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BP crisis: our shared responsibilities toward a new path to success

By Francis Cholle on June 9, 2010 10:22 PM | Comments | TrackBacks
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BP oil spill nearshore trajectory june18 2010


The tragedy in the Gulf continues. By now we’ve all seen the horrendous images of seabirds, fish, dolphins, and other forms of aquatic life - dead or dying, helpless as they slither about covered in oil, an agonizing sight for all the world to see.  We’ve seen the Cajun shrimpers bemoan the loss of their lifestyle, and we are witnessing a slow, lingering devastation - as the sea itself seems to be gasping for breath.

As the spill keeps gushing the questions keep coming:

  • Will Florida be soon deeply affected as well?  
  • Will a hurricane stir up the oil even further?  
  • Will the oil flow around the Florida Keys and wash up on the Eastern seaboard? 
  • When will it end?
  • Will BP pay?
BP is certainly to be held responsible. Some conniving political alliances of the past probably as well. No doubt such a catastrophe could have been avoided if more preventive thinking (North West Blue Quadrant of The Intuitive Compass™) had been involved in the management of this underwater well and if decisions had been made based on sustainable value as opposed to shareholder value. Of course there is nothing wrong with compensating the financial risk of a shareholder or an investor. But the sole focus on financial ROI can easily lead to very unbalanced situations. BP and the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf is one more proof of such limited thinking. The many other global sustainability issues as well.

But rather than focusing on BP as the scapegoat of our anger and sorrows few key facts need to be remembered though in order to draw deeper lessons from the current situation in the Mexican Gulf and bring forth a call for meaningful change. Let’s look at the diagram below.

sourceofoilinocean.png
Average annual contribution to oil in the ocean (1990-1999) from major sources of petroleum in kilotonnes. 
From Oil In The Sea, Ocean Studies Board and Marine Board of the National Academy of Sciences (2003).

Statistics show that above nearly 85 percent of the 29 million gallons of petroleum that enter North American ocean waters each year as a result of human activities comes from land-based runoff, polluted rivers, airplanes, and small boats and jet skis, while less than 8 percent comes from tanker or pipeline spills.

So what BP’s mistake is revealing is that all our  human operations and our system of wealth creation need to be reconsidered when it comes to oceans preservation. 

Not only BP but most of us in business still base our decisions on a very limited perspective and understanding of progress. By focusing primarily - and at times exclusively even - on the North East Yellow Quadrant and the South East Green Quadrant of The Intuitive Compass™ we essentially destroy the foundations of our existence and upset the fundamentals of life on the altar of logic and linear efficiency.

We leave out our best instrument for adaptive and sustainable decisions: Instinct. Simply put neuroscience has now proved that there is intelligence in our guts and we all know that instinct is responsible for our survival; that is its main function.

So even if our brilliant human logical mind has been able to invent amazing technological and scientific solutions all around it is yet very limited when it comes to shift paradigm and emancipate from its own way of reasoning. Logic only knows what’s logical. This is why in the name of logic one can become totally illogical because logic leaves out the part of life that eludes our logical mind. And as we can all testify from experience: life and logic don’t match! It takes imagination and courage to go beyond logic. To engage in a new path status quo needs to be challenged. It costs more effort, more risk taking, more energy and requires independent and creative thinking.

Today that level of in depth and courageous thinking is required. That level of commitment and determination to change is unavoidable.

The good news is: it is possible!

Muhammad Yunus proved it with microcredit. He challenged the status quo. He claimed that poverty is not a necessity of our system of development. He showed that it can be efficiently dealt with. He imagined and thought out a powerful way of empowering poor people to go beyond their limits. He organized lending money for the poor and showed that poor people can be more reliable that solvent people by traditional standards. He shifted the paradigm of credit and made a huge impact: nearly 8 million individuals are members of Grameen Bank (a total of 40 million people impacted when you count their family members). Since its inception thirty three years ago Grameen Bank has lent more than $ 8 billion US dolllars to the poor in Bangladesh. 

So how does one start an enterprise that reaches nearly 40 million people in one’s own country and improves the lives of tens of millions more in replications around the world? How does one create socially sustainable prosperity?

Through imagination, intense feeling, courage (i.e. rage of the heart), and deep thinking while not being afraid of paradoxes and commending a holistic view of life where all count, paying attention to unusual cues into powerful creative solutions, by humbly accepting that we cannot control life but committing to influence our individual and collective destiny. 

