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30 August 2008 Multidimensional Innovation—Inviting Collaboration—Crowdsourcing via LinkedIn
 In August, I have been intensely involved in developing the next iteration of executive LinkedIn training (the Executive’s Guide to LinkedIn, EGLI), which has proven as illuminating as it has fruitful, so I will share key elements of the quick innovation approach I used as well as how Linkedin contributed to it. I believe that by collaborating with EGLI alumni and other people in my network, I have fielded the most innovative and valuable offering ever. I’d love to get your feedback, too! (links below)
Continue reading Inside the Innovation of the New Fall 2008 Executive’s Guide to LinkedIn Seminars
2 August 2008
Enterprise 2.0 and B2C Web 2.0 Show Serious Traction—But Social Sticky Wickets Remain—How to Trust?
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 The Social Networking Conference (SNC) was an excellent place to check the pulse of Web 2.0 adoption from customer and provider perspectives. Producer Marc Lesnick explained in his opening remarks that, in the months preceding this conference, corporations had knocked on his door asking to get involved. His Ticonderoga Ventures had held several SNCs over the past few years, and it had been largely the purview of social networking start-ups and their facilitators. This is a very apt indication of the enterprise adoption predicted by my State of Social Networking Forrester coverage and 2007 Review.
SNC SF 2008 took place July 10-11, 2008 at the UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay Conference Center. It was a focused conference that balanced start-ups’ and enterprises’ innovation—with a dash of perspective from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Social Networking Watch’s Mark Brooks. On the enterprise side, GE’s Grewal and GM’s Denison covered the enterprise 2.0 and B2C Web 2.0 perspectives respectively, while the U.S. Air Force’s Adkins presented nascent cross-boundary collaboration in the armed services. Start-ups Twitter, Mowave, Faceforce and many others gave fascinating examples of innovation along several vectors. I beta-released the Social Network Roadmap in my presentation and moderated a panel with Visible Path, Jigsaw and LinkedIn in which we discussed various aspects of how enterprises were using social networks. IBM’s Rawn Shah offered a useful network for “social context” for planning and solutions for social networks.
Notable, too, was Daniel Brusilovsky’s very lucid presentation, “Social Networks: a Teen Perspective. Daniel is the 15 year old founder of Teens in Tech.
I have coverage of all these tracks, which I’ll summarize before Analysis and Conclusions. The reportage follows this convention: the summaries are from my notes of speakers’ remarks, and when a sentence is parenthesized, it is a comment. Click on logos for abstracts of the tracks.
29 June 2008
Reexamining “Content” in Light of “Conversation”
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 Web 2.0 is redefining content on the Web, and Duo Consulting’s and Content Wrangler’s Web Content 2008 Chicago, convened at the UBS Tower on June 17-18, 2008, was a rich opportunity to check in with the Web 1.0-Web 2.0 mashup. Embedded within the legacy concept of “content” (text, pictures, audio, video, etc.) is that few people create it and many people consume it, which is obviously less true with every passing month.
Something else is happening on the way to the forum, too: opinions about content are gaining more attention than the content itself, according to Day One keynote Dick Costolo. If so, where does that leave people who “manage” content? There is a whole ecosystem of professionals and vendors that manage content according to Web 1.0 rules, and many of them were here, sharing their visions and tactics for embracing Web 2.0. Day Two keynote Jerome Nadel provided a clue: a shift in emphasis to design: since “users” are creating the opinion content through their “conversation,” I’ll hazard that a key part of the concept of “management” will be providing a better whiteboard that enables people to share what and how they want with whomever they want when they want.
 Moreover, everyone had control issues. Speakers as a group did not agree whether consumers were in control now or whether content creators still prevailed. Chris Anderson’s adage kept flitting across my mind, “We live in an ‘and world,’ not an ‘or world’.” The conversation will not replace content; it will play with it. The two will synergize. As usual, I have summarized the remarks of speakers whose sessions I attended, and I’ll wrap with my own Analysis and Conclusions.
