Future Skills & Technologies for Future Managers Part I

Dear All,

You all will agree to me that the best way to learn anything is by writing about it. We have known this
strategy from our childhood days when we were being punished by our teachers to write the table of 9 ten
times. So I force myself to write on varied topics despite so many constraints whether it's time, health, job
pressure etc. Also I do not have any other reasons to talk with a vast community of people with whom I
have worked or being in touch directly or indirectly once upon a time in my decade long corporate career.
So I try to kill two birds from single stone. Trying to pen down learnings from whatever I am coming across
or reading and developing reasons to engage with you in some kind of small discussions through this
wonderful marvel of 21st Century "Internet".

Coming to our today's topic Since last 2 weeks I was contemplating about which skills would be imperative
for managing businesses in future. As a result I started tracing the challenges that would come up in future
by observing some very faint footprints in today's time. Many of these challenges and problems have seeds
roped in today's business environment. Though the future challenges would be totally different in
magnitude from what they are today but we can see that seeds are being sown today for many of them. I
may not be fully clarify how the human individual complexity will mutate with information overload &
information technology to create challenges of what magnitude or complexity in near future. But I certainly
feel that some of these challenges can be handled by choosing right skill set to be developed in ourselves.

To my mind following are the few major skills needed by the future corporate managers: I invite your
suggestions to include or exclude it from this list (from the perspective of Marketing, Business
Development and Strategic planning Managers)

1. People Management & Relationship Management Skills (downward, upward or horizontal) - The
topmost perspective to be developed in our minds.
2. Data Analysis for effective business decisions- Using Business Intelligence Tools, Knowledge
Management tools, Analytics tools and capability to visualise patterns and hidden insights in
massive amounts of data being collected from all sources (Internal data from CRM, ERP etc or
External data like Industry surveys,perspective surveys etc)
3. Online Collaborations - Understanding collaboration intensive knowledge workplace, Conducting
online meetings, interactive workshops, Webinars, elearning concepts etc
4. Project Management - Realtime Global resource management, Contact Management, Anytime-
Anywhere-Anytype information access, understanding Concepts of Cloud technologies and how you
can take advantage built in to your style of functioning.
5. Social and Business Networking - Networking is a critical skill to master by future managers and
leaders. Managing word of mouth marketing, Managing your Customer, business and personal
resource network is critical to your future success.
6. Internet Enabled Marketing The future of Marketing and Advertising precise, measurable and to
the point. Understanding the intricacies of promotions of your business or yourself on this future
medium.
These skills are not limited to any sector of business or any specific roles they are ubiquitous in nature. Let
us first begin with first two today.

People Management and Relationship Management Skills

This is the most important and essential skill to have in managers and all other skills will fail unless you
have this in you. Understanding the complex human behavior, its hidden flaws in brain, its strength and
behavorial science are very much important to proceed ahead in any domain in future. They are very
important today also but there will be a greater need in future as teams will be hard to form and sustaining
them will become even harder. In future (even today) every manager has to take on the role of HR person
not only to keep his team intact but also to strengthen it further.

The demand in people lives are rising exponentially at every level whether it is emotional demand or the
physical demands and it is being fueled further by technologies which multiplies the effects. On the other
side our capacity to full-fill that demand is diminishing every day. As a result the way we are working in
not going to work anymore. Gen-Y people -born after 1980 whose outlook are developed by TV, Internet
and ambitious parents demand more flexibility, meaningful jobs, professional freedom, higher rewards and
a better work life balance then the older generations. They are not interested in killing themselves for
work.

Human beings are not meant to operate like computers continuously running at high speeds,
running multiple programs for long period of time. But the way organizations are functioning and
the way we ourselves are forcing us is to operate like computers will create severe problems of unknown
gravity. The chasing it all & multitasking is a bad habit but still we can't resist it whatever may be the
reason with you. Our bodies are not designed to operate in this unnatural manners. We will not be able to
change the physiology of our body and minds which we had developed in thousands of years.

Few great thoughts has been penned down by Tony Schwartz President and CEO of The Energy Project in
series of blogs that he write in HBR. Latest is Productivity Paradox on this subject. He has also written
books on this subject like Manage your energy, Not your time & The Way We're Working isn't
Working. Click here to listen to his podcast.

Whether you operate in a industrial, consumer, manufacturing or service sector your success is heavily
dependent and affected by the level of relationship that you are able to develop in your circle. It is a no
brain-er that relationship takes time to develop but can be destroyed by ill-considered or sarcastic
comments or any of your thoughtless action. Relationship management skills are not only essential to
manage your team inside the organization but also to manage effective and long lasting relationship with
key stakeholders of your project, your vendors & your key customers etc.

Data Analysis for effective business decisions

This skill is going to be the most important skill for any business manager in the next decade to come.
The ability to explore the data from multiple perspectives and extract value from it and then visualize and
communicate it is going to be hugely important skill in the next decade. As we are living on a information
super highway we are churning out huge data every day. Every action of us is generating a trail of
data everyday and someone is watching it very closely. Whether you know or not but even your devices
are churning out data. Currently the rate of churning out of data is very slow as compared to future (may
be 1/100) of what we will churn out 5-7 years later. Even your car, mobile, internet usage, DTH usage,
your credit card, your electricity consumptions, your grocery shopping's, your IT returns, your investment,
Your health checkups, your air travel or train travel every action of yours is generating data
points. Currently these data streams are created and maintained in silos and are not
interconnected with each other. And very soon your movement outside, or your home devices like
fridge, your LCD or Microwave etc all will start churning out data about you. Everytime you log in to your
gmail (email) from your home or from your office or from your mobile device somebody is geo-tracking
you. Which sites you visit, what key word you search and what information you download is being closely
watched and converted to a stream of data to analyse your behavior to use it to design customized offers,
customized product, customized information delivery for you only. As we are progressing we will start to
see the internet of things seamlessly interconnected with each other on a information super highway in
next decade.

These networks are not going anywhere nor we will be closing our networks to allow you to catch up. It's
24X7 up and running. As this networking is increasing there would be a scarcity of analytical capability to
analyse the massive amounts of data coming out of it. So be prepared for it.

We live in a world where every thing fall to ground but still we still make it possible to fly a 400 tonne
machine in sky. We are incredible in our capacity to deal with complex challenges. Hence no worry our
future managers will be able to handle these challenges creatively. More on this later from my side and its
now to you to send me in your thoughts on this subject.

Thanks & Regards

Dharmendra Gupta
www.dharmendragupta.com

Disclaimer: The above are my personal views based on my related studies, observations of Marketing and Business
Development related functions closely. Above views are in no way indicatives of my assignments, roles, and my
relationship with my current & past employers