Monthly Archive for June, 2007

Nedbank’s Power to the People Billboard wins awards

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 27, 2007
in Connection Economy and Environmental Issues
. 0 Comments

Congrats to Nedbank. Their outdoor billboard has just won the top rated global advertising industry award in Cannes - the Lions Outdoor Grand Prix.

The “Power to the People” billboard was erected on a school property in Alexander township in Sandton (Johannesburg, South Africa). The solar panels built into the billboard supply the school with electricity. I believe the bank also pays the school R 2,000 (about US$ 300) rent for the billboard space each month. Together with the money and the saving in electricity costs, the school has been able to afford to provide every student a hot meal at lunch time every day. In the impoverished community of Alexander this is nothing short of miraculous.

This is a great example of what companies need to be doing in the “Connection Economy” - where its more and more about WHO you are, and less and less about simply WHAT you sell.

To learn more about Nedbank’s sustainability drive, read their 2006 report.

Your Child and the Future: Work gets ready for Gen Y

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 27, 2007
in Future Trends and Millennial generation
. 0 Comments

I found a great article at the Teaching Moments website. It is meant to help parents (I think especially home schoolers) to know what employers will be like when their kids leave school and enter the job market. You can find the original here.

Your Child and the Future
John Bishop

This article will give you some insight on how employers are preparing for the entry of your children into the workplace.

Are Your Managers Ready for Generation Y Employees?

Generation Y or the “Internet Generation” will dramatically change every aspect of your business in the next five years!

Continue reading ‘Your Child and the Future: Work gets ready for Gen Y’

Consultants, Business School professors and leaders

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 24, 2007
in Leadership and Organisational Design
. 0 Comments

The 2000’s will be looked back on as the decade of the business school professor as corporate guide. The past few decades have successively (and sometimes concurrently) belonged to big consulting firms (like McKinsey’s), big auditing companies trying to get into “advisory” (Deloitte, KPMG, Accenture), the guru (e.g. Peters), the researcher turned guru (e.g. Collins, Buckingham), the celebrity CEO turned conference speaker (Welch, and wait for Blair-the-PM-turned-conference-circuit-king) and now the professor turned business coach (Hamel, Kottler, Ghoshal, Sachs, Porter, et al).

There is nothing new about all of this. Business leaders have consistently looked for help from outside. They need outside inputs to see context, make decisions, get clarity, drive change and grow their businesses. Too often, however, these requests for help have been abrogations of responsibility as the corporate herd chases the “next big thing”.

A few decades ago, there was a technology department mantra: “nobody got fired for buying IBM”. Sure, maybe IBM machines were not the best. Maybe they weren’t perfect for the job you needed doing. Maybe they cost too much. And maybe you didn’t get the results you were hoping for. But, you wouldn’t get fired, because everyone was buying IBM, and everyone can’t be wrong. Right?

So, now the trend in management circles is to get professors of business management (a slightly loftier title than the more accurate: experts in a specific aspect of business administration) as business consultants. This is a dangerous trend - entrusting the future of your business to an academic with a limited scope, who reads a specific set of prescribed textbooks (that everyone else is reading) and who’s personality lends him or herself to mental philosophical experimentation (on the one extreme) or micro-dissecting of statistical data (on the other).

I have nothing against academics (I have been on the receiving end of 5 graduation ceremonies, after all). Nor do I have anything against consultants (I am one, sometimes). And I don’t have a problem with business bringing in outside help (that’s how I earn a living). But I do have a problem with the way in which most businesses simply play it safe and go with the crowd when it comes to strategy, leadership development and training. Right now the crowd is running with the clone-like business schools. They all have a few really top-class specialists who get involved right at the start of the process (to impress the client, and lend their “patronage” to the programme). They then employ “programme directors”, many of whom are not much more than administrators to cobble together a programme that the client will like. By this they mean that delegate feedback forms will be filled in, and the lecturers (”external faculty”) will receive a minimum good approval rating. Long-term results be damned. What the client really NEEDS be damned. Give them what they want, roll it out over a few years with lots of activity, and advertise the “investment” widely in the press, and everyone will be happy.

Everyone, except the long-term shareholders, that is. Because this is a recipe for disaster.

