The vision statement of the Amcham Foundation has undergone several refinements over the years but its direction has remained the same.
Vision:
-To become an institution that encourages American business in social responsiveness to contribute to the welfare of society.
Mission:
-To serve the needs of the ACCP member companies in “doing good and looking good” by providing the projects and events to
a) Encourage more members to be involved in CSR work
b) Help in administering their CSR work
c) Recognize them when they do an excellent job
Values:
• Promote the idea that good CSR work and community development is good business policy and provide recognition for CSR best practices of member companies
• Provide ACCP member companies a forum to showcase their best CSR activities and community development
• Collaborate with ACCP member companies in developing, promoting, and administering some of their CSR programs when necessary
• Modernize our operations through the use of new technology (on line donation, SMS, computerization of data, etc.)
• Provide member companies and their employees the benefit of working with ACFPI whenever possible (volunteers for education)
• Train, develop, and recognize our employees; they are the keys to the foundation’s success
• Continue to build our endowment fund through “friend raising” projects and events to assure the sustainability of our operations
Amcham Foundation Achievements
Our achievement in almost three decades has been to position Amcham Foundation as the organization that helps companies in facilitating philanthropic work and in communicating the contribution to social development of many of the Amcham member companies.
In the area of education, where many of the members companies of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines had provided money to support the tuition fees of students or the workshop expenses of participants, the Amcham Foundation has supported many students and participants over the years.
School
Year -------Total
2011 ------36
2010 ------43
2009 ------36
2008 ------42
2007 ------59
2006 ------88
2005 ------126
2004 ------180
2003 ------82
2002 ------204
2001 ------217
2000 ------138
1999 ------135
1998 ------38
1997 ------14
1996 ------210
1995 ------10
1994 ------11
1993 ------10
1992 ------10
1991 ------51
1990 ------30
Total ------1,770
Our objective is to increase the number of scholars that we can support to no less than 100 every year
Some of the additional programs that we have provided for the scholars are the following:
1. Psychosocial Activities
- Monthly activities and workshops on personality enhancement, values formation, time management, and other areas that encourage scholars to take more responsibilities for their own development and growth.
2. Reproductive Health
- Monthly sessions conducted by selected peer educators, who are also scholars of the Amcham Foundation themselves trained for the job, to help the current scholars understand their own sexuality and how they can take care of themselves
3. English Proficiency Training
- Free training for all the Amcham Foundation scholars to improve their English language skills. The program consists of three phases: pronunciation, English idioms, and writing.
4. Participating in AmCham’s Business Orientation Program which invests in the
country’s most qualified youth leaders by offering them an opportunity to gain
new understanding of key global business and economic issues. The one-week
intensive program empowers the young leaders through site tours and in-depth
discussions with management professionals from a wide spectrum of leading
multinational companies in Manila.
Since 2007, the Amcham Foundation has been holding regular CSR Forums for member companies in order to feature the work of selected member companies and exchange ideas on CSR best practices.
2007
March 27 – Operationalizing CSR
June 22 – Role of the Business Sector in the Millennium Development Goals
September 7 – Building Employee Volunteerism
2008
August 12 – Your business & the environment
Sept 30 – Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Health
November 7 – Livelihood Connection
2009
June 10 – Leveraging Resources & Value of CSR during financial downturn
August 12 – Enhancing Corporate involvement in Disaster Management
2010
April 26 - Toward Safer Cities & Earthquake Preparedness
August 25 – Disaster Preparedness & Climate Change
Sept 12 – Crisis Management & Business Continuity
2011
March 29 – Preparing to the La Nina Year & The Big One
For 2012 we are organizing a regional conference in partnership with BCLC of the US Chamber of Commerce, CNDR, and MAP on Business Continuity and Community Resilience. The conference will consist of presentation by experts in the field, panel discussions and participation from the audience.
In the same year, the Amcham Foundation established the Amcham CSR Excellence Awards to recognize member companies who had done well in the Philippines and who had done “good” in their community. The award is divided into the following categories:
1. Education
-School building programs, student scholarship, teacher training, and book donations, etc.
2. Health
-Wellness programs, disease control, etc.
3. Environment/Habitat
-Infrastructure programs, land degradation control, pollution control,waste treatment, climate change, transportation, housing programs, etc.
4. Livelihood/Social Issues
-Employment programs, family planning, poverty alleviation, gender
equality, etc.
5. Peace
-Programs in areas of conflict.
Since 2007, the winners in the Amcham CSR Excellence Awards were the following:
2007
Health: Sitel Philippines
-Our Health, Our Wealth Program
Education: Coca Cola
-The Little Red Schoolhouse Project
Environment: Quezon Power
-Environment Component of Quezon Power s Sustainable Development Program
Livelihood: Philam Foundation
-The Goodwell Fund
2009
Health: Dole Philippines
-The Banga Pinoy: Ferrocement Water Tank Community Water System Project
Education: McDonalds
-Bright Minds Read
Environment: Calenergy
-Build Our Forest, Build Our Future
Livelihood: Chevron
-Kabataan at Pamilya Tungo sa Ikauunlad ng Dangal
Peace: Quezon Power
-Livelihood Program: Casignay 1 Multi Purpose Cooperative Inc.
2011
Health: Nu Skin
-Nu Heart, Nu Life
Education: IBM
-Computer Eyes
Environment: IBM
-Greener and Safer Philippines
Livelihood: Dole
-Crates for Trees
Peace: Johnson & Johnson, Special Recognition
-Early Childhood Growth and Development in Conflict-Affected Areas
We have also launched an Annual CSR Photo Contest and Exhibit for the Amcham member companies who are engaged in community work so that we could hold a public exhibit, at Glorietta 5, of the work that they do and the results were as follows:
2009
Health: Citi
-Lugaw
Education: Navitaire-Accenture
-I can show you the world
Environment: Chevron
-Caltex Good Roots
Livelihood: Ford Philippines
-Ford Bayanihan
2010
Health: Nu Skin
-Nourish the Children Feeding Activity with Vita Meal
Education: Globe Telecom
-Improving Quality and Access to Education
Environment: Quezon Power
-Tree Planting at the QPL Eco Center
Livelihood: Dole Asia
-Seeds of Hope
Peace: Globe Telecom
-Sagot Ka Ni Kap
2011
Health: Pilipinas Shell
-Movement Against Malaria
Education: Chevron Geothermal
-Busog, Lusog, Talino
Environment: Dole Stanfilco
-Coastal Clean Up
Livelihood: Chevron Geothermal
-Pottery Making
Disaster Risk Management: Dole Philippines
-Fire Drill
Peace: Dole Philippines
-Growership Program
YKL Color Laboratories in the Philippines, the official photo printer of the Amcham CSR Photo Contest and Exhibit, had been very generous in sponsoring the printing of the photo entries of the Amcham member companies for free and had even donated an expensive DSLR camera as a raffle prize at the launching of the project.
In disaster relief operations we have mobilized the resources of the American Chamber members and helped typhoon victims.
Typhoon Ondoy & Peping (September 2009)
-Cash Donation P1,077,612
Sing $ 4,757
US$ 25,424
-Number of donors: 43
-Number of beneficiaries: 4,532 families
-Affected areas: Taguig, Metro Manila
Los Banos, Laguna
Sta Rosa, Laguna
Licab, Nueva Ecija
Benguet, La Trinidad
Baguio City
La Union
Ilocus Norte
Typhoon Pedring, Quiel, and Ramon (October 2011)
-Cash Donation: P 518,450
-Number of donors: 35
-Number of beneficiaries: 1,000 families
-Affected Areas: Calumpit, Bulacan
Hagonoy, Bulacan
Candaba, Pampanga
Typhoon Sendong (December 2011)
-Cash Donation: P434,034.50
-Number of donors: 17
-Number of Beneficiaries: 300 families
Affected Areas: Cagayan de Oro
In the recent projects that we have administered for Philip Morris, we had done the following:
2011
Community Activities -Water tank project for Muntinglupa Bilibid Prison
Disaster Relief Operations
1. Typhoon Pedring
-Areas: Camarines Norte, Albay, and Sorsogon, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, -Baler, Marikina, Zambales, Bataan, Navotas, Malabon, Valenzuela, Bulacan, Isabela,
-Number of beneficiaries: 6,000 families
2. Typhoon Sendong
Area: Carmen, Agusan, Balulang, Iligan, Mandumol, Bulua, Canitoan, Bonbon, Kauswagan, Iponan, Bulao
Number of beneficiaries: 16,000 families
2012
Turnover ceremonies of the water tank project at the Muntinglupa Bilibid Prison with Senator Chiz Escudero and Chris Nelson
January 9, 2012
Current Situation
The current trends that we think will impact our work in the future are as follows:
• Increasing government and non-government organizations drive for improvements in the population health, education, livelihood, and environmental conditions
• Growing awareness of companies for the need to exercise Corporate Social Responsibility to avoid regulatory sanctions, negative publicity, and possible future costs.
• Information revolution that extends the reach of everyone globally
• Global financial crisis affecting the ability of business organizations to support traditional foundation programs
• Corporate scandals and the growing skepticism of the public toward corporate press releases
• Consumers and bloggers have new ways to voice their opinions which often times remained unanswered
The American Chamber Foundation of the Philippines has gained enormous experience in the field of community service and in advocating the value of corporate gift giving and service. It has helped American Chamber members gain good will and has gained the trust and confidence of its member companies in doing so.
Long-Term Objectives the American Chamber Foundation of the Philippines
As we continue to gather data about the CSR activities of our member companies we hope to be able to put together an opportunity map that can identify common areas of interest where member companies could work together to produce greater impact or more lasting results.
Plans
The Amcham member companies continue to support the Amcham Foundation work, in addition to their own CSR work in their particular field on interest. Some of the most active sponsors are the following:
-Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Co.
-Peninsula Manila
-Goodyear Philippines, Inc.
-Oakwood Premier Ayala Center
-Ford Group Philippines
-Abbott Laboratories
-Zuellig Pharma
-Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing, Inc.
-Asian Tigers Lane Moving Manila
-Bellevue Manila
-Carepak Moving and Storage
-Executive International Movers, Inc
-Coca Cola Far East Limited
-Smith Bell & Co., Inc.
-Belrewmond Trading, Inc.
-Flour Daniel
-Chevron Philippines, Inc.
-Coca Cola
-Mead Johnson
-Hanes
-3M
-Hawaiian Airline
-All Asian Countertrade, Inc.
-Delta
-Intel Technology Philippines, Inc.
-CB Richard Ellis, Philippines, Inc.
-Avaya Philippines, Inc.
-American Eye Center
-Belmont Agricorp
-S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
-Anflo Management & Investment Corp.
-CalEnergy International, Ltd.
-Philippine Sundt Construction &
Dev’t. Corp
-Watercare Marketing (Phils.)
-Clorox International Phils., Inc.
-Eagle Point Resort
-PepsiCo, Inc.
-Heinz UFC Philippines, Inc.
