Seven Pillar of Wisdom to Enchant Cloud

This March in Bay Area is truly cloudy, full of raining, plus, it kicked off the annual Cloud Connect conference event, to make the cloud enchanting than ever.

I am Cloud evangelist, participated this cloud show four years on the row, this year it's surely reaching the tipping point: about 100 vendors standing on the cloud, and no vacancy to listen to the keynote speech, cloud has been transformed from the buzz word into the essential phenomena, and Cloudification is on the right path leading into the Cloudeconomy.

Unlike the last couple of year’s show, most of players are SAAS model, try to scratch the cloudy skin, this year, cloud become thicker and multi-dimensional, not only you see many IAAS and PAAS players, but also blue elephant players such as IBM and HP, and virtual tiger player like VMware are eager to climb into the cloud.

Cloud becomes the mainstream, besides what we defined cloud as SAAS, IAAS and PAAS, and more specifically, there’re seven pillars of wisdom to enchant the cloud:
1.Security as Cloud Service

2.Data Infrastructure as Cloud Service

3.Storage & Network as Cloud Service

4.Agile Platform as Cloud Service

5.Performance Analytics as Cloud Service

6.Cloud Brokerage as Service

7.Application Software as Service

This year’s theme is hybrid Cloud, most of the vendors would like to define their cloud hybrid. Well, I think the most important thing is not just treat Cloud as the fashion promotion, more essentially, Cloud is becoming the most invisible but powerful framework to deliver the agile enterprise and help us reinvent many legacy industries and organizations.

Cloud as a sustainable innovation, will be embraced by both fresh startup and industry giant, to create the new dynamic solutions from every IT perspective.

Cloud as a disruptive innovation, may get resisted by those conservatives, finally it will help simplify the software licenses hassles, create new business model and deliver the value at real time.

In summary, Cloud will enchant not only the technology, but also the business vision, and nurture the next generation of leadership, it could become one of the enchantments to win back growth from the recession.

Last but not least, there’re two improvements could be made in this phenomenal show:
1)The show has been hosted on 3/8, the international women holiday, however, there’s no female keynote speaker invited to make a splash.

2)Surely more BI Cloud vendors could be invited to the show to make the Cloud more “brainer”.

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Celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day: 7 Essentials to Future of Leadership

It takes a decade to grow a tree, it takes a century to cultivate the talent Chinese Proverb

  Google inspire the “Women on the Bridge” event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on 3/8, and Forbes has published a series of articles to initiate the discussion on reinventing the management, the most encouraging one is: Women: is not about diversity, it’s the future.
http://blogs.forbes.com/stevedenning/2011/03/02/women-its-not-diversity-its-the-future/
And the other insightful one:
http://blogs.forbes.com/jennagoudreau/2011/03/08/on-international-womens-day-good-bad-and-really-bad-news/

What can we learn from the articles, many other resources, and most importantly the historic women movement in the whole century?
1Authentic Leadership
The economic tsunami make s all of us to rethink the root cause of leadership failure. The answer is: we may need more authentic leadership.
What is authentic leadership?
It’s all about 5”I”s: Insight, Initiative, Influence, Impact and Integrity.

Since female only take 2.2% of chief executive position in major US company, the male dominated leadership culture may lack of this 5 in some way.

The other “I” we may ask is “Incentive”: When men reach the power, usually they may gain the world (worldly prosperity); But when female climb the ladder, they make a lot of sacrifice, incentive matters.

Still, leaders from both gender should think BIGGER than themselves.


2.Leading by Influencing
In 20th century, agricultural and even early industrial society, stereotypical command & control supermen leadership make sense; in 21st century, human society has been transformed into internet, social computing era, the authentic leadership will be more focusing on the cultural influencing. : When women are 60% of talent and 90% of customers, they are BIGGER influencers in many perspective.

3.Better Communicator
Social media and enterprise 2.0 technology make the world open battle ground and small global village, women are natural better communicators and evangelist for promoting the collective intelligence and democratic disciplines.

4.Practitioner for Humanity and Humility
Humanity and humility is part of mother nature: it’s the strength with modesty, self-confidence without arrogance.

5.Continue to Make Academic Progress
Great to know in 2010, more women than men in the United States received doctoral degrees, Women have long outnumbered men in earning master’s degrees, especially in education. Women earned nearly six in 10 graduate degrees in 2008-09.

The authentic leadership may also expand into :Intelligence Leadership.

6.Colorful Vision
It may be shallow to “Judge the Book by its Cover”, however, from the cover, we may predict some rhetoric of the book.

