Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Best Practices

Whistling For Attention

Somewhere around the time British Rail was privatised there was a wonderful quote from one of the presiding ministers: “Only 90% of passenger trains reach an eventual destination”.

Ever since then I’ve been deeply concerned about the remaining 10%. Are they lost out there somewhere, haunted by howling commuters, doomed forever to search for the Shangri-La of an “eventual destination”?

As well as showing how important it is for our leaders to think before speaking, this tale also demonstrates the inherent danger in relying upon statistics to prove a point.

So here’s another equally dubious one: less than 2% of UK companies encourage employees to raise their concerns if they believe their employer is breaking the law.

The rest, by definition, are either happy for such employees to approach the media, or are certain their employees will simply stay schtum.
[Read more…] about Whistling For Attention

What is Web 2.0? How is Business Using It?

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It is likely that this Landscape is already out of date since new apps are appearing continuously.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.

Using Networking to Target Graduates

Are you looking forward to the milkround again?

Here’s a different approach to targeting particular students at particular universities that might just be what you’re looking for …

Web Worker Daily recently described a new tool (from Affinity Circles) to help Fortune 500 companies target specific graduates – down to particular universities, educational background, year groups or work experience – and communicate directly with their targets about job opportunities.

This works by harnessing the power of social networks. Members send messages about jobs or other opportunities to their peers, universities send announcements to members, and outside companies like pay to send job postings to potential candidates.

Why is this news? Surely graduates use Facebook and LinkedIn?

Affinity Circles say that an online community sanctioned by a university promotes a higher degree of trust than an open community such as Facebook or LinkedIn; and that because it is members-only, there has been an element of preselection by the university; and that because it is members-only there is more privacy for the candidate. No candidate is identifiable by the recruiter until they identify themselves as interested.

From the candidate’s point of view, it’s the online version of the old boy (and girl) network for getting a foot in the door to places that don’t need to advertise and to talk to other alumni at that company to find out what it is really like to work there.

For the companies who participate, it’s a way to find potential recruits who may not be actively looking for a job, or simply to tap into a group of preselected candidates, thus reducing recruitment time and costs.

So should you seriously consider this?

It looks as though the only universities that Affinity Circles have access to at the moment are US-based, so this won’t be useful for everyone.

And I wonder why Affinity Circles are promoting this to Fortune 500 companies; I would have thought that this kind of advertising could be useful to many other, smaller, companies as well.

Nevertheless, I think that this is potentially a very useful way forward, and I think that Affinity Circles have astutely identified the current problems with online recruitment: that there are too many job boards with too little preselection of candidates and that the current set of wellknown networks offer too little by way of targeting and privacy.

Their solution, to use existing private networking circles, is a good one. I wonder what private networks currently exist in British universities …

A Blanket of Certificates

“We never fail when we try to do our duty; we always fail when we neglect to do it.” This is one of the most famous quotes from Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts movement.


Lord Robert Baden Powell

How, though, do you measure how well a boy scout is performing or preparing to do his duty?

To answer this Baden-Powell came up with the merit badge scheme. This encourages scouts to reach a certain level of proficiency in a wide range of activities and a few are graded to show increasing levels of ability.

Scouts are encouraged to display each badge once it is awarded. Many sew them onto the arm of their uniform so that others can easily see their proficiencies.

Some, for reasons unknown, sew them onto their blankets.

Badge Collection
It is precisely this spirit of badge collecting and fulfilment of duty which governments are relying upon to help encourage businesses down the path of sustainability.
[Read more…] about A Blanket of Certificates

Do your visitors know what you’re talking about?

I reviewed a bio-technology site recently which was written in language I didn’t understand.

I did study sciences until I was 18, and have a doctorate (though in ancient philosophy and science, not 21st century science), so I’m not uneducated, but I still didn’t understand it. And I wouldn’t be the only one. According to the Campbell-Ewald Health research of 2006, only 55% of Americans can understand the content on pharmaceutical sites, because the average site requires 12 years of education. Many people browsing such sites will have less exposure to language than this.

The problem for me was simply the terminology used.

Some of the scientific language used could have been rephrased into simpler English, but some of it was essential. To play with language for a moment, it was essential both because it was necessary, and because the science it was describing is the essence of the company.

This problem isn’t true just of scientific sites, of course. Every industry has its own language and terminology. While it is vital to convey the nature of your company, it is also important that your visitors can understand what you’re saying.
[Read more…] about Do your visitors know what you’re talking about?

Materiality within Sustainable Reporting

Imagine something you can live without; an atlas, perhaps, or pretty wallpaper. These may improve your quality of life or be useful repositories of knowledge, but they’re not strictly necessary for your day to day existence.

Now think of the things you really do need: air, water and nutrients must be top of your list. Additionally, shelter is useful for maintain a good health and transport is normally necessary to continue to earn a living.

Materiality within sustainability reporting is the concept of how much something is part of a business’ ongoing processes. How material it is to that company’s existence.

So taking the example above, pretty wallpaper and an atlas are pretty immaterial to an individual’s existence. Conversely air, water and nutrients are most definitely material, as are transport and shelter to a given degree.
[Read more…] about Materiality within Sustainable Reporting