Top Banner
THE 2020 WORKFORCE: CULTURAL CHANGES AND THE IMPACT ON TALENT 11 February 2015 Vusi Thembekwayo, Global Business Speaker 2
11
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

THE 2020 WORKFORCE: CULTURAL CHANGES AND THE IMPACT ON TALENT 11 February 2015Vusi Thembekwayo, Global Business Speaker2

Page 2: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

In the second of the present series of 20-Minute Master Classes, rock star Global Business Speaker Vusi Thembekwayo examined the four key themes of leadership, culture, products and context in today’s organisations. With inspiring real-world illustrations – from the world of motor sport to the clockwork operations of Mumbai’s dabbawallahs – he showed how these four factors can separate ‘Excellent’ businesses from the merely ‘Competent’.

Page 3: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

The workforce environment is changing rapidly, with businesses needing to adapt to the cultural shifts and opportunities this presents. A recent study of 1094 business leaders across 481 countries revealed four major themes that distinguish the top performing 10% from the rest of the pack:

What can we learn from the ‘Talented Ten’?

Leadership

Products

Culture

Context

Page 4: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

CONTEXTWhat is context?It’s the reason great organisations believe they’re in the business they’re in. It’s why people do what they do, and it shapes the environment in which they operate.

How can context make a difference?

Competent businessesDriven to run profitably by making and maximising money

Excellent businessesRecognise the need to serve profitably, but understand the value of being relevant and of service to customers

Vusi’s key message:“It’s important to achieve financial success, but it’s more important to not exist solely to achieve financial success.”

Building a better mousetrap?Smith Corona was the world’s largest typewriter manufacturer, with an annual turnover of $500m in its heyday. One young employee presaged that the typewriter as we knew it would die, as the world turned to personal computers. The CEO disagreed, and the business continued to “innovate” with smaller, more stylish typewriters. But humanity wanted a better communication tool, not a better typewriter.

The young employee left the company to set up his own business, and the once-pioneering Smith Corona was eradicated in less than a decade. The employee’s name? Richard Dell – the founder of Dell Computers.

Page 5: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

ProductWhat is product?“Product” is essentially the things or services you sell to consumers or business customers. Merely Competent companies deliver their product and execute it efficiently, but the most successful organisations construct processes that enable their people to deliver amazing experiences.

How can product make a difference?

Competent businessesCan we deliver the product and execute it efficiently?

Excellent businessesCan we deliver an amazing experience?

Vusi’s key message:“Leading companies recognise that supporting functions must deliver an amazing experience to the rest of the business, so that the company can deliver an amazing experience to the customer.”

Diversity: more than just a corporate policyThere is more diversity in Africa than any other continent. Comprised of 52 independent states, each with its own government and power dynamics, it is inhabited by 1,000 different tribes and 3,000 languages are spoken. By 2050, 440 new cities will have emerged in Africa.

For organisations looking for growth opportunities, it’s an attractive prospect. But businesses must be attuned to individual markets and adapt their culture to execute in Africa: for example, centralising functions such as HR or Finance simply doesn’t work – success is instead determined by in-country knowledge, insight, talent and nuance.

Page 6: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

Vusi asks MotoGP champs “What makes you the best?” Their response? “We lead at the corner” @VusiThembekwayo #20MMC

LeadershipWhat is leadership?Vusi suggests that the primary focus for Leadership is to influence, not control. He goes on to say that this should be distinguished from Management, which has control as it’s primary focus. Being an effective leader means being able to get people, processes and systems to work the way you want, even in your absence.

How can leadership make a difference?

Competent businessesHow do we ensure people get things done?

Excellent businessesHow do we create an employee experience that makes people thrive?

Key takeout:“Business leaders must recognise that if you truly want to shift an organisation to be competitive, you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Only the brave winMoto GP riders are among the most daring of sportsmen, controlling high-powered machinery with few concessions to safety. They typically take a corner at 198 kmph, leaning 60 degrees into the bend. But elite champions don’t slow down into the corners – in fact, they speed up to 203 kmph. They recognise that the race is won in the corners, not on the straights. Similarly, staying competitive in business is about being able to do the difficult thing when it matters.

