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Boards of directors: less oversight, more foresight?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:13:00 -0800

With the revelation of each new failure caused by "strategic short-sightedness," as illustrated by the recent Kodak, HP, RIM and Blockbuster failures, companies must rethink their governance systems and in particular the role of the board of directors.

This article is a translation of my original article, published here in the Huffington Post in France on February 15, 2012.

Indeed, for the last ten years, most of the reform initiatives of companies' governance systems have focused on reinforcing their oversight mechanisms: setting up audit and risk committees and seeking board members with extensive financial backgrounds or strong operational experience. In doing this, we wrongly assume that focusing on the past is the best way to prepare the future of our companies.

But what emerges from these crises -- missed technological breakthroughs, risks perceived too late, bifurcation of the business model -- is the striking need for boards of directors to be more involved in all phases of the company's strategy: in its design, in supporting its implementation, and in its supervision. Furthermore, many companies and entrepreneurs realize that their board is often the last safeguard against strategic blindspots.

Strategic blindspots can include risks that the company has not seen or didn't know how to integrate into its decision-making process, as well as opportunities missed by the company. These can be a new technology, a sudden change in the preferences of consumers, or a competitor who forces an industry conversion. For example, Claire Gaymard, the president of GE in France, during a symposium this month, rightly mentioned that it was ironic that in 2008, while all corporate executives were looking to emerging countries as the main threat, the most significant crisis affecting the corporate world started in Wall Street, the heart of capitalism, where people are supposed to be the most educated and informed. And in terms of missed opportunities, by redefining its market as "well-being," Nestle now encroaches on the territory of its neighbors, the pharmaceutical companies who failed to see this coming.

Blindspots are due to three main factors. First the competitive blindspots, when the industry has been defined in a way that is too limiting or when a company systematically underestimates competitors. Second, historical bias: a reference framework of managers and the company leaders that is too homogeneous (big telecommunication companies are now just waking up to the potentials of cloud, while this week, Microsoft and Google both announced their massive entry into this segment). Historical bias is also seen when companies underestimate future trends based on being overly-wedded to the past or when they are restrained by ccorporate taboos that are irrationally entrenched in their historic roots. And lastly, blindspots come from cognitive errors: poor thinking and maintaining illogical assumptions that are challenged (who said that banks were the only ones that could lend or transfer payments between individuals?)

Potential solutions are slowly emerging

As long as boards of directors remain homogeneous, they will, by definition, be biased. One of the solutions is to force diversity among board members in order to bring in the external expertise necessary for the future of the company. This diversity might be geographical, such as including on the board an independent board member who, for example, knows China well. Diversity might also be linked to bringing in new skills (such as including a board member who understands the issues related to social media) or even match more closely the segmentation of the customers. Facebook, for example, is currently in the middle of turmoil: while 58% of its users are women, no woman sits on its board of directors.

The debate on the age of board members also still remains widely ignored: while some companies took the plunge (in 2011, in the United States, more than 100 people under 30 joined the boards of directors of public companies), some nominations of younger directors produced an outcry, the most visible one being that of Chelsea Clinton who, last September, joined the board of Diller IAC, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The boards' structure must also evolve. Last month, Georges Colony, the CEO of Forrester advised attendees at Davos to set up a technological committee in each board of directors in order to prepare for an eventual technology disruption. Many companies, from Carrefour in France, to Telefonica en Spain, to Unicredit in Italy and Arcelor Mittal in Belgium, have set up strategic committees aimed at allowing their board to be more involved in strategic thinking. Others, such as Air France, dismantled their strategic committee in 2009. Ironically, this company is one of those that made the headlines in a recent analysis of potential future bankruptcies.

Strategic committee or not, the board's schedule should include unstructured time for thinking and debating about long-term trends that will affect the company. Today, it is not uncommon for boards of directors to dedicate a full day to this type of reflection each year and ban any PowerPoint presentations during the debate!

Finally, many companies bring in an independent strategic intelligence source that prevents filtering by the executive committee. This intelligence is shared increasingly on a continuing basis (for example, daily media feeds at Hydro-Quebec, in Canada) and is no longer limited to a long presentation during the board's annual meeting.

It is time for French boards of directors to catch up so that French CEOs and their teams will consider their board of directors less as a necessary evil than as a key discussion partner.

Davos: If you come in with your pre-conceptions, the only thing you'll fall in love with are your own assumptions and biases

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:00 -0800

A recent article by Anya Schiffrin "Confessions of a Davos Wife" (see here) on Reuter's website sparked my interest. Since the site seem to have censured my comment on the blog ( here goes freedom of expression... Note from author: I stand corrected: after this article was published on Competia's site, and picked up in a number of pinboards, Reuters finally allowed my comments on the blog. Thanks Reuters ! ), I thought I'd publish it here. I can use also the excuse to introduce what will go on in Davos at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 for me this year.

Sensing weak signals

I have been a Davos participant for over 10 years in different capacities ( from spouse to speaker...) and I treasure the immense privilege of been invited to attend - and actively participate. Over the years, I have attended amazing discussions on issues that are close to my professional and personal interest, ranging from corporate governance, decision making in complex environments, science's new boundaries, or how to integrate innovation into the leadership of our companies.

Davos has be a key source to spot trends long before they are identified by the mainstream press. I heard from Robert Scoble about Twitter years before anyone I knew used it, watched Google take-off, listened to Goldman Sachs' chairman on board governance after the crisis, heard about the origin of universe and the impact for science from Harvard Prof Sasselov, experienced life in a refugee camp, discussed peer to peer sharing and privacy with Paulo Coehlo. I listened to our world leaders, sometimes exchanged over coffee at the break, asked many questions to the technology pioneers to understand which technology will hit the headlines and our companies in the future.

I would never trade those discussions for hot chocolate.

I have also attended many architecture sessions - by choice. I find fascinating how architects are able to pick weak signals and incorporate them concretely in their work- from the urge for tighter communities, the adequation of the building to the new urban landscape, the need for cross generational ties. Many large corporations from GE to IBM or Veolia are struggling today with the thought process to integrate this into their products and business models. Those who have are doing well.

There has been an immense respect from all participants who know well that many spouses attending often have rich professional and personal lives. From Canada, Ana Lopes who accompanies Don Tapscott just got the highest honor in the country, the Order of Canada . We could also mention Marissa Meyer's spouse, the co-founder of a private equity fund, Maria Seidman, a former VP Business Development for Warner Brothers, who accompanies her husband Dov Seidman, or Lyn Taliento, a "spouse" but also a partner at McKinsey & Company who does pioneering work in Haiti... Those extraordinary women and men never saw the shadow of a ski or horse sleigh in Davos, their learning agenda packed from 7am till late in the evening.

To get value from Davos, you have to make it "your" Davos- pick carefully the content that interests you, reach out to those who inspire you, enjoy the serendipity encounter. If you come in with your pre-conceptions, the only thing you'll fall in love with in Davos are your own assumptions and biases.

Need to know more about what happens in Davos ?

Please find below how you can follow Davos ( I extracted many of those sources from the excellent summary by Matthias Luefkens at the WEF : see here for sources and here for how to follow Davos on social media ).

At the video corner there will be "hang-outs", live video Q&As on Google+ giving the general public the rare opportunity to "hang out" and interact with world leaders on the Forum's Google+ page.
The Social Media Corner will also feature a special Facebook studio where we will conduct live interviews with participants streamed live on the Forum's Facebook fan page.
Lots of going on on Twitter: The Forum has compiled an official Twitter list including all the participants active on the microblogging service . There is also a special media list with the accounts of the key journalists present. The tweets from the official Twitter list will be displayed on the official Twitter wall . The World Economic Forum on Twitter @Davos as well as our live tweet account @WEF where key quotes get tweeted from official plenary sessions and where most of the Twitter chatter will happen. The best tweets, pictures and videos from the Annual Meeting will be collated on Storify . hould also follow our communities: @GlobalShapers, @TechPioneers, @SchwabFound and @YGLVoices. Chinese speakers can get updates in Chinese on Sina Weibo .
Your magic word on twitter is #WEF , the hashtag used by all participants at the event
Pictures from participants taken with their mobiles phones can be viewed here on Sharypic.
During the Annual Meeting all official plenary sessions are available on webcast here .Here is the webcast programme .
Finally, Reuters, CNN have created 'Davos spaces"
Enjoy...

Decision making: It's all about taking off - and landing safely…

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:00:00 -0800

Klaus Schwab from the World Economic Forum, opened one of the WEF's meeting last month by saying " Complexity, velocity of global issues means decision makers are always behind". From heads of state to corporate decision makers, everyone is struggling with the same challenge: too much - too fast. There is one profession however who has studied carefully decision making, and systematically trained thousands of decision makers to allow them to make decisions in minutes, often in very uncertain conditions : the airline and airplane industry. Managers and executives could learn from them.

What airplane pilots could teach businesses and leaders in the "art" of decision making

An article published in the McKinsey Quarterly triggered my thinking a couple of month ago. The author, Lowell Bryant, was highlighting the need for "just in time" decision making in companies.

"Much of the art of decision making under uncertainty is getting the timing right. If you delay too much, investment costs may escalate, and losses can accumulate. However, making critical decisions too early can lead to bad choices or excessive risks"

90% of pilot training include decision making. Professional pilots spend hundreds of hours in simulators and in the cockpit trying to tackle one key challenge: those 3 or 4 minutes where, one day in their career, they will have to make the one decision that will result in the life or death of hundreds of passengers.

The environment a pilot is navigating is not that dissimilar than the corporate environment and its many uncertainties and disruptions: a bird striking your engines, icing accumulating on the wings, an unexpected delay resulting on an aircraft been in your flightpath... as those happen, the hundreds of hours of training are coming into play.

This is how we train pilots to make the right decision.

Understand biases induced by the way our brain, and more specifically our senses are built.

As a pilot feels the skin of his/her back pressing against the back of the seat, he/she will assume the plane is accelerating. However, it can also be the results of a plane which nose has unexpectedly pointed towards the sky, and which is climbing sharply while loosing speed. Polits also are well aware of the Graveyard spiral: an observed loss of altitude during a coordinated constant-rate turn that has ceased stimulating the motion sensing system can create the illusion of being in a descent with the wings level. The disoriented pilot will pull back on the controls, tightening the spiral and increasing the loss of altitude. Mistakes like this have in the past led to terrible accidents, one of them been the decision made by the Air France pilots during that terrible Rio-Paris crash.

See here a documentary by the BBC on the Air France Rio-Paris crash, largely due to pilot error.

Most significantly, we now when we train pilots that biases are accentuated in the following situations:

Expectations based on experience: pilots compare the information they get with what they have learned from past experiences. For example, the image of the runway as they are about the land is compared with the image from runways they are used to. If a runway is narrower or larger than what they are used to, it can result in an inaccurate estimate of airplave height.

The recent decision by HP's CEO to exit the computer world and focus on developing software is partly driven by Leo Apoteker's experience at SAP. This logic can have unexpected consequences: it implies that the most experienced CEOs might be the ones who are most likely to make the wrong decisions.

