Challenging The Uber Syndrome

Just yesterday, Grab announced its acquisition of Uber across South East Asia. Uber customers received notification that the Uber app will cease operations on 8th April in Singapore. While many bet on the winners and losers, one thing is for sure – the industry disruption continues.

Uber's Innovation To Success

Uber is synonymous with innovation and cross-industry disruption. When Uber surfaced in San Francisco in Mar 2009, it created a massive transformation in the transportation industry. 

Taxi companies no longer had monopoly of the business of transporting passengers. People could find peer to peer ride sharing, deliver and transportation via an on-line app. It offered convenience, transparent pricing and better service as the nearest drivers could be alerted saving time and passengers can track where the drivers are for visibility and safety. People found employment and free-lance opportunities to make a living that was convenient to their timing and location too.

The Uber Syndrome

Today, we use the term “The Uber Syndrome” to describe industry disruptions “where a competitor with a completely different business model enters your industry and flattens you.” This is a powerful quote from Judy Lemke, CIO of the Schneider Trucking Company. And growing meteorically from sheer entrepreneurship!

In the past, strategic change and management consultancies talked about business model optimization and creating viable independent business models. I studied my Masters of Business Administation and wrote my paper on the Viable System Model from Professor Stafford Beer who revolutionalized the Chile economy. 

That was great and is still used today in corporate restructuring and optimizing organizational efficiency. On top of that, executives now need to worry about competitors with new business models, who arise from outside the recognized landscape of traditional competition.

New Competitors That Aren't Classified As Competitors

IBM Institute of Business Value conducted the world’s largest Global C-Suite Study among CEO, CFOs and CMOs, the words "Uber-ized", "Uber-ization", "Uber Syndrome" and "digital invaders" were among the top concerns. The most striking quote from all the quotes collected from the executives - that is typical of what keeps executive awake at night is “The biggest threat is new competitors that aren’t classified as competitors”.

An executive from the study told us that he spends much of his time surveying the landscape of everything that is happening, constantly trying to apply his judgment to decide whether something is just a passing fad or hype that can be safely ignored, if it is a serious trend that needs to be addressed in a timely way, or if it is a tsunami that threatens to rise up and wipe you entirely off the map. Those are the worries that are causing top corporate executives to lose sleep these days.

Then there is the issue of competition across industries – or to put it another way, the blurring of lines between industries, and the threat of new, non-traditional forms of competition.

Whoever Dominates Data Science Wins

In fact, a full 54% of retail executives we talked to said that they expect competition from outside the industry to be more significant and impactful than competition from within the industry over the next several years.

More so than ever, data science plays a critical role to how executives can stay ahead of the competition. Our team at Systems on Cloud at Asia Pacific work daily with executives on cognitive computing, analytics, big data and artificial intelligence to power their journey ahead. For those new to Artificial Intelligence, we offer a discovery workshop where they can understand what it takes from data, resources and skills to embark on this journey.

Whoever dominates the data science wins. 

#uber #uberized #ubersyndrome #grab #datascience #cognitivecomputing #artificialintelligence #ibmpower #powerAI #bigdata #analytics #disruption #industrydisruption #systemsproud #annephey #leadership #CEO #businessstrategy #innovation #competition #management

Credits: Blog photo from Grab advertisement.

Being Authentic. I Am Who I Am

A well meaning head hunter called me “Hey, did you leave IBM? Why didn’t you tell me so I can place you?” “No, I have not left. I will definitely tell you if I am looking out. Do you know something I don’t?” I laughingly replied. He replied, “Your LinkedIn job title changed to “Mindful Ledaership” so I thought you quit.”  That was just one reaction, among many connections that reacted to my profile change in surprise, happiness, curiosity, cautiousness and even disapproval.

What garnered these responses was just a change in my profile to “Mindful Leadership”. I had decided to integrate my career self and my spiritual self into one.  I had previously kept two separate identities – one professional identity as “Anne Phey – Innovator” as a kick-ass Marketing Director at IBM and another identity “Anne Phey – Mindful Meditator” that I shared about my journey of self discovery in holistic practices.

Here are the Top 5 reactions and my response:

1.  “Won’t your boss think you are spending time to blog about non-work stuff and affect your career?”

I am grateful that IBM practices work life integration and I have understanding bosses.  We recognize that team members need a healthy balance of work and private time.  While many employees may spend their week nights or weekends with their parents or children, I choose to spend my time on holistic practices and sharing them on social media.  The employee is evaluated on the results, and not how they spend their time.  So, sharing about mindfulness does not make me any less effective as an employee.

2. “You are a social advocate, why a title on mindfulness and not IBM?”

