Archive for the IT and communication Category

The digital battle is getting serious but who is fighting and why?

Posted in collaboration, Community, Digital business, digital collaboration, Digital media, Digital news, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on April 5, 2013 by Geir Stene

Painting_Liberty Leading the PeopleIt’s the giants leading on the battle; it amazes me that the rest of us let them rule the ground alone.

It is all about power, owning the value chain and keeping / achieving profits. Who owns the production line ? Who have control over the infrastructure (path of delivery) and who has the strongest grip of the customers?

For some; helping people to improve their lives and decrease their sufferings and problems seems to be a necessary (but undesirable) cost aspect. No wonder people distrust whole countries, corporations and those who want to sell us yet another vacant argument.

Facebook is coming up with a mobile solution, but do not launch a cell phone. IPhone got behind in the innovation race. Kodak is bankrupt. Sony is losing money all over. Many newspapers tries to generate sufficient revenues by hiding behind firewalls. AT&T (and of course Telenor in Norway) are fighting too, they want the free ride of earning on others production of content. Media moguls are on the ground too, armed to their teeth with copyright arguments. North Korea and other nations are accused for running a cyber war. Most nations want some sort of control over the Internet, they say it’s due to fighting crime.

Confused? No need to be embarrassed. Most people are.

The digital revolution is really about who is producing value in the digital era and are able to deliver solutions to people’s problems and fulfilling their desires in the most benefitual way. It can be a revolution FOR the people, but then the people have to wake up.

The question is not about copyrights, VAT, or that the artists will not survive when everything becomes free. It is not about journalism or literature, storytelling, pictures and film as dying crafts. It is really about a new level of democracy, where the value is in delivering real value to people – the market.

For the media industry  it is important to understand this, and at the same time to understand that the real producers of added value (the artists, the storytellers, the journalists and so forth) need to get the fair share of the value produced!

Behind Facebooks new ”Graph search”

Posted in Community, Digital business, Digital media, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on January 16, 2013 by Geir Stene

TVscreen_wall_imageIt seems like people aren’t looking under the hood of what this new direction of Facebook really is all about.

What I’ve seen of reactions so far is concerned about the benefit for people searching (and the lack of benefit outside Facebook environment)Forbes is concerned about privacy in their article: “Facebook’s New Social Search”. [ ]

Forget privacy!
I believe that they aren’t looking closely enough. There is no battle of privacy. In fact that battle was lost before it started. Our governments (all over the world) have ensured that in all their new laws “against terrorism”. Forget privacy in the way we used to think about it.

Rather think transparency. And avoid using companies, and internet portals that refuses to be transparent about what they do.

What are they doing?
Google and Facebook are not trying to provide you with a more humane way of finding what you are looking for. They are not fighting over how personalization as the future of search should work.

They are battling to own your “social data”! They want to have as much knowledge about you, your friends and network, and your actions and interactions in any digital way you interact. They want this to profit from it. They want this in order to sell that social information about you to corporations. That enable them to present desired and needed commercial content to as where you are, when you need anything. None of them wants to be transparent!

Good or evil?
On the one hand this is great news, isn’t it? We finally get rid of spam, of disturbing and irritating commercials in our face. No more stupid “news letters”!

It’s a great idea to be presented by the great offer of a healthy lunch, just when you are hungry, and it’s right around the corner from where you stand. Isn’t it?

It’s great when your car breaks down on the highway, that the rescue car & the rental car is on its way, before you have to reach for your cell phone and start searching for the phone number to your insurance company, the rescue car and the rental company. You don’t have to call work and explain the delay or your spouse to complain to her, what shitty life you have.
That is already information delivered e.g. via Facebook status. Your friends and network knows, those who want to offer you help knows. That’s good – isn’t it?

The “evil enemy country” in the world has hacked into all systems and they also know what you think, what your actions are and what perfume you use, and more important, the credit card number and where/when used. Oh that’s maybe not so good, or is it?

Digital security

Posted in Digital business, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on December 19, 2012 by Geir Stene

19dec_image

Today we have the pleasure of Kai Roer (bio below) guest blogging on the subject of digital security.
2012 is almost over. Pickpockets ruin the x-mas shopping experience for those unfortunate enough two have not yet learned where two keep their wallets when in town.

 
Hoax ‘keep fooling people into spreading false information Wed. their social media profiles. Bank accounts are emptied – by yourself and by the criminals. Credit card companies makes fortunes, and hackers play around for Your Computer.
– They Thank God you do not know how to spot them!

Everything is as usual. And soon the candles are burning, gifts unwrapped and new possesions possessed. Like you, criminals enjoy this time of year too. Just like you, they know you will want to be a little more kind and a tiny bit more giving. Unlike you, they also know that your guard is down this time a year. And they are birds of prey. You are the prey.
New tools are around too.
Everything was better before, when the criminals were criminals, and they had to come around your house to burglar you. You knew immediately something were wrong when you saw someone lurking in the dark, spotting a victim.
Not so easy today.
When you log onto your online bank, who knows who are watching your every move – from within your computer. Waiting to whale you, moving all your savings two somewhere outside your reach, and well within theirs. And then your phone rings. Unknown number, some foreign country code. Could it be old aunt Olga? You answer, not realizing you are in for a huge phone bill due to the automatic call-back function.
Something never changes.
As you enjoy your meal, you smile when you imagine that young boy down in a third-world country, the one who can eat thanks to your monthly donations through the global aid-organization located in Nigeria. Everything seems legitimate, but would not it feel better if you checked it a little bit closer? Perhaps asked around a bit, or just googled two see if it really was for real? No, of course there is nothing wrong, and the payments are so small anyway. Besides, you have done this now for 12 months, what could possibly be wrong?

We are all Easily fooled. Not you, of course. The rest of us are.
If I had a list of 20,000 credit card numbers, I would not empty them. I would charge a few dollars Wed each card only. Enough two make a difference, and little enough to go unnoticed by the card holder. You may consider there be two check your bank and credit card statements a little extra during the holiday season. If there are discrepancies, my bet is some criminal have access to your banking details, I find it highly unlikely Santa Claus does.

Call your bank, sort it out.
While you are at it, you could also scan your computer for malware. But use the real scanners, not those fake ones.

Bio:
Kai Roer is an information security practitioner with a special skill for people. He is found and the senior partner of The Roer Group, serving clients around the world. He is a much sought after speaker and trainer, as well as a bestselling author of several books.
The post is an excerpt of his next book, to be launch in 2013. He Maintain a security blog that http://roer.com

 

Do you have the best business model online?

Posted in Digital business, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on December 19, 2012 by Geir Stene

18dec_imageMaybe your business was established before the internet existed?

It may not be the best model for a digital environment.

Its years back since you could define a business model and relax for a decade.

 

Perhaps it is wise to provide various products and services in different channels? Maybe you can reduce cost by changing distribution channels? Another way of charging for your services may increase your revenues, or enable you to grow faster?  If you lower prices would that increase sales volume? What options exist for added sales? How would partnerships increase your access to new markets?

When did you last do a evaluation of your business?  Business modeling canvas [http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com ] is a great and flexible tool for most kind of businesses. The development of network economy (digital economy) now happens so fast that it is crucial to continuously observant and make sure your business models are the most attractive one’s for you customers.

“You need to be quick in thoughts and even quicker in action”

The collective flow of money is in crowd funding!

Posted in collaboration, Community, Digital business, digital collaboration, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on December 16, 2012 by Geir Stene

16.dec_imageCrowd funding is still ‘hype’ for most industries, but you will hear lots about it next year, experts around the world tells us.

It started out with the music industry and according to this article from Wikipedia  it dates back to ca.1997. I’ll remind you that typical “donate option” at free software websites has been common for years and is also a kind of “retro perspective crowd funding

Till now crowd funding has been used mostly for creative projects (music, independent film, fine arts). We see that “new journalism / citizen journalism project have stated using this kind of funding.

Internet start-ups and other entrepreneurs are increasingly using crowd funding as a financial source. Even the US President Barack Obama embrace crowd funding by the “JOBS Act” that allows accredited investors to invest in equity crowd funding campaigns.

The skeptics will also tell us that crowd sourcing is risky, as criminals will use this phenomenon for creating frauds. I’m certain that is correct. Criminals have always used every possible way to cheat. Read THIS  from TIME magazine about the subject.

Not all kinds of project are suitable for crowd funding. The most obvious areas is project that is non-profit (charity), or where the profit motif is absence (arts) or that the project is somehow perceived as great for mankind.

That means that e.g. environmental- , citizen rights movements, job creating projects and so forth will be able to meet a collective support where crowd funding is a great opportunity to fund a project.

I believe that also more traditional businesses will attract  crowds for financial support, maybe even as a contra- reaction against  what is perceived as “cynical and greedy finance acrobats”.

“Look out for the crowd – there is power in the voice of the masses!”

What about “crowd sourcing”?

Posted in 1, collaboration, Community, Digital business, digital collaboration, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on December 15, 2012 by Geir Stene

15dec_imageLast year Crowd sourcing was a ‘hip’ word. This year it starts making sense. But what is crowd sourcing and how does it work?

There is plenty of literature, speeches and opinions on the subject to find on the net.

 

To ask your users or other crowds is a great way to get feedback, to help improve your services and products.

And it is really something people want to do: To help you!

Crowd sourcing can provide tremendous value for you, because you have access to potentially a lot of, very motivated and talented people.

Brainstorming and specific proposals can be produced in large numbers and very quickly. Problems can be resolved quickly and you have greater accuracy in terms of being ‘spot on’ market needs.

Innovation, research, entrepreneurial companies are just a few examples of who / how to use crowd sourcing for improving your business or other activities.

One pitfall is if people feel “used” by you instead of happy for being able to help out. My advice is to do your homework before you make your next project a crowd sourcing project.

It’s extremely important to  give proper feedback to all who contribute! Crowd sourcing project is all about you delivering more value to those who helped you, than the effort they gave you!

“The more you give, the more you get back”

What the *** are you doing on facebook?

Posted in Basic, Digital business, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on December 9, 2012 by Geir Stene

9dec_imageSocial media is still “hot” but you know what you are doing there? Or are you there because people like me told you to?

In social media, you have to follow the rules, many of them unwritten. Social media is about relationships and dialogue. It is about taking conversations seriously. But in the end of the day you need to keep core of your business as guideline for  what and why you participate.

Various social media channels are good at different things. Make your priorities about where to participate wisely.

We are becoming used to be participants in social media; and not something special anymore. Personally I also believe that t is important to be integer, open and yourself, just like in all other relationships.

If you are new to using  social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, flickr, wordpress (and many others) you could benefit by listening to experienced people like ‘digital people’, not just consultants and suppliers, but also others who run businesses. They have made ​​mistakes your business does not need to repeat. They have more successes and you can learn from.

“Do not be one today, or yesterday, and something else in a year. Whatever you are, be it fully and completely, and not just partly and divided. “Ibsen

Time to reflect, on blogging

Posted in Digital media, IT and communication, Publishing, Web 2.0 on May 11, 2012 by Geir Stene

Something happened today. It was input from a blog article that made me think.

I got it from twitter. It isn’t my words, unfortunately I didn’t bookmark, so now one of the ones I admire and respect for their meanings are left without credits for the insight I got.

Nevertheless this is how it goes. There are so many bits of information, opinion, statements during a day in my life I can’t keep up where I got it from. This is a touch of a set of ideas changing. Copyrights for one, and social behavior for another. We are brought up in a world where “collective consciousness” was an abstract idea (Jung), not a real phenomena happening to us everyday. (now it is!)

Well, to explain what I realized reading the blog article I read today. It was an article about why do agencies blog? Why do companies blog? Why do anyone blog? And the article pointed out a set of typical “social media reasons” for blogging, and engaging, such as it helps becoming personal, to be rated by search engines to promote your company, to build a personal brand and so forth.

And the author claimed that, despite of all consultants telling you that this is great reasons for blogging, it’s not. Most of blogs are copying (as I do now) other statements, from others without a genuine voice of themselves. Most bloggers are there to fulfill an idea of “have to” instead of “want to”

The blogger stated that most of professional blogs should stop blogging; they have no (inner) desire to blog, or anything of importance to say. One should blog because one wants something. Want to tell something (innerly), want to make a difference, want to point out something that others doesn’t see. Being a copycat is of no use.

I don’t know IF this is what the article really wanted to tell, but this is what I thought was of importance reading it. This is what collective consciousness is all about. You now need to read this posting all over again, because up till now you have had- even if you don’t wanted it, one question in your head: Who wrote: “What I am now referring to?” “Who is this blogger?” You should consider stop blogging, stop reading blogs if this question doesn’t go away, because it is missing the point, its missing the lesson I learned today.

Communicating is about having something to say, that is not put in that manner before, in order to give something, to somebody – hopefully. It’s about joy, communicating and it’s about having some skills in writing.

You might wonder why my blog went back being in English? Well that’s what I learned today. Every Norwegian I want to talk to, are able to read and understand my level of English, not everyone abroad are able to understand what I have the pleasure in telling are able to understand my native language; Norwegian.

For all blog articles from now on I’ll try to: State something that’s on my heart, something that’s not what I see everyone else already have stated, something that gives me pleasure to write about, and hopefully some of you get inspired to act on your own goals in life.

This blog posting inspired me by talks and readings of: @kairoer http://www.kairoer.com/ , and the blog article I commented on in this article was from @mitchjoel and this blog article: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/this-blog-sucks-and-youre-probably-not-reading-this/

– So dear reader; you got a “pay of” after all, reading this posting to its end. Enjoy life and I’ll love to meet up and discuss !

” Bill mrk. Enslig konsulent søker selskap “

Posted in Digital business, Digital media, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on April 9, 2012 by Geir Stene

 Etter ganske mange år i konsulent- og rådgiverbransjen, har jeg funnet ut to ting: Jeg er god på det jeg driver på med, og jeg trives best når jeg jobber sammen med andre.

Det siste er en ganske nyvunnet erfaring, etter et års tid som selvstendig næringsdrivende. Det første er min nøkterne (om en u-jærsk ubeskjedne) vurdering av egen kompetanse etter ganske mange år som konsulent og rådgiver.

Du har sikkert skjønt tegningen allerede: Jeg har veldig lyst på nye kollegaer – altså en jobb hvor jeg igjen skaper noe bra sammen med noen, heller enn å jobbe alene for en kunde.

