Should Porter’s Five Forces mix with Sun Tzu’s Five Elements?

All profit is not equal. Profit involving shared value enables society to advance more rapidly and allows companies to grow faster.  –Michael Porter

Michael Porter’s Five Forces strategy, a SWOT analysis model on creating a strong position for product or service that allows it to garner outsized profits, makes significant influence on contemporary business society.

1.      Marketing Entry: How easy is it for others to enter the market? Barriers to entry can include economies of scale, a highly differentiated product, large capital requirements for new entrants, large costs for customers to switch, limited access for newcomers to distribution channels, and government regulations or subsidies

2.       Threat of product/service substitution. Are there any other products and services with sustainable innovation that can easily be substituted for yours?

 

3.       Bargaining power of buyers. Are a small number of buyers responsible for a large portion of your sales? Do their purchases from you represent a large portion of their procurement costs?...

 

4.       Bargaining power of suppliers. Do you have multiple suppliers? Are there substitutes you can use? Is it easy to switch suppliers?...

 

5.       Rivalry among current competitors. How intense is the rivalry among the firms you compete with? How does rivalry affect your ability to sustain profits.

Porter’s Five Forces focus more on marketing dimension of strategy, and his value chain put emphasis on economic position and supply chain/operational efficiency.  

However, Business is increasingly seen as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems at the great recession we’ve just been through, Porter’s latest thought about shared value added new social dimension, give far broader approach , compliment his previous strategy framework with deeper foundation, which is made of five elements, the essential of Sun Tsu’s strategy:

• Mission: or shared value, inspire people to share the same visions, ideas expectations and societal needs.

• Ground: to be able to master mountains, valleys, rivers, plains, etc. it’s about situation such as offering new opportunities for differentiation, innovation, and growth

·         Climate: it’s nature, changes in climatic conditions:  for businesses, social condition is “nature” climate to survive or thrive,  corporate policies and practices need enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advance social and economic conditions in the communities in which it operates

• Command: leadership, such as wisdom, humanity, credibility, courage, intelligence and firmness.  As Colin defined: Level Five Leadership = Humility + Will

• Method: the discipline, the moral cause, reward, punishment, logistics and metrics such as value chain analysis.

Porter may need meet SunTsu, and the power in five forces may need mix with the magic of five elements in strategy: Is Five Forces (Man-Made) + Five Elements (Nature) =Superior Strategy?

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Three Faces of Social Enterprise

From last year’s Dreamforce & Enterprise2.0 to this Spring’s Cloudforce-Social Enterprise conference, social business start sprout up, from perception to implementation, social meets mobile in the cloud, to unite seven business visions,  to reboot business into the brain-yard in the cloud, to amplify collective human capability, also to orchestrate the new theme of modern business transformation, here are three faces of social enterprise:

1.    Customer Face:

·         Social CRM

At era of social business, customer relationship management is no longer just one way street or flat spreadsheet, it’s multi-channel, multi-touch, multi-dimensional roadmap to engage customers, to listen to customers feedback, to build social customer profile, to manage customer relationship at real time, via dynamic information sharing and multi-point communication.

·         Social BPM

BPM-Business Process Management is no longer just inward business process automation, social BPM is about customer-centric process innovation and optimization, it’s about managing your brand via analyzing, tracking and tuning Big Data, and how to empower entire company to compete more effectively than ever by leveraging the power of holistic social solutions. Social business is no longer just the sum of functional silos, it’s the resilient whole to delight customers.  

·         Social Contact Center

 Customer contact center also need head to social, mobile, and open world, and shift to self-service trend, the social business enables a new mode of engagement: it’s no longer just static content & web pages, or long waiting phone line, it’s more about interactive customer rich experience to get to know customer like never before, and deliver customer-tailored solutions.   

2.    Employee Face:

·         Social Enterprise Platform

Social computing and consumerization of IT revolutionize the collaboration within organization and beyond, synchronize employee activities, documentation management and application data & information management, it’s now a few click away to share contents, look for experts, discuss analytical insight, orchestrate cross-functional project collaboration, and get feedback from people cross entire organization.