Expectations based on anticipation: as a pilot is getting ready to take off, he/she is waiting for the final green light from the tower. Accidents have happened when the insctruction that followed " cleared into take off position" can be understood as "cleared for take-off" ( resulting a few years ago in a collision of 2 Boeing 747 in Tenerife). Similarly, we have observed CEOs who after having presented a strategic plan to a less than luke-warm board of directors, have taken the quiet reserve or lack of decision for a green light.

Expectations based on habits: if a pilot is used to parking his/her plane on "Parking Area Alpha" and exceptionally receives the instruction to park in "Parking Area Golf", the risk exists that the pilot still goes to Alpha, even after having repeated accurately the instructions to the tower. This bias explains why so many executives keep repeating the same patterns or decisions, even when their environment is clearly shifting ( this is currently happening in the telecommunication industry).

You will find additional information about strategic biases in our article : "Strategic Blindspot Index" ( see here ).

When under stress, revert to checklists

To allow the mind to focus on the important task of assessing the situation, checklists have been built to allow pilots to process information fast and get data he / she needs. This is due to the fact that to the best of human abilities, the mind can only process 7 pieces of short information at a time ( this is why in most countries most phone numbers have 7 digits). Offloading pilots on steps to follow in an emergency situation has been crucial to the profession. As far as I know, no such checklists have been developed for CEOs and executives ( except in extreme crisis situations).

If one looks closely at how those checklists have been developed overtime, an interesting process emerges: checklists have been crowdsourced to the entire flight community. Any incident, any accident is logged, discussed and shared in publications and training session so that the knowledge in the industry can collectively grow. No such process exists in the corporate world. Companies struggle to share knowledge internally, and certainly, no repository exists today to share failures, and debate them publicly. A few initiatives have emerged, such as the MIX ( Management Insight Exchange), but they have only gained limited visibility.

Be physically shaped for decision making

A significant percentage of human errors occur under stress. There is a code of eating behavior that guides pilots to be physicallly shaped for decision making.

In addition, the aerospace community has studied those factors carefully and are able to anticipate situations when decision making might fail ( for more, see here ).

A questionnaire concerning life changes, personality factors, and adjustmental and leadership qualities of U.S. Naval aircrewmembers involved in aircraft accidents was sent to investigating flight surgeons during 1977-78. The responses were divided into two groups: those who were causally involved in accidents and those who were not. In order to cross-validate the results, data were collected and analyzed. Results indicate that aircrewmembers in the process of deciding about staying in the service are more likely to fall into the causally involved group. So were those who had trouble with interpersonal relationships, had no sense of humor or humility concerning themselves, were immature, or had recently lost a friend or family member through death.

Source: A questionnaire study of psychological background factors in U.S. Navy aircraft accidents ( Alkov RA, Borowsky MS.)

I have not seen one company that has adopted a eating guide, health and fitness code (and requirement) for its executives. Few have tackled the issue of executive support and coaching to deal with stress factors. Finally, I also have never seen a "sense of humor" test as part of the recruiting toolkit...

Understand the role of intelligence

When flying, pilots do have an array of information they can tap into: numerous maps of existing weather and wind conditions, 3-hour forecasts, a radars, insights from the control tower, etc...

Similarly, executives can base their decisions on a flow of information and data. The competitive and strategic intelligence process is therefore a key part of their decision making process. A recent survey of North American companies ( 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey) shows that 84% of companies have implemented a structured intelligence process in house. On average, North American companies have teams of 10 people with competitive intelligence as their primary role, which cater to 1,162 internal clients. Furthermore, nearly 70% of North American companies intend to increase their investments in competitive intelligence (also known as market intelligence) in 2012-2013.

Experience intensity

Flight instructors know the law of intensity: the best way to anchor learning in a student is to experience the effect of mistake emotionally. For example, we often let the student pilot stall the aircraft and go for a spin. A new pilot will never forget this experience - and hopefully recognize the signs early in the future.

Pilots wil rehearse the same crisis situation many times, each time with an added twist or new factors to learn to make decisions without anchoring to a past situation.

Similarly, role playing, business simulations and war gaming can help executive play out possible outcomes in crisis situation. The "World without Oil" is a great example of how this might be done.

WORLD WITHOUT OIL is a serious game for the public good. WWO invited people from all walks of life to contribute "collective imagination" to confront a real-world issue: the risk our unbridled thirst for oil poses to our economy, climate and quality of life. It's a milestone in the quest to use games as democratic, collaborative platforms for exploring possible futures and sparking future-changing action.

Do not trust your instruments

Pilots learn early not to trust their instruments entirely, and only when they can triangulate the information. As instruments can lie, or break down. Again, the recent accident of the Paris-Rio Air France flight illustrated how difficult it can be to make the right decision when one instrument ( in that case a frozen speed indicator) fails. It is only by looking at the full picture that they make up their mind about the real situation.

Similarly, companies should revisit their key indicators. One way to avoid blindspots can be to systematically revisit the type of information that is collected and communicated and take some key assumptions off the equation: if my sales go up, and the number of customers as well, does it mean I attract the best ones ( or that I am failing like in the subprime case) ? What if the indicators say the opposite ? Am I monitoring the correct dashboard ?

Train for the situation

Pilots are trained specifically for each type of aircraft they fly. In fact, they will get additional training each time they change the type of aircraft they are flying.

Managers don't. When new CEO of HP joined from SAP, he applies to his new business the same principles as the ones what seemed to work at SAP. He divested of hardware, and directed the company towards software. I do not know business schools today which differentiate their training based on the type of company managers will work with. What about an MBA in Telecommunication management? An MBA in retail management? ( of course, it would also be interesting - and innovative- for a telecom company to hire a retail management MBA to bring in a different way of doing business....)

Conclusions

Managers and executives are still largely trained today the same way they were trained 50 years ago. Little emphasis is put on decision making, which is one of the key skills in today's turbulent environment. As other professions have developed an acute understanding of the decision making process, we should, as a business community, learn from them.

Estelle Métayer brings vast experience and fresh perspective to the ever-changing world of Competitive and Strategic Intelligence. A noted expert, her intuitive, precise research provides managers, CEOs, and board members with the right tools to effectively build and hone their competitive intelligence and strategic planning - to avoid blind spots, capitalize on strengths and excel. Estelle is also a commercial pilot and Certified Flight Instructor.

"Because I Dare" - Women on Boards

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:00:00 -0700

As women flooded the "Women on Boards Bootcamp" sessions at the Women's Forum which took place in Deauville this week, I could not help but reflect that the pool of women candidates willing to sit on boards was indeed rich, diverse, and experienced."Because I dare" could best summarize the discussions - and the general mood: women need to take a much more aggressive approach if they want to set foot in the boardroom. They need to gain self confidence to seek out those board positions, leverage their relevant experiences in governance, and stop to be simply waiting for the opportunities to be presented to them.

Three main themes emerged from the discussion:

The landscape is slowly structuring

Recruitment firms such as Spencer Stuart are setting the tone and aiming to place on European and US boards women candidates, provided that they fill one of two criteria: they either have to be currently in a position as the CEO or business unit president with P &L experience, or have held a position as the CFO of a public company.

Associations are aiming to strengthen the formal and informal networks. For example, the Women Corporate Directors association appears to now be the major player worldwide. Unlike the National Association of Corporate Directors in the United States, which has built its own glass ceiling by allowing only women currently on boards to throw in their hat in the arena and provide their profile into their database, the WCD opens up its doors to would-be directors, and through 38 chapters is now actively building the network

Strong women advocates and role models are emerging: Veronique Morali, for example, chairman of Fimalac Developpement, the parent company of the international financial services organization, Fitch Group and is currently sitting on the boards of Havas, Publicis group, Coca-Cola Enterprises and LCF Rothschild group. She founded www.terrafemina.com with an objective of promoting the voice of women in business. Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, has threatened to enforce quotas in the European boardrooms if companies do not act.

There is an increasing awareness that women need to help each other: women already on boards can suggest female candidates when board positions vacancies open up.

Talented pools are slowly emerging

Latin American family companies will be able to provide their daughters, grand-daughters and nieces, often educated in the United States, who are currently sitting on the boards of the family-owned companies. This second or third generation has often inherited companies that were ill governed. When the economic crisis stroke, they have built solid experience in change management and difficult turnarounds.

International executives are likely to be uniquely positioned to capture the few opportunities available. Indeed, in France for example, most recent women appointments on boards of French companies have been filled by international executives. One reason offered is that French women shy away from the quota system and are reluctant to accept a position: " I do not want to be a quota", thus loosing the opportunity to be a player.

Richness of opportunities are still been overlooked

What was missing from the discussion was the richness of the opportunities. As recruiters are grooming and courting the Fortune 500 public companies, there are countless startups, family companies, foundations where the strategic and growth challenges and rich and varied - and where the room of action for a woman executive is broader. "Women naturally think about CAC 40 companies, but that isn't the right strategy," added Veronique Morali.

Susan Stautberg, the co-founder of the Women Corporate Directors suggested women anchor with organizations such as the International Finance Corporation ( IFC). The organization is uniquely positioned as it finances over 250 companies a year, and has to fill an equivalent number of seats ach year - roughly the equivalent of the entire number of board members rotating in all the US Fortune500 boards each year ( According to Julie Hembrock Daum, managing Spencer Stuart's North American Board and CEO Practice, only 272 board positions opened up last year)

I missed the discussion on non profit boards - probably as those were underrepresented in the audience. Social entrepreneurs, foundations offer very rich opportunities to combine the skill set of executives and the ability to tackle the worlds crucial challenges- a more rewarding task that most of the corporate missions.

There is still much room for improvement

The audit committee is viewed as the golden key to the boardroom door- the role as a board member who is part of the audit committee is often more time consuming and seem to be harder to staff. I was however taken aback by what seems to be ill placed advice: Molly Ashby, chairman and CEO of Solera Capital suggested women joined their local school board audit committee as a way to "learn the ropes" and enhance the resume of a board candidate. Having sat through many nominating committees discussions, I strongly suspect this type of experience will not get a candidate very far on the road to public or private boards...

It seems to me there are many other avenues for women candidates to board positions to differentiate themselves. Expertise in social media, new technologies for example, will be required as companies slowly will seek to understand the profound impact the technology will have on their business.

Estelle Metayer is hired by boards as they tackle and identify their strategic blindspots. An Adjunct professor with McGill University, and a guest lecturer at IMD in Switzerland in many of their leadership programs, she teaches in the certification program for directors with the Institute of Canadian Directors in Canada. Her international career spans three continents, from the Netherlands to Canada, including Poland, the United Kingdom and South Africa. She began her career with the ING Bank in emerging markets and McKinsey & Company. She sat in the boards of World Youth Canada and the Grands Ballets Canadiens.

Do you have any experience you wish to share ?

Boards and CEOs: Introducing the "Strategic Blindspots Index"©

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:00:00 -0700

As industries become increasingly complex, it is more difficult than ever to govern companies. As an executive or a board member, you are often responsible for identifying where the company might have underestimated a strategic risk, or where you are failing to see a strategic opportunity. Competia has developed over the past few years a systematic approach to enable management teams to examine your company's strategy and lead discussions around potential "blindspots" - untapped opportunities and overlooked risks. We are now introducing the "Strategic Blindspots Index"©, a systematic method to assess the risk of a strategic blindspot developing, and a way to compare a company's risk profile with industry peers.

