Online price comparison comes to electricity
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080729-Online-price-comparison-comes-to-electricity.html?source=cmailer
The need to combat global warming may mean the price of electricity is unlikely to go backwards any time soon, but a new Australian website aims to help consumers get the best deal available.
GoSwitch.com.au is a free online comparison site for electricity prices launched earlier this month by Melbourne entrepreneur Ben Freund.
The site will be of most use for consumers in the deregulated retail energy markets of South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, where new home owners or renters are faced with a choice between dozens of different plans and providers when they move into a new residence.
The site also allows users to compare the prices offered by alternative gas suppliers.
Sitting on the company’s board with Freund are Cliff Rosenberg, an experienced web entrepreneur and executive chairman of online marketing firm Clear Light Digital, and SEEK founding chairman Irvin Rockman.
Telstra small business wizard site
https://www.businesswizard.com.au/genie/default.aspx
Telstra small business website which uses questions to identify ideal products and services for your business and then emails you the recommendations.
3 Phone Selector website
http://www.threeselector.com/
Example of phone selector website covering handsets and plans
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Business Process Management
Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference
http://www.bnet.com/2439-13238_23-210144.html?promo=808&tag=nl.e808
Thanks to powerful tools like ERP and CRM, backed by cheap networks, companies are swiftly replicating business-process innovations throughout their organizations. The firm with the best processes (order fulfillment, field installation, job closing) wins, but not for long. Rivals are striking back with their own IT-based process innovations.
To gain--and keep--a competitive edge in this environment, McAfee and Brynjolfsson recommend a three-step strategy:
The Idea in Practice
The authors recommend these steps for staying ahead of rivals through IT-enabled process innovation:
Deploy. Adopt a uniform technology platform to be used throughout your company.
Before deploying a consistent platform, Cisco's various units had nine different tools for checking an order's status. Each pulled information from different repositories and defined key terms differently, leading to circulation of conflicting order-status reports around the company. The company reconfigured its IT systems for consistent execution of key business processes including market to sell, lead to order, quote to cash, issue to resolution, forecast to build, idea to product, and hire to retire. The payoff? Strong performance over the past few years.
Innovate. Design better ways of doing work in your company. The best candidates for innovation are processes that:
http://www.bnet.com/2439-13238_23-210144.html?promo=808&tag=nl.e808
Thanks to powerful tools like ERP and CRM, backed by cheap networks, companies are swiftly replicating business-process innovations throughout their organizations. The firm with the best processes (order fulfillment, field installation, job closing) wins, but not for long. Rivals are striking back with their own IT-based process innovations.
To gain--and keep--a competitive edge in this environment, McAfee and Brynjolfsson recommend a three-step strategy:
- Deploy a consistent technology platform, rather than stitching together a jumble of legacy systems.
- Innovate better ways of working.
- Propagate those process innovations widely throughout your company.
The Idea in Practice
The authors recommend these steps for staying ahead of rivals through IT-enabled process innovation:
Deploy. Adopt a uniform technology platform to be used throughout your company.
Before deploying a consistent platform, Cisco's various units had nine different tools for checking an order's status. Each pulled information from different repositories and defined key terms differently, leading to circulation of conflicting order-status reports around the company. The company reconfigured its IT systems for consistent execution of key business processes including market to sell, lead to order, quote to cash, issue to resolution, forecast to build, idea to product, and hire to retire. The payoff? Strong performance over the past few years.
Innovate. Design better ways of doing work in your company. The best candidates for innovation are processes that:
- Apply across a large swatch of your company (such as all your stores, factories, or delivery teams)
- Produce results as soon as your new IT system goes live
- Require precise instructions (such as order taking or delivery)
- Can be executed the same way everywhere and every time in your organization
- Can be tracked in real time so you can immediately spot and address any backsliding to older versions of the process
U.K. grocery chain Tesco has long used customer-rewards cards to collect detailed data on individual purchases, to categorize customers, and to tailor offers. But it went one step further: tracking redemption rates for direct-marketing initiatives and tweaking its processes to get better responses from customers. Its process innovation drove its redemption rate to 20%--far above the industry's average of 2%.
Propagate. Use IT to replicate process innovations throughout your company.
At CVS pharmacies, customer satisfaction was declining. The reason: Prescription orders were delayed during the insurance check, which was performed after customers had left the store. So customers weren't immediately available to answer common questions such as "Have you changed jobs?" The company decided to move the insurance check forward in the prescription-fulfillment process, before the drug-safety review, so customers would still be around to answer questions.
