The Next Empire/s

The latest edition of Strategy+Business has a great article on a new book looking at USA, Europe and China. Here is an extract:

What can the U.S. do to maintain its competitive position against the E.U. and China? Foreign policy scholar Parag Khanna believes the answer lies right under our noses.

Only 30 years old, Parag Khanna has spent more than two years traveling to more than 100 countries, hoping to see firsthand the flash points of geopolitics and globalization. From his observations emerged a book, the recently published The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order ???????? ????? ????????(Random House, 2008), a thought-provoking look at the future of global competition. Khanna posits that the struggle for global economic and diplomatic influence over the coming decades will pit three empires — the United States, the European Union, and China — against one another on a battleground that he calls the “Second World.” This group comprises countries in five critical regions — Asia outside China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America — that hope to achieve full industrial development through economic and strategic alliances with one or more of the three major blocs.

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Indiana McCain and the Election of Doom

I must give The Economist website the credit for this awesome headline. And I must agree with them that John McCain is in trouble. If elected as President later this year, he will be the oldest person ever elected American President. While this should be no factor, since life expectancy has been steadily increasing over the past half century, and McCain is sprightly, healthy and the very model of what today’s elderly can be, there is a problem.

McCain is not a Boomer. The Boomers (born after World War II and into the 1960s) are old and aging (although they will hate to read that bald fact stated so bluntly). They’re now in their mid 40s to mid 60s. But, they feel 25. Or, at least 35! Any decent marketing efforts aimed at them cannot treat them (or show visual images of them) as they are – i.e. over 50, ageing individuals. Marketing efforts aimed at Boomers should think of 35-39 year olds, and use similar images, too.

Americans are not ready for an old President. (There is a website devoted to things that are younger than Mr McCain – including the Golden Gate Bridge, plutonium, Coke-in-a-can, Velcro, 91% of Americans…). Or more specifically stated, Americans are not ready for an old President who is not a Boomer. In 20 years time, they’ll be ready for 70 something President, but not yet.

So, this should be a really fun election to watch. You will have either your first woman, or your first African-American. Or your first septuagint. Which of these is America more ready for. I’m not sure. But I am prepared to put my generational credentials on the line, and say that Boomers and Gen Xers would rather have a Boomer than someone from either the Silent or Veteran generations. So, for my money, on generational theory alone, McCain has no chance. But, then again, who would have thought that Indiana Jones would get another run at his age (actually, Harrison Ford is a Boomer in his 60′s – so maybe there is your answer!!)

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The Future of Mobile

We all know how ubiquitous mobile phones have become. In poorer countries, where communication technologies have been slow to arrive, the take up of mobile telephony is nothing less than breathtaking. But, the future brilliance of mobile phones lies not in their communication ability, but in the add ons that can be made to these little computers we all carry around with us. A decade from now, mobile phones will be personal digital devices hooked up with tens and hundreds of functions.

I recently blogged about the ability of MP3 players to replace stethoscopes – of course, any MP3 and microphone enbaled mobile phone could do the same. I also recently read about mobile phones being used by diabetics – they have a little needle embedded in them. A click of a button, the needle pops out of the phone and is inserted into the skin, the insulin reading is done by the phone and displayed, and the diabetic knows immediately what has to be done (sorry, I am not diabetic and don’t know exactly how it works – but the key is that the technology to do the test diabetics must do daily is embedded in the cellphone).

But, now graduate students have found a way to turn their cellphones into microscopes.

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Developing a good business culture is like making fine wine

I recently read a fantastic interview with Management consultant, Ralph Sink. He has been a lifelong believer in high-performance systems, also known as self-organizing teams and participative management. These require employees to take ownership of their jobs, to collaborate with one another to establish control over their work, to be innovative, and to deliver results — to maintain accountability for the business and be treated with corresponding respect, regardless of their level within the organizational hierarchy.

You can read the full interview here at Strategy+Business.

Here are some of the gems from the interview:

• On attempts to create attractive corporate cultures without all the hard work: It’s like making wine. Managers who operate by metrics, paperwork, and numbers say, “OK, we’ve analyzed wine. It has sugar in it. It has pulp. It has yeast. It has grapes.” So, they dump those ingredients in a pot, stir it, drink it, and say, “but this doesn’t taste like wine,” and wonder why. It’s because the wine had to go through a process. They may have had the components right, but they overlooked the principles for transforming grapes and water into wine. These managers will look at our approach and say, “Oh, I see what this is. You operate with 20 percent fewer people. You eliminate the supervisors, and everybody is self-managed.” So without any development process, principles, or leadership, they go in and cut head counts. And when they end up with a catastrophe, they say, “This approach didn’t work.” From their perspective, they analyzed the pot and put the elements in and stirred it up, so when it failed, they weren’t to blame.