Prosjekter er også interessant, fordi da kan jeg gjøre det jeg elsker, mens jeg finner den rette stillingen i den virksomheten som virkelig trenger det jeg er god på.

Noen av dere kjenner meg, eller kjenner til meg og vet hva jeg kan, og er god på. Dere andre trenger kanskje noen knagger å henge ting på? Jeg har jobbet med og kan mye om:

Jeg kan forbedre virksomheters digitale løsninger:

  • Som rådgiver.
  • Som Strateg
  • Som Forretningsutvikler
  • Som Konseptualist
  • Som Kommunikasjonsansvarlig/ rådgiver
  • Som Prosjekt- prosess- og forhandlingsleder

Bransjer? Det er mange bransjer som vil tjene mye på å øke fokus på digitael aktiviteter.

For meg betyr det å kunne forstå brukere/ kunder, forretningsaspekter, teknologi og organisasjoner. – De mest fornuftige forbedringene kommer av et samspill mellom dette.

Jeg er god på å gjøre andre gode. Jeg liker å lede og å drive prosjekt- og prosesser fremover.

Jeg liker blandingen mellom å tenke «de store tankene» og å ta ansvar for å løse dem, med hjelp av å sikre at de små detaljene også er på plass. I tillegg kan jeg mye om relasjonssalg, det å kjøpe tjenester, forhandlinger og kontrakter innenfor digitale løsninger.

Det som «driver meg» er å se at jeg bidrar med å skape forbedringer.

Hvor kan det tenkes at dere, eller noen dere kjenner til har nytte av min kompetanse?

  • I et en virksomhet der man trenger det jeg kan?
  • I et selskap hvor man løser slike oppgaver for sine kunder?

Jeg ville setter veldig stor pris på tips, anbefaling, eller rett og slett et tilbud. Ta kontakt på e post stenegeir@gmail.com , twitter : @gstene, eller telefon 902 76 450

Bloggen min fant dere jo (siden dere leser dette) og kan scrolle nedover og se hva jeg har skrevet om.

Vil dere vite mer om CV, ta en titt på LinkedIn

Tid for endring for store og små

Posted in Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on January 16, 2012 by Geir Stene

Image_wether_chart_board_1980Verdensøkonomien er usikker. Trygt den ene uken, krise den neste, i følge verdens «ekspertise». Norske myndigheter advarer mot å tenke «om» vi blir påvirket, men ber oss snarere om å tenke «når» vi får konsekvensene av hva som skjer i verdensøkonomien. Det er som et «økonomi- ekstremværvarsel»

Disse ukene og de kommende månedene sitter (forhåpentlig) ledere i de aller fleste virksomheter, innenfor de aller fleste bransjer og vurderer hva de skal gjøre. Budsjetter gjennomgås, risiko minimeres. Tradisjonelt sett utsettes da investeringer, man vurderer kostnadskutt, kort sagt man forsøker å få oversikt over trusler og man er relativt engstelig for fremtiden. Det  er svært klokt å tenke seg om nå.

På den andre siden tror jeg det er farlig å gjemme seg inne i en hule og vente på at stormen kommer, og tenke seg at man skal forbli der til «uværet» har gått over.

Jeg har tidligere skrevet om at vi trenger «endringspakker» snarere enn «krisepakker». Det mener jeg fortsatt. Jeg mener altså at digitalisering av større eller mindre deler av virksomheten er et område hvor virksomheter kan hente relativt stor gevinst, på kort tid, med relativt små kostnader.

Utfordringer
Det er også forskjell på hvilke utfordringer forskjellige bransjer står overfor. Staten vår sier den vil stå der som en garantist – for landet vårt. Den vil ikke kunne løse den enkelte bedrift sine problemer. Offentlig virksomhet står nå overfor store utfordringer og må selv levere forbedrede tjenester og økt effektivitet på en rekke områder. Både lokalt og nasjonalt. Tilnærmingen jeg beskriver i denne bloggposten er også effektiv for dem.

I privat sektor er det forskjellige utfordringer i forskjellige bransjer, noen nevner jeg her:

  • Olje- og gassnæringen, samt alle som leverer produkter og tjenester til offshore vil kunne få andre utfordringer enn resten av næringslivet, avhengig av internasjonale priser på nettopp olje og gass. Bransjen er ikke unntatt fra risiko. Resten av energi- og industribransjen igjen har andre utfordringer.
  • Telecombransjen er inne i store strukturelle endringer. Her står mye av «spillet» om Asia som vekstmarked, men digitaliseringstakten i vesten endrer også forutsetningene deres. Dette igjen påvirker både mobilbransjen, mediabransjen og leverandørkjedene omkring disse.
  • Alle må ha mat, men man kan regne med endringer i forbruksmønstre og kostnader også her. Kostbare varer kan hende ikke er like lett omsettelige de neste årene. Dette vil påvirke både produksjonsledd, distribusjon og salgsleddene. Spesielt fiskeindustri og fiskeeksport vil merke dette tydelig. Transportnæringen vil måtte forholde seg til også slike endringer.
  • Boligmarkedet er høyst usikkert og dersom det er en boble som sprekker vil det påvirke husholdningene kraftig, noe som igjen vil forverre forbruksevne, gi problem for banker og også øvrig finansbransje. Byggebransjen vil kunne oppleve forskjellige scenarioer i Norge som følge av hva staten evt. kan gjøre for å demme opp mot negative konsekvenser av boligmangel/ gjeldsproblemer
  • Hele reiselivs- turist- og hotell/restaurantbransjene vil åpenbart merke endringer.

Tiltak
Både store og små virksomheter i privat sektor må selv gjøre alt de kan for å løse utfordringene, det er det ingen tvil om. De neste årene vil vi se at noen vil ha gjort de riktige grepene og være morgendagens «vinnere». Om noen år, tror jeg at det har skjedd mange strukturelle endringer i næringslivet, og det er mange ting vi vil se tilbake på som radikale endringer. Både lokalt og globalt.

Spesielt bedrifter i Norge som eksporterer,- nesten alt annet enn olje og gass, står overfor tøffe tider.

Det vil kunne være noen fundamentale elementer ved ens virksomhet man ikke rekker å endre, men det vil kunne være mange elementer man kan sikre dersom man gjør grep nå. Overordnet sett tror jeg at både SMB markedet og store selskaper må rette fokus på fire områder samtidig for å sikre seg så godt som mulig. En metodisk tilnærming er:

  • Å skaffe seg grundig kundeinnsikt, oversikt over scenarioer for egen bedrift og arbeide intensivt med å finne løsninger for kundene sine som kundene kan ha råd til. Å nå vurdere nye målgrupper (eks. innlandsmarkedet i stedet for eksportmarkedet) kan være et godt forberedende tiltak.
  • Å evaluere egne tjeneste-/ produktspekter, for å se om kundene i kommende tider vil få løst sine problemer eller dekket sine behov bedre ved å endre på selve produktene, eller tjenestene kan nå vise seg å være avgjørende for om virksomheten lykkes. Det er imidlertid viktig å ha tilstrekkelig innsikt om kundene og deres ønsker OG evner, før en endrer selve produkt/tjenestespekteret. Imidlertid kan endring i / og / eller å benytte andre forretningsmodeller være et fornuftig trekk for å være parat til konsekvenser av den globale økonomikrisen vi ser utvikler seg i stadig negativ retning.
  • Å endre arbeidsmåte, implementere ny teknologi, ta i bruk mer effektive salg/ markedsføringsmetoder når dette er kostnadsbesparende er en bedre ide, enn å vente til det er for sent og måtte si opp folk og slutte å bruke penger på salgsaktiviteter. Det vil bare føre til ytterligere forverring. Her står implementering av ny digitalstrategi frem som et fornuftig tiltak.
  • Å kommunisere hvordan virksomheten kan bidra til å løse kundenes problemer og dekke behov i de tider som vi står oppe i, og de vi er på vei inn i på en måte som gjør at de får minst mulig negative konsekvenser for egen situasjon. M.a.o. å formidle tydelig hvilke fordeler forbruker har av å få løst sine problemer (og eller dekket sine behov) innenfor områder nettopp din virksomhet kan levere. Her tror jeg på kommunikasjonsløsninger som bygger tette relasjoner til kundene, på å kommunisere tett, nært og profesjonelt i relevante kanaler og på å knytte kommunikasjon veldig tett opp mot service og ekstremt god kundebehandling.

Kåring «vinner» av 2011 Julekalender

Posted in Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on January 3, 2012 by Geir Stene

Midnatt 02.01.2011 gikk fristen ut for å foreslå hvem som bør vinne premien, som er «Heder & ære for godt digitalt arbeid 2011» OG premien: 1 dags workshop basert på forbedringspotensial fra  Julekalenderen 2011.

Det har vært interessant å skrive disse små daglige rådene og jeg har fått svært mange tilbakemeldinger og bloggen har vært besøkt mer daglig gjennom dette, enn noen av årets foregående bloggposter. Slik sett har det vært en suksess.

Imidlertid har jeg også mer å lære, fordi det har vært minimalt med kommentarer og debatt på kommentarfeltet og veldig få som har fremmet forslag gjennom twitter, facebook og linkedin. Imidlertid har jeg fått mange kommentarer og «tommelen opp» gjennom twittermeldinger og samtaler i møte med folk. På grunn av få forslag blir det ikke riktig at «twitter» bestemmer. En hurtigarbeidende Jury ble derfor nedsatt (meg selv)

Kåringen av premien: 1 dags workshop 2011
Denne premien handler om at det er kommet forslag til virksomheter som noen mener fortjener en heldags workshop sammen med meg (ubeskjeden som jeg er) for å se på hvordan virksomheten kan forbedre sine digitale aktiviteter.

Måten workshopen vil foregå på er beskrevet HER. Verdien av premien er på om lag 15.000.- i arbeidstimer. (forberedelse, gjennomføring og etterarbeid) *eventuelle andre kostnader ikke inkludert.

Tanken er at den som allerede gjør et svært godt arbeid i digitale kanaler ikke trenger å «få» en workshop gratis. De har allerede vunnet gode resultater. Denne vinneren (som får heder og ære) ble Stormberg og begrunnelsen er lengre ned i denne bloggposten. Vi snakker altså om 2 verdige vinnere!

Virksomheten som vinner 1/1 dags workshop har en leder som har tidligere har vist at det går å slå de virkelig store aktørene ved å være liten, tenke annerledes, kreativ og hardt arbeidende for så å bli en betydelig aktør i sin bransje. Lederen er en typisk gründer og står nå bak en relativt ny satsning.

Virksomheten er ikke veldig gammel, men har allerede vist resultater. Internasjonal satsning er en del av strategien og jeg mener det er et spennende selskap vi står overfor. Dette på tross av at noen altså mener at selskapet fortsatt har mye å gå på i forhold til sin digitale satsning. Når jeg (som selvutnevnt Jury) har sett på virksomheten, ser jeg at det gjøres veldig mye bra, at det er mange aktiviteter digitalt og at det skjer mye spennende. Mitt inntrykk, sett utenfra, er også at det kan tenkes at det «spriker» litt i flere retninger og at jeg ikke helt ser sammenhengen i hva virksomheten vil oppnå (hensikt), for hvem og hvilke fordeler som egentlig tilbys. Jeg kan selvfølgelig ta feil og jeg gleder meg virkelig til å få jobbe sammen med virksomheten gjennom en hel dag for å se hvilke tiltak som enklest kan iverksettes og som gir hurtige forbedringer i deres digitalsatsning.

Min holdning er at menneskene i en virksomhet sannsynligvis sitter på alle svarene selv. Min jobb er som oftest å fasilitere workshoper, prosesser og få frem spørsmål som tydeliggjør kjernen av utfordringer og hva som skal til for å lykkes. Jeg kan utfordre, sortere og tydeliggjøre, men samme hva konsulenter og rådgivere påstår, er det sjelden de vet mer om en virksomhet og hva som skal til enn de som allerede jobber der!

Det jeg er sikker på er at virksomheten har svært gode forutsetninger for å klare å nå målene det ser ut som de har, spesielt i tider som vi er inne i nå også fordi strategien er å vokse internasjonalt. Dette kan høres paradoksalt ut, men det er velkjent at de som kan ta markedsandeler i dårlige tider er de som ofte blir morgendagens vinnere. En siste begrunnelse for valget er at denne virksomheten (av de få foreslåtte) er at jeg anser at denne virksomheten kan flytte seg lengst på kortest tid.(relativt sett). Jeg vil gjerne peke på at det var andre virksomheter som jeg mener «sliter» mye mer i sin digitale tilstedeværelse, men hvor jeg anser at det ikke er realistisk at 1 dags workshop er tilstrekkelig for å kunne skape konkrete resultater.

Jeg velger derfor å gi LUDO family premien 1 dags workshop, også rett og slett fordi jeg har lyst å jobbe med dem en dag og se hvor mye vi kan få til sammen på så kort tid.

Heder & ære premien
Virksomheten som «vinner» er faktisk foreslått muntlig, altså ikke gjennom sosiale medier o.l. noe som i seg er morsomt og typisk for godt digitalt arbeid synes «juryen» (altså meg selv), fordi det analoge (personlige) og digitale går hånd i hånd – også i virksomheten som er valgt.

Virksomheten har gjennom lang tid vist at de evner å følge mange av de rådene jeg har gitt – i praksis over tid. De er tydelige på hva deres kjernevirksomhet er, hvilke fordeler de tilbyr markedet sitt, hvordan man får tak i produktene, hva det koster, kontaktmuligheter gjennom mange kanaler osv. Dvs. de «elementære» digitale elementene er på plass.

Hvilke «backofficeløsninger» de har kjenner jeg ikke til og i hvor stor grad de har klart å bruke digitale løsninger for å effektivisere driften vet jeg heller ikke. Jeg ser at omdømmet  er bra, at leveranser skjer tilstrekkelig hurtig og at kunderelasjonene er gode. Virksomheten evner også å ta tilbakemeldinger og gjøre dette om til forbedrede leveranser og produkter.  Om jeg skal trekke frem et forbedringspunkt, tror jeg at virksomheten vil tjene på å bruke noe mer tid på sitt visuelle språk.