-Wyeth
-Fedex
-Dow Chemical
-Avis
We will continue working closely with these companies and also a few individuals who we were not able to list due to limitation of space
We will also continue to look at our own operation to ensure that we are operating efficiently as an organization. We will continue to provide training to our staff because we know that our success depends on them
Since education is very important in the progress and development of the Philippines, the American Chamber Foundation will continue to raise funds to make sure that we are able to help poor but deserving students.
We will encourage our member companies to continue exchanging CSR best practices through our regular CSR Forums. And whenever possible network with other American Chambers around the world to gain insights in new developments regarding CSR.
We will also continue providing public recognition to our member companies by holding the Amcham CSR Excellence Awards every two years and publish the winners in the Amcham Business Journal and in our own website and Facebook account. And because of its growing popularity, we will continue to hold an annual CSR Photo Contest & Exhibit among of our member companies and display the winning entries at Glorietta 5 which has become the official venue for the photo exhibit.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
More Fun in the Philippines
I have asked my students in Marketing to give their views on the recently launched Philippines Department of Tourism (DOT) campaign featuring images of various activities along with the tagline “It’s more fun the Philippines” and here are their views.
The campaign has given salience to the country and has provided more awareness of the many possibilities in the country more than any other campaign done in the past. The success of the campaign could be attributed to the ease with which anyone with an idea could create his own interpretation of what is fun or what is funny in the country and post it in the Internet. And that is also the reason why some people believe that the posting could result into a positive or negative perception of the Philippines. The posting of some cultural activities like the local town fiestas and the beautiful beach or mountain resorts are intriguing and exciting but some spoofs about drinking or commuting in the Philippines could be seen as something less than positive. Some of the postings may be a way by which we make fun of ourselves but some students think it could backfire because it may look strange or perplexing to foreigners. These are posting like “holdafun, kidnafun, and carnafun” which refers to holdups, kidnaps, and car naps that is reported daily in local newspapers.
Some of the students mentioned that the tagline was a copy of the Switzerland campaign but also said that no other tagline really captures the country spirit that they said may be due to our sunny days and the sunny disposition of our people. The campaign resonated with many people and the proof of it was the enthusiasm and energy released by the campaign.
However, the students felt that for the campaign to be sustainable, the country should not only have beautiful stretches of beaches, festivals, and an English speaking population but also provide the basic functions that would provide satisfaction to the tourists like first class airports, good roads, signage, first class hotels, and good transportation. They also mentioned that peace and order, clean environment, improved services and streets free of beggars could provide a more meaningful experience to tourists.
Many of them agrees that those who are able to go to places like Amanpulo or El Nido would have exciting and enjoyable experience that they can share with their friends back home.
Compared to other countries, the Philippines does not have many man-made structures like in Europe that could be the focus of visitors in the country but we have many natural wonders that we could be proud of and one of them is the underground river in Palawan.
Another element that the students think could add to the credibility of the campaign is the natural warmth and hospitality of the Pilipino. They agree that the Pilipino is easy to get along with and is fun to be with because he loves to have a good time.
And if I may, I would add that the values of “pakikisama” (good relationship), “utang na loob” (gratitude), and “hiya” (shame) that most Pilipinos grew up with may have contributed to the way they treat each other and their guests. A Pilipino seeks personal relationship and gets involved in the activities of others. A Pilipino intuitively feels for another and believes in the unity of human beings and as a result thinks that all of us owe the other equal respect and love. A Pilipino tries harder so he will not fall short of expectations of others.
Would a visitor in the Philippines then recommend the Philippines to others? We definitely hope so. Only time can tell. The campaign is at an early stage and we hope that some of the barriers to its success could be eliminated.
The advantages of coming to the Philippines would be in the quality that tourists would get for the price that they pay. The quality is in the uniqueness of the Pilipino, his friendliness, helpfulness, and his hospitality.
My students and I expect the campaign to elicit the feeling of amusement, excitement, playfulness, and enjoyableness from visitors. We hope that the experience would give them a feeling of attachment to the people that they meet or to the people they travel with and a feeling of deep connections with each other.
Could the campaign be better? Of course it could be better because the country could offer so much variety that each place could have its own campaign. But for the meantime a generic campaign for the Philippines would do it a lot of good. So let the fun continue in the Philippines.
The campaign has given salience to the country and has provided more awareness of the many possibilities in the country more than any other campaign done in the past. The success of the campaign could be attributed to the ease with which anyone with an idea could create his own interpretation of what is fun or what is funny in the country and post it in the Internet. And that is also the reason why some people believe that the posting could result into a positive or negative perception of the Philippines. The posting of some cultural activities like the local town fiestas and the beautiful beach or mountain resorts are intriguing and exciting but some spoofs about drinking or commuting in the Philippines could be seen as something less than positive. Some of the postings may be a way by which we make fun of ourselves but some students think it could backfire because it may look strange or perplexing to foreigners. These are posting like “holdafun, kidnafun, and carnafun” which refers to holdups, kidnaps, and car naps that is reported daily in local newspapers.
Some of the students mentioned that the tagline was a copy of the Switzerland campaign but also said that no other tagline really captures the country spirit that they said may be due to our sunny days and the sunny disposition of our people. The campaign resonated with many people and the proof of it was the enthusiasm and energy released by the campaign.
However, the students felt that for the campaign to be sustainable, the country should not only have beautiful stretches of beaches, festivals, and an English speaking population but also provide the basic functions that would provide satisfaction to the tourists like first class airports, good roads, signage, first class hotels, and good transportation. They also mentioned that peace and order, clean environment, improved services and streets free of beggars could provide a more meaningful experience to tourists.
Many of them agrees that those who are able to go to places like Amanpulo or El Nido would have exciting and enjoyable experience that they can share with their friends back home.
Compared to other countries, the Philippines does not have many man-made structures like in Europe that could be the focus of visitors in the country but we have many natural wonders that we could be proud of and one of them is the underground river in Palawan.
Another element that the students think could add to the credibility of the campaign is the natural warmth and hospitality of the Pilipino. They agree that the Pilipino is easy to get along with and is fun to be with because he loves to have a good time.
And if I may, I would add that the values of “pakikisama” (good relationship), “utang na loob” (gratitude), and “hiya” (shame) that most Pilipinos grew up with may have contributed to the way they treat each other and their guests. A Pilipino seeks personal relationship and gets involved in the activities of others. A Pilipino intuitively feels for another and believes in the unity of human beings and as a result thinks that all of us owe the other equal respect and love. A Pilipino tries harder so he will not fall short of expectations of others.
Would a visitor in the Philippines then recommend the Philippines to others? We definitely hope so. Only time can tell. The campaign is at an early stage and we hope that some of the barriers to its success could be eliminated.
The advantages of coming to the Philippines would be in the quality that tourists would get for the price that they pay. The quality is in the uniqueness of the Pilipino, his friendliness, helpfulness, and his hospitality.
My students and I expect the campaign to elicit the feeling of amusement, excitement, playfulness, and enjoyableness from visitors. We hope that the experience would give them a feeling of attachment to the people that they meet or to the people they travel with and a feeling of deep connections with each other.
Could the campaign be better? Of course it could be better because the country could offer so much variety that each place could have its own campaign. But for the meantime a generic campaign for the Philippines would do it a lot of good. So let the fun continue in the Philippines.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Social Media Marketing
The Communication Age is upon us. It has been brought about by the Internet that wired anyone who has a screen to look at: the TV screen, the computer screen, the cellphone screen, and the tablet screen. The Internet has allowed people to communicate with each other and build relationships with each other with ease. And the establishment of social networking sites made it much more interesting to socialize in cyberspace. These social networking sites are the following:
1. Twitter – For keeping tab of events and topics or for keeping tab of what are others around them are thinking or doing or feeling. It is also used for reposting of short messages and advertisements.
2. Facebook – For keeping in touch with friends and relatives and other acquaintances. It can also be used to interact with others and to voice one’s opinion. It is also being used for brand promotions and group discounts.
3. YouTube – For video sharing or for posting of comments after viewing a video. It can be used for self-promotion or for promoting certain ideas, products or services.
4. Blog – For sharing opinions and/or information written by individuals or groups on a regular basis.
The Birth of Social Media Marketing
When companies or products joined these sites, people began to interact with the product or companies in personal ways. These social networking sites allowed individual readers to “re tweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. Thus, social media marketing began and it refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.1
As a marketing process, social media marketing still has to go through the following initial steps:
1. Understanding of the general trends that can create opportunities or threats to the company or the product.
2. Deciding what segment of the market you would like to target for the company or the product
a. Know your customers by observing and listening carefully.
b. Know where they are
Then, marketers need to learn how to deliver message meaningfully by doing the following:
1. Creating content that attracts attention and encourages target readers or users to share it with their social networks
a. It must be relevant to the target market
b. It must engage the reader or the user
c. It must also entertain
2. Posting the message in a site and creating links that would connect your message to as many target visitors you could get
3. Monitoring as readers share the message with their social network, spreading the message from reader to reader or from user to user which lends the message credibility because it appears to come from an independent third party rather than from a company or a brand with self-interest.
4. Interacting with site visitors and readers and collaborating in making changes to meet the needs of the customers.
Digital Two-Way Marketing
Jack Madrid, the new Country Manager of Multiply Philippines (he used to be the Country Manager of Yahoo Philippines), called the social media marketing as a digital two-way marketing. He said that as a result of development of the social media marketing the 4Ps of marketing had now been changed into the 6 Cs
1. Content
It is story telling. It is saying or demonstrating what the brand stands for. It is demonstrating how the brand could make the life of the customer better or more successful. For example, John Deere leveraged The Furrow Magazine, not to sell John Deere equipment, but to educate farmers on new technology and how they could be more successful business owners using John Deere equipment. A cake mix company could leverage on a recipe, not to sell its product, but to help someone bake something that could win the heart of family members. It is providing services that enhance the use of the product.
As Janette Toral, a blogger and author of several books on Internet commerce who also spoke to our marketing class last year, said, “The content should not only be about your product. It should instead be more about the customers and what he or she values. It is about making a connection between the attributes of your product to the customer value.”
Janette Toral also suggested that content could be created by conducting a video contest that would focus on a theme related to what your targeted customer values. As an example she narrated how a small hotel in Jupiter Street promoted itself by holding a video contest with the following theme: I love Jupiter Street. It so happened that the hotel is located in Jupiter Street and when the contestant started filming, one of the features why Jupiter Street is lovable, the hotel was one of them. When it was posted in the Internet, it created a lot of curiosity and brought a lot of customers to Jupiter Street and the hotel itself.
2. Community
A collective perception about the brand value creates a community. And this shared value could pull people together and by creating groups, through the Internet, people can gather virtually in an online community and interact regardless of physical location.
3. Context
Know your target site visitor. How do your content, site architecture, and links influence your site visitor and search engines? Adjust your content, change the architecture of your site, and create new links as necessary to make it relevant to your targeted site visitors
4. Customization
Providing the technology that could accommodate the differences between individuals and allowing customers to personalize or make changes to your product or service to fit their needs
5. Conversation
After telling your story, each screen interface should be an opportunity for dialogue, interaction, response, and collaboration. The customers become participants creating a whole new level of engagement with the brand.