    OK, as I reread this post, it feels a bit doom and gloom. Read on for an extract from the article that sparked this thought flow for me…

Continue reading ‘Consultants, Business School professors and leaders’

Tesco trains their staff in generational talk

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 24, 2007
in Diversity, Generations, Marketing and sales, Millennial generation and Organisational Narrative
. 0 Comments

Tesco logoOlder supermarket workers, at Britain’s Tesco, are being given a guide to youth slang to help them understand younger colleagues and customers, in the form of a pamphlet handed out to staff. The pamphlet is being tried out in some of Tesco’s 1 500 stores with a high proportion of employees over retirement age.

Key phrases in the guide include:

  • Bad: Good (but this can also mean bad. When in doubt, just nod).
  • How’s it hanging?: How are you today?
  • Laters: Cheerio, goodbye.
  • Minging: Ugly, unattractive.
  • Phat: Wicked (in the good sense), cool.
  • Slammin’: Pleasing to the eye.
  • Talk to the hand: I’m not listening.
  • Wack: Weak, boring.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “It aims to help bridge the generation gap and offer a guide for older members of staff looking to chat with younger colleagues and customers.”

Continue reading ‘Tesco trains their staff in generational talk’

Exploring business’s social contract: An interview with Daniel Yankelovich

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 17, 2007
in Connection Economy, Ethics, Leadership and Organisational Design
. 1 Comment

A founding father of public-opinion research explains why shareholder value isn’t enough.

I found this in my archives recently. It is dated 2007, and comes from the McKinsey Quaterly. I have no idea how I got it. It is an excellent read, and supports much of what we do at TomorrowToday. Enjoy!

As a founding father of public-opinion research and its preeminent practitioner, Daniel Yankelovich has been probing attitudes toward business and other issues for more than four decades. Yankelovich, 82, introduced the New York Times/Yankelovich poll in 1975, has written 11 books, and served as a consultant to business and political leaders. He has also established four companies, including his latest, Viewpoint Learning, which helps organizations to develop special-purpose dialogues to expand their options, anticipate obstacles, and broaden support for difficult decisions. Yankelovich is no stranger to the boardrooms of large enterprises, having served as a director of Arkla, CBS, Educational Testing Service, Meredith, U S West, and other companies, as well as foundations, universities, and nonprofits.

Throughout his career Yankelovich has unwaveringly stressed the need for organizations to embrace ethical integrity in their operations and their ties to the outside world. He recently sat down at his home in La Jolla, California, with Lenny Mendonca, a director in McKinseys San Francisco office, and Matt Miller, an adviser to McKinsey, to discuss the current and future contract between business and society.

The Quarterly: What does your research show about businesss standing with society today?
Daniel Yankelovich: The social contract with business is in a state of flux. Milton Friedman has had an enormous influence on the outlook of US business, especially his interpretation of Adam Smiths concept of the invisible hand, which argues against a corporations broader engagement with society. Friedmans view is that social good comes about automatically when companies make a profit. So its a narrow adherence to the bottom line.
But McKinseys own research is in complete agreement with the idea that you need a broader engagement.HYPERLINK “1 And thats where we are now moving. Friedmans influence and the ideology of shareholder value reinforce each other and cater to only one constituencyshareholders. Now there is growing agreement that the engagement has to be broader and that profitability doesnt always automatically enhance the public good. In other words, a more pragmatic approach.

Continue reading ‘Exploring business’s social contract: An interview with Daniel Yankelovich’

Transponders, airlines and the people who use them

Published
by
Barrie Bramley
on June 14, 2007
in General and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

I’m currently sitting on the tarmac of Durban’s Airport, on a 1Time flight having already taken off, circled and landed back where we started. Technical problem with a transponder they tell us? Whatever.

