25 febrero 2012 – Gabriel Catalano®

10 signs that you aren’t cut out for IT

It’s a tough world out there. Anyone who’s ever worked in IT knows just how tough it is. And if you’re not totally up for the challenge, there will always be someone else who is. But for anyone considering getting into the world of IT, or for those considering getting out of IT… how do you know? How do you know whether you are really cut out for the career that chews up and spits out its young? Well, I have a handy list of signs that maybe IT isn’t the best fit for you.
1: You lack patience

Patience is most certainly a virtue in IT. When some problems strike, they strike with vengeance and most often require a good deal of time to resolve. If you are without patience, you’ll either give up, lose your mind, or pull out all your hair. But the need for patience doesn’t end at dealing with problems. Many times, end users will test your patience more than the technology will. If that’s the case, I recommend that you either get away from having to deal with end users or (if that’s not possible), leave IT immediately.
2: You have no desire to continue your education

IT is an ever-evolving field and without the desire to continue learning, you’re already way behind the curve. This is one of those fields where you must be okay with constantly learning something new. That might mean taking a class or attending a workshop or just hitting the books on your own. But no matter how you slice that education, you must be willing to continue to learn.
3: You refuse to work outside 9-to-5

Technology doesn’t adhere to a set schedule. Servers go down whenever they want and business must go on. So you must be willing to wake up in the middle of the night, work long hours during the week, and work weekends. If you’re someone who refuses to let your workweek interfere with your personal life — well, the writing on the wall is pretty clear.
4: You don’t like people…

By Jack Wallen

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog

1: You lack patience

2: You have no desire to continue your education

3: You refuse to work outside 9-to-5

4: You don’t like people… Continuar leyendo «10 signs that you aren’t cut out for IT»

Infographics: How to Strike the Elusive Balance between Data and Visualization

They started out as a social media experiment and then suddenly everyone wanted a piece.

A couple years back, if you dropped the word ‘Infographic’ or ‘Dataviz’ in a conversation, you would have been greeted by a good number of confused looks even if you were among other web designers.

Today, so many infographics have gone viral that it’s practically impossible to ignore them. You’ll find them tweeted by your friends who want to share an interesting new find, promoted by companies eager to display their growth trends and utilized by even the White House for its progress reports.

No matter what you are searching for online, whether employment statistics or endangered animals, you are sure to find an infographic for it. If you, miraculously, aren’t able to recall any that you have seen, take a look at this list of the 10 best infographics of 2011 via Nowsourcing to catch up.
Infographics spice up ‘boring’ data

Infographics are useful because they turn historically lengthy and tedious bulks of data in to something that’s much more interesting: a visual.

As a society heading into the new decade, we want to read less and see more. While this doesn’t bode too well for book publishers, it’s opened a whole new creative area for designers.

An increasing number of companies and clients are recognizing the benefits of infographics and want their data jazzed up and dressed for the prom. They know that their assiduously compiled information has a far better chance of being read, appreciated, shared and widely circulated if it looks less like an annual report and more like the next big meme. And if you aren’t convinced yet, here’s an infographic on why you should use infographics.
You will need your existing skills. And more.

While the graphics used in infographics have become more eye-catching and sophisticated, they are not too different in purpose from the charts and graphs we used to make in high school. After all, the objective is still to present data in a more visually engaging and accessible way.

However, print and web designers are having a hard time transferring their existing skills to infographics because, as the many aspiring infographics designers will tell you, designing good infographics isn’t as simple as it looks. Sure, you still need the same essential aesthetic and technical skills but you should also be able to effectively translate data into visuals. Most importantly, you need to ensure that the infographic acts as an informative tool and not as a visual distraction.
The 7 rules of great infographic design…

Babar Suleman | http://blog.crazyegg.com

They started out as a social media experiment and then suddenly everyone wanted a piece.

Infographics spice up ‘boring’ data

Infographics are useful because they turn historically lengthy and tedious bulks of data in to something that’s much more interesting: a visual.

As a society heading into the new decade, we want to read less and see more. While this doesn’t bode too well for book publishers, it’s opened a whole new creative area for designers.

You will need your existing skills. And more.

