Palette of not so random thoughts. The Beeple People

Exiting the hurly burly of day-to-day business provides the luxury of time for reading, watching and listening to people on topics of interest. In my case these are often about: the world of commerce, investing, human behavior, travel, humor etc. While this is an absorbing occupation, I sense that with the tsunami of information (and impending dotage), it is difficult to retain much of what is perused for long, much less put it to any use. Unless…

Embarking on this experiment helps? Every now and then, I hope to weave together a few of these reads into a short tapestry of my takeaways and synthesis, with links to some of the original material. These summaries may perhaps raise more questions than provide answers. Which seems quite satisfying for not only did Richard Feynman say, “ I’d rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned”, it also helps to tread carefully in a polarized world where views are so strongly held with little more than emotional corroboration.  So, here goes:

Everydays – digital art by Beeple:

Digital art and NFTs have gone mainstream with Beeple’s collage of 5000 irreverent drawings and landscapes, “Everydays: The First 5000 days”, selling to a cryptocurrency investor with pseudonym Metakovan who is based in Singapore. The price – a stunning US$69 million, the highest ever for a digital property. Even more astonishingly, this price exceeds what anyone has ever bid for artwork by Dali or Gauguin and makes Beeple the third most expensive living artist. Everydays’ 5000 surreal images were created ‘everyday’ over 13 years, by Beeple or Mike Winkelmann. One image, for instance, shows Lincoln spanking baby Trump! This auction by Christie’s not only brings such art mainstream, it gives a sense of the digital auction audience – 22 million IDs logged in during the last hour of bidding for “Everydays”! Read here

What’s more, this sale also smashed records for NFT or tokenized assets i.e. digital proof of ownership and provenance, using Ethereum’s blockchain and cryptocurrency ether. Will this also mark an ascendancy for Ether vs. Bitcoin?

With such a large audience, it will not surprise anyone if auction house opt for digital bidding in parallel in years ahead. But it’s not all milk and honey. Derek Laufman (@laufman) the designer of Marvel superhero comics tweeted that someone is selling his artwork using NFT, with no rights to it – in other words having stolen it. So, everything on blockchain is not the irrefutable truth.

Incredibly Beeple was not all smiles about NFTs after bagging a princely sum. He is supposed to have said that someone created multiple IDs and bought 20 pieces of his art earlier and then fractionalized them. Metakovan is a creator of crypto based fund. He is expected to fractionalize his new purchase too. So not far in the future you can also own a piece of Beeple’s record breaking art via NFT based Art Funds? 

As with Christie’s recent auction, it does make sense for artists in the physical world to tokenize their art, which, unlike investing in crypto, does not appear to have a downside, as it will open larger audiences and also establish provenance, making it less likely for someone else to  steal and tokenize assets, as in Laufman’s case. Here’s how artists can try NFT

Big Tech, Free Speech and Schrodinger’s truth:

Since we’re on tech, Big Tech’s role in free speech is coming under increasing scrutiny. “Deplatorming” became a verb, much like NFT after Trump was banned by Twitter and Facebook. It’s being argued that Big Tech is so enormous it’s a public good and their boards or policies cannot determine who has a voice and who does not. But what about multiple warnings and fake news which preceded the ban? After all responsible platforms (especially those which have monthly active users larger than populations of India or China) have to try and eliminate inflammatory fake news and malaware? All this is so redolent of debates on Net Neutrality and recent recent standoff between Big Tech and Australian Government.

But what exactly is fake news? Some news is clearly established to be fake, while in several other instances it’s a questions of perspective or POV of special interest groups. I heard someone say on Clubhouse (CH) that those who are nurtured to believe that the written word is sacrosanct and hence are much more fallible. Polarization, fake news and the inflammatory nature of social media is perhaps going to redefine free speech and the Internet? 

The written word, however evanescent (e.g. Snapchat, Insta Stories) leaves bread crumbs. CH on the other hand has no recording, no messaging and voice only. Despite the lack of markers, people are being more civil in debates on CH than on Twitter. Is that because text and digital social media make people behave more impersonally or is it due to lack of anonymity on CH? Perhaps it’s not the policy, but the product, which is designed to drag people deeper into their echo chambers. It’s the algorithm, silly! Even more interesting is that CH is such a legacy way of connecting (whoever makes a voice call or uses phone banking instead of internet banking). Maybe the interface with Internet (or at least social media) will after all be voice and not the keyboard, like it is for music and streaming services? Definitely Big Tech is no longer looking  as infallible as it was just a few months ago, despite the natural oligopolies intrinsic to platform businesses.

