustments they make as a reflection of the performance they will likely deliver in the role they transition into.

Does this mean we have just created a corporate buzz for consistency? May be what we mean by trust is really consistency?

Built to last companies & the Ecosystem

By the time I had read Jim Collins’ Built to last, I had worked for one. The experience and the philosophies he shared seemed to hit at home. I was living and breathing all the little things and also the big things he mentioned. It was so interesting, then few years after he wrote his next book that and called it Good to great. Jim referenced a conversation with a McKinsey partner that influenced him to think about Good to great and rest is history. When I finished his second book I felt liberated! I felt all those things I had learned, absorbed and embodied from reading Built to last I practiced and made me sort of like one of the companies he talked about that changed from a Good company to a Great company. I was transformed! I had started to think laterally, be proactive, change one thing at a time, little by little until the flywheel begins to spin.

My lateral thinking lead me to compare myself to an Ecosystem; Adjusting, learning, improving, and at cause. The fundamentals were quite simple to be honest. Learn from every action, adjust a little, act on things, don’t let things happen to you and make them happen for you, acknowledge the challenges, rid yourself of the bad, embrace the good and opportunities will follow. At the end of the day it is all about balance, 'The Ying & the Yang'... if you don’t create it some one else will.

Liberty & Freedom of thought

When our founding fathers wrote our constitution they were influenced by their perspectives and experiences they had in Europe. They strived to establish a state of peace and prosperity by protecting its citizens providing and extending freedoms. Don’t corporate CREDO; Principles, Values and Purpose statements strive for the same? I think they do! When why do they need to be unique, why do they need to be different? That is not to say the constitution of every country in the world needs be the same but they all proclaim to offer their citizens the same rights, privileges in context of their social settings.

The part that strikes me as insightful is the fact that every nation in its own ways promises well being and yet violates some human rights or the other… be it mistreatment of its citizens, limiting fundamental rights , etc. Not much different from the corporate world. We have address most of visible issues diversity, equal opportunity, but it still seems like we need to go a long way with “Liberty & Freedom of thought”. I have made it is my personal mission every day to open my mind and consider and logically synthesize a fundamentally contradicting idea.

I can’t think of an easier way, but that’s what marketers are supposed to do not just think different but act different, challenge the norm, the status quo!

Indecency Law Tripped Up By Bush Slip-Up

Funny when it comes from the big guy...

Indecency Law Tripped Up By Bush Slip-Up

This is much like business continuity

This is much like business continuity The Fools call it portfolio management.

Bird Flu Planning Isn't for the Birds

Below the belt!

From Fast Company: What happens when the CEO of a fortune 50 company bounces a check?

CEO's public persona
Bouncing a $2000 check
Challenging question

Your Attention Please

Great article from Business Week: Mass customization but micro segmentation & targeting.
Your Attention Please

What we imagine is as important as the real thing

Pick up any good book and you will transcend time and space. I have written about ‘A’ Level education in the western world and how much I have enjoyed the experience myself. I am particularly fascinated by the emphasis on independent thinking and imagination. I must acknowledge that some of the creativity could be better channeled than simply spelling things differently. The classic case is “DAWG”, how is that creative, I struggle to understand sometimes.

In any case, our education and learning process fosters our imagination but the corporate structure binds it down. We are slaves of our data, our information and knowledge itself. I am reminded of Einstein. “Imagination is more important than knowledge...”

I strongly believe one cannot transform some thing into reality if one has not imagined it! Let’s break our shackles and slavish behavior and start imagining. To sum up in the words of Charles Kettering, “Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.”

That's creative Advertising!

Read the article in MediaPost

Hot Topics from the Jackson Library

The 'Hot Topics' list from the Jackson Library at the Stanford GSB is a fascinating collection.

Check out the Hot Topic:Work/Life Balance

Here is the comprehensive list - Hot Topics

Management lessons from KHUMANI

 
 

5. The entire team needs to be on board
4. Patience is a virtue
3. Keep your eye on the prize and work hard
2. Training is tough
1. The soft stuff is the hard stuff (read this in a presentation)

KHUMANI means Apricot in Hindi 

Not just what to measure but who should measure?