6. Commerce
Go online to promote and sell your product. It also includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services.
Janette Toral suggested the use of discount or group buying websites to promote and sell your products.
My daughter and her partner, who bakes Popcakes, conducted a contest on Facebook where they gave freebies to anyone who would tag a number of their friends with the advertisement of their product. This campaign created website traffic for them that led into sales.
Flipping the Marketing Funnel
In Jack Madrid’s talk to my class in marketing last year he said that the social media marketing has flipped the marketing funnel because now the customer has control over the message through the social media. Where before ones effort has to first create awareness in the product or service that is expected to be followed by interest, desire, and finally by action, today, instead of spending efforts on advertising to create awareness for the product or service, effort is spent first on making sure that the customer is served well so that the customer will talk about the product in a positive way thereby creating more awareness for the said product and service.
By an example, Jack Madrid narrated the following story. There was a person, while waiting at the airport, who twitted that it would be nice to have a steak from a certain outlet which he used to frequent because he liked the product. Obviously, the restaurant serving the steak was on twitter and read the posting. By the time this person landed in another city, there was a delivery van from the restaurant branch in that city of this particular outlet waiting for him to give him the steak that he said he wanted. He was so pleased with the service that he posted it on the social network and it became an instant hit that people just kept repeating the story that eventually created greater awareness for the product and the restaurant.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
The social network has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with Internet access. It has therefore done the following:
1. Fosters brand awareness to anyone with Internet connection
2. Improves the customer service of those companies who are monitoring the Internet traffic.
3. Serves as a relatively inexpensive platform to implement marketing campaigns of anyone who would like to use it.
When Jack Madrid, the Country Manager of Multiply in the Philippines spoke to my class, he said that before the social media, only large companies can spend large amounts of money to advertise their products and services. These ads repeated over time were able to create awareness of the product, develop interest in it, and create a desire for the product and the motivation to take action by buying the product.
Today, all people with practically nothing can create awareness for their products or service through the Internet and could sell their products and services using the different social media. According to Jack Madrid, the Internet is like a bulletin board where anyone can post their products or services and reach a small number of people who may have the same interest on the product or service and where these people could also post their comments on the products or service in terms of how it met their needs or how it could meet their needs better. It allows the producer of the product or the service to make an offer and also allows interested buyer to indicate what they like thereby resulting into changes that make the offer much better because it meets the needs of the buyers.
Jack Madrid also said that the social media had created a tremendous impact in marketing. He called the impact long-tail phenomenon. He explained it as enabling a product or service with low demand and low sales volume to reach many small buyers through the Internet that collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current blockbusters or big ticket items. He gave as an example Amazon.com whose sales is composed of a significant portion coming from obscure books that is not available in brick-and-mortar stores.
Jack Madrid talked about the different screens that influence our lives: first was the movie screen, then it was followed by the TV screen, the laptop screen, the tablet screen, and now the ubiquitous cellphone screen. He said that cellphones have social networking capabilities that are used by products and companies to constantly bombard people with ads at any time of the day and wherever they may be.
What’s the Future?
I met Jonathan E. Eubanks, CEO of Invicta Alliance Partners, who visited the Philippines and made a presentation about social media as a marketing platform. He said that he is creating a new site that will look like a realistic city that could be populated by avatars and real companies that could rent or occupy virtual office buildings or stores where avatars could enter or where visitors to the site could browse or look and order the products of these real companies either for their avatars or for themselves. Deliveries of products ordered by real people could be done by the outlet of the company nearest to the buyer’s location. Payments could also be done virtually or upon delivery. For example, Levi’s could have a virtual store that will carry all their models and all the reader will do is to click on the model he or she wants and fit it to his or her avatar which presumably would have the same measurements of the one who created the avatar. If the buyer is satisfied with the looks of the merchandise then he could easily order it for his or her avatar or even for himself or herself.
The virtual streets would be populated by buildings and store fronts that could also display signs or ads just like in real life. And avatars would be seen walking, shopping, or sitting in a café.
The site could also host casinos that avatars could enter order chips and join any kind of games offered by the casinos.
Is Social Media Here to Stay?
I think social media will still grow in importance in the coming few years as programmers discover new ways of creating more attractive networking methods that people find beneficial and businessmen find profitable. It therefore behooves businessmen, that in addition to their brick and mortar business, to learn how to use the social media for offering their products and services.
The Internet has created so much content, most of them created by the user themselves that users have now so much to choose from thereby creating more fragmentation of the market. It is therefore more important today to create communities of interest around a brand to retain a core audience in order to keep them engaged and loyal.
The social media has allowed amateurs to compete with expensive professional advertising companies at practically no cost at all. And print media currently hosting ads of companies today will see more ads migrating to cyberspace which may not pay the same earnings that they do have now. And since users and readers can respond to anything posted on the Internet, businessmen will be forced to engage with their customers, listen to them and become more personal in their communication strategies.
News, good or bad, travel faster on twitter, written by people as they see events happening before their eyes and received by people on their cellphone or iPad screens at the same time that the event is happening at a no or very low cost to them. If it could be secured this is one good way organizations can share information and knowledge across functional or geographical boundaries.
Relationships would no longer be exclusively dependent on physical presence. The ease with which people could communicate with each other will help in maintaining relationship between people who may at times be temporarily separated due to travel or new assignments. There would also be relationship entirely dependent on virtual presence in cyberspace when we befriend other people of similar interest in the Internet.
Is there anything else I missed? There are probably a lot of things that will emerge from innovation in the social media that we are not yet aware of. It is difficult to anticipate everything that can come out as more technology develops and enhances the Internet. All we can do is try to recognize new developments and be more curious on the potential direction it is taking us. We need to be aware that our minds could bend the information we are receiving because it does not fit our own experience and current knowledge thereby leading us to a wrong conclusion. And most of all we need to understand that our expectations could make us jump into conclusion when what it most needed is the suspension of judgment so that we could be open to different alternative future.
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1 Wikipedia
1. Twitter – For keeping tab of events and topics or for keeping tab of what are others around them are thinking or doing or feeling. It is also used for reposting of short messages and advertisements.
2. Facebook – For keeping in touch with friends and relatives and other acquaintances. It can also be used to interact with others and to voice one’s opinion. It is also being used for brand promotions and group discounts.
3. YouTube – For video sharing or for posting of comments after viewing a video. It can be used for self-promotion or for promoting certain ideas, products or services.
4. Blog – For sharing opinions and/or information written by individuals or groups on a regular basis.
The Birth of Social Media Marketing
When companies or products joined these sites, people began to interact with the product or companies in personal ways. These social networking sites allowed individual readers to “re tweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. Thus, social media marketing began and it refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.1
As a marketing process, social media marketing still has to go through the following initial steps:
1. Understanding of the general trends that can create opportunities or threats to the company or the product.
2. Deciding what segment of the market you would like to target for the company or the product
a. Know your customers by observing and listening carefully.
b. Know where they are
Then, marketers need to learn how to deliver message meaningfully by doing the following:
1. Creating content that attracts attention and encourages target readers or users to share it with their social networks
a. It must be relevant to the target market
b. It must engage the reader or the user
c. It must also entertain
2. Posting the message in a site and creating links that would connect your message to as many target visitors you could get
3. Monitoring as readers share the message with their social network, spreading the message from reader to reader or from user to user which lends the message credibility because it appears to come from an independent third party rather than from a company or a brand with self-interest.
4. Interacting with site visitors and readers and collaborating in making changes to meet the needs of the customers.
Digital Two-Way Marketing
Jack Madrid, the new Country Manager of Multiply Philippines (he used to be the Country Manager of Yahoo Philippines), called the social media marketing as a digital two-way marketing. He said that as a result of development of the social media marketing the 4Ps of marketing had now been changed into the 6 Cs
1. Content
It is story telling. It is saying or demonstrating what the brand stands for. It is demonstrating how the brand could make the life of the customer better or more successful. For example, John Deere leveraged The Furrow Magazine, not to sell John Deere equipment, but to educate farmers on new technology and how they could be more successful business owners using John Deere equipment. A cake mix company could leverage on a recipe, not to sell its product, but to help someone bake something that could win the heart of family members. It is providing services that enhance the use of the product.
As Janette Toral, a blogger and author of several books on Internet commerce who also spoke to our marketing class last year, said, “The content should not only be about your product. It should instead be more about the customers and what he or she values. It is about making a connection between the attributes of your product to the customer value.”
Janette Toral also suggested that content could be created by conducting a video contest that would focus on a theme related to what your targeted customer values. As an example she narrated how a small hotel in Jupiter Street promoted itself by holding a video contest with the following theme: I love Jupiter Street. It so happened that the hotel is located in Jupiter Street and when the contestant started filming, one of the features why Jupiter Street is lovable, the hotel was one of them. When it was posted in the Internet, it created a lot of curiosity and brought a lot of customers to Jupiter Street and the hotel itself.
2. Community
A collective perception about the brand value creates a community. And this shared value could pull people together and by creating groups, through the Internet, people can gather virtually in an online community and interact regardless of physical location.
3. Context
Know your target site visitor. How do your content, site architecture, and links influence your site visitor and search engines? Adjust your content, change the architecture of your site, and create new links as necessary to make it relevant to your targeted site visitors
4. Customization
Providing the technology that could accommodate the differences between individuals and allowing customers to personalize or make changes to your product or service to fit their needs
5. Conversation
After telling your story, each screen interface should be an opportunity for dialogue, interaction, response, and collaboration. The customers become participants creating a whole new level of engagement with the brand.
6. Commerce
Go online to promote and sell your product. It also includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services.
Janette Toral suggested the use of discount or group buying websites to promote and sell your products.
My daughter and her partner, who bakes Popcakes, conducted a contest on Facebook where they gave freebies to anyone who would tag a number of their friends with the advertisement of their product. This campaign created website traffic for them that led into sales.
Flipping the Marketing Funnel
In Jack Madrid’s talk to my class in marketing last year he said that the social media marketing has flipped the marketing funnel because now the customer has control over the message through the social media. Where before ones effort has to first create awareness in the product or service that is expected to be followed by interest, desire, and finally by action, today, instead of spending efforts on advertising to create awareness for the product or service, effort is spent first on making sure that the customer is served well so that the customer will talk about the product in a positive way thereby creating more awareness for the said product and service.
By an example, Jack Madrid narrated the following story. There was a person, while waiting at the airport, who twitted that it would be nice to have a steak from a certain outlet which he used to frequent because he liked the product. Obviously, the restaurant serving the steak was on twitter and read the posting. By the time this person landed in another city, there was a delivery van from the restaurant branch in that city of this particular outlet waiting for him to give him the steak that he said he wanted. He was so pleased with the service that he posted it on the social network and it became an instant hit that people just kept repeating the story that eventually created greater awareness for the product and the restaurant.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
The social network has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with Internet access. It has therefore done the following:
1. Fosters brand awareness to anyone with Internet connection
2. Improves the customer service of those companies who are monitoring the Internet traffic.
3. Serves as a relatively inexpensive platform to implement marketing campaigns of anyone who would like to use it.
When Jack Madrid, the Country Manager of Multiply in the Philippines spoke to my class, he said that before the social media, only large companies can spend large amounts of money to advertise their products and services. These ads repeated over time were able to create awareness of the product, develop interest in it, and create a desire for the product and the motivation to take action by buying the product.
