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Meritocracy Enabled by the Collaborative Leader

10:19:51 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

A hyperconnected business world, spurred on by social media and

globalization, demands a leadership style that can harness the power of connections. Leaders

need to shed the commandand-control and consensus styles in favor of collaborative

leadership. Harvard Business Review research shows that collaborative leaders who get

results do four things well:

Where meritocracy and collaborative leadership style meet

C ll v l h p h c p c y p pl up u ’ f m l

control and inspire them to work toward common goals—despite differences in convictions,

cultural values, and operating norms. Most people understand intuitively that collaborative

leadership is the opposite of the old command-and-control model, but the differences with a

consensus-based approach are more nuanced. Below are some helpful distinctions between

the three leadership styles.

In terms of accountability and control, the collaborative leader looks at performance on

achieving shared goals. This is meritocracy, being performance driven, also looking and

people who lead collaborations. This takes out the hierarchy (more), increases employee

engagement and trust. There are a lot of cost-effective solutions that enable meritocracy once

h z h c “ p up” m c ll v c.

Do you allow for meritocracy to blossom?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

collaboration

meritocracy

leadership

social media

How Twitter Helps Banking With Better Customer

Experience and Retention

8:55:27 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Accenture outlined Top 10 Challenges for investment Banks for 2012 from

three respective aspects: Responding to regulation, focusing on clientsand restructuring for

growth. The deployment of a microblogging strategy is a cost-effective solution to these

relationship (experience) challenges.

A research by Ernst & Young, the Gobal Consumer Banking Survey 2012, shows that

increased competition and greater choice have forced many banks to adapt their business

models to serve these changing needs.

Worldwide, the proportion of customers planning to change banks has increased from 7% to

12% since 2011.

How can banks provide a better customer experience?

Make low-cost digital channels customers’ preferred choice. Banks should

encourage customers to use digital channels whenever possible by using price

incentives.

Prioritize investment on critical customer interactions. Banks should focus

p l mp v m cu m ’ m v lu c p m z h

resulting impact on attrition, dormancy and loyalty.

Use innovative technology to deliver the retail bank of the future. The use of

technology is crucial to delivering a lower cost, more reliable, more flexible but still

personal customer experience.

In the European Union consumers switch mostly due to high fees or charges, poor rates on

accounts and poor branch experience (Go here to analyze data with the interactive module).

Based on the abovementioned challenges how can microblogging help for banks in their

acquisition, retention and overall customer experience? Here are 5 practical strategies

provided y LET’ E p . :

Content is still the KING: customers can easily distinguish marketing

purpose posts and informative ones. Pushing though provoking byte-sized

content is the only way to encourage active feedbacks. Properly using

questions to invite discussion about new product idea, improvement or

suggestions. Check my previous post about how CitiBank successfully built up

active social media community with quality contents.

Follow your competitors: Microblogging provides a platform for businesses

to monitor and interact even with your competitors. It is encouraged to observe

the interaction between successful corporation and their followers on

microblogging platform since it works as a good channel for market search.

Sharing is caring: If you see your competitors or other microbloggers post

something which is really worth a read, share it. Using the feature like re-tweet

on Twitter can easily pass on the valuable contents without hassle. Once the

audience get to know that you provide not only beneficial posts for your

company, but also including related informative contents from other

competitors, it might give followership a boost. When it comes to retention,

customers care more about what you tweet than who you are.

Link back to your products, but not too often: When microblogging about

something which can relate to your products or service, insert a tinyURL into

the content to direct customers to them. Try to make the contents inviting and

informative instead of pushing or exaggerated.

Integrate with other social media tools: Each social media platform provides

different character and advantages for business owners to utilize, but make

sure that you do the assessment of market research before jumping on it.

Publishing appropriate contents on each platform in regard of different user

expectation will never get you wrong.

Content is still king, but a the diarchy with Context is important to be relevant and understand

the business landscape, which feeds back to content. Be a thoughtleader, there is much to talk

about in relation to banking, the crises for instance and what more. Become the trusted source

for people.

Th “Sh C ” f w h h . O z tions can be/should be a connector, a platform,

f c l . D ’ f f h cl f w m f m c mp . Cu m

’ w l w y pu ly h . Th f c h y u h h f m

is much more importa h c c m h u u c . I ’ c m f cu

and creation.

Categories:

Customer Experience Management

Tags:

twitter

sector

banking

retention

experience

EU: Ensuring Citizens' Trust Through Proximity and Co-

Creation

m 22:12:49 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

E u c z ’ u a major challenge for politicians and public

communicators. The majority of citizens – 54% – believe that their voice does not count in the

EU. Mercedes Bresso is first vice-president of the EU Committee of the Regions, and she says

that what is needed, is a new corporate story, not only for communication purposes, but also

f h EU’ wh l y. ‘Eu p ’ h Eu p y f w h h h

strong focus on the added value of an inclusive society is a first step in the creation of this

sustainable common story.

How can the EU communication strategy be adapted to reconnect with the citizens?

Mercedes Bresso elaborates:

I l v w m c c p : ‘ proximity’ ‘ co-creation ’.

Proximity is about shortening the gap. It starts with a clear focus on the themes and topics that

are the closest to the daily life of our citizens. Technical and legislative issues, how important

they are for our institutions, should not dominate the communication.

Proximity is also about engaging the right communicators. The information and the dialogue

must be led by our stakeholders on the field: communicators who understand the specific

context of our diverse target audience, who are known and trusted by our citizens. Here the

Committee of the Regions plays an active role in activating its members; the elected people at

local and regional level.

Thirdly, proximity is about choosing the right media mix.

With all due respect, we should not just be content with the publication of our press releases

in specialised EU publications or high-profile quality papers.

If we want to be seen and heard by our citizens, and if we want to involve them in a dialogue,

we should be on the platforms they use: regional television, local newspapers, social media,

town hall events, etc.

The second key concept is co-creation. EU communication should be more than just a sum of

ch u ’ p c . C mm c mmu c p xch f xp

better coordination and cooperation – full p c f ch h ’ p c f c p n in the

European policy process – should have a strong influence on our communication efforts. The

process of co-creation should also include other governance levels: national, regional and

local authorities, as well as stakeholders from civil society, who are involved in implementing

the EU project in the daily lives of our citizens. A common strategy with many collaborative

options.

Finally, co-creation also means an active role for the citizens themselves. Public

communication has evolved drastically in the last decade, thanks to evolutions in society and

in the technical world, allowing citizens to contribute to the public dialogue. We must make

use of these opportunities: civil participation improves the quality of our policy making and is

the best guarantee for getting our strategies accepted.

Today, more than ever, Europe is front page news for all media. Next year will celebrate the

European Year of Citizens. And in 2014, all citizens will be able to make their voice heard

during the European Parliam l c . L ’ u h m m um j f c c

new common story for Europe.

Categories:

Open Industry and Open Economy

Tags:

trust

sector

non-profit

co-creation

Acquisition And Customer Satisfaction Are Priorities in

the European Engineering Industry

m 14:45:36 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Deltek conducted a research in May 2012 on the trends and priorities in the

engineering industry. You can find the full research on their website. The top priorities are

acquisition and customer satisfaction which will improve retention. Have a look at the

infographic and how CRM, collaboration and social technologies support these.

The research shows that there is an intrinsic link between winning new projects and

improving satisfaction. The quick wins are:

Ensure harmony

Sync your systems

Internal collaboration

These three quick wins are supported by CRM (as stated in the infographic) and enhanced –

collaborative- processes. Another aspect that supports the three quick wins is culture, the

ability for the organization to collaborate internally, to synch people and systems and work in

harmony.

Social media supports you in winning projects and improving customer satisfaction as cost-

effective enablers. Think about monitoring to let you quickly and continuously understand

opinions and challenges. But also think about social technologies that helps you to improve

the quality of the service, such as a platform or customer care channel.

Source: deltek.co.uk via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

sector

engineering

marketing

101 Examples and How to Build Your Own Social Media

Policy

m 14:09:02 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

If y u’ h p c f c c l m policy for your

organization, the following 101 published examples of social media policies can help you

mould and create your own.

KokaSexton created a list of 100 examples of social media policies, which you can find here.

It has a good mix of different kind of organizations which gives a good mix of results and

insights.

Example 101 I came across on M lc um’ w and it concerns the social media policy and

guidelines at TNT.

The guidelines then address some basic principles that need to be taken into consideration in

any online social interaction:

1. Know your business principles: As mentioned, the guidelines provide a framework to

advise employees in their dealings with colleagues, customers, suppliers and other

stakeholders online, using the TNT Business Principles as a template.

2. Point out that you are not an official spokesperson: Be sure to make clear in some way

that your profile is not an official TNT communication channel. Also, you should state

clearly that you are expressing your own views and opinions, especially when

cu p c h l TNT’ u ( p l c c.) If

c y cl m ( . . “Th p p xp my w

’ c ly fl c h f TNT.”) c h y u p

behalf of the company.

3. Respect the TNT brand guidelines: Use the latest artwork. Do not squeeze or

otherwise distort the logo. Do not use the logo in combination with a product name.

Use the correct shade of orange and the other corporate colors.

4. Recognize that you are entering a social system: Social media is like any social event

– a meeting, a party or the coffee corner. Behave as you would in such an

environment. The same good manners apply: uc y u lf ’ p

m l ’ u up up h c v f h .

Take care to ensure that your actions and behavior are consistent with the image you

want to portray in the office and with your clients. Keep in mind that you are sharing

social space – online or offline – with your boss, colleagues and clients.

5. Remember that Google never forgets: Everything you post stays online for a long

time. Think before posting something you might regret later.

The following five tips are given to create your own social media guidelines.

Building your own social media guidelines

Connect your guidelines to your existing code of conduct. Most of the time it covers

this kind of scenario already.

M h m y. I ’ h v l l x h c u .

Get connected to your employees where they are. Listen to what they are saying,

u why ’ y p h m u c l p c .

D ’ c . S c l m ood thing.

U h “p w f m y”. Th h y u h h lp f

everyone in order to make a difference.

Which policies do stand out?

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

guidelines

policy

Lithium Acquires Social Dynamx' Call Center Social CRM

Application

z 18:40:35 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Social CRM company Lithium Technologies has acquired fellow customer

care application Social Dynamx. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Lithium

turned it into Lithium Social Web, a social customer care service capable of responding to the

deluge of social commentary now found in the mobile, connected world.

What is Social Dynamx?

TechCrunch elaborates:

S c l Dy mx’ pl f m f l p cu m call centers to

identify, prioritize and manage millions of one-to-one social conversations on blogs, social

networks and more in real-time. Lithium Technologies was founded in 2001 and focuses on a

broad range of social CRM solutions. Lithium previously acquired brand tracking application

Scout Labs.

Social Dynamx customers include Time Warner Cable, DISH Network and Convio.

Social Web is available now and is integrated with Lithium Communities. It improves agent

productivity by more than 25 percent, Lithium says.

Rob Tarkoff, Lithium president and CEO said in a statement:

Seventy percent of complaints directed to brands via Twitter are ignored.

With the Social Dynamx technology at its core, Social Web can manage social conversations,

respond to posts and measure performance on Twitter, Facebook and across social media.

Categories:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tags:

social crm

social media monitoring

lithium

social dynamx

Leaders Are Platforms

z 16:40:28 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Ch ph l ph L Tzu “F l h p pl h y f l h

you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will

ll y ‘W h u lv .'” H m h rvation more than 2,000 years ago. Some

things never change. Leaders inspire trust and create a vision which people can build upon.

Leaders are platforms themselves for others to succeed RT @valaafshar: People ’ v

leaders. Leaders serve people. - @leadershipfreak

— G.L. Cuccureddu SMP (@glcuccureddu) October 14, 2012

In which organizational and management culture do you think that a leader as a platform

excels best?

Ch l H y “Gods of Management” mp cl fy f u c m m

cultures that exist within all organizations. He uses the ancient Greek gods to symbolize these

management cultures or philosophies. There are four types of management cultures or

philosophies present within all organizations. The four cultures are the club (Zeus), role

(Apollo), task (Athena), and existential (Dionysus) cultures.

As Sinek says, being amongst people who believe what you believe, that is key.

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

culture

The Link Between Sports, Business and Continuous

Improvements

z 16:08:17 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Yesterday I was listening to juridical program on BNR, a Dutch business

. I ’ m m h x c m f h p v w u h h

been an laywer, then went into sports and then back into the legal sector. He shared his

learning from sports that can be translated to business.

His learning was that –in (t)his case, laywers, being conservative should look at sports, where

the culture of continuous improvements is much more embedded, every week looking at ways

to improve performance, strategy, tactics and the actual play to always become a bit better.

H l h l yw h l l c p much h ucc f “l w ’

pl y” v much.

I l h l y m v u u h ’ c p cy u c u lly

doing it.

Be resilient and learn to adapt. #quotes RT @valaafshar

— Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) October 14, 2012

Are you learning to be adaptive and resilient in order to create and accelerate your

competitive advantages?

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

continuous improvements

Six Improvements Enabled When Supply Chain

Participants Collaborate and Share Information

z 15:03:27 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Research by IDC has shown that there is a growing need for solutions that

incorporate external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers in business workflow

processes and feedback mechanisms. This article on Forbes sustains the importance (mantra

as he writes it) and the ability to create and sustain collaborative processes with global supply

chain partners. It is crucial to properly manage, and in some cases, capitalize on complexity in

the current environments.

As competition increases, supply networks become more global and more organizations turn

to outsourcing, whereby networked business environments are becoming the norm and

technology is the enabler. Last week Ultriva launched its enhanced cloud-based collaborative

supply chain solution to further accelerate productivty and performance.

The six improvements through collaboration and information sharing are:

Bringing products to market quicker,

Reducing production and logistics costs,

Driving market share, and

Increasing sales, while maximizing ROI.

Which improvements can you point to that are made possible through collaboration?

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

collaboration

Leadership Team Engagement Crucial for Supply Chain

Optimization Success

z 14:21:05 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

With continued economic uncertainty and increasing global competition,

supply chain design and optimization has never been more important to achieve an efficient,

profitable business - and for gaining competitive advantage. Register for this upcoming

webinar to understand more and better why supply chain excellence is business critical these

days. Read further to have a look at the four key results, one of them being the cost reductions

y upply ch c ll …

Why is leadership engagement crucial?

Because big decisions will have to be made at executive level - perhaps the closure or

movement of physical assets; at the very least, a change in core processes, roles and

responsibilities.

Four key results:

Supply chain design and optimization improves perfect order rating by 17%

Supply chain design and optimization improves service and halves supply chain

costs Supply chain collaboration reduces operating costs by up to 50%

Supply chain design and optimization reduces inventory and increases agility

Supply chain collaboration can have an enormous impact on your ability to service customers

effectively and profitably - harnessing mutual capability, brings continuous improvement in

supply chain efficiency. Social media act as cost-effective enablers to reinforce collaboration,

transparency and continuous improvements and learning. Platforms that can be used for this

purpose go beyond Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook which we determined in this article.

The webinar is presented by Paul Archer and Steve Rowntree, both partners at Oliver Wight.

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

collaboration

leadership

engagement

Sell Through Social Media to Close More Leads

#Infographic

v j 19:12:53 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

InsideView created an infographic on how social B2B is, and how social

media is being used to generate more leads. I found this infographic here, he has good points

about social selling. The writer elaborates how social technologies also changed the way in

which we collaborate online, with most B2B buying decisions starting, progressing, and often

even closing online without any face-to-face meetings. Though, nothing beats face to face.

Have a look at S ’ “T u ” v and understand why. Balance between virtual and

“ ffl ” ll mp .

Linkedin generates more leads than Facebook, Twitter or blogging. Understanding the nature

of Linkedin in comparison to blogging this is an incorrect reasoning. Blogging and Linkedin

go hand in hand, where blogging is important for the first phases in the buying cycle, and

Linkedin for the subsequent phases.

Another result is where a hospital saw a 15% conversion of leads to sales using live tweeting

during orthopedic surgery. Using social media in such cases creates trust, openness and

engagement, ultimately resulting in sales. Another great example is the social media project

by Philips Healthcare.

Online conversations with prospects accelerate deals, have a look at the bottom of the

infographic.

At the end, the infographic mentions three key reasons why businesses need social selling.

1. Customers are already there

2. Competition is there, and if not, they will be soon

3. Employees and new hires expect it

Another reason I add is the opportunity to distinguish yourself as a business through

thoughtleadership, become a trusted source to rely upon.

A lot of companies know already what their problem is, they want a partner that navigates

them, that supports them effectively in their journey.

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320140668/

Source: hosting.ber-art.nl via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

social media

Eight Tips to Unlock Employee Engagement

v j 18:44:55 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

E m ’ h x ff y u mpl y v m h m

c mp y ucc . I ’ wh mpl y m m everything go a little better

for each other, their customers and their communities. Read further how you as a leader can

influence your employees and teams.

The eight tips are:

1. Give your time

2. Look for their strengths

3. Involve them in the process

4. Pick a cause. Get involved

5. Be honest

6. Actions speak louder than words

7. Ask for help

8. Customize your interactions

What tip(s) can you recommend from your own experience?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

employee engagement

Social CRM Requires a Whole Brain Approach

v j 16:28:22 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Interesting article by Chris Bucholtz, where he outlines that success in

social CRM requires as much knowledge of processes as it does willingness to engage with

customers. A social CRM team, therefore, has to have people whose strengths lie in these

different areas. What is needed is a good combination of people who are left-brained and

those who are right-brained.

One of the tricky parts of developing a social CRM (sCRM) strategy is that it requires left

brain and right brain thinking. The left brain, where more logical and procedural thinking

takes place, is comparable to how "traditional" CRM operates, organizing and distributing

data based on predetermined processes. The right brain, the center of creative thinking, is

comparable to SCRM, discovering new relationships and communication models and

engaging and conversing with customers.

Read here the complete article.

Basically any kind of change journey and adaptation in the knowledge-centric and connected

society requires a whole brain approach.

Look at this presentation to understand the four critical (left and right brain) areas to be

successful.

Stay tuned for more information on the whole brain approach and business improvements!

Categories:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tags:

social crm

Unilever Reaches Out to Innovation Community to Help

the Business Deliver on Its Sustainable Growth Agenda

v j 16:11:23 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers, has

released a new set of challenges to the world's innovation community to help the business

deliver on its sustainable growth agenda.

In March 2012, the company's Open Innovation team launched a new online platform which

offered experts the opportunity to find some of the technical solutions it needs to achieve its

ambition of doubling the size of its business while reducing its environmental impact, as set

out in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Following the success of the platform, Unilever has now unveiled the details of another three

research projects for which its Research & Development department is seeking external

know-how.

The three new "wants" which Unilever is seeking collaboration on span two of its four global

categories, Homecare and Refreshments. They are:

New technologies which break down fatty deposits left on clothes and hard surfaces in

an efficient, odourless and environmentally friendly way. The solution could be

incorporated as an ingredient in the detergent formulation or work as a pre-treatment

application.

New technologies which enable us to reduce the sugar in our ready-to-drink teas by 30

per cent, without impacting on their taste or mouthfeel.

New technologies which enable us to stabilise natural red colour cost-effectively, for

use in our fruit and dairy products. The solution must maintain the stability of the

colour throughout its shelf life and be water soluble.

All ideas submitted on all 13 wants will be assessed by Yet2.com, an independent open

innovation consultancy, before any reach Unilever's Open Innovation team.

Jon Hague, VP Open Innovation, Unilever said:

We've been hugely impressed by the quality, ingenuity and inventiveness of the submissions

that we've received since we launched our Open Innovation platform six months ago.

We have a long track-record of working with external partners to develop new technologies,

so we were already very aware of the strength and depth of the innovation talent which exists

outside of Unilever. However this was the first time we have shared our research projects in

such an open forum and it's very exciting to have tapped into a new community of inventors

who share our passion for sustainable innovation and creating a better future for our

consumers and the environment.

Categories:

Innovation

Tags:

open innovation

unilever

Nicholas Christakis: The Hidden Influence of Social

Networks

v j 15:47:38 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

This is a great video that you have to watch! We're all embedded in vast

social networks of friends, family, co-workers and more. Nicholas Christakis tracks how a

wide variety of traits -- from happiness to obesity -- can spread from person to person,

showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you don't even

know.

One piece stood out to m Ch ’ l h wh h p u c c h

matter.

He gives as an example the graphite and diamond difference. If atoms are arranged in one

particular way, it becomes soft and dark. If you interconnect atoms in another different way it

comes hard and shining (diamond). He said that those properties do not reside in the (carbon)

atom itself but in the interconnection between those atoms.

In a world where intangible capital is of increasing importance, this interconnection between

people, knowledge etc is important to understand. It is important to understand that an

employee in one organization is not happy and in the other one that same employee is a rising

star.

You can reason this between individuals, teams, departments and organizations (within the

chain).

H v l h c mpl v ’ w ll w h h 9 m u . Al l h p wh

he talks about Obesity and relationships and clustering.

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

social networks

Christakis

Content Marketing Is Increasingly Important But Strategy

Lacks

v j 15:27:29 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

A survey conducted by Econsultancy amongst 1,300 marketing

professionals, shows a surprising result. 38% of the respondents do not have a content

marketing strategy in place whilst a whopping 90% believe that content marketing will

continue to become more important. Content marketing is now seen as an emerging discipline

it its own right by a majority of marketers. Indeed, 64% of in-house marketers agree that

c m ‘ c m w c pl ’.

(taken from the Econsultancy website)

What is more interesting for me are the content marketing objectives. Increased enagagement

(52%) was the most common objective, followed by driving traffic (42%) and brand

awareness (35%) the most given objectives.

What I find interesting is that some of these objectives are not linked to business objectives.

Increased engagement, for the purpose of what?

Increasing traffic to the site, for the purpose of what?

