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Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Innovation isn’t about Strategy, it’s about Culture


 “When strategy and culture collide, culture will win.”

Innovation is one of the most important growth engines. It is crucial to understand that when you’re dealing with innovation — be it as a client, adopter, user, or developer – fast dynamics and rapid shifts in direction require a unique management style. You can’t control future innovation, you can only respond to it. Instead of strategy, organizations should focus on developing the right culture — one that enables, embraces, and encourages innovation. Here are a few principles to consider.

Always be ready to switch plans.

Long-term planning is overrated. It is impossible to predict emerging technologies and new social trends more than five years in advance with any accuracy. A few decades ago, who could have foreseen the rise of the internet and the colossal amount of data becoming “the new oil”? When the cloud concept took off, it was difficult to realize its effect on the startup industry — previous barriers to purchasing heavy computer infrastructure vanished into smaller fixed costs, making the “back of garage” concept accessible to more minds.

In this volatile environment, you must believe and doubt your assumptions and strategies at the same time. Most startups fail, but 70 percent of the successful startups are doing something different than originally planned. Be ready to change direction when the time is right; don’t hold onto what you thought two years ago or get used to the new environment. All your targets are moving constantly.

 Master the revolution before it masters you.

Despite the seemingly stormy marketplace described above, there is very good news: revolutions are very slow and they exist only in the eye of the beholder. Revolutions are a long process of incremental changes, with many failures along the way. The nature of change is that everything moves very slowly until it moves very fast. If you miss a trend, and the train has left the station and is gaining speed, it might too late. Recall the cases of Blackberry or Barnes & Noble – they joined the new trend only a little late, but with the benefit of hindsight, it was too late.

Furthermore, revolutions are not always surprising. The smartphone is considered one of the big revolutions in modern history. Let’s revisit a few interesting dates: the first mobile call was made in 1973 (the phone weight was 2.4 pounds); the first smartphone (which had a calculator, clock, calendar, and a contact book) appeared in 1993; the Palm touchscreen phone offered the ability to install third-party apps (an old version of the app store concept) and had a wireless application; and a camera appeared on the 2002 Sanyo mobile phone. Finally, all these pieces were connected around 2007 (iPhone) and the revolution took off.

Leadership is not more important than followership.

Contrary to the common view, when it comes to innovation, the right followers — those who stay in the shadow — are at least as important as the leader. There are numerous leadership courses, but we don’t teach or train how to follow. The success of a team is defined not only by the leader’s quality but also by the followers who combine independent thought with coordinated efforts simultaneously. A good leader is one who has built a team that can function without him/her. To hit the moving target of innovation most effectively, a flat hierarchy is a better fit, as it enables the team to be agile and every member has the option (and skills) to function as the leader but chooses to follow the team.

Don’t overvalue expertise.

In his foreword to Start-up Nation Shimon Peres writes, “All the experts,’ Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said ‘are experts on what was. There is no expert on what will be.’ To become an ‘expert’ on the future, vision must replace experience”.

Experts understand the current situation and technology perfectly. Real experts oppose radical innovation and often serve as gatekeepers. In some cases, they have a lot to lose because radical change renders years of studying irrelevant. When the revolution takes off, you need a blend of novices with the vision to get the experts going and abandon their safe zone. Without novices, revolution identification will be missed, and you can get stuck in the present, soon to be past.

Source: The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, Columbia Business School

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TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
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    .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
    Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
    Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
    Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
    Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm (2017-1996)
    Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
    The George Washington University (Washington DC)
    CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
    Skype: medinacasabella


    MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
    es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
    soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

    Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
    Management Estratégico,
    Gestión del Cambio,
    Marketing Estratégico,
    Proyectos de Inversión,
    Gestión Educativa,
    Capacitación

    de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

    a) Industria y Servicios,
    b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
    c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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    Thursday, April 26, 2018

    AI: separating Artificial from Intelligent
    by Mark Campbell


    It’s been a typical day for you as chief executive. Too many meetings, an impending budget crisis, and an analysis of last week’s production outage. And then a board member walks in; “Hey, I’ve been hearing about this Artificial Intelligence thing. We should buy one and jump over our competition. Let’s get on it”. Say what?