·         Social Touch in Performance Management

 Social performance management platform improves performance through social goals, continuous feedback, meaningful social recognition, and result-driven work culture, to inspire positive improvement, progressive attitude and purpose-driven work ethics. The performance review is no longer once a year administrative task, it becomes information driven, social & collaborative management approach to meet SMART principle: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Traceable.  

·         Gamification for Talent Management

Gamification concept is no longer just for gaming, now becomes the interesting social enterprise tool which has been embedded into enterprise platform for rewarding the innovation, thought leadership and influence. Social business means more about fun and creative working environment to increase employee satisfaction and improve productivity. 

3.    Society Face:

 ·   Social Purpose

Social business is more open and well-connect with community and macro-social environment, business’s reputation is no longer just public relationship department’s job, customers and employees now have more voice and choice, the power to lift up your brand or thumb it down, contemporary business need create the social value for community and society economically, culturally and environmentally.

·   Social Value Chain

Social enterprise can also unite the business with its value chain ecosystem more seamlessly, the borderless social platform unleash great potential for business partners (even the competitors at certain circumstances) to collaborate and solve challenges facing in the industry, and make influence on the long term policy & investment or any other social, political and economic concerns.

·         From Taxonomy to Folksonomy

When amplify social business effect into society, we revitalize our economy into folksonomy, it’s not just the expert economists to craft the economy strategy, it’s people, both 99% plus 1% brainstorming together to create the new chapter of economy via collective wisdom and effort, to revitalize infrastructural backbone. It also take crowdsourcing to re-invent K-12 education, to re-kindle the enthusiasm about alternative energy, to renewal technology innovation,  which are three pillars of economy.

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Miyamoto Musashi’s Five Rings of Strategy

“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”            Miyamoto Musashi

As Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Mushshi was well known as a great warrior and strategist lived four hundred years ago, his books of  five rings also make significant impact on shaping modern business strategy and the art of wisdom: 

1. Five Rings:

• Ground: Knowing the smallest and biggest thing, the shallowest thing and deepest thing, as if it’s straight road mapped to the ground

• Water: With water as basis, the spirit becomes like water, water adopt the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes  a trickle, sometimes a wild sea; Water has clear blue color.

• Fire: The spirit of fire is fierce, weather the fire is small or big, you must appreciate the spirit can come big and small, what is big is easy to perceive, what is small is difficult to perceive; the essential is: practice, practice and practice to make good strategy

• Wind:  means old traditions, present-day traditions of strategy. It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others. To all Ways there are side-tracks. If you study a Way daily, and your spirit diverges, you may think you are obeying a good way, but objectively it is not the true Way. If you are following the true Way and diverge a little, this will later become a large divergence.

• Void. means that which has no beginning and no end. Attaining this principle means not attaining the principle. The Way of strategy is the Way of nature. When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing the rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally. All this is the Way of the Void.

  

2.     Five Takeaway:

·        Time is Strategy: There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice. Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good.

·        The Gaze in Strategy: Perception and Sight: In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.

·        Rat's Head, Ox's Neck: the Way of strategy as being both a rat's head and an ox's neck. Whenever we have become preoccupied with small details, we must suddenly change into a large spirit, interchanging large with small.

·        Keep the Spirit: In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. Do not let the enemy see your spirit

·        The Way of Nature: People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment...

           

.3. Principles of Five Rings:

Do not think dishonestly.

The Way is in training.

Become acquainted with every art.

Know the Ways of all professions.

Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.

Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.

Perceive those things which cannot be seen.

Pay attention even to trifles.

Do nothing which is of no use.

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BYOD & Drucker’s Six Factors of Productivity

“The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of the knowledge work and the knowledge worker.” – Peter Drucker

BYOD-Bring Your Own Device phenomenon spurs a lot of excitement and frustration recently, the excitement is about the good intention behind the trend: Increase employees’ satisfaction and improve productivity. The frustration is also understandable, the security, the privacy, the management complexity. Etc. Is it worth the effort, here we re-visit Drucker’s  six factors of productivity.

