Category: Leadership

Today I'm attending the third day and last day of the Fuqua School of Business & Coach K Leadership Conference. 

I
thought I would post my notes.  Disclaimer.  These are not exact
transcription or exact quotes but rather just my rough notes. 

See also on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23CoachKConference

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Geneen Auditorium

Keynote Address

Leadership in a Technology Disrupted Organization

James F. McCaffrey, Executive Vice President, Operations & Strategy and Chief Strategy Officer, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

Introduced by Bill Boulding, J.B. Fuqua Professor of Business Administration and Deputy Dean, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

1. Technology Change is a Continuous Stream.

(as in water). It is moving from past and pushing us forward.

2. Disruption is Exponential and Uncertain.

We must recognize it early in the cycle.

3. The Whole Organization Must Embrace Technology and Related Opportunities (The Hardest Part)

“We are living in exponential times” Walter Cronkite 1963.

Media Technology Is Always Changing. 

Radio was introduced in 1920’s.  AT&T was largest and only phone company in the world.  AT&T were disinterested in radio. 

It took 30 minutes to warm up a camera for Cronkite’s announcement about JFK assassination. 

We are also living in exponential times.  🙂

Video Presentation:

India, China, TV, video games, phone, emails, created content on the web, radio, TV, Facebook, text message 1992, Internet early 1995, 1 out of 8 couples married in US in 2008 met online, 31 billion searches on Google this month, b.g. before google, 1 billion pieces of content Facebook this month, 240 million Facebook users 4th largest country, app, tweet, blogger, iPhone, books published yesterday, technical information to double every 72 hours, fiber optics, phone calls, just developing the switches, supercomputer capacity more than the human brain, $1,000 computer exceed capacity of whole human race. 

History of Turner

WTBS, Braves, CNN, CNN Headline News, NBA, MGM, TNT, Cartoon Network, Castle Rock, TCM (Turner Classic Movies), New Line Cinema, CNN.com

MGM: 5,000% return on investment

History of Turner Modern Era:

adult swim, CartoonNetwork.com, AOL, Nascar, PGA, PGA.com, CNN Pipeline, iReport, TBS.

iReport—at Virginia Tech all good footage was from cell phones.  But now there is editorial filter at iReport. 

Series of iPhone apps.

Under 25 years old audience watches “adult swim” late at night.  It is very edgy. 

CNN live streaming on iPhone. 

On 911, 2001, everyone ran to TV.  It is no longer necessary. 

How do we make our content available everywhere? 

It is a huge technical challenge. 

That is a troll through the company. 

The whole company has to become change agents to understand the audience. 

The last five years were the fastest growing in company’s history. 

Technology is our friend. 

Inauguration of president and death of Michael Jackson are the most widely viewed in internet history—both on CNN.com.

How today lunar landing would be covered by TV if it happened today video.

Audience Question and Answer Period (12:05-12:25)

a. How do you maintain all of the infrastructure and still grow? 

I protect the money.  I have smart people who help me distribute capital.  Internet pennies vs. television dollars.  It is more difficult with television than news.  With news everything is packaged together. 

b. How do you get people to pay attention to the brand and not just the TV show which migrates from network to network?

We believe passionately in brands.  People use that as a filter.  TBS and TNT have grown.  Our friends at the networks turned their back on the brand.  What does NBC stand for?  We are huge believers in brands.  After Ted Turner left we made: TBS—funny; TNT dramas.  (Sports are another issue). 

c. How do you think strategically about the future?

We learn from the past.  We are big believers in the hypothetical situation.  Understand your industry and company past.  Three years after JFK assassination in 1966, NBC could not find any profit motive for color television. 

d.  Technology seems more obvious in your area in the media.  Your background is consumer products and brand management.  How would your apply technology to your past pursuits? 

The microwave oven was at first just warming water.  We invented microwave popcorn. 

e. What does great leadership look like at Turner?

We believe in communication and mechanisms to hear what employees are thinking.  As we get bigger, I worry it is going to get more and more difficult.  I have asked employees, how can we solve this collaboration problem?  We are a stable management team.  We work for the employees.  Leadership we try to make a management science just like accounting or technology.  We do lots of training.  Part of the compensation package is related to leadership goals.  We tried not to lower headcount—lay people off—and it has worked. 

f. How do you measure leadership in terms of performance? 

