EMAILS need to Die

Email is dead, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg declared famously last November.

<Copied from my Intranet post on March 2012>

Thierry Breton, the CEO of Atos, the French information technology company, one of the largest IT companies in the world according to Forbes, agrees and acted to control the use and abuse of emails in the company.

“There is no question there are a lot of useless emails and loss of productivity. When there’s an email on your BlackBerry you end up answering it even though it may be less important than what you are doing. It’s a habit.” Senior-level executives and CEOs are supposed to be great at managing their time, but they are vulnerable when it comes to email². An average business user responds to over a 100 emails daily, recent studies have found. Atos estimates that many employees spend 15-20 hours every week just checking email, of which only 15% are really useful to them or customers. But employees still trawl through the rest for fear of ‘missing out on something’.

You’ve got mail–not. Employees of tech company Atos will be banned from sending emails under the company’s new “zero email” policy. CEO Thierry Breton said only 10 percent of the 200 messages employees receive per day are useful and 18 percent is spam. That’s why he hopes the company can eradicate internal emails in 18 months¹. The goal is focused on internal emails rather than external emails with clients and partners. Atos has already reduced the number of internal emails by 20 percent in six months. “We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives,” he said in a statement when first announcing the policy in February. “At [Atos] we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution.” The company says by 2013, more than half of all new digital content will be the result of updates to, and editing of existing information. Middle managers spend more than 25 percent of their time searching for information, according to the company

Good, Bad and Ugly of Emails

“We use email for archiving data, which is a bad way to do it. We use email to send global information to everyone — this is also a bad way to communicate; we use email to manage processes, which is a bad way to do it. We have many bad usages of email.” Atos CEO lamented!

I agree.

1. Emails are the source of business document repository for me and others

2. Business Processes are Chain Emails. Decision tracking is synonymous to email chain of any conversation

3. Confidentiality & Control is Email TO or CC list! Breach of confidentiality is BCC or inappropriate forwarding!

4. No surprise, emails are the company’s most sought after service! Mail boxes fill-up their 500MB quota (for everyone?) and Mail servers and capacity is the “IN-THING”!

5. Emails go around calling people for everything from a board meeting to sharing a cup of tea!

Emails revolutionized communication when they became popular in 1990-95. They killed the Paper-Mail successfully. I last wrote a letter to my mother in 1996! For 15 years, they rule this world!

I don’t see significant difference in email capability since 1996. This is possibly ONLY high-tech gimmick that remained so STATIC! We seem to love the OLD WINE.

SURELY, the Email has outlived its life and like PLASTIC is now plaguing the efficiency of thought, communication and conduct!

KPI of Information Maturity

Any business that is PERFORMING effectively is deemed to be “efficient” in its Information management IF and ONLY IF,

1. Emails (internal) are redundant! AND

2. PowerPoint is made defunct!

Digital World

Take this simple questionnaire and see for yourself the changing world of business

1. Everything created at work is now some kind of digital content (Yes/No)

2. Barring Plants, Machinery and such Physical Assets rest of business process is creating, organizing and administering digital content. (Yes/No)

3. Organization structure, Roles and Assignments are ‘create, access, review and approve’ rights on Digital Content (yes/No).

4. All process related work is exercising the rights on one or more Digital Content (Yes/No)

5. All decisions are determining Go or No-go on a decision tree defined on a digital content (Yes/No)

6. Business Contexts (Assets, Functions, Attributes etc) are taxonomic classification of one or more digital content (Yes/No)

7. Security (barring physical search and security) with its cameras, ID-Cards, access-doors etc. is digital content (Yes/No)

8. Safety, Health, Environment translates to digital content of some observations, measurements or records (Yes/No)

9. KPIs, BSCs, SLAs all are digital measures (Yes/No)

10. Business Processes, Systems, Data, Roles, Contexts – all are digital contents (Yes/No)

1990-2012 the world of computer science and the technology that supports digital contents has radically changed

Bullock Carts and Hydrogen Cars

Most of the management concepts, diagraming methods, workflow mechanism, and hierarchical taxonomies are from the age of Bullock Carts!

