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Innovation 101 – “Enjoy life while you can” May 6, 2009

Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Innovation, Innovation 101, Leadership Innovation, Perception, Sustainability, Sustainable Innovation, Wisdom of the leaders.
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James Lovelock doesn’t think we will need innovation 10 years on.  Not because the business world will find a new jazzword to hang their marketing spiels on but ’scarily’ because planet earth wouldn’t exist. According to Lovelock, by the end of the century, 80% of the world’s population will disappear and half of Britain will be under water. And to prove his point, the octagenarian is buying a ticket to outer space.

James Lovelock - Gaia Theory

Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam.’Therefore’, he says, ’Enjoy life while you can’ via ‘Enjoy life while you can’ | Environment | The Guardian.

This is one scary take on climate change and sustainable development. (more…)

Leadership innovation – The beginning and the end of history February 16, 2009

Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Companies of the future, Culture, Entrepreneurship, Heart Capital©, Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Innovation, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.
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Wow, what an amazing Valentine’s weekend! Thankfully “The Consortium of Red-faced, Jobless and Retrograde Men of India” ( male counter to the Facebook group ”The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women”) was kept in check to allow India’s youth to celebrate Valentine’s day.

 
Vikram Kirloskar launching the new TOYOTA INNOVA
Vikram Kirloskar (left) – Launch of the new TOYOTA INNOVA.

But that aside, I had a blast. My friend Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, invited us to the most memorable evening with Jagjit Singh, the Ghazal Maestro. His satin voice had everybody spellbound for a riveting two hours. In Vikram San’s words – “It is Toyota India’s heartfelt gesture of gratitude to our customer ‘family’”. The event was fraught with simplicity and genuine warmth. I wish some people would take lessons from Toyota and especially from Vikram on humility and the natural way to live and work.

In concert with Jagjit Singh

In concert with Jagjit Singh

 How business can ‘flow along’ with such warmth. And to top it, to be immersed in such soul-stirring music. What more could I have asked for. My take away was that the “Toyota way” goes far beyond shopfloor efficiencies and product quality. It is a statement of life and living.

Then came Spiritual Sunday at the Chinmaya Mission precincts on Lodhi Road in New Delhi. Before you start imagining yoga mats and a saffron-robed Godman, I must tell you that the event had to do with the launching of Anil Sachdev’s SOIL – School of Inspired Leadership. (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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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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Innovation 101 – How much is too much? January 6, 2009

Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Culture, Design Thinking, Everything 2.0, Innovation, Innovation 101, Sustainable Innovation, Thought leadership.
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Last night my daughter asked me to get her a new cellphone. I found myself using Oscar Wilde’s cynicism against her - “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” – little realising that I myself had fallen prey to the ‘glamour’ of new technology quite mindlessly over the past few years.

<cut to next thought>————————————————————-

I was drawn to this hilarious quote from the funny guy, Leslie Nielsen, and then started to see it as (more…)

Rising from the ashes of Global capitalism … January 5, 2009

Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Culture, General, Innovation, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.
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Image by ~FreeBirD®~ via Flickr

The great Indian dream

Quoting from Vir Sanghvi in The Dream Lives, [January 3, 2009], India will have to make a huge effort in resurrecting its dream. This time around we’ll have to dream while staying wide awake.

 Already, the collapse of the Wall Street model of global capitalism has shown us that, ultimately, the only country that India can trust is India itself. And the only solutions that work are our own, derived from our ingenuity.

… But I don’t think the dream is dead. We are still ahead of the rest and still on course for the Indian century.

What is dead, however, is the complacency and shallow superficiality of much of the middle class. We followed the wrong gods and were swayed by the wrong mantras.

Now, we are back on track — as Indians, together.

So what does all this mean to the average Indian? First of all there is no such commodity. Perhaps, in the business world, the demography we’re talking about would be the urban middle class. Which is also a heterogeneous lot. The elite educated. The elite uneducated. The educated haves. The educated have nots. The ambitious employee. The reckless entrepreneur. The tradition-shackled husband. The emancipated wife. Most lured by western materialism. 

Out of this maze of complexity comes a potluck of priorities. All driven by aspirations propagated by glitzy magazines. 2008 shattered the mirrors and the smoke vanished. We are now faced with our old realities. A return to family values, ethical practices and hard work. Old fashioned but tested. Need before greed.

Any takers?

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