Archive for the Web 2.0 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?

What do you measure?

Posted in Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 20, 2012 by Geir Stene

20dec_imageIt is a digital measurement hysteria out there. Everything can be measured of course. But some people have some serious ‘connecting errors’ in their heads while establishing what to measure and how to define “success!

 

People establish metrics to define effect out of all kinds of things. It’s called SEO, SEM, Scorecard, Conversion Rate, ROI and I do not know what! Measurement has many names. The worst part is: It’s important! But …

For example, you want to measure how much time a user spend on your website. But is it necessarily great to spend a lot of time there? What if the users get their problems / meet their needs quickly? Is that a negative outcome? Measurements will only be of value if you know what you are going to use the answer you get for.

“If you do not know what to use the answers you get for – do not ask!”

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”

People are tired of “Corporate Design”

Posted in 1, Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 19, 2012 by Geir Stene

17dec_imageThere are millions of boring websites with the stereotypes of visual imagery.  The visual content is more important than text content!

Increase your expectations from the professionals who help you and ask them to surprise you.

The web is important, but remember: “Mobile first” is vital for 2013. Mobile and tablet solutions have a long way to go before the design and user experience (UX) is fully explored.  Dare to play and explore – But remember, be relevant!

Do not remove attention from the core business.

“A picture tells more than a thousand words!”

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”

Innovation: A stunt or a process?

Posted in Digital business, innovation, Web 2.0 on December 14, 2012 by Geir Stene

Bilde1A few years ago a business could develop a business strategy, print it and live by it for a decade? That is not an option in today’s world.

During our ongoing digital revolution the ability to innovate may be a “win or get lost” scenario. Yet, few businesses in Norway have established a structured innovative environment within their organization. Yes, “Innovation” has become a buzzword, but that is not enough.

However Innovation is not one thing! You should ask what kind of innovation and by that methodology you need to implement: Do you need a system that embraces continuous improvements, or does your business demand radical changes to survive the future? Is it in the product line or is it service innovation you need the most?

Most likely your organization  possess the skills, the ability and the will to produce the desired results of innovation processes. External expertise, support and coaching may help to exploit and fulfill the maximal potential.

“Innovation is not about to reinvent the wheel, it’s about using it in the right way, the right place and the right time”

Did you attend to a Workshop lately? – Or was it a “cover-up” for yet a meeting?

Posted in 1, Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 13, 2012 by Geir Stene

13 dec imageWhat is the difference between a meeting and a Workshop? One could argue that a effective meeting is about making decisions between known facts, whereas a workshop is to sort out what is the best options between many yet unknown.

I’m not at all sure if this is a precise enough distinction, you maybe have thought about this.

Workshop methodology is not about the “sticky notes”. There is nothing wrong with  Post It , but there are many more appropriate tools and techniques to bring out creative ideas and possible solutions to problems.

I’ve listed some workshop methods / techniques / exercises I have worked with (Far from  complete as a list, but to inspiration for some of you?)

Out of the box–  thinking ,moving viewpoint, discover new opportunities

Brainstorming workshop – get the diversity of ideas up on the table

Business process reengineering – finding alternative ways to deliver added value

Kaizen – building lasting change

Six Thinking Hats – challenge established thought patterns

SWOT – Analytical approach to a problem put in context

Benchmarking – comparisons and choices  in a “landscape”

Scenario Workshop – part of strategy development, where alternative routes are enabled

“The War Room” workshop – creating artificial crises to promote new decision opportunities

Incentive workshop – positive involvement and “carrot” principle to produce solutions

Lego Serious Play – depth understanding and complex problem solving

Taking a course in workshop management is a very good idea, because it is not a mechanical exercise to facilitate workshops. It requires pedagogical skills and that you love to help groups and diverse personalities. One needs to be able to reduce own ego and strengthen others self-esteem and confidence.

Know-how of workshop methodologies and expertise in facilitation of such is important in the context of digital strategy because digitization of most businesses is all about change.

“Several people create more together, than one by one”

When everything has become commodity, what’s next?

Posted in Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 13, 2012 by Geir Stene

12dec_imageWhen your products or services no longer have a competitive advantage it has become “commodity.” What will make your business is viable then?

This issue becomes very relevant in a digital world, because everything gets easier to get hold of, to compare and to copy by your competitors. How to stay “unique”?

One idea is to find out what you can do that others cannot easily copy. Its maybe not what  you provide, but how you do it that makes you shine?

“Deliver top quality and establish close relationships”

 

Nobody trust what the CEO says

Posted in Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 11, 2012 by Geir Stene

11.dec_imageWhen the boss is the only public face and the one that inform, comment and answer all kinds of topics concerning the firm, there might be a problem.

Research shows that the general public doesn’t trust the CEO’s all that much.

If you want customers, partners or the general public for that matter to listen to you, you should maybe let the experts within your firm be the one fronting the subject?

They know their profession better than anyone else in your company. They are also more likely to be enthusiastic and trustworthy about the job they know so well, in dialogue with others.

CEO’s should, of course be active and ‘walk the walk’, but a tip is to keep to subjects where the CEO is the expert –namely running the company!

“The digital reality is a transparent one, do as the market does: Trust your employees, dear CEO!”

The Web will not solve all your problems

Posted in Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 10, 2012 by Geir Stene

10.dec_imageOften, when talking about digital strategy, we think of the Internet and the Web. Front-end and “surface” gets a lot of attention. It’s a bit like judging a car by its body alone.

It is the technology that makes a car move and the driver’s decisions that determine where and how the journey ends. In the digital world it’s the same thing.

Behind any successful digital strategy business management, organizational management and development and implementations of correct technology is key.

E.g. when the public sector offer self-service solutions and application portals, they also have made changes in the organization and workflows. With a great interface and design ‘on top’ citizens experience a simplified contact with the officials.  The government on its side achieves a more efficient disposal of public funds.

Also, when, telecom companies heavily invest in infrastructure in a nation and by that enable all citizen equal opportunities to communicate, to do business, and get access to information and expertise it increases our society’s ability to compete in an international business world.

Yet another aspect; by using digital opportunities at the maximum, businesses can offer employees flexible working methods and attract expertise that was not previously possible.

“No one would think of putting a rubber band engine into a Ferrari!’

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

Mobile first strategies

Posted in Digital business, Digital media, innovation, Web 2.0 on December 8, 2012 by Geir Stene

8 dec_imageTrend reports have told us for a couple of years now that the use of smart phones increases so dramatically that many businesses need to rethink their strategies.

I believe that the lap top and the web is no longer the first choice. We want to perform actions and do shopping via our phones. The mobile phone has become a multi- tool used for many things, and it is first and foremost a very “personal” tool.

Think about it, I can happily lend the lap top for a moment; but let other people handle my phone? Hummm…

Mobile first is not just about mobile phones, it’s also about tablets. These are two different “gadgets”. Even if both are handy and you can bring them with you – they have different patterns of usage.

However, the mobile solutions greatest advantages are that they are geared towards individual needs. The needs are situational. I choose widget and channel, based on situation – it’s mostly not a shared experience.

“Meet me where I am, in the tool I’m using,  with a solution to the problem I have! »

Simplicity wins every time

Posted in 1, Digital business, Digital media, Web 2.0 on December 7, 2012 by Geir Stene

7.dec_imageIt is really difficult to communicate complex messages in an easy and clear manner.

 

In any event – do just that!

 

 

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

Nothing lasts forever, not even in ” cloud “

Posted in Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 6, 2012 by Geir Stene

6.dec_imageWhen you are using Facebook, other social media, or one of the many cloud services, it is important to remember that nothing will last forever.

For a company It is extremely important to maintain ownership of content, knowledge from user interactions, services and products.

There are no “free lunch”!  Facebook may be a place worth while for your business to be. You maybe decided to use an online CRM solution because it’s easy, affordable and quick? But you really should weight advantages against the possible disadvantages. Too many companies are using cloud services and social media platforms and only effect is to make them richer.

You should also remember that one day many of the popular social media platforms may vanish. It could be services such as: WordPress, blogg.no, or Google, Facebook and Twitter that will no longer be among us, believe it or not!