Today, all people with practically nothing can create awareness for their products or service through the Internet and could sell their products and services using the different social media. According to Jack Madrid, the Internet is like a bulletin board where anyone can post their products or services and reach a small number of people who may have the same interest on the product or service and where these people could also post their comments on the products or service in terms of how it met their needs or how it could meet their needs better. It allows the producer of the product or the service to make an offer and also allows interested buyer to indicate what they like thereby resulting into changes that make the offer much better because it meets the needs of the buyers.
Jack Madrid also said that the social media had created a tremendous impact in marketing. He called the impact long-tail phenomenon. He explained it as enabling a product or service with low demand and low sales volume to reach many small buyers through the Internet that collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current blockbusters or big ticket items. He gave as an example Amazon.com whose sales is composed of a significant portion coming from obscure books that is not available in brick-and-mortar stores.
Jack Madrid talked about the different screens that influence our lives: first was the movie screen, then it was followed by the TV screen, the laptop screen, the tablet screen, and now the ubiquitous cellphone screen. He said that cellphones have social networking capabilities that are used by products and companies to constantly bombard people with ads at any time of the day and wherever they may be.
What’s the Future?
I met Jonathan E. Eubanks, CEO of Invicta Alliance Partners, who visited the Philippines and made a presentation about social media as a marketing platform. He said that he is creating a new site that will look like a realistic city that could be populated by avatars and real companies that could rent or occupy virtual office buildings or stores where avatars could enter or where visitors to the site could browse or look and order the products of these real companies either for their avatars or for themselves. Deliveries of products ordered by real people could be done by the outlet of the company nearest to the buyer’s location. Payments could also be done virtually or upon delivery. For example, Levi’s could have a virtual store that will carry all their models and all the reader will do is to click on the model he or she wants and fit it to his or her avatar which presumably would have the same measurements of the one who created the avatar. If the buyer is satisfied with the looks of the merchandise then he could easily order it for his or her avatar or even for himself or herself.
The virtual streets would be populated by buildings and store fronts that could also display signs or ads just like in real life. And avatars would be seen walking, shopping, or sitting in a café.
The site could also host casinos that avatars could enter order chips and join any kind of games offered by the casinos.
Is Social Media Here to Stay?
I think social media will still grow in importance in the coming few years as programmers discover new ways of creating more attractive networking methods that people find beneficial and businessmen find profitable. It therefore behooves businessmen, that in addition to their brick and mortar business, to learn how to use the social media for offering their products and services.
The Internet has created so much content, most of them created by the user themselves that users have now so much to choose from thereby creating more fragmentation of the market. It is therefore more important today to create communities of interest around a brand to retain a core audience in order to keep them engaged and loyal.
The social media has allowed amateurs to compete with expensive professional advertising companies at practically no cost at all. And print media currently hosting ads of companies today will see more ads migrating to cyberspace which may not pay the same earnings that they do have now. And since users and readers can respond to anything posted on the Internet, businessmen will be forced to engage with their customers, listen to them and become more personal in their communication strategies.
News, good or bad, travel faster on twitter, written by people as they see events happening before their eyes and received by people on their cellphone or iPad screens at the same time that the event is happening at a no or very low cost to them. If it could be secured this is one good way organizations can share information and knowledge across functional or geographical boundaries.
Relationships would no longer be exclusively dependent on physical presence. The ease with which people could communicate with each other will help in maintaining relationship between people who may at times be temporarily separated due to travel or new assignments. There would also be relationship entirely dependent on virtual presence in cyberspace when we befriend other people of similar interest in the Internet.
Is there anything else I missed? There are probably a lot of things that will emerge from innovation in the social media that we are not yet aware of. It is difficult to anticipate everything that can come out as more technology develops and enhances the Internet. All we can do is try to recognize new developments and be more curious on the potential direction it is taking us. We need to be aware that our minds could bend the information we are receiving because it does not fit our own experience and current knowledge thereby leading us to a wrong conclusion. And most of all we need to understand that our expectations could make us jump into conclusion when what it most needed is the suspension of judgment so that we could be open to different alternative future.
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1 Wikipedia
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Postmodern Leader
What is a postmodern leader? He or she operates in the current environment which is marked by the challenges of complexity, unpredictability, and turbulence. He or she is you and I and we may be managers with position of authority or just employees who are not holding any position of authority in an organization.
Leadership is about influence and power that makes others follow someone on a path or a certain direction. To see how this influence and power to lead people on a path has shifted to us as individuals we may need to have a quick informal review of the history of leadership based on the pieces of knowledge that we have about the history of civilization itself. As we go through the different stages of development we hope to be able to give some explanation to events or make connections between different events.
Imagine a small band of hunters and gatherers 120,000 – 200,000 years ago as they roam the forest to hunt and forage for food. They saw everything as having spirit that made plants grow or the winds blow. They believed that there were spirits who had dominion over things. And anything that happened during that time was attributed to the spirit or what they believed was magic. They believed that the world was created by the spirits for them and those who could invoke the magic to make life better for them was in great demand. And in spite of the egalitarian nature of the hunter and gatherer society the shaman had the greatest influence in that era because he was believed to be able to invoke the magic and lead the tribe in the right path.
Eventually, when the ice age ended 10,000 years ago and people learned to produce their food from the land instead of relying on nature and the spirit, the acquisition, possession, enjoyment and ownership of land gave rise to wealth and with wealth came power – economic and political . The need to develop land created private ownership and ownership gave rights to owners to protect their land through codes of behavior and the institutions to enforce the codes. Therefore, the influence and power shifted from the shaman to the landowner who maintained authority over the land and its use. And anyone who was allowed to till the land owned by someone else had to agree to serve the owner in exchange for the right to do so (feudalism). In some cases conquests were resorted to increase production and those who were defeated were used as slave labor. Increased agricultural outputs supported a larger non-agricultural population who engaged in crafts and the production of services.
The production of crafts grew and gave rise to trade and commerce. As trade grew in the 1500’s, many ruling governments began to fear that that the prosperity of the state could be compromised if its supply of capital diminishes with a trade imbalance. Ruling governments then began the protectionist practice of limiting imports while expanding exports through the use of subsidies and tariff (mercantilism). They undertook exploration to find new outlets for their products and protected their colonies from other colonizers. As exploration reached out to far flung places and trade expanded the undertaking became bigger and borrowing capital from bankers to finance the venture seemed to be the easier method than raising taxes. This gave rise to banking that spread across the globe to serve their clients in different countries. Capitalists and bankers through the interest that they charge and arbitrage began to exert more influence in the economy of nations and in politics. And when governments could not raise money through legislation and taxes as quickly as required by circumstances like a war effort they resort to borrowings.
With a growing population in the 1700’s, the traditional method of domestic handicraft system of manufacturing was no longer adequate. The Enlightenment and the Renaissance that begun during the commercial age encouraged questioning, analyzing and improving things and led to scientific inquiries and methods that was used to usher in new inventions that revolutionized the world and brought forth the industrial age. This led to the factory-based mechanization . The industrialist began to adopt the scientific method pioneered by Adam Smith by introducing the division of labor that increased tremendously the productivity by workers. They began to use the moving production line to increase efficiency which was first seen as dehumanizing and was resisted by workers but because of the gains in efficiency workers were forced to adjust to the speed of the machines. Not only was work divided and standardized for easy training and not only was work speeded up by the moving production line but through the recommendation of Frederick Taylor people were selected on the basis of their skills or physical traits and match them to the requirements of the tasks. The resulting reduction of inefficiency and the use of machinery reduced unit cost to a level that the growing population can afford to buy. Therefore, practically anything that was produced was bought by the masses and the industrialist thrived sometimes at the expense of the exploited laborers – thus began the rise of modern management.
As the business expanded, shares of stocks were sold to many individuals to increase the capital needed to operate the huge enterprises that began to span the globe. With so many owners, the influence and power shifted from owners/ industrialist to professional managers, who were hired to manage the growing assets of the organization. These were the organization men who dedicated their lives to the achievement of the goals of the organization. The scientific method that began in the industrial age grew into a management science which professional managers were trained to use. Managers were trained in the four function of management introduced by Henri Fayol: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. They used the same analytical tools such as the SWOT analysis, the Portfolio Strategy, Porter’s Differentiation Strategy or the BCG matrix to evaluate what was a predictable and quantifiable market. And when the marketing discipline was also introduced most managers started using segmentation, targeting, positioning and the four P’s. With the advent of more user-friendly computer in the mid to later part of the 1900’s more quantitative methods were used in analyzing the massive information that had become available. These professional managers were the stars and they ruled through command and control fostering compliance but creating an environment of fear, distrust and internal competitiveness. The public admired them for their exploits and the Board of Directors was willing to pay them star salaries. Professional managers searched for the rules that can improve processes, reduce costs, improve organizational efficiencies (re engineering), improve quality (Quality Circles) or create an innovation (skunk work) that will result into more efficiency and effectiveness thus increasing the profits that drew in more investors. They seemed to have the answers and people read their biographies to learn from them.
The growing use of the computers to run the business required programs to run the computers. Essentially a program told a computer how to solve a specific problem. And because the world was full of problems, the number and variety of programs that people wrote for computers was practically endless. Not all managers could write a computer program because they were either not trained for it or they did not have the time to devote to it. Therefore the power and influence shifted from the professional managers to a new breed of employees who were born with the computer and were more familiar with it than anybody else. They were the ones who wrote the programs that ran the computers. Others maintain the computers and the information system that ran the company. Employees also began to use the computer to gather information that their managers used to feed them. They communicated with each other bypassing departmental and organizational boundaries. These employees were the knowledge workers. And unlike the tangible current and fixed assets of the company listed on the company’s financial statement that stayed in the premises of the company, these intangible assets were not listed and they leave the premises of the company every night when they go home. These were the young, individualistic, freedom minded generation called the Generation X. They lived through corporate downsizing and were therefore more cautious than the previous generation called the Baby Boomers. They were said to be more conscious about social responsibility, were less materialistic and more interested in job satisfaction than in sacrificing personal happiness and growth for promotion. They chose where to work and often times dictated how they should be managed. When an employee walked away to join another company, the asset of the company walked away too. During that time organizations began to talk of people as the greatest asset of the company and began to design work that was more engaging and motivating to the people to retain them
Today, modern management is believed to have run its course because of the changes brought about by deregulation that allowed the unimpeded movement of goods across the globe and the development in the information technology that enabled the free flow of information to any parts of the world shrinking it into a global village and creating more transparency . There are products and services that could be produced or outsourced more cheaply in other parts of the world for the same quality. The supply chain was broken up or de aggregated into specialized or separate functions and was produced or outsourced where it made sense. This specialization in the global economy or in the global marketplace created what could be described as a global division of labor increasing productivity across the global economy. But as a result, competition has increased and has created a buyer’s market because of the availability of supply coming from all over the globe. Consumers now have a lot of alternatives, choose from a number of substitute products and select those that can provide quality at the lowest price delivered at the speed that meet or exceeds their needs. And the information they need to make a decision is instantly available online in the Internet and the information does not necessarily come from suppliers but from peers and even others whom they may not have met personally but who may have already tried the service or the product almost rendering advertisements from companies irrelevant. With more knowledge and growing sophistication in selecting from many new innovative products and services consumers can now afford to become more discriminating and could dictate what they want as individuals thereby fragmenting the market further. The influence and power has clearly shifted to the individual consumers making some businessmen think seriously that their real business is taking care of customers that provide a stream of cash. The consumers now dictate what they want and expect to be satisfied. That is you and I.
