1. Technology Trends for the
Entrepreneurial Leader
1
PROF. BALA IYER
BABSON COLLEGE
@BALAIYER
1/30/13

2. Message
2
 To be successful in a start-up or an established
company, employees have to be entrepreneurial
leaders.
 These leaders must understand technology trends
and know how to use it to their advantage
 Leadership demands a commitment to learn by
investing in techniques that use the technology to
inform and educate

3. Entrepreneurial Leader
3
 Entrepreneurial leaders are individuals who, through
an understanding of themselves and the contexts in
which they work, act on and shape opportunities
(technology driven) that create value for their
organizations, their stakeholders, and the wider
society
 Self and Contextual Awareness
 Enrolling Others
 Shaping Opportunities
 Cognitive Ambidexterity (act, reflect, adapt, learn)

4. Technologies at Work
4

5. Remember
5
 It’s important when discussing technology to ask
what business problem is it solving
 Padmasree
 Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for Cisco.

6. Evolving IT Stack
Users
6
Intelligence/Services/Analytics
Behavioral
Gaming Change Layer
Mobile
Cloud
Social
Social Mobile
Analytics
Software Cloud
Hardware

7. Trends
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1. Arrival of Utility Platforms and platform based competition 
Agility
2. Digital spaces -- Disintegration of organizational boundaries 
Cost savings
3. Personalization -Information explosion  Big Data and Analytics
 Customer satisfaction
4. Connected world  Era of Networks  Access to resources
5. Democratization of knowledge  Learning organization
6. Age of Transparency  low coordination costs
7. Production to consumption logic  Innovation
 Era of the Entrepreneurial Leader

8. 8
Major Trends

9. Utility Platforms
9
• Social
• Commerce
• Analytics (measurement)
• Open source
Platform-based competition is the norm with dominant winners and role players
We are moving from the internet economy to the App economy
• Critical capability: Culture of fast experiments
• Reward: Agility

10. Utility Platforms (contd..)
10
 Re-use
 Shared infrastructure
 Experimentation from ideas to productive practice
 Lower coordination costs for extended supply chains
 Lowers “friction” costs
"We're an analytics company masquerading as a games
company," Ken Rudin, Zynga

11. Digital Spaces
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 Digital identity
 Digital influence
 Virtual workforce
 Sharing economy
Digital natives are forming a larger portion of the working economy and
enforcing their values
 Critical Capability: Navigation
 Rewards: Cost Savings, innovation

12. Digital Spaces --New era for work
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 R&D
 Micro-temps
 Programming
 Information economics
 Collective consumption

13. Personalization
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 Information explosion
 Social, location
 Big data and analytics
The clock speed of the world is increasing as devices are connected to the
internet, ushering in billions to the global, connected economy.
 Critical Capability: Sense making
 Rewards: Customer Satisfaction

14. Personalization -- Analytics
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 Data is the currency, insight is the goal
Data is back in vogue and a key source of competitive advantage

15. Networked world
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 Social networks
 Organizational networks (alliance)
 Internet of things (API)
 Critical Capability: Architectural control
 Rewards: Access to resources

16. Networked World --Social Networks
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 Wielding digital influence
 Building social capital
 Strength of weak ties
Connections are the new wealth, isolation
is the new poverty.

17. Democratization of knowledge
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 MOOCs
 Blogs, Twitter, discussion boards
 On the job learning
 Develop spectrum of skills
 Learn how to learn (know, do, be)
 Build identity
BRIC nations are using smart devices to overcome the digital
divide and join the knowledge economy
 Critical Capability: Information Quality Filters
 Rewards: Learning organization

18. Production to consumption logic
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 Observe lead users
 Monday morning effect
 Encourage user driven innovation
 Power and control shifts to customers
 Augmenting human intellect
 Critical Capability: Learning from users
 Rewards: Innovation

19. Edge Economy
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 Decision rights reside where they have the best
access to customer information.

20. Age of Transparency
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 Knowledge workers willing to learn
 Communicators: Tweet, blog, speak and mentor
 Dialogue with stakeholders
 Everything captured and accessible (Open Data)
 Critical Capability: Principles driven management
 Rewards: Low overheads

21. Transparency -- Knowledge is Power
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 Meritocracy rules
 Distributed management

22. How have these technologies changed
organizations?
22
 Operational excellence
 Cloud-based infrastructure
 Customer intimacy
 Higher capability to listen and learn
 Product leadership
 Faster feedback cycles
 Agile, Transparent, Meritocracy rules, Collaborative

23. 23
How do you plan to exploit these trends?

24. What Next?
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 Organize discussion sessions around each trend
 Encourage fast experiments
 Focus on a business problem
 Capture and share lessons
 Track best practices
 Collaborate
 Don’t be afraid to fail

25. Rewards
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 Agility
 Digital relevance (individual & organizational)
 Rapid Sense Making
 Engaged stakeholders
 Exercise architectural control
 Lifelong learning
 User driven innovations
 Reduces friction
 Competitive Advantage