What is The "Strategic Blindspots Index"© ?

The "Strategic Blindspots Index"© evaluates each company - either from the board or the executive office point of view - as regards to the likelihood of strategic blindspots developing.

Strategic blindspots risks are evaluated in the following areas:

Strategic biases: biases likely to develop as management or the board of directoris misjudges industry boundaries, thus poorly identifying emerging ocmpetitor, or developing a misguided view of competitors' competence.

Historic biases: biases relating to the frame of reference of both the board and management, and to natural anchoring that might create an inaccurate assumption of the future.

Corporate biases: unchallenged assumptions that hinder the decision making process, as well as corporate taboos.

Myopia: the degree to which the company's management and board are projecting themselves in the future. We also test how much time is dedicated to discussing the future outcomes.

Decision making biases: biases that might develop in a group during the decision making process, including cognitive biases.

How does it work ?

Companies will be first ranked two ways on an index of 100 in order to calibrate how likely the risk of a strategic blindspot developing exists. Secondly, companies will also be provided with a "Blindspot profile", which will provide them with guidance and tools to allow them to act and adjust their processes or board procedures.

When Social Media Matters: a Guide to the Board of Directors for better Governance

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:00:00 -0700

In 2009, the Deloitte Ethics and Workplace Survey explored attitudes about social networking and pointed out the significance of social media for board of directors. 58 percent of executives felt that the reputational risk associated with social networking should be a board room issue. Yet, only 17 percent of executives said that they currently had programs in place to monitor and mitigate reputational risks that may arise with social network usage. Boards have since largely left it to management to figure out its social media strategy. When informally asked in a boardroom, Competia found that less than 5% of directors admit having ever used and participated in social media. Mistrust is widespread and the issue of privacy is of utmost concern. The implications of social media for the board far outreach reputation risk. As the use of social media is rapidly spreading and challenging every single company business model and strategy, it is time for directors to understand the implications for corporate governance.

Why boards should understand social media

Reason #1: To manage reputation risk better

As executives, employees and board members blurr the boundary between their professional life and their personal life on social media, the reputation risk is growing for companies. In the 2009 Deloitte Ethics and Workplace Survey nearly three-quarters of the employees interviewed agreed that using social networks make it easier to damage a company's reputation.

In July of last year, the SEC announced its recognition of corporate blogs as public disclosure:

"...company disclosure should be more readily available to investors in a variety of locations and formats to facilitate investor access to that information". "Guidance on the use of Company Websites" issued last August outlines the boundaries for sharing information as well as holding companies and their employees liable for the information that they post on blogs, networks, communities, and discussion forums."

BP has learned this lesson the hard way. During the crisis of the oil spill, BP's unofficial site has reached 165,000+ followers (see here ) and had become the main source of information for shareholders, surpassing by tenfold the official account (see here with 30,000 followers). To this day, the gap has not been filled.

Reason #2: As a channel of communication to the public and to shareholder

Companies globally already have started leveraging social media, and in particular Twitter, to announce new nominations and changes in the board of directors. Although the corporate world is still lagging behind non for profit organization, this trend is likely to continue.

The National Investors Relations Institute ( www.niri.org ) recently held a Webinar entitled "Trends in Technology and Disclosure." Three IRO's from Microvision, BGC Partners Inc., and Sun Microsystems each discussed how they have integrated social media tools such as corporate blogs, implemented notice and access releases and enriched investor communication portals to enhance and increase interaction with shareholders ( see more here )

Reason #3: To manage directors Liability

Social Media tools can be used during a crisis to federate protesters, and gather information that can be used in litigation, putting board members in a liability suit situation.

Whether justified or not, claims can be hugely damaging - not to mention the time board members must invest dealing with the situation. Nestle has learned its lesson in 2010 ( see Nestle Social Media Mewltdown- A Case Study ) when an iniative by Greenpeace led to an unprecedenced boardroom crisis - peaking when intruders literally dropped in the shareholder's meeting (see here ). The Kit Kat video that launched the campaign ( and sequels) have now been viewed over 1 million times.

Source: Greenpeace.com

Reason #4: To protect against insider trading claims

Information posted on Facebook, in a blog or any other social media could results in a sudden change in price or buy activity resulting in an SEC investigation. On the on the Martindale-Hubbell Connected network for legal professionals, Virgina Henschel, Rob Robinson, Mike Mintz and Steven Weinberger share how Disney got caught into the social spider web:

On May 26 of this year, the SEC filed a complaint against an administrative assistant at The Walt Disney Company and her boyfriend, who sent numerous hedge funds anonymous letters offering to provide the funds with inside information about Disney's quarterly earnings in exchange for a fee. They were busted by the FBI when they sold the information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an investment manager.

When the administrative assistant thought she was going to get away with her crime, she posted the following status update on her Facebook account:
I go shopping, shopping, shopping.

As a result, the defendant's Facebook status is being used against her by the SEC, to prove a mindset and motivation to do the crime.

Reason #5: As a source of independent intelligence

In oder to avoid solely relying on market and strategic information been provided by management, and therefore subject to biases, boards are starting to build independant source of intelligence to feed their discussions. Social media offers unfiltered access to feedback from customers and stakeholders about the company and offers therefore an aditional source of insights.

Yoram Wind, professor at the Wharton Scool, quoted in the article "Rethinking the Board"

To make informed decisions, boards would need to have independent sources of information, with their own budgets for conducting studies, and gathering information (...) to gain independent insights about the health of the business.

Social media is by definition unfiltered - and is not easily manipulated. It offers therefore an additional tremendous source of information about the company.

Reason #6: To avoid blindspots

As new business models emerge that leverage social media and challenge conventional players, the board need to understand the risks posed by potential new competitors who know how to harness the power of social media. Directors should relentlessly investigate emerging new players - especially those coming from adjacent industries, and challenge all their assumptions about existing industry boundaries. Examples abound:

Facebook has the potential to challenge the banking industry with peer to peer lending and "internal" currency ( read more here )
Google Voice is directly competing with telecommunication players, offering free long distance calls ( read more here )

Steps the board should take to get up to speed

I am certainly not advocating the individual board members to start blogging, although individual members might want to experiment privately. However, here are a few steps I suggest the board considers to start harnesting social media:

1. Get an outside expert

Hire an outside expert to come and demystify social media during a board meeting. Specific points to be addressed should include:

how the company's specific target market uses social media;
a comparative analysis of what competitors are doing ;
research on reach and future trends in social media; criteria to use;
the difference between inbound and outbound social media;
a measure of ROI
the role of contingency plans

2. Ask management to analyze and discuss the impact social media could have for the company

In particular, focus on emerging competitors, potential changes in the value chain, and customer relationships shifts. As corporate board member Julie Hill points out in "Boardroom Relevance":

"Social media must be as much about listening as talking. What customers tell us may be reason to review our policies, not just our products. Selling the right products may be a marketing issue, but doing the right thing is a Boardroom responsibility." -Quoted in www.boardmember.com

3. Make sure the company occupies the space

Similar to the web, where owning one's domain names has been key to secure a strategic space in the mind of clients and consumers, management should have secured by now the names on all social media pertaining to the company, its brands and key products.

For example, Egon Zehnder, one of the world's largest recruiting agency, does not have the ownership of its Twitter "handle" (@egon_zehnder or @egonzehnders ) associated with its corporate name. It is in my mind opening a loophole for the future. Competitors Heidrick & Struggles and Korn Ferry have secured their corporate names ( see here and here ).

Key questions boards should be asking management about social media

Do we have a social media policy for employees ?

Is this policy part of the employment contract?
Does it define how the employee engages in social media, whether in their own name or in the company name?
Is it made clear who owns the intellectual property ( see recent article Lawyers, Guns and Twitter- Who owns your Twitter account illustrating how the BBC lost 60000 twitter followers to ITV ( see here )
Are employees getting coaching and training ?

Are we listening ?

Which sources are we listening ? Does it i include review sites, blogs, Twitter and Facebook, as well consumers forum ? Does it include LinkedIn and Google+ ?
Who is listening ?
When are we listening ? My clients in the media industry found that their digital experts needed to come into the office after hours - when their clients watch shows and share comments. Similarly, Procter & Gamble founds during the Pampers crisis last year that employees in charge of monitoring social media could not effectively monitor social media during work hours: worried mothers discussed potential diaper rashes in the evening, after kids go to bed at night ( see more about this story here

Do we have a response plan in case of digital crisis ?

Is there a contingency plan when a crisis hits ?
Who is managing it ?

Who is in charge of social media in the organization ?

Is it handled by pyblic relations, and then focused on communication on a corporate level ?
Is it under the responsibility of customer insights, or marketing, suggesting a more significant focus on - and interaction with customers ?
Where does social media fit in our risk profile? To whom does it report?

What results do you get when googling the names of key executives ?

Does this information portraying differ from the official biography ? Putting yourself in the shoes of your stakeholders or customers, the messages portraying in the first page of results might be as important as the ones displayed in the official biography on the website.
Is the message consistent across platforms ? For example, how is the social profile comparing with the professional one ? There are now a few great tools to obtain the social media profile of executives online: 123people.com or Pipl , Social Mention are great integrators of the data.

Do we have a whistle blowing process via social media?

In conclusion

The risks - and missed opportunities - of ignoring social media is significant across all industries, and for companies of all sizes. The question really is not whether boards should know about social media, but how they can afford NOT to know about it.

Additional resources:

Twitter lists:

Further reading:

Into the Fray: A View from the Board of Directors about social media http://ow.ly/6ghpW by @deloitte

The Board, Governance & Social Media http://ow.ly/6glhu

About social media, investor relations and web disclosure #corpgov http://ow.ly/6ghxW

Corporate Blogs and 'Tweets' Must Keep #SEC in Mind http://ow.ly/6ghLI

Lawyers, Guns, and Twitter - Who Owns Your Twitter Account via @sejournal http://ow.ly/6ggdk

NASDAQ releases new board iPad app to go w/ its Directors' Desk program RT @boardroominside #corpgov http://ow.ly/6iQ3F

Insider Trading 2011: How Technology and Social Networks Have 'Friended' Access to Confidential Info http://ow.ly/6miWC

Rethinking the Board ( pdf) http://ow.ly/6pBmR

McKinsey, I am thankful

Tue, 31 May 2011 15:00:00 -0700

As many Mckinsey alumni and members of the global business community, I have been following with much interest and awe the developments of the Mckinsey saga, and its shocking revelations. As accusations of two consultants trading inside information about their clients were brought forward, the media frenzy that ensued seems to bring the perfect storm for the consulting firm.

I have followed the debates - both in traditional media and in social media. I read appalling pieces of journalism, noted the apparent lack of reaction from Mckinsey in the public sphere - apart from stepping up the amount of publications- and noticed a surprising vacuum and lack of reactions from the McKinsey alumni community.

It is not my place to debate here about the individual consultants involved. The justice system will find out what happened and, if responsible, people should bear the consequences of their acts. What bothered me was the complete disconnect between what I was reading, and the McKinsey I know, the people I worked with. I started wondering why I was taking this issue so personally. After all, why should I care so much about a company who employed me almost 20 years ago?

