Driving Competitiveness Fuels Storms Of Controversy

Setting standards is an intrinsic imperative of creating metrics in the face of non-linear change whilst static influences are tangibles which often yield benefits through the process of satiation; something that enables not only astute decisions but also propels a wholesale adoption of ‘new standards’ that collectively a) drives competitiveness and b) influences the regulation of adopting something that may seem counterintuitive but is actually quite a viable proposal given that it reflects the application of “prescriptive” opposed to “branded” compromises.

This comes down to something I spotted in the Australian Financial Review today which yearns for the need for accounting standards to unify and to enable trust in the information systems which create these standards that not only allow chief executives to more effectively discern financial statements but also work better for the interest of the external shareholders who demand so much from people at the helms of organisations – where past decisions may not have reflected the best interest of the organisation and this marvels the incumbents realisations through their imposition of “complex rules on off balance sheet derivatives and/or financing accounts” that not only blurs meaning for less skilled participants on the front line but also tacit individuals at the top who have carved this framework in which reporting takes place from the genesis of their system or organisation.

Someone once told me that the core principals of accounting are quite easy to understand – through the medieval creation of the ‘double entry book system’ but the manner in which the elements of ‘risk management’ and what is known as the ‘articulation of the financial statements’ have changed in the past ten years has been more than four-fold; which is indicative of external influences in the system that is either filtered as chaos or something that is instinctively genuine.

 Don Tapscott himself in his book The Naked Corporation encapsulates the force of ‘transparency’ which also ties in with the notion of ‘emergent order’ in any type of organisation that creates this type of outlook – which was also well defined and explained in his interesting book Wikinomics.

This notion of trusting information systems is validated from my observation of a series of “Air Crash Investigations” where the pilot was swayed in an ash storm by feeling he was tilting left when the information systems clearly identified the aircraft was going right – something which was only uncovered through the post-crisis investigation that unveiled the focal point of illusion or the deficiency in the human intellect that is a fragmentation of a military and autocratic style of management; something that really doesn’t work in today’s management setting – especially when individuals are being ‘micro managed’ in the corporation which is an epic failure to the true notions of the N-Gen; who are primarily immersed in satisfying their development plans whilst also alternatively interested in adding true value to the organisation in which they are either participating from the start or as their career succession initiatives change over time. Isnt that a strange way to think bout it? Surely is! This is what defines the vantage point of thealphaswarmer project.

Capitalizing On Knowledge Management In A Value Driven Age

An emerging sphere within the business decision making context is the non-linear and dynamic rise of information networks that proliferate on the internet and mobile phone; through various social media channels or information aggregators that, if used properly, are powerful tools in the strategic formulation and subsequent implementation of diversification imperatives that collectively defines Organisational DNA.

A key focal point in competitive strategy is the management of ‘cost leadership’ which is highly contingent on how it can be mimicked to streamline efficiency to enable organisational practices and processes to foster a) knowledge management and b) value management in the organisational system.

My level of insight into the ‘knowledge management’ spectrum of organisational systems is that there exists two levels of distinctively attributable knowledge sources – the first being ‘tacit’ knowledge and the other known as ‘explicit’ knowledge. Both of these knowledge sources in this digital age are freely available either through aggregation software (such as one I use NetNewsWire) or direct-social-media such as Twitter and LinkedIN Groups.

Tacit knowledge is embedded deep within the organisational code from the genesis of the corporation – something that evolves with astute and experienced leadership opposed to ‘explicit knowledge’ which is emergent that often coalesce through the interaction of some or all participants in the system (whether from front-line or middle-office functions).

To quickly assess whether the right type of knowledge management is taking place in the organisational setting; one needs to immerse their intellect into a framework that not only aims to define management by objectives; but also one that fosters the sense of learning that is often an overlooked dimension when formulating strategic innovations.

This framework should not be reconciled in isolation but in tandem with established strategic management techniques such as The Boston Consulting Group Matrix which is re-factored into what I call the ‘microarray-model’ of organisational learning.

 Now, lets decode this to map out toolset in which anyone can evaluate opportunities whether they are for or not-for profit.

Evidently, as the ‘Learning Organisation’ tests its forecasts as a function of time and hones its competitive advantage, it can likewise digest its mindset in the ‘stars’ plane which indicates that the organisation is positioned well to capitalise on some imminent opportunities in its environment and subsequently capture these opportunities which exist, but its only at an aggregate level i.e. not investing its full organisational capabilities in this domain as doing so would deplete the benefit of marginal increases to induce capacity.

The flip side of this spectrum – which is also representative of the ‘start-up’ challenge is that the organisation is ‘premature’ in its maturity lifecycle (finance folks would attribute this as the ‘seed or angel funding’ challenge) and is thus positioned on the ‘question marks’ spectrum of the plane on the right – which is indicative of the appreciative foresight into capturing a myriad of opportunities that will be conducive to the organisations growth; but the likelihood of penetrating markets for revenue is relatively low due to a lack of captured market share (the niche market problem).