The idea of 'knowledge worker' was first described by Peter Drucker in his 1959 book 'The Landmarks of Tomorrow'. He also points out that knowledge worker productivity is the most important challenge for management in the 21st Century, Though being through the half century, the vision and management discipline are proven evergreen, fortunately, modern technology enable knowledge worker to achieve high-level of productivity via uniting their hand, mind and heart more smoothly.

Can BYOD and other modern technology help fulfill Drucker’s vision about productivity?

1.     What is the Task?

·        Manage on WHAT not HOW

BYOD brings up the freedom of choices for employees to do the work via the tools they enjoy, also provide the possibilities for staff to work anytime, anywhere to access the right information when needed; multi-generational workforces may have different way to do the things. Now the management discipline need focus on WHAT need be done, let employees figure out HOW.

2.     Self Management

With the convergence of IT consumerization (such as BYOD) and enterprise of IT, and mobile computing with social platform, knowledge workers now have more flexibility than ever to communicate cross boundary, connect with like-minded professionals,  share knowledge and compliment skill sets via multi-channel conversation & socialization and framework more resilient organizational structure. Self-management is the new normal to increase business productivity via trust & monitor, empowerment & governance.


3. Continuous Innovation

·        Take Extra Mile

While the tasks are no longer micro-managed, the culture of innovation need be cultivated, and employees are always encouraged to think and do the task innovatively, think as entrepreneur or business owner, take advantage of modern tools, and with open mind to pursue the alternative solutions, to create further value for business, also for their own growth. “Take Extra Mile” attitude and mentality will further enhance productivity & continuous innovation. 

4.     Continuous Learning

Today’s knowledge workers face their own dilemma, knowledge and skills need be updated every couple of years even shorter, globility –anyone can compete anything from anywhere is the by-product of internet and globalization. Continuous learning attitude is essential for many professions now, the positive effect is also about the modern technologies, which enable any “thirsty soul” or “hungry mind” to satisfy without too much hassle to gain the latest knowledge.   

5.     Quality is Superior than Quantity

Knowledge workers need pursue the professional happiness via not only skills, but more via character, character means more about quality, skills means more about quantity. On the other hand, productivity comes more from quality than quantity at knowledge economy we participate here, only through continuous learning and innovation. Again, BYOD culture inspires the continuous progress both for individual and business.

6.     Treat People As Human Asset & Capital than Cost

  Drucker also pointed out: attracting and holding knowledge workers have become two of the central tasks of people management. The goal of talent management need reach three levels of maturity:

·        Level I --Human Cost: Still treat staff as cost, then,  for most of  employees, “job is just a job”, such a mentality is a big barrier to improve productivity, not mention about innovation.

·        Level II –Human Asset: business is all about the group of people to achieve bigger than each individual can do on their own. Treat human as asset, with mutual respect, for their expertise, for their contribution, for their cognitive wisdom.

·        Level III –Human Capital: Inspire talent team to envision business purpose and strategy together, think people as human capital investment, empower and delight them to achieve more via latest technology tools, that’s the main goal of BYOD.

People want autonomy (let me do it!), mastery (how to do it better with resources), and purpose (why & how: my work fits in to the larger project, and how our project fits our corporate purpose, and why the corporate objectives add meaning to the world). These are actually both universal drivers, and deeply unique and personal. And the productivity need be improved via uniting people’s hand, mind and heart!  BYOD, are you ready!

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Five Elements of Sun Tzu’s Strategy

Strategy is: "a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.”

Sun Tzu said:

Strategy is the great work of the organization. In situations of life or death; it is survival or extinction. Therefore, it needs careful study.

1) Sun Tzu’s Five Elements of Strategy

In Sun Tzu's system, the five traditional elements are replaced by the five elements that define the competitive world:

• Mission: Inspire people to share the same visions, ideas and expectations
• Ground: to be able to master mountains, valleys, rivers, plains, etc. it’s about situation,  distant or immediate, difficult or easy, opportunities and risks
• Climate: it’s nature, changes in climatic conditions
• Command: Leadership, such as wisdom, humanity, credibility, courage, intelligence and firmness. 
• Method: the discipline, the moral cause, reward, punishment, logistics and metrics.

