Interview for Computing and article on Redarchy in Managers and Companies

In recent weeks I have participated in an interview for the magazine Computing, and I have published an article on Redarchy in Managers and Companies and in Infoempleo.

You can check them out below. I have selected and highlighted some of the most interesting topics:

COMPUTING MAGAZINE. Interview conducted by Lucía Bonilla.

“Companies should reconvert and focus more on collaboration”

Companies not only need to be operationally efficient, but also strategically agile to respond to the challenges we face.

The world after the financial crisis is not going to be the same. We have to learn to manage the business and the operating model, looking for new ways to grow.

The problem is not technological, since technologies are far ahead of people. Today, the challenge is with people. They have to be able to take advantage of new technologies properly.

Managers and IT leaders should reinvent themselves to meet new challenges.

Increasing productivity is an imperative that will not be solved from the process side, but will be the result of the creation of a different collaborative culture.

Business challenges will not be solved with more investments because budgets are very limited, but with a different way of doing things. SaaS (software as a service) solutions have a lot to contribute here.

Companies – and this affects ICT – will necessarily have to change in order to face the future, and it is not just a matter of adjusting the operating model or reducing staff or adjusting to demand, but also changing business management and focusing on the generation of value models.

There are companies that have been able to do things very well, such as IBM, Oracle, Google or Cisco. ICT will tend towards a model that is increasingly focused on cloud computing and Web 2.0.

The ICT sector has an obligation to reconvert: to move from focusing on business processes to fostering collaboration between people. It is a shift from a process technology approach to innovation in people.

He is currently CEO of Cabrera Management Consulting, president of the advisory board of the College of Engineers and Computer Scientists of Catalonia, member of the advisory board of Oracle Ibérica and founding partner of Innopersonas and ASPgems. How do you reconcile all these responsibilities?

I have dedicated a large part of my life to Sun Microsystems, that has been my great life project, since I had the opportunity to run the Spanish subsidiary until 2002, and later in Europe until 2006. Now I am also part of the advisory board of Oracle, which is very important because it gives me professional continuity. In addition, from there, it was clear to me that I wanted to dedicate the last years of my professional life to a more business environment. For me, Cabrera Management Consulting is a holding company, a company aimed at addressing entrepreneurial activity, and it is one of my dreams together with Innopersonas, because I have always had a great passion for innovation. It seems that there are many different things, but in reality everything is related.

Indeed, innovation is one of his obsessions, which is reflected in his blog “Leadership in the era of collaboration”. From your perception, what mechanisms should Spain implement to be a more innovative and productive country?

I have come to the conclusion that there is a new way of doing things, since companies today do not have to be efficient from an operational point of view, but also strategically agile to respond to the challenges we face. These challenges are not only related to the financial crisis, but also to the fact that the world after the crisis is not going to be the same, and in that sense we have to learn to manage the business and the operating model, looking for new ways of growth. Because the problem is not technological, since technologies are far ahead of people: today, the challenge is with people. They have to be able to take advantage of new technologies properly. IT managers and managers should reinvent themselves to know how to face new challenges.

What are ASPgems’ business lines, and what is its positioning in the Spanish market?

ASPgems’ objective is to provide agile solutions, i.e. in the cloud, as an opportunity for innovation. One of our bets is the Ruby On Rails development technology, a useful technology for designing solutions in service mode. As a business strategy, we aim to provide agile solutions to SMEs and startups, and we also have our own battery of solutions for invoicing, expense control, e-commerce, sales management… in short, applications to manage the business. Our clients respond to a very varied profile, from Sanitas to Movistar or the Stock Exchange, to Web 2.0 projects, such as the Ideas4all portal. In the short term, we have the goal of having one million users of our own applications in a period of less than three years, because we will expand mainly into Latin America, to countries such as Mexico or Brazil.

Do you think that Software as a Service is already a reality or does it still have a long way to go?

