FELIPE DAGUILA – Global Executive

When Cultures Collide: Leading Global Teams. My interview for the Business Innovators.

2015 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium: Leading Digital/ A Manifesto for IT and Bu...

FinTech Influence on Today’s Generation

The rise of FinTech and the social impact it implicates on Traditional Banking Institutions.

The rise of FinTech and how it took traditional banking institution by storm struck a strong chord of resemblance to the movie, “Desk Set”.  Much like the movie, “Desk Set”, technology became the cause and fear for many incumbents in traditional banking institutions.

Anxiety began to rise as study by Accenture reported that global investments in financial technology ventures tripled from US $928 million to US$2.97 billion, between 2008 to 2013.

This has led to a “jump on the bandwagon” reaction by a few traditional banking institutions. However can we really fault FinTech for its rapid successes in just a short amount of time?

Among one of FinTech trends that have caused a huge social impact on today’s generation is: Bitcoins.  Bitcoin's first emerged in the FinTech industry in 2008, as a part of an online payment system. Its peer-to-peer system has benefited a lot of people; particularly foreign workers who have to pay remittance fee for every transaction made, which could be costly.

Bit sparks, a Hong Kong based remittance start up company, shared its social impact success story that took the world by storm. Co-founder and CEO, George Harrap cites instances when the company made it possible for foreign workers to remit small amount of money to cover their family’s medical fee in just an hour’s time – free of excessive costs and restriction, which would be impossible via traditional remittance service.

Perhaps it’s time for incumbents in traditional banking institutions to ease the fear towards FinTech, and embrace the strong positive social impact that it radiates. Take a cue from Richard Sumner in “Desk Set” and let technology do its work.

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I have written and submitted this blog entry to FINTECH Book, which will be included in one of the chapter of the book, “FinTech Social Impact”. In order, to be selected for the final publication of the FinTech book, I would need you to help me to “like” and “share” my entry! You can do so, by clicking on this link:https://medium.com/the-fintech-book/fintech-influence-on-today-s-generation-e899639dbfd3

Editors' Notes: This entry has been submitted to the FINTECH Book, the world’s 1st globally crowd-sourced book on FINTECH. Readers can see over 187 abstracts on https://medium.com/the-fintech-book

Twelve Angry Leaders

What does it take to be a great leader?

Back in the day leadership was based on gender,  birth order and the socioeconomic status of a family as the determining factors of what it takes to be in charge; in modern times, its definition has shifted to one’s personal qualities and character. There seems to be a consensus that most leaders are a combination of both ‘born and made’: the former meaning they possess innate motivational characteristics and behavioural leadership drive and the latter meaning they are shaped by external experiences to become more effective at leading others.

In the classic movie, Twelve Angry Men, a juror is quoted saying: “it’s not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of others, so he gambled for support and I gave it to him.” Many leaders were often ridiculed when they were starting out. Take Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg as prime examples. They have both independently exhibited a tendency to hold grudges and be cold in manner, just one of the several personal and unconventional managerial traits the two leaders have shared. Steve Jobs was unapologetic about his brusque management style and Facebook employees have described Mark Zuckerberg as robotic. Jobs was even quoted as saying: "If something sucks, I tell people to their face. It's my job to be honest. I know what I'm talking about, and I usually turn out to be right." Having confidence in one’s own vision and expertise in the workplace is great, but an awareness of the frustration this can cause is equally necessary, clearly this detachment can translate into great results as well as garnering slight animosity.

Great leaders need to be courageous. People will follow someone who can watch over the good of the group and make the difficult decisions. A leader needs to be someone who will stay the course when things get tough. Great leaders are those who do not just take care of themselves but like a captain will never abandon their sinking ship, as well as being open to adversity  as this often means you are doing something innovative!  Henry Fonda who played Juror No. 8 in cult classic Twelve Angry Men was the only one who was set against the rest of the group in their decision. He exhibits how elucidating the truth fact-by-fact in a pragmatic discussion could convince people to think in a different manner. He takes things slowly and allows time for internal differences to be ironed out. In the film, the team’s dynamic comes under a microscope and the power of personal motive and prejudice and their ability to inhibit a team’s performance and outcome is examined. Juror No. 8 does not simply steamroll over everyone else’s views with his own but rather manages to expertly talk them over to his side with an advocate-like logical precision and skill.