I hope you never will read the message:  “You are no longer able to make use of this service, “ not without you having a copy of all content, and a back- log of the users interactions you have had.

Already, speculation about “the free internet” and index search have to be “sacrificed” in favor of new solutions and more proprietary business solution that will replace Google as we know it. Even the biggest companies could end up changing radically to your disadvantage.

Please: Do not make yourself vulnerable lose control over your own business.

“Eternally owned, is only what is lost” H. Ibsen

Advertising just in time

Posted in 1, Digital business, Web 2.0 on December 5, 2012 by Geir Stene

dec.5_imageWe are “bombarded by messages.” It’s said that we are exposed for 3,500 messages every day. The overload makes us filter out more than 90%. Adverts are messages that are quickly filtered out.

Yet, how great would it be to get the ad you need, just when you need it? Imagine that the sweet deal is there right in time!

In our digital world it becomes more and more possible to formulate messages targeting only those who have a need, where they are and when they want an offer.

Ads can be placed contextual. Commercial messages may be directed to singular users, based upon their behavior. The value of segmentation can easily be increased by geo- location services.

Amazon.com began to do such things long ago. Google and Facebook are also working on this and it is no coincidence that commercials on Facebook is bases on the search terms you have made in Google, and that the ads are tailored to your page profile. They are based on who you are, who your friends are, your interests and what you have done on your PC, or mobile. But all this is still in its infancy.

How much of these techniques are you ready to implement in your company? If your company focuses even more on the information you have about your customers,their actions (“big data”) and utilize this knowledge, you can pinpoint your message to those who want it, to those who are in a specific situation or in a given geographic place.

“Be in the right place with the right offer to the right person”

How do you interact with your online customers?

Posted in 1, Digital business, Digital media, Web 2.0 on December 4, 2012 by Geir Stene

4.desemberIt may be painful when customers tell you what they think of your company or service. But is it really bad for you? When your customers complain, they are committed and will really like to help you – if you let them!

Feedback is a gift and of great value for your business. Do you let that value go to waste? You may turn negative feedback into: New and better products / services, improved customer service, improved communication, better visibility on the web, adjust what activities you focus on  in various  channels etc. All of this is very complicated and expensive for your business to find out by other means.

Invite and participate in dialogues in all the digital channels your customers are active on.

Make use of what you learn and establish internal systems that pick up knowledge, refine it and take action.

Be grateful for criticism and be thankful towards your customers for the help they give you.

What to pay?

Posted in 1, Digital business, Digital media, Web 2.0 on December 3, 2012 by Geir Stene

3.desTell your customers what the prices for your products / services are. It may be cost, time or effort.

You are the only one selling something; the rest of us are buying. A purchase has to be of higher value for the customer than the asking price. Remember to tell the customer what the benefits are. And tell it in simple words.

Focus on the value your customer get, rather than the price tag you set.  

…did you read the tip of 1. and second of December below?

Digital advertisement, what’s the point?

Posted in Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, Publishing, Web 2.0 on August 26, 2012 by Geir Stene

 Last week Mitch Joel ( @mitchjoel ) made me think!

In his article “The Trouble With Online Advertising”  I made a very short comment “ … Why not just skip ads?… and Why not just get useful?…“ 

Since my comment where so brief I thought that exploring this a bit further might be worth while?

Mitch’s article point at the fact that very few people like online advertisements, they hardly click on them and digital ads doesn’t pay off very well for the owner of the website. (That is if you don’t have an enormous amount of people using your web solution, such as Facebook.com or google.com, where the numbers of people is so huge that it becomes a money making machine, after all.)

Still, most of what happens in online advertisement and marketing is an eyeball game. “Collect as many users as possible, and sell the crowd to advertisers!”  – Just as in the good old days. Many voices are now speaking about that this isn’t working. Advertisement, also in the digital environment is increasingly becoming regarded as pollution, and doesn’t make sense.

In the print world it had a purpose, in a digital environment it’s just a set of extra click’s between a customers needs and suppliers ability to deliver. “Why not skip the ads? ” was my question and go directly to deliver the solution to the user.

We know all the arguments coming from the business of marketing and commerce. – “Sales don’t work like that” – “The purchase process doesn’t work like that” –“the customers are maybe not aware of their needs yet, and need marketing to realize their needs, before they will be willing to make a decision and actually purchase a product”. We could go on.

Is there an elephant in the room?
The questions are wrong! It’s not about “How to market better?” I belive it’s about how to provide users with what they need, when they need it; at the place they are! – But that is not all…

“Why doesn’t anyone bother to get to know me?” “Why do I have to do the “purchasing process” all by my self?”  A wide range of businesses spend time getting the metrics right, collecting info about their costumers, defining target groups, finding out at when it’s best to present traditional advertisement to users. But…

Companies (and media houses) is not working to get to know what problems I could need help from someone to solve in my life. And it’s not about finding out what my values are, and what kind of ideas I’d like to support.

Maybe it is as Simon Sinek says? : “Because to many businesses doesn’t know why they are in business” and he states: “Profit is not a purpose of business, it’s a result.”  This TED talk  of his is about why people buy something at all. – Thank you for sharing Chuck Peters! ( @cpetersia )

For me, it’s sounds more important to discuss the purpose of your business, and then find ways (yes, possibly including advertisement) to meet users and customers that would like to support your purpose.

Feel free to Contact me for an informal meeting. if you would like to discuss your challenges.

Some older blog article (more or less) relevant to this subject:

Slik kan aviser ta betalt for innhold og kommersielle produkter 

What’s the value of you in the digital universe? 

Seven” right things” to do in digital business today

 

Social responsibility in business

Posted in collaboration, Community, Digital business, Digital news, innovation, Web 2.0 on August 21, 2012 by Geir Stene

Social responsibility has become a “hot topic” over the last years. I’ll present some viewpoints to the subject, but first three examples from my network:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ferd (@FerdCEO)
Why is it that a “hard core” industrial-and financial company like Ferd spends 20 mill NOK a year on supporting Social entrepreneurship?

In order to learn more I visited Ferd before the summer and had a long talk with Øyvind Sandvold (@oyvind_sandvold ) about the work Ferd is doing. What they support and what is outside their scope. You can read more about it HERE

I think the short answer is because they can! They have the assets and also valuable knowledge to share. Of course the element of charity is there.

But to my surprise Øyvind told me about another aspect: That there is a great “return of investment” for the Ferd company and the employees. Every project they support includes that one of the investments consultants (from the other investment funds) take part in the project as a board member, consult the Social entrepreneur and ensure that strategy, business plans and company start up secure the social business and its objective, and also has a growth plan. Øyvind tells me that these projects have become some of the most attractive assignment the employees can get involved in. They learn a lot, make great friends with people in the projects and experience that it’s very meaningful to provide their knowledge and to support social change. The most important part however is that Ferd as a company gets valuable knowledge in return.

Interesting enough: The Ferd social entrepreneurs has yet not received one application for a digital project!

Kavli (@KavliFoundation)
Most people in Norway know of the company Kavli. The Kavli Group is one of Norway’s largest and most international food groups, with some 800 employees creating a turnover of about NOK 2 billion. The companies produce goods for more than 20 countries. Maybe fewer people are aware of the fact that the profit from all Kavli products is channeled back to society, via the the Kavli Trust? They mainly donate money and focus on advanced science research, cultural activities and humanitarian work both in Norway and international.

Kavli has supported a great range of projects since 1962 and it’s interesting to note this project: Barnevakten.no  (Kids and Media). The organization has acquired a global reach with backing from the Kavli Trust. It is now a big operation with various web-based activities in the USA, the UK, Australia and Denmark as well as in Norway.

Bien Bank (@BienSparebank)
Bien bank is a small bank and the only local bank in Oslo. It used to be a savings bank owned by the customers, and is now owned by a trust. In the same manner as Kavli, Bien banks profit is channeled back to the population of Oslo by supporting informational and educational activities towards children and youth, art and cultural projects and community initiatives.
Bien tells me that they are looking into digital projects as we speak.

In addition to these few examples, we all know of the wide range of classical charity organizations, aid organizations and government’s engagements of all sorts.

