HSM Inspiring Ideas

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

Here are the can't misses in recent business blogs:

Economy, Trends, Change:

Bernanke Translated (WSJ Real Time Economics )

When U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke talks, people listen, though they may not understand what he says. On November 19, Bernanke spoke in Frankfurt to explain and defend the latest round of quantitative easing (QE2), as well as to assail China for failing to allow the Yuan to appreciate faster. If you're head is already spinning, Wall Street Journal economis editor David Wessel arrives to offer up some plain english for Bernanke watchers, juxtaposing excerpts from the Chairman remarks against the lay translation. Example:

• “The level of output in the advanced economies is currently about 8% below its long-term trend, whereas economic activity in the emerging markets is only about 1.5% below the corresponding (but much steeper) trend line for that group of countries. Indeed, for some emerging markets the crisis appears to have left little lasting imprint on growth. Notably, since the beginning of 2005, real output has risen more than 70% in China and about 55% in India.” TRANSLATION: “China, India and other emerging markets have resumed their rapid growth with surprising speed, but despite all my efforts the U.S. is mired in painfully slow growth — and Europe and Japan aren’t doing much better. Sigh.”

Enjoy.

Leadership, Performance, People:

How to Treat New Employees (Alexander Kjerulf--The Chief Happiness Officer)

"Studies show that new employees who have undergone a successful start-up process are 69% more likely to still be in the company after 3 years and they reach their full production rate 2 months faster." The CHO offers four tips on how your organization should treat new hires:

1. Be there for them the first day;
2. Have the practical stuff ready;
3. Give them a solid technical introduction; and
4. Lay down the culture.

Because it's never a good sign when the first day is the beginning of the end.

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

What Makes a Great Tagline (Denise Lee Yohm--Brand as Business Bites)

The title says it all. Why do we remember "The Ultimate Driving Machine," while forgetting other marketing taglines that are, well, forgettable? While Yohn doesn't offer a precise answer to the question, she does review Forbes list of 25 "best loved" taglines (that BMW line gets number one honors) to determine if the best taglines share particular attributes. She can't detect any, which means that a great tagline may well be just a moment of inspired genius. So don't try and turn this art into a science; know your product and let the feelig express itself.

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

Here are the can't misses in business blogs for the past week:

Economy, Trends, Change:

The 50K College Club (Paul Kedrosky--Infectious Greed)

Is there a higher education bubble? In an economy where education is more and more important, is it becoming ever more unattainable for most? And is your company positioned for a world in which education again becomes the domain of an elite and where the next, great manager might not be able to go to school? It might be time to give some thought to what the following means for the already displaced workforce: the new list of colleges and universities with an annual tuition in excess of $50,000.00 has been released, and now exceeds 100 institutions, many of which are not what you'd consider "elite" in any sense of the word. Along with the price of gold, this could be one of the top "eye popping" charts of the year.

Leadership, Performance, People:

Three Ways to Make the Workplace Richer in Feedback (Daniel H. Pink--danpink.com)

Is it time for managers to consign the annual performance review to the dustbin of "that used to work," or at least enhance it with new workplace feedback opportunities made possible by technology and a new generation of workers that crave, even demand more feedback? Daniel Pink thinks so. Millennials have been connected their entire lives--they've grown up in a constant feedback loop and expect more than an annual "how'd you do" when they show up for work. In light of technology, annual reviews are a vestige of a bygone time when frankly, offering feedback was more complicated. It doesn't have to be anymore. Feedback can be a regular process, and Pink offers three ways to make it so: "DIY performance reviews, peer rewards, and some groovy new software — to pump a little more feedback oxygen into our employment caves."

