“There is no more perfect marriage of interests – between the needs of an organisation and the needs of its individual members – than the ongoing growth of people at work.  No “benefit” an organisation provides its employees is a better investment than one that meets our deepest human hunger, to experience the continuing unfolding [...]

community · culture · growth · inspiration · learning · people · values

I’m doing work now with colleagues on the leadership future of financial services (more on this later).  For me, the critical question in this work is “What kind of Community of Leadership now leads to success?” The conversations I am working on start in London, arguably the world’s greatest financial centre. The people who lead [...]

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I got feedback that what we are doing with Communities of Leadership wasn’t very clear, so let me try to refresh and improve the explanation. The idea is to identify and follow a list of companies who are leaders in their industries, and who also have strong cultures of caring about people: customers, employees, suppliers, [...]

business · customers · innovation · leadership · people · values

I love the Notes from the Universe that Mike Dooley sends out every weekday to his friends and network buddies.  For those not familiar with Mike’s work, his emails are personally customised and written to me as if  the Universe were my correspondent. From yesterday’s email, this is what Mike wrote, inspired by the Gulf [...]

community · leadership · learning · sustainability · values

A piece from Computerworld (link below) makes the case that China, for good fundamental reasons – mostly commitment, focus, and determination –  will take global leadership in technology and innovation.  There may be more challenges for the Chinese than the author acknowledges, but I think his basic point is right. Asia is already a huge [...]

business · China · creativity · emerging markets · excellence · innovation · leadership · sustainability

In a Forbes column last week, Shaun Rein, Managing Director of a market research and strategy consulting firm called China Market Research, writes about lessons he learned from conversations with a Chinese billionaire.  Shaun’s billionaire confidant asked to remain anonymous; Shaun calls him Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen’s fortune was apparently largely made in real estate. [...]

Apple · business · China · leadership · people · service · values · vision

I keep asking myself, what kind of future trends would open up competitive alternatives to Apple, and at the same time, what do I really want for my personal technology? What I’m coming up with is the idea that all my data (email, messaging history, files, books, periodicals, music, videos, apps, web favourites, etc.) would [...]

Apple · AT&T · culture · Google · innovation · leadership · service

I’ve been asking myself, what kind of community of leadership I would want, if I were a CEO. I think that what I would want for myself as a leader, and for the community as a whole, includes that we see each leader as embodying each of these things: Learner – always open, always learning, [...]

appreciation · architect · change · coaching · communication · compassion · facilitation · innovation · leadership · learning · people · responsibility · teaching · team · truth · vision

Which are the world’s most interesting communities of leadership? I work from the perspective that we live in a world rich in challenge and opportunity for human evolution.  The moment is catalyzed and focused by rapid change, advances in technology and communication, globalization, a challenged ecology, and political and ideological conflict. I think that, in [...]

business · community · creativity · expression · leadership · service

Business Week just published its annual listing of the 5o most innovative companies worldwide.   For the first time, more than half of the to 25 firms come from outside the U.S.  Eight of the top 25 come from Asia.   New at number eight, not even included in the top 50 last year: BYD. [...]

business · change · community · creativity · emerging markets · innovation · leadership · value