Female attire could have all spectrum of color theme, to reflect the beauty of nature; Usually men’s suit are either black or grey; Does that indicate female leadership may have warmer, more natural colorful vision, and sometimes men may have somewhat heavy preference or more “black & White” with gray area mindset?

Though the true visionary leaders are from both genders, it’s about authentication, delegation, global thought leadership and cultural intelligence

7.Social Responsibility
The other article today lists top 100 corporate citizens today: http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/07/best-corporate-citizens-leadership-managing-100.html
Well, I am not sure, how many senior female leaders on board in those companies, definitely via mother nature, female leadership will inspire the new wave of CSR campaign.

Today, the Cloud Connect conference has kicked off, the number of audience and vendors maybe tripled compared to last year’s, more men and women stand on the Cloud now, however, I think the meeting facilitator should at least invite one female cloud leader to make a splash in this holiday.

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The Future Roles of Watson

Last week’s big news: IBM’s smartest computer Watson won the game, and became the new Jeopardy champion, it’s not only just the new milestone in the computer history, but also the victory for humanity. Watson will play the significant role to help human change the world, and IBM could also commercialize Watson and get decent return from the investment on him in the last couple of years.

During the game, even Watson has no “face” yet, we could still visualize Watson as a intelligent, information savvy, one of the coolest players with the fastest running mindset, beyond the human-powered machine of listening, learning, engaging and evolving. Besides informative, intelligent, inquisitive, Watson could become more intuitive, inspiring, imaginative via indefatigable practice.

Watson will be qualified for many roles in the future:
•Watson will become the doctor or doctor assistant to interact with patients and human colleagues, diagnose and prescribe with precision and speed;

•Watson will become a senior consultant in any knowledge intensive domain, such as legal, IT, science research, customer services., etc, bring up the new insight via comparing, patterning, and tuning volume information with super speed.

•Watson will become the future of librarian, professor; communicate with audience via unimaginable knowledge and wisdom.

•Watson will become the writer to convey fresh insight or perspective through digesting so much historic information, no matter it’s the research white paper or the fiction story, Watson could predict the future via seeing through the history.
….
In summary, Watson’s victory help open the new chapter to the next generation of computer, artificial intelligence, and smart robot, many Watsons or Watsonas will work closely with humans to reinvent the science, management, philosophy. etc. and explore the many unsolved mysteries around us. Watson helps us celebrate humanity, recognize our own potential, and well prepare the future by digging deeper into the historic pattern.

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Thomas Edison’s 164th birday: Revisit his legacy, Hardness the Imagination

Today is 164th birthday of the Mr. Thomas Edison, America’s most brilliant inventor, he got 1368 patterns in his lifetime: from light bulb to phonographic, from phone to mobile picture, his inventions has fortified the solid foundation of modern industrial society, and he co-founded company General Electric more than 130 years ago, today, GE is still one of the most innovative companies in the world, with broader footprint of modern technologies.

Edison is not only the scientist, the inventor, the savvy businessman, he is also the true thought leader full of unimaginable wisdom, here are some quotes from him:


•The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.....

•Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do in the first place doesn't mean it's useless....
•The thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast.

•Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose...

•Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character.

•The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.

•Someday, man will harness the rise and fall of the tides, imprison the power of the sun, and release atomic power.

•"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."

And the one below is a true inspiration in this post-recession era:
“Be courageous! Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.... Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward!” Edison

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The New Year, New Phenomena to Celebrate the Year of Golden Rabbit

May you live in the interesting times! Chinese Proverb

Well, hopefully 2011 is the turning point for us to see the light via the recession tunnel we’ve just been through in the last couple of years, it’s more about the inspiring times than the interesting times. There’re quite a few new phenomenal events happened at the first month of the 2011:


Community Event: The consulting company Trianz hosted the career open house in Tech Mart Santa Clara, CA last week, it’s truly a great effort and initiative to rekindle our passion about the opportunity in this tech land, it’s been quite a couple of years since we saw any career fair in convention center, well, more than a decade ago, the same place is just like talent supermarket, full of dynamic and hope.

National event: President Obama outlined the “how to win the future” union address speech, also make the job creation as his number #1 priority to accelerate the economic growth out of the recession.

Global event: Davos 2011 World Economic forum brings worldwide business leaders and professors to discuss the global risks, competitiveness, digital ecosystem convergence cross-industry domain, and the optimistic perspective on the 2011 global agenda.