Be sure to link your content marketing efforts with your business objectives and then

downdrill which tactics will support that effectively and efficiently.

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

content marketing

Valorize Your Employees' Knowledge And Experience!

okt 16:52:22 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Collaborative innovation has been gaining traction for quite a while now.

The outside-in mantra is hot and sexy. Incorporating external stakeholders has definately lots

of advantages, also being proven. However, what I do miss and do see and hear is that the

employees are being left out or not being seen as equal potential innovators. This is a missed

opportunity in terms of sustainable HR, happy and engaged employees that are able to fully

valorize their knowledge and experience.

We reported u h Luf h C ’ upply ch p v ch ll . Th

challenge is open to external stakeholders and I was interested to learn if employees were able

to submit ideas. Lufthansa Cargo answered friendly the following response:

@damarqueviews Employees of Lufthansa Cargo may participate in the contest but are

unfortunately not eligible to win any prizes.

— Air Cargo Challenge (@LH_Cargo) October 9, 2012

Collaborative innovation is also a great means to create better internal connections and

relationships. Employees want to be part of the brand and want to be engaged. Just as external

stakeholders, employees can have great ideas, make use of them in an equal way. With this I

mean that they should be eligable of prizes, or when turning it around, first create an internal

collaborative innovation challenge. This way you can test collaborative innovation processes

lly c ly y u c wl y u mpl y ’ mp c . I pu mpl y

motivation and takes away a potential feeling of disadvantage.

Michael Porter said that employees are the major source for a company to increase

competence and profits. Take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers

and your profits.

From this perspective, the customer experience can also be seen as a measure for your

employee experience and engagement.

Unlock the collective intelligence of your employees!

Wh ’ y u p h ?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Intangible Capital

Tags:

innovation

open innovation

The Four Benefits of Intangible Capital Management in

the Social and Knowledge Era

11:11:32 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Recently I interviewed Mary Adams, an expert in intangible capital

management (ICM), on the intersection of intangible capital and social media. One of the

important things to realize is that the intangible nature of the social and knowledge era forces

businesses to look holistically at their business, to think differently about what makes the

business competitive and viable. Intangible capital is everywhere. Have a look at a clear

introduction on what Intangible Capital is and what the benefits are.

What is Intangible Capital? from Mary Adams

The four benefits of IC Management:

Optimized performance

Increased innovation

Higher valuation

Great reputation

Read the interview to understand how intangible capital is defined.

Social media are enablers to cost-effecitvely support the four "capitals" within IC.

Think about Structural Capital, IT and processes that are more collaborative, to unlock and

valorize knowledge.

Think about Relationship Capital and how social media are platforms (means) where

stakeholders can communicate faster.

By taking an IC view, you can look at your business beyond functions, beyond departments

and teams, and look at value that is being supported and concretized through your functions,

departments etc.

Are you looking at your business from this intangible and holistic point of view?

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

intangible capital

Ultriva Launches Enhanced Cloud-Based Collaborative

Supply Chain Software

9:54:06 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Ultriva, a player in collaborative supply chain solutions, announced on the

ninth of October an enhanced version of its cloud-based software that further accelerates

productivity and performance for manufacturing firms around the globe. In a co-creation with

their customers they enhanced the software incorporating innovative social media concepts.

The enhanced version includes:

a 'Collaborative RFQ' (Request for Quote) module that incorporates innovative social

media concepts,

an 'Inventory Optimization Tool' that helps organizations to improve the operational

and financial performance of their supply chains and

a 'Collaborative Planning' module that combines historical consumption and

replenishment data with forward-looking demand data to calculate future inventory

positions.

The inability of current supply chain management systems to support true collaboration and

execution between manufacturers and their supply chain partners results in supplier

whiplashing, poor delivery performance and lost revenue.

Narayan Laksham, Ultriva founder and CEO said:

These new features are in line with our mission of providing greater transparency and

collaboration between manufacturers and their supply chain partners. Ultriva's customers have

experienced an average 35% increase in inventory velocity along with across-the-board

improvements in employee productivity and supply chain decision making. We will continue

to work closely with our customers to deliver even greater value through ultra-responsive,

demand-driven supply chains.

Scott Harvey, vice president of Operations at CareFusion said:

The Ultriva cloud-based platform has a low barrier to entry and allows for an incredibly high

level of standardization across all of our suppliers, which made it the obvious solution for

CareFusion. As a medical device company working in a highly regulated industry, it is

imperative that we maintain a high level of transparency and accountability—something that

Ultriva's solutions provide for us and our suppliers.

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

social media

social technology

McKinsey: How Leading Companies Develop More

Innovative and Cost-Effective Products

9:29:14 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

By combining deep insights about customers, competitors, and costs, a few

l c mp f h “ w p ” p uc v l pm : l w c wh l

designing better products that customers value more. The results—including better products,

happier customers, higher margins, and, ultimately, a stronger ability to innovate—should

serve these organizations well in years to come.

A few leading companies (in industries as varied as appliances, automotive, consumer

packaged goods, high tech, and medical devices) are encouraging more focused collaboration

among multiple functional groups (notably marketing and sales, operations,

engineering/R&D, and procurement), these leaders are combining deep insights about

customers, competitors, and supply bases to strip out costs and amplify what customers truly

value.

The McKinsey article discusses three of such companies. Their experiences offer insights for

any product maker hoping to improve its competitiveness. Below you will find excerpts of

these cases. Click here to read the complete cases.

Case 1: Appliance maker

The challenge

Senior executives at a large, low-cost manufacturer of appliances and white goods were

c c u h lu h p f m c f h c mp y’ h u h l f u . I h

l m h p l pl y h c mp y’ h m c u y—an emerging

market—but was now losing domestic share in two important, and fiercely competitive,

product categories.

Case 2: Medical-capital-equipment maker

The challenge

A large manufacturer of medical devices and capital equipment was losing market share to an

Asian-based entrant offering lower prices for a key product. The manuf c u ’ R&D m

w p pl x . By m h c mp ’ c m h p uc h ul u

20 to 25 percent higher h h c mp y’ c f w p uc . A h -to-head

comparison of product characteristics clearly indicated tha h c ’ w f

many dimensions, including quality. The consensus of the R&D group was to stay the

course—the competitor, they grumbled, was selling below cost to grab market share and

would eventually have to raise its prices.

(taken from Mckinsey article)

Case 3: Medical-device manufacturer

The challenge

An acquisition created big expectations—and challenges—for the operations group of a

medical- v c m . Th c mp y’ l h v c uc f

15 percent after examining the various operational synergies possible from the deal. Hitting

the target would require the company to, among other things, rationalize its product portfolio

while modifying how it designed and sourced its products.

Are you cost-effectively making use deep insights about customers, competitors, and costs to

create better, faster and cheaper products?

How are you gathering these deep insights about customers, competitors and costs?

Categories:

Innovation

Tags:

insights

The Role of Culture and Leadership in Creating

Community-Centered Organizations

8:47:53 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

An academic paper published by International Journal of Leadership

Studies, t l “Toxic versus cooperative behaviors at work: The role of organisational culture

and leadership in creating community-centered organisations” (G l C -Ruffino,

Ivancevich, Konopaske) provides an excellent summation of defining a toxic workplace.

“A w pl c m y x c f:

1. mediocre performance is rewarded over merit-based output (Colligan &

Higgins, 2006; Doyle & Kleiner, 1993)

2. employees avoid disagreements with managers for fear of reprisal (Jones,

1996);

3. personal agendas take precedence over the long-term well-being of the

company (Atkinson & Butcher, 2003);

4. l c ly l h mp f (“M l ” 003);

5. new leaders do not stay long and employee turnover is common; and,

6. employees are treated more like financial liabilities than like assets (Macklem,

2005), and

7. bosses routinely throw temper tantrums, make unreasonable demands, scream,

and use obscenit (A ym u 8).”

In sum, organizational leaders and managers would be well advised to take steps to infuse

their organizational cultures with a more community-centric orientation. As stated previously,

such a cohesive entity or community is characterized by mutually supportive persons, an

environment comprised of policies that are perceived as egalitarian and fair, and colleagues

who are engaged in the process of self-development.

Differences between Toxic and Community-Centered Organizations

Business2Community further elaborates on the research:

One word springs to mind when I read a list like this – Values. It is clear that when assessing

those companies whose culture is defined as toxic, the values of the organisation are either

corrupt, non-existent or exist in the world of PowerPoint templates only. In other words

values misalignment equals toxicity. In such environments many people choose to leave the

organisation. An early 2012 survey by Corporate Crossovers of more than 300 female

entrepreneurs found almost a quarter (23%) cited that culture and values misalignment was

the main reason they have left their corporate jobs. The results, as demonstrated in the

previous post (Part 1) can materially impact the bottom line.

But what about those employees who stay? In a tough labour market, job choice is often

limited and hence employees may be unable to resign without the security of a confirmed new

job. Employees who continue to work under the stress of a toxic environment risk effecting

their health.

What is your opinion on the differences between the two types of organizations?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

culture

leadership

Tactics to Sustain Employee Commitment To The

Customer Experience

8:23:00 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Jeff Valentine has led transformative customer experience initiatives at 3

companies, across 12 different business units, and has been doing this work for over 10 years.

He gave a presentation for the Customer Experience Professional Association. Read what his

h c c wh h Cl A v y B ’ (CAB’ ) c m .

Changing the customer experience takes the coordination of many departments and spans all

tiers of the company. To be successful a customer experience practitioner must become a

master at effective communications inside and outside of the organization.

Connect the voice of your customers to your employees

Jeff shared a variety of tactics for sustaining employee commitment to the customer

experience. These included:

Using the company Intranet to keep everyone updated on progress

Using video footage of clients speaking about how changes the company made helped

to improve their businesses

Having the CEO give updates on what the company is hearing from clients will go

miles in keeping everyone focused on improving the customer experience

Yesterday, on the business radio BNR, two companies elaborated how they are deploying

sustainable HR and keep their employees engaged (who will take care of their customers).

The two companies score high on:

Engagement

Leadership

Clear focus and vision

Training and self-development.

Passion for the job

Open and honest

This is in line with one of the wise lessons of Richard Branson:

F B h m mp f c f l h p l h p pl . “If

y u’ w h p pl … y u lly c u ly c u p pl h I’m u w

c ul f j f y u V ” h y . “Th c mp h l f h p pl

h c mp h lly w ll. I’m u w ’ l f w h u u h w ul

th m mp .”

T h mpl y mp m pl y c uc l h ucc f B ’ V

Emp pu mpl y f cu m c h h l h . “A c mp y

p pl … mpl y w w… m I l ed to or am I a cog in the wheel? People

lly f l w .”

Client Advisory Board's (CAB's)

J ff v c f f m Cl A v y B ’ (CAB’ ). A CAB up f

individuals representing the portfolio of your customers. These individuals are selected for

their strategic insights and are regularly tapped for ideas on how the vendor could improve the

xp c l v . CAB’ c c ly u ful ul up y u V c f h

Customer efforts and Jeff offered advice on going about the selection process, measuring ROI

of these meetings, and general best practices for managing the CAB relationships.

What tactics are you deploying for employee engagement that spur a great customer

experience?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

customer experience

employee engagement

Four Ways to Strengthen The Collaboration Culture

7:06:16 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

I spotted this whitepape c ll “Bu l c ll v w pl c ”

which explores what is meant by collaboration and why organisations and individuals should

build their collaboration capability. Then, based on that understanding, it lays four ways for

developing a collaboration capability.

What is collaboration

Collaboration is a process through which people who see different aspects of a problem can

constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own

l m v f wh p l . A y ’ m h up f p pl w

together as teams and communities.

The three types of collaboration

In team collaboration, the members of the group are known, there are clear task

interdependencies, expected reciprocity, and explicit time-lines and goals. To achieve the

l m m mu fulfil h p w h h m .

In community collaboration, there is a shared domain or area of interest, but the goal is more

often focused on learning rather than on task. People share and build knowledge rather than

complete projects. Members may go to their communities to help solve their problems by

asking questions and getting advice, then taking that advice back home to implement in their

teams. Membership may be bounded and explicit, but time periods are often open or ongoing.

Network collaboration steps beyond the relationship-centric nature of team and community

collaboration. It is collaboration that starts with individual action and self-interest, which then

accrues to the network as individuals contribute or seek something from the network.

Membership and time-lines are open and unbounded. There are no explicit roles. Members

most likely do not know all the other members. Power is distributed.

Read more the three types of collaboration here.

Success factors

Below you find a neither definitive nor comprehensive list of things that are important to

achieve collaborative success.

Team

Common purpose or goal

An outcome that is valued

Pressure to deliver (a due date)

Complex problems that a single person could not resolve on their own

An explicit process for getting things done (no ESP required)

Community

A topic that members care about to a point where their identity is wrapped up in that

topic

A community coordinator who can orchestrate activities, introductions and

opportunities for learning

Regular social activities to build trust and new social connections among team

members

Opportunities to practise and gain experience, or vicariously gain experience by

hearing the stories of other practitioners

Leaders who see value in the community and at best encourage their staff to

p c p w ’ c u c mmu y p c p

Network

Technology to store and retrieve information of interest which makes it immediately

fi l v y h w

An appreciation of how effective use of social technology, such as bookmarking, will

save time and assist team and community collaborations

Having diverse skills in the organisation— c fil c c —who help

make sense of information and connections from the network and bring them back into

h fl w f l w . N v y h h u u h p pl

to

A tolerance for a high volume of information—knowing that you can catch what you

f m h fl w u y u c ’ he entire river

Ability to see connections across diverse signals and bits of information

Read the complete list here.

Does your organisation have a culture that works for the team, community and network types

f c ll ? O y u fi h cul u h fl c ll ? S fl

culture may include a singular focus on individual achievement, a culture that does not value

sharing knowledge or expertise, or simply ignoring the network.

Read further to understand the role of leadership, the team-,community- and network culture.

Four ways to strengthen the collaboration culture:

Foster collaboration leadership and support. Look here what the eight key indicators

are for a collaborative leader

Communicate the fruits of collaboration

Implement collaboration tools

Start Communities of Practice

What type of collaboration to you have in your organization?

Have you already implemented the four ways to strengthen collaboration culture?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Intangible Capital

Tags:

culture

collaboration

leadership

Cisco Elaborates on its Corporate Social Responsibility

Programs On #CSRchat

w 22:41:57 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Cisco CSR team was a guest on the bi-weekly #CSRchat. Read the

Corporate social Responsibility insights that Cisco shared with the crowd.

[View the story "Cisco Elaborates on its Corporate Social Responsibility Programs" on

Storify]

Cisco Elaborates on its Corporate Social

Responsibility Programs

CiscoCSR wasa guest on the bi-weekly #CSRchat. Read

the insights that Cisco CSR shared!

Storified by Damarque · Wed, Oct 10 2012 13:36:44

@CiscoCSR Q1: Why does @CiscoSystems do CSR? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A1:CSR helps build relationships & incubate new tech for benefit of society, planet & our

business http://csr.cisco.com #CSRchatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q2: The slogan of @CiscoCSR is: "you + networks=impact ^ x". Can you

explain this philosophy? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A2: When people & technology come together to address an issue, you can multiply your

impact. http://cs.co/6018TCv0 #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q3: What is the focus of the @CiscoCSR program? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A3:Focus on 5 pillars:Governance & Ethics, Supply Chain, Our People, Society & the

Environment. http://cs.co/6012TCv4 #CSRChatCisco CSR

A3:In society we focus on: #Education, #Healthcare, Economic Empowerment &Critical

Human Needs http://cs.co/6015TCv7 #CSRchatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q4: How does @Cisco leverage its products and skills to impact communities?

#CSRchatSusan McPherson

A4: We donate people expertise, networking& collaboration technologies and cash to address

social issues. http://cs.co/6017TCvh #CSRchatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q5: Can you tell us about one or two of your favorite @CiscoCSR initiatives?

#CSRchatSusan McPherson

A5:Networking Academy has provided ICT skills education to 4+ M students thru people and

tech networks. http://cs.co/6016TCay #CSRChatCisco CSR

A5:After Sichuan quake built tech foundation to improve access to healthcare & education for

rural residents http://cs.co/6012TCaO #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q6: Why did Cisco CSR decide to partner w/ @HuffingtonPost on new

@HuffPostImpact section #ImpactX? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A6:We partnered w/ @HuffPostImpact on #ImpactX to inspire others to multiply their impact

through partnerships and technology. #CSRchatCisco CSR

A6: We also hope to share what @CiscoCSR has learned about using technology for

#socialgood. http://cs.co/6014TCaw #CSRchatCisco CSR

A6:Here is the link to the intro #ImpactX blog post from Cisco SVP Tae Yoo that explains

more. http://cs.co/6011TCa9 #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q7: Who are some of @CiscoCSR's community partners and how do you select

them? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A7: We partner with many NGOs like @CityYear, @Inveneo, @FeedingAmerica and

@OneEconomy. http://cs.co/6014TCaY #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q8: The @Cisco YouTube channel is quite popular. How do you use video to

engage audiences w/ @CiscoCSR? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A8:Video really brings a story to life-seeing & hearing from those impacted. Powerful

engagement tool in #SocialMedia. #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q9: Big question. How does @CiscoCSR use social media to advance its CSR

goals? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A9:We use #SM to share best practices, impact metrics, promote our partners, encourage

employee & customer engagement. #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q10: Which social platform have you found most effective for @CiscoCSR?

#CSRchatSusan McPherson

A10: A combo of blog posts, twitter and FB, with links to videos and stories on

http://csr.cisco.com. #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q11: Why do you think it's so important to communicate the @CiscoCSR

program w/ such a wide audience? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A11:Cisco is a global co committed to driving value for society, the planet & our business.

Hope to inspire others on #socialgood. #CSRchatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Q12: @CiscoCSR What tips would do you have for other CSR managers hoping

to incorporate social media? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A12:Be clear on goals and success metrics; focus on sharing best practices and lessons

learned, not just building followers. #CSRChatCisco CSR

@CiscoCSR Ahhh. Employee Enagement! Q13: How does @CiscoCSR engage employees

with programs? #CSRchatSusan McPherson

A13:We build awareness then encourage employees to donate to local/ global causes. Cisco

has an active volunteer program. #CSRChatCisco CSR

A14:Yes, one goal is to make our 60,000+ employees #CSR ambassadors for Cisco. Social

media is a great way to do that. #CSRChatCisco CSR

Q15: The @CiscoCSR reports are very thorough. What is your strategy for measuring

impact? #CSRChatSusan McPherson

A15:We follow the Global Reporting Initiative(GRI) -provides a complete sustainability

reporting framework http://cs.co/6012TCxg #CSRChatCisco CSR

Q16: What does the future of @CiscoCSR look like? #CSRChatSusan McPherson

A16:Our goal is to embed #CSR into daily operations so we can further multiply our impact

on society, the planet and our business. #CSRChatCisco CSR

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

CSR

Customer-Centricity Is Not An End Goal

w 22:20:43 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Forbes published an article called "The CMO is dead" which has

p . I ’ h h CMO l ead, and the reasons given are not reasons

to clarify the CMO dead, but to enrich the way CMOs conduct their role. One remark stood

out which was that the number one objective for the Chief Customer Officer (the new CMO

according to the writer) is customer-centricity.

The following end paragraph of the article was:

Back in the 1950s, the management guru Peter Drucker wrote that a company has two and

only two key functions – marketing and innovation – and that all other functions should

support these. Back to basics: Objective number one for the CCO is customer-centricity. This

focus must come from the very top and filter down through the whole organization so

everyone has the incentive to add value to the customer. Although paying attention to the

customer is common sense, unfortunately common sense is less and less common. The CCO

must be the first step in the right direction.

So – goodbye to the CMO, hello to the CCO.

What Drucker also said is that the purpose of an organization is to create and retain a

customer. Thàt is the basic which is being achieved through marketing and innovation. I don't

think that the objective number one for the CCO -CMO or however you want to name the

role- is customer-centricity. Customer-centricity is a means to and end. Companies do not

become customer-centric in order to achieve customer-centricity, they become customer-

centric to gain competitive advantages, to create profitable growth, to be able to be a resilient

organisation that does things different and relevant.

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

customer-centricity

Why Global Processes Help the Locals in Customer

Experience - Forrester Report

w 17:05:43 | Frederic Gilbert

According to the Forrester's report recent report "Global Processes Help to

Deliver Relevant Local Customer Experience", companies need to master 6 key disciplines of

Customer Experience in order to make their Customer Experience Strategy effective both on a

global and local scale. It all starts with people and how you let them express in your

framework. Here are the 6 disciplines you need to master:

Customer Understanding,

Measurement,

Governance,

Strategy,

Design

Culture.

The study clearly identifies the pitfalls and hurdles companies are experiencing to scale

Customer Experience to the local level. The variabilty due to human interactions can boost or

burn down the entire project. Hence the necessity to set up an agile process starting at the top

level but capable of adapting to the above topics. Trust & getting the people with the right

mindset to interact with customer would also be very important matters to master.

The questions raised by the study : In the end, the study challenges the decision makers to respond to the following : Does your

organisation have a global vision of the Customer Experience Strategy it wants to set up? are

all executives on-board? do you understand the stakes of Experience and how it can be used

to serve your business & customers? Can you scale the initiative and let it be embraced by the

locals to deliver the brand promises?

Key Findings

As already-heard as it seems, the 2 key findings of the research document are :

Customer Experience is Local by definition : As markets are more and more

commoditized in terms of services & products, Customer Experience has become the

key differenciator. However the experience is characterized by the interactions one has

with a brand. The perception of the experience and interactions can be largely

influence by culture, language and geography. Consequently local should be

empowered to adapt to the specificities of the environment

Firms need a global approach to Customer Experience Management : The choices that

existed before were either controlling everything from the headquarters or letting local

branches be entirely autonomous in the initiatives. However neither of these strategies

are profitable and tend to erode the brand's consistency and promise. Hence the

necessity to frame the approach with a set of processes and practices that can be

repeated, transferred to local branches. Success is in sharing the vision, values,

promises and delivering them at a local level with relevance.

