We are the start of the needed change in the world. The more we talk openly and honestly to each other the better off we will be and the more we will contribute to the greater solution.
So this is my ask to you:
Be Mindful. Not everyone is coming to work each day feeling as though it’s business as usual. We have colleagues impacted by COVID, impacted by protests in their communities, and colleagues emotionally or directly impacted by racial injustice.
Be Empathic and Authentic that as we “return to the office” and “create a new normal” that each of us needs to find an appropriate work-life balance to ensure our physical, emotional, and/or mental health is put first.
Be Diligent. Hold your peers and managers accountable and speak out against racism when you witness it. If comfortable, constructively share feedback directly with the individual. If needed, report any instances of racism, however big or small they may seem to you, to your HR leader. Speaking up is not meant to “punish”, but to provide learning opportunities for individuals that may benefit.
Be Engaged. Below are some ways to start:
Join an Employee Resource Group and become an active member and leader.
I share this for my fellow Christians out there that seem to be amongst the most vocal of the “All Lives Matter” crowd. Yes, all lives matter. If you are a true Christian, please join me in praying that this can one day become reality.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7 NIV)
15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
When Black lives are systemically devalued by police, corporations, and society in general, the reality is a portion of “All” is being shown as not important to the rest of “All”. Black Lives do not seem to matter to many, and therefore the cry of Black Lives Matter must serve as a reminder to everyone that for All Lives to Matter, BLACK LIVES MUST MATTER. Incidents like the deaths of George Floyd simply serve to stoke the anger and make the everyday reality for some become visible to most. The outrage justifiably focuses attention on Black lives.
Put simply, when All Lives Matter, there will be no need for a chant of Black Lives Matter.
2018. The fact that I have to write this blog at all is quite surprising but yes, it is in fact necessary. There are still some companies (and industries) stuck in the dark ages. But, unlike 100 years ago, or even earlier in this decade when Kodak and Blockbuster were struggling (without success) to survive, there are clear warning signs to watch for … look for them and escape before you have an extinct company on your CV.
1. Your IT department is viewed as a necessary evil
It’s extraordinary, isn’t it, that in this tech-saturated world that there are still companies out there where the IT department is about as popular as chopped liver. These companies and their employees see IT as that necessary evil they contact when a PC breaks down, password is lost, or to solve some another niggling problem.In an era where technology has transformed the way we work, shop and live — and techies are now C-suite regulars and modern-day heroes – the few straggler companies that still don’t get it may want to step into the 21st century and make a few important adjustments.
2. Tech is listed as a corporate function
Is technology listed on corporate presentations as a function along with finance and legal?With respect to my friends in finance and legal functions whose work is essential to the success of any company, there’s a problem with technology being seen as a function. The reality is that the line between technology and business is blurring rapidly, and, as I have said many times, the term “digital business” is almost redundant. True forward-thinking companies have long ago elevated IT to the same level as strategy or product development – an integrated element of their business model.
3. Tech is NOT included in earnings reports
Imagine if Netflix, Google, or Facebook had an analyst day without mentioning technology. Ok, that may seem farfetched as these companies are fundamentally technology based. But, to my point that all businesses are becoming digital, it’s almost astonishing when IT initiatives, which are all about the quality of future operations and competitiveness, are absent in CEO calls.Talking too much about technology when you have never mentioned it will of course lead to skepticism, but technology should clearly be a part of your strategy and story.
4. Executives do not have tech objectives
“You manage what you measure” is a common catchphrase. Therefore, company leadership that sees the irrefutable and powerful value of technology will ensure tech goals become annual performance measures for their executives. You could see this as being similar to how adding diversity to annual performance goals has helped some companies change the tide in this area.One global leader I know has only two unique objectives above and beyond the normal financial and operational measures. Both of them are about enhancing client experience through technology and analytics. They came directly from the CEO. That’s how change starts.
5. Same tactics continue to be used
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Yet, some companies still manage and think about problems today the same way they thought about them a decade ago.I’m not just talking about moving from waterfall to agile, though techies love to talk about that transition. I’m talking about literally thinking about problems differently. Technology doesn’t simply enable businesses to be more efficient, it has the power and potential to create entirely new business lines. It can disrupt the current model and displace competitors. The problem is that many companies are still looking for ways that technology can enhance an existing model. That’s old thinking!“You can’t continue to do what you’ve always done to stay ahead and be successful,” is how Paul Chapman, CIO of Box, put it in a recent interview with Apptio in their Emerge ezine.Watch out for people who stick to the narrow word “enablement” when referring to technology. Let’s talk about new revenue models and EBITDA enhancement instead.
