Ignore blogs at your brand's peril
Since Le Monde (see it here), Fortune and BusinessWeek ran cover stories on Blogs and business (read BusinessWeek's here), it seems that a lot of column inches have been expended on debating whether blogging is just a fad or the "next big thing". I think its the...
Imagine everything worked like this….luverleee
Last week I got an e-mail from one of the tech sites stating that FireFox (the browser you should be using by now) had a security flaw. No kidding on my next download, there was another mail from the same tech site, saying FireFox had released a patch, and then my...
Who you are more important than what you sell
It is our contention that the emerging era (we call it the "connection economy") is forcing companies to make a massive shift from "what" they sell to "how" they sell and "who" they are as the primary competitve advantages. This means that companies must take public...
What makes one African?
In this weeks Sunday Times (South Africa) on page 4 in the main section in the bottom right corner is a small piece with the title, 'Party debates what to do about race'. In summary the question being asked by the ANC is this, in a post-apartheid South Africa, does...
Spam Filter – next addition to your Mobile Phone
A while ago one of our Blogs featured a thought on whether Mobile Phones would get more complex or more simple? What can possibly be added, or what should rather be taken away? That debate aside, it's time we had a mechanism that allowed us to filter out Spam. If sms...
Good to Great
Good to Great and its predecessor, Built to Last are two of the best selling business books of all time. Built to Last is, in my opinion, a seriously dodgy book that purports to give timeless advice for building enduring companies, by analysing the antics of seriously...
The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence
I have been a fan of Dan Tapscott for years. He was one of the first authors to fully grasp the implications of the Internet technology, and has been writing about its potential and impact since the early 1990s. I still think his book on how it will impact young...
Bring your car in one day earlier and we’ll charge you more than double…
Me: "Hi, this is Jean Cooper speaking. I just want to point out a small administrative error: I hired a car from you at R88 per day, but you charged me R235 a day." Car rental company: "No, sir, it is not an admin error. You were supposed to hire the car for 6 days,...
The Connection Economy
The Open Magazine (a weekly e-zine for Linux and Open Source computing), recently ran an article entitled "The Connection Economy" by by Geoff Cohen, Senior Consultant, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation (read it here). It's a nice simple, and...
A Trip to Ikea could change your marriage (no really)
The Independent (UK) on Sunday, 15 May, (read it here - premium content) reports that Ikea is dominating a market you wouldn't expect. They have had a wedding in a (Canadian) store, their famous in-house branded meatballs have become legendary and their restuarants...
How is this adding value to other people?
A number of things coalesced for me this evening - so I can't help myself- I should have been in bed twenty minutes ago. I got home a few hours ago, after a great presentation to about 250 parents at a school - my mind was buzzing, and as part of the relaxation...
Leaders, blogging and where to start
You're a leader? Check. You want to connect internally and externally with your network? Check. You don't feel the traditional channels are working as well as they could? Check. You've heard of blogging, but it sounds scary/tough/like some school kid's play thing?...
Willingness to learn promotes organisational change
Here is an interesting extract (with some random commentary by me) from an address by Dr Goran Carstedt (2002), a former senior executive at Volvo and IKEA (See original here). ORGANISATIONAL learning (OL) is the process of identification and correction of errors in...
remember ME
If you're looking for trends, here's one you can't afford to ignore. 'remember ME' is the cry of todays younger generations (It is most often used by webpage designers as a checkbox when entering your details on their site - it means you don't have to enter them again...
Guess our collective ages and sit with us in the cockpit for the landing
Yesterday I flew down to Cape Town. I fly on a variety of airlines. It depends on time and price. These are my variables and I do all my own bookings online. The delight about yesterday's trip was the attitude and friendly manner of the team. We are all tired of the...
Deciding on how to decide who is talented
I met yesterday with a journalist doing a feature on talent management. Having spent over an hour talking about what TomorrowToday.biz does, I was unsatisfied with my answer to one of her questions. She asked, "How can you know if someone is talented or not?" My...
Death of the sms (or…an upside to the Tyranny of Blackberry)
When will it stop? When will we stop inventing things that allow us to be in greater contact with more people so that we can do more, be more productive? I thought the whole purpose of inventing technology to do our work for us is that we'd have more leisure time? I...
60 years on, and the debt is nearly paid off
Everyone thinks that it was a wonderful gift to Europe that America entered World War II. And, yes, it was. It was a much needed boost at a dim time for the Allies. Of course, the US had already been supplying the Allies with arms and materials for the duration of the...
So just how valuable are these brands really?
So, South Africa's most valuable brand list has been published for 2005, and the top 5 are made up of 3 banks and 2 mobile phone network companies. (Click here for the article) Value is based on future earnings discounted back to a net present value. Here's the...
How many more cards can I carry in my wallet?
I was out at a meeting yesterday and one of my collegues remarked that I am SUCH a Baby Boomer due to the number of cards in my wallet. Is this a baby boomer tendancy or not? I think my 25 year old son has more credit cards than I will ever own? Most of the cards are...