by Adam Hartung | Apr 12, 2005 | General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness
Louis Gerstner’s best selling book on IBM was "Who says elephant’s can’t dance." Now his successor looks to be a pretty good elephant trainer himself.
IBM has loaded itself up with more White Space projects. This behemoth is fast moving out of hardware (selling its PC business, for example) and moving into value-added process management. It’s using both divestitures and acquisitions to disrupt itself, and then using White Space to develop new opportunities.
Read the latests article in BusinessWeek for details. Let’s just say here that if IBM keeps spawning these White Space projects it can keep itself in the Rapids for quite a long time. You don’t have to be small to succeed – just willing to be disruptive and use White Space
by Adam Hartung | Nov 3, 2004 | Quotes
He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
—Albert Einstein
by Adam Hartung | Nov 1, 2004 | Openness
While reading Seth Godin’s blog today, I was struck by his point about the power of videotape to shape behavior. He was commenting on the shabby way that he was treated while trying to buy a lobster and he wondered:
So, the two questions are, “Do you think the owner wanted them to act this way?” and “Would they have acted differently if they were on camera?”
What a delightful line of thought! One of the key design principles for being able to build a self-renewing organization is “openness.” Why? Openness prevents abuses. People who are going to do unethical things don’t want anyone to know about it, that’s why they require secrecy. (Why do you think they call them “shady” dealings?) Whether its employees who our mistreating customers, or senior managers who are looting the company for personal gain, they all depend on secrecy.
Behaviors like that are like cockroaches: they like dark places out of peoples’ view. But when you shine a light on them, they scatter. That’s the affect of openness on unethical, illicit, and illegal behavior.
Great organizations of any kind (including countries) only prosper in a climate of openness. I wonder what would happen if everyone in a company behaved as if their every move were being broadcast live to the world. I guarantee that they would change their behavior! How could your organization benefit from more openness? What can you do to increase openness in your organization?
by Adam Hartung | Oct 26, 2004 | Quotes
“When society requires to be rebuilt there is no use in attempting to rebuild it on the old plan. No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.”
— John Stuart Mill 19th century philosopher and economist
by Adam Hartung | Oct 8, 2004 | Quotes
The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
—Archibald MacLeish, 20th century writer, poet
by Adam Hartung | Oct 5, 2004 | Quotes
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
—George Bernard Shaw
