Social networks has a bad reputation, due to problems with sites such as MySpace and Facebook, but, there is a way for many businesses to use the concept of social networking:
1. To help not only with customer loyalty
2. To create relationships in new ways
3. To give customers the chance to help give new ideas to a business
I used to work for Jewelry Television (JTV), so I will use that company, and higher education, as examples, as those are industries I am familiar with.
If you sell gemstones to people, the first question that many people will have is:
OK, so I bought a gemstone, what do I do with it? If your market are jewelers or people that typically have jewelers then it will be a small market, which makes it hard to grow larger.
This is where creating new relationships would be helpful. For example, if you have a networking site that will allow jewelers to interact with non-jewelers (customers :), then people can see examples of what jewelers have created then it is likely that a person will find a jeweler that makes designs that the customer likes, and so the user or the jeweler could buy the gemstone to have it fashioned as desired.
For example, by using these concepts as an example,
http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gershon/BeyondEscherForReal/
it would be possible to make some truly fascinating jewelry, as it would look very different from depending on the angle viewed.
To make it truly useful, people should be able to post not only images of what has been done, but drawings of what they would like, and to be able to communicate easily with each other, in a safe way.
Social networking can help out businesses in many industries, by bringing together people that are typically not customers, and extend the market to include these new people.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Reinventing to adapt
During a tough economic period companies will be forced to adapt to a very different environment, but many won't have the leadership that can steer that ship, and so they will crash, and the end result will be many businesses going bankrupt.
Henry Ford paid his employees well as he believed that they should be able to afford the cars that they make, which is revolutionary even by today's corporate standards. The Ford corporation is going through a rough time currently, in my opinion because of strategic mismanagement, and I think a part of that is due in part to Ford Corp losing it's conscious, and becoming too focused on profit. This is evident in the fact that the main vehicles that were made in the past several years by Ford was SUVs, which are much more expensive than many people can afford. They became the SUV company, defined by making not only SUVs but also large pick-ups, which are built I believe on the same frame as SUVs.
If Ford Corp redefined themselves as a family transportation company, then they could bring in some engineers that may be able to look at alternative vehicles, or, they could just change their focus back to the early cars, which were electric cars. If they went to all-electric, and worked on making inexpensive cars, then they could use their name recognition to help change the way people view cars, and perhaps save their corporation.
One impediment to the reinvention of a company is corporate agility. For example, how quickly could the lines in Ford be changed to have a radically different type of vehicle. Unfortunately, I believe it would take a great deal of financial resources and time, which is something that Ford doesn't have, but that is because they chose to design each line to be hard to change.
Agility is so important, and going forward, each company will need to look at how they operate and ask how agile they really are. If customers want a change then a company can either adapt to what the consumer wants, which is tricky, as consumers can be finicky, or, spend a great deal of marketing capital to convince the consumer that they want what is already available.
Coming from a software background, being more agile is very important, as the changing desires of the consumer will help the company to see how it may want to adapt, to help show a roadmap.
Henry Ford paid his employees well as he believed that they should be able to afford the cars that they make, which is revolutionary even by today's corporate standards. The Ford corporation is going through a rough time currently, in my opinion because of strategic mismanagement, and I think a part of that is due in part to Ford Corp losing it's conscious, and becoming too focused on profit. This is evident in the fact that the main vehicles that were made in the past several years by Ford was SUVs, which are much more expensive than many people can afford. They became the SUV company, defined by making not only SUVs but also large pick-ups, which are built I believe on the same frame as SUVs.
If Ford Corp redefined themselves as a family transportation company, then they could bring in some engineers that may be able to look at alternative vehicles, or, they could just change their focus back to the early cars, which were electric cars. If they went to all-electric, and worked on making inexpensive cars, then they could use their name recognition to help change the way people view cars, and perhaps save their corporation.
One impediment to the reinvention of a company is corporate agility. For example, how quickly could the lines in Ford be changed to have a radically different type of vehicle. Unfortunately, I believe it would take a great deal of financial resources and time, which is something that Ford doesn't have, but that is because they chose to design each line to be hard to change.
Agility is so important, and going forward, each company will need to look at how they operate and ask how agile they really are. If customers want a change then a company can either adapt to what the consumer wants, which is tricky, as consumers can be finicky, or, spend a great deal of marketing capital to convince the consumer that they want what is already available.
Coming from a software background, being more agile is very important, as the changing desires of the consumer will help the company to see how it may want to adapt, to help show a roadmap.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
What Google does right
During these tough economic times it is helpful to look at companies that are exceptional to see how we can learn from their example, and so be able to grow, even if sales are suffering.