24 June 2008
U.S. Physicians Learn the Power of Professional Crowdsourcing—Consult Each Other in Digital Social Network
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 Healthcare systems worldwide are criticized for falling short of expectations, and countries like the U.S. which feature aging populations, are rapidly approaching a crisis. Demand and cost will grow, but the system as currently structured will certainly break down unless radical changes are made. Web 2.0′s disruptive potential can be part of the remedy: we need to introduce much more accountability and collaboration into all parts of the system. We need to change the paternalistic attitudes that pervade the system, treat patients as active participants and encourage everyone to be more accountable. This series introduces healthcare Web 2.0 innovators.
Business Drivers
Sermo is a start-up that was founded by a doctor with a passion, to create a professional community in which often-isolated U.S. doctors can advise each other. Once confirmed as practicing physicians, members create pseudonyms that are attached to their specialties. No other information about members is required, but they can volunteer other information about themselves.
The Sermo story reflects the limitless applicability of Web 2.0 collaboration, in healthcare and other industries.
30 December 2007  The automobile is a personal manifestation of the ultimate promise of the Industrial Economy—that physical power is essentially free—because it enables people to move quickly and easily. People just love cars because it is immensely satisfying to glide effortlessly (traffic notwithstanding ,^) from one place to another with a high degree of individual freedom.
However, as 2007 draws to a close, autos’ current reliance on fossil fuels makes it increasingly obvious that we need to change the rules. First, new wealth in emerging markets is dramatically increasing auto ownership and its concomitant demand for oil. Increased demand and uncertain supply will undoubtedly prove unsustainable in the medium term. Second, and even more daunting, is the carbon/climate change problem, which is far more life-changing in the long term. Petroleum and coal are the largest contributors to man-made carbon emissions.
Continue reading Noodle II: Tackling the Intractable Delight of the Automobile
17 October 2007
Dell and Procter & Gamble Innovation Leaders Share Web 2.0 Transformation Insight—The Slow Boil
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 The Global Human Capital Journal’s coverage of the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 continues with this session on what I’ll hazard to call Innovation 2.0 ,^). David Armano of Critical Mass moderated this an infectious session. It was clear that Proctor & Gamble’s Stan Joosten and Dell’s Manish Mehta had been in the innovation trenches, and their comments were extremely valuable.
A key ingredient to Web 2.0′s transformational potential is that the technology is an order of magnitude more explicit, easy to use and less costly. It’s possible, and desirable in many cases, to take small steps. On the other hand, Dell took a risky step in launching Direct to Dell in the midst of serious customer service problems, and it leveraged blogs to turn the situation around.
The Global Human Capital Journal published the overall conference wrap as well as in-depth coverage of several sessions. Access all through the link to the conference logo (right). Other articles will be published in the days ahead, and we invite you to subscribe to the forum’s RSS feed to be notified as they are published.
The Meaning of “Always in Beta”
- Manish: you have to escape “corporate terminal velocity”; if you innovation about 3 times faster than the enterprise can absorb, that’s an optimal speed. To do this, the enterprise must create a special space in which people can operate differently. When you select an “innovation” to incorporate into the enterprise, you often have to adjust it (so that it’s appropriate for enterprise speed). When he was saying this, I thought about deep sea diving; you have to come up slowly to avoid “the bends.”
- Stan: you are never finished. The landscape is always changing, and start-ups are always introducing new possibilities, from undefined spaces. YouTube, Twitter.
Approach to Innovation
- Stan: innovation is a core strategy at P&G. Most people think of us as a consumer product company, but innovation goes beyond products. We seek to innovate around products, to services (and how consumers use them in their lives). Our CMO wants marketing to add value to products. Marketing has been the same old thing forever. Our vision is to actually add value to the product. We have premium brands, and innovation is part of our promise. Innovate everywhere. Also, we have a mandate to source 50% of innovation from outside P&G. We already crowdsource (chemical) engineering, and we intend to do it with marketing.
