Caught between the need to refresh legacy systems and the increasing demands from customers, partners and regulators to deliver multi-channel services, innovation, risk reduction and agility, the market is ready for change.

Now, more than ever, banks must prepare for their significant & inevitable transformation, from:

• A product- and channel-centric operating model to a customer-centric model

• A batch model to a real-time model

• A preference for bespoke solutions to a much greater leverage of off-the-shelf packages and “best practice”

• A focus on standardization, simplification and industrialization

• An acceptance for different delivery, deployment and consumption models

• And finally, a realization that competition is increasingly less with “typical banks” and more with new entrants from telecoms, retailers and internet service firms (Google, PayPal, Square etc.)

In order to help enable this evolution, CSC and SAP today announced an expanded alliance to accelerate the banking industry’s next phase of transformation to digital banking technology platforms.

The comprehensive portfolio comprises next-generation consulting, software, enterprise services and technology platforms that leverage both companies’ industry expertise, extensive suite of offerings and proven track record.

Working together, CSC and SAP will work closely with banks through their transformation journeys while aiming to reduce the risk, implementation time and cost of streamlining complex business processes and IT environments.

For more information, visit sap.com/banking and csc.com

The future is bright, loud and fast! We know that the global audience is spending more time connected to digital media, hyper-communicating their likes, dislikes leading to too much information.

With media buyers now moving their budgets to new areas such as display, standard pre-roll etc, media buying is increasingly happening in an automated fashion through digital platforms (eg. exchanges, trading desks, DSPs), replacing traditional routes of RFPs, negotiations, insertion orders.

In today’s SoLoMo(social-local-mobile) context and emergence of interactive media, data is gold as it’s associated with audience, ad delivery, commerce and must be available in near real-time to enable dynamically informed buying decisions, this means for large scale operations In-memory computing, Big data analytics, Cloud can make a significant difference.

Positive digital interactions with customers, prospects can propel company growth and this brings the focus onto four major parameters such as ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment), Data compliance & Analytics, Technology advancement, Company culture (shown in the diagram ) that can influence the maturity of Programmatic buying (PB). Here is some background reading on Programmatic advertising.

Impact of programmatic buying on marketing operations and Media holding company model

Marketing operations will become more efficient and can build a strong foundation based on metrics, best practices for campaign optimization, funds (forecast, reconcile and reallocate), performance reporting. There is a good chance of better campaign ROI not only because of media performance or better targeting but also because of the price squeeze, man power reduction due to better tools. Positive experience and results from the digital media will, overtime, influence marketing operations team to increase their expectations from traditional marketing channels.

Large media holding companies have been buying-out leading digital media agencies to keep up with the trend of budgets swinging towards the digital wave. With increasing transparencies and a shorter value chain, a considerable portion of the media industry is set to become a high-volume, low-margin business model (similar to supermarkets) with pricing models moving towards ROI basis instead of activity based pricing.

Customers could end up expecting similar transparencies, ROI in traditional media channels. Also with better customer platforms (DSPs), this industry will witness something (rollback buying etc in-house) similar to what happened to the publishing industry in the 80’s when desktop publishing came, lot of publishing was rolled back in-house.

Positives and negatives of programmatic buying for marketing organizations and CIO’s

Positives

Programmatic buying increases the effectiveness, efficiencies of marketing organizations and increases the probability of bringing the right message to the right audience at the right time.  Today’s CMOs and CIOs have a vital role to play as enablers by leveraging integrated customer information to make consistent customer interactions across channels a reality. Similar to MDM, CDI (Customer data Integration) projects, programmatic buying could trigger data integration across first, second, third party online and offline sources in a unified manner.

Negatives

Targeting precision, ad relevance can bring a creepy feeling to customers who think they are being followed and publishers are trying to keep premium inventory in private exchanges to protect margins and brand. Non-compliance of cookie legislation could attract a penalties (this of course is evolving globally with governments getting involved) and lawsuits, giving more problems for the CIOs and their legal colleagues which could in turn slowdown data integration projects.

In case you are interested to have an overview of the Programmatic buying landscape , here it is:

 You can follow me on Twitter @Ramesh_Ramki website: www.futuristCMO.com

I issue this leadership challenge mostly to those about to enter the professional world, as you have not yet given over your original, unique self to the corporate hive mind. This directive is, however, also a kick in the ass to some of you who have been in the work world for a while, and who still have a spark of independent life left inside.

This directive is also a kick in the ass to some of you who have been in the work world for a while

For me, it’s been about 11 years since I left the cube farms of corporate America for the more friendly, if more unstable, confines of the start-up world. I had mostly forgotten the hyper-bureaucracy, “CYA” decision-averse mindsets and logistical hyperbole.

Forgotten, that is, until this past week when it found me again in the form of a phone conversation.

I was speaking with someone about making a simple exchange of information… sharing blog posts between my start-up and his own company. No formality involved. No legalese necessary. No management hierarchies required. No multiple meeting calendar to set. No task force to form.

Just a simple, “You want to share our blog posts? Sure! Done!”

No matter how I described the process, repeatedly he could not grasp this apparently-too-simple concept. “I just want to make sure I adhere to your company’s regulations and comply with the blah-blah, etc.”

 “We don’t have regulations and compliances. We just do.”

When I said this, the look on his face must have been that of a not-well-traveled American tourist in a foreign country where they eat live bugs. How could a company function without layers-upon-layers of procedures, director sign-off and hierarchical bureaucracy?

Be a Rebel Heretic as long as you can, wherever you are.

In Guy Kawasaki’s book, “The Art of the Start,” he suggests that one doesn’t have to fully buy into the mindset of the corporation. One can create a startup culture within the corporation. Your team or group can function somewhat independently inside the mother ship with its own sub-processes, sub-rules and sub-culture.

With this Rebel Heretic mindset, you may be able to hang onto your professional independence throughout your careers. Others will gradually be assimilated, yes, but resistance isn’t futile.

With this Rebel Heretic mindset, you may be able to hang onto your professional independence throughout your careers

It is however, admittedly problematic. Doing work the simple way can be difficult.

The subtlety by which one gradually sinks into the bureaucracy trap is part of its insidiousness. At first, you’ll catch yourself changing your behavior and professional vocabulary. The change will stand out because to your independently-trained ears the sound is eating-live-bugs foreign.

The subtlety by which one gradually sinks into the bureaucracy trap is part of its insidiousness

Gradually you may find yourself following in lock-step. Creativity dulls; you become less risk-tolerant. Eventually, you fade from “How awesome will this be?!” to “Hold on… let’s think… what will the executives say? What will legal or HR not like?”

Like the drone of cicadas, what is at first an annoying, distracting buzz surrounds you until it turns to white noise you no longer think about or even hear. You only notice when it is brought back to your conscious thought by a comment or when one of the red-eyed creatures lands on you.

And then the buzz – finally, regrettably – fades into the background. Assimilation is complete. You return to the bureaucracy.

If you decide this Rebel Heretic challenge is for you, it may mean you haven’t been indoctrinated, inoculated and submerged in corporate cultures; the bureaucratic “CYA” safety nets may not be installed under your wing tips yet. So there’s still time for you to create your non-aligned, get-stuff-done professional self.

The bureaucratic “CYA” safety nets may not be installed under your wing tips yet

As you grow into leadership roles, my hope is that you hang onto this sense of self. Do not go gently into that good night of “synergistic”, “out-of-the-box” thinking while you “take conversations offline” to “put it on your radar” and “circle the wagons”. (“At the end of the day” that was painful to write).

Keep alive the Rebel Heretic inside you. No matter where your leadership takes you, create your own start-up within the larger organization with its own subculture, its own creativity, culture and focus.

This is my challenge. This is your fate.

Image credit: alminaite / 123RF Stock Photo

Every human being on the planet has one, and as an adult your spine is between 17 to 18 inches long. It’s a long thing tube comprised of nervous tissue and support cells extending from the brain. It’s also the main message delivery vehicle for the brain, transmitting neural signals from your mission control center to its final destination.

The spinal cord has three main purposes:

1. It carries motor information
2. It’s a conduit for sensory information in the reverse direction (AKA to the brain)
3. It is the hub for coordinating specific reflexes

Now, did you also know there are 250,000 Americans that with spinal cord injuries? And 11,000 new injuries happen each year? Spinal cord injuries are debilitating, not to mention expensive. The first year expenses for a person diagnosed as a paraplegic are over $150,000.

Medtronic, a medical technology company is offering innovative solutions to tackle some of the toughest spinal injuries and issues. They are also develop products and treatment for areas such as diabetes, heart problems, and many other debilitating diseases. And every year they help 7 million people like Kyle live a better quality of life.

However, in order to create the best device or therapy, it requires a co-innovation and constant on-going conversation between Medtronic and the patients. This leads to a real issue as Medtronic needs to always be capturing data, both structured and unstructured. Hear from Medtronic’s Senior BI Strategist Brian Raver and  Steven Teichman, Director of BI, about how they use technology to create the best products in order to help their consumers run, walk, stand, and live better.

This week in the Mobile News Roundup: Last week, Google held their annual developers conference, Google I/O. The company launched a number of product updates, with a strong focus on the developers. But surprisingly, we heard little about the new version of Android, and Glass.

Mobile News and Insights

Google I/O 2013 Is All About Cleaning Up the Mess and Filling In the Gaps – TIME

Google spent about half of its developer conference focusing on, well, developers.

How Google Improved Android Without Releasing Android 4.3 at Google I/O – GigaOM

Why some developers are actually relieved Android 4.3 wasn’t announced.

There Are Already A Ton Of Apps For Google Glass – Business Insider

A few of the coolest apps already developed for Glass.

Prototype Your Own Google Glass App With This Tool – Mashable

Itching to get your hands on Glass? Check out Glass Sim, a prototyping tool for the device.

At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom – New York Times

A humorous take on the multitude of Glass wearers at Google I/O.

Google Glass Year In Review – TechCrunch

In 13 months, Glass has gone from Star Trek fantasy to reality. We take a look back.

The Design That Conquered Google – The New Yorker

A steady trickle of deeply designed products has emerged from Google the last 2 years.

Are You Ready For the New Mobile Reality? – Fast Company

Gartner predicts how mobile will impact our style of working, and careers.

Facebook’s Play to Own the Mobile Home Page Fails, Like Others Before – Mobile Marketer

Facebook Home has only recently reached one million downloads. Is it a flop?

What the iPhone 5S Must Have to Revitalize Apple’s Smartphone Strategy – Mobile Marketer

There is a growing sense of urgency for Apple’s next product to amaze.

7 Steps To Leverage Design Thinking For Your Mobile Strategy – Business 2 Community

How to identify your target mobile users’ needs, and generate mobile solutions for them.

Mobile Research

Wearables Are On Track To Become A $50 Billion Market – Business Insider

In the next 2 to 3 years, the market could skyrocket to $30 billion to $50 billion.

How Devoted are Apple Users to the Apple Ecosystem? – Fortune

56% of consumers are using only Apple devices.

Windows Phone Surpasses Blackberry for Third Place in Smartphone Shipments – Fortune

IDC’s latest report shows Windows devices made up 3.2% of smartphones worldwide.

Samsung Captured 95% of All Android Profits in Q1 – BGR

Samsung is the undisputed king of the global Android smartphone industry.

Only 10% of Americans Say They Would Wear Google Glass – Mashable

“Social awkwardness” was the top reason why people wouldn’t wear the device.

Mobile Marketing in 2013 [Infographic] – Mobile Entertainment

25% of brands have a mobile strategy. Does yours?

The post Weekly Mobile News Roundup: May 20 appeared first on Mutual Mobile.

Dan is also Head of Learning and Collaboration for 0000ff;">0000ff;">TELUS, a $10.5 billion global telecom company where he leads an ongoing culture, leadership, collaboration and social learning renaissance. It’s a Herculean task; TELUS has over 40,000 employees spread across several different countries and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Roughly one quarter of the company is unionized. And with field technicians, call centers, engineers, sales, finance, HR and legal departments, well, you get the picture. This sounds like a workforce whose silos might be impenetrable.

But TELUS has broken through in a meaningful way. Through an evolution in its leadership, learning and collaboration strategies – amongst other factors – TELUS has become a more productive, collaborative and social entity. Employee engagement is now 80% – up from 53% five years ago – and the company stock, which recently split, is soaring.

“In society, we tend to believe that leadership is hierarchical and that leaders command and control and bark orders,” said Pontefract. “The TELUS team launched a few important changes and planted a few seeds to then ultimately watch engagement and productivity grow.”

A large portion of their strategy lies firmly within the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP), implemented coast-to-coast and country-to-country. It’s a leadership framework that espouses openness, trust, authenticity, collaboration and social. It was something employees could rally around, or as Pontefract puts it, “A systemic leadership framework that works for all, not just for those who lead people.”

In parallel, TELUS began to unleash a plethora of social and collaborative learning tools.

“We don’t think learning is just a two-week 40 hour event you take in a classroom,” said Pontefract. “It’s done through coaching, mentoring, discussions, books, webcasts, wikis and blogs amongst other methods. It’s all about the sharing of intellect, competence and acumen. Leadership is the same way.”

TELUS also recognized it had way too many disparate HR tools coupled with a less than desirable HR apps system.

“Ultimately because of the combination of what 0000ff;">0000ff;">Success Factors brought with its HR apps to the cloud plus this wonderful thing called 0000ff;">0000ff;">SAP Jam, we now had the freedom to deprecate some of our disparate tools that started our journey,” said Pontefract. “We’re looking at SAP Jam as a way to further unify the team member experience. For example, some of our HR systems and apps could not be accessed via a mobile device. Now we will be able to.”

Pontefract believes culture change, and leadership style change is not a light switch.

“It’s an ultra-marathon. You really have to train and prepare and re-iterate that there is going to be a lot of ups and downs throughout this 100-mile terrain. But you will get the badge at the end if you persevere and believe that there is something good at the end of this. If you believe that culture is a competitive advantage – don’t just speak about it but act upon it – you can definitely improve your levels of employee engagement and productivity.”

This story originally appeared on 0000ff;">0000ff;">SAP Business Trends.

Follow me on Twitter 0000ff;">0000ff;">@TClark01

In return, they not only got a good return on investment but, more importantly, a tremendous competitive advantage. Their knowledge, processes and IT solutions became a barrier to entry to other companies willing to compete in their field, who did not necessarily have the financial means to reach the level of competency that took years for the incumbent to acquire.

This situation is about to change. Business processes are losing their differentiation factor and are on the verge of becoming commoditized. This new reality has emerged from a combination of three main forces:

Industry cloud applications

Due to major advancements in cloud technologies, most of the strategic applications that are running on premise today are available on the cloud. The recent HANA Enterprise Cloud announcement from SAP is a significant example of the revolution that is happening.

Think about it: we are talking here about core strategic applications that you can get up and running with all your data in a few weeks.

The adoption of cloud by small and large companies is a trend that is not going to stop and the number of available applications is exponentially growing. In a short future, if not already today, all the industries will have their own strategic applications running on the cloud that incorporate all the processes, best-practices and knowledge that individual companies need to have. And with cloud the entry point becomes really cheap.

Challenging economic times

In all industries today, companies have no choice but to become growth engines. In uncertain times more than ever, investments should be focused on innovation and on developing the next generation of products. All other costs are being reduced and organizations have to do more with less.

The value of having highly customized applications is therefore decreasing in favor of more standard applications that are more agile, more transportable, and meet the requirements to run the business.

