Rishad Tobaccowala's Blog, page 14

Kindness.

Large Girl with No Eyes, Julian Schnabel

One of the keys to a good life and possibly success at work is kindness.

This includes not just being kind to other people but kind to oneself.

Often we spend our time regretting, self-flagellating, doubting our decisions and wondering if we can ever measure up especially in a world filled with standards and measures that are unattainable.

In today’s competitive marketplace of rapidly transforming landscapes and constant benchmarking we often forget that we are dealing not just with buyers, sellers, users, members, competitors, analysts, scientists, management and employees but with analog, carbon based, feeling filled people.

Humans.

Messy and Moody. Dream filled and desire driven.. Anxiously ambitious. Undulating with uncertainty.

Kindness is a way to connect in a world where connections are key.

But it not easy to model in an Excel spreadsheet, display in a PowerPoint , or be described with any depth by GPT.

The machine will rapidly compute an answer, garland it with perspective, refine and correlate what has been fed into its innards, and then emit an output in a dazzling display of verbosity.

Answers that may awe us.

But rarely move us.

Below are three takes on kindness. From GPT-4, author George Saunders, and poet Naomi Shihab Nye.

Take 1: GPT-4 on Kindness

Prompt: What is kindness?

Kindness is a type of behavior marked by acts of generosity, consideration, or concern for others, without expecting praise or reward. It is often considered a virtue and is recognized in many cultures and religions as an important value. Kindness can manifest in many ways, including but not limited to:

Helping others: This could involve assisting someone with their work, offering to carry heavy items, or helping someone cross the street. The act doesn't have to be grand to be kind.

Complimenting or praising someone: Words of affirmation can have a huge impact on someone's day. Complimenting someone genuinely can be a simple yet effective act of kindness.

Empathy and understanding: Kindness often involves understanding other people's perspectives and feelings. This could mean listening to someone when they're having a hard time, or refraining from judgment when someone makes a mistake.

Patience: Patience, especially when dealing with difficult people or situations, can be a significant act of kindness. It involves tempering your reaction, even when you're frustrated or angry.

Charitable giving: This is another classic example of kindness. Donating to a cause you believe in, volunteering your time, or even just offering someone a meal can all be acts of kindness.

Showing respect: Treating everyone with respect, regardless of their background or beliefs, is an act of kindness. This could involve simple things like saying "please" and "thank you," or more complex acts like promoting inclusivity and fairness.

In essence, kindness involves treating others the way you'd like to be treated. It's a simple concept but can have a profound impact on the world.

Take 2: Author George Saunders on kindness

The author George Saunders gave a short and remarkable speech on the importance of kindness which everyone should listen to.

A key theme is “to err in the direction of kindness”

Some key passages of his talk to students

“When young, we’re anxious — understandably — to find out if we’ve got what it takes. Can we succeed? Can we build a viable life for ourselves? But you — in particular you, of this generation — may have noticed a certain cyclical quality to ambition. You do well in high-school, in hopes of getting into a good college, so you can do well in the good college, in the hopes of getting a good job, so you can do well in the good job so you can . . .

And this is actually O.K. If we’re going to become kinder, that process has to include taking ourselves seriously — as doers, as accomplishers, as dreamers. We have to do that, to be our best selves.

Still, accomplishment is unreliable. “Succeeding,” whatever that might mean to you, is hard, and the need to do so constantly renews itself (success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it), and there’s the very real danger that “succeeding” will take up your whole life, while the big questions go untended.

Do all the other things, the ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness.”

Later George was interviewed on this talk which went viral after it was posted in the New York Times on why kindness was important and here is what he said:

“Ninety-nine percent of the time if you just do your best to be kind, you’re better off. It’s the basic things, like trying to have good manners, keeping your assumptions about the other person a little open, being willing to revise your opinion.

Perhaps it’s all a self-fulfilled prophecy. We live in an unkind world because we believe it’s an unkind world.

The thing I’ve noticed is that if you go out into the world ready for confrontation, then confrontations find you. But if you go out with a sort of diffusing energy, the world reads that and feels more friendly toward you. So I think there’s a circular effect.

In the media and in our political rhetoric, we’re told don’t be a sucker, be firm, be strong, push back, they’re trying to get you. If you buy into that—even on a molecular level—the world smells it on you. Whereas—and here’s where it sounds corny—the world responds to you differently if you go out thinking, alright, I’m going to pretend that everybody out there is my brother or my sister, and if they are temporarily behaving like they’re not, I’m going to pretend that they’re just confused. I’m going to insist, through my mannerisms and my tone of voice, that I see them at their highest.”

Take 3: The poet Naomi Shihab Nye on kindness

Kindness.

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye

Exponential Organizations!

Earlier this week (June 6, 2023), a new book called Exponential Organizations 2.0 by Salim Ismail, Peter Diamandis and Michael Malone was made available.

Every subscriber of this thought letter regardless of whether one is employed by a firm, self-employed, unemployed or even retired is likely to benefit by reading this book.

It will stretch your mind and make you re-think a lot of things about firms and work and the future. There will be parts that may surprise you and parts that may anger you. You may nod along and occasionally fly into rage wondering if the authors have tripped into the light fantastic.

The book is filled with examples, charts, data, and graphs and step by step exercises and recommendations that you will  be able to leverage as you manage your career, your team, and your firm.

You can own it and read it now on any device that supports the Kindle app for only 99 cents here

The Changing Nature of a Firm.

Ronald Coase an economist from the University of Chicago won the Nobel Prize in part for his rationale that firms exist because internal transaction costs are lower than external transaction costs.

In short, despite internal bureaucracy and red tape and processes, large firms endured because no matter how bad the internal friction it was often less than the friction of negotiating and setting up each transaction necessary to get a job done with outside parties.

But then…

In the US in the three years beginning in February 2020, small establishments—locations with fewer than 250 employees—have hired 3.67 million more people than have been laid off or who quit. Larger establishments—those with 250 employees or more—have cut a net 800,000 job (and this was before the huge layoffs at the large tech companies). That is according to data from the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

A combination of enabling technologies including mobile computing, new marketplaces (Amazon Web Services, Shopify, Upwork) that allow for easy access to scaled resources through an API, a changing work force (free-lancers will outnumber full time employees next year in the US) and new mindsets (76% of Gen-Z want to be their own boss) have made Coase’s law less relevant than it was before.

Now combine the changes we have lived through in the past two decades with the disruptions of Covid-19  and the huge emerging technology platform shifts driven by AI, AR/VR, Blockchain and 5G-- all of which massively empower individuals and small agile teams-- and the nature of firms will change.

Large firms will continue to endure because in many cases scale, capital and other resources are better allocated and utilized with such structures, but these firms will increasingly work in radical new ways which include becoming flatter, faster, enabling fewer and fewer full time  employees than ever before.