If I were the Lord of Tartary:

Talking of polarization and the British Royals. If you are a pet lover and do not wish to suffer the indignities of keeping one, find neighbors who have playful furry companions. That allows you to enjoy without onerous responsibilities. The British Royal family too provides periodic vicarious opportunity for the rest of the world to vent their celebrity news thirst, without the tax burden. Meghan Markle and Harry have given the world yet another topic to be polarized about. Are you with the Royals or the turncoats? Apparently if you are 50 years or older you are more like to find this ratting-out of the family distasteful and those younger than 30 are firmly behind Markle and Harry. Which side am I one? Well, I already said I’m writing to fight the ravages of age.

Innovation is not Disruption

Anatomy of Digital Disruption

Disruption is a highly favored word in the startup world. Perhaps it seems that no new business can be launched without harboring aspirations of being “disruptive”. But, innovation by itself is not disruption. Several new businesses have achieved incredible success, without necessarily being disruptive for the current players. When ATMs were introduced, the machines themselves and companies manufacturing and deploying ATMs, did not disrupt banking. Instead, ATMs created unparalleled value for banks and banking customers and an entire eco-system supporting banks.

What is disruption? Clayton Christensen elucidated the theory of disruption as an entrant introducing a product which is cheaper (and often inferior), which reels in a whole new segment of users in its wake. Maruti 800 did this in India. Often tricky, as Nano learnt, when it missed an opportunity to attract two-wheeler and first time car buyers, despite being an impressive sourcing and manufacturing innovation.

This theory worked well for industrial technology or computer chips, but not for disruption that was wrought by iPhone on incumbents such as Nokia. iPhone in fact was a superior product. It also changed the rules of the game by becoming a platform or marketplace and bringing superior customer value through 3^rd party products via its App Store. Prof Rogers of Columbia posits that disruption in the digital world is achieved through: Superior Value Proposition and Value Networks that create subsequent barriers to entry.

Examples of disruption

Tomes have been written about the death spiral of mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia. Equally comprehensive was the disruption of the analog photo film industry and Kodak. While Kodak filed for bankruptcy, interestingly the No. 2 – Fuji Films, managed to survive the industry dislocation by digital cameras. One pre-smartphone era manufacturer, Samsung, continues to thrive in the smartphone age. Takeaway on disruption: there are strategies for incumbents to respond to disruptive competitors.

Other storied examples: Netflix vs.Blockbuster and Google vs. Yahoo. Both these were full-scale disruptions. However, not all disruptions are comprehensive. Airbnb has changed the face of hospitality. But it’s never likely to lead to shutting-down of large hotel chains such as Marriott or Hilton. It has deep impact in the leisure travel segment, while leaving the business travel segment largely intact with incumbent hotels. Similarly, Amazon has carved out a huge business in ecommerce, leading to closure of multiple brick and mortar stores. But Walmart continues to thrive, and it has also built a large online business. Amazon on the other hand recently acquired Whole Foods, a traditional retailer.

How incumbents respond and trends

Igor Ansoff’s matrix is a useful strategy tool for a defensive response by incumbents. Businesses hit hard by intensive competition find new use cases for their (product development) or identify new customer segments. A few examples:

Marvel comics was a declining business with some iconic characters such as Ironman, Thor and Avenger. In view of evolving customer behavior (reducing comic readership), Marvel responded by leveraging its brands and transforming into a movie studio powerhouse.

When Dollar Shave Club started making inroads into high margin razor blades business with its innovative subscription and mail order model, Unilever snapped it up to counter P&G/ Gillette. Acquisition of the disruptors is often a preferred strategy of cash-rich companies.

Transition from the analog world to digital age is bringing intense and often asymmetric competition in industries such as automobiles (Uber, autonomous vehicles); education (MOOCs); financial services (P2P lending, blockchain); and others. Impetus for this comes from various digital technologies and the ability to use data as a strategic asset. It’s also feasible to now have asset-light models such as multi-sided marketplaces (e.g. Amazon, Facebook) which enable unprecedented speed and scale.