According to Forbes, leaders such as the late Nelson Mandela had so much influence because people knew that they could trust him. Employees want the same sentiment to be carried over to the workplace, where their leaders are trustworthy and transparent. Inspirational leaders metaphorically and often literally walk with purpose. They have a plan and excel at sharing that plan and motivation. The most detailed of visions will not be of any good without enlisting the help of one’s staff, an impactful idea like Facebook for example, often involves community. Furthermore, the workplace atmosphere plays a big role in how well everyone performs. A leader who encourages optimism or is themselves optimistic, will look for positive solutions to problems and face them head-on.

All things withstanding- watch out for toxic leaders. Merely being in a position of self-imposed power and authority does not make a great leader. A toxic leader is easy to spot, they are one who does not listen to others, support their employees’ rights or accept the nuance that other’s opinions can bring to the table. The last three jurors were dead-set in their decisions and nothing could sway them, similar to how a tyrannical leader is immobile in thought that can lead to unfair treatment, public humiliation in the workplace and other forms of threatening behaviour.  A toxic leader may produce results but usually at the highest cost to the business, one that doesn’t directly relate to money but instead a decrease in employees’ morale and engagement resulting in negative public relations; high turnover; a loss of customer loyalty and perhaps the eventual cost of replacing the appointed leader.

Overall, by definition the process of becoming a great leader does not mean that one must possess every positive trait from the get-go. Every incremental improvement will make for a more effective team. The more one puts these known traits into practice, the more instinctive they will become, eventually resulting in the  internalisation of a new and improved leadership style.  

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It is an enormous pleasure to have you read my post and provide some feedback. I regularly write about IT, Innovation, Leadership and Management with a personal touch. Please feel free to connect.

We aren't in Kansas Anymore;Scaling a Global Customer Service Business

Global challenges in reaching customers in emerging markets / emerging channels.

The world of customer service used to be a bit like Dorothy in Kansas in the Wizard of OZ.   It was a grey, boring, straightforward world of answering phones and questions.  The customer service world of today is like the colored world of OZ full wonder and innovation. If the 1-800 number of yesteryear is still your customer service approach you will not be in business much longer.

According to Wikipedia customer services is “the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.”  Traditionally this was done face to face at retail or via correspondence or the phone for non-retail purchases.   

Now and into the future it is all about interacting with customers via the media and channel of their choice.  The evolving world of technology requires customer service groups to be flexible not only on the type of information offered but also on how it is delivered.  There is still room for human interaction face to face or over the phone if requested but customers today demand choice.  That could mean FAQ’s on a website, predictable email answers message boards, social media pages or mobile apps to assist.  Businesses today need to address them all.  Achieving consistency across channels can be a big challenge according to a report by Zendesk in 2013 (http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/new-report-examines-global-trends-in-customer-service-022999.php)

Another trend picking up speed is customers looking to help themselves.  This “customer self service” is a reflection of customers looking to answer the question or fix the problem themselves before calling a hotline.  Whether this is due to poor hotline service or a self service desire is hard to say.  But the impact on companies is clear.  Channels to offer this type of service need to be offered.  Use of mobile devices is also on the rise as more customers use their mobile to assess information and conduct transactions.  So being online today is not good enough, you also need be on mobile.

Scale is another new challenge as now businesses are global.  Ecommerce and global expansion makes it critical to be able to speak different languages and to reach customers in far flung places.  Culture can impact the media as well.  If you are big in the Philippines you better be on mobile.  If you are selling in Kenya you better be able to take mobile payments.  There are vast differences in what customers expect in different parts of the world and customer services groups today need to address these differences seamlessly.

A quality interaction will continue to be the gold standard for customer service no matter the channel in which it is delivered.  In designing the overall customer service structure companies need to be mindful of consistency across channels.  Just as customers expect sellers to “pick up the phone” they will also expect an email to be answered in a reasonable period of time.  Of course the information must be accurate, useful and helpful no matter the channel.  

Finally, here were the top 10 Customer Service Trends in 2014 according to Comm100 (http://www.comm100.com/blog/customer-service/10-customer-service-trends-watch-2014-infographic.html), expect these to continue in 2015:

1.  From Cost Center to Differentiator
2.  Moving into the Cloud
3.  Going Mobile
4.  Going Social
5.  Going Proactive
6.  Big Data
7.  Self-Service
8.  Crowdsourcing
9.  Omni-Channel Experience
10.  24/7/365

FinTech Influence on Today’s Generation

PLEASE share and like my entry submitted to the FINTECH Book, the world’s 1st globally crowd-sourced book on FINTECH. Readers that enjoyed this initial abstract are invited to share and like it so that it may be featured in a longer version that will published in the FINTECH Book due to be released November. 