Jeg ser at virksomheten har en innarbeidet (og avansert) forståelse av deres virksomhets «hensikt» er, i og med at de har funnet en konkret måte å drive forretning på som strekker seg ut langt over egen profitt. Dette er et punkt jeg mener virksomheten virkelig skal ta til seg som en anerkjennelse. Av andre mer «avanserte» grep er å ha funnet sin egen måte å bruke «crowdsourcing» og nyttiggjort seg dette på en pragmatisk måte.

Mye er sagt om denne virksomheten fra før og utallige konsulenter har fremhevet dem fra før. Jeg vil gjerne minne om at virksomheten er dyktig digitalt på mer en Sosiale medier. Jeg synes at det er svært positivt at andre enn kun daglig leder er synlig og aktiv i markedet, selv om fortsatt mange fortsatt assosierer bedriften med lederen. En annen viktig grunn til at jeg vil velge dem som vinner av gstenes weblogs Julekalender 2011 er at virksomheten startet tidlig, har vært aktiv lenge og evner å stadig utvikle seg.

Jeg gratulerer Stormberg og alle ansatte med seieren!
Stormberg vinner derved årets «Heder & ære pris for godt digitalt arbeid 2011»

Digitalstrategi Julekalender

Posted in Community, Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on November 30, 2011 by Geir Stene

Hvem fortjener heder & ære og hvem fortjener 1/1 dg. Workshop av meg. 

Vinner kåres bl.a. gjennom Twitter, facebook og LinkedIn; du kan påvirke resultatet!


Vinner er den virksomhet (offentlig, eller privat) som av Twitterfolk, facebook, linkedIn ( kommentarfelt her eller e post går også bra) har fått flest stemmer/anbefalinger i forhold til å ha fulgt flest av de råd tips som er gitt i Julekalenderen frem t.o.m. Julaften. Siden Vinneren allerede er god,vinner denne heder og ære!

Den virksomheten som du mener trenger å følge flere av mine råd får i “trøste” PREMIE en dags rådgivning av meg. Verdi omlag 15.000kr. eks. mva. Workshopen følger “Quick Win” metodikken som er beskrevet i blogginnlegget “Digitalstrategi kan være så mangt

* Små skrift: Gjelder kun Norske selskaper.  Jeg har ikke råd til å dekke evt. reisekostnader eller andre konkrete utgifter. Workshop kan holdes i Oslo eller kostnader dekkes av den som får premien. Jeg forbeholder meg retten til å ta egne valg, dersom det kommer inn for få forslag.

Altså twitterfolk (og kommentarfeltet gjelder) deres beskrivelse av:
Hvilken virksomhet er best til å følge mine råd vinner heder og ære (samt markedet) hvem mener dere det er ?
Hvilken virksomhet er dårligst og får en heldags workshop som Premie og muligheten til å bli bedre?

Innkomne forslag hittil :

Forslag til Best til å følge råd (kan vinne heder og ære):
Trondheim Kommune
Norwegian
Stormberg
AHO
Ventelo.no

Komplett.no
elkjøp.no

Forslag til Dårligst til å følge råd (Premie en dags workshop for å kunne bli bedre):
Google.no
Bokskya
NAV
RiksTV
Deal.no
Redmedia.no
eSea.tv
Ludo
/ Ludo

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24.12

Folk trenger ritualer, skap dine!
Det er Julaften. La meg starte med å få ønske dere alle en fin og fredfull Jul! Ritualer har vært med mennesker til alle tider, i alle kulturer og i alle religioner. Har din virksomhet innarbeidede ritualer? Sannsynligvis har dere det, kanskje uten å tenke over at det er det det er.
Kanskje dere kaller det Kampanjer? Markedstiltak? DM, salgsaktiviteter? De fleste av disse har rituelle mekanismer som kjerne når de fungerer.
I dag har du kanskje ikke lyst eller tid, men en annen dag kan det hende at det å tenke over hva det er ved ritualer som gjør at det fungerer så bra, kan komme til nytte når du er tilbake på jobb.
Er det ikke noe med gjentakelse? Noe med at det er samlende? Noe med at det har glede, ettertanke eller et bestemt tema som vi samles om å gjøre? Noen ritualer handler også om å ønske å oppnå noe fremover.
På hvilken måte kan din virksomhet forsterke rituelle egenskaper som dine målgrupper vil ønske seg?

God Jul og Godt Nyttår !

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23.12

Multikanalstrategi er ikke flerkanalstrategi
Begrepet multikanal stammer fra varehandelen (Retail) og handler om at forskjellige datasystemer utveksler informasjon og «status» i forskjellige prosesser. Fra før en kunde bestiller et produkt og gjennom hele produktets levetid er samtlige systemer oppdatert, slik at de forskjellige involverte har tilgang på oppdatert informasjon om hvor i kjøps- og «livsløpsprosessen» kunden er.
Om vi bruker bil som eksempel, vil leverandøren kunne tilpasse sine tjenester og yte service som er relevant for det stadiet kunden er på. Eks. kunden har prøvekjørt og kan få informasjon om spesialtilbud på ekstrautstyr,få informasjon om rabatter, lånemuligheter osv. Når bilen er bestilt, kan man via logistikksystemet få gitt salgsavdelingen beskjed om at det er oppstått problemer og leveransen vil bli forsinket, de kan da sende ut melding til kunden om dette og samtidig tilby leiebil i perioden fra lovet leveranse, til bilen faktisk blir levert. Det samme vil gjelde å avtale service på bilen til rett tid, tilbud på ekstrautstyr osv. (har kunden kjøpt skiboks, behøver man ikke sende ut reklametilbud om dette til denne kunden).
Markedsfolk har noen ganger ikke helt skjønt forskjellen mellom flerkanal og multikanal. Flerkanal betyr ganske enkelt at man etablerer en strategi hvor man benytter forskjellige reklamekanaler i optimal rekkefølge. Eks. DM og Nyhetsbrev aller først, Kinoreklame, før TV reklame, avisannonsering og boards samtidig. Reklame i uke- fagpresse sist.
Multikanalstrategi er først og fremst et effektiviseringstiltak både for leverandøren av tjenester og produkter og for kunden som kan få relevant informasjon på riktige tidspunkter. Det er svært nyttig i offentlig virksomhet, hvor saksbehandling og informasjonsutveksling etc. oppnår effektivisering og er vesentlig for å yte god støtte til oss som borgere hvor vi bl.a. slipper å gjenta oss selv til det kjedsommelige.

«Rett informasjon til rett tid er gull verd»

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22.12

Kontekst, behov, adferdsstyrte tjenester og Geo- lokasjonstjenester.
Vi blir «bombardert av budskap.» Det sies at vi mottar mer en 3500 informasjonselementer hver dag. Ingen klarer å huske alle disse og vi filtrerer bort langt over 90%. Reklame er en av de formene for informasjon vi raskest filtrerer bort. Likevel er det ingenting som er så irriterende som akkurat når man trenger noe, at man ikke husker at det var noen som hadde en reklame om noe et sted, men hvor var det knalltilbudet når man trenger det?
I vår digitale verden blir det mer og mer mulig å formulere budskap rettet mot kun de som har et behov der og da. Amazon.com begynte tidlig å levere denne typen kommersielle budskap, men det er fortsatt kun i sin spede begynnelse. Google og Facebook arbeider også med dette- og det er ikke tilfeldig at reklamene på facebook er tilpasset hvilke søk du har gjort i Google, og at reklamene er tilpasset din sideprofil.  De baserer seg på hvem du er, hvem dine venner er, dine interesser og hva du har gjort på din PC, eller mobil.
Når din virksomhet skal ut med informasjon bør man i større grad plassere budskap i riktig kontekst, vurdere løsninger som er mer tilpasset målgruppeprofiler slik at en lettere kan treffe folk som har et behov og er i en situasjon hvor de aktivt etterspør og ønsker å motta nettopp ditt gode tilbud. Ved å systematisere den informasjonen du har om eksisterende kunder (CRM systemet ditt og dialogverktøyene bl.a. sosiale medier) og utnytte denne kan du levere dine budskap til de som ønsker det, til de som er i en konkret situasjon eller på et gitt geografisk sted. Virksomheter bør stille sterkere krav til sammenkobling av informasjon fra de man kjøper IKT og reklametjenester av (mediebyråer, reklamebyråer, digitale leverandører osv.)
Det er også viktig å tenke på at det ikke bare gjelder kommersielle budskap, spesielt innen nettbrett og mobil vil behov og adferdsbaserte tjenester og Geo- lokasjonstjenester være attraktive tjenester. Ett eksempel er meg selv som seiler om sommeren. – Jeg ville likt å få meldinger om vær, havneinformasjon, mulighet til å bestille havneplass, bestille bord på restauranten ved bryggekanten osv. rett fra mobilen. Om jeg seiler forbi Moss, og noen i Moss kan sende meg relevante tilbud og fortelle meg at jeg burde stikke innom der, i stedet for en av nabohavnene, kan det godt tenkes at jeg faktisk ville satt pris på nyttige tjenester og til og med reklamen derfra, litt før jeg seiler forbi. Om det er mulig? Visst er det det, jeg har nautisk karttjeneste på min mobil allerede og jeg kan selv «tagge» informasjon der. Koblingen er enkel og jeg som bruker kan skru tjenesten «ekstra informasjon»  av og på.

«Vær på rett sted med rett tilbud til rett person»

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21.12

« Safe and sound? »
Jeg skal ikke si så mye om sikkerhet, det er det mange som kan mye mer om en meg. Men. Sikkerhet er flere ting – og jeg har merket meg at svært mange ikke helt forholder seg til de forskjellige typene « sikkerhet » og at for mange virksomheter overvurderer risikoen for «hacking»  uten å tenke på at  «hacking» langt fra er bare en ting.

  • Fysisk sikkerhet- handler om å sikre sitt datautstyr, harware, software, programvare, applikasjoner etc. mot brann, vannskader, elektriske problemer, elektromagnetiske problermer ( solstorm) osv. Har din virksomhet gjort dette skikkelig? En anektode: En av norges viktige aktører håndterer vesentlige dokumenter og trenger et historisk arkiv. De hadde etablert et elektronisk fjernarkiv. Men glemte at hardisker trenger å bevege seg. De oppdaget for sent at all historisk informasjon var visket ut, fordi harddiskene ikke hadde beveget seg på mange år. (heldigvis hadde de fortsatt mikrofilm og måtte digitalisere alt dette materialet omigjen)
  •  Systemsikkerhet- handler om å sikre at de løsningene man har anskaffet seg kan erstattes, at de fungerer som de skal, at programvare, konfigurasjoner etc. er dokumentert og kan gjenopprettes av andre enn de som en gang arbeidet med det.
  • Innholdssikkerhet- handler om at ditt innhold er lagret slik at om det blir borte (eks. ved at tredjepart går konkurs) ett sted har du en reservekopi ett annet sted, slik at du kan gjennopprette innhold som er blitt borte.
  • Informasjonssikkerhet – handler om at den informasjonen du håndterer og den informasjonen du er ansvarlig for å publisere er korrekt, lovlig og etterettelig. Det handler også om at løsningene dine er sikret mot at sensitiv informasjon du eier, ikke kommer på avveie som følge av at andre utilsiktet får innsyn ( eks. at bruker/passord løsninger fungerer, eller at noen utilsiktet publiserer informasjon eksternt, som ikke skulle vært publisert)
  • Sikring mot hacking – handler om flere ting. Noen ønsker å  «prestere»  å bryte seg gjennom din virksomhet for å bevise sin evne. Andre ønsker å ødelegge dine løsninger, ennå en gruppe ønsker å spionere og finne ut hva dere gjør og misbruke informasjonen til egen vinning, uten at virksomheten oppdager det.

Når det gjelder siste punkt, mener jeg at det ofte fokuseres for mye på å sikre seg mot hacking. For det første, er  store deler av din virksomhets informasjon allmennkunnskap, dvs. den er ikke verd å bruke penger på å sikre. I store selskaper har man sett at over 80% av all informasjon og kompetanse, er allmenn. For det andre er deler av «resten» uegnet for de som forsøker å få tak i din virksomhets kritiske informasjon. Det tredje elementet er at den virkelig kritiske informasjonen og kompetanse din virksomhet besitter, som virkelig ikke bør komme på avveie (eks. Coca Colas hemmelige oppskrift) kanskje er langt billigere og enklere å få tak i på andre måter en datahacking. Tradisjonell spionasje, å betale ansatte, å “ansette seg”, å benytte trusler, lure folk i feller for så å bedrive utpressing vil i mange tilfeller være langt rimeligere løsninger rent økonomisk. Dvs. Når man skal tenke sikkerhet, er det langt flere enn IT avdelingen som må involveres!

 «Vannet tar alltid minste motstands vei, slik er det også med utro tjenere »  

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20.12

Intet varer evig, heller ikke i «skya»
Når din virksomhet bruker Facebook, andre sosiale medier eller for den del andre skytjenester, er det svært viktig å huske på at ingenting varer evig. Det er uhyre viktig å opprettholde eierskap til eget innhold og egne tjenestetilbud. Husk også at ingenting er «gratis» det du gjør på eks. Facebook bidrar til at den virksomheten tjener penger på ditt bidrag, vei fordeler mot ulemper
Forsvinner en løsning, må du sikre deg muligheten til fortsatt å kunne drive virksomheten videre uforstyrret. Jeg gruer meg til å se meldingen: «You are not longer able to make use of this service». En dag vil WordPress, blogg.no, eller Google, Facebook og Twitter ikke lengre være blant oss, tro det eller la vær. Allerede i dag spekuleres det om «det frie internett» og indekseringssøk må «ofres» til fordel for nye løsninger og mer «lukkede markedstilganger».  Ikke gjør deg sårbar og uten kontroll over egen virksomhet.
Samtidig er noen av disse tjenestene så egnet til å effektivisere/ møte/øke/sikre markedsandeler at du bør slettes ikke la vær å benytte mulighetene.

