This report from The Economist, 15 March 2007 (may need subscription):
Of slips and video clips
Candidates for 2008 are racing to master a new medium
DURING the presidential campaign of 1800, partisans harnessed high-speed technology to spread their message. Like today, that message was often scurrilous. Unlike today, the technology they harnessed needed real harnesses. When Thomas Jefferson’s enemies wanted to distribute pamphlets accusing him of atheism and adultery, or to spread a premature report of his death, they used horses, which could outrun even the most rapid rebuttal.
Continue reading ‘Campaigning on the Internet’
As the most powerful woman in advertising, and one of the most powerful business women in the world, Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, is someone to listen to. Recently, in a variety of different interviews, she reflected on her 35 years in the industry.
Her most recent personal intervention in the advertising industry was to oversee a campaign for Unilever’s Dove Cream Oil body wash, that culminated in a 30-second spot flighted during the Oscars. The ad was a screening of the winning entry in an online contest in which consumers were invited to create their own advertisements (see some of the entries - and some spoofs - on YouTube). This follows on from Dove’s award-winning campaign, “Campaign for Real Beauty”, that featured ordinary-looking women (see example at YouTube) and departed from conventional notions of beauty and beauty advertising. Unilever has also established a “self-esteem fund” - a worldwide campaign to persuade girls and young women to embrace more positive images of themselves.
The advert screened at the Oscars captures something of the spirit of advertising today, with its combination of old and new media, consumer-generated content, social software and an effort to engage the consumer rather than simply push a product.
Continue reading ‘What’s changed in advertising - Shelly Lazarus speaks’
A few days ago, a senior Wikipedia editor was “outed”. Essjay, as he was known, had claimed to be a professor of religious studies. In fact, his name is Ryan Jordan, and he is a 24-year-old college drop-out. An interesting question arises about how Wikipedia works and about the information it makes available. Ryan, although not who he claimed to be, was actually a pretty good editor, by all accounts, and did a great job of fixing up entries and applying the stringent Wikipedia encyclopedia rules for content, style, format, referencing, etc.
Wikipedia allows for anonymity, and, in fact, almost every one of its editors uses a pseudonym - in fact, their identities are jealously guarded. This assists in making sure that any editing decisions are dealt with (more) objectively than they might be, if there was potential for personal appeals. The anonymity creates a phoney equality, putting everyone on equal level. I wonder if this incident will change how Wikipedia works, with some Big Brother top-level/behind-the-scenes vetting of (at least) the editors? I doubt it. In this connected world, people are judged more on their outputs (the value of the job they did) than their qualifications or inputs. But, the fact that Ryan lied and therefore displayed a lack of integrity should raise some concerns. Given how Wikipedia operates, one wonders why he felt the need to do that in the first place.
Some interesting ethical issues await…
As an aside, the fact that at least one editor is very much NOT who he claimed to be is worrying. And a little disturbing for people (like me) who have had entries removed from Wikipedia for spurious (IMO) reasons.
I was asked again the other day what the “theme” of this blog is. It can sometimes seem like a collection of rambling musings on the world. Well…
Besides being just that, it is really the place that the network at TomorrowToday.biz put all their musings on the world. This is part of what we do at TomorrowToday - we track societal trends, trying to spot patterns and identify futures and scenarios.
Every now and again, we get glimpses of how major forces combine to shape societies and destinies globally. One such thought hit me today, and it brings together things we say around retiring Boomers, globalisation, governments, investment opportunities, emerging markets, and much more. Its a simple, yet profound thought.
Continue reading ‘Links in a chain: How it all fits together’
I’ve been promoting something to my friends which I’ve been looking forward to for some time now - Graeme’s “Mind the Gap” presentation on Feb 8th at Kyalami. I’ve seen the presentation (about how the different generations behave and think) a few times, but what I’m really looking forward to this time around is the live actors playing each generation. This has huge potential for laughs and insights - which is why I’ve asked my parents to come along too - and almost have enough people to book out a table.
