BI #52 Dan Ariely on Understanding the Logic behind Illogical Decisions: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Show Notes: This week, Canadian Management Centre is pleased to present the American Management Association’s strategic planning podcast “Understanding the Logic behind Illogical Decisions” with special guest Dan Ariely.  Dan Ariely is an MIT professor and has been researching behavioral economics for over 20 years, Dan just launched a new book Predictably Irrational.

During this podcast Dan Ariely will explore behavioral economics and it’s impact on managers and team leaders.  Ariely will walk us through, how irrational behavior can actually be predictable and how we may use this to our advantage.  During this podcast Ariely will also give us the framework behind behavioral economics and how it differs from traditional economic theory.

According to Ariely, our current understanding of economics is based on the assumption of a rational subject, when in fact it should be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality. In his new book Predictably Irrational, Ariely argues that greater understanding of people’s emotions, relativity and social norms could bring a variety of opportunities for reexamining individual motivation and consumer choice, as well as economic and educational policy.

 

 BI #51 Peter Senge on the Necessary Revolution in Business: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Duration: 16 minutes 21 seconds

Show Notes:

This week, Canadian Management Centre is pleased to present the American Management Association’s strategic planning podcast “The Necessary Revolution in Business” with special guest Peter Senge.

As Senge and his co-authors reveal in The Necessary Revolution, companies around the world are boldly leading the change from dead-end “business as usual” tactics to transformative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing, sustainable world.

Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to power another. A world in which environmentally sound products and processes would be more cost-effective than the wasteful ones; A world in which corporations forming partnerships with environmental and social justice organizations to ensure better stewardship of the earth and development of societies all over the world. Now, stop imagining – that world is already emerging.

The business rationale for sustainability depends on what the business is experiencing. It’s most common for businesses to get into this territory for one of two reasons. (A.) Either something really bad happened, and they’re trying to react or (B.) They start to realize that there’s a lot of waste in their operations, and reducing energy saves money along with reducing waste.

Demonstrating a commitment to sustainability should be shown in the day-to-day operations, not just in a company’s business report. People need to see the day-to-day effects of a sustainable effort.

A shared commitment to sustainable goals comes from an important need; the problem has to be an important one that needs addressing in order for successful relationships to be built. Companies often don’t look outside their own processes (i.e. Are they wasteful in their own operations?), but when problems are big enough, they can come to the attention of these businesses, and then collaborative relationships start to be built. The issues at that point have become strategic ones which can have a direct, adverse effect on the future of a business if not managed properly now.

In the redesigned future, brand image will be about a more sustainable commerce. Issues like, food, water, waste, and toxicity will be very important for strategic planning. Companies that start to adjust their brand now and find solutions to environmental problems will be ahead of the curve. There are two ways to think about strategy: ideas that come from the top, or ideas that come through the entire company. Often sources of waste can be identified by front-line people, and thus can be useful for creating a sustainable strategy.
Peter Senge is senior lecturer at MIT and the founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning. He was named as one of the 24 people who had “the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years” by the Journal of Business Strategy. Senge is an author or co-author of several bestselling books, including The Fifth Discipline, Schools That Learn, and Presence. BRYAN SMITH, coauthor with Senge of The Dance of Change and two other Fifth Discipline fieldbooks, is a member of the faculty at York University’s Sustainable Enterprise Academy, and president of Broad Reach Innovations, Inc..

 

 BI #50: Adam Gordon on Being Future Savvy : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Duration: 14 minutes 05 seconds

Show Notes:

Canadian Management Centre is excited to present the American Management Association’s strategic planning podcast “Being Future Savvy” with special guest Adam Gordon.

Futures analyst Adam Gordon has spent a lifetime deciphering changes and trends in a variety of industries. His book Future Savvy (AMACOM) is a hands-on guide for how to evaluate the business, social, and technology forecasts in both the mainstream media and specialized reporting.

In order to succeed in their industries, decision-makers today need to anticipate the future outcomes, not only in their own industries, but also in society and technology as well. And, with so much information thrown at us every day (through the internet, newspapers etc.), we often start questioning what information is reliable. We need to ask, “What is the best information that can help me with my business?” As it’s common to think about the future in any business, we need to learn how to apply quality control to the vast amount of information that we receive, so that we can extract the good data out of it.