 «Evig eies kun det tapte» Ibsen

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19.12

Mobile first strategy
Det er fryktelig mye engelsk ute og går i den digitale verden, noe tittelen i dag viser. Det er rapporter som viser at mobilbruken (og bruk av smarttelefoner) øker så radikalt at svært mange virksomheter må revurdere sine strategier.
Lap top og web er ikke lengre førstevalget for mange, og mange ønsker å utføre handlinger/ fullføre kjøp via mobil. Mobiltelefonen er også blitt et redskap som brukes til mange ting, og den er først og fremst et svært «personlig» redskap. Man kan gjerne låne bort lap toppen ett øyeblikk, men låner ugjerne ut mobilen sin. Mobile first handler ikke bare om mobiltelefoner, det handler også om nettbrett. Dette er to forskjellige «dingser», det er også to forskjellige kanaler. Alle er blitt kjent med «apps», det er spissede tjenester som løser et spesifikt problem og ikke mer enn det. Det vil også komme flere mer generiske tilbud til forbrukerne, som betalingsløsninger osv.
Uansett vil mobilløsninger største fordeler være at de er rettet mot individets behov. De behovene er situasjonsbetinget. Jeg velger «dings» og kanal, basert på i hvilken situasjon jeg er. Der det er lettere å bruke mobil, eller nettbrett, vil jeg velge det foran å dra opp laptoppen min og utføre en handling der. Det bør man tenke på når man utformer løsninger for mobil og nettbrett.

« Møt meg der jeg er, med en løsning på det problemet jeg har her og nå»

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18.12

Webben vil ikke løse alle dine problemer
Ofte når vi snakker om digitalstrategi tenker vi på internett og web. Front-end og ” overflaten” får mye oppmerksomhet. Det er litt som å bedømme en bil etter karosseriet alene. Det er teknologien som skaper fremdriften og sjåføren som bestemmer retningen når vi snakker om en bil. Digitale løsninger er likedan.
Bak suksessfull digitalstrategi ligger det vesentlige forutsetninger i forretningsdrift, organisasjon og teknologi. Når offentlige tjenester tilbyr selvbetjeningsløsninger og søknadsportaler, består det også av bakenforliggende teknologiløsninger og organisasjonsendringer. Med godt brukergrensesnitt og godt design på toppen lettes borgernes kontakt med byråkrati. Staten oppnår bruk av offentlige midler effektivt. Når eksempelvis telecomselskaper investerer i tung infrastruktur bygges samfunnet i en retning som gir oss alle likeverdige muligheter til å kommunisere, drive forretning og få tilgang til informasjon og kompetanseutveksling.
Ved å bruke de digitale mulighetene optimalt kan virksomheter tilby ansatte fleksible arbeidsmåter og tiltrekke seg kompetansemiljøer som tidligere ikke var mulig. Har din virksomhet lagt til rette for at du som arbeidstaker kan samhandle effektivt og få tilgang på interne dataverktøy og informasjon nødvendig for å kunne løse dine arbeidsoppgaver effektivt?
«Ingen ville finne på å putte en strikkmotor i en Ferrari! »

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17.12

Når alt er blitt «Commodity» trengs du ikke lengre da?
Det engelske ordet oversettes med «handelsvare». Det brukes ofte i sammenheng med at man ikke lengre har et konkurransefortrinn; det er blitt «commodity» altså noe alle har, eller kan skaffe seg lett. Når mye av din virksomhets kjerneaktiviteter kan gjøres av hvemsomhelst, hva skal sikre at din virksomhet har livets rett da?
Problemstillingen er aktualisert i en digital verden fordi alt blir lett svært lett tilgjengelig. Da gjelder det å finne noe som ikke kan erstatte din virksomhet. Det «unike» snakkes det ofte om. Dersom dine produkter eller dine tjenester lett kan gjøres av andre, må du finne ut hva andre ikke lett kan kopiere i din måte å gjøre det på.
– Det er kun Bob Dylan som kan levere sitt innhold på sin måte, det er ikke lett å kopiere. Man kan laste ned hans musikk, men man kan ikke laste ned hans konsertopplevelse.
Slike ting bør man lete etter. Kanskje det er kundeopplevelsen du kan skille deg ut med og være mye bedre på enn alle andre?

«Lever topp kvalitet og etabler tette relasjoner» 

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16.12

Har du vært på Workshop? – eller var det et fordekt «møte»?
Var den «workshopen» egentlig et møte? Hva er forskjellen på et møte og en Workshop? Spissformulert kan man si at en workshop er en lengre arbeidsøkt mellom flere, når man ikke vet hva man bør gjøre, mens et møte er mest effektivt når en skal diskutere hvilke valg man bør ta og hvordan iverksette beslutninger.
Workshop betyr ikke kun å henge opp «gule lapper» på tavla. Det er ikke noe galt med gule lapper, men det finnes mange flere egnede teknikker for å drive en workshop og få fram kreative ideer og mulige løsninger på problemstillinger. Her nevnes noen workshopmetoder/teknikker/øvelser jeg har erfaring med (Med noen stikkord på hva jeg har opplevd som fordeler ved de enkelte. På langt nær utfyllende, men til inspirasjon for noen av dere?):

  • Ut av boksen tenkning – flytte synsvinkel, oppdage nye muligheter
  • Brainstorming workshop – få frem mangfold av ideer
  • Business process reengenering – finne alternative veier å levere merverdi på
  • Kaizen – bygge varige endringer over tid
  • Seks tenkehatter – utfordre fastlagte tankemønstre
  • SWOT – Analytisk tilnærming på en problemstilling
  • Benchmarking – sammenligninger og valg av plassering i et «landskap»
  • Scenarioworkshop – konsekvensvurderinger
  • «War room» workshop – skape kunstige kriser for å fremme nye beslutningsmuligheter
  • Incentive workshop – positiv involvering og «gullerot» prinsipp for å få frem løsninger
  • Lego Serious Play – dybdeforståelse og kompleks problemløsning

Å ta et kurs i workshopledelse er en veldig god ide, fordi det ikke er en mekanisk øvelse å fasilitere workshoper. Det krever pedagogiske evner, det krever at man er glad i å hjelpe grupper og forskjelligartede personligheter. Det krever å redusere sitt eget ego og styrke andres.

Kunnskap om workshopmetoder og kompetanse på fasilitering av slike er viktig sett i sammenheng med digitalstrategi fordi digitalisering for de fleste virksomheter handler om endring.

«flere hoder tenker bedre sammen-  enn ett og ett»

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15.12

Skap en kontinuerlig innovasjonsprosess
Før kunne man slå seg til ro med at man hadde funnet en formel for sin virksomhet. Man kunne hugge den ut i sten og beholde den i noen tiår. I dag er verden så omskiftelig at det er en farlig holdning. Innovasjonsevne kan med den digitale utviklingen være et «vinn eller forsvinn» for din virksomhet.  Minimum hvert halvår vil sannsynligvis forutsetninger ha endret seg også for din virksomhet. Følger dere med internt og eksternt kan dere utnytte dette, til beste for kundene deres. «Innovasjon» er blitt et moteord. Ikke fall for «billig hype», gjør et skikkelig arbeid.
Finn ut hva slags innovasjon dere trenger: Kontinuerlige forbedringsprosesser, eller radikale endringer, produkt eller tjenesteinnovasjon? Med stor sannsynlighet besitter egen organisasjon all kompetansen, evnen og viljen til å skape resultater av innovasjonsprosesser. Ekstern støtte kan bidra til å utnytte potensialet. Synliggjør og nyttiggjør ledelsen i din virksomhet dette?

Innovasjon er ikke et prosjekt man setter i gang og så avslutter etter et par workshoper. Det er en kontinuerlig prosess. Rekk opp handa; hvem av dere har systematisert innovasjonsprosesser i egen virksomhet?  Noen få har, men det er ikke mange. Det gir dere muligheter til markedsforsprang!
Les gjerne regjeringen.no sin veileder om medarbeiderdrevet innovasjon!

«Innovasjon handler ikke om å finne opp kruttet, det handler om å bruke det på rett måte, rett sted og til rett tid»

14.12

Pass deg for hva du måler!
Det er et digitalt målehysteri der ute. Alt kan jo måles. Mange kobler feil i hodet sitt når målinger skal styre hva som er «suksess» Det heter SEO, SEM, Målstyring, Scorecard, Konverteringsrate og jeg vet ikke hva! Måling har mange navn. Det verste er at det er viktig!, men…
Eksempelvis kan man måle hvor lenge en bruker er på et nettsted. Men er det nødvendigvis bra å være lenge på et nettsted? Hva om brukeren får løst sitt problem/ dekket sitt behov hurtig, er det da negativt at det tok kort tid? Hva om brukeren er der kort tid – uten å få løst det de kom for, er det bra? Antall treff, konverteringsrate etc. gir bare bra målinger om man vet hva man skal bruke svaret til. Vet du hva du måler?

«Hvis du ikke vet hva du skal bruke svaret til – ikke spør! »

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13.12

Hva kan du gjøre med «Crowdsourcing»?
Nok et ‘hipt’ ord, men hva er det og fungerer det? Det er masse litteratur, foredrag og meninger om hva fordelene er. Det kommer ikke av seg selv og er det noe folk oppdager fort, er å bli utsatt for å ha blitt «brukt» – så mitt råd er å gjøre hjemmeleksen før man kaster seg ut i det.
Å få tilbakemeldinger, hjelp til å forbedre tjenester og produkter er noe folk gjerne vil hjelpe deg med – men bare om du er etterrettelig og skikkelig.  Jeg har hørt næringslivsledere uttale (ja- i 2011! om bruk av sosiale medier): « Det er ikke dere som bruker meg, det er jeg som utnytter dere!»  – Det er lett å tolke kynisme inn i dette og folk flest vil ikke bli utsatt for den slags kynisme.
Crowdsourcing kan gi enorm effekt, fordi man har tilgang på potensielt svært mange, veldig motiverte og dyktige mennesker samtidig. Idemyldring og konkrete forslag kan komme i stort antall og veldig hurtig. Problemer kan løses fort og man har større treffsikkerhet mht. å treffe reelle (markeds)behov – om det er gjort riktig. Innovasjonsmiljøer, forskningsmiljøer, gründerbedrifter er bare noen få eksempler på hvem/hvordan bruke Crowdsourcing.
Ett konkret-  og ikke komplekst eksempel er –Stormberg– som har spurt folk om input til produkter de ønsker seg, forbedringer ved produktene og designforslag. Husk endelig å gi skikkelig tilbakemelding til alle som bidrar, det er ikke gjort riktig før du leverer mer til de som hjalp deg, enn den innsatsen de ga deg!

«Desto mer du gir, desto mer får du tilbake»

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12.12

Hva skal virksomheten din leve av i fremtiden?
I en digital verden finnes det ingen praktiske grenser for å levere et uendelig antall av eksempelvis innhold. Nå blir stadig større deler av tilbudene i digitale universer «gratis» eller sagt på en annen måte; kostnadene ved produksjon og kopiering blir tilnærmet gratis for en stadig økende del av produkter og tjenester. Tenk bare på fotoalbumet: Skulle noen få en kopi av familiebildet ditt, måtte du kjøpe hver kopi. I dag sender du en e post, eller har lastet opp bildet på Flickr som kan lastes ned i det uendelige.
Det blir en stadig større utfordring å få betalt og det å kunne skape et overskudd på samme måte som før.
– Når Facebook gir bort tilgangen til deres enorme (og utviklingsmessig kostbare) nettverksplattform til alle som vil være der, Google gir bort tjenesten søk og det at vi kan finne mer informasjon på noen tidelssekund enn det ville ta oss å lete frem i all verdens biblioteker, da er det fordi de tjener penger på det som er «bortenfor gratis». De har funnet andre måter å tjene pengene på, og det er slettes ikke bare annonseinntekter, som mange synes å tro.
Det vil for mange virksomheter være helt avgjørende å finne måter å levere merverdier, utover det du kan (måtte) gi bort (til)nærmet gratis i relativt nær fremtid.

«Pass på at dine verdier, bortenfor «gratis» ikke kan kopieres»

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11.12

Ingen tror på sjefen!
Hopp over sjefen som vises frem og forteller om hva bedriften gjør og hvor flinke dere er. Folk tror mer på fagfolkene i virksomheten enn lederne. La de som kan faget i bedriften formidle kunnskapen om metodikk, produkter og tjenester. Undersøkelser underbygger dette. Ledere bør derimot fortelle om virksomhetens mål, kultur marked og ledelse.

« Den digitale virkelighet er transparent, stol på dine ansatte»

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10.12

Folk er lei «Corporate design»
Det er millioner av nettsteder med de samme typer bilder og «striglet» kjedelig visuelt design. Det visuelle språket er viktigere enn teksten!  Still krav til fagfolkene som hjelper dere og lag løsninger som overrasker. Webløsningen din er et godt utgangspunkt, men «mobile first» er begrepet som blir dagligdags i løpet av 2012. Mobile løsninger og nettbrett har ubrukte muligheter, bruk dem, lek og utforsk – ikke lag «brosjyrer» på nett. Nettbrett har muligheter til multimediale fortellinger som ennå ikke er fortalt. Men husk, vær relevant! Ikke fjern folk fra fokus, ikke dra oppmerksomheten vekk fra kjernevirksomheten.

«Et bilde forteller mer en tusen ord, vær nøye med ditt visuelle språk og kvaliteten på de nonverbale opplevelsene du gir!»

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9.12

Ingen er interessert i «nyheter» om virksomheten din.
Mediebransjen er mye bedre til nyheter enn din virksomhet. Dropp nyheter med mindre du driver i mediebransjen. Fokuser på å formidle kjernevirksomheten og de andre tipsene jeg har vist her. Det er langt bedre at andre skryter av deg, enn at du skryter av deg selv. Om det skulle være viktig å ha med «nyeste kunder» plasser det et sted hvor folk som virkelig vil vite det kan oppsøke det. Hvorfor ikke linke til andre som omtaler din virksomhet?  Aktiviteter folk kan tjene på å delta på, sammen med deg derimot, det er mye bedre. Skap engasjement om din virksomhet, ved å gi de som er interessert i hva dere kan noe de kan dra fordeler av.

« Det er bare dere som ser dere selv innenfra, alle andre ser dere utenfra»

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8.12

De enkle ting er ofte best
Det er vanskelig å si komplekse ting kort og lett. Gjør det likevel.

Keep It Simple Stupid! K.I.S.S.

