Thursday, August 20, 2015
Venture Capital in Australia: Do share prices move because of quarterly profits ...
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Esko Kilpi on the power of networks and the changing nature of firms
“The existence of high transaction costs outside firms led to the emergence of the firm as we know it, and management as we know it….The reverse side of Coase’s argument is as important: If the (transaction) costs of exchanging value in the society at large go down drastically as is happening today, the form and logic of economic and organizational entities necessarily need to change! The core firm should now be small and agile, with a large network.
The mainstream firm, as we have known it, becomes the more expensive alternative. This is something that Ronald Coase did not see coming. Accordingly, a very different kind of management is needed when coordination can be performed without intermediaries with the help of new technologies. Apps can do now what managers used to do.
Today, we stand on the threshold of an economy where the familiar economic entities are becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Internet, and new Internet-based firms, rather than the traditional organizations, are becoming the most efficient means to create and exchange value.”
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Singapore's Success
From Mei Lin Fung
Innovation, Employability and Singapore
Today Singapore celebrates its 50 years anniversary. Amazing what this small nation has achieved in very short time. Congratulations to Mei Lin Fung (i4j light house) and all other Singaporeans.Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy has written an article for Huffinton Post that sums up the reasons for the success: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kishore-mahbubani/singapore-world-successful-society_b_7934988.html?utm_hp_ref=twMany countries have been of inspiration to Singapore – now it might be useful for others to look at why/how Singapore's per capita income has increased from $500 to $55,000 today, the largest increase any newly independent nation has enjoyed.In addition to strong leadership, Singapore's success is due to "MPH": Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty, according to the nations leaders.Unemployment is almost non-existing and today the Prime Minister in his speech proudly stated: “We have left no one behind”. 90 percent of residents living in homes they own and Singapore has one of the best educated populations.One success element I would like to add to the well written article is: Employability. Singapore has an “Institute for Employability”. Do you know of any other nations with this kind of foresight?Employability can be defined as “doing value creating work, getting paid for it – and learning at the same time, enhancing the ability to get work in the future”. Maybe check out this article that I have contributed to on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmployabilityThe video about Employability by Johnny Boston is also relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kXdgrjHpyMCan i4j become the catalyst for some of the great ideas around employability? Can we get corporations engaged in promoting employability solutions that works for the individual (and hence corporations and nations)?Ideas, comments and questions are most welcomeBest regardsSandeepSandeep SANDER, CEOSanderMan Pte. Ltd. SingaporeOutperform Your Potential™.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Innovation is a collective Genius - Linda Hill TedX
From Rick:-
HOW TO DISRUPT UNEMPLOYMENT
Vint Cerf, VP Google and David Nordfors, CEO IIIJ are the i4j Summit Chairs |
Friday, June 19, 2015
Agile and Scrum - the new organisational chart?
- Thus Steve Jobs was 42 when he finally showed that he had figured out how to run Apple (1997).
- The founders of Agile and Scrum were all in their 40s and 50s by the time they figured out how to manage the staggering complexity of software development (by borrowing techniques originating in lean manufacturing and then greatly evolving them). They discovered that code and complexity respond to intelligence, not authority.
- Most of those who are now at the cutting edge of figuring out how operate Agile and Scrum at scale are in their forties or fifties or even older.
And now this generation is moving up the managerial ladder. Their initial reaction when they encounter the hierarchical bureaucracy in big organizations is one of shock: why would any sensible person run an organization like that? In some cases, they buckle under and say: "If that's what I've got to do to get my bonus, then that's what I'll do."
In fact, are some of the most radical thinkers, who not only "get it" but are "taking it to the next level", some of the oldest?
Forbes blog: http://blogs.forbes.com/stevedenning/
The Leader's Guide to Radical Management
http://www.stevedenning.com/Books/radical-management.aspx
Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevedenning
Email: steve@stevedenning.com
Web: http://www.stevedenning.com/About/default.aspx
Friday, June 12, 2015
Creating Emoloyment in the Digital Economy
Labor markets around the world haven’t kept pace with rapid shifts in the global economy, and their inefficiencies have taken a heavy toll. Millions of people cannot find work, even as sectors from technology to healthcare struggle to fill open positions. Many who do work feel overqualified or underutilized. These issues translate into costly wasted potential for the global economy. More important, they represent hundreds of millions of people coping with unemployment, underemployment, stagnant wages, and discouragement.