    Today, we suffer a never-ending stream of pseudo-tech predictions depicting AI as a cure-all or, conversely, as the first domino falling towards a Siliconocracy. Still other ‘industry experts’ dismiss AI as just the latest clever parlor trick. Yet despite these sensationalists, AI continues to make steady advancements into a widening spectrum of industries. So how can we sift through the rubble to find the real AI gems?

    Firstly, you can feel very safe in categorically disregarding the Utopians, Dystopians, and Agnostics. History shows, they unerringly overestimate the short-term impacts of emerging technologies while underestimating the long-term effects of progressive innovation.

    Out next logical step is to set aside the seemingly natural urge to immediately demo an AI solution. Instead our efforts will be better spent if we can identify, scope, and analyze the one problem which will best leverage AI and return the highest return on our technological investment. This, of course, is much easier said than done.

    We can now turn to finding a solution to the target problem, which inevitably begins with the obligatory question of buy versus build. In only the rarest cases, where you possess AI gurus complete with beanbag chairs and hipster beards, should you attempt to develop your first AI solution in-house. Instead, look at vetting one of the many AI-based solutions already on the market tailored to your target use case. The good news is there are hundreds of them – the bad news is there are hundreds of them.

    Artificial Intelligence is cracking the code on a whole family of non-procedural problems, such as image recognition, autonomous systems, and anomaly detection. Our research team recently completed detailed studies on how AI-based user behavior analytics is changing cyber security and smart operational analytics is accurately predicting impending system failures. These are but two examples of legitimate AI game changers.

    These advancements, however, are often drowned out by a deluge of disingenuous marketing. An all too common tactic used by AI hucksters is to position old-school savvy as new-wave smart. Savvy systems can only apply pre-programmed rules, logic, and inferences to existing knowledge. Nonetheless, savvy systems can solve an amazing array of complex problems like controlling a nuclear power plant, landing an airliner, or publishing the zillionth cat video.

    Yet, the best of today’s savvy systems are being eclipsed by smart systems. Smart systems ingest copious amounts of information, discover patterns in the data, adapt to these new patterns, and apply this evolving knowledge to their dynamic environment. While savvy systems are adept, smart systems adapt. So, how can you spot savvy dressed up as smart without completing a degree in Computational Learning Theory?

    There are two cold truths in AI. AI requires learning and learning requires data … and lots of it. If we probe these two axioms, we can quickly determine whether the product was designed in a vendor’s Engineering or Marketing department. Let’s hone Occum’s Razor a bit.

    A smart system’s learning is not programmed into the software by smart coders. Instead, it emerges naturally from training in which it adapts to new data patterns. There are several tried and true open-source platforms on which most AI applications are built, so, when we ask a legit product vendor about how their product was developed and trained, we are not asking for them to divulge trade secrets. Instead, we should see a gleam in their eyes like asking a grandmother for pictures of her grandkids:

    Smart Question
    Savvy Answer
    Smart Answer
    Learning
    What makes your solution smart?
    The expertise of our engineers, coders, programmers and developers.
    We trained a convulsion neural network to identify predictive failure indicators.
    How does your product learn?
    It uses a deep knowledge base and rules engine.
    We initially trained it on reference data in our labs but the product will adapt to actual behavior it sees in your data center.
    What platforms were used to develop your AI?
    Our own proprietary
    AI platform. Can’t share much – secret sauce.
    We used SKIL and DL4J to develop our model and Oryx for the large-scale production stream processing.