But if everyone else has the influence and the power then who is the leader? No one and everyone - that is the paradox. .
So how would we lead in these complex, unpredictable and turbulent times? How do we plan if we could not know the unpredictable result of a simple event that may have happened somewhere else in the world that we may not even be aware of or that which we may have thought was inconsequential? How could we organize to achieve our goals when situations are changing very quickly? I think we could if we change our mindset about how we should lead our lives or how we should lead in our work with our colleagues, office supervisors/managers, and clients/customers or consumers of the product or services that is produced by the organizations we work with.
Think about boat trips. In a river boat trip the currents would be predictable and the trip would be leisurely for the passengers and quantifiable for the crew that is led by a riverboat captain. The boat will be bigger so that it could have space for entertainment and also carry cargo for additional income. The riverboat captain would have all the training and experience needed to steer the ship clear to its destinations and he may even have the time for personal appearances for a relaxing evening dinners with the passengers. He would know what to do and what to tell his crew members in each cruise because he knows what to expect. Now, compare the river boat scenario to shooting the rapids where the bends are unpredictable because the rushing currents keeps changing the topography of the river banks, the water is rushing pell-mell and splashing down on rocks at breakneck speed, and the water is frothing white because of the turbulence. Under such a condition you will be both the tourist/passenger and crew member at the same time. Your boat will be smaller and sturdier with no place for anything or anyone that could not contribute to the effort. Everyone would be paddling furiously and shouting orders to each other at the same time to make sure the boat and its occupants do not get smashed into a river bank or into a rock. Everyone collaborates and commits to the goal of reaching the destination safely.
To a group shooting the rapids, there is clarity of what needs to be accomplished and trust that everyone will do his part. They have more “what if” questions given the uncertainty of what will transpire during the trip. The conditions themselves foster experimentation and innovation and even spontaneity because no one really knows what to expect. Therefore, the involvement and participation of everyone is important in the learning process. Everyone in the group has a role to play and is no less important or significant than the others.
Living and doing business today is like shooting the rapids, and the leadership required of us today is far different from those in the modern era of management. Consider the following:
1. Whereas modern leadership had the knowledge or experience in guiding others through the path, the postmodern leader may have no knowledge of what or where the path is.
2. Whereas there could be one star in modern leadership who told everyone what to do, in postmodern leadership everyone rolls up their sleeves and work with the group to look for the right direction.
3. Whereas the conditions in modern leadership were predictable and quantifiable, in postmodern leadership the conditions are never the same.
4. Whereas in modern leadership the answers to the questions were already known by the leader and could be given to the subordinates even before they ask, in postmodern leadership knowing what questions to ask each other and trying to discover together the answers to the questions as they go is critical.
5. Whereas in modern leadership people needed to be individually motivated for them to align with company objectives, in postmodern leadership people do not need motivation but a framework (community conversation) to find meaning in their work.
6. Whereas modern leadership had already established proven processes, postmodern leadership fosters experimentation to find what works in a new environment
7. Whereas modern leadership needed a bureaucracy and a hierarchy to efficiently coordinate the different functions to ensure the achievement of its objectives, in postmodern leadership the boxes are less defined in order to foster better connections across the organization so that it can deal with fast changing conditions.
8. Whereas modern leadership had a set of communication network that fed information on the need to know basis to employees and a scalar chain to trigger the communication, in postmodern leadership where boxes and boundaries are ill defined, the system is fed with rich information coming from all directions.
9. Whereas modern leadership annually cascaded downward the corporate goals and its value system through the hierarchy, in postmodern leadership the clarity of what the group have agreed they wanted to accomplish and who they wanted to be is a conversation that goes on continuously like a community always defining and redefining itself in a changing world.
10. Whereas modern leadership had already standardized and defined the role each one plays and had set policies to govern behavior in an organization, in postmodern leadership people are empowered to belong and to reach their creative potential in a loosely held organizations.
11. Whereas modern leadership required position, coercive and reward power to build organizations, postmodern leadership requires political and personal skills to build communities.
12. Whereas modern leaders kept themselves insulated from its constituency through layers in the organization, the postmodern leader makes himself available not only to his group but others outside of his own work group to listen, to understand and to see things from the perspective of others and to know what is important to them.
13. Whereas the modern leader gave answers, the postmodern leader asks questions.
14. Whereas the organization in modern leadership was hierarchical and bureaucratic, in postmodern leadership the structure of the company is more organic.
15. Whereas modern leadership was more goal or company oriented, in postmodern leadership the approach is more process and person oriented.
16. Whereas in modern leadership people acted more like employees waiting to be told what problems to solve, in postmodern leadership employees act more like consultants trying to understand the company direction and trying to look for problems to solve.
17. Whereas in modern leadership reliance was placed on the expertise of the CEO, in postmodern leadership there is more reliance on how to tap the different expertise which may or may not lie within the organization itself.
18. Whereas modern leadership maybe more self-contained and satisfied with its own expertise, the postmodern leadership always considers a network of experts that could be tapped to extend one’s own abilities and resources
19. Whereas modern leadership took calculated risk by relying on scientific management, postmodern leadership takes calculated risk by relying on relationships to accomplish something of substance
20. Whereas modern leadership may have acted to protect existing ideas and keeps extending its life span, the postmodern leadership will try new ideas, explore new initiatives, undertake new projects and try to get ahead by working quickly to build up experience in all the new opportunities that surrounds it.
21. Whereas modern leadership favored a more stable form of organization, postmodern leadership advocates adhocracy where expertise could be organized to implement certain projects or address certain opportunities or problems then could be disbanded when the project is finished – an organization that can coalesce and fragment.
22. Whereas modern leaders acted as more like a visiting fireman the postmodern leader acts more like a host
23. Whereas modern leadership wanted everyone to report to an office, the postmodern leadership may not require people to be in one office, and may allow people to work separately and get connected wirelessly to produce results
And since our mindset is still influenced by the modern way of thinking this approach may be difficult to accept because of our mindset about keeping order and discipline. But there could be no control in an interconnected complex world and it would be better for us to accept and deal with it as soon as possible. Every choice made equates into an infinite number of possibilities (butterfly effect). We can only prepare but we cannot control.
The postmodern leader is us. We now operate in an environment which is marked by the challenges of complexity, unpredictability, and turbulence. And it does not really matter whether we are in a position of authority or not. The availability of information and the means to communicate has empowered all of us to be able to exercise influence and power to make a difference in this world. We have the power to learn from others and let others learn from us thereby globalizing ourselves . Our choices influence the world around us. The question is do we have the courage to do so, to become the postmodern leader?
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1. Emmanuel T. Santos, Organization and Management, page 370
2. Primal Religion and Civilization, http://www.macrohistory.com/h1/ch00.htm
3. Emmanuel T. Santos, Organization and Management, page 100
4. Emmanuel T. Santos, Organization and Management, page 101
5. William H Whyte, The Organization Man
6. Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat.
7. Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat.
Leadership is about influence and power that makes others follow someone on a path or a certain direction. To see how this influence and power to lead people on a path has shifted to us as individuals we may need to have a quick informal review of the history of leadership based on the pieces of knowledge that we have about the history of civilization itself. As we go through the different stages of development we hope to be able to give some explanation to events or make connections between different events.
Imagine a small band of hunters and gatherers 120,000 – 200,000 years ago as they roam the forest to hunt and forage for food. They saw everything as having spirit that made plants grow or the winds blow. They believed that there were spirits who had dominion over things. And anything that happened during that time was attributed to the spirit or what they believed was magic. They believed that the world was created by the spirits for them and those who could invoke the magic to make life better for them was in great demand. And in spite of the egalitarian nature of the hunter and gatherer society the shaman had the greatest influence in that era because he was believed to be able to invoke the magic and lead the tribe in the right path.
Eventually, when the ice age ended 10,000 years ago and people learned to produce their food from the land instead of relying on nature and the spirit, the acquisition, possession, enjoyment and ownership of land gave rise to wealth and with wealth came power – economic and political . The need to develop land created private ownership and ownership gave rights to owners to protect their land through codes of behavior and the institutions to enforce the codes. Therefore, the influence and power shifted from the shaman to the landowner who maintained authority over the land and its use. And anyone who was allowed to till the land owned by someone else had to agree to serve the owner in exchange for the right to do so (feudalism). In some cases conquests were resorted to increase production and those who were defeated were used as slave labor. Increased agricultural outputs supported a larger non-agricultural population who engaged in crafts and the production of services.
The production of crafts grew and gave rise to trade and commerce. As trade grew in the 1500’s, many ruling governments began to fear that that the prosperity of the state could be compromised if its supply of capital diminishes with a trade imbalance. Ruling governments then began the protectionist practice of limiting imports while expanding exports through the use of subsidies and tariff (mercantilism). They undertook exploration to find new outlets for their products and protected their colonies from other colonizers. As exploration reached out to far flung places and trade expanded the undertaking became bigger and borrowing capital from bankers to finance the venture seemed to be the easier method than raising taxes. This gave rise to banking that spread across the globe to serve their clients in different countries. Capitalists and bankers through the interest that they charge and arbitrage began to exert more influence in the economy of nations and in politics. And when governments could not raise money through legislation and taxes as quickly as required by circumstances like a war effort they resort to borrowings.
With a growing population in the 1700’s, the traditional method of domestic handicraft system of manufacturing was no longer adequate. The Enlightenment and the Renaissance that begun during the commercial age encouraged questioning, analyzing and improving things and led to scientific inquiries and methods that was used to usher in new inventions that revolutionized the world and brought forth the industrial age. This led to the factory-based mechanization . The industrialist began to adopt the scientific method pioneered by Adam Smith by introducing the division of labor that increased tremendously the productivity by workers. They began to use the moving production line to increase efficiency which was first seen as dehumanizing and was resisted by workers but because of the gains in efficiency workers were forced to adjust to the speed of the machines. Not only was work divided and standardized for easy training and not only was work speeded up by the moving production line but through the recommendation of Frederick Taylor people were selected on the basis of their skills or physical traits and match them to the requirements of the tasks. The resulting reduction of inefficiency and the use of machinery reduced unit cost to a level that the growing population can afford to buy. Therefore, practically anything that was produced was bought by the masses and the industrialist thrived sometimes at the expense of the exploited laborers – thus began the rise of modern management.