El SMS busca rejuvenecer para recuperar el terreno perdido

Este tipo de aplicaciones y la mensajería que se puede realizar gracias a las redes sociales han hecho que las operadoras tuvieran perdidas con un valor aproximado de casi 14 mil millones de dólares durante el año pasado y parece que la trayectoria continuará del mismo modo durante este año, si no cambian las cosas. Las operadoras están decididas a dar una alternativa con SMS 2.0. Esta nueva versión ha aprendido de la evolución que ha habido durante estos últimos años e incorporará muchas novedades, la descripción sencilla sería simplemente decir que ofrecerá muchas de las cosas que tenemos actualmente: además de enviar mensajes de texto se podrán enviar imágenes o realizar chats en grupo, algo para lo que se habrían hecho muchos cambios en el back-end del sistema, cuyo principal cambio es que para la transmisión de esos datos se tendrían que usar el canal MCM en lugar del canal SMS, que sólo permite el envío de mensajes de texto.

http://alt1040.com

 David Rubia

Los sistemas de comunicación entre usuarios han hecho mucho daños a las operadoras que han visto como poco a poco los SMS han ido perdiendo importancia para millones de personas, sobre todo para los más jóvenes. Quién no conoce herramientas como WhatsApp, que nos permiten mandar mensajes de una forma mucho más completa a nuestros contactos sin un gasto excesivo, tan sólo disponiendo de una conexión de datos. Pues bien, para luchar contra estos sistemas las teleco han estado trabajando en una nueva versión de SMS la cual podríamos ver durante el Mobile World Congress de la próxima semana. Continuar leyendo «El SMS busca rejuvenecer para recuperar el terreno perdido»

Doctors perform world’s first quadruple limb transplant to attach two arms and legs to a man

The world’s first ever quadruple transplant took 50 surgeons more than 20 hours to attach two arms and two legs to a young male patient. Picture above posed by models

But he did not provide any details about the patient.

The operation comes after a failed triple limb transplant two months ago at another hospital in the southern city of Antalya.

By SUZANNAH HILLS | http://www.dailymail.co.uk

The world’s first ever quadruple limb transplant was carried out by surgeons at a Turkish hospital today who attached two arms and two legs to a young man. The world's first ever quadruple transplant took 50 surgeons more than 20 hours to attach two arms and two legs to a young male patient. Picture above posed by models

The operation took 20 hours to complete and required 50 doctors to help attach the limbs.

Head physician Dr Murat Tuncer today appealed for blood donations to overcome possible complications following the surgery at Hacettepe University Hospital in the country’s capital, Ankara.

The world’s first ever quadruple transplant took 50 surgeons more than 20 hours to attach two arms and two legs to a young male patient. Picture above posed by models

But he did not provide any details about the patient.

The operation comes after a failed triple limb transplant two months ago at another hospital in the southern city of Antalya.

Continuar leyendo

Topless protesters crash Milan Fashion week in demo against anorexic models

Topless feminists clashed with police as they protested against the use of anorexic models outside the Versace fashion show in Milan yesterday.

The protesters, from the feminist group Femen, wore jeans and handwritten slogans such as ‘Fashion = Fascism’ and ‘Anorexia’ scrawled across their bare chests.

The three attractive women – understood to be model themselves – chanted outside the high-end fashion show while holding aloft handmade placards with the same mottos and ‘Models do not go to brothels’. The organisation states its goals as ‘to develop leadership, intellectual and moral qualities of the young women in Ukraine’ and ‘to build up the image of Ukraine, the country with great opportunities for women’.
As well as the ‘Fashion = Fascism’ slogan, the models also scrawled ‘Models do not go to brothel’ over their bodies and placards

As well as the ‘Fashion = Fascism’ slogan, the models also scrawled ‘Models do not go to brothel’ over their bodies and placards

It now appears that campaigning against anorexia has shot to the forefront of their agenda following the continued use of size zero models in fashion shows across the globe despite increasing media and social pressure to put an end to the practice.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk
By SUZANNAH HILLS

Topless feminists clashed with police as they protested against the use of anorexic models outside the Versace fashion show in Milan yesterday.

The protesters, from the feminist group Femen, wore jeans and handwritten slogans such as ‘Fashion = Fascism’ and ‘Anorexia’ scrawled across their bare chests.