I have quoted Drucker before, “What gets measured gets done”. In fact I have even challenged part of this quote and introduced an accountability element… “What gets measured and accounted gets done”. My other management guru has been Mr. Welch. Along the lines of measuring and rewarding Jack said - "If you want risk taking, set an example yourself and reward and praise those that do." It is all about walking the walk and talking the talk.

In all these quotable quotes is the question of who is measuring? The underlying assumption is the one who measures understands what the measurements REALLY mean! Then arrives the concern of an unbiased comparison of the results from the measurement. Should that be HR, the GM or the Functional expert? Given HR is familiar with the legalities, the GM controls the purse strings and the Functional expert understand the effort, skill/talent it takes. In my ideal organization it must be a horse trading between them all.

Healthy Tension

I have never liked Matrixed organization. I believe in simplicity and try my very best to keep things simple, I believe a Matrix organization is the anti thesis of simplicity. Alls not lost on the complexity of the matrix though… There are clear advantages, but of course there must be a reason for a significant number of fortune 100 companies to embrace the concept.

Think of an organization where the General Manager is responsible for everything from Marketing, Finance, Supply chain, Research, Product management, IT; the GM can not be expected to be an expert in all the Functional area. Yet she/he holds the reigns, sets the tone and direction. It would be pretty very difficult for the multifunctionals to feel connected and valued when the GM knows little about their craft?

A tight rope to walk, do the multifunctional align with the business or maintain a functional alignment. What more relevant a sense of business ownership or craftsmanship, they are both just as important! I sometimes feel like the Matrix generates that healthy tension?

Wisdom collection from Fast Company

As a fan of the magazine and a long time subscriber... I felt it necessary to share - Fast Company's Greatest Hits : Ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business.

Wait for my review in a couple.

Social Responsibility Gone Bad

Social Responsibility Gone Bad

Interesting article from Fast Company.

What is missed out at B-school

What They don't Teach You about in B-school

Emergent literacy

Heard the term Emergent literacy yesterday from my Muse and liked it! The term sounds so progressive. I searched the web to learn more about the concept.

http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/em_lit0.html
The research and theoretical developments of the last decade have dramatically altered how we view young children's movement into literacy (Teale & Sulzby, 1986).

Literacy development is seen as emerging from children's oral language development and their initial, often unconventional attempts at reading (usually based on pictures) and writing (at first, scribbling) -- hence the term emergent literacy. Within an emergent literacy framework, children's early unconventional attempts at reading and writing are respected as legitimate beginnings of literacy.

Novel concept in education, where actions and behaviors are measured as a proxy to learning... but sounds rather familiar for the corporate world. To the best of my knowledge all the people I ever evaluated in the corporate world were evaluated against the various elements of their personality - can-do attitude, creativity, passion/drive, leadership, communication, etc. These characteristics as a measure of their maturity to manage and develop into a corporate role.

It would be great if some of these skills are quantified to represent the gap from perfection...

Interesting links:
http://www.bankstreet.edu/literacyguide/early.html
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/earlyindex.html

Open mind

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
- Malcolm Forbes

Occam’s razor a paradox

Most engineers and scientists have at one point in time or another explained a behavior using the principle - Occam’s Razor [lex parsimoniae (law of succinctness)]. The first media mentioned of Occam’s Razor that comes to my mind was in the movie Contact, based on Carl Edward Sagan’s novel Contact. So what is Occam’s Razor?

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity

What that really translates in simple English is... in absence of strong evidence the most obvious answer must be the right answer. That leads to the next key question... what is an ‘obvious answer’? The not so COMMON SENSE based answer! Paradoxical isn’t it?

The plastic leader

The soccer World Cup Finals yesterday in Germany provided a rare opportunity to experience a leader express himself! In the most unlikely way, Zidane head butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi. Materazzi & Zidane had some verbal exchange that ended in the head butt and a Red card for Zidane. Whatever words or actions of provocation Materazzi may have offered Zidane’s reaction was strange. There was severe criticism of Zidane’s actions by the commentators, media and everyone else.

I wondered who defines what is right and wrong? Also if a leader is expected to be passionate shouldn’t we expect more than a just a classic somber person? A leader is human how is he or she to express his or her response? A pacifist leader is not considered iconic in today’s world. We may revere Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, Aung San Kji, Dr. King, etc. but I would like to hear one pacifist leader from business and Sports today!