Today, Feb. 3 also celebrate the Chinese lunar new year spring festival, and start the Year of Golden Rabbit, what we can learn from the rabbit:

1.The rabbit is the lucky sign to symbolize the peace, agility, and patience, the opposite of the tiger, wish the rabbit brings a year in which we can catch our breath and calm our nerves. From global perspective, we should more understand and respect the world disparity, and share the social responsibility between the developed and emerging economies.

2.The rabbit is the symbol of the Moon, The Moon is YIN, signifying magic, the diversified leadership; the bright white moonlight instill us with fearlessness, love and courage, to not only strengthen our inner "Chi" energy, but also bring wisdom into our life.

3.The times rabbits are most often seen is during early dawn hours or at evening dusk. These are times when the visible becomes invisible and the invisible becomes visible. In this post-recession era with unusual uncertainty, we may always catch the insight, study the patterns, both keep optimistic and be cautious.

May the year of rabbit becomes the infection point to accelerate the economy growth, reenergize ourselves with hope, nurture the next generation of leadership, also may golden rabbit brings us the peace, love, and prosperity.

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“Thought Leadership” is the Evergreen Theme in the new Decade

Food for Thought in John.F.Kennedy Inaugural Address Day Anniversary

If we can not end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
J.F. Kennedy.

You could learn something everyday from Google’s daily logo, today is President John. F Kennedy Inaugural Address Day 50-year anniversary, three days ago, we just celebrated Dr. Martin. Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the two political leaders living in the same era made significant influence to improve human society.

Dr. King “I have a dream” speech advocated the basic civic right, built the foundation of democracy and America Dream, and President J.F. Kennedy’s inaugural address and “Go To Moon” speech lifted the America dream to explore the space and beyond. These two great thought leaders set bright tone for us to follow.

Half century later, in this new decade of 21st century, we need weave and enhance the both men’ dreams into the new reality. And the thought leadership is the true color for any authentic leaders in any domain, at every corner of world in any time.

What is exactly the thought leadership in this post Great Recession turning point:
1.Thought leaders should be the authentic leader who always have unique point of view.


2.Thought leaders should make the voice for as many diversified groups as possible.


3.Thought leaders should lead by influencing than status quo.


4.Thought leaders inspire the vision via power of mind and blueprint of character.


5.Thought leaders convey the dreams, innovations and future of life via dreaming big.


6.Thought leaders make progressive improvement via continue life learning.


7.Global thought leaders make global influence via cultural intelligence, linguistic articulation and diversified point of view.

….
We need the men who can dream of things that never were and not ask why.
John. F. Kennedy.

Like Dr. King’s dream, president Kennedy’s “Go to Moon” journey is not the final destination yet, the other thought leader Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin group is transforming this “dreaming project” into the commercial space transportation business, that may open the brand new chapter for the space exploration and the evoke the new inspiration for the future of airline.

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Martin Luther Day’s 7 “Point of View”: How to Revitalize American Dream

From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. Martin luther King Jr.

Today is Martin Luther Day holiday, when listening to the rhetoric speech “I have a dream” made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. about half century ago, you could still feel so strongly about his passion, his piece of anger, his poetic style and his deep love about this land.

In the last couple of decade, America made significant progress in civic rights, it’s a dream come true for boys and girls, no matter you are black, white, yellow or brown., etc, who sit and learn at the same classroom; diversified people worked in the same workplace, and the last decade, maybe it’s the lost decade from economic perspective, but United State has elected the first African American President, it’s a great symbolic milestone to fulfill Dr. King’s dream.

However, in today’s global environment, the world becomes more sophisticate and uncertain than ever, how to expand Dr. King’s dream into the global space and explore the cultural intelligence to make a peace in the world?, how to dig Dr. King’s dream deeper into the next level, unite the best of talent and develop the diversified leadership to accelerate the growth from Great Recession?

Here are seven thought-provoking points of view in this special day.


1. Stall Point: The Great Recession
In the first decade of 21st century, we’ve been through the internet bubble and bust, the war and Great Recession, also experienced both the “irrational exuberance” and “unusually uncertainty”. It’s a lost decade for many white-class families, small to large enterprises, the legendary industries (such as airline, auto and bank) and United States as the most powerful nation in the world. It’s a stall point of America Dream, how did it happen, what can we learn from it and are there any opportunities to revive American Dream?


