Bill's Blog

Star Bellied Sneetches?

Like a parody of Dr Seuss’s short story “The Sneetches”, the race to be the company in control of the greatest smartphone technology patent portfolio is creating more and more headline and causing more and more friction.

On the one hand we have Google and Apple who along with other “Star-bellied Sneetches”, Microsoft and Research in Motion (RIM) recently acquired the assets of Nortel and created an “exclusive club”.

Now we have Google acquiring the patents of Motorola: creating a “Super-star-bellied Sneetch” and Hewlett Packard throwing in the towel in preference of being a plain-bellied Sneetch, having “no stars on thars”. We also have Kodak intent of selling their patent portfolio, including patents that may permit the owner the ability to pursue claims against Apple and RIM. Whose to win?

Enter the patent trolls a.k.a. Sylvester McMonkey McBean.

Like the character in Seuss story, McBean is happy to work with both sides and take a fee in doing so. What is likely to happen is confusion in the market, akin to an arms race,

"until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew

whether this one was that one... or that one was this one

or which one was what one... or what one was who."

And ultimately as in the book, this continues until the Sneetches are penniless and McBean departs a rich man asserting, “You can’t teach a Sneetch”.

But you can. Let’s hope this latest strategy ends with compromise and avoidance of “mutually assured destruction” and collaboration is seen as the best strategy.

Brian says "Engage!"

Often, when I'm running "Innovative Use of ICT" workshops, we turn to social media and how should a company use tools such as Blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

I'm by no means an expert, but could be called an interested dabbler and use each of the above media myself. Personally, I think the best strategy is to try it out for yourself and not to be afraid that you might get it wrong.

However, I also recognise there are others who can claim the expert moniker and if they suggest a specific road for action, then I most certainly would consider following them. Steve Cunningham of PolarUnlimited is one such person and I regularly follow his reviews and recommendations on Action University and it was with some relevance that his latest review is of Brian Solis' latest book "Engage!".

Here is the summary for your benefit.

A worthy reference document for all, don't you think?

Are you all Meshed up?

My current read is “The Mesh, why the future of business is sharing” by Lisa Gansky and, unusually, I wanted to bring it to your attention even before I’ve finished reading it!

I believe it’s going to be a business model changer. There are books that make you think but more important books like the Long Tail and Free by Chris Anderson, (and I suppose any book by Malcolm Gladwell or Seth Godin), that make you act. The Mesh is such a book. I think we will see the emergence of mesh businesses over the forthcoming months and years as we trim our structures to the core – to our key value adds – while we leave the rest to someone else.

So what is a Mesh business?

Firstly, Mesh business share. Not one way sharing like outsourcing, but more quid pro quo and for the benefit of their clients. Secondly, Mesh businesses are on-line active. They are keyed up in the use of web tools to manage their transactions. Thirdly, Mesh businesses focus on the physical rather than intangible, so there generally is an “shared” asset you can touch involved , say a car, a hotel room, a piece of equipment. This is not to say that service businesses can’t be part of the Mesh community. There is a place for service also, but in support of the physical experience. Finally, Mesh businesses are promoted by word of mouth, by good referral on good experience. Again web tools, specifically social media are prevalent.

So are you, or could you become a Meshed business? Can you team up with another group of companies to deliver the elusive synergies? I’m interested to know.

For another summary of The Mesh, check out Action University’s perspective below.

Want a copy of the summary? Download it here.

 

Just take a pebble...

Libraries and bookshops are having to extend their premises to allow for the ever growing number of books outlining how you should embrace social media as the new enabler in your business.

Why? Haven’t we all been social way and haven’t we always shared our experiences? This goes way back to prehistoric man painting his hunting sagas on the cave wall and recounting of adventures round the camp fire.

We want to be social because we want to belong and we want to feel appreciated. We want to be connected. So forget about the “media” and focus on the community, the content and the consequence.

A great book which covers all of these areas and one I highly recommend is Six Pixels of Separation, by Mitch Joel.

To give you a flavour, here is Action University’s summary.

 

My main take away from the book was the need for authenticity and consistency within your various networks. If you are not yourself and consistent in your approach - in what you say and how you say it – then you are at risk from becoming a social spammer and we all know how much we hate that!

Oh, and don't forget to make ripples!

Want a copy of the summary for future reference. Here you go! (Similar summaries of equally useful books are available in earlier posts).

Hat tip to Emerson, Lake and Palmer for the blog title!

Mahout the Change

Like their previous book, “Made to Stick”, the Heath Brothers, Chip and Dan have another insightful title in “Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard”.

It’s really work reading in full but to summarise, it covers a strategy to manage the dichotomy of our minds: our rational side and our emotional side. The Heath Brothers prefer to use the more colourful analogy first introduced by Jonathan Haidt, in “The Happiness Hypothesis”, namely the emotional Elephant and the rational Rider.

The weakness of the Elephant, our emotional side is evident: looking for the quick payoff rather that the long term goal. When attempts to change fail, it’s usually the Elephant’s fault but it can also be as a result of the rider not being able to control the Elephant long enough to reach the destination.

The book sets out a three-part framework for change:

Direct the Rider: What often looks like resistance is in fact a lack of clarity. So there is a need to provide crystal-clear instruction.

Motivate the Elephant: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion  - a put upon Elephant by a forceful Rider. It’s critical that you engage with people’s emotional side, get them connected and on the path to cooperation.

Shape the Path: what may look like a people problem is more likely a situational problem; what is the Path? When the path is clear and well defined change is more likely.

I’ve a background in IT and software development which could readily benefit from the framework. I’ve often heard developers say, “our biggest problem is users” but is it? Developers fall in love with their code and don’t like feedback from testers and as a result any changes arising from testing are mere “tweaks”. How does the framework effect the change and align software releases much closer to the customer’s needs?

Direct the Rider: Set the scene. Point to the destination of a celebration of a successful software package. This certainly floats the developer’s boat with the peer appreciation (and CV content) it brings. Set out the steps to get there: closer understanding of the end user, better appreciation of their needs, features that the customer needs not those the developer wants to develop.

Motivate the Elephant: Get out and get on. Get the developers out of their cubicle and next to users to experience the issues first hand. See the user’s pain. Experience their frustration. Put a name to the issue: Steve’s problem, Carrie’s confusion.

Shape the Path: Many developers have the best of equipment, unlike the end user who may have had his technology for a number of years. Swap the best for the common and then you are truly developing for your user and you will more easily create a solution that delivers.

There are many more gems in the book and here is Action University’s take.

 As a friend of Action University, I’m privileged to be able to offer you the summary as a download. You can find it here.

So, have you made a Switch? Would the framework have helped? Do you have examples where you have motivated your elephant? I’d love to hear.

Forget social media, lets learn!

As a number of companies look to social media for marketing advantage, very few, and here’s your opportunity, have considered the wider impact of the social tools on learning. Are your people not your best asset? Should you not be giving thought as to how these assets can be enhanced?

At a recent workshop I attended, given by Hamish Taylor, former CEO of EuroStar and Sainsbury Bank, he stated, people were at the core of innovation and innovation leads to competitive advantage.

I believe companies could be on to a great thing if they use all of the widely available social media tools for professional development. Is it not always easier to share in a learning experience?

Here’s the take of Action University, put together for social learning and their summary of the equally aligned book by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner,"The New Social Learning".

 

So, what’s your take on social learning? Is it a more profound way of using the tools we see many companies approaching but never getting past first base?

What to start off your social learning and share the summary? You can download it here.

Happy learning!

How to work better? Sleep on it!

Now, I'm always interested in finding better ways to work. I've read quite a few books on time management and productivity, but never one that says you should take a nap at work!

In his book, The Way We're Working, isn't Working", Tony Schwartz suggests the multitasking human is an myth and we need to find ang great workplaces must companies must provide and environment that will provide us with the regular physical renewal, emotional reward, mental stimuli and sense of purpose and significance that we need.

Action University by PolarUnlimited has neatly summarised the book and highlights:

1. The secret to better resting habits that will significantly increase your performance;

2. Why you need to be active throughout the day to keep your brain working;

3. How executives at some of the most high-powered organizations in the world handle their emotions in stressful situations; and

4. Why multitasking is a myth, and how the most effective executives in the world create focus in their work.

Interested in a copy of the summary? Download the summary now.

On the road again? Innovation Willie Nelson style!

In his book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist suggests in Rule 3 that our Brains are all wired differently.

We all have neural networks like major highways but our side streets, our winding countryside roads are based on our experience. As no two of us have the same set of experiences, all our maps are unique.

When I need to be creative, I find myself travelling the side roads, the single track routes rutted with potholes that bump you to attention or those that run alongside beautiful scenery that inspires.

Alternatively, when in delivery mode, the highway is the best and shortest route. It gets me from A to B optimising the use of my resources: time, fuel and can I say “wear and tear”?

Medina also informs us that when we look at something, our brain dissect the image into multiple elements which are stored in a host of different areas, disassembling the vision like a jigsaw to bring back together when we need it. What if, however, we could create a different picture from the elements? Now that’s innovation! Like, Tim Hurson suggests in “Think Better” that’s the third third – the final stretch where the really great ideas emerge.

So on what route do you find inspiration? What is the scenery of your creativity? I’m interested to hear from you.

Want to find out more of the “Brain Rules”? Check out the following video by Polar Unlimited.

 

 

 

Sorry Mick, You CAN always get what you want!

 
 We will all be familiar with “triangle of options”: in business there are three variables in any business transaction: Cost, Quality and Time. If you want things faster, Cost or quality must suffer. If you want things more feature rich, time and cost will increase. You get it? Any 2 from 3.

 

Well, in his book FL!P, Peter Sheahan suggests we’ve  moved on. In his words, it’s FAST, GOOD, CHEAP pick three then add something else!   Getting what you need is yesterday. Today is getting what you want. And too much is never enough!

 

Sheahan states: Today's customers increasingly think AND not OR. In a world full of oversupply, global under-demand and non-stop technical change, they get more of what they want faster and faster all the time.

 

Fast is not fast enough

 

Fast today is not fast enough for tomorrow, good today is not good enough for tomorrow and cheap today is not cheap enough for tomorrow. Competitive advantages quickly turn into competitive necessities that rivals can copy and adapt for themselves.

  

 Technology (see earlier blog on Four Forces) is speeding up the world and making just about everything other than closing lift doors happen faster and faster all the time. And it is not only technology, when it comes to the youngest customers (and staff in relation to their careers) no demand on speed of delivery feels unreasonable.

 

Good is not good enough

 

Innovation is the lifeblood of businesses. It allows new growth as the old wood rots and breaks off. Companies must continue to innovate, offering aptly designed - design is claimed to be the new business model - user-friendly - remember Mick? - and dependable products or services for customers when and where they want them. Change isn’t inevitable, its intrinsic.

 

Cheap is not cheap enough

 

Look at the growth of the Freemium business model. For the majority of its users, Skype charges nothing for the service yet provides the full featured and regularly updated product, not just a shrunk down, basic, feature reduced version. Look at Google. What would we do without it? How would we search and find the data we need - instantly? Look at Wikipedia - facts on everything - regularly updated - and free.

 

If you are price dependent you are at risk. Sooner or later in this technology supported world, someone will come along and pull the price rug from under your feet and re-invent the entire industry. Need an example? Watch out for major changes in the printed-word world.

 

Fast, Good, Cheap and more

 

Table stakes are getting bigger because of the feedback loop between increasing compression of time and space, increasing complexity and ambiguity, increasing transparency and accountability for actions that have to be performed in conditions of high uncertainty and increasing customer expectations.

 

You must not only ensure that you are fast enough, good enough and cheap enough for today and tomorrow, you must also offer customers something else as well.

 

Sheahan adds: Companies have to do more to win customers than offer a dependable, good-quality, reasonably priced product or service. That’s what ordinary companies do. Extraordinary companies do something else. They realise that in an oversupplied market, competitive advantage will increasingly be built on elements once considered superficial. The small stuff. Make it sweat!

Lights, Camera, Action, Clarity!

Action Creates Clarity

 

In the last post a key point was the fact we need to take action to move forward. Micro planning does not really help us move forward. It is more of a brake than a boost.

 

This is not to say, however, that planning is wrong, but plans must be shorter and more flexible allowing strategy to be refined "on the hoof" what Peter Sheahan in his book, FL!P calls "strategy on go".

 

Strategy on the go

 

What Sheahan suggests is you need to have a broad vision: a trajectory that draws you to a better future. The key is to map out in broad strokes how you will get to where you want to go.

 

Sheahan suggests this ability can become a differentiator, distinguishing you from your competitors. Like the themes set out in Rework by Fried and Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals, he suggests it best to be results orientated rather than transactional. Be a maverick and celebrate success.

 

Decision making on the go

 

Sheahan suggests human success at adapting to changing conditions lulls us into thinking we can predict the future and hence we start developing and trusting long-term plans. Then change hits.

 

He suggests we need to identify areas in our business where we have become over confident and to look at what would happen if these areas become irrelevant overnight.

 

Decisions need to be made based on the ever trusted gut feel. How many times has it let us down? With reference to Malcolm Gladwell's,  Blink we need to rely on the “power of thinking without thinking”. Go with the flow. As Sheahan suggests, we can make excellent decisions quickly.

 

So what decisions have you been putting off? Make a decision now. Trust your instincts and go with it. Those who will come out on top will be those who act in spite of their fear.

 

Decide on a trajectory

 

Sheahan suggests the beauty of the trajectory model is it leaves plenty of room for serendipity. It’s more about where you are going rather than how you will get there. He makes three key observations.

 

· Connect with the fundamentals

 

What are the fundamentals of your business? How are you performing in these areas? Are you staying abreast of the new developments and rising expectations in these areas? If not, why not? What could you do now to get started?

 

These questions set out a major challenge and if you are in a large business someone will surely be monitoring them. But do you know? Can you give a direct answer to each of them? There is a need to understand the fundamentals, the foundations of your business and the "spine" on which rapid decisions will be made.

 

· Look, listen and unlearn

 

The reason people and the businesses they run fall behind is that we as individuals are not paying attention to the changes taking place. We look in, not out. We claim to be busy, so don't have the time, but are we deluding ourselves?

 

To FL!P, Sheahan suggest we must have high sensory acuity. We must assume the customer is well advised on our business - he will certainly be - and he will have an impression of what we do based on his "lens". We need to therefore listen as we were he, to find out what he requires, what he desires and to change - FL!P - our business to meet the needs.

 

Knowledge, a valuable intangible asset of most companies, has a shelf life. Like a prize plant, if we don't attend to it, prune off the dead branches, reshape it to its surroundings then it will grow lank, shapeless and unattractive. What Knowledge or practices do you hold on to that are no longer empowering? What behaviour that once drove your success do you and your team need to unlearn?

 

• Make up your mind

 

Ask yourself: what do I think? You will come up with new answers - answers that make sense, and are based on all the experience that has brought you to where you are today.

 

Make that decision. It’s key to your success and to making the FL!P. Don’t forget:

 

o   Decisions lead to action

 

When you make your mind up about something it usually leads to action

 

o   Decisions create momentum

 

The action that follows your decision will give you the clarity that was preventing you from making the decision on the first place and set you off on a positive cycle

 

o   Decisions create confidence

 

The decision gives not just you a sense of confidence but also those around you. If you are to get your team or company moving along the chosen trajectory, you had better install some confidence. Decisions create that confidence.