Pace of the business

To survive, businesses need to adapt quickly to new realities, new trends and new consumer behaviors. What is a best-practice today can become obsolete in two years-time. Companies do not have the luxury anymore to go through lengthy implementation cycles that consume resources and are not in synch with the business models of today.

The emergence of rapid deployment solutions has allowed companies to adopt new technologies in a matter of a few weeks by embedding standard processes into the packages. High level of software customization is reduced in favor of speed and accelerated time to value.

We entered a world where industry standards replace customized processes. To win companies should rely on other competitive advantages like their capacity to innovate, bring to market outstanding products, the quality of the people they employ and their unique ability to predict consumer trends.

I would love to hear from you. Have you found your new competitive advantages?

This post originally appeared on SCN – Services and was republished with permission.

What do you sell, Really?

Me, me, me…I, I, I…

Yes, we get it. You like to talk about yourself.

You and everyone else on the planet.

Look, the desire to sell yourself is rooted in good intention.

Your desire to hit your quota, to earn trust and respect and to be a good provider to family and loved ones.

The problem is the way you are going about it is terribly wrong.

Ask yourself this…

Have you ever sat in a conversation where someone spoke about themselves for a prolonged period of time?

Perhaps a more pointed question…

Have you ever listened to someone talk about themselves for what seems like an eternity and walked away and thought “Wow, that was just wonderful?”

Even the most altruistic person would probably walk away and say man that guy (or gal) loves to talk about themselves.

We all know that our favorite subject is ourselves, so if we want to sell more perhaps we should talk less about our favorite subject and more about our customers favorite subject; T.H.E.M.

All the periods would suggest an acronym, but they are merely for emphasis.

Try this instead

Next time you meet with a prospect or even someone you are interested in leaving a good impression on…don’t talk about yourself.

Sounds crazy right?

For the first 20 minutes, make the conversation 100% on them.

Ask a lot of questions to learn about them and no matter how much you want to compare, one-up or fill space about yourself…Do not!

Don’t be rude and don’t be awkward, but just cordially redirect the conversation back toward them.

It may be a bit uncomfortable at first, but rest assured as you get better at it you will move your goals forward faster and you may not even realize it.

If you want to be able to genuinely help another person and build a meaningful relationship, you have to know enough about the person to actually help them.

That won’t happen if we spend all of our time talking about ourselves.

Think about it, have you ever met someone that was really interested in you and wanted to know all about you and you were insulted? (Stalkers not included) Usually you walk away from those types of conversations feeling really good.

Why?

More specifically, Why does not talking about yourself work so well?

Because it is the key to selling more you, or whatever it is you are actually attempting to sell.

As we have all heard before, people do not want to be sold, they want to buy.

Which means they want to come to their own decision to invest in what it is your are selling.

So your continued self-serving banter rarely, if ever, moves the needle. If anything you will get lucky from time to time because you are offering something the customer already wants.

It is when you have genuinely taken interest in the success of others that you individually will see the greatest success.

And if you don’t believe me, I’d love to know why?

Neither of these ideas is necessarily true in sports or in business. In a book titled ‘There Is an I in Team’, Cambridge Business School Professor Mark de Rond explores a variety of research studies and comes to the conclusion that a focus on interpersonal harmony can actually hurt team performance. Talented team members self-censor their contributions to keep the peace. In fact, the book quotes a Harvard study which found that “grumpy orchestras played […] better than orchestras in which all the musicians were quite happy”.

The book examines why it’s so hard to get teams to realize their potential and how to enable individuals to work more effectively on teams. Here’s Prof de Rond summarizing his findings:

According to another Harvard study cited in the book, creating a team of overachievers is not necessarily the best way to maximize performance. The study of sell-side equity analysts found overall performance started to suffer when the percentage of stars rose above a certain level. “Don’t overspend to recruit high-status employees,” concludes this research; “stars work best in a supportive network of competent performers.”

All of this reminds me that comparisons between sports and businesses can be tricky. I’m sure it’s difficult for sports managers to figure out the optimal mix of stars and team players but at least the goals are clear and the team members’ results are easy to measure. In business, the goals are many and individual contribution tough to prove.

Whether you believe in stars or teams, my advice is to pay attention to the outcomes. As Michael Jordan famously once said, there may be no letter ‘i’ in the word team but there is an ‘i’ in win.

Please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Now, as the president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, Charchian has seen the evolution of the game to the point where some 33 million players in the United States can see the touchdown just scored on television reflected in their matchup in a matter of seconds. And it’s cutting-edge technology that could create a whole new way of playing fantasy football.

“From the beginning, live scoring has been the killer app for fantasy sports and it’s gotten to a point where you can’t consider going into the marketplace without having that as an option,” Charchian says.

As fantasy football transitioned from the pen-and-paper era to the Internet, live scoring was somewhat of a premium – Yahoo!, for example, charged for it. But when sites like CBS and ESPN offered it for free, Yahoo! did it as well. “It was sending people to other services like ESPN, and secondarily, it became easier to offset the cost because the fantasy marketplace grew,” Charchian says.

Those numbers you see filling up your scoreboard every Sunday are thanks to STATS LLC, the Illinois-based company that works with Yahoo! to deliver live data, something they continue to focus on making as fast as possible.

“Our challenge on this side as we’ve delivered live data to more and more clients is we have to scale to deliver that load without adding any latency,” says Jim Corelis, STATS’ VP of product development. “Our customers want the data before you can see it on TV, which is possible with the video lags. And we’re delivering it as fast. We’ve put in a lot of redundancy in our systems to make sure that we handle the load from our perspective.”

Those immediate stats, however, are starting to go beyond yards, touchdowns and two-point conversions. Corelis explained that the company can now provide predictive analytics immediately. “So it’s not just what happened,” he explains, “but what’s going to happen next.”

That means there could be a growth in popularity with a type of fantasy game that doesn’t just allow users to change their lineup before the start of games. Instead, an owner could have a situation in which he or she subs out players on every offensive drive or every quarter. Those predictive analytics would be extremely useful in making decisions on who should move in and out of the lineup – let’s say  you own a pair of running backs on the same team and you want to pick the one more likely to score in the red zone. Those stats could help make that decision much easier.

In other words, it’s going to make fantasy that much closer to reality.

The first platform is Poshmark. Poshmark connects users and allows them to sell or trade their new or used clothes/accessories, mainly through the mobile app. Users sign up, can create a closet with items that are unwanted, and display the items with details and prices. Users have the opportunity to allow and invite others to shop their closet, and can buy or trade from others’ closets.

When transactions are made, they can be completed directly through the platform, with Poshmark taking a predetermined percentage of the total sale. More importantly, users can comment on the product posts, make bids, and start conversations about products within the post.

During an interview with VentureBeat, Poshmark’s CEO, Manish Chandra, reported that 15 to 20 percent of Poshmark’s users come back every day and 40-50 percent use the app every week, and an average Poshmark user spends over 25 minutes a day on the app. Poshmark’s mission is to place every closet in the world on the app and foster fashion exchange, and all the while, Poshmark can track the key terms used for searches, the products that perform the best, and the users making thousands of dollars from using the platform. After an infusion from a VC investment, Poshmark announced some enhancements (Android app, web-based option) and is on track to have over $350 million  worth of sales uploaded into the platform through sellers.

Another platform, Stylitics, is a bit different and is laser-focused on user experience and data analytics. The platform works in a similar way – users create virtual closets from their existing (real life) pieces – but the focus is on allowing users to pair their separates and accessories to create and share complete outfits (think of Cher from Clueless – a complete Rolodex of your clothing inventory). It’s also a way for users to peruse through styles and “shop around” to find style inspiration.

What’s even more intriguing about this platform is that the founders of Stylitics are collecting consumer data based on the actions of users within the platform. The concept behind collecting the data is to understand how users are browsing and shopping and to figure out their buying habits and tastes, all based on pure fact – their online behaviors when they aren’t shopping online “at the store.”

Stylitics CEO, Zach Davis, discussed the platform and said, “The value we provide brands and retailers is showing them the rest of their customer’s behavior, once they leave the store – where else they shopped, what they purchased, and how they wear the items post-purchase.  It’s really helpful for real-time decision making such as marketing and social communications.”

Their most recent partnership with the Estate of Marilyn Monroe, is allowing them to launch Marilyn’s digital closet, which will be viewable and shoppable as of June 4th. Users will be able to browse Monroe-inspired outfits and items, then comment, share, shop, or wishlist the looks they love. More great data from all those who appreciate the style of Marilyn Monroe and the 50s.

Stylitics is about to tip by gaining critical mass and already houses a slew of data and analytics, valuable to any (r)etailer looking to better understand their consumers and determine how to cross-sell, market, and even provide incentives to brand loyalists.

These platforms are changing the way we shop and how (r)etailers can “figure out” their customers, and how consumers are discovering new fashion finds.

Leadership Lessons

A third of U.S. employees feel chronically overworked. 52% of U.S. families say work interferes with their family or home responsibilities. More than 54% of U.S. Americans say they will look for a better job once the economy improves.

I could prattle on with statistics like the above. Let me first give you context for citing such disappointing numbers. The workplace is under siege by a growing sentiment that the way we’re working is not longer effective. The Great Recession has catapulted the need to change how we work into our conversations.

The workplace is under siege by a growing sentiment that the way we’re working is not longer effective

The question is, however, what needs to change? The simplest answer is you. Me. We all need to change how we approach the way we work. And for those of us as manager leaders, we’ve got to show up as leaders newly, differently. The above statistics are warning signs of wear-and-tear.

And this is where our Gen Y employees come into play. This generation is heralded for many things – some good and some not. Of course both are value judgments. But there are kernels of truth hidden in those judgments. And if we pulled them out and evaluate them against the changing context that surrounds our organizations, we’ll find keen leadership lessons any person from any generation can learn from and be more effective in their role as manager leader.

Collaborate virtually

Gen Y is the first generation to be raised with widely available technology. I believe it’s too early to know exactly what the implications of this are for organizations. However, the number of tech start-ups is an indicator of things to come. The Millennials’ tech-savviness can teach us that collaboration no longer needs to be physical face-to-face. Gen Y’ers are adept at collaborating via text, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, even instant messaging.

Collaboration no longer needs to be physical face-to-face

The lesson for all other generations is get comfortable with real time collaboration, crowdsourced ideas that expand beyond the hallways and water coolers. Many of us are clinging to the outdated belief that physical proximity cannot be topped.

Forget about tenure

As a cohort, Gen Y is stereotyped to be impatient with corporate hierarchies. In my personal experience I’ve seen this to be true and not true. Hidden, however, in this viewpoint is an important lesson. Business demands can’t wait anymore for managers to award the best opportunities to those with the longest tenure. The opportunities go to those with the skill sets. And skill sets and tenure are no longer equivalent.

Business demands can’t wait anymore for managers to award the best opportunities to those with the longest tenure

Today’s business problems are complex and need fast solutions. As more Boomers retire, tenure’s reign will come to an end.

Rethink work

Gen Y is notorious for wanting more flexible work schedules. With mobile technology and cloud solutions widely available, resistance to alternative work schedules is becoming a barrier to progress.

All manager leaders must get to a similar understanding of why Gen Y looks at flexible work arrangements as a given. With globalization a force driving corporate strategy, allowing employees to choose to work nights and weekends over day shifts makes sense. Working from a cafe today and hoteling onsite tomorrow is smart business.

With globalization a force driving corporate strategy, allowing employees to work nights and weekends makes sense

Those of us who grew up in corporate-land believing work occurs 8-5 need to learn to rethink how, where and when work gets done. Millennials get this. It’s time the rest of us do, too.

Top reasons employees stay with a company can be reduced down to two needs make the workplace flexible and help make work meaningful. These two needs are desired by any generation.

Graphic by Jordan Horstman

There is a lot of talk about the social business and too often it involves a discussion of social tools and channels. In this article I’ll offer my own definition as well as plenty of links to other resources you can check out for more ideas on how to help your organization transform into a social business.

A social business is not a business that sends a lot of Tweets or has a ton of Facebook likes. A social business is one that realizes that it operates in a more transparent and social world. And so it makes customers and employees equally as important as its shareholders and profits.

What is a Social Business?

A social business places equal value on the needs of its customers, employees, partners and shareholders.

This is not all that different from the concept behind one of the first posts I wrote 3 years ago this month. In that post, I talked about a book called “The Service Profit Chain” that inspired a lot of my early professional thoughts on marketing strategy.

The basic theory presented in the book was that happier employees generate more customers who create more profit for the business. Makes sense, right? Yet in the race to quarterly profits, many businesses still struggle with the concept.

More recently I talked about the many reasons why social business is important and I presented my own roadmap to become a social business including the need to define a social strategy that empowers social employees, activates effective content strategy and addresses the issue of culture.

Peter Kim from the Dachis Group offers his own definition of the Social Business as well as a Social Business Design. He identifies “culture, connections, participation and analytics” as the main drivers of an effective social business.

Charlene Li from Altimeter Group recently presented on the Evolution of Social Business and talked about the 6 stages of transformation: “Planning, Presence, Engagement, Formalized, Strategic, and Converged.” They surveyed a large swath of companies and found a small minority (28%) have achieved any level of social business maturity.

And then there’s my friend Jeremiah Owyang who not only nailed how to bring content strategy into the social business but also defined the next phase of social business as “the collaborative economy” which he defines as “where brands will rent, lend, provide subscriptions to products and services to customers, or even further, allow customers to lend, trade, or gift branded products or services to each other.”

Edelman’s Michael Brito writes that “social business is not about communication. It’s not about technology or Enterprise 2.0. It’s about change management. I believe this to my core.” And I think he’s absolutely right.

But what is the role of the Marketing leader in this emerging social business and collaborative economy?

In my view, marketing is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. As more employees become socially active brand ambassadors and build their personal brand, marketing can act as the shepherd guiding the flock with good old fashioned marketing communications techniques that put the customer first, that are aligned to the business strategy and that deliver business outcomes.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. And please follow along on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ or Subscribe to the B2B Marketing Insider Blog for regular updates.

Photo Source

Alexandre Cardeman, CIO of the center of operations for Rio de Janeiro (Photo: Center of operations for Rio de Janeiro)

When describing people, there’s a difference between smart and intelligent. Intelligence, the measure of a person’s ability to learn, is inherent. Smart on the other hand, refers to learned inferences and requires effort and experience. Smart people are sensitive to their surroundings and know things that can help them achieve their goals. Intelligent people seek to understand what they know and find new ways to improve the world around them by analyzing the way things work. With cities, it’s the same.

According to Wikipedia – a notable example of collective intelligence – smart cities are characterized by their adept application of systems and sensors to capture information that can be used to solve issues like traffic congestion. Intelligent cities do that too, but what distinguishes them is their ability to integrate all dimensions of human, collective, and artificial intelligence within the city.

Smart Cities: What makes Rio intelligent

Two years ago Rio de Janeiro established a unique center of operations that is revolutionizing city management and drawing thousands of visitors from around the world eager to learn from the new master. The hundreds of cameras and countless other sensors and devices scattered around Rio that live-stream data onto a vast video wall for round-the-clock monitoring are enough to classify the city as smart. Working with the meteorological institute and watching the action on huge Google map displays, city operators immediately know about unusual occurrences such as accidents, power outages, or torrential storms, and can quickly take steps to prevent or solve problems. What makes Rio intelligent is the way citizens and administrators are integrating all forms of intelligence to make city management a smooth operation.