This exact same approach also applies to our relationship with Nature, seas and oceans. This equally applies to business model reinvention and innovation. In other words we can innovate and create prosperous businesses even in recession times and their impact can be positive, meaningful and economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

It is time to rethink the way we think… Not from a fragmented paradigm where logic and linear efficiency prevail in an exclusive manner but from a holistic and inclusive paradigm that is both creative and sustainable, intelligent and relevant. This is why Intuitive Intelligence and The Intuitive Compass™ were invented. This is why i do what i do.

Michael Schrage and the Intuition Fallacy

By Francis Cholle on June 6, 2010 7:06 AM | Comments | TrackBacks
There's a post on the HBR blog - Tell Your Gut to Please Shut Up - by Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School's Center for Digital Business, in which he denounces the current trend about intuition as the key to quick, effective, successful decision-making.

Although Schrage's argument seems to make perfect sense, and his ideas are well articulated, I think this is just another false debate about intuition.

To be intuitive does not necessarily make any one a better decision-maker, as much as having access to a lot of data is in and of itself not enough to make a good decision.

Schrage's view is a common misrepresentation of intuition. 

In reality, intuition is not about being right or wrong. Instead, intuition is a human aptitude that allows us to take in information that is not obvious to the conscious part of our mind that responds to logic. In other words, you may perceive something or feel a certain way about someone or a situation, and this perception and/or feeling may seem very real and yet simply does not make sense from the point of view of logic. But the fact that it does not make sense logically does NOT mean that it does not have any value... far from that, actually.

This phenomenon is often the foundation for many meaningful scientific breakthroughs. It is also the reason for great art, and even successful medical diagnoses!

What do you do in the face of information that does not seem to make any sense yet keeps your attention?

This is when your imagination and your capacity for induction as well as your sense of discrimination, your analytical mind, and your experience are all at once put to test.

Our analytical mind and our instinct work together to make successful choices.

Let's remember that a few years ago research at MIT Picower Center for Memory and Learning showed that parts of our reptilian brain (or instinctual brain) participate in sophisticated decision making: simply put there is intelligence in our gut instinct.

For this to occur, we need a medium to exchange data between the conscious and the non conscious planes of our mind. This is the function of intuition: to inform (not to decide). And this is why Intuitive Intelligence is defined as the ability for our analytical mind and our instinct to function in synergy thanks to our intuition

Now why is Intuitive Intelligence a fundamental concept in business today? And why is intuition an important subject that must be well understood, not misrepresented? Why? Because logic alone cannot bring the level of creativity and reinvention we need to innovate and win in the global economy. Breakthrough ideas can only come from our unconscious mind (otherwise they would not be new ideas!) so we need to access the part of us that is beyond our conscious mind. And what's beyond our conscious mind does not respond to logic!

Every entrepreneur who launched a successful business would tell you that at some point he or she made a critical decision based on gut instinct, because when you create something meaningful that does not have any existing equivalent you will have to rely on your own judgement beyond any logical framework of reference. That's the difficulty of launching a new business. You have to step in the unknown.

So to answer Michael Starge's question at the end of his HBR article: "So did I write that based on empirical observation? Or because I'm trusting my gut?

My answer is loud and clear: hopefully, both! Otherwise - with all due respect - "that" runs a high risk of being just another platitude.

The Future of Magazines & Newspapers: A Conversation

By Francis Cholle on June 6, 2010 6:21 AM | Comments | TrackBacks
Not long ago, at the airport, I had a conversation with John - a business man in his early 40s. 

Since I consult in the highly-challenged paper media industry I asked him how he feels about reading magazines and papers.

I assist a major firm identify the fundamentals of the media of the future, facilitate a culture of innovation and accelerate the reinvention of their business model. For those of you less familiar with the challenges of this industry in the US  let me tell you what they are in this digital age:

- increasingly, online destinations attract the attention of large audiences
- most paper magazines have a hard time retaining their audience
- advertising dollars shrink as a consequence
- media company try desperately to expand revenues on the web repurposing a somewhat irrelevant editorial legacy

So let's come back to my conversation with my fellow traveler at the airport. He's a best selling author, considered as a thought-leader in his field of expertise. To respect his privacy, I'll keep his name and further details about his profession confidential.

He tells me that he has not spent a dollar on a newspaper or a magazine for months, probably years!

So I asked him to share with me his reasons for this. He tells me that he already has access to more information than he could read: he receives the NY Times online newsletter everyday, as well as the Economist weekly; he checks the news on Google and the Daily Beast. Three times a week, he watches CNN at the gym for 45 min. as he runs on the treadmill. He browses the web constantly.