First, it is important to have a few assumptions:
1) There is many available, as is evident by the fact that the wealthy is still buying private airplanes in large numbers.
2) Diversity is the key to surviving an economic downturn.
3) Growth by creating wealth is better than growing by acquiring new companies.
If we look at Google it is difficult to see how some of their projects will help with their core competency, which is searching. My concern is not with the business model they are working wth, though I believe all of these projects help them to get advertising dollars, since it leads to more people going to the web site.
What they do right is pretty simple in concept, and should be easily replicated by other companies.
In a nutshell the key to such diversification is:
1. A safe environment for employees to explore new ideas, or to bring up new ideas.
2. The time to work on fleshing out their ideas.
3. A way to apply for funding to try implementing their idea.
4. A financial incentive for helping work on ideas.
It is scary for companies to allow employees to explore new ideas, as some of the ideas may damage the core product of a company. For example, several car companies leased electric cars, and these were well-received, but part of the problem is that it would be hard to sell gas or diesel cars, as it would be seen as sell dirty cars, as opposed to clean cars, so the cars were eventually destroyed, and these same companies haven't released any new all-electric cars since.
It is difficult to come up time for developers to explore new ideas, as that is time away from working on revenue-generating products, but, during a slow period it may be reasonable to give them this time.
There are various ways to allow people to share their ideas, such as a wiki, bulletin board or monthly meetings, but by finding out if there are others that find value in this, then, a group can examine each idea that has a demo, and determine which may have some possible commercial possibilities.
Once some funding is found, then just allow people some sort of ownership, as they will spend much of their free time finishing the project, but, if it looks successful, then it could be spun-off, or become a new part to a company.
The basic idea is to allow people time and safety to explore, then help them out, and if it succeeds, then the company will be able to profit from their support.
First, it is important to have a few assumptions:
1) There is many available, as is evident by the fact that the wealthy is still buying private airplanes in large numbers.
2) Diversity is the key to surviving an economic downturn.
3) Growth by creating wealth is better than growing by acquiring new companies.
If we look at Google it is difficult to see how some of their projects will help with their core competency, which is searching. My concern is not with the business model they are working wth, though I believe all of these projects help them to get advertising dollars, since it leads to more people going to the web site.
What they do right is pretty simple in concept, and should be easily replicated by other companies.
In a nutshell the key to such diversification is:
1. A safe environment for employees to explore new ideas, or to bring up new ideas.
2. The time to work on fleshing out their ideas.
3. A way to apply for funding to try implementing their idea.
4. A financial incentive for helping work on ideas.
It is scary for companies to allow employees to explore new ideas, as some of the ideas may damage the core product of a company. For example, several car companies leased electric cars, and these were well-received, but part of the problem is that it would be hard to sell gas or diesel cars, as it would be seen as sell dirty cars, as opposed to clean cars, so the cars were eventually destroyed, and these same companies haven't released any new all-electric cars since.
It is difficult to come up time for developers to explore new ideas, as that is time away from working on revenue-generating products, but, during a slow period it may be reasonable to give them this time.
There are various ways to allow people to share their ideas, such as a wiki, bulletin board or monthly meetings, but by finding out if there are others that find value in this, then, a group can examine each idea that has a demo, and determine which may have some possible commercial possibilities.
Once some funding is found, then just allow people some sort of ownership, as they will spend much of their free time finishing the project, but, if it looks successful, then it could be spun-off, or become a new part to a company.
The basic idea is to allow people time and safety to explore, then help them out, and if it succeeds, then the company will be able to profit from their support.
What I mean by smart growth
This is my first blog, so hopefully it will be useful to others.
I will be writing about ideas for companies and communities to deal with challenges due to economic challenges as well as challenges due to environment issues.
My main interest is in the quality of life for people and sustainability of communities and companies. I am also not concerned with stock price, as I believe that focusing on quarterly reports have led to many companies sacrificing long-term gains for short term concerns.
I also believe that through setting the rules that markets follow that the market can be convinced to do the desired behavior. For example, if seat belts were not required by law, then by just holding car manufacturers liable for any missing safety devices, they would have installed seat belts to limit liability, without mandating it.
I will go more into these other related points over time.
I will be writing about ideas for companies and communities to deal with challenges due to economic challenges as well as challenges due to environment issues.
My main interest is in the quality of life for people and sustainability of communities and companies. I am also not concerned with stock price, as I believe that focusing on quarterly reports have led to many companies sacrificing long-term gains for short term concerns.
I also believe that through setting the rules that markets follow that the market can be convinced to do the desired behavior. For example, if seat belts were not required by law, then by just holding car manufacturers liable for any missing safety devices, they would have installed seat belts to limit liability, without mandating it.
I will go more into these other related points over time.
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