Social media plays a key role. Citizens are encouraged to access the Citizen’s Portal of the City of Rio and take an active role in operations via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Not only can they get information and understand processes, but by expressing preferences or frustration, citizens can influence how the city is run.

The people behind an intelligent city (Photo: Center of operations for Rio de Janeiro)

Sanjay Poonen, president of Technology Solutions and Mobile Division at SAP, blogged about his impressions after a recent visit. “Alexandre Cardeman, the CIO of the center, told me that during this year’s Carnival, they noticed a spike in words such as ‘ugly’, ‘disgusting’, and ‘embarassing’ in tweets and other messages,” says Poonen. “By zooming cameras in on locations where the messages where being sent from, they saw piles of garbage left in the wake of the first Samba School’s procession. City operators alerted the garbage collectors who were able to clean up before the next group paraded down the avenue. This way to ‘Run a City Better’ with analytics and collaboration between city and citizens, as the City of Rio is doing, happens thanks to their incredibly talented team, a mayor and a CIO with a vision, as well as advances in technology such as SAP’s Sentiment Analytics solutions and SAP BusinessObjects BI, which the City of Rio uses.”

M2M for smarter city management

By integrating data from over 30 municipal, state, and federal entities ranging from employement offices to health services, Rio benefits from collective knowledge sharing. Whereas previously each organization operated independently with little or no insight into each other’s operations, today they act as one unit. And of course, artificial intelligence in the form of technology infrastructure and tools is everywhere, making Rio a good example of why Brazil is one of the four countries identified by the SAP/Harris M2M survey as being most ready to drive connected, smarter cities. When asked what they thought would be the greatest benefit of M2M (machine to machine) technology, over a third of the 750 IT decision makers surveyed globally agreed it would be the ability to improve urban living through “smarter” city management.

At Rio’s center of operations (Photo: Center of operations for Rio de Janeiro)

“The number of things connected to the Internet is expected to reach 50 billion by 2020 and consumers, who are also citizens, are playing a central role in this transformation,” says Poonen. “Today, M2M technology is primarily used to collect vast amounts of machine and people-based data. The Internet of Things concept goes one step further by not only integrating machines, people, ERP, CRM and social networking systems, but also analyzing and using all the data.”

After all, what’s the use of data if you can’t make sense of it? Because the capacity to innovate and to manage uncertainty are critical factors for measuring intelligence, one of the true marks of an intelligent city is how well it uses data for predictive purposes. By applying the right analytical tools, intelligent cities can increase predictive insight, speed up decision making, and improve performance and outcomes. By pooling all their intelligence, cities like Rio can help citizens deal with the uncertainty of tropical weather, for example, by providing early warnings and guiding people to safety before mudslides or floods threaten their lives.

Montreal says merci

While most cities nowadays are focused on smarter operations, some are using technology to prove that cities can be gracious as well. Using SAP Precision Retailing, Montreal has developed thank you packages for citizens who use public transportation. The Societe de Transport de Montreal (STM) is partnering with retailers, other transportation partners such as taxis, and entertainment and media providers, to bring personalized offers to their 1 million OPUS Card users.  “As a thank you for helping to save trees every time you ride with us,” says Michel Labrecque, responsible for administering STM, “we’ve developed the STM Merci app that sends you personlized offers and suggestions that are attractive because of price and geographical relevance.”

A real-time, geo-localized app that drives traffic from the streets to the stores not only makes life easier for citizens on the move, but helps boost the local economy and the consumer experience. Now that’s a smart way to say merci!

This SAP.info post is by Judith Magyar.

For many small businesses, securing a few contracts with large businesses is the ticket to rapid, sustainable growth. But it’s not easy to get a foot in the door at a major corporation – especially when you’re making calls, attending trade shows, and sending tons of emails and letters. The fact is, most small businesses operating the old-fashioned way have a hard time getting the attention of the right people in the right places. As a result, growth is slow, and opportunities are limited.

Given these challenges, should small business owners and executives make the leap to online business matching services?  Does it make sense financially?  Is it too complex technically to engage through this type of online network? Won’t SMBs just get out-bidded by larger suppliers that can offer lower pricing?

Consider the experience of David’s Cookies Corporation, a small business that produces a wide variety of high-quality desserts. According to Brent Maloy, VP of National Accounts at David’s Cookies, with a business matching service, “You get access to clients that your competitors don’t have access to… You can set yourself apart and be rest assured that you’re working on something that’s sharp, viable, and a great lead.” His business received over a dozen qualified leads in just a few months and closed a multimillion dollar deal in the first 30 days.

These kinds of results aren’t uncommon. Business matching services can help small businesses reach potential customers with minimal time and effort and then connect with key decision makers and purchasing agents when they are actively looking to purchase goods and services. And in many cases, matching services are simple to use so that buyers can start posting requests – and sellers can start responding to them – in a matter of minutes. At the same time, buyers gain instant access to thousands of potential new suppliers, lower costs by getting multiple competitive bids, and can quickly source from diversity suppliers to meet state, corporate, and other mandates. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Each week, we curate and publish the top ten articles from across our content categories. We hope you find these articles valuable, informative, and interesting.

Top Ten Business Innovation Posts of the Week

Cents & Sensibility: How 3D Sensors Help Retailers Improve Sales

Analytics – By Elizabeth Gaines, @eagaines

Insight into browsing habits and purchase history is no longer reserved for online retailers. Elizabeth shares with us a new technology from the Vizualize company on how they are helping retailers improve the shopping experience AND their bottomline.

Hacking Happiness: How Big Data Can Make The World More Joyful  

Big Data – By Dylan Love

Remember the way the movie “Pay It Forward” touched your soul? Technology can have that same impact by utilizing one of its favorite children big data. Check out this post on the H(app)athon Project and how they’re using big data to make the world a better place.

Who Are The Real Moneyball Heroes?

Analytics – By James Marland

Sure it takes talent to be a baseball player, but the real moneyball heroes were the data scientists crowder over laptops. How are businesses using these heroes? James helps answer that question.

Big Data Takes Over The Big Apple

Big Data – By Jen Cohen Crompton, @jenz036

They used to only share one thing in common, their size. However, the Big Apple is using data for strategic planning and to understand possible threats and risks.

3 Ways To Build Leadership Credibility In Tough Times

Human Resources – By Rich Berens

With the lack of leadership, or at least trust in our leadership, it’s hard to believe anyone with seniority. Rich discusses recent survey results and shares 3 things credible leaders can do to differentiate themselves from their stereotypes.

How To Get From Data To Decision  Journey to Insight

Analytics – By Scott Jeffries, @SLJAnalytics

There’s no doubt the world is getting busier. Businesses are always looking for insight, however that need is usually met with silos and a lot of manual digging. The need for a company-wide analytics initiative is overdue. Scott shares with us how to start the transformation and take it to the enterprise.

Friday Flashback: This Week in Tech [May 17, 2013]

Industries – By Jen Cohen Crompton

Missed a week in tech? Jen found the top happenings in tech last week. Enjoy!

7 Steps To Leverage Design Thinking For Your Mobile Strategy (Part 2)

Mobile – By Jomy Pidiath and Tonja Erismann, @jomypidiath

Part 1 focused on steps one and two, how scoping and research can help you create a comprehensive mobile strategy. Part 2 takes you through steps 3 and 4, how you can use synthesis, ideation, and an overall design thinking approach to continue to build your strategy.

Why Every Organization Needs Some Misfits

Human Resources – By Ted Coine, @tedcoine

Misfits get a bad rap. They can bring to the table an interesting outlook your cookie-cutter employees could never even dream of. Check out a few reasons why you should hire a misfit or two.

Top Tips: How To Effectively Use LinkedIn

Human Resources – By SAP.info, @sapinfo

This isn’t your parents LinkedIn. Heck, it isn’t the 30 year olds LinkedIn. It’s a powerful tool you can use to your advantage, if you know how. Here are a few tips.

Why is the digital channel changing recruiting? In this clip from the recent TruLondon event I spoke with Andy Hyatt about how organizations can integrate digital channels into their existing recruitment efforts.

Andy points out that financial investment is a big barrier for many organizations, but that we must remind the C-suite that candidates aren’t just candidates, they’re consumers too.

I suppose that would be the one where the equipment shows up, is plugged in and it works perfectly.

As I reflect on just about every technology purchase I have ever made I have come to the conclusion that my alarm clock and my refrigerator are the only two tech purchases I have ever made that literally just plugged in and worked 100% the way they were intended to.

But the evolution to get there has taken some time. Those “Perfectly” working devices are really mature technologies.

So after we look at the products that have had a few hundred years to mature and we start thinking about the technologies that we are investing in for our businesses, how easy are those to implement?

Of course the answer comes with varying responses.

A new laptop or cell phone can probably be brought up in a few hours with minimal issues (if you’re lucky).

While a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management), SAN (Storage Area Network) or ERP (Enhanced Resource Planning) system can take months to get right. This is especially the case for companies that try to get their overworked and under resourced IT departments to do it in house.

Many companies work with systems and technologies that are never quite right, but they deal with it any way.

It’s kind of like bad cell phone service. We often just deal with it as we aren’t sure the time spent to make it better will be well spent, or if it will even make the problem better.

For Cloud PBX, VOIP and Unified Communication providers, this is also the situation.

The product doesn’t always go like advertised.

In the perfect world the installation of a cloud (or premise) based PBX would go something like this.

The customer would say they want “XX” users in “XX” locations. All to have Voice, Video, Instant Messaging and Presence. Full contact integration and an app for their mobile device.

They would plug all of this into a form, hit submit and away you would go.

Oh and it would be super customizable…They could pick their make/model of phone and set up their features with a few mouse clicks.

Everything would show up at their door and it would just work.

Yeah, that would be nice.

But from what I’ve seen, that just isn’t the case.

Rather PBX deployments linger on for weeks.

Forget customization, this is just to make them work well enough for the customer to sign off.

The process is painful and the customer too often regrets the decision to move to an advanced unified communication tool. Longing for the phone on their desk that just “Worked.”

Well the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

The most advanced cloud communications can be widely accessible and easy to implement.

Bringing even the smallest business the ability to communicate like a global enterprise.

And for those of you looking for that magic tool that allows you to quote, provision and deploy a world class unified communication tool…

Look us up here. We’ve got an app for that!

• 30 million active mobile money customers globally
• 224 million transactions (PayPal did a monthly average of 196 million during Q3 2012)
• $4.6 billion USD transferred

The survey results show that there are more mobile money accounts than bank accounts in Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda. Globally, there are 150 mobile money services for the unbanked, 41 of which were launched in 2012. The industry is also seeing more competition, with 40 markets having at least two different services available.

People are moving money to each other using their phones. It’s a key mobile financial service. That’s why it comes as no surprise that traditional bricks-and-mortar players, like MoneyGram and Western Union, are continuing to invest in new products to leverage their existing systems and stay relevant in the mobile world.

Qtel, one of our customers and Qatar’s leading mobile operator, haspartnered with global money transfer company MoneyGram in a multi-year agreement. The partnership will expand Ooredoo’s (previously known as Qtel) international mobile money transfer service from three possible destinations (the Philippines,Pakistan and Nepal) to 197 countries. MoneyGram gets to leverage Ooredoo’s technology, and access to Qatar’s significant population of migrant workers who are sending money home each month.

Western Union (another customer), probably the largest and best known money transfer service, has been busy announcing new partnerships this year. One is with Nigerian company Virtual Terminal Network (VTN), and will bring mobile money transfer, bill pay and purchases solution to that country. Another is with retailer Carrefour Argentina and will offer international money transfer and bill payment service there. WU certified our Wallet Platform for mobile transfers, which means we can offer operators the option to offer a Western Union mobile money transfer service to their end customers.

Additionally, Rachel King’s Wall Street Journal blog reported that Western Union is investing in analytics and investigating digital currencies like Bitcoin. The company is also investigating the role it can play in all kinds of other online transactions.

It’s clear that the old guard faces increasing competition in its money transfer business from start-ups, banks and operators getting into mobile. But they aren’t going down without a fight.

This post originally appeared in Matthew Talbot’s Mobility Blog on SCN and was republished with permission.

English: KIS International School Students (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Philly is a great town – it’s filled with interesting people and awesome food (oh yes, with a little history thrown in). I was there last week for the HR Conference for senior level executives.

The energy at the conference was amazing – there are so many exciting developments in the new world of work. I left with my head spinning (in a good way).

But there was one alarm I heard sounded again and again. It was about education. Our schools and colleges aren’t equipping students (future leaders included) with the right skills and talents to flourish in today’s (and tomorrow’s) digital economy. 

This skills shortage threatens to undermine all the positive advances in talent recruitment and management and this is alarming to me.

Companies just can’t find the people they need. And at the same time, they’re cutting their recruiting and development budgets, expecting new hires to hit the ground running.

According to a recent study by The DeLoitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 80 percent of companies say that “advanced manufacturing” is the area where they anticipate the greatest hiring challenge in the coming years. These are not your father’s manufacturing jobs; virtually all of them demand mastery of complex computer skills.

So how can we close the gap and make sure companies can find the talent they need to thrive?

Let’s look at five ideas for how to build a future leader:

1) The intern solution.

A hefty percentage of students today see college as an expensive waste of time (or close to it). This is reality. They don’t want to graduate and be forced to take a job they’re not excited about just to service their college debt. Enstitute, an innovative two-year intern program in New York City, pairs high-school grads (and college dropouts) with exciting high-tech companies. They learn advanced IT, programming and app-building skills in the real world. At the end of the internship, they’re seasoned pros and most have no problem finding good jobs.

2) Be a Mentor. Just Do.

Taking a student under your wing and helping them along is a win-win. Their questions force you to refresh your outlook, mission and skills. These young people have grown up hardwired to their computers and iPhones. They get “it” (the new digital rules of the game) instinctively. By teaching we learn, by sharing we gain. Leaders and companies that actively pursue mentoring programs strengthen the labor pool and themselves. I’m doing this in my own community TalentCulture World of Work by partnering with Choose2Matter. By mentoring and educating future leaders about the world of work I can make a difference. I’m just doing instead of talking about it.

3) Invest in (and partner with) our schools and universities.

If this is a no-brainer (and it is) there are a lot of people around with no brains. When politicians and cash-strapped cities and states cut education budgets and scapegoat teachers, they being penny-wise and pound-idiotic. But educators also have to do their part. We need schools that understand the demands of tomorrow’s workplace, not today’s (and certainly not yesterday’s). Educators must form alliances with businesses and work together to develop a curriculum that will meet companies’ 21^st century companies, thus preparing their grads for exciting careers.

4) Increase training and development budgets.

It’s no secret that thousands of companies are flush with cash. In fact, they’re hoarding it. Given the recent volatile nature of the economy, this is understandable. It’s also shortsighted. It’s time to loosen the purse strings and pour some money into building a workforce that stays ahead of the high-tech curve.

5) Use big data for good and not evil.

The smart mining of big data can radically change the hiring process. Suddenly your labor pool is literally global and you can focus on people who have the talent and skills you need. As this process gains popularity, its reverse momentum will force schools to adjust. Peers of the people being hired will demand that their educations include the requisite skills. Big data reveals definitely what the workplace values and demands.

Education is the foundation of a prosperous and passionate future of work. Let’s all roll up our sleeves and make it work for our future leaders. Who’s in?

We all have learned great things from our mothers.

