2 Twitter guides

I came across 2 guides for using Twitter that I thought might interest you. Here are links to them:

http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/

http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

Do you have other links to guides that help individuals and businesses use Twitter even better?

Use Web 2.0 tools to improve communication between functions

Re-reading the valuable book Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan, I stumpled upon this extract on page 29:

"The difficulty of achieving effective responses to changing circumstances is often further aggravated by the high degree of specialization in different functional areas within the organization (e.g. production, marketing, finance, product engineering). Interdepartmental communications and coordination are often poor, and people often have a myopic view of what is occurring, there being no overall grasp of the situation facing the enterprise as a whole. As a result, the actions encouraged by one element of the organization often entail negative consequences for others, so that one element ends up working against the interests of another."

Here’s an idea to solve the problem: How about using Web 2.0 tools to communicate across functions? Use, for example, Twitter, Facebook, XING, Skype, and/or blogs. Using these tools has another great advantage: You’ll be able to communicate more with your customers and potential customers.

Innovative advertisement

What do you think of this advertisement? I think the effect on the ground is quite innovative. It gives the message a new dimension, so to speak. Well thought out. I came across the ad via this blog posting.

Invest in a solar system to make the outdoor swimming season longer

In Zürich, for example, the outdoor swimming facilities are open daily from May to September. Here’s an idea to owners/managers of outdoor swimming facilities: How about investing in a solar system and thereby make it possible to keep the outdoor swimming facilities open for a longer period of time of the year. Consequently, the investment in the facilities will pay off better.

I came across the idea via the website of Conergy.

Management dilemma: Efficiency vs. trying out something new

As I was reading The Innovator’s Dilemma, a book written by Clayton Christensen I was struck, for example, by the following passage on page 188:

"One of the dilemmas of management is that, by their very nature, processes are established so that employees perform recurrent tasks in a consistent way, time after time. To ensure consistency, they are meant not to change – or if they must change, to change through tightly controlled procedures."

In this regard, Gary Hamel writes the following in this blog posting:

"Fact is, most businesses were never built to change - they were built to do one thing exceedingly well and highly efficiently - forever."

I’d like to ask you how you solve this dilemma. What do you, yourself, do, when you have an idea about something which you think somebody should do differently in order to create more value for customers and for shareholders? To whom do you communicate your idea? Which communication technology do you use to communicate your idea? And how do you formulate your idea? It would be great if you could come up with one or more examples?

Movies at the river

Last night, I watched the movie Stranger than Fiction. The movie was good – and so was the location: Right here at the river Limmat in Zürich. To put up an outdoor cinema at the river is a really innovative initiative, I think. The movie started not until about 21:30 – which was good because it was not really dark until then. The sound was really great.

I don’t know whether it was a coincidence or not, but during the romantic scene of the movie where the man and the woman playing the main roles kissed each other, fireworks went off further down the river, not so far from the outdoor cinema. Anyway, the timing of the fireworks was perfect – a value adding initiative :-)

You can still try it out, i.e watching movies at the river Limmat in Zürich. There is a film every night until Sunday, July 26th. Go to www.filmfluss.ch to find out more.

Innovative use of mobile phones in Africa to save money

In this interview with Vijay Mahajan, the author of Africa Rising, a book I recently read and find very interesting, I read, for example, this:

“People have developed codes for when they call each other. Parents can call their children, using pre-arranged numbers of rings to send messages. For example, three rings means I am ready to pick you up, two rings means meet me at the shopping mall. There is no voicemail, which is one reason why their mobile phone service is cheaper to operate – servers are not required to save the large volume of messages that callers in countries in Europe and North America leave.

Not only have people developed the ability to use mobile phones as a relatively inexpensive medium of communication, in some countries it has become a currency. My driver in Kenya, whose wife was a Massai living in a village some distance away, had three children studying in Nairobi. If the mother wanted to send her daughter a birthday gift she would transfer some of the minutes credit from her mobile phone to her daughter's. In turn, the daughter could go to a commercial establishment and barter some of the mobile phone credit in exchange for a hamburger. The minutes have become a currency.”

What do you do to save money using your mobile phone?

Extend cooperation across national boundaries

Watching this fine 14½ minute talk by Alex Tabarrok, I learned, for example, that, in the 20th century, a number of walls were torn down globally, i.e. collaboration / cooperation was extended across national boundaries.

