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Andrew Greatrex |
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006 |
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Blog Entries from Global Leaders. |
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Gary Hamel Seminar Series 2008
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Sunday, November 04, 2007
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Fortune magazine labels Gary Hamel “the world’s leading expert on business strategy.” The Economist calls him “the world’s reigning strategy guru,” and in the opinion of the Financial Times he is a “management innovator without peer.”
Global Achievers Company is delighted to announce Gary Hamel will be in Australia in 2008 for a seminar series in each major capital city titled 'The Future of Management'.
Benefits in attending 'The Future of Management' include:
Practical steps your company can start taking now to build its own 21st century “management advantage.”
Ways in which the Internet will turn traditional management roles upside down and inside out.
The make or break challenges that will determine competitive success in an age of relentless, head-snapping change.
The toxic effects of the industrial age management beliefs that still predominate in most companies.
The unconventional management practices that are generating breakthrough results in a handful of “modern management pioneers.”
The radically new management principles that must become part of every company’s “management DNA.”
A special pre-release price will be available in the next few weeks. For further information please contact the registration office on + 61 8 8212 1711 or by emailing garyhamel@globalachieverscompany.com
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Leading Change: 10 Years On
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Monday, April 23, 2007
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Leading Change, Ten Years Later
John Kotter
“The rate of change in the business world is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up over the next few decades. Enterprises everywhere will be presented with even more terrible hazards and wonderful opportunities, driven by the globalization of the economy along with related technological and social trends.” -- John Kotter, Leading Change.
I made that prediction ten years ago. Then the stock market bubble burst. Terrorists struck at the heart of American capitalism. Corporate scandals shook the world. The global economy accelerated, with China and India flexing economic muscle not previously imagined. Organizations that have not been able to transform themselves effectively in the face of these and other forces have faltered. Some have failed.
I wrote Leading Change to provide a roadmap, an eight step process for people in organizations to follow to make the change process more successful. A follow up book, The Heart of Change, addressed the see-feel-change dynamic that fuels action by showing people potent reasons for change that spark their emotions. Last September I published Our Iceberg Is Melting, a story about change that incorporates the eight change steps and the see-feel-change concept in fable form.
How well do the eight change steps described in Leading Change hold up a decade later? Let’s take a look.
1. Create a Sense of Urgency. Even today, the pull of the status quo is so strong as to derail transformation efforts if urgency is not clear. Enough people at all levels of an organization need to be convinced of the need for change or else the transformation efforts imposed can be slowed or sabotaged. How many technology companies in the late 1990s made clear to their stakeholders the possible consequences of a change in the mood of the market and prepared for it? Many did not and are no longer with us. Today, we see companies resting on their laurels for too long (as have, for example, some auto makers with their fuel inefficient SUVs and trucks) then struggling to catch up to changes in the marketplace.
2. Pull Together the Guiding Coalition. This crucial step is still often disregarded by even knowledgeable leaders. The right team -- not just top players, not just un-empowered middle managers, not just technologically qualified team members -- is still a must for effective change to happen. In New York, Mayor Guiliani gathered such a team, and worked with them closely to plan for and deal with any disaster that might strike the city. On 9-11, this team was able to react quickly and they won the admiration of a nation for their efforts.
3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy. At an alarmingly high rate, change efforts still often neglect this step or implement it badly. There can be a clear and urgent need for change but no vision and strategy is ever developed. For example, a report that a category 3 or higher hurricane will cause levees to breach will not necessarily result in a vision for building stronger levees or a strategy either for doing so or for handling the consequences if disaster occurs. Yet we have seen organizations that have made outstanding strides articulating a vision and creating the right strategy to make it happen. Eight years ago, few people had ever heard of eBay. Today, millions of people recognize the company that CEO Meg Whitman and her team, with a powerful vision and strategy, have created -- an unparalleled global ecommerce engine and a leading company that has reshaped online commerce and payments around the world.
4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy-in. We can look to recent events in business and government to see that change imposed is not change effected. The need for a large enough group of people in an organization to understand the vision and strategy remains critical to successful transformations. One factor that has changed over the years is methods of communicating. Leaders can use new and innovative ways to get across the messages about the urgent need for change, the new direction and how to get there. Emails and screen savers and text messaging can supplement the old posters and newsletters. Companies like British Petroleum use broad based communications to help customers as well as employees understand how the changing picture of energy in the world today affects its vision and strategy.
