thealphaswarmer emergence: Insights Into The Nature Of Entrepreneurial Change

I have been thinking for a long time now about some of the endogenous principals that are often distinctively exhibited by Entrepreneurs from all dimensions; whether they are already established executives from large corporations or even aspiring ones which require the right framework and most of all tool set to create and most of all sustain their vision in Entrepreneurship.


My experience so far in this domain is that most of all - Entrepreneurs or Venturepreneurs - I must add - often fail at making their start-ups or established businesses 'happen' because they are often in a cycle of Failure or Discouragement - the two of which are appreciated by Lao Tzu and Dale Carnegie in an interesting pdf file I have on my PC titled "Business Coach - Mastering Your Entrepreneurial Leadership Skills and Building a High-Growth Business".


Although its only a brief presentation on the essential framework in which to inspire Venturepreneurial activity - something that every student or perhaps even full time workers in Australia truly appreciate; it provides us with invaluable tools in the field of stratetgic innovation which is a unique culmination of a tapestry of ideas, principals and most of all "effective working practices rooted in quality management" that unify through an alchemy of industry trends, modes of thinking and most of all - an entertaining 'behavioural framework'.

The core message here to all aspiring Entrepreneurs who are interested in possible creating what Kiyosaki calls in his book "The Cash Flow Quadrant" as passive income is to create a mode of thinking or to fix your mindset on a plane which requires you to not create 'attachment to the fruits of your action' - a philosophical metaphor that guides alot of Entrepreneurs out there in their ever-ending "self pursuit of happiness".

A significant portion of Kiyosaki's books explain the modes of thinking that tie in well with what Stephen Covey writes about in his book "The Seven Habits Of Effective People" and in this light - its probably a good idea to introduce a graphical manifest to inspire all kind of activities on the internet or perhaps even in your own organisation, especially if you have the a) skillet and most of all the mindset in getting 'savvy with the politics of hierarchy' - which is naturally earned through respect and disciplinary succession in large and endemic corporations here in Australia - but one which is definitely a challenge to the 'status quo' of the organisation and a testament to the inspirational models of 'systematic change'.

The diagram on the left is definitely very useful to alot of IT and 'Excel savvy' people out there as it enables you to create what I appreciate as "what if" and "contingent" scenarios which are reflections of 'metrics' or 'front line data' in the organisational system. Currently, I am going through with some insight a book which was delivered to me through Amazon titled "Patterns Of Entrepreneurship" by Jack M Kaplan - of which an interesting video can be found on the infamous YouTube.

The core challenge that I think is for many aspiring entrepreneurs is the development of The Business Plan - a document that should be developed 'collaboratively' after first 'profiling a strong team and assigning some ground rules to the team to identify the elements of a) information sharing and b) task scheduling. As a tip - it should reflect three dimensions, the first being the focus target group or market niche, the second the strategic alignment of 'business cases' and thirdly - the incubation of their 'enterprise system'.

thealphaswarmer business development protocols

The rise of business intelligence, data mining and information systems coupled with the explosion of social media through Twitter, Linked In and most of all - Facebook create amazing insights into the nature of distributed teams - which is an over-riding testament to the evoloution of 'work practices' in the 'connected age'.

It is time to launch thealphaswarmer business development protocols - a releaser on the intricacies of business development departments and cross-functional teams which should operate as a 'single entity' to engage information across organisational silos and create what Don Tapscott would appreciate in his ground braking book Wikinomics as "architectures of participation".

This mirrors the evolution of the world wide web into a complex - self organising and intricate network of 'nodes' and calls for the dire need of what thealphaswarmer project appreciates as Inter-Business-Intelligence, a system which is definately the core to any organisations Intra-Business-Intelligence units such as Human Resources, Fraud and Performance Analytics and most of all - Administration and Customer Service; the front line function of any organisational unit which aims to identify inherent inefficiencies in the work environment which could be detrimental if its not critically evaluated.


Alot of Six Sigma Projects to promote a 'Lean Methodology' often fail at looking at what Six Sigma Champions call the Pareto Efficiency - in which twenty percent of the work yields eighty percent of the results.