Overall, he prefers e-newsletters over online subscriptions because of time constraints - with a subscription he has to wait for the entire digital edition to download on his screen, but with an e-newsletter is only one click away from the information. Time is of essence for him and much more important than the marginal information he can only have via electronic subscriptions or paper versions.

Besides, he flies internationally very regularly and enjoys access to more magazines and newspapers - both US and international - than he could wish for.
He tells me that he prefers electronic information because he can save articles and send them easily to his clients or his assistant.  Simply put, he does not need to buy any general information - a pretty gloomy statement for traditional media owners!

But further into the conversation, I find out that he pays $150 to receive the McKinsey Quarterly. For $150 he can get a yearly online subscription with Newsweek and receive in the mail GQ, Car and Driver, and FT everyday!

So, where's the solution?

As always, the solution will not come from a financial equation alone - there is no imagination in 2+2 = 4 - yet most traditional business thinking comes back to : "what's the business model?" meaning "how do we make money?"

These questions are obviously necessary questions but they're also paralyzing! That's the conventional north-east quadrant approach in the Intuitive Compass™.

The appropriate questions are: "how do i bring value to my readers?" and "what is my reader trying to achieve?"

Let's go back to the roots. What does "media" mean? It means "in the middle" - media stands between people and information and facilitates news and information sharing.

If we come back to my conversation it's not difficult to see how to bring value to John, i.e to stand between John and a world of information in a way that's relevant and significant! He needs:

- cutting edge information to keep ahead of the curve in his business
- quick access and very easy repurposing of information
- a search engine that is customized to his very specific profile (profession, cultural background, revenue, age, lifestyle, consumption preferences, payment modalities, hometown and preferred destinations, travel patterns, etc.)

The media would help him thrive if they could deliver a customized version of their online magazine everyday with information that speaks to him, his lifestyle and saves him time.

it would not take much more content development from the media because in actual facts a lot of this information is already available online and for this he would be willing to pay obviously since we know he pays for the McKinsey Quarterly.

Two other essential complements would bring real added value to John's experience. One, is advertising: what if John could switch on and off access to customized advertising on his page? We let John decide when he wants to see an ad - tough, you'll say! ... how do you sell this to an advertiser?
Well actually, this is what Google does basically - we're simply pushing it one step further. John has control of his exposure to advertising in the same way as people decide if/when they want to sit in the sun. It would mean a pay-per-click type of revenue or even pay-per-lead. But John's perception of the media would be so enhanced - it would clearly raise drastically his loyalty to this medium

The other? User-generated content. He tells me he's looking for a new car; he's considering buying a Porsche Cayman or Boxster. He prefers the line of the Cayman, but living in LA, he thinks a convertible would be really cool, so he's debating between the two.

He tells me he goes online to find info about the cars. John says he'd like to know how green these cars are and how much it actually costs to drive and maintain them. Here are his three choices:

- the official Porsche website
- car magazines such as Car and Driver or Road and Track
- blogs and users generated reviews

The first two don't really answer these questions in a straightforward way.

Car magazines usually write about the new features of the car and in a style that's supposed to be appealing to the largest audience, while the Porsche website gives data that don't match up with real life.

But when it comes to users' reviews it's not easy either:  John has to go through a lot of shallow comments and irrelevant information before he can access what he needs: mpg data, maintenance cost, etc.

So what about a media company that develops a system to collect user-generated content and sort it out and find a way to establish a hierarchy so that shallow comments go to the end of the list and relevant serious information comes to the top?

This is something John would really value. It would save him time and give him access to real conversations with like-minded people who own and drive the cars he's considering. And this could be done on all other topics John would tell his media company he would like to hear about.

So why not including in the media of tomorrow a way to curate content?  To feed readers with user-generated content filtered and organized in a way that's relevant to the profile and aspirations of each readers.

This is typically a north-west quadrant / south-east quadrant type of approach grounded in the south-west quadrant: open creative thinking applied to improve performance based first and foremost on consumer value creation.

So the media still has a critical role to play.  There's still a lot to do and a lot of potential to enhance the media industry for both readers and magazines.

But please don't start your internal conversations talking about how you're going to make money; it will not take you very far! Start thinking about value and meaning to reach deeper long lasting creative solutions that will eventually lead to profit without a doubt.  

"Intuitive Intelligence" on iTunes U: Top Download

By Francis Cholle on June 6, 2010 6:13 AM | Comments | TrackBacks
The "Intuitive Intelligence" conference I put together for HEC MBA - first business school in Europe per FT ranking over the past 5 years - has become one of the top global downloads for iTunes U.  

