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.
Apr 14
How we consume is changing very quickly. In our non-stop world, with barely time to think, let alone face-to-face interaction, there is an opportunity. Digital content is expected for free in the modern internet era, and yet there is a lot of cash in the consumer pocket up for grabs – how, by enhancing our personal convenience. Save us time, make difficult choices easy, give us what we want, when and where we want it, and fast – make our lives easy and you could reap some real rewards.
Mar 23
A study by Gartner revealed that in the next 3 years, more than 50 million IP addresses will come from automobiles. One day, there will only be one network, one global wireless network which everybody, and every device, will be permanently connected to; and we may not need gadgets, as our skin, our clothing and our glasses carry enough technology to keep us in touch.
Mar 12
Facilitated the global sales meeting in Chicago this week. Lots of creative ideas, dialogue and exchange by a team of people who flew in from 10 regions around the world to strategise and focus activities for the rest of the year. Marketing, events for our members, product strategies and social media were the highlight of the week. Pictures above contrast a team concentrating on the sessions during the day and a night out at the United Centre seeing the Chicago Bulls play Utah Jazz one evening. A very satisfying week.
Feb 26
William Linard from my UK team and I hosted the quarterly CompTIA UK Reseller Forum at the Leicester City Walker Stadium. Great turnout of small business owners focusing on vendor relationships, being better at becoming a trusted advisor and setting high standards of quality for IT service and support to UK businesses. It’s not about fixing customer machines, it’s about setting them up so they don’t fail in the first place. It was a very interactive session, with some very good best practice ideas shared around the table. Once we provided a platform for these guys to meet and talk, the ideas flowed for 3 hours. Together, we are raising the bar. http://www.flickr.com/photos/comptiauk
Feb 17
This quote came from Business Week in 1953, from the Tupperware company, and it still rings true today, as it will 100 years from now. This is as simple as it gets for me:
“If we build the people, they will build the business.”
Feb 10
I was fortunate enough to be in the US last weekend, and really enjoyed Super Bowl XLIV.
There was as much buzz around the half-time commercials as the game itself. Some 100 million people saw the game (and the ads), but 40 million or so also watched the ads online. With so much creativity at play, led by Bud Light, GoDaddy and E-trade, the ads have been circulating the social networking sites all week. Domain name business GoDaddy have attributed most of their growth to the Super Bowl and many of the advertisers have been relying on their Facebook and Twitter fans to spread the message. It’s all about impact and the key is getting consumers creating the buzz through social media – it spreads so quickly and of course it’s free. But ads aside, well done to Drew Brees and the Saints on their first Super Bowl.
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.