My experiences with Six Sigma specialists are often contradictory - as they do not really understand how to create that 'self sustainable' system in the first place. Which is a stark contrast to their so called 'ambitions and goals' to create 'zero defects' in the organisational system - something that cannot be achieved without fully appreciating what I understand is the interplay of the 'turnover' or 'retention' ratios of the N-Gen - a new type of employee - one that has an amazing level of Emotional Intelligence and one that is very well equipped to handle information flows from the top down or the bottom up - in what I call - a Complex Adaptive System.

thealphaswarmer insights: Reciprocal Concessions

Dr Robert B Cialdini - a master of psychology in his engrossing book titled Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion systematically defines the rules of "Reciprocal Concessions" which is a natural fit to the evoloution of new working practices in the "connected age".

Dr Cialdini argues that "a second way to employ the reciprocity rule [is] to get someone to comply with a request" which is much more 'subtle' than "the direct route of providing that person with a favour and then asking for one in return".

What Dr Cialdini talks about relates to the fundamental rule of Compliance Techniques and that "one way to increased your chances would be first to make a larger request of me, one that I will most likely turn down. Then after, I have refused, you would make the smaller request that you were really interested in all along. Provided that you have structured your requests skill fully, I should view your second request as a concession to me and should feel inclinced to respond with a concession of my own, the only one I would have immediately open to me - compliance with your second request".

However, Dr Cialdini's book is very useful for not only high level marketing executives, but also marketing analysts whom often collect quantitative data on the development of their marketing plans - which comprises the Marketing Mix dimension of their business plan.

In this respect, another book which defines the powerful tenets of Experiental Marketing with a rich framework for Sales Task Forces or Distributed Teams (known as the Connect, Explore, Leverage, Resolve and Act model) fits quite well with the uptake of emerging practices in the Sales Process Engineering domain - in which the a) variability and b) the capability model are often in sync with fundamental business practices such as lead generation, appointment setting and most of all, creating "active prospects" in the sales system architecture.

With the proliferation of a variety of free working tools that manifest on the internet together with the unprecedented changes in "mobile" and "web" technologies which are achieving what I call as high-market disruption, there will be a call for utilizing these two complementary channels in a variety of way - whether it be for Customer Relationship Management or perhaps even the facilitation of best known collaborative work practices in 'fast performing teams' , which can be easily found here

thealphaswarmer insights: The Learning Challenge

Most Enterprises that take on Enterprise 2.0 initiatives often fail at integrating a value-laden learning model that ties in naturally with the ‘tempo’ of the organisation’s strategic and operational goals.

                 

In an ever changing corporate landscape (or fitness landscape I must add) – there is a dire need to reconcile “new modes of working” with simple principals of the Learning Organisation Model – which has references back to Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble’s Book 10 Rules For Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution

The idea of strategic innovation is covered in brief in this article with the focus on innovation being housed as an ‘umbrella term’ in its three main domains (Continuous Process Improvement, Process Revolutions and Product/Service Innovations)

In this light, the idea of the learning organisation in today’s complex Network Economy needs to employ these models to foster a collaborative working environment that will never be possible without the full appreciation of another article I wrote on ‘network productivity’ – which signals the need for employees at all levels in large organisations to communicate effectively to senior executives and perhaps even the board on their intentions or ambitions for a) organisational change or b) micro business (on a part time basis) opportunities.

In the Australian Economic landscape, there are significant tax advantages for people that are interested in creating or working on a small business on top of their full time jobs. The specific tax advantages aren’t totally clear without a transparent reporting mechanism that fosters a) creativity and b) intuition with the goals of the small business in question as it is often argued that a lot of small businesses are engaged in the ‘black market’ spectrum without the comprehensive or detailed reporting of their real income flows.

Personally, a good place to start with small business is to engage and co-create with exhibition or conventions that are often sponsored by large organisations which host the right individualities for speaking, inspiration or providing  a workshop of ‘tools and techniques’ that facilitate the adoption of the plethora of social media and web based tools that can be totally conducive for their cost structure. 

