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The great innovation debate | economist.com

Growth

Fears that innovation is slowing are exaggerated, but governments need to help it along

WITH the pace of technological change making heads spin, we tend to think of our age as the most innovative ever. We have smartphones and supercomputers, big data and nanotechnologies, gene therapy and stem-cell transplants. Governments, universities and firms together spend around $1.4 trillion a year on R&D, more than ever before.

Yet nobody recently has come up with an invention half as useful as that depicted on our cover. With its clean lines and intuitive user interface, the humble loo transformed the lives of billions of people. And it wasn’t just modern sanitation that sprang from late-19th and early-20th-century brains: they produced cars, planes, the telephone, radio and antibiotics.

Modern science has failed to make anything like the same impact, and this is why a growing band of thinkers claim that the pace of innovation has slowed (see article). Interestingly, the gloomsters include not just academics such as Robert Gordon, the American economist who offered the toilet test of uninventiveness, but also entrepreneurs such as Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist behind Facebook.

If the pessimists are right, the implications are huge. Economies can generate growth by adding more stuff: more workers, investment and education. But sustained increases in output per person, which are necessary to raise incomes and welfare, entail using the stuff we already have in better ways—innovating, in other words. If the rate at which we innovate, and spread that innovation, slows down, so too, other things being equal, will our growth rate.

Doom, gloom and productivity figures >>> Continuar leyendo «The great innovation debate | economist.com»

Retaining Great Employees: It’s Not About the Money

Written by Mansur Hasib

As IT managers and leaders, it is our job to foster the professional growth of everyone who works on our team. If we do not do this we are failing as leaders.

I have had many discussions on the topic of training with both employees and managers. Many IT managers are afraid that certifications will make their employees more marketable and allow them to find better opportunities. Employees are frustrated that their managers do not allow them to grow and so eventually they leave to find better opportunities to learn and to grow professionally.

When I was negotiating my budget as a CIO, I asked for and received $2,000 per year for every employee that could only be used for travel or training. It required the consultation of supervisors and could be used for a conference or even a certification. Since some training is more expensive, employees were allowed to trade and give someone their training dollars for one year so they could get it back from the recipient in a subsequent year. At times I was able to recruit someone simply because I had this guaranteed annual training benefit.

Continuar leyendo «Retaining Great Employees: It’s Not About the Money»

43% of all LinkedIn users are in the US, IBM is the company with the most followers

In almost all countries, there are more men registered on LinkedIn than women, with the exception of a few countries, mostly in Asia and Eastern Europe, including China, the Philippines, Romania, Finland, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Serbia and Jamaica, where female users outnumber their male counterparts, if even by a little.

We recently took a look at LinkedIn’s growth in Indonesia, where it now has over 1 million registered users, and is growing at a rate faster than Facebook. According to LinkedIn itself, we can expect far more insights into the professional world through the social network’s data in the coming months.

 by NANCY MESSIEH | http://thenextweb.com/

Zoomsphere, a site which provides statistics on major social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Google+, has just revealed some interesting information and statistics on LinkedIn users.

It’s not surprising to find that the US has the most registered users on LinkedIn, with well over 61 million to its name. India comes in a distant second with over 14 million registered users. The US and India are joined in the top 10 by the UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and Spain.

Far more interesting, in the revealed statistics, is which companies have the most followers on the professional social media site. In the US, IBM comes in at the top of the list with over 580,000 followers.

In comparison, IBM only has just over 13,000 followers on its main Twitter account and 93,000 fans on Facebook. It is worth mentioning that the number of IBM employees on LinkedIn currently sits at over 280,000, Next in line on LinkedIn, in order of follower count are HP, Microsoft, Google and Oracle. Apple comes in at 7th place with only 251,000 followers.

Clearly, just as the nature of interactions on each social network differs, users follow a company on Twitter or Facebook for vastly different reasons than following a company on LinkedIn.

The most followed company does change by region, with Unilever topping the list in the UK, Research in Motion in Canada, Huawei in China, and Ferrari in Italy.

