9 Insights to Transform Your Organization

By Kyle Denhoff, manager for Social Marketing at Xerox

In today’s hyper-competitive digital economy, businesses and their employees have no choice but to do more with less. Sometimes a lot less.

This has leaders searching for best-in-class advice on transforming their organizations, while improving the customer experience and choosing the right partners for success.

On Feb. 4 at the historic Savoy Hotel in London, Xerox brought together thought leaders from around the world to brainstorm ways to thrive in this new environment.

Here are nine insights offered from speakers and panelists:

“Technology can produce transformative change, enabling businesses and people to accomplish more than anyone could have imagined two or three decades ago.” | Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox, addressing the modern economy’s insatiable desire for more – and the related need for less (regulation, data vulnerability, disconnectedness.

Watch keynotes and panel discussions from Simple@Work. Then join the conversation at #SimpleAtWork, or in the comments section below.

“It’s about getting the right team in place that can have the agility, humility and ambition to deliver on your goals.” | Mark C. Thompson, CEO and co-founder Virgin Unite, Sir Richard Branson’s network for executive coaching and entrepreneurial innovation.

“If you give someone a guitar, there is no music in the guitar, the music is in the musician.” | Sir Ken Robinson, internationally acclaimed expert and speaker on creativity and innovation, and human resources in education and business. Sir Ken has produced two of the most-watched TED talks in history.

“Walls of exclusion are crumbling.” | Baroness Joanna Shields, advisor to the United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron  on the Digital Economy, and former executive at Electronics for Imaging, RealNetworks, Google, AOL and Facebook.

Ursula Burns, Dr. Steve Garnett, and Baroness Joanna Shields discuss how to transform an enterprise in a digital economy. (15 min.)

“There is pressure on businesses to transform and put the customer at the center of their business. Not their products, not their services, not their people, but the customer..” | Dr. Steve Garnett, chairman of the European, Middle East and Asia region, salesforce.com

“Get the people in the right place, supported by the right technology, you’ll be on your way to transformation.” | Dave Coplin, chief envisioning officer for Microsoft. Coplin’s job is to anticipate and prepare the Microsoft workforce for the future.

“Within 10 years, most organizations will only directly employ 15 percent of the people they do today.  That 15 percent will focus on the core business; everything else will be outsourced, crowd-sourced or open-sourced.” | Danny Wootton, innovation director at CGI, a London-based end-to-end IT and business process services company. Outsourcing to the right partner will account for the remaining 85 percent, Wootton added.

“There are two types of customer feedback: organic and organized.” | Florent Bayle-Labouré, senior director of Brand Management and Synergy at Cirque du Soleil, a Quebec-based company recognized for high-energy, high-quality, highly creative entertainment.

“For me, it’s just trying to continuously do better. In a business too, you are trying continuously to evolve.” | Monica Seles, tennis champion, hall of fame member, and Women’s Tennis Association legend.

Leading through the ever-changing world of business is more complicated than ever. Business leaders need to rethink the way their organization is structured in a digital age, and put a focus on people and technology.

To learn and hear more, visit the simple@work website, where you’ll find complete videos of keynote addresses and panel discussions.

To join the conversation online, use the #simpleatwork hashtag.

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