12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012 Lose your love handles; call your Mom more often; get that promotion – if you’re like many of us, you’re already thinking over some New Year’s resolutions that will make you a better “you” in 2012. But how are the tech industries’ thought leaders approaching the new year? We asked 12 of them for their resolutions, and will publish one a day starting on December 27th and running until January 7th. Check back here to watch them unfold and get some advice from some of the tech industry’s most well-known names. Images courtesy of Flickr user eschipul (Mary Lou Jepsen, CC-BY-SA), Mercedes McAndrew (Caterina Fake), Jefferson Graham (Dave Morin), Drew Altizer (Max Levchin, CC-BY), Brian Solis (Elon Musk, CC-BY www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us).
How leaders kill meaning at work - McKinsey Quarterly - Governance - Leadership As a senior executive, you may think you know what Job Number 1 is: developing a killer strategy. In fact, this is only Job 1a. You have a second, equally important task. Call it Job 1b: enabling the ongoing engagement and everyday progress of the people in the trenches of your organization who strive to execute that strategy. A multiyear research project whose results we described in our recent book, The Progress Principle, found that of all the events that can deeply engage people in their jobs, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. Even incremental steps forward—small wins—boost what we call “inner work life”: the constant flow of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that constitute a person’s reactions to the events of the work day. In our book and a recent Harvard Business Review article, we argue that managers at all levels routinely—and unwittingly—undermine the meaningfulness of work for their direct subordinates through everyday words and actions.
How IBM's Sam Palmisano Redefined the Global Corporation - Bill George - HBS Faculty by Bill George | 9:30 AM January 18, 2012 In the 20th century, a select group of leaders — General Motor’s Alfred Sloan, HP’s David Packard and Bill Hewlett, and GE’s Jack Welch — set the standard for the way corporations are run. In the 21st century only IBM’s Sam Palmisano has done so. When Palmisano retired this month, the media chronicled his success by focusing on IBM’s 21% annual growth in earnings per share and its increase in market capitalization to $218 billion. The real story behind IBM’s success is the course Palmisano set for 21st century global enterprises. In 2002 Palmisano succeeded a legendary leader in Lou Gerstner, who saved IBM from being broken up and put it on a viable course. Executing this strategy required seamless integration of IBM’s product capabilities with its geographic reach. Palmisano understood that reorganizing IBM’s formal structure wouldn’t be sufficient; he had to thoroughly transform the company’s culture and do so in a sustainable way. Directness.
Jan. 6th CEO Corner: Delivering Results with the Flexible Workforce Msquared Blog | Msquared Blog With the growth of the flexible workers comes the need to manage them. It’s true that the flexible workforce can help reduce costs and keep companies lean. But there is no point in saving money if the work doesn’t get done, or doesn’t get done right. Accountability at all levels is enhanced when independent professionals with solid project management skills are chosen for important assignments. In 2012 society will realize that the world of work has profoundly changed. Share
Five Common Strategy Mistakes - Joan Magretta by Joan Magretta | 1:15 PM December 8, 2011 I just finished a two-year project looking at Michael Porter’s most important insights for managers. Connecting the dots between his classic frameworks (the five forces, for example) and his latest thinking (the five tests of strategy) gave me a new understanding of the most common mistakes that can derail a company’s strategy. In a previous post, I focused on the fallacy of competing to be the best. Here are five more traps I’ve seen managers fall into over and over again. Mistake #1. Correction: A value proposition isn’t the same thing as a strategy. Correction: Building on strength is a good thing, but when it comes to strategy, companies are too often inward looking and therefore likely to overestimate their strengths. Mistake #3: Pursuing size above all else, because if you’re the biggest, you’ll be more profitable. Correction: There is at least a grain of truth in this thinking, which is precisely what makes it so dangerous. Mistake #4.
Personal Branding – Discovering the Authentic You Everyone has a personal brand, but not everyone acknowledges it and manages it proactively. Some people don’t like the term “personal brand” as they feel people aren’t brands. Some people think that it is a thinly veiled term for self-promotion, publicity or image management. In fact, your personal brand is so much more. It is a way of consistently projecting a true, authentic view of you, your expertise and your promise of value to the marketplace. The personal branding process enables you to: Discover who you are, develop a consistent image and make it visible both in person and through your web presence to provide value for your audience. Why is personal branding important? Personal Branding Process Having a strong personal brand is important to your success or the success of your small business. Passion, Purpose and Personal Branding Benefits of a strong personal brand What is your passion and purpose? Finding your personal brand is not a quick exercise. ©2012 Masterful Marketing.