Page 7: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

Don’t just be passionate - be obsessed! How to achieve this in organisations with our people? @SAPAfrica @SF_EMEA #20MMC @VusiThembekwayoCulture

What is culture?Culture is what people do when you’re not around as a business leader. For employees of merely Competent businesses, often the best part of the working day is going home. ‘Excellent’ organisations invest in processes and people management systems, but they also to construct a culture that enables them to deliver business results. After all, leaders only achieve success through their people.

How can culture make a difference?

Competent businessesOperate a ‘passion’ culture

Excellent businessesOperate an ‘obsession’ culture

Key takeout:“Your business’s current best level of performance needs to be tomorrow’s worst.”

Ferrari pits faster by being smarterIn 1984, Ferrari could pit a Formula 1 car in 14 seconds. Today, just three decades later, it can pit a car in 3 seconds. To achieve this feat, Ferrari has had to make massive changes to the recruitment and training of its people, its strategy, process optimisation and back-end IT, in order to deliver as a team. Every driver pulls out onto the track without a scintilla of doubt that the rest of the team have done their jobs.

Ferrari operate according to four cardinal rules:

1. Clarity of rules

2. Visualising outcomes

3. Always being better

4. Set everyone up for success

Page 8: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

Mumbai’s Dabbawallahs

deliver hot food FOR THOUGHT

And yet in the absence of sophisticated management theories, the dabbawallahs achieve 400,000 deliveries a day, accurate to 1:6,000,000. To put this into context, Six Sigma-compliant global delivery services giant, FedEx, has an efficiency of just 1:4,500,000. Makes you think.

Mumbai, India (population 10.5 million) has 5,000 dabbawallahs who collect freshly-cooked food from workers’ homes in late morning, and deliver the lunches to individuals’ workplaces. There are no warehouses or offices, no team-building sessions, and the system has flattest management structure possible – a single, democratically-elected president.

Page 9: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

THE COMPETING

VALUES FRAMEWORKCompetent organisations are led internally, with the emphasis on “us” – our people, systems and processes. Excellent organisations are led externally, influenced by their markets, customers and competitors.

Merely Competent businesses tend to be focused, with standard operating processes and command structures, while Excellent ones are flexible, ready to adapt when the market changes.

(clan)

Do things better

(adhocracy)

Do things first

Short

TERM

perfo

rman

ce

Long

TERM

perfo

rman

ceBreakthrough

Incremental

(hierarchy)

Do things right

(market)

Do things fast

FLEXIBLE

focused

exter

na

lINTE

RN

AL

COLLABORATE

control

create

complete

Page 10: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

THE COMPETING

VALUES FRAMEWORKBalancing conflicting functional agendas

HR encourages collaboration, asserting that things get done when people work together, while the priority for Operations is to compete, execute on innovation and get to market sooner. But if you’re doing it together, you can’t do it fast. And if you’re doing it fast, you’re not doing it together.

Marketing is focused on creativity, constantly looking to experiment with new tools and approaches, while Risk, Legal and Finance favour control through processes, structure and compliance. But if you’re doing it right, you’re not doing it first. And if you’re doing it first, you’re not doing it right.

How do you optimise your business to get the balance right?

• By basing your operating context on the significance of the customer

• By delivering not just a product, but an amazing experience

• By knowing when to push the boundaries as a leader and do the difficult things

• By creating a culture of obsession in which people are mutually set up to succeed

Page 11: The 2020 Workforce: Cultural Changes and The Impact on Talent

Follow the series on Twitter #20MMC

Join the conversation on LinkedIn

Register for this series of 20-Minute Master Classes

Watch Vusi Thembekwayo’s session on demand

Tricia Vilkinas, Greg Cartan, (2006) “The integrated competing values framework: its spatial configuration”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25 Iss: 6, pp.505 – 521.

Manon G. Guillemette , Maxime Laroche , Jean Cadieux, Defining decision making process performance: Conceptualization and validation of an index, Information and Management, v.51 n.6, p.618-626, September, 2014.

Baets, W., Complexity, Learning and Organizations: A Quantum Interpretation of Business. 2006. Routledge.

P.A. Gloor, “Swarm Creativity: Competitive Advantage through Collaborative Innovation Networks” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

African Development Bank, Economic Forecasting and Planning: The Africa We Want, Africa in 2063. 2013.

African Economic Outlook, South Africa 2012.

Sources