Aug 28
Just back from Crete, a great week of sun, relaxation and table tennis, and a week out from information overload. I did sneak a peek at IBM’s Smarter City however; impressed both with the website itself and the information on it, particularly on education. Take a look at thesmartercity.com.
Jun 28
The students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in 1 school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a one-and-a-half year’s worth of material. That difference amounts to a year’s worth of learning in a single year. Teacher effects dwarf school effects: your child is actually better off in a bad school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher. If you rank the countries of the world in terms of the academic performance of their schoolchildren, many countries could climb the ladder simply by replacing the bottom 6-10% of public-school teachers with teachers of average quality (Jack Welch tells us to do this in our companies every year). After years of worrying about issues like school funding levels, class size, and curriculum design, many reformers have come to the conclusion that nothing matters more than finding people with potential to be great teachers. Summarised from Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent new book ‘What the Dog Saw.’
Jun 19
Co-hosted three TechKnowledge evening seminars in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi this week. Whirlwhind tour but well worth it. Hosted more than 180 delegates, where we discussed creating a competitive difference through skills and talent. A common thread is emerging, and when you look at changing demographics, the median ages of key global markets and India’s investment in education, it is poised to become the world’s largest supplier of
well-educated workers. People are our number one asset, and India recognises that.
May 18
With a population of 1.1 billion people, it is reassuring to hear Vineet Nayar, CEO of leading IT services company HCL, place such importance on putting employee satisfaction first. He said, “If an employer doesn’t get it, then individuals will simply go and work for someone else.” I say, the holders of the intellectual assets will wield the most power, yes, those with the skills.
Our new currency, our ‘stock market’, is made up of human resources. If we don’t have the skills on board, the technology will not work by itself!
May 07
Spent a few days in Milan and Stuttgart this week. Discussed the finer details of a partnership in Italy and two evenings of the finest salamis, cheeses and pasta in the heart of Milan. The cathedral (Duomo) is the second largest in the world and simply stunning. Onto to Stuttgart, and an excellent first meet with the CIO of Daimler-Benz. Great conversation and very much on common ground for the improvement of IT skills across Europe – I keep harping on about this, but everyone is interested in skills, to make our people more productive and our companies more competitive. The photo is of one of the earliest Mercedes Benz cars on show at their headquarters.
Apr 30
Families in South Korea spend 22% of their income on education and 13% on their housing. How many of us in the UK spend an amount each month on educating our families that comes anywhere near what we spend on our mortgage or rent, or even our leisure spend. It is worth thinking about, especially as the skills and talent of our next generation will determine whether a company is successful or not in future. All about the people. Also, most of us focus any spend on education at senior school or university fees – but in Asia, the big spend is on infant education – that’s where they get the greatest benefit and they generate millions of students keen to learn and able to learn (from a Vistage UK event hosted by my old chum Steve Gilroy www.vistage.co.uk).
Apr 22
I loved the original Michael Caine movie, The Italian Job. I grew up watching it over and over again. Today, banks are taking from each other, but they are stealing people. They don’t have the skills so they poach people back and forth. Organisations are sometimes frightened to upskill their people in case they leave for another job and for more money. Well they don’t. Staff are more loyal to an employer who takes care of them. And what if you don’t train and certify them at all and they stay with you – how competitive will you be in the future? Case solved.
Just back from Crete, a great week of sun, relaxation and table tennis, and a week out from information overload. I did sneak a peek at IBM’s Smarter City however; impressed both with the website itself and the information on it, particularly on education. Take a look at thesmartercity.com.