They may co-exist on the streets of India, but to pursue a program to implement bullock cart transportation model in 2012 will be preposterous

Expanding Email based work culture is the same!

Entire world of Business Information and Digital Content CAN be elegantly and completely handled with better technologies. Contextual Business Information Frameworks (BIF) and expansive databases with analytical intelligence is the PRESENT and the FUTURE

Inefficient Technology is Death knell

What we do today needs to

· Conscious Learning from the PAST

· Alert Understanding of the PRESENT

· Intelligent Appreciation of the FUTURE

With Information Technologies changing at ‘exponential rates’ and successful businesses riding on ‘appropriate’ technologies – it is imperative to be innovative.

Choice of appropriate Technologies that wean out of Emails and PowerPoint is needed to face the Future. KPI that clearly discourages these tools must be part of BSC or other maturity measures. Information Maturity must be measured and pursued to its logical excellence!

Following methods of a Leader of 20^th Century in 21^st Century is not wise.

References

1. http://blog.gosocio.in/ Source : http://news.yahoo.com/tech-firm-implements-employee-zero-email-policy-165311050.html )

2. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RVRNLzIwMTIvMDEvMTgjQXIwMDEwNA==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

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Malthus : Solow – Quagmire – Technology for the Business World sustenance

Thomas Malthus : Robert Solow

Malthus (1766-1834) Anglican Clergyman, political economist remains relevant after 200 years. One of the most influential thinkers of modern economics, Malthus was concerned with the relationship between human population and resources access. He sought to constrain the population to manage the scarcity. Malthus placed longer-term stability of economy over short-term expediency. Though Malthus argued around food, the prevailing energy demand growth of the increasing population along with prevailing environment (climate) degradation – would eventually be unsustainable.

Professor Robert Solow (1924- 88 batting), Nobel winner in economics (1987, for analysis of economic growth) brought forward the ‘Solow residual’, which brings forth the contribution of ‘Technological Innovation’ explaining nearly 50% of growth, that is unexplained by ‘Capital’ & ‘Labor’. Solow has remarkable skills in statistics with matching insightful understanding. Providing the alternative to Malthus, Solow’s article originated “sources-of-growth accounting,” which economists use to estimate the separate effects on economic growth of labor, capital, and technological change.

Modern world of data-intensive scientific discovery (4^th paradigm science) is going to test the Mathusian –vs- Solowian models and extend the philosophy beyond economics, into other domains like environment, energy, terrorism and corruption!

Business Role

Businesses clearly have a major role to play in any strategy that tests the sustenance of this planet. They are the engines of the economies – i) devouring a disproportionate share of the world’s nonrenewable resources; ii) producing disproportionate share of its emissions; and iii) generating disproportionate disparity in incomes.

As every econometric measure and every thought is pursued as a business, driven by the funding generated by the businesses, it remains faithful for the businesses. We have a new quote replicating Abraham Lincoln’s – Economics of the Business, by the Business, for the Business shall not perish from the earth.

All other things of the planet ranging from politics, sociology, ethics, morality, research, science and face-book are driven by this emphatic link to businesses. The technology innovation which Solow proposed is alone capable of extricating the planet from this very-short-term singularity of dependence on businesses. The Data-Intensive-Scientific-Discovery or 4^th Paradigm Science is the way!

World Leaders’ nightmare

Each year the World Economic forum surveys experts and industry leaders to assess their level of concern over 50 global risks (divided into 5 categories), collating the ‘likelihood’ and ‘impact’.

Rank	Most Likely	Most Impactful
1	Severe Income Disparity	Major systematic financial failure
2	Chronic fiscal imbalances	Water supply crisis
3	Raising green-house gas emissions	Food shortage crisis
4	Cyber attacks	Chronic fiscal imbalances
5	Water supply crisis	Extreme volatility in Energy and agriculture prices

India with 1.2 billion population, possibly double-logarithmic income disparity may see more intense impact of these factors even if they happen in 2015 or 2020. A synthetic model of such income is in figure below:

Technology elements for sustenance

Establishing reliable and comprehensive databases is primary. GOI has taken-up the Public Information Infrastructure projects (PII). Businesses internally need to establish equivalent Business Information Infrastructure.