In this respect, a useful point of reference (or starting point) would be the points and arguments I raise in this article; which clearly has some static figures to compare and contrast with hard variables in strategic management and strategic marketing planning such as ROI, Refferal/Churn Rate that synthesises the core business function of creating ‘conversations’ around a brand or organisation.All of this should be taken into account with the R.E.D Model put forward by Don Tapscott (Retail, Evolve, Develop).

thealphaswarmer insights: Research and Development Departments are "copy cats"

In her excellent research paper, titled The Ipodification of Education;, Tara Brabazon explains in quite some detail the evolution of education in the domain of technology and specifically how Socrates (a great philosopher of his time) resurrects the inherent notion of trust within your ‘general awareness’ of the environment in which we operate.

Clearly, this is a defining characteristic which is so impressively integrated in her research paper that it often perturbs us to think of it in this light.

With this in mind; we must all remember in how to approach modern wisdom with archaic business people – through a ‘natural rhythem and flow’ which so collectively defines our true organisational DNA.

Organisational DNA was an interesting viewpoint put forward by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble in the context of his rather interesting book "10 Rules For Strategic Innovators" which really signals us in the right directions for critical change.

Critical Change is an area of expertise in which thealphaswarmer project generally focuses on – for it is an aggregation of ‘movements’ within the social and cybernetic systems of sociology together with the power of simple principals rooted in contextual ‘reality’.

TO be more specific; thealphaswarmer project is really about ‘understanding’ the requisite skills and unique attributes which Ken Thompson so eloquently delineates in his article “The Team Brain” concept which has its references back to his individual area of expertise “organisational biomimicry”.

Biomimicry is a model inspired from ‘nature’ which draws its intellect from various different cultures, sub-cultures and contexts (that collectively ebb and flow with the natural ‘tempo’ of just-in-time decision making).

This may be of specific importance to a lot of Research and Development departments out there who are engaged in an ever-ending battle of ‘copy-catting’ which perpetuates in a vicious cycle of “tit for tat” in the form of what Economists would appreciate as “Game Theory”.

For example; to really understand Research and Development departments; we need to delineate the organisational properties of this system. This system operates in three dimensions; which inter-relate to the operation of the three brains that Ken Thompson draws insights into the ‘intuitive repulsion’ or more interestingly; ‘the butterfly effect’ on the mind.

To truly defend yourself in the ever evolving ‘fitness landscape’ – which is a property of cybernetic systems; ONE needs to completely focus on letting go from things that distract their cause.

To facilitate this; its probably better to simply just ‘understand’ rather than ‘ask’ why big executives at many endemic corporations have a regimented nature in their strategic and operational planning.

Wow – doesn’t this shed light into why China ( a manufacturing and efficieny and I must add ‘tech’ powerhouse) moves so fast in the regulation of online content (as we learn a lot of things online than offline) within an operational rubric (for its within the rubric that appropriations can be drawn out of and cannot be misunderstood). 

thealphaswarmer insights: How Kurt Lewin's Model of "Force Field Analysis" Can Be Put Into Context of Network Economies

There is just so much ‘status quo’ with big executives these days (and believe me I have dealt with many in an out-of-work type environment) that they often forget to learn and integrate a new model of ‘thinking’ as they are too ‘attached’ to their archaic modes of wisdom.

One of the key approaches to modern wisdom comes through various interpolations, juxtapositions and paradoxicals which serendipitously carve our ‘conscious’ mode that drives our ‘actions’.

So, with that said; its important to understand that despite the prevalence of a lot of archaic models in contemporary society; not all of them are useful for a meta-understanding of the economic and socioeconomic situations that plague us in everyday life (povety, unemployment and most of all – financial uncertainty)

For starters, let’s take a deep and insightful journey into the models put forward by Kurt Lewin – who was known as “one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational and applied psychology”.

Lewin proposes that the study of sociology can teach us powerful lessons in personal change; which is especially required for big executives in large corporations which still follow a strict chain of command and classic management style organisational design (for they can never be nudged with your new found epiphanies).

In his prognosis, Lewin devises a systematic framework (known as ‘force field analysis’) which prompts us to look at specific forces driving a required change (helping forces) and its diametric opposite (hindering forces). The principals behind this model are very useful (wasn’t it Einstein who said “not all models are good but some are useful”?). In this light, its relevant that Lewin’s ideas get resurrected in the context of Network Economies in order to create positive outcomes by analysing situations.

