Company vs. Personal Power, Influence

“If the 1980s were about quality and the 1990s about reengineering, then the 2000s will be about velocity,” wrote Bill Gates, unarguably the richest and most powerful man in the country, maybe the globe. (“Business @ The Speed of Thought, Using a Digital Nervous System” Bill Gates, Warner Press.)

He visualized, even a few years ago, how quickly the nature of business would change and that information access would alter our lifestyles…and consumers’ expectations of a business. In this sense, Mr. Deilenschneider seems to have gotten his message absolutely correct about the powerful being the ones who understand and use the speed of change . . . to their advantage.

Gates noted that what used to take 50 years, we do in 10, because of the flow of digital information. Every industry has been touched, affected dramatically, from real estate (Main Street) to Wall St. Numerous jobs are no longer needed. New ones go wanting. Old ones change, shrink and expand together. The influential and powerful see this large picture in their own office, on their own street and in their own family. Change. Power. Influence. They’re all tied together.

Gates terms this the Web Workstyle. The rest of us might call it digital or technological knowledge to survive and thrive at the office, while maintaining and growing one’s power base. He uses the example of the human biological nervous system, reacting automatically to stresses and strains, to a company’s nervous system that hasn’t quite figured out how to react as quickly and instinctively as it might. Management of the company’s systems takes courage and foresight.

He notes, strongly, that from the CEO on down, employees need to become comfortable with these rapid changes and new digital technologies in order to understand how they are, or could, change business processes. He divides HIS 12 key steps as ones involving “knowledge work,” “business operations,” and “commerce,” which is defines as interaction with suppliers and customers.

Mr. Gates focuses on leaders who use new technologies to streamline and modernize their business’ processes, making strategic thought an ongoing process. Mr. Dilenschneider seemingly captures these messages and translates them into ways for employees to become PERSONALLY more powerful and influential. The business should also succeed.

After all, it’s one thing for the business to do better, and an entirely different thing for an INDIVIDUAL to do better. Many a naïve employee has got the two mixed, driving the business ahead while nixing one’s own chances of success. Mr. Dilenschneider shows how to avoid this death spiral. This alone should drive readers to inspect, closely, the ideas put forth on these few pages.