Here are six business principles I have learned from my mom:

1) Money Burns a Hole in Your Pocket

When I saved enough money to buy my first car at age 17, I fell in love with a used MG Midget (it was an early roadster). I took my mother to see it and was ready to make the purchase. But she told me that when you have money, sometimes that money “burns a hole in your pocket.”  In other words, you get eager to spend it. She told me to be careful about that.

This principle is part of the reason that I tell founders to be careful with how much money they take from investors. If you have the money, you will burn through the money, but will it ultimately help you dominate your markets?

2) Something Better Always Comes Along

My mother also pointed out that the MG Midget was the first car that I had looked at. She told me not to be too eager to purchase it, and that “something better always comes along. If you have the time and the patience, you will always find something better.”

I took that advice on faith, and I didn’t buy that car that day. Ultimately, I ended up purchasing a 1967 Ford Mustang (a hot muscle car) that ultimately was better for me given that I barely fit into the MG Midget, anyway.

I use this principle to keep a level head when I look at investment opportunities that I fall in love with. I only have the time to work with a few companies at any given point, so it’s a good thing to remember and I spend a lot of time thinking about my fit with each company. I tell companies that getting a VC investor is like getting married — you spend a lot of time together for a long time. Let’s make absolutely sure that there is a good fit!

I also pass this principle along to hiring managers when they have candidates they really like: “Yes, this person looks really good, but someone with a better fit will always come along if you wait. The key question is whether this person is so good that you don’t want to wait for that better person.”

3) Follow Your Core Competencies and Passion

I was always good at math and enjoyed it, so my mother started pointing out careers that used those skills, including accounting, being an actuary, or being an engineer. I chose engineering and made my mother proud. I also learned that it is not necessarily work when you are both good at and are passionate about what you do.

That is advice I pass along to every young person I meet, usually by asking them what class they enjoyed most and least in high school and what they enjoy doing most. It usually leads to a lively conversation and gets them to think. (I also point out engineering as an option to just about any high school student I meet who is good at math, which drives my artist wife crazy.)

The idea works more broadly for your career and your business, as well. What are you good at and what do you enjoy doing? Perhaps you should do more of that!

4) Keep Moving Forward

When I was young, my younger sister died. It caused a lot of stress with my parents and my guess is that it was the root cause of their divorce. My mother raised my older sister and me for several years as a working single mom. I can’t imagine how difficult that was on a teacher’s salary. My mom just kept moving forward. Like most people, she has had other setbacks in her life, but she has always handled them with grace and keeps moving forward.

Startups have many down periods when founders wonder whether or not it will work. All you can do is keep moving forward and see what happens next!

5) Assets and Low Costs are the Way to Go

My mother knows more about financial management than anyone I know. She managed to turn a career in teaching in California public schools into a great retirement with two houses and more money than she needs via keeping her costs low and investing wisely for many many years.

Given my background as an investor, she often calls me for investment advice, but when I give it to her she goes into great detail about all the implications associated with every choice and I usually end the conversation with “it sounds like you are thinking about all the right things.” I am never quite sure that I add any value to her thinking.

The most important thing that she taught me at a young age was to turn income into assets and to keep your costs low. This advice is obvious for most start-ups: “turn your capital into revenue, company value, and competitive advantage, and keep your costs low.”

6) You Need to Find a Smart, Capable Partner Who Challenges You

Before I got married, I had several long-term relationships. My mother always told me that she was indifferent to a woman’s race, color, and religion, but that she wanted me to marry a smart, capable woman who challenged me. And I did.

At some point, I also realized that there are many smart capable women who are great to work with. Ultimately, I figured out that all other things being equal, women are better in every position in a company (my hypothesis is that this comes from cultural factors that generally require women to be that much better to get to where they are, but who knows?).

Want to get something done in your business? Hire a smart, capable woman who challenges you!

One More Thought

I didn’t include this in the list as it is not really business advice, but my mother also says “you need to call more often.” I don’t talk to my mother enough, and she lets me know it most of the time that I talk to her (she is right and I will try harder ,mom :).

From a professional perspective, we all have mentors who have nurtured parts of us and we probably don’t keep in touch enough. Don’t forget to take the time to call them and let them know how you are doing! They will appreciate it and you will enjoy it.

I have learned a lot more from my mom than the lessons in the list above, but this is what came to me as I reflected on my mom’s influence on me and how it relates to business.

We have all learned a lot from our mothers, so please let me know what you learned from yours!

Big data is transforming industries. From education to tech, retail, and healthcare, sophisticated analytics are helping organizations make intelligent decisions to maximize key goals.

“From Facebook to Netflix, companies are tracking and analyzing our searches, our purchases, and just about every other online activity that will give them more insight into what we are and who we want,” wrote Jim Fruchterman for Harvard Business Review. “The more we use technology in our education and health systems, the more data we collect about how people learn and what keeps us healthy or what makes us sick.”

For financial firms that face challenges of increased governance, risk, strict compliance guidelines, and worldwide economic instability, the need for data-driven decisions is even more crucial.

“To navigate the complexity and manage capital more effectively, it’s essential to develop advanced analytic forecasting capabilities and financial management techniques,” according to a Deloitte case study.

The following three areas are leading the charge:

1. Decision Support Partnerships

Data drives more than just reporting — financial firms need quantitative strategies to drive overall business. Big data transforms finance teams from researchers and analysts to key influencers.

“Companies with strong FPA[Financial Planning & Analytics]-business partnerships have more cost discipline and deliver a 5.9% average annual total shareholder return premium,” wrote Michael Griffin, Jian Chen, and Anna Kipchuck for the Wall Street Journal.

Opportunities include synthesizing diverse data systems, extrapolating trends, improving efficiency, and recommending changes to the overall business.

“Unsurprisingly, finance teams with these capabilities are more likely to be viewed as strong business partners, which means they’re more likely to be involved early in key conversations and decisions rather than during the approval or funding stage,” wrote Griffin, Chen, and Kipchuck.

2. Compliance Cost Reduction

Last year, the financial services industry witnessed hundreds of new regulations. These changes will have a heavy influence on the sector’s data strategy. Beyond long-standing Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, new regulations from Basel III, the Dodd-Frank Act and other legislation create new complexities — with data as a mission-critical remedy.

Boston-based State Street Corp., for instance, is experimenting with semantic databases — information storage solutions with flexible data structures that prioritize meaning in relationships.

“State Street began experimenting with semantic databases last year and has moved from proof-of-concept demonstrations to pilot programs using the semantic data model,” wrote Kathy Burger for Bank Tech.

According to State Street’s chief scientist David Saul, semantic data is a powerful compliance tool for the Legal Entity Identification (LEI) standard mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.

“State Street has been working on taking a semantic approach to LEI data, and Saul says its ability to link different kinds of data and creative equivalency could prove invaluable to banks in their efforts to comply with this new standard” wrote Burger.

With automation of LEI data — an otherwise manual process — comes cost savings opportunities through improved efficiency.

3. Rigorous Predictive Models

Volumes of data are growing exponentially for the finance sector. These data points are invaluable for profit and efficiency maximization.

“Banks and investment firms assess massive amounts of data to stay ahead of the competition,” wrote J.J. McCorvey for Inc. “In 2011, for example, trading volume grew to 4.55 billion contracts, up 17% from 2010, while the American Bankers’ Accociation reports that there are 10,000 credit card transactions every second around the world.”

Predictive models are invaluable for sifting through massive consumer insight volumes. Best practices rely on the capabilities and priorities of individual organizations.

“Harnessing the ultimate power of an information-driven culture will depend on how organizations approach the opportunities offered by data and analytics,” wrote Jeanne E. Johnson for a KPMG report.

Cut costs, influence business decisions, and grow profits — all three provide opportunities for advanced analytics as a guiding force. As reporting standards grow more complex and competition for consumers becomes more rigorous, the need for data will become exponentially higher.

So often on the news we hear about terrible things happening abroad, however many of those same things happen here in the United States. Take for example food security.  In 1995 at the World Food Summit food security was defined as “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.”

It’s built on three distinct pillars:

• Availability, or food available on a consistent basis
• Access, having the resources to obtain food
• Use, or use based knowledge on nutrition, care, and sanitation

All of these things seem like basic human rights in my opinion, however not all are as lucky to have availability, access, or knowledge of use to food. This is what’s called food insecurity.

In 2011, 50.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households. That number breaks down to 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children. Luckily, there are a number of organizations are attempting to combat the issue of food insecurity.

Who is helping fight food insecurity?

One specific is Feeding America. They have a vision of a hunger-free America. In order to achieve this, they have built a network of over 200+ food banks to which using their network of trucks will deliver the food that is either purchased through monetary contributions or donated. They work with various partners to educate both food insecure citizens, as well as elected officials so they may be empowered to help.

Either type of donations helps, however technology is enabling them to more with what they receive. How? They are using a mobile platform as a tool on their trucks for when they pick up and deliver donations. Through this platform they can capture what’s being picked up and delivered, cutting down on time spent manually entering the inventory.

This results in cost savings and more money to provide more food and education to people in need. Hear from Kevin Lutz about how else Feeding America is utilizing a mobile platform to improve operations and efficiencies in distribution centers. In turn freeing up time for employees to go out, collect and distribute food to bring down the number of hungry families.

As a student, my biggest fear was that the teacher would call on me and I wouldn’t know the answer to her question. So, when I wasn’t 100% sure of an answer or didn’t have any facts to back up my opinion, I would sit as quietly as I could wishing to, somehow, make myself invisible. After all, nothing would be worse than fumbling around for information or being wrong in front of the entire class!

I soon learned that, if I wanted to succeed, I needed to be the first one to raise my hand with confidence – and the right facts.

“Fumblers” versus “fact finders”

When it comes to business intelligence, IDC identifies organizations as BI “fumblers” and “fact finders.” The fumblers base decisions on incomplete, unorganized data and opinions – and hope they never get called on to explain themselves. Whereas, the fact finders base decisions on accurate, structured, and up-to-the-minute information, supported by a well-defined BI and analytics strategy.

Which one are you?

According to Dan Vesset, program vice president of IDC’s Business Analytics research, fact finders are focused on providing a clear and visible BI and analytics strategy. As part of their strategy, they:

• Train employees on the meaning of data, the use of BI and analytics tools, and the use of analytics to improve decision making

• Invest in BI and analytics system design quality to rapidly respond to changing business conditions and user requirements

• Place a high level of importance (including funding) on a data governance group and associated policies

• Involve nonexecutive management in promoting and encouraging the design and use of the BI and analytics solution

• Align the organization to performance management methodology with a set of defined metrics and KPIs that influence user behavior

Why does it matter?

According to IDC, “as a group, fact finders are more competitive than fumblers.” “Eighty percent of the most competitive organizations are fact finders,” reported IDC, “almost thirty percent more than among the least competitive organizations.”

With a BI and analytics strategy, organizations can empower business users to make evidence-based decisions using the best possible intelligence about customers, finances, operations, suppliers, and market trends. And this can lead to improved business processes, increased productivity, and reduced costs – for a competitive edge.

Turn your organization into fact finders with the right BI and analytics strategy

To learn about the factors you should consider when creating a BI and analytics strategy and best practices for pervasive and highly impactful BI and analytics use, read the IDC Analyst Connection article “Best Practices for a BI and Analytics Strategy.”

The opportunity lies in defining how Big Data can help you better reach your customers with your messages in a way that gets them to act.

And this starts with simple questions like: how did your last campaign perform? Which keywords drive conversions? What websites did my prospects visit before they came to my sites? Which social conversations are spurring the actions that lead to deeper engagement with your brand?

Big Data for Marketing is easy to say but hard to do. So here I will look to a few of the “experts” on how to take advantage of all this data and turn it into real business insights that drive real business value.

Big Data Marketing Is Like Gold Mining

Dean Bedard likens Big Data marketing to gold mining when he says “it’s not enough to know where the precious stuff is. In order to reap the riches, first they have to get it out of the ground and turn it into something they can use.”

He outlines four steps to prioritizing the road to mining Big data insights including:

• Setting up a cross-functional marketing and IT team
• Prioritization of the marketing goals Big Data can help you accomplish
• Mapping the data sources to obtain reporting on key metrics supporting the main objectives (KPIs)
• Creating an “agile marketing” implementation roadmap which develops against the highest priority areas to generate the quickest value.

Big Data For Marketing Requires ‘Destination Thinking’

Matt Ariker from McKinsey had similar thoughts when he suggests marketers start their Big Data projects by thinking of the end goal and then working through all the details. This so-called “destination thinking” will help the strategic marketer avoid the traps of many Big Data Marketing projects where the deliverable becomes the end goal itself instead of the business value imagined at the outset.

The Era of Big Testing

Scott Brinker (@ChiefMarTec) suggested in my own future of marketing interview series that we need to encourage more marketing experimentation and “Big testing.”

He believes marketing needs to take advantage of both new technology and new talent to start creating hypotheses. Then to use Big Testing to prove them out – right or wrong.

For Scott, “the key to scientific marketing is actually the embrace of marketing experimentation as a driver of continuous innovation.”

Marketing Offices As Trading Room Floors

Brian Kardon (@BKardon), CMO of Lattice Engines imagines a day when marketing offices resemble trading desks with screens of real-time data streaming in and marketers yelling “buy, buy.”

But he laments, the effort by most marketing departments to develop real-time dashboards are “dwarfed by countless marketing Powerpoints and never-read marketing plans.” Brian understands the power of questions. In his own office he has dashboards that tell him:

• What was the unsubscribe rate from that new campaign?
• Which version of the email performed better – the one with the orange button or the blue button?
• What deals are stuck in the pipeline for more than 60 days?
• Which reps had the lowest win rates this year to date?
• Is Twitter sentiment for our brand trending up or down?
• What % of our customers at Dell are using Lattice right now? How does this compare to yesterday, last week or last month?
• How many unique visitors came to our site today?  Where did they come from?

Big Data Marketing Must Be Illustrative

According to Jon Baron (@TagManJon) the difference between Big Data and Big Data Marketing is found not in the analyses, but in the insights that turn into actions.

Jon define Big Data as “a simplistic term which refers to the automated accumulation and analysis of audience data on a large scale.”

But emphasizes that Big Data for marketing must be illustrative of the target audience the marketer is seeking to understand. It must help us to be more efficient or effective at reaching a target audience and getting them to act on the marketing message.

Big Data Marketing Means You Understand Your Customers’ Questions

Finally in my own Big Data Marketing rant I talk about the need to understand the questions that our customers are asking when they do a Google search, visit a website or participate in a social media conversation.

I believe every marketing plan should start with an analysis of your companies “share of conversations.” This shows you not only how well known your company is in your solution space, but also how likely your customers are to act on that awareness (RT, comment and ultimately convert to a lead and a customer).

My own 4-step plan to Big Data Marketing Insights:

• Define your customers’ top keywords and topics through search analysis. Starting with a simple look at Google Trends.
• Social analytics to show what % of social conversations include mention of your brand. This is where the data gets really big.
• Insights from your Website analytics will help you understand which keywords and referring domains drive conversions.
• Finally, combine these 3 massive big data sets to help to make decisions on marketing plans, tactics and budget.

So here is a curation of thoughts from folks I follow. But let me know what you think in the comments below.

And please follow along on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ or Subscribe to the B2B Marketing Insider Blog for regular updates.

I was not born a leader.

