Listen to Chris Meyer long enough, and it's as if you can almost hear a stopwatch ticking off the seconds.
Time's encumbered passage has cast this thought leader in a race with no end. It's a race in which at any given time Meyer needs to be ahead of what the market is asking for, and one where only superior thinking can keep you in the running.
"The sooner we identify issues that will be challenging businesses in the future, the sooner we can derive service concepts to respond to them," Meyer says, adding that it helps when a firm's leadership is not focused entirely on today's revenue and results.
As director of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation, Meyer sees it as his job to "shine the headlights a littler farther down the road" than his consulting peers. After looking into the future, Meyer is tasked with what may arguably be his most challenging work — the act of adopting innovation.
"We take on the role of catalyzing innovation within the organization, by just first trying to get ideas into the conversation. We try to keep people thinking more broadly," he says.
Today, Meyer not only helps Cap Gemini E&Y's consultants with their thinking, but also helps account teams come up with client proposals, and sometimes even works directly with clients. "Sometimes we invite executive teams to the center to have a conversation about what's out there. It's a value-added to the client. It's meant to be an experience of stimulating thought — not a selling process."
No matter what his motives may be, Meyer never stops reminding us that time marches on.
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