Is your experience scalable? and can you act locally? Feel free to connect with us and lets

discuss the topic together.

Categories:

Customer Experience Management

Tags:

customer experience

Change Management

Global Technology

Processes

research

Eight Key Indicators For Collaborative Leaders

w 16:34:14 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

What is collaborative leadership? Collaborative leadership is a philosophy

of leadership where the leader becomes a facilitator instead of an authority figure and allows

the team or a group of people to collectively discuss problems, make decisions and innovate

lu . Th f m c u h v z l “Z u cul u ” wh h

leader is key. In a time where organizations are more and more perceived as platforms, I

believe that leaders need to be platforms as well. Have a look at the eight indicators.

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320136393/

Source: visual.ly via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

collaborative leader

Lufthansa Cargo's Supply Chain Open Innovation

Challenge

9 7:14:58 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Lufthansa Cargo has just launched its second Air Cargo Innovation

Challenge. This is for customers or anyone who thinks they know at supply chain, to submit

creative, exciting (or not so exciting) and out-of-the-box ideas about improving customer

service in the air freight industry.

This challenge is being split into four categories;

Customer touch points and services - Tell us how we can better and more effectively

interact with our clients.

Applify Cargo and the use of new technology - How can all modern means of

communication via new technology be applied to Air Cargo customer service?

Customer loyalty programs - Can you imagine innovative and attractive loyalty

programs which provide added value to the customer?

Blank room - forward thinking and out-of-the-box ideas. Anything goes here, be a

visionary and inspire us!

The contest ends on November 7th, with winners announced the first week of December.

Categories:

Innovation

Tags:

Lufthansa Cargo

Three Critical Elements to Sustainable Employee

Engagement

m 8 21:06:12 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Th “ Gl l W f c S u y: E m R ” study by

Towers Watson provides a snapshot of the attitudes and concerns of 32,000 workers around

h w l . I h l h h w mpl y ’ v w ff c h m h w

commitment to their employers, and ultimately, their behavior and performance on the job. As

such, it provides us with important insights into the elements of the work environment that

help shape employee behavior and performance in positive ways to support growth goals.

And it presents a new and more robust definition of engagement — sustainable engagement

— designed for the 21st-century workplace. Sustainable engagement fits the Purpose-driven

organization we wrote about earlier.

Globally, nearly two-thirds (65%) of the more than 32,000 full-time workers participating in

u u y h hly . Wh l h ’ u p — considering workers have

been doing more with less, and for less, for over half a decade — it poses a significant risk for

employers. Are they at a critical tipping point in their ability to sustain engagement over time?

And if they are, what actions can they take to turn the tide, given the significant implications

of declining engagement on productivity and performance?

Other key findings from the survey:

Stress and anxiety about the future are common.

Security is taking precedence over almost everything.

Attracting employees is almost entirely about security.

R mpl y h m w h h “qu l y” f h w xp c v ll.

Employees have doubts about the level of interest and support coming from senior

leaders.

There are three key points to understand sustainable employee engagement:

1) Engagement is not satisfaction or happiness at work. Employees can be

quite satisfied with their work and happy to come in every day because the

love the Starbucks in the café or spending time with their friends at work. That

’ m h y’ uly engaged – willing to give additional discretionary

effort (above and beyond job specs) because they want to.

2) Sustained engagement requires you change the game. You cannot

continue to do the same things ad nauseum and expect continued strong results.

What engages people today will change as the people themselves and their

w l ch . Th ’ h y p f h “enablement” portion of the

sustained engagement equation. Are you continuing to give your employees

what they need so they want to deliver the discretionary effort you need?

3) Energy matters – and so does attitude. Well-being, a key component of

T w W ’ f f “energy ” h p c I’v w

before that is too easily discounted. Do you want to come to work and do your

best in a miserable environment of grumpy, mean or even abusive people? I

w h ’ c uc v m ng my best work. Creating a positive work

environment is fundamental to sustained engagement.

Source: recognizethisblog.com via Damarque on Pinterest

What does your organization do to create an energized and purpose-driven environment?

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

employee engagement

The Five Biggest Supply Chain Challenges According to

the Supply Chain Council

m 8 20:28:22 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Supply Chain Council (SCC) is an independent, nonprofit, global

corporation with membership open to all companies and organizations interested in applying

and advancing the state-of-the-art in supply chain management systems and practices. The

recent economic recession forces companies to take an intense look at their supply chains,

question some of their assumptions, and root out major inefficiencies. Read what the SCC

identified as the five key supply chain management challenges.

The five challenges identified by the Supply Chain Council:

Customer service Effective supply chain management is all about delivering the right product in the

right quantity and in the right condition with the right documentation to the right place

at the right time at the right price. If only it were as simple as it sounds.

Cost control Supply chain operating costs are under pressure today from rising freight prices, more

global customers, technology upgrades, rising labor rates, expanding healthcare costs,

new regulatory demands and rising commodity prices. To control such costs there are

thousands of potential metrics that supply chain organizations can and do measure.

Managers need to zero in on the critical few that drive total supply chain costs within

their organizations.

Planning and Risk Management Supply chains must periodically be assessed and redesigned in response to market

changes, including new product launches, global sourcing, new acquisitions, credit

availability, the need to protect intellectual property, and the ability to maintain asset

and shipment security. In addition, supply chain risks must be identified and

quantified. SCC members report that less than half of their organizations have metrics

and procedures for assessing, controlling, and mitigating such risks.

Supplier/partner relationship management Different organizations, even different departments within the same organization, can

have different methods for measuring and communicating performance expectations

and results. Trust begins when managers let go of internal biases and make a

conscious choice to follow mutually agreed upon standards to better understand

current performance and opportunities for improvement.

Talent As experienced supply chain managers retire, and organizations scale up to meet

growing demand in developing markets, talent acquisition, training, and development

is becoming increasingly important. Supply chain leaders need a thorough

understanding of the key competencies required for supply chain management roles,

specific job qualifications, methods for developing future talent and leaders, and the

ability to efficiently source specific skill sets.

Do these challenges is these areas also apply to you?

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

supply chain council

The Purpose-Driven Organization - First Why Then Trust

m 8 19:56:19 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

We live in an era of transparency, of an easyness to collaborate and share

f m . Bu ’ l h f distrust, of crises and a Post-Growth Economy or Shared

Value by Porter. It are in these turbulent times that a Purpose driven organization will have

more impact, be more directive and inspiring and is more sustainable. As Sinek says, being

amongst people who believe what you believe, that is key. This counts for your employees,

your business partners and customers, the complete supply chain. Being amongst people that

share the same the Purpose, only then Trust thrive in this connected society.

Have a look at this inspiring video by Sinek, First Why and then Trust.

In a social media ruled era, outside-in reigns, the customer is king, co-create with them and

what more.

One of the wise lessons of Richard Branson however is:

F B h m mp f c f l h p l h p pl . “If

y u’ w h p pl … y u lly c u ly c u p pl h I’m u w

c ul f j f y u V ” h y . “Th c mp h l f h p pl

h c mp h lly w ll. I’m u w ’ l f w h u u h t would be

h m mp .”

T h mpl y mp m pl y c uc l h ucc f B ’ V

Emp pu mpl y f cu m c h h l h . “A c mp y

p pl … mpl y w w… m I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People

lly f l w .”

If you take care of your employees they will take care of your customers. This is where

Purpose and Trust are important.

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Intangible Capital

Tags:

purpose

Social CRM Company Capillary Technologies Raises

$15.5M: Real-time Is The Big Differentiator

m 8 17:23:36 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

TechCrunch reports that Capillary Technologies, a social CRM company

that helps retailers engage over mobile, email, social and in-store channels, is announcing the

close of $15.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture

Partners with Qualcomm Ventures also participating in the round. The company, which offers

a cloud-based SaaS platform for customer engagement, clienteling, loyalty and social CRM

solutions, currently works with over 100 major brands across 10,000 locations worldwide, and

just recently entered the U.S. market.

What makes the system a big draw for brands, he explains, is its ability to integrate with

hundreds of different point-of-sale systems, as well as th f w ’ l-time nature which is

able to identify customers immediately after sign-up – f wh l h y’ ll h .

How the tech works:

A cu m h up u h ph y c QR c h ’

display. Th y’ h p -up to receive messages from the brand, and that

page uses Facebook Connect to quickly pre-f ll h cu m ’ f m wh l l h

customer data back with the brand. The moment the sign-up process is complete, the cashier

at the point-of- l mm ly h cu m ’ p c u ll pp

h y m. B f f h cu m ’ c h c u ff

c mm h c um ’ v c .

Co-founder Krishna Mehra (President – Americas), who founded the company alongside

CEO Aneesh Reddy and VP of Operations Ajay Modani:

Trying to engage with customers is adifficult thing. The existing mechanisms to capture

customer data and interact with customers through plastic cards, and all these things, are very

sub- p m l. M y m v pu ch c ’ lly c p u l f qu l y cu m

. Th ’ m h w lve very well.

What makes the system a big draw for brands, he explains, is its ability to integrate with

hundreds of different point-of- l y m w ll h f w ’ l-time nature which is

able to identify customers immediately after sign-up – f wh l h y’ ll h .

Categories:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tags:

social crm

The Supply Chain Defines Social Media Too Narrowly

m 8 16:53:33 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

We are investigating how transparency and collaboration –through the

integration of social technologies- can help supply chains to innovate, to be resilient.

Improvements in the supply chain are created through information sharing and better

alignment in decision making. There are discrepancies between the above and practice. I came

across this article on supply chain executives and how social media is perceived. It describes

well some of the experiences and feedback we encounter.

The majority of the supply chain executives who participated in the sessions of the The

Logistics & Supply Chain Forum, believe that social media will transform supply chain

p c (f h ) w y w c ’ m y.

However, and this is not just limited to the supply chain, the writer elaborates:

F m x cu v h pu l c l h m “ c l m ” c lly qu

F c Tw L I h pu l cly cc l . Bu h c y m f “ c l

w ” lu l clu “E p . ” ppl c ( “Enterprise Social

Software”) h c mp c pl y lly f c l c mmu c

collaboration between employees and different functional groups, and with suppliers,

customers, and other external partners in a private, secure environment.

Th ’ f c nuous learning curve in educating the supply chain (and business in

general) in what social technologies are, the scope and applications of them. Partially the

discrepancy is sustained by the supply side of social technologies (agencies, consultancies

etc), focussing on B2C, specific functions such as Marketing, PR and comms and specific

networks. As the review of the Forum continues :

[…]I h h l l l y u c l m ff c v ly v c u u

mp v m v h c mp y u h x cu v ’ u l w

because his definition of social media was limited to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

In other words, many executives get caught up in the terminology (blogs, wikis, tweets,

discussion forums, RSS, Enterprise 2.0, etc.) and view social media as more work to do, more

information they need to sift through in addition to emails and voicemails. Think beyond

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Focus on the work, not the words.

The perception of social technologies to be additional work is an incorrect approach. Social

technologies offer better, faster and cheaper ways to support a vision or solve a business

p l m. If h y ’ v lu y u h v c f h m . “Bu l

ff h y w ll c m ” ff c v pp ch ch l y-centric instead of

business-centric.

In our continuous efforts in understanding the top challenges within supply chain

management and how potentially social technology integration can help solve them, please

share yours in the blog or contact us.

C c ly u ch h ’ ch ll w ll h lp uc ch h cc l

supply chain innovation.

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

social technology

integration

Key Role of Social Business Analyst Is Emerging

z 14:34:41 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

In a previous article about delivering the social business imperative, the

enabling roles to deliver social business mentioned an emerging critical role, the Social

Business Analyst. A dedicated role that acts as a liaison between IT and the business.

In the Forrester article, Koplowitz ends with the role of the social business analyst which is

often not funded and where skills are only now being defined:

Social business analysts define and measure business value. Emerging systems of

engagement and their ever-increasing integration with systems of record offer businesses the

opportunity to re-think knowledge worker-c c p c . O c “ f y u u l

h y w ll c m ” pp ch unlikely to drive optimal results. Forward-thinking organizations

have established a dedicated role to act as a liaison between IT and the business to educate the

business on driving business value and to take technical requirements from the business back

to IT to drive social business and collaboration strategy and investments. This critical role is

just emerging and often requires organizations to add net new headcount.

Th “ f y u u l h y w ll c m ” pp ch w ll ò v p m l ul v g and

linking it with business issues and how it can create business value is a sustainable approach.

Secondly, start small, test and learn, build your business case and decide upon results if and

how you should proceed with further integration.

The benefits of this process are higher speed, lower risk and a better outcome versus

traditional IT implementation processes. Furthermore, this approach promotes sharing and

collaboration and leads to a better mutual understanding among the team members of their

respective missions, goals and needs.

From a non IT perspective, social business analysts need to understand and be able to change

and direct culture, processes and capabilities in order to align effectively the social IT

solutions with the business. Besides those, there are the politics, reaching out to the right

stakeholders and what more that need to be addressed effectively, if a social business

transformation wants to happen effectively.

Do you think all these skills can be unified in one person? Or would a cross-competence team

be more feasible?

Ask us if you wish to find out what skills a social business analyst needs to have within your

business context and challenges.

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

social technology

social business

Forrester: Four Major Goals for Enterprise Social

Networking Integration

z 10:00:22 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Forrester fields hundreds of client inquiries each year on the topic of social

business and collaboration. And the trend doesn't appear to be slowing. Transparency,

collaboration and acceleration of the intangible capital are creating both challenges and

opportunities.

Vice president of Forrester Research Rob Koplowitz said at TUCON 2012, Las Vegas:

W ’ v c l ch l y m h f . Wh ’ ch m h y h

l h l l c m c l y… W ’ w c ph c u .

Why are they implementing social technology? Koplowitz answered that companies are

depending on information.

By having a (more) transparent infrastructure, across silos where different perspectives

h c u p c p pl wh m c mp l “

p ” much f ff c v .

Earlier this year, Koplowitz wrote this article on delivering the social business imperative.

The goals he hears from clients revolve around four major goals:

Breaking down geographic boundaries. There is a keen recognition that large global

organizations do not capture information and identify expertise effectively. Finding

content and experts in a large, geographically dispersed organization can be like

finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. If I have a question in London and the

best answer is from someone in Singapore, can I really expect that connection to be

made?

Breaking down organizational boundaries. Same dynamic as above, different

barriers. If I'm in customer service and the information I need to help a customer is

with a salesperson, can I make that connection?

Flattening organizational hierarchy. Of those investing in social networking

solutions, many are driven from the top down. C-level executives are often turning to

IT with the mandate to make the enterprise "more social." Why are these executives

looking to drive such profound change? Because they recognize that their businesses

are far too complex to be run effectively without meaningful input from the people

that are actually running the business every day.

Driving collective action. The actions of many are more powerful than the actions of

few. And organizations are acutely aware of this. In most of my client conversations,

the topic of innovation is a top-level driver of enterprise social initiatives. Within

innovation, the topic of new product development is top of mind. In other words,

many organizations are looking to drive the lifeblood of success, the products they

sell, collectively.

In a previous article we reported about four reasons why Enterprise Social Networking is

exloding. One of the reason was the ability to drive real business value. McKinsey researched

that the unlocked potential annual value of social technologies is 1.3 trillion in four sectors.

In order to achieve this, Koplowitz says that successful implementation of social business and

collaboration solutions requires standard IT diligence and the usual roles to apply it. Some of

these roles are tecnical and some are non technical. Examples are collaboration managers,

solution- and enterprise architects, HR professionals, community leaders and social business

analysts.

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

Enterprise Social Networking

The Future of Retail: Consumers Expect An Ingrated

Multi-Channel Service

v j 20:08:41 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

In a new report, l “D l Sh pp R l v cy ” C p m u v y

16,000 digital shoppers across 16 developing and mature markets about their use of different

channels and devices for shopping. The study demonstrated that shoppers are not loyal to one

channel but expect a seamless integration across online, social media, mobile and physical

stores.

The study also highlighted that 56 percent of respondents are likely to spend more money at a

physical store if they had used digital channels to research the product prior to purchase,

however 73 percent of respondents also expect online prices to be lower than those in physical

stores.

When asked what channels were important or very important for learning about products, 72

percent said Internet sites, 58 percent cited email newsletters and product/coupon offers, and

49 percent mentioned in-store technology.

The Tennessean reports on the study:

The simple availability of information is no longer an issue. What companies must do is

become trusted sources of knowledge and provide the platforms where consumers can share

experiences. Those companies will become the preferred brands.

Exactly this is important, creating such a compelling and relevant customer experience that a

brand becomes a trusted source.

SocialCommerceToday elaborates on the report by writing that the retail landscape as we

know it is set to change. More than half of the respondents from both developing and mature

markets said they expect physical stores for increasing numbers of categories will simply

become showrooms to select and order products by 2020.

This development might mean it helps the change the brick and mortar retail landscape.

Creating areas of mainly showrooms, pop-up stores and what more, combining it with an

online environment, creating the expected integrated (transmedial) all-channel service.

Local shopping engine Milo has produced an infographic of the research, see below:

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320126652/

Source: socialcommercetoday.com via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Business Models

Tags:

retail

sector

capgemini

research

Co-operatives Are Resilient And Contribute To a More

Balanced Economy

v j 14:57:31 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Guardian reports about the launch of The Co-operative Enterprise Hub

to support the creation and growth of community-owned enterprises. The Co-operative has

pledged a further £5million between 2012-14 to continue to develop the service which

provides free specialist advice, training and access to finance – plus a radical new scheme to

underwrite community share issues - enabling co-operatively-owned organisations to get off

the ground or grow.

From pubs to post offices and retail to renewables, resilient communities are turning to co-

operatively-owned solutions to operate business and services that are set-up, run and

controlled for the benefit of the community.

Michael Fairclough, head of community and co-operative investment at The Co-operative,

said:

Communities, driven by needs other than to maximise profit, are turning to co-operatively-

owned solutions to tackle local issues and, for the provision of businesses and services

important to their needs - enterprises operated by a general public increasingly concerned for

environment, accountability, community cohesion and sustainability. The co-operative

business model has a significant role to play in fostering the growth of future enterprise and

contributing to the rebuilding of a more balanced and stable economy.

Tiziana O'Hara from the Northern Ireland Co-operative Forum - the regional body

representing existing and emerging co-operatives in Northern Ireland, said:

Co-operatives are resilient even in a downturn, reinforcing the fabric of our communities and

contributing to a more balanced economy.

I ’ x c ly h m l c c my w ’ l f . Th f x mpl u h

collaborative consumption initiatives, or where networks of self-employed people are helping

each other. These kind of initiatives, spread the risk and benefits the individuals within

communities.

Indeed communities and societies need to have a better grip on the economy. How do you

think this fits within the purpose of a business and shared value, as explained by Michael

Porter?

Categories:

Open Industry and Open Economy

Tags:

co-operative

Social Media Monitoring Tools Comparison Guide:

Radian6 Tops

v j 14:04:53 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

PR 20/20 has created a social media monitoring tools comparison guidethat

compares nine monitoring tools. They have compared things like price, the ideal user, blog

coverage, social media coverage, email alerts, dashboard and more. There are a lot more

m l I ’t know why exactly thése nine have been selected, but it does give a

good overview between the tools.

Radian6 tops the other eight tools. Of course it depends on what kind of user you are and for

what objectives you want to use monitoring. The coverage, completeness and depth of

Radian6 in terms of sources is impressive. Having a full (or near full) overview of the

landscape is a precondition to do your analysis on. Have a look at the guide below.

Which monitoring tool do you advice which is not listed?

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

social media monitoring

Top Five Trends in B2B Content Marketing

v j 11:04:11 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Holger Schulze conducted a survey and compiled the report B2B Content

Marketing Trends 2012. I ’ p f h f wh c m

wh . I ’ l z h c m ju xp c

m m f l v wh l . W ’v pply c marketing for many

years now, amplifying the brand, spur thought leadership and being a platform where people

(businesses) with the same Purpose gather.

The top five trends are:

1. Content marketing is expanding dramatically in terms of tactics, forms and volume of

content.

• 8 p c f m y c p uc h

• Ov h lf f h p c p u m f m c c h h y m

“ ff c v ”

• Th m p p c c c ff t functional roles

2. Content is at the heart of B2B marketers top 3 goals—lead generation, market

education and brand awareness.

3. The fastest growing content format is Infographics, whose use increased 1.5x from last

year.

4. Biggest challenge for marketers is time and bandwidth to create content.

• 9 p c f B B m c w c f m c ch

5. Most B2B marketers are trying to measure content engagement.

• W ffic v w & w l l qu y & qu l y h p 3 m u ments

Three top goals for B2B content marketing

The top three goals are –as mentioned in the trends- lead generation, thought leadership &

market education and brand awareness. Through brand awareness by educating the market

and thought leadership, as a brand you Give First. You connect the dots, you create clarity

amongst the many developments. You develop Trust and become a reliable source.

Future

Over 84 percent of marketers are increasing content production over the next 12 months, over

30 percent of them significantly so. 14 percent of marketers expect volume to stay flat. In

contrast, last year, over 71 percent of respondents saw an increase in content production —

looks like the pace of content production is picking up steam.

What about you? Are you picking up on B2B content marketing? If so, what is your top goal?

Thanks for the hat tip Greg!

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

content marketing

Shared Thoughts From the #HBRchat On Big Data

21:00:59 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Today I joined the #HBRchat facilitated by @HBRExchange. Today's

topic was big data. Lots of people shared their thoughts on the topic. Have a look below for a

compilation of great thoughts shared by attendees of the chat. Enjoy.