Developing transparency, analytical insight and decision-making using the data is the basis for converting the technology into business development and sustenance.

All other conventional aspects like Processes, People etc. are incapable of providing the kind of differential which Solow points to!

Data Driven Business is alone sustainable business that follows Solow’s model of innovation. The Solow residual is >>75% which is hidden in the data. Any amount of Capital or Labor cannot themselves retrieve this loss.

Big-Data Analytics & Business Decisions

·         Most companies have few (if any) analytics savvy workers
·         IT Infrastructure and technology elements for Big-Data analytics are common place
·         Data Management and Information extraction seeks tens of millions of dollars
·         Investment in Analytics is getting USELESS, even HARMFUL unless
a.       Employees are able to incorporate complex analytics and their implications into guidance
b.      Management is able to undertake complex decision making
·         At this moment, there is odds-on chance that poor decision is driven based on data-intensive information which was enormously expensive to collect

Managers need to wake-up to the fact that their data investments are providing limited returns because of under-investing and verifying on ‘understanding of information’.

For Deriving the VALUE proposition and adequately protect from harmful overdrives BIG-DATA analytics needs to be measured on the following:

INSIGHT IQ

It is a ‘Metric and method to measure and improve employee’s ability with data-driven decision making’.
1.       Unquestioning Empiricists’: Trusting analytics over Judgement
2.       Visceral decision makers: Exclusive trust on their gut
3.       Informed Skeptics: Best equipped to make balanced informed decisions

Companies need to cultivate data savvy workers and managers who show -
è Effective balance in judgment and analysis
è Strong analytic skills
è Listen and are willing to dissent
There is overall skill deficit which is compounded by 4 problem areas.

1.       IT needs to spend more time (and resources) on I than T
2.       Analytic skills are concentrated in too few employees
3.       Reliable information exists, but is hard to locate
4.       Business Executives don’t manage information as well as they manage Capital, Brand and talent

Companies need to measure the analytical ability as core performance measure at various levels and strive to develop competency.

Analytics in Oil&Gas

My own experience with this in Oil&Gas business is interesting.

1.       I for Information : Information is built upon the foundations of data organization and integration. In multi-disciplinary E&P business with very scarce skills on databases, the very understanding of this is at best primitive. T for Technology is always prevalent in E&P companies whole IT-Infrastructure spending is very healthy.

2.       Analytics : A traditional and conservative business with long lead-times from decision to impact depends heavily on conventional empirical and visual methods. Real-time data at every second is observed and trended for visual judgments. Invariably, conventional build-up tests or methods rule the interpretation. Analytical abilities and tool usage are specialized to domain tools that drive “proven” models. Little innovation and discovery, notwithstanding mountains of data.

3.       Information and Reliability : Ridden with complex inter-relationships there is seldom integration of data from multiple disciplines. Databases are complex and difficult. The 3-10y time-lapse from business decision (based on some prediction) to actual performance measurement, provides convenient avenue for diluted accountability and verifiability.

4.        Executive approach : Oil&Gas executives deciding upon myriad technical recommendations, compounded with regulatory issues, high-cost : high-value proposition and wide range of Uncertainties – rarely seek measures supporting their reviews or decisions. It is heavily a large collective ‘gut’ feeling!

Developing Informed Skeptics

Firtst and foremost, Skeptics need space in Organization and Business decision making processes. My next post on based on "New Sciencec of Building Teams" will discuss this in detail.