As the business expanded, shares of stocks were sold to many individuals to increase the capital needed to operate the huge enterprises that began to span the globe. With so many owners, the influence and power shifted from owners/ industrialist to professional managers, who were hired to manage the growing assets of the organization. These were the organization men who dedicated their lives to the achievement of the goals of the organization. The scientific method that began in the industrial age grew into a management science which professional managers were trained to use. Managers were trained in the four function of management introduced by Henri Fayol: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. They used the same analytical tools such as the SWOT analysis, the Portfolio Strategy, Porter’s Differentiation Strategy or the BCG matrix to evaluate what was a predictable and quantifiable market. And when the marketing discipline was also introduced most managers started using segmentation, targeting, positioning and the four P’s. With the advent of more user-friendly computer in the mid to later part of the 1900’s more quantitative methods were used in analyzing the massive information that had become available. These professional managers were the stars and they ruled through command and control fostering compliance but creating an environment of fear, distrust and internal competitiveness. The public admired them for their exploits and the Board of Directors was willing to pay them star salaries. Professional managers searched for the rules that can improve processes, reduce costs, improve organizational efficiencies (re engineering), improve quality (Quality Circles) or create an innovation (skunk work) that will result into more efficiency and effectiveness thus increasing the profits that drew in more investors. They seemed to have the answers and people read their biographies to learn from them.
The growing use of the computers to run the business required programs to run the computers. Essentially a program told a computer how to solve a specific problem. And because the world was full of problems, the number and variety of programs that people wrote for computers was practically endless. Not all managers could write a computer program because they were either not trained for it or they did not have the time to devote to it. Therefore the power and influence shifted from the professional managers to a new breed of employees who were born with the computer and were more familiar with it than anybody else. They were the ones who wrote the programs that ran the computers. Others maintain the computers and the information system that ran the company. Employees also began to use the computer to gather information that their managers used to feed them. They communicated with each other bypassing departmental and organizational boundaries. These employees were the knowledge workers. And unlike the tangible current and fixed assets of the company listed on the company’s financial statement that stayed in the premises of the company, these intangible assets were not listed and they leave the premises of the company every night when they go home. These were the young, individualistic, freedom minded generation called the Generation X. They lived through corporate downsizing and were therefore more cautious than the previous generation called the Baby Boomers. They were said to be more conscious about social responsibility, were less materialistic and more interested in job satisfaction than in sacrificing personal happiness and growth for promotion. They chose where to work and often times dictated how they should be managed. When an employee walked away to join another company, the asset of the company walked away too. During that time organizations began to talk of people as the greatest asset of the company and began to design work that was more engaging and motivating to the people to retain them
Today, modern management is believed to have run its course because of the changes brought about by deregulation that allowed the unimpeded movement of goods across the globe and the development in the information technology that enabled the free flow of information to any parts of the world shrinking it into a global village and creating more transparency . There are products and services that could be produced or outsourced more cheaply in other parts of the world for the same quality. The supply chain was broken up or de aggregated into specialized or separate functions and was produced or outsourced where it made sense. This specialization in the global economy or in the global marketplace created what could be described as a global division of labor increasing productivity across the global economy. But as a result, competition has increased and has created a buyer’s market because of the availability of supply coming from all over the globe. Consumers now have a lot of alternatives, choose from a number of substitute products and select those that can provide quality at the lowest price delivered at the speed that meet or exceeds their needs. And the information they need to make a decision is instantly available online in the Internet and the information does not necessarily come from suppliers but from peers and even others whom they may not have met personally but who may have already tried the service or the product almost rendering advertisements from companies irrelevant. With more knowledge and growing sophistication in selecting from many new innovative products and services consumers can now afford to become more discriminating and could dictate what they want as individuals thereby fragmenting the market further. The influence and power has clearly shifted to the individual consumers making some businessmen think seriously that their real business is taking care of customers that provide a stream of cash. The consumers now dictate what they want and expect to be satisfied. That is you and I.
But if everyone else has the influence and the power then who is the leader? No one and everyone - that is the paradox. .
So how would we lead in these complex, unpredictable and turbulent times? How do we plan if we could not know the unpredictable result of a simple event that may have happened somewhere else in the world that we may not even be aware of or that which we may have thought was inconsequential? How could we organize to achieve our goals when situations are changing very quickly? I think we could if we change our mindset about how we should lead our lives or how we should lead in our work with our colleagues, office supervisors/managers, and clients/customers or consumers of the product or services that is produced by the organizations we work with.
Think about boat trips. In a river boat trip the currents would be predictable and the trip would be leisurely for the passengers and quantifiable for the crew that is led by a riverboat captain. The boat will be bigger so that it could have space for entertainment and also carry cargo for additional income. The riverboat captain would have all the training and experience needed to steer the ship clear to its destinations and he may even have the time for personal appearances for a relaxing evening dinners with the passengers. He would know what to do and what to tell his crew members in each cruise because he knows what to expect. Now, compare the river boat scenario to shooting the rapids where the bends are unpredictable because the rushing currents keeps changing the topography of the river banks, the water is rushing pell-mell and splashing down on rocks at breakneck speed, and the water is frothing white because of the turbulence. Under such a condition you will be both the tourist/passenger and crew member at the same time. Your boat will be smaller and sturdier with no place for anything or anyone that could not contribute to the effort. Everyone would be paddling furiously and shouting orders to each other at the same time to make sure the boat and its occupants do not get smashed into a river bank or into a rock. Everyone collaborates and commits to the goal of reaching the destination safely.
To a group shooting the rapids, there is clarity of what needs to be accomplished and trust that everyone will do his part. They have more “what if” questions given the uncertainty of what will transpire during the trip. The conditions themselves foster experimentation and innovation and even spontaneity because no one really knows what to expect. Therefore, the involvement and participation of everyone is important in the learning process. Everyone in the group has a role to play and is no less important or significant than the others.
Living and doing business today is like shooting the rapids, and the leadership required of us today is far different from those in the modern era of management. Consider the following:
1. Whereas modern leadership had the knowledge or experience in guiding others through the path, the postmodern leader may have no knowledge of what or where the path is.
2. Whereas there could be one star in modern leadership who told everyone what to do, in postmodern leadership everyone rolls up their sleeves and work with the group to look for the right direction.
3. Whereas the conditions in modern leadership were predictable and quantifiable, in postmodern leadership the conditions are never the same.
4. Whereas in modern leadership the answers to the questions were already known by the leader and could be given to the subordinates even before they ask, in postmodern leadership knowing what questions to ask each other and trying to discover together the answers to the questions as they go is critical.
5. Whereas in modern leadership people needed to be individually motivated for them to align with company objectives, in postmodern leadership people do not need motivation but a framework (community conversation) to find meaning in their work.
6. Whereas modern leadership had already established proven processes, postmodern leadership fosters experimentation to find what works in a new environment
7. Whereas modern leadership needed a bureaucracy and a hierarchy to efficiently coordinate the different functions to ensure the achievement of its objectives, in postmodern leadership the boxes are less defined in order to foster better connections across the organization so that it can deal with fast changing conditions.
8. Whereas modern leadership had a set of communication network that fed information on the need to know basis to employees and a scalar chain to trigger the communication, in postmodern leadership where boxes and boundaries are ill defined, the system is fed with rich information coming from all directions.
9. Whereas modern leadership annually cascaded downward the corporate goals and its value system through the hierarchy, in postmodern leadership the clarity of what the group have agreed they wanted to accomplish and who they wanted to be is a conversation that goes on continuously like a community always defining and redefining itself in a changing world.
10. Whereas modern leadership had already standardized and defined the role each one plays and had set policies to govern behavior in an organization, in postmodern leadership people are empowered to belong and to reach their creative potential in a loosely held organizations.
11. Whereas modern leadership required position, coercive and reward power to build organizations, postmodern leadership requires political and personal skills to build communities.
12. Whereas modern leaders kept themselves insulated from its constituency through layers in the organization, the postmodern leader makes himself available not only to his group but others outside of his own work group to listen, to understand and to see things from the perspective of others and to know what is important to them.
13. Whereas the modern leader gave answers, the postmodern leader asks questions.
14. Whereas the organization in modern leadership was hierarchical and bureaucratic, in postmodern leadership the structure of the company is more organic.
15. Whereas modern leadership was more goal or company oriented, in postmodern leadership the approach is more process and person oriented.
16. Whereas in modern leadership people acted more like employees waiting to be told what problems to solve, in postmodern leadership employees act more like consultants trying to understand the company direction and trying to look for problems to solve.
17. Whereas in modern leadership reliance was placed on the expertise of the CEO, in postmodern leadership there is more reliance on how to tap the different expertise which may or may not lie within the organization itself.
18. Whereas modern leadership maybe more self-contained and satisfied with its own expertise, the postmodern leadership always considers a network of experts that could be tapped to extend one’s own abilities and resources
19. Whereas modern leadership took calculated risk by relying on scientific management, postmodern leadership takes calculated risk by relying on relationships to accomplish something of substance
20. Whereas modern leadership may have acted to protect existing ideas and keeps extending its life span, the postmodern leadership will try new ideas, explore new initiatives, undertake new projects and try to get ahead by working quickly to build up experience in all the new opportunities that surrounds it.
21. Whereas modern leadership favored a more stable form of organization, postmodern leadership advocates adhocracy where expertise could be organized to implement certain projects or address certain opportunities or problems then could be disbanded when the project is finished – an organization that can coalesce and fragment.
22. Whereas modern leaders acted as more like a visiting fireman the postmodern leader acts more like a host
23. Whereas modern leadership wanted everyone to report to an office, the postmodern leadership may not require people to be in one office, and may allow people to work separately and get connected wirelessly to produce results
And since our mindset is still influenced by the modern way of thinking this approach may be difficult to accept because of our mindset about keeping order and discipline. But there could be no control in an interconnected complex world and it would be better for us to accept and deal with it as soon as possible. Every choice made equates into an infinite number of possibilities (butterfly effect). We can only prepare but we cannot control.
The postmodern leader is us. We now operate in an environment which is marked by the challenges of complexity, unpredictability, and turbulence. And it does not really matter whether we are in a position of authority or not. The availability of information and the means to communicate has empowered all of us to be able to exercise influence and power to make a difference in this world. We have the power to learn from others and let others learn from us thereby globalizing ourselves . Our choices influence the world around us. The question is do we have the courage to do so, to become the postmodern leader?
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1. Emmanuel T. Santos, Organization and Management, page 370
2. Primal Religion and Civilization, http://www.macrohistory.com/h1/ch00.htm
3. Emmanuel T. Santos, Organization and Management, page 100
4. Emmanuel T. Santos, Organization and Management, page 101
5. William H Whyte, The Organization Man
6. Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat.
7. Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat.
