Mind your own business

In a recent conversation with an uber smart guy (running the privately owned CIA type organization), he said that the problem with Silicon Valley these days is that too many really smart people live in a world of abundance, and therefore unfortunately spend their times using their considerable brain power to fix problems that don’t really matter. This reminded me of everything I’ve read about frugal innovation in the developing world recently, and it prompted me to start thinking what companies and businesses might look like in the future... there were a few things close to my heart that my thoughts centred on…

Always on…today we live in a society of instant gratification that includes things such as LEDs on Blackberries that flash constantly as soon as one receives a new email, 24/7 TV, iTunes downloads on mobile phones and Facebook likes. Whereas there may well be some sort of yoga flavoured backlash in the future as people wish for greater time for reflection and simpler pleasures, now that Pandora’s Box has been opened, businesses have to live in this new reality. One of the most interesting ideas I heard on this topic is that companies need to understand that there is an internal and an external clock, and that very often the two run at different speeds. This begs the obvious question how do you ensure your own tempo is in synch with that of your key customers, and how do you effectively dial up or dial down your own speed as a company as required for different types of customers whilst retaining a consistent feel and culture in your own organization? Could the style, culture or “pace” of customers be a better way to classify them than by size, industry sector or geographic location?

Data deluge….another facet of life and business today is the sheer volume of data and information that exists and is being created every minute of every day, and the fact that all of this spans across producers, market places and consumers, effectively creating what one might call a “network of intelligence”. What I like about information is that it is information regardless of whether it is in the emerging or the emerged world – it’s something of a leveler in that respect. I heard an interesting quote from someone who works closely with Nike. He said that senior executives in Nike have started to ask themselves if they are still in the running shoe business because at times it feels more like they are an information management company as they try to understand their customers better, (even to the extent of collecting running data whilst people are wearing their shoes). Another interesting quote was in the Economist article (http://www.economist.com/node/21547217) which examined whether or not online match making actually improved the chances of finding a soul mate. The article stated that, “The greater choice is unarguable. But does it lead to better outcomes? …the very volume of alternatives may be a problem. Studies on consumer choice, from boxes of chocolates to restaurant wine lists, have shown that less is more. Half a dozen bonbons, or a dozen bottles, are easier to pick between than 30 or 40...(Dr. Finkel) found studies which showed that when faced with abundant choice, people pay less attention to characteristics that require thinking and conversation to evaluate (occupational status and level of education, for example) and more to matters physical. Choice, in other words, dulls the critical faculties”. Physical, online or virtual, companies and people are going to have to work out how to manage and exploit all that information whether it be to have a consistent approach to a customer across all channels, to find new opportunities based on more sophisticated analysis of data, or adhere to rules and regulations in a timely fashion. At any rate, in a world of abundance, having more is no longer enough; simply collecting more information is not the same as learning how to find out what’s really valuable.

Travel and face time….Another thing which dominates my working life at the minute is the need to travel and meet people face to face. I often wonder if we can ever reduce the amount of travel and still be as or more effective (e.g. through reduced fatigue). Businesses have had Tele-Presence for a while now, and as much as we see lots of younger people being comfortable with technologies such as LAN parties and Skype (e.g. the young Indian son of an ex-Wipro colleague who was living in LA and who asked his Dad if they could “hang out” on Skype when he was in Zurich on a Saturday morning). However I still can’t help but think that genuine trust and friendship only comes when you actually meet, touch and look people in the eye. Maybe technology will still be able to take us a step closer e.g. maybe we can have shared electronic whiteboards that people in Bangalore and Paris can share and draw on simultaneously, maybe we will even one day have Star Wars-esque enhanced virtual reality where life size holograms can give you the impression of having a colleague from a far flung destination in the same room as you, and maybe younger workers will be more comfortable to do more of the initial work with people they have never actually met in person, but in a globalised world with different languages, cultures and customs, I can’t believe that even they won’t benefit from being able to walk in corridors and stumble into chance meetings, and to go out for dinner after the allotted 60 minute meeting has been completed. No matter what I might read in George Orwell’s 1984, and although I do believe that leaders will have to learn how to communicate through multiple new channels simultaneously, I don’t think we’ll get to the complete virtual leader any time soon.