Art | Books | Communication | Entrepreneurship | Events | General | Innovation & Creativity | Management | Organisational Culture | Science | Society | Strategy | Technology |
21.06.10
ZukunftWissen "Innovating Innovation" | Leitartikel Juni
Frank Piller und Dennis Hilgers haben auf Innovating Innovation den Leitartikel für dieses Monat beigesteuert:
Government 2.0: Impulse für eine Reform des öffentlichen Sektors durch Open Innovation
Neue Ansätze des Innovationsmanagements belegen, dass der Innovationsprozess von Produkten und (Dienst-) Leistungen nicht mehr geschlossen und zwingend innerhalb der unternehmerischen Grenzen stattfinden muss. Das Innovationspotenzial von Firmen hängt im zunehmenden Maße von externem Wissen ab und somit von Umfang und Intensität der Interaktionsbeziehung mit externen Beitragenden. Die systematische Integration bspw. von Kunden und Nutzern in den Entwicklungsprozess trägt entscheidend zur effizienten Gestaltung von Produkten bei, da so zielgenau Kundenbedürfnisse identifiziert und umgesetzt werden können. Begriffe wie Co-Creation, Mass Customization, Interaktive Wertschöpfung oder Open Innovation stehen dabei in Wissenschaft, aber auch in der Praxis für den zunehmenden Erfolg neuer (vor allem internetbasierter) Praktiken und stellvertretend für die Erkenntnis, dass die breite Öffentlichkeit eine Quelle für gesteigerte Innovationskraft und damit für gesteigerten Unternehmenswert darstellen kann. …
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
25.05.10
ZukunftWissen "Innovating Innovation" | Leitartikel Mai
Christian Stary hat auf Innovating Innovation den Leitartikel für dieses Monat beigesteuert:
“Kreative Ökonomie” braucht Lernende Organisationen
In jüngster Zeit dreht sich alles darum, was wir aus der Finanz- und der damit einhergehenden Wirtschaftskrise lernen. Kommt es zur “Kreativen Ökonomie”, wie es Matthias Horx im aktuellen Trendreport darlegt, dann braucht es eine Neuordnung des Wirkens bzw. Zusammenwirkens von Organisationen und Akteuren aller Gesellschaftssysteme. Seiner Ansicht nach wird sich ein neuer Kooperationsmodus zwischen Markt, Individuum, Staat und Zivilgesellschaft herausbilden. Zentrales Merkmal dieser neuen Form des Zusammenwirkens werden Rückkoppelungsbeziehungen darstellen, welche die Ordnung und Qualität von Interaktionen bestimmen. …
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
26.04.10
Dossier auf ZukunftWissen "Innovating Innovation"
Seit einigen Monaten bespielen wir die Plattform ZukunftWissen der Austria Presse Agentur. Das Special Feature Innovating Innovation - wie kommt das Neue in die Welt? soll Lust auf das Neue machen, sowie Innovation neu denken, um überraschende Denkanstöße und Einsichten zu erhalten (weiterlesen). Getragen wird das Dossier von monatlich erscheinenden Leitartikeln. Letzte Woche ging der Artikel von Florian Brody online und ergänzt gut die bisher erschienen Beiträge (Ernst von Glasersfeld, Alexander Riegler, Markus Peschl, Robert Bauer und Thomas Fundneider).
THEMA | Innovation ist eine Frage der “rechten” Einstellung - Von Florian Brody
Wien/San Francisco (APA-ZukunftWissen) - Es fehlt an Innovation. Wir brauchen mehr Innovation. Jemand muss da dringend etwas machen. Das unbestimmte Gefühl, technologisch, gesellschaftlich aber auch individuell auf der Stelle zu treten und Existierendes zu replizieren statt Neues zu schaffen, lässt sich auch bestätigen. Statistische Auswertungen und fundierte Analysen von Produktionsprozessen lassen nachweisen, dass Innovation im Argen liegt. Entwicklungen im Umwelt- und Energiebereich, der medizinischen Forschung oder der Raumfahrt kommen nicht so schnell voran, wie wir es uns letztes Jahrhundert erhofft und vorgestellt hatten …
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
8.04.10
emteba
Since quite some time I am coordinating an interesting project, called emteba. emteba is a one-stop portal for emergent technology markets in the following technology fields: Computational Mathematics, Embedded Systems, Semantic Systems, Systems on Chip, Trust in IT-Systems and Visual Computing.
The interesting aspect in emteba is that the site aims to boost of visibility of ICT innovations by a structured processing of data for becoming machine-readable. This means that organisations, researchers, projects, results, etc. being part of emteba are also part of the world wide web of linked data. Through the publication of emteba data in the linking open data cloud, its content will be part of the emerging information ecosystem. The Three Laws of Open Government Data highlight the importance of this new paradigm, as the “second law” states ”If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage”.
So this is in stark contrast to the ongoing discussions with e.g. facebook, as the users themselves decide how they want to be associated with in the world wide web.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
22.03.10
Freiräume
In der Presse-Jubiläumsausgabe sind wir zum Thema “Freiräume für Innovation” interviewt worden. Interessant, dass in diese Richtung auch gerade etwas am Bodensee entsteht. Wir sind gerade mit dem Projekt Mesnerhof-C beschäftigt, zudem ist gerade ein Anfrage aus der Schweiz eingetroffen. Das Thema bekommt langsam den erforderlichen Raum.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
8.03.10
Enable! | doors of perception
John Thackara included us in the latest Doors of Perception Report. Thank you John!
SIMULTANEITY IN VIENNA (CONFERENCE 19-20 MARCH)
“Gone is the time where can just focus on technology, or political change, or personal change. The challenge of the times require tackling all aspects of change simultaneously”. Thailand-based Michel Bauwens, founder of the Peer to Peer Foundation, always has something wise and interesting to say. His keynote talk at the Lift conference in Vienna on 19 March is about “an integrative approach to enabling open infrastructures (and) value-driven social practices…we need to change ourselves, as well as our ability to cooperate in groups”.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
24.02.10
Enable!
Final day for the early bird fee
ZukunftWissen published an article in German about the conference.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
17.02.10
Enable! Konferenz im Bankenumfeld
Das finde ich ja wirklich interessant. Die Konferenz Enable! ist auf der ersten Seite eines Portals für Finanzwirtschaft. Hat die harte Finanzwelt die weichen Faktoren entdeckt? Ich denke, diese Unterscheidung ist auch längst obsolet, denn gerade Konzepte wie Enabling sind längst nicht mehr ein interessantes Add-on (sozusagen, erst etwas “Gescheites” lernen und dann, wenn noch Zeit übrig bleibt, können wir uns ja mit diesen Dingen beschäftigen), sondern wird im zunehmenden Maße die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Organisationen bestimmen. Diejenigen Unternehmen, die Personen mit hohen Kompetenzen in nicht-linearem Denken, Fähigkeiten zur Abduktion, zu Entscheidungsfindungen in hoch-komplexen und schnell verändernden Umwelten etc. begeistern können, werden in Zukunft hard-core Analytiker überlegen sein.