When I was born (and this was a very long time ago), there were serious defects in my leadership blueprint. First, I had two X chromosomes at a time when one Y was needed in order to be a leader. Actually, nobody knew what a chromosome was back then, so 42 Extra Long was the preferred measure, and I didn’t reach my full 5’2” until I was 25.

Although I had no choice in the matter, I also ended up with two loving parents, neither of whom was an entrepreneur or executive. It would seem hopeless.

Now, in 2013, diversity is desirable. My dear friends in executive search tell me that they are under the gun to produce diversity slates for the high level positions they are engaged to fill. A diversity slate, one told me with his typically charming sense of irony, is one that includes at least one woman and one non-white.

When pressed to explain, he went on to say that this configuration positioned the first runner up to be the feel-good candidate while there actually would be no danger of hiring a person other than someone who looked like the rest of the executive team.

I think we’re looking at the wrong kind of diversity.

What if, instead, we looked at people from the viewpoint of the organization? What if, instead, the organization (as a living thing itself) were to provide the want-list, instead of the typical laundry list of job specs written by HR? What if we actually treated organization’s needs with respect and consideration?

This would truly represent a revolutionary change in the way we look a leadership and organizational dynamics.

It turns out that organizations – small, medium, large, and Fortune list huge – all have similar fundamental needs. The people who fill those needs best are the ones who feel, deep inside, a connection to the specific organizational need they are serving. This is what gives a person the sense that they are making meaningful contributions, more so than anything else they could be doing.

People may do various kinds of work similar in focus and thoughtfulness, but they experience different kinds of work in different ways, each aligned with the specific need of the organization that they are filling. This has especially important relevance to leadership.

What if the organization (as a living thing itself) were to provide the want-list, instead of the typical laundry list of job specs written by HR?

There are those who are drawn to create big visions, as an entirely new product, or service, or level of awareness. They start an organization as a way to draw other people in to make it happen. In the language of Teamability, they are Founders.

There are those who bond to the vision of the Founder and lead the strategic process of putting it on the road to realization. In the language of Teamability, they are Vision Movers.

There are those who take the drive and activity of the Vision Mover and shape and form it into a more elegant, efficient framework. This transforms the team as well as the project. In the language of Teamability, they are Vision Formers.

There are those who adapt big-picture strategies into action. They are the heroes of their teams as they lead them into the fray. In the language of Teamability, they are Action Movers.

And there are those who make sure that every detail is in place, been accomplished well, and that the project is not closed until everything is done. They are extraordinary project managers, no matter what the project. In the language of Teamability, they are Action Formers.

Whether your leadership is recognized or not is less important than your desire to contribute.

All are leaders. All are essential. If you want to lead, and you feel comfortable in leading, one of these Roles probably resonates with you.

But there are five more needs that organizations have, and without them the organization is incomplete and structurally flawed. If you fill one or the other Roles, you may not be automatically seen as a leader. However, that does not mean you can’t lead. It may very well be that your organization needs you for a special kind of leading that only you can do.

We’re all in this together, and all people were born to serve. Whether your leadership is recognized or not is less important than your desire to contribute. It is really a matter of finding the right niche.

Here are some tactics you can try along your way to becoming a leader:

• Start, or take a leadership position in, an organization that does something good for people. (I was involved in several parenting nonprofits and learned the good, the bad, the ugly, and the ‘well worth the trouble.’)

• People often make snap judgments based on how you look, and they’re often wrong. But, the more you tune into how they see you, the more you can influence their ideas about you. Ask a friend for feedback. (I will be eternally grateful to my BFF Margot for getting me to stop dressing like a mom, even at business meetings.)

• I have to give credit for this one to serial entrepreneur and investor, Vincent Schiavone. He told me his secret in two words: Get Famous! (I have been working on it ever since. Blogging is a good start!)

• Ask yourself why you want to lead. If your answer is to make more money, there are probably easier ways. If your answer is to change the world (or some part of it) start figuring out how you’re going to do that and, more important, who you’ll need to team with in order to get there.

• Finally: don’t give up. Remember that times change and you will change with them. What is impossible at 30 can be possible at 40, probable at 50, and inevitable at 60. (Just remember as you get older to stay young in your mind, your heart, and your body.)

Leadership is, after all, quite simple… and has nothing to do with being ‘born with it’. All you have to do is be the person other people want to follow!

Art by: Cvet04ek

Back in April a headline on cnet.com read: Location information to make mobile ads more valuable. In the article the writer made reference to two interviews in which “the CEO of the mapping app Waze and ad executives Jason Spero from Google and Mollie Spilman of Millennial Media talked up the importance of users’ GPS location information to help tailor advertising.”

Seems the folks at Facebook are paying attention to the ever-growing popularity of location based advertising as witnessed in Parmy Olson’s Forbes column on May 9th in which she wrote of the fact that Facebook (is) In Talks To Buy Waze For $1 Billion.

But today I want to share with you a completely different take on location-based advertising. A take that has nothing to do with mobile phones or devices.

It’s what I think is a brilliant advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness of child abuse and its victims. It comes from the Spanish organization - ANAR Foundation (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk).  Working with their agency, they used lenticular printing to create outdoor ads that look different to an adult and child.

So, depending on your height, or your location, you will see a different ad.

Adults seeing the ad will see an awareness campaign message that reads: ”sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.”

But when viewed from the average height of a 10-year old child, the ad is completely different. It displays an image of a child who has been abused and includes the hotline number for ANAR where children who are the victims of abuse can get help and counseling. As I mentioned I think this is a brilliant campaign as it takes advantage of lenticular printing thereby delivering two messages through one ad.

It is also brilliant from the standpoint that the aforementioned phone number is only visible to those being abused with the thought being if a child abuse victim views the ad while with his/her abuser, they will see the number while the abuser will not.

The video below shows how the ad is seen in real time.

Source: YouTube, Google Images, cnet.com, Forbes

This fella needs all the help he can get. (Jay Yarrow)

Playing golf today is a significantly better experience than playing golf in 2008, all thanks to the iPhone and golf apps from the app store.

Third-party developers have made a bunch of apps that can improve your game, your round, and your time off the course.

These are our favorite golf apps for the iPhone. Most, if not all, should be available for Android folks, too.

Golfshot GPS is the best app for tracking distances.

There was a time when you had to pay $300-$550 for a rangefinder that told you how far you were from the pin. With Golfshot, you only have to pay $30 and you get accurate readings on almost every course in the world.

It also keeps track of your score, as well as fairways hit, and putts made. With all that data you can geek out on your round and see where you tend to miss. You also see which part of your game needs work.

Golfshot gives users a handicap, something that normally costs $40 through the USGA. It’s not USGA official, but after a recent app update, it’s pretty much just as accurate as the USGA’s system.

iTunes link, price, $30

The Tiger Woods “My Swing” app lets you illustrate your swing.

Golfshot also partnered with Tiger Woods to create “My Swing,” an app that lets people track their swings.

If you’ve ever taken a lesson, maybe you’ve had the instructor film you and draw lines on the screen. This helps you see your swing plane, and if you’re head is moving. (Mine bobs like crazy.)

With “My Swing” you have a friend film your swing, and then you can draw the lines on the screen to see how you’re moving around. It also includes some pre-recorded video tips from Tiger. Generally, I think pre-recorded tips aren’t all that valuable, but that’s just me.

The lines are a nice supplement for any professional lesson you get. You can measure what you’re doing on the range against what you’re supposed to be doing.

iTunes link, price, $5

Swingbyte attaches to your club to track your swing.

Speaking of your swing’s plane, Swingbyte is a new app that syncs with a piece of hardware you attach to the shaft of your golf swing. Swingbyte then records the shape of your swing and illustrates it in the app.

It’s not nearly as helpful as the other two, but it’s another clever way to track your swing shape. In this case, you can do it without a partner filming.

Link to Swingbyte, which is $149

Screenshot

Once you’re game is tweaked with those apps, get out on the course with GolfNow.

The GolfNow app makes it quite easy to book tee times right in your phone.

Link, free

The Golf Channel has an excellent live streaming app.

Screenshot

Post round, if you’re still hopped up on golf, use the Golf Channel’s excellent streaming app. If you’re subscribed to cable, and your carrier has approved it, then you can watch Golf Channel at any time on your phone. This is a good way to catch up on what’s happening in the world of golf.

iTunes link, free with certain cable subscriptions

The PGA TOUR has a lovely app.

Screenshot

The other, less data-intensive application that does something similar is the PGA TOUR’s app. It gives you a look at the leaderboard, plus stories about the tour, and it often has live video streaming, too.

Link, free

Twitter is a good way to stay on top of the news.

Screengrab

On Twitter you can follow tour pros and golf writers to keep abreast of what’s going on. During the dog days of summer when you’re sitting on every tee box waiting for the slowpokes in front of you to get in gear, Twitter is a nice diversion.

Link, free

Instagram is the best photo taking/sharing app on the iPhone.

Jay Yarow

It’s a great way to humbly brag about the awesome golf course you’re playing on — or if you’ve smoked a drive and measure it at 305 yards with Golfshot, you can take a screenshot and post it to Instagram.

Link, free

Another non-golf app that’s useful for a golfer is CardMunch.

App Store screenshot

CardMunch comes from LinkedIn. You can take a photograph of a business card and it sucks up all the information into your phone. If you get a card from someone on the course, you don’t have to worry about losing it. Just take a quick snap with CardMunch.

Link, free

BONUS: Every major has its own app, and they’re usually great

Courtesy of Apple

The Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship all offer great apps for the days of their events. Search in the App Store for the apps when the tournaments are going on.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Interesting.

Interesting in that risk is a topic I’ve been dealing with for a long, long time, and it is still not well understood. Sure, we know about the risk of losing money and the risk of investing something that might not payback.

A bank’s job is all about risk in fact, as in an insurer’s role. An insurance company manages the risk of uncertainty, and does this by pooling the funds of the many to cover the losses of the few. A bank’s role is to manage the risk of losses as an intermediary between those who have money and those who need it.

That’s my simplistic view of the world anyway. So how come banks seem to mess this up whilst insurers do not? You may disagree, as there are examples of where insurers have got this massively wrong – Lloyd’s of London in the 1980s being the key case in point – but insurers generally get it right by using the cycle.

The cycle is the known insurance cycle.  As claims go up, premiums go up. As claims go down, premiums go down.  It is a cycle that ebbs and flows every five to seven years, and the insurance firms know this and manage it accordingly.

Or so they claim.

Banks also know that they have a cycle.  As markets rise, so do profits.  As markets go down, so do profits.  This is also known to be something that occurs every five to seven years. Take Jamie Dimon’s comment: “my daughter asked me when she came home from school ‘what’s the financial crisis’, and I said, ‘well it’s something that happens every five to seven years.”

Banks know the risk cycles, but they don’t manage them as effectively as insurers.  How come? Because insurers deal with known risks but banks deal with unknown risk. Insurers deal with the risks of death by having actuarial tables that model mortality and health, and provide a fairly accurate pooling of risk knowledge across their client base to predict client termination.

The same with automobiles.  We know the risks of accidents per 1,000 vehicles and the likely outcome of those accidents as an average level of claim.

On the converse side, banks create new risks through new products and new markets.  That’s what they continually try to do and the subprime crisis illustrated this well: new risks using new products backed by mortgage based assets.

That is why the financial market exposures from the bank world are far more calamitous than those in the insurance world.

He challenges us all to consider how well we really know our LinkedIn connections, and to rethink the way we reward employees when referrals through their professional networks pay off. Watch the clip below.

This Talent Project Blog post is by Dominic Graham, Head of Professional & Technical – Kelly Services, UK & Ireland.

While it is accepted that finance people need to stay up to date with the traditional accounting skills and increasing workload that comes with changes in reporting, taxation and disclosure – not an easy task in itself, a report, ‘New Skills Existing Talents’, just published by the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) focuses on what extra skills and expertise they need to become key advisers to their organization.

So besides being experts in tax, treasury, corporate finance, statutory reporting and planning and analysis, the report suggests finance needs to ensure that transaction processing operates in a consistent and cost effective way throughout the group within some form of central of excellence that is either offshore, in-house or outsourced – and critically needs to become a true business partner with a deeper understanding of the operational side of their businesses.

Although globalisation puts pressure on companies to look for ever greater efficiencies from finance, the report points out that the cost savings from more efficient transaction processing are subject to the law of diminishing returns and are ultimately limited while the potential to extract increased value from finance is far greater. I would add that while is important to have an efficient and cost effective Global Business Services model in place – the type delivered almost out of the box with SAP Shared Services Framework for Financials – it is easily to replicate and rather than being a source of sustainable competitive advantage, is simply a ‘must have’ hygiene factor for finance today.

It is finance’s involvement in performance management that the report suggests is the priority for adding value pointing out that some finance professionals are already fulfilling the remit of providing additional management guidance, such as more incisive non-financial information about the internal and external drivers of cost (using tools such as SAP Profitability and Cost Management) and have started to undertake more rigorous analysis of the data to generate insights that can lead to performance improvements.

However finance consistently rate their ability in delivering value added information to the business ten percentage points or so above that of their non-financial colleagues suggesting there more work to do, especially when it comes to forward-looking information. The report also suggests that outside of transaction processing, efficiency in finance is still ‘work in progress’ with only small incremental improvements to date and that capacity within finance departments is constraining their wider involvement in the business. All of these findings suggest to me that investment in enterprise performance management suite such as SAP EPM is the way forward and given recent news that finance is finally loosening the reins on its cash piles, we can expect investment in this area will grow apace.

They conclude that as long as finance professionals work at providing and analysing relevant financial information needed to inform these operational and strategic management decisions – and make a concerted effort at developing the necessary skills and business acumen themselves – they will find they have increasing access to executives and senior managers. But, we’re not there yet.

Let’s look at what happened to Kodak or more importantly what did not happen inside Kodak. When Steve Sasson, the Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera in 1975, shared his idea with Kodak management:

But it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was,’ that’s cute—but don’t tell anyone about it’.( source New York Times 2/May/2008)

So did the management fail to see the new trend or did the thought of cannibalizing their revenue streams blind them – perhaps both.

For the next 3 decades, the management was in denial about the emergence of this digital trend. While the founder of Kodak, George Foreman managed to embrace a new trend at the right time twice (once when he turned down profitable dry-plate business to move to film and then when he invested in color film even when their black and white business was doing well), the successive CEO’s managed to stay on the same old trend and failed consistently.

The next failure, in 1996, was its $500Mn project Advantix preview film and camera system (this was 10 years after developing its first mega pixel camera). The Advantix preview would allow the users to preview their shots and select the number of picture prints required and this was possible because it was a digital camera (Source Forbes 18/Jan/2012) . The major cause for failure was the introduction of film into a digital camera just because Kodak was in that business!! Would you really buy a digital camera and still pay for film and prints?

So what’s the root cause – Management stopped ‘listening’ thereby didn’t see the impact of the chinks in their armor then went on to refuse embracing the new trend, even worse,  they spent millions of dollars on research to force fit an old trend (films) onto a new trend (digital) using Advantix preview. If Kodak had a two or multi-way communication mechanism ( like social networking today)set-up in 1970’s, 1980’s and marketing-employee relations and other stakeholders picked up on the pro and anti ‘digital trend’ views, and made a futurist decision perhaps Kodak would be bustling with growth today

To look at the issue, let’s draw an analogy between a company and a person. Companies tend to behave like people; in addition to other qualities successful companies and people tend to have a right balance between conviction and self-awareness. For an organisation to start a journey of building this balance, the following 3 aspects are critical

1.)  Multi- way communication (social networking is just one platform) with all stakeholders (customers, employees, prospects, analysts, investors.) can be very helpful provided companies actively listen more and say less. Social media technology including employee collaboration tools can empower R&D, sales/marketing and other department members in order to make the wider internal community notice the importance of a new trend.

