Page 114 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

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▶ChApter FIVe

strategic leadership in a

Virtual world

Creating sustainable Competitive Advantage

How do you keep that competitive advantage? I think that a little bit of
that has to do with staying current on the technology itself but more im-
portantly keeping the edge on how you develop and focus on your culture.
That is really the primary benefit. Telework, frankly, is a facilitator but
focusing on the culture itself is what achieves your objective.
—Sharon Allen, chairman, Deloitte LLP 1

President Barack Obama dubbed it “snowmageddon,” and headlines
described it as pummeling, walloping, crippling, and paralyzing. “It”
was the blizzard that closed down Washington, D.C., for almost a
week in February 2010. More than 200,000 federal workers were told
to stay home. With a cost of $100 million a day to shut government
down, the decision to open government for business or to remain
closed was not a trivial one. Ironically, the determination was made
by the same person who had made telework—the most strategic long-
term solution for this kind of crisis—his first major initiative when

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