Despite the fact that the majority of the most followed companies are IT-related, the most common industry on LinkedIn is Higher Education, followed by Information Technology and Services, with Financial Services coming in third.

More than half of the companies list on LinkedIn have over 10,000 employees, with the number of companies decreasing as the number of employees decrease.

The most common age group on LinkedIn is, unsurprisingly, 35-44, followed closely by the 25-34 age group. There are more 18-24 year olds on LinkedIn than there are professionals over the age of 55.

Worldwide, LinkedIn has over 143 million registered users, 43% of which are in the US.

Innovation and Porter’s Value Chain

First, let’s remind ourselves of the Value Chain Model. Portner’s insight was to identify all the primary functions of a business and all the support functions of a business and seek to understand what the firm did exceptionally well, and what it must do at least moderately well. While other strategists had thought and written about the linkages between internal operations, Porter was one of the first to create the concept of the Value Chain. Today we often think of the value chain as extending “upstream” to suppliers and “downstream” to distribution channels and even to customers or consumers. The tool is a powerful metaphor when thinking about where and how a firm adds value.

Primary activities are the ones we usually think of as distinct operations or departments and are the “direct” costs in a business – inbound and outbound logistics, “operations” which could be manufacturing or development, marketing and sales, and service. Support activities are those that we traditionally think of as “overhead” – Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, and what Porter called Firm Infrastructure – legal, financial, management and so forth.

The model, once again, does not explicitly call out innovation, and in this breakdown of the organization it is hard to decide where and how innovation should add value. Clearly innovation can play a role in any of the primary functions. Innovation can improve the way we make things, or the way we distribute products and services, or the customer support and service we offer. Conversely, innovation could be considered a “supporting” capability that improves all functions from an enabling perspective. It’s possible that innovation exists in both locations. However, there are two other items to consider when thinking about innovation and the Value Chain analysis.

Submitted by Blogging Innovation |by Jeffrey Phillips
http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com

Innovation and Porter's Value Chain I’m reviewing the relationship between a number of tried and true strategic management models and innovation, to see if those models and concepts hold up under the increasing importance of innovation. A few days ago I reviewed Porter’s Five Forces model and concluded that while Porter didn’t explicitly call out innovation, it was clear that the Five Forces model embraced innovation. Today, we’ll look quickly at another Porter model – the Value Chain Analysis – and investigate how it holds up innovation.

In the 1980s, Michael Porter wrote a number of books about corporate strategy that became the basis for much of the education of MBAs, at least where strategy was concerned. Few MBAs in the 80s and 90s failed to study Porter’s Five Forces or Value Chain Analysis. Since many of those MBAs minted in that period are now in leadership positions in their firms, it behooves us to understand the models they carry around with them, and whether or not those models are open and extensible where innovation is concerned, or whether they ignore or resist innovation. Continuar leyendo «Innovation and Porter’s Value Chain»

Innovation and Porter’s Value Chain

First, let’s remind ourselves of the Value Chain Model. Portner’s insight was to identify all the primary functions of a business and all the support functions of a business and seek to understand what the firm did exceptionally well, and what it must do at least moderately well. While other strategists had thought and written about the linkages between internal operations, Porter was one of the first to create the concept of the Value Chain. Today we often think of the value chain as extending «upstream» to suppliers and «downstream» to distribution channels and even to customers or consumers. The tool is a powerful metaphor when thinking about where and how a firm adds value.

Primary activities are the ones we usually think of as distinct operations or departments and are the «direct» costs in a business – inbound and outbound logistics, «operations» which could be manufacturing or development, marketing and sales, and service. Support activities are those that we traditionally think of as «overhead» – Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, and what Porter called Firm Infrastructure – legal, financial, management and so forth.

by Jeffrey Phillips

I’m reviewing the relationship between a number of tried and true strategic management models and innovation, to see if those models and concepts hold up under the increasing importance of innovation. A few days ago I reviewed Porter’s Five Forces model and concluded that while Porter didn’t explicitly call out innovation, it was clear that the Five Forces model embraced innovation. Today, we’ll look quickly at another Porter model – the Value Chain Analysis – and investigate how it holds up innovation.