Would we like a plastic leader with predictable responses, predictable expressions and predictable features or a real human?

I for one am human and like to be myself! Cheers to Zindane.

BBC link

Is Your Boss Killing You?

Is Your Boss Killing You? - Fast Company

Can one really complain about this situation in today's take charge world!

Interview with a Headhunter - Fast Company

ONLY from Fast Company -Interview with a Headhunter

Summary:
8. Got an offer? Interview the company.
7. To win an offer, do the job.
6. It's not an interview -- it's your first day at work.
5. The shocking truth: The employer wants to hire you.
4. Don't study for the interview -- practice doing the job.
3. The real matchmaking takes place before the interview.
2. Go to HR -- and get lost!
1. Your résumé is meaningless.

Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters.

from the desk of Barbara Kellerman - Forbes.com

Simple and on target!

Was at the sweetest place in New York City, over the weekend.

Simple, sweet message and on target.

insignificant thoughts - MUST READ/HEAR

insignificant thoughts » Cancelling AOL

CHEERS TO VINCENT!!!

Zaha - Multi-dimensional thinker, designer, artist & architect

Zaha Hadid - Check out images of her work Google Image Search.

Just saw her show at the Guggenheim in New York City.

So Much Fanfare, So Few Hits

So Much Fanfare, So Few Hits

I bet Business Week knows it all boils down to a 'numbers game', even Edison tried hundreds of ideas before he came up with the light bulb!

...then what is this article all about? I still think it is all about innovation and new buzzzzzz...

D - I - V - E - R - S - I - T - Y - TRUE Enrichment of thought!

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Job Enlargement & Job Enhancement

I was recently thinking about ‘Job’? Job enlargement vs. Job enhancement? Is one a scope issue vs. a quality issue? I decided to explore and conduct a literature survey to better understand.

My searches lead me to Mintzberg… Mintzberg talks about horizontal expansion of the job, where additional tasks are added to ones portfolio while at the same skill level. The variety in the job enables the individual to learn, stay excited and avoid boredom. Mintzberg refers to this as Job Enlargement!

Mintzberg talks about the vertical expansion of a job which results in increased responsibilities and elevation in role (increase in prestige and visibility). He calls it Job Enhancement. I finally confirmed my hypothesis, enlargement vs. enhancement is truly a scope vs. quality issue respectively.

Thanks to the 20 some emails I receive each day offering to enhance or enlarge anatomical parts of my body… Inspirational I tell you!

Why We Hate HR-Counterpoint : Fast Company Now

Fast Company Now: "Why We Hate HR--Counterpoint"

1) Companies hire inexperienced and unqualified people to handle HR, but expect them to perform at higher levels than they are qualified.
2) Companies do not invest in HR as they do in other departments.
3) Many small to medium size companies have HR people that are strategic partners.

Most of the HR participants believe that they are strategic partners. It would be interesting to ask their CEO's and management team's opinion.

From Fast Company...

Why we need strategy?

Why do we need strategy, I wonder? In my list of the most abused business words, STRATEGY is at the very top, it’s the “Shame Spot”. I have written about strategy before with the perspective of what it means, may be that will lead me to my answers?

In my quest I found three leads:

1. Data & Information
2. Hedging & Speculation
3. Hypothesizing results

People often confuse data with analytics and analytics with insights and insights with strategy. I believe in the real world data translates to information, information to knowledge. Our data systems only capture limited elements of data not just about events and their performance but all the ancillary things connected and disconnected that may or may not have affect the outcome.

From the point in time we start school to the point we retire we hedge! There is not guarantee that you will score an 'A' in a course and likewise no guarantee that we will have enough saved for a stable, relaxing retirement. We set ourselves to an unstated (but understood) mission of meeting our goals successfully. We make puts and calls on the options that lie ahead of us, pace ourselves, change directions until we get to our set destination or close to the goal.

Hedging and Speculation only works if you know what to expect? The goal therefore is just a hypothesis from making the puts and calls.

So there we go… I believe collectively they create the need for strategy?

Competitive Advantage! - Funny one

The Motley Fool: Talk About a Competitive Advantage!