Analytical Intelligence is driven by sets of Informed Skeptics in an organization and its executive management. Three things matter:

1.       Training workers to increase ‘data literacy’
2.       Incorporate Information into decision making
3.       Provide right tools and technology
a.       Assortment of Enterprise tools supported by specialist tools
b.      Continuing nurturing of skills and analytical insights
c.       Providing access to coaching experts through people-oriented-data-experts

There are no ‘silver-bullets’ in Analytical Intelligence. Low hanging fruits are often dubious and of limited real value creators beyond the technology hype.

Analytics is a discipline – transgressing every technical, business and managerial function in most organizations. It empowers the core functionary who can understand differences in data, their biases and inter-relations. This requires critical thinking, unbiased approach and significant skepticism. There is no escape to establishing, building and cultivating strong database culture.

1. Analytical Intelligence is a definitive path in 21^st century.
2. It is a fundamental shift in organization and maturity of information in business decision.
3. It grows slowly.

Oil&Gas Innovations needs to be TRANSFORMATIONAL

E&P in 21st Century

Upstream Oil&Gas industry is also called Exploration & Production business. Dealing with characterization,  discovery, assessment, development, production and abandonment of oil, gas, and may be gas-hydrates fields.
Supplying the energy needs of the modern world. E&P is a critical business needing quantum innovation to meet the growing demands.
This Post deals with:

1. Will the Oil prices be Tamed?
2. What kind of Innovation is needed in E&P?
3. Research Quotient as a measure to scale the R&D. 

Which is the Horse to bet on?

PEOPLE, PROCESSES and TECHNOLOGY are the three contenders in the race. One of them is a race-Horse; another is a Bull and the third a Rabbit. It is unclear which of the PPT are HBR. {PPT=People Processes & Technology; HBR=Horse Bull & Rabbit}

This race has already started and will be run until 2020.

Ironically all thought processes on PPT tend to be on ‘.ppt’ (PowerPoint)! Ideas in this post on PPT are taken from articles in HBR (Harvard Business Review)!

At the end it is more about business continuity, growth and sustenance. E&P business is all I know of and the principles are elaborated with regards to Oil & Gas upstream.

Innovation for the 21^st Century

• Amid knowledge of all corporate management that “the YoY viability depends on its ability to innovate”, continuing uncertainty, keeps strategy and investments OFF innovation.
• People throughout your organization are energetically pursuing the new. But does all that add up to a strategy?

Context in India is like a “primary production” in an O&G field – just open the wells and make huge money. Often with 6-15% recovery and depleted resources – fast buck (early high rate production) at cost of EUR (expected ultimate recovery). Not much different from the fable – killing the golden goose! Fast growth companies in developing, poorly regulated, corrupt and free-filing economies grow at very fast levels that drain the resource desperately, while reaping disparate profits! The need for innovation as sustainable model emerges for those who stay beyond this aberration and don’t become fly-by-wire operators.

• Making matters worse, executives tend to respond with dramatic interventions and vacillating strategies. 
• Incremental innovations tend to split the pie with little or no real growth. 
• Transformational innovation needs proper structure and process – often directly contravening the normal ‘growth’ companies.

Innovation Ambitions

1.      Level-1: Enhancements to Core Offerings (C)

2.      Level-2: Pursuit of Adjacent opportunities (A)

3.      Level-3: Ventures into Transformational Territory (T)

Ambition matrix is dependent on 3 factors – i) Talent, ii) Management Approach, & iii) Metrics

Right balance between the 3 levels CAT is dependent on the business nature and the 3 factors. 

1. C:A:T=80:18:2  Incremental innovation focused on Core. Linear or Survival strategy 
2. C:A:T=70:20:10 Some support to Transformational. Opened Opportunity
3. C:A:T=45:40:15 Strong Adjacent and Transformational focus. Desire & Vision drivers

These are different focus ratios towards Level-3 Transformational allocations in different contexts

How innovation pays the bills

Among the high performers with favorable factors, distribution of total returns occurs in C:A:T=10:20:70 ratios, largely driven by 70% returns from Level-3 Transformational innovations. Just keep in mind that E&P is a transformational business. So are biotechnology, drug research and high-end computer science.

