One of TomorrowToday’s bright young stars, Aloysias Maimane helps us to understand some of the unique drivers and motivators of young, black talent. His insights will assist those who are battling to attract and retain these “black diamonds”.
In this article, Aiden deals with the complex issue of change management, convincingly showing why many of today’s interventions fail. He provides a new starting point, using Organisational Narrative Mapping as a mechanism for profound change.
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We live in a world where companies are working exceptionally hard to attract, retain, engage and motivate their bright young employees. A new generation of young people has started entering the workplace in the last decade, bringing with them new values, different expectations and a fresh outlook on work and the workplace. The shift in the values of these young people is necessitating a shift in workplace culture and environments. Those companies wishing to attract the attention of these young stars must take these shifts seriously.
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Jackie Ronson, Managing Director of TomorrowToday in the UK & Europe, uses a recent client case study to illustrate the improvement in online sales that can be achieved from ensuring each customer group (or generation) is catered for on your website. One size can fit all – but only if you understand your customers.
One of TomorrowToday’s close friends and associates, and South Africa’s top practitioner of the psychology of success and motivation, Justin Cohen provides us with some reasons why people don’t achieve their goals. He goes on to make some concrete and practical suggestions for changing this situation, setting and achieving goals.
In this thought-provoking article, Keith cuts across many of the myths of modern leadership to suggest one attitude and one action that truly authentic and savvy leaders need to take more seriously than they do. He is concerned that chasing after the leadership “gurus” is part of the reason that there is a global leadership crisis, and suggests that humbly embarking on a journey may be the best response by those leaders that want to go the distance.
In the first of a three part series, John Maxwell, co-founder and administrator of an exciting new venture, the Nkomazi Community Trust, looks at various responses to Black Economic Empowerment strategies in South Africa. He offers a broad introduction to the current BEE landscape, and suggests that companies have a responsibility to societal development and change.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a webcam which will sit nicely on top of a laptop screen? Karin asked me if I have any recommendations and instead of listening to what she was saying I started thinking about the built-in iSight on my MacBook Pro, so I wonder if any readers with longer attention spans have some specific hardware they’d recommend?
For many years now we have been pointing out that Boomers have swept to political power, ceasing it from the GI generation (born 1900s to 1920s), without allowing the Silent generation (born 1930s and 40s) an opportunity to be in charge. The first obvious signs of this came with the first Clinton administration, followed soon thereafter by Tony Blair. The trend spread around the world, with Boomers taking control in countries from Brazil to Germany, and Italy to Australia.
One of the anomalies was Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, who was in his 60s, but certainly looked and acted like a flamboyant Boomer. Now, however (just 2 hours ago as I write), Japan has confirmed Shinzo Abe as its new premier. He is the youngest Japanese PM in 60 years – he is only 52 years old. He is most certainly a Boomer, and it will be interesting to watch as his leadership unfolds over the next few years. Of one thing we can be sure – change will be a priority. It always is with Boomers. We can also expect Japan to get more press now, and be more involved in global affairs – Boomers like the biggest stages to play on.
OK, so maybe I’m being a bit flippant about both Japanese politics and generational theory. But mark this blog entry, and check back in a few years’ time, please. Viva, Boomers, Viva.
We have a few clients who work in the news and publishing industries. These industries have always seemed out of date to me, but I recognise that many of these companies are working hard (scrambling?) to get into the digital age. One of the best articles I have read on this issue comes from Fast Company, and was written by Richard Watson under the Innovation heading of the magazine. You can read the article here.
A quick summary of what newspapers can do to become 21st century compliant:
Tomorrow, I am speaking at South Africa’s “Best Company to Work For 2006” awards ceremony (live on Summit TV from about 8am). In preparation for this, the organisers sent me information on “Employee Engagement”, the theme of this year’s awards.
They sent an excellent article by Rich Wellins and Jim Concelman, “Creating a culture for engagement”. (Read it in full here, or download the PDF here.)
Some of the key points:
Issued by: UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing
Fascinating new research shows that an alarming percentage of Black Diamonds – South Africa’s fast-growing and affluent black middle class – feel that marketing communication often misses the mark when it comes to connecting with them. 
