Jim Collins - We're all Headed Into The Storm

A recent article in Inc Magazine, "How to Thrive in 2009" featured Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. His analysis of where we are all headed as organizations is poignant. Here is an excerpt on the coming wave of unforseen challenges all organizations will face:

"Most people are in the comfort of base camp, and they can go on doing what they're doing even if there is a big storm. But the people who wake up high on that mountain in a howling storm are in grave danger, like the technology people after the bubble burst. It hit me that we're all heading up there, whether we like it or not. We're heading into a world characterized by big events, big forces, massive storms. We're going to be vulnerable little specks high on the mountain when the storm hits out of nowhere. And if we're not prepared, we're going to die up there. Or we're going to be in real serious trouble.

Here are his views on a new paradigm of leadership:

"Business owners and chief executives have had a tremendous amount of concentrated power. They don't really have to lead. If I put a gun to your head, I can get you to do a lot of things. It means I have power. It doesn't mean I've led. In business, we largely have power, not leadership. In a social-sector organization, power is diffuse. So, getting things done requires the ability to truly lead. If you want to create a movement, you can't order it or demand it or will it into existence by exerting concentrated power. It just won't work." Yes leadership.

Welcome to the revolution where true vision, understanding and leadership are a requirement; not a luxury.

X-Prize: A Solution for Health Care

X-Prize recently announced they are extending their model to healthcare with a $10 million prize, intended to "catalyze dramatic improvements in health and health care value in the United States." Read the full release here. "if you can't measure it you can't change it" says the X-Prize CEO Dr.Peter Diamandis in the video below. What's the measure in health care ? That is problem in the extant health care model. The highest quality care at the best cost still entails a scarcity paradigm: at some point extending care to an individuals does not generate an ROI for the overall system. Who is going to make those choices ? The X-Prize outcome will be interesting because the solution is complicated; until consumers have an understanding on par with the system that delivers their care and until individuals are rewarded or penalized for behaviors that contribute to outcomes, the idea of "choice" is an oversimplifed solution to this complex problem.

Peter Diamandis, CEO, X-Prize Foundation from Health 2.0 on Vimeo.

Developing Potential - No Pain No Gain

The notion of exceptional achievement as being the product of individual pursuit should be closely examined. Institutions and organizations must reflect on how human potential can be "capitalized" to create the opportunity for real innovation. Without time, the right atmosphere and the ability to fail potential is often lost. Cultural legacy and the 10 thousand hour rule are just a few of the concepts Gladwell addresses in his new book Outliers - The Story of Success. From Mozart to Picasso to Fleetwood Mac, Malcolm's argument that exceptional outcomes are a product of the environment is compelling. In his theories lie many of the solutions to attaining great achievement for industries and people. Collaboration, openness and patience are the stuff of how we can embrace the potential available today to all via the revolution. See his brief talk at a recent conference to learn more.

Update on 2010-01-20 10:58 by Bryan K. O'Rourke

After visiting Gladwell's book Outliers again in advance of his keynote at IHRSA in 2010, these further points came to mind.

Gladwell’s book Outliers confronts the American myth of the self-made person. The book is a story about the context in which success takes place: family, culture, friendship, childhood, accidents of birth, history and geography. "It's not enough to ask what successful people are like," Gladwell writes. "It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."

Outliers asserts that genius isn't the most important thing - environment is as essential. Gladwell uses the unusual story of Christopher Langan, who despite an IQ of 195, worked on a horse farm in rural Missouri. Why did he not become a nuclear rocket surgeon? Langan's life had little to help him capitalize on his exceptional gifts. "He had to make his way alone," Gladwell writes, "and no one — not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone."

One could interpret Outliers in a number of ways. In the end its points is to make geniuses look a little less special and the rest of us a bit more so. Outliers wasn't intended as autobiography, Gladwell says. "But you could read it as an extended apology for my success.”

Business Model Innovation

If your industry, organization or self is not actively evaluating its model - you better start now. How products and services are conceived, developed, distributed and sold is increasingly changing as the result of a variety of factors. The music and video industries are just the beginning of a wave that will overcome every business model. The result is greater opportunity and risk which requires more thought and understanding. Take a look at the presentation here to get an idea of where to start.

40 Minutes on Business Model Innovation

Market Trends for 2009

The humanization of pets, innovation in a host of businesses, shifts in lifestyles, creation of new cottage industries, and an increasing embracement of what is "real" such as ugly beauty among other trends will become increasingly pervasive in 2009. All of these and other changes are all symptomatic of the convergence of demographic, technological, and global ism. Find out more in this interesting video.