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Cynicism 101 – Does India need Facebook? February 26, 2009

Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Culture, Design Thinking, Innovation, Sustainability, Sustainable Innovation, Thought leadership, Web 2.0.
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11 comments

I know nothing about sex because I was always married. – Zsa Zsa Gabor

With due respect – and with a slight twist while keeping the flavour: 

We know everything about social networking because we were never social.

I’d like to dedicate my quote to all social networking initiatives, sites, professionals and users. (And by the way, I too have memberships of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

First, a bunch of disclaimers:
1. If it creates controversy, great. It is meant to. If it provokes your intelligence and emotions; and punctures your ego, my job is done. It is intended to.
2. I have no intention here to suggest ‘mine-is-better-than-yours’ OR that Indian culture is any better than others.
3. This is not a patriotic or a political rambling. So please read between the lines. (If you read only with your eyes, white space is all you’ll see).
4. This post is an ‘equal opportunity, equal responsibility’ piece. Me included.

My thesis is simple. India does NOT need Facebook.   (more…)

Creating Heart Capital – KnowledgeBoard January 28, 2009

Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Companies of the future, Culture, Entrepreneurship, Heart Capital©, Innovation, Leadership, Sustainable Innovation, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.
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3 comments

When I coined the phrase “Heart Capital” a few years ago, I didn’t recognise it’s prophetic undertones. Here’s a link to the stimulating discussion we had half a decade ago.  And for those who might want to read my article, here’s the pdf.

The ideas and views regain relevance with today’s ‘communities’ on the collaborative web. (2.0)

Here’s John Moore’s comment on the article I wrote in 2003.

“I love these lines in particular :

To humanise is to recognise that technology cannot replace the charm of personal contact. To humanise is to disrupt current business thinking and methods. To humanise is to add emotion. To humanise is to add fun to work and work systems.

I think the discussion about emotional environment is important; a lot of money goes into trying to create great physical spaces for work (and that’s no bad thing) but the manners and subleties of human contact deserve equal attention.

I would add that as well as being fun, the creation of real “heart capital” requires taking risks and being vulnerable. Acknowledging our true feelings feels risky in many enviroments; yet in my experience it is often a touchstone for deeper and more satisfying human engagement.”

via Creating Heart Capital – KnowledgeBoard.

Thanks John!

Here’s another excerpt from the article.  :-

It is time now, to create heart capital. An exchange of feelings, emotions and culture to foster knowledge creation and sharing.

- An asset for individual growth and organizational excellence.
- A tool for sharpening the competitive edge.
- A culture for human enrichment.
- A plan to protect and propagate our common heritage.

Let’s ask ourselves some questions.
Is it [not] necessary [for us] to create a new lexicon of corporate nomenclature if we want to change
traditional thinking?

For example, HR is traditionally responsible for all people issues in an organization. Does this mean that other departments do not need to care about people? Is there something about the nomenclature “HR” that needs repairing? When dealing with materials, the word “resource” is probably appropriate. But Human Resource?? I thought resources were for people to use, so how appropriate is it to think of human beings as resources?

The entire business terminology needs a revamp. Human Resources should become Corporate Citizenship, Research & Development should become Knowledge Innovation, and so on. The focus is clearly shifting from efficiency to effectiveness, from sentiment to passion, from profit to value and from performance to the emotional well being of the user.

Comments and critiques welcome.

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