[View the story "Thoughts from the #HBRchat on #bigdata" on Storify]

Thoughts from the #HBRchat on #bigdata

Today the #HBRchat by @HBRExchange was about

bigdata. Have a look below for some great thoughts shared

by attendees of the chat.

Storified by Damarque · Thu, Oct 04 2012 11:52:34

"The first question a data-driven organization asks itself is not 'What do we think?' but 'What

do we know?'" http://bit.ly/SxMBrC #hbrchatHBR Exchange

Great point. RT @leadfearlessly: Intuition guides what to ask, data makes course corrections.

#HBRChatSusanne Goldstein

RT @HBR xch : "B ’ p w h f v hum h ."

http://flpbd.it/QyJqs #hbrchatPallav Sinha

@HBRexchange The discussion at #hbrchat was immense but you were rather ungenerous

with the RTs today. Many valuable insights were ignored. (Ritu)

I fully support emphasis on proper methodology. RT @diwasamadge: ...pitfall of the mass

data grab #HBRchatLisa03755

@Lisa03755 @erichargraves It's not always about FASTER, it's about SMARTER -

sometimes takes more time upfront. #hbrchatTranscend Coaching

Data is a tool for execution. It doesn't execute, but rather leads our assumption about the

future. Better data, Better assumptions #HBRchatEric Hargraves

@mikepweiss Data, if not named & shared correctly can get "too inside baseball". Action

from actionable data #HBRChatSusanne Goldstein

@leadfearlessly Prototype and simulate it. Then, implement it on small scale and identify the

strengths and weakness. Leverage it. #HBRChatVidhya

@HBRexchange. Data comes fm data modeling wch should be outputted by conceptualizing

a fact-proof reality, thus buiding it fm facts #hbrchatMichel. M

transparency improves decision making. Multiple teams may benefit from the same data

through differing perspectives. #HBRchatEric Hargraves

@vasundhar Yes, right measure gives the right ingredient to concentrate upon to improve

efficiency and to cut costs. #HBRChatVidhya

MT @FollowSusanne: A3: Right data for right people. Data dissemination should be part of

companys information sharing strategy. #hbrchatHBR Exchange

If broad, need great reporting tools to drill into specific questions. #hbrchatTranscend

Coaching

Bravo! RT @leadfearlessly: Data drives better decisions only when we stop looking ONLY

for the data that supports our opinion... #hbrchatLisa03755

@phixod @AchimMuellers Proper methodology, analysis, and interpretation become

increasingly valuable due to data noise. #HBRchatDaniel Iwasa-Madge

@Lisa03755 @hbrexchange This is where increased level of skill is needed for big data. Next

big challenge is hiring the skills set #hbrchatLinda O'Neill

Data validates Intution. Intution in a way is outcome of experience, which is data that can't be

transfered. #HBRChatvasundhar

Strategy is always an intuitive leap. Data helps measure whether or not it works.

#hbrchatTranscend Coaching

Visualization of #bigdata correlation and causation can often sway where words cannot.

#hbrchatStephen Bates

If it is only Data, then the chimp promoting his product on #HBRChat search can make a

decision as well ! Intuition from experience shd aidSid Mishra

Concur!! RT @Lisa03755: @hbrexchange A2: Intuition AND data – They complement each

other. I always want supporting data. #hbrchatStephen Bates

Smart leaders calibrate their positions & decisions with new input. #intelligence

#hbrchatJustin Mass

Data is a tool. Intuition is a feeling. Talking to customers/users/implementers -- priceless

#HBRChatSusanne Goldstein

RT @ValaAfshar: RT @ValaAfshar: Good management is based on data, experience,

judgment and influence. #HBRchatRich Casselberry

Fostering a culture of evidence-based decision making is critical. Reject the anecdote.

@HBRexchange #HBRchatDaniel Iwasa-Madge

@jmass In masses of data, it's difficult to determine what info is unusable in the given context

and to pinpoint the relevant data.#HBRchatVidhya

The difficulty is not creating charts and dashboard, it's creating the ones that deliver

actionable insights - dataviz is much more #hbrchatEric Kim

+1 RT @jmass: Data not big if action not acute. #hbrchatW3 Consulting

Training is key to ask creative questions, interpret & communicate action-oriented results for

#bigdata value #hbrchatMarie Taillard

Vital components 2 data analysis: #accuracy in reporting, selection of appropriate tests,

ensuring generalizability of #results. #HBRchatEvelyn Eury

Having data could be mistaken for having knowledge. Just having the data is not enough it

has to be managed to leverage it.#hbrchatAvason Consulting

Categories:

Big Data

Tags:

harvard business review

twitter

Three Social Media Opportunities in Supply Chain

Strategies

16:57:41 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

SCM W l ’ u l Ch f Supply Ch Off c Report, a global study of

almost 1,400 executives co-led by highly respected supply chain academic Dr Hau Lee, found

that social media i pl y l l l y’ upply ch ( 7% “ ff c ”

today). Read further what the three opportunities are and other key findings of the survey.

In the future many see three opportunities:

Get customer feedback (56%),

Inform product innovation (46%) or

Warn of supply disruptions (41%).

What do you think of these three opportunities as spotted by the respondents?

Other key findings are:

Digital and eCommerce. The steady growth of online shopping is increasing supply chain

complexity at many levels and forcing those closest to the consumer to adapt.

Three-quarters of respondents expect changes to their manufacturing strategies and

distribution networks, while 56% expect brands to increase their direct-to-customer

fulfilment channels.

By a ratio of 4:1 respondents expect consumers to be increasingly receptive to offers

trading price, convenience and selection against each other rather than merely seeking

the lowest possible price.

Most supply chain profession l hy w y f m h f m v u l ’ p v

web data (Facebook pages, Google searches, etc). But other sources of customer

insight are seen as fair game.

Social and environmental responsibility (SER). The trend towards SER initiatives seems

unstoppable and companies are becoming less tolerant of violations.

Almost a third of companies now give no warning to suppliers when they breach SER

standards, and of these almost half immediately terminate the relationship. Among

those that do warn first, those terminating rather than reducing business has grown

year on year.

Only a quarter of firms believe they have good visibility of SER performance across

their extended supply network.

More than half of respondents report good results from SER efforts in complying with

government regulations and laws, and in improving both supplier relationships and

customer satisfaction. But measuring benefits is a challenge for almost 6 out of 10.

Risk management. The vast majority of companies have been hit financially by

disruptions recently, and executives are on high alert when it comes to their suppliers.

Shortages of raw materials and components top the list of risks that respondents are

m w u ( h “v y c c ”). Sh pp up ural

disasters and other incidents affecting supplier facilities, and the failure of key

suppliers are close behind.

More than 8 out of 10 companies have been hit by supply- and demand-side

disruptions during the past two years. Almost half have suffered a loss of

sales/revenue and more than a third have experienced lower profits.

Dual or multi-sourcing of key materials and components is the most widely used

approach for mitigating risk, with more than three-quarters doing this on the supply

side.

Strategy alignment and value creation. Firms look to their supply chain functions for

smarter product launches, greater customer loyalty and higher sales – not just

operational excellence.

While almost two- h f x cu v p c uc w “v ry

mp ” v f h upply ch fu c h lf l h m u

increasing sales revenue and differentiating customer service from that of competitors.

The most significant ways in which supply chain excellence boosts top-line growth,

according to survey respondents, are the ability to launch new products on schedule,

ramp up production quickly, ensure repeat purchases through greater customer loyalty,

and receive priority treatment from suppliers when key materials and components are

in short supply.

The standing of the supply chain function is growing. Six out of 10 respondents agreed

h “ upply ch u qu lly mp p f u ucc

l m R&D/p uc v l pm ” c mp w h ju 0% who

believed it was still seen as a cost centre or service function.

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

social media

strategy

Twitter and Nielsen Team Up To Offer Brand Surveys

15:52:04 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Twitter has unveiled Twitter Surveys, a new advertising tool for brands and

marketers. Twitter will offer surveys (via @TwitterSurveys) that can run inside a Twitter

u ’ m l . A w w ll f u w h u v y h f h h cl c

w ll pp w h h m l h ’ w y f m Tw . Tw w w h

Nielsen to offer analysis of the results, allowing for more direct comparison to campaigns on

other sites as well as on TV.

However, the surveys are not designed to promote a particular product or service, but instead

to help marketers understand the success of their campaigns. Brand Strategy vice president

Joel Lunenfeld said:

It will give brands better insights to determine purchase intent, overall awareness, and other

advertising metrics and analytics that can lead to greater engagement on Twitter.

Have a look on Slashgear for screenshots.

Enabling technologies

This is a great example of how social is an enabling technology to have a faster (scalable and

with a click), better (continuous) and cheaper (in relation to conventional means)

understanding of purchase intent, awareness and understand campaigns across multiple

media.

Forbes further elaborates on the extensiveness of applications:

More i c h ’ h f f u l m u v y .

With the capability to offer a more interactive experience right inside the current Twitter

service, Twitter eventually could offer brands more creative tools beyond surveys, such as

rich media, video, commercial message sharing with followers or others on Twitter, or even

the ability to buy products without leaving Twitter.

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

twitter

nielsen

surveys

CEOs See Digital as Significant Driver of Future Growth

13:44:29 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Acc E & Y u ’ l CEO study Opportunity and

optimism: How CEOs are embracing digital growth released in September 2012, global

media and entertainment CEOs are optimistic about the digital future and expect digital

revenue will be a rapidly increasing percentage of overall revenue for companies.

Interesting insights from the report:

The technologies that enable double-digit growth are creating new digital ecosystems

Mobile devices to be the biggest driver of growth in content consumption

Ability to persuade customers to pay fair value for digital content among top CEO

challenges

84% of CEOs believe the role of social networking for their company is to connect

with customers; building audiences and brands are secondary.

76% of CEOs said the j c v f “ pp” p f u l f w

enhanced content and services.

The top priority for CEOs remains the evolution of digital and online distribution

(56%), followed by creatively differentiating content (44%).

Social and interactive media companies are best positioned among all media and

entertainment companies to thrive in the future, according to 59% of CEOs.

(taken from Mediapost)

The role of social media according to media and entertainment CEOs is quite limited to

connecting with customers (84% of respondents). Building audiences, which I think is more

from an acquisition point of perspective is second, with 69% of the respondents affirming

this.

The role of a distribution platform is just 50%, which I think has a big potential when looking

at user-centric applications instead of content-centric applications. Why not infuse Facebook

with content instead of getting people to specific content sites?

(taken from Mediapost)

Ubiquity is key, and social is already diffused quite a lot, therefore 41% of the respondents

say it is a big driver for growth. Number one with a full 100% affirmation is ubiquity from a

device point of perspective, namely mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets will spur

growth.

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

ceo

EY

research

entertainment

sector

The Multichannel Future of Doctor-Patient Relationships

12:52:25 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

P hc ’ article on the future of doctor-patient relationships ended with

the conclusion that the key to reducing physician stress and increasing patient trust , is getting

c c h v c c mmu c w h p . I ’ m f y u

use a horse and buggy like American doctors practiced medicine 150 years ago or apps and

p v c l w f h l hc ’ ll u h p -doctor relationship. What

are the three aspects of technology that drive a sea change in the doctor-p l h p…

P hc ’ cl h m ch l mentions:

1. Healthcare apps: Smartphone usage and adoption of innovative healthcare

apps are rising rapidly. Android may soon be the biggest selling medical

device in the world. Combined with private social networks for doctors and

patients, healthcare apps become a teaching and reference tool and also a great

private messaging tool for doctors to provide guidance and patients to provide

their personal experience and latest data points.

2. Knowledge management: Doctors have always been among the heaviest

users of Internet and search technology in the world for searching,

investigating, collaborating and publishing papers.Once upon a time, doctors

were exclusive gatekeepers of knowledge that a patient could not hope to

attain.Today, patients have high accessibility to data (whether a layman can

correctly interpret the data and convert it into valuable information and avoid

post-hoc error is another y…).Th c -patient relationship is getting

m p l h p wh c f p “What do you

think you have?” fully xp c h p h v h ch f

he came in.

3. Time (not having enough of it): We are all busy, but doctors are really busy

p pl h y’ l v p m m c mmu c w h p h

than getting into trouble with technology, clunky user interfaces and arcane

menus. A great user interface is fun, compelling and time saving for a busy

doctor.

The multichannel approach of relationships comes in when the writer challenges readers with

the question if healthcare apps, search engines, and directories add value to healthcare without

doctors?

His answer is:

No.

If you trust someone a lot – h y u’ll lly l h m . If y u ’ u h m –

then you may believe the opposite of what they say.

People became doctors because they wanted to help people, learn science and achieve better

science, not because they wanted to make a career out of texting with patients.

Patients come to doctors after conducting their own research because they need the physicians

knowledge, scientific training and gateway services to that scarce social resource called

healthcare.

So we have two channels in essence; a digital channel where you can search and play with

your app and a physical channel where you can learn and be guided by your doctor.

This is really a mashup. A maship of your virtual life and your real life.

And, that mashup of digital interactions and real interaction is a wonderful contribution to the

doctor-patient relationship.

Th c u f pl c “ch l ” h w ch ll c

multichannel approach that is complementary to each other.

Relationships (between care givers and patients/family) have a major impact on healthcare

outcomes. For the supply side: facilitating engagement and participation among healthcare

stakeholders is a major opportunity for gaining competitive advantage.

Digital and social technology support cost-effective healthcare:

Physicians believe the Internet is a real asset and love engaging with online

communities to share information and understand anxieties and needs.

Social media have made people hyper connected and has given the patient easy access

to information and more control over their own health.

Always find the best balance in needs and channels to create a holistic and beneficial doctor-

patient experience.

Categories:

Customer Experience Management

Tags:

healthcare

Content Marketing: The Content and Context Diarchy

11:43:41 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

A diarchy is a form of governing by two rulers, diarchies are known for

instance from ancient Sparta and Rome and is one of the oldest types of government. Within

content marketing the Diarchy is becoming more needed, just quality content is not going to

make it anymore. ExploreB2B wrote an article with a enumeration of reasons why content is

not being read.

The reasons are:

Your blog is new

There are millions of other blogs addressing the same topic as yours

Potential readers are unable to find you

You do not offer any subscription or information system

You do not give enough information about the blog or author

You post in irregular times and there are large spans of time in which there is no post

You publish, but do not share or spread your content

Creating a good context for the purpose of qualitative and relevant content is just as important

as the content itself.

Most importantly think how content marketing helps you in achieving your goals. This will

set the context and directions you will undertake.

If you relate content marketing to your brand, your target audience and what you want to

ch v y u c ff l y u h . Al l c ‘ v u

y m’ h u wh c c fu c wh ch y u c u

for content pieces. Make sure you syndicate your content in relevant social networks but also

offer a sharing infrastructure. It needs to be dead easy to share.

Start mapping your content and context needs and keep drilling down till you have created a

full and clear picture.

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

content marketing

Michael Porter's Purpose of Business

7:22:20 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

At the World Business Forum 2012 Michael Porter spoke about the

purpose of business, about shared value. The concept of shared value—which focuses on the

connections between societal and economic progress—has the power to unleash the next

wave of global growth, Porter wrote in the January 2011 edition of Harvard magazine. Have a

look what Porter said during the World Business Forum 2012.

The Purpose of Business

(Image from @pmadero)

There is an opportunity to transform thinking and practice about the role of the

corporation in society

Shared value gives rise to far broader opportunities for economic value creation

than conventional management thinking

Shared value thinking will drive the next wave of innovation, productivity and

economic growth Shared value will give rise to a new generation of management thinking

Businesses acting as businesses, not as charitable givers, are arguably the most

powerful force for addressing many of the pressing issues facing our society

A transformation of business practice around shared value will give purpose to the

corporation and represents our best chance to legitimize business again

These macro shifts in thinking and business context, or at least challenges for the status quo

are important. Important to understand how business will be conducted in the (near) future.

Important to understand what society thinks needs to be achieved. And important because it

affects the business strategy, its tactics and execution.

Have a look h f ll w ‘ y’ p c up m f h h p c up y

u M ch l P ’ p h WBF .

[View the story "Michael Porter's Purpose of Business - Shared Value" on Storify]

Michael Porter's Purpose of Business -

Shared Value

At the World Business Forum 2012 Michael Porter spoke

about the purpose of business, about shared value. The

concept of shared value—which focuses on the connections

between societal and economic progress—has the power to

unleash the next wave of global growth,

Storified by Damarque · Wed, Oct 03 2012 22:11:33

Shared value: capitalism is the key to solving the social needs of society. Create new markets.

Go beyond CSR. @MichaelEPorter #WBFNYJared Jamison

RT @LaureateIntlU: @MichaelEPorter at #wbfny "Shared value thinking will drive next

wave of innovation, productivity & economic w ..."ديمحلا دبـع دومـحم

RT @majo0207: "CSR is more about reducing the harm and building a reputation than

actually solving a problem," - Michael Porter #wbfnyWOBI

Michael Porter enWOBI TV #wbfny http://pic.twitter.com/sdi5BLYyViviana Alonso

RT @PeteBelyea: RT @PeteBelyea: People don't want to work for a company who's goal is

to increase shareholder value... You need "purpose" #WBFNY (@ Port ...Pedro G. Madero

Michael E. Porter on stage. #wbfny #wobi http://pic.twitter.com/dHzRLS0PCarmine A. Buda

Shared value is industry & company specific. Decide where's the biggest impact & biggest

connection - Michael Porter #WBFNYThink Marketing

#WBFny Michael Porter points out oil sands example of how industry has to review

economic cost of water & how recycling it proved beneficialShafraaz Kaba

RT @majo0207: "CSR is more about reducing the harm and building a reputation than

actually solving a problem," - Michael Porter #wbfnyWOBI

Social Deficits in the Community creates Economic Costs for Businesses #WBFNY

@Michael PorterJSC Management

Porter channels Econ 101-- externalities as market opptys for businesses @MichaelEPorter

#WBFNYMargaret Molloy

Social needs represent the largest market opportunities- Michael Porter at #WBFNYTatyana

Benders

Porter provokes packed house to broader definition of capitalism and ROI @MichaelEPorter

#WBFNYMargaret Molloy

"Creating Shared Value: Creating economic value by creating societal value." Michael Porter

#wbfnyThorsten Wichtendahl

"There are no examples of corporate philanthropy solving social problems"-Michael Porter

#WBFNY #LAUREATEWBFIBI BARRIENTOS™

Michael Porter's speech #WBFNY: Notion of "creating shared value" (CSV) is next step to

CSR. http://pic.twitter.com/mplWuqzAJulien Lafond

RT @illuminantceo: RT @illuminantceo: Prof Michael Porter of HBS advocating "addressing

social problems with capitalism" at the #WBFNYLeslie Henderson

At Michael Porter speech: effective businesses have moved from philanthropy to CSR to a

new Creating Shared Value approach #wbfnyWilliam Sparks

Porter: we're at time of knowing NGOs and govt can't solve the big problems, but biz

legitimacy and respect way down #WBFNYAndrew Winston

There can be no good society w/o business- Michael Porter #wbfny but what is the role of

business?Kelly Hoey

Michael Porter en #WBFNY @UVM_cl http://pic.twitter.com/oy1BXIzuFelipe Orlando

Valle

Michel Porter Creating Shared value, the new competitive adventage en el #WBFNY

http://twitpic.com/b0q921Juan Otero

Categories:

Open Industry and Open Economy

Tags:

michael porter

shared value

Nimble CEO: “Nimble Is Today to Salesforce What

Salesforce Was in the 90s and 2000s to Seibel”

woe 3 17:12:33 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

E l h y N m l ’ CEO Jon Ferrara made the bold statement

“Cu m l h p m m uc ”. F c ll N m l c l cu m

relationship management (CRM) company. Yesterday VentureBeat reported that Nimble is

going strong, having announced a series of product updates that will help salespeople more

effectively manage their contacts.

Nimble integrates all major social networks in order for sales people to have a holistic view of

a person, beyond a business card. VentureBeat follows:

The founders hope that their sales customers will no longer need to make those awkward cold

calls. Instead, the process will become far more personal. For instance, when a potential sales

p p c m “ch c - ” y F u qu y u’ll be notified and could join them for

cup f c ff . Th h w h h c l m y u’ll l ch

through their status updates for potential conversation topics.

Currently Nimble has has 45,000 users, 250 fully committed value-added resellers, and

40,000 unique visitors per month.

Are you using Nimble? If so, what are your perceived major benefits of using it?

Categories:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tags:

nimble

salesforce

Booking.com Superior On Social Media

w 3 16:45:35 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

E-commerce is vital to the travel industry, with almost three-quarters

of travel research taking place online and around a third of hotel revenue coming from online

bookings. A new report from QuBit found that Booking.com has the strongest social presence

amongst hotel brands in the UK. From a value creation point of perspective, how can all this

be capitalized?

Econsultancy elaborates on the QuBit report:

To measure how well each of the brands is performing on social media QuBit assessed their

presence across Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook.

S c l c c lcul ch c mp y’ ch c l w wh ch h

weighted based on the average time spent on the website and revenue driven through each

source.

Booking.com is an innovative and data-driven company, I wonder how they are maximizing

value out of all this social data and engagement.

There are four steps and activities in value creation through social technologies. From passive

to co-creative. Each step adds more cumulative value.

Booking.com listened to the customers base and picked out those platforms and executed

accordingly, which then shifts into facilitating communities and creating trust. Their

engagement on (for instance) is impressive and they are getting lots of fans to like and

involved in discussions.

What is Booking.com doing within the last stage of activities?

I h B .c m h m y ll c v u ’ m f ll w h u h

u l c c l m ’ full potential.

Have you unlocked social's full potential?

