Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.
It pays to work smarter, not harder. According to a recent study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, organizations that are significantly outperforming their industry peers also happen to utilizing innovation and technology to do things differently.
So when we talk about work, are we are talking about the things we do in our offices, with our co-workers. Our, has it evolved to something broader and more encompassing that sometimes escapes the reaches of our mind. Is work now defined to be a broader set of characters, which includes but is not limited to: employees, partners, vendors, contractors, and an increasingly scalable and reliable network of smart devices and interconnected systems, which care little for geographic location, time zone or distance of its participants?
I recently traveled to Turkey and met with several business contacts and customers from around the world and we all agreed that the world is indeed getting smaller. And in that context, our collective success is tied to our individual successes. And yet, some of the very leaders of many of our global organizations lack the fundamental understanding that we are in a global, innovative world, moving faster and faster towards one economy.
IBM’s study was conducted over several months and they surveyed more than 275 executives around the world. They have identified 15 approaches to accomplishing work in a more collaborative, dynamic, and connected fashion. In the coming weeks we will talk about some parts of this survey.
However, their analysis surfaced several key findings:
- Leading organizations use smarter working practices far more extensively than their lower-performing peers. And they’re doing so to fuel growth, not just drive efficiency.
- Across organizations, the three most pronounced capability gaps blocking greater agility are: process and skill reconfiguration; broader and more embedded collaboration; and integrated, real time information for decision making.
- The most dynamic, collaborative and connected companies have widely adopted specific technologies that make smarter working practices viable.
How do you rate your organization in working smarter?