Three “Art of Winning” Lessons from Oscar Academy Award

Even acting needs to be authentic, no matter which career we may take or leadership role we play,

Annual Oscar may not just impress us with red carpet elegance or stunning fashion style, quintessentially it’s an event to share the historical footprint of film industry: from black & white to full of color; from silent to voice, from automation to animation, from flat to 3D, from booming to struggling, from tragedy to happiness, the progressive journey well blend the art with the science, it’s artists’ dream and movie fan’s fiesta.

Here are three lessons we can learn from 84th Oscar Award last weekend:

1. Meryl Streep –Performance Excellence

Meryl Streep got her third Oscar trophy for “Iron Lady”, as she humored: half of Americans may complain: it’s her, again! Well, as the other half, we would say, she deserve it, because of her masterful acting skill beyond style and her intelligence well integrated with the character she played.

• Be Authentic

“Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.”   Meryl Streep

Even acting needs to be authentic, no matter which career we may take or leadership role we play, 80/20 rule is the same: 80% percent is substance, and 20 percent is style, is being authentic with great attitude to bridge the difference the secret source for Meryl’s success?

• Character Shapes Characters

“For me, clothes are kind of character; I don't follow fashion or understand trends.”
Meryl Streep

Her character may decide the success of the characters she played,  no mater Iron Lady or other characters, Meryl  is pursuing optimum, if not perfection, all accessories are component of character, shall not become distraction.

• Hollywood Matures

“America doesn't reward people of my age, either in day-to-day life or for their performances.”  Meryl Streep

 Well, Meryl may need revise her quote after winning on Sunday night, it’s great phenomenon to see matured movie industry to reward many matured artists.  How does film industry reach even higher-level maturity?

2. Art is Ageless, Colorless, Borderless, Speechless, Timeless & Endless

• The 82-year-old Christopher Plummer is the oldest or at least one of the oldest Oscar winners, he won best supporting actor at “Beginners”, will golden trophy lead the new beginning for him? will he become the golden role model for golden age seniors? Age won’t stop you from improving, the attitude does. Modern Oscar is ageless and timeless.

• 
  Octavia Spencer: the best supporting actress winner said that the one thing that can make her speechless is "winning an Oscar”, well, Oscar could be also colorless and speechless.

• 
  French actor Jean Dujardin was awarded best actor for his role in "The Artist" at the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday, it may also symbolize the art is border-less.

3. The Artists Select “The Artist” as a Winner

Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture was “The Artist,”a silent film about the death of silent films. And Michel Hazanavicius, the movie director released a statement:

"The Artist was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history”

“The Artist” is the main theme of 84^th Oscar, no wonder the artists in Hollywood selected“The Artist”, like any other legacy industries, movie industry has its own pains and joys, up & downs, the old models or technologies were disrupted by new ones, but the dream continue to be pursued by artists one generation by the other.

Movies are condensed world and amplified life, with many great lessons we can learn.

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Five Styles of Conversation Modern CIO need Master For

CIOs need to leverage different conversation styles to construct a collaborative vision and deliver high-performance IT result. 

Contemporary CIOs not only need wear many colors of hats or try different pairs of shoes but also they may need to master all styles of conversations to develop situational wisdom and influential competency, to rebuild IT’s reputation as a value creator and innovation hub.

1. Strategy Presentations at Round Table

First, as technology becomes increasingly strategic to business and driver for business growth, C-level executives are coming to grips with the reality that IT and the art of possible should close the loop on strategy development, CIOs need to become more visible and accountable via presenting following fact-based strategic issues persuasively.

• Business Growth: How do CIOs envision business growth or potential disruptive innovation via the power of the latest technology?

• Cost Optimization: How does modern technology help to shape efficient business processes and improve cost structure and enable innovation? CIOs need to develop financial metrics that will help to clearly communicate IT performance with C-level executives in plain business language.

• Talent Master: How does digital technology such as social, mobile or talent analytics empower employees to reimagine work & re-tool working environment with a new attitude, increase staff satisfaction and improve productivity.

• GRC Management: How does IT orchestrate the holistic governance, risk control and compliance framework with cohesive strategy & culture to shape a risk intelligence enterprise.