Just imagine the marketing possibilities for these companies, owned 100% by Berkshire Hathaway.

"Switch to GEICO, and help global health!"

"Jordan's Furniture: Where your new living room can help cure diphtheria!"

"Acme Brick: Rebuilding libraries, one brick at a time!"

"Helzberg Diamonds: 30% more likely to help cure AIDS than other jewelers. (Except for Ben Bridge and Borsheim's.)"

...from The Motely Fools

Talk about compaction!

Forbes.com Article: "Get Ready For Stagflation"

The first time I heard Stagflation I thought... Oxymoron? Stagnation + Inflation, but it is not. Only because the word is our way of cramming more info into one single word-compaction. The word focuses on two seperate areas, Stagnation of business and Inflation of prices.

Bureaucracy is structure

I don’t know of one individual who likes bureaucracy? If you do drop me a note I would be interested… in any case what is it about bureaucracy that we HATE? I started to wonder and like most other things in my life made a list.

• Checking in
• Checking out
• Delays
• Authority
• Lost productivity/creativity
• Unnecessary baggage

Oh I could go on and on and on….

But bureaucracy is organization! My list above is an organization to my thoughts, plans to do things in an orderly fashion and planning them out is organization. Bureaucracy is order!

Why and when did bureaucracy turn into a negative term? As individuals we all like order, often times we become slaves to this order. It’s this ‘slavery’… the over dependence on a need for order that gives rise to bureaucracy

Multiple of three

In 1998 Daniel Goleman wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review (Nov/Dec98, Vol. 76 Issue 6, p93-102, 10p, 1 chart, 2c; (AN 1246794)). In reading through it I came across the usual little sections in the main article that add spice and the occasional brain tease – “Can Emotional Intelligence be learned?”. Daniel made a reference to the brains limbic system that develops are emotional intelligence. The neurotransmitters in the limbic system according to Mr. Goleman develop through Motivation, Practice and Feedback. Motivation, Practice and Feedback so simple and yet so obvious!

I believe life is as simple as three corners of a triangle, with the area under the triangle remaining constant! To maintain a balance we stretch in one direction as needed and compensate with contraction in the other direction/s.

Three points is also the minimum needed to create a plane surface through them.

 

The Half Life of Ideas

Fast Company Now- Refrences the WSJ article why management trends quickly fade away (online subcription needed).

FC has summarized the points elegantly... worth a read

Attitude Adjustment

Attitude Adjustment from the Fast Company

Stint abroad is a résumé requirement - some advice on bridging cultural divides.

How Can You Become a Smarter Marketer?

ANA Marketing Maestros: How Can You Become a Smarter Marketer?:

"It will require that we innovate, think differently, think like our customers"

Creative Recombination

Managing Change in a World of Excessive Change: Counterbalancing Creative Destruction and Creative Recombination
Eric Abrahamson is professor of management at Columbia Business School.

Ideas At Work

Some intersting articles from Columbia Business School

---

Columbia Business School: Ideas At Work

Sociogram

One of the first things I always ask from every new organization I visit/join is an organization chart. Call it by any other name (ORGANIGRAM as introduced by Mintzberg) it still represents the same elements, the organizational focus, reporting lines, flow of authority and responsibilities.

The part that is interesting is when one flipping the charts upside down! The ORGANIGRAM transforms into a SOCIOGRAM of the organization, the influence at every level in the hierarchy. Width of the structure at any level is directly proportional to the extent of social influence that level casts both above and below.

The 15% Rule

Some have called it the GE model, I have not seen it to confirm... in anycase I think this is a hybrid of what I come to know.

The top 15% performers within a grade level will outperform the bottom 15% performers of the next higher grade level.

Talent Management must be the center stage of any corporate strategy even with an aging population.

Career GPS

A couple years ago I started my list of the most abused business words. The list is not as long as I had expected it to be but continues to grow, some day I will publish the list. One of the words I recently started grappling with is “Career Pathing”. What is a career path? I did a general search on Google and came across the following links…

o Career Journal/College Journal from WSJ
o Internet Public Library for Teens
o Numerous recruiters and internet job forums and boards
o Career sections from National and Regional News papers – NYTimes, ChicagoTribune, etc.
o Various consortiums – Business Education, MBA.com, etc.
o Even some astrology sites…
o & much, much more

A common theme across all of the sites was creating awareness of the kinds of jobs, philosophies on what it expected at those levels, an inventory of the arsenal, tools and methods available at our disposal that we as individuals can leverage and some biographies of successful people who have made it and how. Clearly none had a route to get there only a map of the territory and some anecdotes and stories of previous explorers.

