Quote of Today (February 28)

For a long time, mainstream strategy thinking says a company should seek an advantaged position in their industry based on their core competences and that would be fine. End of story. Some people call this holy grail “Positioning.” But is it? Business is always dynamic. That a static positioning that can guarantee a long-term success doesn’t make much sense. This limitation is exemplified by the increasingly fast speed, high volatility and heightened uncertainty of the operating environment. And industry boundary is constantly being redefined. So today’s strategy must be dynamic in nature and should be based on a continuous balance between opportunities and capabilities; chaos and structure; self-built and collaborative partnerships. A corporate leader’s job is to ensure that the right balance can be made along the way with the right rhythm.

Quote of Today ( February 27)

As consultants conduct problem definition, they also need to go through the entire thought process to address the problem. Problem definition goes first but inevitably its process is somewhat iterative. Thought process development proceeds commensurate with the problem definition process. Without a complete and appropriate thought process up front, many consultants would waste their time along the way. Worst, ultimately they are not able to adequately resolve the client’s problem for the client.

Quote of Today ( February 26th)

Problem solving is done in two ways. The first is based on expertise or experience on addressing similar issues. The second is to resort to first principles, going back to ask the most fundamental questions regarding the problem on hand. In reality, actual problem solving includes a combination of both, but the balance may differ. Expertise or experienced based problem solving is typically more efficient but could become linear and in-imaginative. First principles problem solving is needed to address ambiguous and fluid issues but could take more time. A good problem solver can master both and knows under what conditions what ought to be the optimal balance between the two approaches ought to be. And, adjust along the way.

Quote of Today (February 25th)

Where there is “core”, there is also “fringe.” That’s one way of how duality manifests itself in companies. While for a long time – and still today – consulting firms and many academics advocate “focus” through “core competencies,” the rise of successful businesses like AWS have shown the power of “from fringe to core.” So while there is “core competence”, companies also need to understand the power of “fringe competence.” The two go hand in hand.

Inkstone News | China Enjoys Many Advantages in AI Development

By Edward Tse
31 December 2018

Gao Feng’s CEO Dr. Edward Tse believes China’s sheer market size and lesser concern for data privacy could prove advantageous – but the US still leads in terms of research and creativity. This is a summary of his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published with the center’s permission but without Dr. Tse’s prior review or approval.

In the last 40 years since the start of China’s economic reform and opening up, a lot has happened. The most profound development in China is the rise of the private sector.

Compared to the state sector, the private sector contributes much more to GDP and the creation of new jobs. But more importantly, the private sector has been embracing emerging technologies, in particular over the last decade.

Ironically, this decade is epitomized by American inventions. The iPhone and the wireless internet have fundamentally changed China, and that has created a large number of innovations along the way.

China has the world’s largest internet economy. There are more than 800 million active internet users and Chinese consumers do everything online: shopping, ordering food and so on.

Artificial intelligence is another emerging technology. For Chinese people, technology has served us well in the past decade, so why not embrace it?

Vast amounts of data are being generated every moment. Whenever we are on WeChat, we tell the app what we are doing.

Whenever we buy anything on Alibaba or JD.com, we tell Alibaba and JD.com what we are doing. It’s the same thing here in America with Facebook and Twitter. The difference is the scale.

Source: Internet

Artificial intelligence is really about a lot of iterations. The larger the amount of data you have, the greater the opportunities for machine learning and fine-tuning the pattern recognition. Therefore, better results are yielded for commercialization.

Rightly or wrongly, China has gotten itself into a situation where data privacy protection is perhaps not as stringently applied, compared to many of the Western economies.

China fundamentally has a system advantage. It’s not only about the scale of the market, but also the state and the Communist Party.

When someone decides something, they will push it all the way down to the whole country and everybody has to obey.

But that’s not the only thing that happens in China. There is a large number of entrepreneurs, who are coming up with all sorts of innovations.

Chinese companies are investing significantly in new technology. But they’re nothing compared to the Googles, the Amazons and the Microsofts of the world.

The gap is still very significant. Americans are way ahead in terms of creativity and original research. The Chinese certainly would like to close the gap, but only time will tell if they could succeed.