As LinkedIn’s top Social Seller, I am an advocate of social media as a medium for corporates to reach out to partners and customers.  Being an advocate does not mean talking only about one’s company all the time. Often social media becomes a bombardment of corporate jargon. People trust people.  We earn that trust by being genuine and having an opinion. I am an IBM ambassador, not one that blindly drum-beats corporate messages, but a human that one can relate to and have a conversation with.  I can share both about mindfulness and corporate content.

3. “Don’t you think it is unprofessional to share about mindfulness on corporate platforms?”

Mindfulness is an attitude, an approach and a holistic practice.  It is not contrary to corporate work. In fact, it adds to a better person, environment and work outcomes.  In the tech industry, disruptions are changing the way industries and customers are behaving.  If one practices mindfulness, one can navigate these disruptions with ease.

Personally, I have gained from mindfulness with calmness in my approach, better clarity by being able to observe alternative perspectives on situations, confidence in handling obstacles, positive encouragement to team members, motivation to do good and tenacity to outlast the issues.

Our Human Resource Director Craig Stewart too writes about mindfulness in his blogs. (See more at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mindfulness-isnt-just-fancy-way-saying-yoga-stuff-craig-stewart)

4. “Recruiters can’t categorize you if you put mindfulness into your job title.”

Human Resource as a function no longer relies on job titles and abilities on CVs but about how a person’s intrinsic qualities such as mindfulness and leadership can take the role and job scope to success.

Here is an example of incorporating mindfulness into your profile. Techfucius is a CIO (Chief Information Officer) who is a seeker of salvation from IT woes.  Instead of seeking salvation atop a mountain somewhere, he has to practice mindfulness with deep reflection within to manage a tech world riddled with disruption and uncertainty. His blogs talk about the power of strengthening what lies within (See more at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-strengthening-what-lies-within-techfucius-say)

5. “Have you quit your job to go full time into holistic work?”

Changing my job title to “Mindful Leader” gave many the impression that I am no longer working in the corporate world.  Most people believe that you have to either be a corporate warrior or a peaceful holistic practitioner.  I choose to be both.  I love my job at IBM and I love what I do to help individuals transform their lives. And I love showing by example to transform my life to a better person, boss and team mate at my workplace. 

Corporate and Mindfulness Merge As One

We sometimes draw such well defined lines around areas of our lives – our work, our home, our children, our recreation club and our spiritual practices.  As I discover more about myself, I become more of who I truly am at home and at work. There is just one me, I am who I am.

In fact, several social advocates have contacted me to ask how I managed to integrate mindfulness, corporate and social media.  Many have asked for further discussions and tips as they see social media and social selling cross the chasm of regurgitating corporate jargon to sharing from the heart of what matters to the person be it personal, professional or corporate development. 

So here I am, on this path of integration. I will be blogging about mindfulness on how it has helped become better persons in the corporate world, and also about the tech industry with mindfulness.   

Join me, be bold and shine as who you are. Be authentic.

Unlock Earthly Crystal & Planetary Portals

Come access Earthly #Crystal & Planetary #Portal energy to help us in our #awakening and access to our innate talents and align more to our #lifepurpose.  This workshop is suitable for those who desire to move their life to the next phase, #shift to high vibrations and who want to know more about their #galactic connections.  Besides sharing of knowledge, it will be an experiential session where you will travel across #dimensions with the earth and planets. Come if you are ready for #transformation! http://annephey.com/product/unlock-earthly-crystal-planetary-portals-workshop-2016-nov-9/ @annephey #thehulalife

Unlock Earthly Crystal & Planetary Portals

To truly move to a higher awareness and consciousness, we can tune up tune up our vibration to the 5th dimension and beyond. We can become better versions of ourselves and our world by tapping into an infinite loop of unconditional self-love, co-creation and mastery, unity and peace.

This workshop will share about the resources that have been made available to us before and after the harmonic convergence – our galaxies and stars, crystal grids within earth and our own subtle bodies. Learn how to unlock these portals to access the immense library of vibrational knowledge.



Since 2012, new #channelers like Anne Phey have been called to share the new energy from the planets, connect with the #galaxies, earthly #crystalgrids and access energy ###portals and activate our crystalline bodies. Behold the old has past and the new has come. Rise to the new #multi-dimensionional #vibrations, allow for #lightlanguage activation and receive freshly channeled energetic messages and divine knowledge. Change is here but #transformation is a #conscious choice.
 Anne will channel messages from Pleidia for humanity, and help us to understand the keys given to our living earth by the Pleidians.

Come on this journey to the higher dimension and frequency, experience the healing and receive channeled messages for each individual.

Date: Wednesday 9th November 2016
Time: 7:30pm to 10pm
Venue: Qi New Age & Healing Centre Singapore, 42 Kandahar Street, Singapore 198896
Energy Exchange: $88
 

Marketing Creates And Captures Markets

We recently won a Global Innovation Award for our Asia Pacific efforts to grow and capture the market.  It was a recognition of marketing in our true profession of strategy, management, multi-channel and integrated marketing across content, social, digital.