Nothing to do, so I thought I’d ask some questions that airlines don’t like to answer:

  • Why are problems with planes and airports always out of ‘our control’, someone else’s fault, or caused by God? And who is ‘our’?
  • Why don’t airlines take responsibility, through their employees, or employees for their airlines? I’d like the Captain or Head Stewardtron to one day just acknowledge that the airline has morons working for them, or that corners were cut, or maximising profits can lead to transponders not being changed as often as they should be?
  • Why don’t airlines teach their people how important communication is, and then how important communication is to their clients? I’m fairly certain if both those items were done well, airline employees would be able to join the dots? Or not?
  • Why do airlines think we’re interested in how ‘on-time’ their planes are? We don’t care about that statistic. We’d like them to publish how late their planes are when they’re late? If an airline is late 100% of the time but by only 5 minutes each time, that wouldn’t bother me at all. And if you’re late only 25% of the time but 45 minutes each time, that would matter big time.

Continue reading ‘Transponders, airlines and the people who use them’

Generation Y makes Fortune cover story

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 11, 2007
in Generations and Millennial generation
. 1 Comment

In one of the most recent Fortune magazine editions, the Millennial generation made the front cover under a great headline: “Manage Us, Puh-leeze”. The subtitle of the article was: “Boomers, you raised them, now manage them!” It is a long article, but really worth while wading through. Get it free at their website, or read an extract below.

Attracting the twentysomething worker
The baby-boomers’ kids are marching into the workplace, and look out: This crop of twentysomethings really is different. Fortune’s Nadira Hira presents a field guide to Generation Y.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Nadira A. Hira, Fortune writer-reporter
May 15 2007

(Fortune Magazine) — Nearly every businessperson over 30 has done it: sat in his office after a staff meeting and - reflecting upon the 25-year-old colleague with two tattoos, a piercing, no watch and a shameless propensity for chatting up the boss - wondered, What is with that guy?!

We all know the type: He’s a sartorial Ryan Seacrest, a developmental Ferris Bueller, a professional Carlton Banks. (Not up on twentysomethings’ media icons? That’s the “American Idol” host, the truant Matthew Broderick movie hero, and the overeager Will Smith sidekick in “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”)

At once a hipster and a climber, he is all nonchalance and expectation. He is new, he is annoying, and he and his female counterparts are invading corporate offices across America.

Generation Y: Its members are different in many respects, from their upbringing to their politics. But it might be their effect on the workplace that makes them truly noteworthy - more so than other generations of twentysomethings that writers have been collectively profiling since time immemorial.

They’re ambitious, they’re demanding and they question everything, so if there isn’t a good reason for that long commute or late night, don’t expect them to do it. When it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on their list - behind their families, their friends, their communities, their co-workers and, of course, themselves.

But there are a whole lot of them. And as the baby-boomers begin to retire, triggering a ballyhooed worker shortage, businesses are realizing that they may have no choice but to accommodate these curious Gen Y creatures. Especially because if they don’t, the creatures will simply go home to their parents, who in all likelihood will welcome them back.

Some 64 million skilled workers will be able to retire by the end of this decade, according to the Conference Board, and companies will need to go the extra mile to replace them, even if it means putting up with some outsized expectations. There is a precedent for this: In April 1969, Fortune wrote, “Because the demand for their services so greatly exceeds the supply, young graduates are in a strong position to dictate terms to their prospective employers. Young employees are demanding that they be given productive tasks to do from the first day of work, and that the people they work for notice and react to their performance.”

Continue reading ‘Generation Y makes Fortune cover story’

IKEA Experience: We make men feel like men again

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 2, 2007
in Connection Economy and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

In a surplus world, filled with similar goods and services, sold in similar stores which reside in similar looking strip malls or warehouses, sold at similar prices by staff who swap companies every few years, we need to do more than just offer quality, fairly priced, convenient goods backed up by “customer service”. Its becoming harder and harder to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage.

One of the ways to do so is to create an experience around your product. There are many ways to do this, and the companies that use their creativity to do so are reaping huge rewards. One such company is IKEA, the ubiquitous furniture store. Whilst there products may fit perfectly into the “little boxes on a hillside” standardisation approach to modern life, some of their sales techniques are revolutionary. In particular, their understanding of the male shopper has helped raise them to one of the leading furniture retailers in the world. Here are a few ideas from the legend that is IKEA:

Continue reading ‘IKEA Experience: We make men feel like men again’

War Games for Business

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 2, 2007
in Future Trends, Gamers and Game Theory and Organisational Design
. 2 Comments

In the May 31, 2007 edition of The Economist, there was a great article on a topic one of our team, Raymond de Villiers, is doing post graduate studies on: the issue of using gaming techniques to assist business development. The full article is available here (may require subscription).