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7.12

Hva i *** gjør du på facebook?
Sosiale medier er «hot» men vet du hva du gjør der? Eller er du der bare fordi sånne som meg har sagt det? I sosiale medier må man følge spillereglene, mange av dem uskrevne. Det er relasjoner, det er dialog, det er å ta samtaler på alvor. Forskjellige sosiale medier er bra på forskjellige ting. Velg steder å delta med omhu. Husk også at vi er i ferd med å bli vant til å være deltakere i sosiale medier, det er snart en «attributt» og ikke noe i seg selv. Samstem aktivitetene med kjerneaktivitetene i virksomheten. Samtidig er det viktig å være integer, åpen og by på seg selv, akkurat som i alle andre relasjoner.

Lytt gjerne til erfarne ‘digitalfolk’, ikke bare konsulenter og leverandører, men også andre som driver virksomheter. De har gjort feil din virksomhet ikke behøver å gjenta. De har skapt suksesser du kan lære av. Se eksempelvis hva Stjørdal kommune har gjort på facebook og hvordan de har tenkt.

«Vær ikke ett i dag, i går, og noe annet om et år. Det som du er, vær fullt og helt, og ikke stykkevis og delt.» Ibsen

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6.12

Våg å endre premissene for hvordan dere produserer og leverer
Det er slettes ikke sikkert at den forretningsmodellen dere har hatt, er den som nå passer best for folk som vil handle med dere. Kanskje folk ønsker å handle med dere på nett, eller betale via mobil? Markedet modnes raskt. Sjekk om dere kan gjøre noe annerledes hvert halvår. Ja, hvert halvår – for mange av dere!
Business modelling canvas er et redskap for å gjennomgå og finne forbedringspotensial. Utviklingen i nettverksøkonomien i (digitaløkonomi) er så rask at det kan være helt avgjørende for å være attraktiv i markedet.
Offentlig virksomhet er ikke unntatt, vokabularet er kanskje forskjellig men sluttsummen den samme: Å være mest mulig effektive internt og tilby størst mulig verdi for brukere/ kunder eksternt. I de nedgangstidene vi har foran oss vil vårt samfunn være avhengig av en offentlig forvaltning som gjør oss effektive.
Kanskje er det lurt å levere forskjellige produkter og tjenester i forskjellige kanaler? Kanskje kan dere spare på å distribuere annerledes? Kanskje kan dere tjene mer på å ta betalt på andre måter? Tjener dere på å senke prisene og øke volum? Hva med å utvide produkt/tjenestespekter? Inngå samarbeid med andre som leverer tilstøtende produkter/ tjenester?

«Det gjelder å tenke seg om fort to ganger – og agere enda fortere! »

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5.12

Lar du folk fortelle deg hva de mener?
Det kan være sårt å høre fra kunder som mener din bedrift ikke gjør en god nok jobb. Men er det egentlig det? Tilbakemeldinger er egentlig av stor verdi for virksomheten din. Lar du den verdien gå til spille?
Du kan snu negativ tilbakemeldinger til: Nye og bedre produkter/ tjenester, forbedret kundeservice, bedret kommunikasjon, bedre synlighet på nett, hjelp til å være i rette kanaler osv. Alt dette er veldig komplisert og kostbart for din virksomhet å finne ut av på andre måter. Når dine kunder klager, er de engasjerte og vil egentlig gjerne hjelpe deg – om du lar dem!
Inviter til dialog i alle de digitale kanalene du treffer din målgruppe i.
Ta vare på alt du lærer og etabler et internt system som fanger det opp, foredler kunnskapen og iverksetter tiltak.

Takk for kritikk og vær takknemlig for hjelpen du får.

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4.12

Det er bare du som selger / formidler noe, alle vi andre kjøper / ettersøker noe

Folk er ikke særlig interessert i hva du vil. De er interessert i hva de selv vil. Forstår du hva din målgruppe ønsker hos deg? De som forstår dette bedre enn deg har flere kjøpere en du har. For å finne ut av dette må du ha innsikt i hva folk anser som fordeler. Det får du ikke kun ved å analysere besøksstatistikk, SEO aktiviteter eller konverteringsmålinger, men ved også å benytte kvalitative undersøkelsesmetoder (som etnografiske, sosialantropologiske og sosiologiske metoder) – spørre og observere hva folk gjør og tenker med andre ord.

På den måten kan vi si at produkter og tjenester kun er «bærere av fordeler». Det er først når du har innsikt i forbrukernes ønsker og behov at det gir reell verdi å vurdere om du skal endre på selve produktene eller tjenestene du tilbyr. De fleste «Innovasjonsprosesser» som går feil har hoppet over å forstå kundene og forsøkt å endre produkt/ tjenester for tidlig i prosessen.

Det tredje vesentlige elementet i å nå frem til dine målgrupper er kommunikasjon. Dersom du ikke kommuniserer de fordelene dine produkter/tjenester er bærere av, vil ikke folk forstå hvorfor de skal vurdere om det vil løse deres problem / behov. Disse tre elementene er like viktige for å kunne tilby verdi til din målgruppe.

«Det er bare jeg som tenker på meg, alle de andre tenker bare på seg»

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3.12 a)

Hva Koster det?
Fortell målgruppen hva dine produkt/ tjenester koster. Det kan være pris, tid eller innsats. Det er ikke alltid man tilbyr noe som har en (fast) pris. Poenget er at den som har et problem og eller et behov som din bedrift kan bidra til å løse/dekke, trenger å vite noe om hva som skal til. Igjen – si det som det er, enkelt.

Vis folk at det er viktigere å se på hva man tjener / sparer ved å kjøpe, enn å se på utgiften for å oppnå det.

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3.12 b)

Hvordan får jeg tak i det?
Fortell målgruppen: Hvordan finne produkt/ bestille tjeneste/ egen ‘apps’/ kontakte for mer informasjon. Har du kart til butikken/ kontoret ditt, åpningstidene,  adressen, , telefon og e post, (til salg-/produktansvarlig) kontakt til twitter/ facebooksider osv. synlig på forsiden/ landingssider?

Dersom det du tilbyr kan selges over nett eller enda bedre – via lesebrett eller mobilen – gjør det!
Og du? Det er selgerne som har ansvar for salg – også i digitale kanaler, er det ikke? (Webredaktører bør få utøve yrket sitt som er kommunikasjon og kompetanse på digitale løsninger og ha ansvaret for dette, ikke alt mulig annet!)

Gi mange alternativer til å kjøpe og mange alternativer til å bestille, betale og kontakte. Folk som kan velge hvordan, velger lettere din virksomhet.

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2.12

Hva driver dere egentlig med? 
Fortell først målgruppen hvilke problem dere kan løse for dem og hvilke behov dere kan dekke. Fortell dette i korte og enkle setninger. Det er overraskende å se så mange nettsider anno 2011 (daglig) som ikke besvarer dette først. Husk også å si det i et språk de som besøker dere forstår. Nina Furus eksempel: «Ilsted» er feil, «peis» er det folk søker etter.
Fortell hvilke fordeler kjøper/mottaker/samfunn har.

Folk liker bedre et selskap som ikke bare er opptatt av å øke egen profitt, men som vil gjøre noe godt for deg/andre/samfunnet.

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1.12

Det er ikke alltid du kan snakke deg ut av et dårlig omdømme
Man kan si at «du er hva du gjør- ikke hva du sier.» I en digital verden hvor kommunikasjon er relasjonell betyr det at folk snakker om din virksomhet, enten du liker det eller ikke. Omdømmet forsterkes hurtig, både positivt og negativt ladede dialoger.
Ofte må ord følges opp med (mulighet til) handling. Kan dine tjenester/produkter kjøpes, bestilles, lastes ned, melde seg på aktiviteter osv. i en eller flere av din virksomhets digitale kanaler? – eller er det enklere for dine kunder/brukere å kritisere dine løsninger på twitter og heller handle hos dine konkurrenter?
Sosiale medier er en stadig viktigere arena å delta på. Det er viktig å være klar over hva samtalen om din virksomhet er, for å kunne rette opp negative inntrykk med faktaopplysninger.

«Det er ikke nok å rope hallelulja, man må gjøre det!»

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The Norwegian e-book database is able to challenge Apple and Amazon.com!

Posted in Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, e book, innovation, IT and communication, Publishing, Web 2.0 on February 26, 2011 by Geir Stene

The Norwegian ebook database “Bokskyen” (“Book cloud”) is capable of challenging both Apple and Amazon.com. I just wonder if they are aware of the value they have at hand?

In an article in Aftenposten today I read that the technology used and the set up they have made in the platform created they may avoid becoming dependent on Apple’s and Amazon.com walled garden ebook strategy. I knew this two years ago, when the ebook platform was presented in “Web dagene 2009”, based upon the way they explained the technology.

Since then the owners of the platform ( CapplenDamm, Gyldendal and Aschehoug ) have focused on a strategy where the political fight concerning VAT and governmental regulative agreements have been the focus. Also keeping the “old publishing hegemony” have been a important strategy of the publishing houses in Norway, as in many parts of the world. Meanwhile the Norwegian bookreaders have become eager customers of both Apples ibook and of course Amazon.com for purchasing their e books. I’m not at all sure that the publishing companies have had the best strategy up till now, training their market to use the main (and world leading) competitors.

As for now it seems like the positive news, that they now seem confident and happy to be able to avoid Apple and Amazon.com and by that being able to keep a larger part of the profit, is the benefit they see. They are happy for the “deals” made with the government and for being able to keep a pricing model they feel they can live by, mainly continuing their business in traditional ways. This is not a great strategy for the future. In best case it’s an OK short term tactics that have worked out well – for now.

I believe that they don’t see other than only a very small part of the real business value that’s embedded in the platform they have at hand. Both Apple and amazon.com should be looking out. Google should have a closer look at what is really going on. Not to mention, the owners of the platform themselves should ask themselves if they haven’t overlooked something of importance. What that is? – Well they are welcome to define where they want to be the next decade and come and ask me how to get there.

Funding of public service broadcasting in the future?

Posted in 1, Digital business, Digital media, IT and communication on August 3, 2010 by Geir Stene

The other day I commented on Twitter that a Norwegian party AP (Arbeiderpartiet) and their media committee had a suggestion that I mean was a  sidetrack and a bad idea.

The idea was that AP’s media committee suggested that the license model we have in Norway  today (paying a separate tax for NRK broadcaster, and also paying a tax when buying  a TV set ) should be replaced/added with a similar tax for PC’s and Cell phones.

The feedback of my statement was immediate. Why did I have that opinion? And why didn’t I argue for my statement? Why isn’t this a great idea? The twitter nick @fenilsen gave me a challenge: Argue for my statements. And that’s fair.  Well Twitter isn’t a great channel for discussing complex subjects, and to be fair towards the complexity I didn’t want to go there – in that format. Instead I suggested to meet and debate it – and that I just might write a blog posting about it.

So here goes: Broadcasting in Norway used to be a monopoly public service company (from 1945) – first established in 1925 (became the brand “NRK” in 1933) and had(from the beginning) the main financing model by commercials. It was the Nazi Germans that introduced censorship and prohibited commercials in Broadcasting in Norway (1940). NRK continued the policy of not financing their broadcasting by commercials and established the public service broadcasting model more or less identical to the model BBC had established. Norwegian public service broadcasting became as we know it such after the Second World War. This gave the legitimacy for the funding models and enabled the Norwegians to get a high quality and free broadcasting system (first Radio, later TV) with a sustainable financing model from the government and by the separate broadcasting tax. There were no commercials in radio, and later TV, and the focus was to inform and educate the population.

NRK had a monopoly up till the 80’ies. Further reading on this can be found HERE. Since then, we have gotten competition from cable TV and wide range of Norwegian commercial broadcasters (radio and also TV) and since then the license model has been under debate. Nevertheless the idea and political decisions have been to protect the system with a public service broadcaster, due to the value of having a commercial independent voice in our country. The legitimacy gets under attach as the development of Internet itself, and the digitalization of content becomes the standard and the infrastructure of transporting content such as TV programs just as well are via IP and the internet. The models legacy was in short: Independent broadcaster and producer of content, responsible (together with our governmental Telecom company – Televerket) distributor of broadcasting signals (read infrastructure) – these arguments are about to disappear for the future.

The question is: How do we want to finance TV and Radio in the future? One of the suggestions are, as mentioned above to start taxing PC’s and Cell phones instead (or in addition to) TV and Radio sets. I believe that this is a bad idea and a sidetrack since it doesn’t answer the challenges broadcasting is facing, nor do I believe that the consumers will understand or accept that a PC, a cell phone or the Internet as a broadcasting / TV equipment where our public service broadcaster has infrastructural responsibilities worth paying tax for. In addition there are lots of practical aspects of this equipment tax idea that makes it impossible as well. Buying a TV set abroad is far more complicated (heavy) than buying a lap top or a cell phone. Is a Kindle e-reader subject for such tax? And how to make sure that people register their electronic equipment (bought on travels abroad) just to be able to pay a tax to our public service broadcaster. It’s hassle, and if most people don’t understand why – they won’t do it. An even more interesting question is – what is broadcasting and TV into the future? As we know broadcasting is evolving and changing so much these days that everything we grew up with of what TV -is in dramatic change.

The Norwegian media politic is as well. In Norway we are discussing, and no doubt the government’s media support (funding) will change. It will change because the world is changing from an analogue world to a digital world – where the Internet will be one of the major infrastructures, -not paper,- not separate broadcasting transmitting systems.

I believe that it’s not sufficient  to define a public service broadcaster as we have done up till now for the future; it has to be a wider definition, maybe a “public service content provider” is a better definition? A “public service content provider” will be able to serve somewhat other objectives than today, in other platforms and in other manners. Trying to finance that via separate taxes on equipment seems like an absurd idea, and I don’t think the government will get support from their population by this approach.

I believe it serves us better to go to the core of; why is it we would like to have a governmental funding of communication (text, audio, visual) in the future? How do we want to organize that? What kind of participants do we want to support? Should NRK be in a special situation, or should we let several companies be able to apply for funding for public service broadcasting funding? The answers aren’t given for any choice our government has to make for some sustainable models for the future. What is certain is that any model will need support from the population in order to be implemented.

As a conclusion: I believe it’s better to answer these core questions and challenges before jumping into a “quick fix” idea of taxing the PC’s and cell phones.

Click HERE to read an older blog posting on the future of broadcasting

A ”dogfight” between giants have started. Will Apple.inc have someone taking big bites of their apple?