5). Empower Others to Act. When leaders really do this effectively the results can be astonishing. Southwest Airlines comes to mind. In an industry crushed by the weight of rigid structures, systems and culture, where companies have been figuratively crashing and burning over the past decade, Southwest has broken through those barriers to maintain its success based largely on its expectation that all employees act in a leadership capacity. To cite but one example -- a flight attendant questioned why the planes’ trash bags needed to carry the Southwest logo. The company decided the bags indeed did not need to carry the logo and saved $300,000 per year. The CFO personally thanked her.
6. Produce Short-Term Wins. This step is still one of the hardest to remember. Even my small crew, working on our latest book, forgot to celebrate our signing of the agreement with the publisher, St. Martins Press (look for Our Iceberg is Melting, in bookstores in September). We were caught up with getting the draft out to key reviewers and early adopters, monitoring companies who were testing its use in their change efforts, and developing the related website, products and training materials, that we were approaching burn-out. After one particularly exhausting day, one of us suggested we stop and celebrate how far we had gotten. We did and that gave us renewed energy for the efforts ahead. By the way, it wasn’t me who made the suggestion. I was so caught up, I forgot!
7. Don’t Let Up. In the past decade, we have seen some companies flame up with great initial momentum and then crash, unable to sustain the innovation needed for continued success. Others have risen from their knees and managed great leaps. In Apple’s case, 1996 was a terrible year but by 1997, Steve Jobs was back to transform the firm and he did. iMacs were released in 1998 to great acclaim. But he didn’t stop there and rest on his laurels. More change brought iBooks in 1999, and in 2001, a strange little something called an iPod came onto the market. iPods have been improving and proliferating ever since. Because changes are happening even faster than I anticipated a decade ago, “don’t let up” is more important now than it ever was.
8). Create a New Culture. This last step for successful transformations is also even more important today for making change stick. Since change is happening so rapidly today, a new element in this step of the change process is becoming more evident. Now, I am certain that the concept of transformations and knowledge about ways to make it happen should be embedded deeply in the organization. Many more people in an organization need to have this knowledge and skill set than ever before. One company, in Italy, Datalogic, recently merged with its rival in Oregon. To bring the two companies together with a common “language” and in a new direction, the CEO gave every employee in the merged business a copy of Our Iceberg Is Melting. Every new employee gets one too.
Reflecting on the steps for change, I think they hold up pretty well. Still, there are changes I would make today in how I wrote the book originally. For instance, I wrote the book mainly for a business audience but have found that all kinds of groups and organizations and even families use it. I would have made the language more broadly appealing and frankly written a shorter book. Also, I would have used more stories to illustrate my points. I have learned a great deal more about how relevant stories can affect change efforts and I am changing the way I write as a result.
I am always looking for examples of transformation efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, in organizations. Stories that will shed light on how the eight change steps were taken or neglected and their consequences, when shared with others, can have enormous impact on how well we all move forward in the changing world around us. If you have a story to share, please let me know about it. You can go to www.ouricebergismelting.com and head for the “Tips from users” page. A brief description of your change effort and your contact information is a good start. We’ll get in touch with you and take it from there.
John Kotter will be in Australia on the following dates:
31 July 2007 Canberra
10 August 2007 Sydney
17 August 2007 Adelaide
21 August 2007 Melbourne
24 August 2007 Perth
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Kotter Live in Australia
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Saturday, March 03, 2007
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Well, thanks to the 1700+ people who have already taken the opportunity to book their pre-release tickets to the John Kotter seminars in August 2007.
Some venues are heading toward a sell out which is indicative of the strength and popularity of John's work. If you haven't booked yet please do so as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
John Kotter is a management giant focussing on leadership and change and on the differences between leadership and management in facilitating change. His full day seminars have been designed to mobilise the audience to re-examine their practices and to provide increased leadership in their spheres of activity.
Specifically, Professor Kotter will give you the 8 steps to successful change and provide you with practical tools to help you lead your company and change processes for the future. John will also cover the following topics:
How to build the right team to lead change
Creating the vision and strategy
Communication - how do we get others on board?
Empowerment - how do we get barriers out of the way of those who see the vision and want to make it a reality?
Global Achievers Company (also known as Global Leaders Network) are offering you the opportunity to attend this full day seminar for only $795 - a saving of $200 from the regular ticketed price.
3 ways to Register
Web: www.globalachieverscompany.com
Email: kotter2007@globalachieverscompany.com
Tel: 1300 309 039
Dates:
Canberra: 31 July 2007
Sydney: 10 August 2007
Adelaide: 17 August 2007
Melbourne: 21 August 2007
Perth: 24 August 2007-03-05
Demand is very strong for tickets. Book now and take advantage of this special pre-release of tickets and save. This offer will not be contractually extended beyond 31 March 2007.