Daher vielleicht gar nicht so unpassend der Konnex Enabling und Banking!
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
12.12.09
Enable! Conference -- Profound innovation in Society, Economy & Knowledge
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN VIENNA
Vienna, Austria, March 18-20, 2010
Drinkomathallen, Hütteldorf/Vienna
This international conference will bring together people, organizations and networks who want to ENABLE “game changing” innovation and break down the barriers of the status quo. A multidisciplinary gathering of Doers, Thinkers, Creators, Citizens and Change-makers will be addressing domains such as information technology, design, architecture, sociology, economy, philosophy and city planing in the context of innovation and sustainability.
In close partnership with the international LIFT-network we are expecting brilliant speakers, inspiring talks and fruitful workshops.
The conference will take place in an early 20th century factory building, which is to be transformed into a creative cluster within the next years. This site in transition provides a stimulating environment to introduce novel conference formats which stimulate interaction, learning and the creation of new knowledge. Attendees are to be asked to co-create the convention, so suggest a speech or a speaker!
Visit the website to
* get the early-bird fare
* suggest a speech or a speaker (open till January 17, 2010)
* initiate a meetup
* look around and tell you friends
We hope to see you in Vienna next spring!
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
5.10.09
Social Innovations
I have been invited by the Erste Foundation participating at the Thinking Social Activism workshop. The goal of the gathering was:
The idea is to establish a network of activists and concerned people and to give them innovative tools for social activism. We want to provide a virtual space where practitioners all over Europe can communicate, share information and knowledge, as well as rally support and organise collective action.
It was a well-considered setting and the working atmosphere was productive. I couldn´t stay until the end, so I cannot comment on the actual outcomes. But see for yourself.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
21.09.09
Pixel Hotel und mindmeister
Gratulation an österreichische Innovatoren/Unternehmer!
Mindmeister schaffen es mit ihrem Mind Mapping Tool in den App-Store in die ausgezeichnete Rubrik “Neu und beachtenswert”. Im Rahmen vom CCAlpsSalon haben Michel Bauwens etc. mit dem Visualisierungswerkzeug die verschiedenen Dimensionen von Open Everything visualisiert, hat sich gut bewährt.
Pixel Hotel (kreiert von Sabine Funk, Michael Grugl, Jurgen Haller, Christian H. Leeb, Richard Steger und Christoph Weidinger) hat den Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award gewonnen. Mehr zu den anderen Finalisten und den Pixel Hotels auf Fast Company
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
4.09.09
Open Everything
Der Creative Commons Alps Salon (von Ben Dagan ins Leben gerufen) organisiert in Zusammenarbeit mit dem net.culture,lab den 2. Salon in Wien.
Im Rahmen des Paraflows Festivals, am 11. September 09 um 19:30 im Museumsquartier Wien (Raum D), sprechen Michel Bauwens, in Thailand lebende Gründer der Peer2Peer-Foundation, Franz Nahrada zum Thema Open Source Ecology (einer Farm in Missouri die sich als Versuchsgelände für eine ganze Welt von Open Source Technologien versteht) und Ralf Schlatterbeck über do it yourself (DIY) Kultur.
Momentan wird an einer kollaborativen Mindmap gearbeitet, die die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven auf das Thema sammeln soll. In Wien wird diese dann präsentiert. Michel Bauwens hat einen Blogeintrag aus seiner Sicht geschrieben.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
23.07.09
Social Media & Marketing
Interesting interview with Michael Stelzner on FastCompany about How to Use Social Media to Generate Buzz for Your Event.
What I did is I contacted the executive team and in a matter of 24 hours, we had the survey written. We all jointly helped promote it and in about 10 days, we got about 800 to 900 people that filled out the survey, which was very content-rich, answering questions that frankly had never been answered in the social media world before.
As always, think about content first. The report can be dowloaded.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
10.07.09
IDEO's Human-Centered Design Toolkit
IDEO gives away a series of their human-centered design toolkits. The article on FastCompany gives a background to this special edition:
In fact, that’s exactly the kind of universal application that IDEO had in mind. “The goal would be if we can get to a common language and common set of methods, or even a common approach towards design, that any project needs to start with the people who are being designed for,” says Mamut. “That would be an absolute dream scenario.”
At IDEOs website, the PDFs can be downloaded.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
10.06.09
Wir sind am Limit
so der Titel eines Betrags von mir in der Presse am Wochenende: Warum wir radikale Innovationen brauchen und was die mit Designern zu tun haben
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
1.06.09
Social media in plain English
I tumbled upon a site from the Open University that tries to give short explanations with regard to popular social media activities/platforms. I didn’t have time to watch them.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
23.05.09
Crowd-sourcing TED Talks
TED Media started a crowd-sourcing initiative to deliver their talks to a wider audience. The crowd-sourcing process seems well elaborated, a pre-condition of any such initiative, unfortunately not always considered adequately. Newsweek interviewed June Cohen, executive producer of TED Media. An excerpt:
All of the reasons that we emphasized volunteer translation have been panning out. They’re collaborating with each other, spotting errors, even finding flaws in our professional translations—which was a real turnaround from where we thought we’d be at the beginning.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
7.05.09
Interview über Emergente Innovation
Marion Fugléwicz-Bren hat Markus Peschl und mich über die Innovationstechnologie leap und das dahinterliegende Methode Emergente Innovation interviewt. Hat Spaß gemacht, hier ist das Gespräch zum Nachlesen.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
29.04.09
Design & Innovation
The European Commission is engaged in analysing the relevance and contribution of design (thinking) to innovation; finally (public consultation, working document).
In parallel, they launched a dedicated website, containing a self-assessment tool (benchmarking your design-related activities with other (leading) organisations).
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
Innovation durch User
Letzte Woche hat im Rahmen der APA-E-Business-Community ein Panel zum Thema “Der Kunde als Innovator” stattgefunden. Viele Fragen blieben unbeantwortet, wohl auch deshalb, weil alles in einem Topf (Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing, Lead User, Prototyping) geworfen wurde. Frank Piller präsentiert das meines Erachtens sehr schlüssig (problem broadcasting (crowdsourcing), need information (lead user), etc), ohne zu sehr zu vereinfachen. Dementsprechend groß war dann auch am Ende die Verwirrung, was denn eigentlich jetzt Innovation und was permanente Produktentwicklung sei.
Heute bin ich über ein Posting gestolpert, das einige der Dimensionen und Abhängigkeiten beschreibt. Auch interessant, dass dies ein Bericht ebenfalls über eine Podiumsdiskussion ist. Zum Beispiel, dass es auch andere Aspekte, als Input zu Ideen / Testing der Ideen gibt:
Another compelling reason for using these tools is to demonstrate to your employees, customers and business partners that you are interested in their ideas and are listening and reacting. In fact this was the original and primary goal of IdeaStorm. I think of this as a “social good” - perhaps hard to quantify but very beneficial for any firm that can establish a good crowdsourcing technique and demonstrate the follow up.