Posted in 1, Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, IT and communication on July 30, 2010 by Geir Stene

Apple launched iPhone 4.0 in Norway today. I have to say the show isn’t what it used to be. Yes people sat in line till midnight to get their hands on the very first ones.

But also an increasing number of people on twitter was shaking their heads over Apple’s attempt to create yet another mass hysteria, without anything else new to show, but a new model of a cell phone. Speaking of branding problems, Apple recently lost a lawsuit concerning their policy to stop ‘apps’, they’ve met resistance about their censorship policy, and there’s a wide range of lawsuits concerning patents going on between the giants.

All of this is hurting Apple in a different way than back at the days where Microsoft was the “enemy” and Apple was the underdog. This is a new situation where Apple seems to have become more arrogant towards their customers and partners. But something is about to happen, customers and partners aren’t going to be as dependent on Apple and their iStore anymore. Get me right, I like Apple, I like Google too. I like Facebook, and the good old IBM as well. I like Twitter and I like Amazon.com. In short; I like the new world we got with the Internet. But I don’t like that the giants all seem to have become greedy and all have tried to lock in their customers in their own one-stop-shops. It’s like trying to maintain old school business models into the future.

The “dog fight” isn’t on behalf of us as consumers; it’s a battle of big bucks and control! Google, IBM, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, HP, Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com and the like all want to make sure that the competitors doesn’t grow to strong. This is a sad, unnecessary fight that seems inevitable. The threat for Apple isn’t only the battle of market shares.

The media industry is undergoing a dramatic age of transformation. None of the media industry participant can stand by the side passively and have Apple, Amazon, Youtube or other players control their ability to renew their business and business models.TV, Film, News corporations, publishing houses can’t afford it and have to go into the battle too. It’s really an easy calculation to make: Can some of the existing content platforms (iStore, Amazon, youtube) provide a solution that’s cheaper than if the corporations in the media industry cooperate and produce their own open content platform? In Norway some of the major publishing houses have done parts of this already and are in serious negotiations with the “giants” of how to get access to their marketplaces.

There is no way the worlds publishing houses will accept that Apple conduct censorships, like they did with the book Ulysses – or determine the cost of an e-book. Yesterday I read that Apple has denied Times.inc to sell subscriptions in their store, I’m not sure if this is true, it seems too unbelievable.

What I’m saying is that there’s an upcoming “dogfight” between giants of the internet AND amongst content providers. And it seems like Apple sits in a spot where they are far too easy to attack – from all angles, and I can’t see how they possible can win this – without doing the obvious: Open up for all to place their content in their store, let anyone buy it (whatever device, hardware or software) and let the market decide what business models that works. Make it easy and smooth to be a partner and to be a customer. It’s really not so complicated.

Update: Eirik Newth and I was interviewed by E24 conserning Apples censorship policy. You can read the article Here

What’s to do for the media business in turbulent times?

Posted in 1, Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 with tags , on February 7, 2010 by Geir Stene

 The media business has struggled greatly, worldwide. Advertising and circulation revenue have dropped greatly. Throughout 2009 we heard weekly about the problems, cutbacks, reductions and layoffs. Are we looking at a dying industry, or at best, a sharp change of the industry? 

 

 

There is an ongoing change, a paradigm shift between print media/ digital media. Traditional media houses have still not managed to sort out how to transform themselves, which last year’s poor results confirms. 

The real challenge is to manage the existing business model, and at the same time to build sustainable business models for the digital markets. 

It is important to be realistic, but realism has to be based on future expectations, not the history of a great past. Organizations that manage through tough times do not focus only on the problems they have with the existing business model. Successful businesses are able to focus on innovation and re-structuring as well. The winners are those who are able to position themselves in a favorable spot – quickly. 

Increased demand and a lack of willingness to pay at the same time?
There is no evidence to suggest that that the demand for knowledge and stories will drop – – in fact, we need easier access to more information.  At the same time media companies do not get paid for content in the digital world. Isn’t that a paradox? 

To answer this we must look at what customers traditionally feel that they have already paid for. Is it the content itself, or is it a combination of delivery media (paper), the transport of the content (to the news stand or at the door) and the trust of the supplier (that you can trust that the content is of quality) In the traditional business models, where these elements have been “inseparable”, the question has merely been of academic interest. On the other hand, digital consumers experience that they have already paid for digital services such as the news online by having paid for the PC, software, Internet subscriptions, etc. At the same time consumers are willing to pay for the ability to send SMS, to download “apps”, games and music to their PC and mobile. The point is that the willingness to pay for services online is there, consumers just don’t want to pay for the content itself. 

But in the digital world well functioning business models already exist — just look at what Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have established. What scale of users they have gathered and the value this represents in ad revenue alone. If we look at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kelkoo, Restplass.no to name a few, we notice that the business models are based on interaction, behavior analysis, profiles and user statistics in order to maximize sales. The business models vary, but one common feature is often “split revenue models”, where several players sharing knowledge and parts of the value chain.

Our recommendation would be learn from this, and evaluate what is the real value of the media business at hand. We believe that it is essential to connect traditional instruments with new ways to manage content. There are great opportunities to establish commercial services and products towards both advertisers and users.  

Perhaps content isn’t the future value for the media business. Perhaps the real value is the knowledge and management of users / participants and their behavior.  We believe the media industry as a whole has already been subjected to “Disruptive Innovation” and the only way to survive in the industry is to adapt very quickly. The main point is to create added value for the sum of buyers in the digital universe, through business models that also provide revenue to media houses. The most important prerequisite for success in this is to have the right combination of business strategy, organization, competence, and not least technology platforms, that can realize the goals 

Technology is part of the product
 Products like Apple’s new iPad will be a very important force to change the way we use PCs, Internet and handheld devices. When the major players (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Sony, etc.) facilitate easy deployment and use of digital content, it is obvious that the demand is increasing dramatically – and fast. 

Technology is the most visible instrument of the business model that until now has succeeded. Pervasive and holistic thinking assumes that the technological platform is part of the product being sold, and includes suppliers, distributors and consumer’s own infrastructure. The most important change is that technology is no longer just a tool to produce the goods, but an important part of the product itself. The development of consumer technology has both driven and been a part of the new successful business strategies, and has – in our opinion – matured the digital media market. At the core the major players have a complete set of technology platforms that implement the business model’s financial structure, production and distribution lines in a holistic strategy. 

The development of mobile phone and laptop computers are the consumer technologies that have contributed the most visible for the consumer for this development. Now, these devices meld together, and become smart-phones and reading lists that give users a unique experience. At the same time the digital distribution channel – the Internet – both increases their availability and opens the opportunity to deliver better quality, and ease of access, to the consumer. The development of broadband and mobile broadband will continue to contribute to increased quality of the services. 

The digital distribution has created many questions about the copyrights that both the business and organizations have tried to answer. Due to the fact that the internet characteristics are ‘open and free’, this will be a continuous discussion that will ultimately lead to answers. 

Our conclusion is that the willingness to invest in technology and include technology in hardware/ software/ infrastructure as a part of the business model is an important success factor in the development of new media products and services.  

Change Management
When the technology and framework conditions change, when value chains change and new players arrive and threaten the industry’s traditional players the only way to survive will be to defend their position by being willing to change the way the organization works, the processes of workflow and the perspective of how the market functions. The digital world is in its nature interactive. “Readers”, “listeners” and “viewers” are descriptions of users who will vanish from our vocabulary in a digital environment. We see a huge, rapid growth in use of social media that turn “users” into “participants” and “co-producers” of content and discourse. 

By this, the media businesses have gotten a new set of challenges in terms of how content is established, produced, presented and managed. In addition to completely new ways of defining products and services, media organizations have to change the production lines and workflow. As the manufacturing process to produce a book, news story or a magazine, has become irrelevant in the future digital media world it will affect, workflow and requirements of professional competences and organizational conditions. It will also be necessary to break down the strict distinctions (silos) that have been in different companies within a media group. 

It’s needed to establish a close relationship between the various divisions, products and services, in order to cultivate and manage the knowledge about user patterns, and transform that into added value towards the market of advertisement, subscriptions and services provided. 

Next step
We believe that quite a few media houses will need external expertise in business strategy, change management and technology. We know that coming from the outside of the organization and facilitating processes that help media corporations discover new perspectives will enable them to create profitable solutions. To make the move from “traditional” to “new” reality is a mission where a holistic perspective is one of the needed assets to ensure a strong strategic foundation to make such a transformational step. Media houses must implement innovation processes, replace business models, develop new concepts for products and services, invest in appropriate technology, ensure smooth organizational processes and implementation, and simultaneously develop criteria for success and value propositions. Establishment of  new, digital value chains and multi-channel strategies are essential elements in future business models for all media houses. Some newspaper has taken some steps along the road, while parts of the publishing industry (book / textbook / magazine) still have some distance to go before the necessary technological elements are in place

There must be a sharp distinction between content on the one hand, and the products and services on the other. This is the only way to profit by what structured data provides in the way of opportunities. There is no other way to take advantages of the semantic options in the triangle of editorial content, profile and participant’s content and commercial content.  A key point is to “Produce once- and deliver it on as many surfaces and channels possible”. This will be eReading lists, mobile devices, web, PC desktop applications, etc. It includes the ability to integrate content of various formats merged into a total user experience of text, sound, image and video.

Some tips concerning the mix of business models we would be able to help establish:

  •           Behavioral & profile targeted advertising
  •           Contextual marketing
  •           Product/ service and contextual advertisement
  •           Classified/ Community/ social media advertisement
  •           Demographic, Geo – demographic, Techno graphic
  •           Subscriptions mobile/ desktop/ ’apps’ prod and services
  •           Traditional DM activities, banner ads, campaigns, branding
  •           Multichannel & SCRM  action
  •           SEO & SEM, Conversion rates

In combination with the knowledge of these business models the media industry needs to keep a strong focus on where they come from, and what is valuable in today’s experience. They need new sets of competence in new areas, such as change processes, digital value chains and multi-channel strategy.

By Geir Stene, Bjørn Hole
This article is written on our own initiative.

E – Readers will not only invade us – but will innovate us as well

Posted in Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 with tags on January 9, 2010 by Geir Stene

Amazon.com reports that they sold more e – titles than paper titles for this Christmas. That’s amazing!  The American Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicted the good times will continue in 2010 as e-reader sales double again according to Yahoo news

There are many E – readers out there in the market, and Apple is doing it again; We are all waiting, holding our breath, being excited, and hoping for the device Apple will release the 27th of January. They better show of something that gives the “Wow effect” once again!

Skiff and telecom giant Sprint said they will team up to provide newspapers, magazines and e-books over 3G networks for the Skiff Reader. And HERE are some predictions from @martinlangeveld (and others) how the Media owners will do in 2010.

And the E reader isn’t just some electronic paper. It will contribute to speed up the changes I’ve been writing about for quite some time. Just have a look at that Time inc.  is working on in this video HERE

I would hope that we now could skip the cycle of competition of owning the market in terms of hard ware (devise, software, content battle) and jump directly to what’s matter, but it seems like our capitalism isn’t quite ready for that yet. It’s a pity and now we consumers will have to mess around with this for yet some years, until everyone understands that it’s not the device – it’s the added value that counts.

All in all it’s good news in my eyes; these enable content producers of all kind to integrate various kinds of content into one experience. It provides the market to find various revenue streams, easier. This will change brodcasting, news, publishing, music and film industries completely. And as everyone has predicted – We are getting Mobile in 2010!

My question is: How long will it take until we have a completely integrated interactive reading/ participating solution that includes what is now called “social media” ?

Think green IT and data center location

Posted in Basic, Digital business, innovation, IT and communication with tags on January 7, 2010 by Geir Stene

It’s said that Google owns 2% of all data servers in the world. They’ve been working on energy saving programs for a long time, with success. ICT Norway has suggested that Norway could be a perfect location for large server localizations for large enterprises. I couldn’t agree more!

Why would Norway be a “perfect” place to locate e.g. Google’s large server centers? Well there are a lot of good reasons for that.

Norway has a pleasant temperature in summer, and has cold – long winters. That alone reduces the need of cooling of hardware. As we know – cooling needs energy, lot’s of energy. We all know that energy is expensive, and it’s a source of pollution in most areas of the world. Not so in Norway where 99% of all energy is produced by hydro power. It’s hard to find a place with such stable and sustainable source of energy anywhere else in the world.

Norway is a safe and stable country politically. This is important, since nobody as large as Google, IBM, HP and so forth would like to risk placing their core business equipment in a country that is politically unstable area. The same goes for geographical threats, such as earth quakes, flooding, hurricanes, that would threat the supply of energy and the infrastructure of data flow

In Norway we have the knowhow in all areas needed. We have a well developed infrastructure, and Telenor as the fifth largest Telecom company in the world,  the technology aspects are well covered. We have the knowhow within the areas of running large data centers, to maintain and support such facilities. And we have crucial knowhow within all aspects of security. This includes the terror threats that is of great importance. Our military defense has the very best possibility to protect our interests also in this manner.

At last, but not least we have plenty of space. Norway is a waste country with mountains halls ready to be used for the purpose. The need as HP has expressed it is that the location of their data parks shouldn’t be public information, due to the risk that could represent isn’t a problem. “Hiding” a server center in Norway, just have a look at the map!

Social chaos or social mash up?

Posted in Community, Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on November 10, 2009 by Geir Stene

Network_mapWhat is going on?  I have a Facebook profile, a Linkedin profile, a Twitter account, a Slideshare account. I have a Blog (as you might notice since you are here) Yammer, MSN. I should have been active at YouTube, Flickr and a dozen more places to be “up to date”;

I’m apparently not “trendy enough” but then again I also have a job to do. But how to manage it all? And why should I be all over? And what am I to do all these places?

People seems to have the opinion that Facebook is all about maintaining your more private network, whereas Linkedin is for your professional life . On Slideshare we share our professional presentations. Twitter isn’t micro blogging at all it is to share know-how and get information from a trusted network, (and I must add some leisure time where you get unexpected input as I used to do in the old fashioned encyclopedia – reading about stuff, or people I never knew existed – and even better; now I can get to know them on a “#Tweetup” !  The various social media applications seem to become parts of different aspects of my life.

But it gets increasingly more complicated to maintain it all. I want to produce once, and automatically spread the info on various platforms, and vice versa. I want a dashboard that can handle my digital networking life. I want to sort what’s relevant and not, for various parts of life.