In these situations; Lewin describes that the field or domain of change (its ‘life space’) is highly contingent on “that individuals internalization of external stimuli”; for e.g. physical and social dimensions that are often ‘regressed’ through inferring a sample space of certain behavioural traits (group conflict, learning, adolescence, hatred and morale). In this context, Lewins “Force Field Analysis” model is also very easily depicted diagrammatically through simple arrows and words that validate the use of this model in various situations.

Many mathematicians and Econometric Statisticians will generally agree that Lewin was definitely a prodigy thinker – for he only shed light on various misconceptions that are often persistent in various social systems.

Lewin applied these principals in many of his works most of his life and although he wasn’t acquainted with the model of ‘experiential learning’ at that time; he did shed light into a model which will definitely be useful for change management in the context of strategic management and change.

Experiential Learning is really the output of Lewin’s model in a modern day context for it is only through this process that one can really ‘manage’ the various ‘organisational/social/interpersonal’ tensions that persist day to day relationship management (especially with people who don’t really embrace you for your potential).

To put this diagrammatically, I thank Ken Thompson; author of the BIOTEAMS blog for creating an excellent graphical manifest that flows in with the ‘natural tempo’ of Bioteaming from the inside-out (below)

So to sum up this short and brief insight article; its relevant to understand that although many models that exist in accounting, finance and economics are rooted in archaic theory; NOT all of them are useful in the ever evolving complex system (or complexity adaptive system) context. To really get insight into which models are useful, there is a dire need to reconcile “old” models of thinking with “emergent” models which focuses its delineation on properties of the system in which one is operating (or its domain in this case).

thealphaswarmer commentaries: Insights Into Teen Mobile Phone Usage

So when I read more and more of Tomi Ahonens book “Mobile As The 7^Th Mass Media” I become more ‘aware’ of the segmentation of target-markets within the Mobile Phone adoption context; which after all – is accommodating the rise of SMS and MMS enabled services through simple applications that aggregate and disseminate ‘information’.

For starters, Tomi Ahonen asserts quite prolificly that “the cell phone is changing society” and that even “nine and ten-year old kids come home from school [and] report to their parents, using their personal cellphones”.

This is quite interesting given the various prophesizes and reasonable enquiries the author has purported on as I also am quite receptive of this adoption trajectory and use SMS most of the time for simple one to one or one to many broadcast of timely and relevant information which is appreciated.

In this context, I took some time out to garner resources on “insights” into the adoption of teenagers within the mobile phone usage spectrum and have found some interesting  ‘front line’ data that mirrors Tomi Ahonen’s delineation of what we now appreciate as the “Connected Age”.

Firstly, lets look at the graph shown below:

 

As you can appreciate (in crystal clear black and white terms); mobile phone usage amongst teenagers has an interesting adoption frontier in light of all the recent changes to the mobile industry (e.g. the proliferation of unique SMS marketing campaigns and the rising acceptance of short messaging services and SMS aggregators working as a whole-in-one solution)

The real message in this picture is that despite the popularity of applications that are tailored to accommodate the delivery of timely information (such as RSS aggregators); Teenagers in the market in question have an interesting ‘infatuation’ with SMS text messaging that they often even go out of their way (during classes for example) to communicate relevant information to their various interest groups or friends.

As 54% of teens text daily and 33% of teens send more than 100 texts a day; mathematicians and econometric statisticians can most likely infer and subsequently interpolate a function on the importance of SMS messaging and how relevant and powerful it can be in this “connected age”.

However, such observations of statistical data should also be applied in the context of the “how” and “what” part of SMS texting is rising in popularity; whether it’s for general one to one communications or one to many broadcasts of epiphanies which are cultivated in a wider spectrum of knowledge and likewise disseminated to reflect the real nature of communications in the current age.

Therefore, in this light, its relevant to observe the graph below which clearly dictates that 63% of cell phones used by this niche market don’t really have any access to the internet at all!