Das ist auch eine Erfahrung, die ich u.a. mit dem Entwicklerwettbewerb für die mobilkom, A1 InnovationDays und den Innovationslabors für die Telekom Austria, net.culture.labs, gemacht habe. Oft geht es gar nicht um konkrete Produkte, sondern ein viel höherer Wert ist das Gespräch mit den “digital natives” (oder wie auch immer man sie bezeichnen mag). Das kann die Unternehmenskultur einer Organisation (zwar langsam) aber nachhaltig in Richtung Innovationskraft ändern.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
28.04.09
Emergent Innovation
Funny to see an idea / a term coined since several years appearing in a recent edition of a journal in the same context (innovation), but arguing in the opposite direction:
Progress is often quick, …
Rather than massive corporate change, emergent innovation seeks to uncover and extend “small wins,”
Whereas we understand Emergent Innovation as breakthrough innovation often with profound change.
You may wish to leave a comment or leave a trackback from your own site.
3.03.09
Pixel Hotel
Interessante Idee, die Besucher per Hotelzimmer die Locations (im Rahmen der Kulturhauptstadt Linz 2009) erleben zu lassen.
Im Herzen des Linzer Franckviertels liegt das Pixel im Garten. Eine ehemalige Arbeiterwohnung und ein Geschäftslokal haben sich hier zu einem geräumigen Hotelzimmer vereint. Aus der Verkaufsfläche entstand ein Wohnraum mit Garten, der vor neugierigen Blicken durch das Schaufenster schützt und an den ursprünglichen Baustil im Franckviertel erinnert.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
27.01.09
Nearly (Live-)Tracking of Swiss public transport
Real cool website, showing the movements of the trains around Zurich-area. The current view is not yet based on the actual GPS-positions, but I guess they are working on it.
From the website:
One of the coolest functions is one that is a bit hidden: click on a moving train, and click in the unfolding menu on the button “Follow”. This will show you from a bird’s eye view via satellite images, the moving train.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
17.12.08
Wall-painted animation
Amazing art work by BLU. I wonder how long this took.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
15.12.08
Trendcamp "Design Thinking"
Nach dem letzten Trendcamp auf Schloss Krumbach zum Thema “Open Innovation” habe ich -gemeinsam mit Robert Bauer von der Rotman School of Management - letzte Woche zum Thema Design Thinking das nächste Trendcamp organisiert. Paul Hughes hat seine Design-Aufzeichnungen auf flickr veröffentlicht, eine gute Illustration vieler Elemente von Design Thinking.
Wir hatten zwei sehr intensive Tage mit Designern und abteilungsübergreifenden Managern von der Telekom Austria. Aussagen von den Teilnehmern u.u. waren:
- Begegnung mit Respekt
- Gestaltung erlebt und erfahrbar gemacht
- Gestaltung und Design hat viel mit Übung zu tun
- Ausräumen von gegenseitigen Vorurteilen
- Ein Event, der ehrliches und ungewöhnliches (abseits von Präsentationen) Aufeinandertreffen ermöglicht hat
- Viel neues gelernt (Erfahrungs-Engineering, Design Thinking,), Erweiterung der eigenen “Welt”
- “Design Thinking” ist eine Erweiterung des “Team-Portfolios”
- Reiz bestand in dem Aufeinandertreffen mit Leuten, die eine grundverschiedene Denke haben
- Macht wieder Mut (nach Downsizing, Outphasing) in Innovation zu denken
- Wie man an etwas herangeht wird immer wichtiger (Mindset, Haltungen etc)
- Verdient das Wort Dialog
Die Trendcamps haben sich als ausgezeichnetes Werkzeug für die Transmissionsfunktion der net culture lab bewährt. Es war und ist ja immer vorrangiges Ziel der net culture labs, dass ein Cross-over zwischen Corporate und Community stattfindet. Die Mikro-Förderung der Projekte war ein Mittel zum Zweck, aber nie das eigentliche Ziel. Dies ist leider oft missverstanden worden.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
1.08.08
Dance your Ph.D.
Die Ausstellung Zwischen Fließen und Schweben im “designforum”.http://www.designforum.at im Museumsquartier - die ich sehr empfehlen kann - hat mich auf die Aktion “Dance your Ph.D.” von John Bohannon aufmerksam gemacht, und ich bin wirklich beeindruckt von der Qualität der Darstellungen und der Freude der Performer. Besonders gut gefallen hat mir die Show von Giulio Superti-Furga, Adriana Gonçalves und Evren Karayel, die den Titel einer Doktorarbeit aus dem Jahr 1991 interpretierten “Transcription Factors Involved in Development and Growth Control: Regulation of Human g-globin and Fos Gene Expression”. Sehenswert!
Was mich ja darüber hinaus noch sehr interessieren würde, ist, ob die Beschäftigung mit der Darstellung des Doktorthemas zu neuen Einsichten geführt hat.
Als Orte wurden die Institute Research Institute of Molecular Pathology und des Institute of Molecular Biotechnology gewählt, und auch nächstes Jahr soll es wieder einen Aufruf geben:
2009 Dance Your PhD contest: Want to dance your own thesis? Stay tuned to www.johnbohannon.org/dance.html where a CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS will be announced soon. Rather than a localized contest, the next round will be global. Scientists will video their own dances and post them online (e.g., to YouTube). The prize? Negotiations are underway to have the winners’ latest peer-reviewed publications interpreted by a professional dance company next year. Good luck and happy grooving.
Nachzulesen auch auf ORF
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
22.07.08
I.S.T. und die Probleme
Meldung im Standard, dass der deutsche Gehirnforscher Tobias Bonhoeffer doch nicht Präsident des Institute of Science and Technology Austria (I.S.T. Austria) wird. Er hat abgesagt. Wundert mich ehrlich gesagt nicht: exzellente Forscher/Wissenschafter gehen dorthin, wo bereits die besten arbeiten. Nach Zeilinger (in einem anderen Kontext) die nächste Absage.
Murauer teilte in einer Aussendung mit, dass Bonhoeffer am Max-Planck-Institut bleiben werde. “Die Motive Bonhoeffers liegen im persönlichem Bereich und dem Wunsch, die Forschungsarbeit in seinem derzeitigen Umfeld umzusetzen,” so Haim Harari, Vorsitzender des “Search Committee” für den I.S.T.-Präsidenten. Da der Amtsantritt erst im Herbst 2009 vorgesehen war, bleibe nun genug Zeit für die Suche nach einem neuen Chef. … Der niederösterreichische Landeshauptmann Erwin Pröll habe “höchstes Vertrauen” in Haim Harari, den Vorsitzenden des Exekutivkomitees des Instituts, sowie Claus Raidl, Vorsitzender des Kuratoriums von I.S.T. Austria, hieß es aus Prölls Büro. Diese würden eine Entscheidung treffen. Es gebe eine “umfangreiche Liste von hoch qualifizierten Bewerbern”.