2. Value Debates with Business Customers

Transforming IT talk from a cost center to value creator is both the art and science, the shifted focus conversations help to improve IT reputation as a business strategic partner and manage more pertinent KPIs scoreboard to present results.

IT provides legitimate value include:

* Business risk reduction

* Legal compliance

* Customer experience

* Employee engagement

*Potential revenue stream

* Cost Structure optimization

Value Conversation Sample: Cost discussion: Our total IT software maintenance costs are $300,000, up only $10,000 from last year. Value discussion: The new document/printing management system that was implemented last year reduced the costs of paper and document storage by 25% for annual savings of $100,000. The annual software maintenance costs to support this application are just a tenth of that, at $10,000 per year.

Trust Relationship Tipping Point: IT needs to forge a mature adult relationship with business users, since today’s multi-generational knowledge workforce, from baby boomer to millennial, either technology immigrant or digital natives, overall are more savvy about the wide range of technology than IT manager give credit for, IT needs to transform the reputation from a “controller” to an enabler. IT also needs to overcome the application sprawling challenge facing at the age of cloud, transform “shallow IT” into deputized IT.

3. Execution Conversation with IT Team

 The laser focused strategy presentation at the round table and value debate with business partners may also help CIOs create an effective IT roadmap with value-driven priority, to have inspiring execution conversation with IT team:

• Operation Excellence: Keep business running smoothly to achieve operational excellence is still the bottom line for IT, the journey may also include the goal to make IT delivery faster, cheaper and better via the new technology such as the cloud.          

• PPM to Shape Business Strategy: Every IT project is a business project, intend to solve business problems and implement business strategy, CIOs need to educate IT team to equip the new business thinking, pondering the root cause of project failures, take the effective PM methodology such as Agile, and enforce governance via well-defined metrics.             

• IT Integration to Orchestration: The information and data keep growing and flowing at the modern organization, IT plays an unprecedented role in determining business success, IT integration to orchestration scenario will gap the business silos, break down the organizational boundary, and shorten the cycle to collect right information for streamlining decision-making and empower innovation agenda.

4. Touchy-Feely Chat with End Customers

CIOs also need to take end customers’ shoes on or experiment at the frontline to walk through customers experience or collect customers’ feedback: 

• Customers’ Pain Point: For all the customer-centric industries and businesses today, how to delight customer is strategic imperative, and CIOs & team may just need some touchy-feely chat with the end customers or walk through customers’ experience, to bring up outside-in point of view, and soothe customers’ pain point via the magic bullet of modern technology or staff’s innovative services.

• Customers’ TouchPoint: So-Lo-Mo: social, location, mobile, and a smart device such as RFID may also help provide customers the freedom of choice at each touch point, to make customers experience as seamless & impressive as possible

 5. Relentless Negotiation with Vendors        

Vendor Relationship Management is another strategic focus for CIOs today, it’s also about business sourcing, integration, and innovation strategy.  How to make a partner relationship a win-win situation, how to recognize the mixed bag of vendors who can make the difference, take extra miles, and present both best-tailored solutions with a great attitude?

• Vendor innovation category: Legendary vendors: like senior citizens, the legendary vendors may survive and thrive more than sixty-five years, compared to fifteen years--the average lifespan of today’s Fortune 500 companies, these companies deserve some respect, they present not just the wisdom from age, but also the leadership value proposition with full portfolio of solutions, they are usually accountable & influential, the question for them could be: Are their services cost-effective compared to the niche players’, or are their solutions agile enough to adapt to the rapid changes today?

• Pioneers or niche vendors: Those are the vendors may sit in visionary or challenger position at Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, or the vendors who always go extra miles, with great success stories, passionate and capable.  To encourage or support these pioneers or niche players may help to sow the innovation seeds and create a win-win scenario.  The questions for them might be: What’s the competitive advantage to compare them with giant vendors?  reliabilities, the strength/weakness., etc.    

• SLA/Contract Negotiation: SLA/Contract negotiation could be even more complex at the age of cloud, the ratio of performance/cost, the business goals/purpose,  the benchmark & metrics, the description of service, duration, termination or legal issues, all those trick or treat, crunchy data & hidden cost., etc.,   therefore,  remediation, revision, and renegotiation should be always options.