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

Don't Innovate - Steal Ideas and Create Value (Caspar Van Rijnbach--Blogging Innovation)

Anyone with a memory or a few minutes on his hands knows or can deduce that the i-pod was not an original idea, in the sense of being first-to-market. So how did Apple succeed with borrowed technology where others could not, and how can this inform your innovative process? Steve Jobs is a believer in "stealing" ideas and using them to competitive advantage. With i-pod, "Apple combined all the ideas and inventions [that made up the MP3 revolution], incorporated them in the i-pod and i-tunes and did it a little better than anybody else (while making sure to stay ahead in the game). Besides that, the company knew how to market the innovation and how to protect it." Bottom line--you don't have to be Einstein to be a successful innovator.

 

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

Here are the can't misses in business blogs for that past week:

Economy, Trends, Change:

Will the Verizon iPhone Cripple Verizon? (Nick Bilton--New York Times Bits)

The mobile wireless battlefield is heating up once again. For years, U.S. consumers have clamored for Apple's iPhone to be made available on a network other than AT&T, which has been jammed since the phone's debut. (Calling an AT&T iPhone owner can be nightmarish.) The question is whether the same will happen if/when Verizon introduces its long-awaited iPhone. And what does a new iPhone carrier mean for carriers in general--for AT&T, which might suffer abandonment, as frustrated users flock to the competitor, or for the second-tier carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint?

Leadership, Performance, People:

Howard Roark Would've Made a Great Football Coach (S.M. Oliva--Mises Daily)

Do ideas matter more than talent? Oliva examines that difference between entrpreneurial and bureaucratic leadership highlighting an October 31 NFL football game between the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins--specifically Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan's decisions late in the fourth quarter to pull star quarterback Donovan McNabb and replace him with journeyman Rex Grossman. Answer to the question opening this paragraph? "Ideas without the talent to execute them are worthless in the marketplace. It doesn’t matter how brilliant an architect you are if nobody wants to buy and occupy the damn building."

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

3 Steps to Foolish Marketing (Brian Clark--Copyblogger)

Applying the tactics of the highly successful Motley Fool investment advisory service, Clark highlights the differences between foolish online advertising (which most online ads are) and Foolish online advertising--that is, "without wasting your money and annoying people" (which most online ads do). This is all about the power of content-driven, opt-in, education-based strategies that cost little and guarantee you no income at first (because you're always giving something away for nothing). Your content replaces traditional banner and click-through ads. This works because online consumers want content; your educational content becomes your advertising. And eventually, you can pitch to your new, loyal students.

 

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

Here are the can't misses in business blogs for that past week:

Economy, Trends, Change:

Pimco's Bill Gross: Dollar Could Fall 20% (Wall Street Journal Market Beats)

As the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank prepares to engage a second round of quantitative easing (i.e., turning on the printing press by buying bonds), money pros are speaking out, in particular PIMCO Chairman Bill Gross. The point of quantitative easing (QE) is to jump-start economies by making exports cheaper. But the bond-house big says QE2, as it is not so affectionately referred to, could lead to debasement of the dollar and then an all-out currency war as other nations, in response, try to protect their export base. What does it mean for business when countries begin a race to the "currency bottom"?

Leadership, Performance, People:

Efficient vs. Effective (N2Growth Blog)

While there's nothin wrong with efficiency efforts, Mike Myatt laments that, too often, they come at the expense of effectiveness: "If efficiency starts diluting productivity rather than increasing it something is woefully amiss." Sometimes, the innefficient process can leader to the most productive outcome.

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

Managing Innovation is About Managing Change (Blogging Innovation)

Innovation always sounds great; we assume that innovative companies have a bunch of geniuses sitting around coming up with revolutionary products and processes that the companies seamlessly integrate into the business model. That may be so when it comes to what Braden Kelly calls "incremental innovation," which doesn't require much genius anyway. But in his new book, Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire (excerpted in this Kelly post), Kelly examines the difficulties presented to all companies by "disruptive innovation." The changes generated by such innovation "often disrupt not only the market but the internal workings of the organization as well – they also require a lot of explanation." And even more internal management of a company's entire "ecosystem."

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

We're going to change it up at the Bloggers Hub Cap. Starting this week, the hub cap will highlight three of the best recent blog posts on the business web. Enjoy.

