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Privacy in an Exposed World
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 (141 reads)
There was an article in USA Today this morning about the fact that the young generation coming up does not have the same issues with privacy that their elders live with. I am surprised that people are surprised about this. In many of the talks I give, there will be an older person that will ask me about privacy on the Internet and the context is usually that they are upset by any invasion they feel. It is such a radical departure for manu older people to understand that the more people know about you, the faster and better information flows can become. Advertising gets better because the people that spend the money to sell to you do not want to waste their time on people that would never buy. So if they can learn enough about you, they will either self select out of bothering you, or go ahead and splash their product in your face. In the business and networking world, it is clearly faster to learn about someone and make a decision on how to approach them, or if you should approach them when you have a few screens full of information on the person. What kids understand that older folks seem not to is that there are multiple levels of privacy. At the superficial level, what I do, what like, where I am and where I am going, people are welcome to know. At the deeper level, what I believe in, what scares me, where does my heart lie, and how much do I make, is off limits. Talk about your paradigm shifts... Twenty years from now, people will be much more sophisticated about their advertised self, and their real self. Then they will not see this as a privacy issue, but more of a marketing issue.
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Microsoft Tools
Friday, October 05, 2007 (148 reads)
OK, I never thought I would be writing a blog about Microsoft, but I feel it is only fair because I have been thinking about them a lot lately. In the client work that I do, I get the chance to study and implement many MS products. I am becoming quite intrigued with the combination of the Office suite, CRM, Sharepoint, Dynamics Accounting systems and PerformancePoint. MS is slowly putting together a platform for moving information that is all encompassing and impressive in its ability to tie together all the underlying applications a business might run. The missing piece is adding a workflow engine that reaches across all of the above, and I hear that is coming next year. The surprising thing to me is that I do not see them, or any of their resellers really packaging all this power in a meaningful way. Maybe the largest IT shops in the world understand the strategy, but it certainly is not filtering down to the middle market. What they are creating is a fantastic ability to move data and information in intelligent ways through the organization. The result is going to be huge productivity gains. I just wish they would learn how to market and explain what they are doing so civilians would see the importance. I have to admit I am impressed, however, I am not a civilian and I had to work hard to see the picture without it being explained...
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Marketing Velocity
Sunday, September 16, 2007 (147 reads)
Without a lot of fanfare, marketing and advertising as tools are going through a radical time of change. Every day, there are new technology tools coming online that can be used to get the word out about a product or service. Crowdsourcing is an effective new technique for gathering market research, and eCommunities are a great way to quickly light up word of mouth recognition of a product if handled right. Where television, radio and magazines were once the kingpins of spreading the word, the Internet and it's plethora of tools is now providing the kind of targeted, high speed result that once could only be gotten through a Super Bowl ad. Develop a clever 2 minute video for your brand, and it could get a million views online, or through an email chain letter effect. I actually get pretty excited about putting my future hat on and speculating on where it may all end up, and who will win and lose. The only problem is, the world is made up of many different levels of technology skill. If you have a product that targets 25 year olds, you are golden with the Web. If you have customers that cross all ages - like a bank for instance, you have a bigger problem. For at least a couple of decades, I think marketers are going to be stuck trying to craft very different messages and very different mediums in an attempt to reach very different generations. This will not be easy in my opinion...
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A Fresh Eye
Friday, August 31, 2007 (160 reads)
In my travels, I get to be a part of many strategic meetings. The great thing about that is the view I get into how the process works in general. I am always struck by how narrow the thinking can become because people simply get myopic about their industry. The longer they have been a part of doing something a particular way, the harder it is for them to have a clean eye. The lose more and more of their peripheral vision until they simply focus on execution as the way to win. They absolutely lose the ability to develop new products, or see new trends. I think the ability to have a clean eye is a real skill, and a very needed one when the world speeds up. I guess this is the value of bringing in people from the outside to facilitate or help brainstorm when you work on strategy. This is especially true when thinking about using technology in new ways. There is a such a firehose of new Web technologies coming out. I love in that world and I cannot even keep up. Maybe the thing that must be done is to have a college student in every strategy session just to get their viewpoint. So if you are over 35 years old, it might make sense to examine your ability to have a clean eye on the subject of strategizing. The more things change, the more danger someone with polluted eyes will be in.
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Speaking to Teachers
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 (165 reads)
I had the opportunity to speak to an audience of teachers today. It is the day before school starts so the talk was timely. There was an element of difficulty for me to talk to them because I so respect what they do, and why they do it, yet I also wanted to challenge them to think outside the box where technology is concerned. There is so much they can do that costs nothing that would help kids move forward. We talked about them giving out lists of good Websites to go to in order to lean more about specific subjects for example. It is odd to me that this is such a foreign concept. I think we can all agree that our entire education system could move forward in many ways, and yes, I understand that funding has a lot to do with this. Yet, that is an excuse none the less. I walked the line between challenging their thinking, and not trying to disrespect what they are doing. I guess this is the dilemma of a thought leader. The more I push the boundaries with a group as to new ways of thinking, the more some of them get uncomfortable. The good news is that I found that most of them understood what I was trying to get across to them, and some of them even seemed inspired. I have spoken to teachers groups many times and every time, I hope that I have somehow helped a few of them to go be innovators...
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