- In countries around the world, 30 to 45 percent of the working-age population is unemployed, inactive in the workforce, or working only part time. In Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this adds up to 850 million people.
- As online talent platforms grow in scale, they will become faster and more effective clearinghouses that can inject new momentum and transparency into job markets while drawing in new participants. Our supply-side analysis shows that online talent platforms could add $2.7 trillion, or 2.0 percent, to global GDP by 2025, while increasing employment by 72 million full-time-equivalent positions.
- Up to 540 million people could benefit from online talent platforms by 2025. As many as 230 million could find new jobs more quickly, reducing the duration of unemployment, while 200 million who are inactive or employed part time could gain additional hours through freelance platforms. As many as 60 million people could find work that more closely suits their skills or preferences, while an additional 50 million could shift from informal to formal employment.
- Countries (such as Greece, Spain, and South Africa) with persistently high unemployment and low participation rates could benefit most. Among advanced economies, the United States stands to realize significant gains because of the relative fluidity of its job market. By contrast, the potential is lower in China and Japan as a result of their low unemployment and other barriers that limit adoption.
- Online talent platforms increase the transparency of the demand for skills, enabling young people to make better educational choices. As a result, more effective spending on tertiary education could reduce some of the $89 billion misallocation we find in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- Companies can use online talent platforms not only to identify and recruit candidates but also to motivate them and improve their productivity once they start work. We calculate that the adoption of these platforms could increase the output of companies by up to 9 percent and reduce the cost of recruiting talent and of human resources generally by as much as 7 percent.
About the authors
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Innovation in Australia: Can Beaurocracy and Innovation co-exist
Can Beaurocracy and Innovation co-exist
The Large Organisations Disease
How do we build an organizations that is fit for the future ?
- is nimble ,
- that will make innovation an instinctual and intrinsic capability.
- hat will inspire extraordinary contributions from our colleagues and employees.
- It stifles new thinking, misallocates power, (since promotions often go to the most politically astute rather than to the most prescient or productive. )
- It discourages dissent and breeds sycophants.
- It makes it difficult for internal renegades to attract talent and cash, since resource allocation is controlled by executives whose emotional equity is invested in the past.
The dilemma
In this environment, what do we need to succeed?
- Will Intel survive? Most revenue comes from computer chips and less than 3% comes from the company’s unprofitable “Mobile & Communications” unit. Are they nimble ? Can they change
- Did Kodak survive?
- Who replaced Sony Walkmans?
- Which large corporations will still be here in 20 years
Control vs Freedom
- We’ve flattened corporate hierarchies, but haven’t eliminated them.
- We’ve eulogized empowerment, but haven’t distributed executive authority.
- We’ve encouraged employees to speak up, but haven’t allowed them to set strategy.
- We’ve been advocates for innovation, but haven’t systematically dismantled the barriers that keep it marginalized.
- We’ve talked (endlessly) about the need for change, but haven’t taught employees how to be internal activists.
- We’ve denounced bureaucracy, but we haven’t dethroned it; and now we must.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Open letter to the digital economy
Join the cause !!
http://openletteronthedigitaleconomy.org/
We are in the early stages of an era of great technological change. Digital innovations are remaking our industries, economy, and society just as steam, electricity, and internal combustion did before them. Like their predecessors, computers and their kin are engines of great prosperity. Progress with hardware, software, and networks is improving our lives in countless ways and creating immense value. To take just a few examples, advances in artificial intelligence are helping doctors diagnose disease; new sensors are making it possible to drive cars more safely; digitization is delivering knowledge and entertainment more widely than ever; and mobile networks are interconnecting the planet’s population for the first time ever. The digital revolution is the best economic news on the planet.
But the evidence is clear that this progress is accompanied by some thorny challenges. The majority of US households have seen little if any income growth for over 20 years, the percentage of national income that’s paid out in wages has declined sharply in the US since 2000, and the American middle class, which is one of our country’s great creations, is being hollowed out. Outsourcing and offshoring have contributed to these phenomena, but we should keep in mind that the recent wave of globalization is itself reliant on advances in information and communication technologies. The fundamental facts are that we’re living in an ever-more digital and interlinked world, and the benefits of this technological surge have been very uneven.
Previous surges brought with them greatly increased demand for labor and sustained job and wage growth. This time around, the evidence is causing some people to wonder if things are different. Or, to paraphrase many recent headlines, will robots eat our jobs?