In the 1980s, Michael Porter wrote a number of books about corporate strategy that became the basis for much of the education of MBAs, at least where strategy was concerned. Few MBAs in the 80s and 90s failed to study Porter’s Five Forces or Value Chain Analysis. Since many of those MBAs minted in that period are now in leadership positions in their firms, it behooves us to understand the models they carry around with them, and whether or not those models are open and extensible where innovation is concerned, or whether they ignore or resist innovation. Continuar leyendo «Innovation and Porter’s Value Chain»

How to Write an Effective About Me Page

The «About Me» page is what many potential clients look at either right away, or at least the second thing they look at when viewing a freelance portfolio. As a solo worker, providing potential clients with information on yourself and your work is essential, because nobody wants to hire just anyone off the street. It is reasonable that a bit of research on the individual should be done, and an about page can make or break relationships with leads. As a result, an about page can make or break an entire freelancing business.

How to Write an Effective About Me Page

There are plenty of posts floating around the web for how to write excellent about pages. However, some of these articles fail to address that different personal presentations may be required for different types of websites. An about page for a blog would be different for a service-related website, and an about page for a company would be different than that of a freelance worker.

In this article we’ll look at what presentation is ideal for a freelance professional, and that of a web designer specifically. Of course, graphic designers, web developers, and those in similar fields can take from these tips as well. Continuar leyendo «How to Write an Effective About Me Page»

Does Your Company Suffer from Process Attention Deficit Disorder?

As the 3M and Allied Signal stories demonstrate, a leader can launch a process program and drive significant benefits. But executives can change or their attention can shift. There are always many competitors for an executive’s attention. Only when process improvement is on the top management agenda can a company make the often large investments in process redesign, information technology, training and education that are required. Senior executive knowledge of his or her company’s strategy is a key driver of the way that work should be designed or redesigned. Only senior management can resolve turf issues between departments and functions — issues which can torpedo cross-functional process improvement. Redesigning work from a customer’s point-of-view and the ongoing pursuit of operational excellence implies changes not only in IT and processes, but also in organization, attitudes, and behaviors. The biggest execution challenge is shifting the mindsets of people within the organization. Therefore, any major process improvement program must have the active engagement of the top team.

by Brad Power

Does your organization suffer from subpar operational performance? Have your costs, response times, or reliability slipped relative to competitors or versus customer expectations?

Maybe your organization has Process Attention Deficit Disorder. If it has, symptoms will likely show up in three areas: incentives, behaviors, and organization. Continuar leyendo «Does Your Company Suffer from Process Attention Deficit Disorder?»

Brand Icons ‘Guest Star’ in Xerox Campaign

The ads are meant to show how Xerox enables each of these businesses to succeed, illustrated by the various tasks each of the brand mascots juggles. A print ad featuring Mr. Clean, for instance, has him wiping a table while attempting to copy a pile of documents. The copy reads: “We focus on digitizing P&G’s documents worldwide. So they don’t have to.»

So what’s the underlying message? “When you’ve got Xerox working behind the scenes, you have the freedom to focus on your core and real business,” Carone said.

Tony Granger, global chief creative officer at WPP-owned Y&R, said the mascots function as a sort of customer testimonial, albeit with a unique spin. “At the end of the day, Xerox is about helping customers be successful, and using their customers’ brand icons was a fun way of saying that,” he said.

– Elaine Wong
Xerox is prepping a new campaign, via Y&R, New York, as part of an effort to position itself as more than just a printer and copier maker. The effort spans TV, print, out-of-home and digital, and is one of the largest brand initiatives in decades for Xerox.

The move follows the company’s acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services in February, making it a bigger player in the information technology space. Valued at $6 billion, the deal nearly tripled Xerox’s services business, said chief marketing officer Christa Carone.