As we see social responsibility is not at all a new idea. Our western democracies are built upon such ideas. What I believe we will se in the coming years (and why I write about it) is new and innovative initiatives, more and more of them will be digital. And more and more of them will have elements of what Ferd has implemented: In short – funding and expert help towards Self supported and sustainable social entrepreneurs.  

We will se “niche” projects from groups that want to take part in changing a business, like  Spot.us that says this about themselves: “Spot.Us is an open source project to pioneer community powered reporting.”… (spot.us red) “provides a new opportunity to expand the impact of public media journalism by making it more responsive and responsible to the public, while deploying new ways to support freelance reporters and the newsrooms that depend on them.”

As a warning: We will also see fraud! Solutions created only to enrich criminals, like the warning states in this article in e24 concerning the risk of scandals and fraud in crowdfunding

But should we let the risk of criminal acts from a few, stop the actions from millions of people and thousands of companies around the world that genuinely want  to help and improve the world we live in?

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.

Medan bokbransjen leitar etter vegen, går andre på den.

Posted in Digital business, Digital media, e book, innovation, Publishing, Web 2.0 on January 10, 2012 by Geir Stene

Nokre gonger skal ein sjå etter andre stader enn der ein fyrst tenkjer at ein vil finne det ein ser etter. Forlag- og bokbransjen leitar etter ein veg å gå frå papir, til også å finne dei lønsame digitale løysingane.

Det er litt som då eg ein gong for lenge sidan vart kjend med Helge Torvund.

Fyrst såg eg føtene hans. Då eg var gut var eg titt på besøk hjå kameraten min og no og då hende det at dei vaksne hadde fest. Då låg me borna under stuebordet, slik at dei ikkje såg oss og me slapp å gå å leggje oss. Der under bordet høyrde me dei vaksne skåle, synge og spele gitar. Dei snakka om kunst, om litteratur, om keramikk og Japanarar. Eit av para med føter var Helge Torvund sine. Slik vart eg kjend med han. Han hadde utgjeve diktsamling alt då, trur eg. Han var diktar.

Dette var på syttitalet ein gong, og åra gjekk, eg vart vaksen og brått var eg på internett og no seinare på Twitter.

Der, ein dag dukka @2rvund (Helge Torvund) opp, ein morgon, nett då sola lagar slikt lys som gjer at ein ser etter. Det gjorde eg med dei fyrste Twittermeldingane hans òg, såg etter. 140 teikn, tankeskisser og klår poesi. Mest kvar morgon kom dei orda som fekk mange av oss til å tenkje tankane våre betre.

Og slik har det vore sidan. Så kom ein twittersamtale mellom han og @eidsvag (Bjørn Eidsvåg) og etterkvart vart det den hiten me alle trudde det ville verte. «Oppe for show,nede for telling» Mykje kan kome ut av dialog i digitale univers.

Så kom Alabama? Lite visste eg at det ikkje berre var eit artig påfunn og seinkveldstwitterhumor om ein stad i Amerika. Men etterkvart skjøna eg at det var ei diktsamling. Ei bok. Ei bok som vart snakka om på Twitter, som det vart laga biletblogg av om kor denne boka har vore.

No har diktsamlinga Alabama? vandra frå kjøkkenbenken til han Helge, ut i verda, heile verda. Ho har vandra frå hendene til Helge, fått hans signatur og helsing, vorten sendt til alle som har bedt om det – på Twitter. Helge Torvund har fylt Litteraturhuset, Rogaland teatersal og utallege bibliotek, kor han har lese frå boka si, til dei som vil verta betre kjende med Helge sine setningar, lest av han. Slik merksemd fortel @2rvund meg at han ikkje har fått før. Diktsamlingar plar ikkje få det. Fulle hus.

No kjem ei anna bok, Vivaldi, den ser ut til å få same lagnaden, frå kjøkkenbenken, via hendene og fyllepennen til Helge med signatur til alle på Twitter som finn verdi i å lese gode setningar og bli betre kjend med forfattaren bak orda.

Kva har dette med bokbransjen å gjere? Ikkje så mykje, og det er nett det som er poenget.

Forlag og bokhandlar har ikkje leita etter digitalvegen på rette stadane. Dei har ikkje gjort noko i digitale univers som har gjort at døme eg har brukt her; Alabama? er seld fire, kan hende fem gonger så mykje som andre diktsamlingar. Det har Helge gjort sjølv, blant anna på Twitter.

Samstundes har Helge vist noko svært vesentleg. Det vesentlege i det nære, det å kjenne, det å være tilstades hjå og med sine lesarar. Den digitale dialogen har forsterka det personlege og det fysiske møte mellom litteratur, tilhøyrar og forfattar.

Her kan forlag og bokbransjen verkeleg lære noko; denne gongen kom det frå noko av det smalaste, minst kommersielle innan litteraturen. Det er forfatterane og dikterane som sjølv les frå bøkene sine, skriv på Twitter og sjølv finn vegen mellom den tradisjonelle rolla og den nye tida.

Er forlag- og bokbransjen rusta for å ta spranget saman med dei (eg vonar det), eller vil fleire og fleire forfattarar og diktarar i framtida velje å gå vegen utan dei?

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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Network economy and digital economy are inseparable

Posted in 1, collaboration, Community, Digital business, digital collaboration, Web 2.0 on February 28, 2011 by Geir Stene

The concept of a digital economy emerged in the late nineties. Nicholas Negroponte (1995)  used a metaphor of shifting from moving  atoms to moving bits.

With the globalization, increased mobilization, decreasing economies in the western world and the position the Internet  a digital economy have emerged. A network economy in combination with a digital economy is not limited to business trading and services only. It encompasses every aspect of life from health to education, from business to social awareness and geopolitical changes.  We have all become eCitizens.

How does this influence how we do business? The customer base is the company’s you are able to connect to and provide value for. -No connections, no values.- We are moving from an industrial economy (now fading out) into a network- /Internet- /digital economy. (That has started to fade in). Stewart Brand points out that commerce is being accelerated by the digital and network revolutions and that the role of commerce is to both exploit and absorb these shocks.

Open economy
This means that there are a lot of things that need to change, rapidly if one want to take part in, and conduct business into the near future. In network economies one party doesn’t control the value chain, property- and copy rights are under pressure, the drop of production and distribution costs reduces the prices one can charge and put profit creation under stress. Information and knowledge, products and services aren’t scares resources anymore. “Everything has become commodity”. You need to know how to provide added value for something that’s free and you need to know what is considered value for your customers.

Relations / networks are pairs of the main assets for enabling added value for customers. Knowing how to create added value for customers creates an economic flow where we have the opportunity for a fair share of the value created.

Decentralized organization
In a network economy it’s vital that the decisions are made as far out in the organization as possible. One important reason for this is the “need for speed”, if we aren’t able to decide quickly enough, our customer have no need for us. Their need is to be dynamic, and rapid towards their markets, and shifts in them. We cannot afford to report “to base, await a decision and act when we finally have a go – no-go from HQ. Not only is the network and relations we build our selves the sum of our network economy, also our customers network and relations are of value for us, since we have the possibility to take part in their networks. The relations our customers have between themselves are added values for us and increase the opportunities we have.

The elements of network economy
So what are the parts these kinds of networks consist of?  First it’s the customer which is the core of all business. It shouldn’t be necessary to name it, but surprisingly often a firm forgets this simple fact. Secondly it’s your partners. Partners are other companies that contribute to add value for the customer, either directly with you, or indirectly in some manner. In any event, you should look upon these entities as partnerships. Thirdly you will need “Node Management”. A node is the connection points where the network/ relations are interconnected. The last, but most important element in the chain of a network economy is the services and products delivered, implemented and maintained. This is typically consultants, experts and solution implementers.

Node Management
The Node manager’s task is to develop and grow relations and networks relevant for the customers and the firm the Node Manager is working for. The needed skills for a Node manager is, beside having excellent social skills, to have deep and real insight in the challenges the customers are facing and providing the correct means to convert those challenges into added value for the customer. A Node Manager needs to have a profound understanding of how network economies and digital economies work because this are fundamentals for solving customers challenges in the present and the future.

