Presenting Jose Maria Figueres Olsen
Former President of Costa Rica and Former CEO of the World Economic Forum
Posted on February 6, 2008 - Filed Under CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews
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José María Figueres is perhaps most recognised for his work serving as President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. As such, he was the youngest President of a Central American country in modern times.
Prior to serving as President, José Maria was Minister of Foreign Trade and Minister of Agriculture however, it was during his presidency that he showed his unique leadership skills through implementing invaluable changes that opened opportunities for further development, revolutionizing his country’s economy and transforming Costa Rica into the environmentally conscientious country it is today.
With his remarkable background in global economics as well as environmental protection, José Maria Figueres had the objective of leading his country into the new world with his governmental program based on moving the country towards Sustainable Development.
President Figueres joined the World Economic Forum as Managing Director, and became the first CEO of the World Economic Forum in 2003, where he strengthened global corporate ties to social and governmental sectors by identifying common long-term interests.
He helped create and lead the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force and is the founder of the Fundación Costa Rica para el Desarrollo Sostenible in Costa Rica.
Currently José María Figueres is the CEO of the Grupo Felipe IV in Madrid, and in this capacity he continues his commitment to development and technology and participates in a number of projects and endeavors in the international arena. This organization supports and collaborates with institutions working in the fields of development, dialogue, and democracy around the world.
Expert interview with Shaun Smith
One of the World’s Leading Experts on Branding and Customer Experience
Part 2
Posted on February 4, 2008 - Filed Under CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews
3. How can an organization plan a change strategy in order to bring its brand to life, if there is this RTC phenomenon (Resistance To Change) in many companies today?
The problem for many organisations is that they are constantly changing direction and so their employees get change fatigue.”Oh, not another new initiative” is the cry we hear in many organisations hence the resistance that comes from the news that yet another one is about to start. So I recommend that organisations focus on their long term strategy for winning rather than their strategy for change’
For example, I was speaking at a large Customer Service Management conference. Senior executives from Disney, Southwest Airlines and Ritz-Carlton gave presentations and the audience were clearly enthralled with how these organisations operate. I am sure many of the delegates went back to their organisations with the intention to adopt some of these best practices. Yet this is dangerous.
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Expert interview with Shaun Smith
One of the World’s Leading Experts on Branding and Customer Experience
Posted on January 31, 2008 - Filed Under CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews
1. How could the top management of a company inspire and motivate its employees in order to deliver the company’s brand? Could you give us some examples on this regard?
The key to this is a concept that I call ‘loose/tight’. Most organisations exercise a very tight control over what employees should do but a very loose control over why they should do it. In other words they have strict procedures and regulations that employees must abide by even when these do not make sense for the customer.
I believe that organisations should reverse this and be very tight in communicating to employees who the target customers are, what they value, what the brand promise is and the kind of experience that they wish customers to have but then to be somewhat looser about how to deliver this so that employees can use their judgement.
Presenting Shaun Smith
One of the World’s Leading Experts on Branding and Customer Experience
Posted on January 29, 2008 - Filed Under CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews
This week we will be talking to Shaun Smith - an established author and expert on ‘customer experience’, Shaun Smith helps organisations across the globe to differentiate their brand and build customer loyalty that lasts.
Shaun Smith runs his own customer experience consultancy, shaunsmith+co, which is firmly routed in the ‘keep it simple’ ethos. He has developed some of the latest thinking and practice around this subject, focusing in particular on how organizations can achieve brand differentiations and long-term customer loyalty through the customer experience.
Shaun was world-wide Sales, Service and Marketing Training Manager for British Airways’ highly acclaimed ‘Putting People First’ service and culture change programme. During this time he launched a British Airways subsidiary company offering training services to the travel trade.
He has consulted leading international companies developing strategies for their change to a customer focus culture, building the internal capability to sustain and manage the change.
Shaun is an inspirational speaker, he doesn’t talk paradigms, complex methodologies or seven magic bullets; instead his approach is refreshingly straightforward, always pragmatic and at times, controversial.
Expert interview with Jonas Ridderstrale
Europe’s number 1 management thinker
Part 2
Posted on December 6, 2007 - Filed Under CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews
3. Asian companies are just on the rise and not entered fully in the global market yet. Are there huge differences between the management techniques they use and the ones you offer to be successful?
There is no Asian management style. We find great differences even between Japanese companies. I think it is fair to say that as individualism and freedom of choice conquer also this part of the world, leaders will have to become less of traditional bosses – power with rather than power over. As the companies mature and move further up the value chain, many of them will also have to become global not only in output terms, but also when it come to input and throughput. This will require a somewhat different organizational and managerial approach.
4. You have updated Funky Business and remastered it for the new business reality. What are the main things that have been changed since the book was published?
We have given the book a 60 degree wash to make it more independent of space and time. We also include an entirely new chapter with some of the most important developments over the last 8-10 years.
5. Based on the fact that Funky Business has been updated can a manager still use and learn from the old book or from Karaoke Capitalism or can we say that time has been changed?
Some truths are eternal. I still believe strongly in 99.9% of the stuff that we have written about in the books. If anything, we probably underestimated the power of the forces of change. Our books provide people with questions and a way of looking at the world – structuring mechanisms and principles – that makes them less likely to become irrelevant than books that try to sell you answers in the form of 10 bankable propositions.
end of the interview with Jonas Ridderstrale
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Expert interview with Jonas Ridderstrale
Europe’s number 1 management thinker
Part 1
Posted on December 4, 2007 - Filed Under CSA - Celebrity Speakers, Expert Interviews
1. You are ranked as number 9 among management thinkers of the world and number 1 in Europe together with your co-author Kjell A. Nordström. What do you bring in the world of management thinking to be ranked on the first place in Europe?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are many great European management thinkers – from Charles Handy to Fons Trompenhaars. I think I’ve been successful, because the ideas that I present are solid enough to stand the test of time, but also because my books and gigs provide people not only with intellectual content. In all probability, that stuff is necessary but not sufficient if you want to make it in my industry. I also give people hope, confidence and optimism. Boosting the psychological capital of people is at least as important as adding to their intellectual capital.
2. In world’s economy Europe’s role as a producer is diminishing nowadays and production is moving to Asia. Based on your experiences how could Europe compete? Is there a challenge we are facing with the management skills in Europe or it is just a new era when China, India are getting bigger roles?
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