Code named CAMP (Create A Market For Power), marketing lead the initiative with understanding the market dynamics, being creative to develop a programmatic approach, daring to do things differently and making an impact to the business.

It helped us achieve several consecutive quarters of year on year growth. Here is the story of how marketing led the way to this transformation.

IBM Power Systems in Asia Pacific is the market leader in the Systems of Records for IT infrastructure requirements.  With the shift in infrastructure consumption to solutions for big data, , we needed to take a hard look at our business to assess what we needed to do differently to win. We started by understanding more about the market place.

Understand The Market. Use Analytics.
The market had developed besides Systems of Records to Systems of Engagement, Insights, etc.  This new area was a fair fight with many market players who were trying to make the shift.  We assessed our position of power, who we needed to work with to extend into the new solution areas and what was needed for the shift.  This was done by using analytics, social and other listening.

Appoint Champions. Lead The Business Plan
Within the business, we needed champions who could prioritize and focus on the growth areas. The champions were needed to pitch the propositions, drive capabilities and align resources. We then mapped out the business and marketing priorities and what the game plan was. Resources included budgets, facilities and people across sales, technical, marketing from both internal and external. 

Develop The New Approach. Make It Simple.
We clearly defined the business problem as “How do we generate revenue for Brand with Who for What Solutions in Where".  The plan included considerations for conditioning the market, recruiting key players, training to develop skills, developing joint go to market, creating the market demand and generated business opportunities.  The approach had to be systematic and scalable, easy to understand and execute, convincing for investors and worthwhile for the time and effort spent.

Choose The Battle Field. Define Success
We chose to test the approach in a region where the opportunity was the largest but adoption was the lowest and in another region where adoption could match up to the pace of the opportunity growth. The approach yielded great results against the targets. In the first market, we grew our revenue by over 400% year on year.  In the second market, we achieved grew almost 200% of our target.

Determine Success Factors. Learn As You Go.
Through this initiative, we learnt that there are critical success factors that made a significant difference.

1. Quality over quantity: creating an impact helps to then ramp up the volume
2. Standardize and simplify: making things easy to speed up go to market.
3. Leveraging others' ability: Each party is better positioned as advocates and have greater influence to their segments, and it would greatly accelerate the results where we can overcome resource or capability limitations and creates self-sufficiency
4. Ownership & team work: Strong collaboration across each activity phase across the various stakeholders is crucial.  Often, one of the team members will just step up to lead beyond their role to ensure success.
5. Integrated marketing: A 360-degree engagement is required - internal and external communications, digital and off-line, business and technical, social and content, etc.

Marketing truly creates and captures the market.  While this winning initiative is being replicated across the business. The principles of how marketing can lead in business transformation can be applied to what we can create to make a difference.

This is the awesomeness of marketing!

Social Media Is Indispensable & Personal

Earlier this year, I was invited by Jason Chu, the Chairman of the Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium to speak at the Customer Relationship Excellence round table hosted by DHL on my views on Social Media as part of the O2O customer experience.

The first step is to recognize that Social is Personal and that is is indispensable as part of a customer experience.  The more involved you are, the more you can capture those moments to make it an awesome customer experience.

Being someone active in social media, my behaviour is typical of what customers are like, and companies should embrace and care about being engaged in social media.

Here are 5 why the Chief Customer Relations Officer should care:
1. I have 4000 followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, Linked In
2. I wake up and reach for my phone to check my social accounts and that's the last thing I do before I go to sleep
3. I am great at multi-tasking: I am active on my social accounts at work or at play
4. I shoot, post, tweet, share and answered the responses before I finish my meal or leave any social event
5. I share everything - the good, bad and ugly. I am vocal. Hear me express myself!

In 2010, only 25% will share their negative experience on social media.  That has risen to 75% in 2015.  Capturing the negative is not all.  It has also become a sales generation tool.  Gartner's research suggests that by 2015, businesses around the world will get 50% of their sales from social media.

Looking at Gartner's Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing, we have already experimented on many elements from all the various stages.  We are definitely already on a journey in a new way of marketing supported by technology from real-time marketing, to data-driven marketing, to commerce everywhere, to web analytics, and so on.

But why are we not seeing the results of our technology and digital marketing getting exponential results?

Gartner thinks that only 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits due to inadequate leadership and an overemphasis on technology.

From the response around the audience, while many have acknowledged that social media is here to stay and the customer engagement needs to evolve, many are still hesitant due to fear of backlash of negative comments going viral.  While the desire is there, the management focus, processes, policies and skills may not be ready.

