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Co-creation is today's most accepted model for innovation
Innovation has been around since the early days of civilization, and the processes have evolved from lone crusaders - Edison comes to mind - to the independent teams holed up in the back rooms of medium- and large-scaled organizations, such as early adopters like Ford. And lately, having customers actively participate in coming up with new ideas. Indeed, innovation approaches have...
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Business Leadership
Six "Must-Do's" when Leading Wall-to-Wall Change
Leaders who engage in transformational projects must employ six rules for success. They include: Making communication the top priority; engaging and empowering people; setting value targets and making people accountable for achieving them; giving people the success they need; staying positive; and staying on course.
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The difference between coaching and mentoring
Both mentoring and coaching are employed in the leadership interventions of organizations, but leaders need to be clear about what they are doing, what the other person needs, and what the situation warrants.
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Why do investments don't always generate the desired results?
This is a question that I’m sure most of us have heard in one form or another. Whether it’s in the personal finance or corporate context, the question of “return on investment” or ROI comes up often. I’ve recently been thinking more about the latter context and wanted to share a few observations and ideas.
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What kind of coach are you?
Executive coaching endeavors to prevent misunderstanding that stem from the coaching dynamic. In executive development process, different kinds of coaching are employed at different stages. Stakeholders discussion and arriving at a consensus on practicing a particular type of coaching helps in integrating concept with practice.
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Why coaches need coaching
Coaches need to create an element of trust before developing a plan to help the person they are coaching. Only then will their words be heeded and performance improved. In order to be effective coaches need to consider the following: If they are doing what they need to do? If they are working in accordance with stakeholders’ interest? If they are doing what their team often wants? Is everyone aware of what they are doing? These perspectives help leaders make better sense of data.
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A Victor in the Science Wars
As the epic battle on human nature rages on, what we stand for as leaders and how we respond to situations comes under focus for defining leadership characteristics. Studies carried out by the Infosys Leadership Institute points to the fact that 'Openness' is the most predictive attribute that influences business results. It is also consistent with Hogan's Socioanalytic theory.
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Why every manager should think and act like a CEO
Encouraging managers to 'act like a CEO' helps in broadening their outlook and competencies. They become accustomed to go the extra mile, take complete ownership of challenges facing their units, and proactively engage with stakeholders on various factors influencing functioning of their unit.
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Colossal Brains and Irrelevant Solutions
As the gulf between academics and practitioners widens in the IT world, solving real business problems appears to be a never-ending affair. To curtail resource wastage, the blog post recommends that for a given problem, academics consider and review rigorous scientific perspectives from related disciplines and also lend support to business funding for research projects as it facilitates a coordinated effort in identifying solutions.
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Are you really trying to gain leadership in the market?
In a free market economy, transforming or reinventing business process helps enterprises stay ahead of competition. More importantly, investors, customers and stakeholders stress for putting an end to mediocrity. To stay ahead of the race, organizations need to formulate better strategies, foster timely decision making practices, and uphold superior execution abilities.
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10,000 Hours
How often have you been told that experience is the best teacher, and that most of leadership development is all about what you’ll do next? It turns out that rule of thumb is roughly right - but only when it comes to concerted, deliberate practice. The work of Ericsson is seminal in helping us engineer better kinds of performance and development.
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Exhilarating Emergence
It’s not very often that a new discovery takes my breath away. But once in a while, something so new and so powerful is uncovered that makes me thrilled to work in the leadership space. For more than 25 years, Stephen Guastello has pioneered the application of non-linear dynamic systems…
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Myopic or Enterprise Risk?
Today's competitive landscape relentlessly batters organizations, with no end in sight. I've been tracking the progress that has been made in the Actuarial profession on mitigating broader sets of enterprise risks, but it really wasn't sufficient to weather the torrent of financial tsunamis that are sinking many ships.
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Weak Link Breaks the Value Chain?
Some leaders really inspire me - but it can also be a turn off to hear them parrot clichés about people being the most precious asset and then not acting accordingly. Are people really that valuable, or can leaders substitute, rent, and automate what their people do?