Models remonstrance against anorexia Fashion Show

Baring all: Topless models protest with slogans written across their bodies against anorexia on the catwalk outside Versace’s Fall-winter 2012-2013 fashion show during the Milan Womenswear Fashion Week

Anger: The feminists demonstrate outside the Versace show against the pressure on young models to be skinny size zeros

But Italian police forcibly blocked the protesters when they approached the entrance to the Versace Fall-winter 2012-2013 show during the Milan Womenswear Fashion Week.

Donatella Versace’s own daughter and heir to the fashion throne, Allegra, has been battling anorexia for years.

Continuar leyendo «Topless protesters crash Milan Fashion week in demo against anorexic models»

Life-saving new cancer drugs are being held back so the Government can save money, claims GlaxoSmithKline chief executive

Not an option: the drug Avastin, made by the firm Roche to treat breast cancer, was one of the drugs rejected by Nice and is therefore not available on the NHS

Sir Andrew accused governments of treating the pharmaceuticals industry as a ‘simple procurement business’ without understanding the wider implications of their decisions.

‘As governments have got more and more anxious about their debt positions and austerity agendas, what happened is quite predictable,’ he said.

‘If you are a minister and you need to cut costs, it is a lot easier to cut drug prices than it is to close a hospital or reduce the size of the Civil Service. I understand that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

UK is delaying the approval of new treatments
Several new drugs have been blocked by Nice, says academic
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

The head of Britain’s biggest drugs company has accused the Government of systematically delaying the introduction of new cancer drugs in order to save money.

GlaxoSmithKline chief executive Sir Andrew Witty warned that ministers were making false economies as they tried to grapple with the deficit in the public finances.

In an interview with the BBC, he said that governments across Europe had already cut drug prices by 5 per cent a year – costing GSK around £300 million per annum.

Warning: Sir Andrew Witty, head of GSK, warns that government attempts to save money by delaying the introduction of new drugs is a false economy

However, he said governments were now seeking to go further in an effort to achieve even bigger savings – and he highlighted Britain’s decision to delay new cancer treatments.

‘The bit I’m much more frightened about is that what’s now beginning to become clear is that, in addition to price reductions, governments are delaying the approval of innovative new drugs,’ he said.

‘So a second way they can save money, they think, is ‘Let’s just not buy the next round of innovation’.

‘Cancer in the UK is a good example where we’re seeing oncology drugs being systematically delayed from introduction and reimbursement. Continuar leyendo «Life-saving new cancer drugs are being held back so the Government can save money, claims GlaxoSmithKline chief executive»

Falso Me Gusta | pedir UN ME GUSTA en FACEBOOK, la gente hace lo contrario…(yo no creo, propuesta de juego)

Un reconocido SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER, que desea permanecer anónimo, sostiene que cuanto más le pedís a la gente UN ME GUSTA en FACEBOOK, hace lo contrario.

Te prendés a jugar a esto, le vuelo un paradigma al demonio y hacemos algo piola con el resultado entrá acá http://t.co/gwP9DhHl y donamos $200 asumiendo q todos ganan más las 20 licencias para ONG o entidades médicas que las necesiten y no puedan garparlas!! VAMOSSS

Mi posición es la opuesta. APOSTAMOS $100 cada uno, ($200) los DONAMOS A UN ENTE QUE ELIJAN UDS Y DUPLICO MI APUESTA A 20 LICENCIAS SIN COSTO A MEDICOS PARTICULARES O DE ZONAS CARENCIADAS. YO LES PIDO EL ME GUSTA. EL SOSTIENE QUE NO LO VAN A HACER. LAS CARTAS ESTAN SOBRE LA MESA.

La causa y la comunicación, hacen VERDADEROS ME GUSTAN

Un reconocido SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER, que desea permanecer anónimo, sostiene que cuanto más le pedís a la gente UN ME GUSTA en FACEBOOK, hace lo contrario.