We think this is the wrong question, because it assumes that we are powerless to alter or shape the effects of technological change on labor.
We reject this idea.
Instead, we believe that there’s a great deal we can do to improve prospects for everyone. We propose a three-pronged effort.
First, we recommend a set of basic public policy changes in the areas of education, infrastructure, entrepreneurship, trade, immigration, and research. There’s a strong consensus that these can quickly improve America’s economy and the wellbeing of its workforce. It’s also time to start a conversation about the deeper changes that will be necessary over the longer term — to our tax and transfer system, to the nature and extent of our public investment, and even to how democracy can and should function in a networked world.
Second, we call on business leaders to develop new organizational models and approaches that not only enhance productivity and generate wealth but also create broad-based opportunity. The goal should be inclusive prosperity. The corporation is itself a powerful innovation, and one that can do far more than just generate profits and provide a competitive return to those who supply capital and take risk. It is both a tool for transforming ideas into products and services that address society’s challenges, and the means by which many people earn their living. Along with current waves of innovation in technology we also have an opportunity to re-invent the corporation and our business systems.
Third, we recognize that we don’t have all the answers. So we call for more and better research on the economic and social implications of the digital revolution and increased efforts to develop long-term solutions that go beyond current thinking.
In summary, we believe that the digital revolution is delivering an unprecedented set of tools for bolstering growth and productivity, creating wealth, and improving the world. But we can only create a society of shared prosperity if we update our policies, organizations and research to seize the opportunities and address the challenges brought by these tools.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Innovation needs conflict and discomfort
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Playing to our Strengths
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
The fundamentals work - look at SIngapore
Innovation Guru Curt Carlson suggests we take a leaf out of Singapores book:-
"I just came back from Singapore where I work with the government.
They take a “different” approach and they are doing fine.
They actually do nothing that would be surprising they just stick to the fundamentals of innovation, economics, and business and work to continuously improve.
And guess what, it works.
Pretty good for a country that was in poverty 40 years ago without any significant infrastructure and now has a PPP GDP per capita 20-30% above USA. And this with no water, resources, agriculture, energy, hardly any land, and many enemies.
They do have a port, but they had to develop that too. They are not us, but we can learn a lot from them. The fundamentals work."
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Engelbart's Law
Before there was a Moore's Law, Doug Engelbart predicted the following -- call it "Engelbart's Law":
- digital technology would became increasingly miniaturized and affordable,
- its injection into all levels of business and society would become increasingly widespread and rapid
- this would cause a disruptive ripple effect in society like never before seen -- on a scale more massive than the introduction of fire, written language, agriculture, bronze, printing press and industry combined, all in a significantly compressed timeframe -- shifting us onto an unsustainable trajectory where important challenges are becoming increasingly complex and urgent, with potentially disastrous consequences to humanity and the planet if this phenomenon is not well understood and adequately addressed
- our organizations and institutions, which steer the boat we are all on, are trying to get smarter and faster to stay ahead of the curve; however the vast majority are severely underestimating the magnitude and speed of the curve, and thus are aiming too low, too slow; meanwhile the stakes keep getting higher
- it is no longer an option to get incrementally smarter and faster; organizations must become exponentially more intelligent and agile, using successive gains in Collective IQ to accelerate progress toward that goal; those that lag will be rendered increasingly ineffective
The bottom line? Organizations need to double their Collective IQ, and double it again, and again, faster and faster... Our collective objective is to create brilliant organizations, and through them brilliant societies, and evenually, a brilliant world.
How? By adopting a strategy specifically designed for this. Based on his predictions, Doug Engelbart designed such a strategy, first documented and tested in his lab in the early 1960s. As far as we know, it is still the only one in existence. He called it a Bootstrapping Strategy, for bootstrapping our Collective IQ.
Engelbart stumbled on this important set of discoveries as part of a larger study on how to facilitate the transformation of organizations to be become more effective at perceiving and addressing important problems collectively in a climate of accelerating change. He recognized that organizations would be entering a new frontier that would demand higher and higher collective intelligence in a compressed timeframe. Otherwise our organizations and institutions which shape society would become increasingly less effective.
Engelbart surmised that it is not simply desirable or important for organizations to jump this curve, it is imperative to our survival as a human race and a planet.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Old Work New Work
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Continued improvement in U.S. labor market in 2014
We have a LONG way to go. Unemployment, as you know, is a funny metric. What really matters is how many people are working.--