I think China is likely to be a leader in AI, perhaps the leader in commercial applications. But it won’t be the leader in original ideas.

Edward Tse is founder & CEO of Gao Feng Advisory Company, a global strategy and management consulting firm with roots in Greater China. He is also author of China’s Disruptors.

Quote of Today (February 14th)

The boundary of a company’s business is a function of opportunities versus the company’s capabilities. As such, it’s dynamic. Of course, one doesn’t change its business boundary every day; however, a mechanical “focus” approach that never adjusts one’s business boundary may also not be that appropriate. The job of the company leader is to know how to consciously evaluate the trade-offs between opportunities and one’s own capabilities and decide if one needs to “jump over” to grab the new opportunities or not. Capability gaps can be filled along the way through self built and/or collaborative partnerships through ecosystems.

今日头条 | 谢祖墀: 企业的品格

文| 谢祖墀

本文摘自《亚布力观点》(2019年1月刊)谢祖墀博士的专栏文章。谢博士阐述了一个企业需要把意识变成企业行为和文化的一部分,并达成高度的一致性,长此以往,企业的品格才能逐渐建立起来。他举了‍美国的默克(Merck)公司为例。

一个企业需要把意识变成企业行为和文化的一部分,并达成高度的一致性,长此以往,企业的品格才能逐渐建立起来

最近,有位在一家世界知名的跨国企业工作的朋友兼客户请我帮助她回顾一份关于企业品格的研究结果。 她所在的公司已经进入中国较长时间,在品牌的建设和企业的可持续发展上投入了大量的人力和资源,努力不懈地尝试在中国市场建立强大的地位。然而他们近期意识到,仅仅在建设品牌和保持可持续发展上投入资源是远远不够的。他们在思考,如何与消费者建立更加紧密的联系?或者说他们需要在哪些方面有所提升?后来他们发现企业美誉度的涵义可能比较狭隘,而“企业的品格”则更加适合。

经过调查和研究,他们认为更应该研究如何在中国建立正面的企业品格。事实上,在如何建立企业品格的过程中,有一个非常基础的问题,那就是“我们是谁?(Who are we?)”这使我想起2008 年时,我在博斯咨询公司(Booz & Company)写的一篇文章《如何成为受人尊重的公司》。在文章中我提出企业赢得尊重的四个主要方面,包括:1. 管理手段和领导力的创新;2. 消费者关系和消费者信任;3. 业务和技术的创新;4. 负责任的企业公民(corporate citizen)。

管理手段和领导力的创新,是指企业用声誉吸引最优秀的人来工作,进而充分地培养这些人才的领导力,使其发挥自身的创造力,成为未来行业的领头羊。消费者关系和消费者信任,是指一些优秀的企业已与客户建立充分的信任关系,他们在业内成为众所周知的消费者利益的拥护者,提供物有所值的产品或者高品质服务。在业务和技术的创新方面,如能独辟蹊径, 将创新转化成建立声誉的有效途径。优秀的企业会投入大量时间、精力以及资源来了解当地的社会、政治和经济环境各方面的相关背景,因为负责任的企业公民是企业最坚实的基础。

事实上,企业所影响的并不仅仅是大多数人通常所讲的顾客、员工和股东而已。“顾客 – 员工- 股东”这个圈是企业的“物理边界”,是距离企业最近的能够被影响的圈子。在这个圈子的外部,还有很多被多数企业忽视了的问题。

许多企业,特别是那些规模较大、和社会接触较频繁的企业,它们在社会上的影响力往往远远超过此狭义的物理边界。在物理边界之外,它们亦会影响到各个社会阶层。以滴滴为例,它在中国乃至海外的品牌影响力,已经超越了一家普通的互联网公司,它已经成为中国社会的核心组成部分之一。

坐拥5.5 亿的注册用户和3000 多万名司机,在全国400 余座城市中运营,这使滴滴与当地政府构成了不可分割的命运共同体。诸如滴滴这种类型的公司,有着庞大的责任和义务去履行模范企业公民的角色,其企业的品格在庞大的用户规模下则变得更加重要。正因此,企业的品格往往关乎一家企业的命运。在中国,这样的公司为数不少。