It is critical that communication need be directly related to your audience situation, how it affects them, CIOs also need to listen before talk, learning before doing, hopefully, through mastering the five styles of conversation, CIOs can walk the talk, construct the collaborative vision and deliver high-performance IT result. 

                

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Business Transformation: A Tale of Two Rules

 The rule of thumb is to delight customers, engage employees, and embrace the culture of innovation.

Traditional hierarchical business structure & command-control leadership style, and short-term shareholder profit focus business purpose might be based on:

Theory X: In this theory, which has been proven counter-effective in most modern practice, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with a narrow span of control at each and every level.

Theory E: assumes the economic value is dramatically and quickly enhanced through restructuring — tough, results-driven actions such as layoffs, closing facilities, and reshuffling the portfolio of businesses through spin-offs and acquisitions.

It maybe already proven ineffective since the average life span of Fortune 500 companies has reduced from 75 years to 15 years, and continue to shorten to five years.

Here we brainstorm the next generation of business via the following famous business rules & theories. 

The Golden Rule:

• (Positive form, called Golden Rule): One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.
• Negative/prohibitive form also called The Silver Rule): One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.

The modern business structure should be re-invented based on a good mix of the golden rules and paradox of Theory Y&X, O&E:

Theory Y: In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. According to Papa, to the work is as natural as play. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their talents are underused in most organizations.

Theory O:  The less common approach focused more on the long term, assumes that developing organizational capabilities and culture will ultimately produce sustained high performance.

The perceived social business structure will advocate open leadership/communication, the culture of innovation, enable cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing, to increase employees’ satisfaction and improve productivity; the next generation of business may also take the outside-in approach, optimize the business process to delight customers, takes the customers’ shoes on;  the business transformation need be based on the golden rule, to unify three business purposes: economic value, social value, and people value, via the latest social technology, analytics tools, and gamification mechanism.

·        80/20 Rule:

Dr. Juran's observation of the "vital few and trivial many," the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results, became known as Pareto's Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

What It Means

The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. You can apply the 80/20 Rule to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world.

Observation on Management Discipline:            

• Marketing:

20 percent of Customers generate 80% of business revenue.

• Quality Assurance:

20 percent of the defects cause 80 percent of the problems.

• Project Management:

Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of their time and resources.

                                 

• Business Transformation is needed:

--IT Budget:

Reality: 80 percent of the IT budget goes for “keep the light on” maintenance, only 20 percent of the budget is invested in the project for business’s growth or innovation.

Transformation: 80 percent of the IT budget should be invested in the projects for business growth or innovation, only 20 percent of the budget goes to infrastructure maintenance.

--Business Synergy:

Reality: At the average organization: 80 percent of the share of energy that does not create external value, 20 percent of shares of energy is value-creating.

Transformation: 80 percent of energy is value-creating, 20 percent of energy is for internal support. .

How It Can Help:

The value of the 80/20 rule or Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter.

Either golden rule or 80/20 rule, the rule of thumb is to delight customers, engage employees and embrace the culture of innovation via revitalizing business structure & change management; no matter it’s Theory X, Y, E& O, it’s better to get out of ivory tower approach, blend best theories with next practice and great technologies, to retool business and society.

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Three Big WHYs for Big Data

Don’t inundate with data details, foresee the trends, the future, and the organism.

Economically, data is about 80% of business asset today; technologically, big data brings up the opportunities to pursue and big challenges to conquer; culturally, we may just enter the exciting big data renaissance; artistically, data is now growing and flowing, full of color, both comprehensive and abstract, visible & viable, essential with style; technically, there're still many challenges and it takes time to lead Big Data maturity, and statistically, more than half of analytics projects fail to reach customer expectation. 

    1. Why “Big Data” is such a big deal?

·   Big Business: Big Data is the big market and big business, will reach $50 billion in 2017, since the unstructured data from mobile, social, smart device keep flow and grow. Companies capture trillions of bytes of information about customers, suppliers, and operations.

·   Data Renaissance: Data influences the human behavior, data empowers the culture of innovation, data unleash the human potential, now data is about the freedom of choice, with essential and style, each piece of data is the truth, though not all data is created equal.

