CEO Bloggers' Club

When innovation sucks

I don’t watch much TV, but my heart simply goes out to those who do. Besides tolerating the agonizing channel-surfing moments, you also have to make your ears re-adapt to the changes in sound volume. Some smarter TVs can save your personal preferences, equalizer settings et al according to the channels; but then again, I’m sure you’ve heard stories of rogue cable-guys! Besides, most people in the world don’t have personal TVs… so much for the personal preferences.

I think instead of the TVs making an attempt at being smart, the TV designers should. Is it really difficult for a TV sense to ambient sound volume in the room and adjust its sound volume accordingly?

Make purchases, not war

Back from China today, I return with beautiful memories and above all the strong conviction that we’re entering a new era. As “young” business leaders, we have an important role to play. We also have a responsibility.

“J’ai vu finir le monde ancien” (*) is the title of a book that describes the upheaval in New York in 2001 while the twin towers were collapsing.

Maybe it’s presumptuous, but I feel that we’re wrong about the date. Personally, I saw the end of “the world of yesterday” one night in 1989 when an old dam that we believed eternal fell.

Greetings

It's good to be aboard.

PR Machine
http://prmachine.blogspot.com

The Talent Myth

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, a great marketing book, has written a Change This Manifesto called the Talent Myth.

I began reading it with skepticism, after reading its description: "the seemingly paradoxical truth that talent is not a firm's greatest asset." It is, however, a great read.

This is an important paragraph, which I'll quote in full:

The broader failing of McKinsey and its acolytes at Enron is their assumption that an organization's intelligence is simply a function of the intelligence of its employees. They believe in stars, because they don't believe in systems. In a way, that's understandable, because our lives are so obviously enriched by individual brilliance. Groups don't write great novels, and a committee didn't come up with the theory of relativity. But companies work by different rules. They don't just create; they execute and compete and coordinate the efforts of many different people, and the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star." (p. 14)

Two items are missing in this discussion, I think. The first is a discussion of ethics. As we all know, intelligence and ethical behavior don't necessarily walk hand-in-hand. Secondly, I think that the American cult of individualism also has a strong effect on the "star mentality" found at companies like McKinsey and Enron.

Old Europe - New Worlds

I’m about to board the airplane after a 15-day voyage in China.
Like my trip to Casablanca a few months ago, it was a trip of total immersion and strong sensations. In China, I found much of what I felt in Morocco: energy, movement and a youth that’s waking up to the world.

I said somewhere that many of the Chinese nationals I encountered were happy. Even if this is surprising to some, I hold to this positive impression. The train of progress moves almost a billion voyagers every day. There are dramas and there are deaths and I deplore this. But whether they’re rich or poor, these people see the situation getting better every day. Even those who are not part of the progress think that their children will have a better life.

There’s a downside and a price to pay for this growth. It’s not the absence of democracy that worries me. Democracy is on its way.
For me, the major challenge in China for the coming years is pollution.

The ecological drama is flagrant. Major cities in China are among the most polluted in the world. Industrial zones are frightening for some. Westerners can share some of our experience and know-how to help with this.

It will be up to the young generation around the world to do the cleaning up – a good chance to join hands and get this earth turning in the right direction…

PS People are often reproaching me for being too idealistic, and it’s probably true in part. But as my grandmother said, “smile at life and it will smile back.”

Introducing new members

Robb Hecht

His blog : PR Machine
Principal of Hecht Consulting

Known for ROI-focused brand advancement campaigns and strategies, Robb Hecht is a PR & marketing communications consultant experienced in partnering with some of America's respected Fortune 1000 corporations, Wall Street investment firms, start-ups, PR agencies, C-level executives, dot.coms and national magazine brands like Volt Information Sciences, E*TRADE Financial, Interpublic, Bozell Sawyer Miller Group, ProcureStaff, 24/7 Real Media, Euro RSCG, Winstar and the Industry Standard. He is producer of PR Machine, an online interactive vehicle for driving effective brand marketing communications.

That's why we've got brains

A few years ago, designer Paul Smith wrote a book called "You Can Find Inspiration in Everything* (*and if you can't, look again!)". Jonathan Ive, the designer of the i-Mac, designed a polystyrene slipcase so that buyers didn't know which of the 33 limited edition Paul Smith fabrics covered their edition. The package also included a board game, posters, a comic book, and a magnifying glass with which to examine the smallest images in the book.

It's not surprising, then, to hear what Smith told The Bookseller magazine about original thinking: "I loathe copying, and I hate the idea that the world is getting so globalized and so full of similar brands. The book is saying come on, we can be individuals, that's why we've got brains. Why copy another format or style or idea? We're getting so full of communication and high technology that we mustn't forget what's left, which is us."

That's what weblogs stand for.
Let use our brains !

Thanks to Jurgen Wolff's Brainstorm E-Bulletin

Asia waves

For many Europeans, China is mysterious, and that's scary. We remain jumpy and afraid to act, as though a tidal wave were going to submerge us …

I saw the waves. They were the waves of consumers crossing commercial streets in Beijing and Shanghai. They dream about the West. They buy L’Oreal, Gucci, McDonald’s, Nokia ... In the end, they're just like us, not better or worse. They're consumers too.

Europe is aging; our social model is in crisis. America is at war, a war of another time. America doubts. Europe has aged a bit, we're a little tired, and we are looking enviously at our young neighbor to the east.

I worry that our economic and political leaders will one day make scapegoats of them. Surely, China’s success is destabilizing our economies, but this is just accelerating a predicted decline.
We are going to have some difficult times in Europe. We have to prepare for it and understand that it’s useless to be afraid. Fear is bad adviser.

Our society will change dramatically. This will be our opportunity to rebuild on new foundations, a new kind of Renaissance.

But for that to happen, we need to understand.
Go to the China Sea, listen to the sound of the waves …

PS Maybe our next meeting for the CEO Bloggers' Club can be held in Beijing? Sending best wishes from China...

Leading (entrepreneuring) at the edge

Yesterday, French TV channel 5 had a great program on Sir Shackleton Antarctic expedition. It reminded me that I had written an earlier (Cyberlibris blog) post on it. Here is a slightly updated (edited) version of it

"Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

From Leading at the Edge : Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton Antarctic Expedition by Perkins, Dennis N. T.(Author) Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM, 2000. Page 2.

"Who in the world would volunteer for this journey?" asks Dennis Perkins. "Amazingly", he says, "thousands of would-be explorers came forward, each wanting to join Shackleton’s expedition."

But, what was exactly this expedition all about? Well, as a matter of fact a rather scary one. As shown in the map, Shackleton’s mission was the first overland crossing of the Antarctic Continent. According to his own computations, Shackleton believed that he and his team could complete the transcontinental journey in 120 days. Ice everywhere, huge crevasses, darkness, extremely low temperature, in a nutshell a trip not for the timids! Shackleton was already a famous explorer who had come within ninety-seven nautical miles of the South Pole before he was forced to turn back because of physical exhaustion and a shortage of food. To complete his journey Shackelton selected a ship which he named The Endurance.

First meeting: what came up ?

Our first meeting yesterday evening in Paris has been a great opportunity to put a face under the name of each of us, to share first thoughts and ideas on the direction we could give to the club and to understand what happened already after those 6 first weeks.