But late this afternoon I received a frantic sms from Graeme - “urgent website change: see email” - and to my disappointment I see that the event has been postponed until “some time in the next few months.” I’ve posted the cancellation notice online and now will have to contact all of the people I convinced to come and say, “Sorry guys…” It’s a little embarrassing, not only for me but also for TomorrowToday.biz. I suppose not as embarrassing as trying to pull together something which is essentially “live theatre” and failing to do so in front of a crowd (I’ve heard the venue holds 500 people). I don’t know who made the decision to can it, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy. Here’s the announcement: Continue reading ‘Cancelling an event’
This is too good to be true… It was reported in London newspapers last week, and is just unbelievable. It’s an anti-talent story. The story of a young web designer looking for a job in Dubai. He applies by email, and gets a favourable response. And, then… well, its hard to describe, but the guy has a complete mental breakdown.
The reason I’m giving you this link is to show you how powerful blogging is, how important understanding the Connection Economy can be, and how NOT to get ahead in advertising. It’s worth reading the whole thing through. My best is the last line: Congratulations, you’re famous. Read this great story here.
In Fast Company, Dec/Jan 07 edition, there is a short piece about a new type of company, entitled “Ears Wide Shut“. The company is Squeezebox, which sells “a $300 device that lets audiophiles take digital music from their computer hard drives or from Internet-radio streams, and play it with impressive clarity on high-end speakers in their living rooms.” It is made by Slim Devices, founded by Sean Adams, a 27-year-old college dropout in 2001. They have sold over 50,000 units with about $ 10 million revenue in 2006.
This is a classic Connection Economy, open source and “citizen development” story, because the product is “largely the brainchild of its customers around the world, who have done much of the vital engineering and design work–for free. They’ve been motivated by their passions–for great audio, for cool products, for the art of engineering–and also by the satisfaction of being admired and relied on by a global community of their peers… People around the world have been contributing to Slim Devices free of charge for all sorts of reasons. Some do it to showcase their skills in the hope of attracting a job offer. Some do it for the challenge. But much of it comes down to this: We want things our way.”
Continue reading ‘The Company of the Future’
The last few years have seen obscene payments made to CEOs. The gap between what the top managers earn and what labourers in their factories earn has never been as wide as it is today (unless you go back to Feudal landlord days). Of course, if these top managers with all the pressures on them were delivering serious financial returns to shareholders on a consistent basis and developing not only short-term, but also long-term capacity and sustainable comeptitive advantage, then they deserve to be rewarded appropriately.
But the trend has been to pay bonuses and perks completely unrelated to performance. Even worse, is when badly performing CEOs leave a company (by choice, or pushed) they are often paid unbelievable severance packages, rather than simply being sent packing in disgrace!
There has been great hope that those fat cat days were a thing of the past, and that the backlash of shareholders would stop this trend. But 2007 has started with the departure of Home Depot’s Bob Nardelli (he had previously been on the GE shortlist to replace Jack Welch, and left when Immelt was appointed to that post). For the last 6 years, he has consistently been near the top of the list of “most overpaid CEOs”. This is particularly true because Home Depot has gone nowhere under his leadership. Under the terms of his contract, his severance package is worth $210m. Not too bad, considering that the share price on the day before his departure (3 January) was slightly less than it was when he took the job in 2000.
This is unbelievable, indefensible and immoral. Simple as that!
Luckily, it appears as if shareholder activism is working, and this hopefully will be one of the last of these sorts of fat cat payouts.
The Economist sums it up this way:
Continue reading ‘Fat Cats march on in 2007′
Blogs were the front runners of a new phenomenon that has swept the world over the last 3 years or so. It now has a name: Web 2.0. Other words used to describe this new approach to online activity include: interactivity, citizen reporting, social networks, folksonomies, wikis, blogs, vlogs, and so on.Major news networks were wuick to jump onto the concept (if not making the most use of the software) and began inviting viewers to send in photos and videos in addition to comments and questions. Pictures of the Boxing Tsunami in Asia, and the London Underground bombings cemented “citizen reporting” as a mainstream phenomenon. But, I wonder if the future will see some further changes. Most people in the world know how valuable those images and videos are to the news media. How long will it be before people stop wanting to send in their reports for free?