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Inspirational Parasites
My previous blog mentioned a framework I’ve created to help leaders manage information overload, and make sure they’re focusing on the weakest links in their value chain…
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Digital Consumer
Online fraud takes a new lucrative tack
The grey overcoat and the dark sunglasses would have stood out and rang alarm bells in the heads of the store staff on a regular shopping day; not on the eve of Christmas though. It was the holiday shopping rush and the shopping carts were overflowing. People had been waiting outside through the midnight chill and...
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How business apps can be more user friendly
Let's continue to look as some other trends which will have an impact on business applications. Personal touch, immediate gratification and real life analogies are going to be an inherent part of business applications and we will increasingly see augmented reality, gamification and "my type of application" being adopted by...
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What businesses can learn from consumer social networks
With the rapid advancement in technology and accelerated pace at which the world is shrinking, the spend on consumer gadgets to connect to social networks, games, multi-channel entertainment, etc. is very high and still growing every day. The pace at which new technology is delivered and...
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A shopper's story -- a route towards absolutely cheapest, lowest, bargain you'll ever see
Let me ask you a question? Is there anyone out there who wouldn’t be happy if he or she had paid a lower price on just about anything after you’d already bought it? Even though that item was already discounted by 60 or 70 percent? Shopping for the best price takes a lot of hard work sometimes, and...
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Where is the chief customer officer?
"This is just crazy - I bought this from your website and now you tell me that you cannot help me because I did not buy it from your store!" This was the reaction expressed by a colleague’s daughter who was starting college and had bought her furniture from the website of a leading retailer. She was given the runaround as the store refused to....
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Could collaboration cure cancer?
When we think about what might cure cancer, social networking does not naturally spring to mind. Yet the health care space is showing that new ways of collaborating may indeed lead to breakthrough ways to tackle the disease. In an unthinkably short time, social media has evolved from a new-fangled pastime for the digerati into an...
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Measuring the Social Media ROI
Moving on to slippery ground, let’s talk about measuring social media ROI. While it’s not easy to measure ROI on social media, it really is not impossible either. Social media engagement involves interaction with a largely floating, geographically diverse population. The best way to do that is to measure ROI from...
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Choosing an enterprise-class, business-ready social media platform
Choosing a social media platform is definitely a daunting task. With so many options out there, how do you pick the one that's just perfect for your business needs? In this post, I hope to give a few pointers that can help you make the right choice. First, find out what your organization expects to achieve through a social media engagement. Are you looking to improve...
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When smart phones and smart friends go shopping together
Recently, I wanted to replace my old cooking range while remodeling my kitchen. After shortlisting the brands, I was eager to get consumer reviews to validate my decision. With not much information available on the web or through my social network, I turned to Facebook. And in no time, I got connected with...
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Can Social Media enhance your business?
One of the questions I am most often asked is just where and how a business should start with a social media initiative. It's a good question. Social media are increasingly driving consumer buying choices and transforming the market. The market does not yet offer enterprise-class, business-ready solutions, so...
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When the lights went out, my light went on
During the recent power outages in Southern California, I personally experienced a blackout in my house for a couple of hours. As I sat there thinking what to do, I immediately realized that my meter must have informed my Utility Outage Center that my house...
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How "just looking" customers generate sales
Who is your most valuable consumer? The one who buys the most from you? The one who generates the most margins? The one who spends the most time in your stores? The answer to the above question has changed in the last couple of years.
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Today's Sales People Better Drink at the Genius Bar
After a lunch meeting with a close friend, he asked me if I could accompany him to a nearby electronics store to pick up a point-and-shoot digital camera for his 12-year old son. In my profession you never decline an invite for a...
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"Social" is your Friend - How well do you know her?
Buzz, your cell phone alarm rings, you roll over, grab your two phones and begin checking your email. “$20 worth of groceries for $10 at Whole Foods. What? Is this for real? Is Whole Foods - frequently coined “Whole Paycheck” - on Living Social’s site for New York.
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I will still call my "Like-Minded" Friends!
