Business X factors

What do Larry Ellison, Ellen DeGeneres, Anna Wintour, Warren Buffet and Michael Dell have in common? 

Other than fame and massive wealth, what’s a key differentiator that sets these folks apart? Maybe Ravi Kumar, the President of Infosys can give you a hint…

“We have started to hire at Infosys without degrees and land people on an apprenticeship even if they don't have degrees, even if they've come from community colleges with an associate degree, or they have been in a traditional industry and want to do a mid-career shift,” Kumar says.  

But the decision to transform its talent pool is not the only unusual approach that Infosys has adopted. Infosys is flipping the enticing hiring process on its head and it’s potentially jeopardizing its business model in the process. On this episode of Business X factors, Kumar explains all the bold pathways that Infosys is following and what ripples it will cause in other industries.

Main  takeaways:  

• Degree Not Required: Thanks to technology, the nature of work is constantly and rapidly changing. Employers need to keep up and so do employees, who should be focused on life-long learning rather than achieving a singular degree. There are going to be more roles at the forefront of data and the A.I. economy, and the skills needed could be taught to those without college degrees if companies are willing to put the effort and investment into them. And if that investment is made, there will be a reward because there is often a greater retention and loyalty element when people without a college degree are given opportunities to train and get ahead in their careers. 
• Opportunity Before Passion: “Follow your passion” is a phrase often repeated but it could mean that people become close-minded to new potential areas of interest. Being overly narrow and committed to one area could also lead to missed opportunities and if this is not where your talents lie, lead to frustration. Think of life as a series of opportunities to develop several passions and you may enjoy a new opportunity more because you are good at it.
• Rising Tides Lift All Boats: Sharing technology or know-how may seem to go against the principle of competition in business, but by sharing information, more innovation can happen quicker, from which all companies and customers could benefit.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s a saying that goes, “Not my monkey, not my circus.” Basically, it means “that’s not my problem.” For your own peace of mind in your personal life, it might be good to adopt that attitude — if it’s not something you have to worry about, why should you? In business, though, that can’t be how you think — not if you want to succeed long-term or grow your young business into a juggernaut. That’s why from its infancy, Ring has employed the exact opposite approach: everything is everyone’s problem. And when you’re building a company that has a mission to deliver complete home security to all who need and want it, there are an awful lot of problems to solve. 

Ring started with a simple video doorbell, but the people behind that product always had a vision that saw past the horizon. The company’s mission was to make the world better, and it has despite numerous missteps and heartbreaks along the way. How? Find out on this episode of Business X factors with Leila Rouhi, the President of Ring.   

Main Takeaways:  

• It Takes a Village:  Business is about buy-in. Customers have to buy into your products and services, and your employees have to buy into your mission and the work they do. By keeping everyone involved in all aspects of the company — from product development to customer service — you create an environment where everyone is rowing in the same direction. And as a result, the customer is served better and more effectively more often, which keeps them coming back
• It’s Not a Party:  In order to consistently grow and bring new solutions to the table, you can’t spend too much time patting yourself on the back. A victory should not give way to a celebration, but instead, it should just open you up to start working on the next big problem. 
• Continuous Product Development: Nailing the launch of a new product can feel like hitting a moving target on top of a runaway train. Rather than shooting for perfection, product development should be seen as an ongoing information-gathering process and a way to bring more value into your customers’ lives. That will keep everyone on the team motivated to create the kinds of products that can be winners out of the gate.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So, a group of roofers, carpenters, and skaters all walk into a room… I promise you this isn’t the beginning of a bad joke. It’s the beginning of a research project conducted in 2013 by the Harvard Business Review. 

Researchers presented the groups with the following question: how can roofers’ safety belts, carpenters’ respirator masks, and skaters’ knee pads be redesigned to increase their comfort and use? Each participant had to submit an answer for all three problems. So whose ideas won out? And why?