In 2020, the Amsterdam based banking and financial company the ING Group with over a trillion dollars of assets decided the future was going to require much more autonomous ways of working and decided to develop a transformative new model. The asked each employee to re-apply for to the company if they were interested in the new ways of working which reduced the number of mangers, removed the ability to delegate tasks that you should do to others and required constant shapeshifting. Nearly one third of the employees quit and the following year ING delivered the same results with the remaining two thirds of employees.

Many firms have begun to realize that the future does not fit in the containers of the past and most organizations may have been built for yesterday rather than the very different challenges of today and the amazing opportunities of tomorrow.

The new firm will be an Exponential Organization 2.0 which the authors define as

A purpose-driven, agile, and scalable organization that uses accelerating technologies to digitize, dematerialize, democratize, and demonetize its products and services, resulting in a 10x performance increase over its non-ExO peers.

The Key Drivers of An Exponential Organization

The chart above is a map of the terrain that forms the Exponential Organization 2.0.

It all begins with a Massive Transformational Purpose which is defined as “the core reason for the firm’s existence. It is the foundation upon which all the company actions take place. It establishes a long-term goal for the company that is so sweeping and profound that it is always within reach yet always unreachable. It sets a moral foundation for all company interactions between stakeholders. It keeps the company disciplined and on target. It inspires employees and customers. And it galvanizes employee morale and retention.”

Here are some examples of MTP’s:

Google: Organize the world’s information.

Uber: Go anywhere. Get anything.

Danone: Bring health through food.

Spanx: Elevating Women.

It is key to determine a massive transformational purpose ( MTP) for an ongoing firm and should be something every new business should figure out at launch.

The other two factors that drive new organizational design are external facing ones (SCALE) which is how the firm connects with the outside world and internal facing ones which are the key factors that the firm should run the business internally (IDEAS).

Connecting Externally: SCALE

Staff On Demand: Projects should be staffed, and work done by putting together teams of pre-qualified workers hired on a as-need basis. These individuals could be self-employed, free-lance, procured from third parties such as Upwork and other contracting , or even full-time employees who are re-aggregated around the jobs that need to be done and then dissolve post the job. Think how talent comes together in Hollywood around a tv show or project or consultants move from assignment to assignment at a Bain or McKinsey depending on their skills and the assignment.

Community and Crowd:  Communities are built around users, customers, alumni as well as vendors, suppliers and fans who are aligned with the massive transformational purpose who are granted special favors, given insider insights and forward look on future offerings and rewarded with gifts and trust. While they are not employees, they are pseudo employees, citizens of the firm’s larger community. Companies like Peloton and Apple of leveraged community from key developers to super and early fans. Community is often sourced from crowds. With most of the worlds 8 billion people connected online one can leverage crowds to grow a company and find community as TikTok did in entertainment and Kiva in finance and GoFundMe in fund raising.

Algorithms and AI: Both technologies allow for massive research, fast pattern matching, massive experimentation and more and will turbo-charge talent and company design.

Leveraged Assets: Increasingly companies will be asset light using APIs to access what they need when they need it whether it be compute power, manufacturing, or distribution. Cloud based computing is a common form of a leveraged asset.

Leveraged significantly reduce the need for capital, cost of carrying inventory and risk of obsolete technology.

Engagement: Engagement is the use of techniques like gamification, incentive prizes, and recently crypto economics like NFT’ s to keep stakeholders interested, involved and increasingly committed to a shared purpose. Examples include how Reddit uses its members to vote up or down on submitted content. It’s the classic example of reciprocity Engagement: if you share content you can access content which drives engagement of community and crowd.

Connecting Internally: IDEAS

Interfaces: Interfaces are the matching and filtering processes that allow a firm to translate the abundance of data into precise and meaningful information that can be acted on. For instance Shopify has created a number of interfaces that allow its customers to access all of its SCALE attributes which is it’s community, it’s AI, it’s external and internal talent and its assets so that an individual can find an eco-system of third party functions to help them sell as well as buyers for their products and services.

Dashboards: Dashboards are the internal and external presentation of  real time objectives and key results (OKR’s) a company needs to operate.  These include everything from leader boards and other data for users to internal metrics to drive the firm such as monthly recurring revenue (MRR), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Life-Time Value (LTV), Margin, Churn, Net Promoter Score etc. These dashboards constantly allow a company to re-allocate resources, change marketing plans, re-price products and navigate the firm.

Experimentation:  In a fast-changing world experimentation and iteration is the only way. Experimentation is a key to make data driven decisions even about innovation and creativity. By trying different approaches and A/B testing, measuring quickly, failing fast and honing and building on success a company can speed and scale rapidly.

Autonomy:  Some of the biggest drawbacks of large organizations are bureaucracy where there are scores of people empowered to say no and very few who can say yes, decision makers far from the customer or the marketing battlefield and an entire ethos of giving “good meetings” and “butt covering” versus making shit happen. Autonomy challenges this via an approach characterized by self-organized, multi-disciplinary teams that operate with de-centralized authority all focusses on hitting the company OKR’s, Massive Transformational Purpose and Moonshots.

Social: Social technologies accelerate conversations and therefore learning cycles. These include communication tools like Slack, Zoom and Google Docs, collaboration tools like Asana and Jira and workflow management tools like Dropbox. There are ranges of tools from Canva a collaborative graphics tool to Miro board that allow virtual white boarding.

The Imperative of Transformation

We have entered the dawn of a new era whether one is a CEO, or an intern, a gig worker or an investor will need to twist themselves and their organization into new shapes to continue to thrive in the future.

The ability to exponentially grow is now possible for every person and firm where most external barriers, excuses and obstacles are being dissolved away and our ability to change will make us grow while staying the course will likely see us going the way of Blackberry, Kodak.

No great talent or company is defeated.

They defeat themselves.

By failing to change and adapt and re-invent.

Lamentations of the Modern Manager.

Worked so hard for this corner office with a view.

This wonderfully awe-inspiring room.

But instead of enjoying my due.

Have the same square footage as everyone else on Zoom.

As a manager we would monitor and check-in.

Now with everyone working anywhere that is in the dust bin.

Worked my way up the ladder as I grew grayer.

But now everybody wants to “de-layer”!

All these young folks are now so entitled.

They refuse to bend their knee to our high title.

Even worse than being in awe of us they boo!

Asking what value, we add and exactly do?

They would rather be their own boss.

And look at the decades we put in as a loss.

A deaf ear to our beliefs that expertise, craft and skill are like fine wine.

Which get honed and grow working with people over time.

Things were clear cut and everything in its place.

Now everything is fluid, as if we are drifting in space.

Everything is leaking into everything and exploding everywhere.

Commerce and media, offline and online, and only attention is rare.