On an unassuming spring morning, I walked out to check my mail and saw a coupon in my mailbox of an energy drink that appeared in my dream on three consecutive nights. The coupon also came with a personal note: “We are offering this to you because we know you were dreaming about this on 8th, 9th and 10th of October by around 2:39 a.m. Sounds scary?
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Self Service: Music to my ears
Pandora, according to Greek legend, simply opened a jar and unleashed all sorts of havoc on mankind. The modern myth has been mistranslated, and when we want to describe all that goes wrong from a single act, we say that someone opened a Pandora’s Box…
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Food Chain Theory of the Digital Universe
Tim Carmody of Wired Magazine calls it the New Food Chain. It goes like this: new generation tablet devices like the iPAD represent a new food source. Apps spawned by it are animals flocking to this new food source and the laws of nature determine…
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I Want My Lollipop (Now!)
I was negotiating with my four-year-old while driving from Chicago to New York. I wouldn’t normally call it a “negotiation” but given the context - two kids in the back and me trying to have a conversation with my boss - that explanation will have to do…
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A tale of three burgers
I am not big on burgers and fast food but because I travel several days a week on a harried schedule I often need to catch a quick bite before my plane takes off. And nothing seems better than a great burger and some fries. I know I’m not alone…
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Restaurants aren’t just about the food
Why do I go to a restaurant? The most obvious answer is to enjoy a good meal. But if I stop for a minute and rethink my motivation, the answer is not as straightforward as it appears. For me, eating out is like clicking on my Facebook page. It’s a social hub where…
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It’s not just about Apple vs. Amazon
Amazon’s release in September of a tablet that’s half the cost of Apple’s iPad may appear on the surface to be the opening salvo of a price war. That may be an oversimplification that could spell doom for a lot of people who make their living in the high-tech industry…
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Emerging Economies
Mobile money trickles into the developing nations
We’ve seen a sea change in the consumer offerings space with the advent of smartphones worldwide. First came a bundle of attractive offerings for Gen Y that started with social media and mobile mail, and now includes Video on Demand (VOD) and of course mobile applications which have created a lot of buzz and..
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Why a new 'avatar' of innovation is necessary in emerging economies
In the past stripped down versions of products designed for developed economies were positioned as a low cost and cheap alternative in the emerging markets. This will no longer be a successful strategy. This bitter truth has been realized by many global vendors servicing the developing economies. I can vouch for this fact as I live in an emerging market (India) and...
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World Trade 3.0
While musing over the future of globalization I stumbled upon a great book titled "World 3.0" by Pankaj Ghemawat who taught at Harvard Business School. Ghemawat talks about the first era - the 20th century - as "World 1.0" where there was a domination of individual nation-states with...
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The energy conundrum in an emerging economy
If the incandescent light bulb stood for innovation that sparked the beginning of the industrialized world, today these energy hungry bulbs symbolize the way emerging economies ought not to grow. LED-based lighting is more like the symbol of a green, sustainable future.
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Emerging markets are still difficult for entrepreneurs
The reason why companies that were once associated with cheap labor are now becoming innovation leaders is that they are dreaming bigger dreams to play on the world stage. They are also driven by fear of even cheaper competitors from Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines or even Africa.
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A new pecking order: Cellphones, Air Conditioners & Roads
At the recently concluded Australian Economic Forum, I was asked to speak on the underlying reasons for India’s economic growth in recent months. The most obvious comment I could make was to mention rising domestic consumption. Last year, an Economist survey found multinationals expecting...
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The Locus of Innovation has shifted away from the U.S.
I have been studying national innovation systems for the last seven years culminating in a book published in 2010. Having monitored the number of utility patents (an inexact but objective measure for innovation) granted by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office to countries during this period, it was fascinating to observe...