Perhaps it’s time for incumbents in traditional banking institutions to ease the fear towards FinTech, and embrace the strong positive social impact that it radiates.

https://medium.com/the-fintech-book/fintech-influence-on-today-s-generation-e899639dbfd3

MIT CIO Symposium - INVENTING YOUR FUTURE: ACCELERATING SUCCESS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

CIO Symposium Contributor
http://www.mitcio.com/felipe-daguila-everis-consulting-ntt-data-company

YI Incubator - The Spirit of Innovation

World-class executives contribute to the YI Incubator, mentoring companies and providing subject matter expertise, helping our companies bring products to market faster and position themselves for the next stage of growth.

http://interactive.yodlee.com/programs/yi-incubator/mentors-experts

Omni-Channel Strategies and Online-Offline Integration

Consumers are using multiple devices and channels to make their purchases, but you know this already.

“Tell me something I don't know”, you would say.

There was so much hoo-ha on the topic of ‘omni-channel’ in the retail world in 2014. Big word it is. The words social media and cross-device technology start to surface so often that everyone is talking about it – sounds like Citizen Kane!

Although we have seen fast growth in mobile, programmatic display and video ad spending, the quickest-growing category in digital advertising is actually social and we recognize this treasure trove of demographic data that social provides by leveraging it in our social marketing efforts and other channels as well. Did you notice who and what are we targeting? Target audience! We are hungry to find out consumer behaviour, consumer experience and consumer preferences. Indeed, audience is the name of the game and as we learn how to collect and act on audience data across channels, it opens up exciting new opportunities to test different strategies.

The famous US department store, Macy’s, has been experimenting with iBeacons which is a micro-location technology in mobile app that is transmitted using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Customers who enter Macy’s with the Shopkick app installed on their iPhones will be alerted about details of location-specific rewards, deals, discounts and how many products they have ‘liked’ in that store without them needing to open the app. When customers pass by any items they had ‘liked’ previously on the app, Shopkick app will remind them as well.

Customers are using mobile and tablets in a number of different ways to supplement and enhance their shopping behaviours whether they are for brand research, social validation prior to purchase or even for transactional purposes. However, the ultimate conversion more often than not happen in-store. Hence, retailers and marketers need to seize this opportunity and take advantage of the crucial moments to connect with customers as they are making decisions.

Another retail and ecommerce store that integrates online and offline is IKEA.

IKEA introduced an AR app to enhance its 2014 catalogue, all the customers need to do is place the 2014 catalogue in any space within their home, activate the app and they can see exactly how a virtual Billy bookcase or Ektorp sofa fits into the real-time environment.

It is crucial that marketers understand the factors or events that influence the consumers to decide on their purchase and to quantify the influence as well. Hence, the importance of attribution model in Marketing. However in the world of digitisation, marketers need to constantly improve their attribution model.

I have to admit improving attribution model is not an easy task and regardless of how sophisticated the model will be, it will never be able to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated customer behavior.

Yet, this step is essential. Algorithmic attribution modeling may or may not be worth the investment but even getting started with a basic version of multi-touch attribution modeling is better than continuing to rely on last-click attribution.

And that’s my 2c.

Delivering DIGITAL Business. Master before being dominated.

      

• How can I be agile and innovative yet maintain my corporate process?
• What about the risks, regulators and the compliance policies and procedures?    
• What about my competitive advantage and intellectual property? What if my competitors will steal my ideas?

In this post, we review how using world class project management frameworks can help you to adapt your business strategy to deliver better results for your digital business initiatives, independently of your company size or business sector – Keep in mind that the definition of digital business is fluid and in constant state of evolution.

We have an avalanche of information that demonstrates how the digital business is changing, creating and destroying some companies (in all sectors), and it is very clear that if you don’t adapt your traditional mindset, strategy, people, operations, process and methods, you may become that MBA case of how a company did not survive one more change in the new business ecosystem.

The digital transformation change can happen in the blink of an eye. Several years ago, the changes and innovations came from the inside to the outside (companies -> customer). When new products were created their movement into the market involved a slow process and the customer input was not considered to be important.

However, now changes and innovation come from the customer to the companies (customer -> companies) in a crowdsourcing is a customer driven model and from creation to launch happens in the blink of an eye.