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

booking.com

hotels

social media

Social CRM Is Conversation Driven, Sales Are By-Product

w 3 15:58:00 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The infographic created by Our Social Times shows representation of a

complex issue, CRM. It's a good starting point for organisations seeking to integrate social

media into their customer and stakeholder management processes. The infographic hightlight

four uses of social CRM, Marketing, sales, Feedback and Service & Support. Read the key

points and see the differences between traditional CRM and social CRM.

The key points are:

.T y’ cu m m mp w c c h v f . B

respond.

2.Traditional CRM is about colelcting and managing customer data. Social CRM is a strategy

for customer engagement.

3.Traditional CRM is sales driven. Social CRM is conversation driven and sales are a by-

product.

Wh ’ y u p h h p ?

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320121573/

Source: econsultancy.com via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tags:

social crm

Link Your Strategic Issue With the Right Social Media

Monitoring Solution

w 3 12:43:14 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

I came across this article on SocialMediaToday m “ Qu

A S c l M M P v ”. Th y’v c mp l l f qu y

prospective social media monitoring partner. These are good questions for sure, but these

questions come at the end. Before you start inviting social media monitoring providers, figure

out what strategic issue you want to solve within the given context.

The article ends with:

There is a wide range of monitoring options that run the gamut from free and low scale to

v y xp v p h. Y u’ll h v c wh ch v c e best for you based

y u qu m wh y u’ l u f h m.

The starting point is: How can social technologies and data achieve business objectives

faster, better and cheaper?

What organizational functions do you need to alter in order to achieve your business

objective, or solve your strategic issue?

For example, different social media monitoring requirements are needed depending if you are

to capture consumer insights, or you want to provide customer care via monitoring. The

former means lots of analytical functionalities to help to understand effectively and efficiently

the social data. The latter requires perhaps more of a cockpit solution, where organizations

can aggregate conversations and workflow them to people to solve them. If you want to

generate and foster sales leads, a more integrated social monitoring and CRM solution might

be the best one.

Depending on how social technology (monitoring) can add value to a specific function you

can downdrill to the functionalities that enable you to do so.

Are you working from the business context?

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

social media monitoring

Share Your Examples of Innovators in Supply Chain and

Social Media Integration

18:52:13 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The topic of supply chain and the potential benefits of social media and

ch l p c. I ’ f f m y mpl m u

conversations around these two topics are increasing.

Research by IDC showed a growing need for solutions that incorporate external stakeholders

such as customers and suppliers in business workflow processes and feedback mechanisms.

An article in the CFO magazine points out to a supply chain revolution but that the challenge

is balance (in information supply). And yesterday Lora Cecere wrote a great blogpost as

response on my question what the biggest barrier for social technology integration in the

supply chain is.

Today I came across a tweet by @IEMichaela:

Why are social media collaboration technologies increasingly being integrated across the

supply chain? #SOPVGS

— Michaela Morrison (@IEMichaela) October 2, 2012

I was interested to know more about her experience and examples on supply chain and social

media integration.

@OPSrules said it all:

We would love to hear some. RT @damarqueviews @iemichaela Could you share some

examples of innovators in #supplychain and #socialmedia?

— OPS Rules Alerts (@opsrules) October 2, 2012

Please share your examples of innovators in the supply chain space that are experimenting

and thriving with social media integration. Transparency of sharing your examples will

further help understand what works and what not and where it could possibly head towards.

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

integration

How Social Media Is Changing Education

15:48:01 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

According to the latest data provided by BestCollegesOnline.com, 100% of

colleges and universities surveyed are using some form of social media. Based on that data,

The Technology Cafe created an infographic. Have a look what the key findings are.

The Technology Cafe broke the goals –behind social media integration- down into the

following categories:

1. Increase awareness/advocacy/rankings

2. Engage current students/faculty/staff

3. Recruit students, engage admitted students/alumni

4. Crisis issues and management

One in three schools say that social media is more efficient than traditional media in reaching

their target audience. When we look at the potential value and how easy it is to capture that

value (McKinsey research), there are great opportunities to transform, innovate but also

disrupt the educational sector.

How do you think social media will change education?

Have a look at the infographic and its results below:

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320119631/

Source: thetechnologycafe.com via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

education

sector

Five Social Media Opportunities for Car Insurers

15:12:31 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Socialnomics wrote an article why car insurers should be active on social

media. The article proposes five opportunities. Read what these are and my thoughts and

reaction to each of those five.

The five mentioned opportunities are (read the full descriptions here):

* Have a regularly updated blog – Your auto insurance website should have a blog that

provides relevant and timely news for consumers. Not only do you want to promote what your

business is doing, but also key in consumers on things going on in the auto insurance industry.

By doing so, your business will come across as an authority in the car insurance business.

Agree, key is that creating authority is of importance. Becoming a reliable source to whom

customers can return over and over again. This means also that car insurers need to talk about

cu m ’ ch ll h c ly w ll l h u ’p uc .

* Turn to the social media leaders – While there are countless social media vehicles

available for businesses, it only makes sense to first focus on the big ones, i.e. Facebook and

Twitter. The two leading social media venues are a great way for your auto insurance business

to interact with the public.

Always assess social media networks. Be where your customers are and be on those networks

that will support achieving your objectives and strategy. There are thousands and thousands of

ch c l w . Wh y y u m ’ p h h F cebook and

Twitter?

* Have a personable business approach – Yes, your goal on social media is to sell auto

insurance, but you have to do it in a non-aggressive manner. Consumers on social media want

to see a personable side to the man or woman selling car u c m h y ’ w

to get hit over the head with sales pitches all the time. It is important that personalities win out

here, meaning carry on conversations with consumers just like you would a neighbor.

This is in line with the first opportunity. Talk about needs, challenges and what more.

* Explore other social media options – While as mentioned Facebook and Twitter remain

the king and queen of social media, sites like Google+ and Pinterest are also good venues to

be seen and heard on.

For Google+ and Pinterest counts the same. Assess if these networks suite your audiences,

objectives and strategy.

* Link back to different media – Lastly, your social media efforts do not just have to be

verbal ones. You should also use Facebook, Twitter and other venues to link back to your

videos, podcasts and more. The days of advertising your car insurance business through a

simple flyer or business card are long gone.

Content marketing comes in many forms, choose those that best supports your goal.

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

insurance

automotive

sector

Salesforce Leads Gartner's Magic Quadrant 2012 for

Social CRM

11:39:12 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Relationships, not technologies, are what make CRM strategies successful.

They connect people and get work done, deliver value, solve problems and gain insight into

how better to serve customers in the future. The reality of Social CRM is that many

enterprise ’ f wh h y w h x v . S h y qu ly u l

their own CRM systems. This is in line with my observations on tailored monitoring

technologies.

Forbes elaborates on this discrepancy:

While it is an excellent analysis at the technical level, it needs more balance with the real

value of CRM in changing companies by changing people and relationships. By not having

that balance, the quadrant misses out on major trends occurring in Social CRM today.

Salesforce leads the social CRM market when it comes to the completeness of their vision in

combination with the ability to execute. Jive and Lithium follow closely.

Though, In a recent article on Forbes, the following was mentioned on Salesforce:

Panels agreed that while Salesforce has done well on the SaaS platform, it is getting a

reputation in larger corporate accounts of being hard to customize and use.

There will be a need for customization, be more business specific and relevant.

80% of companies follow the five stages of Social CRM Adoption, with social media

monitoring by PR and communications firms being the most common starting point. The

majority of the companies (70%) have are in the Initial and Developing stages of this maturity

model.

This abovementioned image relates to McK y’ m l, where ten social technologies can

add value in organizational functions within and across enterprises:

Knowledge valorization

Number nine and ten can be overlayed on the left side Organizational Functions, that will

open up these silos, and unlocking the power of cross-departmental thinking and ideation.

Opening up the organization internally and the value network (between organizations) will

boost be the apex of knowledge valorization. Valorizing knowledge faster and better,

speeding up processes, decision-making to operate within the window of –real-time-

opportunity.

Categories:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tags:

salesforce

social crm

Four Preconditions To Capitalize on Your Big Social Data

10:08:06 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Last week, september 26th, I gave a presentation at Data Pioneers, an

inspirational afternoon where in short sessions different insights were given on social media

research and big data. The presentation I gave was from a business context point of

perspective. What are the four preconditions in order to be able to benefit from social big data

as effectively and efficiently. View the presentation in this post.

Multiscope Data Pioneers - Taming Big Social Data

Multiscope Data Pioneers - Taming Big Social Data from DamarqueViews

In a fast (continuously) changing connected world we need to make a plan of action that

integrates social technologies and their data effectively to become fast, fluid and flexible in

order to stay competitive.

To integrate social technologies and to benefit from their data effectively, a holistic starting

point needs to be taken. How can social technologies and data achieve business objectives

faster, better and cheaper.

The current state of social data however shows a discrepancy between experience and

expectation, there is still a lot of untapped potential business value. The most important

discrepancies are lack of leadership, vision and skills to act on unstructured big social data.

I made the analogy with the dragonfly. The dragonfly is the only insect able to propel itself in

any direction—with tremendous speed and force—when its four wings are working in concert

(see also the Dragonfly Effect).

Th “ fly” organisation also needs to be resilient, agile, to be able to propel itself in any

direction, fast, fluid and flexible and pointed out in the first slide. But to do so, the dragonfly

needs its four wings to work in concert.

What are the four business succe “w ”?

Align social media strategy with business objectives

Build internal capabilities

Tailor organizational design to operations

Create a culture of sharing, accountability and learning

F c u h p w h h f u “w ” not specific to big data. This is

correct, these four success factors are applicable to any change journey. Business

management would become very complex if for any new development a specific and unique

framework should be adhered.

What is your biggest barrier to effectively make use of big social data?

Click here to read how we can help you throughout the whole process in a low risk manner to

benefit from social big data.

Contact us to jointly assess the opportunities and challenges for your business.

Categories:

Big Data

Tags:

social media

Is Content Marketing Traditional Advertising's New

Rival?

m 21:11:30 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

A rich infographic by Marketo shows that content marketing is a force to

be reckoned with. As companies seek to expand their reach online, budgets for Content

Marketing are growing and new tactics and promotion strategies are being explored. Dive in

the infopgraphic and see how organizations are currently using it, and the budgets that are

being allocated tot his massive new platform.

The quote by Gary Vaynerchuck fits perfectly with the infographic:

"I think we're all in the content business" ~ @garyvee (via @tonyahallradio ) @driverappear

LISTEN NOW HERE > @1580krel

— Tonya Hall (@TonyaHallRadio) October 1, 2012

We are all in the content business, it is one of the ways how organizations can thrive in an

intangible and knowledge driven society. Attention = key.

Why should companies use content marketing?

The infographic shows it shoulde be used for risk mitigation, lead generation, lead nurturing

and lead scoring. Especially the risk mitigation reason is forgotten, but this getting of greater

importance. In a dynamic landscape, right decisions needs to be made day in day out, a trusted

advisor can support their clients through content marketing.

What are the top three content marketing tactics that you are using?

With regard to the budgets, 51% will increase its spend in the next 12 months. In terms of

outsourcing content marketing or doing it in-house, 45% mentions that it is fully done in-

house and 52% is having a dual approach, both in-house and outsourced.

If you outsource your content marketing, which tactic is that?

Do you think content marketing will overtake traditional advertising when it comes to budget?

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320118271/

Source: slagtermedia.nl via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

content marketing

Supply Chain and Social Media: Lora Cecere Responds

With Great Insights

m 20:25:07 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

It is affirming once more how social media makes it possible to connect

qu c ly w h xp . Supply ch ‘Sh m ’ L C c w p qu

I asked her via Twitter. Never expected to be a complete blogpost. Thanks Lora! Read here

valuable insights on supply chains and social media.

Based on a retweet by @Icecere on social media being a platform for supply chain innovation,

I asked her the following question:

@lcecere @chrobinsoninc @bizphyx What do you think is the biggest barrier for social tech

to be a platform for #supplychain innovation?

— Damarque (@DamarqueViews) September 30, 2012

This is what she responded:

The supply chain is knotted. It is unruly. It is complex. Will it ever be tamed through social?

Yesterday, @DamarqueViews asked me a question on twitter: “What do you think are the

greatest barriers in the adoption of social technology in the supply chain?” I laughed. Such a

deep question on twitter. I tried and tried to figure out how I could answer this question in 140

characters on Twitter. I could not. It was preposterous to try. So, I thought that I would write a

blog to answer what seems like a simple question.

For many readers that know my background, they know how deeply I have thought about the

topic. I find the evolution of social technologies, and the promise of social, exciting for the

supply chain. So much so that in 2010, I believed that the convergence of social and

traditional enterprise applications would happen quickly. It is one of the reasons that I went

from working at AMR Research to being a partner at the Altimeter Group. It is also why I

launched the Rise of Social Commerce Event at Altimeter. It is why I bought a license for

Jive and built the Supply Chain Insights Community.

My writing in this area was very early. I quickly found that the two topics were worlds apart. I

had to learn a new language, a new set of vendors and connect with a new group of users. It

was earlier than even supply chain innovators. What I found when I tried to help supply chain

leaders connect the dots was:

Click here to read her complete blogpost response on the matter.

What do you think of Cecere's views?

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

Lora Cecere

Five Challenges in Establishing And Running an Online

Health Community

m 15:17:58 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

In the article “Th p w f P c mmu “ f v ch ll

mentioned to pharma marketers when they set up and run an online health community. Most

importantly is the shift from product thinking into patient thinking by pharma marketers.

The five challenges mentioned are:

(1) Your audience has unmet needs and your online community needs to fill those needs. You

need to do research to really understand what they need besides product benefits. You need to

understand the emotional needs.

(2) Marketers should work very closely with their MLR teams to ensure that they can win

them over for the need of establishing online communities.

(3) You can work within DDMAC guidelines by either establishing an online community in

an unbranded site or by having every post be reviewed before it goes live on a branded site.

This is what I did with Sarafem over 10 years ago and it was successful.

(4) You need to provide patients with answers THEY want answered not with marketing point

of sale talk. Remember ePatients today want to better understand how treatments are going to

allow them to live a quality of life on THEIR terms.

(5) Think of your brand beyond just the product. Think of your brand as the first place

ePatients turn to for help and answers especially when the media talks about new treatment

options or problems with current treatments.

Participatory healthcare

Pharma marketers have the opportunity to become that trusted source for patients. People

’ w m sources, on the contrary, they want a trustworthy source they can relate to.

Relationships (between care givers and patients/family) have a major impact on healthcare

outcomes, become the facilitator. Facilitating engagement and participation among healthcare

stakeholders is a major opportunity for gaining competitive advantage.

Digital and social technology support cost-effective participatory healthcare:

Physicians believe the Internet is a real asset and love engaging with online

communities to share information and understand anxieties and needs.

Social media have made people hyper connected and has given the patient easy access

to information and more control over their own health.

Are you planning an online health community to create sustainable competitive advantage?

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

healthcare

The State of Social Media in Healthcare

m 13:42:21 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Patients are more and more self-reliant when it comes to finding out

information on healthcare issues (before visiting a doctor). One finding shows that patients

trust traditional communication over digital and social media. Why do you think this is? Have

a look at the infographic for all findings.

Source: 9.mshcdn.com via Damarque on Pinterest

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

healthcare

trends

Accenture Research Shows Citizen Support for Police Use

of Digital and Social Media

m 13:25:39 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The intent to support is there, but the police needs to inform and

communicate more and better. Nearly all (92 percent) of citizens surveyed by Accenture in six

countries want to support their police force and believe they have an important role to play in

reporting crime (88 percent). However, the vast majority (84 percent) of almost 1300

respondents say they are only minimally informed of local police activities, according to a

survey released by Accenture at the annual conference of the International Association of

Chiefs of Police (IACP).

The survey was held amongst citizens from Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the United

States and the United Kingdom found the following key findings:

Almost three-fourths (71 percent) of those surveyed say police use of digital channels

can help overcome the communication gap

only 20 percent believe their local police use digital channels

Almost three-fourths (72 percent) of respondents believe social media can be an

effective tool to report crimes, generate suspect leads and support police investigations

Only 13 percent of respondents said their local police are currently using social media

as a communications channel

More than half of respondents (53 percent) believe the use of social media by police

can improve police services

47 percent believe it can prevent crime.

Citizens also expressed preferences for specific social media platforms: 81 percent of

respondents said they would most likely use Facebook to interact with police and 35

percent said they would use Twitter

Almost one-fourth (23 percent) of respondents believe police should use smartphone

and mobile applications to communicate with citizens

50 percent said they would like to see an increase in the use of police websites and

portals.

Only 22 percent of those surveyed, however, said their police force is currently using

dedicated websites and portals

The research found that police across all six countries continue to rely heavily on

traditional media channels, including newspapers (69 percent) and radio or television

news reports (45 percent), as their primary tools for one-way communication with

citizens

Despite citizens' interest in the use of more digital channels, traditional community

policing methods remain important. The majority (63 percent) of respondents still

prefer to report a crime over the phone or in person to a police officer

More than half of respondents (51 percent) said that "seeing police on the street"

instils confidence in local policing efforts

More than half of those surveyed (53 percent) would like to have a designated

community police force contact.

71 percent of respondents said they would interact with police more often if they had

the option to remain anonymous when reporting a crime or providing information to

support police investigations.

Ger Daly who leads Accenture's global Defence & Public Safety business said:

The findings of this survey show a strong desire by citizens to change the way they interact

with law enforcement agencies and to support their local police chiefs in delivering crime-

fighting services in new ways. Citizens want to receive and share information with police

through their method of choice, which increasingly is a digital and mobile channel and they

are looking for ways to engage with police while reserving the option of anonymity.

Speaking at the IACP annual conference, Tim Godwin, Accenture senior executive and

retired U.K. Metropolitan Police Service deputy commissioner said,

The strong belief among citizens that digital technologies and social media channels can

improve police services and prevent crime demonstrates the importance of police forces

continuing to adopt new tools to foster two-way communication with citizens. By increasing

the number of channels by which police communicate, they will gain valuable intelligence

that can help prevent crime and secure prosecutions.

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

police

public

communication

Most CMOs Don't Plan to Outsource Key Marketing

Tactics Such as Social Media

z 3 p m 15:09:21 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Just as we must maintain healthy exercise and eating habits to stay fit

physically, marketers benefit from developing their own regimen for success. generation

goals, driving business forward. Optify's "2012 Marketing Athlete Survey Report", surveying

269 B2B marketers, explores how these marketing athletes mastered the available tools and

channels to boost their company's overall growth.

Key findings of the survey are:

Nearly 70 percent of respondents are over age 30, with 83 percent of this age group

reporting 5 or more years in a marketing role. These athletes feel accomplished at

many marketing activities and claim to be very well versed in traditional outbound

tactics, as well as inbound marketing channels, such as social media and SEO. Those

under 30 feel confident with online tactics, but aren't as confident about offline tactics

and PR.

Most athletes don't plan to outsource key marketing tactics, such as social media (79

percent), email marketing (76 percent), and lead generation (72 percent) in the next 12

months.

Seventy percent of athletes use more than one marketing tool when dealing with social

media, while 24 percent use no tools to manage SEO.

The majority of marketing athletes, 45 percent, spent 15+ hours per week focused on

marketing execution, while only 14 percent spent 15+ hours on marketing operations

such as reporting and software platform management.

In the area of marketing execution, content (30 percent), lead generation (17 percent),

and website management (16 percent) are the main focus for those putting in 15+

hours. However, 30 percent report that they spend no time nurturing leads.

While social media has become the top lead generation tactic, with 13 percent of

respondents spending 15+ hours developing their social presence, PPC (pay-per-click)

continues to fade in popularity, with 57 percent of respondents spending no time with

this tactic at all.

Many marketing athletes consider themselves experts in social media (42 percent),

offline tactics (34 percent), and email marketing and SEO (28 percent). Weaknesses,

dominate in the areas of PPC (25 percent) and online advertising (18 percent).

Eighty-two percent of respondents believe they are spending most of their time on

marketing activities that are important to their business. However, 27 percent feel they

have too many lead generation tools and channels to manage.

Two findings got my attention.

First of all that 79% of the surveyed marketers are not outsourcing key marketing tactics such

as social media. Core activities are normally not outsourced and being kept in-house. What is

interesting in relation to this figure is that –just- 42% of the marketers consider themselves as

experts in social media. Research by IBM shows even a lower percentage of marketers having

social media capabilities.

What about the rest? Are they deploying social media ineffectively? Are they not looking at

h full p l y h c p l ? Wh ’ y u h u h ?

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

outsourcing

Evolution of Social Media Monitoring: Bespoke, Tailored

or Off the Rack?

z 3 p m 13:05:15 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

I came across this article on SocialEnterpriseToday that discusses the three

f m f c l m m f m m ly S v h ff ‘ z ’

monitoring solutions and on the other hand the tailored or even bespoke solutions that are

m cu m z . I’v v lv p uc v l pm f lm f v y w h

online marketing management system and involved in social media monitoring for more than

five y . R m f my h u h h u …

Definitions

This is how the article defines the three forms:

Off the rack: software-as-a-service from a single vendor, up and running with minimal

configuration in minutes, hours, or days.

Custom tailored: software using the available APIs to combine the strengths of multiple

products and vendors.

Bespoke: software which in this context means completely custom software development.

The article mentions Toyota's new social media and CRM tool:

The tool took 60 hours to develop, largely using software Toyota already had. Oracle Endeca

Discovery handles data discovery and search analytics, WiseWindow and DataSift aggregate

social data, and Lexalytics analyzes sentiment.

Toyota is using the tool to improve customer service, product forecasting and quality, and

lead generation. It plans to feed information to dealers in the future.

Industry life cycle

Starting top down, in terms of the industry where social media monitoring and social analytics

more generally are in, Gartner pointed out in their annual Hype Cycles that social analytics

still needs to reach the Peak. This means that social analytics still has a few years to go in

terms of adoption and reaching the Plateau of Productivity. Going through the Trough means

that z w ll c u ch ll w h (cu ‘ ff h c ’ lu ) h

will occur a natural evolution by vendors to evolve their tools more into the customized

direction.