Do we need the firm?
The connection to the firm needs to be strong and have clear objectives to benefit from the creation of value and accumulate the gained knowledge from the ongoing processes at the customers. This is where the economic flow is ensured for the firm.

The “Hub”
The focal point for the firm is to establish itself as a “Hub”. On the one side the “Hub” need to “depersonalize” relations and networks in order to “secure” the value of the network and make it independent from a singular person.  On the other hand the “Hub” needs to provide Node Mangers, consultants, experts and solution implementers with added value. Employees need to see the benefits for them otherwise they could might as well be self employed.

The “Hub” needs to be able to provide day to day assistance, have all the assets a given project needs and can direct partners, skilled people, information, know-how and administrative support, easily to the one with a need in order to solve a customer project rapidly.

The elements for the firm are to offer added value for the employees: Excellent collaboration options, extended networks and partnerships, collective awareness of customer needs and collective insights in customer’s challenges. In addition the “Hub” needs to create and maintain a brand that is attractive, that signalize a culture where working for a better environment and a better world is the essence. In short this is the replacement of what was defined as “the production apparatus” (“means”) in the industry economy era.

UPDATE : Read what Capgemini Consulting says here

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.

Wikileaks is a test of our democracies in the digital era

Posted in 1, Community, Digital media, Digital news, Web 2.0 on January 9, 2011 by Geir Stene

It’s disturbing what happens with Wikileaks and how governments worldwide react. Lately it’s Twitter that’s “under attach”, as these two articles from the Guardian and Telegraph points out.

To me it seems like politicians, governments and bureaucrats worldwide are seriously perplexed and mislead by their own fear.

Can leaks be stopped?
Politicians and governments does everything in their power to stop Wikileaks, including putting pressure on Twitter and also major private corporations, such as Visa, PayPal, Apple, Bank of America, Amazon.com and other companies running server parks around the world.

It’s like they haven’t realized that the Internet is here. There are no ways to stop the digital era and the spread of information such as misuse of power,  except for one thing: Act within the national and international laws, be transparent, embrace the ethic and moral standards we are so proud of in the western societies. Then there will be no need for fear of scandals.

Why attack Wikileaks?
The central question is really this: If Wikileaks didn’t exist, would confidential material still have been published? My bet is – yes it would, and I may add – it should! All material that has a public interest should be published.

Wikileaks is nothing but a mediator. The leaks have come, as it always has, from whistle-blowers with access and motifs, not all of them noble. The only new is the amount of revealed documents and secrets. More than 250 000 documents is said to be in the hands of Wikileaks, only a few thousand documents have been revealed to the public, and most likely even fewer published in the news till now.

Why refuse to comment on the leaks?
What is a radical trend is that governments in several cases refuse to comment on revealed information because it’s a leak via Wikileaks (mark: Wikileaks is NOT a source- it’s a mediator) this statement from the Norwegian foreign affairs is an example:

“- We are generally reluctant to comment on internal reports that are published by WikiLeaks and believe that such leaks are unfortunate. Confidential communications and contacts are a vital and necessary part of diplomacy,”“said Imerslund.”

Even the United Nations officials refuses to comment on Wikileaks revealed news:

“The United Nations says it will not comment on documents leaked by the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks.” The US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, also declined to comment on the documents.

The real problem
This is not only clumsy; it’s a democratic problem of dimensions! Shouldn’t we not take leaks like the killings of journalists in Iraq, the leaks concerning the Israeli Government and their strategy towards Gaza and a lot of other dramatic facts seriously  because it came from the mediator Wikileaks?  And shouldn’t we all worry when the US department of justice issued a subpoena against Twitter to obtain personal details of five individuals connected to Wikileaks? (Including a member of the parliament of Iceland!) – And even worse, have tried to keep it all secret! People are now starting to question whether Facebook, Google or others have been ordered the same kind of subpoenas.

This article by Jon Wessel Aas in the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen explains excellently a wide range of reasons why Wikileaks have to be defended. Of course we should get worried, and we should embrace that we have a very powerful information flow via the Internet, that we still have a well functioning critical media that dares to reveal what goes on behind the curtains of power.

A dilemma
On the other hand there is a dilemma with Wikileaks. They seem to want to control the publishing of the leaks. Sarah Ellison wrote an article in the Vanity fair about Julian Assanges meeting with the Guardian concerning who is to control publishing of secrets from the Wikileak files. To me it’s the amount of secret content, unclear motifs and that one small organization have the control of what, where and when to publish that represent a major democratic problem. I think that media organizations have spent very little time, up till recently, discussing this aspect. This seems to have been resolved by the ironic fact that Wikileaks themselves had a leak – according to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Another aspect is that other whistle- blowing sites are popping up according to Wall Street Journal. This makes the dilemma with Wikileaks less troublesome.

” The spirit is out of the oil lamp”
Politician’s and governments have no choice anymore.. Refusing to comment on allegations is not the answer. Whistle- blower websites aren’t going to go away. It has become radically more difficult to keep secrets. The Internet is a part of the digital era. It is great news for the democracy and terrifying for those who act behind the scenes with hidden agendas and “ugly motifs”. This new global transparency and speed of sharing information will hopefully help reducing corruption, genocide, global governmental mismanagement and a lot of other kinds of abuse of power from people, organizations and nations with substantial power. My advice to politicians, governments and officials is to act pro- actively, answer openly and willingly to allegations and to take serious and swift actions to correct faults made. Otherwise it’s our democracy that’s at stake, and the one to blame will in fact be our own politicians and governments.

What’s the value of you in the digital universe?

Posted in Digital business, innovation, Web 2.0 on October 26, 2010 by Geir Stene

We all know the ordinary business models on-line. You buy something, and then you pay. We all know about Amazon, and that we tend to buy a book with high rankings. Suggestions from friends have the same effect; we tend to buy a suggested book, before looking for something else ourselves. We know of “freemium”/ premium services, like Spotify.

Of course we know that corporations pay for advertisements. (That’s when you and I are “sold” to someone). Google, Facebook, YouTube and also Twitter are cleverer than just selling banner ads based upon amount of clicks on pages or clicks on ads.

The value of algorithms.
We know that Google made some algorithms, to sort out what search results show up and not. It’s complicated and it’s secret. New lines of work came due to this Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) and also Search Engine Marketing (SEM)..

The other day, we got some insight about Facebooks way of sorting out the flow of our newsfeed (you can read an interesting article HERE ). In short it claims that if you are popular, interactive and have a lot of followers, shares videos and images – you rank higher than others. Where is the value? Well you get less “noise” and facebook can sell you at a higher rate, based on the segment (“high social profile” assuming you have higher influence on people around you)

Beyond old fashioned segmentation there is behavioral and contextual marketing.
The segmentation (Nation, gender, age, education, income, etc.) governs what ads you are likely to be exposed to and this is as old as marketing itself. Online the possibilities to get far better data because people might be willing to provide a lot more information about them. Facebook take this a step further and cooperation with third parties, such as Google, has become common. This makes it possible to share information so that the segment information from Facebook includes knowledge about your actions on Google and your search pattern. The sum of this knowledge is assumed to provide advertisers with “better” audiences, and you with “targeted” ads. All of this has lead to yet new professions: “Behavioral and contextual” advertisers.

If I know where you are, I know what to sell you! “Geo- tagging”
Location based knowledge is great. And it has become “trendy” to talk about. “Everyone” want to jump on this train. And it’s amazing. One thing is to add a commercial message at the map – you know the map on your cell phone, web site, iPad or the GPS in your car. It gets more sophisticated with the “chip” in in your training shoes, together with a GPS and a USB. Your training sessions will never be the same.  Your running patterns is transferred to your community, your cell phone tells you when other training friends are out in the same park as you. My guess is that location based marketing is going to be huge, and then commodity, something just being there as a new marketing / sales technique.

Internet in all things.
Not only geo- tagging is out there. As syndicating system, services are offered via different business partners that never used to be combined is on its way. Devices; like the cell phone goes into the banking, credit card and insurance business. The car computer syndicates with gas stations, car repair work shops and mapping services. The result is on your GPS in your car – and/ or cell phone. If I know where you are, how much gas is on your tank, for how long you have been driving? I can offer you a solution to problems you have, before you thought of them – before they even happened!