The process change was embedded in the information systems that supported operations at all 4,000 CVS pharmacies in the United States. Performance improved across all the pharmacies, and customer satisfaction scores rose from 86% to 91%--a dramatic difference in the aggressive pharmacy market.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Creating leaders
The MFA is the New MBA HBR IdeaCast
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1771&tag=content;col1&tag=nl.e713
Companies like GM increasingly value right-brain creative thinking. In this podcast, Katherine Bell explains that creative training also teaches skills that directly transfer to management: how to take criticism, what motivates people, how to engage your audience, and when to let go of good ideas.
Australian Leadership and Management Development Practices Survey
http://www.beaton.com.au/pdfs/BC_LMDsurvey.pdf
Extracts: In 2003, Beaton Consulting conducted a two-staged research study. Commencing with focus groups, we identified key practices and issues faced by firms today, and used this information to construct a web-based survey of professional service firms. Our findings represent responses from 160 firms in Australia and New Zealand, of which about half were law firms. About half the respondents were managing partners or CEOs; the others were human resources directors, partners-in-charge of departments and general managers.
Low cost, low ‘commitment’ initiatives are the order of the day
‘High commitment’ initiatives are considered to be more effective – but not necessarily the most used! However, simply because an initiative is effective, doesn’t guarantee it will be widely used. Both effective and ineffective initiatives are highly used. Four key findings indicate that LMD initiatives suffer from a lack of relevance.
Firstly, people don’t see that they have a personal responsibility for developing their own leadership and management skills. Secondly, technical staff don’t see the relevance of leadership and management development in their own roles. Thirdly, senior level participation on programs is low, further indicating a possible lack of relevance in their minds for the need to develop their leadership capability. Finally, the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of LMD investments – both in dollar outcomes and in behavioural change terms – means it is difficult to demonstrate the relevance of programs to the firm’s overall strategy.
LMD initiatives tend to suffer from a lack of relevance and budgets are tightening
Overall, firms appear uncertain about the value of LMD initiatives. They find it difficult to distinguish the effectiveness of one initiative from another or to agree among themselves
which initiatives are indeed most effective. The cost-benefit of investing in LMD initiatives
is not well understood. Budgets allocated for LMD initiatives are not secure, particularly with larger spending firms. LMD initiatives are in a precarious position.
These findings suggest that if LMD initiatives are to be sustainable, they need partners of the
firm to position LMD strategically and to become its champions. They can only do this in the full knowledge of the impact of LMD initiatives on the growth and profit objectives of the firm. Some suggestions for repositioning LMD strategically are as follows.
Firstly, firms would benefit from HR being able to quantify the cost-benefit of LMD initiatives – for instance, through the development of clear key performance indicators that link LMD outcomes to the firm’s drivers of success. Secondly, HR practitioners could promote
initiatives more effectively by focusing on those initiatives that have particular relevance
to senior managers/partners, such as coaching and assessment of potential. Additionally,
increasing the participation of seniormanagers/partners in programs that are relevant and compelling is likely to embed a culture of learning and behaviour change and increase the firm’s commitment to ongoing investment.
Thirdly, opportunities exist to develop reward and recognition systems that consolidate and reward the learning. Finally, LMD investment could be more effectively applied by redirecting budgets and resources away from low impact initiatives such as conferences and generic external programs and towards those of higher impact, including assessment of potential, executive coaching and the introduction of tailored internal programs.
LMD needs to stand and deliver
Many firms that are highly committed in budget terms to LMD initiatives are reconsidering this expenditure, with up to 38% considering reducing overall budgets in the coming year. Perhaps this is related to their inability to effectively demonstrate relevance of LMD initiatives as discussed above.
Despite this finding, respondents indicated that they intend to increase investment in two emerging areas – assessment of potential and executive coaching. Interestingly, very few firms intend to scale down those programs regarded as least effective (literature, conferences and seminars) – perhaps because these initiatives required few resources or effort internally and may be lower in cost.
Institute researches the value of management qualifications (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls070919.htm
Extract: Survey suggests that senior leadership job prospects are increasingly being influenced by an individual’s commitment to their long-term professional development:
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls080110.htm
Extract: While senior executives are rated highest in business competence, it is their empathy and trustworthiness that are the best predictors of overall effective leadership, according to a study of 1,405 leaders in 47 organisations by consultants BlessingWhite.