·   Big Opportunities: The scale and scope of the changes that such “big data” are bringing about have reached an inflection point, through listening to the customers feedback and conversation,  big data can predict customers’ purchasing behavior and shopping patterns, and therefore more precisely predict the next generation of better tailored products or services.

·    Big View about Future: Big data like those tea leaf, will help read the future,  , through shaking the data and visualize it, sophisticated analytics can substantially improve decision-making and optimize business process.

2. Why could “Big Data” also become the big distraction

·  How to leverage the limited business resource?

Enterprise has stuck with operational data already, struggle with data process to capture piece of historic business insight, now how to take additional resources to deal with Big data with such complex characteristics (3V +1C: velocity, volume, variety and complex), from data collection,  data storage, to the full data life cycle management, not mention to seeing through it and gain the business foresight

·   Big Elephant in the room.

How to handle the Big Data’s 3Vs + 1C: velocity, volume, variety and complex? Traditional data warehouse approach is no longer sufficient enough to tame the big data beast, big data may overflow the lake and river, directly merge into the big sea, how to surf on the sea smoothly takes both courage and skill, concentration with right direction, tools and methodology.

· How to hunt or cultivate the right analytical talent to master Big Data?

 Big Data becomes such a big phenomenon,  the right talents such as data scientists and statistics professionals are in high demand, dealing with big data could be even more challenging than dealing with enterprise data, how does business shape the long term talent strategy without too much distraction of today’s execution and operation.

3.  Why “Big Data” is means to the end, not the end?

·   What’s the mindset to handle big data?

The purpose of pursuing Big Data is about a laser focus on solving business problems, especially those strategic goals such as new revenue growth or how to delight customers, it may need imagination and integrative thinking skills : Don’t inundate with data details, foresee the trends, the future, and the organism.

 Traditional data management and business analytics tools and technologies are straining under the added weight of Big Data, the emerging approach such as open data framework with cost-effective storage solution may open the new chapter for data management.

• How to revitalize business via Big Data point of view?

Big Data provides the possibilities for new innovation, instant on agility, and increased profitability significantly,  Big Data combined with advanced business analytics have the potential to give enterprises unprecedented insights and foresight into customer behavior and volatile market conditions, allowing them to make data-driven business decisions faster and more effectively than the competition.

• How to overcome the biggest challenges facing in human society

To make the picture even bigger, it’s human’s creative nature to participate big conversation, brainstorm the potential solutions to the problems facing us today, such social context, and the technical ability to manipulate big data, visualize dynamics, recognize patterns and signatures creates new opportunities for humanitarian and development assistance in the most complex and dangerous environments.

Big data may just become the big hero to harmonize human society via its unique strength and broader vision.

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Three Love Essentials

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.   -Friedrich Nietzsche

If the holiday season is the time to pursue happiness, then February could be the month of pondering the love; if happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length; then, does love lack of its wisdom since it’s full of madness? If happiness can not be measured in smiles, should love be tested by hugs or kisses; if a high level of happiness is as high as the mountain, deep as the sea, can the impact of love calm the turbulent sea and transform snow mountains into bloom hills with the sunshine?

From Wikipedia, “Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. Love is also a virtue representing all of the human kindness, compassion, and affection; "the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another". Three Levels of Happiness, explored the height of happiness, here we discover the three love essentials.

1. Platonic Love –The Joy of the Goodness

The best proof of love is trust. Joyce Brothers

The elements of love may include support, trust, truth, and even sacrifice; the madness of love may be more about the “blindness, brainlessness or colorlessness”—it might be short-lived, the depth of love needs to be more about understanding, respect, wisdom, fairness, equality, and fulfilling, love like seed, needs to grow, needs to be tested by the storms, the difficulties, and the adversities.

The Platonic love - the recruiting managers appreciate the raw intelligence of high potential talents, the teacher loves her students, the gardener loves his plants and flowers, or the coach loves her athletes, it’s about nurturing, the growth, the motivation, and the inspiration.