Just when one came to grips with all this digital stuff.

Our knowledge of Web3 and AI we need to shine and buff.

All the information and data on pay and other secrets only we knew.

Now on Fishbowl, Glassdoor and LinkedIn are freely shared in full view.

We need to balance a world of hybrid and remote.

Cannot be a boss but a coach and on talent dote.

Align with DEI and ESG while being sensitive to taking a political side.

Should we fail to deliver the market will have our hide.

Managing used to be quite a sweet gig.

Delegated work as paychecks grew big.

But now to remain relevant we must constantly learn.

And many old tricks and processes we need to burn.

Boards announce big audacious goals.

Press releases sparkle with promises and roar.

But it is us who need to be great at our roles.

Otherwise, the stock will droop, and we will be out the door.

Now the challenges come from far and near.

One wrong move and there goes all the sales of beer.

How does one navigate and steer?

When there is so much that we must fear?

We must improvise and be agile.

Constantly adjust to a world that is volatile.

Yet our deliverables increase and thicken.

While deadlines and timetables we are given grow short and quicken.

We are the glue that connects the firm.

So why is everyone making us squirm?

They take us for granted and rare is the pay hike.

Maybe we should go on strike?

But if we do, will they go all Elon Musk?

Mow down everything leaving just husk?

Or will they transfer funds to Open AI?

Use GPT and Dall-e and wish us goodbye?

These questions linger and add to our stress.

Even though it is us who they need to clean their mess.

We need to stay stoic, brave and maintain a stiff upper lip.

And to continue to bravely captain the ship!

The Magic of Tech / The Complexity of Humans.

Photography by Lizzie Shepherd

Technology is a form of magic that despite its downsides create more opportunities for more people and has done so on an ongoing basis.

In 2013 researchers at Oxford University predicted that modern computational technology including large language models would put 47% of all jobs at risk.

10 years later globally we have the lowest unemployment in decades with world-wide GDP and per capita income higher than ever.

Photography by Lizzie Shepherd

Jobs lost. Jobs gained. But all jobs will be changed.

Modern computational and communication technology from mobility to the Internet has changed all jobs. Most of them significantly because of new ways to discover data, increase efficiency, attract new employees and talent, find new suppliers, and means of production or accept payments.

There are three big benefits new technology brings.

a) Efficiency usually through time and or cost savings: It saves time by automating tasks that are often mindless or requires going through large amounts of data. Often because automation can do more faster it saves money.

b) Effectiveness by doing things better or doing things that were impossible: Adobe Suit of tools allows for manipulation of images and video that were impossible. Modern special effects enables creating movies like Star Wars and Avatar.

c) Enablement of “God like Power”: The most powerful technologies give human’s “God Like Power”. Mobile phones enabled billions to be connected to each other, entertainment, and information all the time for the fraction of what one long distance call used to cost.

Photography by Lizzie Shepherd

Take the current when it serves.

From “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare:

"We at the height are ready to decline.
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

If an individual or business does not wish to be more efficient, effective, and enabled and turns down the benefits of the new technology they are likely to be an individual who is less relevant, less successful, and likely to be out of a job.

There is no choice but to utilize the technology.

Technology has always enabled both the math/analytical/left brain part of work and the magic/creative/right brain part of work.

Excel made finance easier, and Word made writing easier.

PDF’s made publishing easier, and Adobe Photoshop made design easier.

Today GPT allows efficiency in telemarketing centers where AI assists in answering questions while Mid-Journey and Runway ML creates amazing new options for creativity.

A case can be made that jobs will be changed so much that we will be working at many jobs and the future is about work and not jobs.

The choice is in how one uses the technology.

To that end successful individuals and companies use different criteria to decide how much technology to use and where to use it and the most successful will marry the magic of tech with the mystery of humanity to differentiate, innovate and turbo-charge talent.

Photography by Lizzie Shepherd

1) Differentiation: Over time most technologies become commoditized or are available to most businesses for an affordable price. Thus, while using the technology keeps one competitive there is more that is needed to be differentiated. It is differentiation that enables a company to gain market share or charge a higher price.

If two companies were competing and both fully automated their process there would be no difference between their products and services driving them to commodity pricing. A large part of the differentiation between firms is driven by the ideas, storytelling and creativity brought by the different talent to differentiate their company.

While Delta and American use the same technology (aircraft) and resources (airports), and operate under the same rules and regulations (FAA), Delta has been consistently higher rated and more profitable than American because of its talent and culture.

Apple uses production lines at FoxConn which many of their competitors also use and most of the raw materials are similar or purchased from competitors (screens from Samsung or LG) but it is design and branding and storytelling that allows Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.

Most marketing services companies like advertising and media agencies of a given size have access to exactly the same platforms and technology but they differentiate via focus (what they specialize in so they can build unique knowledge, data, or IP), by how they work (how various teams come together to develop solutions) and by level of service or range of capabilities (ability to understand and respond to client needs) and the quality of talent and partners.

Photography by Lizzie Shepherd

2) Innovation: Machines tend to learn and optimize based on pre-sets of learning data or pre-programmed algorithms which do adapt but are often unable to recognize if the landscape has changed either due to competition or new customer needs and so it requires humans to identify these changes and develop new ways to re-program and direct the machines in production.

Most modern technology is an aid to innovation but is not innovative itself.

It was not microscopes and gene-editing technology that enabled a Nobel Prize in Medicine or access to a Particle Collider and Supercomputer that discovers new particles but institutions and talent who challenge the status quo, imagine new answers, and break the mold.

If a machine can enhance the outcome by either doing it cheaper or faster or better it would be a competitive challenge for any company not to optimize and allocate more work to automation especially if the work is repetitive, boring and does not enhance or build skills.

However, most firms whether they are in the product or service sector will always have humans in the mix because it is the mix of computing of robots and the dreams of humans, the logic of data driven, digital silicon objects and the mysteries of feeling driven, analog carbon based humans where new products, services, ideas and creativity will thrive.

Photography by Lizzie Shepherd

3)  People and talent will grow more important and not less important: The jobs least impacted by AI are jobs where there is a need for interaction with a person. Some of these involve dentistry or delivery or restaurant service.

Increasingly people will look for people to talk to, guide them, or enhance their experience. Remember how irritated one gets when one cannot reach a human in customer service? Phone trees and automation while they save costs can enrage much more than they engage.

Time after time, many industries from the medical field to the teaching field have tried to create assembly line, industrialized, technology timed and monitored models and doctors have quit, the best teachers have become dispirited.

Employee joy is critical for service, idea, and innovation and if one finds less purpose, meaning or growth in a job it will hurt the product or service. If people are a cog in the machine, they will find ways to hobble the machine.