Now, combine this with semantic technologies. In the article I linked to, it’s only used to monitor, and moderate comments in an online newspaper. That’s still a very primitive usage of a very powerful business concept. Semantics and semiotics are language disciplines where meaning of communication is decoded See the Wikipedia article about semantics and about the semantic web HERE. This enable the option to provide relevant content to anyone. It enable to port relevant content based upon my interaction with “Internet” and others on Internet that I interact with. E.g. Twitter may run my flow of feed via their semantic engine, and deliver me relevant content, dependent on the meanings of my flow of statement. Twitters business model is starting to take form; look HERE. Provide me with relevant topic, and relevant followers. Provide knowledge about brand, topics and monitoring services(that let them know I have a need, an opinion worth while interacting with towards a business market. Using semantic technologies will surely help Twitter, streamlining their business models.

None of the above is future or science fiction, its existing services. Still the concepts aren’t advanced, but they will, and in a speed we have hardly seen. You see, all the technology is in place. All business models are already tested and working. We, the market, have started embracing the new possibilities and have purchased the devices already.

Is privacy corrupted?
Yes, but not by governments, police or military. Not by nosy journalists, but by you and I. And I’ve seen the reactions (amongst others) against facebook. But to be sincere I don’t think that regulations will help. The phenomena are spreading, and the business cases are too great to back off. The benefits for us as users are too big as well. Not long ago, communities were criticized for interrupting privacy merely because people shared information about themselves, in manners we hadn’t seen up till then. Photos of their loved ones, information on which restaurant they were dining, all kind of “silly” information, that could, if misused interrupt our privacy and be misused ( just think of dating services where people put images of themselves – no newspaper would ever print)  People still do this, and continue to want to share, to interact in every possible way.

Will the governments stop this, and is it all bad?
If one government wants to regulate what is legal, the servers are moved to another country, where no such rules apply. It’s these companies that will win the race, grab the market shares. Internet is not a ‘ cosy café ‘. It’s a hard core business environment that is changing the way we live our lives. Another reason I believe that protests won’t help this time, is that in the western world unions have been a driving force, to regulate what the finance world may do or not. Unions have lost a lot of their power in western societies. After the financial crisis in 2008, politicians are scared of a new breakdown and will not be motivated to stop initiatives for finding business models, creating new types of jobs – keeping the wheels running.

I’m not sure if this is all bad. It’s a dramatic change, and it can surely be misused for a whole range of reasons. On the other hand, it simplify our lives, we get better services and offerings we want, not a mass media cacophony of commercial messages thrown at us at all times. The standard TV commercials, interrupting our film experiences will vanish. “Shouting” primitive messages, attempting to have us remembering a hair shampoo brand will be a lousy business. “Offer me what I want, when I need it and leave me alone if you don’t know me, and my preferences!” –  This just might be the next decades slogan for the marketing business – online.

Does Media businesses want to survive?

Posted in Community, Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, innovation, Web 2.0 on October 9, 2010 by Geir Stene

Reality is harsh for the media business, and has been so for the last decade. Is there any chance for the business to survive? It depends on what is the definition of what a media business is, and it depends on the media companies of today.

Ivar Trondsmo wrote about this in the Norwegian Aftenposten today. You can read it HERE The head of information in the Norwegian publishing house Gyldendal presented what they think is “six myths about the e-book”  HERE, what do you think represent the most relevant arguments for the future?

Why not ask the important question? What do we need the media production for? In my opinion, if we know the purpose, the business models and organization of it will evolve. The question is if the media institutions of today are willing to change, in order to be a future participant in the business.

I have a suggestion that I’d like to invite you to evolve and improve.

Using the press as a category for all news activities in TV, Radio, magazine, papers, web sites and so forth, and Publishing as another category for all production of “story telling” factual and fictional, in film, TV, books and so forth I hope to have made a simple viewpoint to discuss the core of what we as society want from media production, or – production of meaning. I don’t know if it’s sufficient, but hopefully you help evolve the perspective with me.

The press: We need the press to watch out and protect the democracy. This requires skills, quality, and guts.

Publishing: We need publishing to engage and tell us about life and what society is all about. It helps us understand ourselves and the relations we have towards other, as individuals and as communities. Publishing keeps us from falling out of culture and into barbary.

How to best ensure a system that provides these goals? As of today, the traditional media institutions are using their energy to preserve the power of yesterday, and aren’t able to realize that the fact is that this power structure is lost already. My problem of the ongoing development is that neither Apple, Amazon, Google,(or the like)  with their Apps stores, you tube sites iPad, Kindles and so forth have given an answer to what their purpose is, –  not a purpose we as a global, national society or for that matter individuals needs and wants.

Content production and products. I don’t think that it’s fruitful to fear the digital revolution, nor to be afraid of the “announced death of print”.  The printed newspaper, magazine, book have a glorious future in my opinion. They will surely evolve in quality and the prices change (as the volume of sold units will decrease, and most likely the profit increase). The digital business models are there, in place already. The Press and Publishing businesses needs to align their products, work-flows, processes, organizations and business models to a digital environment.All to be a part of the future. If they don’t want to, it’s not a real problem, others are already here to take their positions. I only hope it will be players in the business that are fulfilling our needs and wishes;  of a free press and an enlightening publishing system.

Publishing as the monks? In an internet world?

Posted in Community, Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, innovation, Web 2.0 on September 27, 2010 by Geir Stene

I could seem like Publishers have the same faith as the monks of the Catholic Church had in 1439 when the Print press came around and put the monks out of the labor of copying the Bible; they never thought it possible to replace the handwritten Holy book.

But a week ago one of the major Norwegian Publishing houses Gyldendal published posting at their blog an argumentation that reassemble the attitude of the old  monks and I simply cannot understand that it’s possible.

The blog posting is HERE (in Norwegian. The ingress states: “What’s the cost of publishing an e book?” Further readings on the subject be found at Eirik Newths blog (remember google translator can be used if not able to read Norwegian)

Why is it I have spent a full week thinking, before commenting on this? Simply because it’s difficult to believe the argumentation behind the figures presented. I’ve been speechless for a week on this subject. Now I’m able to speak again, – somewhat.

Gyldendal as a Norwegian Publishing house is not alone in this. This is NOT an attack on one singular Publisher, not in Norway, nor elsewhere. My comments aren’t even limited to Publishing houses providing books to the market. My comments are related to the whole of the industry of media productions including the press, publishing, music, broadcasting and so forth. There’s something happening within the media organizations, which are troublesome. –  It might be fear.

In short, the argumentation in the blog posting from Gyldendal shows how the industry has, for long,  wanted reality to be. Publishing houses are in problems, and still – in Norway – they doesn’t want to publish e books in Norwegian language ?!?  It all started approximately 10 years ago (The Internet was not something that would go away easily )and has evolved in several steps: (seen from a  publishing house perspective)

1) “No-  the decreasing revenues have no structural reasons – it will pass.”  (denial)
2) “There is a shift in media consumption, and we don’t fully understand it.” (still denial)
3) “Something is happening, nobody knows what it is.” (confusion)
4) “Internet is to blame, and we were stupid to give away content for free.”  (anger)
5) “Governments has to protect us” (grief)
6)” We have to get paid for the expenses we have.” (start of acceptance)

Anyone present able to see the flaw in this thinking? At the same time period Internet have evolved:

1) Internet is used for the web to present content, mostly for free
2) Advertisement is established as a revenue stream
3) Retail starts offering products via the Internet
4) Banking and travel businesses goes digital
5) The public sector goes digital and start offering digital self service solutions
6) Internet starts getting semantic, and long ago the knowledge of business on the Internet is established by understanding that the main value is knowledge about the users and how to syndicated services and offers towards them.

Anyone now getting the picture of how far off the media industry has been?