6. Your CIO is NOT on the senior management team
Many studies have discussed the reporting structure of company CIOs. In the United States, a Deloitte study found, 50% of CIOs report to the CEO while globally this figure is 46%. But there are many companies where the CIO reports to the CFO, COO or and they thrive.Reporting structure does matter but I would argue that structure alone does not determine whether your business will emerge from the dark ages. A CEO that does not understand or appreciate technology, or one that is too stretched to give it focus, could possible make things worse for a CIO trying to drive digital strategy. A tech savvy and engaged CFO might therefore be a much better reporting structure.What’s most important is that the CIO is seen as a strategic part of the management team. The CIO can report up to the CFO, COO, or CEO — studies have shown that it really doesn’t matter. However, regardless of structure, the CIO leader must be in “the room where it happens” or your business will ultimately falter in our digital age, which continues to transform almost everything with mind-blowing speed.If your technology leader is relegated to the next level and not a part of critical meetings where business strategy, M&A, and revenue growth are discussed, he or she will be trapped in an enabler role. And your business will struggle to keep up.Is this comprehensive list? Probably not. Are there some successful companies out there that do not adhere to the above guidance? Yep.Be well. Lead on.Adam
Adam L. Stanley
Adam L. Stanley Connections BlogTechnology. Leadership. Food. Life.AdamLStanley.com (Driving Value)Follow me on Twitter or Instagram
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This might be an annoying blog for those of you out there, none of my friends of course, that are promoting “Straight Pride” during LGBTQ Pride Month here in the United States. More to come on that. For now, just one thing that is currently on my pet peeve list.
“It’s just hard to think about them together.”
Close your eyes. Try to remember the last conversation you had with a co-worker or a distant friend about their life. They probably talked about their family and if they are married they may even have discussed their spouse. Think about the details of the conversation and what you were thinking during the conversation. Pause. At any time during the conversation were you visualizing your friend and his or her spouse having sex?
My guess is that the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of you said no to that question. And that is of course no surprise because you talk about people’s families and their vacations and all kinds of other details on a regular basis at work without thinking about the particulars of what they do in their bedroom. It is therefore surprising to me how often I hear the comment around it being difficult to have conversations with gay people about their families because it’s hard to picture two men together or two women together. What exactly are you trying to picture?
This month is Pride Month. Someone you know is gay. Someone you know is a lesbian. Someone you know might be questioning. And all of them are unique individuals with different dreams, different backgrounds, different perspectives. Just like you are different. Let’s make this a month to learn about each other.
Happy Pride!
Be well. Lead on.
Adam
Adam L. Stanley
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
The Big-D hit list: Disrupting the word disruption
Purging overused buzzwords is a big step we can take to open our minds to the realities and challenges of succeeding in business today.
The problem with business jargon, which most of us use ad nauseam, is that it’s not merely annoying, it carries the real potential to block progress. Those nifty little words and phrases may make us sound ingenious within our respective tribes (and own minds), but they can also narrow our thinking to the point where we start cramming our strategies and plans into the same universally-defined small boxes. So, just when we believe we’re thinking “outside of the box,” we’re not!
OK, in the name of creative thinking and staying focused on what matters, like our clients and growing our businesses, the time has come to retire some long-hacked-to-death words. In my first blog, I summarily purged the word “digital.” This time, it’s my pleasure to join a growing mob that can’t wait to see “disruption” in the rear-view mirror. Please, by all means, agree, disagree and/or share your own hit-list words.
“Disruptive innovation,” a term coined by Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen in 1997, describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.
Don’t we love talking about disruption! Very rarely does a day go by when the word doesn’t pop up, and it’s applied to everything, from cool new apps to getting a new dog. There are copious books on the subject that everyone, including me, reference a lot. Christensen and his theories on how disruptive innovation are upending large incumbent companies is a favorite.
Here’s the rub: Disruption makes sense when you’re talking about revolutionary change that takes place over months and years. Christensen defined the difference between sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. The sustaining side is what established market leaders do by listening to their customers and creating products that satisfy their “predicted” needs in new and exciting ways.
Disruptive innovators create markets that initially appear too small to attract the interest of established firms, which are more focused on delivering steady returns and growth to their shareholders. It isn’t easy for larger firms to justify the risk and investment needed to launch a new concept, which ironically gives smaller firms and start-ups a head start at cornering a market.
Major disruption occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s when new players suddenly burst on the scene with products and services that revolutionized traditional industries. BlackBerry disrupted the mobile telephony market, iPhone disrupted Blackberry and Kodak in digital photography, and so on. The big companies didn’t see it coming.
You could say that Moore’s Law, introduced way back in 1965, gave us the first idea on what disruption would look like. Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, nailed the speed of change we were about to experience when he observed that it would take a year (later revised to 18 months) for costs to be cut in half and productivity to double, and that this rate of growth would continue for decades. Welcome to the early days of the information age! Today, such changes can double in months instead of years. And, as I discussed in a prior blog, just wait until quantum computing hits the scene. It will be like comparing texting to snail mail. Point being, we’ve been in this “disruptive” bubble since the ‘60s!
