I've been privileged to attend several meetings hosted by SMU in the past few months that featured outstanding CEO presentations. They've included:
- James Donald, president, chief executive officer and director of Starbucks, co-presenting with David Pace, executive vice president, Partner Resources
- Alan Boeckmann, chairman of the board, chief executive officer of Fluor Corporation, jointly hosted by SMU and Ernst and Young
- Myron (Mike) Ullman, chairman of the board, chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Company, Inc., co-presenting with Mike Theilmann, executive vice president, chief human resources and administration officer
The sessions including the HR executives talked about the importance of HR as a strategic contributor to the business. Starbucks is hiring 400 people per day, according to Mr. Pace, and HR management is core to their global success as a business. Both Startuck's executives spoke of the life changes that Starbucks careers have made for many of their employees. One very notable and commendable commitment made by Starbucks is to offer health care benefits to all employees. That benefit is their largest corporate expense, and they continuously pursue effective ways to enhance the benefit while reducing the cost.
Have you recently considered how critical the skill of collaboration is to your company? As I thought about the importance of collaboration, I realized how many vendors are, and will continue to be, required to develop and deliver wireless and mobile services over the next five years. Wireless and mobile technology offers your company many opportunities for innovation and gaining market share. However, the technology, protocols, global restrictions, service and customer considerations are highly complex. Staff doesn't need to have all the technical knowledge, but service delivery will be much more achievable if they can...communicate and collaborate.
Take a minute to read today's post at Gartner's blog on Communication Innovations written by Nick Jones, VP Distinguished Analyst: 
When buying or selling companies, executives often overlook assets and investments that, when properly documented and utilized, can represent greater value, to either buyer or seller, and thus achieve a higher return on investment. 
In case you haven't heard, our time changes to daylight-saving time (DST) earlier than usual this year. The changes result from an energy bill passed by Congress in 2005 to extend daylight-saving time by about a month. So this year, DST will start the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November. 
"What will be the key mobile and wireless technology trends through 2011? How will the mobile strategies of wireless service providers, device manufacturers and software companies evolve? How will corporations choose and use mobility?" These are just three out of several hundred questions and possible scenarios, accompanied by strategic planning assumptions, presented by Gartner, and large corporate, executives at the Gartner Wireless and Mobile conference this week in Grapevine, TX. I attended the conference to get a look at the current status and future trends in wireless and mobile technology to assist my clients in determining their best investment strategies. 
Happy New Year!!
Thank you for your business and following in 2006. Your confidence, feedback, and time and investment in KMC is greatly appreciated. 
While preparing a presentation on "Creating an Environment of Innovation," I've been studying several innovation models. Geoffrey Moore writes about "Four Innovation Zones" in his new book "Dealing with Darwin." The zones build on the concept of value disciplines first written about in the book "The Disciplines of Market Leaders" by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. The zones/disciplines include product leadership, customer intimacy, operational excellence and category renewal. They present a number of innovation possibilities for companies in growth, mature or renewal zones. A chart from Moore's book presents opportunities you may want to consider. They are documented as follows:
As I discussed my business, Kathy Mast Consulting, with Gartner analysts at the recent conference, they recommended that I turn my experience with aligning and enhancing the business and I/T relationship into a book. This was not the first time a colleague has suggested this. I keep putting it on the "back burner" because of the time and effort I know it will require. Don't get me wrong, I'm an advocate of hard work and investing "over and above," but I've enjoyed having a little more spare time after completing my Executive MBA degree. At least as much spare time as having a family and building a consulting practice allows.