I think it basically comes down to this: I am thankful

I am thankful because to this day, the values and strong principles I learn at Mckinsey are still deeply part of my personal and professional ethics. Those principles are still shaping the way I work, every day. Here are a few of those principles:

"You must be invited in by the managers of client organizations who must want to establish an effective relationship" (dixit Marvin Bower, in the book cited below)
Client first - If you cannot add value, step out
Obligation to dissent: one of the most lost value in companies, sources of so many blindspots.
"Do not disrupt the organization more than is necessary to make the improvement needed" (Marvin Bower)
Client confidentiality - McKinsey consultants are known for not even disclosing the name of the client they are working with. To this day, I do not disclose names of clients who I am consulting with
Mastering problem-solving skills and the power of analytics
Never discuss personal details about an individual working at a client company. Our consulting engagements are with the companies, and we are not here to judge the capabilities of individual managers or executives, even if the CEO asks.

In fact, I digged back my copy of Marvin Bower's book, "Perspective on McKinsey" which is handed out to each new recruit at McKinsey on their first week. Marvin Bower is the visionary who shaped the firm's value and code of conduct in the early years and transformed McKinsey from an engineering consulting company to a professional firm. Note that the mere fact I still have this book after eight moves, four of those across continents, is already a symbol of its significance to me. In this book, Martin lays out a few principles of what it is to be a professional and the responsibilities it creates:

To put client interests ahead of Firm interests

To serve the client competently, i.e. better than the situation calls and better then client managers typically expect

To adhere to high ethical standards in everything we do

To preserve the confidence of clients and client personnel

To maintain an independent position, being ready to differ with client managers and telling them the truth as we see it even though it may adversely affect Firm income or endanger continuance of the relationship

In conclusion, if I may leave with a final quote from John W. Gardner, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching:

"What could be more satisfying than to be engaged in work in which every capacity or talent one may have is needed, very lesson one may have learned is used and every value one cares about is furthered?"

So to all those who have shaped, and are still shaping McKinsey's values, thank-you.

The Executive Education Playlist

Tue, 24 May 2011 15:00:00 -0700

As digital convergence, peer to peer, and global word of mouth is shaking industry from media to telecommunications or even banking, there is little evidence that Executive Management Education is evolving at the same rate. There seems to be a the discontinuity between trends going on in adjacent industries, and the way executive education is taught. As curiosity built, I had numerous discussions with renowned universities and business schools about the future of executive education, in particular around management education. Have those organizations integrated into their strategic thinking the recent developments in technology and society? Are they (we) willing to question why the majority of executive training hours still happen in a classroom? Who are likely to be the new players in this field?

The parallel with the media industry

One cannot help but compare Executive Management Education with other industries that have recently been shaken in their most basic principles by changes in consumer behavior and technology. In particular, I find many parallels with the media and publishing industry.

Similar to journalists, professors see their job as an art, more than a science
In the publishing world, newspapers traditionally rely on carefully selected full-time journalists, and occasionally sourced content from freelancers when subjects required a specific expertise. In Executive Management Education, the majority of courses are taught by tenured professors, with the occasional help from guest speakers, adjunct professors, or professors of practice when the expertise is lacking.
Newspapers editors play a key role: they select the content to be developed, set up the investigative work plan, edit the final product. In universities and business schools, the management committee and program directors defines course or programs to be offered, the research schedule, and consistency of the teaching material.
There is no systematic measurement system: universities do not grade or assess quantitatively which professors are performing, and rely heavily on the feedback from the course participants. In publishing, the editor judges of the quality of the content, and in a less linear manner, circulation and letters to the editors do the rest.

Time to review traditional measures or performance ?

In the business schools I spoke to, over 90% of professors have PhDs - this is probably the only profession where people get training on the content rather than the skill - most executive education professors have never been formally training in how to teach, build a lesson plan or even measure learning.

The measure of a professor performance is still based on the amount of publishing done. When probed for what publishing means in our days, the unique vocal answer is still almost unanimously "traditional journals". Yet, In a recent article in the economist, the author quotes Mark Thomas:

"Journals really only do one thing now -- help us to make tenure and promotion decisions. Nobody reads the journals themselves much anymore, but where a paper hits is critical for promotion decisions. That's where the pecking order is established. The sciences are trying to break out of this, to some extent, but econ is a long ways from doing that"

The Economist, March 23, 2011- "What good are economics journals? "

Is the fate of the media industry going to replicate for education?

I can envision how the world of Executive Management Education might be shaken up the same way the world of newspapers and magazine has been.

In the publishing world, print has lost the monopoly of the customer relationship - new players have emerged. The Huffington Post for example is shaking the world of publishing, allowing professional journalists and experts alike to publish and enrich the coverage of events. The quality of the articles might have on averaged decreased, but also has increased in diversity and timeliness. With Flipboard, one can aggregate content and create a daily newspaper by selecting specific journalists, or content they want to hear about.

I cannot help but wonder what a similar shake-up will do the education industry when the business schools and universities will loose that monopoly over the relation and face to face contact with students.

Towards an Executive Education Playlist

In a world when curation is the new buzz word, what would it look like in education?

Today, we do mix songs from different albums when downloading songs from itunes and are no longer limited by the choice of songs a singer has decided to add on his/her album. We make our own playlists, by mixing content that fits our preferences and needs based on content we know well, but also recommendations from friends - or even unknown similar souls through the Genius system. Why not apply this to business education and allow executives to create a playlist for education as well?

A potential participant for the executive MBA should be able to design his or her MBA by picking courses based on the reputation and skill of the professor, but also the geographical location of the institution providing it. For example, he/she could choose:

a course on innovation from Bill Fisher at IMD in Switzerland,
a course on strategy from Renee Mauborgne at Insead,
a course on technology from the India School of Business and
an organizational course on leadership from Henry Mintzberg at McGill - while effectively get a real global recognized Executive MBA diploma.

To support the decision, one could check what past participants have said about the course, combine this insight with recommendations made by people who share the same interest, follow up peer ratings. A system similar to ratemyteachers.com could exist. In fact, one could envision how "similar" training that might complement training already selected could be recommended, very much in the same line as what Amazon does.

Who will be the curators ?

I understand from my discussions that existing players - business schools, universities- would resist- after all, a professor from a well know Business School mentioned that no-one is going to take the risk to shake the industry as none of the professors will expect to be here in 20 years when the shake will have taken place.

So who will be the new players?
Will Skolkovo School of Management , the new business school created by Russia's leading oligarchs which just inaugurated a a $250 million high-tech campus complex be a player ?
Will they be new entrants, non-traditional players, who know how to curate content - maybe Amazon?
Will they be companies and firms branching out of their usual field - a public McKinsey Institute? A Deloitte Academy ? We have seen already Jack Welch using his personal brand to offer and MBA.
Will one institution take the lead? If Harvard Business School does it, will all follow?

What are the dangers of the Education Playlist ?

Two challenges would have to be addressed in this future of education:

How will research be conducted and financed ? If professors and lecturers are independant individuals braught together by the education curator, who will invest the time and effort to finance long-term research in management ? The answer might lay in the observation of the media industry. As the entire media industry is currently struggling to understand how investigative journalism will be financed, models are starting to emerge and might provide us a sign of what might lay in the Management Education Future.
How will the pieces fit together ? In business schools and universities, a great deal of energy is spent in ensuring that the program and the individual pieces fit together and provide a seamless learning experience. How would this be replicated as the Education Playlist prevails ?

What do YOU think ?

The official (and unofficial) voices of Davos

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:38:00 -0800

The World Economic Forum Meeting 2001 in Davos will start on January 25^th, and for the many who did not get an invitation, there is hope: the discussions, insights and questions will be available in many places, many platforms... Here is a short guide to be able to get the most from this unbelievable event (note: even if you ARE at Davos, this is also a good way to get the most of the experience and compare notes...)

This article will be updated as new sources of information pop up, so come back regularly for the updates...

Your first stop: get the World Economic Forum's official feeds

The WEF has always been a precursor in social media, and is offering multiple places where you can get the pulse of the event.

On Twitter, @wef and @davos are the official feeds from the social media staff at the Forum. Meet the minds behind the tweets: Matthias Luefkens, Adrian Monk , Samantha Tonkin, Nicole Tapscott and Anna Sims will keep you updated about key events, but also the beginning of the life streaming sessions. Some of those official voices also have a private twitter account so follow them there also: @amonk; @luefkens @wef_anna . Finally, the Forum also has a dedicated blog (http://www.forumblog.org) where.ou can read posts from selected participants.

The World Economic Forum aggregatea all media portals and partner blogs about the Annual Meeting on Netvibes http://wef.ch/netvibes, just Please send your blog details if you want to be included. On the Forum blog

On january 19th, ou will be able to find the official #WEF Twitter list http://wef.ch/tweeps .

Davos will not only host the corporate gurus and heads of state, it is also the forum for, among others, entrepreneurs, technology pioneers and social entrepreneurs. These groups also have dedicated feeds: @hildeschwab or @schwabfound for the Schwab Foundation for social entrepreneurs, @tecpioneers for the Technology Pioneers, and @YGLvoices for the the Young Global Leaders, a fun and charismatic group of future world leaders identified by the WEF.

Davos is not just about CEOs: here are the five Global Change Makers of 2010, extraordinary young people who make a difference

Where else to go ? Interviews can be found on Youtube at the Forum's dedicated page, images can be found on the WEF's photostream on Flickr and documents and reportscan be loaded from Scribd .If you are using Flickr to share your photos you are invited to join the Davos Flickr group where we would like to share pictures taken by the participants.

All press conferences and key plenary sessions will be streamed ive on Livestream here.

Get behind the scene... WEF's executives private Twitter accounts

Meet Robert Greenhill @robertgreenhill , the Managing Director and Chief Business Officer, Adrian Monck @amonck , Managing Director and Head of Media, Zahidi @zahidi Director, constituents, Piers Cumberlege @pierscumberlege , Head of Partnerships, Alois Zwinggi, the WEF's Managing Director in Charge of Human resources @azwinggi and the newly appointed CTO Brian Behlendorf @brianbehlendorf, While those professionals write about davos, they also share their interests: Robert tweets about the place of Canada in the world, Adrian covers journalism, Piers follows events in the world, Brian has a keen interest in technology as the founder of Apache and a member of the board of Mozilla...

For a full list of the WEF's staff on Twitter, please refer here for the list of staff Twitter accounts the organization is maintaining.

Follow the hastags

The easiest way on Twitter to follow the comments about the sessions is to follow the following hashtag on twitter: #WEF (click here for the lattest). You can also try #davos, or #YGL which tends to be uses quite a bit- interesting enough, they are quite complementary sdo I guess you'll have to follow them all...

Leverage the media covering the event

Most world media will dedicate part of their website to Davos. Here is a short list of the dedicated feeds, sites and tweeters (by no means exhaustive - if you wish to add others, just add them in the comments below...).