Economy, Trends, Change:

Power of Ten Interface (Thomas Frey's Futurist Speaker)

The distance between information and our brain is getting shorter. Twenty years the time between a request for information and finding the answer in the Library of Congress averaged 10 hours per question. We have shaved that time today to 10 minutes, and we are headed for a world in which we can find answers in as little as 10 seconds. "The ease and fluidity of our information-to-brain interface will have a profound effect on everything from education, to the way business is being conducted, to the way we function as a society."

Leadership, Performance, People:

Servant Leaders Outperform Because They Connect (Michael Lee Stallard)

Do certain types of leaders garner out-sized loyalty? Because they move people to “surrender the me for the we” and create "connection cultures," the teams of "servant leaders" accomplish more because they pull together rather than drift apart: the fascinating case of retired Chief Naval Officer Vern Clark, under whom re-enlistment soared from 38% to 56.7%.

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

Top Ten Reasons Your Company Shouldn't Blog (B.L. Ochman's What's Next Blog)

Every company needs a blog, right? Maybe not. Companies need to consider whether they are willing to commit the time, energy and money to making a blog successful.  Leveraging your business by blogging takes a lot of work, and most company blogs are failures--not read, not interesting, not original and you can't expect them to drive sales.

Day 2 Agenda at #WBF10

Here is the rundown of speakers at Day 2 of World Business Forum 2010:

• 9:00 Steve Levitt
• 9:40 Joseph Stiglitz
• 11:00 Marvin Odom
• 11:15 Al Gore
• 2:00 A.G. Lafley
• 2:15 Renee Mauborgne
• 3:15 Vijay Govindarajan
• 4:20 Luca Majorski
• 4:30 Nando Parrado
• 5:05 James Cameron

Great Lineup!

 

#WBF10 Speaker Steve Levitt's film "Freakonomics" Opens Today

Honestly, WBF10 couldn't have planned this better if it tried. The film version of the best-sellers Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything and Super Freakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotics Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, the two quirky, funny and groundbreaking best-sellers co-authored by University of Chicago Professor Steve Levitt (with journalist Stephen J. Dubner), opens today, just in time for you to get a taste of freakonomics before Levitt opens Day Two of WBF10. This isn't exactly homework, but we can at least help make the film a hit, and you can get some insight into incentive-based decision-making that is the theme of both books. Here's a sneak preview:

If you're arriving in NYC for WBF10 this weekend, or even on Monday, check out the showtimes and get your freak on before hearing from Steve Levitt.

 

 

Stiglitz: "It's the Stupid Economy Models" #wbf10

We've been spending the better part of two-and-half years now trying to figure out "what went wrong" in the economy and who is to blame. Was it the banks? No, it was the regulators. Yeah, but no, it was individuals buying more house than they could afford and then sucking out what equity they had. Back to the regulators. Yeah, but it was the predatory lenders. No it was the securitiazations that encouraged them. Back to the regulators. And around and around and around. Now comes 2001 Nobel Prize recipient in economics Joseph Stiglitz to tell us that "the economics profession bears more than a little culpability. It provided the models that gave comfort to regulators that markets could be self-regulated; that they were efficient and self-correcting."

Phew, not that that's settled. We can move on; it wasn't out fault. But seriously, "It is hard for non-economists to understand how peculiar the predominant macroeconomic models were." If in hindsight, he is correct, and if you had been basing your decisions, whether consciously or subconsciously on these models, well, then it was only a matter of time before everything went into the toilet. For Stiglitz, then, "not only is our economy in a shambles but so too is the economic paradigm that predominated in the years before the crisis – or at least it should be." Time and experience will tell if Stiglitz is right, but he expanded on this point of view at the Institute for New Economic Thinking's inaugural conference, and if you have 43 minutes to spare, check it out: 

Stiglitz thinks the future needs some serious rethinking, and he definitely falls into the global coordination camp, which is still a difficult row for U.S.-centric business thinkers to hoe. But global is the way the wind is blowing (the release of the Basel III capital requirements is today's example), so you have to consider Stiglitz's views. That's why we asked him to join WBF10 on October 6 for a broad examination of the promise and pitfalls of globalization and to peer into his crystal ball to discuss a new agenda for a changing economic and financial landscape. More heady stuff, including the global economy in the aftermath; globalization and its multiple dimensions; and how to successfully leverage national competitive advantages, which encompasses his comprehensive agenda to promote development. Regardless of your view on globalized agendas, oyu have to listen.

