Christian Whamond. Key Leadership. Executive coach
Christian Whamond - 0408 322 176
  • Home page
  • Resume
    • Career Summary
    • Education
    • Reference's
    • Personal
    • Documents
  • Leadership
    • Effective Leadership
  • Learnings
  • Referance Material
  • Social Profile's
    • DiSC
    • 360 degree feedback
    • Hogan Profile

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

13/5/2012

Comments

 
Are those with fortunes simply fortunate? Do our life circumstances depend more on fate or choice? Are leaders born or made?
Harvard economist Michael Porter looked at these questions from the standpoint of national economic performance. Why do German engineers, Swiss chocolatiers, and Japanese electronics manufacturers enjoy a competitive advantage over the rest of the world? Is it the luck of being in the right location or something else?
Porter’s research contradicted conventional wisdom that industry leadership is explainable by geographical advantages such as plentiful natural resources, cheap labor, and abundant capital. He demonstrated that “a nation does not inherit but instead creates the most important factors of production—such as skilled human resources or a scientific base.” Countries develop their elite industries.

The Three C’s of Developing a Competitive Advantage
As leaders we sometimes feel like the deck is stacked against us. We envy others with more financial resources at their disposal, a better business location, or a more recognizable brand. The good news is that whatever the external circumstances of our business climate, we have the ability to gain a competitive advantage by developing our people.
How do you create a superior culture of people development? Michael Porter discovered that world-class industries share three common traits: competition, challenges, and connectivity. Each quality is transferable to your organization and can help you tap into your most appreciable asset—your people.

1) COMPETITION
Top global industries develop in countries with intense domestic competition. For example, in Italy’s leather-good fashion industry Gucci continuously must re-invent itself or else Prada and Fendi will steal away its share of the market. Conversely, when a firm enjoys a national monopoly, it lacks the pressure to innovate that comes from having local rivals. For that reason, national industries with a single, dominant business seldom attain global influence.
There’s a reason why athletes swim faster and jump higher in the Olympics than they do in practice. People perform at their best when pushed by competitors. Even competing against ourselves motivates us to excel. After writing down our personal best time for a bike race, we then have incentive to do better the next time we ride. In what ways can you foster healthy competition within your organization? How can you encourage people to compete against themselves by setting performance goals?

2) CHALLENGES
Porter found that industries in countries with noticeable disadvantages often ascended to global leadership on account of the creative solutions they invented in order to overcome economic handicaps. As a case in point, Japanese manufacturers in the 1970s and 1980s were limited by scarce natural resources and relatively high-cost labor. Yet by pioneering innovative management techniques (in the areas of quality control and just-in-time production) Japan’s automotive and electronics manufacturers attained international renown. 
People grow through adversity not ease. As a leader, what are you doing to nudge people outside of their comfort zones?

3) CONNECTIVITY
World-class industries sustain global dominance through the cluster effect—having cutting-edge companies in close proximity to one another. For instance, software developers bunched together in California’s Silicon Valley benefit from rapid information flow and immediate technological interchange. Companies piggyback on one another’s novel applications to spur a dizzying pace of innovation in the industry.
Within an organization, even a small one, work teams can become isolated from one another. When that happens, people not only miss out on the insights of their peers but also feel powerless to bring about change through their ideas. As a leader, you have responsibility to facilitate communication between upper management and those on the front lines, between customer service and product development, or between accounting and marketing. What steps are you taking to facilitate connectivity between your people? How are you clustering them together so that their ideas are transmitted throughout the organization?

Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2015
    January 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    7 Habits
    Abraham Lincoln
    Abuse Power
    Abusive
    Accountable
    Achievable
    Achieve
    Action Plan
    Adaptability
    Alexander Graham Bell
    Ambition
    Ambitions
    Angry
    Annual Reviews
    Apologize
    Apple
    Approval
    Attitudes
    Axioms
    Bad Behaviors
    Bad Boss
    Basic Principles.
    Behavior
    Believe
    Boss
    Bully
    Bureaucracy
    Burn Out
    Busy
    Candor
    Care
    Career
    Career Development
    Cause
    Ceo
    Challenges
    Challenging
    Change
    Chaos
    Character
    Charisma
    Checklist
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Churchill
    Clock Builder
    Coaching
    Coaching Action Plan
    Coca Cola
    Cold Call
    Colin Powell
    Colorose
    Commitment
    Communicate
    Communication
    Communicators
    Competence
    Competition
    Competitors
    Conflict
    Confrontation
    Connect
    Connectivity
    Consistency
    Conversation
    Courage
    Courageous
    Creativity
    Credibility
    Criticism
    Culture
    Customer
    Customers
    Dalai Lama
    Dale Carnegie
    David Thodey
    Decision Maker
    Decisions
    Decisiveness
    Dedicated
    Delayering
    Delegation
    Developing
    Development
    Differentiation
    Difficult Employee
    Dilutions
    Diplomacy
    Disc
    Discipline
    Discouraged
    Doers
    Dream
    Effective
    Effectiveness
    Effective People
    Ego
    Emerging Leaders
    Emotional
    Emotions
    Employees
    Employment
    Empower
    Empowering Leader
    Empowerment
    Enemies
    Engage
    Engagement
    Enthusiasm
    Entrepreneurs
    Ethical
    Ethics
    Expect
    Expectations
    Experts
    Facebook
    Fear
    Feedback
    Firing Someone
    Focus
    Foundation
    Friends
    Friendship
    Game
    Geniuses
    George Washington
    Goals
    Google
    Gospa
    Gossip
    Growth
    Habit
    Harvard
    Helping
    Hobbies
    Honesty
    Hope
    Horstman's Laws
    House
    Hr
    Humility
    Idea
    Idea's
    Identity
    Influence
    Insanity
    Inspiration
    Inspire
    Jack Welch
    Jim Collins
    Jim Rohn
    Job Performance
    Job Satisfaction
    Job Seekers
    John Maxwell
    Lead By Example
    Leader
    Leaderning
    Leaders
    Leadership
    Leadership Qualities
    Leading
    Learn
    Learning
    Legacy
    Lessons
    Lessons Life Taught
    Listening
    Lou Holtz
    Love
    Loyality
    Management
    Manager
    Managers
    Managing
    Managing Up624f2380c5
    Manipulative
    Marketing
    Mark Twain
    Martin Luther King Jr
    Meaning
    Meeting
    Mentoring
    Micromanages
    Mission
    Mission Statement
    Mistake
    Mistakes
    Moodiness
    Motivate
    Motivation
    Multidimensionality
    Myers Briggs
    Network
    One On Ones
    Opportunities
    Oprah
    Organization
    Organizational Commitment
    Organizations
    Overachievers
    Passion
    Passionate
    Passiveaggressive4cb939360a
    Pattom
    People
    Performance
    Performance Management
    Persistence
    Persuasive
    Peter Drucker
    Petty People
    Pip
    Pitch
    Planning
    Poor Performers
    Positive Attitudes
    Positive Leadership
    Power
    Prepair
    Pride
    Priorities
    Proactive
    Productivity
    Professional
    Promote
    Purpose
    Pursuit
    Push Back
    Quotes
    Recognize
    Relationships
    Reputation
    Respect
    Responsibility
    Resume
    Richard Austin
    Ridge
    Risk
    Roosevelt
    Sacrafice
    Sacrifices
    Sales
    Sales Team
    Secrets
    Selfconfidence
    Selfconfidenceef32ab1bf4
    Selfmasteryb72a7fe0f0
    Selling
    Simon Inek
    Simplicity
    Six Sigma
    Skills
    Smart Goals
    Smile
    Social Media
    Sorry
    Speaking
    Staff
    Staff Meeting
    Star Performer
    Start
    Stephen R Covey
    Steve Jobs
    Stress
    Success
    Succession Planning
    Support
    Tact
    Tasks
    Team
    Team Leader
    Teams
    Team Work
    Technology
    Thankyou
    Theodore Roosevelt
    The Truth About Leadership
    Thomas Jefferson
    Thought
    Tim Cook
    Time Management
    To Do
    Todo List86df8ef42f
    True Selves
    Trust
    Truth
    Twitter
    Uncertainty
    Value
    Valuebased Leadership
    Value Proposition
    Values
    Vision
    Visionary Company
    Visulizing
    Who We Are
    Why
    Willingness To Sacrifice
    Willingness To Take Risks
    Win
    Winners
    Winning
    Win People
    Win-win
    Wisdom
    Wise
    Work
    Work Life Balance
    Workplace
    Worry
    Yes-men

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Christian Whamond
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.