Martin Sorrell who runs S4 an advertising firm that buys media recently was asked if S4's adoption of AI “super tools” will threaten jobs at the company, Sorrel said: “Automation poses risks all round but we don't know what those will be. We don't know whether AI will be a net generator or net destroyer of jobs. But the algorithm will be more effective than a 25-year-old media buyer.”

Martin was right in not being sure about AI;s impact on jobs though history suggests it will end up creating more jobs than it will destroy. And, yes an algorithm can be more effective than a 25 year old media buyer but recently a Japanese company replaced its CEO with an AI so technology may also be coming for more senior roles like Martin Sorrel’s then someone who has grown up comfortable with technology. And the reality is that the 25 year old media buyer will still be key because she will be working with the algorithm, modifying the algorithm and augmenting the algorithm versus being eaten by the algorithm.

If a company can replace a person completely with an algorithm their Client does not need the service firm since they can just tap into the algorithm! Which many will do where they can so there has to be other value than replacing people with machines. And every company will be shouting about their “super tools” and it will be a cacophony of noise and and a sea of claims with little differentiation.

Also imagine if you are a young talent why would you join a company where your CEO is hungering to replace you as soon as they can? ( Never mind the fact that 76% of Gen-Z want to work for themselves so the shortage will be getting these talented people to stay on board versus optimizing them away).

The world of media increasingly has been automated with all sorts of advertising and marketing technology and this has allowed for optimization of media that humans alone could not do but the total number of people working in the field has increased and not decreased because the world is not a static place.

As soon as one optimizes a certain type of media there is new break throughs in communication whether it be voice or connected TV’s or gaming which requires new tools, techniques and ideas and a way to integrate across them all and infuse all this optimized media with ideas.

Service businesses involve humans and to be human is to often be unpredictable, incomplete, illogical, and incomprehensible and no machine will be able to do things alone because humans do not compute!

We often make no sense and in it is the wonderful complexity of humanity.

We choose with our hearts and use numbers to justify what we just did. All the AI’s are being optimized for intelligence which is IQ that might in conversation sound like EQ but they do not have a heart.

Combining the magic of tech while embracing the complexity of humanity is will be the key to thriving in a transforming world.

Irresistible!

Mid Journey. Prompt…Imagine what irresistible looks like?

Josh Bersin is a legend in the world of Human Resources and Talent.

His four decade long career has spanned all the twists and turns and ups and downs of a career from studying to be an engineer at Cornell and Stanford, earning an MBA from the Haas School of Business at University of California Berkeley to working for large companies such as IBM as well as smaller firms. Josh also has had the experience of being laid off which gave him the opportunity to began Bersin & Associates in 2001 an advisory firm focussed on corporate learning which expanded and grew and was bought by Deloitte in 2012. Josh spent 6 years at Deloitte before he began yet another career in launching the Josh Bersin Academy in 2019 to help develop HR and Learning professionals and in 2020 the Josh Bersin Company which today has 40 analysts and advisors who publish constantly, undertake research and help guide organizations through the transformations at work. And in Fall of 2022 he published Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the Most Enduring Employee Focussed Organizations.

What Next in the World of Talent?

I was lucky to have Josh as my guest on the latest episode of my What Next? podcast and it is a conversation that everyone who is interested in the future of work whether you are a CEO, a Human Resources professional and most importantly talent navigating your career should listen to!

Some highlights include the following insights and statements and this is just a sampling:

Companies will become their employees rather than the employees becoming the company as the future of talent is crafting jobs around skills of the people versus fitting people into jobs.

Too much emphasis on measurement can lead to reduced productivity as people work to hit goals versus doing the right thing and many times the goals can be counterproductive and can lead to significant damage to a company like Wells Fargo employees opening fake accounts since they were compensated on how many accounts they opened.

Many organizations compensation and reward models as well as management styles are broken being stuck in a world where people moved up a hierarchy, worked full-time in an office, stayed at a company for many years. In today’s environment when skills rather than tenure, unbundled and distributed work and side gigs and side-hustles permeate and careers last much longer than most companies it is management that is failing to transform themselves from bosses to coaches.

Focussing on employee experience and culture is even more important than customer experience and investor relationships. We discuss the ups and downs at two world class firms Starbucks and Microsoft and what we can all learn from them. And how in a world of AI the best companies will be Human Services Companies.

A conversation with Josh Bersin:

Listen wherever you can access podcast from Apple to Spotify. Here is the Spotify Link.

It will change the way you manage and grow yourself, your teams and your business.

The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring Employee-Focussed Companies.

I have been reading and re-reading Josh’s latest book and have marked it up a lot since it is chock full of examples, methods, approaches and stories on the big shifts all of us have to undertake to attract, retain and grow talent.

Here are the Seven Secrets ( which are in one way no longer secrets since Josh has published and shared them) but they are secrets in that too many companies remain oblivious of them or rather so many of us have the answers can be in front of our faces but we choose not to see or after seeing them refuse to accept them.

Teams not Hierarchy: Josh defines teams as “a highly interdependent group of people that comes together in a physical or virtual setting to plan work, solve problems, make decisions and review progress toward a specified goal”. In a world of work that needs Jazz like improvisation and agility versus Classical hierarchy and bureaucracy the team is the key to the future of work.

Work not Jobs: In a world where people work all around the world, some part time and some full time and where companies are delayering and reducing levels the future is not jobs to fill but work that needs to get done. Companies have to re-architect around skills, outcomes and work versus titles, layers and jobs.

Coach not Boss: Leaders will build and guide people helping them unleash their inner talents rather than monitor, oversee and evaluate them. These days leaders focus on zone of influence versus zone of control.

Culture not Rules: Culture is often mistaken by many companies to be about a place. So many corporate campuses particularly the tech companies were more about inculcating cult like behavior rather than cultures. Josh Bersin reminds us that while culture does include the work environment it is not just physical place, but also an environmental and a virtual experience. And in addition there are four other components of culture which include well-being, inclusion, recognition/reward and flexibility (optionality, agency and freedom). Focussing only or mainly on physical space and believing the “office” is where its at is rather outmoded, outdated and outlandish given where we are going in the future.

Growth not Promotion: Companies should find ways to grow people so they can up-skill, re-skill and adapt and learn to fill future needs instead of constantly trying to find the right skills for the job today which will change tomorrow. As companies focus on flexibility, teams and getting work done there is a significant amount of de-layering underway. Compensation aligned with levels, tenure and how many people one commands or the size of budgets one oversees is increasingly mis-aligned with being effective, efficient and evolving in an increasingly accelerating and fluid world. Talent needs to grow and re-invent so companies can grow and re-invent.

Purpose not Profits: Companies that succeed behave like good citizens and ensure well-being of employees, alignment with society and openness and inclusion. These build deeper relationships with their customers and consumers, stronger attraction and retention of talent and a more resilient eco-system of relationships with communities and suppliers. Focussing on these right things ends up building competitive advantages which lead to profits. To win a game focus on the ball and not the scoreboard.