You can download it for free >>


iTunes U gathers more than 250,000 free podcasts of lectures, films, interviews from 600 prestigious universities and institutions from all over the world. The weekly statistics provided by Apple, routinely show 60,000 to 70,000 visitors.

Les Echos: Les neurosciences au service de l'entreprise

By Francis Cholle on October 17, 2009 3:19 PM | Comments | TrackBacks
A short article in Les Echos:

Les-Echos-13-08-2009.gif

Translated:

Another way to manage and lead
Neurosciences in the service of business

Francis Cholle author of L'Intelligence Intuitive recommends to executives to combine their analytical mind with their intuitive aptitudes to gain further consumer insight and improve business performance.

From our correspondent in the Sillicon Valley, Laetitia Mailhes
 
For beauty and fashion executives time has come to reconsider every aspect of business. "The economy is changing consumers' behaviors, independently from the evolution of incomes, explains NY Fashion Institute of Technology Professor Stephan Kanlian. To open their wallet consumers today want more than brand prestige. They demand more and more added value and a greater match between products they buy and their own values." But the business community is not well prepared to adapt to such a radical change.

"Obsession for financial return has led leaders to often forget they share a common humanity with consumers," says Francis Cholle, author of L'Intelligence Intuitive, innovation consultant for large corporations and advisor to their C-Level executives. A graduate of the best European business school, HEC (Ecoles des Hautes Commerciales) Francis Cholle insists that sustainable value creation requires the necessary synergy between analysis and ROI on the one hand and play and instinct, on the other (see graph below of The Intuitive Compass™).

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The role of intuitive intelligence

"Neuroscience showed in 2005 that parts of our brain traditionally associated with our instinct are involved in our most sophisticated decisions" says our expert in reference to MIT Picower Institute for Learning and Memory research on our reptilian brain aka instinctual brain, published in the  scientific journal Nature. "It is very noticeable in consumer behaviors. For this exact reason if a company wants to understand its market and meet its expectations, it is necessary that they  understand how intuition works and integrate an intuitive process in their business approach," adds Francis Cholle. His message is well received. "My daily conversations with Francis Cholle greatly deepen my thinking at a particularly critical time for our company" says Ralph Lauren Fragrances and Beauty President Guillaume de Lesquen, based in New York to orchestrate the brand development on the world stage. 

Long before the economic recession Francis Cholle started to advocate the role of intuitive aptitudes and their impact on value creation. Biotherm for Men global marketing director, Charles Haddad is quite satisfied that he could attend one of Francis Cholle's seminar and acquire tools that explain in a simple language many key aspects of brand development and marketing that he could confusedly feel but could not clearly understand even less so replicate. Today Charles Haddad  encourages in his team " free and spontaneous communication. We then select what we feel is relevant". "It is not about leaving behind our marketing objectives but rather about dissolving automatic censorship mechanism often inherent to corporate structures."

Armand de Villoutreys, CEO of Firmenich in Paris and president of Firmenich Fine Fragrance World Division, asserts that he has "learned to approach differently his leadership role in a creative corporation." And it showed very tangible results! "We started four years ago to integrate into our management practices the principles of Intuitive Intelligence," says the French executive. "We have been happy to see an accelerated growth of our financial results across continents well above market average." 

© Les Echos n° 20486 dated 08-13-2009 p. 06 (Authorized translation by Peter Camo)

The Deloitte Big Shift Index 2009: What's Missing?

By Francis Cholle on July 14, 2009 9:15 PM | Comments | TrackBacks

If you have not already read "The Big Shift Index" report from The Deloitte Center for the Edge led by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison you should do so immediately.

 

This first release of the Shift Index reveals a startling fact: the return on assets (ROA) for U.S. firms has steadily fallen to almost one-quarter of 1965 levels; at the same time,  the researchers found modest improvements in labor productivity.


Grim news, indeed. The report also finds:


- The ROA performance gap between winners and losers has increased over time, with the "winners" barely maintaining previous performance levels, while the losers experience rapid deterioration in performance.


- The "topple rate," at which big companies lose their leadership positions, has more than doubled, suggesting that "winners" have increasingly precarious positions.


- U.S. competitive intensity has more than doubled during the last 40 years.


- While the performance of U.S. firms is deteriorating, the benefits of productivity improvements appear to be captured in part by creative talent, which is experiencing greater growth in total compensation. Customers also appear to be gaining and using power as reflected in increasing customer disloyalty.


