Consumer

Companies are feeling the impact of convergence in more ways than one: in their external relations with customers, suppliers and competitors, and in their internal relations with their own employees. In each case the effects are similar: both the business environment and the new generation of employees are posing enormous challenges for management through their expectations in terms of openness, flexibility and ongoing dialog. And yet with the aid of good talent management, this convergence between companies’ internal and external environments can also prove a godsend.

A BRISK NOD is all it takes and 44 chamber musicians launch into Beethoven’s 8th, with neither conductor nor baton in sight. Instead, one of the violinists triggered the performance with a simple nod of her head. This is “Spira Mirabilis” – the “marvelous spiral” – a chamber orchestra of a very special kind. Its name is derived from the logarithmic or equiangular spiral, which has the remarkable geometric property that as its size increases, its shape remains unaltered. This so-called “self-similarity” is also the principle on which the orchestra operates. The young musicians, all of whom hold permanent positions with Europe’s leading orchestras, converge upon Spira Mirabilis in various constellations to rehearse and perform a particular piece of music. Here, each of them is producer and performer at the same time, because they are not expected to simply accept preconceived ideas about the piece. And while the time and effort they invest in dialog is somewhat greater, the outcome is often more original, vibrant, and surprising than an interpretation produced by a lone individual working within conventional structures.

The approach that Spira Mirabilis adopt in the world of music is increasingly shaping the world of work at many companies. Young talents, above all digital natives who grew up with computers, the Internet, and the all-pervading digitization of everyday life, are seeking and indeed expecting to find an interesting array of tasks in their professional environment. They have no fear of tough challenges (and not only technical ones) and are keen to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions with others in an ongoing exchange like the ones they are accustomed to enjoying in online social networks.

Read full article "Bridges to the future" in the edition of THE FOCUS on Convergence.