According to Mr. Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President at Gartner and Global Head of Research: “Every Business Unit is a Technology Startup”.

 “38% of total IT spend is outside of IT already, with a disproportionate amount in digital. By 2017, it will be over 50%,” Mr. Sondergaard said. “Digital startups sit inside your own organization, in your marketing department, in HR, in logistics and in sales. Your business units are acting as technology startups.”

Gartner estimates that 50% of all technology sales people are actively selling directly to business units, not IT departments. Millions of sales people, and hundreds of thousands of resellers and channel partners are looking for new money flows in the fluid digital world, and they are finding eager buyers. Although most of the information that we read and receive from digital business is focused in two main areas:

1.       Strategy: The model below is one good example of how to drive and build a digital strategy plan by Forrester Research.

2.       Execution Level: Agile methods are not new and agile project management, lean product management and agile software development practices must be applied to drive innovation and constantly renew your business model. The image below represents one example.

From digital strategy to agile execution we must include one important piece; how to manage projects and programs for digital businesses. The key question is how to create the bridge between this TOP (Strategy) -> DOWN (Agile) and maintain the digital transformation initiatives running (projects and product development).

We work in a world of change and reinvention, more so than creation. As digital business demands that professionals and companies adapt quickly, we too should be able to transform our classic ideas and methodologies in order to deliver products and services that will delight our customers.

But how do we deliver digital business projects using the best practices of project management? How do we connect the pieces? STRATEGY -> PLANNING AND CONTROL -> EXECUTION.

Considering the main areas for any project, let’s evaluate some important points for digital business initiatives.

1.       Project Integration Management :

a.       Definition: Processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups.

b.      Digital Business Nuances:  Digital business projects demand two key actors; customers and companies that engage in the delivery and provision of continuous feedback. Your integration process should exploit the boundaries of your company. The link between the internal company value chain, digital value chain and your ecosystem is crucial.

2.       Project Scope Management :

a.       Definition: Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.

b.      Digital Business Nuances: The goal is to plan and design change continuously and in small cycles by using the adaptive project life cycle, also known as change-driven or agile methods. These concepts are intended to facilitate change, but require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder and customer involvement. The scope priority must be to use a mix of customer value added benefits (not product features), customer journeys, innovation and technology disruption.

3.       Project Time Management :

a.       Definition: Project Time Management includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project.

b.      Digital Business Nuances:  It is fundamental to establish small cycles for project completion. Most of the components of your project will not have a clear timeline or a deadline, so define a control mechanism that will identify the next customer interactions based on the feedback.

4.       Project Cost Management :

a.       Definition: Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.

b.      Digital Business Nuances:  The cost is a complex aspect and must be considered in methods of pricing, buying integrated in your project / product. You can have SaaS platform to deliver your project (i.e. slack). On the other hand, PaaS platform is crucial to deliver your product / service. A mix of several pricing and purchasing models must be considered, such as: T&M, Value Added, Fixed Price, Pay Per Use, etc.

5.       Project Quality Management :

a.       Definition: Project Quality Management includes the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.

b.      Digital Business Nuances: Quality is the key pillar. Time is negotiable, but quality never is. It is fundamental to define quality with our final customer and expect continuous change in the quality criteria, as soon as your product begins to evolve. It is crucial to be outstanding in your user experience and customer journey in all channels.

6.       Project Human Resource Management :

a.       Definition: Project Human Resource Management includes the processes that organize, manage, and lead the project team.

b.      Digital Business Nuances: In the digital business world, the traditional organizational charts are not enough. Informal and social connections maps play a key role. You have to consider these connections as you develop your project.

7.       Project Communications Management :

a.       Definition: Project Communications Management includes the processes that are required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.

b.      Digital Business Nuances: Feedback and small cycles of communication should involve visual interactive material rather than e-mails, long presentations (be simple). Tools such as SLACK will help to consolidate all the tools that a digital team will demand for project.

8.       Project Risk Management :

a.       Definition: Project Risk Management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and controlling risk on a project.

b.      Digital Business Nuances:  Risk must be evaluated from the perspective of an opportunity, lesson or at least a possibility. Create risk cycles to reevaluate the project, deliveries and products. You must integrate the risk of the customer expectations.

9.       Project Procurement Management :

a.       Definition: Project Procurement Management includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team

b.      Digital Business Nuances: The procurement process must be incremental and defined in small cycles according to what you are planning to deliver. You could have mixed models such as: SAAS, premises, startup and revenue share.

