Executive Interviews: Interview with Sally Helgesen on 21st Century Organization
December 2007 - By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary

Sally Helgesen
Internationally acclaimed Author, Speaker, and Leadership Development Consultant.

• What according to you are the three most important changes that have altered theway business is carried out across the globe in the last decade? How do you think companies have responded to these changes?Are there any good examples of companies that have adapted effectively to these changes?
  Most important changes are cheap, fast, highly integrated networked technologies of communication and distribution; new demographics that reflect a highly diversework force and customer base; and an economic model that values human knowledge far above capital goods. Most companies understand these changes but are in the early stages of either adapting to or reacting against aworld transformed.

• If you have to point out similar changes in the organizational front, whatwould those be?What have been the triggers for such changes?
  Organizations are trying to develop models that accommodate and leverage the changes noted above. This requires new models the web of inclusion is one. I think one big challenge for organizations is figuring out when the decision making needs to be centralized and when it needs to be distributed. Technology puts information and power, that were formerly held by tight organizational structures, into the hands of individuals. This makes senior executives very nervous. I often hear them saying, "we are empowering our people to do this, that or the other." And I think, you're not empowering them, the technology is, and you are just trying to figure out how not to get in the way!

• In "Everyday Revolutionaries: Working Women and the Transformation of American Life", you point out that you have uncovered five major trends that are reshaping our organizations and communities. What are those five trends? Why would you say they are the result only of women entering the workforce?
  The five major trends are:

1. Industrial era boundaries (between work and home, men and women, boss and employee, service and product, etc.) are breaking down
2. Change has become a constant, not a rarity
3. The niche rules the marketplace
4. Job shifting requires a portfolio approach to careers
5. Balance is no longer just a women's issue.

Obviously, women have been at the forefront of breaking down boundaries that kept the genders separate in the industrial era, and have brought the issue of balance to the fore. Women change jobs more, and so are on the front edge of the portfolio approach. The niche has been redefined by womens presence as customers, consumers and employees. The constancy of change is driven by the technologymore than by the changing demographics.

• Since Peter Drucker wrote his seminal work, "The Concept of Corporation" in 1946 after his study at General Motors, organizations have undergone a metamorphosis in terms of the structure, the defining responsibilities of organizations, expectations from organizations, etc. What does the 21st century organization signify to you? What is your ideal organization in the coming decades?
  Virtuality, partnerships, borderless ness, and instability will necessarily define the organizations that thrive in the 21st century. The big challengewill be building sustainability in organizations, in the culture, in human life and expectations in an environment that is constantly being transformed by the unexpected.

• What is organizational effectiveness? Has its connotation undergone any change over the years, across the industries? How should this be measured? What are the yardsticks for measuring organizational effectiveness?
  This is not an areawhere I havemuch expertise. But I am interested in organizations that effectively create sustainable cultures in the midst of constant change. The effective organization today is driven by a strong and coherent vision, and disciplined decision making an imperative in a world of endless choice. Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's investment company comes tomind. I will be eager to watch how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fares. British Petroleum was doing a great job of this before it came to grief. Johnson & Johnson has done an exceptional job. Will HP prove resilient? We'll have to see.

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