Tere are ten ways from Tuesday to skin a cat and so is true of a career path. There is a clear need to know where you want to be, develop and demonstrate the skills, adjust and sharpen the worn edges, an idea of what is one willing to stake and for how long and lastly what’s the exit strategy incase the goal seems worthless as things evolve. Our coaches and mentors can guide us but at the end of the day you are what you make of an opportunity!

Is there a Career GPS? Can I set my destination and have it steer me to the right destination?

HR and Strategy

Once you get beyond the sales pitch... an interesting article by - Right Management Consulting
HR's role in strategy implementation.

I wish HR could see as clear as the article and was as effective as the idealistic view shared in the article.



Image copyrighted to - Right Management Consultants

COORDINATION & AGILITY

Every organization is unique! Big, small, young, mature. On a weekend recently I decided to sit back and figure out the differences between the DNA of a startup and the DNA of a mature organization. I thought for a while and could not find anything distinguishing! I decided I would look though news from organizations on the public wires as examples to distinguish their characteristics.

The most commonly used word that I came across in the new content on mature organizations was “synergy”. But synergy means there are common strengths and these strengths align. I have seen many a teams in a tug of war, they both have strengths and they all work whole heartedly only to stay in the same position without moving one way or the other. So could they mean “alignment”? May be… COLLABORATION and COORDINATION? That was my “aah ha” moment, I thought that makes sense, benches of managers are taught over and over the art of leading, or what I call the sociology of creating influence and change. Successful change only occurs through collaboration and coordination.

I then started to search literature on startups and smaller organizations! A common theme that stood out was the desire to met a distinctly different or ancillary (yet different) need created by the products from the large corporations. So why was it that the large mature corporations miss the opportunity? They have smart people, they foster entrepreneurial spirit, they have deep pockets, then what’s so different. The answer was some what obvious, AGILITY and SERVICE!

All mature corporations start as startups at some point with the much needed agility, one on one customer service, as they begin to grow agility took back seats… rightfully so! The scale and scope forcing them to create greater collaboration and coordination between the moving parts of the organization. It would be fascinating to turbo charge an organization with the right mix of coordination and agility!

Perception Perception Perception

Recently on our drive back from lunch with a couple friends we started to talk about emerging markets in particular India and China. We had a diverse and eclectic crowd to carry on a stimulating conversation on perceptions.

Some one started by asking the multicultural folks in the car what was the general opinion of the US in markets like India, China and the East in general. I thought to myself and wondered if I ever thought of that question when I lived in India? No, not really. But that may have been because I was a young student and did not spend much of my time thinking about markets instead in more interesting teenager distractions. I wondered what did my parents think of the USA, given they had traveled all over the world much before I ever got on an airplane? Again I drew a blank, guess we never discussed those kinds of things? I forced my mind to race a couple years into the future immediately after I arrived in the USA… I remember being enamored with shopping, spending making merry. Meanwhile my buddy blurted out ‘The world’s shopping mall’, ‘The world’s spenders and shoppers’… there was a moment of silence in the car while everyone ruminated and assimilated the comment. How true!

I stopped to ask what I thought were obvious answer, what do we think of India? The answer was “The world’s back office”, right on I thought… what do we think of China? “The world’s factory”, came the answer.

Perception is reality, a brand managers once told me…. how interesting!

P.I.E. (Performance, Image, Exposure)

Alignment Strategies | P.I.E. (Performance, Image, Exposure)


Image copyright © 2006 Alignment Strategies.

Driving the only Metric that Matters: GROWTH

Association of National Advertisers, Inc.