It’s a simple experiment with surprising innovative results that are informative when trying to understand how Deloitte has found success for decades. On this episode of Business X factors, all the answers will be revealed by Rich Penkoski, the CEO of Markets at Deloitte, who explains how unorthodox thinking helps lead to innovative strategies for the global consulting company and its clients.  

Main Takeaways: 

• Look Over the Fence: The idea of mixing malls and mines or makeup with surgical infections may not sound like a good idea, but bringing ideas and people that are analogous together, could make for surprising innovation and radical inventions. Look for fields that are more advanced in technology for inspiration or creative people who are old hat at coming up with out-of-the-box ideas and bring them into the fold.  
• You Belong: One of the greatest obstacles to moving outside your comfort zone is the fear of looking like an imposter or poser.  There are, however, benefits to being a novice with a fresh perspective. Many problems are solved with fresh ideas and a different way of thinking, and so-called outsiders offer that critical new perspective. That’s why companies should prioritize bringing in as many different kinds of people with as many diverse backgrounds as possible. 
• Flatten the Hierarchy: Many companies are structured like a military chain of command.  By flattening the organizational structure with fewer layers, communication can be clearer, decisions can be made more quickly, there is increased autonomy and empowerment for workers, and fresh ideas from younger workers can be heard.   
• One Small Step: It is exciting to try to shoot out the lights by adopting new innovation, but if you aim too high and it is unachievable, you may just fall back to the old. Aim high but make sure that you build in enough runway so that you can appropriately adopt and adapt to a new solution. Taking a stepped or staged approach to innovation is often the more achievable route.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“It’s not personal, it’s business.” How many times have you heard that phrase throughout your career? For the longest time, business success has gone hand in hand with a certain degree of toughness and ambition. After all, you’ve got competition to worry about, revenue goals to hit, and in many cases, investors to answer to. 

On the turn of a dime, business can become cutthroat. You need to build walls to keep your company secrets safe — because if you don’t, you lose and your competitors win. Even within organizations, there is a tendency to separate processes and people and silo data and keep people in one lane or another.

But what if there was an alternative? 

Elastic believes in that different way, and Kim Huffman, the VP of Global IT at Elastic, is helping the team to lean into the idea that an open, supportive, distributed system is the way forward. While most businesses keep a tight lid on their business by employing an aggressive and impersonal approach, at Elastic, everything is out in the open. With a distributed workforce and an open-source mentality, Elastic is giving everyone access to the most precious resource currently available.  

But scarcity creates value, so when everyone has access to something valuable, is it still worth as much as we think? When everyone can win, does anyone really win? And with so much out in the open, how is Elastic continuing to innovate in new ways and stay ahead of the curve? Find out on this episode. 

Main Takeaways: 

• A Share of the Pie: With big world problems to solve, open-source and open innovation has proven to have huge potential, especially in a crisis. Embracing a collaborative approach does not only help to solve problems externally, a seed change from the us-vs-them mindset to a collaborative and open approach could promote similar behavior within companies and ultimately end in happier customers.
• Honesty Rules: Most people in senior leadership do not have people who hold a mirror up to them and tell them the truth. If you want the leadership team to grow and work toward the same goals, honesty with no repercussions is the route to building trust. Leaders should encourage openness and honesty and open themselves for feedback.
• Embed Empathy: The dog-eat-dog corporate narrative of the past has given way to the concept of empathy as the secret of business success. It is no longer being regarded as a soft skill.  Human-centric strategies that focus on people first and sharing experiences have become more important.
• People-Centered Resilience: Building a resilient organization or company that can adapt to a crisis is all about the people. Give people the technology tools, information and support to feel engaged and communicate openly and transparently to build trust. With that kind of culture, employees will buy in, feel personally connected, and work hard when the company sees challenging times.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

No one wants to be forced to do something. Whether it’s the newest “best practice” or the “old standard,” people and companies want to be able to choose the path for themselves. At VMware, the company that offers its tech stacks and service to many of the biggest companies in the world, the idea of choice is taken to another level.  Jason Conyard, the CIO of VMware says that VMware offers companies choice when it comes to their tech stacks and servers But when you look a little closer, VMware actually takes the idea of choice so much further than that. 