Te prendés a jugar a esto, le vuelo un paradigma al demonio y hacemos algo piola con el resultado entrá acá
http://t.co/gwP9DhHl y donamos $200 asumiendo q todos ganan más las 20 licencias para ONG o entidades médicas que las necesiten y no puedan garparlas!! VAMOSSS…

EL de la foto soy yo bailando BUM BUM MARACAS!! luego vamos por las clases de baile >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

La causa y la comunicación, hacen VERDADEROS ME GUSTAN

Female Cyclists Say They’d Give Up Sex Before Biking UPPPS AHH WTF

Since few commuter bikes have pedal clips, you can see there’s a decided slant toward sports cyclists in the people Bicycling surveyed. But that’s okay. A cyclist is a cyclist, and most of us seem to ride for that unique combination of fitness, fun, and stress reduction. An overwhelming majority (79%) of the bike people surveyed this year by Bicycling Magazine said they ride bikes to stay healthy, and 73% that they bike for fun, while 67% ride to reduce stress.

My favorite stat – 3% of cyclists facing a flat tire would ‘call a friend.’ Probably part of the same female minority that wouldn’t give up sex for cycling. My favorite cyclists group – the Surly riders, according to the infographic, they seemed to be those most likely to ride outside in the cold, to drink beer post-ride, and to like tandem rides.

What do you think – could biking be better as a stress reducer than sex for women?

(gabrielcatalano.com no se hace responsable del placer u odio que pueda causarle leer éste artículo. No maten al …ajero, nooo mensajero!!) Gabe Catalano.

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/female-cyclists-say-theyd-rather-give-sex-biking.html


A.K. Streeter
Transportation / Bikes

Bicycling Magazine/Screen capture

In the next issue of Bicycling Magazine (March 2012), 58% of women from a survey of 5,000 cyclists said they would choose cycling over sex if they had to abandon one of these two pleasures for a month.

“The results of our Reader’s Choice poll provide an intriguing glimpse at just how much cyclists love to ride – sometimes even preferring it to sex,” said a press release on the survey.

But then again, 50% of males said they’d also prefer to give up sex for a month rather than riding their bike.

Bicycling’s 2012 “Reader’s Choice” poll is intended to offer a glimpse into the minds of cyclists, covering everything from «motivation to movies, food to fashion, endurance to embarrassment, and of course, how they feel about sex vs. cycling.» But then again, are we pressed to make this strange either/or choice? Probably not very likely.

Other questions on the survey seemed to indicate that female bicyclists would choose to ride with Patrick Dempsey if they could pick a celebrity biking partner; men would ride with Gisele Bunchen. A majority of women preferred that male cyclists shave their legs than leave on their natural hair, and a majority of both sexes also said that their most embarrassing moment when cycling was failing to clip out of their pedals on time.

Bicycling Magazine/Screen capture… Continuar leyendo «Female Cyclists Say They’d Give Up Sex Before Biking ***UPPPS AHH WTF***»

El aprendizaje en las organizaciones hoy

Para muchas empresas el ritmo de cambio se ha acelerado de forma vertiginosa en los últimos años. Cambian las tecnologías, los procesos, los mercados, los modelos de negocio, surgen nuevas profesiones y en ocasiones se encuentran con la necesidad de reclutar perfiles profesionales que no acaban de comprender del todo. En un mundo así una empresa ya no puede permitirse el lujo de pasarse medio año planificando lo que su gente va a aprender en el siguiente ejercicio, porque de un trimestre a otro las necesidades pueden ser muy distintas. Las empresas son sistemas complejos que, a su vez, forman parte de otros sistemas más complejos aun. La interdependencia entre los diferentes componentes de esos sistemas es cada vez mayor y su comportamiento es imposible de predecir si no es desde una perspectiva holística difícil de alcanzar. Aunque, como decía el fallecido Michael Hammer, profesor del MIT, hoy en día «el secreto del éxito no es prever el futuro, sino construir una organización capaz de prosperar en cualquiera de los futuros que no podemos prever». En este sentido, DJ Patil, experto en teoría del caos, argumentaba en una reciente entrevista en Fast Company que el mundo de la empresa se parece a la meteorología. Hay veces que es posible anticipar el tiempo que va a hacer los próximos quince días, otras sólo es posible saber el que hará en los próximos dos, y otras que es difícil conocer lo que sucederá más allá de las siguientes dos horas.