2. Focal Point: The New United Way
“ A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist see the opportunity in every difficulty” Winston Churchill

If you walk through Border’s book shelf, you could find all kinds of books to learn the great ways to do the businesses: from the IBM way: “Who Said the Elephant Can’t Dance” written by former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner (Keep growing bigger but stay agile), or the Intel Way : “Only Paranoid Survive” by formal Intel CEO Andrew S. Grove ( how to exploit the crisis point that challenging every company), plus many other “Good to Great” way: such as:, “The Southwest Way” ( the customer centric service), The Toyota Way (4Ps model-Philosophy, Processes, People and Partners), “The HP Way” ( the garage root and culture), “The Mckinsey Way” (MECE decision tree), and the “The Disney Way” (the destination is to make the customers, the employees, the partners happy). Am I missing some other best way?

In the new decade of 21st century, we need integrate them into the New United Way: growth, governance, customer-centric, sustainability, humanity & humility, analytics and happiness”., etc.

It’s a focal point for Americans to stay focus and lead growth out of recession.


3. Touch Point: The Great Attitude
“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there
are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” Martin Luther King

In the first decade of 21st century, the world transformed from US-centric into the multi-polar; the economic engine has switched from Western developed countries into Eastern developing countries.

But in many perspectives, America is still a great country on the hill: the democratic system, the innovative technologies, the best universities and the most diversified people in the world.

There’re many reasons to be confident, not arrogance; be positive than negative; toward learning attitude instead of judging

The touch point should be: following Dr. King’s attitude and dream, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, we should work together to rebuild the material and spiritual prosperity base on the foundation of the freedom, liberty and pursuit of the happiness.

4.Infection Point: The Fresh Leadership
"When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity."
~ John F. Kennedy

Great Recession was cause by the leadership failure, since 20th century’s superman or superwoman stereotyped leadership focus on “command and control”, to maintain the organizational hierarchy; it maybe out of fashion to adapt to the new phenomenal such as globility and collective wisdom, to build up the modern learning organization.

The infection point of the new generation of leaders: they must have the global footprint, worldwide vision and strategy, the differential voice for those without voice, and deliver the value and result beyond the quick ROI.


5. Tipping Point: The Culture Intelligence
The deep insight about Dr. King’s American dream is also about “Understanding and accepting diversity enable us to see what each of us is needed”

It takes a decade to craft and master a foreign language and culture. Culture intelligence is a strategic essential for any forward-looking companies, since multi-cultural perspectives are more like wider-angle lens to see through the future than a crystal ball.

The tipping point of Culture intelligence is: the more you learn, the more you get from the collective wisdom, the better value you could create for your organization, the more positive impact you could bring to the human society, to reach the next level of Dr. King’s dream.


5.Inflection Point: The Technology & Information
“An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility.” Tom Peter

In the last decade, the globalization, the entrepreneurship and the internet & social technology has reached their peak, and bring up the significant influence on human’s life and global society.

The latest technology such as enterprise 2.0, social network, cloud computing, advance analytics, the green tech are the true differentiator to keep the organization at the competitive edge: how to build up the next generation of organization: such as borderless learning company, how to nurture up the next generation of thought leadership by social computing such as blogs, linkedin, facebook, twitter., how to create new business model and extensive enterprise by cloud computing, and how to improve the environmental sustainability by developing green tech.

The inflection point is to converge the cutting-edge technology with the global business insight and landscape, to deliver the next generation of leadership, to design the learning organization framework, and to reach both individual and company’s potential.


7. Starting Point: The Education
“The justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”
“ The man will be judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin..”
--Martin Luther King Jr.

The best education not only convey and spread the knowledge, more importantly, it will build up the content of character, instill the value of justice, and train the solid self-discipline and self-motivation, and the teachers are the soul engineers.

America has many high quality universities, but K-12 education has lagged behind from many other countries. Especially the STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineer and Mathematics), What are the reasons behind the scenes?

•Is it like the failed leadership, 20th century’s education system is more about US centric, keep the students self-satisfaction than self-motivation?
•Is it because those college dropout technology titans may inspire the innovation and unconventional success, but also cause the side-effect such as 30% high school dropout rate?
•Is it lack of influential role model to inspire more girls to pursuing the technology major and more?

Education is the starting point of revitalizing the America dream, the student, the teachers, the parents and the whole society should work together to inspire the next generation of education, via learning from overseas, enhancing the curriculum, with the latest technology, and the most important thing: to nurture the education-focused culture, value and mindset.

The news about Mr. Steve Job’s medical leave became the top headline in almost all the media channel today, Steve’s “Sell the dream” and “dream bigger” inspire the world with the innovation.

The two men with big dreams, both Dr. King and Steve’s dreams help advance the human society with the different perspective.

May 2011 become the turning point to lift Dr. King’s dream into the new level: to inspire the diversified leadership, to create enough career opportunities for all hard-working American citizens and reach human’s potential.

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