Organize and Manage the Total Innovation System

Healthy balance of Core, Adjacent & Transformational innovation is difficult to realize as companies are inadequately equipped in the 3 factors. Transformational innovation – to do different things – an organizational unit has to ‘do things differently’ to the rest.  Support to such units is often missing. 5 key areas of management that serve the 3 levels of innovation ambition are:

1.      Talent

2.      Integration

3.      Funding

4.      Pipeline management

5.      Metrics

E&P needs Innovation, driven by Metrics that assure the organized efforts. A clarity on strategy is the beginning. These 5 point to - PEOPLE (Talent+Integration); PROCESSES (Funding, Management & Metrics=Governance) and TECHNOLOGY (4th Paradigm Science)

The Trillion $ R&D Fix

TRILLION $ increase in market cap is lost due to top 20 companies in US have failed to optimize their R&D spending using Research Quotient (RQ) method? E&P majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips are assessed to have missed together $333,768 MM, which is 47% of their revenue. Analysis had shown for over 3 decades that the E&P companies invest far less in R&D than other transformation seeking businesses world-wide.

--> Do you see why oil sells at > $100+? NO TRANSFORMATIONAL INNOVATION!!

RQ (Research Quotient) is a measure of productivity of R&D investment using well known economic formula.

TO calculate your RQ for your business (E&P or entire diversified) you need several years’ of data on revenues and annual expenditures on PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment), Labor (People), and R&D. After Logarithmic transformation the values are used to derive γ .

RQ is not a fancy new math. It is a measure to realize the significance of transformational innovation to business in 21^st century.

RQ is a good measure

1.      Universality

2.      Uniformity

3.      Reliability

RQ is a very accurate predictor of profits and share price performance. Unlike traditional measures that loosely measure R&D performance, RQ provides a measure for managers to optimally adjust the Innovation agenda (Budgets, Resources, Talents, Processes and Technology)

E&P is an Innovative Business

·         Classical 100+ year models of all E&P majors are built on innovation in CORE & ADJACENT areas of innovation.

·         TRANSFORMATIONAL innovation in E&P are rare, far between and most needed

·         21st century will distinguish those E&P companies that can bring forth transformational innovation.

·         There is a severe dearth of TALENT and MANAGEMENT VISION to perceive the $333BILLION and cognitive action to achieve it.

·         4th Paradigm Science – Big Data Analytics and Associated Collaborative (integrated) discovery – spurred by the huge instrumental data that occur in modern Oil&Gas fields is RIPE for TRANFORMATIONAL discovery

·         Be wary of the Killer Phrases

Killer Phrases

A killer phrase is a negative word or statement that is inevitably hurled at any new idea. Frequently the result is to shoot down the idea without a fair evaluation. Examples of killer phrases are . . .

•        “We tried that before.”

•        “That’s irrelevant.”

•        “Don’t waste time thinking.”

•        “It’s not in the budget.”

•        “Your ideas only have limited use in their present format.”

•        “It will be more trouble than it’s worth.”

•        “We’ve done all right so far.”

•        “No.”

•        silence

Are you ready to Bet?
Which to bet on?

1.      Technology: Big Bull. It can break all limitations. Mature. Powerful. READY. Note that it is ESSENTIAL that METRICS (Measures = Data, Analysis & Integration) is TECHNOLOGY driven when in action.

2.      Processes: Innovation is intensely untethered. It is more through culture, trust and spirit. A Rabit. Cute but sensitive. PROCESSES need to emulate collective discovery like in Proteomics (e.g. Taverna)

3.      People: The Horse. It pulls the company. It reaches far. Strong and resilient. Talented People are the horses for driving Innovation. The Horse (People) need to be adapting METRICS and TECHNOLOGY to be relevant in the Innovation game.

There is RISK – some money will be lost. UNCERTAINTY – transformational finding may not occur. BUT E&P is the game of RISK-UNCERTAINTY.

Supporting Innovation is Seed Money for the $333billion lost opportunity.

CHOICE is based on

DO YOU TRUST “THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE?”