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The Tipping Point - Malcolm Galdwell
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Friday, February 02, 2007
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Malcolm Gladwell is speaking on Thursday 8th February at the Sydney Convention Centre and Friday 9th February in Auckland. He took a few moments out of his schedule to talk with us about his books The Tipping Point and Blink.
Further information about the events is available by calling +61 8 8212 1711 or by visiting www.globalleadersnetwork.net
Your books the Tipping Point and Blink have had phenomenal success in Australia and throughout the world, particularly for business leaders. What do you believe is the magic of these books and the message they send?
I wish I had a better answer for that question. I don’t really know, but I think these books are, first of all they are intellectual adventures stories, they are trying to unravel the mysteries of everyday life in a way that I think is appealing to people. But I am also mostly trying to expose the structure of the way humans behave and think, and to use kind of insights into psychology and geology, neuroscience to dig a little deeper then I think a lot of businesses books often go. So I think perhaps they satisfy readers on a different level than they are used to being satisfied from a more then a more conventional classic business book.
In the Tipping Point you describe how ideas, products, messages and behaviours travel through our culture and in Blink how effective decisions are made. How do we develop our own individual intuitions leading to effective decision making?
Well intuition is a function of experience and what’s happening when we make, when we exercise intuition is we are drawing on our kind of unconscious database and the bigger that database is the more sophisticated our intuition is. So the short answer is that we need to be exposed to a maximum number of experiences in order to develop this kind of unconscious wisdom. The longer answer is that we can learn, I talk about this Blink, there are situations where environments that we can construct that help people build their intuition more quickly, and bring out the best in people’s intuition. I am a big fan of, as paradoxical as it sounds, of structured spontaneity of building structures, decision making structures which allow people to exercise their kind of spontaneous unconscious wisdom. You know our unconscious wisdom flourishes in environments of frugality where we limit the amount of information on the table and if we want to help people make decisions for instance we have to clear away that kind of debris give them, I talk about this with medical room doctors where they have really limited the information they know about patients and that has allowed them to exercise their judgment in a way that was quite impossible when they were inundated and flooded with data about their patients. So that is, that’s the kind of thinking that I am trying to promote, that kind of you know people sitting down and trying to understand the kind of situations that bring out the best in our thinking.
The Tipping Point has been described by you as a book that presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens quickly and unexpectedly as it does. But why is change so difficult?
Well because I think we are as human beings, very stubborn and we get ingrained in our ways, and it becomes difficult for us to see other avenues and opportunities. You know, I don’t know that there’s more to it than that, particularly as we get older we become creatures of habit. You know I have tea and grapefruit every morning and I’ve had that for years, it is really hard for me to imagine having anything else at this point. It would take some doing to move me off that particular decision. So it’s hard for me to change my breakfast habit, so imagine how hard it is to change things that really matter in the world.
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The Hames Report - My Mother's Wisdom
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Monday, January 08, 2007
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This is the first of many blog entries by World Thought Leader Richard Hames - January 2007.
Given the number of books I still need to write, it is indeed fortunate that longevity runs in the Hames family. My mother died three years ago at the grand old age of 97. In the end she was blind and a little bit grumpy but utterly alert to what was going on around her.
Mum had many friends to whom she would talk for hours at a time about almost anything that happened to attract her attention. A true scavenger of trivia, she would eagerly regale anyone within earshot, reciting obscure details about everything under the sun – from the best recipe for egg custard to the mating habits of the common cockroach! Mum was never short of an opinion (or three) and remained curious about life right up to her death.
Which is not that unusual, except for the fact that she was forced to leave school at the age of 12 and was taken into service. She subsequently worked as a maid and later as a cook-housekeeper in the south of England until she was well past 50. But although her education was virtually non-existent, she valued knowledge above everything else. She was a simple woman but a wise one.
In her later years the radio became an important link to the outside world. Each day she would listen to the evening news, often making quirky yet startlingly pertinent pronouncements on the state of things. Her view on terrorism was, quite simply, that the world had gone mad. She couldn’t abide Margaret Thatcher and the air would turn blue if she so much as heard her name mentioned. ‘Just a third-rate teacher’ she would snort in disgust.