In der Presse vom 22.7.08 steht es teilweise ganz anders geschrieben:
Das stößt uns sehr vor den Kopf,” kommentiert I.S.T. Austria-Geschäftsführer Gerald Murauer die Absage. Schließlich liege die Bewerbung seit fünf Monaten auf dem Tisch, seit vier Wochen waren Details wie Gehalt und Forschungsmittel ausverhandelt. Nun sei wohl eine Neuausschreibung der Position nötig. Ersatzkandidaten, auf die man unmittelbar zurückgreifen könnte, gebe es keine. Bonhoeffer hätte sein Amt im Herbst 2009 antreten sollen. Der entsprechende Zeitplan sei grundsätzlich auch mit einem anderen Kandidaten einzuhalten, gibt sich Murauer zuversichtlich.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
23.04.08
Verteilte Mikroinnovationen
Letzte Woche, am 17.4.08, haben wir das net culture labs-Konzept Interessenten des Technokontakte-Clubs vorgestellt, einer sehr unterschiedlichen Zielgruppe mit Unternehmen aus Bereichen wie Computertechnik, Industrietechnik, Nutzfahrzeuge, IT, Werbung etc.
Armin Sumesgutner, Leiter der SPIN-Gruppe (Strategic Portfolio- and Innovation Management) bei der Telekom Austria, hat das Potential der net culture labs mit verteilten Mikroinnovationen beschrieben. Ein interessanter Ansatz und Beleg offensichtlich dafür, dass das erste Jahr Wirkung erzeugt hat. Die Telekom schätzt den Zugang zu den vielen Initiativen, die in der kreativen Szene permanent entwickelt und umgesetzt werden. Auch wenn in den meisten Fällen die Idee im Gesamten nicht zum Unternehmen passt, so stecken in sehr vielen Projekten Aspekte (Mikroinnovationen), die für das Unternehmen in irgendeiner Weise Relevanz hat. Auf der anderen Seite - zum Beispiel bei sogenannten Trendcamps, bekommen Kreative einen interessanten Einblick in die Prozesse und Strukturen von Großunternehmen und erlangen dadurch wertvolle Erkenntnis, um ihre eigenen Ideen zu präsentieren bzw. auch umzusetzen.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
1.04.08
Cavemen and innovation
Sketch about focus groups in the bigger context of innovation. Worthwhile to watch.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
26.03.08
IllustratorIn gesucht
im Rahmen eines Workshops (3 Termine) in unserem Projekt Emergente Innovation (PDF, 3MB) sind wir auf der Suche nach einer/m Illustrator/in, der/die folgende Anforderungen erfüllen sollte:
- Schnelles Erfassen des Kerns einer (Innovations-)Idee
- darauf aufbauend deren rasche Visualisierung [on the spot] (per Marker und Papier)
- Zuhören können und eingehen auf teilweise noch unkonkrete Projektideen
Termine:
2.4.2008
3.4.2008
11.4.2008
jeweils ca. 13.30-18 Uhr
Ort: 1090 Wien
Bei Interesse bitte eine kurze Email an mich. Vielen Dank auch für’s Weitersagen.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
19.03.08
Out of the ordinary visualisations
Paul Kampas exhibits interesting visualisation on very different topics. For example, he envisions human performance with the help of two exceptional athletes, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer:
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
30.01.08
Trendforscher
Lesenswerter Artikel von Björn Theis von Future Research über die Hintergründe der Begriffe Megatrend und Microtrend. Elisabetta Pasini vom Future Concept Lab definiert Trends folgendermaßen:Um relevant zu sein, müssen Trends zu einer Quelle neuer Bedeutungen werden und gesellschaftliche Energien rund um wichtige Lebenskonzepte freisetzten.
Das nächste Trendcamp im Projekt net culture labs wird zum Thema “Design Thinking” stattfinden. Wir sind gerade in der Planungsphase der Veranstaltung und werden wieder einen interessanten Inputgeber einladen. Mehr dazu demnächst.
[Update]: Auch sehr interessante Darstellung von prognostizierten Entwicklungen.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
23.10.07
Cool Hunting via Social Network Analysis
Peter Gloor working at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (not surprinsingly, this is also the place where Eric von Hippel teaches) held a talk at Google about Collaborative Innovation Networks (Swarm Creativity). He explained how he and his colleagues applied the method of social network analysis (SNA) in order to identify key players (innovators) and key topics. This will then eventually lead to - according to Peter Gloor - Cool Hunting (identification of trends).
I have looked at the Tool Peter mentioned they are deploying for the SNA, but it seems that the latest version is being hidden behind the scientific wall. I am quite familiar with the work of the Austrian SNA-pioneers, fas.research, and their presentations and visualisations seem much more robust. However, I must admit that I don’t have any detailed information about Peter Gloor’s work.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
9.03.07
Apple, No. 1 Retailer
It is amazing, how Apple innovates on every aspect of their activities. In a Fortune article, the turnover of
Apple’s cube store in Manhattan is impressive:
And not just the architecture. Saks, whose flagship is down the street, generates sales of $362 per square foot a year. Best Buy (Charts) stores turn $930 - tops for electronics retailers - while Tiffany & Co. (Charts) takes in $2,666. Audrey Hepburn liked Tiffany’s for breakfast. But at $4,032, Apple is eating everyone’s lunch.
Back in 2001, media and analysts completly misjudged the potential:
“Sorry Steve, Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work,” BusinessWeek wrote with great certainty in 2001. “It’s desperation time in Cupertino, Calif.,” opined TheStreet.com. “I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake,” predicted retail consultant David Goldstein.
Apple’s success with innovations results not from superior ideas or efficient manufacturing or effective branding. It is the outcome of a highly integrated innovation process, in which the entire system — from ideas to product launch to product grave — is managed very successfully. The quotes may give an idea of this:
“One of the best pieces of advice Mickey ever gave us was to go rent a warehouse and build a prototype of a store, and not, you know, just design it, go build 20 of them, then discover it didn’t work,” says Jobs. In other words, design it as you would a product. Apple Store Version 0.0 took shape in a warehouse near the Apple campus. “Ron and I had a store all designed,” says Jobs, when they were stopped by an insight: The computer was evolving from a simple productivity tool to a “hub” for video, photography, music, information, and so forth. The sale, then, was less about the machine than what you could do with it. But looking at their store, they winced. The hardware was laid out by product category - in other words, by how the company was organized internally, not by how a customer might actually want to buy things.
“When we launched retail, I got this group together, people from a variety of walks of life,” says Johnson. “As an icebreaker, we said, ‘Tell us about the best service experience you’ve ever had.’” Of the 18 people, 16 said it was in a hotel. This was unexpected. But of course: The concierge desk at a hotel isn’t selling anything; it’s there to help. “We said, ‘Well, how do we create a store that has the friendliness of a Four Seasons Hotel?’” The answer: “Let’s put a bar in our stores. But instead of dispensing alcohol, we dispense advice.”
