Reposted from the Greenleaf Newsletter

http://www.greenleaf.org/

“THIS IS MY THESIS: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built.  Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt.  If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”

Servant Leadership as a way of leading.

What do you think?

From PDMA Visions

Portfolio Pain Points

This study, once again points out how poorly we manage our NPD Projects.  We do not seem to think of the collection of projects as a portfolio and do not manage them as such.  If we are to achieve our strategic goals for NPD as well as our objectives for each of the projects we have in process, we need to manage them as a portfolio.

Too many projects and poor decision making is at the root cause of poor success rates for both strategic and tactics objectives.

This research connects to a previous post regarding an article by Robert Cooper   Cooper Article

What do you think?  Am I overly concerned?

From Harvard Business Review

Article Abstract — Customer-centered Brand Management

This article says that companies are focusing on the lifetime value of their customers.  Really.  I agree that they should be, however,  I wonder how many actually are managing the Lifetime Value of their customers.  The article promo states “Yet, few companies have come to terms with the implications of that idea for their marketing management.”  The idea implications of course is that Lifetime Value Matters.

The article promo also goes on to suggest that managers are focused on brand equity rather than customer value.  The article authors suggest some things that managers should be doing such as ” replacing traditional brand managers with a new position–the customer segment manager; targeting brands to as narrow an audience as possible; developing the capability and the mind-set to hand off customers from one brand to another within the company; and changing the way brand equity is measured by basing calculations on individual, rather than average, customer data.”

I will be grabbing my hard copy of HBR and reading this one.  Most likely, it will be discussed in an upcoming class.

Comments?

From Baseline Magazine

Slideshow makes a series of observations  “What’s Wrong with Microsoft”

Do you agree?

From an Article in Chief Learning Officer

Agile Learning: Thriving in the New Normal

From the article

“Organizational learning agility is an enterprise capability that requires deliberate and systematic design, including essential cultural, structural, process and technology-support elements. Based on studies from TRClark, a research, consulting and training company, there are five primary factors that interact to promote or hinder learning agility within organizations:

1. Intelligence function: The capacity of an organization to survey and interpret its entire business ecosystem, including both internal and external competitive environments. The intelligence function interprets information for the strategy function, which feeds the learning function.

2. Learning mindset: The prevailing assumptions, beliefs and dispositions relating to the way people learn.

3. Leadership behavior: The dominant patterns of leadership within an organization.

4. Organizational support: The processes, systems, structures and other forms of support that organizations provide to help employees in their formal and informal learning and execution activities.

5. Learning technology: The forms of technology employed to enable learning at both individual and organizational levels.”

This article presents a number of important ideas about what organizations need to do to compete.

The article goes on to explain each of the five factors.

What do you think?

From Baseline Magazine

Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

Like, create Twitter Friendly headlines, plan in Analog.

Seems like a good approach, seems to work. 

Thanks Hugh

From Government Technology

Enterprise Architecture Demystified

From the article, and very well said:

“Enterprise Architecture is derived from the understanding that technology exists to fulfill business needs. Which technologies are chosen should not be a matter of “coolness” and is only partially a matter of cost: more properly it is a matter of what technologies get the job done. And what constitutes “the job” must, of course, be defined by the executive branch, the legislature, the agency head, etc., not by the technologists who, while perhaps experts at what they do, are often more interested and aware of bits and bytes than in agency purposes or political needs.”

So, who should be setting the agenda for IT?

Article from Harvard Blog — Conversation Starter

Ten Tips for Getting your CEO on Twitter

From the posting……

“A tweeting CEO is a terrific asset. It puts a human face (and voice) to the company’s leadership and it demonstrates the executive team’s commitment to customers. And unlike blogging, tweeting imposes relatively light demands on a CEO’s precious time.”

Do you think it is a good idea……. to have your CEO on Twitter?  Do you think these tips are helpful?

From CIO Insight

Expert Voices: James Champy

“In many of the companies I wrote about, IT was absolutely central to the business model. The CIOs were very front and center in the design of the business. Even if the companies weren’t IT-based, there was a sense of IT as the great enabler that allows them to do much of what they do.

That’s contrary to the notion that IT is no longer strategic because it’s ubiquitous. That’s a very dangerous argument, because the extension of that argument is that because it’s ubiquitous and no longer strategic, it can be relegated deep into the organization.”  “At every one of these companies I’ve written about, IT was very strategic and enabled them to adapt and develop new business  models. Therefore, it was critically important to the executives and the founders to understand not just how IT was working inside their company, but what it could do.”

And there you go.

What do you think?

Thanks for the link Hugh.

How Jobs Transformed APPLE

The Decade of Steve

And, my favorite link   Jobs’ Greatest Hits — A Timeline

So, is he the CEO of the decade?  Is he one of the most innovative manager/leaders ever?

What do you think?

Thanks Hugh.

Government Technology reports that some cities are using Twitter and other Web 2.0 technologies to help “hear” what citizens want.  Further, they are using CRM to build relationships with their citizens.   From the article “The simple act of incorporating Twitter into its customer relationship management (CRM) process adds San Francisco to a growing list of cities using Web 2.0 applications to make the citizen-government relationship a little easier. These applications tend to be easy-to-use and easy-to-integrate, providing benefits to the city and the citizen at minimal or no expense. On the East Coast, New York and Boston aim to join San Francisco by adding their own 2.0 twist to CRM.”