So, let’s get over “disruption.” Let’s see it as a constant and rise to the challenge of operating in a world where change will only escalate. It’s business-as-usual in the high-tech fast lane and we need a firm grip. Our jobs as business leaders is to know our customers across the spectrum better than ever before; scan emerging markets; watch for new competition; react, not over-react; proactively search for new opportunities; and invest wisely in systems and strategies that are agile enough to withstand the change bombardment. For that, it always comes down to having the best and brightest people on your team.
Disruption is the second word on by Big D Hit List, following Digital. For my next blog, I’ll dig into another longer word that’s been choking conversation particularly in the business world for too long: Disintermediation.
Be well. Lead on.
Adam
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
Business has always been plagued by jargon and buzzwords. They’re everywhere.
Utility compute morphed into the “cloud” today. We ask people if they have “bandwidth” as if they’re a network device. Consultants want us to “think outside the box” so that we “push the envelope” to create “cutting-edge” solutions. I mean, who wants to hire someone when they can “leverage” an existing employee instead? Why not open a “window of opportunity” to capture “low-hanging fruit”? Before we spend too much time trying to “boil the ocean”, we “take it offline” and “synthesize”. Then there’s all those texting abbreviations – SMH!
The problem is that buzzwords can be more than annoying – they can be real impediments to progress. Such words and phrases can narrow our thinking, forcing people to cram corporate strategies into neat little universally defined boxes. So it’s time to blow a few up that have been clinging on for too long! We all have a hit list of words we’d like to kill, and I thought I’d share mine in this series, so you’ll hopefully share yours. Hint: They all start with a “d”.
Part 1: DIGITAL: The Mother of All D Words
For me, the first Big D word on my hit list is digital. Gasp! How can that be so? Off the top, it brings to mind another phrase that went the way of the dodo bird. When I was an undergrad, my primary major was finance. My secondary major was international business. Now, I won’t say exactly when I graduated, but suffice it to say, it was when the idea of doing business outside of America was still hatching.
Back then, before the world was found to be “flat” and modern planes, trains, and automobiles had made far-flung places accessible, international business was taking off and subsequently became a popular major at colleges. We were taught how to think about the complexities of doing business when your clients were located in different countries with different customs, languages, and economies.
Today, given the tangled web of global supply chains, every business is international in scope. The phrase is no longer needed because it’s just understood. The world is flat and it’s hard to find a scalable business that doesn’t transcend borders.
There’s a parallel with the word digital. Almost 20 years ago, people first started talking about digital transformation and moving to digital business platforms. Back then, it seemed like science fiction and we madly studied the topic and posited on what it meant and how it would radically change business models.
In 1999, I wrote a paper with fellow Wharton students about the battle between online and brick-and-mortar grocery stores. We laid out a fairly robust case that it was unlikely that people would buy their groceries online anytime soon and, if they did, it would only be in limited quantities. We argued it was more likely that grocery stores and online stores would begin to merge. Customers would make choices based on relationships with a particular brand or company, and companies would evolve to provide services where customers needed them.
Now, I’d love to say that we were predicting that startups like Amazon would become behemoths and one day buy traditional grocery stores like Whole Foods. Alas, that wasn’t so, but we did hit on the idea that every business would eventually become digital. Today, saying a business should go digital is a lot like saying the Pope should be Catholic. As you can’t build a house without some form of concrete, you can’t build a business without being digital. Duh. Every business is digital.
The ability to truly differentiate your business in an era where brand and company loyalty are waning as consumer and business choice are increasing is an even greater imperative. As differentiation becomes ever more critical, the ability to leverage and manage information as an asset is a non-negotiable requirement. Don’t talk about digital. Just do it.
What does that mean?
Be you. Whether a sole proprietor, small business, or major corporation, your journey must be yours. Not everyone can be Uber or Airbnb. Your strategy for handling business in the era where all things are digital will be different.
Don’t forget your customers. If you realize that digital business is a redundant term and that really it’s just business, you must also remember that customers come first. Learn from them. Predict changes in their behaviors based on other industries, but never forget why they buy your product or service.
Realize that today’s trend will be different than yesterday’s. Yeah, duh. But it’s amazing how many people jump from fad to fad playing an interminable game of whack-a-mole. Don’t hire a data scientist or invest millions in Hadoop because everyone else is doing so.
Talent still matters. I have blogged on this multiple times. There still isn’t any special sauce behind hiring for business today, whether you call it digital business or just Business. You need intellectual curiosity, agility, and tenacity. The fundamentals of talent still apply.
Saying digital business is like saying international business- it’s silly; it’s redundant. Don’t be silly. Be smart.
Digital is the first word on by Big-D Hit List. Stay tuned for the next word I think should be purged.
Be well. Lead On. Adam
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