Wow – isn’t that a surprise? So how can we learn and apply the two issues at play here; the first being the inclination to use mobile phones more and more in everyday life and the second being rooted in the fact that the majority of cell-phones used in this market do not have internet connectivity (As most teenagers are not always equipped with a super smart-phone like the iPhone/Microsoft/Android variants that are still relatively expensive than phones from the archaic Nokia suite; which fulfil their purpose regardless of the internet access feature)

To really ‘understand’ this, we need to accept that its rather paradoxical that despite the proliferation of connected services; the archaic SMS medium is still quite heavily relied on as it is a) limited to a domain of character sets and b) universal in delivery through simple SMS gateways or routing through Telco networks.

Therefore, in light of another article which was written last year on “SMS Texting” and its rise in popularity over traditional “voice cellular data” ; it should be clear that the future of targeted SMS mobile marketing campaigns should observe data like that depicted in this post to co-create fruitful word of mouth strategies in alignment with tenets of the “experiential marketing” approach which is also detailed in this article.

Thus, in conclusion, organisations/communities/causes who are interested in utilising SMS marketing need to observe and entertain a ‘behavioural’ and ‘systematic’ framework in order to effectively co-create unique marketing ‘experiences’ which are primarily delivered through SMS text messaging to the market observed in question. This will require an insightful and reasonable framework together with a unified communications strategy that entertains the timely flow and natural tempo of information within SMS dominated “connected communities” to sustain the marketing efforts in the first place (As most SMS marketing techniques these days just bombard people without the appreciation of consumer behaviours and actions which are quite unreliably measured as far as I know it). This ties in with the natural availability and robustness of SMS gateways and aggregators that often operate as “virtual telcos” for the purpose of only delivering SMS through the most efficient and effective way to its target consumer!

thealphaswarmer critiques - exemplary essays in organisational theories - [First Post]

So now that I have been overwhelmed with 'alot' of unique and first time visitors to my blog ( The Department Of Parliamentary Services and Facebook HQ just to mention two); I have been immersed in retrospect - thinking about alot of the work I did at university during my first year in Management and Organisational Studies at the University of New South Wales. My first core subject was tutored by Devorah Wainer (whom I continue my communications with today). 


In light of all this, it is time to launch 'thealphaswarmer critiques' which are collection of essays rooted in Organisational Theories.


The essay below was done entirely by myself in which I referenced two significant organisations I have had indirect and direct experiences with. For starters, we should consider the 'context' of publication which was in Session 1: 2007. 


This essay was in response to a rather simple question which required us students to draw on theories from the textbook. Naturally, as an embryonic alphaswarmer - I took it beyond that and disseminated it with vivid contrasts and references to TWO organisations (MLC and WESTPAC) ; where MLC is the wealth management arm of NAB (www.nab.com.au)


I must extend my deepest level of gratitude to my tutor at the time [ Devorah Wainer phD : www.devorahwainer.com ]


Here it is:
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          In the Australian economic context, the financial services sector positions itself as an ensconced, core and market driven industry exposed to an ever-changing corporate landscape. The industry has progressively evolved over the last few decades and in the current age comprises of eight main sectors, those being accounting, banking, credit management, insurance, mercantile agents, retail financial services, stock brokering and personal trust administration. Incumbent enterprises within the industry such as MLC Investment Management Pty Ltd. and Westpac Banking Group have radically changed their strategic agendas and re-aligned their organisations altogether in response to challenges rising from the environmental, financial, market, technological, regulatory and  the political realms.  Most significantly, these tectonic shifts in emergent forces over the past decade have prompted management of these organisations to innovate the strategic planning process with an increased emphasis to influence the external environments in which it operates. In order to embed this into the organizational DNA - the “organization’s collective skills, abilities and behaviors”. (Govindarajan & Trimble 2005, p. 10), both organisations progressively adopted the balanced score card approach as a tool to control performance management and align the directives for the strategic planning process and organisational change.