Dubbed “Ready for real business,” the campaign launches next Tuesday. Notable in the ads is Xerox’s use of well known brand mascots: Procter & Gamble’s Mr. Clean, Target’s Bullseye dog and the Marriott Hotels & Resorts’ bellman, to name a few. All of the icons featured in the ads are current Xerox clients, Carone said.
Continuar leyendo «Brand Icons ‘Guest Star’ in Xerox Campaign»

US Navy outlines cyber-security strategy

Navy Chief Information Officer Robert Carey has outlined several possible approaches to improving cyber-security within the sea branch of the US armed forces.

According to Carey, industry, academia, military, civilians and contractors must work as a team towards a «singular» purpose: to operate and defend the Department’s networks against attack, while enabling access to information for those who require it.

«Defenders [must be] trained as attackers. While I know this is done in small pockets, it has yet to become doctrine throughout the Department,» he explained in an official blog post.

US Navy outlines cyber-security strategy»We need to ensure that our network defenders possess the same skills and knowledge as our attackers. Our goal should be to break down the barriers between the defenders and the red teams. After all, we are all on the same team.»

However, Carey acknowledged that a multi-pronged approach was necessary – as «no one tool» was capable of «carrying» the day.

«[Indeed], different proprietary tools produce non-interoperable solutions, which produce exploitable gaps in our defenses.

«[As such], the Department’s tools must be smartly integrated into a defensive suite, using automation where appropriate so that we can, in fact, defend at Internet speeds.»

Aharon Etengoff

Navy Chief Information Officer Robert Carey has outlined several possible approaches to improving cyber-security within the sea branch of the US armed forces.

«Defenders [must be] trained as attackers. While I know this is done in small pockets, it has yet to become doctrine throughout the Department,» he explained in an official blog post.

US Navy outlines cyber-security strategy «We need to ensure that our network defenders possess the same skills and knowledge as our attackers. Our goal should be to break down the barriers between the defenders and the red teams. After all, we are all on the same team.»

However, Carey acknowledged that a multi-pronged approach was necessary – as «no one tool» was capable of «carrying» the day.

«[Indeed], different proprietary tools produce non-interoperable solutions, which produce exploitable gaps in our defenses.

«[As such], the Department’s tools must be smartly integrated into a defensive suite, using automation where appropriate so that we can, in fact, defend at Internet speeds.» Continuar leyendo «US Navy outlines cyber-security strategy»

The 3 Tensions of Internal IT Innovation

by Jonathan Reichental | IT Innovations, PwC

Internal IT innovation is all about converting ideas, those specifically supported by new technologies, into business value. These innovations often focus on needs such as improved internal processes or alternative and creative ways to support market activities. Four years into leading PwC’s IT innovation efforts, I’ve certainly observed enough of what works and what creates challenge to write a book on the subject. For this blog posting I’m going to briefly discuss an element of what I’ve experienced. It’s what I will call the 3 tensions of internal IT innovation.

by Jonathan Reichental | IT Innovations, PwC

Internal IT innovation is all about converting ideas, those specifically supported by new technologies, into business value. These innovations often focus on needs such as improved internal processes or alternative and creative ways to support market activities. Four years into leading PwC’s IT innovation efforts, I’ve certainly observed enough of what works and what creates challenge to write a book on the subject. For this blog posting I’m going to briefly discuss an element of what I’ve experienced. It’s what I will call the 3 tensions of internal IT innovation. Continuar leyendo «The 3 Tensions of Internal IT Innovation»

In Defense of The Jack of All Trades

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” Robert A. Heinlein

It seems that the topic of specialization has come into focus yet again in the web world and with it, the people who say being a “jack of all trades” is a useless thing to strive for.

A lot of web professionals are pushing newcomers to specialize in a single area to make themselves more marketable and employable. Without a doubt, specialists will always be needed in any industry. But is it really so bad to be a web generalist?

Being considered a “jack of all trades” has always had a negative connotation. It implies that you dabble in bits of everything, but never achieve the expertise needed to be good at any one pursuit.

Maybe a successful generalist should instead be considered a “Renaissance man” (or woman).