It seems like corporations are heading in the same direction. Today I got the news I’ve been waiting for and it’s just the start. Linkedin and Twitter establish a partnership. This is clever! How it will look like I’m not sure of, but I’m sure that it’s clever for both parties. Who is next and what “pairs” are we going to see? I guess we will see a lot of changes and a need for all to stay flexible. I also believe that how we all act now is the shaping force of what will become.

Should we be cloning the marketing directors?

Posted in 1, Community, Digital business, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on September 22, 2009 by Geir Stene

semantic web To me it seems like we first took advertisement into the web ‘as is’, then we discovered that the web have som neat add-on’s, like measuring what’s going on.

Rapidly someone found out that retail is a business that works on the net. And then, classified, or was that the other way around? In any event, not much changed. Maybe Social media will ?

I’m not going into traditional Campaigns, commercials, ads, banners and so forth. What they all have in common is that they are “old style push advertisements” and function as such. I’m not sure what effect they have (less, similar or better than in the traditional advertisement world of radio, TV and print media) but I would expect that traditional measurements would tell. The “new” in the digital world is that you can measure “exact” by web statistics, click rates and so forth. And we got SEO, SEM and more…

I’m not going into online retail-, travel- /booking- or various sorts of classified of solutions either. There are many well proven concepts of how to bring products to market and make revenues. Amazon.com is one of the oldest “best practice”. The gain these businesses have had “going digital” is mainly in the speed up of decision making  and transaction solution enabling a sale there and then, with less hassle than having to get the customer from an advert to the shop. Further developments have been to interact with the customer by polls, evaluations, suggestions and recommendations. We have also seen new businesses comparing products and prices and offered customers a “product search” and businesses traffic.

The usage of interactivity in marketing isn’t new, but the options provided by new digital tools and/or channels/ media are interesting.

Some have taken the campaign strategies a step further by establishing communities like Libresse or Nike. The interactivity, discussions and so forth help building a stronger relationship between the brand and the customers. It’s a kind of concept that also is used for product development, support improvements and so forth. Some others have gone into the gaming business and used campaign where virtual /role-play games are combined with introducing a product e.g. a new film, book and so forth

Usage of YouTube is interesting because anyone can post a video promoting, in some manner, products or services. So far this is a pure Push commercial, nevertheless we have seen viral activity, where people start making their response by own versions, as an ironic (or sarcastic), comical or plain commenting  videos. Some companies have understood this and taken advantages of it and used it in their overall campaigns.

There are a lot of other examples that mostly have made concepts that are more or less the same as always (read print and push mechanisms) with some digital add on functionality. Some of the “new” thoughts have been: “Don’t try to attract the audience to you – go to where your customers are” And now companies are pouring into Facebook, Twitter and so forth, and what happens? Too much push mentality, to little new concepts or too little reflection on what to do in these social media.

A marketing strategy in the digital world will have to look into all of these options and make use of the, in order to reduce cost and/or increase sales. More important in the coming years will be to implement multichannel strategies that includes the real world, and make some work flows of; where, what, how, why and when the company and their customers are interacting and conducting the purchase process.

Another aspect is that it seems absent for the moment that I believe will become very central is not to have everyone in your company going into social media by “cloning” them into many” small marketing directors” doing the same as usual; spamming the audiences with commercial messages in every channel possible. I believe that a key to success is to listen and engage within the frame of the profession and tasks people have in their organization and use the gained knowledge to develop the company, its products and services. That means that product development dep. Listen to trends, engage in how a great product should be. Designers looks into design and discuss function and aesthetics, the support division listen to what people have of trouble and provide answers and so forth.

And I’d like to see more of Business intelligence, structured data, tagging and semantic web strategies put into effect and combined with solutions of providing the motivated customer with the wanted offers. This will enable a whole new way of not doing factual measuring by looking backwards, but rather forward. If you know what your audience/ customer wants you can give it to them, instead of looking at history and try to figure what you did wrong.

If you want you can look at a PPT presentation about this subject at slideshare.net

I’m not angry at google.com and the NAA, just very, very disappointed!

Posted in Digital business, innovation, IT and communication on September 13, 2009 by Geir Stene

Beggar_cup_coinsI should have charged 5 $ in cash,- but what the heck I’ll do it for free!
It’s just amazing, and I’m not sure if I’m reading what I do. Google.com wants to establish a micro payment system for content? Google.com wants to use their “Checkout” system and they are about to finishing their new platform.

It was Andreas Wiese in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.no that told me he wrote an article (print only)about it and I went out and bought the “old style” print paper (Print and coffee has a certain fragrance that’s so delicious!)

Please Google.com; correct me if I’m wrong. Why should Google provide this micro payment service only for one kind of business (Online newspapers)? To me it’s obvious that Google want everyone on the planet to “check-in” at Google in the morning, before you go to work, and that you should start give away some of your hard earned money before coffee; to Google, and why? Because Google want you to? Could you imagine a better reason? “Oh – if Google want me to pay, then it must be OK.”

It took me less than two minutes research to find that Nieman Journalism Lab, by Zachary M Seward published the story the ninth of September 2009.(at their page you can download the actual memo sent from Google.com to The News Association of America. NAA had sent out a request for paid-content proposals.)   The Wall Street Journal, blogs, Reuter blogs and a lot of media around the world followed up and states their skepticism.

Looking closer into this I can’t see that any newspaper would want this, less accepts it. It’s NOT Visa (or the like) providing a micro payment system to content producers!  It’s NOT someone independent from the content! It’s Google.com. Google.com is a “content collector” of huge dimensions, with an established power structure, in reality without competitors, which should make lots of us very uncomfortable as is. Enabling Google with yet another angle of attack to the market would be highly dangerous. Media- Publishing houses, news organizations and a lot of other businesses should really think twice. How to be able to conduct business in an independent manner? If Google controls access (via their search results), a huge amount of knowledge about users and content and also (with this idea) be in charge of, and control every possible entrance point to access content itself, and by that get an economic advantage for free? Why should the media- news and publishing industry ever think of this? It’s selling out their value for a cup of a beggar coins, when google really should pay them for making such a pleseant living out of presenting news organizations (and all others) content!

This idea of Google threatens the free enterprise and in reality represents a wish to create a monopoly that very few gouvernments, competitors, enterprises and end users around the world should accept.

Looking into Goggle.com’s business idea itself, I really can’t see how Google dares to go there. This is challenging everything users of the Internet know about the Internet and wants it to be. It’s like arguing that the democracy shouldn’t have elections anymore. It could possibly ruin Google as a company, not only damaging the brand.

Furthermore; micro transactions as a revenue stream for Google and  for content producers is a very primitive business model. And I really don’t understand how Google.com, which sits on the options to develop lots of far more lucrative business models, can even think of this. I just don’t get it. For the news- media and Publishing business it’s equally a primitive business model in a digital environment. In my opinion it will onlybe an obstacle and reduce the speed of innovation and leave businesses (including Google.com) with far less revenues than they can with alternative models. We know this because telecom-, community-advertising and  e- commerce businesses (to name a few) have far more advanced and lucrative models installed already. And the developments of those will become far more prosperous in the near future.

So why? Why at all Google? The risks involved, the critics, the oppositions Google will meet, from competitors, governments, and the world wide public may very well put Google in a very unpleasant situation.  To Google and the media industry; neither of the two parties are in such bad state as the woman in the classic Mad TV skit, so I say as the therapist  – Stop it!

Seven” right things” to do in digital business today

Posted in 1, Community, Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on September 11, 2009 by Geir Stene

Image no 7

As I’ve seen around the world, in blogs, whitepapers and  in discussions with clients everyone realize that we are in a transformational age. But the transformations aren’t isolated to the area of internet and computing business. The world is interconnected!


Seemingly everyone want to be prepared for the ongoing changes, but too many doesn’t know what to do.  Quite a few know what they need to do, but doesn’t know how, and some know what and how, but haven’t found the means or the business models ensuring that it will work. It’s essential to understand that your digital involvement isn’t detached from the rest of the world. There is no “virtual” OR “real life” it’s both virtual AND real life at once.

Your business might be in a situation where there isn’t a choice; it’s either change now or vanish? Your business might be in a situation where the challenge is if you should wait or not?  History shows that those who doesn’t act in times of recession have lost market shares when times are great again. The winners are those who act in times of ressession.

What windows of opportunities do you have in your surroundings? There’s always an option that can be taken advantages of. As readers of my blog would know there are some hints that could guide you to do “the right thing” and find your window of opportunity.

Seven “right things”to do in the transforming world:

1)      Clarify your purpose of the business!
Ensure that your business has a purpose beyond just providing profit for the stockholders. Ensure that the benefits for your customers, and also the society as such, are clearly understood. If your business has an ethical perspective on their activities it’s more likely that you will have a strong position in a transformed society.

2)      Be social!
We are all social beings. That means that your business needs to be social too. We would rather like to identify, connect and interact with a company that has an interest in their partners, customers and their wellbeing. If your partners, customers have a great dialogue and experiences with your company and services/products, they will tell their network and do very effective marketing for you. Old marketing solutions doesn’t work as well as it used to.

3)      Embrace freedom!
Don’t try to control others, including your staff. If you do the right thing, everyone else will. Give your staff, partners and customers freedom and options to involve in your business. They will all help steer your company in accordance with the purpose of your business anyway. (this doesn’t mean that you don’t put up clear expectations and goals)

4)      Be focused!
Make sure that what ever you involve your business with, that it correspond with your purpose. Do not spread out and partisipate with whatever comes along. This will save you e.g. marketing costs that doesn’t support and enhance the purpose of your business.

5)      Be adaptive!
The challenges in the world, in societies and in business haven’t changed much, but the solution and ways of solving a challenge changes rapidly in transformational times. Make sure that you can change in pace with your surroundings.

6)      Be realistic!
You can’t do everything, everywhere at all times. Start with what you can do today, and go from there, but go as fast as you can, remember things have a tendency to change fast in transformational times. Investments (you can afford) done today are the increased income tomorrow.

7)      Be bold, surprise everyone!
Do things that surprise yourself, your partners and your customers, do something above expectations. There is nothing as wonderful for us than seeing someone doing more that what was expected.

I’ve listed sevengreat examples of companies that have done most of the 7 bulletpoints above, and you can read, research and figure out if there are elements you can make your own, that you can adapt or simply get ideas from. (this is just a very brief list as examples)

Virgin and Richard Branson.
It seems like there is no limit to what this brand can hold. Richards drive and determination makes tings happen.
Choice hotels
in Norway and Petter Stordalen
Look at his engagement in the global heating and how he implements this in the chains of hotels he owns.
Sun, Microsystems
and CEO Jonathan Schwartz blog – look at how he’s able to connect with the market, by being honest about what he wants
Tesla motors

Look at how they managed to get a year long waiting list of people that wanted to actually buy a electric care, long before the car was produced. (And the quality of the web page compared with other car manufacturers)
Gazette Communications
and CEO Chuck Peters
Look at how they are really prepared to transform their news and media companies.
Stormberg
and Steinar J Olsen
Look at how they are able to incorporate a purpose that goes beyond only profit for themselves.
Englegård
and Celine Thommesen
Look at what happens if your purpose and heart is alligned. You don’t need to be big to be sucessful, but you do need to want to do it right, and put a lot of hard work into it.

Changes in Social media or changes because of it ?

Posted in collaboration, Community, Digital business, digital collaboration, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on August 16, 2009 by Geir Stene

Digital cityIt’s reported that the Twitter people will become disappointed and that the Hype is over. (Gartner) My Space is losing popularity. Facebook is looking for ways of not getting stuck, by developing Facebook Light?

I believe that the future of social media hasn’t really began, and that the coming years will look very different from what it is now.

Maybe, just maybe “social media” will disappear as a separate “label”? In my view we are only in the beginning of a huge shift in the history of internet.

The businesses of collaboration,(synchronic and a- synchronic) e- learning, internet, intranet,extranet and social media applications might just merge into the business core IT (ICT) systems seamlessly and only those who are able to create added value for different organizations, businesses and societies.

Another huge area of change is the complete area of media.  Internet already have changed most of the media industry in film, TV, radio and print media. Journalism, entertainment and the industries surrounding all of this such as my profession: communication advisor. And the changes aren’t over, they just began! An couple of interesting blog posts on the failure of newspapers can be read here: conversationagent, by Valeria Maltoni, and  at splicetoday by  Bill Wyman

I believe that the keyword will be the same: seamless integrations. The channel and carrier of  TV/ Radio media has no real function in the future, and the IP will easily replace it, and this is about to happen with the film industry that’s going digital. Internet as a carrier (tecnological and communication wise) already have become the core of all other activities.

I believe that any enterprise without a digital centered business- it, and communication strategy will fail. Collaborative and social aspects of conducting business will be incorporated in the business itself. Interaction between the corporation and the market / audience will grow rapidly.

But I’m sorry to say; I don’t believe in the ever so popular naive statement: “Social media has given power to the people” I do say that the winners of today and tomorrows business world are those who are able to adapt and take advantages in these times of change. I do hope that ethic and environmental trade will be seen as an competitive advantage and will be incoporated as well, that will make a better world for all of us!

What have you done for me lately?

Posted in 1, collaboration, Community, Digital business, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on August 6, 2009 by Geir Stene

ServiceWhen did any web page answer this for you – lately? Long time ago? Never happened? – you don’t say…

It’s amazing. Just take a look around on the world wide web. So few web sites seem to be able to really offer their visitors what the visitors wants. It is as everyone wants to TELL you something – SELL you something. The “news” about the web 2.0 or social web doesn’t seem to have had an impact at all. What have you done for me lately?

Web 2.0, Social web or what label it has seems  to be the rebellion of the users, trying hard to find other ways to help each other out. Forums, chats, communities, dating services, Sharing sites,  Facebook, Twitter and so on,  all have huge amounts of users finding ways to connect, interact and communicate. This is great.

On the other hand; Public services, companies, PR,  advertising companies, IT providers, retailers, health care institutions and so on – what have they done for me lately? – Mostly nothing in the digital universe. Still shouting  in a confusing language, very unclear about what they are, and what they want to be there for. This is NOT great.