企业的品格与企业的意识是不可分割的。和人类一样,企业也具有其显意识和潜意识。显意识是“看得见,摸得着”的,而潜意识则是根植于企业的深处,“看不见,摸不着”的意识。在日常运作中,企业绝大部分的行为都是在不知不觉之间,由潜意识推动,尽管这些行为在表面上看似没有什么特别大的问题,一切都看似正常,但往往在不知不觉中将企业逐渐引导到失落、迷茫甚至于走上衰落之路。而企业花了大量资源来建立的过程、系统等“看得见,摸得着”的方法和工具,往往只能调控企业最表面的东西。

企业的品格和企业的意识是有关联之处的。一家企业创立的初衷是什么?一家企业存在的意义和原因是什么?一家企业应该追求什么?一家企业的领导人应不断地问自己这些问题。一家企业不能被潜意识所驱动,需要在一个很清晰的意识下做每件事。假如一家企业只是盲目、单独地追求经济上的绝对回报,或者最大化估值的话,我可以说,这些企业已经迷失了自己。

在企业品格方面,美国的默克(Merck)公司可以说是一家典范。1989 年,默克公司以700 万美元的价格将最先进的重组乙肝疫苗技术转让给中国,在这一商业决策中,默克公司非但没有盈利,而且公司的中国工程技术人员以及派遣员工到中国的费用,已经超过了由此产生的盈利。时任默克公司首席执行官兼董事会主席罗伊·瓦杰洛斯表示:“我认为这是默克公司在20世纪做过最好的商业决策之一,虽然没有利润,但它有望拯救的生命超过了默克曾经做过的任何事情的价值。”以当时中国每年2000 万新生儿计算,1993至2018这25年间,中国至少有5 亿新生儿接种了这种转基因疫苗。

企业的意识是提高企业品格的基础

默克公司这样的行为并非偶然。根本原因在于他们的高层管理人员和领导者在社会责任感上有着清晰的意识。他们的意识告诉他们,帮助中国社区是他们不容忽视的社会责任之一。对其他企业来讲,它们的领导者也需要有这样的意识。

相反,中国的一些企业,诸如三鹿奶粉、长春长生,和近期在被调查中的某保健产品公司的行为,在企业品格上则都是反面的例子。

企业不仅仅要服务它的顾客,员工和股东,更需要服务于整个社会。尽管全球的政治、经济局势变幻莫测,不少负能量充斥于我们之间,但我认为无论我们所处的环境和世界如何,企业和个人应该始终站在正义的一方,坚持正确的理念和价值观,做对自己、对他人、对社会都有意义的事情。

企业的意识是提高企业品格的基础。一个企业需要把意识变成企业行为和文化的一部分,并达成高度的一致性,长此以往,企业的品格才能逐渐建立起来。做到这一点,企业便能顿悟其所以然。而在此场景中,企业中的每一个人很自然地就会知道“我们究竟是谁?”

原文发表于《亚布力观点》(2019年1月刊)并保留所有权利

(注:本文图片均来自网络)

关于作者:
谢祖墀博士(Dr. Edward Tse)是高风咨询公司的创始人兼CEO。他是中国管理咨询行业的先锋,在过去20年中,他曾带领两大国际管理咨询公司在大中华区的业务。他为包括国内外的数百家企业提供过咨询服务,涉及在华商业的各个层面,以及中国在世界的角色。他曾为中国政府提供过战略、国有企业改革以及中国企业走出国门的建议。他被称为“中国于国际上最富经验和具权威的商业战略专家”。他已撰写过数百篇文章以及四本书籍,其中包括屡获殊荣的《中国战略》(The China Strategy,2010年)和《创业家精神》(China’s Disruptors,2015年)。

Quote of Today ( February 11th)

Like individuals, every organization has a character. Or personality. More fundamentally, it’s about “Who are you?” Lots of companies put their “vision”, “mission” or “values” which are crafted in plagues in the most visible locations. But do people really believe in them and internalize them in their daily behavior? Often not. Many companies do not have a clear sense of who they really are. They let their subconsciousness lead their behavior and end up being disillusioned. And eventually lose their direction and are trapped.