2) Five Key Take Away:       

·  Winning without Conflict: Sun Tzu's book teaches winning without conflict. “A great general finds a way to win without fighting a single battle".  Sun Tzu says, “preserving the state best, destroying state second best." "Diplomatic resolution should be done first"

·      "First Mover Advantage" (FMA) Sun Tzu cited in Mintzberg et al., (1998) “Generally, he who occupies the field of battle first and awaits his enemy is at ease”. Innovation is not just new products but also about different processes

·         Leverage is Strategy: Sun Tzu cited in Grundy (2004) “When the front is prepared the rear is unprepared and when the rear is prepared then the front is unprepared. But preparedness everywhere means a lack everywhere”.

• Human Mind is the Best Weapon: Sun Tzu teaches the use of only one weapon: the human mind:  The Art of War starts with, “Warfare is a great matter to a nation; it is the ground of death and of life; it is the way of survival and of destruction, and must be examined.”

•  Five Essentials for victory:

(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. 

(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. 

(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.

(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

      (5) He will win who has capability & capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. 

Sun Tzu’s theory is more focus on the principles, the art and science of strategy, the harmony of nature elements with human's wisdom, we may just need understand it philosophically, psychologically, ecologically,  artistically, and scientifically.

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CIO’s D&B (Depth & Breadth) of Influence Matrix

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. Ken Blanchard

Modern CIOs face many dilemmas: being sustainable or disrupt, keep status quo or innovative? Act as a business executive or an IT manager., etc, command-control leading style is no longer effective to make business transformation at  today’s 3D (physical, virtual, mental) working environment, and conventional IQ & EQ may also not be sufficient enough to deliver high impact leadership influence. .

1. Three Depths of Influences: (SQ + IQ + PQ)

1)      Strategy Influence via SQ (Strategy Intelligence Quotient)

 Being a first class business leader or a second class executive might be decided by CIO’s SQ: your strategy intelligence.

Strategy is about a set of choices, to leverage cohesive business capabilities, and follow a series of actions for organization to compete for the future. CIO need become a business strategist to perceive the potential opportunities and the “art of possible” for business via the lens of modern technology, CIO also need help business to build up coherent business capabilities enabled by information technology; Co-developing strategy by both business and IT can help reduce any “surprising disruption” when taking actions and avoid blind spot or pitfalls when executing it.

CIO’s SQ will help organization balance “keep the light on” and long term growth, to well blend philosophical elements of strategy: “Time, Location, People” with business components of strategy: “People, Process, Technology” seamlessly, to drive business into Blue Ocean or grow  Long Tail effortlessly, also unite and achieve business’s three purposes: economic value, social value and people value.

2)      Innovation Influence via IQ (Innovation Intelligence Quotient)

Besides Chief Influence Officer, Chief Innovation Officer could be the most pertinent persona of contemporary CIO, innovation is about managing creative ideas to achieve its business value. Though facing many innovation dilemmas, modern CIO with new style of “IQ” –Innovation Intelligence can play an exemplary role to cultivate culture of innovation,.

CIO with new IQ will transform IT into high level maturity; help pull talent, resources together to manage three type of innovation more effectively & efficiently:

• Growth Innovation:  CIO with both high SQ & IQ can envision the blue ocean like- future trends via advanced analytics or Big Data.
• Sustainable Innovation: From continuous communication with customers & partners via social platform, CIO & IT will help perceive next generation of products or services via open loop feedback link.

• Efficiency Innovation:  CIO with high IQ can also think differently, to challenge the old way to do the things, always dispassionately examine the alternative, to help optimize cost structure, reduce process redundancy, and decrease environmental waste., etc. 

3)     Process Influence via PQ (Process Intelligence Quotient)

 CIO with PQ (Process Intelligence Quotient) will always be a holistic thinker, see business as a whole more effective than the sum of parts; also tuning business process to be lean to adapt to the changes, with resilience to re-draw, or re-wire with each other.