A hot-off-the-press study by the UCT Unilever Institute and Research Surveys has found that 49% of Black Diamonds feel that they are misrepresented in the media by local marketers and advertisers. One respondent summed up the feeling of almost half of the respondents by saying: “South Africa has had the political revolution, we’re in the midst of the economic revolution, but we have yet to see a media revolution!”
UCT Unilever Institute and Research Surveys coined the term ‘Black Diamond’ earlier this year after undertaking the first comprehensive marketing study on SA’s black middle class. The term refers to South Africa’s two million-strong black middle class which is growing at an estimated rate of 50% a year, and currently has an annual spending power of R130-billion.
The Vancouver Sun, Canada, recently reported on a trend of younger generations of workers taking sabbaticals from their work. We’re talking about young people working for 3 or 4 years, and then resigning to take a 6 month break – normally involving travel and adventure. The report (read it here), quoted a larger study:
According to the Families and Work Institute (FWI), Gen-Y employees were very likely to leave their current job in 2002 (70%) compared to their counterparts in 1977 (52%). Comparing data from its National Study of the Changing Workforce conducted in 1992, 1997 and 2002 to the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey by the U.S. Department of Labor, the FWI discovered how employees have changed over generations.
Employees belonging to Generation X (age 23 to 37) and Generation Y (age 18 to 22) are drastically different than the baby boomers who preceded them, reports the FWI. Many Generation Xers and Yers come from households where one or both parents work, and many of these young employees have known someone who has lost their job because of workplace downsizing.
There is no doubt that The Economist is my favourite magazine to keep up with world affairs. It is slightly conservative, but always fair and objective, and covers a staggering array of subjects. Click here to subscribe.
The cover story of the latest edition is brilliantly written, and talks about the emergence of the “developing” world and globalisation. Well worth a read:
The balance of economic power in the world is changing. Good
IF ECONOMISTS have a tendency to trust their figures too much, politicians often pay numbers too little attention; and they do so at their peril. Napoleon dismissed Britain as a nation of shopkeepers, but its emerging might as a trading power helped fight him off. In the cold war Western strategists probably spent too much time worrying about the Soviet Union’s military clout, and not enough analysing its commercial frailties. Economics does not determine history, but it does provide the backbeat. And something dramatic has been happening to the numbers recently.
A study by Georgetown University released last spring showed the number of men (in the USA) who worked past age 70 increased 17% between 1995 and 2005 and the number of working women after 70 was up 32%. Mandatory retirement for most ended with the Age Discrimination Act of 1986. Since then, anxieties about dwindling Social Security benefits and diminished health coverage played a role in a greater number of elderly Americans who work full-time, according to the study by Murray Gendell. Similar legislation is about to enacted in the UK, and should have a similar effect.
Older workers indicate that it is a combination of necessity and love of work that keeps them going well beyond reitrement age.
“People are living longer and healthier lives and many want to continue working well beyond traditional retirement age,” said a spokesman for the AARP (American Association of Retired People – a formidable political force in the USA). “And with reduced birth rates, longer life expectancy and the aging of the baby boomer generation, the ability to attract and retain skilled older workers is going to be critical to the work force.”
I’m a firm believer that your story is your story. As it is rooted in your experience and by virtue, your story is a simple retelling of your experience. It is not then a ventured opinion that is open for debate and scrutiny. When this understanding is in place, it opens room for everyone to learn from the stories they hear and to be touched by the significance of the story. We affirm this point in all the work we do with companies when mapping their Organisational Narratives. But in recent days there has been a news story that has made me question whether such reverence of experience is valid. It is the furore stirred up by Pope Benedict quoting a Byzantine leader who slated the impact Mohammed had on the world in spreading Islam.
The Islam community has lashed out at his speech and the inference regarding his belielfs on Islam. Their response, understood as a story, has been characterised by pain and hurt. As a Christian African Westerner (sho, a mouthfull) I have found myself believing that the Muslim world has just misinterpreted the quote and not seen it in the grander picture of what Benedict is trying to achieve: greater tolerance and acceptance. But then, in listening to an interview with a Muslim cleric on TV this morning about the issue, I wonder if I have fallen into the trap of subjugating the “story” the Muslims are telling us? For the Muslims, from what I can understand, the issue here is that Bendict did not distance himself and his personal stance from the content of the quote. By virtue of this not happening, his has covertly stated he is anti-Muslim. But, I do not know if I am right on this.
