Deloitte & Touche Keynote Sep04

The Leadership Imperative

Sam Swaminathan

ChangeChange

• There was no change in global GDP for 1000 years, except during the last 100 years.

• Innovation came from the village banker, barber, bishop, blacksmith, and butcher.

• Suddenly, the density of connections has grown and so the range of ideas has grown too.

The Current RealitiesThe Current Realities

• Globalization has blown open protected markets

• The Internet has made mortar feel like millstones

• A Cambrian explosion of new competitive life forms

• The distance between what we can imagine and what we can accomplish is narrowing relentlessly. Dreams and reality were never so near!

• Francis Fukuyama is dead. Long live Fukuyama. We now possess the power to interrupt history. Don’t let the future catch you flat-footed.

The Current RealitiesThe Current Realities

Schumpeter’s gales of creative destruction have become a hundred thousand hurricanes.

Collapse of Communism New World Order

Birth of Internet New Economic Order

The Current RealitiesThe Current Realities

Japan’s ImperialismJapan’s ImperialismThe gift to the Sun GoddessThe gift to the Sun Goddess

SinshuSinshu

No No

JingiJingi

Japan’s ImperialismJapan’s ImperialismThe gift to the Sun GoddessThe gift to the Sun Goddess

SinshuSinshu

No No

JingiJingi

Muscle

Money

Mind

Muscle

Money

Mind

Organizational EvolutionOrganizational Evolution

Agricultural Age

Industrial Age

Information Age

Money Vs MindMoney Vs Mind

• The fact that we were entering the he fact that we were entering the information economy was announced in information economy was announced in 1991, when capital spending on 1991, when capital spending on information technology [$112 B] information technology [$112 B] surpassed capital spending on surpassed capital spending on production technology [$107 B] in the production technology [$107 B] in the USA.USA.

Money Vs MindMoney Vs Mind

Money Money isis subtractivesubtractive

Mind Mind isis additiveadditiveMind = KnowledgeMind = Knowledge

Intellectual CapitalIntellectual Capital

“Tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”

Abraham Lincoln

“We can’t wait for evolution: three million years to grow a lung, another twenty to learn to walk upright, sixty more to grasp a spear, ten more to light a fire.”

– Peter Senge

We need to speed corporate evolution.

Internet TimeInternet Time

The donning of computer clothing by modern man is no less significant then the donning of outer clothing by the Paleolithic– Timothy LearyTimothy Leary

Knowledge WorkKnowledge Work

How good are you?

Who will vouch for it?Who will vouch for it?

We live in…We live in…

THE AGE OF AMBIGUITY

The more complex the environment becomes, the more ambiguous life becomes.

Who do you learn from?Who do you learn from?How many biographies did you read in the last 3m, 6m, 9m, 12m?

Who is your mentor?Do you have one?

Key DriversKey Drivers

Passion & PurposeNot

Political or Positional Power

The Network Is The FutureThe Network Is The Future

DC 3

Best Quality Leaders1. Enormous energy and passion for

the job – a real leader – sees it operationally – not as a ‘staffy’.

2. Ability to execute, energize and mobilize the organization around the benefits of action – not a bureaucrat.

3. Understands it is all about customers and upping the bottom line.

4. Has a very good grasp of quality, which is equal to, or bettered by, strong financial background and capability.

5. Has a real edge to deliver bottom line results and not just technical solutions.

Best Quality Leaders

Key Leadership Ingredients

“E4”=

• Energy

• Energizer

• Edge

• Execution

Values and Performance Critical to Success

“E4”

Energy =

Enormous Personal Energy - Strong Bias for Action

Key Leadership Ingredients

“E4”

Energizer =

Ability to Motivate and Energize Others ... Infectious Enthusiasm to Max Organization Potential

Key Leadership Ingredients

“E4”

Edge =

Competitive Spirit ... Instinctive Drive for Speed/Impact ... Strong Convictions and Courageous Advocacy

Key Leadership Ingredients

“E4”

Execution =

Deliver Results

Key Leadership Ingredients

“E4”= • Energy

• Energizer

• Edge

• Execution

= Passion

Key Leadership Ingredients

77 STEPS TO LIFELONG LEARNING STEPS TO LIFELONG LEARNING1. Write your resume today.2. Give it to a headhunter, and find out what you

may be worth in the talent market.3. Compare this with what you are being paid

today.4. If you are getting more, worry yourself to

death.5. If you are getting less, feel happy – you are

safe.6. After 6 months, write your resume again.7. If both resumes are similar, know that you

will soon be history.

DISTINCTIFY… OR DIE!

“If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed and that increasingly means you won’t get paid much, either.”

— Michael Goldhaber, Wired

ARE YOU…ARE YOU…

– Committed– Determined to make a difference– Focused– Passionate – Irrational about your life’s project– Ahead of your time / Paradigm buster– Impatient– Action Driven

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”

– John.F.Kennedy

Escape from your concepts prison

Seize the Opportunity offered to you, and run with it. Hope to live till you are five hundred!

And, finally…And, finally…

LEAVE A LEGACY!!

Brought to you by

Sam SwaminathanSam SwaminathanCenter for Creative Thinking

http://www.ccthinking.comsam@ccthinking.com

Thank you