Employee Experience not Output: Talent will grow more important in the future and not less important. AI will require not just great talent but increasingly the ability to be more human and the future will be about Human Services Companies. Great results, brands and much more will not be possible without employee joy driven by great employee experiences.

Get the book. It will make you better.

And check out the articles and resources at Josh Bersin’s site. Its filled with amazing FREE content. It is a deep masterclass to help us improve.

Welcome to the Jazz Age!

Illustration by Leon Zernitsky

To remain relevant today leaders and companies who have often been classically trained need to realize we are in a jazz age and re-invent some of the ways we conduct ourselves and business.

Classical vs Jazz.

While both Classical and Jazz are highly complex styles of music which are held in high regard there are some key differences between them.

1. Fixed Hierarchy vs Rotating Leaders.

Classical music in many cases involves an orchestra or a multi-person assemblage which has a central leader known as the conductor.  This hierarchy also cascades down into every instrument section with a first, second and third violinist or clarinetists.

Jazz ensembles sometimes have a leader but even when they do there is little hierarchy with different players often taking the lead.

2. Fidelity to a score or a“way” vs agility and improvisation .

Classical performances are traditionally based on pre-composed material, revitalizing scores from years past, whereas jazz is fresh with each performance with musicians extemporaneously re-composing in real time using improvisation.

Because most classical musicians and conductors follow a score often written hundreds of years ago there is limited flexibility to interpret in personal ways outside of playing faster/slower or quieter/ louder while accentuating certain passages.

Jazz music is often about improvisation with each rendering often very different from each other with the players having great degrees of freedom to iterate and invent on the fly as the spirit, the situation, and their fellow players move them.

3. Greater emphasis on the musician and individual in Jazz.

Since jazz tends to have fewer players who are improvising and who share leadership the talent of the individual is emphasized versus the scale of the collective in orchestras.  There is more spotlight on individual talent versus large numbers of people who can be switched out for other people in large orchestra sections.

Illustration by Leon Zernitsky

Why increasingly companies and leaders need to be less classical and more jazz like.

Over the past decade or two the four shifts of demographic, mindset, technology and boundary shifts have re-written the business landscape. See The Four Shifts.

A) Size and Co-ordinated Movement of huge enterprises matters less as new types of technology and platforms from AI to Cloud Based Software as a Service ensure plummeting prices and access to cutting edge quality, scale of manufacturing and global marketplaces to small companies and individuals.

B) Speed and Agility has grown in importance where responsiveness and customization of products and services becomes a key differentiator. i

C) Flexible ways of working and managing grow in importance as four generations work together at the same time, work is now done at different locations, and cultural and individual differences must be incorporated into decision making.

When companies and leaders struggle to adapt it is often because they are organized or trained classically while the new landscape and expectations of the new generations are crying out for a jazz-oriented approach.

The good news is that many of the best jazz players were classically trained and some of the best classical music including Rhapsody in Blue (The United Airlines theme) or Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (New World) are infused with jazz like structures so there is nothing holding back today’s companies and leaders from adapting to tomorrow.

Illustration by Leon Zernitsky

Some Questions to Ponder

Is Hierarchy holding the company back?  Are bosses followed due to their zone of control and title or are they leading via a zone of influence and updated skills?  In some organizations such as the Armed Forces and others hierarchy is a feature and not a bug while in many others it is less relevant and so they have out of date conductors swinging a baton at an orchestra that is looking somewhere else.

Are companies re-thinking things with a blank sheet of paper versus replicating ways of operating that made sense when our companies were founded or made sense at a different time.? In this week’s What Next? podcast we hear about how productivity has been significantly improved at Shopify when CEO Toby Lutke recently had all meetings removed from everyone’s calendar and people had to decide whether they needed them and if they needed them as often, as long, with as many invitees or they could be done away with altogether.  This is just one way that companies are re-architecting from ground up rather than making small adjustments that while easy to do have little impact.

Is there significant time and budget allocated to training talent to better self-manage or to help management adapt to lead better? The future of leadership is continuous learning, coaching, empowering people and delegating to more junior employees or employees closer to Clients and the business battle front so they can improvise as the situation calls for.

Illustration by Leon Zernitsky

The 4X4 Approach to thriving in the Jazz Age.

The recipe of success of Jazz Age companies and leadership will be to focus on a 4X4 approach.

Four of these are built around Talent and four are built around Rhythm so that talent plays well and can improvise with each other to create real value and growth.

The Talent Four: a) finding and honing the best talent, b) emphasizing teams/team work, c) investing in growing skills and d) encouraging improvisation.

Increasingly a combination of AI, access to global marketplaces, and other breakthroughs will reduce most moats that companies have created leaving talent as one of the key long-term moats along with other such as Brand.

Companies that attract superior talent, enable them to lear rapidly, communicate clearly and fearlessly while collaborating flexibly are likely to be the long term winners.

The Rhythm Four: Growing talent while key to companies and leadership alone will not be enough and a significant value of firms and leadership will be to set a a) strategy/vision, b) clear deliverables, c) evaluation metrics, and d) a methodology/language to improvise around to ensure that it is music and not cacophony that results from a more flexible and fluid approach.

Welcome to the Jazz Age!

On Reading.

Photo “ The Reader” by Alex Timmermans

Today’s Large Language Models (LLM’s) which drive AI advances like GPT learn and grow through “reading”.

They ingest large data sets and then connect dots, “see” patterns and create relationships while optimizing against learning goals.

“Reading” grows their capabilities which allow them to “write” their responses. We respond with shock or awe when we read what “they” write.

Writing and therefore being able to pass on knowledge from generation to generation and accessing such knowledge via reading is what has enabled humanity to grow.

Even today in a world of multi-media such as movies and games or wonderful Broadway works like “Hamilton” the key is the script and the story.

It has been said that “stories are data with a soul”

Today, GPT reads widely and then observes our reactions to help us grow (though like any reader who switches between genres they can move from non-fiction to highly speculative fantasy disconnected from reality!)

These days we hear people saying the machine is “hallucinating” but for us humans too “reading is a form of dreaming” which takes us out of ourselves.

The Case for Reading.

Reading allows us to be other people and a good writer makes us inhabit another character.

They make us better understand others and better understand ourselves.

David Foster Wallace wrote “ Good writing should help readers be less alone.”

Often a good book will give you “you” as the writer evokes what you feel better than you have the words to express the same thing..

It makes us less lonely and lets us live simultaneously in yesterday, today and tomorrow, and inhabit places here and there, becoming people that are free from our physical constraints.

“Writers have not taken us anywhere but they have taken us everywhere”

George Martin wrote “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”

Reading also changes us.

