I recently spent a day and a half at the Chatham Inn on Cape Cod participating in “Burning Questions 2000.” The informal, provocative conference was the brainchild of the Harvard Business Review and the Harvard Business Review Press. Most of the 110 in attendance were industry leaders, management book authors and academics.
The list of “burning questions” reflect the uncertainty characteristic of a technology-driven economy in which those who run companies rarely have the luxury of reflection, even though reflection is the best antidote for uncertainty. That is why it’s worth noting some of the responses to the questions posed at the gathering.
The first question, “Strategy: Is Your Business Model Dead?” elicited the comment that irrelevancy, not inefficiency, is the biggest threat to firms in a fast-changing economy. Clayton Christensen, author of the “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,” noted that while strategy has always been about resources, today it’s more about processes and values. In other words, it is not enough to choose a goal, followed by identifying and allocating resources. Rather, there now is a need to understand the processes and values that lead to the achievement of a goal,and whether a chosen process is consistent with an organization’s core values.
Orit Gadiesh, chairman of Bain & Company, expressed the view that a set of strategic principles, rather than a strategy, is the anchor needed in today’s turbulent economic seas. The difference between the two being that principles remain fixed, while strategies change. The need for companies to radically and continually reinvent themselves is a given, but the challenge remains how best to bring about change.
Jim Collins, author of “Turning Goals into Results: The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms” explained his concept of “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals” and what he calls the “catalytic mechanisms” that promote their realization. Put simply, “catalytic mechanisms” allow employees to act in ways that break the rules of bureaucratic thinking. Therefore employing non-traditional thinkers is critical.
The metaphor used to describe these changes in strategy is that of a bus. No longer does the executive merely drive the bus, rather he or she has to make sure that the right kind of people are on the bus. Then they need to have enough confidence in the bus riders to let them decide where and when the bus should go. In other words, new business models, the group concluded, are self-organizing!
Answers to the second question, “Leadership: Are Managers Obsolete?” had a common theme,that leaders exist up and down the organization, not merely at the top. There was also agreement that male-like characteristics typically associated with leaders are changing. Daniel Goldman, author of “Emotional Intelligence,” said that leaders need to be self-aware, empathetic and socially skilled as well as have intelligence, drive and vision.
Michael Maccoby, a psychoanalyst, pointed out that many of today’s leaders are narcissistic, larger-than-life personalities, like Bill Gates, often preoccupied with themselves. He cited an Oracle executive who described his CEO Larry Ellison this way: “The difference between God and Larry is that God does not believe he is Larry.” On the other hand, because narcissistic leaders see the big picture, and find meaning in the risky challenge of changing the world and leaving behind a legacy, they can be very productive.
In addition to an analysis of leadership types, there seemed to be agreement that today leaders need to be concerned less with the reduction of variance, and more with a wider distribution of power, more internal innovation and the fostering of heresy, courage and diversity of thought.
Answers to the third question, “The War for Talent: Why Would Anyone Want to Work for Your Company? ” revolved around the “just-in-time loyalty” concept. Tom Malone, a Sloan Business School professor at MIT talked about “E-lancers,” electronic free lancers who because they are mobile and flexible due to technology, tend to negotiate for new types of tangible and intangible rewards.
Randy Komisar, termed a virtual CEO because he works with six CEOs at a time in a non- traditional way, suggested that the loss of loyalty, and the mobility of key employees need not be negative. As free agents, talented employees represent opportunities. Komisar told of his initial surprise and anger when three key employees in a firm he was running announced their departure to start a new firm. When his anger subsided, he realized he could invest in them, sub-contract to them, or set up a partnership with them. And, he noted, he has done all three with former employees.
In other words, it is not just the recruitment and retention of key employees that is important today, but rather the recruitment and retention of relationships.
The fourth question was: “Marketing: Is Your Customer Your Product?” Joseph Pine, author of “Welcome to the Experience Economy,” talked about how the selling of goods is being replaced by the selling of experiences, i.e. enjoying a cup of coffee at Starbucks or the feeling of safety afforded by the installation of an ONSTAR system in your car.
John Hagel III, former principal in McKinsey & Company’s Silicon Valley office, author of “Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules,” and now Chief Strategy Officer at Twelve Entrepreuneuring, made the case that technology has generated a move from vendor-centered markets to customer-centered markets.
It was fitting that the final question was, “Wired World: Are We There Yet?” It was felt that technology has moved power from businesses to individuals, and from hierarchies to electronically networked organizations.
As I boarded the plane to return to reality, I was left with a new burning question: “How is it that during the many hours of discussion among over a hundred very busy people, no cell phone was heard, no beeper beeped, and not a laptop was seen?”
Could it be that giving serious thought to today’s “burning questions” requires being unplugged from our wired world?
Rosener is a professor in the Graduate School of Management at UC Irvine. She is the author of “America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers.” She can be reached at JBRosene@uci.edu.
