World Economic Forum in Davos – A Whole New World or The Same Old Shit?

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Cedric

I’ve been watching some videos of the World Economic Forum. Interesting stuff really. World leaders from politics, business, technology, ngo’s, etc … debating on the state of the world and its future direction.

I heard many mea culpas and many promises. Enterprise and government representatives advocating a new world of social responsibility, respect for society and dismissing devastating and irresponsible profit hunger.

I’m sure many people and organizations finally got it. It is impossible, unrespectable and not sustainable to thrive on the back of the society as a whole. Yes it possible for one single player to destroy wealth in one place and replace it with more wealth by relocating to another place. However, it is impossible to do this on a macroeconomic scale without global implications endangering society and the environment.

The challenges remain the same but they require a global approach: health, environment, resources, poverty, education, leisure, mobility (transport), social interaction and expression, housing, …

How to balance the interests of the shareholder with the ones of the stakeholder(s)? How to stimulate innovation while keeping an eye on short term growth? How to fulfill society’s social responsibilities while avoiding bankruptcy?

Like I said, many people, governments and corporations got it. The only question is: for how long? How long until business as usual? Or did we finally see a fundamental shift in the economic model? Capitalism 2.0?

Click here for the WEF videos. Check out discussions with Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt (Google), Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Michael Porter, Stephen Green (HSBC), Bill Green (Accenture), Jean-Claude Trichet, Nouriel Roubini and many other business, academic and government leaders.

Is Seth Godin A Liar?

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Cedric

Seth Godin is the inventor/proponent of permission marketing. He is also on of the most respected authors and enterpreneurs in the web 2.0 world (Godin is the creator of Squidoo). His last book Linchpin was promoted through web 2.0 instead of the usual “old style” media channels. Web 2.0, which is all about user generated content, social interactions through the internet, … (the social web in other words); The more sexy word is Social Media.

So why is Seth Godin a liar? Well, I invite you to go to his blog by clicking here. Every (normal) blog has a comment section in order to let readers engage in the conversation. Check his blog, look, … notice anything particular? The damn blog doesn’t have any comment section (unless I’m a f*g retard and I don’t see the comment button).

So why is the biggest advocate of conversational marketing, tribe/relationship-building, user generated content (be unique) preventing people from commenting on his blog and engaging in a conversation with him?

Well ,Seth responded to this criticism in this post dated June 3, 2006 (yeah, that’s old). Still I think his response sucks big time and is totally not congruent with what he’s preaching.

It’s lame really but 100% in line with his thinking. Duh?

To be honest, I’m a big fan.

So, the guy is a god in the marketing world. Why in god’s name would people have the right to comment on his blog and funnel traffic away and profit from the “Seth Godin” brand? It would be like Pepsi promoting itself on Coca Cola’s website. Accenture stealing the thunder from IBM. Unliver messing with the P&G brands.

Be unique, stand out, have your own voice, be remarkable, be a purple cow … and get noticed. That’s why Seth Godin doesn’t have comments.

Check him out.

PS: I’m attending his seminar in Antwerp, Belgium on April 1. Please give me shout if you’ll be there.

Augmented Reality Business Ideas – AR The Next Big Thing in Enterprise Computing?

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Cedric

Augmented-Reality Augmented Reality will be one of the next big things in enterprise computing. Sure, it’s a hype now but blending virtual and real worlds is already a fact and their integration will only become stronger in the future. Barcodes, RFID, simulation devices, intelligent white boards, etc … are all examples of this virtual/real world integration. And augmented reality goes one step further, it superimposes real world objects, locations and events with information and functionality (this is crucial). You can compare it with some virtual layer.

Here’s a a cool youtube video about Augmented Reality:

Augmented Reality on Youtube

GE is using AR to promote its Smart Grid offering.

Now, that’s all very funky but how can augmented reality be used in enterprise applications? Ok, let’s have a look at the possibilities:

Health Care: AR can be used to superimpose patient data such as treatment, medication, diagnosis, readings during patient visits.

Utilities: addition of (location-based) data and functionality during inspections and maintenance

Media & Advertising: superimpose buy-buttons on any real world objects or on pictures in a paper magazine. A whole new world for impulse buying

Consumer products: highly targeted and variable promotions (versus promotions printed on the box), product enhancements (AR driven fitness programs with Kellog’s Special K Corn Flakes), use of AR in product recalls, …

Really, the possibilities are endless.

Some great posts on the business side of Augmented reality, here and here.

Success Through Failure – How Fast Experimentation Can Drive Your Business

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Cedric

speed In my guide “Start to Innovate” (which you can get for free by signing up to my newsletter) I talk about innovation through fast experimentation. It’s about rapidly prototyping new products & services and demonstrate it to customers and partners. This way it’s possible to quickly collect feedback and improve (or kill) the prototype before wasting huge amounts of money and time on a lost cause.

Here’s a great example of this approach from the entertainment industry. Seth Godin talks about the many projects of director Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, …) that never became reality. For every movie gem there’s a large number of “failed” projects. A recipe for success? Fail fast and fail often.

The Hell With Software Requirements Specification By The Business

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Cedric

I recently discovered the blog posts of Gartner analyst Mark McDonald. I particularly enjoyed this clever post about the separation of business from IT and how to improve the communication between them. McDonald is stating that asking the business for requirements is a guaranteed road to failure. You are basically asking the business to take on an activity which is in essence a software engineering task.

A better way is to ask the business about the business issues the software is meant to solve. This way a constructive dialogue can be started and IT can design a software solution which responds to the actual business needs. This solution should then be further finetuned in an iterative way.

Make sure to read Mark McDonald’s work here. Then come back and tell me your thoughts about the Business & IT separation debate. You know I love to hear your ideas!