Management Blog

Link roundup - 30 June 2006

A selection of interesting links and articles collected over the previous week...

Top 10 Sources - Business News: A round up of articles from 10 business blogs, from Top 10 Sources. A large number of non business topics are also available and you can even set your own top 10 list.

Employee Engagement: Featured articles from management-issues on employee engagement as a key driver of organisational performance.

TechEncyclopedia: Contains straight forward but detailed definitions of over 20,000 IT terms so you can translate geek-speak.

PSFK: Global Trends Collaborative: Trend reporting site run by Piers Fawkes and Simon King with a group of contributors. Described as a "lens of changes in cultural behavior that influence all of us".

Trendwatching.com: More trends in the must-read monthly newsletter from Trendwatching.com. The latest briefing is on the phenomenon of "Customer-Made".

10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace: Tips on how to create a more relaxing workspace.

More Words: Never be stumped by the last few word in Sunday crossword again - this site allows you plug in the partial letters from your crossword and provides possible matches.

Understanding your sales force

The sales world is pure Darwinian - survival of the fittest - accoridng to a recent BusinessWeek article. But that can also lead to problems: the qualities that lead to success, notably the persistence of never taking no for an answer, can cause trouble at the office when the sales people have to interact with the rest of the staff.

To succeed, a salesperson must have (a) The hide of a rhino, to withstand constant rejection, (b) the stamina of a cheetah, to keep chasing a deal after all the others have given up, and (c) the persistence of a hyena, to never take "no" for an answer.

The article highlights 6 types of salespeople and how to manage them effectively.

Systematising innovation for the long term

Business leaders know that their companies must differentiate themselves with new products and services. In his recent book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Thomas Friedman says the global market is now an even playing field.

So the critical question for companies is: how can organisations systematise the innovation process?

Chief Executive magazine and Accenture have attempted to identify the practical issues involved. They held a roundtable discussion where CEOs and experts shared methods and practices that over time translate innovation into shareholder value.

Innovation needs to be a sustainable discipline, they all agree. As Robert Suh, chief technology strategist for Accenture, said, "Organisations need to understand that innovation isn't something that just sits in a corporate role or a centralised role. It is the responsibility of the whole organisation."

$20 million injection for research in Queensland

Queensland Deputy Premier and State Development Minister Anna Bligh has announced 11 grants under the State Smart Innovation Program, totalling $20.2 million.

More than $20 million will be used to build new research facilities, develop innovative products and support clinical researchers undertaking important medical research.

"This government well understands that a smart future is a prosperous future, and we're not afraid to put our money where our mouth is," she says.

"This Queensland government funding is, of course, on top of the $3 billion this government has already invested in innovation, science and research since 1998."

Link roundup - 23 June 2006

A selection of interesting links and articles collected over the previous week...

Ask MetaFilter: Can't find the answer to your question via traditional search methods? Ask MetaFilter instead - or more precisely, the people who are members of the site.

Desk-side Fitness: Suggestions on how to add a fitness routine into your office-bound job.

Tricks to improve your memory: Mind games to help your memory.

Joe's Goals: Track your daily and weekly goals via a calendar-style interface.

10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid: Basic errors to avoid in written communication

Eight problems that haven't changed: Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen's top 8 issues with web design that are still causing problems for users.

Room planner: If you're moving house or just rearranging the furniture, this site allows you to create an online customised floor plan before you have to move a thing.

Technology only as good as user expectations

It doesn't matter how good technological innovation is, it will fail financially if the user reaction is not taken into account. That is the crux of a new book, The change function: Why some technologies take off and others crash and burn, by Pip Coburn.

Coburn, a former technology strategist for UBS Investment Research, said he realised this about two years ago.

"I was thinking about all those IPOs that came to my door over the years," he said. "I always felt a sort of resentment as they came to me for money. It dawned on me, as I pictured them with their folders full of slides. They would carry about 36 slides, and only one or two would deal with the user. That's what's been my resentment."

Making innovation work

Innovation is the key to successful companies. Those that don't succeed don't understand innovation, have the wrong culture for it, or are bad at it.

In this BRW article 20 ideas are put forward to make innovation work. They include:

Ditch the fancy definitions: Innovation is change that makes money. Simple as that.

Lose the ego: We all want to think up the killer new idea, but the best source of innovation might be your customers, suppliers, collaborators or competitors. Or it might happen by accident, piggyback somebody else's idea, or be boring.

Expose everybody to the customer: Here is a new twist on the 80:20 rule. The top 20% of companies have at least 80% of their staff exposed to customers or thinking about them. The other 80% of companies usually expose customers only to their sales staff (or 20% of their workforce).

Consumer influence and the social web

Consumers have spent more time communicating through email than accessing content online in 12 of the past 13 months, according to the Online Publishers Association's Internet Activity Index.

Technology is definitely affecting the influence traditional media and marketing have over consumers. Word of mouth is still the most powerful form of marketing but the Internet has widened the circle of social interaction.

In 2004 Forrester Research reported that almost two thirds of consumers trust product recommendations found in online sources like discussion boards, advertisements in the most trusted traditional medium, newspapers, were actually trusted by just only half of the respondents.

Don't lose the good idea

Good ideas are plentiful, says a recent Fast Company article. The difficulty is getting the bright idea past the bureaucracy in an organisation without multiple changes that will change it beyond recognition.

"There's this irrational notion that when there's a great idea, everybody will see it and rally around it," says Samuel Bacharach, author of Get Them on Your Side.

"When you introduce an idea, you've got to think about who you're going to introduce it to, who you need on your side in the beginning, how you're going to increase your coalition, and at what pace you're going to keep it moving."

Bacharach believes a balanced approach that addresses both organisational politics and management competence is necessary to build a consensus...and keep the naysayers at bay.

Inspirational leadership a prerequisite for innovation

A UK Department of Trade & Industry report suggests inspiration is the single most important factor missing in Britain's business leadership, despite the fact that innovation is often highlighted as one area in which the UK can work to reduce the productivity gap to its competitors.

Earlier, a review of UK competitiveness, undertaken by Professor Michael Porter on behalf of the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) in 2002, concluded that the UK had a productivity gap which was increasing and needed a new conception of competitiveness focusing on improving skills, stimulating innovation and fostering enterprise.

At the time Porter said the UK needed to "...change from a location competing on low costs to a location competing on value and innovation." Inspirational leadership is a prerequisite for successful change and innovation.