I’d suggest that 2007 might see that change. News media will be overwhelmed this year by stupid reports, and underwhelmed by serious and usable ones. And they’ll have to do better than CNN’s iReport, which says that in exchange for sending in your reports, you will get… wait for it… the chance to tell your friends, “I report for CNN”. Wowwww!
Actually, I can’t say it better than Jon Stewart of the Daily Show did. This was originally available at YouTube, but has since been removed - so right click here to download an FLV file of the video (you need an FLV viewer to play it). 6.8Mb download.
Anyone who knows me will know that I am irrationally exuberant about South Africa’s future. I believe my home country has a rich legacy, a wonderful heritage to share with the world, and a bright future. Of course, there are problems - but we’re sorting many of them out. We need more houses - but we’ve built close to 2 million in the last 10 years (can’t ask for much more, can you?). We need a better AIDS policy - that seems to be happening, now that the health minister (in an ironic twist) has fallen ill, and is on long term sick leave. Every decent economist I know is confident our economy’s fundamentals are solid - and our finance department and tax office are absolutely top drawer! Crime is a HUGE problem, and must be sorted out. We need more political will in this area.
But my friends at SA The Good News, and Guy Lundy, author of Reasons to Believe, and the great crew at HomeComing Revolution and the official crowd at the International Marketing Council all help me to be positive.
Continue reading ‘qnomore - gotta love the free market’
There is increasing work being done looking into the effect games have in the real world. One one level it seems like a waste of time, effort and money. The stuff of Hollywood.
Aparently not. South Korea is the most connected country in the world, and online gaming and social networks are presenting a dark side. A very dark side. Gamers, whose task it is to destroy fellow online gamers in the virtual world are finding their antics ‘bleeding’ through to the real world, sometimes unconsciously, and sometimes very deliberately.
See here for full article.
“They are very serious. They said ‘I’m going to kill you’, that they’d pray for me. It was a kind of curse. It was the worst day I’ve ever had.”
The spiteful comments and threats continued for 12 months. This is a mild case of a growing phenomenon Koreans call cyber violence.
This question has been around about as long as blogging has. Is blogging just another fad, another fringe happening, and does it have the momentum to make it into the realm of main stream? Of course anecdotes abound to illustrate just how much gravitas it has. Perhaps it’ll be a case of ’slowly slowly catch the monkey’ as these seemingly light-weight anecdotes band together to create the kind of splash blogging enthusiasts have always predicted?
Here’s another of those stories. This one isn’t as light weight as others, and one wonders if this is just Microsoft spin, or whether they really would re-consider their China policy over the persecution of bloggers?
I’ve just read an article on Moneyweb titled ‘MySpace, ByeSpace?’ (http://www.moneyweb.co.za/shares/international_news/329842.htm).
It refers to loyal users of social-networking sites renouncing the sites and deleting their pages - ‘not in spite of their popularity, but because of it’. They are being subjected to spam and advertising, usually masquerading as new ‘friends’.
It’s the age-old case of a great idea built to make people’s lives easier. Then the corporates see how successful it becomes and buy it, adding it to their list of acquisitions. They then believe that this purchase entitles them to bombard their newly-acquired ‘target market’ with endless marketing and branding information. They have to make that acquisition profitable, otherwise why pay good money for it?
All they are doing is buying up ‘new media’ and applying old media mindsets. With no respect to the recipient. And this used to work before as there were very limited channels through which to voice your dissatisfaction. But now each individual has a voice. And they are voicing their dissatisfaction by leaving. One by one. And soon those single numbers will add up to double digits and then triple digits and…..
