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Why Do You
Need Cross-Functional Excellence?
"My poor dad said, 'You need to know a lot about one specialty'.
My rich
dad said, 'You need to learn a little about a lot of things.' "
~
Robert Kiyosaki
Innovation is a pervasively cross-functional process. Although innovation is driven by
technology, required competence extends beyond technical know-how. In the
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new
new knowledge economy and
knowledge-based enterprises,
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systemic innovative solutions arise from complex interactions between
many individuals, organizations and environmental factors. The boundaries
between products and services fade rapidly too. If you wish to be a
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market leaders today, you must be able to integrate in a
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balanced way different types of know-how that would transform
stand-alone technologies, products and services into a seamless, value-rich
solution.
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Results-based
Leadership
No Idea is Wasted!
Your
mind
can accept only those ideas that have a frame of reference with your
existing knowledge. It rejects everything else. If your knowledge is
functionally focused, you'll be open to new ideas related to your functional
expertise only and will miss all other learning and innovation
opportunities.
If you develop a broad cross-functional
expertise, no new idea is wasted. It will immediately connect with the
existing knowledge and inspire you, energize you, and encourage your
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entrepreneurial creativity.
The broader your net, the more fish you can catch.
Business Architect
The integrated
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business system approach
to
business development and the management process is what distinguishes
modern cross-functionally excellent
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business architects
from functional
managers...
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IT Architect: Modern
Requirements
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IT Leader: New Roles of a CIO
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Modern ICT-powered Value Chain
IT architects are in growing demand. They
are cross-functionally excellent people who can "tie several silos of
expertise together," relate to
business problems as well as technology, and
then sell their ideas upward and downward in the corporate hierarchy. The
position of IT architect has become increasingly important to the
ever-changing IT industry, and is one that established corporations and
start-ups are seeking. "As IT positions become more specialized and
include increasingly detailed responsibilities, there's a need for someone
who can tie several silos of expertise together," says Al Volvano, a product
manager for Microsoft's Learning Group.
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Enterprise architects aren't just
technology experts; they are
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leaders with broad IT knowledge, the savvy to
apply it to business
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problems and the
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communication skills necessary to coordinate the people who will put
their plans into action," says Bill Liguori, co-founder of the placement firm Leadership Capital Group.7
Master of Business
Synergies (MBS)
Being good in separated functions
is
not enough
anymore. If you want
to be a
market leader, you must be
able to build innovative synergies. You must
synergize diversities,
innovations,
business processes, functions,
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radical and
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incremental
improvements,
value chain,
marketing and
selling methods...
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 Business e-Coach
Business e-Coach, a new-to-the-world product and the world leader in
business e-coaching is a great illustration of the power of cross-functional
expertise as a source of
sustainable competitive
advantage. The e-Coach integrates synergistically and
systemically
many various expertises to inspire
innovation
and entrepreneurial creativity. Launched in 2001 initially as a
hobby and later on as a home business, it has today customers in 130+ countries. This global success
has not created any direct competition to Business e-Coach however. Why? Because potential me-tooers had no
cross-functional experts to be able to develop a competitive service and
keep upgrading it continuously at high speed.
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10 Success Lessons
from e-Coach
KoRe 10 Innovative
Thinking Tools
The
Kore 10 Metaphoric Tools
help you
invent new things,
anticipate market shifts and your opponents' moves, find creative
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solutions
to a complex problem design
a
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synergistic
innovation
strategy...
More
Microsoft
Bill Gates believes that the greater the human
"bandwidth" that he employs (in other words, collective intelligence
Microsoft hires and develops), the greater the strength of his company.
Narrow-minded technologists have never fitted Gates' broader ambitions.
Gates uses the word "bandwidth" to describe people's intellectual
capacity...
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