Courage in the C-Suite - Harvard Business Review | Share on LinkedIn What you don’t do can hurt you. Missed opportunities lead to later regrets. Nokia could have innovated its way to dominance in smartphones. The SEC could have acted on early whistle-blower tips about Bernard Madoff’s scam . Yahoo could have sold to Microsoft. Doing nothing seems easy. Courage makes change possible. Moral courage enables people to stand up for a principle rather than stand on the sidelines. Lack of courage stymies positive change at all levels. In troubled companies, I’ve observed a familiar pattern. Courage doesn’t imply absence of fear. Practice, passion, and colleagueship support courage.
Executives Share The Best Advice They Ever Received 5 Things I Learned About Entrepreneurship From Y Combinator's Paul Graham Paul Graham (PG) is one of the most prominent figures in Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial community, and his reputation is well-deserved. He's an honest leader, a talented computer scientist, and has an uncanny passion for entrepreneurship. Most importantly, he’s an entrepreneur himself. The first time I met PG was in the summer of 2010, when my cofounder and I were selected to participate in Y Combinator (YC), the startup accelerator program PG founded that helped to create many successful companies, including Reddit (acquired by Conde Nast), Heroku (acquired by Salesforce), OMGPOP (acquired by Zynga). 1. There is no question that PG is highly intelligent. Why? The nature of taking on the difficult challenge of starting a company is that sometimes your best-laid plans will be crushed. That’s why PG is quick to remind even the most IQ-heavy teams that genius is not enough to succeed. 2. 3. 4. One of the most common causes of death for a startup is running out of money. 5.
Channeling Anna Wintour: When Creating Branded Content, Think Like An Editor-In-Chief The executive editor of a popular online news site recently uploaded a photo of a poster to Instagram that read, “I’ll be interested, if you’ll be interesting.” The photo caption explained that this sentiment echoes her “operating policy.” There you have it--a simple, yet impactful peek into the mind of an editor-in-chief. Nowadays anyone can publish, but not everyone is interesting. While your office probably looks a lot different than a newsroom, approaching content strategy by thinking like a magazine publisher or a television producer is an effective way to approach content development and promotion. This is absolutely where a journey into the content sphere begins. While the thought of adding on tactics like video or even Pinterest may seem like daunting tasks, and difficult to prioritize, the good news is that there is already a powerful ecosystem of influencers connected to your brand that can help support your efforts. [Image: Flickr user Emanuele D'Angelo]
This Year’s Ten Digital Strategies for the Next-Generation Enterprise It’s time for most organizations today to uplevel their technology stance: They must become profoundly proactive about external change and innovation. That’s because technology change is currently happening much faster than most organizations can readily absorb, at least how they’re doing it today. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. More importantly, they should begin putting in place the processes and structural changes required to begin adapting and co-evolving more quickly. Technology is an enormous amplifier of human effort. However, because it also uses itself as a ladder, it changes more and more quickly as time goes by. In short, it’s much later than most IT departments think. Fortunately, there are indeed some ways that might work to address this headon as I’ve explored recently. In my professional opinion, the list below represents the absolute minimum that enterprises should be building skills in and piloting this year. Mobile customer self-service. See Also: Like this:
The difference between the business model, framework and architecture An interesting question from Marsha Campbell, HR Officer at National Commercial Bank Jamaica Ltd landed in my inbox the other day: I noticed on your website you explained the difference between a model and a business plan. I would like to know what is the difference between the model, framework and architecture. Most sites that attempt to answer this question tend to be IT specific. Would you be able to shed some light? Our business model research specialist, Huss Sadri, came up with the following answer. A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value (economic, social, or other forms of value). Ultimately, the business model of a company is a simplified representation of its business logic. A business model can be described by looking at a set of building blocks such as for example: Business Strategy view: captures the strategic goals that drive an organization forward.
Rethinking the Customer Journey in a Social World – Forbes Rethinking the Customer Journey in a Social World – Forbes. Social media, while too often far down on the list of priorities for most businesses, is certainly a primary focal point in our personal lives today. The data itself is clear: Social media has become theworld’s most popular online activity of all, and perhaps the top digital activity of any kind. The calls for change have been happening for years; businesses that don’t move into the same venues where their customers spend the most time stand to lose out when it comes to opportunities to engage with and do business with them. However, for many organizations, it’s not clear how to move ahead. But this state of affairs can no longer be tolerated. But it’s the mindset of the social world, where everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and perhaps even thinking, that may very well be the hardest to adapt to and instill in our corporate culture. Unfortunately, getting in the way are some practical matters. How will we get there?