- The exponentially advancing price/performance capability of computing, storage, and bandwidth is driving an adoption rate for our new "digital infrastructure" that is two to five times faster than previous infrastructures, such as electricity and telephone networks.
                                     

The Shift Index consists of three indices: Foundation, Flow, and Impact, and 25 metrics that together quantify the stock, pace, and implications of the shift. The index enables analysts to anticipate changes, identify bottlenecks, and guide strategy. Not everyone, of course, will choose to monitor the same metrics or assign them the same weights.  Thus, the Shift Index is less a single measure and more an informational platform that will give rise to a diversity of models and, a stronger collective sense about the pace and nature of change, constraints and opportunities within that system.  As constraints fall away and opportunities increase, old configurations become unstable and new structures emerge.

 

A number of key ideas in the report resonated with our observations at The Human Company:


- the importance of creativity and innovation in ROA

- information "flows" over information "stocks"

- passion as a driver for higher productivity

- more and more discriminating consumers

- consistently declining return on assets

- increasing rate at which big companies lose their leadership positions

- rising executive turnover tied to increasing performance pressures

 

However, I was surprised to find one element missing in their measurement model.


What's missing? Sustainability and its impact on the economy.


Sustainability is the business imperative for our time. From global-warming to competition for natural resources, sustainability must necessarily sit at the core of any sound business strategy. The sooner businesses understand this the better.


Organizations will have no choice but to follow government regulations and anticipate consumers reactions and merciless communication via ever more powerful social networks aiming at securing a healthy future.


More importantly employers who align their businesses to create a more sustainable world will also attract, retain and empower more and better employees. Sustainability challenges have become so pressing that they not only affect us at a rational and emotional level but they also threaten our survival instincts. And  as such they are bound to impact employee productivity, loyalty, and creativity. Meaning is the underpinning and decisive factor of human efficiency. How could a corporation careless of its employees' and employees' children future ever encounter long term success in a flat world?


In order to maintain competitivity, growth and profitability organizations will have to build sustainable blueprints for the future. Take a look at Adam Werbach's latest book: Strategy for Sustainability.

The Deloitte report is an example of a brilliant work conceived in an intellectual tradition largely limited to our analytical minds. Yes, they do mention creativity and talent and yes, they talk about information flows, but I wish they had mentioned sustainability. A quick glance at the Intuitive Compass™ shows us that Deloitte overlooked the South West Quadrant. Regrettably, this is often the case with our business thinking.

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Going forward, we cannot leave out the importance of our reptilian brain in its relentless ability to impact every second of our lives and its superior intelligence to sustain our species and hence help us make the best business decisions for a sustainable future (1).

Here's looking forward to the the 2010 Shift Index; I hope to see a section on sustainability and a study on the decisive intangible dimensions of value creation which intuitive intelligence is designed to help us reckon with.

(1) In 2004 MIT School of Science Picower Insititute for Learning and Memory has shown that the basal ganglia which are parts of our reptilian brain are involved in our most sophisticated decision processes (Nature, Feb 24 2005)

Intuitive Intelligence and Diplomacy: Barack Obama Reaches Out to Muslim Communities

By Francis Cholle on June 12, 2009 6:50 AM | Comments | TrackBacks

Those who criticize Obama’s speech as “just words,” would be well advised to look at history. 

In a scene reminiscent of JFK in Berlin and Ronald Reagan exhorting Gorbachev to “tear down the wall,” Barack Obama has taken the initiative with the culture impasse between the West and communities across the Muslim world. 

His speech in Cairo has set a new benchmark for leadership:


Not only did he manage to state his case with firmness and resolve, he was able to break through the years of mistrust by standing and acknowledging the truth on both sides. 

His sincere yet calm delivery struck the right chord with the people in the streets of Cairo. So says Annelle Sheline, a Cairo-based American journalist:

In a taxi, I asked the driver for his opinion, and he launched into a happy spiel in heavy Cairene about Obama wanting peace and trying to make all the countries of the world work together. When I asked if this was possible, he responded that there had never been a president like Obama in the US, and therefore, “Aiwa, mumkin” (Yes, it’s possible).

His strategy was to understand that the imagination of the people resides in the South-West Quadrant of the Intuitive Compass™.  He examines the hopes of the people in the street, and addresses them.  

Sheline tells us that Dalia Mogahed, the executive director of Gallup’s Center for Muslim Studies had outlined the three points indicated by polls that Muslims wanted to hear.

Respect.
Respect from the United States for the religion of Islam and for Muslim cultures.


Cooperation.
No more unilateral action, but cooperation between equal partners.

Issues.
Address the policies of the United States that have angered Muslims on key issues, including Palestine, Iraq, Guantanamo, etc.

