Leadership Beyond Borders

Today's organizations and leaders are focused on doing things effectively and producing good financial results. We have created a competitive world where only business counts and the individual is lost in the process. The result is very often dysfunctional behaviour by leaders, a lack of respect for business partners and customers and certainly no sense of deeper purpose at both the individual and organizational level. This is why development plans in corporations are very often hard skill based and not focused on the development of the individual as a well-rounded leader. In Asia there are leadership models which are embedded in eastern cultures, such as in the practices of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism that focus on the spiritual side of leadership, rather than the efficiency we focus on in the west. We can learn from these practices. This episode looks at leadership models that combine spiritual practices along with the development models we are accustomed to.

The digital transition has been going on now for over a decade and although we see it and live it every day we will not have made the transition to a fully digital life until the work flows and processes around new technology are modernized and adapted.

This means that companies need to look at digital transition with a 360-degree view.

They have to understand what digitalization means to sales, marketing, customer relationship management, recruiting and just about every process in their company.

And leaders must understand their people. Even the clearest digital strategy will fail if your people are unprepared to embrace it. As critical as defining where you want to be is, setting up the capabilities and processes that will enable it are even more critical.

This episode looks at digital transition as a whole, with a focus on what it means for sales, marketing and the people that are leading us into the next generation of business.

Privacy is dead, right? Facebook knows everything about us, LinkedIn has our entire careers documented and consumer behaviour shows, that people just don't care about privacy, no matter how much they complain about it. Research shows that most U.S. adults — 60 percent —claim they care about privacy but will barely lift a finger in an effort to preserve it. Regulations such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation that went into effect in May of this year will to go worldwide. Why are governments taking control of our privacy, is it because we have none anymore? But, the train has already left the station, hasn't it? We already live in a digital world, so how can we control what is already out there? Will the implementation of new rules and regulations make data non-accessible? How can we keep advancing and use new technologies such as AI if we cannot use personal data? These questions and more are the questions confronting us today and we will talk about in this episode.

State of Women-owned business reports that in the USA alone, there are an estimated 11.6 million women-owned businesses that employ nearly 9 million people and generate more than $1.7 trillion in revenues. Even with the growth in women owned businesses, these businesses are having difficulty competing for corporate and government contracts and earning less than 1% of the money spent by these organizations. They are simply not getting their share of the contracts. But at the same time, corporations are focusing on diversity and inclusion programs, but they very seldom include diversity in the supply chain. But with the help of women's organizations, this issue is finally coming into focus. A supplier diversity program is a proactive business program which encourages the use of minority-owned, women owned, and other minority or underutilized businesses who normally do not get the chance at becoming suppliers. In this episode, we take a look at diversity in the supplier chain.

From the cave to the condo, gender communication has been a tenuous art and certainly not a defined science. We know that men and women communicate so differently they may as well be from different planets, says Dr. John Gray. We also know we live in a very disruptive world today where communication channels are changing, where stress impacts the way we act and where we all seem to have too little time. On top of that, initiatives such as gender diversity in the workplace, the changing roles of women and men at home and changing technology are also having an impact on how we communicate with each other. This episode looks at gender communications and the difference between men and women. We explore how these differences are shifting, what we have to do to understand each other better and how we can all communicate better, regardless if it is in the workplace or at home. Ultimately, we ask the question: Who makes a better manager: a man or a women?

Communication is not just about the words we speak, it is also about the questions we ask, how we listen and the body language we use. We give off thousands of unconscious signals through our body language that help others learn instantly and instinctively something about ourselves, which normally ends in a judgement, very often what we call a first impression. A huge part of the judgments we make are VISUAL. Studies have suggested over 50% are VISUAL, and that is why body language, our expressions and our habits are so important. Your communication, both verbal or bodily, can be your success or your downfall, and that is what this episode is about today. How to achieve success through using good verbal and visual communication skills. Our guest has done a lot of thinking, writing, teaching and speaking on this subject. He is not only an expert on the subject but he communicates his knowledge with humour that reveals the truth and makes you laugh but also makes you think.

Unfortunately, fewer women are interested in participating in the digital sector, be it higher education, jobs or entrepreneurship. The recent study conducted by the European Union demonstrated that only 24 out of every 1000 female graduates study ICT related subjects - of which only six go on to work in the digital sector, therefore widening the gender gap in digital. The statistics in the USA and other countries are not that much different. But there are strategies to reverse this trend, and they range from not only having role models at the C-Suite level but role models in executive management and management. Role models that encourage women to pursue positions in digital. In this broadcast, we speak with a woman whose passion lies in the digital sector and is an example of determination and success. As the digital advertising and media landscapes changes, we explore how can women contribute and lead the way.

According to OECD Better Life report, the Danish have a better work-life balance than any other country surveyed. Danes also rank above average in other areas like environmental quality, civic engagement, education, skills, jobs, earnings and general well-being. And when it comes to Gender Diversity, they are in the Top 5 for Gender equality, with both men and women working, and very often in high-level jobs, but they are able to balance this with a great work-life balance. According to the Danes themselves in a recent study, they say the key is to prioritize life and work. Ensure there is a high degree of flexibility at work, and ensure you have the correct attitude. In this episode, we go to Denmark and talk to a high-powered career couple who manage to balance not only their CEO jobs but to organize the lives of themselves and their 2 children. It very seldom we get to hear what work-life balance is like in Denmark, directly from those who live it.

We are moving from an industrial era to a pure digital era where AI will play a role and these changes are coming at us so fast and furiously that we do not have time to think about them. In such a short span of time, technology has created new social norms, new human behaviours, new business models and new ecosystems. We as individuals, have also developed digital profiles, defined by the technological touch points we engage with every day. These touchpoints produce data that relates to predictive behaviour and this predictive behaviour will be the basis for a new economy. This combined with the future capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a closely networked Global economy, means we have to approach problems differently today, differently than we have in the past. This episode takes a look at what Tom Koulopoulos calls "Revealing the Invisible", the touchpoints and changes that are forcing us into a new era.

The UK, Germany and the US are leading the percentages of online retail sales. For consumers around the globe the most well-known form of eCommerce is business-to-consumer, which includes online retail or online shopping. It is predicted that online commerce will reach to 4.48 trillion US dollars by 2021. In Asia e-retail sales accounted for about 13% of all retail in 2017. As more and more businesses are moving to e-commerce enabled platforms, it remains that only 26% of local business engage in eCommerce because although setting up eCommerce platform is quite simple, it can also be quite confusing. For the big guys, eCommerce is about spend, brand, positioning and customer service which wins you returning loyalty. If you are a small business or an entrepreneur, you need to consider other issues such as good product ideas, logistics, the technical side, and even how to launch your first ad campaign. In this episode, we are going to talk about how to get eCommerce right.