    As stated, learning requires data. But not just any data. AI training requires vast amounts of relevant preprocessed data – what data wizards call ‘wrangled’ data. If learning is like an engine, then big wrangled data is its high-octane fuel. We can discern wannabes from the real players by probing their training data:

    Smart Question
    Savvy Answer
    Smart Answer
    Data
    Can we train the product with our own data?
    No need. Our deep learning has been pre-programmed with all the rules you’ll need.
    Indeed. We recommend a two-week training period after installation before going live.
    What data sources did you train with?
    Sorry, that’s proprietary. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.
    Glad you asked. We dumped all call detail records since 1994 plus all seismic data and …
    How much data did you train with?
    Seriously, I am
    going to kill you.
    We ingested three weeks of telemetry from 50,000 pipeline temperature and pressure sensors – over 43 TB in total.

    AI is very real and very powerful. But so is marketing. Therefore, we must separate hyperbole from reality, discerning savvy from smart. A quick salvo of well-crafted questions can provide an effective litmus test. From here the actual implementation, testing, and deployment of the system is no slam dunk, but most AI solutions splice nicely into today’s most common software development lifecycles.

     By ignoring the sensationalists, developing a high value use case, identifying a suite of candidate AI solutions, and filtering out the pretenders, you are well on your way to moving your enterprise from savvy to smart.

    Fuente: Chief Executive

    Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
    TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
    de las necesidades de su Organización:








      Consultas al email: mamc.latam@gmail.com


      .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
      Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
      Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
      Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
      Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm (2017-1996)
      Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
      The George Washington University (Washington DC)
      CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
      Skype: medinacasabella


      MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
      es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
      soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

      Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
      Management Estratégico,
      Gestión del Cambio,
      Marketing Estratégico,
      Proyectos de Inversión,
      Gestión Educativa,
      Capacitación

      de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

      a) Industria y Servicios,
      b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
      c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
      Posted by at 2 comments:
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      Friday, March 23, 2018

      Leading by Learning for Business Success
      by Brigadier General George Forsythe, Karen Kuhla and Daniel Rice


      This is the final article of the 6-part series focusing on how CEOs adjust to their disruptive business environments and what they learned from their efforts that might be helpful to other CEOs. To answer these questions, we interviewed six CEOs/Chairman/Presidents from a variety of industries: Joe DePinto (CEO, 7-Eleven); Mike Fucci (Chairman, Deloitte); Tony Guzzi (CEO, EMCOR), Margaret Keane (President and CEO, Synchrony Financial), Bob Leduc (President, Pratt & Whitney), and Bob Weidner (President and CEO, MSCI). We also interviewed General Dennis Reimer, who led the Army through a major transformation during the period when the Army created the term “VUCA.” We asked each of the leaders to describe their business environment and discuss how they are leading their companies to thrive in the face of massive disruptions. We are grateful to these leaders for their thoughtfulness and candor. We found their stories fascinating and relevant and hope you have as well.

      The six executives with whom we spoke all agreed their business environments are experiencing significant disruptions. Across a wide range of business sectors—manufacturing, engineering, aerospace, financial services, convenience stores and professional services—VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) is real. Technology advancements, competition, regulations and globalization are accelerating the rate of change and placing enormous demands on their business to be more agile and responsive to new market forces. What are they doing to adapt?

      First, they are creating, shaping and transforming their organizations’ cultures to be more responsive to their environments. They influence their organization’s culture by articulating and reinforcing corporate values. The executives spoke about the values of integrity, trust, empowerment, employee and leader development, and learning as being essential in the new normal of VUCA. Once the corporate values are articulated and shared, they reinforce them by personal example and presence and ensure they are cascaded throughout the organization. They also understand they need others to shape and reinforce the corporate culture; they use the values to guide hiring decisions and personnel development processes, and they ensure that all the organizational systems are aligned and synchronized to embody the culture.

      Culture change is hard work that takes time and continuous effort, and they understand the importance of communicating the need for change. The executives stressed the necessity for having a clear sense of shared purpose, an unwavering commitment to change and a willingness to listen to all stakeholders. Celebrating small early successes is important to build confidence in the change process and trust in the corporate leadership.

