Jul
7
Enterprise Internet Strategy, Part 1
Filed Under Author | Leave a Comment
Executive 2020 Perspective
Do you have a worldwide internet strategy for your enterprise? The founder of Executive 2020 and long time global internet strategist would ask you these questions when starting a dialog on this topic and answering this key leadership question.
1. Do you primarily focus on your corporate website and some investment on your internal corporate site for employees for general information?
2. Do you have an online human resource database beyond the traditional basic employee information? Example do you have an internal facebook like environment with people’s resumes loaded for skill mapping to cross-functional projects across your enterprise? Do you really know the skills of your employees and what they are capable of contributing to your enterprise?
3. Could an employee log in to your enterprise network and do everything as if they were in the office physically?
4. Does every organization in your company understand how its been affected by the internet? Do you know that your company is taking every advantage of the internet for your shareholders, customers, employees, and stakeholders?
5. Does anyone in your company follow the proceedings of the IETF? Do you know what it is?
6. Do you realize that the profession of marketing and corporate communications has dramatically changed and may be irrelevant if you don’t re-engineer it totally over the next couple years?
7. Do you really understand how the global domains operate and do you have a global domain strategy?
8. Do you think your getting the most value from your marketing/advertising and PR agencies? Do you realize that many of these firms will probaley struggle to add value to clients in the coming Web 3.0 internet generation? Do you know what web 3.0 is? Do you know why agencies will struggle to offer value in the internet’s next generation? Why does Executive 2020 think that many ad and pr firms will disappear over the next decade? Interested, tune in to part 2 of this article.
It is our opinion at Executive 2020 that most marketing and corporate communications groups have not fully embraced what has happened with the internet. Why do we believe this? One reason is many are still organized the same way today as before the internet age started. If a company still has separate marketing, investor relations, and corporate communications departments it is our opinion they do not fully understand the opportunity that the internet offers and is missing a competitive advantage. In part 2 we will also dig into this issue in detail and describe what we believe should be the organization of the future pertaining to these three departments. In the meantime enjoy this podcast below with Guy Kawasaki as a primer.
Jun
25
Corporate Culture & Transparency
Filed Under Michael Smith | Leave a Comment
Executive2020 Perspective
There has been a lot written on the subject of corporate culture over the past decade. I have had the opportunity to work in several enterprises over the past 33 years. One thing I have been thinking about a great deal lately is are corporate cultures affected more today by leadership then in the past?
The conclusion I have reached is yes. Its always been true that cultures are set by the leadership of that company. What has changed? Two words; internet transparency. The expectations of employees has changed and what they expect from leaders has changed in my view.
Companies that hire consultants to help resolve culture issues is the first sign they really don’t understand the new game in the digital world of communications and transparency.
“Corporate speak” simply no longer works for employees. In the transparent world of the internet corporate leaders must do one of two things; 1. Change their leadership communications style to align with employee expectations of transparency or 2. retire and work on their golf game.
Enterprises today have an energy field of sorts that is critical for leaders to understand and have insight on how it operates. This energy field is full of pockets of high and low energy. This energy field can be hard for some leaders to grasp, but I have found it is the most noticeable during corporate reorganizations. Simply because executive leaders during this time change the composition of this invisible positive and negative energy field, many times without even knowing they changed it.
Internet company leaders today are more in tune with this energy field in their enterprises because the company typically formed with employees and leaders born of the transparent internet age. Older legacy enterprises born in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s can have a mix of old and new energies.
I have worked for several legacy companies over the past 33 years. Entrenched cultures are the most difficult to change as we all know and appreciate. IBM culture change is probaley one of the most talked about historically today. Do these names ring any bells; DEC, Wang, and Compaq? Sometimes an enterprise wakes up and finds itself gone and simply can’t explain why. A culture and its thinking either adapts to changing times or it doesn’t.
If your an executive leader reading this, ask yourself one question are you really in tune with the “energy field” of your enterprise? Or are you sure you really understand it? If you conclude you do, and you know that change is critical to future success, do you know what to do about it?
There are some great ways for executives to tune into the energy field of their enteprise today. In the old days companies used employee surveys, had employee voice groups, and human resources created programs to surface the voice of the employees. In today’s instant “always on” workforce these practices are loosing ground quickly. Companies that have healthy and vibrant 24×7 global transparent blogospheres and/or have created internal “facebook” tools for employees can tap into the global view of the company in minutes vs. weeks and months. More importantly “digital executives” can participate in this global enterprise conversation of its employees and begin to understand the “aggregate mental state of the enterprise” and how to provide leadership, insight, and motivation for success.
If you company can’t seem to get a blogosphere to take root or employees won’t participate in this level of honest and transparent dialog for all to see, then you have a big challenge ahead. One company I saw the CEO began to blog and simply express his feelings about things. Employees joined the dialog. Frankly it drove mid and upper executive ranks nuts because over time everything going on in the enterprise became transparent…the good and the bad. The “one to many” paradigm (CEO to workforce) is a powerful tool that many executives today still refuse to recognize as a tool to lead their companies.