Few would argue that DaVinci should have stuck to one subject.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” Robert A. Heinlein

It seems that the topic of specialization has come into focus yet again in the web world and with it, the people who say being a “jack of all trades” is a useless thing to strive for.

Being considered a “jack of all trades” has always had a negative connotation. It implies that you dabble in bits of everything, but never achieve the expertise needed to be good at any one pursuit.

Maybe a successful generalist should instead be considered a “Renaissance man” (or woman).

Few would argue that DaVinci should have stuck to one subject. Continuar leyendo «In Defense of The Jack of All Trades»

The Long-Term Jobless: Left Behind

Workers in technology, telecom, and finance are at greatest risk because skills in the fast-changing industries can quickly become obsolete

By Timothy R. Homan and Zachary Tracer

To understand the potential consequences of long-term unemployment, consider the job prospects of Sheldon Fisher and Douglas Lawson. In January, Fisher, 53, was dismissed from a software company in Washington State. Lawson, 34, lost his job in October with a builder in South Carolina. Now the technology industry is bouncing back while construction remains in the dumps, and Washington’s jobless rate is 8.9 percent, vs. South Carolina’s 10.7 percent. Still, Lawson’s prospects may be better than Fisher’s.

That’s because being jobless for a long time hurts workers in some industries far more than in others. The technology sector is known for such rapid change that those out of work for even a few months can find themselves with out-of-date skills. Construction skills are far less likely to grow stale. «I never forget what I know. … I’m not worried about doing the work once I get it,» says Lawson, who has applied for about 30 jobs so far. Fisher, by contrast, is considering leaving information technology altogether, though he says he’s not sure what else he’s qualified to do. After applying for about 100 jobs in his first half-year out of work, Fisher began to worry that employers might think he was getting rusty. «Then everything after six months just makes it worse,» he says.

The average duration of unemployment in the U.S. jumped to a record 35.2 weeks in June, up from 16.5 weeks when the recession began in December 2007, according to the Labor Dept. Today, almost half of unemployed Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks or more (the official definition of long-term unemployment), vs. 30 percent in June 2009.
Perishable Skills

Industries with highly perishable skill sets include health-care technology, telecommunications, and finance, where regulations have changed dramatically in the past year. The toughest, though, may be information technology. Companies in that sector have cut payrolls for 32 of the last 33 months, through June, for a cumulative loss of some 312,000 jobs, or about 10 percent. In technology, «if you’ve been out of work for a year or two, you’re probably somewhat outdated,» says Shami Khorana, president of HCL America, the U.S. arm of New Delhi-based HCL Technologies, which employs about 5,000 workers in the U.S. He plans to hire at least an additional 600 people as the economy improves and anticipates retraining some candidates with obsolete skills.

Unemployed workers in construction, retail, low-level health-care jobs, and teaching are more likely to be attractive to employers once hiring picks up because such jobs don’t change as quickly, experts say. «You don’t get the sense that residential construction has changed that much in the past decade,» says Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and the Urban Institute in Washington. The skills needed to work at a grocery or clothing store—running the cash register, for instance—are «rudimentary,» he says.

Workers in technology, telecom, and finance are at greatest risk because skills in the fast-changing industries can quickly become obsolete

By Timothy R. Homan and Zachary Tracer

Perishable Skills

Project-Based Learning: How Students Learn Teamwork, Critical Thinking And Communication Skills

What is project-based learning? PBL is a new learning approach which places greater emphasis on targeting the learning of complex experiences, geared to a specific goal or objective, in place of the traditional academic approach strongly focusing on rote memorization of multiple information items alienated from their practical, real-world uses. The objective is the one of equipping young generations with the mental tools needed to face the complex, fast-changing nature of the information-based economy they are preparing themselves for.

project_based_learning_student_laptop_23602383_size350.jpg
Photo credit: Clipart

The big problem is that the present educational paradigm is simply inadequate when it comes to providing our young kids with the challenges, methods, exercises and approaches that can help them use their intellect in critical ways, that can help them analyze and evaluate information, and that trains them to become excellent listeners and communicators.