VMware has placed a premium on things like equality, inclusion, and appreciation for outside perspectives, and it has prioritized making decisions that lead the company, its employees, and its clients to the success they choose. How though? Don’t bias and business outcomes come into play? What does it take to truly let humanity and technology come together in a way that works for everyone?

Main Takeaways:  

• Freedom to Choose: Companies and businesses do not want one-size-fits-all technology solutions and should be given a choice around clouds and technology that can solve real world problems.  Freedom of choice is critically important in using technology to solve business problems because not every company has the same needs, processes, or solutions, so when you offer services, make sure that you can personalize that experience to customers’ needs. 
• Simply Delightful: Frustration is often the emotion people associate with technology. As tech gets more advanced, sometimes it gets more difficult to use or understand. It’s your job as a business to strive to create the opposite, which is an amazing experience in which you lead with empathy. 
• Experiment With Ideas: Having an environment in which all ideas are encouraged allows for employees to feel free to express themselves and bring their best to the table every day. Even if not every off-the-wall idea works, it can still be a starting point of something great.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In a company that has been working and succeeding for more than a century, change doesn’t always seem necessary. And even for newer brands, when you find a winning formula, when you have revenue coming in, and when consumers have grown to trust you, why even bother to do anything differently? 

This was the predicament facing UPS recently. UPS had done an amazing job for 100 years building the company into a wild success. The problem was that if something didn’t change, the next 100 years were very much in jeopardy. Customer expectations were changing, the younger generation was moving on, and if UPS was going to deliver for the future, it was going to need to embrace a new outlook, some new strategies, and it was going to need some … swagger. 

Kevin Warren, CMO of UPS, was brought into the company to help deliver that future. Hear how he did it on this episode of Business X factors.

Main Takeaways: 

• Always On Your Toes: Companies that have a winning formula may think they can rest easy and that it is not necessary to change. But consumer expectations are changing, and how they engage with businesses is increasingly moving online, and even that shifts constantly. It is important that companies remain commercially innovative, entrepreneurial, and agile to be able to adapt to changes in shopping habits and technology. Those that don’t innovate quick enough will be replaced.
• Cool Story, Bro: The younger generation is much harder to impress with the strategies of old. Legacy brands need to work to stay relevant among the next generation of consumers. That means changing brand messaging, operating in new channels, and even modifying internal culture to stay with the times.
• Mine the  Data: Many companies sit on a mountain of data, but few of them use that data to its fullest potential. Invest in your data and analytics team in order to draw as much information as you can from the data you collect and that the insights you find are available throughout the organization and don't sit in silos. 

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Toby Russell, the Founder and Co-CEO of Shift, is driving transformation in a market that has long been associated with terrible customer experiences and a low level of trust:the used-car sales market. 

Despite warnings that you needed a miracle to scale a car-sales business, Russel founded Shift with a philosophy that exceptional customer experience could make a difference. On this episode of Business X factors, he reveals how Shift has found a way to radically improve experiences in buying used-cars, the lessons he learned from his previous venture, and the challenges he met on the road to offer a seamless, hassle-free purchasing experience for customers.   

Main Takeaways:  

• Poor customer experience = opportunity: When a buying experience is terrible, there’s a strong chance that consumers are hungry for something new and different. Work back from what customers need and look for gaps. Examine the customer’s end-to-end experience and design a system that delivers everything the customer needs. 
• Customer experience as priority No. 1.: In many businesses, customers or product quality are sacrificed in deference to the bottom line. This alienates current customers and puts you at odds with prospective customers before they even walk through your door. Happy customers - the kind that will return and recommend you to others - are customers that feel confident in their purchase. Take out the guesswork for your customer, provide them with a high-quality product at a fair price that they can trust.  
• When changing a massive industry, find ways to differentiate yourself: Making waves in an established industry - especially one with a bad reputation - is no easy task. To avoid getting seen in the same light, find ways to stand out. For Shift, this meant not only committing to providing a great customer experience, but also getting creative with how consumers could engage with the company (i.e. online).

