Your People Are Your Competitive Advantage
June 19, 2008
What is the best way to get out in front of your competition?
- high tech development
- access to financial assets
- R & D
- industry boundaries
These approaches may have worked in the past - but they are becoming increasingly ineffective as technologies merge, regulations are relaxed and companies form powerful strategic alliances. Savvy, fast-growing companies understand this; that’s why they are developing new ways to achieve competitive advantage through their own people and organizational capabilities.
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What is Web 2.0? How is Business Using It?
June 16, 2008
You may have heard the Millennials generation using terms such as Wiki, Furl, Facebook, Flickr and wondered what are they talking about. These and more are components of Web 2.0, and no this is not a new Internet hardware architecture.
Web 1.0 involved companies, webmasters and individuals developing websites and posting various content. You could look at the content and maybe buy something online but little more. Then certain applications or apps began showing up that allowed you to add your own content to other’s websites, to interact with other visitors collaborate with team members and much more. The result uses of the Internet vastly expanded and Web 2.0 evolved.
The Future Explorations Network developed a Web 2.0 Landscape (you can download the PDF containing this image at their site).
It is likely that this Landscape is already out of date since new apps are appearing continuously. If you want to find out more about specific apps, go to the Centre For Learning And Perforce where you will see a display of the top 100 web 2.0 apps.
Now let us look at how organizations are using Web 2.0. McKinsey Consultants conducted a Web 2.0 survey of senior corporate managers. Key points from the survey include –
- Respondents show widespread but careful interest in Web 2.0 trends
- Expressing satisfaction with their Internet investments so far, they say that Web 2.0 technologies are strategic and that they plan to increase these investments
- Companies aren’t necessarily relying on the best-known Web 2.0 trends, such as blogs; instead, they place the greatest importance on technologies that enable automation and networking.
While McKinsey’s survey presents corporate wide applications there are many smaller intra-corporation Web 2.0 uses such as project management, team building, best practices sharing and others.
In a recent executive survey of marketplace trends by Forum Consulting Web 2.0 was identified as a key trend–
Using Web 2.0 Technology: Now, Not Futuristic: Web 2.0 technologies are used for both internal collaboration and as an interface with suppliers and customers, enhancing communication, collaboration, and intimacy among employees and the marketplace. Web 2.0 is certainly not just for tech-savvy teenagers: 79 percent of organizations view the collaborative aspects of Web 2.0 as a way to increase corporate revenue and/or margins.
Businessweek offers a Tip Sheet for using Web2.0. I agree with most, but see item pointed.
There are many opportunities for using Web 2.0 but there are risks that intellectual assets may seep out to competitors. There must be a delicate balance between promoting innovative use of Web 2.0 applications and protecting corporate assets. A worthy read is Cisco’s Internet Postings Policy.
Now you are ready to blog, wiki, Digg, and Furl, but be careful out there.
Sites For CEOs
June 10, 2008
Things have changed in the last 15 years. In the mid-1990s, I remember hearing about a CEO from a major company when he was getting briefed about the Internet, brought his secretary since he did not know how to use a keyboard. Now CEOs are necessarily technology savvy and are increasingly using the internet. A number of surveys confirm this.
Forbes magazine’s survey “Day In The Life of C-Level Executives” (2004) found -
Web Usage
- The internet continues to be the most influential and important source of information on business for C-Level executives around the world.
- The Web is a pervasive presence in the lives of C-level executives: 38 percent of C-level respondents said the Web is their single most important source for information on business. The next most prevalent source of information was daily newspapers by 26 percent of respondents.
- Among large company executives, the reliance on the Web is even greater with 51 percent naming the Web is their most important business information resource, followed by newspapers at 22 percent.
- C-level executive respondents also stated they are spending less time with other media, including newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and industry trade publications as a result of the time they spend online (not including email): 59 percent are spending less time with magazines, 50 percent say they are spending less time with newspapers, 48 percent less time with TV, 46 percent less time with radio and industry trade publications respectively.
- 26 percent of large firm respondents said they are knowledgeable about Wi-Fi technology and they are reporting some current usage of the technology.
Stories are Serious Business
June 5, 2008
Stories and storytelling cut across all types of industries and all business functions. The diagram below is only a narrow snapshot of where and how stories are used. You need a super wide angle lens to capture the corporate storytelling landscape. Note also that stories transcend organization size.
Stories are not limited to lofty corporate wide applications. I’ve seen more “mundane” uses such as a start-up using a story in its business plan presentation to investors, a six sigma consulting company using stories to help their clients and government vendors using stories in their proposal applications.
There have been a few articles on storytelling published in the Harvard Business Review and other publications. But it hasn’t yet hit the Business Top Ten List.
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Business Visualization – No, not Powerpoints
June 3, 2008
Business news and articles keep reminding us that organizations need to cope with rapid changes, changes in employee expectations, new organizational models and how to cope with a bewildering glut of data and information.
The Internet has become an important business tool for frontline managers all the way to C-Level managers. However, using the Internet is becoming increasingly frustrating. There is too much fluff, spam and clutter in the results you get.
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