A better list of 150+ journalist who will cover Davos can also be found here


Media				How they are covering the event
CNN				CNN's blogCNN's twitter CNN's twitter @CNNDavos (this account is currently locked)
The Wall Street Journal				WSJ's list of articles
Reuters				Reuter's blog
Times				Times's Twitter account @timesdavos
CNBC				CNBC Davos app on itunes. Note this is the first app for iphone and the ipad I have found for Davos yet (apart from the official one) !
Times of India				Times of India Davos Page
Financial Times				FT's Twitter @FTDavos
Telegraph				Telegraph's twitter @telegraphdavos
BBC				BBC's Twitter @BBC_davos
Bloomberg				Official twitter for "The Pulse here

Discover the "unofficial" voices

As the event approaches, many unofficial "Davos Tweeters" are appearing. I find @WEFdavos , @davospulse and @davos_2011 to cover the events well. Davosfringe covers the unofficial event in Davos.

Food for thought: Brunch on Sunday morning in Davos- time for participants to reflect

Don't forget to follow the individual participants!

I like to follow a few participants as they report on their experience at Davos. Who knows, you could maybe catch a glimpse of Evan Williams notebook, and guess what Twitter would come up with next ...

Evan Williams taking notes at the World Economic Forum Meeting in 2010

Here is my pick:

Companies:WIPRO has dedicated a whole section on its corporate website to Davos: click here
Authors: Paulo Coehlo, @paulocoehlo, Don Tapscott, author of Macrowikinomics @dtapscott
CEOs who tweet: check Jim Quigley CEO of Deloitte@deloitteceo , Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL tech @vineetnayar, Anand Mahindra , Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of of Mahindra & Mahindra @anandmahindra. There are of course multiple account for the star CEOs who come to Davos ( Eric Schmidt, Bill Gates etc... ) but I do not find that they tweet themselves, so are a lot less interesting to follow...

I am keeping a list of all the participants I have made their presence known publicly here (this list includes participants and also those who report on Davos).

Download the apps for your smart phone

Although they are very few of them yet, the following apps can help you follow what is going on:

World Economic Forum's official fan app for the iphone and ipad here
World Economic Forum's official participants' app for the iphone and ipad here
Davos/Klosters guide: Need to feel like you are in Davos ? This iphone app will provide you with the maps and guide to restaurants ...
CNBC Davos Pulse app here

Check in

Foursquare: the Congress Centre and the key hotels have been added to foursquare here to allow participants to check-in on this geo-location social network. To check in simply scan the QR code below.

Facebook: Live interviews with selected participants that will be streamed on the Forum's Facebook page. Through facebook, the organization will tap into the collective wisdom of the online population through the use of "pulses", quick polls on Facebook. The pulses allow us to capture the opinion of several thousand Facebook users in a matter of minutes.

When participants are on facebook, they can check-in at the Congress Centre on Facebook Places or by using the QR code below.

Who is the most influential corporate governance tweeter in 2011 ?

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:00:00 -0800

Having read the excellent analysis by my colleague AquteIntel about "the Most Influential Competitive Intelligence tweeter in 2010" ( read here ), I was curious, and inspired to analyze how the corporate governance world is shaping up on Twitter.

The methodology

I have listed the corporate governance experts already identified in my twitter list ( see here) , and added those who my colleagues are also interacting with. I have then used the much talked-about Klout to score each of these tweeters.

I have excluded from the ranking Twitter accounts that solely broadcast about their publication, or their associations. I have focussed on the individuals behind the tweets and the insight they share. I also excluded those who cover a much larger range of issues than just corporate governance: people such as Nouriel Roubini ( @nouriel ) who would have ranked 69 in Klout, or #1, or David Gergens ( @gergensvoice )who would have ranked 56 ), as the topic they are covering have a much wider range than corporate governance and the data gets clouded by their public work and comments.

So who are the most influential corporate governance tweeters ?

Rosabeth Kanter ( @rosabethkanter ) from Harvard comes first, followed closely by Lucy Marcus ( @lucymarcus ) from Marcus Ventures, a renown writer and speaker on issues relative to corporate governance, and in particular the role of women. Congratulations to these two women, who with different styles and backgrounds, are both making a difference.

Here is Lucy's profile (on about.me)

Here are a sample of their last tweets as I am writing this short article:

Rosabeth Kanter:
Powerlessness Corrupts. Provokes territoriality, rage. Why orgns need empowerment http://bit.ly/bweMql

Lucy Marcus:
Of course RT @85broads: http://huff.to/g3N7Qc Huffpost - Beyond Optics: Why Board Diversity Really Matters by @lucymarcus

Strangely enough, you'll notice that quantity does not trump quality or the nature of interactions these professionals have with each other. Steven Bowman for example @consciousgovern , has 2686 followers, but not as much influence as Alex Todd @trustenabler (612 followers) )who is very focused on the subject of corporate governance.This is one of the reasons why I like Klout, as it is hard to manipulate the data: one cannot boost its influence ranking simply by adding more people to the list one follows, hoping for a reciprocal link.

Here is the ranking of the top 25 tweeters on Corporate Governance

This list is by no means exhaustive, and needs to be beefed up, so if I have forgotten you - or anyone who would recommand, feel free to add their name and content in the comments below... (note that the ranking and number of followers varies from day to day, so these were the numbers at the time the article was written - then revised to include comments from the community of corporate governance tweeters...)

Ranking	Who is behind the tweets	Twitter	Klout score	Followers
#1	Rosabeth Kanter	rosabethkanter	58	8490
#2	Lucy Marcus	lucymarcus	57	1482
#3	Matt Kelly	complianceweek	53	3300
#4	Norman Marks	normanmarks	49	972
#5	Estelle Metayer	competia	48	1186
#6	Fay Feeney	fayfeeney	48	3025
#7	Debra Beck	Npmaven	45	1513
#8	Frank Aquila	faquila	44	1841
#9	Nell Minow	nminow	44	1156
#10	Alex Todd	Trustenabler	44	612
#11	Jayne Juvan	Jaynejuvan	42	887
#12	Ciaran O'Kelly	Ctokelly	42	540
#13	Douglas Park	dougYPark	42	1078
#14	Gayle Gifford	Gaylegifford	40	1044
#15	Doug Chia	dougchia	38	811
#16	Broc Romanek	brocromanek	38	837
#17	Bob Arciniaga	Advisory_board	36	2738
#18	Cathy Lada	NACD	35	513
#19	Alice Korngold	Alicekorngold	33	1147
#20	Urmi Ashar	nacdthreerivers	30	199
#21	james McRitchie	corpgovnet	30	504
#22	Stephen Davis	Smdavisyalegov	26	122
#23	Rick E. Hansen	Rickehansen	21	338
#24	Robert AG Monks	bobmonksnews	21	404
#25	Steven Bowman	Consciousgovern	19	2686

Management at its Best: Learnings and Insights from Indian companies Best Practices

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:06:00 -0800

In the next few days, I will be fortunate to attend the World Economic Forum's Summit in India (see the Indian Economic Summit here ) . I will bring back to you some of the learnings and insights gained from interactions and discussions with Indian leaders and CEOs. You can also get timely updates from . You can also find a list of participants tweeting at the event here .

When available, I have added the twitter feed from those leaders so that you can also follow their accounts of insights and lessons learned...

Here is a sample of the impressive list of speakers and moderators:

• Gita Gopinath , Professor of Economics, Harvard University, USA
• Pranab Mukherjee , Minister of Finance of India
• Rajat M. Nag , Managing Director-General, Asian Development Bank, Manila
• Hari S. Bhartia , Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Jubilant Bhartia Group; President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India
• Jon Fredrik Baksaas * President and Chief Executive Officer, Telenor Group, Norway
• Ajit Gulabchand , Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Construction Company, India
• Ellen Kullman , Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, DuPont, USA; Co-Chair of the India Economic Summit
• Raghunath A. Mashelkar , President, Global Research Alliance and Bhatnagar Fellow, National Chemical Laboratory, India
• Pawan Munjal , Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Hero Group, Indi
• Dennis Nally , Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers International, USA
• Peter Gartenberg , President, SAP (India), India
• Rajiv Lall , Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), India
• Ravi Sharma , Chief Executive Officer, Adani Power, India
• Tulsi R. Tanti , Chairman and Managing Director, Suzlon Energy, India
•Ramesh Subrahmanian , Senior Vice-President and President, Asia Pacific Human Health, Merck & Co., Singapore
• Antonio Helio Waszyk , Chairman and Managing Director, Nestlé India, India
• Ashwin Naik , Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vaatsalya Corporate Office, India
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia , Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India
• Sanjeev Chadha , Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo India, India
• Ajit Gulabchand , Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Construction Company, India
• Harish Manwani , President, Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Unilever, Singapore
• Om Prakash Bhatt , Chairman, State Bank of India, India
• Elizabeth Comstock * Senior Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer, General Electric Company, USA
• Ellen Kullman , Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, DuPont, USA
• Arvind Mayaram , Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Rural Development of India, India
• Sriram Raghavan , Chief Executive Officer, Comat Technologies, India (his Twitter feed @sriramraghavan here)
• Ben J. Verwaayen , Chief Executive Officer, Alcatel-Lucent, France; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum
• Niren Chaudhary , Managing Director, India, Yum! Restaurants, India
• Sanjay Gupta , Chief Operating Officer, Star India, India
• Jack Modzelewski , President, Client Relations and Senior Partner, Fleishman-Hillard, USA
• Atul Singh , President and Chief Executive Officer, India and South West Asia, Coca-Cola India, India
• Arun Tadanki , Managing Director, Yahoo! India, India
• Richard A. Boucher , Deputy Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris
• C. V. Madhukar , Director, PRS Legislative Research, India; Young Global Leader; Regional Agenda Council on India (his Twitter feed @cvmhadhukar here )
• Mallika Sarabhai , Director, Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, India; Regional Agenda Council on India
• Ankur Bhatia , Executive Director, Bird Group, India
• Ajit Gulabchand , Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Construction Company, India
• Ashwin Mahalingam , Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
• Bill Peacock , Regional Managing Director, South Asia, Halcrow Group, India
• Sanjeev Sanyal , Founder and Managing Trustee, Sustainable Planet Institute, India
• Dino Touthang , Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity, India
• Firdose A. Vandrevala , Chairman and Managing Director, Hirco Developments, India
• Peter Van Loan , Minister of International Trade of Canada
• Luis A. Moreno , President, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC
• Anand Sharma , Minister of Commerce and Industry of India
• Alberto Vallarino Clement , Minister of Economy and Finance of Panama
• Jitesh Gadhia , Senior Managing Director, Blackstone Group, United Kingdom
• Suhas Gopinath , Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Globals ITeS, India ( his twitter feed @suhasgopinah here)
• Arun Jaitley , Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, Parliament of India, India
• Naveen Jindal , Member of Parliament, India and Vice-Chairman, Jindal Vijayanagar Steel, India; Young Global Leader
• Dennis Nally , Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers International, USA; Co-Chair of the India Economic Summit
• Oyun Sanjaasuren , Member of Parliament, Mongolia; Young Global Leader
• R. S. Sharma , Chairman and Managing Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India
• Aisha De Sequeira , Managing Director and Head, Investment Banking, India, Morgan Stanley, India
• Ana Dutra , Chief Executive Officer, Leadership and Talent Consulting, Executive Vice-President, Korn/Ferry International, USA
• Dennis Nally, Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers International, USA
• Vineet Nayar , Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, HCL Technologies, India ( his twitter feed @vineetnayar here)
• Suresh Vaswani , Joint Chief Executive Officer, IT Business, and Member of the Board, Wipro, India
• Jon Baker , President, Sealed Air Asia, Sealed Air Corporation, USA
• Kevin Eikerman , Managing Director, Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), India
• Adi B. Godrej , Chairman, The Godrej Group, Godrej Industries, India
• Mikael Hagström , President, EMEA and Asia Pacific, SAS, USA
• Baba N. Kalyani , Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Forge, India
• Malini Mehra , Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Social Markets (CSM), India
• Raj Jain , President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart, India
• Jerry Steiner , Executive Vice-President, Monsanto Company, USA
• Robert Nemmara Subbaraman , Managing Director and Chief Economist, Asia ex-Japan and Head of Asia ex-Japan Economics, Nomura International (Hong Kong), Hong Kong SAR
• Neeraj Bharadwaj , Managing Director, Accel India Growth Management Company, India
• Madhu Kannan , Chief Executive Officer, Bombay Stock Exchange, India
• Ronald Kent , Group Executive Vice-President, Head of International Listings, NYSE Euronext, United Kingdom
• Joseph Massey Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, MCX Stock Exchange Limited, India
• Sanjay Nayar , Chief Executive Officer, KKR India Advisors, India
• Ravi Pandit , Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, KPIT Cummins Infosystems, India
• Pradeep K. Dhoot * President and Vice-Chairman, Videocon Industries, India
• Pawan Munjal , Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Hero Group, India
• Jim Quigley , Global Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte, USA ( Deloitte Twitter feed @deloitte here will report)
• Jyotiraditya M. Scindia , Minister of State for Commerce and Industry of India; Member of Parliament, India
• Rajesh Subramaniam Senior Vice-President, International Marketing, FedEx Services, USA

