FUTURE SPECIAL ...............................FONS TROMPENAARS BEWARE THE GEEKS

FONS TROMPENAARS

BEWARE THE GEEKS 

CEO OF TROMPENAARS HAMPDENTURNER CONSULTING, AMSTERDAM, AND AUTHOR OF B U S I N E S S A C R O S S C U L T U R E S
THE BIG IDEA: SAPIENTIAL AUTHORITY WILL CHALLENGE FORMAL AUTHORITY

The world of work is changing  fast, with mobile devices, social media, data mining, videoconferencing, virtual reality, blogs, tweets, all playing a big role. Some leaders might be tempted to abandon their responsibility and let the younger generation of whiz-kids who understand it all take-over. Young geeks are discovering the untold power they have by virtue of their technical knowledge (sapiential authority). Even if leaders don't want to abandon their role, many are increasingly frustrated that their normal structural authority is challenged by this sapiential knowledge. In the global digital economy, IT is the foundation for doing business. This is easy to see at born-digital companies like Amazon and Google. But companies of all types are discovering that how they manage IT is crucial to their competitiveness. It determines whether the company's dealings with customers and suppliers are efficient, scalable and timely; whether employees have the information they need to do their jobs; and whether employees throughout the company see technology as a tool to move forward, or an anchor that keeps them running in place. This means that leaders must define how the company as a whole will do business in a digital economy. Unfortunately, too many CEOs don't even know where to begin when it comes to managing IT. They keep come up against geeks who use their job to keep up with tech advances, often exploring new systems architectures for the sheer excitement rather than the needs of the organization. The solution for leaders does not require them to become knowledgeable about the technology itself so they can challenge the IT save generation. Management and employees need to decide and execute inter-actively. In this New World of the customized workplace in which priority for sustained personal development goes hand-in-hand with the employer’s business performance and growth, the reconciliation of dilemmas is the new source of authority. Pundits are now saying “in the future, there will be few jobs but plenty of work”, by which they mean fewer jobs with traditional ways of working. The core challenge for leaders is to ask themselves “are we using technology to transform our business, or are we just refining existing processes for with incremental improvements?" No self-respecting airline, for instance, could do without an application that lets you book your flight and download your boarding pass to your mobile telephone. It saves paper, can't get lost and customers want it. We are so use to doing this now that we have forgotten what we used to do with printed tickets from a travel agent. Using technology in this way hardly differentiates. It is only companies that don't that are conspicuous. Leaders need to rethink how they deliver core customer services. The starting point for such a rethinking isn't asking, "How do I use technology strategically?" It's, "What would be the ideal way to interact with and serve my customers?" Ultimately the development of sustainable solutions needs to be a process of co-creation from the CEO's vision with the brains of the younger geeks to harness the opportunities. This challenge is loaded with dilemmas, for trust is required for co-creation. Management and tech staff need to a chance to build trust by discussing the cross company’s objectives and the processes and style they want apply to achieve these objectives. It is interesting to note that many click companies are going for bricks and many brick companies are going for clicks. An architecture made up of relatively independent and constant groupings, pushes an organization toward the loosely coupled structure that is becoming more common everywhere in the cross-organizational development of innovation. In this way, the challenge of sapiential authority is overcome en passent and puts the leader firmly back in their role of leading for sustainability.
Co-authored with Peter Woolliams

CDET140103