2. Universal Love –Humanity

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."    -Abraham Lincoln

Feb.12th, two days ago, it’s 203rd birthday of Abraham Lincoln-one of the greatest presidents in history, what did he teach us about the love? Abraham Lincoln was more than a great president. He was a transcendent human being, an emancipator, he executed the power for the goodness, to maximize love via the broader vision of compassion, the wonder of wise and innate human goodness, his universal love well reflected the essence of love, the humanity. Here are three quotes from Lincoln:

• Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. Abraham Lincoln

           Character makes who we are, and character is the spiritual energy to kindle humanity:

• He has a right to criticize, who has the heart to help. Abraham Lincoln

          Love like medicine could be bitter but cure the illness.

• If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.         Abraham Lincoln

          Love is to embrace the diversity and to appreciate the difference

3. Religious Love –The amazement of God

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts always hopes, and always perseveres."         (1 Cor. 13:4–7, NIV)

If love between humans is still conditional love, then religious love is unconditional.

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From Seven Wonders to Seven Traits of Future of Travel

From seven wonder of nature to seven traits of travel, may the recovering economy re-kindle the passion for travels; may the adventurous spirit of travel stimulate economy further.

Travel industry is not only the economic barometer at modern society, it may also reflect consumers’ life enrichment, happiness index, or the human advancement overall. Modern technologies also empower travelers with knowledge, shared wisdom and more seamless total travel experience.

 Seven Wonders of World may not be the only hot destinations to enchant travelers these days, What are the future of travels lead to, who are the new generation of travelers,  and how airline & travel industry to embrace the changes to grasp the big opportunities in from of them, there’s excitement and myth of solving such a puzzle, here we brainstorm the seven traits of future of travel.

 1.  Sophisticated Modern Travelers

1) Conservative Travelers

The conservative travelers think travel as basic need, aiming to spend wisely,  they are typically skeptical of the value of new digital trends, sometimes to their detriment. But like all other travelers, they desire to have the smooth, economic travel experience, to visit family or take a trip via varies of reasons. Serve them well, they will become your loyal customers.

2) Travel Fashionistas

Travel fashionistas are motivated to see the world, visit the new places, explore the exotic destinations or the wonderland of nature, entertainment or shopping. Travelers are expected to become more adventurous in the future too. Since modern technology shape more knowledgeable travelers who will feel more confident about traveling to places lack of information previously.

3) Emerging Travelers

Not only will the traveler of the future be more knowledgeable and more willing to try new destinations, they will increasingly arrive from different countries. The emerging economy, the fast-growing worldwide middle class families, they enjoy seeing the world in the different ways, they take their journey for many reasons, for the new experience, the shopping spree, the spiritual journey, or medical needs.

Despite their diversity, the world’s new generation of travelers may also have much more in common. Segmenting them by similar motivation and behavior across geographical location may help companies overcome the complexities and perceive the future trend of travel and how to develop the new generation of travel service/products to achieve profitable global growth

4 ) Travel Digirati

The travel digirati truly understand how to drive value from a digital transformation. They are either digital natives to do everything online these days or digital immigrants learning fast to be the passionate digirati, from grocery shopping to travel planning & sharing via mobile and social networking, for them, every step of traveling has the digital footprint: they consume the digital collectives, they also create more context to excite and enrich travel communities. For travel industries, they could be your potential customer champions, may also become the intimidate brand destructors if not being serving well. 

5) Travel Amateur

Expert Traveler is much more knowledgeable about his or her destination and what to expect when they get there. They pursue the depth of travel experience instead of breath, may revisit the same destination with high level of personalized services, their expectations of service have diverged: they either expect a totally touch less online experience or they expect a very high level of personalized service.

2. Mobility –Always Connected Travelers

In a mature industry such as aviation, it is crucial to combine a seamless customer experience and loyalty program with the ability to differentiate. Mobile services give airlines new opportunities to achieve both. airlines are in prime position to enhance their customers’ experience and drive greater revenue seeking to demystify many of the new mobile technologies that will impact the industry in the immediate and medium term.

It is clear that travelers see the value that mobile services and information can add to their travel experience. It is now the responsibility of us all to understand and navigate the rapidly changing world of mobile in order to differentiate, secure customer loyalty and quickly adapt to new business model

• Location based services  
• Movement tracking
• Advanced push notifications
• Mobile payments, 
• NFC – The integration of near field communication (NFC)
• Advanced disruption management

3. Intelligent Travelers –Social & Personalized

Just as the Internet has empowered consumers with knowledge;  social networks, user-reviews and other Internet resources have, and will continue to, devolve to travelers the power of wisdom. Internet and mobile technology offers a new opportunity to personalize offers based on passenger history and future travel plans. Targeted promotions have the potential to provide more passenger specific offers that meet a customer’s preferences and provide incremental revenues to the airline.

