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Creating the

21st-Century Business

The New Workplace

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Message from PCG’s Founder and President

“Succeeding in this post-recession, globally integrated and

highly competitive business landscape requires focus on three

innovation and technology. Second, you need to develop your

leaders so they can succeed in this business environment,

to enhance collaboration, you must learn how to access and

leverage the enormous talent around us.”

Bridgitt Haarsgaard President and Founder

Point Consulting Group

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Creating the 21st-Century WorkplaceOld rules are no longer an option.

complemented by smartphones, replaced by tablets and enhanced

by cloud computing. Our managers are now neither wholly classic

top-down nor modern bottom-up; to be successful, they must be

agile, highly involved and exceedingly results-oriented. And our

teams are now expanding and contracting at the drop of a hat and

spread across the world.

So, how do we navigate this new work environment to achieve the

results we need and stay ahead of the competition?

By developing the right skills, engaging the right people and using

the right technologies, our workplaces can improve performance,

heighten employee engagement, increase productivity and deliver

on strategic goals. We need to stay focused and current in order to

come out ahead.

“Companies must stay competitive in the

current business landscape. Although we

constantly hear about the 2020 workforce,

we need to be operating ahead of the curve,

today. Companies need to focus on the

deliver in a present-day context. Our

present-day consumers are informed, agile

Bridgitt Haarsgaard President and Founder

Point Consulting Group

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Innovation in Business: Our Chief ConcernInnovation is a TOP concern for most senior business

leaders. In a recent IBM study (Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights

1. One of the biggest challenges is the rapid escalation of

complexity in business, which will only increase in the coming

years.

2.

this complexity in a global environment.

3. Creativity is the single most important leadership competency for

businesses seeking a path through this complexity.

In sum, senior leaders recognize that innovation is their pivotal

integrate it into their workforce. While they are enrolling in classes

on creativity and bringing their teams along, this alone doesn’t

embed approaches to innovation into the company culture.

descriptions have innovative qualities built into them and some

pervasive. A cultural shift in leadership and team approaches to innovation need to happen to truly change a company’s DNA — to truly stay competitive.

The Current Landscape

Looking Forward

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Eight Ways to Embed Innovation into Your Culture

1 Tone at the top.

encouraging employees to provide feedback and listening to ideas from all

employees — from entry level to senior leaders.

2 Craft brand messaging around innovation both internally and

externally. Knowing that the company values innovation and that senior leaders

progressively toward goals.

3Examine hiring practices. If

1990, you have a problem.

candidates who are creative and will not only contribute to the position, but also

take it to the next level.

4 Take advantage of the current talent market. Attract talent from

customers as well as the needs of employees and teams.

Innovation

Looking Forward

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Restructure work teams so you can get more from them. Don’t

perspectives on old problems.

6 Reward people for innovative approaches and ideas. Create formalized recognition programs that encourage creative

behavior.

7 Invest in new hire and high potential programs to attract the RIGHT talentinnovative ways.

8 Use technology to streamline processes and capture ideas. Social

media, chat programs, and crowdsourcing platforms — even used

internally — cast a wider net for solutions and make your team a shining

star.

Eight Ways to Embed Innovation into Your Culture

Innovation

Looking Forward

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Leadership: Which Way Forward?

Leaders today are caught in the middle of two worlds: First, the old

“command and control” archetype that ruled for so many years — the model that

automatically empowers leaders with authority, creates straight-line decision-making

teams.

When our current, more seasoned leaders were hired, they were under the command and

control model, but now they are being asked to shift their style 180 degrees. Managers

today need to operate in a 24/7 work environment, manage a global team, integrate new

challenged like never before: they need to manage their business, people and process —

concurrently.

Both new leaders who have been managed and mentored by command and control styles and

experienced leaders who have implemented them are now embedded in new systems with

new expectations. So, what should leaders do: choose between their grandparent’s style that

there is a successful middle road grounded in innovation and collaboration.

The Current Landscape

Looking Forward

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How Leaders Can Prepare for This New Approach

1 leader looks like.

people-managing by identifying who the talent needs to be, where they are in the

can identify high potential candidates and groom them earlier in their careers,

resulting in organizations that aren’t blindsided by the curveballs thrown at them

at faster and faster rates.

2 Organizations need to invest in strong leadership programs.

need to be prepared to take the captain’s chair at any point. Businesses get bought

need to be ready today companies are in these very situations and are caught without strong leadership.

and range of current challenges.

Leadership

Looking Forward

Leadership

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How Leaders Can Prepare for This New Approach

3positions, for example becoming the head of a Big Brothers/Big Sisters

organization in their city or a work-sponsored volunteer program

challenges?

4 Find opportunities to cross-pollinate talent. Find

alliances with similar or complimentary functions, either internally

clothing, detergent, lotion, toilet paper, etc. After a while, this victim

these products to the people who need them.” Success requires not

only creating/sourcing the right product, but managing the product

Leadership

Looking Forward

Leadership

2011 Talent with 1995 TechnologiesTHE REALITY: to the “decision-makers” can more easily gain recognition for new ideas. But as teams become more dispersed, this simply can no longer

happen.

THE FACT: Present-day workplaces are permeable, global and remote. It’s a fact, many teams are outsourced or restructured, but

THE DISCONNECT: hierarchies; they work individually for recognition; and they use telephone calls, emails and face-to-face meetings as their only means of

communication.

The Current Landscape

Looking Forward

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Breakdown in

team dynamic

due to pressure

Strong synergy

to work through

pressure

The Current Landscape

Looking Forward

Yet the business landscape is anything but status quo — our employee and customer bases

are globally dispersed, our workplace is 24/7, and the

disconnect creates more headache than opportunity.

Contemporary businesses are asked to do much more

with fewer people and resources. Using technology as

a rash substitute can create tremendous frustration

and cause teams to go in two disparate directions,

culminating in:

a break-down in team dynamic because of the

pressure

or a strong synergy to work through the pressure

Without strong team synergy, you don’t know what

2011 Talent with 1995 Technologies

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Collaboration for Creativity

Looking Forward

Collaboration

Collaboration is key for creativity

and your company’s

ultimate success.

1 Know your talent – no matter where they work.

know where talent lies across your entire organization.

2 Create a virtual “Collaborative Mobilization”

WHO the key employees are, WHERE they sit, and WHAT role they can play in the organization. In this scheme, employees collaborate in

Collaboration supports the need for leadership and the output of innovation. All companies have the ability to create collaborative

teams. In an environment where people can share

ideas, push one another in healthy ways, and use

whole-brain approaches, more creative solutions

surface and succeed.

Looking Forward

Collaboration

create detailed role descriptions for US and India counterparts

require mandatory feedback to peers, locally and abroad, every week (this helped eliminate discrepancies in communication

Collaboration for Creativity

+ =Knowing Collaborative

Mobilization

Creative

Work

Environment

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Preparing for NOW

The world of business is becoming increasingly complex. Succeeding in this globally integrated

and highly competitive business landscape

is a challenge for even the best and brightest

organizations. By focusing on creating strong

leaders, embedding innovation into your

company’s DNA and creating collaborative

mobilization, companies will succeed and win.

Contact PCG to see how we can help you create

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PCG Working Paper Seriesby Point Consulting Group. It includes thought-provoking discussions, interviews,

research and writing on what it means for companies to remain ultra-competitive

in today’s workforce. Point Consulting Group engages senior leaders and provides

them with tools to stay focused, innovative and collaborative in a world that is

changing faster than we can imagine.

For more information, please contact us at: info@pointconsultinggroup.com