How do we really open ourselves to the messages and lessons behind stories? How do we open ourselves to another’s story, no matter how different and imcomprehensible it seems to us?
I am still convinced that within the next 20 years, politics in many countries will not be divided along left-right lines, but rather along young-old lines. A report out yesterday morning in England’s Metro newspaper gives some wanrings about one of the causes of this generational war:
Graduates will soon have half their wages snatched by the taxman – while their parents are left free to live the high life, a new report claims.
Student debts and high taxes mean graduates will live on an average of £8,500 a year after they leave university, the Reform think-tank said. The so-called iPod generation will struggle to get on the property ladder, will have to work longer before they retire and yet not have secure pensions.
Meanwhile, their baby boomer parents will reap the rewards of investing in cheap property and enjoy relatively high final salary scheme pensions.
One of the biggest areas of contention in workplaces today is the divide in worldviews between Boomers and Xers. I stumbled on a fantastic webpage that gives a brief overview of this clash – it is aimed at helping people in the financial services industry to understand the generation’s mindsets around money, but the general generational introduction is great: read it here.
On a similar theme, a nice, short piece appeared in The Free-Lance Star on 25 Aug 2006. It was entitled “Bridging the generation gap: Gen-Xers face off with baby boomers”, by Elizabeth Pezzullo (read it here). Here are some extracts:
Businesses today are in the midst of a battle between Generation X and the baby boomers…
[Boomers] are a group whose work ethic reflected America’s corporate culture of the times: job security, advancement based on merit, lifelong benefits and loyalty.
Gen-Xers want personal fulfillment. They’ll change jobs at the drop of a hat if it means more money and responsibility. In fact, Xers change jobs, on average, every two years.
So what strategies can be used to bring these unique groups together?
Every day, more and more articles appear in the world’s media, predicting calamity on the horizon as Baby Boomers grow older and prepare to retire and leave their current employment. This includes industries as diverse as trucking and car mechanics, to church leadership / priests, pilots and engineers. (PS – follow the links to these stories – some good reading).
At TomorrowToday.biz, we’ve started the process of trying to come up with solutions for this coming crisis. We have branded our work, TomorrowWisdom, and currently have three major focus areas: (1) a presentation called “Prime Time” that looks at three options for Boomers as they look to the future; (2) a Wisdom Continuity process, to assist companies extract critical information from the Boomers and embed it in their companies; and (3) personal, individual assistance for retiring Boomers.
In the The Sunday Times in the UK today, there is a bizarre story about BAE Systems (read it here). This company produces a variety of products, mainly military armaments. In a report on Sunday, BAE Systems announced that they would be pursuing an environmentally friendly approach to their products, including quieter missiles (so that as they zoom over your home to destroy the village down the road, you’re not irritated by the noisy whine?); military cars, ships and planes with lower CO2 emissions (so that future generations do not live in a messed up world? Oh wait, these vehicles are used for mass destruction – at least they won’t affect the ozone layer, though); missiles that have bio-degradeable components (so that after its killed your friends, it can bring new life by providing compost for your flower bed?); and my favourite: bullets with a lower lead content and missiles with reduced toxins.
Are these guys absolutely joking?
This is an example of the corporate world gone mad. Sure, we preach to our clients that environmental care is becoming an important part of a company’s reporting and ethics. Sure, we tell our clients that in this “connection economy”, we need to be concerned about what our clients are concerned about. And “being green” is important! But, no amount of “green” will cover the red stain of blood on the hands of arms manufacturers. I can only see this bringing ridicule to BAE Systems. I can’t see any government, militia or terrorist changing buying habits of armaments based on environmental factors. Can you?
