The BurbleBizarre quantum bonds connect distinct moments in time, suggesting that quantum links — not space-time — constitute the fundamental structure of the universe.
— Read on www.quantamagazine.org/time-entanglement-raises-quantum-mysteries-20160119/
Wow this is weird.
Companies and businesses have a problem – Trust. Put simply there is a decline in how much trust is being placed in business by customers and society in general. And a business that isn’t trusted isn’t going to survive for long. But is trust that important?
I think so. Customers are spending more time researching the companies they buy from, and the fact that so much information is available on line, opens up a business to a lot more scrutiny than previously possible. As customers are subject to exponential levels of change they will look to anchor themselves through relationships based on trust.
Would you go to a Doctor you didn’t trust?
And businesses play a huge role in society, providing income and rewarding places to work, generating wealth and making tax payments to help governments support their chosen areas of investment. The problem is partly guilt by association. As Edelman reported there is a collapse in trust in 4 of the major institutions (Business, Government, NGOs and Media) in many countries around the world.
At the same time however, businesses face some challenges that while not specific to industry will have a large and potentially dramatic impact. The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is beginning to reshape what business is and what it does and how it does it.
And trust is going to be come one of the most important topics businesses will have to deal with.
I always find taking that first step off the airplane both exciting and distinctly underwhelming. Exciting as all new countries are an experience, and underwhelming because all airports now look-alike; other than Heathrow which looks like no airport on earth and despite the great PR machine actually doesn’t work very well. And Haneda in Tokyo which is the only airport in the world I’ve travelled through where the ground crew bow to the plan when it arrives.
One of the exciting aspects of traveling to a new country is trying to gain insights into the culture that drives how business is done. This is an important aspect of working overseas as a little respect for any local culture goes a long way to making people feel confident with each other. And confidence makes it easier to discuss things.
But trying to understand a culture and how it will impact you is difficult. As a westerner in Asia I had not idea of what is driving the local culture and what allowances are being made to accommodate your attempts to bow in say Japan. If you follow the link you’ll see just how complicated bowing can be. To be fair as a westerner in the USA I had equally no idea what was going on.
After giving it some thought I’ve come up with the 4 basic things that can tell you a lot about a country.
Airports can be a great place to gain some insights on how a country might work. Are the signs clear and easy to follow, in multiple languages and do the staff at immigration actually look like they want to be there. Business is likely to be thorough and organised and guest and visitors are appreciated. If you’ve travelled through Heathrow or into the USA you’ll appreciate that none of this is in place and when you jump in a taxi (particularly in the US) you’ll see exactly how business is going to be done; if the driver knows where you’re going that’s a bonus.
If the hotel staff have been trained and are courteous and helpful you know that meetings will be polite and well organised with the topics well though through. If you have to go back to reception multiple times because either the room the hotel gave you is already occupied (which does provide a major surprise for the existing occupant of the room but can be good for making or losing friends) or the room key fails to work then you’ll know that any meeting is likely to be a riot of noise, questions, papers and activity but with very little chance of actually achieving much. Again if you have ever tried checking into a hotel in London you’ll know what I mean.
If your hosts are happy to let you take public transport than you know that they are a proud people who value exposing you to their country and its people’s and activities. if not then I’d heartedly recommend that you do not try public transport yourself. There is a very good reason why the use of public transport has to be by recommendation only. See signs above. I have numerous examples over many years of colleagues who have faithfully boarded trams and ended up doing calls from public gardens 10 miles out-of-town.
So if public transport is recommended go for it and your meetings will be on time and end up in the place you want to get to (even if you go round the houses to get there). If not then you could end up anywhere with an agreement to repeat the whole thing again next time. On another bus and on a road to nowhere
Eating overseas is always fun and working out what is on the menu can be a real challenge but one you should always take. Don’t try to find something western as it will invariably not taste like anything you know and you’ll simply upset the hosts who will be keen to show you the best of their food culture. Personally though I always draw the line at eating anything alive – whether octopus or eel I prefer to know that it is dead and well prepared rather than still trying to escape as it travels down your throat.
For the squeamish look away now.
If your food is alive when it arrives you’re going hungry – sandwiches in meetings are a no-no and you have no way of getting to what you want as you will have upset your hosts. Just go get on the plane and leave.
Last Friday found me sitting in the office with a number of colleagues watching another corporate briefing. I say briefing rather than call as the executive team had decided to try and do the briefing through a live video conference broadcast. Now while I am the first to say that some of my colleagues have the perfect faces for radio, it was good to be able to see the team present some key facts about their business and the challenges they face. While the words were clear and powerful, being able to see the body language really made a difference. I hope they will repeat the process again.
And the best bit was that the technology didn’t work very well.
Back to a theme of mine that I have blogged about before – Self Driving Cars. I am fascinated by the fact that people can see a time when you won’t need a steering wheel in a car and you’ll be able to get into a car and sit back and do anything you want. I can see a revolution coming in how people get around, work and interact with each other. With society relying so much on the car any change in how it works is going to have a profound affect.