We try to measure positive things.  Matrix: collaboration and prioritizing.  But I worry that we do not punish the non-collaborator.  I try to be ruthless with non-collaborators.  Technical groups are often led by good leaders without technical expertise in that area.  We value good leaders. 

g. Are you leveraging social networking? 

No, we’re not.  I’m overwhelmed with information.  We have pilots about sharing documents.  We take CNN very seriously as core to our company—greater importance than its revenue.  It is important to know what people think about us.  Multi-cultural issues are also related.  How do we make sure that Hispanic Americans, African-Americans and women want to tune into us?  We are achieving this according to the ratings.  But we are not so naive to think social networking is not important. 

h. CNN used to be about war footage and now it is about a lot more. 

We passionately believe that CNN sits in the middle of the spectrum—with relatively less bias.  Headline News has changed to HLN with opinion as its focus.  People tune in for a long time so it is profitable.  Nancy Grace on HLN is popular whether you like her or not. 

Today I'm attending the third day and last day of the Fuqua School of Business & Coach K Leadership Conference. 

I
thought I would post my notes.  Disclaimer.  These are not exact
transcription or exact quotes but rather just my rough notes. 

See also on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23CoachKConference

10:15 AM – 11:30 AM

Geneen Auditorium

Leading the Next Generation of Workers and Customers � Leveraging the Social Network

IIieva Ageenko, Senior Vice President, eCommerce Channel Executive, Bank of America

Sandy Carter, Vice President, Software Group Channels, IBM Corporation

Tammy Johns, Senior Vice President, Global Workforce Strategy, Manpower, Inc.

Moderated by Tony O'Driscoll, Professor of the Practice, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

___________________________________________________________________

Tony O’Driscoll: Introduction

Talking about Web 2.0 Digital Natives. 

The growth of Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube. 

Marketing Adoption Acceleration: Social media spending expected to grow by 300% in next five years. 

Invites people to use #coackkconference hashtag

Question 1: How did you first become exposed to Web 2.0/Social Networking technologies and what convinced you that they might add value to the business area(s) you lead?

Tammy: We are trend watchers at Manpower.  We had inkling social networking would change world of work.  Talking to IBM–how games would change world of work.  I convinced Manpower that we need to be on Second Life on a research mission.  We created a space for newbies, avatar, get clothes that look cool, etc. 

Ilieva: At first I did not see business value of Web 2.0.  I started on LinkedIn.  My son always went to Wikipedia.  How do you know if that information is good?  I could see blogs and wiki’s were valuable. 

Sandy (by telephone): I was always a geek.  I was one of the first bloggers at IBM.  Then Second Life—we bought a couple islands.  Now, I love Twitter. 

Question 2: Could you share some examples of how you applied Web 2.0/Social Networking in your organization and what results have you achieved from doing so? 

Sandy [Tony said she has written a book about this]: At IBM, I have been able to experiment.  We have lots of virtual events.  An event on Second Life where people have an avatar and walk around to a conference.  How many people came to conferences from Twitter—about 10% more than if we had not gone there and response rate is higher.  4,000 comments of feedback on a blog about a product.  When we released the product, many people were already using it and loving it.  When developers were asked to stand up, 1000 people stood up. 

Tammy:  Recruitment.  We employ 4.5 million per year.  We have explored Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.  How will work be conducted in the future?  Mypath.com  Our hope is to create communities where people will help one another.  Leverage the knowledge we have to give.  That is our biggest step recently.  200,000 have found it without us.  We were concerned we would find on Second Life just virtual bartenders but that is not what we found.  These people are very proud of how they connect with and the work they do. 

Ilieva: We took “test and learn” approach.  3 pilots.  Two were with employees.  1 with customers.  (1) Employees would submit topics.   (2) Second Life.  Are our avatars going to open checking accounts?  No, let’s use this for collaboration.  (3) Twitter is kind of a buzzword.  It was brand new territory.  Legal compliance questions, etc. hindered us.  People wanted to quit.  One employee who was 22—I put him in charge of twitter.  We won best practice award for corporations working with twitter.   