- Manish: Dell approaches innovation by incubating ideas inside the company. The social media space—RSS, Twitter—is enabling motivated, passionate people to emerge and come together. Passionate people are our secret sauce. Dell Online has a partnership with Corporate Communications; we are willing to take risks. A (critical success factor) in innovation is finding the passionate people within the organization.
- Stan: (as to whether your company should use blogs, wikis and the other enterprise 2.0 tools) Gen Y comes in and says, “Why isn’t it here?” (This is how we work). We have to educate executives and let people do it. Our blogs started on a $1,500 old server. Now we have 200 blogs, and we spend zero on promoting blogging. The blog site is now the hottest intranet site (in the company). Go do it. Innovation is contagious.
How to Measure Innovation’s ROI
- Manish: Michael Dell wanted us to do it (their version of “damn the ROI, full speed ahead”). You have to create the culture inside to deal with the outside. In general, Dell is very ROI-driven, but we’ve kept ROI off the table for the time being. Innovation can show sentiment changing. For example, negative comments about Dell are falling. (Even though we can’t put a price on that, we know it’s valuable).
- Stan: P&G is very data driven, and ROI type measurements are very appropriate for stable processes. If your process isn’t stable (as is the case for emerging activities and developments), ROI isn’t relevant. You need results, like when your numbers go up (but you don’t have to monetize them to the cent). You can get away with this when you organize innovation into small chunks. (If you have big ticket items, that will put pressure to show a financial return.) Innovation is the biggest strategic idea.
- David: Critical Mass has seen value from its “thought prototyping” process on its sites (blog and wiki functionality).
How to Warm Senior Marketers to (Discontinuous) Innovation
- Manish: most marketers are not ready for open innovation. When we put up (Direct to Dell), it had 1.3 million members (and a high portion of negative comments). He almost got fired. (marketers got extremely upset, but he had support from the top, and numbers of negative comments are dropping significantly; everyone can see the progress).
- Stan: People are commenting negatively anyway. It’s better to be in contact with what’s really happening. Be aware of the intent.
Admired Companies
- Stan: Dove, what they’ve been doing with the “real beauty” campaign. Dell for their risk-taking.
- Manish: Apple for their design.
 On Mistakes and Failure
- Stan: the worst mistake with innovation is when we don’t let go of control. With innovation, you have to let people learn. (Innovation is) a different learning process.
- Karl Long of Nokia (during Q&A): a big issue is, how do you give permission to fail (in a highly competitive company)?
- Manish: you must allow innovation to fail. We think about keeping it within a usable sweet spot. If you innovate 5 times faster than the enterprise can absorb, you’re wasting effort. (And, if you’re innovating at the speed of the enterprise, you’re not innovating).
- Stan: all this depends on your definition of failure. Business results are derived from stable processes. You have to put innovation in another category (because it’s discontinuous). Chunk it and don’t spend so much in one place.
Analysis and Conclusions
- Web 2.0 is a very innovative proposition, and speakers captured it extremely well. It’s transformational, but it’s not a “big ticket tech item.” This risk is not in terms of cost, but rather it is about collaborating with new parties (sharing control with customers). Blogs and wikis enable emergent organization, yet the software is abstracted enough to deal with it. Web 2.0 tools are very inexpensive compared to “enterprise solutions.”
- The biggest thing in the market for 2008 will be tagging. People, following a discontinuous process that enables them to work at the lowest transaction cost, will organize everything with tags.
- By having small chunks, you can diminish the pressure to submit to ROI type metrics. This is simple yet profound.
- It may not sound like much, but it’s a pearl: innovation is not a continuous process, so don’t treat it like one. Stan’s advice was sound, in my experience: keep investments low, but don’t burden with ROI-type metrics. It’s a different category. That doesn’t mean you can be irresponsible.
- I loved Manish’s metaphor of “corporate terminal velocity“: you have to keep innovation within the window of applicability, but also have an open mind about “applicability.” P&G has the right idea by thinking outside the product and not restricting innovation to the product: as I’ve written for years, value will be created in terms of customer experience. Products and services are, in the end, only means to better experience.
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