CIO with PQ will take advantage of modern technology tools such as social/mobile/cloud/analytics to embed innovation into business processes, experiment and orchestrate the future of business: social enterprise, to amplify collective human capability.

The depth of CIO's influences should penetrate into business strategy, innovation management, process optimization, technology impact and even more, please read more at Seven Points of CIO’s Influences. CIOs with SQ, IQ and PQ will help their businesses gain competitive advantages.

2. Three Breadth of Influence (3 EQ)

Modern CIOs’ influences may also like a running river,  permeable across their own business,  then flow into the sea, the sea is about the industry, the ecosystem, the economy, and our human society.,  The breadth of influences may include:

1)     Economy Influence (Economy Intelligence Quotient)

The Great Recession impact majority of Americans life, according to the US Department of Labor Statistics, debt to GDP ratio going from 62% 3 years ago, to over 100% today, the current attack on corporate earnings, the high unemployed rate), etc. Businesses don't fail or succeed entirely on their own. Their fate is tied to the environment in which they operate.

Well, IT looks like a mini version of economy,: complex but crucial, IT is heart & brain of business, and economy is backbone of our society,  they both have been through the “dark age” of the last decade: IT has reputation as cost center, economy is fragile & turbulent, ,business leaders like CIO, as a strategy pratitioner,  may help brainstorm the economy’s long term strategy,  the innovative solutions for current or potential problems:

• Long Term Economy Strategy: for many businesses today, strategy and corporate planning is now a 60-90 day horizon, and tactical delivery is more relevant to staying alive than creating any cohesive corporate plan.. The culture of short-term thinking hurt economy as a whole, we may start pondering:

*What is really the root cause of “the financial crisis 2008”? *

            *What is the future of market economies?

             *What are the set of choices need be made for long term to improve economy's competency 

            *What are the series of actions need be taken to not only  improve, but revitalize economy?

    

• Infrastructure Modernization: Many businesses today are facing the challenges to modernize their legacy IT systems, that’s why many organizations, big or small, to step in the Cloud, intend to make IT delivery better, cheaper, and faster. Can economy also find its silver lining as cloud? The logic keeps simple: we need  focus on infrastructure. Every infrastructure issue — broken bridges, congested highways and ports, overcrowded airports and outdated air traffic control systems, weaknesses in the electric grid, and inadequate broadband spectrum — costs us significantly and make damage for the long term. Rebuilding and modernizing isn't a luxury; it's a necessity. It would not only help the economy broadly, but would help spur innovation of more high-performance businesses and communities.

•  “Invisible Hand of Economy”:

 In economics, invisible hand or invisible hand of the market is the term economists use to describe the self-regulating nature of the marketplace. In business, Information System may also like an invisible hand to pull all the resources & data together, and push the business game forward.

Can we also deciphering complex economic phenomenon via the lens of  IT & Enterprise Architecture?  The system components, the economic processes, the fundamental problems, the strategic planning,  the resource allocations, the law of demand-supply-price,  the future state, the change management,  the transformation scenario. etc. 

Business or economics as a whole are about searching for a better life and delighting customers since it increases individual’s chance of survival. Economics is also about the evolution of products and businesses because they can better adapt to increasingly challenging market environment. And essential of marketing economy is about making a bigger “economic pie”, the pursuit of happiness for its customers –the fellow citizens: 99% + 1%. .

  

2) Energy Influence (Energy Intelligence Quotient)

 Energy is absolutely the lifeblood of any economy, however, the continuously increased demand for natural resources, particularly fossil fuel, has raised widespread concern that these resources will be ultimately depleted, not to mention the environmental issue or climate changes. Consequently, this created conflict between finite resources and infinite needs. This is the fundamental problem for all species, including human beings.

Inside business, pervasive usage of technology also accelerate depletion of earth resource and increate carbon footprint. Therefore, CIO may need to expand influence on energy and sustainability:  

• Long Term Energy Strategy

 Self reliance and energy independent is long term strategy. Brave leadership, with a confident vision ( strategic energy plan),  the long term policy effectiveness, both public & private sector need work head to head to pull all resources together and execute energy strategy consistently.