      Second, the executives are transforming their companies into learning organizations. They are encouraging experimentation with new products, services and procedures. From corporate R&D “skunk works” to small-scale pilot projects to cross-functional project teams, these executives are investing in experimentations with new ways of doing business within the markets. They are also creating the conditions where the organization can learn from experience, making “work” the “curriculum” for improvement and innovation.

      Techniques such as the after-action review (AAR) are enabling teams at all levels within the organization to learn from experience. These executives appreciate that things don’t always work out as planned; they have the courage to see the value in learning from failure, and they understand when and how to balance learning with organizational performance.

      Finally, the executives are investing heavily in employee learning and leader development. They understand that organizational agility requires agile employees who have the knowledge, skills and personal attributes to operate within the corporate culture they are trying to establish. Employee training programs are planned and delivered to create a workforce that embodies the culture. Leader development efforts leverage stretch assignments and work experiences, which are supplemented with supportive coaching and mentoring, to grow and expand the leadership bench of potential executives.

      At the end of the interviews, we asked the executives to reflect on how their efforts are working. They mentioned that employee surveys and “voice of the customer” feedback provide indications for how internal and external stakeholders perceive the change efforts. They also believe it’s important to be visible in, and available to, employees—listening to employees at all levels share their stories and experiences with change. They are employing “leadership by walking around.” The executives expect the changes will result in better performance of the business; although they are anxious to see early results, they also understand that many of their efforts will need time to fully blossom. They understand the importance of having patience, are eager to celebrate early successes and anticipate making great progress.

      Perhaps this is the most important takeaway: Excellence in a VUCA environment takes time. It requires strong leadership and agile, resilient team members who are all dedicated to being learning leaders who persevere in the face of resistance and setbacks. The six executives who shared their stories are certainly committed to change to provide better products and services of value on behalf of their customers, employees and shareholders. We are grateful for their willingness to share their experiences so others might learn as well—a true hallmark of learning leaders and organizations.

      Fuente: Chief Executive

      Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
      TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
      de las necesidades de su Organización:








        Consultas al email: mamc.latam@gmail.com


        .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
        Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
        Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
        Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
        Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
        Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
        The George Washington University (Washington DC)
        CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
        Skype: medinacasabella


        MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
        es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
        soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

        Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
        Management Estratégico,
        Gestión del Cambio,
        Marketing Estratégico,
        Proyectos de Inversión,
        Gestión Educativa,
        Capacitación

        de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

        a) Industria y Servicios,
        b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
        c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
        Posted by at No comments:
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        Thursday, March 15, 2018

        Keys to developing Organizational Leaders
        by Brigadier General George Forsythe, Karen Kuhla and Daniel Rice


        While the fourth article focused on the organization, this one will address individuals. We were interested in how CEOs ensure that employees and organizational leaders are developed to meet the demands of a dynamic environment. Bob Weidner, CEO of MSCI, the industrial metals trade organization, indicated—“thoughtful companies view their people as assets in which you must invest.”

        Synchrony Financial’s CEO, Margaret Keane, summarized why employee development is so important in today’s business environment: “You cannot ignore the development of the employees, because they are the foundation of how things operate every day. In the environment we are in right now where change is happening at such an explosive pace, we have to make sure we are thinking through the skill sets of our employees to make sure they are going to be successful in their careers and that we have the right talent.”

        Companies grow employee talent through both training and development. When employees are preparing to move into management positions, training is oriented toward job-related and leadership skills. Development occurs through stretch assignments and critical on-the-job experiences that broaden employees’ understanding of the organization and enhance competencies for higher-level leadership. Developmental opportunities begin by considering an employee’s readiness to grow, then combining challenging assignments with support (training, coaching and mentoring) so that employees derive the full benefits of the experience. CEOs who value development understand that meaningful work should be a catalyst for personal and professional growth within the context of creating high-performing organizations. The Army often talks about the fact that it is not made up of people—it is people–to emphasize the importance of people in all organizations. Gen. Dennis Reimer notes that “in working with organizations for over five decades, both military and civilian, it is clear to me that people are our most important asset. We must ensure we develop them and allow them to be all they can be to create high-performing organizations.”