Why not, we have Twitter on our phones and PDAs, keeping them close to report problems (not while we are driving) seems like a great idea to me.  What do you think?  Maybe, we might even use Twitter to report things we observe that we like????   What do you think?

The HBSP Blog has an additional article I found interesting.  The article “Getting Started with Disruptive  Business  Design” lists five ideas for getting started.  As my students know,  I am a fan of the work of Clayton Christensen related to disruptive technologies.  By the way, Wikipedia as a great article on disruptive technologies that includes a number of examples of disruptive innovations.

What do you think of the toolkit of ideas?  Helpful?

Hugh suggested the linked White Paper from Eaton regarding the economics of running a data center.

The report is 12 pages long, however, if you are interested, the report is good, especially if you are an IT person or Power Quality person.

Economics of Data Center

I am personally interested in the capabilities of “real time” measurements.

Here is the Abstract:

“IT teams grapple with some inescapable realities. The cost of operating the data center is outpacing the
cost of IT resources themselves. High-density equipment pressures power and cooling systems to the
max. Moves, adds and changes can turn the power infrastructure into a deck of cards, at risk of
overloads, tripped circuits and unplanned shutdowns.
It doesn’t have to be that way. There are practical and affordable ways to ease these concerns without
making major changes in the power delivery system.
High-efficiency power quality systems, greater visibility into power conditions at all levels, flexible options
to power all those dual- and triple-corded servers, modularity for flexible growth… new approaches and
technologies such as these are redefining the economics of running the modern data center.”

What do you think is interesting?

Thank you Kathy and Catherine for this referral.  (Two students recommended this same video)

Great TED Talk on a device that can serve as our “SixthSense”

Amazing and not too far away!

What do you think?

While clicking around the INSEAD KNOWLEDGE website, I came across an article and video of Michael Porter.  The video, from October of 2008 has Porter talking about what “not” to do and what “to” do in a downturn. Do not worry about the stock price! — MP

Revisiting Five Forces Framework

What do you think?  Anything new here?

I learned about this new book from an article and short video on the INSEAD KNOWLEDGE website.

The article is “The Innovation Manual“  and we can see from the perspective of a marketing professor a number of key points, many of which we have discussed in our classes, but it serves as a great reminder about the “basics” .

David Midgley, the author of the book, uses the example of the Apple iPod and the business model it created.  Once again, we see this model coming out as a key to success. Further, the role of customers in product/service innovation and development.  We also read about the importance of an innovation culture and the challenges of maintaining a culture of innovation.  The book promises to tell us all about it.

What do you think of the reminders here?  What should be emphasized more?   Less?

Zipcar — Best New Idea in Business says FORTUNE Magazine

People saving money ($600 per month says the article), GREEN, convenient, and easy to use.  Could it get any better?

We discussed in class how this company has built a business model that could not really exist without the web and m-commerce (well it could, but it would not be as cool).  From the article “the company’s mission statement still pledges to “change the world through urban and environmental transformation” sounds all good.

Zipcar Website

What do you think?  Could this exist without the web?  Will this catch on?  Will rental car agencies take over?

Thank you to Mike for suggesting this video and topic.

The 18 minute video entitled “The Surprising Science of Motivation“  is a presentation regarding motivation; intrinsic vs. extrinsic .  Daniel Pink shares, in the format of a lawyer presenting a case — that “carrot and stick” does not work!  Rather, “Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose” are the way to get things done in business.

What do you think?  Did you enjoy the presentation?

I am a huge fan of workflow and “digitizing” (using information technology to transform “paper-based” processes).  An article in Industrial Distribution Magazine  (Justifying Going Electronic” ) states  ”automating just one business transaction can make a big difference in your bottom line”.  The article goes on to talk about the cultural changes that occur and then go through the economics of digitizing the invoicing process.  The article also points out that the process of automating processes is not just for “big” business.  ”When asked why they still use manual processes, a popular answer for many companies is “we are not large enough to justify the costs or reap the benefits of electronic processes.”

“Going electronic”, digitizing, or automating processes does not require installing SAP or some other monster ERP package, it can also mean using popular “office” software suites and some simple information technology tools.   I see some HUGE possibilities in collaborative technologies and in particular open source workflow tools as well as GOOGLE’s new WAVE especially for knowledge-based processes.

What do you think?  What are some examples of process digitization you have participated in?  What are some proejcts you can forsee?

In a Baseline Magazine article (July/August 2009) entitled “Keeping a Lid on Risk” there is a section I feel is particularly important.  This section is called “Understanding Risk“.   The section goes on to explain the differences between business risk, technology risk, legal/regualtory risk, and external risk.  EVERY project has risk.  EVERY IT project has these types of risk.  All risk must be actively managed and mangement requires mitigation as well as contingency during project planning as well as during project management.  Proper governance  must include risk management.

Another posting on Project Risk Management “Forecasting the Success of Technology Projects”

How well does your firm manage risk?  Does your firm or organization have a governance plan or approach?

What did you think about this article? What dis you learn?