2.) Marketing/Employee relations to work 2 in a box to understand employees’ views on company’s products, services, new trends, challenges in addition to traditional employee relations work. Customer Experience is no longer a front line issue only; it has to be an enterprise wide philosophy.

3.) Management/Leadership culture that is keen to listen to the findings of Marketing and other departments. Conviction and Self-awareness need to go hand-in hand. Management with too much conviction and very little self-awareness will lead to a Kodak moment, too much self-awareness and very little conviction is a non-starter.

Back to the issue of whether social networking could have saved Kodak?  Maybe, it would have created more awareness in order to embrace the new digital trend or a tleast generated some noise which would have received some more attention and over time the management would have become a bit more self-aware. Social networking can help with awareness; adoption has to come from within, where culture also plays a role. More so now than ever, for a company with competency and resources to be successful, management needs to get their employees behind their strategy and drive the company forward. This does not mean building a strategy in isolation and hard selling to the employees and customers to get their support or this does not mean trying to find a democratic strategy – this means continuously running programs to socialize ideas and to listen to the views, solutions that emerge and/or to listen and pick up new ideas and monetize them.

Today, leading companies evaluating/implementing various customer impact systems such as CEM (Customer Experience Management), Social CRM etc are backing it up with Big data analytics, In-memory computing and leveraging Cloud’s elasticity. Long term players are teaming-up with the right partners in order to stay relevant; the future is exciting provided you are equipped for it.

Would be keen to listen to your views and experience!

You can follow me on Twitter @Ramesh_Ramki , website: www.futuristCMO.com

On any network, anywhere, we want to be connected to all of our tools. Right?

Cloud Unified Communications, from the enterprise down to the small business isn’t just about an advanced set of tools and features that work when we are plugged into the office.

Rather it is about a set of tools that just plain work…regardless of where we are sitting.

Mobility for Unified Communications is now widely available and it is something that your business should be looking at implementing.

But not all mobility applications are created equal. So it may be helpful to have a little insight as to what makes for a truly useful Mobile toolbox.

Considering Mobility as part of your Unified Communications Strategy? Here are the top items that should be on your shopping list.

Compatibility: Which platforms does the mobile application best support? Given the diverse set of tools running Windows, Android and iOS, does the mobile application support all (or at least the required) platforms?

Ubiquity: People struggle with working with vastly different platforms. Always preferring more consistent experience between their various devices. Just because an application offers mobility, is it user-friendly where learning to use the mobile solution isn’t a “Re-Learning” process but rather an extension of what the user all ready knows?

Functionality: Does the mobile tools provide similar functionality to the full version? Mobility doesn’t have to mean a great compromise. Tools like Presence and Unity should be available on your mobile application. Further advanced applications like web collaboration and even high definition video should likely be part of the mobile capabilities.

Transferability: Is moving between your “Wired-In” office and your mobile tool box as easy as it should be? A good mobile application for Unified Communication should allow you to go from your office to your car to the coffee shop seamlessly.

Support: As more applications are running on more devices support becomes more and more important for use. Make sure that the chosen UC platform has a well supported mobile application. As we all know, mobile applications pop up everyday. When running a business the application needs to work everyday, or you have a toy, not a Unified Communication solution.

Real mobility should be one of the keys in choosing your Unified Communication platform. But make sure to pay attention to the details because not all Mobility is created equal.

How mobile is your organization?

For leading tools and the best partner program for Cloud in the industry, click here.

Employment gains were led by growth in the professional and business services sector, which added 73,000 jobs in April. Retail trade (+29,000) and the leisure/hospitality sector (+43,000) also accounted for a significant portion of job growth during the month, suggesting that consumer activity may be on an upward trend. Healthcare also continued to post strong job growth, while government payrolls contracted by 11,000—although many predictions called for a more severe decline due to the negative impact of sequestration.

Other highlights of the latest U.S. Talent Market Monthly are:

• Payroll employment saw healthy expansion in April and job gains for the past two months were revised upwards significantly.

• The unemployment rate continues on a steady downward trend, and long- term unemployment is also beginning to show improvement.

• This month’s favorable numbers have tempered fears that the U.S. job market had entered another weak patch.

After a disappointing month in March, the U.S. labor market took a step forward in April, with employment gains exceeding expectations, and revisions to prior months’ data showing that job growth was stronger over the past two months than originally reported. U.S. job creation totaled a relatively modest 165,000 in April, but revisions added a total of 114,000 jobs to the employment figures for February and March, raising average job creation thus far in 2013 to close to 200,000 per month.

Take a deeper dive into the latest U.S. labor market data and download our latest Talent Market Monthly report now.

This Talent Project Blog post is by Cindy Ladensack, Manager, Marketing Information – Kelly Services

These 11 start-ups from 10 countries and five continents recently took a 100-day voyage around the world as part of the Unreasonable@Sea program. Co-sponsored by SAP, their incredible journey included stops at 13 international ports of call where they were greeted by local business and government leaders, venture capitalists, and non-government organizations, as well as SAP experts.

The concept was simple: by exposing these innovators to even more great minds from different cultures they’ll better nurture their ideas, attract investment, and scale fast. You can find the details about the journey, including the prominent business and social thinkers and leaders who accompanied the entrepreneurs, in this article. Meantime, these committed start-ups deserve a shout-out for the great work they’ve already accomplished.

Aquaphytex turns conventional waste water treatment on its head with a natural plant-based approach that’s less costly and just as effective. With systems installed in over five countries, Aquaphytex has generated over $4,000,000 USD in revenue in the past three years while giving 300,000 people each day access to clean drinking water.

Damascus Fortune captures the carbon content from industrial and automobile exhaust, and converts the exhaust into a product called Carbon Nanotubes which can be used to build cars, space ships, buildings, laptops, and mobile phones.

Innoz is transforming mobile phones into learning tools using its SMSGYN mobile search engine. Over 120 million users in India, the Middle East, and Africa submit more than five million inquiries each day.

Guru-G uses gamification to teach, train and certify more teachers fast.

The IOU Project de-commoditizes fashion offering unique, beautifully crafted pieces at the same price point as popular, mass-produced, low-quality fashions.

Solar Ear has developed the world’s first solar powered hearing aid which last for two to three years, and is chargeable via the sun, household light, or a cell phone plug.

Protei has created a shape-shifting sailing robot (in photo above) that cleans up oil spills and plastic in the ocean, and collects invaluable data about the environment.

Evolving Technologies has pioneered a light, portable endoscopy system for the needs of women in developing markets for less than 4% of the market price.

One Earth Designs has a parabolic solar cooker that harnesses the sun to bring clean energy to three billion people who lack access to clean fuels.

Prakti Design stoves cut fuel use in half and reduce the smoke emitted by 70%.

Artificial Vision for the Blind gives people a chance to see using glasses with a camera, mini-computer, and transmitter that together activate the visual cortex of the brain

Together, these entrepreneurs have generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue, are impacting millions of individuals directly with their technologies, and have achieved operational scale in over 30 countries. Applying the latest technologies to tackle age-old human problems makes perfect sense. Ultimately, the value of technology is best measured by the good that it brings into people’s lives.

Follow me @smgaler

Originally published on SAP Business Trends

From regional retailers to the Fortune 100, more and more companies are testing the waters of mobile sales tools. Whether they’re guiding customers through virtual product tours on a tablet or managing their entire inventory from a smartphone, businesses are diving head first into this tidal wave of ingenuity and profitability.

Not buying the hype? Here are four success stories that are sure to silence non-believers and instill confidence in early adopters.

Like Jon Hamm said in the latest American Airlines commercial, change is in the air. But he wasn’t just referring to their new logo or US Airways merger. American Airlines is switching their flight manuals from a hefty 35-pound stack of paper to a 1.5-pound iPad. This technological advancement will save over $1.2 million a year through increased fuel efficiency and decreased printing needs.

Back on the ground, Audi is rerouting reams of printed sales materials to tablets. This cutting-edge car manufacturer revved up their showroom by creating a virtual test drive for their flagship sedan, the A8. What did they get in return? A 378% sales increase.

From transportation to hospitality, the super swanky Mondrian SOHO hotel placed iPads with digitized menus in every one of their 270 rooms, increasing sales by 15-20%. Paying $20 for French toast has never been so easy, physically speaking.

And for those of you in the fashion industry, take a page out of J.Hilburn’s look book. These tech-savvy tailors used their custom tablet sales tool, Style Kit, to increase their average order size by 67%. That’s a lot of pocket squares.

So there you have it, four completely different companies that have all benefitted from the customizable magic of tablet sales tools. Are you starting to see how these commercial innovations can boost your revenues? Read these helpful resources for more facts, figures and infographics. Then, contact one of our mobile experts today to get the ball rolling on your game changing mobile tool.

Social Cues

Science World Report disclosed recently that the more the number of past romantic relationships a study participant had, the more interests they list on their Facebook profile.  Until the social customer and the existence of so many social web behavioral cues and indicators emerged, it would have been difficult to discern and then predict such “relationship-preferences” correlations! There is even a name for these cues – they’re called narbs – and one can construct a social customer persona or narrative by narbs or social interactions + user generated content.

Last year, SAP asked Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business Medill Marketing class: “How do you engage with brands and gather information on the social web?”  The findings told us that today’s socially-connected consumers and newly minted business professionals would prefer to consume content that is much more relevant, transparent, highly engaging, socially-responsible, easy to consume, and ‘cool’. Social sellers and marketers take note.

Thought Leadership in Selling to the Social Customer

Koka Sexton of LinkedIn (formerly with InsideView) spoke here about differences which have developed with selling to the social customer.  For example, Koka suggests that “…today’s B2B salesperson needs to monitor social information for trigger events and post valuable information to establish their  reputation as a thought leader.”  This approach is a more nuanced one than, say telemarketing, or upselling / cross selling as a result of a customer service inquiry.  Says Sexton: “You are actually ‘listening’ to online conversations of prospects, and then sharing valuable information to draw buyers to you.”

For a great  example of a Thought Leadership sales approach, have a look at my colleague, Nicholas Kontopoulos’ twitter feed – full of useful and valuable thought leadership and best practices for Sales and Marketing professionals.

Social Capital

LinkedIn – another mainstream social network – inspires sellers to leverage their online profile and network to connect to others online and scale their sales operations. At the very least, sellers can lead into a sales situation armed with better insight to predict certain outcomes based on customer profiles.

But let’s face it – much of one’s social interaction takes place offline as well. I human am not [yet] a gadget [check out Jaron Lanier’s book on the topic].  New developments at a company called Relationship Science can arm sales executives with performance enhancing data (PED) – essentially online and offline data and correlations such as events you’ve attended or presented at, club memberships, interests, non-profit support, even wikileaks – all of which portend the network ties that may have gone undetected by other social networks.   This can assist sellers in delivering relevance in their approaches and customer experiences.

Forms of social capital also include the markers you will leave when you engage with companies and their customer service individuals.  Tools are increasingly able to track whether this customer is categorized or rated by his/her social interactions to be an: a) influencer b) empathizer c) annoyance d) fill-in-the-blank.

Social Customer Intelligence

So where does that leave sellers who wish to engage more intelligently with their customers?  Understanding customer behavior both on and offline may rank customers as important influencers, constructive consumers, or as high maintenance.    Using social intelligence wisely will help to strike the right balance of familiar and strategic in your sales approach when selling to your socially and mobile-aware consumers.  But science alone cannot provide the social seller with what’s needed: there is much to be said about the art of selling!

Sales Love

In fact, The Pulse Network has assembled some of the best minds on the topic of selling: social – mobile- analytics and just plain best practices.  Check out The Customer Edge’s Webisode on May 9^th where experts: Peter Ostrow (Aberdeen), David A. Brock (Partners in Excellence), and Tamara Schenk (GoToCustomer) share their experience and knowledge on the topic of “How To Be Loved in Sales”. Social customers and social sellers alike: you won’t want to miss it!

This blog originally posted on The Customer Edge.

For sure, increasing sales productivity is a good thing. Marketing organisations are putting in place systems and tools to generate and score leads, so that reps can focus on more qualified prospects.

However, even in the best case scenario reps will not close every opportunity. Some customers may not have a need to buy now. Others may have a need, but they may select another alternative.

A CSO Insights study found average win rates of about 45% in 2011, a five point drop from 2006.

So the key question is: What kind of sales experience are you delivering to all of your prospects – including those that weren’t qualified or didn’t buy?

This is important because, whether a prospect buys or not, their experience interacting with your company will create a lasting impression. A good experience means they may return another day, when they have needs that match your solutions.  Or, they’ll recommend your company to a colleague. Either way, that helps increase revenue productivity.

For example, last year I was looking for software to support my online community CustomerThink.com.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I searched for solutions, interacted with vendor web sites and engaged with several sales reps by email and phone. To most of the vendors I was just another not-very-valuable small business buyer. And I was treated accordingly, no doubt thanks to some nifty lead scoring algorithms that have become de rigueur for B2B marketers.

Unfortunately, these vendors probably didn’t factor into their scoring that my posts on CustomerThink reach an audience of 80,000 visitors per month. Or, that I have colleagues in the publishing business that are also potential buyers. And what do you know, shortly after my buying experiences, an industry colleague asked me for advice on similar tools, and I was only too happy to share my recommendations. Privately.

Bottom line: While I may not have been scored or treated as a valuable prospect, I was valuable in other ways—as an influencer. And many of your prospects are, too.

The point of lead scoring is to assess the value of the prospect to you—the seller—so you can make the best use of your resources. Let’s flip this idea around. What I’m advocating is that you spend time to really understand how your prospects—all of them—perceive their experience with your brand. From the initial web search to interacting with your web site to engaging with inside or field sales reps, all of these touchpoints form an impression and influence their likelihood to buy or recommend.

Start by assessing your current customer and prospect experiences.  Look for opportunities to get prospect feedback using web analytics and feedback solutions. You could even hire “mystery prospects” to take on different personas representing buyers, influencers, researchers, etc.

The prospect experience used to be mainly face-to-face interactions. Then it moved to the phone, and now it’s going digital in a big way.

If you do a buyer “journey map” you’ll probably find that more and more buyers start their journey online and are rapidly adopting mobile technologies such as smart phones and tablets. In the US, Nielson reports that in 2012 about half of all mobile subscribers are using smartphones.

Ultimately, a great prospect experience is about interacting on their terms—giving them the information they want, in the form they want, where they want, at the time they want it, on the device they want. Whether prospects buy immediately or not, a positive experience will become the “gift that keeps on giving” in the future.

Realise that as you’re scoring prospects on their value to yours, they are also scoring their experience with your company. Delivering a great prospect experience can help you differentiate and become a B2B brand that businesspeople talk about like consumers rave about Zappos! 

About Bob Thompson:

Since 1998, Bob has researched and shaped leading industry trends, including partner relationship management, customer value networks, CRM best practices, customer experience management and social business. In 2000, he launched the online community CRMGuru.com, renamed to CustomerThink.com in 2007. The website currently serves over 80,000 visitors each month with thought- leadership content on Customer-centric Leadership, Customer Experience Management, Digital Marketing, Social Business and more.

