Meeting the challenge of disruptive change

"Meeting the challenge of disruptive change" by Clayton M. Christensen, HBR

Where capabilities reside
Resources: Tangibles and Intangibles
Processes: Patterns of interaction, coordination, communication, and decision making about resource allocation
Values: Standards by which employees set priorities and judge their activities (e.g. gross margin, opportunity size)

Migration of capabilities along growth
Resources --> Processes --> Values (--> Cultures)
The capabilities, which evolve from resources, processes, to values (sometimes even to culture), define what an organization can and cannot do.

Sustaining innovation vs. Disruptive innovation
In general, big and companies are better at sustaining innovation because they usually have established forms of capabilities like rigorous process and firm-wide culture. However, when faced with disruptive changes, these firms can be worse than smaller ones because their capabilities fit more with their existing business environment, not with new disruptive changes.

Creating capabilities to cope with change
When an organization needs to new capabilities, it needs new resources, processes, or values. For those in which new processes or values are needed, there are three possible ways to create a new organizational space where new capabilities can be developed.
1. New org. structure within corporate boundaries where new 'processes' can be developed.
2. Spin out an independent organization where new processes and values are required.
3. Acquire a different organization whose processes and values can't be found in existing org.

Questions for managers in changes
Managers whose organizations are confronting change must ask themselves three questions.
1. Does the organization have the resources required to cope with the change?
2. Does the organization have the processes and values needed in the situation?
3. Are the value of the organization cause a initiative to get a priority or not?

Quotation
Ensuring that capable people are ensconced in capable organizations is a major responsibility of management in a transformational age.

What I learned today - Entrepreneurship

Attended a workshop led by Verne Harnish, a guy called 'Growth Guy'.
Although I've never heard about him before,  I really enjoyed the workshop because of his enthusiastic and engaging lecture. I can absolutely say that this was one of the few best lectures I've taken here at LBS.

Here are the lessons from the workshop.

1. Routines set you fee.
However small and trivial they are, routines set you free. All the successful leaders and entrepreneurs have their own routines, such as Bill Gates' "Think Week" and Eric Schmidt's "Time to Read", which help themselves to stay ahead of others.

2. Find a mentor/advisor.
It's impossible to succeed by going alone. Every great leaders have their own trusted mentors or advisers. Find your own mentor and talk to him/her on a regular basis however short it is.

3. Four critically decisions to make
In short, entrepreneurs have four critical decision to make: strategy, execution, people, and cash. All four should be simple and clear enough that even idiots should understand and act on them.
Strategy is about thinking of how to generate revenue and growth.
Execution is about planning to make profit without wasting time.
People is about structuring people to work happily.
Cash is about modelling oxygen to sustain your business.

4. Two leadership traits
Talk less and listen more.
Less statements and more questions.

5. Three questions to ask myself
Are you playing the game not to lose or to win?
Do you have the discipline (or routines)?
What did you learn today?

Recommended readings
"Hidden Champion" by Hermann Simon
"Influence" by ???
"Emergence" by Steven Johnson
"Delivering Happiness" by Tony
"Good to Great" by Jim Collins
"What is Strategy" by Michael Porter, HBR
"Catalytic Mechanisms" by Jim Collins, HBR

Recommended sites
http://www.gazelles.com/
http://www.google.com/alerts

아기와 함께 찾아온 불편한 심정

아기 아빠가 된다는 것이 항상 기쁘고 좋은 것만은 아닌가 보다. 아기가 처음 태어났을 때의 신기함과 기쁨은 어디론가 벌써 사라지고 아기때문에 하지 못하는 것들에 대한 불만족과 아쉬움들이 자꾸 고개를 든다.

유진이와 둘이 혹은 나 혼자 자유롭게 누렸던 것들이 이제는 그저 과거가 되어버렸다. 런던 시내를 돌아다니며 많은 얘기를 나누던 것도, 수업 끝나고 학교에서 만나서 같이 집으로 돌아오는 것도, 멋진 뮤지컬을 보며 같이 즐거워 하는 것도, 한적한 까페에서 둘이 여유를 즐기는 것도, 기차 타고 근교 도시로 당일 여행을 다녀오는 것도...이제는 그저 추억일 뿐이다. 봄방학에 자동차를 타고 스코틀랜드 숲을 여행하는 것도, 여름방학에 모든 유럽 도시를 샅샅이 뒤지며 우리만의 추억을 만드는 것도 모두 머리 속에서만 떠도는 계획이 되어버렸다.