Don't Fear the Double-Dip; Run Your Business in a way that turns the D-D Back into an Ice-Cream Order #wbf10

Turn on any business news show--any news show--and the talk is of the possibility of a double-dip recession around the globe. Whether it's NYU's Nouriel Roubini saying the chances are 40% or Ford's President of Americas countering that one is unlikely, all this double-dip talk pushes a negative narrative onto business leaders and the public at large. But you don't have the luxury of burying your head in the sand when there's bad news. So how can you, the business owner/executive/manager, forge ahead when chicken little is screeching in everyone's ears? We thought about that when we put together the agenda for WBF10. And while we know that speeches don't create consumer demand or make debt evaporate and credit appear, the truth is that, even in a  difficult business environment, the best businesses survive and even thrive. Why? World Business Forum 2010 seeks to answer that query.

This year's Forum is divided into nine categories of inquiry: the Economy, Trends, Change, Leadership, Performance, People, Strategy, Innovation and Communication. It is your response to the challenges presented by temporal issues within these categories that, in large part, determines your success. The best businesses soar in good times and retool during tough times by focusing, laser-like, on how to answer the unique challenges of the times--by navigating the particular economic and competitive waters in which they find themselves. And each of our WBF10 speakers will address some aspect of one (and possibly more) of these nine topics to offer a "now" perspective on how you can not only overcome obstacles, but take advantage of them. In the weeks leading up to WBF10, we'll introduce the WBF10 speakers to you here. Last week, you met Renee Mauborgne, who has revolutionized the way business thinks about Strategy and Innovation, and Nando Parrado, whose perspective on Leadership and Performance in crisis are unparalleled because of his unique experience.

Double-Dip, if that's where we're heading, doesn't mean your business folds up shop and goes home. You attack the situation with the best tools at your disposal. And if you wake up in six months and business is booming, the tools will work just as well. Then you can order a mint-chocolate chip/vanilla bean cone and pat yourself and your team on the back for a job well done.

#WIF10 Meet the WIF Speakers: Brian Shawn Cohen

Brian Shawn Cohen is an angel--not the winged sort, or the kind that plays baseball in Los Angeles. He's a New York Angel, the consortium of independent, accredited angel investors who, over the past decade-plus, have provided seed capital to dozens of early-stage technology and media companies in the New York City area to help propel them to commercial success. But even before he became Vice-Chairman of the Angels Board of Directors, Brian had accomplished some rather celestial feats in the world of technology innovation.

The founder, in 1983, of Technology Solutions, Inc., Brian is considered one of the fathers of science and technology strategic communications. TSI's client list read like an entrepreneurial who's who list of startup technology companies in computing, communication, software, education, and entertainment. For more than a decade he maintained a broad strategic communications partnership with Sony & IBM Corporation providing counsel to dozens of their intrapreneurial new technology divisions. As a researcher, Brian created Focus Technology, an organization that provided qualitative research and instituted the RPM model of integrated strategic communications providing ultra-competitive technology clients the ability to quickly discover and leverage their key strengths as well as mitigate their destructive weaknesses. Brian was also a pioneer in the founding of a number of the first computing publications, including Computer Systems News and Information Week.

At this year's WIF, Brian will explore the next wave of technology innovation and how innovation in technology are the keys to social and economic growth. With the Internet generation's growing and insatiable desire for new and better solutions, helping people to truly understand science and technology is now at the critical level. Those tasks might require some real angels--fortunately, we have one at WIF.