In Executive2020’s view CEO’s need to re-engineer their communication style today to align with workforce expectations or head for that favorite golf course.
George F. Colony, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
As founder and CEO of Forrester Research, George is one of the most influential thought leaders in the world of business and technology. During his nearly 30-year career, George has become a trusted advisor to CEOs of leading global companies by providing forward-looking and pragmatic analysis on the impact of technology change on business.
Under George’s leadership, Forrester operates with the mission to make leaders successful every day and the vision that “technology changes everything” — business, society, government, and consumers. Since Forrester’s inception in 1983, its commitment to both the mission and vision has created one of the most successful technology and market research firms worldwide, garnering accolades from Forbes magazine as one of the “200 best small companies in America” in 2008 and from Fortune Small Business as one of the top 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. Forrester also has ranked as the number one analyst firm by The Knowledge Capital Group for three consecutive years and was named one of the 100 Top Places to Work by The Boston Globe.
George’s “direct approach and refreshing candor,” as noted by BusinessWeek, is one of the key reasons executives seek his guidance on technology and marketing strategies, IT and personal technology trends, and a range of leadership issues. Throughout his career, George has made provocative, tenacious, and groundbreaking technology calls, including the birth of client/server computing, the dot-com implosion, the rise of Social Computing, the transition from IT to BT (business technology), and the burgeoning opportunities enabled by the extended Internet (X Internet), which connects the physical world of things to the digital world of information.
George has participated in the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, for the past eight years. There, he has spoken on panels covering key business technology issues, such as the demise of the Internet bubble, the future of open source, and the evolution of global Innovation Networks, and most recently, he led a workshop about corporate social networking. He also serves as a member of the Forum’s Tech Pioneers selection committee.
George has also addressed other national and international audiences, including the 2006 Fortune Brainstorm conference in Aspen, Colo.; the Houston CIO Executive Summit; The Commonwealth Club of California; the Fortune Global Forum 2005 in Beijing; the SBS Seoul Digital Forum 2005; the United Nations conference, “The Net World Order: Bridging the Global Digital Divide;” and the ICT World Forum @ CeBIT, the most prestigious IT and communications event in Europe.
George’s analysis has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), The Economist, Wired, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Financial Times, and The New York Times, among numerous other publications and social media, and he has been interviewed on prominent broadcast outlets, such as CNN, CNBC, and National Public Radio. Read George’s blog Counterintuitive, or follow him on Twitter.
George was a 2006 recipient of the national Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” in the services category.
George is a graduate of Harvard University.
Jun
23
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Filed Under Michael Smith | 2 Comments
Executive2020 Perspective
I have been a reader of Irving Wladawsky-Berger for over a year. We have added his blog and resource to Executive2020 and it is our view that his thought leadership in the area of innovation, leadership, and technology is worth any executives valuable time. He certaintly has influenced my thoughts and perspectives over the years.
Mike Smith
Founder, Executive2020
Jun
18
The Corporate Organization Structure
Filed Under Author | Leave a Comment
Executive 2020 Perspective
Corporate structure is a complex topic these days due to the growth of digital instant communications and changing workforce attitudes. The simple fact is that hierachical command and control is still the dominant structure for governing a major corporation today despite the excitement from younger generations about doing it differently.
However, will this be true in the year 2020? Ten years is a long time. Executive 2020 has developed a future state set of scenarios related to this subject and over the months ahead will be sharing aspects of our research which involves legal and other challenges to enterprise structural change. None of which we think will prevent change in the way corporations govern themselves. In the meantime we hope you enjoy this resource below from 2004. This resource was published over five years ago and still provides valuable thought leadership for executives today in our view. If you have thoughts on this topic we hope you will share them.
By the way if your a corporate lawyer & executive we would welcome you as founding members of Executive 2020 and hope you will contact us.
Thomas Malone Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management
We are in the early stages of an increase in human freedom in business that may in the long run be as important a change for business as the change to democracy was for governments. New technologies are making it possible for the first time in human history to have the economic benefits of very large organizations and, at the same time, to have the human benefits of very small organizations, things like freedom, flexibility, motivation and creativity. Information technology is reducing the costs of communication to such a low level that it’s now possible for huge numbers of people even in very large organizations to have all the information they need about the big picture to make their own decisions for themselves about what they do rather than waiting for people above them in some hierarchy to tell them what to do.Thomas W. Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management. He is also the founder and director of the MIT Center for Coordination Science and was one of the two founding co-directors of the MIT Initiative on “Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century”. Professor Malone teaches classes on leadership and information technology, and his research focuses on how new organizations can be designed to take advantage of the possibilities provided by information technology.