Without respect no trust can be established - without trust little creativity and substance can unfold; without equality there is no real long lasting effective change; and, without integrity and introspection there is no growth. Obama’s speech touched on each one of these cornerstones. 

Obama seized the initiative and brought the voice of reason back to the table. The President is, like it or not, a living symbol - and nothing is more powerful than symbolic action in an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility. The Times reports:

Barack Obama must have said something right if Osama bin Laden, Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran and the Jewish settlers on the West Bank all lined up to denounce his speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds.

For too long, the dialog on the future of the Middle East has been dominated by extreme voices.  Obama’s speech spoke directly to the aspirations of the common man. He humanized America, by opening up and sharing his personal story.

Words are the weapons of change.  Just ask Ted Sorensen.

And now, we see signs that the “Obama Effect” may be sweeping across the Middle East. Iran’s election too, has become a referendum for change.

Earlier, we saw Obama’s overtures in Turkey. The political commentators who were concerned that Barack Obama’s visit to Turkey was high on style but low in substance may not be as right they believe they are. Their view is focused on the North-East Quadrant of the Intuitive Compass™ - they are focused on measurable results and timelines.

Let’s look at a historical snapshot of public opinion in Turkey, courtesy of Gallup:

gallup_turkey.gif 

Question: If the U.S. can’t get any respect in Turkey, a “secular” democracy, how can they  achieve any progress in the Arab world at all?

Flashback: The last attempt at winning the “hearts and minds” of the Muslim world ended in shambles when Bush’s fellow Texan and close friend, Karen Hughes, walked away from the job in total failure. And before her there was the Charlotte Beers’ propaganda show.

All of which makes President Obama’s short trip to Turkey even more spectacular. He accomplished in two days what the PR-experts couldn’t accomplish in eight years, and he didn’t waste a billion dollars.

How, you ask?

Watch this video of Obama talking to the youth:


These are the same students, who according to  to Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, have, for the past eight years,”fostered deep anti-American sentiments exacerbated by an unpopular war in Iraq and a perception that the U.S. is biased toward Muslims.” 

What we are witnessing in Obama is the promise of authentic leadership which speaks directly to the heart of people.  The most powerful leader of the most powerful country in the world stood in the center of a circle of Turkish students in a university to address their concerns.  The circle = cooperation, the center = respect, and addressing concerns = the truth.

With his speech in Cairo, Obama knocked down the psychological wall which separates western culture and the mindset of Islam - now the work at hand is to reach across the wall and shake hands for a brighter future for all.  That will happen through the concrete actions people take in the weeks and months ahead.

Case Study: Creativity versus Results at L'Oréal

By Francis Cholle on May 28, 2009 10:21 AM | Comments | TrackBacks
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According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, L'Oréal SA, the world's largest cosmetics maker, reported flat sales for the first quarter of 2009 as consumers shied away from its luxury skin creams and shampoos in favor of its cheaper brands. The maker of products ranging from Giorgio Armani perfume to Lancôme skin cream and Maybelline eye shadows said sales increased 0.3% to €4.37 billion ($5.83 billion) in the first three months of 2009. Jean-Paul Agon, L'Oréal's chief executive, said that he would not offer specific guidance for the year but that results would "improve" during 2009.

After accounting for the effect of currency fluctuations, sales fell 9.3% in Western Europe and 5% in North America. This shortfall was partly offset by an increase in revenue in Asia.

Sales at L'Oréal's luxury cosmetics division fell, while sales of its consumer drugstore lines increased slightly.

This is an unfortunate turn for L'Oréal which has always been known for its commitment to scientific research and exceptional financial results.

In fact, you might say there is an unresolved tension in its culture between creativity and business results. This tension is visible even on its website. If you read about the "profiles they are looking for" under the marketing category, here's a description you'll find:

Creativity, imagination, openness to new ideas - coupled with the highest professionalism.
• Project-oriented, natural team player, at ease working with others in an environment of entrepreneurial challenge.
• Global-minded, flexible, able to juggle multiple priorities.
• Strong analytical thinker, excellent communicator.

You have a keen eye on the latest fashions, a finger on the pulse of emerging consumer and cultural trends. Highly developed interpersonal skills, a passion for results. The personality to make a difference.

Diagnosis: L'Oréal - When East dominates West...                

For the past few years I have been working with L'Oréal to change this dynamic.

The challenge: help marketers and managers develop a sensitivity to the creative nature of the beauty product development process and specifically gain an understanding for the process of research and development.