This article appeared in BW Disrupt 

Consumer Banking strategy in the digital era

The world’s largest banks enjoy huge advantages, not the least in terms of collective customer base and the data that they hold of their clients. These banks are today under siege from ‘digital first’ businesses with mobile phone based applications, and, potentially also from nascent or emerging technologies such as, blockchain. These digital technologies promise to offer bank-agnostic platforms at a fraction of cost for services such as foreign exchange remittances, payments and transaction banking and loans – which are key revenue streams for banks.

While historically banks have faced competition in areas such as Mutual Funds, which offered a better way to save and participate in equity and debt markets, never before have they been so exposed to this level of disruption. BBVA Chairman Francisco Gonzales opined that up to half the banks could disappear due to digital disruption.

In such a scenario, it is fair to assume that the banks will need to take the initiative and disrupt themselves. Perhaps the ones that will survive by successfully adapting their strategy to the digital world, will need to embrace a collaborative mindset. The opportunity for banks is to reposition from being providers of infrastructure and products, to offering a secure customer relationship and an entry point to use best-in-class 3^rd party financial applications from different sources i.e. become a financial app store.

In such a bank, when a client logs in to her mobile bank using biometric authentication, which is securely deposited with the bank (i.e. deposits going beyond money and banks continued positioning for safekeeping and security), then the customer comes to an open-architecture App Store through which she can “comparison shop” and take: 1) a Peer to Peer Loan from either Zopa or Funding Circle or possibly even the bank’s proprietary loan product; 2) apply for a credit card which is not Visa or Mastercard but a non-plastic card on her mobile phone e.g. Bankomatkarte in Austria or Apple Pay; 3) remit money or make transfers using applications such as PhonePe or PayTM or internationally with lower charges and better currency conversion rates using Paypal or TransferWise.

Aligned with background and scenario, summarized below is a Digital SWOT for the Consumer Banking industry

Strengths   Banks have deep customer relationships with unmatched data from transactional products such as current accounts, credit cards and salary accounts. Banks’ most enduring strength can be their ability to leverage these relationships and offer their customers the most secure way to transact on their platform, across a range of 3rd party and proprietary products. In effect, they can become financial supermarkets showcasing a range of financial solutions from different providers.   Reputation of security and confidentiality: The spate of revelations regarding fiduciary misconduct, in the wake of 2008 financial crisis, have weakened this position. However, banks can build on their reputation of security & trust, in which they are backed by regulatory authorities. So for instance they can become depositories for not just funds and securities, but also biometrics, medical records and social profiles, allowing 3rd parties to access this information based on client instructions. Regulatory turf/ moat: Some areas of business continue to be reserved for banks e.g. raising deposits from retail investors in India is restricted by the Reserve Bank of India to commercial banks and select corporates (under very restrictive conditions). In the foreseeable future, banks will continue to hold sway on deposits and savings accounts. However, these are also being diluted through entities such as Payment Banks (Airtel Payment Bank). But such licenses have restrictions on lending and hence are specific in nature.   Behavioural Data especially with credit and debit cards and Salary accounts:  This is a big competitive advantage, especially with asymmetric competitors.  Banks have the ability to use this data to predict customer needs e.g. student loans, next product purchase, holidays, loan repayment, home purchase. This gives banks the unparalleled ability to create a new client-centric approach akin to Netflix i.e. predict the next purchase; offer a range of bank owned and 3rd party products. (In the past banks did manage to stave off some of such challenges by becoming the largest distributors of Mutual Funds (3rd party product, which challenged banks through products offering better savings options compared to CDs or Fixed Deposits of banks).   Banks do have a history of innovation with ATMs, Internet Banking, though they are increasingly looking stodgy now.  By focussing on their core value i.e. secure relationship platform, they can bring back the innovative spirit.

