Business has entered into a competitive phase, one where many barriers have been dismantled by globalisation, making the need to discover value-creation formulas more acute. Ed Cohen is a corporate leader and a published author of cutting-edge business strategy who brings his wealth of experience to this keynote presentation, Traverse the Divide, at the ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference in Singapore on August 22.He will demonstrate how companies transform themselves from sluggish to re-energised organisations. He speaks to ACTE’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Kenneth Phua.
Kenneth Phua: Which sector of business in the world today do you think is valuecreation most desperately needed?
Ed Cohen: To say that one sector of business has a more desperate need for value-creation than another would oversimplify the need. Value creation is necessary for all companies today and this especially impacts the services industry which has increasing competition due to the flattening of our world and the ability to conduct business both physically and virtually.
KP: In your opinion which yields more influence on definitions value-definitions – a market trend or a corporations’ inventive flair?
EC: I would have to say “inventive” flair has more influence on value-definitions than market trends. “Inventive” flair or innovation, as I call it, is one of the key ways that companies distinguish themselves. Look at companies like Google, Vodafone, The Ritz Carlton, and what you will find is that innovation is built into the organisation’s DNA. These organisations are continuously coming out with innovative products and services. On the other hand, companies that utilise the innovations of others, and I would prefer not to name them but we know who they are, might be growing from a revenue perspective but investors know, understand and respond by their stock remaining flat. That said, market trends can and do have a short-term impact but I do not believe that is sustainable.
KP: What is the biggest missing part separating where a company is and where it should be to highly valuable to its customer?
EC: It is solid customer engagement skills. Customer engagement skills include having a broad understanding of customers and customers’ customers. It also includes the ability to adapt to cultural differences and economic business models. Finally, solid customer engagement comes from always providing world-class service, service that goes far beyond what is being requested, service that anticipates need, service that proactively aligns to them.
KP: Where would Asian corporations be on this continuum against world standards? EC: That’s a difficult question to respond to…many corporations throughout Asia are younger in terms of their actual age and their global strategies. That said, Asian companies are experiencing phenomenal growth. In the U.S. when a company grows at 30 to 40 percent year-over-year (Google, Yahoo, eBay), books are written about them. In Asia, this has become the standard for growth. Companies are expected to grow rapidly to keep pace with the competition across Asia. Building solid infrastructures, to manage this growth, having a solid leadership pipeline and the right processes in place are vital. Proper training is also important because the workforce is demographically younger and therefore less experienced.
KP: You spent almost two years conducting research on the skills leaders need to be successful today. What were some of your findings?
EC: After surveying several hundred senior leaders and interviews with 50 leaders who have lived and worked in 60 different countries, the data was analyzed and distilled into five key areas for leaders. As a starting point, we really wanted to understand how some leaders are able to be more successful than others as global leaders. We found that these leaders shared common traits, core values, global business skills, a broader worldview and understood the additional people and business leadership complexities. I spent a significant amount of time learning about the journeys of several major organisations including Booz Allen Hamilton, Standard Chartered Bank, and Vodafone Group. I am looking forward to sharing their stories at the conference.