Marketers need to understand that you can’t buy loyalty. You can’t force it. You can’t wheedle, blackmail or beg. It needs to be earned. And this only happens when you offer something of value that people want. Or aspire to. Or feel connected to. And where they are respected as individuals.
Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ (full report here) — As it approaches its 95th anniversary in 2007, Girl Scouting is undergoing a historic transformation to modernize the iconic organization and focus on leadership development for girls in the 21st century. Addressing each area of the organization, the transformation intends to revitalize the Girl Scout brand, create new fundraising models, improve volunteer systems, and significantly realign the national Girl Scout council infrastructure. The monumental changes have been designed to deliver a program that focuses on Girl Scouts’ core strength of leadership development, while also offering provable outcomes that benefit girls, families and communities.
The National Board of Directors also endorsed a more contemporary leadership philosophy, and renewed an organizational commitment to develop leadership skills based on the values of the Girl Scout Promise and Law. This leadership philosophy is captured by the new Girl Scout mission statement: “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.”
Girl Scouting has identified some core tenets of its leadership philosophy — discover, connect and take action — which will form the basis of all Girl Scout activities beginning in October 2008. The ideas of discovery, connection and action reflect the Girl Scout view that leadership extends beyond holding a position of authority. In Girl Scouting, leadership is about self, others, community service and philanthropy. You can’t lead well unless you really understand yourself and have your set of values very well in place. Research, conducted from June 2005-2006 by the Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI), shows most girls see the value of developing leadership skills and that girls define leadership in terms of the qualities a leader possesses and the actions she takes.
I have discovered that the wonderful tool of blogging has helped me to stay connected to my family. I have 2 brothers and a sister and between us we have 9 children. My two are married so the total number of people in the family is 20. The age range is from 12 to 74 ( my mom) We are living on 4 different continents and even those of us left in South Africa do not live in the same city. I would say that we are typical of many families all over the world dealing with globalisation and the challenges this brings to staying connected.
What a joy to wake up and log on to the blog and communicate or read about some activity or exciting adventure. The comments for me form such an important part of the conversation as the humour, comments and interaction fly across my screen. The other morning my 13 year niece discovered that her sugar glider is pregnant and going tp produce babies. Within an hour there was comment from London , then Thailand and back home to White River then from my sister in the USA and my mom here in Johannesburg. We have all learnt about the gestation period and pictures have been posted to keep us all in the loop.I believe that this tool is helping us to keep up with the GLUE type conversations that normally happen when one lives in the same house. In fact I think we know more about one another than some families that do live within close proximty but never seem to have the time to chat and connect.
In a world that is so fast and spread out I have found this tool to be invaluable in keeping me connected to the most important people in my life. Family values are critical for society. Thak goodness technology is there to help us stay connected. ….. one last comment on the subject, I have noticed that the female members of my family connect more and make more of an effort…. that is another story for another day and the lessons we need to learn about the Connection Economy.
I do hope you’ll excuse the therapy analogy here - one nevers knows how severe the lynching may be when mentioning therapy influenced notions in the business context.
Anyway …
One of the roles a therapist fulfills for a client is that of a mirror .This means that the therapist can become a reflective tool for the client who may not be able to see aspects of their story and any changes that may need to occur on their own. This does not mean that the therapist becomes an expert observer in the life of the client, but does help the client see himself more clearly and see the journey better.
In many ways, this is what I believe we do as TomorrowToday. We hold up a mirror, so that companies can assess who they are in establishing competitive advantage in the Connection Economy. If it is really more about who you and and less about what you sell, it is important that businesses (including ourselves) have a mirror they can reflect themselves against to get to grips with who they are, what frameworks can aid in the process and help discover the answers within themselves.
Perhaps a crude analogy, but one I believe is pertinent. Your thoughts?