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Frugal Markets in the Emerging Economies
In autumn of 2009, Antoine Van Agtmael, who purportedly coined the term ‘Emerging Markets’, and I were speaking at the World Emerging Multinationals Congress in New York. Antoine’s first slide had two pictures: One of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and U.S. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke pleading with Congress…
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Filling "Institutional Voids" in Emerging Markets
An emerging market is one that isn’t quite there yet, but is on its way. Or, it can be poor with potential or already fast growing, but none of these is much of a detailed definition. Harvard Business School Professors Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu have studied emerging markets…
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A Competitive Void in China
Recently I was talking to some insurance executives in China and had a very interesting conversation. The key issue on their mind was how to find a way to grow faster in this market. I have had this discussion with other insurance executives of multinational companies…
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Employees Are Key in Emerging Markets
When I meet other executives here in Shanghai, both through work and socially, we talk about similar challenges. Most of us have moved here to set up operations for multinational companies or to help drive them into their next growth trajectory. So what do they worry about?
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Healthcare Economy
Technology Will Save Lives - But Will It Cost Too Much?
Nearly three years ago, the Congressional Budget Office told the Senate Finance Committee that "If federal revenues as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) remain at their current level, that rise in spending will eventually cause future budget deficits to become unsustainable."
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How about a pill with your name on it?
Hippocrates put it succinctly, "It is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has." A couple of thousand years after he wrote those words, modern medicine is discovering that a large minority of people who are treated with drugs do not really get any benefits from them.
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Compliance - The carrot or the stick?
Tracking patient treatments and monitoring results are closely aligned with EHR - Electronic Health Records. Currently, the market penetration has a long way to go. Around 15 percent of hospitals and 25 percent of physicians nationally now have an Electronic Health Record system in place, according to the American Hospital Association. Anxious to cut costs, the federal government is offering subsidies to health care providers who adhere to the strict record-keeping code.
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Is technology part of the health care solution -or part of the problem?
IT in health care is ubiquitous, but the stark reality is that our industry will play an increasingly greater role in the well-being of nearly everyone on the planet. We have a heavy responsibility in helping practitioners do their jobs efficiently and cost effectively.
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Innovation
Co-creation is today's most accepted model for innovation
Innovation has long evolved from lone crusaders to independent teams in medium and large scaled organizations. The recent trend pertains to innovation co-creation where all stakeholders participate across the value chain. At present, individuals, functions across organizations and stakeholders engage in this collaborative model. The evolving model calls for new ways of managing the value chain.
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Nike's co-dependency with its customers means business
Infosys is very proud of being on Fortune’s list of the most innovative companies. Our founders were visionaries. They thought hard about the trends impacting the world, enterprises and society. That led them to create what is now known as...
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Will Amazon allow sellers to swim across the "Multi-channel?"
Very recently, I was shopping on an e-commerce website where, on proceeding to checkout, I was prompted with multiple delivery options - "Deliver to address", "Pick up at a nearest store", "Pick up at a Fed-Ex depot" etc. There were also multiple delivery services available to choose from…
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How new innovation models will drive the growth of Next Generation Mobile Apps?
At a recent mobility event held last week in San Diego, the most interesting part of the event was to observe how deeply it has penetrated into the DNA of our commercial and personal lives and how new innovative models are driving growth. The demand for new consumer apps is driving the business models...
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What happens when software designers abandon their office?
The department store giant Nordstrom recently tried a bold experiment. They asked its innovation team to go into a store and spend a week designing a new application for the sunglass sales department.
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New Commerce
How much should you trust your mobile phone?
It's a good question. So much of the time we hear the saying, "The perception is the reality." The key fear is that our credit card number can be intercepted or that intruders might access our personal information. The fear is real; the reality is that it is easier to commit fraud by an unscrupulous restaurant staffer who has access to your plastic for a...
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How Would You Like to Pay? Smartphone
It wasn’t that long ago that a famous company implored us never to leave home without its charge card. But now, we shouldn’t be leaving without something far more essential - your mobile or smartphone. Why carry cards and cash when you can swipe your phone or...
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I Know That Face
Mostly, I'm a fan of technology, but I admit that face recognition has me confused. The concept is fascinating at a purely technological level, but throw in intrusiveness and lack of privacy, and some of the sheen comes off. But let's focus on the positives for now. Facial detection throws open...
