THOUGHT LEADER ZONE - Key Persons
Constance S. Ward, founder of Thought Leader Zone, has international communications experience working for large and small multi-national companies that include Black & Veatch, GE Insurance Solutions and Zurich Financial Services.
She also has previous experience in strategic marketing as global head of competitive intelligence for Roche Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland. As a management consultant specializing in marketing and communications, she worked in the pharmaceutical, financial services, re/insurance, chemical and oil industries.
A former journalist, she has conducted marketing and opinion research for Radio Free Europe in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and has written for Time magazine, The Times and the Sunday Times of London, among other U.S. and international publications.
As one of the first recipients of a Fulbright Fellowship to teach in Bulgaria before the Iron Curtain fell, she witnessed history in the making with a front-row seat on the bleachers of reform. While living in Bulgaria, she later worked as an educational consultant for the Open Society Fund, a George Soros foundation.
She received her Masters degree in rhetorical theory from the University of Missouri in Columbia and spent several years teaching in high school, community colleges and the English department at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
Job Titles:
- Leader of Global Pharmaceuticals Powerhouse Novartis, Was the First Departure, Announced
Daniel Vasella, long-time leader of global pharmaceuticals powerhouse Novartis, was the first departure, announced on 23 January.
Davide Scaramuzza, a thought leader in robotics from the University of Zurich, brought a small, vision-controlled autonomous flying robot to the innovation event for "show and tell." Because it was literally a flying machine, the Zurich Airport control had to give it clearance to fly around the stage at the event.
Risk behaviors were also the focus of Gerd Gigerenzer's talk about relative risk vs. absolute risk and how the public is often confused or misled about the difference between those types of risk. As an example, he cited a study where people were asked to explain what exactly was meant by a 30% chance of rain and answers varied widely and in some cases hilariously.
Then in a book I just finished, a reference to the 19th Century sculptor again made me question the use of photos of Auguste Rodin's "Thinker" on the site. Michael Cunningham in By Nightfall wrote: "Now Rodin has been and gone and yes, of course, he's a part of history, but new artists don't revere him, no one makes a pilgrimage, you learn about him in school, you pass his sculptures on your way to see the Damien Hirst."
So I've now given more thought to whether Rodin is an appropriate muse to have on a website about thought leadership, and I've decided it's definitely staying. Here's why:
Many of the concepts on this site are traditional, tried-and-true techniques for leadership. But added to those "Rodin" ideas are some trends and contemporary "Damien Hirst" techniques that you can tailor to build your own thought-leadership skills in this modern-day world.
Rodin may now be recognized the pre-eminent French sculptor of his time, but his ideas weren't always accepted in a world unaccustomed to realism in sculptures. He was a trailblazer, but he had to establish his reputation as a leader in the art world over time. Eventually, however, "society"-including his clients and critics and even his competitors-appreciated his progressive point of view about sculpture.
Job Titles:
- Mobility Expert from Denmark
Nicolas Perony, who studied animal behavior and made comparisons to human behavior, talked about the principle of simplifying complexity, a key skill for any thought leader. Also he presented a study about South African meercats that may speak to the gender issue in the workplace.
Job Titles:
- General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority
Picture Danny Boyle as the CEO of a small company with 7,500 volunteers. How did he inspire them to "work" an average of 150 hours each? We can only speculate, but perhaps having seen other Olympic opening ceremonies, the participants knew that their individual part would make an important contribution to the whole. Are you as a thought leader helping your teams see the bigger picture and understand how they are involved in a worthy cause?
Tributes for noted business strategist Stephen Covey, who died in late July, could be found not just in business publications, but also in mass media. That indicates the broad popularity of this inspiring businessman, who authored a series of Seven Habits books and launched a multinational franchise of time management products and services.
I worked several years for a rival spin-off company, Franklin Quest Consulting Group, which eventually was folded back into Covey's vast empire. We were fortunate to be exposed closeup to the strategic concepts, tools and applications of the Seven Habits model.
The Chief Truth Teller in a company, however, has to be the person at the top of a company, who sets the standard for honesty and integrity in business dealings and communication and then enforces the expectation of truth among the company's employees.
As you may have read elsewhere on this site, I had a front row seat on the bleachers of reform in Eastern Europe at that time. Buoyed by the quiet heroic actions of Havel and the more ebullient Lech Walsea, protestors brought about the fall of communism I witnessed in Bulgaria and Romania.
Years later my then 14-year-old niece and I saw Havel arriving at a concert in Salzburg, Austria. She couldn't believe I was acting so awestruck about such a normal-looking man, and I couldn't believe she hadn't learned in school about how this person had helped to change the lives of so many by living out his principles.
In Havel's early years as a playwright, he was inspired by banned philosopher Jan Patocka and wrote a political essay on the "Power of the Powerless."
He wrote about a green grocer who refused to put in his shop window amid the onions and carrots a sign with the slogan "workers of the world unite." It was understood that the green grocer was not expected to believe the sign; but by displaying it, he signaled he would give regime no trouble. But Havel believed the grocer could "live in truth" and reclaim his dignity by taking down the sign and suffering the consequences.
Are the workers of your world truly united or are they just paying lip service to your principles and beliefs? As a thought leader, do you have followers who find it easier just to give your regime no trouble but don't really believe the direction you are heading is the right one? Do your employees think that, according to a worker in another of Havel's plays called "Vanek," they are simply "the manure that makes your fancy principles grow"?
William Muhairwe, head of the GWLG and former director of the Uganda water utility, opened with a comparison of operational performance of utilities with that of an airline. Both try for perfect performance and public safety depends on that success.