Why? Because reaching the Plateau, technologies need to have proven themselves in a more

effective and mature way.

Customer and market needs

Secondly it all depends on the customers and market segments that the vendor is targeting.

Back then we targeted top 500 Dutch advertisers with our online marketing management

system. These were customers with a big online budget. Just as with Toyota, these are

organizations that likely want to have customized solutions in order to become and remain

competitive. Another aspect was that many clients were pure online businesses, meaning that

online channels were their lifeblood.

O h m m c SME’ “L M j y L ” wh ch

w ul ’ f f m h lu .

When we relate this to the importance of social media monitoring and social analytics within

h c c p l c m h v qu l v ‘ v u y m’

place is becoming increasingly important.

Not to mention the figures and place McKinsey has given to social analytics and business

value from social technologies.

Value proposition

Thirdly it depends on the strategy the vendor takes. Is it one of Operational Excellence,

Product Leadership or Customer Intimacy. Customer Intimacy focusses on bespoke tools,

tailoring and customizing solutions for each and every customer.

Product Leadership and Operation Excellence are probably less customizable (depending on

the definition of customization) in order to achieve its goals.

With the online marketing management system we operated a Product Leadership strategy

with some extension to further customization for particular large clients. We had a high focus

on retention and customer satisfaction. We invested a lot in training and continuous

h c m f h y m m h m ’ cu m ’ ch ll

opportunities.

Future direction

I think based on the abovementioned considerations the biggest piece of the market will shift

w m “ l ” lu m h m . Th p c f c lly w ll h c

for large organizations and online, social and customer-c c z . F SME’ h

“ ff h c ” lu w ll l c u ) h d investment is beyond their

ch ) l “c c l” ( l c v l uch m v

capabilities, alternatives, their customers etc). There will always be room for bespoke

solutions, true 100% customized solutions with l v u ch u I ’

this as mainstream.

I see opportunities for social monitoring vendors when offering APIs and possible assistance

h API h cl ’ u y m . Th f h m y h v r

can do when it comes to client satisfaction and retention. Next to the more technical support,

there is the business support, helping the customer translate its business challenges and goals

in sourcing the right technology and then using it in the most effective ways.

In a recent article on Forbes, the following was mentioned on Salesforce:

Panels agreed that while Salesforce has done well on the SaaS platform, it is getting a

reputation in larger corporate accounts of being hard to customize and use.

In another recent report by Nucleus, the survey found a propensity to swith regarding CRM

cloud applications. Nucleus examined the willingness of cloud customers to switch

applications and found that 52 percent of CRM customers are willing to switch within the first

six months of their deployment. This has important implications for both short-term sales

strategies and the valuation of the overall lifetime value of a customer, as lost deals are deals

to be won back for the next two quarters.

I do believe this counts for social media monitoring tools as well.

Conclusion

Based on my experience with product development, having tested quite a few social

monitoring tools and the (technology- v ) u l c p w ’ v w ll h ve

to become a trusted advisor, both on technology and business level to serve clients as good as

possible. This increases retention and satisfaction and enables long-term relationships. In the

five years I was involved with the online marketing management system we had 0% churn.

Where do you think the social media monitoring market will evolve to?

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

social media monitoring

Four Reasons Why Enterprise Social Networking Is

Exploding

z 9 p m 14:52:01 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Forrester has estimated the market will be worth around $6.4 billion in 2016, in 2010 the

value was $600 million. Read further to understand why Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs)

are growing in popularity.

The four reasons are:

Enterprise social networks drive real business value. The main reason companies should use enterprise social software is because they drive

legitimate business value. Altimeter group reports their ability to encourage sharing, capture

knowledge, enable action, and empower people makes them a valuable solution.

They offer helpful features not found in current technology. Enterprise social software allows your company to establish private communities with clients,

employees to access your network with their mobile devices, and easily share screens with

multiple coworkers

Employee demand. As would probably be expected, employees are actually demanding workplace platforms that

resemble the applications they use personally.

It’s more than the cool thing to do. The primary reason any company should purchase a social networking solution is to enhance

business outcomes. It happens because businesses learn how to increase the value they receive

from their social networks.

In another research (by McKinsey) the unlocked potential value was estimated on a 1.3

trillion and was largely to be accounted to better productivity of high-skill knowledge

workers.

This is were Enterprise Social Networking comes in, valorizing knowledge faster and better,

speeding up processes, decision-making to operate within the window of –real-time-

pp u y. Ev lv l u l cqu h u ’ c p l y

to adapt rapidly and cost-effective to changing demands and landscapes, partially caused by

social technologies themselves.

Have you implemented ESN?

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

Enterprise Social Networking

Five Lessons From Forrester on Social Media Integration

z 9 p m 11:42:48 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Rob Koplowitz, Vice President and Principal Analyst gave an interesting

presentation c ll “S c l Ch Ev y h ”. Th p c f

introduction, how to use the POST model to plan for success and ten steps to develop a social

business strategy. There is a lot of good information in it, but for me, the five lessons in the

p ‘m l y l ’ w h m mp .

The five lessons are:

1. Start with people and objectives

2. Technology matters . . . in the context of goals

3. Work across organizational boundaries

4. Dedicate people to the program and success

. If h cul u ’ y h c up 3 p

I ’ f cl ché u ll ppl y m y m ly u objectives

p pl p . Of ll í h h w y u . I ’ l c m m

and more important in a maturing industry life cycle. Organizations demand effective

solutions to achieve their business objectives. As there are many technologies, it is key to

integrate those that effectively support the goals. Not only the goals, fast changing micro- and

macro dynamics force organizations to be agile, adaptive and responsive. Be sure to do this in

the right manner.

Other findings

Other interesting findings include:

At this point, it are the Baby Boomers that demand social software. What conclusion do you

think, can be drawn from this?

53% consider increased use and deployment of collaboration technologies a high or critical

software priority.

A h c ll ‘ p cy’ ch l l f ch p

knowledge valorization, it has to be orchestrated right.

Of US information workers, 20% use public social networks, 56% are investing in enterprise

social solutions.

This is happening because enterprise social networks (ESN) are driving real business value

and outcomes.

Thanks for the hat tip @tibbr.

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

forrester

integration

Are Marketers Truly Customer Centric?

z 9 p m 10:56:28 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Acxiom's analysis of the survey was released in a report l “A

Cu m C c y P x ” h p y wh l 8% f respondents agree that their

companies have a relentless focus on building customer insights, only 21% report that they

h v w ll h v v lu c f ch cu m . D l m h h y’ h

cutting edge of what empowered consumers are d u f c h y c ’ h f f

the trees. While mostly focused on deploying new channels and creating better ROI metrics,

most lack a customer centric strategy that creates long term value.

The biggest barrier to achieving customer-centricity, according to 54% of respondents, is an

inability to manage the data and technology necessary to measure results at the customer

level. More than a third of media industry representatives admit that they struggle with the

problem, while a similar segment of agency personnel say that they are able to measure at the

individual channel level only.

Acxiom CMO Tim Suther said:

Companies' customer-centric goals are aspirational. They're not based in reality. When

marketers say they don't recognize their customers at all, that's truly scary. Even among the

26% who say they do a decent job, only 4% have the central repository of information that

allows them to recognize people across channels.

Customer centricity remains an attractive means to achieve the following:

Marketing ROI -> +15 – 30%

Customer profitability -> +10 – 15%

Pricing power -> +5 – 7%

Click here to read all the results of the survey (presentation on Slideshare).

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

customer centricity

Rishad Tobaccowala: “Digital is like hydrochloric acid, it

burns through everything”

v j 8 p m 14:47:17 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

I came across this quote in a Forbes article where key points taken from

S f ’ D l M P m listed. S f ’ G u Sch ol of Business

(GSB) Executive Education hosted the Digital Marketing Program over three days last week,

August 29th

through the 31st. According to Louis Columbus, who attended the program, it

was so valuable because the focus was on practical, pragmatic advice from professionals who

are excelling in digital marketing, social media and big data.

I’ll p c u m . Rishad Tobaccowala key take aways as these were the ones that attracted me

the most:

Outside channels of communication have greater credibility to employees than

internal channels

A qu f m h p “D al is like hydrochloric acid, it burns

h u h v y h ” h u h h h y f h v .

He sees four marketing mindset shifts:

1. From focus on users to users and voices (voices are the influencers, both good

and bad, of your brand)

2. A shift from segmentation to segmentation and re-aggregation

3. From telling to delivering

4. From marketing to facilitation

The future of retailing is delivering exceptional customer experiences daily – expect to see

BestBuy dedicate 70% of floor space to creating excellent experiences for example.

Mobility is now a cornerstone of marketing and sales; State Farm has 1,000 developers

working on mobile solutions for quoting, pricing and claims management today.

Becoming a platform business

The most intriguing ones are under the marketing mindshift. Listening to users and voices,

from telling to delivering and from marketing to facilitiation. He sees a shift where

organizations facilitate, provide a platform where people can (co-)create their own story, their

own experience. And not so much market products to people.

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

IBM #Infographic - Biggest Challenge for CMOs is

Adapting to the Customer-Centric Social Landscape

v j 8 p m 14:25:42 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

According to the IBM CMO study infographic (which you can find below),

the CMO has a challenge to adapt itself to many developments, the most important ones being

social media and data impact and the ever expanding digital landscape in terms of devices and

channels. Yes, indeed, customer experience is the biggest challenge.

http://pinterest.com/pin/424816177320109070/

Source: cmswire.com via Damarque on Pinterest

Customer Experience key challenge

A whopping 79% feels unprepared to manage the impact of key changes in marketing such as

big data, social media and the growing amount of channel and device choices. This is in line

w h l y ’ Forbes Insights research that found that a consistent customer experience is

the biggest marketing challenge.

Individuals versus markets

In regards to the section about the problem of the CMO still focusing on markets rather than

v u l I ’ w. A the figures strange? I visited a conference last Wednesday

where a lot of market researchers attended on the topic of social media data and research, and

’ y v y ‘h p ’ u c l .

Obstacles

Interesting to see that, in relation to the obstacles portrayed in the infographic, the culture is

not being mentioned. In a recent survey by Appirio, culture was in fact the biggest hurdle on

h w y c m c l p . Th w c c mp u h ’

bit too much discrepancy.

What results in the infographic do strike you?

To have a look at other curated infographics, click here for our Pinterest account.

Categories:

Marketing and Sales

Tags:

ibm

research

customer experience

Kellogg’s World’s First Retail Outlet: Future of Retail?

7 p m 13:57:52 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Tweet Shop is a retail outlet from Special K that opened this week in

London, the ’ f p m Sp c l K C c C p ; h f f h

v y c . Th Tw Sh p c f u S h ’ M S L p

from 9AM to 5PM, from 25th to 28th September. Is this the future of (pop-up) retail?

It can certainly be part of the future. The pop-up store is a response to the growing vacancy

rate of retail estate and the battle for consumer attention. It's an easy way to test a concept or a

neighborhood to try. And it creates - if it is good - a lot of buzz and free publicity, by asking

people to pay with social currency, the buzz and free publicity is found in both virtuality and

reality.

Sarah Case from Special K comments:

Th v lu f p v m c l m y c mp w ’ xcited

to be the first company to literally use social currency instead of financial currency to launch

this new product in our bespoke Special K shop.

Th w f Sp c l K w h p h ’ m v c p h h h

street will create a major buzz on and offline.

What do you think, is this the future for retail?

Categories:

Business Models

Tags:

Kellogg's

retail

Success of Social & CEM Technologies depends on

Consultware

7 p m 13:14:10 | Frederic Gilbert

The increasing number of software & applications dedicated to CEM, Social CRM, and Social

Technologies, contributes to the emergence of a need for people & companies which can both

deal with Business Consulting & understand the direct application of a technology inside the

customer's business issues and initiatives. Hence the term of ConsultWare (Consulting +

Software).

If we define Consultware: A company which can understand precisely the needs and

expectations of a business initiative and provide both the methodologies and the technologies

to succeed in the initiative. The Consultware firm has a core business of assessing, training,

accompanying its customers in given initiatives and identifying through its expertise the best

technologies to meet and exceed goals.

Context

There is a fact that the majority of software vendors in CEM & Social CRM are experiencing

today: Software doesn't sell by itself! and even more when you're in the beginning of the

educational curve on a given subject. In other words, it is not because you have the new killer

app that it will automatically be taken over by businesses. It's a fact well-known by software

vendors in other domains. CEM, Social CRM & Social Media vendors are learning as well,

but various factors make different than what it was for others like CRM or ERPs, we'll come

to that later. There are 2 ways to challenge the issue to develop sales for these actors :

Develop your own professional services

Set up partnership program to get the finest consulting firms either to sell your

software or to roll it out

No ground breaking news here of course. However cutting edge technologies editors struggle

to have their new solutions into the market because customers eventually say: "Yes great, but

what do I do with it?". Now one can argue that companies can provide minimum consulting

but when it comes to Social CRM software or CEX/CEM Software it's a whole different

story.

4 facts that prove the concept

1. It's driven by the shift in the relationship with the customers: Until the early

2000's businesses were product-centric and software was designed this fact. It was

business driven, people inside companies knew exactly their jobs to create a

transactional environment. Today the Customer Centric model pushed inevitably by

customer interactions have moved to a conversational environment where there is little

education that has been done on how to do it and what to do it with,

2. The idea behind is yet to be rooted inside the company's vision : Clearly when you

talk about listening, engaging and getting your customers to participate in the CEX &

Social way, very few businesses are ready to commit and jump in! They of course say

they do it but just do a quick interview of 5 stakeholders or C-level excecutives, and

see if brand promises are consistent and clear in the interviews. If so how do they align

it in the employee-customer interactions? Hence, it is a good thing to have partners

that can deal with these cultural transformation.

3. Staff is not there at the moment: Not completely true, or partially true. Most of the

people actually know what it is all about when it comes to Social, but they experience

it on a personal level. Even if Social Media units are spreading inside companies the

vast majority link it to pure communication. They have not worked or not understood

how to implement Social inside the customer relations. Indeed they are opened to

people who can help them understand and build the strategies to get the most out of

the tools. Here again a consulting partner is useful for he makes the transcription

between software features and business uses.

4. Software is about selling licence not consulting: It is very hard to scale a business

that is initially set up as a software editing company and that has progressively

integrated consulting services. Investors look for scalable business meaning that once

basic requirements are met the software can sell and generate profits. Consulting is a

very different approach as if the software business really scales and you wish to

accompany your customers, you'll need to hire new consultants and increase the

weight of salaries. In the end it is seen as cost! but if you think more in terms of

customer centricity, proposing a fair amount of consulting services indeed may

reinforce your customers' loyalty and engagement. One is a short term vision, the

other long term and sustainable vision. No critics here, it depends on the focus

founders and shareholders have.

All these facts combined confirm the need to think strategy differently. Several companies

such as IBM and Microsoft have understood this already, they partner with IT services

providers which have opened business consulting services. However the size and the need for

reactivity is not a intrinsic characteristic of these companies. Markets move quickly, demand

for business support is increasing for CEM & Social Technologies and specialists inside the

big partners are not able to face the number of potential projects. Customer Experience &

Social Media rely on a very different type of business professionals which are often

independent consultants or small size companies. To reach full profitability the vendors from

CEM & Social CRM are now developing partnerships that can help transform the try. But will

there be enough people and enough time.

By the way, ask Damarque if you wish to find which technologies can meet your CEM &

Social initiatives.

Categories:

Technology

Samurai Business Book: Lessons From the Samurai For

Professionals in the Digital Age

7 p m 10:05:28 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The digital age of transparency imposes changes for businesses, shifting

from control to a more facilitating role, where ideas, communities and power give power

instead of titles and positions. More than ever, success comes from a purpose beyond earning

money. Success must be based on integrity, but how can we cherish integrity while facing

fierce competition and office politics? This is answered in the book "Samurai Business".

The book is written by Joris Merks. Joris Merks is Research Manager for Google and also

European Champion and Open German Champion in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. He practiced martial

arts for twenty years and holds a black belt in Judo and Aikido. Joris wrote books on both

marketing and martial arts.

The website elaborates:

P pl f l u w ch h c h c f Su Tzu: “Th

A f W .” U f u ely the concept of war is often emphasized, rather than the art. There

why Su Tzu ch “Th Th ll f W ” h l ju “H w

D y Y u E m .”

“Th A f W ” l h c S mu w . Th p h f the Samurai is a quest

for self-development that extends beyond fighting. The Samurai became successful in battle

through true skill and the ability to withstand the desire for power and victory.

“S mu Bu ” p p f l f c p l c without feeding them. The book

helps to focus on self-development to the benefit of your environment, while being rewarded

for your efforts. Apply the Samurai principles consistently and you may surprise yourself.

Integrity is not naivety and

kindness does not equal weakness. It is time to put the art back in the business and the

Samurai back in the professional.

Last but not least the thirteen Samurai Principles for success based on integrity:

Dedicate yourself to a purpose beyond power, control or earning money.

Develop yourself to the benefit of the world around you.

If you encounter a problem: change it, accept it or leave it.

Stay connected to yourself and the environment under any kind of pressure.

Take a close view of distant things and a distant view of close things.

Balance careful planning with creative and flexible execution.

D ’ f h v l v l pm .

Be respectful, yet clear and sharp.

Reflect without judging.

Look fear in the eyes while doing what you think is right and necessary.

Inspire people and celebrate successes with gratitude, not arrogance.

Be helpful and generous, yet choose the people around you wisely.

Take care of yourself and those around you.

Disclaimer: we received no payment whatsoever to publish this. I dedicated a post to this

book because in a fast-changing environment that is brought by digital and social, the

individual professional and how professionals behave to each other is overlooked.

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

samurai

Forrester: Social Media Not a Primary Sales Driver

7 p m 9:35:36 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Acc h F ' p “The Purchase Path of Online Buyers in

2012” ch m m l m h h m ff c v m v

online sales. Well, that's not really a shocker. One of the big differences between search, mail

and social is that the first two can be directly linked with a sale. That is a lot more difficult

with social media. Aside of the vanity-URL's and other unique means to make the link, it's a

challenge to assign what (specific) communication attributed to a sale.

Here h m p u w h u h p ’ l:

1. Paid search matters most for new customers

2. Email matters most for repeat customers

3. Social tactics are not meaningful sales drivers

When studying the image (from MarketingPilgrim), three things come to mind:

1. The entry point is being analyzed, not the complete conversion cycle. It could well be

that social is being used throughout the purchase cycle but not as first point.

2. This brings us to the second point, email marketing and search marketing are

established means to deploy for the purpose of sales, whereas social isn't. A question

that rises is, if the research took into account it analyzed customers that bought from

companies that had a fully deployed marketing mix. If the company did not have a

social ecosystem, then it's harder to compare.

3.

What do you think of the outcomes?

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

sales

Social Media Week Started: Exploring the Social, Cultural

and Economic Impact of Social Media #SMW12

m p m 13:49:33 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Social Media Week runs from today September 24th till the 28th in 14 cities

globally. The event explores the social, cultural and economic impact of social media and the

mission is to help people and organizations connect through collaboration, learning and the

sharing of ideas and information by focusing on three core areas: Collaboration, Content,

Conversation.

In the past few years social media has shown us the true power of what a connected society

can accomplish. Over the next 10 years, 3 billion new people will connect to each other

through the Internet and mobile technology- more than three times the number who are

currently online.

We are living in extraordinary times and witnessing the emergence of a networked and

communication abundant society. I

I SMW’ l f h c y wh ch m c c w ll l m l h

prosperous and sustainable world. Social Media Week will be the platform and global

network that will help people collectively realize this potential.

Have a look here at the SMW live (streaming) schedule.

Have a look here how you can attend in the 14 different cities.

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

social media week

4 Key Approaches to Create a Succesful B2B Social Media

Strategy

m p m 11:09:06 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Implementing and executing a social media strategy for your business-to-

business (B2B) organization, large or small, is not a simple task. At the Dreamforce 2012

event the this topic was discussed during a panel including Jen McClure of Thomson Reuters,

Tristan Bishop of Symantec, Tanya Donnelly of Schneider Electric, and Kevin Espinosa from

Caterpillar. Think and act like a media company.

Here are their key approaches to keep in mind to succeed at your B2B social media strategy:

Think Like an Exec to Convince Your Execs Oftentimes your executives or board may need a deeper understanding as to the importance

and benefit of a B2B social media strategy. To get their attention, think like them.

Develop Great Content Th m ff c v c c l m h uff h ll p uc . I ’ u

creating content that helps your audience learn something. It delivers value for them or helps

them to achieve something.

Utilize Enthusiastic Employees There are employees within your organization who love social media. It would enhance their

day-to-day to engage in social media. And while they may not be experts at it, this passion

can serve you well.

Understand the Social Environment Before you go and create that Twitter account or Facebook page, think about your audience.

Where do they spend their time? Some panelists saw conversations happening on forums and

l f c ’ ju c c l media presences that you think you need.

The key is to think and act like a media company, create content that establishes a link with

topic and company. Deliver value that helps people to progress and do this in places where

your audience is.

At the same Dreamforce event, Michael Brito Edelman Digital gave a presentation on

building social media profic cy c l z . Th w ’ p c f c lly f

B2B, but can be of course applied to it.

H w h why ’ mp c u c :

Employee Advocacy: Employees are trusted; they can help feed the content engine

Employee Collaboration: Innovation, Process improvement and an increase in

productivity

Partner Collaboration: Bringing products to market faster through social

collaboration

Social Marketing Excellence: Sharing best practices w/ other marketing teams,

geographies; governance/compliance

He then discussed key consideration when deploying a training curriculum:

Have a vision; aligned with business goals. Obviously.

