Horizontal Capabilities & Organized Hybrid

Review: Competing in the Age of AI

The rules that worked in the analog age were swept away by the Digital Tsunami. Competing in the age of AI describes the next frontier which is changing how firms need to operate. There are no workers in its “critical path” of operating activities of the AI factory. Software runs ad auctions at Google. The algorithms allocate cars at Didi, Grab, Lyft, and Uber. This will also have a big impact on #jobopportunities and #careers.

Some jobs are gone. There is no manager approving loans, no employee providing financial advice, no representative authorizing consumer medical expenses. Even climate change initiatives need an investment in analytics. (watch this)

But millions of new jobs are being created in this new economy. So stop playing by the old rules.

At the core of the new firm is a decision factory—what we call the “AI factory.” Millions of pieces of data are turned into predictions, insights, and choices, which in turn a competitive advantage that is hard to beat.

1 Reason why you should read this book plus 4 reasons why your CEO should read it

For a firm to stay ahead of competition, it is important to build the AI factory where data drives decision making in real time. The real reason why firms find it hard to do that is that they do not invest adequately in building the talent factory to support the business.

Your career will be shaped by this: Capabilities are becoming horizontal and universal

This is the idea I wish the authors had spent more pages on. This is the idea I spent time decoding. Capabilities that will survive in the AI driven firm will be horizontal. It will be critical at every level of the organization.

For example: The principles of adaptive leadership will be just as important to build in the junior most roles and the C-suite alike. The firms will have to invest in capability development as a way to attract and retain talent. Even at the height of the employee resignations, the employees say that they will stay with a firm if that invests in their skill development. Skills development must go with strong talent management practices and a culture that celebrates learning.

H/T Nate Boaz for recommending this book

I found this book among 67k titles in the Microsoft Library that can be accessed across 200 countries by its 220,000 employees. If you are in Redmond, Hyderabad, Beijing, or the Reading campus, don't forget to check out the library.

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Mentoring, Meeting and Mingling are the 3 reasons Organized Hybrid is cool

I attended the Keynote by Nick Bloom who is a professor of Economics at Stanford's Grad School of Business. He was sharing his views on the Future of Working from Home at the The Economist Impact event on 24 Oct 2022. I took some notes and #sketchnotes

The evolution of WFH numbers

1. Work from Home is counted as at least 1 day out of 20 working days when the employee works from home. The other 19 days are in factories or office premises. This number has been growing at 5% per annum even before the pandemic. At that rate of growth, the number who WFH has been doubling every twelve years.

2. During the pandemic, most people who were doing knowledge work were working from home. Post pandemic, almost 30% of the professional managers are using a hybrid WFH model with a few days in the office and the rest at home. Only 15% of people in special roles and certain mid-level roles are now working entirely from home.

3. More than half the workforce ie 55% has to be physically present in their pace work. Surgeons, pilots and many other professions are impossible to do from home.

Benefits of WFH

1. A lower quit rate is the first benefit of allowing WFH where possible.

2. The marginalized groups like minorities, LGBTQ+ or neurodiverse groups find the flexibility of WFH powerful.

3. It can feel like a 5% to 10% increase in compensation to people. They save on commuting time and costs. The flexibility helps people with disabilities and several disadvantaged groups to leverage their skills.

Organized Hybrid & 3M

The Organized Hybrid model means everyone comes in on the same days of the week.

Use these days for 3Ms: Meeting, Mingling and Mentoring. These are best done in person. Face to face collaboration or using facetime with your manager or team is good reason to be in office - not to do work that can be done better alone. Organized hybrid is actually all about organizing work around relationships.

Some people like to work in an office for better equipment and quiet spaces. Workplaces are attractive if they build real connections between colleagues. Physical presence in the workplace is for social connections.

Deep work like reading, writing and analysis is best done alone. WFH can be used for work one can do alone. Leverage the workplace to building connections.

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