The interiors, too, have been distilled to a minimum of elements. “We’ve gotten it down so there’s only three materials we’re using: glass, stainless steel, and wood,” says Johnson. “We spent a year and a half perfecting that steel. Stainless steel can be cold if you don’t get the finish right. See the bounce? See the blues up there?” No, frankly, but Apple hunted down a Japanese supplier and pushed it to achieve the effect by blasting the metal with small beads.
Suppliers describe working with Apple as both thrilling and scary. “We’re used to working on projects with very high standards,” says Michael Mulhern of TriPyramid Structures, whose components hold the Fifth Avenue Cube together. “With Apple Stores, everything is two notches above that.” And even that doesn’t seem to be enough. A few years back Jobs issued a challenge: How small could you make a store and have it still feel big? The resulting “ministore” (not “nano”) was just 15 feet wide, with a fabric ceiling that mimics pure daylight.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
14.01.07
LEGO Bausteine
Lego hat Mitte der 90er Jahre mit Unterstützung von Johan Roos und Bart Victor (laut Wikepedia) das Programm LEGO Serious Play entwickelt. Die Bausteine und die dazugehörige Methodik sollen bei diversen Management-Aufgabenstellungen unterstützen, so z.B. bei Stategiefragen, Veränderungsmanagement und Organisationskultur. Gekauft können diese speziellen Sets jedoch nicht, sondern es muss ein Lizenzvereinbarung mit Lego abgeschlossen werden. Zudem muss zumindest ein Berater (das ist nämlich die Zielgruppe) ein 5-tägiges Training absolvieren. Lego begründet dies damit, dassThe five day program is necessary to gain an understanding the vast application possibilities, and particularly to ensure that the facilitators carry out high value and high quality work shops.
Eigenartig, da soll mit Hilfe einer Kreativitätstechnik (Einsatz von Lego Bausteinen, mit denen metaphorische 3D-Modelle die Situation von Organisationen veranschaulicht sollen, um so zu einem besseren Verständnis und/oder zu möglichen neuen Lösungen zu gelangen) eine spielerische Herangehensweise vermittelt werden. Auf der anderen Seite, wird vorgegeben, wie dieser Vorgang auszusehen hat. Also Kreativität ja, aber bitte nur nach unserer Sichtweise. Ich finde die Lego-Idee ja grundsätzlich sehr gut, jedoch sollte den Beratern zugetraut werden, dass sie mit dem Baukasten selber umgehen können.*
*Mir ist schon klar, dass die Realität oft anders aussieht, wenn man den vielen Beratern zusieht, wie sie sich kramphaft an ausgearbeiteten Methoden klammern (und diese auch nicht verlassen, wenn sie eigentlich adaptiert gehören).
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
6.12.06
Aristotle, father of design thinking?
Interesting article on BusinessWeek from Roger L. Martin (Dean of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto) on mind-sets and reality. I am not deeply into Aristotle, but fully support the argumentation and conclusions.
The latter, where things can be other than they are, is the world of people, of organizations, of cultures. For example, a badly performing organization can be something else—a great organization—if someone figures out how it to turn it around. For this entire domain, Aristotle explicitly argued that analytics is an inappropriate tool.Instead, in his book Rhetoric he described the proper thinking tools: conversation, invention, and intention. In Rhetoric, the object of endeavor is not the description of what is real but rather the creation of something that does not currently exist; that must first be imagined.
The great pity for innovation, creativity, and possibility is that the modern world has adopted Analytics as the universal thinking dogma rather than as an approach its inventor saw as being useful in just one specific domain.
Innovation and creativity require a fundamentally different approach. Many believe they require a new way of thinking but, ironically, they require a very old way of thinking, brought to us by the same man who created the analytical model we need to replace: Aristotle.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
30.11.06
Web2.0 Anwendungen
wer bekommt die User?
Measuremap:
Measure Map provides free, easy stats for your blog.
Kayak:
Advanced trip (flights, hotels) search engine.
MapIts:
Deutschlands erste Karten-basierte Immobilien Suchmaschine.
Nimbuzz:
Software for mobile telephones to chat, talk etc.
SoonR:
Your mobile phone acts as a remote control for your computer.
Plazes:
Information about places.
Helio:
Very interesting. They combine hardware (mobile phones), content (mySpace, music), and operator handling (subscription for surfing and text/video messages).
myway:
Search engine (based on Ask) without advertising.
Netvibes:
Personalisierte syndizierte Seite.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
10.11.06
The Cost of Knowledge
Al Jacobson and Laurence Prusak write in the HBR about the cost of knowledge management/searching. While they acknowledge that efforts to enhance systems to better search for information have been valuable, they argue that “future payoffs will depend less on enhancing systems that track down information than on devising strategies to help employees use what they’ve found.”
In their study, the authors asked more than 200 knowledge workers in different industries to log their activities. Surprisingly (for the authors), most time was spent on “adapting knowledge gained (46%)”, then comes “eliciting knowledge from experts (38%)”, and only then comes “searching for knowledge (10%)” - the rest goes to “scheduling meetings with experts”. However, I don’t find this result so surprising. Applying information/knowledge is the difficult part.
Further, the short article deduces “This surprising finding suggests, first, that IT investments in search technologies appear to be working and that additional investments of the same kind are likely to yield only marginal benefits.” I would doubt this. If you look at developments within semantic technologies - aside, if they ever will reach a breakthrough - the main aim is not so much on searching information (in my point of view), but to allow the system to identify and suggest novel relationships which can lead to new perspectives and new ways of thinking/doing things.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
12.10.06
Mariahilfer Straße 1D
I recently moved to a larger office in one of the main shopping streets in Vienna. We have an almost panaramic view (third floor), very good infrastructure around and of course excellent restaurants nearby (however, I must admit, I didn’t have the time so far to visit even one of them). At the moment, we are nine people.
Here are some impressions from the surrounding:
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
6.10.06
Prediction market & Nationalratswahl in Österreich
Beim Vergleich von Prognosen der traditionellen Marktforscher und der von Wahlbörsen (prediction markets), hat die Prognose von Wahlfieber besser abgeschnitten.
Vorhersage im Standard - laut Umfrage:
ÖVP: 38,2%
SPÖ: 34,6%
FPÖ: 8,4%
Grüne: 10,8%
BZÖ: 3,4%
Laut Börse auf Wahlfieber:
ÖVP: 32,8%
SPÖ: 32,1%
FPÖ: 13,2%
Grüne: 11,4%
BZÖ: 4,6%
Tatsächlicher (vorläufiges) Ausgang:
ÖVP: 34,2%
SPÖ: 35,7%
FPÖ: 11,2%
Grüne: 10,4%
BZÖ: 4,3%
Somit hat die Börse eine Gesamtabweichung von 7,5%, die traditionelle Prognose einen Wert von 9,8%.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
28.09.06
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a subset of what Eric von Hippel calls user-centered innovation, in which manufacturers rely on customers not just to define their needs, but to define the products or enhancements to meet them. But unlike the bottom-up, ad-hoc communities that develop open-source software or better windsurfing gear, crowdsourced work is managed and owned by a single company that sells the results
One example:
Cambrian House
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
27.09.06
Geschäftsbericht der Telekom
gut aufbereitet für das Internet.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
27.08.06
Living Semantics in Alpbach
We (sem’base) successfully opened Living Semantics at the first day of the Alpbacher Technologiegespräche. Reinhard Goebl from the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology spoke about the importance and benefits of semantic technologies, I then explained Living Semantics to a crowd of about 80 people.