Energy is one of the promising sector to fight back recession and strengthen economy. Energy stability and cost-effectiveness will also boost any energy-dependent industries such as transportation, which hurt most by flying fuel, and experience the  “Lost Decade”

• Energy Innovation

 We need develop full set of alternative portfolio such as biofuel, solar, wind., etc and stick to it with long term investment perspective. We need to integrate, orchestrate resources, people, innovation and technology to rejuvenate energy sector, and economy as a whole.

Energy transformation is a long time journey, need vision, and persistence, but it's the strategic imperative worthy of effort. Invest in our future, provide energy security for future generation and build solid energy infrastructure.

3). Education Influence (Talent Intelligence Quotient)

The poor quality of K-12 education is one of America's greatest competitive weaknesses. Statistically, each year, approximately 1.3 million students fail to graduate from high school;  American Children are falling further and further behind their international peers in almost every area of STEM education, what is the root cause? one of thought-provoking statistics  is: A student has 70% chance of being taught English by a teacher with an English background, but has only a 40% chance of being taught chemistry by a teacher with a chemistry background.

CIO as an information technology leaders could be at the unique position to make influence on education, especially STEM:

• Education Strategy:

Research shows that a lack of student engagement is predictive of dropping out even after controlling for academic achievement and student background.

Both academic and social engagement are integral components of successfully navigating the education pipeline. The strategic choices for education are still:  talent (well-educated teachers), process (how to innovate learning & teaching process), and technology.

• Education Innovation:

The education process need be optimized via innovative mindset, learning from others (cross sector learning, learning overseas., etc), and taking advantage of modern technology tools

Technological advances are making new forms of personalized education possible that could lead to big leaps in learning. the future of learning experience demands a deep appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution.

The right role models need be set to inspire kids to learn, the right technology need be adopted to enable children to learn, and the right culture need be cultivated to encourage students to pursue STEM related major and career path.

Modern Society need make progress, CIOs play significant role to lead changes via the breadth and depth of influence we discuss here, it takes TRIP (TRIP is an acronym for how Trust enables Risk which propels Innovation and, ultimately, leads to Progress) to make a difference.

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Underdog Leadership, A Serious Game

“ With but few exceptions, it is always the underdog who wins through sheer willpower.” 

 Johnny Weissmuller

 March 8 marks the 101st observance of International Women’s Day; to celebrate women’s achievements in politics, economics, and society. It’s also the time to unite both men and women, to bridge the difference, to re-visit our humanitarian value; and it’s the time to ponder the quintessential of leadership--the underdog leadership: influence, strength, mindset, authentication, balance, and character.

 Here we classify underdog leadership into next five categories, to dig deeper about why underdog leadership is not just necessary evil, but fighting angel, to lift voice & choice, vision and strategy:
1. Female Leadership

 Going back to the historical root of International Women’s Day, the landmark Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948, reaffirms that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, … birth or other status.”­­

• ­­­Global Economic Statistics: countries are more peaceful and prosperous when women are accorded full and equal rights and opportunity. Advancing the status of women and girls is critical to achieving successful outcomes for U.S. foreign policy priorities, including stability, prosperity, and peace;

• Top Business Leadership Statistics: Though compared to male leadership, female executive leadership is obvious underrepresented, statistically, less than 10% of board members are female cross globe. However, research conducted by Catalyst, McKinsey & Co. and others demonstrates that companies with a higher representation of women in senior leadership make better decisions, have better returns, risk management and corporate governance, 10% of underdogs are not enough, can we follow 20/80 rule to show the progress for the next step?

          

• Influence on the bottom of human Pyramid: Female leadership will directly impact the progress in education, culture, economy and technology,  and accelerate advancement for human society: “My message to all of them is to persevere, to be strong, to be courageous, to understand their worth and the difference they can make,” said Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer in a recent Voice of America interview.

• Future of Female Leadership: This year’s theme of International Women’s Day is "Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures", Future is all what we are fighting for, the better future for both men and women, for economy and for our world.