We have a few clients who work in the news and publishing industries. These industries have always seemed out of date to me, but I recognise that many of these companies are working hard (scrambling?) to get into the digital age. One of the best articles I have read on this issue comes from Fast Company, and was written by Richard Watson under the Innovation heading of the magazine. You can read the article here.
A quick summary of what newspapers can do to become 21st century compliant:
Continue reading ‘The Future of Newspapers’
In the The Sunday Times in the UK today, there is a bizarre story about BAE Systems (read it here). This company produces a variety of products, mainly military armaments. In a report on Sunday, BAE Systems announced that they would be pursuing an environmentally friendly approach to their products, including quieter missiles (so that as they zoom over your home to destroy the village down the road, you’re not irritated by the noisy whine?); military cars, ships and planes with lower CO2 emissions (so that future generations do not live in a messed up world? Oh wait, these vehicles are used for mass destruction - at least they won’t affect the ozone layer, though); missiles that have bio-degradeable components (so that after its killed your friends, it can bring new life by providing compost for your flower bed?); and my favourite: bullets with a lower lead content and missiles with reduced toxins.
Are these guys absolutely joking?
This is an example of the corporate world gone mad. Sure, we preach to our clients that environmental care is becoming an important part of a company’s reporting and ethics. Sure, we tell our clients that in this “connection economy”, we need to be concerned about what our clients are concerned about. And “being green” is important! But, no amount of “green” will cover the red stain of blood on the hands of arms manufacturers. I can only see this bringing ridicule to BAE Systems. I can’t see any government, militia or terrorist changing buying habits of armaments based on environmental factors. Can you?
News broke this past week that HP board chairperson, Patricia Dunn, had ordered a probe into how information was being leaked to the press. This investigation led to the obtaining of personal phone records of some directors, and at least two reporters covering HP. The investigation conducted by a company hired by HP used a controversial technique called “pretexting” to obtain the personal phone records of silicon.com sister site CNET News.com reporters Dawn Kawamoto and Tom Krazit, California state prosecutors said. Pretexting is an illegal method of obtaining personal records through misrepresentation of someone’s identity.
Dunn has resigned as chair of the Board, although she will remain on as a director. Another director has been forced to resign. The issue was raised by a non-executive director who resigned earlier this year in protest over the investigation, and took his complaint to the AG.
Right now, this story is simply proof that the connection economy exists. Its not just what you sell anymore, its who you are that people are worried about. How HP responds will be critical, and interesting to watch. An unanswered question for me is: “who was leaking the information, and did the inquiry come to any conclusions?” The answer to that question may be HP’s rescue boat. But, in this new era of transparency, its not just what you do, but how you do it that counts. HP are finding this out the tough way.
Every marketer says that they do. Companies swear that they know their customers. But, as a fantastic article from Fast Company shows, most organisations are just fooling themselves. Its a long read, but well worth it - from Fast Company, Issue 34, April 2000. Read it here (or below).
Key messages:
- Where You Listen Is as Important as How You Listen
- Whom You Listen to Is as Important as Where You Listen
- To Listen Smarter, Give Customers Something to Talk About
This is one of the cornerstones of the connection economy. This is worth taking seriously!
Continue reading ‘Listen to your customers’
Today is another anniversay. It is 29 years since Steve Biko died in police detention in South Africa. Steve Biko was a leader who focused on helping black people in South Africa to gain self esteem. He founded the Black Consciousness movement, and talked about Black is Beautiful. Of all the lives lost during apartheid, for me personally, his is the most tragic. I really wish I could have met him. By all accounts he was a brilliant human being.
One of my favourite “memories” of him came through a re-enactment of one of his trials in the movie, “Cry Freedom“. Asked by a white judge, “Why do you call yourself black, when your skin is brown?”. He replied with, “Why do you call yourself white, when you are actually pink?”. Cheeky, self-assured, witty and correct.
But someone told me recently of another famous Biko saying, and it is in this that Biko showed his prescient genius. He apparently believed that Africa’s gift to the world would be our ability as Africans to put the humanity back into business, government and organisations. He couldn’t have been more right.