Fortunately the large picture isn’t as bad as it seems. Today I read the Schibsted ( one of the major players in the media industry in Norway have done a clever move. They have established a company that’s going to invest in start ups, to develop and grow great ideas for content and storytelling in a digital future. Look HERE , (and use google translator if you don’t’ know the minority language Norwegian) Most media houses have employed digital expertise, and established digital departments within their organizations. This is great steps in the right direction. Still it’s unclear what direction this is. That’s still a problem! If you do not know where you are heading – it’s not easy to get there. Schibsteds action seems clever, because it lets development happen outside of the traditional media organization (remember the comment I made in the start of this posting about the Catholic monks?) I believe that the people working in a organization with a 250 year history of backing and defining what they are, and what a “Public audience is” most likely aren’t able – as an organization- to do the actions needed to survive – not alone!  An important speech by Jay Rosen (Inaugural Lecture at Sciences Po école du journalisme in Paris sept 2010) explains some very important aspects of the rise and fall of the “audience” as we have known it.

Back to Gyldendals published figures of the cost of a print book and an e book. They may add up, but they have no relevance. The figures represent a need /wish to maintain the “old model”, to ensure the people continuing doing what they always did, to ensure that the publishers (heavily invested in book stores) get their investments back. And none of this has anything to do with the market, (the people/ audience) –  now able to decide not to join the ideas of what a piece of literature should cost.

The market offer books, e books, told stories in other manners than what a “Publisher” wants. (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple – and the Norwegian bookstore Haugen bok are more than ready to grasp the market, excluding the publishing houses – but without any other motifs than profit) By that, the publishers have forgotten what Gutenberg had to offer: A cheaper, more democratic, simpler way to add value for everyone able to read. The added value was Knowledge, without dependency. – This used to be the pride of media houses, content producers of any kind. It looks like someone forgot this, and it seems like the conservative and protecting mode may very well scare away some of the most valuable assets the media industry have to offer to the population of the world – protection of the democracy on the altar of their misunderstood job security.

A pop song born on twitter “ Nede for telling ”

Posted in Digital media, Web 2.0 on September 21, 2010 by Geir Stene

It’s just great when events happen and it’s clear what made the difference. The age of transformations are here, and it’s not always to easy to find examples of direct impact. Yesterday we got one.

Quite some time ago, one of Norway’s popular and dear artists Bjørn Eidsvåg;  @eidsvag,  came across a tweet from another twitter user;  Helge Torvund; @2rvund. He is also well known in Norway, he’s an author and publish amongst others: Excellent poetry and children’s books.

The twitter message was a short (twitter ) poem by Helge. Bjørn Eidsvåg states that he saw the tweet as a chorus, and asked @2rvund if he wanted to expand the text .-  As most things on twitter; people join into the conversations, and ideas tend to expand. This event could have ended there,with a statement;  “nice text Helge” and a pat on the shoulder. But this twitter message ended up as a great single, released yesterday. You can listen to it here: Nede for telling More of the single @Oslopuls HERE

As a “happening” @eidsvag and @2rvund had a “Tweet conference” to honor the origin of the idea / birth of the text/ song in addition to traditional interviews and “press conference” when this single was released yesterday.

In my opinion it’s an example of how the media transformation takes place in real life; not in sudden dramatic shifts, but in concrete steps along a path that slowly grows wider until it’s the common way of “doing things” in a digital world. Nevertheless it’s the small concrete steps that counts. And as @2rvund states in a twitter message ” It’s odd to think about , but this text wouldn’t be born without  twitter.”
 

Social Media in a [business] perspective

Posted in 1, Community, Digital business, Digital media, Web 2.0 on August 18, 2010 by Geir Stene

Social Media is such a new term, that I reject the possibility that there already could exist something that could be said to be a “Social Media guru. “ There is no such thing!  You have to sort it out for yourself, and for your business

If you are a manager, or need to get your manager or customers to understand why one should get involved with Social Media activities, this blog posting might come handy. (a PPT presentation HERE) Maybe the buzz word itself might stand in the way to understand how to make business in Social Media? Social Media have had a sound to it that gives the associations towards the social aspect, as if that is a waste of time in a business context, yet another “cocktail party?” Another way of phrasing it might help to give a different immediate association: How to benefit from making the most out of “Relational Business” – is this going to improve the revenue streams, it this something the executive board would like to listen to?

We are all online. There’s a huge amount of statistics showing the mass of people being occupied in these Social Media, and I’ll not bore you with too much statistics. (if you want more THIS youtube video should be ‘it’ ) The important bit is to understand that in order to reach out to your audience, to the market you needed to be where they are and communicate in the language they are speaking. In Norway almost 2/3 of all Internet users (a penetration that’s approximately 85% of the population) are visiting and engaging in the popular community Facebook, weekly. That gives a huge market reach in the small nation of Norway. (Facebook has  2.262.820 registered members in Norway!  Youtube (1.637.178), Wikipedia (1.508.333) and Twitter (228.444) to name a few. (source TNS Gallup, Interbuss Q2, 2010)

The Native Internet generation is going offline? Another research from Germany is very interesting (Spiegel.de).  The research tells us that “The Native Internet generation” is logging off! What? Logging off the internet?  – Well not quite so, but it shows that young people that have never lived without the Internet aren’t interested in it at all; It’s become; just a part of life – nothing to talk about. The time spent in digital media is still high and it’s very clear where their interests are. It’s to be involved with friends and their network, on- or offline. Being “online or offline” is an absurd term for them. Being in contact with their friends isn’t. The youth have Internet internalized, that means that it’s taken for granted. It also means that social relations and entertainment are more relevant terms for them. At the same time youngsters aren’t as digital competent as we might believe. How to gather information, or increase their level of knowledge, filter or evaluate, isn’t something they neither are competent nor interested in.  From a business perspective, this is valuable information, indeed. It means that services, and offerings toward people that want to relate, that want to have easy answers without having to struggle, not to have to interpret the possible values, most likely will be the kind of offerings that will be preferred – internalized,” invisible” services.

Does this mean that Social Media have changed the rules of business – forever? I think yes, and no at the same time. I’ll give you a couple of concepts that are typical for what we will see a lot of the next months and coming years.  – All new cars got an installed GPS these days, to help us navigate. We all have cell phones, some even synchronized with a cell phone device in the car. This means I have knowledge of who you are, and where you are. In other words I know the demographics, and I know your location. Furthermore, the new cars have a car computer, to help the service and maintenance of the car. This means that I know the state of your car, how much gas there is on your gas tank, and for how long the car has been moving. By this I can assume some desires you as a driver might have, even before you think of it yourself. (Remember what I said about the native internet generation? Their internalized relation to the internet, make them expect to be connected and that they are in touch and have their needs fulfilled without having to search and actively find out things by themselves) By combining the information I have ( in this example) I can provide syndicated solutions, options to solve unmet, and sometimes unconscious needs. In this example; to give you (on the screen of your GPS, or voice) the information of how little gas you have left, and suggest that you stop at “your” gas station (since I know what relation you – or rather your membership gasoline company card – have to which gasoline company). At the same time, I know that you have been on the road for almost four hours, and could benefit of some food. What I just set up is a Relational Business concept by syndicating existing solutions, providing target advertisement, Contextual and behavioral marketing. Another example could be “The internet connected running shoes.” No- it’s not science fiction, it’s there, ready to implement. – With a GSM, GPS and USB / wireless in your running shoes Nike/ Addidas or competitors easily can provide added value to their existing communities. By the way, it’s more likely that it would be marketed as: “The shoe with the chip that connects you”. In addition to being connected to an online training club, you can let your shoe “find” people to run along with, in the park (more fun to run with someone, than alone) The shoe can give you a hint, when it’s time to replace them with a new pair. Most likely you can subscribe to a rescue / insurance service that will find you if you go missing, while hiking. To be able to adjust the shoes sole pressure, depending on which surface you are running on to ensure that you don’t harm your feet, and also this set of connected shoes will be able to transfer the information  about your running sessions to the Nike/ Addidas training club.