Ever since I can remember (although in reality its probably only since the late 1980s), I have lived with the grim warnings about the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Futurists have been warning of the dire consequences of having as much as 20% of the workforce taken out. Health care professionals have been warning of the dangers of such a communicable disease and have been trying to change sexual habits (remember when condoms were used to stop life? Now they’re used to safe life!). (Aside: not everyone has maintained this line – South Africa’s Minister of Health has rather spent her time increasing the sales of beetroot, garlic and onion). Churches have used the disease as an excuse to spread their own brand of sexual health (“sex is dirty, so keep it for marriage”). And NGO’s the world over have proliferated, as they try to deal with the health issues, the “dying with dignity” issues and the problem of orphans (2 million orphans expected by 2010 in South Africa alone).
Yet, with all this fuss, I must confess that I have been relatively untouched by AIDS at the moment. It is true that anyone CAN get AIDS, but the reality is that rich, educated people are unlikely to actually contract it, except if we’re exceptionally stupid or amazingly unlucky. AIDS continues to be the scourge of the lower class and the most vulnerable.
The first person that I actually knew who died of AIDS passed away about 10 years ago. She was the vivacious and upbeat receptionist at a computer training company I worked for. In a six month period she wasted away in front of our eyes, to a mere shadow of herself, and then the end came swiftly. Since then, I have known only a few people who have died of AIDS. Most of them have been contractors who have worked in my home.
But now, in the past few weeks, the spectre of a killer has emerged. XDR TB (Extra Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) has been diagnosed in South Africa. This strain is the result of people not following through with their full 6 month course of treatment. People do not die of AIDS. They die when HIV/AIDS has destroyed their immune system, and then they get hit with what would otherwise be a curable disease. The biggest such killer is TB. Its curable, even if you have AIDS, as long as take the drugs for 6 months. However, after 3 or 4 months, you feel 100% better. Some people therefore stopped the treatment, and TB developed immunity to these drugs and mutated into a horrible, untreatable disease. Already over 50 people have died.
Could this be it? Could this be the time bomb that explodes and rips through the HIV+ community, destroying all in its wake? It certainly looks as if it has the potential to bring the devastastion we have all feared since I was a child.
News broke this past week that HP board chairperson, Patricia Dunn, had ordered a probe into how information was being leaked to the press. This investigation led to the obtaining of personal phone records of some directors, and at least two reporters covering HP. The investigation conducted by a company hired by HP used a controversial technique called “pretexting” to obtain the personal phone records of silicon.com sister site CNET News.com reporters Dawn Kawamoto and Tom Krazit, California state prosecutors said. Pretexting is an illegal method of obtaining personal records through misrepresentation of someone’s identity.
Dunn has resigned as chair of the Board, although she will remain on as a director. Another director has been forced to resign. The issue was raised by a non-executive director who resigned earlier this year in protest over the investigation, and took his complaint to the AG.
Right now, this story is simply proof that the connection economy exists. Its not just what you sell anymore, its who you are that people are worried about. How HP responds will be critical, and interesting to watch. An unanswered question for me is: “who was leaking the information, and did the inquiry come to any conclusions?” The answer to that question may be HP’s rescue boat. But, in this new era of transparency, its not just what you do, but how you do it that counts. HP are finding this out the tough way.
There are more and more cars on the road, and the complexity of these cars is ever increasing. Who is going to service them? Who is going to fix them when they break? Already, you have to book a few weeks in advance to get your upper-end car in for its regular service. And the quality of the servicing leaves something to be desired. This is a worldwide problem, as a report in “Tire Review online” suggests. Its in the 11 Sep 2006 edition, and is entitled: “Shops in Crisis? The Tech Shortage”, by Steve LaFerre. Read the report here.
Some extracts appear below, and you will see my interest in the matter, as it relates to generational perceptions of the automotive industry, engineering and mechanics as well as the need for knowledge/wisdom continuity from the soon to retire Boomers. If this isn’t dealt with, we’re going to see a trainwreck in this industry in a few years time.
Every marketer says that they do. Companies swear that they know their customers. But, as a fantastic article from Fast Company shows, most organisations are just fooling themselves. Its a long read, but well worth it – from Fast Company, Issue 34, April 2000. Read it here (or below).
Key messages:
This is one of the cornerstones of the connection economy. This is worth taking seriously!