10.   Project Stakeholders Management :

a.       Definition: Project Stakeholder Management includes the processes required to identify all people or organizations impacted by the project, analyzing stakeholder expectations and impact on the project, and developing appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution.

b.      Digital Business Nuances:  Includes one-on-one interviews and focus groups with a company's external stakeholders, with a goal of understanding external stakeholders behaviors, needs, goals and perceptions of the company and their industry both in the broadest business context as well as specifically online. In addition to standard marketing strategy methodologies and questions, external stakeholder interviews for Digital Strategy may include usability testing, an analysis of how effectively external stakeholders can use the online assets developed by a company for their intended purposes. In digital strategy this is used to uncover usability barriers that may prevent the online vision being achieved.

In the past we created methods, procedures and control processes to govern and mitigate the risk of big company projects and operations. The digital business is not intended to crash these methods, but the companies and professionals will be challenged to adapt faster these models in increasingly smaller periods of time, so we must build new communication processes and frameworks that are tailored to change at a speed of a chameleon, not in speed of a snail.

Adapt or die? or Die fast and learn?

 "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see."

 Rene Magritte.

I will enjoy hearing from the LinkedIn community about their digital business initiatives.

It is an enormous pleasure to have you read our post and provide some feedback. Please feel free to connect.

 [Photos and References: Forrester, Gartner, The Dictator, ThoughtWorks]

It was an honor to create this event and be part of this team. Thank you MIT, Thank you panelists.

Millennial executives and Fortune 500 leaders share the same forward-looking views on disruptive technologies. They also agree that the capability to adapt to change quickly is a key to edging out competitors.



No Generation Gap Here: Business Leaders of All Ages in Sync on Tech

http://www.cio.com/article/2849319/leadership-management/no-generation-gap-here-business-leaders-of-all-ages-in-sync-on-tech.html

The digital business fight club – Startups and M&A

One of the main topics of the moment is the digital transformation, which according to Wikipedia is:

“Digital transformation refers to the changes associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society. Digital transformation may be thought of as the third stage of embracing digital technologies: digital competence → digital literacy → digital transformation. The latter stage means that digital usages inherently enable new types of innovation and creativity in a particular domain, rather than simply enhance and support the traditional methods and how companies should.”

This digital transformation is taking us into another movement of entrepreneurs. According to the Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (KIEA), the entrepreneurial rate in the U.S. is already well above the dot.com bubble of 15 years ago.

Although we have slipped a bit this year from the high point of 320 new entrepreneurs out of 100,000 adults in 2011, it still adds up to over 20 million entrepreneurial businesses out there today, with more starting every day. It is also important to mention the new start-up ventures are coming more from “Opportunity” than from “Necessity” (see graph below).

On the other hand according to the Delloite’s M&A trends report 2014: “Over the past 18 months, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity has accelerated meaningfully in the U.S. That trend is poised to continue, if not accelerate, in many industries, among public and private firms and for both corporations and private equity firms, large and small, according to the survey findings included in the first annual Deloitte M&A trends report. Of the 2,500 corporate and private equity respondents, 84 percent of corporate executives anticipate a sustained, if not accelerated, pace of M&A activity in the next 24 months. Similarly, the vast majority of private equity executives (89 percent) are expecting average to high deal activity going forward.”

Digital transformation is making the number of new start-ups and M&A increase exponentially every year and sometimes you can ask yourself whether it is going to be the business ecosystem of the future? The clear trend that we saw as the traditional concept of business ecosystem as defined by James F. Moore “An economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the organisms of the business world. The economic community produces goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves members of the ecosystem. The member organisms also include suppliers, lead producers, competitors, and other stakeholders. Over time, they co-evolve their capabilities and roles, and tend to align themselves with the directions set by one or more central companies. Those companies holding leadership roles may change over time, but the function of ecosystem leader is valued by the community because it enables members to move toward shared visions to align their investments, and to find mutually supportive roles.” This concept has to evolve to a different level.

In the future, what will define the boundaries of a company in the future? Will this boom of startups and entrepreneurial spirit guide us to business ecosystem rather than just a company?

If we consider the population projected for 2050, according to the UN Report it will be 9.6 billion people, we can ask ourselves whether we are moving to a world of 9.6 billion companies or to the opposite extreme view of a world of 1 Company. If we consider the M&A trends and the elimination of boundaries between sector competitions, in the near future we will be drinking water from Google? The fact is that the traditional business model where the concern was to compete only within the company’s business sector is dead. The new business model is horizontal.