http://www.santigarcia.net
El blog de Santi Garcia

***POST DESTACADO***

Todavía hay muchas empresas para las que hablar de aprendizaje es, sobre todo, hablar de formación. Para estas compañías el aprendizaje es el resultado de las acciones formales que llevan a cabo para cubrir ciertas necesidades de capacitación que detectan en sus empleados a través de procedimientos más o menos estructurados. En esas empresas el aprendizaje suele ser competencia del «negociado» de Formación, habitualmente un apéndice de la Dirección de Recursos Humanos. Formación (con mayúscula) es, de este modo, quien controla y gestiona el aprendizaje en la organización y, junto con los directivos de la compañía, quien decide qué es lo que «toca» aprender ese año. Un planteamiento que, como señala Harold Jarche, puede encajar con los postulados tayloristas de compartimentación del trabajo, especialización, eficiencia y control, que tan buenos resultados dan en entornos lineales, estables y predecibles, pero que presenta carencias notables en un entornoV.U.C.A. (volátil, incierto, complejo y ambiguo) como el que les toca vivir a un número creciente de organizaciones.Para muchas empresas el ritmo de cambio se ha acelerado de forma vertiginosa en los últimos años. Cambian las tecnologías, los procesos, los mercados, los modelos de negocio, surgen nuevas profesiones y en ocasiones se encuentran con la necesidad de reclutar perfiles profesionales que no acaban de comprender del todo. En un mundo así una empresa ya no puede permitirse el lujo de pasarse medio año planificando lo que su gente va a aprender en el siguiente ejercicio, porque de un trimestre a otro las necesidades pueden ser muy distintas. Las empresas son sistemas complejos que, a su vez, forman parte de otros sistemas más complejos aun. La interdependencia entre los diferentes componentes de esos sistemas es cada vez mayor y su comportamiento es imposible de predecir si no es desde una perspectiva holística difícil de alcanzar. Aunque, como decía el fallecido Michael Hammer, profesor del MIT, hoy en día «el secreto del éxito no es prever el futuro, sino construir una organización capaz de prosperar en cualquiera de los futuros que no podemos prever». En este sentido, DJ Patil, experto en teoría del caos, argumentaba en una reciente entrevista en Fast Company que el mundo de la empresa se parece a la meteorología. Hay veces que es posible anticipar el tiempo que va a hacer los próximos quince días, otras sólo es posible saber el que hará en los próximos dos, y otras que es difícil conocer lo que sucederá más allá de las siguientes dos horas.

El caso es que hemos entrado en la era de «las próximas dos horas» y esto exige a las organizaciones fluidez, agilidad, rapidez y adaptabilidad. Es por ello que algunas empresas empiezan a experimentar con fórmulas de trabajo colaborativo, intentan favorecer la diversidad de sus miembros, se abren a su entorno, descentralizan sus procesos de toma de decisiones y asignación de recursos, o incluso fomentan la ocurrencia de «errores inteligentes» o hallazgos casuales. Empiezan también a ser conscientes de que la única ventaja competitiva sostenible en el tiempo se deriva de su capacidad de movilizar la creatividad, la iniciativa y el entusiasmo de las personas con las que trabajan y, en consecuencia, comienzan a preocuparse de cuestiones que antes difícilmente aparecían en la agenda de los dirigentes empresariales, como es la felicidad de las personas de la organización. Sin embargo todavía son una minoría.
Continuar leyendo

The Idea Game helps teams ‘battle’ to produce the best ideas

The need was to be able to handle inexperienced groups without too much facilitation, especially when you have groups of 25 to 50 participants. The use of the idea game was successful and organizations wanted to use it on a larger scale throughout the organization. Based on that input and the experience from playing with over 6,000 people we designed a lower-end version that had even less need for a facilitator and that clients and others could use on their own.

We have so far shipped over 4,000 of The Idea Game, which is this simpler version.

Frey: Why is a game like this important today? How is it better than an ordinary group brainstorming session?

Hagbard: If you have a game you also have a process, a step-by-step process for running your brainstorming session. The concept of a game is well known and people feel safe and encouraged to participate and contribute with their ideas. The ideas you generate are strongly linked to the idea cards that you view for provocation. The cards give payers the ability to “hide” behind the card, blaming the card for their weird ideas. That way we get more ideas and more out of the box ideas on the table.