When the cosmetic group decided to develop a world wide talent appraisal process Sir Lindsay Owen Jones articulated the need to develop a competence key to the success of the group in the eye of the CEO, and that is: sensitivity to métier. What Sir Lindsay Owen Jones was aiming for was to develop a global, shared understanding for beauty products development, for L'Oréal customers, and for a number of other confidential important characteristics identified by the CEO as key factors for success in the beauty industry.

The Human Company was commissioned to research how to define this specific aptitude and how to develop it and train for it. We developed an international training track that is seen today as one of the most successful and inspiring training program available at L'Oréal.

Our approach consists in helping marketers understand how to engage and inspire creative people to contribute the best of their creativity.  We used the The Intuitive Compass™ to highlight the tension between results-driven managers and creative teams.

compass_loreal.gif

Our analysis: L'Oréal has a product innovation driven business model whereas most of its competitors have often a market-driven model. The company believes in scientific innovation to promote growth. Its founder was a scientist. It is how L'Oréal sustained 20 years of double-digit growth and became the world leader in cosmetics. There is, as I mentioned earlier, a tension in its culture between creativity and business results.

Results: We helped L'Oréal's teams understand the perspective of the different teams.  The creative teams learned about the business aspects they had neglected, while the managers and marketers were helped to understand the creative process. The bridge is intuitive intelligence. Our training program is seen today as one of the most successful and inspiring training program available at L'Oréal. (Average rating: 19.5/20) because it is very relevant with the innovation imperative prevailing in the beauty Industry, articulated by the CEO Jean Paul Agon in his mandate. 

FIT: New Intelligence for the New Economy

By Francis Cholle on May 13, 2009 7:06 PM | Comments | TrackBacks
I just got back from delivering the keynote at the Fashion Institute of Technology's 2009 Capstone Presentations and Graduation Reception.

Over the past few weeks, I've seen how teams of students have used the ideas we discussed, both on creativity and applied intuitive intelligence, to learn more about the possibilities for exploring new avenues for growth. They are full of enthusiasm and passion for their work - and that is what true education is about. May they keep the fire with them always!

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Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful evening: FIT's Dr. Joyce Brown and Professor Stephan Kanlian, our gracious hosts;  my industry colleagues: Karen Grant, Marc Gobe, Candace Corlett, and Mark Pritchard; and of course, Ellen Byron from the Wall Street Journal.

And most importantly, thank you to the students.  Yours is the task of building a tomorrow that keeps us alive, hopeful, and yes, sometimes, truly joyful!

My keynote presentation is available here >>

The Intuitive Compass™: A Framework for Intuitive Intelligence

By Francis Cholle on May 13, 2009 11:24 AM | Comments | TrackBacks
We know that innovation is more about people and culture than it is about process and structures. Yet many executives find themselves unable to inspire their teams and foster a culture of innovation. This is not a new theme in management thinking, but it is one that has never been more important.

Early on, as my work took me deep into this realm - the world of intuitive intelligence -  I struggled to build a model to explain why this was so.  And so it was by accident, and by now we know that there are no accidents, that the model of The Intuitive Compass™ took shape:

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Oddly enough, I was using Cartesian coordinates to explain the flaws in our linear thinking. The two principal axes, Play-Results and Instinct-Reason, give us four quadrants (NE, SE, SW, NW). Each of these quadrants represents a function or even a mindset in an organization. Let's make a few generalizations to explain the framework:

The NE quadrant is the area where reason and results prevail. This is the realm of business administration and management. Most companies excel in this department, led by teh twin beacons of "maximizing shareholder value" and "cost management."

The SE quadrant is the area where instinct is at the core and results are the rule of the game. This is the mindset one finds in a sales department, or in an athlete.

The NW quadrant is the area where reason engages in a creative thinking process as in strategic planning or marketing (think of an architectural firm or engineering company).

Finally, the SW quadrant is the area where instincts are at the heart of the creative process to invent and create from the unknown and the depth of the unconscious. This is where creators, scientists, researchers, and inventors experience eureka moments. Most executives and almost all companies, even those engaged in creative fields, lack a way to connect this quadrant back into the rest of the business.

The Intuitive Compass™ becomes a tool we can apply to assess and chart progress as companies (and executives) learn to harness intuitive intelligence in four key areas:

Strategy: how to employ intuitive intelligence to create sustainable, innovative business models which deliver real value to customers in their local environment.

Leadership: the transformative power of intuitive intelligence energizes, and builds movements - with clarity of vision and purpose.