The Austrian Telekom recorded the event and produced a video (Download) that illustrates the opening.
Articles in media:
derStandard
Plattform - Zukunft Wissen - keine Verlinkung möglich, daher in PDF-Form (Semantische Technologien auf dem Weg zur Marktreife, LIVING SEMANTICS zum Nachsehen, Wissenslandkarten erleichtern die Informationssuche, ScienceArt bei den Alpbacher Technologiegesprächen, LIVING SEMANTICS erleuchtet Alpbacher Technologiegespräche)
Press releases:
OTS
Presseportal (de) - vorher, Presseportal (de) - nachher
Presseportal (ch) - vorher, Presseportal (ch) - nachher
Juraforum
Mysan
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
11.08.06
Different Prediction Markets
I came across Stefan Weiss’ entry on prediction markets and followed some of the names that are mentioned in the BusinessWeek articles. I believe that prediction markets will be more present in future, especially for dynamic subjects. The subject I am mostly interested is innovation. I had an interesting talk with the head of technology at Siemens PSE as they implemented a different but similar version of prediction markets (for accessing with technologies are strategically important for PSE).
I already have a draft-versioned businessplan for an alternative (community-based) stock market exchange on my desk. It is based on the idea that a social system — Internet community — can predict stocks more accurate than analysts can.
Besides the links to the BusinessWeek articles (1, 2, 3), the following addresses might be useful:
- NewsFutures: provides software tools for prediction markets
- Consensus Point: provides both software and consulting
Online prediction market platforms:
- Hollywood Stock Exchange
- Intrade
- World Economic Forum’s Global Risk prediction market
- Yahoo! Tech Buzz game
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
Visualizing networks
Bruce Hoppe writes on his blog in two interesting articles about Visualizing organizational change (although the flash video from accenture is quite boring) and about Networks of negative relationships (look for the NYT-links).
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
28.06.06
Stores not branches
In this Business 2.0 article, Dick Kovacevich (CEO of Wells Fargo) explains why his bank see their “branches” rather as stores — in contrast to their competitors. According to Dick Kovacevich, Wells Fargo doubled the number of bankers in their stores over the past five years. Why? Because of the many opportunities customer contacts provide — and those are obviously translated well into added value for the company:
“Every transaction is an opportunity to engage a customer - both to satisfy a transactional need and also to sell him something. And the transaction actually gives you an understanding of customer needs or another new opportunity. If you come in and cash a check from Fidelity, one of our tellers or someone should ask “Could we introduce you to an investment consultant to see if we can do a better job for you than Fidelity?” and so on. So store traffic is good even though it can be more costly, because transactions give us an opportunity to understand and satisfy a customer’s need, and therefore make new sales. And I would just ask two rhetorical questions: Who over time have been the better merchandisers, retail stores or banks, in terms of their ability to attract customers and serve them well? Most people would say retailers have been more effective than banks. And I’d ask the second rhetorical question: How many retailers don’t want customers in their stores?”
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
27.06.06
Daniel Gilbert on probability
Daniel Gilbert (of Harvard) talks about people’s seemingly obvious contradictive behaviours — such as playing lottery, appreciating the same 100 Euros differently (depending on the context), paying for variety although they don’t like it, fearing incidents that are very unlikely (plane crash, terror attacks), and many more. The title is “How to Do Precisely the Right Thing at All Possible Times”. Interesting talk. (Thanks to Boing Boing)
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
19.06.06
Capturing user input for innovation
Anthony W. Ulwick from Strategyn elaborates in an HBR article about getting customer input right. Instead on focusing on solutions (when asking users), he proposes a focus on outcomes. Ulwick is right when he argues:
“The problem, when there is one, is simple: Companies ask their customers what they want. Customers offer solutions in the form of products or services. “I’d like a picture or video phone,” they say, or, “I want to buy groceries on-line.” Companies then deliver these tangibles, and customers, very often and much to everyone’s chagrin, just don’t buy. The reason is also quite simple. Customers should not be trusted to come up with solutions; tbey aren’t expert or informed enough for that part of the innovation process. That’s what your R&D team is for. Ratiier, customers should be asked only for outcomes - that is, wbat they want a new product or service to do for them. Maybe they want to feel a closer bond to people when talking on the phone or to spend less time traveling to and from the grocery store. What form the solutions take should be up to you, and you alone.”
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
28.03.06
Internal voices
Microsoft’s recent delay for releasing Vista has triggered several serious announcements from employees inside Microsoft via blogs. It covers a fair portion of different organisational functions. This one is about marketing:
’I was upset at missing the back-to-school market. Now we’re missing the holiday sales market. All of those laptops and PCs are going to have XP on it. What percentage will upgrade to Vista? Well, I guess that’s the little dream that I need to give up on. Vista’s deployment is going to come from people buying CPUs with the OS pre-installed, not dancing down the CompUSA aisle as they clutch that boxed version of Vista to their loving chest. So not only did we miss last year’s opportunity, we’re missing this year’s opportunity, too. With the convergence of high-tech media, this holiday season would have been an explosive nodal point to get Vista out for a compounded effect.’
This one is about organisational culture: ’Bill, get rid of the Windows mafia, or be ready to lose your good employees. This is just unacceptable. It can’t be happening. It can’t be real. This is not Microsoft. I need to see people getting fired. I have to see people being kicked out of the door. I don’t know where the motivation is going to come from, if some justice is not applied. THEY HAVE TO LEAVE.’
This one about reward and review systems: ’“I just submitted my resignation from Microsoft today, not because of this mess. It just happened that I found a great opportunity outside of MSFT and got tired of [the] salary compression and review system. So now I am speaking as just a shareholder: please change the management in [the] Windows division.’
And finally, there is apparently a post from a technician: ’If you had spent the last five years of your life grinding away to get this thing out the door, you would have realized the only thing worse than slipping the date would have been to lay a turd in August. Those of us in the trenches … see exactly what bugs are between us and shipping.’
Still, the shares rose. For how long?