In a small way Hanoi represents the future of the car. Last weekend found me and my family in a taxi trying to get from the airport to the hotel in the French Quarter of Hanoi. My son cheerfully described Hanoi as like Milton Keynes until we got into the center of the town which he then described as mayhem. In two years Hanoi has gone from a city that is all motorbikes to one that is being overrun with cars. And unlike bikes cars in Hanoi don’t swerve around you. And the point here is that cars being driven by computer, or robot depending on your view point, are much more likely to stop or steer round you than crash making towns and cities a much better place in the future.
Autonomous cars are coming and while there will be a long period of time before they come into their own there is one question we need to ask. Will they work?
As a child that grew up in the UK in the 70s I saw much of the industrial strife driven by Red Robbo and his band of merry men (motto; If it works once make sure that never happens again). And of course they would be very merry men (no women allowed anywhere near the factory floor) because they never worked for more than one or two hours a day. And they never worked more than one or two hours because they would then need to go on strike.
And what were they striking about?
The corporate tax rate in the US legally ranges from 15 to 35%. Many companies end up paying far, far less. In a report released today, the Institute for Policy Studies found (pdf) that seven of the country’s 30 largest companies by revenue paid out more to their chief executives than they did in corporate taxes in 2013, despite the […] http://qz.com/298543/these-ceos-make-more-than-their-companies-pay-in-corporate-taxes/ I repost this article with one intention in mind – to get people talking and discussing the issues raised. Whatever the situation, and companies pay taxes in a myriad of ways that are often overlooked in articles such as this it, the headline alone should be enough to prompt questions on why this should ever get published. Why should a CEO be accused of being paid more than the tax bill of the company. What’s it to you and me? I’m sure the CEO works very hard for their money (I almost wrote his money but that would been unfair – pretty accurate but unfair) . So what is it to you and me? Well actually its a lot and it highlights the growing disconnect between those with an appearance of being ‘At the Top’ and the rest. And unless that gap is narrowed or some sense of fairness rebuilt the inevitable will happen. People will vote for change or simply no longer support companies who do not appear to be being fair. And this pressure for change is growing. Back in 1993 the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) ‘initiated a business-led inquiry into ‘the role of business in a changing world’. The objective was to develop a shared vision of the company of tomorrow. The findings of the Inquiry, published in 1995, introduce the concept of an inclusive approach to business success in which a company:
For many of us in business today the idea of values and purpose, stakeholder relationships and maintaining a healthy reputation are all concepts we would understand. But so many of our companies today have clearly turned these into a set of words on the wall. Ignored by most people except in the corridors of the CEO where it makes sense to be an acolyte if you want to keep your job, but in most cases meaningless; possibly as witnessed by the fact that CEO’s allow their companies to be in a position where they pay themselves more than they apparently pay in tax. The Tomorrows Company research, based on the above findings advised companies that they would need a license to operate – that license being ‘granted’ by the buyers of goods and services from he company. It seems to me that, unless some businesses begin to change how they go about doing things, they will find their license to operate being taken away. People will begin to vote with their wallets – the ultimate weapon of mass destruction for any business. And quite frankly many of these businesses will deserve it. People have seen the global financial crises impacts on their daily lives and have aright to question whether it could happen again. And at the same time they see articles published like the one above that might suggest nothing, at least in the corporate world has changed much. People will vote – the question is only, when
Sometimes internet stories get rejuvenated for no apparent reason. I have no idea how or why this happens but it can be fascinating to see what is ‘trending’ at any point in time. And todays story is one about fridge magnets and how they can become killers. Now I am the first to admit that there are a few fridge magnets in the house although they actually reside on the front of the oven. A spaceman from the US, a cocktail menu from Singapore and a polar bear make up the current contingent. I don’t know where the polar bear came from but he seems happy.
However while the polar bear is happy I am wondering if I should be anymore – until today I had never considered the polar bear and friends could be a killer.
In a recent blog on Instructions I made the point that experience counts for very little when the world around you changes. Cars used to be easy because experience teaches you how a car should look and how to drive it. But when something about that changes all your experience can actually end up being a bad thing. You get stuck.
So what’s it going to be like in the future when ‘they’ will do it all for you. How will your experience be of use when you have no idea how things work anymore?
I wondered in an earlier blog about whether Instructions are important or not. They are.
I was recently in the UK and as usual when there I rented a car. This part of the process is very simple. I apply on line, get the confirmation, get an email when I arrive telling me which car I have and where its parked. Ignore that email and go find the actual car that they want me to have – a Mercedes Model B . Usually from arriving at the garage I am on the road in under 5 mins. This is great customer service.
However, in this instance, getting the car to move became a whole different problem. Nothing is the same anymore.
Insight for board directors and C Suite Executives
The business world has so many opportunities to reshape itself and drive better outcomes - we are only scratching at the surface of the change agenda and all the possibilities open to us. What ever happens next must embrace how we all work better together, how we are organised, the things we do and the many tools we use to make the change. Let’s make good things happen
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