In the past if you were a car manufacture or a financial institution you had to compete and be concerned as a competitor in companies of the same industry, but the new business ecosystem is horizontal and crosses several sectors. For example: today, Audi and BMW have to compete with Tesla. The banks have to compete against other payment systems, such as Apple pay and Paypal.

The way we define management, strategy, leadership, process improvement, innovation and organizational charts must evolve outside the boundaries of the company. Business schools and executives of the future must be able to lead, manage and guide several agents in the business ecosystem (start-ups, small companies, universities, open innovation, etc. ) and many of them will be out of your companies’ boundaries and title.


“Gentleman's welcome to the NEW business fight club”


#1 The first rule of Fight Club is: you ALWAYS talk about Fight Club.
The new digital business ecosystem demands open innovation, crowd-sourcing, external communication, networking, leadership and management skills outside the borders of your company.

#2 The second rule of Fight Club is: you MUST ALWAYS talk about Fight Club!
In your company, do you spend more time thinking about how to protect information than talking about it and sharing innovation? The bigger and older the company the more “STOCKS” they have, which makes it difficult to change.

#3 Third rule of Fight Club: if someone yells “stop!”, goes limp, or taps out, the fight is JUST BEGINNING.
Most of the top executives are risk-averse. Everyone says stop and let’s evaluate the risks. Yes, these things are fundamental, but this is not a reason to stop thinking outside of your company’s daily operation. Your daily operation is just 50% of what you should be doing.

#4 Fourth rule: IT IS NEVER two companies to fight.
Forget the traditional sectors competition. The new digital business ecosystem is disruptive horizontally. You are competing with all companies in all sectors. All of them could be future threats to your business.

#5 Fifth rule: SEVERAL fights at a time, fellas.
Yes, you are competing not only against your main competitors. Look at how Apple Pay and Square are disrupting the payment industry.

#6 Sixth rule: the fights are NOT bare knuckle. Everything will be used as a weapon.
Take a look at the example of how Tesla Motors’ innovation from the IT sector to deliver and redefine the traditional car manufacturing industry.

#7 Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to.
Maybe you are lucky and the fight will be like a Cola War (Pepsi vs Coke), with just 2 competitors, but in the digital business model you will have more than only one competitor and the fights for survival will happen every day.


#8 The eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to fight to survive.”
Please don’t say: They are not our competitors; our strategy, business model and clients are different.


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I’d enjoy hearing from the LinkedIn community about how the digital business is changing the business ecosystem.

It is an enormous pleasure to have you read my post and provide some feedback. Here, at LinkedIn, I regularly write about IT, Innovation, Leadership and Management with a personal touch. Please feel free to connect.

[Photos: Fight Club]

[Data: Deloitte, Wikipedia, Kaufman]

Cross Generational Technology Leaders - Shaping the Present and Redefining the Future

It’s a great honor and privilege for me to create and organize this panel with MIT Sloan Board.


http://www.mitsloanboston.com/article.html?aid=293

The Lies About Leadership. There is No Formula.

This is not one more article about all the good things a leader should be, must be or can be. I would like to offer here a different perspective and a more REAL analysis of the meaning of leadership and this “SUPER HERO” called leader.

With the avalanche of information about leadership: books, articles, training, workshops, movies, etc., we can surmise a leader is all the best things you can say about someone.

Peter Drucker defined a leader as "Someone who has followers," while John Maxwell says, "Leadership is influence -- nothing more -- nothing less." The Free Dictionary defines a leader as "One who is in charge or command of others.

Here are a few words that you can find to describe a leader: committed to a result, team player, honest, decisive, empathetic, confident, optimistic and inspirational. Let’s stop here, because we could spend several hours listing adjectives and qualities of a leader.
Or maybe we can create a formula for leadership, something like this (n=all qualities and adjectives)

(N)Superman + (N)Brad Pitt + (N)Steve Jobs + (N)Einstein+ (N)Shakespeare = Leader.

The truth is, there is no formula
Working with people from different countries, ages and cultures, I’ve learned many things from them but, I probably was not always their leader, because leadership qualities take may occur overtime or get lost over time. In the end, it is a matter of TIME and MOMENTUM in addition to some adjectives and qualities.