The game also encourages the group to do parallel thinking, which means that teams not only develop the ideas, they also «battle» them to come to a consensus on the best ones. So the ideas are developed and refined by the whole group, which dramtically increases idea ownership, which in turn eases the implementation of these new ideas.

http://www.innovationtools.com
By Chuck Frey

The Idea Game is a new group brainstorming tool that corporate teams can use to generate fresh ideas and insights. Developed by Swedish creativity consulting firm Realize AB, it provides a variety of creative stimuli using a card deck and game board to generate ideas, and «idea battles» to help identify and improve upon the best ideas.

Realize AB’s core business is conducting creativity and brainstorming workshops, so developing creativity tools and software is a natural extension of this focus. According to its website, since its founding in 1998, Realize AB has led over 340 workshops and trained more than 8,500 people in creative practices. Its list of more than 130 clients includes a Who’s Who of leading European companies, including Volvo, Ericsson, DHL, TUI, AstraZeneca, SCA, Electrolux and IKEA.

To date, the company has produced the brainstorming functionality for the popular mind mapping software program, MindManager and a stand-alone software program based on it called Effective Mind. An iPhone app is to be released next month… Continuar leyendo «The Idea Game helps teams ‘battle’ to produce the best ideas»

To Innovate You Must Live With Uncertainty

If you can’t deal with uncertainty, you end up wanting to jump straight to the last bit – where we have conclusions, decisions and action.

But if you do that, you spend very little time on the first step, where you really explore the range of possible questions and ideas. And you don’t get into the middle bit at all, where you experiment, think, and prototype.

The kicker on these projects is that we have to move through this process twice. First in defining the problem to solve, and then in again in trying to actually solve it. So just when we reach a point of certainty, we’ll be thrown back into uncertainty in the second loop – and this is the real danger area.

Innovation requires uncertainty. Uncertainty is what leads to variation in ideas, and this variety is necessary for finding the best answer to whatever problem you’re trying to solve.

This is why I’ve said that the single most important management skill to develop is a tolerance for ambiguity.

If our students can do that in the course of these projects, then they will be successful.

If you can improve your tolerance for ambiguity, you will be a better innovator too.

This post was written by Tim.
http://timkastelle.org

I’m starting up a couple of live consulting projects with some of our MBA students. Even though we are very early in the projects, they have already reminded me of just how critical it is to develop the ability to live with uncertainty.

This is the fundamental point that Jonathan Fields makes in Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance.

Fields contends that you can only do innovative and creative work by learning to live with, or even embrace uncertainty.

For the artist, entrepreneur, or other creator, the outcome-centric approach to visualization that’s most commonly offered can be an exercise in both futility and frustration. Actually, it’s worse. Because if you are someone who’s capable of creating a highly specific definition of your precise outcome in advance and you follow the straightest line to that outcome and remain utterly committed to that vision, you’ll get there faster. But you’ll also increase the likelihood that the very same blinders that send you on a beeline toward your planned outcome will lead you to completely miss a host of unplanned paths and options that, had you been open to seeing them, would have markedly improved your final creation. You’ll get exactly what you wanted, then realize it’s not what it could have been. Continuar leyendo «To Innovate You Must Live With Uncertainty»

How to reduce innovation risk

Align innovation to strategic goals. Far too often, innovation activities jump the tracks, pursuing interesting ideas that aren’t in line with corporate goals and strategies. This is an especially damaging result: good money and resources spent on poor outcomes. A clear strategic goal and documented scope provides a framework for innovators, increasing their chance of success.
Executives clearly committed to innovation. Rather than propound the need for innovation, executives need to provide the best resources, provide funding and stay engaged in early innovation efforts. Otherwise innovation is viewed as the flavor of the month and slowly withers from a lack of engagement and a dearth of resources.
People who understand what to do. Many innovation teams are simply going through the motions of innovation, pantomiming their way to an acceptable idea. They aren’t trained in innovation tools or techniques, and, more importantly, aren’t open to really big ideas. They haven’t changed their perspectives, still encumbered by the risk profiles of the business. Only when the best people are on innovation teams, have released their thinking anchors and have received training on the best innovation methods and tools can innovation succeed regularly.
Clear insights into customer wants and needs. Far too often innovation teams review existing market research and suggest ideas that extend existing products and services. It’s rare that an innovation team meets a real customer, much less explores new unmet or unarticulated needs. Identifying and validating new needs and creating ideas based on these needs will greatly reduce the risk of innovation.
Doing innovation at speed. Most innovation teams struggle with the culture, which is resistant to innovation, focused on the status quo, stuck in meetings. Most innovation teams lack sufficient resources and pull people on a part-time basis from their day jobs. Most innovation teams have to invent their innovation processes, which delays the work and forces the people around them to question they ability to innovate. The longer an innovation project drags on, the less likely it is to be successful. And the longer a project drags on, the less valuable any needs or insights that were spotted become. Innovators can reduce risk by creating educated teams following defined workflow and working quickly to ascertain needs, generate ideas and validate those ideas in the marketplace. Instead of slow and steady, move fast and steady.