BlessingWhite - based in Princeton, NJ, with locations in London, Chicago, San Francisco and Melbourne - says the six-year study analysed feedback on the executives from nearly 8,000 colleagues including direct reports, peers and superiors.
Respondents were asked to rate the individuals in 54 areas, which were combined into eight categories spanning both business and personal characteristics.
The study found that the executives were generally rated highest in the core competencies of business aptitude, responsibility, clarity and internal attunement/self-confidence. However, it was high scores in empathy and trustworthiness, followed by business aptitude, that were found to be most predictive of high ratings for overall leadership effectiveness. According to the study:
What are leaders good at? (ratings highest-to-lowest)
http://www.ideashape.com/leadership-research.htm
Extracts: 265 leaders participated by invitation in this extensive online survey. One-third are executives, another third directors or managers, and the rest are primarily business owners and consultants.
What Makes a Successful Leader?
Vision topped the list of critical leadership capacities for nearly all leaders. Two other "applied EI" capacities -- Relationship Building and People Development -- were ranked in the top 5, along with Strategic Thinking and Execution.
Of the remaining 15 capacities studied, all the EI items -- including Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Adaptability -- were rated as more important than the traditional leadership capacities, such as External/Market Orientation, Financial Acumen, and Planning.
However, leaders of different personality type, job level, and experience rated many capacities quite differently. For example, Executives were more than twice as likely to value Optimism as were Managers/Directors or Consultants. Regardless of job level, participants of different personality type showed substantial variation in what they consider important to successful leadership.
Leaders Speak Out on Emotional Intelligence
Most leaders believe Emotional Intelligence is about building relationships and using emotions wisely, reading people, and being aware of their own emotions. These responses are consistent across levels, experience, and personality.
Nearly all leaders believe EI can be developed and are able to offer recommendations developing EI. These recommendations vary substantially by years of leadership experience. For example, the more experienced the leader, the more likely to recommend training, coaching, feedback, and self-directed development.
When leaders describe how they develop their own EI, years of experience is far less significant in differentiating their responses. Instead, leaders of different personality types (MBTI) develop their own EI very differently. For example, people with Feeling Perceiving preferences (FP's) are nearly three times more likely than people with Thinking Perceiving preferences (TP's) to cite training/group experiences as important in developing their EI.
Surprisingly, gender matters not at all in any of our findings. Men and women provided similar answers in describing EI, how it can be developed, how they develop their own EI, and how they rate their own EI.
How these leaders rate various aspects of their own Emotional Intelligence
Leaders at all levels are open to developing Emotional Intelligence, but they talk about it quite differently than do many consultants and EI theorists. Leadership coaches, HR professionals, and others who help people develop their EI should adjust their language and initial focus to reflect aspects of EI that resonate most with executives and managers – relationships, reading people, self-awareness, rather than empathy, self-confidence, and self-control.
"Soft skills" development programs would benefit from a richer view of what leaders actually value. In particular, leaders are deeply interested in resources that help them extract the learning from their own experiences.
Multiple types of EI development programs are needed to advance leaders of different personality types. MBTI is a significant predictor of the how leaders describe developing their own EI. For example, group learning is indispensable to some types and anathema to others.
To excel at the highly-ranked Relationship Management capacities, leaders should develop their EI "building block" capabilities of self-awareness, reading others, and adaptability. This study shows that leaders may underestimate the importance of these basics in performing the complex capabilities they highly value.
When assessing development needs or engaging in succession planning, leaders should be aware of blind spots or stereotypes they may hold. To the extent that executives view their own strength profiles as especially desirable, they may overlook leaders with different and perhaps complementary strengths. Also, look beyond common MBTI stereotypes. For example, J’s and P’s were indistinguishable in how they valued Execution, Achievement Drive, and Adaptability.
Leadership Research Study: Return on Investment for Various Leadership Development Initiatives (Sensis example)
http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_leadershipresearchsummary_rr.pdf
Extract: Sensis (one of Australia’s leading directory, advertising, and information providers) aims to be the major player in local Australian advertising and search. To meet this objective, the organization places a high priority on developing its people. Sensis chose DDI’s Maximizing Performance®, which is designed to create a high-performance workplace. Using behavior change ratings, the dollar value of the improvements based on salary was estimated. Program costs were subtracted and computed an overall percentage ROI. ROI: This increase in confidence and skills represents a return of 1,060 percent, or $2.2 million, on the training investment made by Sensis.