Booz Allen Study on Marketing Organization DNA.
related blog: ANA Marketing Maestros

Success is never on 'SALE'

RadioShack CEO Claire Babrowski on how women can rise to the top

Podcast from the University of Chicago - GSB

http://chicagogsb.edu/multimedia/podcast/gsb.xml

Saatchi has always been my fav

Chk out their How ideas are generated site - Saatchi & Saatchi

Work - Variety & Excitement

Every the years I felt a gradual stagnation kicking into every role I held, I wondered why? It drove a need to move up the corporate ladder, I pushed myself harder and made it happen in most cases and on other occasions decided to move on. Then recently on my ride to work a concept seeded in my mind… what is it about a new job and a higher role that creates excitement? The image below is the result of that ideation!

The colored triangles represent functions within the organization, they start off with a large base where a lot of the work is hands on. As the individual rises within the hierarchy of the organization their contribution to real hands on work declines but it automatically creates a certain amount of variety in the job (people management, management of budget, etc.) the title adds to the social influence the individual is able to have on his immediate organization and the rest of the company.
 

Destruction of creativity

One of the most misunderstood theories of management has been scientific management by Fredrick Taylor and the sister effort in Europe by Max Weber – “Division of labor”. Organizations emphasized specialization of roles and functions in order to improve productivity. Along that thought finance managers became financial experts, Marketers became marketing experts, the Customer service people became logistics and order management experts and collectively they coordinated the work to make an ensemble “The Company”. As some of these people rose through the ranks of their specific functions, some functions evolved to realize the need for breath and started to call themselves general management. General managers are groomed to be able to talk about overall management, describe a holistic view of the business that included all the tasks they may or may not have had a chance to perform at some time or the other during their careers. General management usually comes from the core function of the business or the line business with responsibility for the profit and loss for the organization. General management make allocation decisions on funds and career paths for the entire company.

Over that same period of time creativity in the support functions has been destroyed! Functions became SILOS and were mandated to stay ancillary without opportunity to enter general management, each got a seat at the table while GMs sat at the head! Outside of line management motivation is expected to be derived mostly from financial rewards and punishment… not work enrichment.

In his 1983 book Structures in Five – Designing Effective Organizations, Mintzberg refers to this exact concept but focuses on the blue collar jobs. He quotes James Worthy of Sears and Roebuck from 1950, “One has the feeling of division of labor gone wild, far beyond any degree necessary for efficient production”. This by removing “all possible brain work from the shop floor and moving it into planning and laying out department”.

Another one of my favorites, WOW!

Tompeters!

It is soooo obvious we don’t get it…

Most managers get so involved in the tactical projects they are engaged in that they often miss the big picture. I am a huge supporter of the balancing act between tactical bent versus a serious long term focus. I was at a friends place and he was trying to convince his little boy to change as we prepared to step out for a drive to the beach.

It was interesting to watch him expedite the process for an incentive to be able to play at the beach. The thought of the beach had only limited value given the little boy was enjoying his toys. In addition it also meant the little kid would have to clean up, obviously change and all that within a constrained amount of time. The kid looked reluctant, thought for a little while but finally decided he would get started. Guess he knew there was more in store once he got to the beach… pizza, ice cream, play in the ocean, sand castles, etc.

Some of these lessons come fairly early in life and yet, day in and day out we get bogged down by the most mundane and tactical things on hand and miss the big picture.

Fear of the benchmark!

Change is not easy, we have heard that a million and a half times! To the contrary a recent change I went through was GREAT. I am not just saying it but I mean it, the part that uncomfortable was the paranoia caused from my baggage. No I am not talking about inflection curves from Andy Grove’s, Only the Paranoid Survive. I am talking about the paranoia of “the known”. Am I beginning to sound stupid? but seriously… I mean paranoia of the knowing someone who is the very best that you cannot mimic no matter what you do and how hard you try!

It is the fear of the peak in front that looks insurmountable causing one to mock and poke holes! It is the fear of the benchmark. The manifestations of fear are even worse!

Why the fear? No one said a benchmark is the best strategy but the reverse is not true either

Judgement & Experience!

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes
from bad judgment.
- Barry LePatner

ANA Marketing Maestros

interesting Blog on the ANA site.