Question 3: From where you set, how do you see the adoption and application of these technologies evolving over the next five years with the enterprise? 

Illieva: Something for legacy applications.  Providing access to external social collaboration tools. 

Sandy:  Almost everyone has a cell phone today.  In Egypt, many had cell phones.  Mobile computing is the future.  Will there even be a reason to have a computer?  Probably not.  I was in Tokyo and a coupon came to my mobile phone.  It will be 3-D in the future—an experience.  Trying on clothes on your computer just like in a store. 

Tony: not internet but “immernet.”

Tammy: Technology available broadly.  Tremendous changes needed in work practices.  Collaboration is all about trust.  Build and develop the workforce for the future.  Why we went to Second Life: who is in virtual worlds?  Our kids. 

Tony: Tom Peters quote: “We have been at this for a long time.  But we are still confused.  But we are confused about more important things at higher level.”

Audience Question and Answer Period

a. I am confused.  How is what we are talking about complement the old way?

Illieva:  When we introduced Twitter, we asked, how are we going to communicate to our customers?  By being personal there, we were able to deliver to our customers. 

Sandy: It is all based on trust.  In blogosphere, there are unwritten rules and if you are rude, you will get kicked out.  There is no replacement for face to face relationships—social media is an avenue to form those.  I just got tweets from people there.  But I wonder whether the next generation will try to replace it.  Example: my kids texting me from downstairs.  Not one or the other but both. 

Tammy: Board of directors questioned my sanity.  This is the reason we went to Second Life.  How do you build and manage your reputation?  When I am at home with my neighbors and my work website and my second life Avatar—they are all my reputation.  Manage your reputation carefully.  That is behavior and practices not so much the technology.  It is built on trust. 

Tony: I studied leadership inside these environments.  What does leadership look like?  If you’re not authentic, you get busted. 

b. I refuse to use instant messenging because I was always getting interrupted.  Attention span and focus.  My kids get hundreds of messages.  Focus.  My second question is around security.  Do you feel comfortable about the danger of phishing? 

Sandy: IBM is a very conservative company and so before we freed people to do this on work time, we did a survey with 2000 people.  We found that people who kept in contact with social media friends, generated more revenue for the company.  $6000 more per employee.  So we found it is worth “getting interrupted.”  Ways so it is not interrupting me such as alerts on dashboards. 

Tammy: We at Manpower study what makes people good at doing their job.  Young people are wired differently than boomers.  They have been using the internet since they could play with keyboards.  The term multi-tasking is important because they can just do it faster.  But it is important to think about what someone is doing—a heart surgeon shouldn’t be checking their twitter but someone looking over brand should have access to information.  Technology is becoming more pervasive. 

Questioner: So you are saying I’m slow. 

Tammy: I’m saying you have a different skill set. 

Tony: Coach K: “I don’t have rules, I have standards and the team sets the standards.” 

Illieva: There is nothing to prevent people from getting to see who else you know.  You should use privacy settings on Facebook.  Restrict who sees party photos. 

Sandy: Your company knows lots about you—your voice, where you go on your Blackberry.  The technology drives this everywhere.

Tammy: On Second Life, read the rules carefully.  Get the benefit of the technology and be safe. 

Tony: IBM person: “Privacy is not always good. If I faint, I want someone to have my doctor’s records.”

c. A person could do your brand or company real harm.   

Tammy: You have to trust your employees.  Step up communication with people.  Don’t underestimate how you treat people.  It is a small world.  Continue to communicate your message. 

Illieva:  Our associates and our customers are our most important advocates.  Continue to provide a high quality service. 

Sandy: Create a digital disaster plan.  How can you represent what is really going on?  A restaurateur: cheese up their nose making pizza and it took them three days to get word out how they were dealing with it.  On myspace, people wrote “I love this brand” and I was thrilled.  Then there was “I hate this brand” and I was devastated.  It took us months but we listened and tried to address the concerns of that person. 

Illieva: We used to only put out positive news on our company website.  Now we put out both positive and not so positive about IBM because employees could find the information elsewhere on the news.  It has increased trust.