Study suggests senior managers are missing easy opportunities to build skills (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071206.htm
The research, outlined in a report called 'Realising Value from Online Learning', is based on the views of 998 respondents and includes interviews with 12 large employers.
The findings confirm that Internet access is readily available for the majority of senior managers (90 per cent). However, the study suggests that most (67 per cent) spend 30 minutes or less using company intranets, the Internet or e-learning materials to solve any one problem. Only 54 per cent have made use of online management resources in the past year and just 1 in 5 have participated in a structured e-learning programme.
58 per cent of respondents suggest online learning is a powerful resource for senior managers as they can 'dip in and out as time allows'. Over one-third (35 per cent) also believe the 'constant availability for reference' is a benefit and 1 in 4 (23 per cent) focus on the cost-effectiveness of online resources.
47 per cent of respondents claim resistance to e-learning is caused by the 'loss of the human touch'. 72 per cent still prefer face-to-face conversations and 37 per cent suggest 'tutor-led' development is most effective.
46 per cent of respondents say they have 'too many distractions' diverting them from PC-based development and 20 per cent argue the content fails to 'engage' them. 28 per cent say they lack the motivation to complete online courses, with 17 per cent blaming lack of 'appropriate support'.
What’s Next? The 2007 Changing Nature of Leadership Survey
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/WhatsNext.pdf
Summary: Following a successful launch of the groundbreaking Changing Nature of
Leadership (CNL) research in 2003, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) commissioned a second study on the current field of leadership. The goal: To examine any shifts in thinking over the past four years and to collect data on emerging trends important to current and future leaders. The data was compiled in April 2007 by surveying 1,131 people online. All of the respondents were either past participants of CCL programs or members of our online community, myCCL.
Changing nature of leadership
Results indicate that respondents still believe the definition of leadership has changed over the past five years (76 percent) and the challenges they face are increasingly complex (91 percent). This study sheds light on the why and how behind these findings.
Complex Challenges are Resisting Solutions and Driving the Need for New Approaches
More than 40 percent of respondents noted that their organizations have been facing a complex challenge for two years or more, which shows the challenges are either resisting solutions or morphing into new challenges. Further, these challenges are affecting organizations by forcing leaders to create more innovative solutions and work more collaboratively.
Talent and Talent Development is a Top Priority
When asked to describe the primary challenge their organization is facing, respondents placed talent acquisition/talent development at the top (17 percent). Additionally, 65 percent of respondents believe there will be a talent crisis in the next five years.
To Be Effective in the Future, Leaders Will Need to Develop New Skills
Leaders have a clear view of what skills will be needed to provide effective leadership
in the future. The survey shows that future leadership skills will focus on a number of key characteristics, the foremost being collaboration (49 percent). In addition, leadership change, building effective teams, and influence without authority ranked high in terms of leadership skills needed for the future.
Collaboration Will Be Important in Sustaining High Performance
Not only was collaboration considered the top skill leaders must develop for the future, only 30 percent of respondents believed their leaders are skilled collaborators. Further, when we surveyed a smaller sample of senior leaders, 97 percent said that collaboration was essential to success.
Rewarding Leaders in the Future Will Require a New Approach
When asked to compare their current reward systems with one that would be optimal, some important shifts occurred. First, most organizations currently reward their employees based almost entirely on making the numbers (33 percent) and individual performance (24 percent). While these two metrics for reward remained at the top of the optimal scenario, developing others, collaboration, and innovation rose significantly.
Transformational leadership and shared values: the building blocks of trust
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=271DD7C8F57AA1EEFD0C9E1542508447?contentType=Article&contentId=881606
Abstract: Interpersonal trust is central to sustaining team effectiveness. Whilst leaders play the primary role in establishing and developing trust, little research has examined the specific leadership practices which engender trust toward team leaders. This study investigated the relationship between a set of leadership practices (transformational, transactional, and consultative) and members' trust in their leader, in research and development (R&D) teams. Usable questionnaires were completed by 83 team members drawn from 33 R&D project teams. Three factors together predicted 67 per cent of the variance in team members' trust towards leaders, namely: consulting team members when making decisions, communicating a collective vision, and sharing common values with the leader. Trust in the leader was also strongly associated with the leader's effectiveness. The implications of these findings for leadership development, team building and future research are discussed.
The realities of management promotion
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/RealitiesMgtPromotion.pdf
Description: An interesting but academic article that explores the factors that affect the promotion of managers within organisations.
