Vice President of Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions Stephen Whetstone talks about the meaning of innovation and what it takes to embody it.
As Steve Jobs once famously
said, "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." Is it any
surprise that so many of us spend an inordinate amount of time and money on the
quest to innovation? Yet, many of us fail to ask ourselves what this means to
us as an organization and to the customers we serve. We sat down with one of
our featured speakers at the DOCUMENT Strategy Forum, Stephen Whetstone, to
discuss this very idea. As vice president and leader of Pitney Bowes Legal
Solutions (PBLS), Stephen oversees 1,500+ employees who work hand-in-hand each day with PBLS
clients. With an extensive litigation background in e-discovery developments
and best practices, Stephen talked with
DOCUMENT Media about his ideas of innovation, how executive can
stay on top and the companies that are doing it right.
Q: What does innovation mean to you?
A: As a former patent litigator, in my mind, innovation is largely
synonymous with the basic requirements of patentability—that is, whether a product
or process is novel, useful and nonobvious. In other words, does an
"innovation" truly add significant new value, or is it merely a
marginal improvement? Virtual distributed workflows, data classification and
predictive coding are a few recent innovations that are transforming the way
that businesses design and deliver their document management programs.
Q: What company in your experience is doing it right, and why?
A: I've been consistently impressed by how JPMorgan Chase has approached
legal document and data management challenges. Several years ago, JPMorgan
Chase was one of the first companies to recognize the extraordinary
inefficiencies and risks inherent in relying entirely on outside litigation
counsel to design, build and manage all facets of the legal document discovery
process. So, the bank hired a team of legal, technology and process subject
matter experts, who wrested control over traditional and tired litigation management
approaches, first, by building significant in-house discovery capabilities and
operations and, later, by load balancing the amount of work they tackle
in-house versus dole out to third-party providers and outside counsel. Both
paradigms leverage repeatable, measurable and efficient processes and
continuous improvement. That same team also was an early adopter of
engaging overseas business process outsource (BPO) providers to augment their
in-house and third-party provider programs, driving even greater efficiencies
and best practices.
"A gigabyte of prevention is worth a terabyte of
cure."
Q: What would you advise CEOs to put at the top of their priority list?
A: Countless companies have stumbled because they were not prepared for
the current data deluge, especially from a legal and compliance perspective. The
inadvertent or intentional destruction of relevant data, the discovery of
"smoking gun" emails, computer hacking and identity theft or quality
control failures in reviewing mortgage applications are all examples of process
and technology breakdowns. These lapses can result in court-imposed sanctions
and case losses, huge remediation costs and significant damage to company
brands. To avoid them from occurring, companies must design, build and
consistently manage compliant records and information (RIM) programs, which
requires a top-down and ongoing organizational commitment—starting with the
CEO. The message must be clear: The company will not tolerate such lapses and,
so, will invest in better technologies and more transparent processes and hire
and train personnel that are capable of effectively managing a compliant RIM
program. A gigabyte of prevention is worth a terabyte of
cure.
Q: What was the best management advice you ever received in your career, and why?
A: I've received a lot of great advice from several extraordinary and diverse leaders over the course of my career in politics and government, legal practice, technology and business management, and so, it really is hard to call out one as the "best." That said, one of my favorites is, "Make someone else the hero," whether during a meeting, pursuant to a project or client deliverable or in connection with a written report or memorandum. Consciously turning the spotlight away from yourself and onto your teammates engenders extraordinary goodwill, motivation and results.
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