Let's look at how well our top leader, the CEO is doing in embracing social media. IBM's CEO Study estimates that only 16% of CEO use social media as a tool to connect with customers.  This is expected to grow by 3.6x to to 57% by 2018.

The social transformation must start with setting the strategic goals and culture, strong executive sponsorship, integrated orchestration across the organization with new processes and roles, governance and policies, and then technology and standards.  Will the CEO drive this change?

Asian Women Shy Away From Limelight

  

The advancement of women is a strategic talent priority not only for many companies, government and nations across the world.

Our IBM Chairman and CEO, Ginni Rometty, shared at The Clinton Global Initiative's forum on Re- imagining Impact: "I would define diversity differently now…It is really about Engagement…Engagement means giving people the freedom to contribute in any way they are comfortable, and when we do that, we unlock entire segments of the population".

At IBM, we have a Diversity Leader in our human resource department.  For the International Women’s Day or Week, the team led a first ever social discussion on Diversity, an online community chat to encourage employees to contribute their thoughts, best practice stories, innovative ideas and recommendations on two topics: “You are What You Share” and “Create an Irresistible Work Experience”. Our Singapore Managing Director Janet Ang also hosted a panel of distinguished women to share with us their journey in going digital for work and for personal life.

 

“You are what you share” is about leveraging the power of social to build digital eminence and through this, a personal brand.  Research suggests that women in general, have been less inclined to do personal branding, which impacts visibility and networking internally and externally.

Technology - Old Boy’s Club. Unicorns - New Boy’s Club.

As interviewed by USA Today, studies show that while women make up 42% workforce, tech industry has only 24% women representation. Tech is another old boys' club. Elizabeth Caudle, East Coast regional director for Girls Who Code leads an educational group seeking to expose 1 million young women to computer science education by 2020. 

IBM’s Sandy Carter says that women are natural techies in that social networking can be a strength in the workplace. A study by Catalyst showed that companies that are more diverse – with more women and minorities – deliver about 1 35% higher return on equity and a 34% return to shareholders.

A Fortune analysis showed that the Fortune 500 is led mostly by men. Only 25 Fortune 500 companies have a woman as CEO.

A new analysis by Fortune also uncovered that 60% of the US unicorn companies have all-male boards compared to 5% of Fortune 500 companies.  These include the most celebrated brands like Uber, Snapchat, Tinder and Airbnb. 

Asian Women Are More Reserved Than Men...

Most women posted that they are more reserved and unable to get the same visibility as their male counterparts. This was especially more pronounced among Asian women.  One woman manager said, “I am an Asian woman, and the culture here generally is that we are always not the ones to put up our hands first when questions/comments are sought. We tend to only answer if we are called upon, even though we may have rich views to share. So with the (social) platform, we can encourage each other, we can build more self-confidence hearing from our fellow woman friends how they over-come such challenges.”

Another women professional said “ Asian woman are often associated to being reserve, less vocal about their opinion and even shy away from recognition; take for instance when a recognition is given to woman publicly in a team setting you would often hear, ah... it's the team's effort where if it's a recognition given to our male colleague you could see him standing tall and taking the credits. We should encourage our fellow women colleagues to take the stage and accept the compliment. Just say thank you very much for the recognition and shine in your achievements and also comment about what the team has done.”

I shared on-line as well as at the Singapore event that “I too am an Asian woman and a Manager in a mainly male-dominated division in IBM Systems Hardware team.  We tend to be "humble" and "not speak until spoken to".  Last year, when I was involved in community work in different countries, I found that a lot of social enterprises from CEOs to politicians in ministries to the youths were really listening and learning enthusiastically to what I had to share from my personal experience from studies, professional career development to my values in life.  In many countries, woman who have not spoken up, do make an impact when they speak up!  

Building A Social Profile In Two Months!

I also shared that I was inspired to start building my social profile last year on Blogspot (http://annephey.blogspot.sg/),  to share about my community work and with the youths.  After half a year in September, I decided to get active professional social profile on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annephey).  In just 2 months in November, LinkedIn awarded me as the #2 Social Seller out of their Top 100!  So, ladies share your valuable experience as you may never know when it can encourage someone or advice for their development.  When we speak, people listen. When we put our mind to it, we are unstoppable! 

 

 

Get Inspired By Women in Leadership!

IBM Women in Technology has  a great sharing of insights during this Celebration of International Women's Day on youtube: IBM Women In Technology

I note that we are missing the Asian women in this video.  However, judging from the impressive panel and audience that we had at the IBM International Women's Day event, we had many women leaders from finance, human resource, consulting, banking and manufacturing in Singapore who inspire us.

Women should build a network with mentors and peers to grow and take control of our career.  We can do better than our counterparts in the west.

Abridged version on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asian-women-shy-from-limelight-anne-phey-innovator