By the way, while we are on the subject, there are several ways of reducing risk that don’t work well:

Reducing the scope of the idea. Many, many ideas start life as interesting and disruptive concepts, and over time are reduced, shrunk and rounded off to become incremental at best. Yes, this reduces the risk but also eliminates much of the differentiation and the reward
Fast follower. Many organizations believe that they can wait for others to innovate, then quickly copy the product or service. The fast follower model works if 1) your development teams are truly fast (which most aren’t) and 2) you understand what the customer values in the product you are copying (many times firms don’t understand the customer value proposition). As product cycles shrink and customers become ever more discerning, fast followers are left with less and less margin. Again, little risk but little reward.

There are many more ways to reduce innovation risk, but we don’t have time or space for them in a blog post. This should be the first order of business for any innovator – trying to define the types and nature of risk that innovation presents, and understanding how to eliminate or reduce risk. It’s strange actually – everything about business is a risk/reward tradeoff, yet in many organizations we’ve lost the ability to balance the two, and seek only opportunities with no risk and little reward.

posted by Jeffrey Phillips
http://innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com

Every day when I come to work I scan my Twitter stream and get insights from hundreds of people who have excellent perspectives on innovation. There are people who write about open innovation. There are people who write about business model innovation. There are people who write about new products, innovations in specific industries and topics like reverse innovation. The diversity of insights and range of topics demonstrates how valuable innovation can be. But while there is great diversity of opportunity, there also remains a great distribution of success and failure, which creates innovation risk. And while there are many types of innovation, one common factor in all innovation efforts is risk.As I’ve written in Relentless Innovation, innovation is fraught with risk. There is risk that an innovator won’t identify important needs. Risks that innovation teams disrupt the regular operations of a business. Risks that even a promising idea isn’t accepted by the customerswhose need it was meant to address. Instead of the scarlet «A» from Hawthorne’s novel, every innovator and every innovative idea wears the black «R» for risk. And in the modern business model, risk is to be avoided at all costs.Risk introduces uncertainty, costs, variability and unpredictability. These factors run in opposition to business as usual – the work most firms have done to streamline operations, create predictable short term results, eliminate unnecessary costs and reduce or eliminate variability. Innovation introduces the snake of risk back into the garden of efficient, effective business operations. And yes, that snake whispers sweetly to some executives about the mythical risk/reward tradeoffs.

Clearly, if our highly efficient, productive business models are to become more innovative, they need to believe that innovation risk can be reduced or controlled. Either that or the operating models must become far more comfortable with risk and its costs and variances. I suspect the latter requires far more cultural change than many firms will sustain. If the tradeoff is trying to reduce innovation risk or reduce the resistance of the culture to risk, I think the former is the place to start.

How does a firm reduce or eliminate innovation risk? I think there are at least five actions that can dramatically reduce innovation risk. Note that I didn’t say eliminate risk. I doubt that is possible, but I do believe innovation risk can be dramatically reduced through the following actions… Continuar leyendo «How to reduce innovation risk»

Cómo crear una marca desde cero y lo que hay que tener en cuenta antes de empezar

Público objetivo: a quien te diriges. Si tu mercado es la bebida, tu nicho puede ser el ecológico. No tiene sentido competir con Leche Pascual o Coca Cola. Te podrías dirigir a madres que buscan una nutrición sana para sus bebés.