Bob is co-author of The Blueprint to CRM Success; author of Customer Experience Management: A Winning Business Strategy for a Flat World; and author of dozens of articles, white papers and reports on all facets of customer-centric business. 

This post is from the SAP Mobility iGuide The 21st Century Sales Warrior’s Guide to Mobility.

Instead I discovered a thought-provoking perspective on how most of us in “professional” jobs view the idea of practice, and why we don’t often value the practice of practicing nearly as much as we should.

Worried about how to handle the upcoming midyear review of a struggling teacher, Katie decided to do a few “practice reviews” with her managing director. The sessions gave her the opportunity to test and refine her language, get and incorporate impartial feedback, clarify her message, and gain the confidence to communicate clearly and calmly. The review she’d been dreading went well – she and the struggling teacher were able to have a constructive conversation with a pleasant outcome.

Then, like we all do, she got a bit of the “yeah, I’ve got this down” attitude. She went into a second review, this time expecting to do an easy, positive review for one of her stronger teachers, so she assumed there was no need to practice. Thing did not go as planned, the teacher got defensive, Katie got flustered, and it was not a productive process.

The result was that she realized she needed to change her own perspective about the purpose of practicing. She explained, “I realized that I had imagined practice mainly as a tool for dealing with poor performance. But it can also be important for strong employees, who stand to give so much back.”

That got me wondering: how often is end user training perceived as a way to “fix” performance issues rather than as a tool to make workers feel competent, confident and valued?

“In other performance professions, like music or sports,” Katie explains, “the top performers always keep practicing — alone and together. It’s understood as crucial to staying at the top of their game. I had fallen into the trap of assuming that practice was a tool to avoid disasters, as opposed to a way to maximize positive outcomes.”

The difference may seem subtle but it’s not. For example, I’ve been rowing competitively for many years, starting in college. I practice a lot – and push myself hard – not because I’m not good enough and need fixing, but because I want to get better, to contribute to my team, and to be a strong competitor. I push to improve my speed, my rhythm, my strength, my technique. And I’m very motivated because I love to win. For these reasons, my perception of rowing practice is positive, not negative.

As learning professionals, we have all kinds of tools and systems – simulations, job aids, eLearning programs, Knoa, WPB, and more – to help users practice their skills. But how often do we really think about the process from their point of view? Do they see our programs as a kind of remedial education designed for those who don’t quite measure up? Or do they perceive us as dedicated coaches who are vested in helping them grow and reach their full potential? And what can we do to manage whether they get a positive or negative impression?

Yes, ROI is important. But human factors are important, too. The impression we make on users, even unconsciously, affects how well our learning programs are received. Workers who feel respected and valued are more satisfied and more productive – and that also contributes to the bottom line.

In her discussion of the importance of practicing, Katie Yessi says, “Now I see it as one of the only things that will keep helping me grow as a professional and add value to my organization.” Doesn’t that sound much more appealing than the ways we usually talk about the goals of our projects?

To make learning programs more valuable from our users’ perspective, we need to start finding common ground. We all want to be successful and we all love to win. Getting there together is simply good practice.

This blog originally appeared on SCN and was republished with permission

1. Google’s Three-Hour I/O Keynote. During Google’s three-hour keynote address this week, Google solidified that their focus remains of creating better products for consumers and encouraging developers to build platforms and products that supplement their services.  Basically, Google still wants to rule our lives, collect our data, and get everyone on board. During their event, Google didn’t announce any groundbreaking new products, but it did highlight some innovations to their existing platforms such as Google+ (new photo editing tools), Google Play Music All Access (music streaming subscription service), Google maps (better views, accuracy, and updated mobile app), and Google search (which provides more robust search results beyond the basics of what you type).

2. Google’s Stock Prices Surge…Up! Google’s keynote address seemed to accomplish more than just announcing innovations - Google’s stock price came close to its 52-week high reaching $915 per share at close (up from $895 at opening) at the end of the day. Apple fell 15 points closing at $428 per share, which is 277 points off its 52-week high. Analysts report that the rise could be from the announcement of the all access music streaming service, and the importance that Google is considered a data company, while Apple is more about design and beautifully engineered technology devices.

3. Developers Focus on Glass. As Google Glass testers blog day-after-day about using the product and their personal experiences, developers are looking to the device as the future of mobile, and focusing on how to create apps to use with glass technology. One company, Stained Glass Labs, is helping entrepreneurs and tech startups get the tools they need to start developing complementary devices, app, other wearable technology solutions, and businesses around this concept.

4. 3D Printing Gets Fancy, Helpful, and Scary. As 3D printing continues to gain traction and garner attention, the attention is becoming quite fragmented and spans from excitement to appreciation and then to fear. The excitement of, “if you can think of it, you can print it,” sounds like an endless opportunity for creative genius. The thought of creating shoes, houses, buildings – it all sounds so amazing! The appreciation of finding new uses for 3D printing such as prosthetic limbs, is an amazing advancement in the healthcare industry. This can open doors to creating completely customized body parts and help make them more affordable. The fear is that “if you can of it, you can print it,” meaning that guns and other weapons have already been created through 3D printing. This can result in the creation of unregistered devices, which could lead to difficultly in tracking in the case of violence or crimes. It’s the great, the good, and the dark side.

…and we will leave you with those top tech stories this week. Did Google dominate your news or are we missing something big? Let us know in the comments!

Here’s a quick and entertaining bit of fun from the history vault. In May 1984, Mrs Jane Snowball became the world’s first online home shopper. She placed an order from her local Tesco supermarket.

The Gateshead (UK) Shopping Information Service, or SiS, was part of a scheme originally to save families the time and trouble of the weekly shopping trip. Rediffusion Computers (based in West Aukland, County Durham, UK; later ROCC) build the hardware and software, based on a system invented by Michael Aldrich in 1979.

Tesco was the first retailer to sign up, and on 1 April 1981, a microcomputer at a library linked with the microcomputer in Tesco’s Gateshead branch. Soon, the network extended to two more libraries and a facility that provides care for seniors and the disabled using a telephone exchange system to record the items ordered and send them to Tesco’s microcomputer.

Two more retailers signed up in 1983, Greggs the Bakers and Lloyds Pharmacy. As the system lacked an interactive link to retailers, however, the focus changed to helping disabled and housebound people get their groceries and other supplies.

When it finally launched in 1984, the SiS used an £80,000 Videotex system, which had to be physically installed in people’s homes. It worked through a modified TV set and remote control, also made by Rediffusion. There were 1,350 available products through the system, which could be delivered from the retailer to the shopper within hours of placing an order.

The scheme ran until the late ‘90s, when the Internet rendered it obsolete. Read all about it here.

As I always joke, there is nothing new in technology. The first mobile phone appeared in the 1920s, or was it the 1930s? Music streaming was created in 1881. Two-way videophone? 1930sof course!

Clearly none of these solutions stood the test of time, or even became widely used in their time. But today, it all looks to be different. The biggest change is that now, rather than having solutions that take up half your living room, and are outside the financial reach of most, they are now just click away on your phone.

So this won’t be just another excuse to post an image of Brad Pitt and make the observation that you can make better business decisions by running the correct algorithms. This isn’t about Big Data, faster analytics or mathematical models: it’s about the data gatherers themselves.

In the baseball story, the data gatherers are the nameless guys hunched over laptops, typing in each detail of every play, for game after game. Where was the ball pitched, was it a grounder or a fly, how was it fielded, etc. Amazingly it was done to this level of detail long before laptops.  In fact, the data was gathered a long time before it was used in a structured way.  Englishman Henry Chadwick –who was raised on cricket– developed the box score in the 1870s (and chose the letter “K” for a strike-out).

Without accurate data, there is no mining

Only once the data gatherers have done their work is there any data for the analysts and modelers to play with. The data-miners may have degrees in mathematical modeling, but Big Data can only take off once there is Data to actually work on.

The Data needs to be accurate, and normalised. In baseball it is pretty easy to identify a player by name, e.g. “Derek Jeter”. Jeter doesn’t ever change his name, but companies change their names all the time such as Rim becoming Blackberry. An analyst trying to answer “how much do we spend with Blackberry a year” must hunt through records for “RIM”, “R.I.M”, “Research in Motion” and many others.

Business networks are the data gatherers, and we are starting to develop the box scores of internet commerce. Instead of pitcher and batter, we know statistics of who is buying from whom, at what volume and transaction count. Just as in the Baseball Box Score, or the cricket Score book, each tiny interaction needs to be recorded so the larger picture can emerge. Business Networks are also becoming the holders of “canonical” data on companies, tracking name changes, mergers, Joint Ventures, cross-holdings and subsidiaries.

For example, say you are responsible for the Purchasing Operations at a bank, and your spend analysis tells you that you have 437 suppliers of Facilities Services. A business network can tell you how many suppliers the average bank has, allowing you to benchmark your supplier rationalisation program.

Or as a seller in a new market, you will be concerned about cash flow, especially how quickly your invoices are likely to get paid. The Network could tell you what the median DSO (a measure of invoice payment speed) is in this market.

Business networks are carefully filing away those box scores waiting for the statistician who will start to develop the algorithms.

And maybe Brad Pitt will play you in the movie.

Customers at TD, Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia can use their bank accounts to access information at 120 government departments in a way that protects both their information and their anonymity said Andre Boysen, executive vice president of marketing  at the company.

“Customers go to the Bank of Montreal where they produced an anonymous security token and send it to SecureKey. We anonymize it and give it to the Canadian Revenue Service. Once they authenticate it, they bind it to the user’s account.  We are working on getting more banks into the service, A few insurers and a telecommunications company are interested as well.” SecureKey is expanding it to provincial and municipal government layers as well, he added.

“As we add cable and telco, you can start getting bills on line and if you want to change your channel lineup, you can go tot he cable company and do it through a single sign-on service that has been operating for a year. “

SecureKey has financing from Intel Capital and every Ultrabook since the third generation Intel Core technology (code named Ivy Bridge) has used SecureKey as part of the Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT). The company has also received funding from Discover Financial Services; MasterCard; Visa International; and Canadian cellular network providers Rogers Communications and Telus Communications Co.

Greg Wolfond , CEO of SecureKey Technologies, said Intel IPT and NFC technology will  enable a broad range of solutions for electronic commerce and online authentication.

“The solutions we are deploying, including tap-to-pay and tap-to-authenticate, use real-world payment and identity credentials which people know and understand to enhance online security and payments in a simple and convenient manner.”

British Columbia is using SecureCard for the 4.5 million residents in its provincial single-payer health care system to reduce fraud and deliver health records online securely.

“It has very strong authentication but it is easy for consumers to use,” Boysen said. Now with the tap of a card at a doctor’s office, the patient is authenticated. As the government rolls this out across areas from fishing licenses to school enrollments it could save $500 million a year just in the cost of plastic by using one card for all government authentication instead of one for each identification, Boysen added.

Government entities can even make money from the card. In British Columbia, the province-issued drivers license can serve as authentication for a mobile phone or for opening a bank account.

“British Columbia packages up my information, sends it to me to approve it, and they they can ship it to TD who is happy to pay $20 for it because that means they meet their Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering requirements.”

In the UK, SecureKey is working on a pilot with the Department for Work and Pensions to provide secure credentials.

SecureKey Technologies recently announced that it has completed an agreement with EnStream, a joint venture of Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications, and TELUS Corporation, to enable SecureKey authentication technology on mobile phones in Canada.
“Our solutions allow people to use real-world payment and identity cards with their mobile phones to enhance online security and payments in a simple and convenient manner,” said Charles Walton, CEO of SecureKey Technologies.

“EnStream’s mandate is to accelerate the adoption of secure, SIM-based NFC mobile payments in Canada through common platforms,” said Almis Ledas, COO of EnStream. “Our partnership with SecureKey gives Canadians an innovative and valuable solution that can be used with services from government, healthcare providers and financial institutions.”

Boysen said SecureKey can be looked at as a Bring Your Own Credential service, something that will become increasingly important as more users interact with Web service in the cloud and try to manage an array of passwords. Web services impose crazy rules, while users try to keep passwords short and simple so they can remember them. He recalled the Wired editor who got hacked, even though he used a 20-character password, and his online life was wiped out.

Twitter, he noted, as an 8-character password because it doesn’t have much he cares about, while a bank card password is four digits, because the security is located in the bank.
With SecureKey a participant can use what he already has — a phone, laptop or cards in a wallet, as the basis for authentication. “We act as an RSA token in a consumer device.”

Its briidge.net Enterprise service, launched in March is designed for for security-conscious institutions such as government, financial institutions healthcare providers and mobile network operators. It supports enterprise Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives and allows users to turn consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops into strong “what you have” factors for authentication.

It also enables devices to act as secure readers of in-wallet credentials like contactless payment cards, identity cards or dynamic QR codes.

Unlike most authentication technologies that only work with a single application at a time for a single enterprise, briidge.net provides identity and authentication as a service (IDaaS and AaaS), according to SecureKey.  It may be used by any number of applications at the same time from a single device, or multiple devices for a single user, while also providing a simple and consistent user experience.

Institutions of higher education are corralling more and more students in online study sessions (officially known as Massive Open Online Courses—MOOCs). Now the business world is finally entering the fray.

This past winter, I took the plunge by attending an eight-week social media course offered by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC). Here are the highs and lows based on my experience.

First the pros:

• Location, location, location: I had an entire week to decide the best time to watch the videotaped lecture in my home office. Scheduling an uninterrupted couple of hours was a breeze, guaranteeing my full attention despite a busy workload.

• Multi-modal content delivery: Each self-study session was a learning-friendly blend of instructor narration, embedded videos, and self-paced reading. I deliberately took the 10-question quiz immediately at the end of each lesson which helped keep me focused. Grade: 100% on 95% of the quizzes. (I still disagree with the answer on the one question I was told I got wrong.)

As for the cons:

• Interactivity: Not so much. With over one hundred participants from around the world online for each session, classroom intimacy was shall we say, different. It’s not that the facilitators didn’t do their best to encourage phone and online participation. There’s just no substitute for a group of people getting together weekly in the same room to explore new topics together.

• Personalization: Facebook and Google Plus sites allowed attendees to pose questions or share observations which the instructors answered. Unfortunately, minus the nuances of non-verbal cues, digital communication is still more transactional than anything else. After submitting a couple of queries that were glibly answered but provided no real insights (Me: How can I increase the number of Twitter followers? Instructor: Be interesting), I gave up.

• Usable Content from Live Lectures: No doubt employing the concept of crowd sourcing, the instructors moderated what was essentially a free-for-all for every live lecture, inviting participants to share their thoughts and questions. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold my attention or encourage me to participate. Why not go multi-modal during live lectures too? In a recent study conducted by psychology researchers at Harvard University, student attendees in online video lectures that were tested during regular breaks scored highest on a final cumulative test, took more notes, and stayed more focused, reporting their minds strayed less often.

Overall, it was an excellent learning experience from which I’ve drawn two main conclusions. First, don’t try to boil the ocean. Focused “how-to” course content is likeliest to be learned and retained by employees with numerous other responsibilities. Second, offer live lectures with the optimal blend of structure and openness to keep a large group of virtual strangers engaged.

My company, SAP, has just announced open registration for its MOOC offering, “Introduction to Software Development on HANA,” as part of its comprehensive training and education portfolio. Each combines the best practices of classroom learning—weekly homework, self-tests, a final exam—with online student collaboration and engagement, including easily digestible video and real-time discussions with classmates and instructors. Virtually speaking, this could be one of the next learning frontiers for software developers everywhere.