Jun
17
This videocast is with John Chambers the CEO of Cisco giving a talk while at MIT. In our view it captures the essence and spirit of how workforce leadership should be thought about today and looking toward the year 2020.
Executive 2020 Perspective
Are today’s executives of large global enterprises in touch with the current motivational state of the workforce in the enterprise?
Our view is generally no with a few exceptions of course. The level of workforce energy and motivation in a company has always mattered. However, it is our belief that it is more critical then in the past and has become a greater business risk issue that leadership faces today and in the future. Why?
Reason 1
Past: It was very difficult to find and get a position with a company. People generally did not look forward to the process of changing companies. If they were unhappy in their position for any reason the process of hunting for a new position was difficult. Mailing letters, cold calls, and contacting people you know to find a position was long and labor intensive.
Today: The internet provides instant access to positions around the world. People grab a cup of coffee sit down in front of the internet and shop among millions of positions around the world. Letter mailing has become email. Follow-up and dialog is a quick email exchange, then a phone call that could lead to an interview. The process is no longer painful.
Implication: If the energy level, moral, and motivation of the workforce is on a downward spiral managing the exit of the brightest and the best in your enterprise is near impossible. The workforce generation of today looks hard at the cultural environment of the enterprise before joining it. With social media and community it is becoming harder for a company today to manage the recruiting and retention process.
Reason 2
Past: It was challenging in the past for an executive to deeply understand via the chain of command the motivation of people in a large enterprise. The term “walk around executive” was even coined to this point. Sure there were employees surveys and still are, but we all know the issues with this form of insight into a workforce.
Today: Two words…social networking outside of the enterprise. Freedom of speech and expression enabled by technology….I.E Twitter, blogs. If this can disrupt governments and countries (Iran, Twitter situation) it can certaintly impact the motivational state of today’s corporate enterprise. Employees have found a way to form communities outside the enterprise, discuss what’s going on, and how they feel about it. This evolution of employee communications is evolving quickly and will have vast implications for enterprise leaders. Corporate transparency established by networks of workers and customers will form the perception of a company, its work environment, and its brand.
Implications: It is our viewpoint that most large enterprises and many executives leading them could be out of touch with the new generation workforce and how to lead in this environment of mass collaborative and community exchange outside the walls of their enterprise. If executives in enterprises today are still using terms “leadership by walking around” these executives need to spend some time setting up a Facebook and Twitter account in our view and understand how today’s workforce communicates, collaborates, and operates. The other choice is retire and work on your golf game or perhaps become a confidential and private member of Executive2020.
We believe that in the future the best and the brightest of the global workforce will be in a position to engineer their careers by forming interlocking community networks without immediaries (job boards, mass market recruiters) involved in the process. In essence it will become a global referral network of the best companies to work at and the workforce controling and managing their work and personal life.
Workforce virtualization will be the norm not the exception and if large enterprises want to recruit the best people they will have to adapt to people working and living where they want. Job boards are already indicating position opportunities that can be virtual. Companies based in less then desireble locations will have no choice but to either enable workforce virtualization or move their enterprises where the workforce decides it wants to live and work.
Leaders that have not started to address this issue today are already behind the workforce of the future curve in our view. Some companies are being aggressive. Creating internal “facebook” like environments, and global virtual intranet office environments for the workforce and leadership to collaborate, communicate, innovate, and achieve business results. If you want to learn more about how to do this, Executive2020 would be glad to collaborate with you and hope you will contact us.
Jun
2
2009 Economic Condition & Internet Trends
Filed Under Author | Leave a Comment
2020 Perspective:
Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley gave this recent presentation on the 2009 economic situation and internet trends. In our view it offers high executive thought leadership value and time well spent for any enterprise executive.
Apr
26
Welcome to Executive 2020
Filed Under Michael Smith | 1 Comment
How will global enterprise leaders succeed in the new digital world of global E-Commerce over the next decade? What enterprise leadership practices will be needed during this journey into the future? How will leaders need to adapt to the next workforce generations? How will enterprises need to innovate and adapt to global market changes and customers?
What types of organizational structures will drive future business results and shareholder value? The “commercial public internet” is just a decade old, what’s next? The pace of technology change will challenge today’s and tomorrow’s enterprises and its leaders. The composition of the global workforce and leadership practices are evolving quickly. How will the busy executive of today’s enterprise stay informed? The internet provides a vast resource for today’s busy global executive, but finding the best of the best to spend time with can be a challenge. As a long time executive involved with the internet over the past ten years I know this all to well. This was one aspect that inspired me to create this private executive member only community network. Another inspiration was founding and serving as publisher for www.enterpriseleadership.org and being a member of the CMO Council.
There are no costs involved with becoming a member of Executive2020. If you are interested in membership I hope you will send us an email at contact@executive2020.com.
Michael Smith
Founder, Executive2020.com