:: The Park Paradigm ::

Markets for the Digital Generation

According to AmazonBay, the NYSE wins but as I wrote below the point wasn’t in guessing the exact combinatory ballet but to highlight that consolidation of the financial exchange space is a distinct possibility. Will be interesting to watch this one play out over the coming months.

Nasdaq and NYSE look to London (MSNBC)

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Pat Kerpan, the former CTO of Borland, wrote a very extensive and interesting post on intellectual capital last May. He posits that the traditional organization breakdown of “front office” and “back office” or “profit center” versus “cost center” are misleading and perhaps obsolete in a knowledge-based economy, preferring transactional staff (those intimately involved in customer transactions) and service teams (the people that provide the services which enable those transactions.

This idea is something that I have been thinking about and have endorsed for several years and indeed was a key element in the logic behind creating the business unit I now run at DrKW, however I have never been able to as concisely and accurately articulate exactly what I was striving for until now, so thanks to Patrick for that ( and Craig for pointing me in his direction.

It’s a long post but I think this excerpt is particularly insightful:

Focus on intellectual capital and intellectual continuity may pay-off!

The knowledge society will inevitably become far more competitive than any society we have yet known — for the simple reason that with knowledge being universally accessible, there will be no excuses for non-performance.
— Peter F. Drucker

This Drucker quote clearly was a harbinger of the recent “world is flat“ discussion. Perhaps nurturing the human spirit is not untrue to the bottom line. Thoreau’s comment on the majority of people leading “lives of quiet desperation” may not be specific to vocation or level of visibility, but perhaps indicates the universal need for self-value. If so, giving employees an understanding of their role in value creation is a truly empowering move. And in the emerging era of competition, maybe a rational, justifiable, capitalist strategy.

After years of inconsistent motivation and recognition programs, employees risk becoming jaded and leery of anything that purports that an organization “cares” about them as human beings. To recognize humans as value contributors, versus wage-earners-detracting-from-profits emphasizes what is uniquely human: the ability to reason beyond the boundaries of pre-defined formulas.

This rebellion against pre-fabbed idea boundaries and support of self-motivation is often evident in “Generation X” or “D” co-workers. We seem to have this mixture of awe and disdain for these employees; a twenty-four year-old who was considered an arrogant maverick in one environment becomes a young billionaire in another, bringing to the picture nothing other than himself. That “nothing” sometimes represents over two-thirds of the organization’s assets. That nothing can magically accelerate a sleepy organization in a few short quarters into a market leader. Invoking this financial magic from nothingness has created business practices for consulting firms everywhere. PPM and Governance isn’t magic. It requires involvement and commitment to achieve real results. But, as a tool and as part of an evolutionary process, it can work with the magic that is already within your organization: your environment, your processes, your culture … and your people.

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