New value chains, or reorganizing the ones we have? What does this Relational Business, or Social Media as we have labeled it till now, do to other parts of the larger value chain? Newspapers used to be a distribution channel for advertisements. Newspapers experience a decreasing market of maybe as much as 10 – 20% drops in annual subscription revenues, 10- 30% in annual advertisement revenues. In the digital environment news organizations have only been able to “take back” this by approximately 5%.  Along the value chain this also effect the companies dealing with advertisement, commercials and public relation, due to the fact that they have kept the traditional concepts of marketing and tried to “transfer” print advertisement business models into the digital environment.( read more about future advertisement, by Helge Tennø, HERE) about marketing in the digital environment) In the end this have resulted in corporations lost opportunities; reduced sales opportunities, and marketing effects. Everyone sees this and is trying to find solutions, and answers to the fact that the world have moved from a mass communication form to a communication form between the masses.

Show me the money? Surprisingly few are talking about, or explaining how to build the business cases for Social Media – or Relational Business as I prefer to define it. Everyone seems to think that it’s something “new”, we have to find – or “New economy” as the buzz word was back in the Dot.com years. Other people are sitting still, hoping this is yet another Hype, and that everything will come back to “normal” again. As I mentioned, I believe it’s a – yes, and no.  Establishing sustainable business models and business cases for Social Media (– sorry –): Relational Business is like building any other business case where you have to follow the rules of the game you are in. And the rules of Relational Business are those of the internet!

ROI of Social Media The participants (customers) on Social Media channels, communities and the internet itself have stated (from the Cone 2008 Business in Social Media study fact sheet) that they would like companies to provide problem solving options (virtual customer services), they want to be able to give solicit feedback (fan pages, branded sites) and they want new ways to interact with brands. Nothing comes for free, Peter Kim / Business communication group. LLC, 2010, puts it this way: “while Social Media technologies seem to scale ok, “the programs – especially those with a labor-intensive component – don’t.” “There’s no real shortcut when it comes to holding authentic personal dialogues. That’s the point.” It will require a shift in how to use human resources in order to benefit from a Relational Business focus. In corporations, sales, marketing, support and call centre functions, Business intelligence, analytic personnel and so forth will have to act differently and get different work tasks done in their everyday life, much of it will be online activities. Advertisement companies, the news and broadcasting industry also will have to change in accordance to this, due to the fact that all are part of the same larger value chain, where the market have moved toward new arenas. Depending on what you want to achieve, each separate area /goal of business needs will demand their specific business cases. Some will follow the set up for a sales business case, others for increasing efficiency along the value chain.  To show how radical the organizational change might have to be this might give you an idea:

Some of the activities you want to establish, might not have enough material, knowledge “best practice” and so forth, to enable you to build a “classical business case”;  in that case – don’t! I would suggest that you make an audit of the situation today. This status is going to be used to evaluate success/ no result/ negative result in accordance to the goals you set up. Then take the three, four best “guestimates” of ideas and concept that you want to test. Measure effects during your test period, frequently. And stop the project if you start becoming sure that it won’t lead to the desired result. This effective, rapid development method, ensure that you quickly adapt to facts gathered during a testing phase. Keep in mind, some concepts doesn’t give positive results as quickly as you might wish for. Be realistic, and give your “babies” a fair chance! When doing something new – testing and failing is essential and every “failure” is of value – it help you from continuously doing the wrong thing. Another tip, ensure you have someone outside your organization watching what you are doing. It could be a mentor, a coach, a consultancy firm, just anybody you prefer, if they are able to help you “kill your darlings”, ask you the uncomfortable questions, and give you positive feedback along the road. Organizations have a tendency to look at everything from inside ( and not the point of view your customers have),keep to “old habits”, and by that being less able to act differently,  staff also have a tendency to provide uncritical answers, due to the fact that their job and success factors depend on the managements thoughts of them and so forth.  

Is there really anything new here? As I’ve said before; people haven’t changed much the past 28.000 years. It’s really not likely that people will do so the next coming few years either. The marketplace, such as the Farmers market has been around, most likely since we started farming. There is nobody arguing that the old marketplaces weren’t a Relational Businesses, where bargaining, split revenue models and so forth was in the core of how to conduct business those days. Furthermore the concept of Tupperware and home parties are more “modern” versions of Relational Business, and we are very much familiar with the effect they have had and revenues over the years. I’ve written a blog posting about www.musicnodes.no before and that is in essence a “Tupperware” concept – or as we would like to put a buzz word on it nowadays: “Viral marketing”.  It’s “new” because it isn’t done this way before, but there is in reality no “New economy” in it. In other words, my statement is: “There is no Social Media – Internet is social and business on the Internet is social too!” (To be more accurate, Social Media Channels are one of many channels in a digital environment, frequently being a part of a larger digital value chain)

But the challenges aren’t over by this. There’s always a “But” isn’t there? The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies have stated: ”Everything that can be digitalized will be digitalized – and the value goes toward 0.- $”. – How to make business when the value is cero? Well if the cost of producing products and services are approximately cero, then there is a low risk in the cost aspects too? To provide a profit it has to come from “elsewhere”? Furthermore there is a promising statement by Kevin Kerry, the editor of Wired magazine: “The value is beyond free”. This means that we need to create added values for the customers in other manners than via the product/ service itself, doesn’t it? A few generic key words where “value beyond free” might be created from, is maybe worthwhile contemplating over:

People would like to pay for:

• Accessibility
• Navigation
• Security and consistency
• From “Good enough” (free) – to High quality (paid)
• Exclusivity (added by me) (Source: The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies)

The benefit of sharing. This very blog posting is an example of what I’m talking about. I share this information, my viewpoints, free of charge, free for all to use, and to benefit from. Where’s the value for me, and the company I work for by doing so? Well information itself isn’t of great value, the ability to transform this to added value for my customers, requires something that is a scarce recourse; me and my colleagues network, competence, experience and our personality. This shouldn’t be confused with giving away strategies, the differentiators or business secrets; it doesn’t mean to give away any confidential customer information, of course. It means to share the information and common knowledge, and open up for conversations and discussions we all can learn from. The real value we offer our customers is what we learn, at work from our discussions and by that develop a mindset suitable to enable customers to create real value for their customers. (note: all of a sudden I went from “I” till “We” in my sentences, that’s because sharing means that Relational communication cannot be a individual process – it’s a social process shared between those involved)  We have the tools at hand to enter a given scenario at our customers, coach and help them with all aspects of the transformational process that’s needed. We are at the moment working on a handful projects with customers, none of them with identical challenges, where our competence is stretched to the maximum. Sharing our knowledge as  above, with as many as possible, will give us valuable discussions and we will gain more knowledge about other people’s / consultants achievements and will bring us as well forward into new projects and challenges providing our customers with real added value for their businesses.

Sustainable business models in a digital environment

Posted in Digital business, Digital media, Digital news, innovation, Web 2.0 on June 9, 2010 by Geir Stene

People have been telling stories at least for the last 28.000 years, it’s not likely that the demand for great stories will vanish at any time soon. Professionals are more likely to be great to tell stories that  people would prefere to listen to. Journalism is in no way in danger – BUT, the mindset of newspaper people seems to still burden online media activities.

Even in this article  the word “circulation” pops up. When did an internet professional use that word? When speaking of how to generate revenue, the term subscriber, and advertisement is the only two ideas that is mentioned. This is sad, and leaves very little hope for the media houses as participants into the future if the mind set isn’t turned upside down in a hurry.
There are a lot of alternative ways to provide content in a digital world, but to be dependent of traditional media houses. There are lots of experiences of business models that work in a digital environment. The The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies’ 1 report and 2 report have published two interesting papers on business models. One comment is needed. CIF is supposed to study the future, these papers have the ‘problem’ that the future have met the present! The development is so rapid that the future is already here. One important statement from CIF is “Everything that can be digitalized will be digitalized – and the value goes toward 0$. Kevin Kerry, the editor of Wired magazine have stated “The value is beyond free” in order to explain how to make money in a digital environment, where the cost of content production is close to 0$, due to the free reproduction costs.