Weaknesses   Organization structure and legacy systems: Banks’ operating systems are built as silos and often never recognize the customer as one entity. More significantly, banks are not given to testing small innovative changes, given the risks involved and limited scope of errors in banking relationships. These structural issues stymie the speed of innovation within banks.  Risk aversion: Since risk management is central to bank’s lending, KYC/ Anti Money Laundering (AML) activities, that becomes part of the DNA, even more so in recent times. Post the financial crisis, banks have been spending substantial time and money in compliance and regulatory reporting. To address this banks need to use automation for Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), as these can be addressed through data analytics, big data, machine learning and automation.   Regulatory constraints: As much as regulations protect banks’ turf in some areas, they also impose many onerous responsibilities in Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC), capital adequacy, branch presence (relevant to India), which are not applicable to other non-banking entities in BFSI domain such as NBFCs, Asset Management Companies or Mutual Funds or mobile payment products and wallets such as M-Pesa or PayTM. This will enable several non-banking players from BFSI domain and outside to innovate faster and offer superior single-purpose products e.g. payment wallets, Peer-to-Peer lending options, Home finance and micro finance distribution and coverage for unbanked sections.

Opportunities  Leveraging data, technology, security and customer relationships: This is undoubtedly the biggest opportunity for banks. By learning to think like a platform rather than a product provider, banks can put the customer and security at the centre and build a strong value proposition. Banks will also need to decide to optimize on a particular part of the value chain (e.g. between payments, loans, remittances, advisory). Transforming to open-architecture access points for best-in-class 3rd party products and helping customers decide on these products (including some of the bank’s proprietary products), is a big opportunity. Think: Apple App Store, Google Play, Netflix, Amazon Prime video. Value strategy around security, customer need prediction and product supermarket: With digitization there will be greater concerns about privacy and risks. Banks can become custodians of not just cash/ funds and securities, but also biometrics, medical records, social profile metadata. Using behavioural data banks can predict and suggest product requirements, not just in financial products, but also non-financial products (like Netflix). What’s more with increasing concerns on privacy and social media tracking, banks can release data such as medical info, social behaviour, biometrics based on client instructions. Leveraging eKYC and Aadhaar in India: Banks have so far been slow in adapting to the options offered by India’s UIDAI or Aadhaar which has enabled biometrics based for over 1 billion people. With UIDAI eKYC has been enabled and soon upto 70 fields of data for individuals would be linked to their Aadhaar IDs e.g. subsidy eligibility; skill courses completed for employability; bank account details. For now, banks need to be able to use this data with permission and leverage Business Intelligence to expedite account opening, loan processing and even enable secure payments through biometrics enabled POS machines which are being rolled-out in India. Automated or Robot advisory for wealth management: Wealth management has seen a secular move from more expensive actively managed funds to passive Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) which are lower cost. This disruption is moving further with active management and client customized wealth management across asset classes being provided through robo advisors, which use AI and Machine Learning, to execute faster, more accurately and at lower cost. According to AT Kearney, these automated investment avenues will manage over US$ 2 trillion in US by 2020. Banks can take the lead in building these capabilities and complementing it highly trained advisors. This will allow them to increase Assets Under Management, improve execution and improve business margins.   Incubate start-ups and provide fillip to innovation & collaboration: Banks such as Barclays have started their own accelerators, thereby bringing under the bank’s umbrella, fintech entities which provide the ability to innovate more effectively. As also Santander’s Innoventures and in India Yes Bank have started acquiring and collaborating with the fintech eco-system. Pricing strategies at a relationship level and using social data and not just credit bureau:  Banks have the opportunity to improve pricing offering it online and offer single level customer view, thereby building deeper customer relationships. Cybersecurity and areas such as Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) infrastructure: This is a core value proposition of banks for its clients. Banks will explore how they can become secure depositories of not just funds but data of clients. Also, offering cloud based GRC and cybersecurity related solutions and out-competing consultancies with automated solutions could be a future opportunity.