Continue reading ‘War Games for Business’

The FUTURIST forecasts for the next 25 years

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 2, 2007
in Future Trends
. 0 Comments

Recently, members of the World Futures Society were asked to submit and vote on the top forecasts for the next 25 years. You can read the resulting summarised report here.

Without any explanation or detail, here is the list in bullet format:

Continue reading ‘The FUTURIST forecasts for the next 25 years’

Rethinking Leadership

Published
by
Keith Coats
on June 1, 2007
in Book Reviews and Leadership
. 1 Comment

The more I look, listen, read and learn, to more convinced I am that our approach to leadership education and development needs a major rethink. Rather than focusing on static ’snapshots’ leaders need to learn how to identify patters, articulate ideas and provide metaphors that enable accurate interpretation of what is happening within their personal and business networks. The temptation (and legacy) is to default to finding ‘technical solutions’ - those answers that sit within the current paradigm and which can be analyzed, measured and managed - rather than engage in the true work of leadership; that of engaging themselves and others in the necessary ‘adaptive challenges’ at hand.

Book cover‘Adaptive leadership’ according to Parks in her book ‘Leadership can be taught’ (which explores the philosophy and methodology of Harvard leadership virtuoso Ron Heifetz - purchase online at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net) involves looking beneath the surface, embracing new mindsets, new learning and new behaviour; engaging complexity - seeing the whole and challenging deeply held assumptions and values. The kind of leadership that engages both heart and mind. In a predicable world where tomorrow resembles today, the old approach to leadership can survive. However, we no longer live in such a world. We live - and have to lead - in a world that is ‘tiny’, a world that is connected, a world of bewildering paradox and one that is no standing still. This world requires a new type of leadership and those tasked with teaching leadership will find less relevance in past models and will have to themselves, learn from the future.

June ezine

Published
by
Roger Saner
on June 1, 2007
in Articles
. 0 Comments

Edition: June 2007

Available online at: http://www.tmtd.biz/articles
This month at a glance… more details below

:: Crowdsourcing - Getting Your Customers and Staff to develop new innovations for you (by Dean van Leeuwen)

:: Prisoners of the past (by Graeme Codrington)

:: The New Village: Building Courageous Companies (by Keith Coats)

:: Why Strategies Don’t Work (by Pete Laburn)

:: Buppies - coming to terms with young black staff (by Aloysias Maimane)

:: Top class Keynote Presenters at your nextconference or strategy session

:: TomorrowTraining - Train-the-Trainer programme (or how not to get shot)

:: Featured Articles in June

DeanvanLeeuwen - Crowdsourcing - Getting Your Customers and Staff to develop new innovations for you
Crowdsourcing is a technique that progressive companies are using to translate the enthusiasm of their most highly-engaged customers into valuable marketing, branding, or product-development insight. Dean van Leeuwen, TomorrowToday’s UK and European director, who has an MBA and extensive work experience in marketing, looks at this new trend and provides practical guidelines for customer-led organisations.
Click here to read the rest of this article GraemeCodrington - Prisoners of the past
The opening line of the best selling business book of all time is as succinct as it is true: “Good is the enemy of great�. Jim Collins’ 2001 bestseller, “Good to Great� explains how most companies never become great because they are already good. They have become prisoners to their past – not feeling any need to push boundaries, innovate, prepare for the unexpected, stretch themselves or make necessary changes to ensure sustainable success. Dr Graeme Codrington argues that this is a recipe for disaster, that only future-focused leadership - who have the guts to look forward and not back - can avert. Click here to read the rest of this article

KeithCoats - The New Village: Building Courageous Companies
In this article, Keith Coats, our resident leadership expert, visits one of his favourite themes: the company as a village. He explains the four key requirements for developing successful and resilient organisations: belonging, mastery, independence and generosity.
Click here to read the rest of this article