          In general, every enterprise improvement initiative needs to address three interlocking circles: People, Technology and Process. In addition, they need to cope with an “environment characterized by rapid and non linear change” (Prahalad and Oosterveld 1999, p. 32). On these grounds, influences from the external and internal environment tend to address one or more of these areas.  In this respect, the financial services industry from a high level perspective has undergone significant paradigm shifts in the regulatory realm, of which the changes were influenced from ongoing political, market and financial distresses facing the industry in general. Such include financial services industry de-regulation, “large-scale industry consolidation, the proliferation of alternative delivery channels”[1], labor market de-regulation, proliferation of internet technologies and enterprise 2.0   [2], off shoring and outsourcing market trends in the industry, increased business competition and the need to ultimately deliver dynamic, value-laden services to the consumer whilst focusing on innovation-driven growth. Strategic and operational management responses to these challenges in both enterprises have concerned the use of process and product re-engineering initiatives using a range of change methodologies inspired from the classical management roots, the use of strategic innovations to leverage, develop and  re-define emerging markets, reevaluation of the meaning of corporate governance and the focus on business technology optimization.

          Firstly, one of the most substantial environmental challenges that faced every company in the industry came with the de-regulation of the financial system and the subsequent introduction of the Financial Services Reform Act in 2001 (ASFRA). Financial deregulation comprises of two important areas, one addressing the macroeconomic dimension through floating the exchange rate and implementing the tender system for selling debt to the public so that budget deficits were financed at market rates. The other part of the deregulation agenda was directed at financial intermediaries, mainly banks, with a view to increasing competition. Both MLC and Westpac had ensured their management was competent in developing supporting business processes and departments and boundary scanners to identify and devise operational strategies to deal with the new regulation. The contingency management can best explain what management should do to cater for these changes and the operational changes made at MLC and Westpac in response to this challenge complies with this. For instance, both organisations instituted the decentralization of their operations though modifying organisational designs by creating and integrating separate compliance business units in a unique hybrid matrix form. This also resonates with the behavioral model as there is initiative to use a wide array of communication, control and interaction processes to ensure compliance to the new laws(Kaplan, 2005). The Financial Services Reform Act that was enacted in 2001 also pushed for a strategic agenda to ensure transparency across compliance and  risk operations in the two organisations and for this very reason, MLC enforced a vertical information system through their ‘group compliance and risk’ business units in that they mandated a major information system project which aimed to integrate Lotus Notes as a knowledge management platform, through their shared collaboration workspaces and project portals which updated senior level managers on progress across compliance projects (Wayne Marsh 2006, pers. comm., November 10.). One of the most practical uses of this new project was to ensure cross-functional compliance across every business unit against the universal guidelines set out by the newly elected and instituted bodies (APRA and ASIC).  For example, new regulations under AFSRA included increased licensing requirements for what was defined as ‘financial product advisers’. The use of a behavioral approach at MLC(Kavanagh, 2002),  and the facilitation of projects by the hybrid-matrix design ensured management of adequate support in developing new business processes and addressing any business case for forming ad-hoc project teams.  At Westpac, the management response was similar as the new regulatory framework was universal and ASIC policies stipulated that any financial institution housing financial product advisors were to comply with the universal guidelines set out in ASIC Policy Statement 146 – for example, the necessary minimum attainment of the Diploma of Financial Planning to give financial product advice. This particular regulation had huge implications for the financial planning industry as both organisations had to ensure staffing policies and training structures to comply with these minimum requirements. Westpac now “operates as a Registered Training Organisation that gives employees opportunities for internal training and to gain recognition on the Australian Qualifications Training framework.” (Westpac Banking Incorporation, 2007)  Hence, it is evident that both companies shared similar strategic and operational objectives in relation to the new regulations put forwards by the government.  With regards to the outlook for the future, recent turbulent activity around the world in financial services (which channels through to financial market activity) has sparked political debate on the issues surrounding the regulatory framework for the industry. Recently, both state and federal officials involved in the Ministerial Council on Consumer affairs are devising a new national framework to regulate ‘finance brokers’ (as many institutions believe that they should be classified as financial product advisers). This will undoubtedly impact on the process dimension of organisations in the industry and give management serious strategic issues to consider. As a pre-emptive strategy, through the use of an integrated change methodology known as Six Sigma, MLC managed to tap into customer and front-line employee intelligence to engineer a unique new service  known as the ‘Mortgage Brokers Alliances’ offer (MLC Press Release, 2006) . This operates just like their financial planning network and middle office functions as it endeavors to stipulate minimum mortgage broker licensing requirements (extending on ASIC PS 146) and education to sell related products for any firm under their dealer group. This can be seen as a classic example of utilizing Tayloristic and Fayol principals of scientific inquiry into the nature of work to devise a ‘supply and value chain’ process for product development. Furthermore, the Value Chain Evolution theory, outlined by Christensen, Anthony and Roth (2004, p. 281) can best explain management response to these types of challenges. They state that as ‘companies overshoot their customers’ needs; they no longer need the benefits that integration brings. Instead, they increasingly compete based on speed, flexibility or convenience”. This also brings the focus to standardize interfaces between various parts of the product or service and these standards eventually morph into industry-wide standards and allow product architecture to become modular. MLC effectively specified, verified and predicted the interfaces required for their new service offerings – which has had an impact in the public eye as the organisation highly integrated in the industry (Matt Lawler, pers. comm 2006 August).  Nevertheless, regulatory changes will always be positioned in the non-linear change space and it is in the best interest for both organisations to consider integrating elements of theory-focused planning and emergent strategy to sense, mobilize and engage with upcoming challenges.  