서른 다섯의 나이에 안정적인 직장 생활을 유예하고 이 곳 런던까지 왔는데, 앞으로 나와 유진이의 생활은 여기 몇 평 짜리 작은 집안에 아기와 갖혀 지내는 것이 전부일까. 앞으로 모든 일상이 이렇다면 여기 와있는 이유가 뭔지 혼란스럽다. 날개를 펼치고 마음껏 날다가 갑자기 새장 속에 갖힌 기분이다.

아기가 건강하고 예쁘게 잘 자라는 것만으로도 감사하는 마음을 갖고 살아야 하는데 자꾸 아기를 탓하고 싶은 마음이 생긴다. 이러면 안되는데, 아직 아빠가 되기에 내가 너무 이기적인가 보다. 다른 아빠들도 이런 과정을 거치는 걸까. 아기와 같이 지내는 것에 아직 익숙하지 않아서 일까. 나만을 위한 이기적인 생각들은 이제 모두 포기해야 하는 것일까. 유학생활을 이렇게 보내고 나면 나중에 후회는 없을까.

그리고, 이런 기분은 시간이 지나면 곧 사라질까. 제발 그랬으면 좋겠다...

Stop holding yourself back

HBR, Jan-Feb 2011
By Anne Morris, Robin J. Ely, and Frances X. Frei

Five barriers to rise to leadership
1. Overemphasizing personal goals --> Shift your focus from yourself to others.
2. Protecting your public image --> Choose between image and impact.
3. Turning competitors into enemies --> Don't turn others into caricatures. You soon will become one.
4. Going it alone --> Fall in love - at least meet and have fun - with those who believe in you.
5. Waiting for permission. --> Just do it. Influence leads to power, not the other way around.


Quotations
"True leadership is about making other people better as a result of your presence - and making sure your impact endures in your absence."

Creativity & Innovation

How to kill creativity - HBR, Teresa M. Amabile

Three components of creativity:
1. Expertise - knowledge
2. Creative thinking skills - approach to problem-solving
3. Motivation - especially, intrinsic ones

Way to increase team creativity:
0. Fostering creativity is in the hands of managers.
1. Match the right people with right assignments. You should know about the people and assignments.
2. Give people freedom concerning the means, but not necessarily the goals.
3. Allocated appropriate amount of time and resources for encouraging creativity.
4. Build and manage diverse teams. It might be costly, but it pays off.
5. Let people know that what they do matters
6. Avoid negativity bias (Yes, but ...)
7. Be open to information sharing and collaboration. Make people feel they are part of the whole thing.

Tools to generate insight:
1. Challenge your assumptions - ex. Porsche 911
2. Redefine your category - ex. Nike vs. Nintendo
3. Ladder benefits (features - benefits - values) - ex. Pampers
4. Love and hate comparison - ex. Apple

Today's quotation

"The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusion." - Donald B. Calne, Professor Neurology, UBC

The sinking of the Laconia

Saw a three-hour long TV drama today called 'The sinking of the Laconia.' It's a true story about a British ship 'Laconia' that was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in 1942. Before clicking the play button, I expected for just another war story, but just after thirty minutes I found that I was wrong. It's a story not just about war but about how humans can be humane in one of the most inhumane settings - a war. Although captain Werner Hartenstein could have just let go the lives of his enemy countries, he tried all his best to save as many lives as possible even when he was leading a warship, U-156, the famous German submarine. 


After watching the drama, I asked myself how I would behave if I were in Hartenstein's shoes. Could I resist the temptation to just build up my reputation as an able military commander? Could I risk my reputation and my ship by getting the enemy-side people on my ship on board? How could I deal with the unspoken resistance or reluctance of my crew? Could I be able report the general exactly as I did? Could I send SOS signals to the enemies despite the fatal risk?....Maybe not. If I were leading a warship during the WWII, I would have gone passying by the vulnerable lives on the sea just hoping for the best luck for them. And I must have justified to myself that it's the thing I should do as a patriotic soldier.

Maybe even now, I might be justifying the way I think and behave with too a narrow perspective. It is true that I am a Korea, a small country in the far east Asia and it's also true that I'm just a normal person without special super capabilities. But such truth cannot predefine how I should live my life. Captain Hartenstein would not have done so if he only had cared about his roles as a commander. He deserves respect and honour because he thought and behaved as a big human just not as a small military commander.

The things I want to do

1. 아빠를 위한 육아지침서 쓰기
2. 한국에도 Poppy 만들기
3. 한국에도 'Portrait Museum' 만들기
4. 한국에 런던 같은 공원 만들기
5. 런던 시내에 Korea Centre 만들기
6. 외국 유명 학교에 Korea 이름이 들어간 건물 기증하기