“The best books are like surgeons. They change you but you do not remember them and they do not leave an external mark.” but even then “A great piece of writing is one that you feel on your skin.”

“A story is simply a sequence of language that produces a chemical reaction in our bodies.”

But they have a unique long last effect because while “Drugs get flushed from our system but not the best stories.”

The Case for Books.

Today due to the Internet and enabling platforms from Substack to Wordpress everyone can access more voices from more places with more diverse backgrounds than ever before.

Some of the best reading is self-published and can be obtained far from the big publishing houses of the West.

Short form or long form. Listened to or in the reflected glow of a Kindle. Words by themselves or a piece of writing encrusted with links and multi-media can all transform.

But one great way but clearly not the only way to read is through an ancient “ interface” of a physical soft cover or hard cover book.

While it cannot illuminate itself allowing you to read under starlight or allow one to hold a thousand books in the palm of your hand there is something tangible, mystical and spiritual about a physical bound book.

The utter simplicity.

Black symbols on a white background which create an alchemy of feeling, unleash our imagination and spur growth in their own unique way distinct to each reader. Personalized magic that all modern tech seeks to replicate but has not yet.

They might one day if they learn from reading.

Less is more.

Life is infused with meaning because of the reality it ends.

Data is not wisdom.

Humans are unpredictable, inexhaustible and illogical .

One could do no better than watch Chip Kidd speak about the “thinginess of books” to make you newly appreciate these objects in which knowledge has passed down the centuries to intersect with us sometimes so powerfully that a book can leave us thinking “I must change my life!”

Many are lucky to own hundreds of books often decades old. Many yellowing. Most marked up with exclamation marks reinforcing the writer or quarrels with the author in angry scribbles in the margin.

Some tattooed with stains of spilled food or some mishap on a plane or train or other accelerating or braking vehicle from a journey in the misty past.

Artifacts encrusted with meaning.

Citadels to memories.

When we revisit them like many readers we wonder why we underlined the lines we did.

The book did not change.

We did.

“Life is a river and we cannot step into the same book twice”

Lots of things in life change us. Memorable experiences. Transformative relationships. Amazing people.

But the books we read impact us deeply too.

As a reader wrote “ Its only reading. By which I mean it’s everything”.

Is it Human or is it AI?

12 Months of Progress of AI responding to the same prompt for an image on Mid-Journey.

Remember the Memorex Cassette tape ad with Ella Fitzgerald where Ella recorded on Memorex still shattered the wine glass? When one heard her voice was it live Ella or was it taped Ella?

Today we cannot tell whether AI generated images are real or not.

See above for the AI generated image using the same prompt one year apart.

These are not photographs but machine generated images created by mixing and merging data using text prompts

See below for another example.

If Force is equal to Mass x Acceleration with AI we are seeing Mass in hundreds of billions of dollars of investment globally and acceleration of doubling capabilities sometimes within three months. For instance Chat GPT which is GPT 3.5 scored on the 10th Percentile in the Law School Test. Six months later GPT 4 scored in the 90th percentile! Moore’s law of the processor age of doubling capability every 18 months is so snail like slow compared to what we are seeing.

AI is a Force that appears to me to be more impactful than the World Wide Web and the iPhone multiplied by 2.

Three years ago Sinead Bovell a model wrote an article in Vogue predicting that AI would take her job. That time she believes is here.

Earlier this week she was on the a16z podcast along with Danny Postma and if you are in any part of the marketing, creative, production, e-commerce or media business take a listen.

In this episode, Sinead Bovell and Danny Postma discuss the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the world of modeling, online creation, and self-representation.

From the rise of AI-generated photos to the democratization of creativity, they discuss the potential of AI in shaping the future of digital expression.

If you want to try these tools click below for Danny Postma’s projects.

https://www.postcrafts.com/

Below is just one of more than two dozen projects and tools

The economics of these new tools and the ultra- reality and speed of the output will unleash some of the biggest tsunami’s in the creative and production industries starting now. This is not the future. The future is here.

Every leading firm is already incorporating these tools into their workflow to build upon and add value.

Deepfake Videos driven by AI.

An amazingly fun (and disturbing since it looks and sounds so real) video of Satya Nadella putting Gates, Balmer as well as other Indian tech CEO’s in their place and ending with the following rap was released a few hours ago:

“Because this fella,

Satya Nadela,

the rocket propella,

will take Microsoft Interstella.”

Click below or here to watch….you will both be amazed, terrified and possibly pass out laughing…

MSFT CEO Satya Nadella : I am the superior Indian tech CEO

AI Clones

The WSJ tech reporter cloned her voice and image and sent her avatar into interviews to confirm her security to JP Morgan Chase and into meetings.

The Avatar succeeded some times and failed at other times.

Watch the video above or click this link:

But as we saw with the AI imagery advancements in the past year, the speed of enhancement and improvement is such that it will be less than a year before we may ask:

Is it live or is it AI?

AI and the Creative Arts

The New York Time had an incredibly interesting article ( also read the comments in the comments section) that must be read in its entirety to understand how AI is not just going to impact finance, tech, accounting and other left brained, quantitative, mechanical and mathematical industries but the very heart of creativity and storytelling!

Here are four paragraphs from the article that snapped me to attention:

“It is not out of the realm of possibility that before 2026, which is the next time we will negotiate with these companies, they might just go, ‘you know what, we’re good,’” said Mike Schur, the creator of “The Good Place” and co-creator of “Parks and Recreation.” “We don’t need you,” he imagines hearing from the other side. “We have a bunch of A.I.s that are creating a bunch of entertainment that people are kind of OK with.”

In December, Apple introduced a service allowing book publishers to use human-sounding A.I. narrators, an innovation that could displace hundreds of voice actors who make a living performing audiobooks. The company’s website says the service will benefit independent authors and small publishers. Other actors fear that studios will use A.I. to replicate their voices while cutting them out of the process. “We’ve seen this happening — there are websites that have popped up with databases of characters’ voices from video games and animation,” said Linsay Rousseau, an actress who makes her living doing voice work.

SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, says more of its members are flagging contracts for individual jobs in which studios appear to claim the right to use their voices to generate new performances. A recent Netflix contract sought to grant the company free use of a simulation of an actor’s voice “by all technologies and processes now known or hereafter developed, throughout the universe and in perpetuity.”

On-camera actors point out that studios already use motion capture or performance capture to replicate artists’ movements or facial expressions. The 2018 blockbuster “Black Panther” relied on this technology for scenes that depicted hundreds of tribespeople on cliffs, mimicking the movements of dancers hired to perform for the film. Some actors worry that newer versions of the technology will allow studios to effectively steal their movements, “creating new performance in the style of a wushu master or karate master and using that person’s style without consent,”

There is a lot more in the article including a strident defense of the superiority of emotion and the unique ability of humans to have ideas in the article.