What have you done for me lately? As a user I want to know what your organization, your company can do for me.  I don’t want to know your business idea or who manages the company ( I might want to know that – when I do NOT get what you have to offer me) And you know what? I am, as a user, very helpful, I would love to help you get better – if you only gave me an opportunity. So why is it still hard to find “contact” on more than half of the web pages I visit during a day? Or:  How did you like our services? What could we improve? What is your idea of what else we could have offered you?

As a professional organization, corporation I really expect you to know what you are doing, and how to do it. I expect you to have a goal for your presence in the digital universe, and you know what? I’d rather join you, buy from you, return to you – if you do. What did I do for you lately?

How to transform your web site into a part of your core business?

Posted in Digital business, IT and communication on August 6, 2009 by Geir Stene

ValueIt’s a great idea to stop asking what it costs, and start asking what the return of the investment is going to be.

It would be clever to acknowledge that the digital strategy have become the hub of all activities in all channels for your organization.

You might need to improve your definition of what your core business is, which part of the value chain you are in, and what part the web is going to play. If your web page or presence in the digital universe doesn’t have a purpose you will never get your investments back. Even if your web page is cheap, it’s a waste of money!
On the other hand if you presence has a purpose, you should get your investments back and earn on it / save by it.

The very idea is to know the value of every user of your web page  that act upon your core business. If you are selling a product, this means that as many of your visitors actually buy your product. If you are a public service it could mean that you saved money by delivering your services to a lower cost.

Visitors that you convert into users times value per convertion equals a unit value for you. If you are selling shoes online, you can easily figure this out. But your company might produce a annual report each year? Well the formula goes for this as well. You maybe want to have a lot of different stakeholders to read and understand your annual report. That’s your X. Today you maybe have to produce the annual report and have it printed, and distributed via postal services? An online annual ( or real time constant corporative report?) might cost less in production each year, certainly, there are no print costs, nor postal service costs. The savings of production and delivery per eks. is your VPC. The final value is the saving of sum of users reading and/ or downloading you digital annual report. You can use the same formula for your support system, by doing a shift from a phone / call solution towards a “ask Anna” automated and/or live chat system and so forth.

Furthermore it wouldn’t hurt to learn this formula by heart: X*CR*VPC=Value

Iran and Twitter or social media?

Posted in 1, Community, innovation, IT and communication on June 20, 2009 by Geir Stene

Just now, there are very important events in Iran. This isn’t a social media event going on , it’s real life. People are dying in Iran.That is also a fact in  Africa, Europe, Asia, the US and Australia without twitter peoples being occupied with it, people are dying daily due to various forms of injustice. What  this has to do with social media? could be a very arbitrary connection, only interesting for the very few in the world?

I cannot help myself but  thinking that  what the work of social entrepreneurs like Charles Leadbeater discuss  is very important in the discussion of what social media is about. In the subject of Iran these days, it’s just damn important to be awake.  That doesn’t make any other unjust topic in the world less. It’s just another example of how we people are, we are social, we interact. The ways in which we do so is irregular, it simply doesn’t make sense. Logically we should have been as concerned with any other conflict, deaths and problematic aspects in the world, but we don’t. The murders in Darfour didn’t get as much attentions as the Palestine / Israel conflict.

What does this has to do with my blog topic? Internet, innovations and so forth? Quite a lot. There’s no reason for having a industry, like internet, unless it’s connected to “the world” internet as itself have no value. Social media, has no value in itself.  It’s said that (just these recent days) Twitter has an impact on the Iranian news topic. And it just might have on the result but there is some “but’s” . I believe there will be written long white papers on the subject, and I might be one of them doing so. The social engagement is of importance, twitter itself  isn’t.  

This is not a blog posting on pro/con either the one , nor the other one topic, the examples above shows that very important topics find their way into “social media” a last example is terrifying, in Norway ;a young girl had  a horrifying traffic accident these  days, she might live after this, as we know from the media at this date. At facebook it emerge “hate groups”  that attack the drivers involved.(for now, no-one kan know the facts, nevertheless as “social individuals” we tend to “want” a conclution fast)  Social media can also be used to create a mob. Just mind you, yourself and what’s going on. Social media, seen from an innovation standpoint, and IT viewpoint isn’t  all that easy. It’s social, in all it’s effect, that means it also creates e-g- a mob.

In the topic of ongoing serious politics, Iran it’s great , some of ous are able to speak out – on (what ever) now shown by twitter ,  by the way, twitter didn’t know, nor wish for this effect, facebook didn’t expect their community used for creating a mob. The very reason for all of this is that the focus seems to have been on the “media” part of social media – not the “social” part of social media, such as facebook or twitter. Again i’de like all of you wanting to understand what sicial media is about to read the basics; Bordieu, Facault and so fort

Did I make myself clear or not? (knowing that there’s a pile of topics in this one posting…)

Fun or real value?

Posted in Community, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on March 8, 2009 by Geir Stene

image_crowd_of_eccentric_japaneese_teens1

Frequently I see in the discussions of web 2.0 that it’s enough to participate. That it’s amazing what’s going on. Networking, possibilities, a “brand new world” is out there and we all have to join in. Any one asked the question why?


What’s “new? ”Where are the differences between the old fashioned fan clubs, Amcar or sailing clubs? Beside that you now can be in touch via the web. Don’t get me wrong. I’m there, not all over the place, but as you can see I do blog. I do have a facebook profile. LinkedIn is a definite must for a professional as me. I’m at Slideshare and I do twitter. I comment on articles about stuff I have some knowledge, and things that pisses me off. (By the way “Twitter” – us not native English spoken, might not know – twitter means something like bird sounds/singing)

But why? Why am I there, what’s in it for me? I will avoid boring you all with my reasons, they are no different from yours. A real question is if it at all is an important question why we individuals are there – more important would it be to look at the possible effects. Heard of the “Obama effect”? Was that you and I that made him president?  – not me; I can’t vote – or? Did our participation in social media influence the opinion? Maybe it’s wrong questions – why did Obama focus on social media? Maybe it’s his campaign that got the benefits – and not you and I? I can imagine lots of arguments coming up here now – and you are very welcome to bring them on.  One thing is for sure. The owners of the virtual locations ( Facebook, my space, twitter and so on) They got huge benefits out of it, as they do every time one of us consultants praise web.2.0, social media, the “new and brave future” I don’t want to be a parrot marketing the owners of these places –without getting real value back.

Another , maybe the most important thing to understand is the shifts in how our societies act. Long ago we got “trained” in democracy and that we should join our “crowd” and by being many have the influence we wanted to achieve what we all wanted. We needed a party or a fix organization to fight for all of what we wanted. Now we act far more in a way that’s : “I want to make this XX matter change/ happen” – and then find someone around that are up to the same as me – when we made this “something happen” we don’t need to be a part of that group anymore – we find new groups for new topics we want to change.

This is why a lot of activities from businesses, organizations, individuals will not gain on being active in social media. The reasons why participating, and the level of how to act (and knowledge about it) in this environment is simply not developed by far too many companies OR their advisors. It’s just not enough to participate. You need to know where you are going to be, and why. You need to know what to do there, and have knowledge of how to do it.

The most simple way to put it: It’s like any other activity you involve in, you need to know your environment, and understand it’s rules. This goes for you and me as individuals – or companies or the public sector for that matter.

Competing about peoples time

Posted in collaboration, Community, digital collaboration, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on February 8, 2009 by Geir Stene

time_clockIt seems like the competiton in real time collaboration isn’t between the companies delivering solutions, but a competition of getting people to spend time with them, rather than somewhere else – like travelling.

I’m readig in the Norwegian IT section of DN that Gartner (Sydney conference) announced that their estimates for 2009 is a loss of 2,1 million business travels, and that those “seats” will be replaced with telepresence, video and webconferencing meetings instead. This is of course great news for companies delivering such solutions and bad news for airliners and travel agencies.

This should make Cisco, Polycom, Tandberg and the small Norwegian company meetcon happy friends. But Gartner continues: Something new is evolving rapidly: an example is – Immersive workspaces. This is integrated solutions that builds on top of communities like second life. Web based, and with the ability, not only to “meet” (Video & audio) but also share presentations, your desktop and so forth. Gartner advices companies to get rid of old ideas of video conferensing, and adapt to more flexible collaborative integrated ideas of how to conduct work via the web.  (BKK in Norway just did and bought a solution from meetcon.no by the way) This might not be the best of news for the larger enerprices mentioned above, but rather gives smaller and more flexible web based solutions a competitive benefit?

As you may kow I’ve been writing about this for quite a while (just scroll and see former postings) and it’s fun notising that Gartner predict such a rapid developement.

Using Buzz ords such as multichannel strategies

Posted in 1, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on February 3, 2009 by Geir Stene

chaos_image

Lesson one: Do not use a buzz word unless you can explain what it means!
Lesson two: Listen to what has become a common meaning of a buzz word.
Lesson three: Be willing to learn more, and adjust what you state.

Multichannel what is it ? what does it mean ?
Multichannel is NOT only using several channels…  if it is  some message (advert, campaign, branding – or whatever) is used in some sort of inter- chained way it’s still NOT Multichannel – it might be, and could easily NOT be.

Mostly the term is used to describe  retail- or e-commerce strategies where several channels are put in effect to reach – and connect with their target groups.
The idea is to let the consumer be more in charge of the transaction process, than before, and to let the consumer be exposed to an opportunity to become aware, interact and finally buy a service or product via several channels. In order to make this happen the various channels has to be coordinated, influenced by each other and provide a flow (memory between them) so that the customer experience a seamless connection with the sender of the messages. It’s sort of a artificial intelligence experience for the customer, where one message is followed up toward the customer in other channels, that give an opportunity to act, start a process and finalize it via several channels used.

But these principles could also be put in use for other areas?  
Like delivering our tax declarations, – getting information of car registrations, depths owners registered on a specific car is only some examples.
It should involve several channels, interconnected in some sort, have interaction with the “customer” of some kind and give a desired result fo the end user – like a service provided, and so on.

Still – A commercial – or public campaign- or branding activites using several channels is not a multi- channel strategy – it’s still an old fashioned Channel mix.

Digital collaboration in three steps

Posted in 1, collaboration, digital collaboration, innovation, IT and communication, Web 2.0 on January 3, 2009 by Geir Stene

reduce-travel

To get where you want, you need to know where you are heading

The three most important steps are,  to define your needs, what is it you want to achieve? and how to implement it? Does this sound easy? Well it is – sort of, then again this is where most organizations fail.  If you want to get a deeper understanding of my viewpoint you can look at my presentation at Slideshare : Here

The main point in my presentation is that we have collaborated as long as we have been around, but now more than ever. There have been collaborative tools around for a long time, but now we have new possibillities as the web have developed, the introduction of broadband, web 2.0 and so forth.

Integrating what we know already will make digital collaboration more effective, and very soon a commen way of conducting any work tasks as we know them.  There are three levels of digital collaboration:

1 – Digital collaboration fitted to meet internal challenges is an improvement from the situation today
2 – Digital collaboration that involve the organization with partners and customers is an even better idea.
3 – Integrated digital collaboration with social media enables organizations to achieve an optimal environment where you, your organization and the market itself are so woven together that you might not be sure about who came up with an idea, innovation, service or product you can put in effect. Was it you, or your market?

Why is the web flat?

Posted in 1, IT and communication with tags , , , , on August 27, 2008 by Geir Stene

I’ve been wondering for more than ten years now; why does web sites on internet seems so “flat”? It’s like transferring paper to the screen.

Updated comments below article

When I ask this question to designers, they often get very defensive. Its like we all believe that a web shall have a global menu, sub menus, a logo on top, a lot of informative text and if creative some great images to follow. Isn’t that recipy like a soup in a bag? Just add water…. But do not misinterpret me, there is a lot going on and internet and the web is still only in the early phase of evolving into what we will see in the future. There are a lot of interesting blogs out there discussing and talking (writing?) about this kind of topics, one interesting is this one: 360

Inventions, phenomena’s and ideas tend to keep a pattern we have to accept; they all tend to be loyal to the origin they came from. “The world is flat” we all know this postulate, and it took centuries to evolve from this idea to the one we have now (what ever that is these days..), even after the fact was stated people continued wanting to believe that the world is flat for decades. Web sites (pages!) has a lot of it’s idea created around the idea of print. I always found this interesting, since the computer screen is digital, and factually resembles the TV set more.

Even designers used to defend the fact that designing web pages frequently seems like a “forced electronic paper version” instead of a medium of visual communication with  another fact:  “3D is to expensive in most cases” or “live images can’t get quality due to lack of broadband capacity” This statements are now less true than before, and designers are working hard to evolve the web.

The idea of (and knowledge to) create a perspective in an image was developed during the Renaissance , you don’t need 3D technology to draw diagonal lines to a center point! You need knowledge, and you need a basis for your idea world. Lot’s of interesting things are happening, but far to much of it seems to me to be “experimental”…. And I don’t get it. Experimental?? what is so experimental by implementing what art, cinema and, radio/TV has done for years? What’s so experimental by doing what PR and commercials have been for years? There is less experimenting on the web, than in most new media the last centuries!

Since the “history” of the web is, in my opinion, based upon an “electronic paper”, and the idea has been to provide knowledge and information spread, it’s hard to get out of the thinking patterns that we have to use a lot of text, mainly a form of one way communication, we will still have that as a major direction of how a web page will look, and function. Even web 2.0, social media, interactive solutions keep producing “flat web sites” If one wants’ to get out of this, one will need to take the bull by its horns, and questioning the basic of the idea of what a web site really is, for whom and to do what.

  • It came to my mind that Itera group uses the term “the world is flat” from the book: “The World Is Flat – The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas L. Friedman
    There are two major points in my opinion on this use of term. First, using such terminology; To me it sounds typical American (excuse me my US friends) to simplify a phenomena by the wording that much so that the complexity disappear, it’s in fact a dangerous rhetoric trick of (amongst others)politicians to do so, and thereby avoid that the public focus is at more troublesome sides of the case.
    Thomas L Friedman’s book, tries to speak of a “flatter” (read less hierarchic world) but argue in fact of new business models, new technologies and how to achieve this – but, in my opinion naively overlook that it’s not very likely that e.g. poor / common people in the world (so called third world) are the one to enable this. Maybe the commercial corporation Itera group didn’t overlook this and see possibilities for profit in this term ?
    I would rather have a far more Holistic world, than a “flatter” one.