Tapping into the Invisible Web for Competitive Intelligence

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:00:00 -0800

Did you know that over 70% of the Web cannot be accessed by search engines ? As the world is now almost exclusively using Google to access content on the Web, few research professionals realize that this tool - among other search engines- will not give them access to the data they need. The Invisible Web, however, included a wealth of structured, validated data that is crucial for Competitive Intelligence Professionals. This short note will outline some of the principles underlining the Invisible Web, as well as tools that will help you access it.

The Deep Web (also called Deepnet, the invisible Web, DarkNet dark Web or the hidden Web) refers to World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines

Wikipedia

Why is there an " Invisible Web" ?

The are several types of information the search engine cannot tap into. To simplify, I will provide here a few examples that are most relevant to Competitive Intelligence Professionals:

Dynamically generated pages

A number of pages can be generated based on the criteria the searcher has provided. This is the case for example of requests made on sites that provide statistical data. Search engines cannot make requests for specific searches and therefore cannot access the data that is generated.

An example of a site built this way is the World Bank Statistics.

Excluded pages

Some site owners prefer to avoid having their webpages appearing in search engines. They can structure their webpage therefore by including meta tags that will cause search engines to avoid the page. This could be a problem when you are researching specific technologies or companies who voluntarily want to stay "under the radar".

Searchable databases

Much of the world structured data has been organized in databases that are fully accessible but require the user to use a keyword to locate the information he / she needs. Here are a few examples:

Articles: Newspapers like the Financial Times that offer their full archives freely to users
European Patents : as a researcher, you can access the list of patents deposited in the European Patent Offices
Incorporation documents: when researching a private company, you can browse the list of States websites giving you access to the incorporation documents of those companies, allowing you to access details about ownership, board composition etc...
Financial information: you can browse the SEC Filing to access financial data about US companies

However, when a search engine will try to index that content, it will fail and be blocked by the search form on that site - the search engine does not create keywords... As a result, unless the information has been provided page by page by the content owner to the search engine ( for example, the publications by academics for Google, now accessible though Google Scholar), none of the content will ever appear in a search engine.

Here is a good summary by Emerald Insight

What does it mean for the Competitive Intelligence Professional ?

Understanding the "Invisible Web" concept is one of the key skills of the Competitive intelligence professional for several reasons:

Access to structured data: our research shows that over 70% of the data needed for competitive analysis is kept in structured databases such as the ones listed above. It is therefore crucial to know how to tap into those sources.
Ability to listen to weak signals: for those tracking weak signals, or new technologies, it is important to understand that a generic search engine will not return many relevant results. Drop Google and dive into the Invisible Web.

Meet the "pathfinders"

When there is a market, there is a product: "Pathfinders" have emerged to allow researchers to be able to track the path to those databases they so badly need. As few of those pathfinders have a business model, you can expect those sites to be sometimes shabby and disorganized.

Here is a sample of pathfinders I use:

Complete Planet: CompletePlanet gives you access to over 70,000 databases. They are all organized into categories so it is easy to browse to what you are interested in. The site does not seem to have been spammed yet, so it is quite relevant. One word of caution: I have noticed that the number of 70,000 databases has not changed in the past year, so I am not sure how updated that list is getting ...
Infomine: Infomine is a scholarly Internet resource Collection. Databases have been organized by large categories ( Bio and Medical Sciences; Government; Business and economics etc...)
Alacrawiki: for those familiar with Wikipedia, the format will be reinsuring. Alacrawiki is the collective work of experts who provide you with the best resources to research an industry. The search for the industry can be confusing: make sure you use broad keywords to access specific industries. For example, check Alacrawiki-retail or Alacrawiki-oil for the Retail or the Oil industry.
CloserLook : with Closerlook, Goatechnologies, based out of Montreal, has developed an engine that searches the Invisible Web for any public database including corporate data. One can search for a private company in the United States (the site covers today only North America) and access all incorporation documents, law suits pending, patents and trademarks, list of officers etc... Each search costs $0.99.

Gold nuggets

Occasionally, one finds some fascinating sources of information on the Invisible Web. Here are a few examples of interesting sources of information:

Flightaware will give you access to all the flight plans or a specific aircraft. The site was built to allow you to track commercial flights, but you can also enter any tail number and track a private aircraft or a helicopter (of course, you'd have to know that tail number - check the Federal Administration Registry by searching by company name to get those). This is certainly useful when tracking a flight you are taking, but some of our clients have used it to track competitors - a mining company tracked helicopters to check prospections, a corporate office tracked the corporate jet of a competitor to anticipate mergers and acquisitions).
123people will search the Invisible Web to find a person's profile. It will for example track that person's Wish List on Amazon, a great way to understand better a person's interest (what is more personal than your reading list ?)
The Database of Federally Funded Research will give you access to any research done in the United States by private labs, universities, companies, that has received a tax incentive...
Market Research.com : this site aggregates a large number of market research reports published in English. I love the fact you can search with text within each market research report and therefore check how relevant a particular report is to you. In particular, the site will tell you how often your keyword appears with a specific report, and on what pages. Searching and accessing the executive summary is free, but requires a registration.
FindArticles.com a (mostly) free database of previously published articles. Covers a large number of publications worldwide.

What will the future hold ?

Here are my predictions for the future of the "Invisible Web"

New search engines will appear that will find the way to index the Invisible Web database. I am screening for example the initiative by Deeppeep or DeepDyve trying to specialize in Web Forms
Google will continue to strive and index part of the Invisible Web. After Google Scholar mentioned above, the tool is trying to index Patents ( see Google Patents ) and other areas will follow
Experts will further use social media to identify and point out those databases. Alacrawiki has been a good start, but we have yet to see a more complete aggregator or curator for those sources of information
The size of the Invisible Web will continue to grow - maybe one day making the generic, mega search engines such as Google obsolete for researchers

I find this cartoon published a few years ago by the New York Times illustrates well what the (wishful) future holds:

Over to you: Are you using specific databases from the Invisible Web ? Please share you best-ofs here

Ten ways you can use Twitter for Competitive Intelligence

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:30:00 -0700

Twitter is turning out to be a fantastic tool for Competitive Intelligence professionals: it allows them not only to screen competitors actions, but also to build an effective - and "crowdsourced" scanning of news and trends. Here are the TOP 10 uses of Twitter for anyone who is involved with marketing, market research, business development, and strategic analysis. Ready to jump ?

1- Filtering news

For anyone who has been struggling with setting up alerts, for example with Google Alerts or other search engines, Twitter offers a rapid way to get to you desk the news you need - and have others filter them for you ! Here is the step by step process

In Twitter, search for people, experts or accounts who screen news in your industry. For example, to scan news from the banking industry, type "banking news" and several accounts will appear ( i.e. @americanbanking will appear, which is the twitter account for a well regarded magazine in this field . Posts that will appear are all related to news in the industry).
Start following those accounts
Once you have identified several experts, I suggest you add them all into a list so that you can separate the content according to what you are looking for (i.e. Banking news; banking players; banking trends etc.)

You will solve with Twitter the challenge we are all facing: news have to be screened manually, yet few of us have the resources or the personal to do it for us. By shifting that responsibility to the crowd, you access additional relevant ressources online.

2- Scanning trends

By systematically identifying experts who follow the industry, or technology you are interested in, you will be able to tap into their knowledge and network. I am for example intensively following the following people who are on top of some of the major consumer and business trends:

Venessa Miemis @venessamiemis currently is building a project about "the future of Money" quite relevant in my serach fro trends in the finanical institutions industry
Trendwatching @trendwatching which is tapping into its network of over 7,000 trendspotters worldwide to bring to you a summary of key trends
Jack Uldrich in @jumpthecurve a futurist and author
A group of individuals @good who try to push the world forward

For others, just browse my list of trend-spotters here

3-Building a daily newsletter

Watch this tool ! Paper.li is about to become one of the alternative to newspapers. This amazing tool build a daily newsletter from the comments, articles and blogs of experts. It creates the contentusing all the links (articles) shared in the past 24 hours by all Twitter users on the selected list, or based on a specific keyword.

Once you have built a list of people who twit about a specific subject, paper-li will every day build for you a newsletter that can be send to others (for example, your internal clients, people to whom you would be sending the news you have scanned), or simply post on your Intranet, website or.... on Twitter !

The newsletter can be automated: if you select to create alerts, the daily version will automatically be advertised on Twitter. I also like the format: clean, simple, it reads easily.

Finally, it allows you to track posts that you might have missed during your screening of your lists on Twitter - noone is on 24 hours a day !

Check here an example of my daily newsletter for futurists

4- Following a company or a brand

You have two ways to follow a particular company, or brand, or keyword. First, you can search for the term you are interested in, and save that search for future reference.

Alternatively, you can use the # ( note: Twitter addicts call this sign a hashtag) that corresponds to this term (in our case, #banking ). This search will provide you with more focussed results as those who posted the news have taken the time to notify that this has to do with "banking".