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I am a serious fan of the magazine, “Fast Company”. Its one of the best out there. There is a fantastic new book that is a selection of their choice of the top articles from the last ten years of the magazine. Highly, highly recommended. “Fast Company’s Greatest Hits: Ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business” (get it amazon.com or kalahari.net).
The first article is entitled, “Everything I Thought I Knew About Leadership Is Wrong”, by Mort Meyerson. Here are some important insights about leadership (pg 12 & 13):
“In a world where the lines between companies, industries, and even nations get blurred, a leader builds an effective organisation around values and work style. And the leader learnt to define success in business as both producing financial strength and a generating team of people who support and nurture each other.”
“So what is my job as a leader? The essence of leadership today is to make sure that the organisation knows itself. There are certain durable principles that underlie an organisation. The leader should embody those values. They’re fundamental. But they have nothing to do with business strategy, tactics, or market share. They have to do with human relationships and the obligation of the organisation to its individual members and its customers.”
“The second job of the leader is to pick the right people to be part of the organisation and to create an environment with those people can succeed. That means encouraging others to help develop the strategy and grow the philosophy of the company. It means more collaboration and teamwork among people at every level of the company.” It means being a coach rather than an executive.
“The third job of the leader is to be accessible. I want to be open to people in a broad range of their experiences in life if they need it, and I want to be accessible for two-way communication that’s honest, open, and direct.”
Today is another anniversay. It is 29 years since Steve Biko died in police detention in South Africa. Steve Biko was a leader who focused on helping black people in South Africa to gain self esteem. He founded the Black Consciousness movement, and talked about Black is Beautiful. Of all the lives lost during apartheid, for me personally, his is the most tragic. I really wish I could have met him. By all accounts he was a brilliant human being.
One of my favourite “memories” of him came through a re-enactment of one of his trials in the movie, “Cry Freedom“. Asked by a white judge, “Why do you call yourself black, when your skin is brown?”. He replied with, “Why do you call yourself white, when you are actually pink?”. Cheeky, self-assured, witty and correct.
But someone told me recently of another famous Biko saying, and it is in this that Biko showed his prescient genius. He apparently believed that Africa’s gift to the world would be our ability as Africans to put the humanity back into business, government and organisations. He couldn’t have been more right.
Read Aiden’s memories of Biko previously posted at this blog.
Today marks a number of anniversaries. The most prominent, of course, is the five year remembrance of 9/11 – the day that terrorists attacked mainland USA using civilian planes as weapons.
Who can forget that day? I was out shopping with my wife and 2 year old daughter, Amy. We were walking through a shopping mall, and passed a TV and digital equipment shop that had multiple TV sets in the window. I saw the pictures of the first of the Twin Towers smoking, and thought, “I’ve never seen this movie”. Intrigued, we moved closer, and saw that it was CNN Live. “What an horrific accident”, was my thought was we watched tranfixed. Then, to our horror, we saw the second plane hit the second tower, and instantly realised this was an act of terror. At that moment, standing in a shopping mall in northern Johannesburg, the whole world changed. I looked down at my 2 year old daughter and realised that unknown to her, the ground had just shifted below her feet. The world would never be the same.
In a fairly ironic coincidence (is there such a thing), today also marks the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s first peaceful nonviolent protest. This happened in South Africa.
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Here’s a great description of the “connection economy”:
A profound, but silent, transformation of our society is afoot. Our industrial system is generating more goods and services than at any point in history, delivered through an ever-growing number of channels. Superstores, boutiques, online retailers, and discount stores proliferate, offering thousands of distinct products and services. This product variety is overwhelming to consumers. Am Ibuying the right digital camera? Am I getting the best treatment for my chronic ulcer? Am I signing up for the right service? Simultaneously, thanks to the propagation of cellphones, web sites, and media channels, consumers haveincreased access to more information, at greater speed and lower cost, than ever before. But who has the leisure and the proficiency needed to sort through and evaluate all these products and services? The burgeoningcomplexity of offerings, as well as the associated risks and rewards, confounds and frustrates most time-starved consumers. Product variety has not necessarily resulted in better consumer experiences.For senior management, the situation is no better. Advances in digitisation, biotechnology, and smart materials are increasing opportunities to create fundamentally new products and services and transform businesses. Major discontinuitiesin the competitive landscape – ubiquitous connectivity, globalisation, industry deregulation, and technology convergence are blurring industry boundaries and product definitions.These discontinuities are releasing worldwide flows of information, capital, products, and ideas, allowing non-traditional competitors to upend the status quo.At the same time, competition is intensifying and profit margins are shrinking. Managers can no longer focus solely on costs, product and process quality, speed, and efficiency. For profitable growth, managers must also strive for new sources of innovation and creativity.