In order to defind value (a necessity if you want to build sustainable business models) it’s kind of clever to look for what is reconed to be a scarce resource, or in other words, what cannot be reproduced. An example is the music industry. The revenues in the world of distributing music have increased, not decreased. Surprised? The “stealing” sharingand waste downloading on the net have increased the sale of music – it’s true, whatever the record companies try to tell us. The only one loosing on this have been:  – The record companies. Content creators, have increased their share of the profit. In addition they have earned more money on something that cannot be reproduced by any other then themselves; Live concerts. A live concert is a scarce recourse, and cannot be reproduced. What can we learn from this?
1) The value is NOT the news/ content itself (ok, some times it might be, but often not). Rather try to look at the user/participant as your real value
2) Providing your user/ participant with real time/ location/ technology, content and advertisement with relevance is a must. In addition to that, content have to be contextual to the user/ partisipant. (segment/time/ location/ channel/device)
3) Generate revenues from the knowledge you have about your users / participants

How to start changing the mind set to enable innovation and transformation concerning establishing sustainable business models and revenues? It’s maybe worthwhile contemplating over this: (Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies) People would like to pay for :

• Accessibility
• Navigation
• Security and consistency
• “Good enough” – to High quality
• Exclusivity (added by me)

A new digital business model that works

Posted in 1, Community, Digital business, Digital media, innovation, Web 2.0 on February 26, 2010 by Geir Stene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
We all just love to be helpful and share. In social media today people are sharing everything and feel great about it. We tend to share knowledge, ideas and emotional experiences.  I found something very interesting that’s going on in Norway these days. I got to know this, by “accident”, some weeks ago, and I’ve thought about it, looked at it and wondered if this is just another idea, or if it is an idea that could move business models in the digital area one step further. And I think it might!

It’s called musicnodes.com . Still in an early stage of developement and it looks very promising. To get to the point of what this is: It’s a embedded player, where you can listen to a tune. There’s nothing new in that.
You can buy the tune as well and you can share the tune with your friends and network, nothing new in that either. 
The new is that the content is placed contextual. Another aspect is that it’s not a website, where you go to and find your music and then buy what you want. 
Musicnodes is a play bar that can be located on any website with relevant content. Since this is music, the daily news article, about music is a great place, the online music sites is also a great place to share music. The spread happens when people start sharing the play bar in their respective networks.(e mail, Twitter, Facebook and so on)

Business model
The business model is very interesting. As we know; creators of content holds copyrights. As far as I know all countries have organizations that take care of the business aspect of using someone’s music. Radio/TV, film and others are using music produced by others and have to pay for the usage. On the internet this is also the case, but has become very difficult to manage, since people love to share.  This have created a problem for musicians, for record companies and so on.  Revenues are dropping dramatically in the business as a consequence. 
Musicnodes have set up a model where the musician gets a large part of the revenue created. The publisher also gets a large part. The least part of the income goes to musicnodes. Furthermore when people listen to the tune, and want to share it, the embedded tune is sent by e.g. e-mail, “share on Facebook” and so on – the revenues split follow the tune and the all involved continue to earn on the sale of this tune, each time!
Online publishers will just love this model, and so will the musicians, and other copyright holders. This might provide the music business with a sustainable business model that take care of all involved parties in a manner no one have done up till now.

Contextual advertisement
When is it most likely that you will be the most interested in listening to a tune? Isn’t that when you are in the mindset, like when you’re  reading an editorial story about the genre, the artist or a news article about the music you love? And then, there it is.
For the publisher, it’s not even an advert, it’s just added value for the reader. The best part is that the publishers earn money sharing this added value. For the reader it’s not a “banner ad up in the face”, it’s a neat way to get the tune there and then, no hassle finding a music store (down town, or online), searching for the right tune. It’s right there, easy accessible.
The motivation for the reader, to convert into a buyer is very high, just in that moment. This is in fact a real and functioning example of the semantic web, and behavioral advertisement!  A very strong concept indeed. I’ve written about this in a former posting; HERE.

Network sharing
We are social, this idea appeals to our pattern of behavior. To give someone something makes us feel well and sharing makes us connected with others. Creating a business that “run” by the natural rules of human behavior is very likely to be a strong business model. I believe that this is the case with musicnodes.com .
It’s the same principles that’s behind “six degrees of separation”, viral marketing and whom we trust the most. Social media and networking arenas has grown immensely the last few years and there is no doubt that conducting business are about to get new rules to play by.
I’m looking very much forward to see what happens next, and in which ways this innovative concept will spread. The concept, is as lot’s of you already have started thinking is that it’s not limited to music. There is a whole range of products and services where this will apply.

While waiting for the script (to embedd on my blog) to be approved by www.wordpress.com you may have a look at the new concept HERE 
The tune is by Ingrid Olava, won’t be silenced – catchy title?

Update: I did some statistics: in one hour I had 51 unique visitors on my page. That created 90 Clicks on the node, and 62 that downloaded the tune for free (payed by sponsor) Ingrid Olava earned cash on this, and so did I. Amazing, the network sharing effect really works. Remember this test is with no player (just a primitive link) and I’m not running a music blog, nor is the content relevant for the player/tune

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.

Connectivity, collaboration and innovation; how will it change us?

Posted in collaboration, Community, Digital business, digital collaboration, innovation, Web 2.0 with tags , on January 31, 2010 by Geir Stene

Collaboration used to be”hype”. Nowadays it’s social media and the iPad/ Kindle e-readers. The speed of innovation is increasing.  It’s getting harder and harder to divide these topics. In my eyes they are interconnected, and will become even more woven together. How will this change us?

We have moved from a closed in collaboration (software for use only within the organization, document sharing and workflow) towards a more open and including form of collaboration, where Twitter now seems to be in the forefront of the development. The best forms of collaborative activities are those who appear from nowhere, that aren’t planned, in short are anarchistic in their form. That doesn’t mean that they are purposeless, it means that the collaborative need develops from an individual (or small group) that has a motif for finding answers and solutions quickly. The most effective way to get there is to search for other people that might have the answer,a part of an answer or/ and a benefit from participating with you to solve a topic. Because of the relational interaction, collaboration starts to develop. The blending of collaboration and community (social media) happened in the process, because it’s the most effective way to get to the goal.

What we see is that this kind of mindsets can be used generic. It will enable far better ways of knowledge management, collaboration, innovation, product development, project management and so forth. Furthermore it will be put into effect within all kinds of businesses, from education, media business, commercials and nonprofit organizations, production of renewable energy, car production and so forth, all will very soon see the connective collaboration and community as one arena of relational co- existence, where things aren’t as pre- planned as we used to do things. New technology, new tools and the semantic web will be forces that drive this development, or is it the other way around? I don’t think it matters, but I do think that it is what’s happening around us is as we speak.

I’ve spoken of Charles Leadbeater before. I won’t stop doing so, because what he’s been speaking about (innovation and mass creativity) is one of the things we see happens around us in an increasing speed. So I’d advise you to have a look at his homepage HERE. Seen from a different perspective I would highly advise you to look at Kevin Kelly from Wired magazine, a very interesting speech he had in 2008 that can be found at Youtube HERE. Kevin Kelly explains what the web really is in a philosophical way, and where it’s heading (web 3.0). In my eyes both are speaking of something that is going on, not about some distant future, which might happen. We are afraid, afraid of the value that disappeared; now everything is “free” on the web, how to make revenue? Newspaper people are asking this several times a day. Publishers fight the development of “free” Educational institutions are, and corporations are afraid that their competitive advantage is gone if you share all knowledge. I think it’s wrong, I think it’s missing the point of what this leads to.  I do like the postulate Kevin make in the speech “the value is beyond “free” Kevin Kelly argues that the web is, and will even more become something – not “out there” but something that embody us, that we are inside of. What is of value change, and I believe that holding on to what used to be “of value” no longer is a good idea. The change is, as you might guess – tremendous for all of us.

I found the blog of Umar Haque (Director of the Havas Media Lab and founder of  Bubblegeneration) and the posting in Harward Business review  “Twitter’s Ten Rules For Radical Innovators”  and discover that it seems to be a guideline worth while reading for all of us. It just migt give us some hints of how to focus of finding value, and making a living by changing what, why and how we do business into the future.  I suggest you read it for yourself, but here are the bullet points:

  • Ideals beat strategies
  • Open beats closed
  • Connection beats transaction
  • Simplicity beats complexity
  • Neighborhoods beat networks
  • Circuits beat channels
  • Laziness beats business
  • Public beats private
  • Messy beats clean
  • Good beats evil