February 18, the first full day of the Executive Connection Summit (ECS), began with a bang when Echelon Force, a leadership consulting company comprised of two combat-trained Navy SEALs, delivered a powerful message on leadership.<\/p>\n
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin recounted in riveting fashion how their experiences in Ramadi, Iraq, where they were part of SEAL Team Three\u2019s Task Unit Bruiser, helped hone the skills that were now being used to teach business leadership.<\/p>\n
In the mid 2000s, during the peak of the Iraqi insurgency, Willink and Babin were tasked with leading disparate units into fierce and chaotic combat missions while also winning the trust and support of the local Sunni population. They detailed their four pillars, the flexible chain of command and explained how communication, particularly the communication of \u201cwhy,\u201d was critical in achieving success.<\/p>\n
The SEALs lessons on leadership were cited by many throughout the day\u2019s sessions. However, just like at the opening press conference, the key themes and buzzwords continued to be IoT, the flexibility and advisability of an open architecture, partnership, and the expectations of millennials which were driving changes in habits and behaviors across the modern landscape.<\/p>\n
Sharp President, Doug Albregts, joked about his misfortune in following the SEALs, and then sat on a stool as a long, Star Wars-style intro parody scrolled on the presentation screen.<\/p>\n
Albregts introduced his presentation, entitled Relationships@work \u2013 Industry Growth Through Partnerships<\/strong> by reiterating some of the familiar themes of IoT, big data and the importance of an open architecture for business software platforms.<\/p>\n Briefly touching on Sharp\u2019s recent troubles, Albregts suggested that all the information that anybody wanted to know was on their website. He did address some details though, attributing the bulk of the issues to poor capital investments just prior to the 2008 global recession. He also described the performance of the solutions division, of which he is part, as \u201cexcellent.\u201d<\/p>\n Albregts also addressed the rumors breaking that very morning surrounding new ownership, quipping [he could be part of] a \u201cJapanese company that reports to a Japanese company or a Japanese company that reports to a Chinese company\u201d at any time (Taiwanese Foxconn and Japanese INCJ). He noted that the offers were \u201csignificantly over market [value]\u201d and asked the audience to consider the importance of that.<\/p>\n To further dispel rumors of Sharp\u2019s imminent demise, Albregts noted the 13 new hardware products that they released in the last year, which he called a \u201csignificant amount,\u201d that included color and mid-range machines.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been very, very aggressive in coming out and investing in new products,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If there was one theme that Albregts seemed keen to communicate, however, it was that Sharp, with its new partnerships and solutions-based approach, is prepared for the future. To underscore this, he remarked about how Sharp\u2019s approach is similar to Apple in how it manages an open architecture system.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t try to build everything,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have a lot partners.\u201d<\/p>\n Like most panelists and presenters, Albregts referenced the habits of millennials and stated that it was as much a marketing concern for them as it is for everybody else.<\/p>\n Albregts also attempted to set the record straight regarding the recent partnership with Tech Data.<\/p>\n \u201cThey opened the door to all the hardware that we don\u2019t want to make,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cThey opened the door to integration capabilities that we aren\u2019t able to do [and] that they are able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday, March 9, Reuter\u2019s reported that Sharp Corp’s two main banks would lower interest rates on billions of dollars in loans and offer other financial support to ease the takeover by Foxconn.<\/p>\n Although neither Foxconn nor Sharp has offered comments yet, it appears that this probable new partnership can only reinvigorate and strengthen Sharp\u2019s solutions division.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 18, the first full day of the Executive Connection Summit (ECS), began with a bang when Echelon Force, a leadership consulting company comprised of two combat-trained Navy SEALs, delivered a powerful message on leadership. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin recounted in riveting fashion how their experiences in Ramadi, Iraq, where they were part of SEAL Team Three\u2019s Task Unit Bruiser, helped hone the skills that were now being used to teach business leadership. In the mid 2000s, during the peak of the Iraqi insurgency, Willink and Babin were tasked with leading disparate units into fierce and chaotic combat missions while also winning the trust and support of the local Sunni population. They detailed their four pillars, the flexible chain of command and explained how communication, particularly the communication of \u201cwhy,\u201d was critical in achieving success. The SEALs lessons on leadership were cited by many throughout the day\u2019s sessions. However, just like at the opening press conference, the key themes and buzzwords continued to be IoT, the flexibility and advisability of an open architecture, partnership, and the expectations of millennials which were driving changes in habits and behaviors across the modern landscape. Sharp President, Doug Albregts, joked about his misfortune in following the SEALs, and then sat on a stool as a long, Star Wars-style intro parody scrolled on the presentation screen. Albregts introduced his presentation, entitled Relationships@work \u2013 Industry Growth Through Partnerships by reiterating some of the familiar themes of IoT, big data and the importance of an open architecture for business software platforms. Briefly touching on Sharp\u2019s recent troubles, Albregts suggested that all the information that anybody wanted to know was on their website. He did address some details though, attributing the bulk of the issues to poor capital investments just prior to the 2008 global recession. He also described the performance of the solutions division, of which he is part, as \u201cexcellent.\u201d Albregts also addressed the rumors breaking that very morning surrounding new ownership, quipping [he could be part of] a \u201cJapanese company that reports to a Japanese company or a Japanese company that reports to a Chinese company\u201d at any time (Taiwanese Foxconn and Japanese INCJ). He noted that the offers were \u201csignificantly over market [value]\u201d and asked the audience to consider the importance of that. To further dispel rumors of Sharp\u2019s imminent demise, Albregts noted the 13 new hardware products that they released in the last year, which he called a \u201csignificant amount,\u201d that included color and mid-range machines. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very, very aggressive in coming out and investing in new products,\u201d he said. If there was one theme that Albregts seemed keen to communicate, however, it was that Sharp, with its new partnerships and solutions-based approach, is prepared for the future. To underscore this, he remarked about how Sharp\u2019s approach is similar to Apple in how it manages an open architecture system. \u201cThey don\u2019t try to build everything,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have a lot partners.\u201d Like most panelists and presenters, Albregts referenced the habits of millennials and stated that it was as much a marketing concern for them as it is for everybody else. Albregts also attempted to set the record straight regarding the recent partnership with Tech Data. \u201cThey opened the door to all the hardware that we don\u2019t want to make,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cThey opened the door to integration capabilities that we aren\u2019t able to do [and] that they are able to do.\u201d On Wednesday, March 9, Reuter\u2019s reported that Sharp Corp’s two main banks would lower interest rates on billions of dollars in loans and offer other financial support to ease the takeover by Foxconn. Although neither Foxconn nor Sharp has offered comments yet, it appears that this probable new partnership can only reinvigorate and strengthen Sharp\u2019s solutions division. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":16933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16924"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16924"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16945,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16924\/revisions\/16945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}