5- Build a network of spotters

As in most of the social tools, the value is not in the data you can access, but in understanding relations between people, and networks. In Twitter, develop a curious mind: once you have found someone whose content interest you, check:

Who that person is following : who they get their inspiration from
Who follows that person: who else is interested in the same ocntent and therefore might become a good source of inspiration
Which list this person is maintaining: who they advise you to look at in this field

Do not forgot there is an unwritten etiquette in twitter to build and maintain a network effectively: you might want to thank people who follow your accounts; connect directly with peeple by sending them a direct message instead of a public one for persona questions / issues etc...

6- Getting answers to specific questions

Why not use twitter as a way to get others to pitch in when you have a specific question ? My experience shows that in order to get a response, you should be specific in what you are asking for. Offering to provide a summary of what you learned from others could be also a good way to share back and thank those who helped.

Nancy Marmolejo explained in her blog how she gets people to answer her on Twitter (You can get the audio and downloadable action guide HERE):

1. Stay curious: As soon as the Tweeples sense a hidden agenda, they're not going to respond. So phrase your questions in a way that keeps the perspective simple and curious.

2. Don't be too vague, either; then you won't stand out. So if your question is simply "How's everyone doing today?" it conveys friendliness but anyone could ask that. You're just a collector of information at this point. Watch who responds, click over to check who they are and what relevance they have to your question.

3. Build trust: Everyone's out there hawkin' something on Twitter now, so naturally the resistance levels in the Twitterverse are rising.Trust builders can ask about the little things in life and not necessarily relate back to your business. In essence, you're giving your followers opportunities to read and respond to you.

4. Avoid questions that sound like veiled pitches

7- Accessing the best minds in Competitive Intelligence

Although I find that Competitive Intelligence have been shy on Twitter, some inquisitive minds, and future-minded experts already have been leveraging the tool to share some of the best practices, tools and sources of information online. I will writte an article about those experts at a later stage, but here is the summary and my picks today:

In English:

Tara Calishain @researchbuzz
Acute Intelligence @aquteintel
The Association of Independant Information Professionals @AIIP
Ellen Naylor @ellennaylor
Freepint @freepint
Ulla de Stricker @ulladestricker
Tome Hawes @JTHawes
Compete @compete
Ian Smith @citweetz
Full list of here

In French:

Christophe Deschamps @crid
Atelier Veille @atelier_veille
Olivier Andrieu @abondance_com
Bleu cactus @bleucactus
The full list is here

8- Get twitter to answer

Twitter will answer your questions here

9- Organizing yourself - a few last tips

I use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to access my Twitter account. This allows me to see each list as a separate column and rapidly scan the news for each topic everyday

Many participants in Competia course ask how I organize my day - Twitter can be time consuming, especially at first. I tend to carve out of my day 1/2 hour everyday to scan my sources on Twitter. Because I have organized each expert accoring to their field of expertise, it does not take much time to go straight away to the relevant information.

If you are starting, take the time to get familiar with the tools, and invest in "listening time": you do not have to be active right away, just learn...

10- Continuing learning...

It took me almost two years to be able to find in Twitter the tool I needed. I guess the key for me was to stop using it as a source of data, which would be risky based on many false information and rumors circulate on the Web. As a link to other experts, and as a lever to get others in your field to collaborate with you however, Twitter is very powerful.

Did I miss other applications ? Are you involved in Competitive Intelligence and think you should be listed here ? Add your comments, and I will be happy to retweet them ...

Gone with the wind... blindspots and Skype

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:40:00 -0700

Last winter, I was approached by one of the major investors in Skype, who thought that the research I have done on strategic blindspots would be very valuable for the new team leading Skype's strategy. I got very excited by the opportunity- not only do I use Skype, but I believe the company has succeeded in touching its customers in a rare and intimate way...

The company has succeeded in building with its customers in a rare, intimate relation

As a customer, my appreciation of the products runs very deep because Skype has changed my family in many ways:

After our move, allowing my son to continue connecting each week with his friend. Every Sunday at 7PM, they meet on Skype, exchange Pokemon cards, trade the latest joke, and occasionally share a game of chess or battleship. Skype has become the friendship line.
Enabling our 98 years old grand-mother, to see her grand grand children in Vancouver and talk to them for the first time. They baked her birthday cake and blew the candle in front of her. Many tears. Priceless.
Allowing my husband to share his experience on his many long distance trips. He once walked throughout downtown Shanghai to show the kids what his work is about. Great learning.

As a result , we are very faithful customers. We registered for four full world subscriptions, use Skype for conference calls regularly, and even have equipped our home with Skype real phones allowing us to flawlessly make calls on Skype. Skype is on our iphones, ipads etc...

Hitting the wall of corporate assumptions

Yet, my first conversation with the young analyst working on the turnaround of the company did not go well. After a short introduction of my work around strategic blindspots, he kindly suggested that

Skype had a strategy
It was not going to have to change much
The focus in the next 12 months would be on implementing the strategy already defined a few months ago rather than trying to see if there might be new competitors stepping in

It was clear in my mind that he was blindsided, so I said I would hear from him in 6 months...

When competitors from outside your industry are stepping in

I did not have to wait that long. In the past couple of months, the competitive arena Skype had owned for several years has suddenly opened up:

After the launched of Google Voice , Google announced last August the launch of Google Voice in airports and universities ( see full story here)
Rumors are spreading that Facebook is secretely building a phone (see full story here)
Twitter, and other social networkds still resonate from the consumers' comments ( see example here)
Analysts are now speculating that the company might be acquired by Cisco ( see analysis here)

Skype's blindspots

This example illustrates some of the most classic blindspots. While the company is claiming that its technology is superior, there are signs that its technology is outdating rapidly:

Poor connections: a random survey of business users revealed that although they would use Skype for short business conversations, the technology is never reliable, and they would not use it for an important call with clients
File sharing: Skype is very proud of offering the ability to do multiple users conferencing and sharing of documents. Well, Webex was already doing this for over 10 years now...
Avatars: Skype offers today about 100 avatars. Yet, Skype figures are closer to Super Mario than Avatar. In 2010, and in the year where Avatar was launched, 5 years after the beginning of Second Life, there is no excuse any more for offering to your clients such outdated models
Gaming: Why should a user, when playing games with friends on Skype, have to tweak the camera to see at least part of the board game ?
Etc...

Remember that this overstatement of competence is not unusual. In fact, surveys show that 80% of annual reports claim the company is a leader in its industry ... (go and check yours !)

Where blindspots come from

Management, smart executives, get into a typical pattern:

Management machismo: as described by McKinsey in an earlier article (see Hidden Flaws here)
Arrogance: as the company claims that "Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users." (Skype's website), this does not means the numbers will hold in the future
Lack of frame of reference:David Gurlé, Vice President and General Manager for Skype for Business, has more than 17 years of telecommunications experience. Would this biase his view of the product ?

Avoiding blindspots

A few simple frameworks and exercices can help the executive team and the investors avoid blindspots:

Challenge unchallenged assumptions: list all assumptions / taboos in your company or industry, then systematically question them: "What if ..."
Broaden the industry definition: by a series or reiteration, one can artificially enlarge the definition of its industry, therefore putting on the map potential competitors that would typically not be included in an environment scan. It also offer numerous opportunities to find growth paths, and challenge one's business model
Enlarge the frame of reference of management, by injecting expertise from significantly different industries and experiences

In conclusion, a few ideas for Skype going ahead

Here are a few ideas for Skype's future strategy:

Why not open up to your world of users the ability to develop real, 3D figures as avatars ?
Open up to the community the ability to develop Skype apps- very much in the same model Apple has done it with iTunes
Embed Skype in all trains, cars, buses
Allow a complete integration with the desktop, the ability to share documents, edit and collaborate
Flawlessly embed other tools within Skype - why not the Web so that web pages can be searched and shared while calling?
Embed the most popular board games so that the next generation grows up with Skype
Build on this intimate relation built with customers on a personal level. Isn't it remarkable that none of that is transpiring through the company's site ? It's all about the million users, and none about the stories - those personal experiences and testimonials

More ideas ? Share them here in the comments below ... I'll forward them to Skype !

Top 6 applications on your ipad for Competitive Intelligence

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:00:00 -0700

I have now been playing for a few months with my ipad, and have been researching to answer the following question: "Does this new tool offer new opportunities for Competitive Intelligence and Strategy professionals?". Although this is just the beginning - I expect many new applications to come in as more users adopt the ipad- here is my best-of list of applications that I am now regularly using when scanning news, facilitating strategic discussions, and trying to simplify my life altogether.

Keynote: replace PowerPoint

Those who already have are using an Apple computer know the iworks software suite well. Apple has now launched it for the ipad. You can now install for instance " Keynote" on your ipad - and it will replace PowerPoint. A good way to design presentations on the go.The tool takes advantage of the iPad's multitouch functions - an easy way to arrange pictures, text. Pages can be reordered by tapping and dragging your finger.

Image source: Mcworld

A note: the iworks suite includes also Numbers (spreadsheets), and Pages (word processing).

Keynote is here

Mightymeeting: share presentations

I use Mightymeetings when I need to share a PowerPoint (or Acrobat, or Word) document with someone - but do not expect t have to modify it. I use it while sitting in a room with my cients, or I can also invite them to join me online and access the presentation I am showing. I have used in the past - and am still using in some instance - Webex or Dimdim, but I find that on the ipad, Mightymeeting is by far the easiest to use.

Look here at this video / tutorial, which explains how you can also use Mightymeeting to project a PowerPoint presentation from your ipad into a projector.

Mightymeeting is here

SimplemindX: use when brain-storming

A neat little application to help capture the ideas flowing during a brain storming exercise.

Image source: labs.justsearching.co.uk

SimplemindX is here

Paperdesk: take notes

Paperdesk has now replaced for me all my paper notepads. I take my notes directly on the ipad, either by use the keyboard, or witha stylettus. I find the tool a lot more convenient than using my computer: in a conference for example, the ipad fires up more rapidly, my notes are confidential (they sit on my knies instead of having your screen visible by others), and the fact the keyboard is illuminated allows me to take note in the dark, for example when a presenter is on stage.

Paperdesk is here

Newsrack : keep track of the latest posts in scientific blogs (and many others...)

I have tested many applications, trying to find the one I would use the most to screen the vast amount of information published by blogs everyday. Newsrack fits the bill for me. I can select from a directory of popular blogs, or enter the RSS feed for a particular blog I want to follow. Here is for example a list of the ones I read everyday from the directory:

Phil McKinney on ingenuity : great posts on issues of innovation, management and leadership
Innoblog: also on innovation
Innovation Weblog: innovation again
elearnspace: new technologies, tools and resources to learn - and become a better trainer
Scientific American: latest scientific news
Visual Business Intelligence : mostly covering tools that deal with how to analyze data

Newsrack allows to share useful content very easily -either by email, or via a social network. Finally, I like the fact I can load the blogs when in the office, and then read them remotely.

Newsrack is here

CarIndex: Obtain information of a car owner by entering their car licence plate

Last but not least, this application symbolizes for me the dangers of allowing complete access to information. I installed CarIndex last week for Switzerland, where I live, and was amazed to see that one can enter any car plaque number, and obtain the full name and address of the owner of the car. A serious breach of privacy, in my mind... Imagine if you would use this application to investigate the list of employees working at a competitor's office...

Image source: benm.at

Carindex is here

And you ? what tools are you using for Competitive Intelligence on your ipad ?