All posts can be found at RedHerring or at Mini-Microsoft
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
16.01.06
Anonymity or Accountability
In Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram, Bruce reacts to an article from Kevin Kelly. He states:
’”In a recent essay, Kevin Kelly warns of the dangers of anonymity. It’s OK in small doses, he maintains, but too much of it is a problem: “(I)n every system that I have seen where anonymity becomes common, the system fails. The recent taint in the honor of Wikipedia stems from the extreme ease which anonymous declarations can be put into a very visible public record. Communities infected with anonymity will either collapse, or shift the anonymous to pseudo-anonymous, as in eBay, where you have a traceable identity behind an invented nickname.” Kelly has a point, but it comes out all wrong. Anonymous systems are inherently easier to abuse and harder to secure, as his eBay example illustrates. In an anonymous commerce system — where the buyer does not know who the seller is and vice versa — it’s easy for one to cheat the other. This cheating, even if only a minority engaged in it, would quickly erode confidence in the marketplace, and eBay would be out of business. The auction site’s solution was brilliant: a feedback system that attached an ongoing “reputation” to those anonymous user names, and made buyers and sellers accountable for their actions. And that’s precisely where Kelly makes his mistake. The problem isn’t anonymity; it’s accountability. If someone isn’t accountable, then knowing his name doesn’t help. If you have someone who is completely anonymous, yet just as completely accountable, then — heck, just call him Fred.’
I agree with Bruce that it is accountability that is building trust rather than non-anonymity, but I disagree that anonymity has no influence at all. If you consider eBay, attaching anonymous users to nick names would mean that you could easily switch between different nick names if - for instance - you receive some displeasing comments. There is no way to trace back if a user used different nick names before (with a unconvenient history). At the moment, eBay reacts quickly and efficient to exclude users which are cheating. It then becomes quite cumbersome to start selling/buying on eBay again (new address, new bank details etc) if the user is traceable by the system.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
15.11.05
Wissensgespräch
Die PWM veranstaltet seit diesem Jahr regelmäßig Wissensgespräche. Gestern fand in der Hauptbücherei Wien zum Thema ’Osteuropa: Wissenstransfer in Konzernen — Einbahnstraße oder Gegenverkehr? - Konzernweite Wissenssynergien als neue Herausforderung’ das 2. Wissensgespräch statt.
Ich war sehr positiv über die offenen Diskussion doch vieler interner Aktivitäten und Sichtweisen zum Thema Wissensmanagement überrascht. Die mobilkom austria group services hat Schwierigkeiten mit der Akzeptanz von in das Ausland geschickten österreichischen Managern (’Wir in Österreich machen das aber so’), die OMV hat sich mit Hilfe einer Theatergruppe die eigene Situation in Bezug auf kulturelle Problemfelder bei der Expansion vorgehalten (in dem Stück gab es auch ein ’Kingdom’).
Erfreulich weiters, dass die Überwindung von kulturellen Unterschieden und Initiativen zum Wissensaustausch nicht mehr vorrangig in der IT gesucht werden, sondern im zwischenmenschlichen Bereich (Training, Austausch, Rückkehr etc). IT nur mehr zur Unterstützung und als Selbstverständlichkeit (Email, Groupware, gemeinsame Bearbeitung von Dokumenten, Thesauri etc).
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
13.11.05
Leading and/or blogging?
Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Microsystems writes in an essay in the Harvard Business Review (November 2005):
’Blogging lets you participate in communities you want to cultivate-whether it’s your employees, potential employees, customers, or anyone else-and leverage your corporate culture competitively. … Sun, like every organization, receives e-mails from happy customers lauding one employee or another for good work. … Immediately, people raised the concern that by identifying our best employees, we’d make them recruitment targets. Well, of course that could happen. But it cuts both ways. The upside is the positive ripple effect on workers’ morale and on the public’s perception of the company. What’s more, my competitors’ employees could see what I’m saying about my team and could decide whether I’m more compelling than their own leaders. So rather than being a threat to Sun, blogging about my best employees can build loyalty and be a recruitment tool to boot.’
I assume, Berry Johnson would call this polarity management: putting your best employees on the net is neither good or bad (it is not a solution). It all depends on the specific environment you are in and on the way you do it (clear guidelines, write it yourself, authenticity etc).
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
11.11.05
Event about excellent networks
FAS.research has presented a study on how to define and measure excellence within networks. According to this presentation, the parameters that distinguish good from inappropriate networks are:
. efficiency
. stability
. diversity
However, the composition of the three parameters should change (in order to have an excellent network) at specific circumstances, such as:
. a network for radical innovation
. a network for incremental development
. a network for production
. a network for diffusion
Although the study gives same evidence, why the three parameters were chosen (based on other research results), I question the assumption that three parameters are the same in every network type. I suppose that the focus was on innovation (radical rather than incremental) and have then be mapped onto the other types. FAS presented a valuable compilation of findings within the social network analysis, the proper selection of parameters still have to be proved.
Harald Katzmair also spoke about structural capital in connection with social networks. This is interesting, since in the intellectual capital domain, structural capital clearly relates to a different meaning (as those assets that stay in an organisation when employees have gone home). Relations or networks are then classified as relational capital. I think this is an important point, as networks display a structure when observed in an isolated model, but they are not defining the structure for innovative systems.
Stefan Thurner from the COSY group linked complexity theory and social network analysis in a very interesting speech. A lot of insights from complexity theory can be also applied to business diagnosis (since socio-economic systems are mostly highly complex). This is my special field of interest and consulting offering.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
7.11.05
Balanced Scorecard vs Intellectual Capital Reporting
J. Mouritsen (from the Copenhagen Business School) co-published a paper elaborating on the differences between the balanced scorecard and intellectual capital. Referring to my recent post about my impressions from the policy conference in Ferrara, I find this paper a valuable input for the discussion on intellectual capital issues.
This is, because the paper adds real value for the management if they have to decide or justify investments in either tool/model. The paper summarises the differences as:There are interesting differences, however, because they differ in terms of strategy (competitive strategy versus competency strategy), of organisation (vertical versus lateral relations), of management (detailing versus visualising objectives), and of indicators (related causally versus bundled complementarily). Available balanced scorecards present a story about the firm’s budget, while available intellectual capital statements narrate the firm’s resources.
There might be disagreement with the specific findings of this comparison (for instance, I don’t see such a different approach to strategy as the authors: balanced scorecard -> based on Porter, intellectual capital -> based on the resource/knowledge-based view), however, this paper makes a contribution to the still ’spongy’ intellectual capital tools/models.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
6.11.05
Social Networks
Todays post about strategy as design has made me come across another article published by Jeanne Liedtka ’A practical guide to social networks’. It is a a HBR article and especially interests me since I co-ordinated a project proposal that had to do with social network analysis in a specific technology research group in Austria. The partner organisation was FAS research and we co-operated very well.
Back to Liedtka’s (et al) article, they classify social networks accordingly:
. Customized response
. Modular response
. Routine response
The argument is that collaborations need to be aligned with the strategic intent of networks. Only customized response networks need high external involvement and permeable boundaries. On the other hand, routine response networks are based on efficiency and process execution.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
2.11.05
Schroder experiment
Alison Thomas (from PricewaterhouseCoopers), spoke about a recent experiment conducted by PwC and Schroders involving the editing of a firm’s accounts (Coloplast). The experiment involved generating a new abridged, but statutory-compliant version of the accounts that omitted all of the quantified, non-financial data (which is intangible capital) that the firm chooses to report. The two versions of the report, the extensive original and the abridged version were subjected to separate review by separate Schroder investment teams with a task to develop a forecast of revenue and earnings for the next two years.