Differences in the Developmental Needs of Managers at Multiple Levels
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/community/siop2004emerging.pdf
Description: PowerPoint summary of a major multicountry quantitative study of managers.
Conclusions:
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/co080325.htm
Extract: The tenth annual CIPD learning and development survey found that almost three-quarters (71%) of UK employers currently use coaching in their organisations, compared to 63% in 2007. A similar proportion of respondents (72%) found coaching to be an effective tool.
Within organisations that offer coaching to all their employees, general personal development (79%) and helping poor performance (74%) were both cited as the most common purposes for which coaching is used. In organisations that only offer coaching to managers, the survey found that the emphasis shifted towards its positioning as part of a wider management and leadership development programme (61%).
According to the survey, more than two fifths of organisations offer coaching to all employees, 39% offer it to directors and senior management and a third offer it to senior managers and line managers/supervisors.
Leadership Development: Past, Present, and Future
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/cclLeadershipDevelopment.pdf
Abstract: This excellent article reviews notable trends in the leadership development field. In the past two decades, such trends included the proliferation of new leadership development methods and a growing recognition of the importance of a leader’s emotional resonance with others. A growing recognition that leadership development involves more than just developing individual leaders has now led to a greater focus on the context in which leadership is developed, thoughtful consideration about how to best use leadership competencies, and work/life balance issues. Future trends include exciting potential advances in globalization, technology, return on investment (ROI), and new ways of thinking about the nature of leadership and leadership
development.
ASPIRING AUSTRALIAN MIDDLE MANAGERS: A FOLLOW UP STUDY
http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/business/research/resources/2005-08.pdf
Abstract:
Purpose: The current study followed up middle managers who had participated in a survey on Attitudes to Promotion in 1996. The vast majority of the original sample had responded favourably to the question: "Do you want to obtain a senior management position during your managerial career?" In addition, respondents were asked "How confident are you that this will happen?" and "How soon do you feel this will happen?" The aim of the follow up qualitative study was to contact as many of these individuals as possible, to explore the outcome to these questions, and to track what had happened to them in their management careers over the past eight years.
Methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with 19 male and 11 female managers. Outcomes of promotion aspirations were sought, and factors that contributed to success and personal strategies that may have been set in place were explored, as were factors that had hindered their progress. In addition, views were sought on future aspirations for promotion.
Findings: Results indicated gender differences in outcome of promotion, in both proportions of women achieving senior roles, and the time it took for males and females to obtain these promotions with more male middle managers achieving their promotion to senior roles, in less time, than their female colleagues.
Practical implications: The findings were considered in relation to the ongoing career advancement of men and women in management, and in particular, the disproportionate numbers of men and women in senior management roles.
Report finds 'negative' management styles most common in UK organisations
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071212.htm
Extacts: The report, which questioned 1,511 managers, found that the majority (69 per cent) are motivated by 'a sense of achievement from reaching organisational goals'. However, the research says that management style also has a dramatic impact on job satisfaction. For example, the presence of an authoritarian approach depresses enjoyment of work by 27 points, from 71 to 44 per cent. Confidence in senior management teams also declines from 60 to 27 per cent, where the dominant style is bureaucratic.
The most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). All three have become increasingly common; the top two have increased by 6 per cent since 2004, with authoritarian leadership also rising 5 per cent.
Only 1 in 10 respondents said absence increased in organisations with 'innovative' and 'trusting' cultures. This was in contrast to 45 per cent suggesting sickness rates have gone up where employers were 'suspicious'.
Leadership: The Right Stuff
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/By_Subject/Leadership_And_Talent_Management/LeadershipTheRightStuff.htm Extracts: As part of a broader study, we interviewed two generations of accomplished men and women—members of the first group were over 70 years of age and members of the second were under 33—drawn from business, the professions, government, academia, the military and nonprofit organizations.The over-70 group is noteworthy for its members' ability to renew themselves and their organizations over a lifetime. Members of the under-33 group collectively serve as a kind of proxy for the hopes and aspirations of the next generation of leaders, offering glimpses of what that generation knows, doesn't know and needs to learn.
The study identified four key experiences that are common to most leaders:
Mentoring Relationships
Mentors have long exerted dramatic influence on those they mentor, of course, particularly on young people. But two critical elements appeared in virtually every mentoring relationship described in our interviews. First, protégés attracted mentors; there was something compelling about them that made them approachable and interesting. Second, mentors were recruitable; they were open to caring for a particular protégé and willing to share valuable insight without any expectations of reward for their efforts.