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Generation comparisons

I am a huge fan of Eric Chester, an American author, speaker and consultant who focuses on understanding what he calls “Generation Why” (what a cool title!! I wish I had thought of that first). You can see his excellent work at http://www.generationwhy.com.

He has a nice summary of the three generations now in the workplace. The dates on his summary reflect the consensus among American researchers. My own dates (Boomers 1946-1965; Xers 1966 – 1985 and Millennials 1986 – present) reflect more of an international bias, recognising that different countries arte slightly ahead or slightly trailing these median date ranges.

Read Eric’s summary at his website (and spend some time looking around while you are there), or see below.

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Research into Generation Y

Someone sent me the executive summary of a report by the Bank of America, entitled “Generational Differences: Managing the ‘Gen Y’ Associate.”

Here are some of the findings:

• They’re not hungry. They are not ambitious for advancement if it comes at the expense of their personal lives and goals.

• They expect more control. They expect more authority and more discretion about how they spend their time at work.

• High self-esteem. They grew up basking in the “decade of the child”, with self-esteemed laced parenting and education.

• They want everything now: technology, training, feedback and recognition.

• Tech-savvy. Gen Next exhibits greater knowledge and skill using computers and digital tools. Because Gen Next was born with technology – - bred on YouTube, Google, Napster, Facebook, MySpace and other innovations – - they assimilate it better.

• Variety. Gen Next doesn’t like to be on one assignment too long.

• Not here for long. They don’t expect to stay on a job, or even a career, too long.

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Targeting the Boomers

Springwise recently carried the following report on a new concept targeting the 50+ Baby Boomers, who don’t want to accept they are getting old.

Brain Gymns for Boomers

Our brains resemble our muscles in one key respect: don’t exercise them, and they’re likely to lose strength. Conversely, many experts now believe that brains stimulated in a healthy manner can better resist debilitating mental conditions such as Alzheimer’s. Which begs the question: how to keep brains in top shape?

The solution offered by vibrantBrains, a San Francisco start-up, is to create a workout centre for the brain, patterned after a health club. Instead of exercising muscle groups via a series of circuit-training machines, vibrantBrains members hone their mental skills using a variety of computer software programs and other tools, for a monthly membership fee of USD 60. vibrantBrain’s health-club-for-the-mind approach should appeal to the millions of baby boomers who’ve spent their adult lives regularly visiting gyms. As they approach retirement age, they’ll want to maintain their mental agility, too, as attested by sales of Nintendo’s Brain Age, which sold 10 million copies, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

No doubt we’ll see plenty of additional products and services aimed at enhancing baby boomers’ brain power, joining a long list of companies already selling everything from vitamins to training seminars. Still, vibrantBrain’s model is unique. And from a business standpoint, it has a couple of profit-enhancing advantages over the traditional gyms that it’s based on. Space requirements are minimal compared to health clubs, and entrepreneurs won’t have to lease or buy an expensive array of exercise machines.

If the mental health club idea catches on, the real competition eventually may come from traditional health clubs, which could add brain-exercise routines as easily as they’ve added yoga and martial arts instruction. However, even if that happens, there should be plenty of opportunities for start-ups to differentiate themselves—from rehabilitative clinics for the elderly to centers focused on mental and physical exercises for kids.

Website: www.vibrantbrains.com

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Millennials as Social Citizens

I subscribe to Google alerts for a number of issues, including discussions on “Generation Y” or the Millennial generation.

In today’s alerts, I received a link to a post about how the Millennials are volunteering around the world. Read it here (or a summary below). There are some great links to reports on this. This certainly links in with our experience and research. These young people are going to change the world!

For information about volunteering in the UK, check out DirectGov and Worldwide Volunteering as examples of companies and governments encouraging volunteering among young people.

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Just because they are black does not mean they are right

Jim Collins, in “Good to Great” suggests that it is imperative for one to select the right people or “get the right people on the bus” as a means of developing a great company. In a South African economy where legislation like BEE is enforced, it is important to understand this process and be rigorous about selection. Is then the new black talent is a highly sought after commodity in the workplace today?

As a black South African there are often numerous offers to form part of Business boards all in the name of BEE. Skin colour, it seems, is now at times a greater competency than skill. I wonder what the price of all this is going to be?

In the new economy, relationship building with staff will be critical. There is a new black kid on the block who does not want to be insulted by all these extravagant offers in the business world. The deal and warning to companies is that it is still essential that the right people come on board than just on the merit of skin colour. It is still about skill and deliverables. Younger X’er South Africans still want to be valued for their deliverables. It is an educated group of individuals who model boomer values in their drive and need for achievement in the highest level. In some ways this group of South Africans is now entering the market and revolutionising the way business is done in the quest to remain African yet competent and competing with the best in the world. The come armed with credentials and connection with senior members in established companies and government.

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