This paints two diametrical scenarios – or a ‘mystery of the middle’ type of scenario – where the start up organisation is trying to formulate its competitive strategy in the face of a plethora of unique opportunities but the incumbent is well developed and armed with a ‘distinctive competence’ to scope and deploy its resources to capture the market in question; which leads to lost opportunities and a possible alienation of the startup’s ambition to integrate quick wins due to their inability to scale to the incumbents size – a clear cut definition of the premise that defines the failure and potential ‘value-creation’ aim of the startup.

                   

HR 2.0 - How To Retain "Agent" Relationships In Organisational Systems

Within the Australian educational landscape, we have seen the evolution of the Universities Admission Index to the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) which aims at aggregating and creating a single universities admission rank that fosters not only transparency, but more so 'fluidity' in the Educational System.

However, regardless of how prolific the new 'system' is - it still 'ranks' you on a set of 'quantitative data' which is based on a 'statistical model of inference' that does not account for a) the desire for undergraduate students to express their key strengths in alternative projects (such as web development or mobile-web development) and b) the incorporation of their 'unique abilities' to create the right type of 'career succession' programme that ties in with their goals and ambitions to allow their interests to be fostered and inter-woven into a process that enables them to progressively integrate their key strengths across all bands (whether its of a technical, systematic or dynamic nature).


The level of insight into this spectrum is a clear-cut articulation of how, within the nature of 'cybernetics', one can use the precedents rooted in the 'control cycle' to asses and visualize 'career succession strategies' that employs not only their academic interest, but also their Entrepreneurial interests which codify the natural flow of what I call as 'alternative career path planning'.

Alternative Career Path Planning would mean that once students are in a respectable and mature level of justification for their career intentions, they then 'test' or 'model out' scenarios which allow them to 'mix and match' even very relatively difficult subjects - in which cases at Universities, they often require 'prerequisites' - to suitable pathways that enable them to bring their core ideas and projects to fruition. This process will require the fusion of 'theory focused planning' together with a 'task-force' that employs and nurtures the evolving undergraduate intentions on incorporating empiric, up to date examples of their ideas with emphasis on historical or empirical evidence with a criterion 'measure' that utilizes a weighted-average approach to identify and validate the 'agents' capabilities with requisite skills that collectively ebb and flow with their 'ever evolving career intentions' as the fundamental principal of Human Resource strategy is to keep 'staff' as their most 'valued assets' in the organisational system - a key vantage-point for HR Managers who often struggle with 'retention' and 'turnover' ratios in their organisations as obviously, its very hard to keep the N-Gen niche motivated in industries which can from the start influence the 'agent' but then as time goes by - sway the agent to look for other 'opportunities and interests' which complement their 'motivational drivers for success'.


The core challenge here would be how can we create the relevant 'system' which not only measures data quantitatively, but also qualitatively ranks the relevant 'human capital input' within the 'organisational system' to fuse a) business intelligence initiatives with b) a 'Mentoring' initiative that propels and differentiates each 'agent' in the 'organisation' as an 'individual product' or 'product base' that aims at differentiating the various 'learning styles' in combination with a 'knowledge management platform' that not only harvests their potential; but enables them to contribute 'ideas' to members at the very senior level of the organisation (regardless of legal nature) so that they can also contribute to the 'organisational wide projects' which often require collaboration of very senior project managers (in the case of Matrix Styled Organisations) or your direct report (in the case of small business and sole trader initiatives). Personally, I believe that all organisations should respect every 'agents' input into the system, measure it with reference to something I stumbled accross in the Harvard Business Review as "experience curves" and re-concile it with a rich framework to retain, evolve and develop participants in the system.

thealphaswarmer insights: The Neuro Linguistic Programming Model

Some time ago, I was acquainted with an 'individual' with a Doctorate in Linguistics by the name of Dr Cross - and whilst this was during a very 'short term assignment' I did at the NAB - he did shed a lot of light into the 'nature of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)"

Essentially, NLP aims to look at the three modes of writing, the kinaesthetic, the auditory and most of - the visual elements of writing.


NLP is an excellent model for framing 'methodologies' in the Emerging Knowledge Economy, something that intrigues me dearly as a result of a book I have just recently completed which is highly recommended by INSEAD Professors and which prophesies the 'emergence' of 'magnets' in the global knowledge pool - something that ties in intrinsically with another article I wrote in detail on how participants in the "Network Economy" can leverage tools inlaid in this book - together with a comprehensive and detailed model of  something called  'network incubation' to enable drivers of innovation, which are primarily rooted in leadership and cultural variance, together with the fusion of collaborative work practices with either physical, virtual or more significantly distributed teams.


By integrating the tenets of NLP together with something I am working on known as 'the four fold method of self organistion' - organisations, communities of practice and perhaps even industry focus groups - which are long term but informal collaborations; can yield very significant tangible benefits to their 'bottom line' - which manifest in terms of ROI, Sales Performance Optimization, Effective Project Managment and perhaps even 'running effective team meetings' 


The biggest problem here, would be identifying the core behavioural dilemmas together with the intrinsic nature of ground rules in an Enterprise System - considering the 'system' wishes to integrate certain 'individualities or personalities' for the development of its a)social entrepreneurship or b) legislative variants.

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