          With this in mind, the idea of emergent strategy, according to Christensen, Anthony and Roth (2004, p.293) deals with a ‘‘bottom-up strategy that evolves and adapts based on signals that emerge from the marketplace’’. It directly resonates with the precepts of the ‘adapting organisation’ and also echoes ideas of a ‘virtual’ organisational design. It also bases itself deep in the behavioral school of thought. This is the dominating organisational code and paradigm at MLC and is extremely effective for driving innovation and is also more ‘organic’ in nature to deal and adapt to environmental change. A core challenge which required this approach was the dramatic trend towards delivering better customer service across the industry as incumbents were reaching a saturation point in their organisation’s life cycle and required to become differentiated in nature (Nunes and Cespdes, 2003). For example, in the financial planning sub-industry, there were huge structural shifts towards providing support and administrative services to financial advisors as the industry itself had a high turnover rate and retention rate’s of financial planners at organisation’s were very low. Various industry players were converging and collaborating towards a shared strategic view and forming diverse business networks or alliances to discover niches to target with disruptive innovations – or to stimulate consumption in a new context altogether. Further, the proliferation of alternate delivery channels meant that the two organisations in question had to seriously re-consider their customer value proposition with a strong view towards product innovation and techno-structural change to position the organisations on the same technology adoption trajectory as competitors in the industry(Kirby, 2001). Management response to this at MLC was to create a whole new business unit altogether, with Chris Tucker, CEO of MLC Australian Group announcing that the task be executed by the Group Managing Director of Financial Planning and Third Party.

This new business unit was called 360 Service Delivery and it was meant to be a back and middle office supporting business for Financial Planning and Third Party in general. It aggregated across two key divisions which included ‘revenue services’ such as business consulting, research solutions, technical solutions, training and education and trustee services and ‘business enablers’ such  as Business Services business unit and Business Review – which symbiotically handled all adviser end-to-end client data and management functions such as back office administration, case management and licensee management. Due to the increase in outsourcing and off shoring trends for such services(Kumar, 2006), MLC decided to defend its customer value proposition and from a strict performance management point of view, enable new revenue streams as a buffer to the low retention rates of financial planners (since the idea was to ensure that planners kept their subscription for 360 Service Delivery administration services even if they decided to leave the planning firms under the dealer groups). It can be argued that they integrated various business and corporate level strategies to limit the extent of other organisaion’s strategic imitation, such as the Miles and Snow typology of the ‘reactor strategy’ which means that the organisation has no consistent approach to strategy. This makes it unpredictable in the competitor’s eye as it can use a multitude of strategies and hone on it strengths whilst capitalizing on opportunities. However, in hindsight, it can be said that the creation of 360 service delivery resonates perfectly with the ‘Analyser strategy’ and Porter’s ‘differentiation strategy’. However, over the last two years, there has been a strategic directive to advocate the ‘defender strategy’ for established businesses.  This is evident through the National Australia Bank Group change mandate for a structured Six Sigma change management integration throughout all businesses it owns (which includes MLC Investment Management Pty Ltd). Every business in the group ecosystem was to implement Six Sigma projects and management’s changes to dates allowed the organisation to embrace the change mandate with ease. For example, with specific reference to 360 Service Delivery and the Financial Planning and Third Party businesses, a matrix project team was set-up to scope, communicate, disrupt and enable the transition towards re-engineering entire Business Services administrative processes (as a means to significantly cut costs and scale their delivery channels). Additionally, the Six Sigma approach was used to engineer the ‘Mortgage Broker Alliances’ offer as discussed previously due to its ability to tap into customer intelligence and use hardcore statistical modeling to define optimal efficiency points and metrics (Six Sigma, 2007). By doing so, MLC justified its investment in the 360 Service Delivery businesses due to its unique approach in quality management and adoption of a prospector perspective on strategy. They have also aligned their operational vision for the future in this domain of challenges through their iterative succession planning business division which gives strategic advice to all business units individually on strategy going forward.