Threats  Asymmetric competition: The most potent and disruptive threat for banking industry is from asymmetric competitors who leverage, Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC). These players approach specific areas of banking without the baggage of legacy processes or systems. Two examples are: Mobile Wallets and Wearable Devices. Vodafone’s and M-Pesa in Africa and PayTM in India are case in points. These have reached customers who are unbanked but are covered by the rapid penetration of mobile phones in developing markets. M-Pesa has not only drawn millions into the financial mainstream in Kenya, it has allowed them to safely and inexpensively transfer funds home and enjoy other services such as micro insurance. Wearables devices have thus far been used more for recording health information. However, that is beginning to change with Apple Watch which is being used for payments, checking balances, transaction history and even locating nearby branches. The most compelling example of course telecom service providers who have as much behavioural data as banks. Airtel Payment Bank is an example of a telecom provider invading the turf of a bank. Smarter client acquisition and pricing strategies: Non-bank competitors such as Lending Club have better priced borrower risks which were either over-charged or incorrectly priced using credit bureau data. Social media and big data is being used to determine customized interest rates for customers based on more accurate assessment of default risk. Social credit scoring performed by Sesame Credit (part of Alipay) has shown how going beyond credit bureaus can expand the market, especially in developing countries such as China, India, Brazil. Non-Banking companies offering Home Finance, Loans, Micro Insurance: This is the more traditional form of competition i.e. companies which are specializing in one part of the value-chain (e.g. rural micro finance); or threaten to beat banks in distribution and with lower cost of customer sourcing. Some examples are non-banking companies offering small ticket Pay Day Loans entirely through mobile based acquisition (thereby lowering cost of operations). Such disruption is also being brought about by micro finance companies such as Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which was started by the Nobel Prize winner, Mohd Yunus.    Emerging technology such as Blockchain: Blockchain or distributed ledger based technology has the potential to disrupt many areas of business, not the least of which is banking. Use cases of blockchain in remittance have evidenced how transaction costs are reduced and security enhanced. Banks are also beginning to test blockchain in Transaction Banking.

 

 

Human Resources & Talent Acquisition in the Converging World

 

We are in a world today beset by convergence, brought upon us by rapid and extensive digitization, exponential growth in computing power and democratization of information. In this VUCA environment, several traditional business functions are transforming completely. Take a Marketing Manager from the mid 1990s or even early 2000s and transplant her to the digital marketing world of today, where dependence on technology tools; data analysis; and of course the ubiquity of internet & social media would completely befuddle such an unfortunate soul.

A US based merchandising genius, John Wanamaker, once famously said, “I know half my advertising works, Ijust don’t know which half”. Today, performance advertising dominates, and tools such as Google Analytics have changed much of that uncertainty on advertising spends. Similar changes are evident in Product Management, where focus on Usability (UX); Design and UI; brand and data architecture for scalability and modularity have brought the function much closer to technology. It has also enabled outside­in thinking, putting the customer at the centre. Similar changes abound in functions such as Finance and Sales.

But, how much have Human Resources and Talent Acquisition changed and converged with other functions? For that it might be helpful to start at the beginning.

Scientific Management and Human Resources ­ the Beginning

In the period from 1900­1930, Business was beginning to acquire the status of a profession much like Medicine or Law. Harvard Business School was set­up in 1928 and it was in this period that two very similar yet divergent disciplines emerged in business. One was a purely scientific model of driving business excellence. This was pioneered by Fredrick Taylor who started Time and Motion studies and helped in institutionalizing mass production. This stream of business encouraged treating human resources in a similar dispassionate manner with very precisely defined actions to drive up productivity. Meanwhile, Professor Elton Mayo began conducting a series of experiments in Western Electric, which has indicated that people did not behave in a predictable manner and were quite unlike machines. Changes in different working variables (e.g. working hours; frequency of break) seemed to result in similar gains in productivity. This ‘Hawthorne Effect’, as it came to be called, was the genesis of the discipline of Human Resources Management. Professor Mayo had concluded that the productivity gains were purely due to a psychological well­being resulting from a feeling of being respected, better team work and a sense of control.

These two approaches (Scientific Management and Human Resources) were almost treated as separate disciplines for decades. Let us call these the overall practice of “Management” and the practice of “Human Resources”. While functions such as Finance, Marketing, Production and Operations were identified more closely with “Management”, the practice of “Human Resources” held a place of its own.

The age of Purpose, Data, Intrapreneurship and Synthesis

In the 21st Century, however, with increased computing power, digital technology and accelerating innovation, many old models are being turned on their heads. Consider also that in India more than 1 million people reach employable age every month. As against this number, new employment has been very meagre. Globally, more than 75 million young people are unemployed and almost 3 times that number is under­employed. At the same time, many employers are unable to fill vacancies in low to mid skill level jobs. While this foretells the huge issue of skill deficit, it also reflects a market failure. At the same time, productivity per headcount has increased astronomically.

In the book Firms of Endearment, authors Raj Sisodia et al outline the Purpose Driven organization, which effectively operates at the intersection of Societal, Business and Individual goals. Some of these companies such as Wholefoods, Ikea, Unilever and Patagonia outperform benchmark indices handsomely. None of these envisage a jobless future. In fact they actively strive to create opportunities for work. This agenda needs to be set by HR.