Solución de problema: ofreces una bebida para aquellas madres que quieren parar con la lactancia a partir de los 6 meses. Tu producto contiene mucho calcio por lo que es un buen complemento para la leche de bote que se suele dar ahora.

Valores de la marca: la producción de tu bebida es 100% ecológica y controlada. Tienes el certificado “Bio” oficial de la Unión Europea. Pagas precios justos a tus proveedores regionales por lo que tu producto (aparte de la calidad) es un poco más caro que otras alternativas existentes del mercado.

Definición, comunicación, interpretación por parte de los usuarios en Internet son tres fases diferentes en el proceso de creación de marca. Sobre todo en el paso tres tienes quecomprobar que tu comunicación funciona tal como lo habías inicialmente previsto.

Via...

por Carlos Bravo

Últimamente me contactan personas que están creando su propia start-up para hacer campañas de publicidad online. Hasta aquí todo normal. Lo extraño es que de repente me piden propuestas para hacer acciones de branding con presupuestos razonables. Cuando empezamos hace 3 años los emprendedores que lanzaban su propia empresa pedían campañas a resultados que pagaban únicamente a resultados. Lo “único” que había que hacer es rellenar un formulario con 15 campos para obtener un “lead” valido y recibir a cambio 0,75€.

Cómo crear una marca desde cero

No sé si es porque los emprendedores que me contactan ahora leen este blog o porque tengo la suerte de tratar con personas que recuerdan muy bien lo que han aprendido en los libros sobre marketing: para vender más una marca es indispensable.

¿Qué hay que tener en cuenta antes de crear una marca?

Crear una marca no es una tarea fácil pero si te gusta el marketing un reto muy emocionante. Requiere una inversión importante tanto de recursos financieros como de tiempo. Es importante no cometer errores al principio para darse cuenta a mitad de camino que hay que realizar cambios radicales y empezar otra vez desde cero. Existen 7 pautas básicas cuando creas tu marca empresarial:

1. Dominio del nombre elegido disponible en “.com” y “.es”.

2. No hay marcas registradas que puedan crear conflictos en el futuro.

3. Pensar en un uso internacional evitando creaciones que puedan crear falsas interpretaciones en países extranjeros (p.ej. “Pajero”).

4. Nombre fácil de recordar y deletrear.

5. Diferenciación de la competencia para evitar confusiones.

6. Crea una historia y significado del nombre.

7. Simplicidad del diseño de tú logo para que se pueda reconocer desde lejos y en folletos cuando está mezclado con otros logos.

¿Qué hay que tener en cuenta desde el punto de vista marketing para crear una marca?… Continuar leyendo «Cómo crear una marca desde cero y lo que hay que tener en cuenta antes de empezar»

Smartphones replace newspapers as choice of reading material… for men in the toilet

The rise of the ‘boggers’: Many people now admit to using their phones in the toilet to text, email, surf the web… and even take calls

And while TV’s Royle Family head of household Jim, played by Ricky Tomlinson, wouldn’t know a loofah from a loaf of bread, the UK’s men are surprisingly well-groomed and au fait with bathroom accessories.

The new survey, carried out by shampoo brand Head & Shoulders, found that men spend longer in the bathroom than women – 19 minutes compared to 18 minutes on a typical week day.

By LAURA MANNERING | http://digg.com/newsbar

Taking the newspaper to the toilet has long been a proud male preserve.

But now the tech age has affected even this most established of masculine habits.

Instead, Jim Royle types are swapping their tabloids and broadsheets for a smartphone.

New research shows that men are far more likely to be scrolling through their phone screens than browsing the paper.

Now one in two men regularly takes their mobile phone into the toilet to surf the internet, compared to just a third who take a newspaper.

The rise of the ‘boggers’: Many people now admit to using their phones in the toilet to text, email, surf the web… and even take calls

The new survey, carried out by shampoo brand Head & Shoulders, found that men spend longer in the bathroom than women – 19 minutes compared to 18 minutes on a typical week day.

More than twice as many men as women take two or more showers a day – 19 per cent compared to nine per cent – and men are much more likely than women to regard a loofah and nail scissors as a bathroom essentials… Continuar leyendo «Smartphones replace newspapers as choice of reading material… for men in the toilet»