We’ve all done it, squeezed a meeting into a colleague’s last remaining gap for a lunch break, or set a conference call for an unsociable hour. Yet we’ve also all been the victim of such logistical moves. Because the problem is, in a mega-busy global working environment like ours, we increasingly accept that this sort of thing is normal and needs to happen, so we can all get everything done.
And perhaps at times it does, but not without considering if there are other possible options and not without asking.
Politeness aside, how many of us properly acknowledge the priorities each other has outside of the office, those priorities which help shape the people we are and often conflict with the demands of our working lives. How many of us raise an eyebrow at the person who leaves to go to the gym, or the parent who goes because of childcare issues. We even sometimes fail to acknowledge the shame of a colleague missing a family celebration because of work demands.
These issues comes up a lot but I think we could all be part of changing what is regularly seen as acceptable and just the norm. We could all speak up when meetings are set at anti-social times; share our human selves as well as our work selves to create a human culture where other commitments are given due credit, time and appreciation.
Following the economic turbulence of the “Great Recession,” Toyota felt the need to improve its revenue structures. These earnings are directly linked to advanced work performed by knowledge workers in areas such as research and development on new cars, production, and sales. Toyota also wanted to shorten its product time-to-market to maintain its competitive market lead. The firm turned to the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) to help Toyota determine where improvements could be made and how to implement them.
I feel I should tell you first of all that I wrote this blog on an Airplane. I also connected into a WebEx meeting and met up with my fellow Cisco employees to talk about Industries and find out what was going on in San Jose whilst I was in the air somewhere between San Jose and Dallas. I surprised my wife by calling her via my laptop and saying ‘Hi’!
This is therefore our first Cisco Manufacturing Industry blog written and published whilst flying. Wow, we’ve come a long way since I was a trainee!
Anyway, I’m actually more excited that I don’t have to stop blogging and can bring you the news of a great video reference that Cisco collaborated with AzoNobel on:
In the video AkzoNobel’s CIO, Pieter Schoehuijs describes how converging technologies empower an integrated supply chain. As a 14bn Euro concern operating in over 80 countries worldwide, they are the largest paint and coatings company in the world, and a leading producer of specialty chemicals.
Long commutes and being in an office at a certain time with limited flexibility is gradually becoming a thing of the past. The future will see an increase in workplace mobility creating the “anywhere office,” a place where employees can work anytime from anywhere.
Which global region will lead the way in mobility by 2013? Click on our interactive infographicto find out.
In terms of sheer mass, the Asia-Pacific region will have the largest amount of mobile workers, topping out over 700 million people and making up for 62% of all the world’s mobile workers. In regards of being the leader in mobile penetration, the US will lead the world with Japan in tow with roughly three-fourths of all employees having workplace mobility options.