The Evolving Workplace
Technological advances and deregulation had created changes that affected the way we live and the way we do business. Both events had allowed practically everyone around the world to get connected in a way that provides practically everyone and every consumer with information to make a choice and the ability by every supplier to compete in providing innovative solutions to the different and changing tastes and needs of people faster than before. We are also now capable of supplying more goods than what the limited and segmented consumer can buy, thereby creating intense competition and explosive changes and innovations to differentiate basically similar products and services from one another. These changes seem to be accelerating rather than slowing down. And while business may be keeping its eye on its long-term direction, it is also pressured to produce short-term results because of a product life cycle that also seems to be getting shorter every year.
As a result of all these changes, business has to be more flexible and should have plans that could be revised to accommodate expected and unexpected conditions that may affect its sustainability. The basic idea behind the business may remain the same but the organization, leadership, and evaluation criteria will continue to evolve to adapt to emerging opportunities and threats.
Some of the changes are in the way employees are expected to work, adapting to intergenerational diversity, acceptance of job hopping, the way employees expect to be treated, hoteling – changes in the work area, adapting to cultural diversity, managing in a virtual organization, and changing organizational structures.
EXPECTATION FROM EMPLOYEES
Since everything is happening faster creating new situations where experience may not be very useful or where surveys and the interpretation of results that takes time to do may be over taken by events employees are expected to think intuitively as well as rationally. And since changes are happening faster employees are also expected to question every current practices to test its relevance to evolving situations and changed if found wanting. This requires employees to get out of their comfort zone and become themselves as the agents of change. Given this scenario employees are expected to track trends and be the first to get to or out of the market, and to be the first of everything because anyone who comes second would be too late to fully exploit the opportunity that may have already passed.
Today’s changes can cause a lot of uncertainty but business has to respond rapidly even with a modicum of preparation and be ready to correct direction as it goes along. When I was working with a high tech company, a decision was made by the home office to move some of its operation into the country to take advantage of an opportunity. I was tasked to hire a massive number of people to take over the operation and train them within three months, which I thought was very unusual and difficult to do because other high tech companies in the country were doing the same thing and we were competing for a limited number of applicants. The other side of this situation is the need to quickly lay off a massive number of people when and if a decision is made to change direction or to locate an operation in another country. This takes a lot of organizational flexibility and would point to the desirability of also using temporary workers or the temporary use of retired workers who still want to work on a part time basis.
INTERGENERATIONAL DIVERSITY
A few years ago, I joined an organization that had a long history of operating in the country. As such it had a mix of workers from a few workers that were close to retirement, to a large group of Baby Boomer employees, a smaller group of Generation X employees, and a fresh batch of Generation Y or what we called the Millennial’s. I saw how different they were from each other and how each one worked and how each is motivated by different things.
• The ones close to retirement were the loyal employees, called the Silent Generation1 (born before 1946) who went through the effect of the World War II and were glad they had a job and a retirement check to look forward to. They were used to the bureaucracy with structured duties and fixed working hours and balked at the idea of working at some odd jobs that may be different from what their current jobs were and had technophobia in using the computer. One of them insisted on a secretary printing all his emails and dictating to the secretary his replies that is then sent through the email of the secretary which wasted a lot of time.
• The Baby Boomers1 (1946 – 1964) that lived through economic prosperity were mostly all well-educated, affluent, privileged and ambitious in climbing the corporate ladder and were more willing to travel and get new assignments as long as it offered them a chance for promotion and growth – they were the perfect organization man who were willing to subordinate their personal goals to the company goals. I had some employees who were willing to postpone the celebration of wedding anniversaries or who would miss the graduation ceremonies of their children to attend to corporate activities.
• The Generation X1 (1965 – 1981) employees who went through downsizing because of the oil crisis and the recession and aware of the effect of unmitigated consumption and the resulting pollution of the planet were a little bit more cautious and cynical about working for large organizations. They were less materialistic and valued experience and job satisfaction more than the monetary reward of a job. They were also more eager to volunteer for community work and support corporate social responsibility programs. They were free agents who like to choose where and what to work on; they prefer short duration project assignments, and in working in teams. This group of employees was the backbone of our work with the disabled and was willing to travel to the other parts of the country to promote our advocacy for the physically and mentally challenged. Another example of this kind of employee is one of my staff members who resigned because he was being promoted and reassigned to Manila – he grew up in Cebu and wanted to stay close to family and relatives.
• The Millennial’s1 (1982 – 2000), on the other hand, were the young employees who had passion for acquisition of personal properties – cellphones, MP3, etc. They have utter fluency and comfort with computer, digital, and Internet technology and could always be relied on to guide older employees in using the new technology. They were always looking for a variety of task to do, were always connected to the Internet either through their cellphones or laptop and were comfortable with multi-tasking.
Because of the above diversity of employees in my previous organization there was no one best way I could manage them. I just had to try to understand each generation of employee according to their generational imperatives and tried to treat them accordingly. Conflicts occurred between each generation as expected but it was not too difficult to resolve because I made them aware of each of their strengths and weaknesses and how we could use them to work with each other. But as the Baby Boomers exit the employment scene the values of the Gen X employees (who choose where they want to work) and the Millenial’s employees (have great expectations and switch jobs frequently), would dominate the workplace and it would serve managers well to understand each of them to use their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
JOB HOPPING
Most big organizations today may be composed of only a few long-term loyal employees who probably had only worked for the current organization without having experienced working for another company plus many younger employees who may have worked with other companies before joining the current organization. Job hopping may be something that should be expected in the workplace either because of restructuring, changes in strategies, or employees looking for more meaningful engagements. It has been said in many journals that new graduates today is expected to change jobs seven to eight times before they retire
EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS
The older employees may have been exposed and may have been used to the traditional top-down management style whereas younger workers might be more suited to the situational type of management and expect to be measured in terms of result under flexible working hours. Management has to look to providing these younger employees more unconventional career tracks (diagonal or horizontal career paths rather than the traditional vertical corporate ladder careers); portfolios of experiences; opportunity to learn and to grow and expand skills. In addition to growth and professional development, companies may have to give employees more time off from work, vacations, new job titles, job security, bonuses, financial assistance, charitable giving, and similar incentives.
HOTELING
Work area arrangements are also changing. When I was in China, I visited a chemical company that only provided their employees a cellphone, a laptop, and a filing cabinet stored in the office. And these employees were not necessarily expected to go to the office every day. But when the employees needed to work in the office, they checked-in and made reservations, through a computer, for available desks where they can pull their filing cabinets alongside. Once they have finished their work in the office, they checked-out and pulled their filing cabinets back to the storage room for later use. This practice maximizes the use of desks and office spaces that allowed a smaller office to accommodate a larger number of staff.
MANAGING IN A VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION
Face to face management of people is becoming less frequent because work is now taken out of the office location and brought to the field. Managers now manage people who are unseen in the office. Managers have to change the way they communicate with and motivate their subordinates and find some ways by which a managers build a team pulling in one direction. And since some type of work may also be outsourced, a manager may have to coordinate the work of some workers who may not be directly reporting to him. Add to this the fact that many organization are trying to build partnership with a select group of big accounts, a manager also has to learn to collaborate with people at different organizational levels of the customer.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Global work teams have become more commonplace, and employees are interacting with an expanding mix of colleagues from different cultures. The cultural orientation of each member of the team that comes from different parts of the world will speak, act, negotiate and make decisions differently. Understanding the cultures of the different countries can help individual employees to predict how people in certain cultures will speak, act, negotiate and make decisions thereby preventing any misunderstanding and improving communications. In order to prevent communication problems, traveling executives or foreigners being assigned to other countries are given cultural orientation by some multinational companies. Other companies provide training to all their employees on how to work across cultures.
According to Fons Trompenaars, every culture distinguishes itself from others by the specific solutions it chooses to certain problems2. According to him it is convenient to look at these problems under three headings:
1. Those which arise from our relationships with other people
-When dealing with people there are some cultures that based relationships on one good universal way whereas there are some cultures where friendship has special obligations.
-There are some cultures where people regard themselves primarily as individuals whereas some cultures where people regard themselves as part of a group.
-Other cultures regard business interaction as objective and detached while other cultures regard business a human affair full of emotional responses.
-Other cultures focused on specific business relationship prescribed by a contract whereas other cultures prefer real and personal contact before business can proceed
-Some cultures judge people on the basis of what they accomplish and their track record whereas others judge people on the basis of birth, kinship, gender, age, or connections
2. Those which comes from the passage to time
IMPORTANCE OF THE PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
-In some societies what somebody had achieved in the past is not that important compared to what they plan for the future
-In some societies you can make an impression with your past accomplishments than those of today
-In some societies what matters is your current performance
TIME PERCEPTION
-In some societies time is perceived as passing in a straight line, a sequence of disparate events
-Other societies think of time more as moving in a circle, the past and the present together with future possibilities.
3. Those that which relate to the environment
-Some cultures see the major focus that affects their lives as residing within the person
-Other cultures see the world as more powerful than individuals.
In addition to the physical distance between members of the team their cultural differences can aggravate the relationship tension between people which may serve as a barrier to their willingness to work together cooperatively or collaboratively. Each member of the team must learn to put themselves into the shoes of other members of the team who lives in the other parts of the world with a different view of the world to avoid misunderstandings. It will take a lot of emotional IQ and empathy to make a global team work smoothly together.
Consideration must also be given to the approach to planning, strategy, investment and solving business problems – there will be differences depending on where each individual member of the team comes from and what culture each belong to. In this regard, the organizational culture which would have been shaped by the culture of the geography where the company originates from may exercise a strong influence on how things would eventually be resolved within the organization. This contributes to making a very interesting workplace where agreement on how to solve business problems could be difficult to achieve because they could be directly opposed to each other.
CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
And since supply exceeds demand, it has now become a buyers’ market and customers had become powerful because they have the power of choice. Customer needs have to be satisfied thereby forcing organizations to provide not only core products or services but also activities and behaviors that provide reliability through quality, trust through deeper interaction, innovation through the knowledge of the customer situation, and/or mastery of the customer’s business in order to provide appropriate solutions to customer problems. This would require the whole workplace to be involved because today, a customer’s problem is everyone’s problem and in trying to solve problems, most organizations are forced to ask their employees to perform multifunctional task of not only providing functional expertise to the organization but of also of becoming customer focused by being part marketing or part sales in satisfying customer needs. One way or the other, customers are now communicating deeper into the organizations of suppliers in order to manage the value chain. This means that the vertical pyramidal structure based on functions as we know of today is slowly being transformed into a many horizontal team structures addressing customer needs where solid lines are being replaced by more dotted lines.
SUM UP
The workplace is changing and is a workplace-in-process. This is because business plans are flexible to accommodate unexpected changing conditions, marketing strategies are adjusted depending on emerging opportunities, and organizing arrangements follows strategies and plans in order to achieve business goals and objectives. The workplace will continue to change and adapt to the new and developing business environment. Some of the changes would need only small steps but some may need big leaps to adjust to what is happening in the environment.