In regards to Westpac, domain sources confirm that their response to changing customer needs and the increase in outsourcing trends and industry consolidation has been to manage strategic mergers and acquisitions (horizontal and vertical) of key boutique firms or leveraging its asset management businesses such as BT Finance Group. Again, this can be seen as an analyzer strategy fused with a differentiation and defender strategy. Since Westpac does not house an extensive financial planning network like MLC, they didn’t really engage in any strategic innovation to introduce a new business unit on its total offering. The major difference in organisational attitude between the two companies is their corporate governance discourse. MLC on one hand strictly enforces notions of transparency and acknowledging customer intelligence whilst Westpac enforces not only these principals but environmental sustainability as well by sponsoring programs such as ‘Green World’. Westpac has also created an advertising campaign regarding sustainability, Ms. Nixon from Westpac claims that “Never before has the importance of sustainability resonated so strongly with our stakeholders. The 'Your Future is Our Future' campaign clearly demonstrates Westpac's unequivocal commitment to securing a brighter future for all of us.”  Hence, through this campaign t the bank's commitment has been highlighted to its customers, employees, the community and the environment.  (Westpac Banking Corporation, 2007

          Altogether, both organisations respond dynamically to market, financial and customer challenges through diversified portfolio management techniques and will need to continue to do so in an emerging knowledge economy.

It is evident that both organisations have positioned themselves uniquely in the industry. This, however, does not exclude them from the fast pace of information technology. With the trends in outsourcing and e-commerce compounding at an incredible pace, both organisations needed to ensure they sought strategic agendas to accurately and relevantly scope, develop and integrate IT infrastructure in a timely manner. Since IT requires a multi-disciplinary approach and intense technological forecasting against strategic visions, it is crucial that management devise effective screening processes for end-user needs. An empirical example of how MLC established an effective information system  is evident through their integration of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and application widgets internally and the use of social software such as Facebook as a knowledge management tool. In the emerging Web and Enterprise 2.0 space, it will be increasingly important for organisations at all levels and industries to cope with the unprecedented change in internet technologies. The integration of these tools at MLC allows it to tap into knowledge across organisational silos and ensure that they are positioned well to capitalize on emerging open business models. At Westpac, the Chief Information Officer also advocated the integration of Web 2.0 tools and widgets and has integrated similar technologies to that of MLC. This sets the agenda for a new era in Enterprise 2.0 and a radical re-defining of the concept of ‘strategic alliances’. Through the research, it is appropriate to agree with Marco Isanti of INSEAD in his extrapolation that “future business competition will not be between companies but between supply chains and business Networks”. With that said, it is without doubt that future business and networking models will emerge and industry consolidation will take a whole new era.

In conclusion, it is evident that industry incumbents MLC Investment Management Pty and Westpac Banking Group have faced significant challenges in the last decade. By comparing and contrasting the challenges facing management of these organisations, it can be said that the industry is highly standardized in nature yet individual organisational responses to these issues have varied. Further, the range of management theories evaluated implies that both organisations are effective at dealing with emergent forces. In this respect, it is obvious that their responses to these challenges can be maintained for the future along a sustainable trajectory.

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[1] Financial Services at BoozAllenHamilton, accessed 20^th September 2007

[2] Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers. It dwells on the idea of collaboration and creating architectures of participation and harnessing collective and distributed intelligence.