• How Much Sustainable Business Is Just Hot Air?
  In one of those quiet relaxing moments when I wasn’t haring after one person or another, I settled down to read the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) July report Business and Development: Challenges and Opportunities in a Rapidly Changing World.
  Something unsettled me about it and I found myself wondering how much of WBCSD’s [...]
• UK Mobile Marketing Wide Open for Business
  According to a June 2010 report from comScore, the number of people who own smartphones in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy nearly doubled to 60.8 million people between 2009 to 2010 (41% growth to be more precise).  In the United Kindom alone, smartphone use nearly tripled (70% to be precise) to 15 [...]
• Most CMOs Still Believe TV Advertising Works
  The print publishing world might be falling apart, but television advertising won’t be dying out anytime soon –not if the opinions of CMOs matter.
  In an Advertising Week panel of Chief Marketing Officers hosted by Fast Company last week, CMOs agreed almost unanimously that television advertising is still an important part of their marketing strategies and [...]
• Writing Treehugging Into Law
  Just in case you’re starting to lose track of all this eco-sustainability-responsibility-footprint stuff, a timely reminder of the sheer complexity of the task came last week from one of the most interesting of the new crop of MPs, Caroline Lucas.
  The Illegally Logged Timber (Prohibition of Import, Sale or Distribution) Bill was introduced somewhere just after [...]
• Clearing Your Clutter
  Years of content accumulation can lead to a chaotic site. When the internet first started out many didn’t realise it would become so important and so threw together a basic site, which have then grown and grown. How can you tidy up a site like this? Would it be easier to start from zero?

• Corporate Eye Summary June 4, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 28, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 21, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 14, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 7, 2011

 Corporate Eye

• Teens Loud and Strong in Word-of-Mouth Marketing
  A report from the Keller Fay Group, reported by BrandWeek, delivers interesting results related to a year-long research study.  According to the study, the hyper-social lives of teenagers helps brands.  It turns out, teens are responsible for a “disproportionate amount of word-of-mouth about products and services.”
  What amazes me from this study is not that teens [...]
• Wildlife Trust Rebrands as EcoHealth Alliance
  Wildlife Trust is a nonprofit organization that began in 1971 with a focus on wildlife conservation, but over the past 20 years, the organization has expanded its focus to include conservation medicine based on research about the relationships between ecosystems and animal and human health around the world.
  Throughout the past two years, the organization’s board [...]
• More Skydiving: Adventures in Employer Branding with the U.S. Army
  There’s anybody-can-do-it skydiving . . . and then there’s “Army Strong” skydiving.  Just take a look at  the illustration on the right for an example of that second category!
  Here’s the photo caption:
  At a zero angle of attack, better known as a “No Lift Dive,” Sgt. 1st Class Cheryl Stearns, from the U.S. Army Parachute Team [...]
• Target Precisely and Measure What Matters
  I recently invited Hilary Briggs, an experienced company director and consultant, to give us her thoughts on media measurement. She asks:
  Is your message really hitting home? Ignore the data at your peril.
  “Key messages don’t always hit the target group with the desired level of impact”.
  Unfortunately this is far too common a problem in the [...]
• Two Colors Dominate Web Branding
  In a recent article on ColourLovers.com, the two most popular colors for brands on the web were determined to be blue and red.  In fact, blue and red aren’t just in the lead — they dominate the web.  Take a look at the image showing just a handful of logos for major players in the [...]

• Corporate Eye Summary June 4, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 28, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 21, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 14, 2011
• Corporate Eye Summary May 7, 2011

 Corporate Eye

Image Source–http://www.rightattitudes.com/2007/05/

Economists like to tell some jokes about trying to discern the future –

It is very difficult to forecast, especially about the future.

He who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass.

Jokes aside, the current business landscape is increasingly complex and rapidly changing. A serious look at the future is essential.

First, before you look at future trends, you should enhance your trend watching skills. Thanks to TrendWatching (a great site –visit it for a further description of these tips, sign up for their newsletter) here are some tips –

• Know why you are tracking trends
• Make sure you acquire a point of view about the world around you. The more trends you spot and track, and the more skilled you are at putting these trends into context, the more guidance you’ll have.
• Celebrate the incredible wealth of trend resources at your fingertips, many of them free or dirt cheap! (Yes indeed, more on this below)
• Have a Trend Framework: basically a long list of all the trends we’ve spotted over the years.
• Every company should have its own Trend Group. Even if that “group” is just you. The Trend Group is not some multimillion dollar/euro/pound affair. It doesn’t have to employ a dozen staff (though that would be nice ;-). It’s more a state of mind. It can be low-cost, unauthorized and grass roots if need be. Don’t wait for permission, make the Trend Group a fait accompli.

