C.K. Prahalad, the Responsible Manager

"Leadership,is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity." C.K. Prahalad

C.K. Prahalad one my most favorite management and innovation thinkers passed away this last Friday. I am currently reading his book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, so this hit a little closer to home.

"Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad, one of India's best-known management exports and a distinguished professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, died Friday in San Diego after a brief illness. He was 68 years old." Read More

Harvard Business Review wrote a wonderful column dedicated to C.K.

"I asked how he could be so prolific, writing intelligently about so many subjects. His secret, he said, was to collaborate whenever possible with a strong partner. "I work hard and I work quickly," he said. "But once I'm done with a project, I like to move on to a new one, and leave it to my collaborators to deal with the legacy of the last one." Read More

And in what would be his last column, C.K. left his mark with a short but sweet op-ed on the "responsible manager." Truly timeless advice that I hope I can adhere to over the lifetime of my career as a manager.

"The global financial crisis of the past two years has triggered an unprecedented debate about managers’ roles. While discussions about managerial performance, CEO pay, and the role of boards have been fierce, scant attention has been paid to managers’ responsibilities.

For the past 33 years, I have ended all my MBA and executive education courses by sharing with participants my perspective on how they can become responsible managers. I acknowledge that they will be successful in terms of income, social status, and influence, but caution that managers must remember that they are the custodians of society’s most powerful institutions. They must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard. Managers must strive to achieve success with responsibility.

My remarks are intended to serve as a spur for people to reexamine their values before they plunge into their daily work routines.

Take a minute to study them:

• Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.

• Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren’t educated, you can’t help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can’t minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can’t help the poor.

• Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.

• Be ready to invest in developing other people. Be unstinting in helping your colleagues realize their full potential." Source

May we all practice with gravitas what C.K. not only preached but how he lived. I think this entire world would be better off if we could do so.

Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management

Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management

The Internet of Things: the planet has grown a central nervous system

"Over the past century but accelerating over the past couple of decades, we have seen the emergence of a kind of global data field. The planet itself - natural systems, human systems, physical objects - have always generated an enormous amount of data, but we didnt used to be able to hear it, to see it, to capture it. Now we can because all of this stuff is now instrumented. And its all interconnected, so now we can actually have access to it. So, in effect, the planet has grown a central nervous system."

"Companies and governments can find an innovator inside everyone; they just need to liberate them"

The Economist, "Something new under the Sun" A special report on Innovation, October 13th, 2007

"Stewart Brand, an internet pioneer, has famously argued that 'information wants to be free.' So surely the knowledge worker, the creator of that information, also needs the same freedom; Companies and governments can find an innovator inside everyone; they just need to liberate them."

One of my most favorite quotes.

Press Release of our Social Media 201 Conference at Microsoft

Our team at Fresh is excited for our upcoming Social Media 201 Conference on April 15th at Microsoft!

Below is the press release that went out last week.

"Social Media 201 Conference for Businesses taking their social media efforts to the next level of engagement, profitability, and ROI

Event to be hosted at Microsoft’s Conference Center in Redmond, Wash.

REDMOND, Wash. February 23rd, 2010 – On April 15, 2010 the Social Media 201 Conference will be hosted at Microsoft’s Conference Center in Redmond, Washington. Social Media 201 is designed to help organizations take their social media strategy, tactics, and implementation to the next level of customer engagement, profitability, and ROI. This one day event features powerful keynote presentations, insightful lightning talks, a collaborative round table working session, and a panel discussion from recognized experts in business strategy, customer-relationship building and monetization of social media. These industry experts include:

* Eric Weaver – Account Director and Strategist at Tribal DBB Worldwide
* Dave Hanley – CEO & Principal at Banyan Branch
* Daniel Rasmus – Author of “Listening to the Future”
* Kristen Ruby – CEO, Ruby Media Group
* Dr. Udi Schlessinger – Managing Partner, U Labs
* Darren Williger – President & CEO, Regillo Consulting Group
* Bille Baty – COO & Managing Partner, Phi Concepts
* Jeff Dance – Founder, Fresh Consulting
* Joe Kennedy – Founder of Eastside Entrepreneurs and AKA “The Connector”


Social Media 201 is sponsored by the Microsoft Local Engagement Team and Comcast Business Class. Supporting organizations for Social Media 201 include Fresh Consulting, Eastside Entrepreneurs Social Network, Ruby Media Group, Banyan Branch, Regillo Consulting Group and Tribal DDB Worldwide.

Mike Whitmore, President of Fresh Consulting from Bellevue, Washington explains, “the concept for Social Media 201 stemmed from the Social Media 101 Conference the Eastside Entrepreneurs and Joe Kennedy hosted last September at Microsoft. The 101 Conference helped educate business owners about what social media is and why companies should participate. The new Social Media 201 Conference is designed for those businesses that have begun to delve into social media and want to take it to the next level, find a path to profitability and measure return on investment.”

Registration for the event is available at www.SocialMedia201.com with an early adopter discount available through March 15, 2010. Use the discount code FRESH to get an additional discount.

Twitter feeds on the event are available from Twitter.com/SM201CONF and you can follow the event tweets via the hashtag #SM201

The Microsoft Conference Center provides free wireless Internet connectivity. A complimentary lunch is provided for attendees thanks to Comcast Business Class."

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT

www.SocialMedia201.com

What does it mean to be indispensable

A quick spiel on what it means to truly bring value to an organization and in return ... be indispensable.

Dan Pink on the surprise science of motivation

Recently, here in Seattle, I had the opportunity to sit and listen to Dan Pink in person talk about his new book Drive. Key takeaway? There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does:
- Incentives work but only in a narrow slice of circumstances (motor work)
- "If then" rewards, destroy creativity
- The secret to high performance is tapping into the intrinsic drive - to do things better because they matter
- Science confirms what we know in our hearts
- Compare what science knows and what business does
- Bring notions of motivation into the 21st century
- Get beyond lazy ideology of carrots and sticks
- Strengthen businesses and empower people to solve more complex problems ... and maybe, maybe change the world

Dan's excellent TED talk elaborates further: