Aug 10, 2011 | Change, Innovation
The cult of failure, the belief that by failing we succeed, has some very real and adverse consequences if taken literally. It gives excuses to those who would choose to be sloppy in their consideration and preparation of an experiment, behaviour that would get you thrown out of Edisons labs, but in management can now get you accolades.
Giving permission to fail without allocating any consequences sounds fine, but can lead to sloppy thinking. This guest post by Steven Parker on the Businessgrow blog republished on Stevens untimely death says it all.
My Dad used to say “every-one makes mistakes, but only a fool makes the same one twice”. This has implicit in it the value of the learning, but now so often see the “learning” part dismissed as too hard, ego driven dills seem to think they now have a licence to stuff up repeatedly, and avoid doing the hard post stuff-up analysis to understand why something went wrong, did not deliver the expected results, had “unexpected consequences”.
Often those consequences are because no sensible forward thinking was done, no basic risk assessment was in place, because “to experiment” has become a cliche, not a discipline.
Aug 1, 2011 | Change, Communication, Innovation, Marketing, Social Media
There is a powerful new analytical tool on the block, “social network cartography” for lack of a better term. The masses of data now becoming available are able to be analysed with respect to the networks that exist amongst people. If your friends are obese, the your chances of being obese are greater, if your friends smoke, there is a greater chance you will. This can all be mapped.
Much of the pioneering work has been done by Nicholas Christakis and colleagues from Harvard Medical school over a 30 year period, starting with data generated by the Framington Heart Study, which is being reported increasingly widely, such as this piece on smoking in the Boston area, reported in Kelso’s Corner blog, as a tool for change.
Christakis presents his ideas in this TED presentation, along with more examples. This data cartography is a tool that is evolving rapidly, but appears to me to have an amazing capacity to create graphics that will demonstrate all sorts of complex arguments, and as you know, a picture tells a thousand words.
Jul 14, 2011 | Innovation, Social Media, Strategy
The fun and games predicted are starting!
Facebook has added Skype to its services, in an expanding collaboration with Microsoft , and in response to the competitive threat of to Facebook by Google+ launched recently.
This collaboration will not make the integration and building of a commercially sustainable Skype by Microsoft easier, if anything it will add complication, because the fit between facebook and Skype seems so logical, and culturally much easier than the fit with Microsoft, and the twins may just turn on the parent, leaving Microsoft again out in the cold having funded the party.
Time will tell if there is any parallel between this set of deals and the humbling fiasco that was the recent divestment of Myspace by News Ltd, an instance where the cultures of an “old economy” business trying to transform itself and taking a bath in the process, although it seems pretty amazing to put Microsoft into the “old economy” bucket, but culturally, that is where it belongs.
Jul 10, 2011 | Change, Innovation, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
I have praised the way Tesco has adapted to the emergence of smartphones as a marketing tool, particularly in the UK by combining Loyalty card use, Dunnhumby data mining and smartphones.
Sensibly Tesco are migrating this technology elsewhere in their growing global footprint, including Korea with the use of virtual supermarkets to add value to shoppers by easing their time burden.
Recently Tesco also bought US start-up specialist social marketing agency BzzAgent, highlighting their determination to push the boundaries of social media and technology turning the emerging technical capabilities into marketing tools.
Australian retailers are dragging their feet badly, but with all the ex Tesco management now in Coles, there will be movement on leveraging the data on store cards and into net shopping pretty soon. Others will follow as they get their acts together, so suppliers to retail need to get their heads around how these changes will impact them in an environment where the change over the last few years has been huge, and they lose control of their brands via the rapid market share increase of housebrands as they become the Sku of choice for retailers.
Jul 6, 2011 | Innovation, Strategy
When a product is at the point of being launched, or upgraded, the last minute improvement, cloaked as product optimisation, is often a stumbling block.
Two points about product optimisation:
- It is better to have a good product today, learning about the dynamics out in the marketplace, than the promise of a great product tomorrow.
- Once a product has been launched, the improvement process should never stop, just because it may be successful in the market, although the temptation is to move to the next challenge.
This seems to hold as true for a simple widget, as it does for complicated, technical products, and web based products.
Optimisation is a constant challenge for all products, but here are 10 rules from the Silicon Valley Product Group, a very successful VC outfit, that holds true for them, so should contribute to your thinking for your widget.
Jun 27, 2011 | Branding, Innovation, Marketing
How often have you seen assumptions, either made in the early stages of a project, or as a result of a long association with a product category blinding people to alternatives, gradually become accepted as “fact”?
I have seen it often, as has everyone who ever sought to overturn the status quo, these “factoids” rear their ugly heads to stymie innovation.
Many years ago, when flavored milk was all packed in cartons that cost a few cents each, it was an accepted “factoid” that consumers would not pay extra for different packaging that added to the cost of the product. It was a “fact” that plastic bottles with a resealable screw cap that added 25 cents to the cost , for less product, held no attraction to consumers, a “fact” confirmed by market research. At the time, whilst pretty obvious that the research was flawed by asking consumers questions about something they had not seen, the institutional forces against any innovation were strong.
However, we launched a product, “Dare” flavored milk that delivered less product in a more expensive, more user friendly and attractive package, and consumers changed their behavior overnight, and the product was not only a success, but it changed the marketing landscape of flavored milk overnight, and 20 years later it is still on the market.
So much for the so called facts.