For airlines, how to serve the new generation of intelligent travelers takes both attitude and aptitude:  Incorporate user-generated content will support multiple platforms, personalize web content to improve user experience,  mobile segment products to target niche interests and offer better value for money

4. Total Travel Experience

With competition and a dwindling passenger base heating up, airlines need to ramp up their delivery of the customer experience. And not just at the gate and on board—carriers need to understand their customers’ needs along the full spectrum of travel: from ticket purchase to destination arrival.    

• Customer Touch Points

Covering the complete travel cycle – Mobile/Social applications should provide a full range of solutions across all aspects of the travel cycle.. Passengers could use a smart phone or tablet anywhere to be inspired, dream or plan a specific trip, also can manage travel proactively via digitized touch points during the journey: such as security checking Point at airport, entertainment point at airplane and the baggage tracking point at the trip. The expanded touch point may include: arranging a passenger pickup service, providing quick transport services for passengers to hotels, and offering assistance services at selected hotels, or even making integration with high speed rail services to help customers willing to pay for seamless travel.

• Multi-Channel Customer Services

As airlines become more like traditional retailers, also as a technology company with wings, to provide multi-channel customer service via mobile/social application, which provides a unique opportunity to work with the passenger during every step of the travel cycle including planning, booking, on board, at the destination and during the post trip experience.

• Self-Service 

Self-Service trends related to mobility, the economy, and variety-of choice spark new opportunities for airline operators to better engage elusive consumers. Learn how a converged self-service strategy that leverages preferences and proximity based interactions can differentiate services, lower costs and attract consumers.

In modern airport, the passengers enjoy more self-services such as self baggage drop, mobile-coupon/boarding pass, ancillary sales offer, passenger notification, location tracking, etc. Airport also becomes the facilitator with optimized resources: it will promote the sales promotion via multiple channels such as social network platform, collaborative airport ecosystem to connect with third party partners.

5. Loyalty Program-Digital Collectives

Customer Loyalty Programs (CLP) have come a long way from their early beginnings in the 1970’s, A differentiating Loyalty Program concept that is a true reflection of corporate aspirations about customer relationships

The aspirations include: 360 traveler view, personalized customer value, actionable feedback, win back, customer retention, and cross selling, RFM metrics, and soothe the Frequent Fly Club Loyalty Member’s Frustration Point:

• Elite status has become less attractive
• Member frustration with extra fees
• Frustration over reward terms and conditions
• Getting upgraded was more difficult

6. Future of Travel Agent

Statistically, it could cost the Airline about 10% of the sales through the travel agents, Airlines, particularly the US airlines, under severe cost pressure to drive down the cost of intermediation. It’s at moment of change to transform travel agent from the transactional as ‘airline distributors’ role into the travel or life style consultant to provide high-margin, customer tailored, personalized  travel service to the customers, increasingly focus on providing the best  solution to business clients The transformation takes vision, strategy and in-depth knowledge about travel value chain and eco-system.

 7. Air Travel Carbon & Energy Efficiency

According to data from the International Air Transport Association, total emissions for the airline industry stood at 649 million tons of CO2 in 2010, up 3.5 percent from the previous year. Airline is the challenging sector need to fight for both the high-fuel cost and carbon footprint.

Aircraft fuel economy, passenger load factor, seat density, freight share and distance are critical factors for accurate flight carbon measurement and management. The leading airlines create roadmap, set goals for, measurement, and report emissions per passenger per mile in addition to total emissions, also use data collected to make advanced analytics, to motivate and impact sustainable change,  improve fuel efficiency, and balance corporate social responsibility with revenue bottom line.

Aviation is working hard with a spectrum of activities to reduce environmental impact by experimenting alternative energy, biofuels are seen as one of the pillars to achieving this target

From seven wonder of nature to seven traits of travel, may the recovering economy re-kindle the passion for travels; may the adventurous spirit of travel stimulate economy further. 