ANA Marketing Maestros: Growth-The Only Metric that Counts

Some of my intersting bookmarks…

I recently received a request to post my bookmarks, here are some of the more interesting ones…

o Prediction Markets
Paper; Info.
Here is from today’s Dow Jones Index hedges, whether the markets will rise or fall

From NewsFutures.com.

o Zietgiest
News; Definition

April 2006 - Zietgeist

MENSA

I have a friend who is a Mensa. Years ago when she first told me about Mensa, she had a way of describing the organization. She said if you have a room full of Mensa members, you will have as many opinions in the room as the number of people, that’s a Mensa. I started to wonder if they were colored or white, short or tall, thin or fat, professional or stay at home. I am a strong supporter of diversity I have wondered how it would fit with the diversity strategy at most corporations.

We are always confusing diversity with equal opportunity? Why do we track them by race, gender? What is diversity really?

Self Organization

Self-organization is a process of increasing complexity in an effort to evolve! I came across the concept a couple years ago during a presentation about process scheduling – Bucket Bridges. "Bucket brigades" are a way of organizing workers on a flow line so that the line balances itself. I decided I would read up on Self Organization. I came across a cloud fall of data, the part that struck me as the most amazing was the fact that nature does not like organization and structure! That’s interesting? Guess that explain Man proposes, god disposes.

I worked for an organization where we had a clean desk policy for various reasons… some of our data was very sensitive in nature and more than anything else it was always believed a clean desk reflected discipline. The paradox is… there are instances of articles like - Messy desk = ordered mind, expert says; and then we have Laurence J. Peter - If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? A clean desk was a digression… it is interesting to note our obsession with organization. I once spoke with an executive who told me he wanted to put together an organization that delivered consistent breakthroughs! I have said this before… organization and breakthrough, oxymoron aren’t they? I have tremendous respect for organizations like 3M-Century of Innovation (US corp site) that consistently deliver innovation, but from the literature I have read I am convinced they thrive on chaos!

Values

I feel I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience multiple cultures. Experiences help sculpt personalities and personalities define your choices… your choices make YOU! People and organizations all have value systems based on their experiences and cultures. I challenge you to find one that is NOT positive or self reinforcing! Yet we have all the crime, hatred, prejudice and bias.

Years ago I had a vice and one day I decided I would rid myself of this vice. I made a firm commitment to myself and decided I would share with my friends and my mentor. My mentor and I share similar origins and background; I have counted on him for an objective opinion over the years and often a socio-religious perspective. During my chat I told him about my plans, his reaction was, “I was weak and was the sharing was my drive for self affirmation!” that struck me as a tad bit odd. I enquired why he thought so. His response amazed me and to date continues to provide me strength in the decisions I make and all my execution plans. He said my brain has helped me synthesize the facts and realize that the vice would hurt me in the long run but my heart needed help in believing I could pull it off. The heart did not feel strong enough to be able to execute and hence I felt the need to say it out loud to my friends and repeat it over and over… my heart needed to start believing in being able to accomplish what I had set out to do. I cherish that advice to date!

Each time I read values of organizations around the world the everything from Enron to WorldCom, for profit to nonprofits, governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations, it echoes of weakness. That lacuna in the hearts of these organizations, we can’t maintain these standards, but we continue to try, may be someday we may embody them?

Strategy, Needs and Strengths

Diversity is the talk of the day. There isn’t a single corporation that has not included diversity as part of its strategy. What changed in the last decade that has made diversity such a significant element in our work place? Government has instituted accountability, we have clearly gotten more litigious as a society and there has been a significant rise in media coverage on outsourcing and developing and emergent markets like the BRIC countries. I am not sure that could have done it though? Given peoples migratory patters for generations! We have certainly started to measure them in greater detail lately than we ever did in history.

But who knows… it is all a mater of point of view.

Back to strategy… needs and strengths drive strategy! Diversity is a necessity and so it is a strategy. What is diversity anyway? The dictionary definition was “differing from one another; composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities”, but that is not how it is measured. Is this once again one of those “SHADOW MAGIC”. People miss the obvious, diversity is not just physical, and it is diversity of thought and action. How do we measure it? It is not enough to measure it but to appreciate and reward it! Don’t muddle strategy with WYSIWYG.

Cult of objectivity

Diversity at its best from, CBC Radio - Ideas.

An interesting and diverse perspective on opinions from Continental Europe and the United States in a coffee table discussion - CONTINENTAL RIFT
(A discussion between French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut and John MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s Magazine)

link to the audio - MP3