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It is likely that this Landscape is already out of date since new apps are appearing continuously.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.
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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Community Manager: Why Are They Important?
May 31, 2008
Increasingly, companies are hiring community managers - but what are they, and what do they do? And, most importantly, do you need one?
I invited David Peralty to explain his new role as community manager at PicApp …
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