A few months ago, I was presenting at the Finance Forum of MIT and I had the pleasure to see a presentation from Andrew Lo (Director, Laboratory for Financial Engineering). It was a truly a unique experience. In that workshop, he mentioned something that I will quote here: “Do you know the difference between salad and trash ? …. TIME”. Yes time, the only thing that money can’t buy. You can buy hours from someone, but no one can buy the time that has already past.

Let’s try this exercise:

Collect all the adjectives that you’ve ever read and think about leadership. Yes, I know this sounds a Big Data task, but let’s try to make it easier.

A few words to start: committed to a result, team player, honest, decisive, empathetic, confident, optimistic and inspirational.

Step 1:
• Pick one adjective that best describes one of your characteristics;

Step 2:
• Take all the rest and put them in a bucket;
• Mix everything;
• Pick one more adjective;

Step 3 – The most important
• With these two adjectives of leadership, think of HOW, WHEN and to WHOM (personal or professional) you will transmit these characteristics. Let’s define ‘transmit’ as showing someone that you have those skills to see whether that person will take on those characteristics for himself with pride.

You don’t have to be a super hero to be a leader. It is all about time, momentum and whether you have the capacity to transmit those leadership qualities to someone else. Maybe you are really good and your leadership momentum could remain for a year or for more than a life time, i.e., Lincoln or Steve Jobs. Maybe your leadership momentum depends on your position, maybe your leadership momentum is one project or one job, or maybe your leadership momentum lasts for just a few moments for someone with no experience and who may simply need guidance.

As in Sports, sometimes a player can be a leader in the field but not make a good coach. However some players can be leaders in the field and also be great coaches. Thus their leadership momentum extends beyond theirs days, years or even for more than a lifetime. Keep your leadership momentum as long as you can, and always seek to transfers that momentum to someone else.

I hope you work hard enough to have at least one leadership experience;

Be good enough to last for several years; and

Have several mentees to transfer your leadership momentum to.

“You never know beforehand what people are capable of, you have to wait, give it time, it's time that rules, time is our gambling partner on the other side of the table and it holds all the cards of the deck in its hand, we have to guess the winning cards of life, our lives.”
José Saramago, Blindness

Are the IT developers dead? R.I.P.?

In the article of The Economist: “The onrushing wave In 1930 they talked when the world was “suffering…from a bad attack of economic pessimism”, John Maynard Keynes wrote a broadly optimistic essay, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren”. It imagined a middle way between revolution and stagnation that would leave the said grandchildren a great deal richer than their grandparents. But the path was not without dangers.”

“One of the worries Keynes admitted was a “new disease”: “technological unemployment…due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor.” His readers might not have heard of the problem, he suggested—but they were certain to hear a lot more about it in the years to come."

The debate that technology innovation causes unemployment is not new, but right now, in this “everything is IT” world, the time spent from innovation to delivery to the market is incredibly fast and the more “modern” professions such as IT developer and/or programmer could be at risk and under a new continuous attack. Could these developers be the new hand weavers of our time? - one of the first professionals of the world to have their job security affected by the technology and automation.
They will die in the shower like Marion Crane in PSYCHO?

As they mention in The Economist article: “The impacts of technological change take their time appearing. They also vary hugely from industry to industry. Although in many simple economic models technology pairs neatly with capital and labour to produce output, in practice technological changes do not affect all workers the same way. Some find that their skills are complementary to new technologies. Others find themselves out of work.”

A great book for everyone is Big Data : A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think from Viktor Mayer-Schönbergerhe and Kenneth Cukier (even if you are not an IT person).

One story is about how Google and Microsoft created a new method to improve the grammar checker and translation process by using huge volumes of data and advanced algorithms. They weren’t sure whether it would be more useful to put their efforts into improving existing algorithms, finding new techniques, or adding more sophisticated features. The authors mention how our daily life will change forever with the increasing use of Big Data, Predictive and Cognitive Computing.

To develop a product or a system for the users and the market (independently of our methodology) is never an easy process. You have to listen, interpret, evaluate and ask the right question, but at the end, the way you translate that information and data in software and in many cases is totally different than what is expected, which depends so much on human interpretation.

The current avalanche of the 5 V’s of Big Data (Volume, Velocity, Variety , Veracity, Value) well explained by Bernard Marr, advances in cognitive computing and what I call ‘on-line collective intelligence’ can take us to this simple high level imaginary scenario:

1. I’m a business user sitting in front of my computer with a new idea for a system and/or a product;
2. I just start to speak saying that I want a website for my new marketing campaign using information from my back end CRM system and using content from my content management system;
3. On-line right in front of me, I see my screen creating a functional prototype and while I speak, I receive insightful questions to detail what I want and to identify the best scenario considering my competitors and what is available on the internet.