Businessmen have to be continuously aware of what is happening around them and be able to establish trends that will have an impact on their organization. Change is costly but the consequences of not changing may be costlier.
For any organization, change must be a message that has to be repeated again and again and built into the workplace in order to avoid the boiled frog syndrome
_______________________________________________________________________________
1Wikipedia
2Riding the Waves of Culture, Fons Trompenaars
As a result of all these changes, business has to be more flexible and should have plans that could be revised to accommodate expected and unexpected conditions that may affect its sustainability. The basic idea behind the business may remain the same but the organization, leadership, and evaluation criteria will continue to evolve to adapt to emerging opportunities and threats.
Some of the changes are in the way employees are expected to work, adapting to intergenerational diversity, acceptance of job hopping, the way employees expect to be treated, hoteling – changes in the work area, adapting to cultural diversity, managing in a virtual organization, and changing organizational structures.
EXPECTATION FROM EMPLOYEES
Since everything is happening faster creating new situations where experience may not be very useful or where surveys and the interpretation of results that takes time to do may be over taken by events employees are expected to think intuitively as well as rationally. And since changes are happening faster employees are also expected to question every current practices to test its relevance to evolving situations and changed if found wanting. This requires employees to get out of their comfort zone and become themselves as the agents of change. Given this scenario employees are expected to track trends and be the first to get to or out of the market, and to be the first of everything because anyone who comes second would be too late to fully exploit the opportunity that may have already passed.
Today’s changes can cause a lot of uncertainty but business has to respond rapidly even with a modicum of preparation and be ready to correct direction as it goes along. When I was working with a high tech company, a decision was made by the home office to move some of its operation into the country to take advantage of an opportunity. I was tasked to hire a massive number of people to take over the operation and train them within three months, which I thought was very unusual and difficult to do because other high tech companies in the country were doing the same thing and we were competing for a limited number of applicants. The other side of this situation is the need to quickly lay off a massive number of people when and if a decision is made to change direction or to locate an operation in another country. This takes a lot of organizational flexibility and would point to the desirability of also using temporary workers or the temporary use of retired workers who still want to work on a part time basis.
INTERGENERATIONAL DIVERSITY
A few years ago, I joined an organization that had a long history of operating in the country. As such it had a mix of workers from a few workers that were close to retirement, to a large group of Baby Boomer employees, a smaller group of Generation X employees, and a fresh batch of Generation Y or what we called the Millennial’s. I saw how different they were from each other and how each one worked and how each is motivated by different things.
• The ones close to retirement were the loyal employees, called the Silent Generation1 (born before 1946) who went through the effect of the World War II and were glad they had a job and a retirement check to look forward to. They were used to the bureaucracy with structured duties and fixed working hours and balked at the idea of working at some odd jobs that may be different from what their current jobs were and had technophobia in using the computer. One of them insisted on a secretary printing all his emails and dictating to the secretary his replies that is then sent through the email of the secretary which wasted a lot of time.
• The Baby Boomers1 (1946 – 1964) that lived through economic prosperity were mostly all well-educated, affluent, privileged and ambitious in climbing the corporate ladder and were more willing to travel and get new assignments as long as it offered them a chance for promotion and growth – they were the perfect organization man who were willing to subordinate their personal goals to the company goals. I had some employees who were willing to postpone the celebration of wedding anniversaries or who would miss the graduation ceremonies of their children to attend to corporate activities.
• The Generation X1 (1965 – 1981) employees who went through downsizing because of the oil crisis and the recession and aware of the effect of unmitigated consumption and the resulting pollution of the planet were a little bit more cautious and cynical about working for large organizations. They were less materialistic and valued experience and job satisfaction more than the monetary reward of a job. They were also more eager to volunteer for community work and support corporate social responsibility programs. They were free agents who like to choose where and what to work on; they prefer short duration project assignments, and in working in teams. This group of employees was the backbone of our work with the disabled and was willing to travel to the other parts of the country to promote our advocacy for the physically and mentally challenged. Another example of this kind of employee is one of my staff members who resigned because he was being promoted and reassigned to Manila – he grew up in Cebu and wanted to stay close to family and relatives.
• The Millennial’s1 (1982 – 2000), on the other hand, were the young employees who had passion for acquisition of personal properties – cellphones, MP3, etc. They have utter fluency and comfort with computer, digital, and Internet technology and could always be relied on to guide older employees in using the new technology. They were always looking for a variety of task to do, were always connected to the Internet either through their cellphones or laptop and were comfortable with multi-tasking.
Because of the above diversity of employees in my previous organization there was no one best way I could manage them. I just had to try to understand each generation of employee according to their generational imperatives and tried to treat them accordingly. Conflicts occurred between each generation as expected but it was not too difficult to resolve because I made them aware of each of their strengths and weaknesses and how we could use them to work with each other. But as the Baby Boomers exit the employment scene the values of the Gen X employees (who choose where they want to work) and the Millenial’s employees (have great expectations and switch jobs frequently), would dominate the workplace and it would serve managers well to understand each of them to use their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
JOB HOPPING
Most big organizations today may be composed of only a few long-term loyal employees who probably had only worked for the current organization without having experienced working for another company plus many younger employees who may have worked with other companies before joining the current organization. Job hopping may be something that should be expected in the workplace either because of restructuring, changes in strategies, or employees looking for more meaningful engagements. It has been said in many journals that new graduates today is expected to change jobs seven to eight times before they retire
EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS
The older employees may have been exposed and may have been used to the traditional top-down management style whereas younger workers might be more suited to the situational type of management and expect to be measured in terms of result under flexible working hours. Management has to look to providing these younger employees more unconventional career tracks (diagonal or horizontal career paths rather than the traditional vertical corporate ladder careers); portfolios of experiences; opportunity to learn and to grow and expand skills. In addition to growth and professional development, companies may have to give employees more time off from work, vacations, new job titles, job security, bonuses, financial assistance, charitable giving, and similar incentives.
HOTELING
Work area arrangements are also changing. When I was in China, I visited a chemical company that only provided their employees a cellphone, a laptop, and a filing cabinet stored in the office. And these employees were not necessarily expected to go to the office every day. But when the employees needed to work in the office, they checked-in and made reservations, through a computer, for available desks where they can pull their filing cabinets alongside. Once they have finished their work in the office, they checked-out and pulled their filing cabinets back to the storage room for later use. This practice maximizes the use of desks and office spaces that allowed a smaller office to accommodate a larger number of staff.
MANAGING IN A VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION
Face to face management of people is becoming less frequent because work is now taken out of the office location and brought to the field. Managers now manage people who are unseen in the office. Managers have to change the way they communicate with and motivate their subordinates and find some ways by which a managers build a team pulling in one direction. And since some type of work may also be outsourced, a manager may have to coordinate the work of some workers who may not be directly reporting to him. Add to this the fact that many organization are trying to build partnership with a select group of big accounts, a manager also has to learn to collaborate with people at different organizational levels of the customer.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Global work teams have become more commonplace, and employees are interacting with an expanding mix of colleagues from different cultures. The cultural orientation of each member of the team that comes from different parts of the world will speak, act, negotiate and make decisions differently. Understanding the cultures of the different countries can help individual employees to predict how people in certain cultures will speak, act, negotiate and make decisions thereby preventing any misunderstanding and improving communications. In order to prevent communication problems, traveling executives or foreigners being assigned to other countries are given cultural orientation by some multinational companies. Other companies provide training to all their employees on how to work across cultures.
According to Fons Trompenaars, every culture distinguishes itself from others by the specific solutions it chooses to certain problems2. According to him it is convenient to look at these problems under three headings:
1. Those which arise from our relationships with other people
-When dealing with people there are some cultures that based relationships on one good universal way whereas there are some cultures where friendship has special obligations.
-There are some cultures where people regard themselves primarily as individuals whereas some cultures where people regard themselves as part of a group.
-Other cultures regard business interaction as objective and detached while other cultures regard business a human affair full of emotional responses.
-Other cultures focused on specific business relationship prescribed by a contract whereas other cultures prefer real and personal contact before business can proceed
-Some cultures judge people on the basis of what they accomplish and their track record whereas others judge people on the basis of birth, kinship, gender, age, or connections
2. Those which comes from the passage to time
IMPORTANCE OF THE PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
-In some societies what somebody had achieved in the past is not that important compared to what they plan for the future
-In some societies you can make an impression with your past accomplishments than those of today
-In some societies what matters is your current performance
TIME PERCEPTION
-In some societies time is perceived as passing in a straight line, a sequence of disparate events
-Other societies think of time more as moving in a circle, the past and the present together with future possibilities.
3. Those that which relate to the environment
-Some cultures see the major focus that affects their lives as residing within the person
-Other cultures see the world as more powerful than individuals.
In addition to the physical distance between members of the team their cultural differences can aggravate the relationship tension between people which may serve as a barrier to their willingness to work together cooperatively or collaboratively. Each member of the team must learn to put themselves into the shoes of other members of the team who lives in the other parts of the world with a different view of the world to avoid misunderstandings. It will take a lot of emotional IQ and empathy to make a global team work smoothly together.
Consideration must also be given to the approach to planning, strategy, investment and solving business problems – there will be differences depending on where each individual member of the team comes from and what culture each belong to. In this regard, the organizational culture which would have been shaped by the culture of the geography where the company originates from may exercise a strong influence on how things would eventually be resolved within the organization. This contributes to making a very interesting workplace where agreement on how to solve business problems could be difficult to achieve because they could be directly opposed to each other.
CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
And since supply exceeds demand, it has now become a buyers’ market and customers had become powerful because they have the power of choice. Customer needs have to be satisfied thereby forcing organizations to provide not only core products or services but also activities and behaviors that provide reliability through quality, trust through deeper interaction, innovation through the knowledge of the customer situation, and/or mastery of the customer’s business in order to provide appropriate solutions to customer problems. This would require the whole workplace to be involved because today, a customer’s problem is everyone’s problem and in trying to solve problems, most organizations are forced to ask their employees to perform multifunctional task of not only providing functional expertise to the organization but of also of becoming customer focused by being part marketing or part sales in satisfying customer needs. One way or the other, customers are now communicating deeper into the organizations of suppliers in order to manage the value chain. This means that the vertical pyramidal structure based on functions as we know of today is slowly being transformed into a many horizontal team structures addressing customer needs where solid lines are being replaced by more dotted lines.
SUM UP
The workplace is changing and is a workplace-in-process. This is because business plans are flexible to accommodate unexpected changing conditions, marketing strategies are adjusted depending on emerging opportunities, and organizing arrangements follows strategies and plans in order to achieve business goals and objectives. The workplace will continue to change and adapt to the new and developing business environment. Some of the changes would need only small steps but some may need big leaps to adjust to what is happening in the environment.
Businessmen have to be continuously aware of what is happening around them and be able to establish trends that will have an impact on their organization. Change is costly but the consequences of not changing may be costlier.
For any organization, change must be a message that has to be repeated again and again and built into the workplace in order to avoid the boiled frog syndrome
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1Wikipedia
2Riding the Waves of Culture, Fons Trompenaars
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