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Now that data's going really big, what's next?
Each year, we add two billion hexabytes of data just in social conversation. American companies, across 15 sectors, with more than 1,000 employees each store on an average more data than the U.S. Library of Congress. Move over, Information Age, the era of...
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Who will create the next billion-dollar business?
Everyone knows of someone who had an idea that led to a billion-dollar business. Jeff Bezos had one to sell books on the Internet called Amazon.com (current value: $100 billion). Pierre Omidyar had one for an online auction called eBay (current value: $40 billion). Chad Hurley and Steve Chen had an idea to...
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Maybe banks need to study their ABCs
Beleaguered financial institutions in search of a way out and successful ones looking for the next winning formula need only tune into their markets. What are they saying? There’s a whole parallel economy out there riding on the social interactions of...
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Confusion can be a good thing (and will lead to prosperity)
Just like the road from ill health to recovery traverses testing, diagnosis, treatment and recuperation, the path of economic malaise must go through confusion, order and development before reaching its destination - prosperity. You might say that confusion is part of the problem, not the solution. However, I look at confusion...
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Does your business answer the why question?
We ask and answer it every day. Let’s for a moment stop to see what the world’s happiest nations have in common. Did I hear you say “Prosperity?” Yes, but that’s only half the story, according to a study conducted by London’s Legatum Institute. The thing that really sets happy countries apart…
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Banking? Thanks, but No Thanks
I recently read a rather interesting Harvard Business School study comparing the strategies of two mobile financial service providers in Africa. Wizzit entered the South African market in 2004 with a mobile…
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Mobile is the Money
For some time, we toasted the M-Pesas of the world and little else. But now, the financial sector sector has a reason to cheer, too. Now, smartphones are leading mobile payments innovation at the top end of the market. With Google, Visa, Blackberry et al making their plans known…
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Show me your mobile, I’ll show you who you are
I expect the day will come when if you really wanted to get to know your bank’s customer, all you would need do is tap her mobile phone. Legally, that is. Multiple developments taking place in mobile financial services are turning smart phones into an all-seeing eye…
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The Little Bankers Get It
Living in the UK, I get a ringside view of retail banking in a different market from my own home country, and a peek from up-close into the banking consumer psyche - look at how their customers lap up all that these supermarket-giants-turned-banks have to offer! We need more of this…
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Banking in a Sachet
Years after consumer product companies hit upon sachet marketing, also known as “micro-selling,” banks applied the same strategy to promote financial inclusivity and accommodate less-affluent customers. So, the minimum balance condition made room for zero-balance accounts…
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Invasion of the Invisible Wallet
With my birthday approaching soon, my wife suggested giving me a luxury wallet, one of those accessories made of fancy leather or alligator hide. A very utilitarian choice, for which I’m sure I’ll be grateful. But it leads me to a high-tech fantasy.
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Pervasive Computing
How to make shopping more fun
Have you wondered how your shopping experiences can be more engaging and immersive through simulations? Or how to engage your children while narrating a story by making the characters come to life? Or how to make life simple for a person visiting a new city? Or narrate the inner workings of a complex machine?
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Smarter Organization
IT services are not like baseball caps
A lot has been written about the commoditization of IT, especially application development and maintenance. There is a propensity for some in the industry to claim, "One size fits all." But, of course, this is a dangerous assumption for those who have been around software long enough to know that things that can go wrong. This kind of myopic thinking is one of the biggest challenges for...
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When the past should be seamlessly woven into the future
Recently, I came across a Harvard Business Review article titled "The CEO's role in Business Model Re-Invention." The piece argued that the role of a forward-looking CEO was to manage the present, selectively destruct the past and focus on creating the future. It pointed out a...
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Honey, I shrunk the time to market
That's my favorite back-home-to-my-wife line right now. Back in the day - during my wheeling and dealing sales days - I used to roar, "Honey, I've brought home the bacon and the bonus." When I began in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), I used to say, "Honey, I saved my client a few million." Over a period, it changed to...