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What is the CIO’s Innovation Dilemma

The wisdom and ultimate goal of innovative CIOs are to help the organization think clearly about the two horizons of future, the short term gain & long-term wins.

Today’s CIO is one of the crucial leadership roles facing significant transformation, Being a Chief Infrastructure Officer to align IT operation with business is no longer sufficient,  since the rate of changes is accelerating at the age of digitization. CIO is facing the modern innovation dilemma: Just keep the light on when the users are pushing the legacy IT into the breaking point? Or be the change agent to expedite the transformation to reach an innovation tipping point by pulling people, process, and technology seamlessly to achieve a higher level of IT maturity.

 What is innovation? CIOs need to see the innovation via all different angles listed here. The wisdom and ultimate goal of innovative CIO are to help the organization think clearly about the two horizons of future, the short term gain & long term wins, set appropriate strategies, and make intelligent plans, to deliver IT via the business value-driven metrics. CIOs, are you ready for the three innovator’s debates:  

1. Being a Second Class Executive or a Five-Star Influencer

CIOs frequently have trouble convincing executives about IT vision, or the resource needs and work that needs to be done, often because CIOs tend to frame their arguments in technical terms. Being a second-class executive is no longer an option, CIOs, it’s time to sharpen the business acumen:

• Your Elevator Speech: IT needs to be built to change-- simplify & optimize today's operations; IT also needs to be built to last, envision and enable tomorrow's aspirations, in order to drive business from good to great.

• Master the Strategy Conversation: The strategy conversations at roundtable CIOs should master include:

1) Revenue Growth: CIOs should serve as catalysts who can drive the organization to see the value of information technology in opening new revenue streams and achieving competitive advantage.

2) Cost Optimizing: The shadow of the great recession is on the air, even with the improvement of the economy, we may not intend to repeat "irrational exuberance" bubble, the strategy conversation will still need focus on business effectiveness and efficiency via the language everyone in the room understands.

3) Governance/Risk Management: How to build the risk resilience organization is strategic imperative at today’s hyper-complex, hyper-competitive business environment, CIOs need to walk the talk, to shape the framework, culture, ownership, and metrics. A wide range of perspectives, not merely a token representation, is critical to effective corporate governance.

4) Talent Management: CIOs lead IT to expand organizational capabilities by refining business processes and enhancing enterprise base collaboration., the advanced analytics tools will help predict the future of talent trend, and provide foresight about future of STEM education.

2. Being a Low-Profile Caretaker or a High-Value Business Leader

CIOs need to wear the hat of "devil's advocate" base on part of her/his role as the caretaker of information and “keep the light on. ” However, contemporary CIOs need to wear multiple hats of colors, to be the innovation officer, the integration officer,  the influence officer, Steward/strategist/visionary., etc. In order to achieve high maturity of IT-- IT as transformer & game changer, CIOs need to become the high-value business leaders.

• The effective change agent: Success is far more likely if CIOs and IT professionals are seen as integral team players whose efforts add real value to the deployment of collaborative team structures within the organization. CIOs can provide visible corporate leadership and support that is required as traditional hierarchies are challenged and dismantled. They should promote training and robust communication policies that keep enterprise-wide goals and security in sight, yet do not stifle collaboration and creativity.

•  A culture Influencer: CIOs need to lead via influencing: Modern enterprise has recognized corporate culture as the strategic key to any innovation or large scale change management effort, many companies also walk the talk, take the tough cultural journey: from culture ignorance, culture cognizance into culture transformation. If we say CEO may take the ownership about culture, then CIO could be one of the biggest influencers on it via the modern knowledge sharing platform, analytics tools to inspire thought leadership, encourage the dissent opinions and demonstrate diversity. The innovative CIO will influence business culture and other soft factors for business success.

3. From a Status Quo to Think Differently

In an industry where innovation threatens to tear down legacy systems and practices (and vendors) just as it generates new opportunities, IT organizations are nonetheless resistant to change. It's natural to fear the unknown, question the unproven, be skeptical of the latest and greatest technology trends. Note the continued enterprise IT resistance to the cloud, consumer, and social movements--"non-compliant," "insecure," "overrated," "frivolous," "nothing really new here" ... pick your reasons for not buying in "smaller," "lighter," and "agiler" IT.