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if you could predict the future?  It’s the stuff of movies and novels — Like Biff Tannen of Back to The Future you could bet on the right horse and win an easy million — a superpower, that, if it were real, could bring you and your company wealth, prosperity, and wild success. But what if predicting the future wasn’t just fodder for fiction? 

Intel has figured out the secret to predicting the future, and it doesn’t have anything to do with time machines or crystal balls. Joe Jensen is an Intel veteran of 36 years and is currently the Vice-President of the Internet of Things and General Manager of Retail, Banking, and Education at Intel, and on this episode of the Business X factors, he brings us into the company to reveal how innovation happens and what it actually looks like to develop and implement technology for the future.

Main Takeaways: 

• Positive Paranoia: If you keep in the back of your mind that you are always on the brink of being taken down by competitors, you can develop a sense of positive paranoia, which allows you to recognize strategic inflections points and drive innovation in a way that will keep you ahead of the game.
• An Eye Overseas: So much innovation is happening all over the world, and often other companies are ahead in certain areas. Those who want to create innovative new solutions should broaden their horizons and look to other areas to find ways that other cultures are not just using technology, but how their expectations around technology will change because those expectations will likely soon become widespread in other areas.
• Hello, Old Friend: Sometimes the future can be found in the past. Older technology can often be used in new ways that weren’t right at the time but could be game-changers now.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

They say two heads are better than one. So how about more than one million heads —that would make you unstoppable. For stock image provider, Shutterstock, there are 1.6 million people who are contributing content to the company every single day and it’s about time that this goldmine of talent was put to use in new ways. At least, that’s what Aiden Darné believes. Aiden is the Global Head of Shutterstock Studios and on this episode of Business X factors, he reveals how Shutterstock is democratizing the content creation industry and completely shifting how the industry views Shutterstock and its network of creators.

Main Takeaways: 

• More Bang For Your Buck:  When you have assets that are being underutilized, there is a lot of upside in finding a way to reposition yourself and your assets to get more out of them. But this can often take a lot of work and rebuilding of a brand, so it’s critical to lean on your reputation and the trust you’ve built up in order to move further.  
• Give Them A Chance: Too often, industries can become set in their ways and tap into the same wells over and over. As a result, things like content creation, production and more can become insular and exclude new and emerging talent. It’s important to stay open to new ideas that might come from unexpected places.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Leading a large organization is full of high-stakes situations that can make or break a company. But in some cases, a company’s livelihood isn’t the only thing on the line. Sometimes, and this is not hyperbole, the entire world is relying on the decisions you make. 

Elisha Hermann is a Global Supply Chain Strategy and Innovation Partner at Bayer Crop Sciences, where she and her team are on a mission to make sure the world doesn't starve. And if that isn’t challenging enough, she’s also helping to figure out how to make feeding the world equitable and sustainable utilizing the technology that's at the heart of everything Bayer does. The stakes are high and things like infestations, soil erosion, supply chain issues, legislation, trade, and climate change add wrinkles to the problem at every turn. Learn how Bayer is addressing those challenges and more on this episode.

Main Takeaways: 

• Science And Data First: Whether the global food chain is at stake or if you’re a business owner just trying to put a product out to market, data should always be leading the way. Gather and analyze as much information and data as you can, and come up with science- and data-based solutions to whatever problems you face. And then, if you fail, take that data and use it as a jumping-off point to improve and move forward.
• Tech Is The Answer: AI, machine learning, blockchain, automation — all of these may seem like buzzwords with more hype than practical application, but the truth is that each of these technologies is being used in real and impactful ways. To go from an idea to a solution, though, implementing solutions at scale is necessary, even if it means you have to fail fast and pivot..   
• Chain Reaction: The pandemic accelerated innovation and spurred digital transformation in every industry. As more activity moves online, the supply chain will likely see some changes that will make sourcing patterns, product lifecycles, and other aspects less complex and more transparent every step of the way.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.