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In a difficult economy, talent matters more than ever
Growing up part of a hardworking, blue-collar family in the Midwest, I never imagined that I would travel the world and meet so many people that share common interests and beliefs. People really do want the same things in life, which includes an opportunity to learn...
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Is monitoring our actions spying - or an incentive to improve performance?
If you drive through school zones, airports or various pedestrian-rich settings you are likely familiar with digital displays that provide "thoughtful" feedback on your current speed. I'm intrigued and humored by these devices. The added cost of these systems...
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How do you photocopy someone's head?
"Very impressive "said the program director, overwhelmed by the comprehensive pitch I made on how we would take over an IT app for migration to another platform. His organization had spent a lot of money on old technology and while happy with it, he was being forced to adopt a new platform…
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Who said butchers can't inspire?
Remember the famous Henry Ford and the butchers' story? Ford saw the overhead trolley that the Chicago butchers used in dressing beef and how they prepared the cuts as the carcass passed by. We all know what happened next? The legendary assembly line at Ford was born, which revolutionized the automobile industry…
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Old is New Again!
I can’t think of a single meeting in the boardroom or at a workshop where executives had met in the past two years or so, and the talk didn’t revolve around innovation. Considered a mantra for success, we are all familiar with innovation stories from companies like Google and Apple…
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Don’t you want to know what you “know?”
We all like riddles, don’t we? More so when stories and movies create an aura of superhuman characters that are enigmatic and talk in riddles. Remember, how much we loved that cute, little omniscient Yoda who was able to guide Han Solo to his destiny…
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Sustainable Tomorrow
Could a closed-loop system be the solution to reducing waste?
During my recent visit to India I was appalled by the amount of waste I saw everywhere. Piles and piles of plastic bottles, bags, Styrofoam, packaging material and other household trash can be seen as a permanent fixture. This reminded me of a profound point Paul Hawken has made in his book "The Ecology of Commerce." "Packaging lasting for four hundred...
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A responsible supply chain is a delicate balancing act
In a recent conversation with a large client, I was very encouraged to learn that the responsible supply chain is becoming an integral part of product and packaging strategy for them and also for their competitors. Setting corporate sustainability goals around products and packaging, adhering to national and...
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Is carbon a loss leader to energy?
Previously, I wrote about how important it is for companies to establish their sustainability issues before exploring what software is best for them. I also said that there seemed to be a convergence around two intended purposes for the use of this software...
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What sustainability reporting software is the right one for you?
In my previous blog I wrote about the business drivers for companies to set sustainability goals and performance metrics and consequently the need to perfect their data gathering and reporting systems. This need has served as a strong stimulus for the sustainability reporting software market, which sits at the top of the enterprise to aggregate carbon, energy and resource information from various data sources. So what does a new market look like?
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Addressing resource intensity in building a Sustainable Tomorrow
I recently drove from my home in Roswell, GA to NC to meet a Sr. Director and head of Global Sustainability of a large global manufacturing company. It was a beautiful, meditative drive interrupted only by my colleague’s incessant ideas on what we should discuss…
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Internally or externally, the environment figures in a business plan
While studying for my course in Environmental Economics (at the nth moment and the night before my Environmental Policy exam, I might add) I came across what is commonly known as the Precautionary Principle. This principle has gained fame…
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Sustainability: What you cannot measure, you cannot manage
This is a golden cliché in business, and I have been reminded of it a billion times by bosses, colleagues, business articles, you name it. Escaping it is futile and at the end of the day it kind of makes sense. Businesses around the world are measured for performance…
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How Social Media is changing the nature of green campaigns
I was researching the role of sustainability in business a while back, looking for instances that show that corporate social responsibility goes well beyond philanthropy, when I came across the Nestle incident from early 2010. Nestle was forced to confront the fact that its use of palm oil was linked to deforestation in Indonesia. This revelation was prompted by a massive online...
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e-Waste and the role of non-profits in Sustainability
I was at the Green Initiatives conference in Fort Lauderdale last week, and of the many speakers from large global companies who presented the sustainability initiatives they were involved in, one presentation stood out: It was from a non-profit called...
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