Read Aiden’s memories of Biko previously posted at this blog.
Here’s a great description of the “connection economy”:
A profound, but silent, transformation of our society is afoot. Our industrial system is generating more goods and services than at any point in history, delivered through an ever-growing number of channels. Superstores, boutiques, online retailers, and discount stores proliferate, offering thousands of distinct products and services. This product variety is overwhelming to consumers. Am Ibuying the right digital camera? Am I getting the best treatment for my chronic ulcer? Am I signing up for the right service? Simultaneously, thanks to the propagation of cellphones, web sites, and media channels, consumers haveincreased access to more information, at greater speed and lower cost, than ever before. But who has the leisure and the proficiency needed to sort through and evaluate all these products and services? The burgeoningcomplexity of offerings, as well as the associated risks and rewards, confounds and frustrates most time-starved consumers. Product variety has not necessarily resulted in better consumer experiences.
For senior management, the situation is no better. Advances in digitisation, biotechnology, and smart materials are increasing opportunities to create fundamentally new products and services and transform businesses. Major discontinuitiesin the competitive landscape - ubiquitous connectivity, globalisation, industry deregulation, and technology convergence are blurring industry boundaries and product definitions.These discontinuities are releasing worldwide flows of information, capital, products, and ideas, allowing non-traditional competitors to upend the status quo.At the same time, competition is intensifying and profit margins are shrinking. Managers can no longer focus solely on costs, product and process quality, speed, and efficiency. For profitable growth, managers must also strive for new sources of innovation and creativity.
Thus, the paradox of the 21st-century economy: Consumers have more choices that yield less satisfaction. Top management has more strategic options that yield less value. Are we on the cusp of a new industrial system with characteristics different from those we now take for granted?…. The answer, we believe, lies in a different premise centered on co-creation of value. It begins with the changing role of the consumer in the industrial system.
The most basic change has been a shift in the role of the consumer - from isolated to connected, from unaware to informed, from passive to active. The impact of the connected, informed, and active consumer is manifest in many ways.”
The Future Of Competition: co-creating a unique value with customers, by C K Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy
Have you noticed how busy everyone is? It’s almost as if the phrase “things are hectic” is usurping the inimitable response of “fine” when asked, “So, how are you?” Shawn Callahan over at Anecdote has termed this the busy-ness meme. So, as a unit of cultural meaning, is this meme a representation of how busy we really are or a self-defense for not being busy?
In the 31 Aug 06 edition of strategy+business, Michael Schrage wrote an excellent article about using the power of Web 2.0 type thinking to involve customers in innovation processes. Read it here.
His basic point needs little elaboration: Involving customers in the innovation process can add value to new product designs. He is arguing for more than just “market research” - a process that can so easily be manipulated to achieve the results you’re looking for. Like many of us who believe that interactive technologies are causing a shift in values and institutional power, he is arguing that we need to extend an invitation to customers to actively assist in the whole process of innovation, especially when considering new features and functionality on existing products and services.
We don’t do nearly enough of this. If we did, I am certain we’d get more customer loyalty, too.
Continue reading ‘My Customer, My Co-Innovator’
IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano has announced what he calls an Innovation Jam - an attempt to come up with new business and product ideas by leveraging the collective intelligence of IBM’s 100,000-strong ‘crowd‘.
According to Yahoo! Business, IBM has “used these online brainstorming sessions to mine for new business opportunities in 2001, to exchange ideas about good management in 2002, and to discuss IBM values in 2003″ - this is not a new idea, but is unique in that IBM is looking for ideas from clients, suppliers, consultants, resellers, employee family members, etc. They are going open source with innovation - 2 x 72 hour sessions in which stakeholders pump ideas into the system - “IBM won’t own any of the nuggets that emerge” - but are willing to put up to $100 million behind the strongest concepts.
Continue reading ‘IBM Puts Dollars Behind the Crowd’
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