But we ain’t seen anything yet….watch for text to video and much more

Prompt to Text is GPT. Prompt to Image is Mid-Journey/Dall-E2 and more. Now Prompt to Video!

Runway ML is a company that is a pioneer in this area. Click on the video above and you will not believe your eyes as to what is now possible with AI.

The ability of individuals to produce pretty high quality video’s with current technology is just a start. The tools are getting far better, far easier to use and far cheaper to access.

But wait that video of Gen 1 was 2 months ago which is a lifetime in AI time. Gen 2 is out and here an example from earlier this week of video completely made from text prompts except for one shot.

For an example of the rate of change and quality of what is possible read this tweet:

It is called The Great Catspy!

Click here for the video or the link below:

https://twitter.com/ChristianF369/status/1651607149804498946?s=20

The Future is Human Plus AI.

Everything I have shared is what I read or discovered in my “learning hour” this morning ( as people know I believe if you are not spending an hour a day learning it is game over for most of us regardless of our experience, status or seniority.)

I am convinced that AI is moving faster and deeper across more industries than we can imagine and it will impact everybody’s job in some way small or medium in 2023 and will begin to have a significant impact in 2024.

History suggests that every advance in technology places a premium on superior ability and talent will matter. However what talent does will shift as technology changes the nature of jobs and industries. There clearly will be a lot of creative destruction and many wonder if it will only be creative destruction versus new industries, new jobs and new opportunities.

While the future is hard to predict there is no doubt that AI can make all of us more productive by 10% or more right away and unleash break throughs in medicine and several sciences. It also will provide more people with more tools and canvases to tell more stories in new ways.

It will help us grow as long as we grow our learning alongside these advancements.

Career Bending Times.

Photography by Alex Timmermans

These are career bending times.

A fusion of forces in the forge and furnace of the future that reshape many fundamentals of our careers.

Whether we are early or in the middle or more senior in tenure.

Whether we work for a small, medium, or a large firm.

Whether we are self-employed, a free-lance or a “full-time” employee.

Regardless of our industry, our country, or our expertise.

Photography by Alex Timmermans

The Forces.

There are six forces each of which might have changed the contours of our career which are all occurring at the same time, are intertwined with each other, and are becoming increasingly powerful.

1. Demographic Change: Four generations at work. Major mindset differences between youngest and oldest generations. Aging and declining populations everywhere but Africa. Today the largest increases in working populations are over 60 years old. And 62% of Gen-Z have a side- gig, side-hustle or passion project while working full-time!

2. Technology: 5G, Blockchain, AR/VR, AI, Biotech and much more. Today AI and its impact are resonating everywhere but make no mistake while it might be the “Next New Thing” there is much more coming.

3. Multi-polar globalization: Globalization but with different centers of power including China centric, India centric, Euro centric and US centric zones of influence and virtual borders versus a seamless connected world.

4. Unbundled and Distributed Work: The world of five days in an office will be the minority of service jobs leading to new questions about culture, management, career growth.

5. Work/Life Reset: One long term impact of the 2020 to 2022 trauma was as someone wrote: “And isn’t this the whole point, post-Covid: to actually live your life?” Many people who believed work was life now believe work is an important and key part but just one part of a well-lived life.

6. The melting, decaying, and liquefying of industry shapes and boundaries: With Apple offering 4.15 percent interest on a FDIC insured savings account up to 250,000 dollars that you can fund with one click and loaning you funds from their balance sheet with their Buy Now and Pay Later program they are for all purposes a bank. Walgreen and CVS are shape shifting into not just providing pharmaceuticals but health care.  How long before “The New York Times” discontinues its slogan about “all the news fit to print” because it is increasingly a multi-media everything brand which might soon stop printing newspapers?

Each of these forces are intertwined with each other.  Modern technology and marketplaces allow for side-gigs and side-hustles and unbundled work. AI powers Biotech and re-configures jobs. New trade barriers move jobs and manufacturing to different countries as does the rise and fall of population.

Photography by Alex Timmermans

The Career Implications.

While the future is often hard to predict one can be quite sure that in the next few years the current waves of change will grow into a tsunami, and everybody will be impacted in some way or the other.

1. We are now going to have 50-year careers: Extended life spans, limited government pensions, incentives for elder people to stay in the workforce, machine enabled work will have us working for multiple decades versus a 30-year career.

2. Life-Long Training and Education: Even three decades into a career well into the 50’s one may need to go back to school, re-skill and re-tool. And the days of saying “We will be retired before all these new things happen” will not be realistic. Investing in continuous learning will be key to stay relevant.

3. We will increasingly be working like gig workers and there will be many other changes to the design of organizations:  A job will not be a title, a position and a static role but a constantly changing  number of tasks, outcomes and deliverables  In a globalized and connected marketplace of unbundled and distributed work we will all become gig workers even if we spend long time in a firm since all firms will become increasingly agile and connected, looking to put the best people on the most appropriate tasks very much like the way Hollywood  or TV production works.

4. We will be work in tandem with machines: Almost every job will become AI or Web3 immersed or infuses with some other technology. The productivity increases of modern technology will mean no one without modern technology will be able to compete.

5. We will work in smaller and delayered companies with many of us operating as  “Companies of One”:  a) AI software,  b) Platforms that enable access to marketplaces and talent ( Shopify, Fiver) , c) a need for shapeshifting agility as categories re-invent themselves ( Finance, Auto, Healthcare, Education at a minimum which account for half of US GDP), d) a demand for flexible cost structures in a high velocity world,  e) a work-force where free-lance workers are greater than full-time workers (2025 in the US) and f) scar-tissue of over hiring  (see tech and media companies today) will significantly reduce the size of most companies, eliminate multiple layers and focus on experts and deliverables versus generalists and process.

6. Leaders and Coaches and Learners versus Bosses and Manager and Know it Alls:  In this new world people will likely value, ask for and measure three things:

a) what does an individual help make, build, ship, change or impact?

b) what value do we add to the machine or how do we collaborate with other people or plug into a role on a project so that 1+ 1=3 ?

c) what creativity, vision, empathy, or imagination do we bring to inspire and grow people and business ?

The key will be how one can lead, train, and grow talent to unleash their potential.

The big corner offices, the gauntlet of handlers, receptionists, and other awe-inspiring fear mongering scaffolding of the pre-2020’s will all be seen as the crutches of the insecure and the fearful causing most talent to rapidly re-route around such blockages and blockheads.  

People’s “zone of influence” and “zone of impact” will be far more important than our “zone of control” or “size of kingdom”.

Photography by Alex Timmermans

Re-inventing and Staying Relevant.

A complete re-imagining and re-thinking is underway which is why all of us feel some combination of fear, challenge, excitement, and even horror!