Did school ever teach you how you can verify, question or even challenge any source of information? Or how you should best organize your work when working in a collaborative team? Or how to present information in effective ways so that complex ideas can be easily communicated to others? I bet the answers to all these is a systematic «no«.

In today’s traditional classrooms, students typically work on simple assignments that emphasize short-term content memorization; they work alone, write for the teacher alone, and rarely make presentations. They are trained day-in and day-out to serve this one-to-one relationship with their teacher(s) which is hardly representative of the demands and challenges that they will have to face in real-life.

Instead, by using this so-called «project-based learning approach«, students are guided to work on long-term challenges that involve real-life problems. This helps students see the complexity and interdisciplinary aspects of any job or activity in a more realistic fashion, helping them prepare more effectively for the real challenges ahead.

In this process, students are also motivated to learn how to use new technologies to support such assignments. Technology and the internet can in fact greatly help them do better research, analysis, and evaluation of alternative solutions, communicate and present more effectively their ideas and projects to others and learn how to collaborate and work with a distributed team.

In project-based learning students are finally given the opportunity to go through an educational approach which allows them to transcend the limiting nature of the one-to-one teacher-student relationships in favor of mastering how to collaborate and arrive at results efficiently while working with others. And at the same time the classical teacher role itself needs, under this perspective, to transform itself into the one of a facilitator, a guide.

In this fascinating report, Bob Pearlman, illustrates effectively the key traits and characteristics that make project-based learning so different from any traditional school learning curriculum.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Students Thrive On Cooperation and Problem Solving

by Bob Pearlman

Why Learning and Schooling Must Be Totally Transformed

project_based_learning_schooling_transformed_kid_23141080_size255.jpg

Let’s assume the No Child Left Behind Act works fine and that by 2014 every student meets the targeted standards and passes his or her state’s exit exam.

Will those students be successful as citizens and workers in the twenty-first century? Not a chance.

Let’s further assume that each state’s governor gets the one-on-one computer bug and equips all of each state’s students with top-flight portable PCs. Will these students now be successful as citizens and workers in the twenty-first century?

Again, not a chance.

No matter how sophisticated the tools we put in classrooms, the curriculum designed to educate students to meet the new standards is sorely inadequate to help them after they leave school.

In short, learning – and schooling – must be totally transformed.

«Today’s graduates need to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, and effective communicators who are proficient in both core subjects and new, twenty-first-century content and skills,» according to Results that Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform, a report issued in March by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

These include:

Learning and thinking skills,
information and communications-technology literacy skills, and
life skills.

Students of today enter an increasingly globalized world in which technology plays a vital role. They must be good communicators, as well as great collaborators.

The new work environment requires responsibility and self-management, as well as interpersonal and project-management skills that demand teamwork and leadership.

http://www.masternewmedia.org/project-based-learning-how-students-learn-teamwork-critical-thinking-and-communication-skills/

La crisis se ceba con las creativas

De los 1.300 millones de euros de 2008 a los 731 millones registrados el pasado año. La actividad de nuevo negocio de las agencias creativas cayó casi la mitad durante el pasado ejercicio, según nbScore de Grupo Consultores.

De todas ellas, las menos perjudicadas han sido las agencias independientes al obtener el 26,2% del negocio, por delante de los grupos internacionales.
De las conclusiones del análisis, Grupo Consultores se queda con las numerosas adjudicaciones de proyectos y campañas específicas que se produjeron el pasado ejercicio, así como con la elevada concurrencia de agencias a cada concurso. Una situación que, según la consultora, coincide con la que se ha producido en otros mercados internacionales. De todos ellos, destacan los casos de China y Japón donde un 43% y un 50%, respectivamente, del nuevo negocio adjudicado a agencias creativas procede de proyectos.

Por su parte, la actividad de nuevo negocio del año 2009 se ha mantenido prácticamente estable en el área de medios, con un volumen de nuevo negocio de 1.423 Millones de euros, lo que represente únicamente un 3% menos que en 2008. Continuar leyendo «La crisis se ceba con las creativas»