Establish a Social Media Center or Excellence responsible for deploying training

initiatives.

Create actionable curriculum that enables employees and other marketing teams

Build workflows for content creation, approval, optimization and distribution

Start thinking like a media company

Building Social Proficiency Across The Organization from Michael Brito

Here his last consideration is the same, start thinking and acting like a media company.

Acquiring a media company DNA is not something that happens overnight. It has to support

your business goals and strategy, capabilities needs to be in synch (think of having

enthausiasts, processes and KPI’ ll ) h l cul u

open and one of sharing and learning.

The results can be great: become a thought leader, a trusted advisor and source providing

c h f h ’ p c p –voice that people can trust and relate to.

Please share your tips and approaches for a succesful B2B social media strategy!

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

B2B

strategy

training

Lack of Leadership and Vision is Biggest Barrier to

Unlock the Value of Big Data

m p m 10:32:16 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

SAS UK created an infographic that shows interesting results and current

states regarding big data in the UK. The most important ones to me are the importance of

skills and what business leaders say about big data. A combination in the lack of leadership,

vision and the neccesary skills are the biggest barriers to unlock and maximise the value from

big data.

Have a look at the infographic here.

In relation to the big data skills challenge, Harvard Business Review published the article

“D Sc : Th S x J f h C u y”.

Does the finding on leadership and vision surprise you or not?

Categories:

Big Data

Tags:

leadership

skills

Social Media Will Revolutionize Supply Chain but the

Challenge is Balance

z 3 p m 11:45:11 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

A recent article “S c l M h C m Supply-Ch R v lu “

in the CFO magazine pointed out how social media can help the supply chain to have better,

faster and cheaper output. The role of social media in the electronics supply chain is still very

fluid. Challenge for the supply chain will be balancing the benefits with the unknowns of

social media.

Five benefits social media provides to the supply chain are:

Creating Knowledge Networks

Balancing Speed and Contemplation

Portable Information Vaults

Replacing Collaboration with Community

Building a Platform for Innovation

EBNonline elaborates on the CFO article with the following intel:

[…] l c c u m y u qu ly p h upply ch f f m

social media. Components makers share their product development roadmaps with

distributors so distributors can target new-p uc pp u […]

and

For manufacturers and OEMs, the channel can provide feedback on supplier quality, order

and delivery performance, lead times, pricing, and potential second sources. Since brand

owners (OEMs) frequently outsource their manufacturing, suppliers have to be carefully

vetted because a missed delivery can mean entire production lines shut down. Manufacturers

also have to know that if product A is unavailable, product B is ready to ship.

Overlap

Much of this data is already captured and utilized by the typical electronics supply chain

systems: ERP, MRP, EDI, and in-house solutions. Much of this data is considered highly

proprietary by suppliers, distributors, and OEMs. Brand owners frequently secure preferential

pricing from suppliers that they don't want to share. Component and board designs are

considered a "secret sauce" by both component makers and OEMs. Since distributors and

electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers both service OEMs that compete with

one another, a great deal of information is kept in silos to keep it secure from prying eyes. The

"openness" of social networking may conflict directly with certain supply chain practices.

As an industrial products industry CEO in the IBM report explained:

"We're not yet comfortable that social media has matured to the point we'll benefit more than

w 'll uff ”

What do you think of his stance? Wait till it is has proven itself or take a more test-and-learn

approach to understand the potential for the specific organization?

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

supply chain

Gap Between IT and Business Users Ridiculously Huge,

According to Survey by LogiXML

z 3 p m 11:13:43 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

With the advent of more and more data, the conclusion by LogiXML

means that organizations have still a long way to go before it uses the data effectively. When

it comes to how IT views users of business intelligence (BI), most think users have little

wl f BI p j c f ’ w wh h y w f m BI u ch l BI

technology and practices, yet tend to be very adamant about their BI needs.

Findings include:

p c u ’ u h w much BI p j c ;

A combined 50 percent said users never know exactly what they want, or what they

want until after the project is completed;

A c m 9 p c h u ’ u f BI w h f m u

ill-equipped; curious, but uninformed; or helpless and hopeless and

A total of 76 percent said users made their BI needs known by loudly insisting,

“ c m l h ” um IT h “ l p hy.”

According to the data, user behavior can also be linked to why many BI projects fail. The top

three reasons: [user] requirements are unrealistic to begin with, lack of budget and resources,

and requirements change too quickly to adapt. Similarly, the top things IT lacks that keep

h m f m m u m : p l m y “ m u .” Wh

h w h y h u h u p m f h m 38 p c c m “ch c

FaceBo c mm ph f m c B h m p” “I w h I w.”

Ken Chow, CMO, LogiXML said:

Our survey data suggests that most IT professionals believe that users of BI are or would be

h w w h u IT’ h lp BI p j c . Th m y c v f

companies still employing traditional, old-school BI approaches and systems, or that certain

p BI ch l v mply ’ l v h p m f y-to-use,

self- v c BI. Wh v h pp h w ’ y m wh BI u

not dependent on IT for their BI needs.

Last but not least, about the BI trends the survey found that:

46 percent of respondents said that their organizations were not using mobile BI.

Of those that were, 26 percent m l BI m wh p pul 7 p c ’

v y p pul p c ’ “m p pul h A y B .” S x p c

’ v y p pul .

When asked to describe their company on big data, only 17 percent said they were

currently using it. Conversely, 27 percent said they are looking at big data analytics

for the future, 26 percent said they are actively pursuing big data analytics, a

c m 3 p c “ h y h v c upl c m p h u h ’

u ” “ wh ?”

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

research

business intelligence

big data

Shift in Company Culture is the Biggest Hurdle on the

Way to Becoming a Social Enterprise

z 3 p m 10:50:41 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

A recent survey, conducted by cloud enablement technology company

Appirio, amongst 300+ international (UK and US) respondents found that 30 percent of them

admitted a shift in company culture is the biggest hurdle on the way to becoming a social

enterprise.

Other interesting findings include:

P pl ’ u c l l w c much h y

Brits are more social at work than people in the US

Everyone generally recognizes the potential of social and wants their company to

invest more in it

People think culture and having an owner for social are more important for success

than budget

Th S c l W pl c l App ’ u v y h u h c mm f M F lm

(Forbes) and Rachel King (ZDNet).

Mark Fidelman F App ’ u y:

After surveying over 300 professionals, technology service provider Appirio determined that

most people are far more social personally than they are at work.

Interestingly, 41% believe their company should be doing more to become a social enterprise,

and twice as many managers are using social media compared to their employees they

manage. So the takeaway here seems to be that employees either are not allowed to engage in

c l w c v w ’ h v lu .

Most importantly, as the survey suggests, enterprise workers now understand that culture and

ownership of the social business transformation are key factors to the success of a social

enterprise.

ZDN ’ R ch l K h h h u h App ’ u v y w ll:

Ov ll App ’ ul c h ly h f u u v y h wh

h m “ c l p ” m .

What are your thoughts on this? What other critical area would you say is a big hurdle to

transition in a social and connected enterprise?

Have a look at the infographic below created upon the survey:

Source: thesocialworkplace.com via DAMARQUE on Pinterest

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

research

social business

change

Philips Wins Digital Communication Award With Unique

Social Media Project

zaterda p m 10:01:59 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Philips which teamed up with communications consultancy Fleishman-

Hillard, won the Digital Communication Award in the category 'Twitter Profile' . With the

social media project "the social heart of surgery ', organizations put innovation in healthcare

on the map in the Netherlands.

The social heart of surgery project

Innovation is crucial in the evolution of the healthcare industry, Philips Electronics and the

Catharina Hospital in the Netherlands, a leading interventional cardiology center, have teamed

up to showcase current solutions and future developments -by working together on building a

state-of-the-art electrophysiology (EP) lab- that shape the diagnosis and minimally invasive

treatment of heart rhythm disorders. This was followed by a unique social media initiative.

This partnership was followed by the social media initiative in the Netherlands focused on

Dutch heart patient Ad Langendonk. Starting on January 10, Mr. Langendonk and his

cardiologist, Dr Lukas Dekker, used Twitter before, during and after a minimally-invasive

v u wh ch c h w u m y M . L ’ h hy hm

disorder. The intervention was successfully performed on January 27, allowing Mr.

Langendonk to begin the process of regaining his quality of life.

You can read here further about the project, which I wrote about earlier this year.

Categories:

Innovation

Tags:

healthcare

philips

Salesforce Communities Providing First Steps for a More

Collaborative Supply Chain?

v j p m 16:55:30 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Last week I wrote an article on recent IDC research and that concluded that

there is a growing need for solutions that incorporate external stakeholders such as customers

and suppliers in business workflow processes and feedback mechanisms. Salesforce launched

its Community platform, to drive collaboration among employees, partners, and customers to

drive better business results.

The portal will go into a limited pilot this autumn, with general availability expected for the

second half of 2013. Such a long beta phase should give the company enough time to work

out any kinks and tailor the partner por l ll ’ .

Zuyderblog did a great job in elaborating on the platform and its key differentiators with other

vendors. An interesting figure Zuyderblog mentions, from a late McKinsey research is that

just 3% of organizations have deployed social technologies across all stakeholders: customers,

employees, and business partners.

About the Partner Communities it writes:

Partner Communities will enable corporations to invite key suppliers and partners to

collaborate on business processes in real-time. With turn-key execution, a company can

quickly launch a partner community within hours, therefore enabling immediate collaboration

on short term business opportunities or even for crisis management situations. Whether

planned or reactive, this partner community will provide tighter integration and

communications with key business partners to drive more sales through seamless deal

registration, increase efficiency of operations, improve product innovation, or enhance

customer servicing opportunities.

About the Customer Communities it writes:

Salesforce Customer Communities will help corporations create two-way communication,

real-time interactions and relationship building between brands and consumers. By combining

the strength of the Salesforce Chatter platform, with the consumer insights expertise of

R S l f c ’ Cu m C mmu p w p m f

understanding your target customers.

Top differentiators between Salesforce Communities and other vendors are:

Turnkey Implementation – Community platform can be deployed within

minutes

Custom Branding –Customize look, feel and messaging to best match

community objectives

Platform Flexibility –Set up community as either a public or private depending

on the situation

Secure, Private Conversations – All c v pl c S l f c ’

secure cloud

Complete Participant Profile– Ability to link into the complete members

profile, therefore allowing greater perspective, understanding and insights into

their community involvement and lead potential

Scalability– From a small partner product development community to a billion

dollar global product launch event, the community platform is secure and

stable no matter the size of the group

Insights and Reporting – Option to integrate with Radian6 to quickly access

trends, learnings, and feedback from single or multiple communities

According to you, what is the big need and problem of organizations regarding supply chain

management that can be supported or even solved by technologies such as Salesforce

Communities?

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

salesforce

collaboration

The Boston Globe and MIT Co-Create to Accelerate

Newsroom Innovation

v j p m 14:22:49 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Boston Globe and the MIT Center for Civic Media announced today

the launch of a new collaboration to introduce experimental ideas from the university to the

large audience of the Globe's websites, Boston.com and BostonGlobe.com.

Knight Foundation plans to announce the collaboration on Sept. 22 at the 2012 Online News

Association conference in San F c c . ONA’ u l c f c p h c u y’

p m h f h ’ l l j u l .

Purpose

The collaboration is funded with $250,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight

Foundation, allowing the MIT and the Globe to work continuously together to share ideas and

bring projects to life through the two-way communication of a university outreach coordinator

and a creative technologist. Four Civic Media research fellowships will also be available in

the Globe Lab, an innovation center within The Boston Globe. The fellows will work at the

Globe during academic breaks, with two working for a month in January and two working

three months in the summer.

Michael Maness, vice president for journalism and media innovation at Knight Foundation

said:

This collaboration will apply academic research at the forefront of new media technologies to

f h c u y’ w m . W ’ xc wh h c v

organizations build together.

Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe said:

The relationships today between universities and media organizations in the same

c mmu m u v l p ” . “W p m u l

between these institutions. The collaboration with MIT is an important, exciting step forward,

but over time we envision a broad array of relationships with universities.

The collaboration will be overseen by Jeff Moriarty, vice president of digital initiatives at The

Boston Globe, Chris Marstall, creative technologist for the Globe, and Ethan Zuckerman,

director of the MIT Center for Civic Media.

Categories:

Innovation

Tags:

MIT

Boston Globe

collaboration

announcement

Purpose and Transparency Give Power in the Social Era

v j p m 12:03:50 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Yesterday I was following the #HBRchat and Nilofer Merchant tweeted the

following:

In industrial era, title/position gave you power. In #socialera, your ideas, communities, and

purpose give power. #hbrchat

— Nilofer Merchant (@nilofer) September 20, 2012

Have a look (once again) to Sinek's inspiring "Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire

Action" and it is or becomes clear that Purpose / Why in the connected and transparent society

is a key driver and precondition of prosperity.

The individual, no matter the title or position, is able to make a difference, to share expertise,

knowledge and passion, to be part of a shared Purpose. It is this Purpose that is mutually

beneficial to both the individual person and an organization.

Share your first-hand experience with on Purpose and social!

Categories:

Human Resources and Leadership

Tags:

Sinek

purpose

Napkin Labs' Fan Center Cultivates Communities That

Drive Value for Brands

v j p m 11:06:04 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Facebook understands how to connect people, but is missing the

mark with brands. Less than one percent of people click on brand pages, and even fewer

interact with company-centric posts and uninspiring sweepstakes. Today, Napkin Labs is

introducing Fan Center, a way for brands to push beyond the 'like' and cultivate real

communities that drive insights, innovation and sales.

The platform uses gamification and crowdsourcing to encourage fans to get more involved

with the brand. TechCrunch describes the distinguishment between Napkin Labs and others:

[…]Napkin Labs found that creating a new destination community is an uphill battle. So, the

startup shifted its strategy and began building tools that focused on the place where customers

of these brands are already spending their time: Facebook.

Napkin Labs CEO Riley Gibson said:

Facebook has become a powerful storytelling platform for brands, but the voice of the

customers gets easily lost. Using Fan Center, brands can host pro-active conversations to

capture ideas, feedback and stories straight from fans -- plus see and reward their biggest fans'

interactions on Facebook. Fan Center is helping to build the world's most participatory brands

by giving consumers an active role in the brand conversation.

It will be interesting if this difference in approach is going to work, from a tech-centric

perspective to a people- and community-centric perspective. Be where the customers of the

customer are. Facebook is already the starting point for many people, brands can create

uninterruptive experiences by amplifying the platform of choice of their customers. Looking

forward to tangible results.

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

Napkin Labs

Facebook

community

crowdsourcing

insights

@NeelieKroesEU : "Europe needs to become the

connected, competitive continent. The e-EU" #DSEU

p m 14:29:57 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for

the Digital Agenda, ends her speech in Sofia, 20 September 2012 with the following: "To find

its place in the future global economy, Europe needs to become the connected, competitive

continent. The e-EU. The right networks, skills and innovation can transform Europe for the

better. I hope I can count on your support."

You can read her full speech here.

The most interesting project on thriving Europe and its digitization is the Digital Sunrise

Europe project, a private project what started with a proposal to the EU that took a life of its

own. Digital Sunrise is the result and probably the largest independent Social Media project in

Europe.

Thousands of European businesses providing high quality products and services and deliver

some of the very best products in the world. Yet most of them are rather unknown and mostly

selling only in local markets. On the other side there are thousands of foreign businesses

competing for the European market and the global competition is significantly increasing

every year. Resource limitations, budgets, language barriers, emerging business challenges

are main obstacles for European businesses not selling across Europe. Digital Sunrise Europe

provides alternative growth strategies to help businesses expand and stimulate the economy.

Have a look here how you can get started and be involved in the Digital Sunrise Europe

project!

Categories:

Open Industry and Open Economy

Tags:

european commission

Pinterest Delivers Highest Value for Online Shopping

Traffic [INFOGRAPHIC]

p m 9:19:35 | Frederic Gilbert

According to Richrelevance recent infographic "Who's driving shopping traffic for retail sites" Pinterest is the social network which delivers highest value. Pinterest presents the highest AOV (Average Order Value) and Facebook highest conversion rates. Twitter is behind on every metric presented in the traffic. The question behind such remarkable figures is are these metrics relevant both in terms of "Purpose of Touchpoint" and in terms of "Customer Experience?

Purpose The answer is inevitably "no". If we consider the characteristics of each network, Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter are not there for the same purposes and same goals.

Facebook is where interactions and recommendations from peers take place and from which people are more likely to follow the advise of their friends.

Twitter is still an "Innovator" and "Early adopters" network where people look for relevant pieces of information on the topics they favour but not for advice to shop online.

Pinterest is a different network with a major emphasis on visuals and emotional triggers. People are in a shopping mall where if your visuals are of poor quality your conversion rates will never explode. Furthemore, the people visiting Pinterest are also of different social background with higher education degrees and higher purchasing power.

So each network has a different population with different expectations. Everyone in it’s right place. Customer Experience It doesn’t mean that you must choose one for another. If you consider that for each network you have typical profiles than by using Customer Journey mapping techniques you can consider each of the network as a source of acquisition to the e-commerce platform, or a touchpoint for awareness. If you use it intelligently one social network can support the other. Take away

Understand who are the customers on each network and what makes them tick - emotional drivers and engagement rules

Create synergies between each touchpoint If your customers aren't there then conversion rate will be null whatever the

network

What's your opinion on these results?

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

research

Spigit Acquires Crowdcast: Combined They Provide

Crowd-Driven Predictive Analytics to Deliver Insights and

Forecasts With Predictable ROI

w 9 p m 14:07:06 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Spigit announced yesterday it has acquired San Francisco based

Crowdcast, the company that defined Social Business Intelligence. Spigit with Crowdcast

transforms innovation into a predictable discipline with the business rigor traditionally

associated with Marketing, Accounting, or Sales. For the first time, leaders can plan, visualize

and manage the entire innovation pipeline.

Spigit's social innovation products with Crowdcast technology can:

Forecast and combine multiple metrics into fundable business cases that leaders can

act on directly.

Deliver verified estimates leveraging the crowd that are as good as or better than

estimates from traditional sources, such as analysts.

Manage innovation investment as a portfolio, reducing risk and maximizing returns.

Mat Fogarty, Founder and CEO of Crowdcast said:

Crowdcast is delighted to join forces with Spigit. By combining our visions around innovation

and collective intelligence, we have the knowledge and technologies to power Social

Innovation 2.0 and fundamentally change the way products move from idea to success.

Paul Pluschkell, Founder and CEO of Spigit said:

There is a renaissance underway in the Social Innovation software market. Social Innovation

2.0 moves beyond idea capture and into execution. With the Crowdcast team and technology,

we add a critical piece of the innovation process -- leveraging the crowd to determine the

return on innovation.

Techcrunch further elaborates:

C w c ’ lu — which include a SaaS software platform and consulting and support

services — aim to bridge the gap between traditional business intelligence and enterprise

social network applications. The idea is for businesses to align their employees with the

purpose of the company, bringing all their insights, plans, and experience together in one

pl c c “ ly ccu ” u p c u c m .

As part of th m Sp w ll ll f C w c ’ p p f l

C w c ’ l h p m clu F u /CEO M F y Ch f Sc L l

F Sp ’ x cu v m.

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

spigit

crowdcast

business intelligence

social business

Interview With Mary Adams: The Intersection Between

Intangible Capital and Social Technologies

8 p m 13:40:58 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

We live in a knowledge-based, connected and data-driven economy. It is

becoming more and more important to maximize data and information from the outside AND

what is already inside the organization. This is where the intangible capital (IC) and Mary

Adams come in.

I had the great pleasure to meet and connect with Mary Adams when she gave valuable

feedback on one of my articles on InnovationManagement.se. Sh ’ xp l

capital, co-authored the book “I l C p l: Pu ing Knowledge to Work in the 21st-

C u y O z ” c -founded Trek Consulting on helping private organisations

leverage their unique intangible assets for higher growth, innovation, performance and

corporate value.

In this interview we explore the intersection of social technologies and the intangible capital.

Please tell us a bit more about yourself?

I my c h h l p cl y w w h h CEO’

CFO’ f companies in challenging situations: mergers, high growth, turnarounds and

high debt levels. This gave me a great foundation in business. But I was frustrated being on

the other side of the table from my clients. I wanted to work more closely with them and play

a more active role in solving their challenges. So in 1999, I started a strategy consulting

business.

Where did your interest in intangible capital originate?

I discovered the work being done in Europe and Asia in the intellectual capital community,

people like Leif Edvinsson, Karl-E Sv y. Ov h y I’v h w c m c

conferences in the field and have read voraciously. I started to understand the concepts of IC

and apply it in my work. I continue to collaborate with people around the world and am also

working with the U.S.-based thought leaders in our field: Baruch Lev, Ken Jarboe and the

folks at the Conference Board including Bart van Ark, Carole Corrado and Janet Hao.

What is your definition of the intangible capital and of what elements does it consist?

I use four categories for analysis, measurement, management and monetization of IC:

Human Capital - This includes all the talent, competencies and experience of your employees

and managers. This is the intangible capital tha “ h m h .”

Relationship Capital – This includes all key external relationships that drive your business,

with customers, suppliers, partners, outsourcing and financing partners, to name a few. This

kind of capital also includes organizational brand and reputation. Due to the growing

importance of networks in organizational structures, this is also sometimes called Network

Capital.

Structural Capital – This includes all knowledge that stays behind when your employees go

home at th f h y. Th f c uc u l c p l y’ z

including recorded knowledge, processes, software and intellectual property.

Strategic Capital – This is a category that is not always included in academic definitions of

IC. However, in our experience, this category of knowledge is the necessary complement to

the others. It includes all the knowledge you have of your market and the business model that

you have created to connect with market needs.

Why did you add the Strategic Capital element?