PeteLaburn - Why Strategies Don’t Work
Many people will agree with Pete Laburn, strategy consultant and part of TomorrowToday’s network, that strategy just doesn’t work in most companies. Its either about just getting a plan done for head office, or we actually don’t have the time to lift our heads above the daily grind to see into the future. In this article, Pete argues that there is one dominant reason why strategies fail, and that is that the only strategy that organisations will deliver is the one that they are capable of delivering. He suggests three critical elements for developing organisational capability for implementing strategies.
Click here to read the rest of this article

AloysiasMaimane - Buppies - coming to terms with young black staff
Buppies - Black yuppies. Black young upwardly mobile professionals. Research shows that this is one of the fastest growing demographic groups in South Africa, but many companies and leaders have no idea how to manage them. Aloysias Maimane, a new member of the TomorrowToday team and a top South African presenter and facilitator, provides some insights into this important group.
Click here to read the rest of this article
:: Strategic Inputs @ your next conference or strategy session
TomorrowToday is a world-class provider of multimedia-driven, edutaining, strategic keynote presentations. Our team of keynote presenters and consulting futurists are consistently rated as the top presenters at industry events, conferences and strategy sessions. Let one of us be the highlight at your next event! Use one of our proven frameworks, or let us work with you to customise for your specific requirements. Our strategic insights have assisted hundreds of clients to understand tomorrow, and apply that understanding today.For a client list, go to www.tomorrowtoday.biz/clients.html, and client testimonials, go to www.tomorrowtoday.biz/testimonials.html.
:: Balancing Today & Tomorrow - In a world where you and your competitors are very difficult to tell apart, success comes less and less from WHAT you sell, and more and more from WHO you are and HOW you sell. This presentation provides critical insight into the “connection economy” and presents the secrets for gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in the 21st century. Presented by: Graeme Codrington, Barrie Bramley, Keith Coats
For more info: www.tomorrowtoday.biz/strategy/balancing-today-and-tomorrow.html
:: Bright Young Things- Create a culture which will attract, retain and get the most out of your talented staff and customers. Presented by: Graeme Codrington, Barrie Bramley, Aloysias Maimane
For more info:www.tomorrowtoday.biz/talent/bright-young-things.html
:: Savvy Leadership- A revolutionary new paradigm for 21st century leadership. What leaders need to see, need to know, and need to be in the emerging connection economy. Presented by: Keith Coats, Graeme Codrington
For more info:www.tomorrowtoday.biz/savvy-leadership/savvy-leadership.html
:: Prime Time- Inspire your ageing workforce to retire, retyre, mentor talent and leave a legacy.Presented by: Pete Laburn
For more info:www.tomorrowtoday.biz/wisdom/prime-time.html
:: GamePlan2010- Start preparing NOW for the greatest business event in Africa’s history - the World Cup Finals 2010. Presented by: Gary Bailey, Graeme CodringtonFor more info:http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz/strategy/gameplan2010.htm
:: Mind the Gap- Our award-winning presentation on the generation gap. Presented by: Aloysias Maimane, Raymond de Villiers, Graeme Codrington
For more info:http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz/generations/mind-the-gap.html

To see biographies of our speakers, go to: http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz/people.htm

Events in South Africa:

TomorrowTraining.bizPresents: Upcoming Public training courses

Train-the-Trainer programme (or How Not to Get Shot)To date, close on 70 people have gone through our Train-The-Trainer public courses, which are aimed to provide trainers and facilitators with the tools, tips and techniques that experienced trainers rely on. Delegates on previous courses have raved about the course, and the results they have seen in their own training and facilitation. See our website for some testimonials.Participants will be able to facilitate learning in groups, apply adult learning principles, apply the secrets of body language to group dynamics and create an environment which supports learning.

Duration: 2 days
Date: Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th June 2007
Time: 08:30am - 4:30pm
Cost: R2200.00 per delegate (includes all course material and catering)
Venue: TBC (Johannesburg North)
Space is limited, be sure to book your place today by contacting:
Contact: Karin Wellman +27 83 600 4623 karin@tomorrowtraining.bizVicky Solomon +27 82 884 9588 vicky@tomorrowtraining.biz

More information available here.

Presentations and Presenters:

 

Check out our top rated presentations and presenters at: http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz

© TomorrowToday.Biz 2007
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