This is a fictional scenario, but in this case, not only the developers are no longer necessary, but neither is the business analyst.

I always encourage my mentees and IT teams to have at least one coding experience. I believe it is fundamental to create a solid base if you plan to develop a career in IT.

In many websites and books, you can read information about new professions such as the “data scientist,” which combines the skills of a statistician, software programmer, infographics designer, and storyteller. But, as with all new technology, the advance demands from the workforce to adapt and merge different types of knowledge and expertise. So for the expert of the past to be the expert of the future, he must be able to consolidate these several high demand skillsets.

Coding, developing and programming are similar to paintings (like Kandinsky, Renoir or just urban art), with totally different visions and interpretations depending on Who and How one looks at it, but each has its beauty. The lines of code suffer the scrutiny of the business world, for judgment or approval and like a painting, everyone can see something different that transports them to different places and brings new horizons. Ultimately, new technologies and IT innovation are here from the brilliant minds of engineers and developers.

I don’t believe Big Data and cognitive computing will be the new Norman Bates and the developers the new Marion Crane. We have already begun to change the way we think, innovate, create, produce, release and review our software/products.

• We’re not too far from the future.
• We’re not too far from the past.
• And this moment won’t last.

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I’d enjoy hearing from the LinkedIn community about their vision for the future of developers and how we design software and products. What new initiatives and projects are being used to develop software and products? What is the future of the IT profession?

It is an enormous pleasure to have you read my post and provide some feedback. Here, at LinkedIn, I regularly write about IT, Innovation, Leadership and Management with a personal touch. Please feel free to connect.

[Photos: PSYCHO movie, The Economist]
[Reference from the The Economist: The future of jobs - The onrushing wave]
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21594264-previous-technological-innovation-has-always-delivered-more-long-run-employment-not-less

The sad part about innovation…. Can we really be innovative without being creative?

A few days ago I read an article from Invention to Innovation by Mohamed A El-Erian, the former CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO. The article made me think more about Invention, Innovation and Creativity.

One of my favorite classic movies of all times is Modern Times, starring Charlie Chaplin. It is the kind of movie I can watch again and again and it will always make my day. One of my favorite parts is the “invention” presented in the beginning of the movie. This scene attracts me because of two main reasons:

1- The brilliantly implied criticism about the automation of industry;
2- The creative and simple ways to make us laugh like kids;

The objective of this post is to debate a little bit about item number 2, described above; to open a dialogue regarding innovation in our day with the Millennials and the previous generations who I refer to as “classic”.

A crucial part of my job is to identify, evaluate and convince student candidates in order to recruit the best talent from top universities. I also seek to strike a balance between company objectives and new hire expectations. I also have to determine how these newly hired employees will work together with “classic professionals” and how to become a cohesive team.

The hiring process requires a lot of time and effort from all of the different teams within the company. In my humble opinion, this process is the most important for any company’s sustainability. A few months ago, I lead one of these recruitment process events at two top universities in the Boston area. One of the key phases of this process was the group dynamic. Usually, we request that students from 2 or 3 different groups create a product where the only rule is to deliver a new idea (i.e., product or service) in 30 minutes. The students always deliver great ideas through their presentations that become integrated with my candidate evaluation process.


Many of their final ideas are invariably IT related: applications, websites or platforms, even though they come from diverse backgrounds including business, finance and IT. I’m surprised that they do not create simple ideas that improve our lives. I’m not looking for ideas to put in a Sky Mall magazine, but all the ideas now are only IT related. Is there only IT focused innovation and creativity?


Today, IT is part of our reality and like David Kirkpatrick from Forbes said; “Now Every Company Is A Software Company”. We embrace IT in order to take advantage of the shortcuts that IT provides to innovate and to expand the horizon IT has created in the last years.

I miss the simple and brilliant ideas that came together with creativity, like the creation of Velcro for example, that was created from the insight of the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral, who got the idea when a plant got stuck in his pants. Although he was an engineer and applied science and IT to invent velcro, the creativity was right there too.

Ultimately, I’m happy about this culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that surrounds us on a daily basis, but in my view, innovation mixed with creativity is better. Yes to be simple, creative and innovative may not be easy,but that is because we are in Modern Times, with Modern ITideas.