It seems odd to talk about movies at this time when our brethren In Egypt is trying to topple a dictatorial modern pharaoh of Mubarak regime. With real drama of change streaming 24x7 into our living room, why bother watching something fictional from la-la land?
Still movie is the topic. Cheers!
So what does Facebook got to do with management?
A lot really.
Management sciences have been designed to deal with bureaucracy, hierarchy and efficiency. Remember Fayol's theory on management work - planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling? But Web 2.0 technologies, Facebook included, are based on interactivity straight from the individual level aggregating into a "difficult-to-structure but very powerful" social norm, an anti-thesis to management's philosophy of order and structure. In Egypt's case, if one is to chronicle Wael Ghoneim's Facebook page for Khalid Said, the growing dissatisfaction and apathy that outgrows the cyber realm and into the streets are largely organic, a movement with no clear leadership, structure or hierarchy. The Egypt regime being so expert in managing organized oppositions suddenly found itself off-footed by protest of a new kind.
What happen in Egypt is part of a growing evidence that Web 2.0 technologies are stretching the dimension of our management practices. Today, people can get hired or fired because of comments they made in their Facebook as their previously private social interactions become public, affecting standard that management sets. In Web 2.0, outsourcing is so yesterday. Now the rage is all about crowdsourcing, tapping into the wisdom of the crowd enabled by Web 2.0 sites such as Foursquare and trendwatching. Even UK's intel agency, MI6 who prided itself on being paranoid-ly secretive was forced to review the security for its chief after the wife innocently posted the family picnic picture on her Facebook account. And when we thought that lessons have been duly learnt, the same spy chief became embroiled with another embarrassment when her daughter's picture posing with Saddam's AK-47 was found in the Internet, also due to callous use of Facebook.
Technology has always been ahead of management on the innovation curve, or so does Hamel claims which explains why man and organization are always playing catch-up. Perhaps we have given too much power to technology to influence our practices. And perhaps this is the core of the problem besetting management science since technology is devoid of moral and spiritual compass. For as long as technology evolves, current management practices will find itself consistently outdated thus giving new impetus to why management, like Web technologies, must be reinvented and move to version 2.0.
Technology has always been ahead of management on the innovation curve, or so does Hamel claims which explains why man and organization are always playing catch-up. Perhaps we have given too much power to technology to influence our practices. And perhaps this is the core of the problem besetting management science since technology is devoid of moral and spiritual compass. For as long as technology evolves, current management practices will find itself consistently outdated thus giving new impetus to why management, like Web technologies, must be reinvented and move to version 2.0.
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Fed-up with my constant mumbling about Zuckerberg, being only 26 years of age yet is so rich, my clever not-so-little sister asked a clever, cynical question the other day; why didn't I invent Facebook in the first place?
Fed-up with my constant mumbling about Zuckerberg, being only 26 years of age yet is so rich, my clever not-so-little sister asked a clever, cynical question the other day; why didn't I invent Facebook in the first place?
Well I can't. (I am not a programmer! Ohh how I wish I was!) But I recall in 2001 taking a "Savarin" role helping a fellow colleague developed a business plan to create an online "dating" site ala Facebook. We got an audience with Skali but nothing really took-off after that. And in my line of business having met with many skillful programmers, I'm sure "Facebook" can be invented somewhere in Malaysia especially since it is basically HTML-based with dead-simple layout. In other words, I cannot invent Facebook but I am sure "We" can. But for our Facebook to become The Facebook, that is a different story altogether.
"Pop-economy" expert Malcolm Gladwell was interested to know how Bill Gates get to become Bill Gates. Gates comes from a well-off family and is certainly brilliant but there were other kids in the same neighborhood that were at least equally, if not more brilliant and well-to-do than Gates. So then how did Bill Gates become such a stand-out in the IT industry accumulating wealth to the amount of USD 50 billion? For his book Outliers, he interviewed Bill Gates himself and discovers Gates unique access to a school's computer which was not commonplace in his time, literally spending hours on it. It brought Gladwell to establish the 10,000-hour rule; the amount of time needed for a person to be an expert on a particular trade. And also proves that behind every heroic personalities, there are significant societal factors at play.
Gladwell's outliers research in many ways explain Facebook's story of success beyond the programmer's (Zuckerberg) genius. It is borne out of Harvard, a proven fertile ground for new ideas and trends and grows out of Silicon Valley, base to world's greatest technology companies, tech talents and abundant venture capital money. Facebook's Harvard background gave it the X factor that attract students from other major campuses. Its move to Sillicon Valley was significant because it was able to tap mezzanine financing and connect with the right people that would propel it beyond campuses and into mass market.
There is little doubt that an exacting Facebook can be borne out of a UM dormitory but it would be highly challenging for it to be able to make significant outreach as effective as it is from Harvard. And even if our local Facebook achieve some sort of critical mass, we lack the Silicon Valley ecosystem that can propel it to the global stage. Not to say it is impossible but it is definitely more challenging to launch a global brand from Kuala Lumpur as oppose from California, San Francisco, Boston or New York. And it will be even much harder for our fragile business ecosystem to support a global ambition when it is stifled by unnecessary regulation such as the Printing Press and Publication Act 1984 that will soon be extended to Internet publications. We have made a promise to keep the Internet free from censorship (remember MSC Bill of Guarantee...no. 7?). Let's strive to honour it and not becoming an Eygpt.
