LinKS blog

Prof. C.K. Prahalad is known as the world’s leading guru in corporate strategy and mr. Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

“The New Age of Innovation - Driving Co-Created Value through Global Networks” is the title of the professors’ new book which has just been released.

We strongly recommend the book which is at the heart of this year’s theme at LinKS of orchestrating networks and driving value through open alliances.

Mette Laursen met prof. Prahalad for the first time at an SEI Conference at the Wharton School in 2007, hosted by SEI and Prof. Yoram (Jerry) Wind. It is a special honor for us to welcome him for LinKS Prelude at The Danish Broadcasting Collaboration (DR-Byen) on May 27. LinKS Prelude is the top executive kick off for the OECD Seminar on Innovation Strategy and Entrepreneurship, designed by FORA at the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs in collaboration with LinKS.

C.K. Prahalad, Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

Purchase Prof. Prahalad’s book at Amazon.

Tectonic Geopolitical movements are happening right on front of our eyes. I cornered senior editor at Forbes, Robyn Meredith, from Hong Kong and peeped into her new amazing book:

The Elephant and the Dragon: The rise of India and China and what it means for All of us.

In the 14th century China became the cornerstone of most international trade by moving goods along the silk road, across the Arab world and on to Europe. Today the silk road is renewed and the power nations of China and India is moving forward at a pace that is almost not understandable and only compares to the rise of the USA, 100 years ago.

With the brisk growth that the global economy has enjoyed since 2002, this should be the best of all times. There are many BUTs though. One of the greater ones is the battle on energy ressources that is tightening up and is an element in turning the 21st century into one of instability. New power landscapes are arising with China as the factory of the world and India as the Knowledge Center.We see the outlines of a power landscape where the US, China and India are the players.

DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK – it is about the present status of geopolitics and tells us a lot about the globalized future we have to prepare ourselves for.

I believe the book must soon be available on Amazon. And here is your chance to meet Robyn Meredith, who is an enourmous source of knowledge on Asia…..robyn.mp3

I had a cup of coffee with Mads at the Royal Theatre to talk about how companies act responsible in the global perspective. This is a true top executive issue for companies acting even within a country and across borders. Mads is the former CEO and chairman of Novo and acting chairman of LEGO and the Danish Royal Theatre and now personally invited by Kofi Annan to participate as member in this important Board in the UN.

Do not miss this interview and message delivered with the wisdom and experience of Mads Ovlisen.

www.unglobalcompact.org is the site that will tell you that these requirements are already required by either national or international laws. By following the UNs Global Compact you are part of the worlds largest voluntary program on social responsibility - on your side you inform the UN on what you actually do. Please have a look….

Much has been written about Innovation lately - almost everything is about what and why. It seems that attention is on creative processes, fuzzy frontend or even stage gate optimization. Some how very instrumental.

The idea of diversity in group formation, social networks and relation building is in contrast not very offen represented in that discussion. Why is that?

I think some of the answers is to be found in the misunderstood and misinterpreted necessity for costcutting and overall optimization of production. And, what maybe is more important, because Human Resources in many organizations still is “compared” with other production facillities.

In recent years there has been an evolving movement towards explaining the obvious link between the number of and types of relations in personal networks to overall company innovation capabillity - and a new understanding of the importance of technology is definitly part of that picture.

How do your organization cope with “Knowledge Management” and Innovation capabillity? And do you see the same picture?

Great changes are happening in the field of employer organisations in Denmark. The competition is consolidating and merging to gain power and influence as well as supplying better services to members. I made this interview with CEO Søren B Henriksen right after the merger was announced.

We talk about the merger and why we need this new entity called Dansk Erhverv. This lead us to a discussion on how Denmark is positioned globally and the challenges and potentials that we have.

Next week will follow an interview on the personal experience of going through a merger, seen from the top executive perspective of Søren B Henriksen. And I promise - next one will be in English - this one is in Danish for starter…

IN LinKS we collaborate with brilliant people around the globe on subjects within leadership, strategy and innovation. We worked together with Paul Schoemaker for many years and I always wanted to know what Paul’s view of the future is, so I cornered him! Well, listen and enjoy Paul Schoemaker….

…and when you are ready - please feedback your view on the most important uncertaincies that you see from your perspective. Looking forward to hearing from you.

This is a continued interview with Soren B Henriksen on the perspectives of Denmark as a country and the behaviour needed to bring this country, with one on the strongest economies in Europe, into the global sphere. Soeren B Henriksen, CEO Danish Enterprises

Six years ago I could have made the M&A exercise of my life. I sold my company in a spectacular transaction who made me a millionaire, at least on paper :-) Unfortunately my stocks where stocked in a “lock-up-period” and as you al know, the rest is history.

If I’ve had the knowledge then that I have today – especially after the presentation at Wharton by Habir Singh – the world would have been different. At least in my perspective. Some of the insights presented was “right on” – the idea on looking on the opponents upside instead of you own win, would have made a huge difference in the negotiations we had at the time.

Do you have any experiences your self? Please share.

Please listen to Mr. Singhs insights at tell what you think. (The file is 4,3 MB)

In the book “Idealized Design” by Russ Ackoff a. o. they offers practical and common sense methods, based on proven results to allow organizations to not only learn from mistkaes but to develop processes to remove the possibility of mistakes in the future, not just “reengineering”, but a revolution in the way your organization is run.

In this little Podcast on idealized design Mette is interviewing Russ about the concept his the book. (The file is 1,29 MB)

Have you read the book? What do you think about it? What does the concept og systemic thinking mean to you in your context? Please share :-)

Over the last years everything happens do be deployed in beta. Everything is launched as beta, everything happens to be unfinished. Is that a good or a bad thing, and why is that happening right now?

It seems that companies and individuals are in the need to be involved, to create together, to find an answer on how to cope with speed, complexity and instant change. As I see it – and I’m not the only one – beta is the answer.

And – I need to say that :-) – beta is very much a state of creation, innovation, creating change, facilitating change with high speed and with the use of many of the principles discussed on the weblog CPH127.

Together with good friends I’ve started to write on a beta-manifesto, where we until know have gathered a few principles, please help us to make the list even more complete…

1. being in beta is a natural state of life. Everything aroundus is either evolving or dying.
2. beta is playing. Experimenting. Trying.
3. beta is constant learning.
4. beta is profiting in the true nature of the word “profit”. Making progress.
5. beta is never perfect. Never completely without fault. Just like any human being. Everything can be made better. Allways. Achieving temporary perfection is better than aspiring for the ultimate perfection that is never reached.
6. beta is release as soon as it is safe. But never sooner. Only daredevils flies planes in beta or takes unfinished medicine.
7. beta is a natural state of things. Your body is in perpetual beta until you die (maybe..)
8. beta is evolution. Many small gradual changes. Suddenly they may seem like giant leaps.
9. beta is revolution. Not completely in control. Just like the real world.
10. beta is open. Ready for dialogue. Open for change. Positive for co-creation.
11. beta stands for things that changes. Change with consistancy.
12. beta creates feedback loops for companies, individuals and products.
13. beta is honest. Not superficial.

Is this list complete? Anything to add?

I’ve been writing about this before - I think the discussion is not over yet…