What you should know about "Competitive Intelligence Advantage" if you have not yet read it

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:00:00 -0700

I rarely read business books, especially in my field, so I was very happy to receive a copy of the book "Competitive Intelligence Advantage"by Seena Sharp.

In many respects, the book is a good introduction to Competitive Intelligence. It covers the aspects of the sources of information, the need to check the validity of the information, the stages of CI, and the differences- and linkages with market research. I selfishly enjoyed the first part of the book more (when she is grasping the challenge of describing the mindset of Competitive Intelligence ) than the second half (geared towards to less experienced Competitive Intelligence professionals). It is always challenging to write a book that addresses both the novice (hence the chapter on "what is competitive intelligence" is ) and the seasoned practitioner - who is looking at the internal implementation of the process and the way to add most value.

What I learned / liked

In the first part of the book, Sheen has tackled in the very tough - yet crucial - challenge of demystifying what is the core of the Competitive Intelligence: how to help management anticipate. The following quote:

" The Mind can only see what it is prepared to do"

by Edward de Bono sets the tone right away and introduces the challenges posed by biases in the analysis. I have enjoyed the first chapters of the book immensely. Lots of examples, and some fantastic quotes. My favorite one is "Trust, but verify" by Ronald Reagan capture well the mindset any analysts working on analyzing strategy . I also like the following: "To be competitive we have to constantly reexamine our assumptions" (Michael Porter in "Competitive Strategy"), or "Unlearn what is no longer true"

I love the wealth of counter intuitive examples and facts she has put forward in different parts of the book, emphasizing the importance to be surprised at anomalies, a rare skill that I do not see often in companies.

Sheena has a nice spin on the traditional definition of Competitive Intelligence:

"Competitive Intelligence is the knowledge and foreknowledge about the entire business environment that results in action".

Although I disagree about the last part - that knowledge does not always have to result in action (I believe that reflecting on your market, pausing to think about what's ahead can be in itself a huge value the process brings), she captures the overall change in our industry where competitor analysis becomes a lot less relevant, and the understanding of the environment a lot more. I can't help but reflect that this is finally going to happen - even if my experience with CEOs and companies is still that few spend real quality time looking forward. She rightly points out the disconnect senior executives have with their internal operations when she asks "How many times have executives used the company's call center or their internal help desk ?". Finally she captures well the essence of the question on the frequent question of ROI in Competitive Intelligence: how do I measure the value a Competitive Intelligence process brings to my organization ?

What I skipped - or If someone mentions SWOT again, I scream !

After talking about sources of information, she offers relatively few insights about analysis techniques, not offers frameworks or tools to guide the process to get insight from data ( note: here is a product plug - we do ! see here )

A few words about SWOT: ""Performing SWOT is quite valuable"" says the author - I think that SWOT is a nice way to structure data, certainly not to add value to it (got to write a blog post about this, and suggest alternatives...). A small attempt is made as suggesting avenues for trend analysis, but I wish she had elaborated more on the subject.

"Consumer expectations are often set ouside of your own industry (from trendwatching Bruce Nussbaum). Maybe it is because Intelligence requires context and thoughtful analysis, contemplation for what it really means data is likely to be accepted while intelligence is more apt to be debated and argued"

Speed reading

Read page 17 into the unusual facts she pulled out - any of those can generate new business ideas or challenge common wisdom:

"Pepsi is China's largest potato grower" or Los Angeles County is the largest manufacturing center in the United States""
" American women are the fastest-growing part of the motorcycle business"" - hey, I am even one of them - not American, but proud owner of a motorcycle license !
"Gen Yers are the biggest users of libraries".

Read page 162- the checklist of questions to ask to check for blindspots. I like those: "do you know what's no longer true"? or "do you have a contrarian in your organization ?"

Read page 268 for attributes of a good CI professional. This questions gets asked to me often when people are hiring and need to write the job description

To end this little note, here are a few very practical tips and processes

Here are a few tips I like that Seena is proposing:

The walk-in whiteboard: one of her clients had placed a whiteboard in the corridor where employees would write about any information they thought would e of interest in the company - then sponsored a lunch to discuss the items. The process brought lots of value: a teaching tool to relay what is important, the ability to meet people from different functions, an ability to track weak signals, and creates all lots of goodwill and energy
Use the Supreme Court Approach: the skill and the courage to write "dissenting papers"
I like her comments about making presentations to school children

Looking forward to your comments ...

Great minds: Meet Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer of WIPRO (105,000 employees learning...)

Wed, 12 May 2010 14:00:00 -0700

I am pleased to introduce you to Abhijit Bhaduri, who has the challenging mandate of helping WIPRO's 105,000 employees to learn... Abhijit is the Chief Learning Officer of Wipro Ltd and is based out of Bangalore,India. He is a man of multiple facets: he loves theatre and has acted in plays staged in India, Kuala Lumpur and US. He hosted a popular radio show in US, about classic Hindi movies and film music. The ever popular B School novel - MEDIOCRE BUT ARROGANT is his debut novel. The sequel MARRIED BUT AVAILABLE has also been featured in several bestseller lists ...

Estelle: What skills do you want your employees to have to allow the company to succeed in the next 20 years ?

AB: In 1990, we could not have seen the all pervasive influence of things like social media and the mobile phone in our lives. Who could have thought of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the financial crisis and the global recession. So for me to make a prediction for the next 20 years is to set myself up for failure !

I believe that leaders who bring in a multi function, multi business and multi geography perspective will succeed better since business opportunities are going to lie at intersection points. For instance: When you have a leader who understands not just mobile technology but also consumer needs around entertainment or education, there is a business opportunity. If that person were to be a designer, you have a brilliant combination. I believe the consumer will become more sophisticated and look beyond meeting purely functional needs. They will look for design and aesthetics in the products or services. Leaders who are equally at home in quantitative analysis as they are in understanding qualitative nuances will be more successful. Clearly people who have a more eclectic education - say Finance, Human Resources and Design will be valuable. A more international outlook will make a leader comfortable in not only understanding cultural nuances of the consumer but will also build a more inclusive work environment which will attract the best talent globally.

Estelle: How do YOU learn ?

AB: I learn by reading a wide variety of blogs, magazines and talking to a very diverse group of people from different professions. That helps me to learn about trends and developments. I am especially interested in understand points where technology impacts human behavior. Mass fiction and movies that have mass appeal give us ways to understand societal shifts. I like to follow Gautam Ghosh's blog http://www.gautamblogs.com/ for stuff related to Organizations. Harvard blogs http://blogs.hbr.org/ for ideas on business and leadership. I read Santosh Desai's blog to get insights about consumers in India http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citycitybangbang/ and I read author Shobhaa De's blog http://shobhaade.blogspot.com/.

Here are additional sources I enjoy:

I love reading Thomas Friedman's writings at http://nyti.ms/bCh2Ey
The technology blog of Businessweek gives great ideas http://www.businessweek.com/technology/
I enjoy Stanley Bing's column in Fortune magazine. The Economist http://www.economist.com is another favorite. The TED.com site some inspiring videos.

I also learn a great deal from Twitter. I try to follow approx 40 people on Twitter - never more than that. (If I add someone, I necessarily drop someone to keep the number manageable). This is by far the most useful tool for me to read a wide variety of ideas in the shortest possible time. The 140 character limit forces people to be crisp. Twitter is a terrific tool that lets you get updates in various fields across the world. The trick is to follow leaders who aggregate and filter information or else one could drown in information overload. My favorites on twitter are @DanSchawbel, @dtapscott, @Atanubasu @competia @ted_talks

Estelle: How do you make sure WIPRO's 90,000 employees keep learning ? Any innovative initiative you can talk about ?

AB: Actually we have 105,000 employees ! - and they need to be updated constantly on technical skills and also their leadership perspectives. Our model works on the principle of Leaders Build Leaders. All our senior leaders including Mr Azim Premji our Chairman spend time with a cross section of leaders at different levels. When these leaders teach a class, they distil lessons they have learnt and pass it on to others. These sessions also serve to give the leaders an opportunity to get ideas from the field.

Note from Estelle: I like this video from Azim Premji about "Failure Is Essential Part of Process"

Offering challenging assignments across businesses and in different parts of the world has worked well for us. We have formed a consortium of Leaders drawn from different companies around the world. These provide an opportunity for leaders to see how the same problem is interpreted and solved differently by different businesses and in different countries. The result is that we are able to fill 80% of our vacancies with leaders grown from within. We also get in leaders at strategic levels who bring in new ideas and perspectives. That helps us to retain an entrepreneurial culture even as we are growing across 50 countries across business as diverse as IT, Solar Energy, Hydraulics, Consumer Goods and consulting !

Estelle: You have multiple lives: chief learning officer, writer, art critic...how do you reconcile those ?

AB: They all co-exist. Each one gives me a chance to draw on insights that I can use to fuel my other passions. I enjoy writing popular fiction because it gives me a chance to see how well I can convey a complex plotline in a manner that engages a very diverse group of readers. Writing regularly for my website, helps build discipline of following a routine. Dealing with rejection slips from publishers (and I got plenty of them!) has taught me lessons in resilience that I would never have learnt. The feedback from the readers tells me how I should sharpen my skills. It has taught me how to use the social media. It taught me how to market my ideas. So of all my interests, clearly writing has been the most enriching. That is where it all converges.

Estelle: Can you name a few blindspots companies have not yet noticed

AB: Teaching leaders how to manage a multi generational workforce that comes from different socio-economic-political backgrounds in a global world is a huge area of development that we have not started addressing adequately. By that I mean getting beyond cross cultural sensitivity training. Learning how to lead and communicate with these groups of people, getting them to evangelize your ideas, using a combination of technology and face to face communication to influence while at the same time seeking their ideas is a complex leadership role.

You can read Abhijit at at http://abhijitbhaduri.com/

Senior Management Buy-In and How to Get It

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:45:00 -0700

Note from the author: This article is an edited reprint, Competia Magazine, July/August 2001, but so many people ask me for a copy, I figured I'd give it back to you. Who said only recent articles are good articles? Good things last.

When clients and executives ask me how to gain top management attention, I usually make a simple comparison: CEOs or top managers are kind of like little kids: to attract their attention, you have to wave a shiny toy in front of them, and if you ask them if they prefer A or B, they'll say "both."

This example illustrates how difficult it can be to please your senior management. However, some competitive intelligence analysts seem to get it: the door of the CEO's office is always open for them, he or she returns their phone calls, reads the e-mails they send, acts upon their recommendations, and the analysts do not seem to have any difficulty in getting budgets approved. What is the recipe? The following article highlights 9 steps to gain senior management buy-in:

Deliver
Over-deliver
Be concise
Go for it
Bring facts - not anecdotes
Avoid surprises
Have an answer - always
Help in all aspects of their role
Beware of their ego

Deliver

The first rule to obtain senior management buy-in and to gain credibility is to deliver on the three dimensions: quality, time and format. This means your end product - a report, a presentation or recommendations - have to match expectations, that the numbers have to be verified and be correct, and that you are answering the questions. Time means you do not miss a deadline. Format means if you are to provide a one-page summary, you should stick with your commitment instead of producing a 15-page document.