The drumbeats of a changing reality are beating in the marrow of our blood even if we do not wish to listen to their forceful thump-thump…

We will all need to bend ourselves into new forms, skills, and shapes.

A few keys to remaining relevant will be:

a. Plan for the long term: Plot careers over phases recognizing different eras as well as our own differences as we age with a look both ahead and behind. Read 12 Career Lessons a distillation of my learnings on re-inventing over time.

b. Build expertise. Hone a craft. Be known.Learn and earn a niche or niches. Have a voice and learn to tell a story. Read Career Turbocharging for an exercise if you are looking for a job, thinking of switching jobs or re-inventing yourself and a job.

c. Do not outsource your career growth to anyone else:Be responsible and control the upgrading of your mental and skill operating system to keep on learning.Here is one way:  Learning to learn.

And here is one page with thoughts on a dozen topics to thrive in the future you may wish to bookmark. Look at Section 8, 9 and 10 in particular.

It will be a career bending time.

Which is far better than a career ending time!

On Purpose.

Ipsos publishes an award-winning strategic foresight magazine called “What the Future” . Matt Carmichel, What the Future editor and head of the Ipsos Trends & Foresight Lab, recently spoke to me for an article about Purpose which this post is built on.

What’s the state of purpose today?

There are three ways to look at it.

The first is that Purpose is a core differentiator. A survey by Deloitte indicates the following

“Purpose-oriented companies have higher productivity and growth rates, along with a more satisfied workforce who stay longer with them.5 Our research shows that such companies report 30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher levels of workforce retention than their competitors.6 While traditional trends might dominate purchasing behavior, new opportunities exist to connect with customers through purpose.

In 2019 consumer survey showed that price and quality remain the biggest factors driving customer decisions.7 However, many of the same respondents (55 percent) believe businesses today have a greater responsibility to act on issues related to their purpose. Those failing to do so risk being displaced by purpose-driven disruptors. For example, Unilever’s 28 “sustainable living” brands (i.e., brands focused on reducing Unilever’s environmental footprint and increasing social impact) such as Dove, Vaseline, and Lipton delivered 75 percent of the company’s growth and grew 69 percent faster on average than the rest of its businesses in 2018 (compared to 46 percent in 2017).8 Soap, petroleum jelly, and tea are everyday household essentials, but by promoting sustainable living, these products became differentiated as they embody the company’s purpose.”

It is interesting to note that Unilever has not done well recently and changed management which make many believe that purpose can be overplayed.

On “What Next?,” a podcast I host we recently had two different guests talk about purpose and each provided a different perspective.

One was from Thomas Kolster who basically said, “Forget everything you know, about brand purpose.” His basic belief was that businesses are now trying to position themselves as heroes, but they're not heroes. Customers are heroes and they say, “This is my purpose.”

This second perspective is yes purpose is important but forget brand purpose and align with customer purpose.

The other was from Steve Harrison who believes that purpose is over-hyped, that companies have forgotten that they exist to make things, sell things and create jobs. Anything that makes them not remember they're providing jobs, selling things, and making things and instead come up with social concoctions means they have lost the plot.

This third perspective is purpose is bunk. Make things. Create jobs. Ship things and stop all the mumbo-jumbo.

Why purpose is important but needs to be nuanced and authentic.

For most firms reality lives between these perspectives.

Purpose is important because it is one of the “whys” that Simon Sinek says a company needs.

Purpose is also important to attract and retain talent.

People are very interested in what the purpose of the company is, even if the purpose is “We make great products.”

Many people are now looking not just to join a company not for money, fame or power, which is important, but for companies to have purpose, values and connections. 

But a company should be very clear that when they are identifying a purpose, it has something to do with their industry.

If it sounds bombastic it will bomb.

Authenticity is key which means tight and believable scope versus “we are here to save the world” that gets everybody who is in the real world either rolling their eyes or shrieking with laughter.

Businesses and Brands are stepping into an unfortunate void.

People are looking to brands and companies to solve problems because they have decided to give less credence to media and government.

If media and government did their jobs, we wouldn’t look to brands and CEO’s to fill in!

The purpose trend and the need for CEO’s to increasingly take positions way outside their business and expertise is due to a crisis of leadership.

A breakdown of trust and a refusal to see the world as it is.

If leaders actually led, which means identify reality, fixing problems, and delivering products and services, people would not say, “What about purpose?”

That is their purpose.

Fix problems. Think long term. Look after people. Ship product. Build infrastructure. Create jobs.

Why Purpose is hard.

Often it is Ben and Jerry or Patagonia or Unilever that are trotted out for case studies.

There are many other examples too but not too many that resonate and ring true because it is difficult.

Purpose is principles.

If you're principled, you’re going to do things that will potentially hurt your career, hurt other people, or hurt financial performance because you decide to say, “That doesn't fit my principles.” 

Those brands take a stand and the stand pisses off certain people.

What a lot of companies today are doing is adding purpose because they don’t want to piss off people, which is the exact opposite of what purpose is.

Purpose is taking a stand!

But too often it is a thin veneer of paint on the surface and and not deeply intertwined into the internal brand and company architecture or culture.

Areas that brands can align with which are critical but not politically fraught.

There are three places that brands can help that aren’t politically driven.

Helping people grow old: All over the world except for Africa every country is aging fast. The elderly or the “seasoned” in many countries have many challenges from companionship to the need for medicines to financial constraints.

Everybody regardless of one’s political affiliation, sexual preference or gender identity is going to grow old.

Helping people who are hungry: Organizations like Feeding America to local Soup kitchens to Food banks to School programs all serve humans in need. People in need. Regardless of ones beliefs.

Helping people learn: Brands and companies have great resources not just in money but the talent in the companies, technology and much more. Today like never before learning is key. And learning can be everything from internships to mentorship to coaching and much more. Most countries and areas are struggling with education which in many cases is too expensive, too degree oriented and too exclusionary. Imagine what any company can do in their markets to lift peoples skills which helps both the people and the company by having more people to hire.

What will purpose look like in the future.

Often today purpose is like soufflé at a fancy restaurant. It's basically puffed sugar like expensive candy floss. And a firm often has many purposes all different flavors of candy floss.

The future will be more single minded and unified purpose that links to your product, show how you look after your employees with it and shows customers that because of that they will feel better about your product or service. 

Brands are built today on three criteria.

One is delivery of benefits. If you clearly can do something particularly well, that's what you're supposed to be doing. Authentic. Real. Aligned with the business.

The second is purpose will require one to have happy employees. Companies who do not look to create joyful employees will not be believed about some mumbo jumbo purpose. Who cares how you source your product or how you will save the climate when you care and look after your employees?

The third is, is the purpose measurably helping people feel better about your product or service?

The future of purpose, highly measurable and very much aligned with the company’s customers, employees and community.

Photography by Rishad Tobaccowala