1. Trade walls were reduced.
2. Transportation walls were reduced.
3. Communication walls were reduced. Just think about the Internet.
4. Political walls were reduced.

Results: Global trade increased. Economic growth extended to almost all parts of the world.

About 9 minute and 20 seconds into the talk, Mr. Tabarrok mentions this:

“We all benefit, when another country gets rich. We should not fear other countries becoming wealthy. That is something we should embrace. A wealthy China, a wealthy India, a wealthy Africa. It means a greater demand of ideas (larger markets), and a greater supply of ideas for the world.”

What do you do to extend cooperation across national boundaries?

I came across the video through this blog posting by Braden Kelley.

Authority is anyone who has a good idea

In this blog posting, Gary Hamel writes:

"While the Facebook Generation must still contend with trickle-down power structures at work and in school, they have experienced a ubiquitous and powerful alternative: The Internet."

In this regard, have you thought about how not least the Internet is changing the way we think about authority? In this 1½ minute video, Doc Searls mentions that authority is anyone who has a good idea? By the way, if you have ideas that you’d like to help others benefit from, I encourage you to try out open innovation portals such as, for example, Atizo, bonspin, and brainfloor.com.

A Whole New Mind

I came across this interesting 10 minute video by Steve Cunningham through this Education Innovation blog posting. The video is a summary of the book A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

Mr. John Chambers, Cisco Systems: Blogging is the way I communicate with our employees

Watching this McKinsey conversation with Mr. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, I learned that blogging is the way Mr. Chambers communicates with employees. In the interview, John Chambers also mentioned the following:

"The classic question is “Well, if I’m going to lead I’ve got to have people reporting to me, and I’ve got to control budget. And the answer is "No" and "No"."

How about yourself: How do you communicate with people, you work with?

Help the customer to great shopping experiences

Reading the executive summary of the report “Discovering “WOW” – A Study of Great Retail Shopping Experiences in North America”, which I came across via this Knowledge@Wharton article, I read that when a shopper enjoys a great shopping experience, he/she talks about with his his/her friends and associates. And store loyalty increases dramatically. I found out that a retailer should focus on the following 5 things to help the customer to great shopping experiences:

# 1. Engagement
Be polite. Genuinely care for the customer. Demonstrate sincere interest in helping, acknowledging and listening to the customer.

# 2. Executional Excellence
Explain and advice the customer patiently. Check stock, help the customer find products, have product knowledge and provide unexpected product quality.

# 3. Brand Experience
Make the store design exciting. Consistently provide great product quality. Make customers feel they’re special and that they always “get a deal”.

# 4. Expediting
Be sensitive to customers’ time and long check-out lines. Be proactive in helping speed up the shopping process.

# 5. Problem Recovery
Help resolve and compensate for problems. Upgrade quality and ensure complete shopper satisfaction.

When was the last time you had a great shopping experience? Which shop was it? How did the people working at the shop show that they really care about you?

Focus on what the market needs

In this relevant 2 minute video, Mr. Clayton Christensen brings forward an important problem: Once an idea gets through the value chain of a company and reaches the customer, the idea may have been changed so much that it does not bring much added value to the customer anymore, i.e. will not help the customer solve his/her needs very effectively.

A couple of solutions to the problem: Encourage everone working for the company to keep their thinking and actions focused on what customers need, and how you can help customers satisfy their needs in the most effective ways. Also, work on open innovations portals, blogs, and Twitter to bring in external views.

See ageing as an opportunity for job creation and innovation

On ManagementTV, I came across this interesting 2½ minute on which Joseph Coughlin, MIT AgeLab, talks about seeing ageing as a call to innovate. Mr. Coughlin mentions, for example this:

"..we should look at ageing as a way of developing entirely new businesses: Home care, home services, transportation. Ageing is actually an opportunity for job creation and innovation.."

Reading about the purpose of MIT AgeLab, I read that the multidisciplinary research program wants to invent new ideas and creatively translate technologies into practical solutions that improve people’s health and enable them to “do things” throughout the lifespan.

What does the mayor of the city, you live in, do to turn ageing into an opportunity for job creation and innovation?

Use tools and materials in education

Listening to Gever Tulley talk in this 4-minute video, I learned, for example, these 4 things about that type of education:

1. Education participants use all kinds of tools and materials to build things.
2. Teachers are collaborators.
3. There is no curriculum.
4. There are no tests.

How is education of kids done where you live?

I came across the video through this blog posting by Braden Kelley.