Follow me @smgaler

Originally published on SAP Business Trends

To bring what you ask? To bring your own device, that is.

Businesses and technology buyers everywhere are asking themselves this right now. With pressure mounting as CEOs and front line sales alike are looking to use their favorite tech toys at work, IT leaders are being forced to ask themselves another question.

Should we or should we not allow our employees to bring and utilize their personal devices for business purposes?

Undoubtedly we have all grown increasingly connected at the hip (pun intended) to our favorite iDevice or Droid product. With this we have also grown increasingly demanding about having the opportunity to utilize these tools for work.

But just because we want to doesn’t mean that we should. This is exactly why we have CIOs and IT leadership in our organizations. If you are responsible for making the decision for whether or not to allow your UC solutions to be run on independently owned devices, here are some things to consider.

BYOD: The Good

• Integration: Most of the devices are running on the same handful of operating systems, most commonly Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. For the most part, BYOD integration with UC platforms is built on an application via iTunes or the Google Play store. This means setting up the device to work is usually a few simple settings, including pointing the device at the right server and then inputting user credentials. The experience on the individual device will be completely ubiquitous with the experience on a company issued device. If the employee should no longer have access, the app running on the device can be made useless by simply changing credentials.

• Cost: Generally with bring your own device, a company is able to put more of the cost requirements on the worker. This also alleviates some of the headaches related to preparing hardware for every new employee or chasing down hardware whenever an employee leaves. (Note: A lot of companies doing BYOD today still have company issued hardware.)

• Employee Satisfaction: Employees are generally appreciative of the opportunity to use their preferred devices, which is good for morale. As a side effect of this, the employees are often going to have the newest tools which would be very hard for a company to keep up with. We have all seen the life cycle of new products become so short that even when you issue your employees the newest thing they almost immediately become replaced by what is next. This way the integration with your UC platform isn’t as much device specific as it is operating system specific, so the company can provide some guidelines to employees interested in utilizing their own device and then let the employee take it from there.

BYOD: The Bad

• Security: As I mentioned above, security for BYOD and UC isn’t necessarily all bad. The real challenge is chances are that BYOD won’t be “only” used for UC. And if that is indeed the case, it is more difficult for a company to manage security when they allow personal devices to be used for work. Generally the company has to set acceptable use policy that lives on top of the personal device, but it is hard to mandate certain things. Take for instance social media use. Your company may not want workers on Facebook during the workday, but what about an employee checking in from their personal (BYOD) at lunch? Creates a real grey area. The other consideration may be requiring use of certain security tools such as anti-virus or locking their devices at all times. These can be part of the use policy and part of the expectations set for companies allowing BYOD.

• Compliance: If your company is governed by any sort of compliance laws, for instance HIPAA, then you have to make sure those rules are followed regardless of who owns the device being used. If contact information or UC integration with CRM or other systems that contain sensitive data, then the systems must be in place to make sure that the data is safe and secure.

• Data Retrieval: This goes along with security, but if an employee leaves or is let go the data that resides on the personal device will need to be retrieved. This expectation has to be set and agreed upon prior to BYOD deployment. Most UC applications are closely tied to customer records, contact information, sales and financial data and more. The good news for IT departments is this isn’t really a new challenge. In many organizations that have webmail interfaces, people have been “popping” email to separate accounts where they can access them from a personal device. What does need to happen is this needs to continue to be better managed to make sure important and sensitive documents aren’t left out there after the person has parted ways from the organization.

With widely available applications for UC on your own device, BYOD continues to gain momentum. Could a BYOD friendly UC deployment have a place in your organization? It just may, so long as you plan correctly and set the right expectations with your users up front.

This blog was written by EC3 CEO Daniel Newman and was originally posted on Commercial Integrator. The original article can be found here.

To begin with, Paper.li in itself is just a great word: spiffing on the tiny principality of Lichtenstein’s domain – this “Made in Switzerland” company uses a Swiss suffix “li” which makes any Swiss word all the cuter.  I could call myself “Margotli”– it’s a diminutive which sounds playful when spoken in the Swiss dialect: Schwyzerdütsch.  Try it! Launch a website using the “.li” domain!

B2B Marketing in its rawest form has become about content curation.  If you can innovate in how you marry the right content to your audience – a tool like Paper.li can help. It can also facilitate contextual marketing since you can create multiple newspapers or paper.li’s and tweak them for a different audience.

• Choose a Paper.li name that reflects your subject and which contextually resonates with your B2B Marketing audience. Ask: what topics do they enter into a search engine? The paper.li’s title may be one of the few ways to build organic traffic from SEO since Google does not index newspapers’ contents – so the links within the paper.li [to your site, for example] won’t produce SEO value.  A custom domain name for your paper.li can increase SEO.

• Find the news sources which your audience is sure to access when seeking information and aggregate them into your paper.li. Check the topics (or automated categories) of your paper.li and select only those you wish to display.

• Boost social connections for your brand by identifying and aggregating influencers’ content about your subject  in your paper.li.  When you promote your paper.li you’ll mention them individually and this has a multiplier effect as it is seen by their followers, too.  You can add an entire twitter list at once, if you like.

• Wisely choose contextual keywords within your content sources to be relevant to your audience.  Paper.li lets you include a news source with filters – so you aggregate only certain content from that source.

• Filter Twitter handles to include only the tweets from that handle if they include certain keywords

• Remove competitors names or other words you wish to avoid from tweeters and sources

Contextual marketing can be facilitated by putting Paper.li to work for you. Here’s a link to my ‘Inventions on Social’ Paper.lishown above. A B2B Paper.li created together with my colleagues Charlotte Han and Nadine Ebert on The Customer Edge is coming soon.  Stay tuned!

Dramatic changes in the job market and corporate cutbacks in resources for professional development have meant that many workers now take full control of their own career development and rely little on employers to tell them when, where and how to up-skill.

According to the 2013 Kelly Global Workforce Index (KGWI)—our annual survey of around 120,000 respondents from 31 countries—almost two-thirds of the world’s workforce is either actively pursuing education/training for a new field of work (23%) or is considering doing so (37%).

It seems that economic and employment climates have prompted workers to take charge of their careers and keep a keen eye on what may be required for their next role—be it inside or outside their current organization.

The report details just how much personal responsibility workers now take for learning new skills, and improving their own employability:

• More than half (57%) of workers are motivated to learn new skills to be considered for a promotion at their current employer.

• 47% are motivated to bolster their chances for a promotion or advancement opportunities at a new organization.

• Four in ten (42%) are motivated to learn new skills in order to enter a new field of work.

The Index results do reveal a link between career development opportunities and employee retention. The opportunity to gain new skills and experiences can increase employee motivation and job satisfaction, as well as help workers more effectively manage their jobs and associated stress.

While growth and development opportunities can help organizations keep and cultivate their best talent, some employees do indicate that they are developing new skills with the view to obtain a new opportunity elsewhere. The question is, “How do organizations determine who their best training investments really are?”

For an in-depth look at how employees view their employability and what their preferences really are regarding training and up-skilling opportunities, take a look at our full 2013 report here: Career Development and Up-skilling.

This Talent Project Blog post is by Todd Wheatland, VP – Head of Thought Leadership & Marketing.

• Will the Post Office send it safely to the Passport Office ?
• Did I fill the form in correctly? As any small mistake will likely incur a large delay.

In order to solve the first issue I chose Guaranteed Delivery rather than the regular Mail . It is quite a lot more expensive but comes with the eponymous guarantee. I know I will be able to track the package with fancy barcodes and web pages, and that they will meet their service levels.

But what about the second worry? A passport application form has many ways to be wrong: you can sign in the wrong place, use an American format date by mistake (yep, did that once), the photograph can be wrong (my daughter once had hers returned for smiling, bless!), you can forget to include the cheque.

Up to one third of applications are delayed due to basic errors.

In order to solve this the Post Office came up with the Check-and-send service. The website lists the benefits as:

• Peace of mind: from the form to the photos we’ll make sure everything meets the approved standard
• Secure: we’ll send your application by Special Delivery™
• Save time: Up to one third of applications sent to the Identity and Passport Service directly are delayed due to basic errors.

It works well, you go to the Post Office, they open the envelope and go through their long checklist. And if a mistake is made, you can immediately correct it before it leaves your possession.

So what does this mean for Business Networks?

Many networks focus exclusively on the first of my two passport worries: getting an electronic document delivered correctly. But an Invoice is also likely to be rejected “due to basic errors”. And delays to your invoice will cost you time and money. A Business Network needs to include a “Check and Send” service, just like the Post Office. The kind of errors that can be screened out could be:

• Is the Purchase Order correct and still open?
• Is the VAT rate correct for this country?
• Does the price match the requested price, or is it within the tolerance specified by the buyer for this commodity?
• If the material is flagged as hazardous, did the supplier included an MSDS sheet?

All of these errors should be screened out before the invoice leaves my possession. There is significant value to both parties in this “Check and Send”

• Sellers can correct mistakes immediately, significantly increasing their likelihood of being paid on time
• Buyers can get much better visibility into their cash position as invoices are not lost in a morass of paper and phone calls
• Both parties save on significant administration costs

As noted at the start of this post, Guaranteed Delivery is a necessary condition for an effective network, but it is not sufficient. Without a comprehensive screening processes, you are merely moving bad invoices faster. A true Business Network “opens the envelope”, and checks the contents.

Let’s be very clear, it is not.

Cloud for all intents and purposes has been around for more than 20 years.

Really what has changed is the availability of bandwidth.

Technologies such as virtual applications and Cloud-Based Voice over IP (VoIP) could have been done long ago. The problem was the horsepower needed to handle the data traffic created by the usage would have brought networks to their knees.

The good news is that the bandwidth is now widely available.

A T1 is now like dial up once was with 20+ meg fiber connections pouring into businesses everywhere.

So with network issues now more or less out of the way, the excuses to not put your solutions in the cloud are becoming less and less valid.

Leaving you to ask yourself, what is your Cloud Strategy?

If you are a business, the opportunity to move applications such as CRM, ERP and Communications to the cloud can provide an instant source of security, availability and mobility to your systems that may have at one time eluded your business.

While security is often pointed at as an issue related to cloud applications, the bottom line is that most cloud technology providers have more rigorous security policies and engineers than the average business trying to manage applications on their own servers.

In terms of availability, most cloud applications run with high availability well above 99%. If and when the application goes down, the provider becomes the support and with specialists and dedicated resources to work on the issues, the downtime is often very brief. Further most cloud providers ofter some type of remuneration should the system go down.

Lastly, the mobility piece is becoming more and more pertinent with the proliferation of bring your own device. But whether it is on a personal device or a company issued one, the importance of a companies personnel having secure access to information is key. Cloud applications make access far easy from mobile devices and locations.

For the IT Var, Integrator or Service Provider the growth of cloud also has an impact.

As more businesses embrace a cloud strategy, it means their purchases and partnerships will be directed toward companies that offer the technology they need.

If your organization has long made its “Hay” by selling large hardware deployments containing Servers, Routers and Switches and other peripheral devices to manage and run all of their core applications and computing needs; then change is coming, and fast!

For Resellers everywhere the question from their customers and prospects is going to be why should I partner with you as I move to the cloud?

The answer will have to be because we (you) understand the needs and requirements for a cloud deployment.

Moreover, because you have the expertise and the partnerships with cloud services providers that answer to the needs to businesses everywhere.

Cloud has provided options for businesses and opportunities for VARS, but with options comes competition and with opportunity comes cost.

Nevertheless, no plan is not a viable option anymore.

Businesses and Resellers alike, it’s time to ask yourself this question…What is our Cloud Strategy?

Ready to learn more about building a high powered business with cloud based unified communications. Visit us here to find out how.

Over the past two months or so, I’ve been playing around a lot on Google Plus – more on that, and on our amazing mentor Elaine Lindsey, in an upcoming post.

For now, let’s leave it at this: to use Google’s “Hangout” feature is to fall instantly and forever in love. Telephone? What’s that? Skype? Yeah, whatever.

So I’m giving you a provisional “do it!” on G+. But only provisional at this stage, and here’s one big reason: I really think Google needs to hire some English majors. Or history, or anthropology, or even dance – just, something other than engineers. They also need to hire some college – and high school – dropouts.

You’ve read the articles, you know: every open position at Google has 3,000 applicants, so if you aren’t valedictorian from a top-ranked school, you don’t even get an interview.

Meanwhile, they make their stuff (calendar, Gmail, and G+ all, in my experience) sooooo much harder to navigate than a busy (read: ADD) guy like me has time for.

And I honestly don’t think they have any idea.

Why is that? Why does one of our most iconic companies suffer a blind spot such as, “Damn, this Google stuff could be a lot easier to use?” I think for all their brainpower, they select brains that are too-similarly-wired.

Which is where I was going with this post all along. This isn’t a post about Google at all: this is all about your company, and a spin on diversity that never makes it into the discussion.

We talk about diversity as making the working world more fair by opening opportunities for women and minorities, be they racial (whatever a race is), ethnic, sexual orientation – you know this line of reasoning, and it’s a vitally important one. We live in a vastly better world because of this type of focus on diversity, and it’s getting better every day.

The more savvy among us go one further than fairness to point out that such diversity isn’t just fair, it also lends employers a competitive advantage, because of the diversity of perspective that a different life experience brings with it.

Absolutely true.

Imagine living in a society where women don’t work – you’ve just sidelined 51% of your talent. And where everyone must follow the same religion, and be ethnically identical. And where many of the highest skilled homosexuals feel so unwelcome (or endangered!) that they leave the country.

Good luck competing!

When everyone’s cut from the same cloth, the garments you’re able to make will be monochrome, and that’s that.

Diversity of background leads to diversity of thought, and diversity of thought is an essential antidote to groupthink – which is the bane of any leader, anywhere, at any time. Groupthink – in which the emperor only hears that his new clothes are gorgeous, and no one tells him he’s actually naked – results from leaders who isolate themselves with yes-men. These sycophants only say yes because they are afraid of what dissention will mean for their careers.

Groupthink comes from having an insecure, immature, and autocratic leader: the type of tyrant we all too often celebrated in the Twentieth Century.

Groupthink can also come about less intentionally, though. When a leader does not have sufficient perspectives around her, she will hear that her new clothes are beautiful not because she is an autocrat, but because the people advising her really, truly see the world as she does.

This is why misfits are so utterly important to add to the cocktail of the workplace.

Misfits don’t typically rank tops in their classes, because they’re bored with school – but the best ones are fascinated by other stuff; stuff taught (often to oneself) outside the four walls of a classroom. Misfits sometimes major in engineering (good news, Google!), but they almost never major in business; more likely psychology, or fine arts, or philosophy, or some other “impractical” field.

Misfits take a semester off to start a t-shirt business, and (though the business fails), they never quite make it back to campus – until they’re fifty, and they endow a chair.

Misfits don’t work well in an office, or 9-5, or on weekdays – they work all the time as ideas come to them: some of their best work is done before their run on Sunday mornings. They don’t wait their turn to lead, or show properly deferential behavior to their corporate “superiors” – they just don’t get all that stuff.

And when leaders sprinkle a good number of misfits in among their corporate rank-and-file, wondrous thing can happen to a company’s ability to innovate and thrive!

A few misfits might even be able to help Google make their products more ADD-friendly. I for one would be really grateful for that.

Art by: x-xLithiumx-x