IC is basically knowledge. Knowledge is an abundant (often free) commodity. Yet, put to

work in the right situations, knowledge can create great value. If you are trying to understand

the knowledge of an organization, this value creation dynamic is critical— ’ h

z ’ f v l p h wl . I ’ l h z ’ w y f

preserving itself. No organization can survive without a business model. The value is usually

in monetary terms. And, while there are many ways to make money from knowledge, finding

h h m l ’ lw y y v u . Ev f h up y u lyz ’

organized for profit (examples include non-profits but also internal organizations such as

finance or IT), you still have to understand the value proposition. For all these reasons, I find

it necessary and valuable to understand strategic capital as a separate category of IC.

How does your view on the intangible capital differ from for instance Kaplan and

Norton’s work (book “Strategy Maps, Converting intangible assets into tangible

outcomes”)?

Kaplan and Norton simplify the IC categories. I think they were trying to make the IC ideas

more accessible but this over-simplification has limited the uptake of the Balanced Scorecard

pp ch. H ’ h w I h c :

Learning and Growth is a subset of human capital (leaves our experience, culture and

competencies)

Internal Business Processes are a subset of structural capital (leaves out knowledge,

data and IP)

Customers are a subset of relationship capital (leaves our partners and brands)

Financial is a subset of strategic capital (leaves our all the non-financial benefits

needed/expected by stakeholders)

You can see that IC paints a much richer tapestry of the knowledge side of business. I think

we should embrace the rich and unique IC of individual organizations, not try to simplify

them to irrelevance.

Knowledge is becoming the key competitive advantage in the global market, what do you see

as the main challenge for organizations to benefit optimally from all this knowledge?

Learning to talk about knowledge as the critical financial asset that it is. One of the greatest

shortcomings of the conversation in the KM and IC communities to date has been the inability

to show h c l h c c f c l ul w h wl . I ’ l y v l

the finances: 80% of the value of the average company in the U.S. is off balance sheet in

knowledge assets. The failure to understand this enormous information gap holds us all back

from paying attention to IC.

What are the challenges and opportunities created by social technologies for intangible

capital management (ICM)?

The way that we measure IC in my firm is by taking the pulse of stakeholders. This is easier

all the time thanks to social technologies. So I see the two absolutely linked. The value that IC

thinking brings to the situation is a framework to understand the social media feedback and

make it actionable. A more advanced use is to use these media to not just get feedback but to

also collaborate with stakeholders.

What do you see as a main benefit of integrating social technology for ICM?

As I said, the best way to measure intangibles is to ask the people that experience them—the

z ’ h l s. Social technology is a potential tool to do this, although it will be

a more advanced use of the tool....

Last but not least, how are you making your intangible business tangible?

The publication of our book a couple years ago was an important step. I also created the IC

Knowledge Center, an on-line community of close to 400 people from around the world

interested in IC. I feel strongly about the need to share knowledge and collaborate within our

community (we are always looking for more members!)

In some ways, the most important thing I am doing is operationalizing, productizing the

principal methodology we use to measure intangible capital. It is called the IC Value Drivers

assessment. The process identifies the unique intangible capital of an organization and then

plugs these unique elements into a standard questionnaire that includes IC that all

organizations have (such as finance, marketing and sales). We measure the strength of the IC

by polling internal and external stakeholders. The scores are very valuable on their own.

I y h mp ju c u ’ my u . I f l ly h h h p h h

we all must take in the IC community—w c ’ ju l h y w h v c l

make it easy for managers to apply the theories.

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

social technology

ICM

Social Media Investments Scaled Up: Community

Management, Content Development & Real-time Analytics

to Generate Business Value

8 p m 11:09:37 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Booz & Company and Buddy Media, a social enterprise software provider,

conducted a quantitative survey of 117 leading companies and a series of in-depth interviews

with senior marketing and media executives. The survey revealed that due to the importance

and opportunities by social media, 95 per cent expects to increase the social media

investments.

Key findings of the results are:

Strengthening c l m h CEO’ p c f p

companies;

Social media is a top marketing priority for about 60 percent;

78 percent believe that social media efforts enhance their marketing effectiveness

Currently, two-thirds of responding companies dedicate five percent or less of their digital

marketing spending to social media. Within three years, however, 56 percent of responding

companies expect to spend 10 percent or more of their digital marketing budgets on social

media, and 28 percent expect the figure to exceed 20 percent.

Scaling the Social Experience capabilities

The three identified capabilities that offer new ways to generate business value are

community management, content development and real-time analytics.

Community management

The art and science of convening and hosting fans in social media across multiple platforms

— quickly emerges as a vitally important skill.

Content development

To build a robust content development capability, companies must often completely reboot

their approaches to communications and campaigns. Leading social media teams are taking

steps to build publisher-l c p l c mp v ly f c um ’

engagement, and loyalty with high-value content just as media companies do.

Real-time analytics

Marketers increasingly need real-time insight into their audiences and the impact of their

content to know whether their social media efforts are on target. Robust, well-structured

analytics and metrics are critical to this understanding.

Social media ROI

The most advanced companies set out to achieve strategic business objectives with their social

media analytics. According to the survey, only about 40 percent of companies have metrics in

place today to measure ROI-focused key performance indicators, such as purchase intent,

leads generated, conversion rates, or actual sales.

S c l m ROI p c c u ’ ff cul . Wh h c l m

attributed to the amount of leads, which has often not a causal and direct connection? Did

social media influence the buyer in its decision-making, if so, how is that being proved?

I ’ h c u v c l m h c p pl c . I ’ h –volatile

and intangible- communication via social networks that create value. This will be the next

step in ROI understanding, pinpointing better which communication is responible for certain

results.

Wh ’ y u p h h p p c p l y u ?

If not, which other capability do you suggest?

Categories:

Digital and Social Media

Tags:

research

social media

Digitization and its Contribution to Competitiveness and

Economic Growth: Establishing a Virtuous Cycle

z sep m 16:06:21 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Dutch results from the Global Competitiveness Report 2012 by the

World Economic Forum were used abundantely by some political parties during the elections

last week. The Netherlands was globally –on overall- the number five most competitive

country and therefore current policy should be continued. Strategy + Business by Booz&Co

published an indepth study on economic growth being linked to the adoption of ICT. The

Dutch Digization Score showed that the Netherlands is an Advanced Economy, being in the

most mature stage of digitization. The more advanced the country, the greater the impact of

digitization, which establishes a virtuous cycle: A country reinforces and accelerates its own

progress as it moves along the line. This conclusion has meaning on the micro-, meso- and

m c c m c l v l f m m c w m c l h c u y’ l

competitiveness.

Digization Score components

To measure the impact of digitization on each country, the research study analyzed six key

attributes. Each was tracked through a group

of proxy indicators based on publicly accessible data:

The results are as follow:

(See exhibit 2 page 5 of the study for a bigger image)

Many countries in the Advanced stage are also countries that score high in the Global

Competitiveness Index.

The four stages as explained by Booz&Co:

The scores show that the progression of digitization proceeds in four similar stages in all

geographies:

• Constrained economies (those with a digitization score below 25) have barely begun to

develop affordable Internet connections, often because they are held back by political factors

or lagging economic development. Internet services remain expensive and limited in reach.

• Emerging economies (those with a score between 25 and 29.9) have achieved significant

progress in providing affordable and widespread access. However, the reliability of services

remains below par, capacity is limited, and usage is low.

• Transitional economies (those with a digitization score between 30 and 39.9) provide

citizens with ubiquitous, affordable, and reasonably reliable services, and usage is expanding

at a relatively rapid pace.

• Advanced economies (those with a score of 40 and higher) are in the most mature stage of

digitization. These countries have a talent base that can take advantage of digital services.

The contributions –per stage- made by digitization on the economic growth are:

Digitization and competitiveness contribution

The concept of competitiveness involves static and dynamic components. Although the

productivity of a country determines its ability to sustain a high level of income, it is also one

of the central determinants of its returns to investment, which is one of the key factors

xpl c my’ growth potential. These components are grouped into 12 pillars of

competitiveness:

Because ICT is an enabler as such, in one way or another it influences and impacts all of the

pillars. The most interesting for me in relation to the progress of competitiveness is pillar 11,

business sophistication.

Business sophistication: towards Open Industries and –Economies

The World Economic Forum explains the component:

“Th u h ph c u p c c c uc v h h ff c cy

the production of goods and services. Business sophistication concerns two elements that are

intricately linked: the quality of c u y’ v ll u networks and the quality of

v u l f m ’ p . Th f c p cul ly mp f

countries at an advanced stage of development when, to a large extent, the more basic sources

of productivity mp v m h v xh u . Th qu l y f c u y’ u

networks and supporting industries, as measured by the quantity and quality of local suppliers

and the extent of their interaction, is important for a variety of reasons. When companies and

suppliers from a particular sector are interconnected in geographically proximate groups,

called clusters, efficiency is heightened, greater opportunities for innovation in processes and

products are created, and barriers to entry for new firms are r uc . I v u l f m ’

advanced operations and strategies (branding, marketing, distribution, advanced production

processes, and the production of unique and sophisticated products) spill over into the

economy and lead to sophisticated and modern busine p c c h c u y’

u c .”

The words–networks, interaction, interconnected- are the next level of progression, means to

increase competitiveness further from a connected and Open Industry point of perspective.

Open Industry theref f w ll m f “Wh c mp uppl f m

particular sector are interconnected in geographically proximate groups, called clusters,

efficiency is heightened, greater opportunities for innovation in processes and products are

created, y f w f m uc .”

The interconnectedness by the WEF is geographically focussed. Social technologies add value

from a digital point of perspective. Creating digital interconnectness, geo-independant that

support transparency and agility throughout the industry.

Open Industry: the next level

McKinsey reported about the untapped potential value by social technologies. The first image

in the article point out to the ten ways social technologie scan add value. The emphasis will

shift to enterprise wide levers, focussing on inter-organizational collaboration and

communication, supporting the aforementioned transparency and adaptiveness.

Categories:

Open Industry and Open Economy

Tags:

open industry

social technology

competitiveness

Adobe Social Enters the Social Media Analytics Arena

v j p m 9:01:28 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Adobe has launched its social media tool, Adobe Social. It claim that the

product connects social marketing campaigns with real business results. As part of the Adobe

Digital Marketing Suite, Adobe Social includes social publishing, monitoring, ad buying and

analytics features.

The suite features tools to:

Integrate social marketing into a company's wider marketing efforts — content can be

created or personalised through Adobe Social and associated with a particular

campaign, with any resulting likes, retweets, and other social media buzz tied back to

that particular marketing push.

Buy social ads — allowing marketers to create Sponsored Story ads for Facebook and

then target them at a company's fans or non-fans, narrowed down by demographic.

Track whether social-media activity — such as a Facebook or Twitter promotion —

resulted in activity outside of that platform, including whether it led to a spike in

traffic on the company's homepage or any increase in purchases.

Monitor social media sentiment, along with functionality to monitor and moderate

social conversations.

Monitor activity on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and other social

platforms, and interrogated alongside more traditional marketing efforts through the

Digital Marketing Suite's analytics.

Have a look on WebProNews for screenschots of the tool.

What do you think of Adobe Social? Will this cockpit relieve the marketer and business

professional to efficiently and effectively use social, or is it not possible for one tech to serve

all needs?

What's your opinion on their claim of connecting social with business results, did they find

the solution for the longlasting quest of proving social media ROI?

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

social analytics

adobe

Research Shows Need for Social Technologies to Enable a

More Collaborative Supply Chain

w p m 15:44:56 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

IDC’ ch “The State of Enterprise Social Software Adoption 2012” p ll 7 US

senior executive-level decision makers on their current and future technology and business

plans, perceptions, and experiences related to the use of social media/networking for business

purposes and corporate sponsored enterprise social software. The most important finding is

that there is a growing need for solutions that incorporate external stakeholders such as

customers and suppliers in business workflow processes and feedback mechanisms. Because

of this, security (84%) and privacy (81%) are the top two important functionalities identified

by organizations.

Additional key survey findings include:

In 2012, 67% of companies surveyed have deployed corporate-sponsored enterprise

social software, noting that the level of autonomy an employee has on how they

manage individual task and business workflow has increased.

In 2011, the top response to why organizations were using social media, networking,

or community initiatives for business purposes was to acquire knowledge and ask

questions. This dropped dramatically in 2012, replaced with the notion of customer

feedback and engaging all constituents into the feedback process to support and add

value to the innovation process.

Survey respondents highlighted competitive pricing (87%), minimal performance

downtime and latency (85%), and meeting expectations with regard to solution

updates or upgrades (85%) to be the most important characteristics of solutions.

Vanessa Thompson, research manager for IDC's Enterprise Social Networks and

Collaborative Technologies, said:

"As enterprise social software grows into enterprise social networks (ESNs), solution

functionalities like profiles, activity streams, and blogs have quickly become assumed. The

marked shift in the buying behavior of solutions in 2012 highlights the need for solutions to

extend outside the company firewall and include customers, partners, and suppliers in the

feedback and business workflow processes."

Social Supply Networks

I’v w h m f m Supply Chain Magazine, a prominent magazine on all things

Supply Chain. Traditional linear supply chains have now evolved into complex collaborative

networks where different roles (such as supplier, buyer, competitor) are being simultaneously

fulfilled. Due to this networks arise on both a personal and business level: the social supply

network.

(For the Dutch people: check SCM’s September edition on social supply networks).

The challenge for the social IT supply side is to developed and find solutions that are able to

support such networks as illustrated at the left. Two pre-conditions - m IDC’

research- are security and privacy.

Organizations are realizing more and more that they need to collaborate in order to

innovateand stay competitive. The philosophy of Ujendre Ramautarsing (TSC Consultancy)

perfectly fits with these new dynamics:

“C mp w c mp u w upply ch ”

What are your thoughts on social technologies for the purpose of supply chains / social supply

networks?

Categories:

Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing

Tags:

supply chain

social technology

Fortune 500 Companies Avoid Social Media

p m 13:31:59 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

According to the research conducted by Genesys, many consumer-facing Fortune 500

companies do not list their social media on their websites as means for customers to contact

them.

The press release m h ”M h h lf ( p c ) f c um -facing Fortune 500

businesses do p v h Tw h l h “C c U ” p f h w .

Additionally, despite the fact that Facebook has 900 million users across the world; half of

these businesses (51 percent) do not provide a link to their Facebook profile on the “C c

U ” p .”

Specifically to consumer-facing Fortune 500 companies, MediaPost elaborates:

“A u 7% f c um -facing Fortune 500 corporations do not list social media channels

on their Web site home page, 89% do not list an e-mail address on their site, and 13% don't

l ph um h C c U p .”

This goes beyond the avoidance of social media, the lack of email addresses and phone

number is a different and deeper issue.

Tom Eggemeier, head of Global Sales at Genesys said:

“Th f an indication that social media is still a very new phenomenon. Many

large consumer-facing companies are still struggling and not confident in their ability to deal

with customer queries and complaints via social media. Consumer-facing companies need to

resolve this disconnect by developing a customer service strategy that understands and

c l m ch l c v y cu m uch p .”

What is interesting from the article of MediaPost is that in the near future, agencies project the

fastest increase in spending will reside in video, mobile and social media, 69%, 68% and

48%, respectively.

How will these increases be utilized when social ecosystems are not in place, this means that

effectiveness of social integration is far from optimal, m h ROI l w ’

met and dissapointment will follow. Starting with a systemic test-and-learn approach to

support certain business goals is the fastest and most efficient way in understanding where

social media can add value.

Categories:

Customer Experience Management

Tags:

fortune 500

social media

research

IBM Acquires Kenexa to Boost its Social Business

Initiatives

p m 11:49:55 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

IBM and Kenexa Corporation announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for

IBM to acquire Kenexa, a publicly held company headquartered in Wayne, Pa., in a cash

transaction at a price of $46 per share, or at a net price of approximately $1.3 billion.

Th pu ch l IBM’ u -analytics software, which helps companies cull vast

amounts of data to make decisions and study trends. Kenexa works with more than 8,900

customers, including Starbucks Corp., General Electric Co. and Boeing Co. Armonk, New

York-based IBM has spent US$16-billion on 30 analytics acquisitions in the past five years,

according to the Financial Post.

Alistair Rennie IBM’ l m f c l u v w:

“Th v y c ly h v m w ’v m h lp cl c p

social networks and how we apply analytics. This idea of how you leverage talent and bring it

f w h c m f c p l u .”

Adopting social business technology to spur human capital

The adoption of social business technology is supporting the growth of big data and the need

for analytics in the organization. A recent global IBM study revealed that 57 percent of CEOs

identified social business as a top priority and more than 73 percent are making significant

investments to draw insights into available data.

The survey also reveals that 70 percent cite human capital as the single biggest contributor to

sustained economic value. R&D Magazine l h “ h c m h f IBM

and Kenexa are key differentiators at a time when organizations of all sizes are looking to

c w f c ff c c m h f m h u f m .”

What do you think of this acquisition?

Categories:

Business Models

Tags:

ibm

kenexa

social business

Unlocking Social Technologies' Untapped Potential

Annual Value of 1.3 Trillion Dollars

m 3 p m 11:39:24 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

This is one of the key findings by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) in their research “Th

c l c my: U l c v lu p uc v y h u h c l ch l ”. Th ch

attempts to quantify the value and can be realized across the value chain, not just in the

consumer-facing applications that have been at the forefront of adoption. Further, it found that

social technologies when being used within and across enterprises, they have to potential to

raise productivity of the high-skill knowledge workers that are critical to performance and

growth in the 21st century by 20 to 25 percent. The research contributes two-thirds of the US$

900 billion to US$ 1.3 trillion in annual value it estimates social technology can create across

the four commercial sectors of consumer packaged goods (CPG), consumer financial services,

professional services and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Knowledge valorization

Exactly from a knowledge-based economy point of perspective, social technologies are so

interesting and important. More than 75 percent of the average market value of an

organization is derived from intangible assets. Investments in human capital means focussing

on (continuous) (self-)education, shaping and training. Investments in organizational capital

means investing time and money in open business models, open innovation and setting the

h c f c v ‘ wl w ’. L u l v m

information capital spur the collection, interpretation and thus quality of the available internal

information.

This is were social technologies come in, valorizing knowledge faster and better, speeding up

processes, decision-making to operate within the window of –real-time- opportunity. Evolve

c m l u l cqu h u ’ c p l y p p ly

and cost-effective to changing demands and landscapes, partially caused by social

technologies themselves.

This is in line with the research that appoints c l ch l y’ p l v lu

creator lies in its ability to allow social interactions to occur with the speed, scale and

economics of the Internet.

Ten ways social technologies can add value in organizational functions within and across

enterprises

Number nine and ten can be overlayed on the left side Organizational Functions, that will

open up these silos, and unlocking the power of cross-departmental thinking and ideation.

Social analytics key in knowledge valorization

In the middle of the shown broad range of applications is Social Analytics, all kinds of tools

that measure and analyze interactions across platforms to inform decision-making. This is one

key element in valorizing social data into business value.

The second key element are the needed appropriate skills to mine and interpret all this

unstructered data qualitatively into business relevant value in ensuring success and benefit.

The fine balance and intertwining of (exclusive) human capabilities and social technology

innovations will enable businesses to prosper faster, cheaper and better. For the sceptical

people out there who doubts that social technology can produce significant hard ROI, this

report from McKinsey should quell your concerns.

Categories:

Intangible Capital

Tags:

mckinsey

social technology

economy

intangible capital

Gartner's Hype Cycle 2012: Big Data and Social Analtyics

Reach "The Peak"

z p m 19:32:50 | Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Gartner evaluates in a series of reports the the maturity, adoption and future direction of more

than 1,900 technologies and trends for 2012. The technologies are viewed from the

perspective of the Hype Cycle consisting of the following five phases: Technology Trigger,

Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and

Plateau of Productivity.

The "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies" report is the longest-running annual Hype

Cycle, providing a cross-industry perspective on the technologies and trends that IT managers

should consider in developing emerging-technology portfolios. This year technologies like

S c l A ly c B D h “P f I fl Exp c ”. I h ph

frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There

may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.

In the press release Gartner encourages enterprises to:

“C h ch l up because so many new capabilities and trends

involve multiple technologies working together. Often, one or two technologies that are not

quite ready can limit the true potential of what is possible. Gartner refers to these technologies

as "tipping point technologies" because, once they mature, the scenario can come together

f m ch l y p p c v .”

I believe one set is created by Big Data and Social Analytics. Social Analytics will be able to

mine and understand a subset of Big Data, social media data to offer organizations additional

streams of Business Intelligence, from an unmediated human perspective. Social analytics is

an umbrella for technologies such as social monitoring (Radian6, Alterian, Sysomos),

influencer techs such as Klout and PeerIndex and all kinds of tools to measure and analyze

Facebook, Twitter and so on.

I cc c w h h Hyp Cycl McK y’ ch “Minding your digital business”

outlines that big data and analytics are one of the three most important trends in e-business.

These are strategic priorities for their organizations. One potential cause for failure along the

Hype Cycle is the mentioning that the investments in these technologies are too small to

achieve their goals.

Challenges

There are however challenges concerning Big Data and (the usage and goals of) Social

Analytics, for instance:

Two thirds of marketers need data scientists to manage Big Data (MyCustomer.com)

Managing relations is a fundemental task of marketing in nowadays environment (The

Social Life of Brands by Booz & Co)

Only 6 per cent of the marketers use social media data to gain customer insight

(Emailvision research)

From our own experience we see a discrepancy between needed and acquired skills and how

to extract and productize insights derived from all this real-time social media data. Another

issue is the amount of social media data, especially for large (mulitnational) organizations.

Ac w h h ‘w w f pp u y’ cc y u ch ll wh h

thousands and thousands of conversations.

What do you think, which subset of Social Analytics will be integrated and used throughout

organizations within two to five years?

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

gartner

hype cycle

big data

social analytics