The level of adoption is lower than expected, but it is a reality, since the first generation of digital natives is already beginning to arrive in the company, acting as accelerators. Another accelerator of this model will be the need to increase productivity, which is an imperative today. This is not going to be done from the process side: an issue that is already largely resolved, but will be the result of the creation of a different collaborative culture. In addition, business challenges will not be solved with more investments because budgets are very limited, but with a different way of doing it, and SaaS solutions have a lot to contribute here.

Given your experience of more than 30 years in this sector, what is the current moment that ICT is experiencing in Spain?

At this time, companies will necessarily have to change in order to face the future, and it is not just a matter of adjusting the operating model or reducing staff or adjusting to demand, but also changing business management and focusing on the generation of value models. All this affects ICT. The sector is now enormously consolidated, and there are companies that have been able to do things very well, such as IBM, Oracle, Google or Cisco. ICT will tend towards a model that is increasingly focused on cloud computing and Web 2.0, and this sector has the obligation to reconvert: to move from focusing on business processes to promoting collaboration between people. It is a shift from a focus on process technology to innovation in people.

DIRECTORS AND PEOPLE MAGAZINE

Redarchy: The New Emerging Order in the Age of Collaboration

Organizations today need transparency, agility, creativity, capacity for innovation and, above all, mechanisms to make the most of the new models of value creation that have emerged in collaboration networks.

Why is collaboration so important? Because the challenges we face are exceptionally complex and it is no longer possible to give an individual answer.

We need a new organizational structure that allows us to take advantage of all the opportunities that mass collaboration offers us. We have called this new model redarchy.

The essence of a network structure is decentralized participation relationships, based on the trust, added value and authenticity of each of the members that make up the network.

Faced with a complex problem, the collaboration of all agents in open networks generates new interactions, allows creative proposals to emerge and, ultimately, makes it possible for the solution to emerge naturally.

The organizations we have created are designed to meet the needs of the Industrial Age, especially production, efficiency and scalability. Their structure is based on a tight hierarchical control, which means that orders emanate from the top management and run exclusively in one direction: from top to bottom. This is one of the reasons why our companies and institutions have become slow and bureaucratic, unable to adapt to changes. But we no longer live in the Industrial Age, but in the Age of Collaboration. Organizations today need transparency, agility, creativity, capacity for innovation and, above all, mechanisms to make the most of the new models of value creation that have emerged in collaboration networks. Why is collaboration so important? Because the challenges we face are exceptionally complex and it is no longer possible to give an individual response. We live in an environment of great uncertainty, changes are happening at an accelerated pace, we generate more information than we can absorb, our inter-relationships are global and our social structures are increasingly complex. It is clear that the answer can no longer lie at the top of the pyramid, in the leader “who knows everything”. The only possible response is a collective response, based on collaboration. This implies a profound change. We need a new organizational structure that allows us to take advantage of all the opportunities that mass collaboration offers us. We have called this new model rearchy.

Redarchy is the organizational model of collaboration

The network is an emerging organizational model characteristic of the new open collaborative networks – especially Web 2.0 – and is based on the interactions that multiple agents have with each other when they share their talent and knowledge in an open and transparent way, in relationships of equals. In contrast to the traditional hierarchical organizational model, in which orders are imposed and run exclusively from top to bottom, the network is an order that works from the bottom up: decisions and solutions emerge naturally as a spontaneous distillation of collective intelligence. The clearest example is that of free software communities, which are capable of creating products as sophisticated as Wikipedia or the Mozilla Firefox browser by collaborating in open and horizontal networks, outside the traditional hierarchical structure. Thus, the essence of a network structure is decentralized participation relationships, based on the trust, added value and authenticity of each of the members that make up the network.

The key is to understand that the mere fact of collaborating and sharing on an equal footing generates innovative proposals and solutions and allows the activity to be transferred, in a natural way, to the nodes in which value is really being added to the organization. Faced with a complex problem, the collaboration of all agents in open networks generates new interactions, allows creative proposals to emerge and, ultimately, makes it possible for the solution to emerge naturally.

This information has also been collected by Infoempleo, a portal for labour issues and Human Resources.