The experiment revealed interesting results. The group with the complete accounts was overwhelmingly in favour of buying the shares (60 per cent against 20 per cent), while 80 per cent of those who reviewed the abr idged version recommended the sale of the stock (against 40% in the group with the entire reports).
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
11.10.05
Spieltheorie
Es freut mich zu lesen, dass der diesjährige Wirtschafts-Nobelpreis an Robert J. Aumann und Thomas C. Schelling für Ihre Arbeiten im Bereich Spieltheorie geht. McKinsey hat daraufhin gleich 2 ältere Schriftstücke (Fallbeispiele) ausgegraben (’Games managers should play’ und ’New tools for negotiators’, beide nur mit Anmeldung), wobei der 2. Beitrag durchwegs interessant ist.
strategy+business hat Game Theory schon davor als einer der 35 bedeutensten Theorien bezeichnet.
Robert Axelrod hat mit seiner Rational Choice Theory gezeigt, dass bei die Strategie ’Tit-for-tat’ für das Zustandekommen von Kooperation unter dem Gefangenendilemma am erfolgreichsten ist. Jedoch wurde dies teilweise durch Martin Nowak widerlegt, wenn die Großzügigkeit einzelner Spieler berücksichtigt wird: man gibt nicht nur demjenigen, von dem man erwarten kann, dass er einem direkt wieder etwas zurückgibt, sondern auch demjenigen, von dem man weiß, dass er selbst großzügig ist.
Vor einiger Zeit ist mir das Evaluationsspiel Ludovaluate untergekommen. Guter Ansatz.
Der Grund meiner Freude: die Bedeutung der Überlegungen zu Komplexität und chaotischem Verhalten dringt langsam aber deutlich in die strategischen Betrachtungen von Unternehmen ein und öffnet die Sichtweise auf die wirklichen Unternehmenswerte, die in den meisten Fällen immaterieller Natur sind.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
26.08.05
Organisational network analysis
Rob Cross has an interesting site about practical implications of organisational network analysis. Among other case studies, he argues about leadership development through developing personal networks:
’In many coaching sessions with managers at all levels in organizations, we have found at least six dimensions of personal networks to be consistently important.
Relative Hierarchical Position
Networks can be biased by an over-reliance on people who occupy certain hierarchical positions. Managing relationships with those higher than, at the same level, and lower than you is a hallmark of a well-rounded organizational network. In general, balance is important, and people’s networks seem to fall out of balance when they don’t maintain enough relationships overall, when they focus too heavily on those higher in the organization, or when they miss the technical expertise that can often be gained from those at lower levels.
Relative Organizational Position
People tend to pay attention to, interact with, and learn from those in their home department. However, as one moves up in the hierarchy, bridging relationships (to other departments and organizations) become increasingly important to ensure effective learning and decision-making. Unfortunately, when people need bridging relationships the most, they often have the least time to spend building them.
Physical Proximity
The likelihood of collaborating with someone decreases the farther you are from that person. Distances of only a few feet, let alone floors in a building or even buildings themselves, often prove to be critical fragmentation points in networks. With executives, this problem often results in their not understanding the needs of those in different locations, such as field sites.
Structured Interactions
Look at almost any manager’s Day-Timer: It is common to see back-to-back meetings from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M., day after day. The critical question from a learning perspective is whether the people you are seeking as your primary information conduits are the best sources for the task-relevant information you need, or whether they are simply built into your schedule.
Time Invested in Maintaining Relationships
Do you invest enough time in maintaining relationships that are important to you? People often spend the most time and effort maintaining relationships that need little investment or that are antagonistic and offer little benefit. People have finite time and energy to put into relationships. Managing these investments wisely can yield substantial performance and learning benefits.
Length of Time Known
Is there diversity in your network in terms of the length of time that you have known people? If you have known too many people for too long, you are probably hearing things you already know or, more insidious, knowingly or unknowingly using other people to get your own opinions confirmed. It is good to see new people cycling into (and out of) a person’s network as his or her job changes. At the same time, if you have too many new people in your network, it may indicate a lack of sounding boards or confidants with whom you can discuss personal or inflammatory issues.’
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
25.04.05
Social networking
Interesting article about why some social networking projects work and other’s don’t. From my own experiene, I can share the author’s view that there must be common object of interest in order to create viable groups.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
19.04.05
New marketing approach
It seems that behind the manifest of Open Source Marketing, a company is crystallising.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
8.03.05
Open Source Software Movement relevant for marketing and research?
I came across two interesting articles dealing with the application of aspects of the Open Source Software (OSS) movement onto other working fields (apart from IT). Since long, this theme interests me a great deal, but still many projects focus on the technical side.
Contrary, James Cherkoff (Director of Collaborate Marketing) wrote a manifesto about applying principles of the OSS movement to marketing. Besides a few mistakes in the text (terming the Creative Commons Licence as copyleft), the chosen approach is hitting exactly the crucial topics. At Public Voice Lab I developed an idea with several partners to do dissemination activities for EU co-financed projects. We have the concept ready and we have chosen a very similar approach.
The second text covers the realm of business analysts and OSS movement. According to the blog, Red Monk has offered an IT-anaysis to the community under the creative commons licence in order to incorporate the reactions from users and vendors. I believe that this is a very viable business model, if organisations really deal with the input.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
7.03.05
Important people working on/with CMS
according to the CMS Watch.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
3.03.05
corporate blogs
HP allows technicians and executives to blog their thoughts.
The oldest Sunday newspaper (since 1791), The Observer, has started a blog. Actually, they offer different blogs, including podcasts and moblogs. Good start!
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
22.02.05
Information and Knowledge
TD Wilson elaborate on the nonsense of (the term) knowledge mangement (KM). Interesting article on business models, tacit knowledge and obviously knowledge management. KE Sveiby (who has a very informative website about KM) is also mentioned in Wilson’s paper.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
20.02.05
Partnertreffen auf der CeBIT
IRC are organising annual face to face meetings (besides the more or less regulary email news) between companies (SMS) and universities looking for complementary technologies. According to the registration site this service seems to be quite appreciated.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
20.01.05
Tags and categories
David Weinberger praises tagged web-entries. He writes ’First, categories are not tags. I’m guessing that the average number of categories used by any single blogger is in the 3-15 range. Many of us want to keep our categories broad because they are intended to help a reader see all of our posts, and we want to be inclusive rather than fine-grained.’
I don’t see a difference between tags and categories. David is also contradicting himself, interchanging these two terms. I still believe, categorisation is doomed to fail, since categories are permanently changing and who wants to edit his entries he wrote 4 years ago. I think, a full-text retrieval with intelligent categorisation is much more flexible and dynamic. However, we have still to wait to see a good working system.
You may wish to leave a from your own site.
