So are you thinking out of the box?
Updated: 2012-12-05 07:01
By Ho Chi-Ping(HK Edition)
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'Thinking out of the box" has become today's new catch cry for budding Mark Zuckerbergs, but let's be brutally honest... it's easier said than done, especially when doing so means outsmarting some of the slickest brains out there. But here's the good news - there are short-cuts to beating the smarties, and the rundown of very switched-on companies that follows below is just chockfull of ideas you may be able to use as you scythe your way to a successful tomorrow.
They're taken from an analysis of the far-reaching philosophies and practices of 10 super-smart American companies as revealed in a recent issue of the switched-on American publication Business Insider. The magazine's astute editor Daniel Goodman surely knows a thing or two about getting in front of the opposition - and staying there.
Badgeville's unique workstyle leverages the skills of the employees, honed to perfection as kids when growing up with video games and social networks. It uses the behavioral insights they perfected as pesky young geeks and applies them in brainstorming sessions that barnstorm the company's way through technology problems and create other breakthroughs.
Liquidspace is just what its title suggests - liquid space. Startups trying to get one foot on the ladder sometimes need a real space, but maybe for just a morning conference or a meeting with a client whose decision will be influenced by the bidder's seemingly impressive office surroundings. Liquidspace fills the gap for entrepreneurs, small companies and one-man ops, by offering stop-gap office space it temporarily leases from established companies with furnished but unused large and small offices, often an empty half of one floor. Always remember the object is to get that signature on the contract - full-stop!
WeWork Labs gives entrepreneurs a co-working space in New York, plus entry to a start-up community for $250 a month. Its philosophy is to create an entirely different type of workspace that is shared among companies and functions like a community, also acting like an incubator. Add-ons include investor's happy hours and the support of other like-minded achievers.
Fancy Hands can always lend a hand, thanks to having an armada of smart-as-a-whip assistants on tap. Let's say it's one of those days when everything's gone belly-up, you've got a plane to catch at 7.30 pm and simply can't cope with one or two comparatively minor problems that are on deadline. The company will send to your rescue someone who can do research, set up meetings, confirm hotel bookings - even care for your pet dog while you're away. Ted Rodin founded Fancy Hands after attempting to juggle a book, a job and a baby for a couple of days.
SYPartners is a clued-up consultancy, which helped Starbucks reinvent itself when CEO Howard Schultz returned. It specializes in creating a an intuitive online environment where involved parties spread across the nation can talk and work together on a project, instead of bouncing a confusing flurry of emails back and forth to one another. It also uses online tools to create a discipline of positive habits that help companies and teams achieve optimum potential.
The aptly-titled Box (what else?) claims to be changing the workplace by sheer ubiquity. It focuses on matching workers' smarts with existing workplace systems, and boosts collaboration outside the office through smooth and easy interface procedures. In particular, it targets easily-avoided delays like big files moving slowly, other files bogged down in a work computer and other blockages.
Jive brings rhythm and flow to the workplace by connecting and sharing information whether related to business profiles, activity streams, status updates, or just plain sharing. It encourage people to leverage the tools of Facebook and Twitter they are so familiar with.
The Ladders works on the premise that today's job market is overflowing with needy applicants always talking up supposed abilities - and often wasting time for HR. Its procedures shoot from the hip, with to-the-point questions that weed out geeks and other bad hires while also laying down appropriate guidelines for employers that act as a final filter.
oDesk empowers businesses to contract out a wide variety of tasks by engaging the most flexible workforce possible. It elevates contracting, freelancing and other forms of self-employment practices to a higher and sharper level whether the task in hand is sales, design, drafting smoothly-worded business propositions or plain customer service.
Finally, let's not forget how Bill Gates got Microsoft rolling in the early days. He and other razor-sharp young visionaries would brainstorm until 3 am-plus. Regularly, it seems, breathtaking solutions would bubble to the top only after fiery arguments brought tempers - and innovative imaginations - to boiling point. Even today there are no milk-sops at Microsoft who would dare remark, "I beg to differ."
The author is deputy chairman and secretary-general of China Energy Fund Committee, a think-tank on energy and Chinese culture.
(HK Edition 12/05/2012 page3)