Thus, the paradox of the 21st-century economy: Consumers have more choices that yield less satisfaction. Top management has more strategic options that yield less value. Are we on the cusp of a new industrial system with characteristics different from those we now take for granted?…. The answer, we believe, lies in a different premise centered on co-creation of value. It begins with the changing role of the consumer in the industrial system.
The most basic change has been a shift in the role of the consumer – from isolated to connected, from unaware to informed, from passive to active. The impact of the connected, informed, and active consumer is manifest in many ways.”
The Future Of Competition: co-creating a unique value with customers, by C K Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy
Amazing how our burdens change over time. A few years back, some of the questions you’d ask when moving around were: will there be a road, will petrol be avialable, will there be a telephone, with there be a fax machine, will there be cellphone reception and now today … will there be a plug point available to aid my ailing battery. Bump into me at any Wifi hotspot and you’ll find me appendaged to a plugpoint charging my laptop, cell phone and iPod. It’s no secret that I’m not an HP fan. Currently adding to my PC-woes is the fact that the battery life on my laptop is nearing a max of 45 minutes. Working virtually, I demand a lot from a power supply. But I do wonder if a battery that is just shy of 1 year old should detoriate as quickly as it has? So, I best make this post a quick one lest my time is cut short.
To be fair, my issue here is not as much with HP as it is with the limits of science. It is well known that Moore’s Law promises us with better times to come in terms of computing power and speed. However, little is said about battery technology’s ability to keep up with that sort of development and need. Damon Darlin and Barnaby J. Feder report today in The New York Times how scientists are running into some basic hurdles of chemistry and physics when it comes to packing more energy life into smaller battery packs. The key issue: the more energy in a small package the higher the volatility. The recent Dell recall of 4.1 million laptop batteries is testiment to how a microscopic metal particle suddenly makes you wonder when last you backed-up (and they are not even covered by warranties!!!). I bight my thumb at those who worry about cellphone waves frying my brain … phwah, talk about the spontaneous combustion ability I pack everday. We should all actually keep our distance!
It is stated that the energy capacity of batteries is increasing a mere 5 to 8 percent a year, while demand is exponential. I do wonder how much easier my life would be if I did not have to run through a mental checklist before going to bed while standing at a plug-point in my wall: cellphone, laptop, handsfree, razor, iPod.
Point of order this week: purchase new battery (also known as piling money into the coffers of manufacturers who have no incentive to make batteries last longer.)
Have you noticed how busy everyone is? It’s almost as if the phrase “things are hectic” is usurping the inimitable response of “fine” when asked, “So, how are you?” Shawn Callahan over at Anecdote has termed this the busy-ness meme. So, as a unit of cultural meaning, is this meme a representation of how busy we really are or a self-defense for not being busy?
I’m not talking about the glib friendships companies try to encourage by inviting their customers to be friends or fans on Facebook, but rather intimate and deep relationships that come from having a vested interest in the people that make their business possible. I recently came across a study by Michael Argyle and Monika Henderson [...]
I spend a large part of my year in conversation with managers working hard to try and understand today’s younger workforce. The pain they’re feeling is palpable. The evidence of change is overwhelming. Making the necessary changes, at times, seems impossible. The hope is that the challenges are being interrogated and slowly but surely acted [...]
Everyone agrees that something must be done about executive pay. One of the major contentious issues emerging out of the financial crisis is the way that senior executives and manager, especially in the financial industries, are remunerated. These days, executive pay often seems to be unrelated to the company’s performance, and in many [...]
For years banks and credit card companies have held a strangle hold over the movement of money and charged exorbitant rates for doing so. Now this is changing and fast.
Michale Ivey the founder of Twitpay has devised a system, using code that PayPal made available to him, that allows people to make payments [...]
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