Consider how some of these radical changes can apply to the TA and to HR function overall:

Talent Acquisition for high churn and low to mid skill roles

• Experimenting with better ways of hiring candidates for high churn roles should be a business priority. More often in India, the ideal candidate who is likely to stay in an entry level sales job is disadvantaged by the barrier of distance and may be a few 100 km away from the job location. If we do not find ways to include such candidates more effectively in the process of hiring, the problem of attrition will not go away. In some experiments, making provisional offers to candidates leveraging technology such as video interviews within recruitment solutions have yielded amazing results. But such changes require stepping back, making uncomfortable changes and resisting business requirement for hiring “yesterday”. Let’s think of Talent Scouts who scour and creates opportunities.
• Daniel Kahneman in his seminal work Thinking Fast and Slow alludes to two mental models of decision­making. One which uses intuition and is heuristic based and the second that involves deeper analysis. As a practice, hiring for some jobs continues to rely on intuition, unstructured formats and is subject to biases and halo effects. On the other hand, for jobs requiring technical skills such as those of Engineers, a completely objective assessment is possible and has been successfully implemented by India IT majors.
  The challenge of combining both pure data­based objective assessment with some structured human evaluation for the vast majority of jobs in mass recruitment roles needs to be addressed. Making hiring decisions from a sea of candidates almost certainly results indecision fatigue.
• Increased ability to capture and discern patterns out of data provides for opportunities such as Predictive Modelling to make more effective hiring decisions. For instance, past behaviour on the type of jobs a person applies to; or preferences and skills; or social media indicators can be modelled to make better matches while hiring. Not a simple task given the multi-variate nature of decision modelling and absence of data collection in this domain.

Defining HR Deliverables and Outcomes in the new world

Linear, continuous and compounding careers are over. Many jobs will fall prey to skill obsolescence. Creating a workforce that is more adept at lifelong learning, using rich information and resources available freely, needs to be a key HR goal. While many young people are joining the workforce, an almost equal number of older and experienced individuals are willing to work beyond retirement. The ensuing challenge of creating an effective multi­generational workforce is new. What’s more, the workforce is looking for flexibility and purpose, so standard formats of engagement with full­time employment are ineffective.

• Functional or product based collaboration is struggling to deliver the goods for organizations. Most companies are still ill­equipped to handle staff who have varied working arrangements/contracts e.g. full­time; remote located employees; consultants. Even companies that are recognizing and embracing flexibility expected by the workforce are struggling with structures for optimal collaboration within newly emerging project based teams comprising workers with different types of contracts. Given the transient nature of projects and part­time contracts, achieving this requires Organizational Engineering to have a similar priority as other areas of HR such as Performance Management.
• Much like fintech companies are beginning to rewrite the rules for banking behemoths, HR Tech solutions are beginning to emerge for these seemingly intractable problems. Given the diverse multi­generational nature of potential candidates, there could be a huge treasure- trove linked to creating platforms for reverse bidding for jobs and self­selection up till the last stage of interviewing. Not only does it move much of the filtering and pre­screening to DIY, it helps attract the high fit and high intent candidates.
• Googling “What do I do with my life” returns 3 billion results! The concept is not new, and back in 300 BC Aristotle referred to Eudaimonia – the good and purposeful life. But perhaps for the first time it appears possible for companies to customize their HR at the individual level and yet galvanize project based teams to success using digital engagement and mobile. This requires HR to embed Purpose, Mastery and Autonomy in roles and deliver and control them through technology and data.
• Let’s also think about UX (Usability in digital terminology) in HR. Allowing external candidates to access some basic training content online, for instance, can help build the employer brand with aspiring candidates. Reimagining how people engage on projects with tools such as Slack and Messaging Apps in general are improving communications and engagement versus emails.

In conclusion, HR should no longer be a function separated, but instead it needs to be fundamentally integrated with Management. Identifying and aligning to the challenges that business is likely to confront, has to be the key measure of the accuracy of the compass of the HR function today. This will require constant reframing of the challenges and opportunities for business in the context of TA, collaboration, learning and measuring. And that would require HR to integrate the behavioural and community parts with technology, data, mobiles and social media.

The two tracks started by Francis Taylor and Professor Elton Mayo will need to align in the era of convergence.