Tony Blair became her pin-up boy. Quite literally as it happens. She had at least four framed prints on her wall. ‘His mum must be terribly proud of him’ she would mutter, just loud enough for me to hear. ‘At least she knows what he does!’ The quick glance in my direction was subtle yet pointed. My mother, you see, had never really understood what I did to earn a crust. She was incredibly confused by the fact that I remained at University for so many years, refusing to acknowledge any distinction whatsoever between the teacher and the taught. ‘So much study can’t be good for your health you know’ she would half-seriously taunt. ‘When are you going to get a proper job?’
When I eventually started to practice medicine her demeanour changed. She understood that you see. Medicine was a proper job. Besides, ‘My son’s a doctor’ had a lovely ring to it, especially in a village where status and achievement was so important. But when I changed course to pursue music only months later she was totally baffled and not a little distraught. Her worst fears were once again confirmed. Her youngest son was a complete failure!
How often we rely on preconceived ideas of what constitutes success. Our beliefs and values are shaped by worldviews that resist visibility and rational explanation. How else could I explain to my mother what a CEO did; that she might earn many times more than the average worker yet be paid for performance that was mediocre by any standard? Mum would have stared at me as if I had been pulling her leg. ‘You’d better tell them to get a proper job’ she would have said.
Posted by Richard Hames - World Thought Leader and Author
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From the Information Age to the Conceptual Age: What it means for business
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Monday, December 11, 2006
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Dan Pink's premise is that we are now moving from the 'Information Age' to the 'Conceptual Age', just as we have had other periods of intense change, such as when the move from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age.
In this age, where Western world prosperity has grown, the desires of consumers have changed as they have moved into a world of abundance and choice , where the functional difference between one product or service is no different to another.
Business are realising that the only way to differentiate their goods and services in today's overstocked marketplace is to make their offerings physically beautiful or emotionally compelling. Pink argues that in order to do this they need to put a premium on right brain thinking rather than traditional logic and rational thinking.
Hear more of Dan's theory's in February 2007 when he speaks with Global Leaders Network.
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International Thought Leaders Forum - Our Global Future, Auckland
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
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GLN presents a Leadership Event with a difference. Four global experts will convene in Auckland on 9 February 2007 and cover issues such as:
1. The Tipping Point for Leadership Excellence
2. The Need for Right Brain Thinking
3. Strategy and Innovation
4. Inspiring Trust and Commitment
5. How to gain support for new ideas and make them stick
6. The 6 essential skills white collar workers need in a global economy
7. Recruiting and retaining the right talent
Early Bird savings for bookings received by 30 November 2007!
Click here to register
Malcolm Gladwell: staff writer at The New Yorker magazine since 1996. In 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People. He has authored two books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.
C.K. Prahalad: The Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished Professor of Corporate Strategy at the University of Michigan is globally recognised for his research on next practices, corporate strategy and the role of top management in diviersified multinational corporations. He is author of the international bestsellers “Competing for the Future” (with Gary Hamel) and “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.”
Daniel Pink: author of “A Whole New Mind” which reveals the six abilities white collar workers must master to survive in an outsourced, automated, upside-down world. He is contributing editor at Wired and his articles on business and technology have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other publications.
Goran Carstedt: leads the formation of the Society for Organizational Learning. He is the former head of IKEA Retail Europe and member of the IKEA Group Management Board. He previously served as President of Volvo Svenska Bil AB and was a member of the Volvo Group Management Committee. He is currently the chair of The Natural Step.
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Professor C.K. Prahalad
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By Andrew Greatrex on
Thursday, November 09, 2006
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 A cool friend of Global Leaders Network C.K. Prahalad will be speaking at events 'Our Global Future' in Auckland and 'NPODS 2007' in Sydney in February 2007.
C.K is ranked Number 3 in the World Thinkers and brings a wealth of experience on strategy, innovation, leadership and change.
Below are two reviews he has received from other world leaders.
"C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability."
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft
"The Bottom of the Pyramid belongs at the top of the reading list for business people, academics, and experts pursuing the elusive goal of sustainable growth in the developing world. C. K. Prahalad writes with uncommon insight about consumer needs in poor societies and opportunities for the private sector to serve important public purposes while enhancing its own bottom line. If you are looking for fresh thinking about emerging markets, your search is ended. This is the book for you."
Madeleine K. Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State
You can hear C.K speak on 9 February 2007 in Auckland. Click here for more details.
C.K will also be speaking in Sydney on 7 February 2007. Click here for more details.
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Global Achievers Company
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One idea can change the world!
Global Achievers Company is an international promoter of learning and development needs connecting world class speakers with organisations, individuals, consultants and researchers.
Global Achievers Company regularly hosts such events bringing the elite of leadership to your part of the world.
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