        All the companies we studied have in-house employee training programs. Deloitte, for example, takes pride in Deloitte University, which uses case studies in small-group settings to prepare professionals for the complexity and ambiguity inherent in their business environment and to help clients solve their challenges. Mike Fucci described it this way:

        “When you walk through the doors, you see a different setting. After you check in, your mind switches to learning mode. It’s very collaborative, a lot of group settings and multimedia interactivity. Not a lot of presentations. Groups of 6 to 8 to 20 can get together and solve problems, and we do a lot of case studies; we do a lot of hands-on learning. It’s a very immersive type of experience.”

        MSCI’s CEO, Bob Weidner, sees his organization’s role as offering training and education for his client companies. He has established a graduate program—the Strategic Metals Management program (SMM) at Washington University in St. Louis—for industry leaders, and he sponsors conferences on emerging trends in the metals industry.

        Pratt & Whitney has a comprehensive employee-training program that includes leadership training for managers at all levels within the company. All the other companies in our interview set also outsource to organizations like Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point, leadership training for senior leaders. In addition, Pratt & Whitney uses stretch assignments and cross-functional rotational programs to develop high-potential leaders for more senior positions. Bob Leduc believes much of his company’s leadership development philosophy revolves around modeling and reinforcement of positive behaviors until they become ingrained in employees’ DNA, as well as the importance of developing a culture based on trust and empowerment to ensure the successful delivery of business objectives.

        On the training side, Synchrony Financial has 2-to-3-day functional academies for credit, finance and technology, for example. Margaret also has instituted a range of leader development programs such as the STEP Program, which prepares high-potential, non-exempt individuals for management positions.

        “We have a lot of non-exempt employees, many in call centers, and the STEP Program is focused on helping them advance,” she explained. “This is a two-year rotational program using experiential learning and development to help them grow out of the non-exempt ranks into the exempt ranks and become managers of people; we’ve had real success with the program. The other positive is that there is a lot of our diversity in our non-exempt staff, so we’ve been able to pull people up through the organization and increase diversity in our ranks.

        Synchrony makes extensive use of stretch assignments and critical experiences by moving “people with real talent, leadership and capabilities to different functions.” Margaret told the story of a finance professional who was moved to marketing. As a result, both the individual and the firm discovered he had real talent in that area. He was bold enough to say he wanted to try it (an indicator of developmental readiness) and the company was bold enough to let him try it. Margaret also is moving more tech people into other functional areas to both develop talent and meet the need for greater tech infusion throughout the company. This is a stellar example of a CEO matching organizational requirements for adaptability with individual employee development.

        The CEOs with whom we spoke understand that their organizations’ ability to adapt to market disruptions would only be effective if their employees and leaders understand how they contribute to the company’s success and have the requisite skills and personal attributes to make it happen. We heard CEOs extol the virtues of empowering employees and leaders at all levels to act within their scope of responsibility to be able to add flexibility and responsiveness to their companies. Training and leader development, tailored to specific jobs and levels of responsibility, create the workforce that is allowing them to succeed in their VUCA environments.

        Successful businesses create a culture of learning that fosters individual growth and corporate flexibility to respond to the dynamics of the marketplace. The final article in this series highlights the essential keys to excelling in a VUCA environment.

        Fuente: Chief Executive

        Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
        TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
        de las necesidades de su Organización:








          Consultas al email: mamc.latam@gmail.com


          .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
          Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
          Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
          Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
          Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
          Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
          The George Washington University (Washington DC)
          CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
          Skype: medinacasabella


          MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
          es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
          soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

          Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
          Management Estratégico,
          Gestión del Cambio,
          Marketing Estratégico,
          Proyectos de Inversión,
          Gestión Educativa,
          Capacitación

          de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

          a) Industria y Servicios,
          b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
          c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
          Posted by at No comments:
          Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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