Work Culture: the ecosystem health of your business culture is reflected in your bottom line results. The Intuitive Compass™ helps create the open culture you need to succeed in the intelligent economy.

Consumer Needs: map your customers needs and wants using The Intuitive Compass™ - creating a value innovation agenda for your customers.

The bottom line is convergence - with customers, employees, management and leadership.

Going forward, we'll use The Intuitive Compass™ to chart how companies and leaders can use intuitive intelligence to shape the future - both in their industries and in the larger world.

About This Blog: Using Intuitive Intelligence to Create Sustainable Business Value

By Francis Cholle on May 6, 2009 10:50 AM | Comments | TrackBacks
When I first became involved in researching intuitive intelligence and its relationship to business, I was surprised to discover the disconnect between what leaders wanted to do--innovate and create sustainable value--and what they actually accomplished--scarce innovation and unsustainable value. Often they were doing everything right (by the book) and still failing.

As I studied the root cause of these failures, a common thread appeared over and over again, and still appears today. Executives manage their companies in analytic ways, focusing on shareholder value. By focusing on the business results, they fail to do what is required to achieve the very results they desire. They can't engage their key stakeholders, whether employees or customers.

Two essential truths about human nature are deeply overlooked in most companies:
  • Our minds are essentially unconscious (80% of our grey matter is dedicated to subconscious thinking)
  • Play gives access to our unconscious
Now we know that:

  • Most innovative solutions are limited by our analytical minds, because our analytical mind knows only what it knows 
  • Creativity originates in our unconscious. Breakthrough ideas often elude the rational mind
  • People can rise above their perceived limits when they are inspired
Our western approach to education, work, collaboration, or solutions for the future is dominantly led by rational thinking. We have handicapped ourselves.

Our intuitive aptitudes enable us to notice and take in information which may not make sense to the rational mind. This is our gateway to new and paradoxical information. They are the conduit to creative ideas.

Intuitive intelligence is the ability to combine our analytical mind with our intuitive aptitudes to solve problems in an innovative way and succeed in the new economy.

Because we now live in a network based society consumers have gained an active voice in our businesses. Relationships with consumers are on a reciprocal basis. We need to speak to their minds, their emotions and their guts. Authenticity is now at the heart of commerce. Advertising is about creating relevant narratives for consumers as much as it is about factual information about products and services.

We must respect our ecosystems and understand that business is part of an interconnected global web.

These are the primary reasons why I authored the book Intuitive Intelligence, and its application model The Intuitive Compass™.

In this blog I will share my ideas and findings about how to use intuitive intelligence to innovate and create sustainable value in order to succeed in this new, ever-shifting economy.

We'll look at how and why our intuition is often a better guide to problem-solving than reason alone.

We'll explore ways to use The Intuitive Compass™ and make a difference - in business strategy, leadership, innovative work culture, consumer intelligence, and product development.

Won't you join us on this journey?

Francis Cholle: About Me

By Francis Cholle on April 14, 2009 3:02 PM | Comments | TrackBacks


Hi, I'm Francis Cholle, founder of The Human Company. Welcome to my blog on Intuitive Intelligence.

I'm an international author, speaker, seminar leader, and consultative advisor with extensive business experience in a variety of industries from beauty and luxury to communication and IT.

I help organizations nurture and better leverage their creative assets to drive sustainable growth. By designing and implementing original executive development training programs that focus on creative leadership and the management of innovation, my insight and guidance has helped these corporations engage and meet the new challenges of the new economy.

Along the way, I developed the Intuitive Compass™, a tool for executive and strategic decision-making. I provide consulting and mentoring to C-level and senior executives at major, mid-size, and emerging firms across a range of industries.

Recent clients include Alcatel Lucent, Bristol Myers Squibb, Caritas - Secours Catholique, Clarins, Firmenich, L'Oréal, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, SAP-Business Objects, and Siemens.

In January 2008, I started teaching a course at HEC MBA: "Intuitive Intelligence and Innovative Leadership". We designed the course to encourage executive students to demonstrate a new kind of leadership and help them imagine the defining purpose that drives successful business within the global imperatives of sustainability and innovation.

I earned a Masters in Science of Management from the leading European business school, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), rated the best European business school by Financial Times for the fourth consecutive year in 2008. I'm also a graduate of the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, NY and I'm accredited to carry out MBTI assessments.I'm a practicing certified consultant of the Tomatis Method for active listening and interpersonal communication.

I have traveled to more than 45 countries and has conducted business in most of them. I'm bilingual in French-English and fluent in German and Spanish. I've lived in the US for the past 14 years and reside in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris.

Contact me here >>

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