However, CIOs need to rise above the status quo and take on a new set of activities that have them involved in the strategy development process from the get-go. Innovation is about thinking differently, acting differently, delivering differently, adding value differently... from the status quo. Innovation requires thinking beyond, as opposed to outside the box, altering or changing the frame of reference to create previously unconsidered solutions. The new IT rulebook isn't for the faint of heart. Getting to "smaller," "lighter," and "agiler" may not require a complete IT architectural overhaul, but it will require some hard decisions about legacy platforms and processes.

CIOs need to become innovators, to run IT as an innovation hub, to equip people with the latest technology & information, to help the business make the right decision at every level, to capture insight and foresight for the future of business. CIOs need to “get things done, better, faster, cheaper, and smarter.” via the five Cs':  "Conversations, creativity, convergence, consistency, and community."

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To Celebrate Charles Dickens’s 200th Birthday: Wisdom From Heart

"Charles Dickens was born at midnight on February 7, 1812. . . . It was reported that the newborn baby began to cry as the clock struck 12, and many feel that his voice is as real today as it was 200 years ago." Raymond M. Lane

Dickens wrote 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles before his death in 1870, Dickens became known all over the world for his remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives, and his depictions of the social classes, reality and values of his times.

“There is a wisdom of the head, and... there is a wisdom of the heart.”
― Charles Dickens, Hard Times

Here are some Wisdom from both his heart &Mind:

1. Christendom

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ”
― Charles Dickens

Dickens’s influence is all over the world, his works has been translated into multiple languages, his Christmas Carol, the spirit of holiday touches the heart of children all around the globe all the time.

He also wrote: "Blessings on your kind heart... you may be sure you have done more good, fostered more kindly feelings, and prompted more positive acts of beneficence, than can be traced to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom."

2. Character: Pursuit of Freedom & Happiness

“I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.”
― Charles Dickens

Dickens is famed for his depiction of the hardships of the working class, his intricate plots, his sense of humour, his wisdom and the characters he created. The idyllic days of his childhood shaped his future characters like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Philip Pirrip based on his own experiences.

 “I only ask to be free, the butterflies are free.”
― Charles Dickens

Happiness is not always measured in smiles, Dickens may reach the highest level of happiness

“Give me a moment, because I like to cry for joy. It's so delicious, to cry for joy.”
― Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

3. Social Value –Right the Wrongs

Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social value,  He was a fierce critic of the poverty of Victorian society, the world of the working poor, where child labor was rampant and few if any adults spared a kind word for many abandoned or orphaned children.Some considered Dickens the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much awareness to their plight, the downtrodden and suffering.

"The reason I love him so deeply is that, having experienced the lower depths, he never ceased, till the day he died, to commit himself, both in his work and in his life, to trying to right the wrongs inflicted by society, above all, perhaps by giving the dispossessed a voice. From the moment he started to write, he spoke for the people, and the people loved him for it, as do I."
Simon Callow

4. Age of Wisdom

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.  ~~A Tale of Two Cities

There’re thousand of Dickens’s insightful quotes available, full of wisdom from both his heart and mind, his legacy is beyond just the old time charm, but more about the inspiring food for thought today.

5 Think Differently

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

When Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged within society, he represented the other view from mainstream, voice for those without voice, he thinks differently.

6. The Art of Possible

The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possiblities as probabilities.”
― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

As a prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays, novels, fiction, during his lifetime Dickens became well known all over the world via his master piece of works and literacy legacy.

He was also a master of time management:

My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.”
― Charles Dickens

7. Cautious Optimism

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 into a volatile period often referred to as the Age of Reform, where industrialisation was rapidly reshaping Britain, and legislators were - more than ever - struggling to adapt to the demands of a changing population.

His paradoxical wisdom and humorous spirit inspire one generation of the other, fighting for poverty, strive for happiness.

Today, we are also at the age of Change, where digitization radically revitalize the business and economy, by learning the legacy of Dickens, hopefully we could better adapt to such a  hyper-connected, hyper-complex, hyper-competitive uncertain world--the more advance world, compared to 200 years ago though.  

 “Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

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