Ok, now let’s look at some trends. The first list is from Ernst & Young’s 2009 Global Megatrends

• The accelerating shift of power from West to East
• The changing  Financial landscape
• Overhaul and globalization of the regulatory environment
• The rising economic importance of energy and commodities
• Responsibility firmly on the corporate agenda
• The next wave of technological innovation
• The increasing challenges of managing and developing talent

For a comprehensive discussion of these trends visit E&Y’s website. This is one of the best resources on future business trends.

Next, visit A Thousand Tomorrows. This is a most unusual “blog”. The company that publishes this resource, Pantopicon, calls this a blog, but it is much more than a blog. There is rich content here. Be warned, topics go beyond future trends, you might find yourself captivated by the breath of topics covered.

Another worthy resource is the downloads section of  Z_punkt and download “Megatrends–A survey of the top twenty megatrends shaping tomorrow’s business.” Here you will find other good references such as, “Ten Trend Setting Products”, “Rethinking Business” and more.

A look at the future would not be complete without a view of Risks. The Global Competiveness Forum offers 2009 Global Risks.

A good site that I’ve used for many years, ManyWorlds, has a Futures section. Finally,  a discussion about the Future must include the World Future Society. This a membership site but many no-cost references are offered. Be sure to see their “Top 10 Forecast For 2009 and Beyond“.

There are more good resources, feel free to post and share them.

• Economic Indicators: Pink Ties and Trash
• 10 Trends for 2010 that Affect Branding, Marketing and Business
• Corporate Governance Issues in 2009
• Fast Forward
• Spirituality And Business Oh Really?

 Corporate Eye

Recently, I wrote a post on some good websites. As I surf, I bookmark sites that I found uniquely informative. So here goes my latest findings.

Best practices are always informative since they give you examples of what companies are top in various corporate matters. The problem is that they are usually fragmented and widely dispersed among many sources. Well, PricewaterhouseCoopers solved the problem. They have a Best Practices website that has a comprehensive menu of best practices –

First note that the menu on the left has navigation to more than best practices. There is benchmarking, best companies and more. Next note the variety of business processes menu that you may view.

Nice job PWC.

Next there is The Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs That All Managers Should Bookmark. Thanks to the site HR World, you can find blogs that are organized into sub categories. Now you can find out what people are saying on topics such as Leadership, Creativity and Inspiration, Self-Awareness and more. This was an excellent find and is well worth a visit.

Since I write about Corporate Governance, I had to list Corporate Directors Forum’s Useful Corporate Governance Websites. They have the sites organized by –

- Institutional Investors/Investor Groups
- Proxy Advisory & Ratings
- Journals, Newsletters & Blogs
- Professional Organizations
- Other Resources

Those interested in Corporate Governance now have a one-stop-shop for finding needed information.

Finally a interesting blog My CEO Life –

The Category menu is robust and “Running a Business on Skype” seems like a must read. The topics are somewhat unique and are thought provoking.

Now it is your turn to post your Sites To Visit.

• A good scare beats a good plan any day
• Bravo — BrasilTelcom Corporate Governance
• Must Read-OCEG Corporate Governance Model “RED BOOK” 2.0
• Wanted a Chief Governance Officer…With Teeth
• Once Again It’s Leadership Integrity

 Corporate Eye

In one of my posts I wrote about a standout Corporate Governance organization Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG). Another post covered Corporate Governance Visualization, the use of graphics to convey and explain Governance matters. I’d like to combine the two themes.

Corporate Eye has received permission to link to OCEG’s seminal visual on Corporate Governance. Think of it as “everything you wanted to see about Governance.” This is a landmark effort and visually shows all Corporate Governance practices and stakeholders, and all relationships and linkages.

You may access the visual here.

You will need to register for free subscription: well worth it you will get access to the visual and more. Also don’t worry about e-mails, OCEG respects your privacy.

For those who have an interest in Corporate Governance, OCEG and the visual is a must.

• Toray Group Website — Effective Use Of Visuals
• Boards Are Focusing On Risk Management
• Visualization and Corporate Governance
• What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 32: Governance
• Social Media And Corporate Governance

 Corporate Eye