2. X & Y  Generation Leadership

Compared to Baby Boomer, X & Y generation leaders are underdogs, they may have different, but more insightful perspective about leadership,  since every generation experience their own opportunities, difficulties, and social phenomenon to shape cognitive thinking and optinions:

• Compete with Purpose: Baby Boomers may prefer to think business as a sport game, competing for win is all game about, ; the younger Gen X or Y might have held more mature thought: Business game need be more serious and value-driven, it’s about positive competition, and creative destruction, we need compete with purpose, unite via purposes: economic value, social value and people value;

• Long term Strategic Thinking: Baby Boomers are used to today’s hierarchically organizational structure,  command –control leadership style, and quarterly financial report-driven short term strategy; Younger generations might be more open minded and natural options thinkers, they will brainstorm the alternative way to think and do the things, rather than just conform to the established method and processes. They are innovators.

• Win-Win Solution: Baby Boomers are hard working and winning driven, may see the world more about “black & white” with some gray area, or winners and losers, with a few marginal talent, they have winning attitude, but may not be flexible enough to adapt to the accelerated changes facing in human society, the world becomes more interconnected, interdependent and hyper-competitive than ever, Gen X&Y need open the heart and mind to view the business with full spectrum of colors and multitude of choices, to create win-win situation if it’s possible, to perceive the world via multi-dimensional lenses.

May well-blended multi-generational leaders help complement each others point of view, avoid blind spots for strategy making and execution, to re-imagine the art of possible and achieve the high-performance result.


3.Introvert Thought Leadership

Introvert today may still live in the world of extrovert, compared to their extrovert peers, introvert leaders may not so much “look” or “sound” like a leader, if conventional thinking about leadership characteristic is: gregarious and outgoing, speaking and commanding, however, the underdog introvert leaders have their own inward strength:

·        Thought Leadership: Outgoing leaders might love to contribute the solutions or provide the answers to questions; Introvert leaders usually are natural thinkers, they spend more time to ponder the root cause of problem, perceive the future of possibilities, or lead via asking the right questions, thought leadership is beyond style.

·        Listening Skills: The introvert leaders usually are good listeners, they learn before doing, and listen before talking, when they do need speak, they may well target the audience, sharpening listening skills via learning and observing first.

·        Paradoxical Thinking: The introvert leader might also be a good paradoxical thinker, which make them the good conductor to orchestrate leadership music, they enjoy different opinions, with fair judgment,  adjust the speed to make situation driven decision, Think Fast or Think Slow, to adapt to today’s over-complex business world.

4.. Diversity Leadership

Diversity Leadership is an old topic, beyond gender and race, we may need infuse some new themes, compared to “mainstream” leadership, diversity underdogs include:

• Leaders face multi-layer ceilings: Glass Ceiling female professionals face, bamboo ceiling Asian Americans face, cement ceiling Middle East women face, and silicon ceiling entrepreneurs face, compare to leaders always face the blue sky, these underdog leaders usually have more sense and sensibility,  be more authentic and courageous, their own experience may shape the character and strength, to make them stronger;

• Citizen by Choice Leadership: or multi-cultural leaders: they become citizens by choice, than by birth, they consciously experience “Seven Years Itch” to learn and melt in, and “Eight Years Trial” to reflect, contemplate, and practice, their beliefs enhance their stamina, their trust give them patience, their underdog leadership essential may make broader influence via the depth of cultural understanding and cognitive wisdom.

5. Underdog Company Leadership ­­

 Every industry, there’re always top dog and underdog leading companies, they improve and transform their businesses via competition and even collaboration.

Underdog businesses as underdog leaders, with its own humble root and unique legacy, they intend to survive, and inspire to thrive, they keep clear vision without status quo, they are in pursuit of excellence by choice, we wish them Build to Last and from Good to Great!

If you are within all these categories, congratulation, you are underdog superstar! Let’s make March 8^th not just women’s day, it’s an overwhelming underdog day, it’s time to share and shine, stretch up and speak out, unite men and women to revitalize a better world.

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