Because most research and data takes a long time to uncover, it’s very rare for someone to just give any information they might have away for free. Therefore, in order to figure out what information to trust, one needs to figure out the intention the giver has.

Moreover, the time frame of how far into the future one should be looking depends on the pace of the industry. However, managers should be splitting their Action Future Horizons from their Strategic Future Horizons. Your future action plans may only be six months in advance, but your overall long-term strategic plan may be looking 10-15 years in the future.

Furthermore, the agenda of the current times often influences how people look at the future, which makes believing future forecasting hard. Also, how people perceive the future is going to be influenced by their current decisions, even though that envisioned future may not materialize.

And, with scenario planning, it’s better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong. When looking out into the future, beyond the short term, it gets harder to pinpoint the exact way things are going to go. Brainstorming different scenarios makes you more reasonably mentally prepared for what could happen. For long term planning, it’s smarter to think of various vague scenarios than it is to make a detailed plan of one.

In summation, the best ways to plan for the future are to
a)    Find the right level of expertise that you trust
b)    Not be wedded to the absolute present
c)    Keep your options open
d)    Understand that systems are interconnected in ways that they haven’t been before (because of globalization and technology.) Little things here can have big impacts elsewhere.

Adam Gordon MS, MBA (INSEAD) is an acknowledged and credentialed expert in the field of industry foresight and future studies. He has been an analyst, consultant, facilitator, and teacher in this field during the past dozen years, during which he has developed various foresight projects to help private and public-sector organizations anticipate and respond to emerging opportunities. Gordon has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and CNN World Report, in addition to a number of radio shows worldwide. He has written many op-ed pieces and has been featured or serialized in various newspapers, including, most recently, The Times (London). As the director of The Future Studio, he facilitates industry foresight seminars, and teaches strategic planning in various prominent executive and MBA programs around the world. He was previously a Senior Associate at Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a future strategy consulting firm in Washington, DC., and before that, a journalist at Business Report.

 

 BI #49 John Mariotti on Conquering the Complexity Crisis : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Duration: 9 minutes 30 seconds

Show Notes:

Canadian Management Centre is pleased to present the American Management Association’s strategic planning podcast “Conquering the Complexity Crisis” with special guest John Mariotti.

Many companies today are in crisis. In the quest to grow their business in flat or declining markets, many companies have created dozens of new products and services to increase their customer, vendor, and marketplace relationships. But even as top-line revenues go up, this rising tide of complexity is drowning bottom-line profits.

We are in an era when everyone is seeking growth. The problem is that most markets that people are trying to grow in are growing slowly or not at all. This means that there is a proliferation of everything, so that everyone tries to sell to everyone everything in every place. In the process, they create more variety and complexity without a strategic focus. They might get more sales, but less profit.

As complexity drowns your organization in work and the economy takes a downturn, you look for ways to cut your organization and if you don’t do it correctly, you take an overworked, underwater organization and make it worse.

As businesses diversify and become more complex, they often lose sight of their true costs. So, top-line profits go up, but overall profits go down as you have more hidden costs then you might realize. Sales might go up, but the added costs also increase, so for example, you may now be selling 14 more different kinds of your product, but you may not be making 14 times the profit as you have different expenses added into these new variances. And in addition, you may be taking sales away from one of your products, as people buy your new product. You aren’t increasing your overall sales volume, even though you have additional costs.

You can use complexity to your advantage, by creating niches in certain markets. By diversifying your product, but regionalizing it, you have complexity without over saturating the market.

The way you gain competitive advantage is through clarity of focus of what your customers’ needs are, what the markets needs are and what you’re good at. Studying complexity reveals what you’re good at, focus on why you’re customers are buying from you.

Leadership is the most important aspect in dealing with complexity, and with business in general. The role of a leader is to create a healthy dissatisfaction with the current situation and a clear understanding of it. The second role for a leader is to create a shared vision of a new and better situation and the third is to create an environment where people become motivated to move from where it is now (dissatisfied) to the new and better situation.

John L. Mariotti is president and founder of the Enterprise Group, a coalition of executive advisors. As the former president of Rubbermaid Office Products Group, he led a multinational group of nine divisions in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He’s also a former management consultant and contributing editor for Industry Week magazine. In his book The Complexity Crisis, management consultant John L. Mariotti looks at how companies can truly evaluate their cost and management systems in order to clear away complexity–and conquer the competition.