Enforced Reflection
This crucible has at its core an opportunity for both exploration and reflection. College has the potential to be such a crucible, particularly as it affords a young person the time and space to explore other possible selves and lifestyles. The same can be said for more regimented settings that emphasize introspection, like yoga retreats, martial arts training and seminaries.
Insertion Into Foreign Territory
Most people find themselves operating in foreign, sometimes hostile, territory at some point in their lives. However, the leaders we interviewed demonstrated a remarkable capacity not only to survive those tough experiences but to extract profound insights from them.
Disruption and Loss
Personal loss, particularly of an associate, has the capacity to destabilize. But as Jeff Wilke, senior vice president of operations at Amazon.com, told us, loss can also allow leaders to understand their organizations in a fundamentally new—and more comprehensive—way.
Before joining the online bookseller, Wilke had been the plant manager at an industrial facility where a machine operator was killed on the job. Wilke was confronted with the very tender fabric of human life that sometimes gets lost when leading "by the numbers." According to Wilke, "It's a transformational experience . . . to realize that in the end it's all these lives that are all wrapped up together. And every so often an event happens that isn't just about whether we made the quarter."
In other instances, loss of a parent (particularly when it requires a person to take on family responsibility or live independently at an early age), loss of a sibling or close friend (which often occurs during war-time), bankruptcy, or failure in an important assignment or undertaking (including a run for public office) can stimulate a search for greater understanding of self, of relationships and of larger webs of affiliation. All these events carry the potential to catalyze a search for meaning and develop a far keener ability to extract insights from experience.
Research suggests executives struggle to juggle as priorities compete for attention (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071101.htm
Extract: According to the study of 1,175 managers and directors:
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1771&tag=content;col1&tag=nl.e713
Companies like GM increasingly value right-brain creative thinking. In this podcast, Katherine Bell explains that creative training also teaches skills that directly transfer to management: how to take criticism, what motivates people, how to engage your audience, and when to let go of good ideas.
Australian Leadership and Management Development Practices Survey
http://www.beaton.com.au/pdfs/BC_LMDsurvey.pdf
Extracts: In 2003, Beaton Consulting conducted a two-staged research study. Commencing with focus groups, we identified key practices and issues faced by firms today, and used this information to construct a web-based survey of professional service firms. Our findings represent responses from 160 firms in Australia and New Zealand, of which about half were law firms. About half the respondents were managing partners or CEOs; the others were human resources directors, partners-in-charge of departments and general managers.
Low cost, low ‘commitment’ initiatives are the order of the day
‘High commitment’ initiatives are considered to be more effective – but not necessarily the most used! However, simply because an initiative is effective, doesn’t guarantee it will be widely used. Both effective and ineffective initiatives are highly used. Four key findings indicate that LMD initiatives suffer from a lack of relevance.
Firstly, people don’t see that they have a personal responsibility for developing their own leadership and management skills. Secondly, technical staff don’t see the relevance of leadership and management development in their own roles. Thirdly, senior level participation on programs is low, further indicating a possible lack of relevance in their minds for the need to develop their leadership capability. Finally, the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of LMD investments – both in dollar outcomes and in behavioural change terms – means it is difficult to demonstrate the relevance of programs to the firm’s overall strategy.
LMD initiatives tend to suffer from a lack of relevance and budgets are tightening
Overall, firms appear uncertain about the value of LMD initiatives. They find it difficult to distinguish the effectiveness of one initiative from another or to agree among themselves
which initiatives are indeed most effective. The cost-benefit of investing in LMD initiatives
is not well understood. Budgets allocated for LMD initiatives are not secure, particularly with larger spending firms. LMD initiatives are in a precarious position.
These findings suggest that if LMD initiatives are to be sustainable, they need partners of the
firm to position LMD strategically and to become its champions. They can only do this in the full knowledge of the impact of LMD initiatives on the growth and profit objectives of the firm. Some suggestions for repositioning LMD strategically are as follows.
Firstly, firms would benefit from HR being able to quantify the cost-benefit of LMD initiatives – for instance, through the development of clear key performance indicators that link LMD outcomes to the firm’s drivers of success. Secondly, HR practitioners could promote
initiatives more effectively by focusing on those initiatives that have particular relevance
to senior managers/partners, such as coaching and assessment of potential. Additionally,
increasing the participation of seniormanagers/partners in programs that are relevant and compelling is likely to embed a culture of learning and behaviour change and increase the firm’s commitment to ongoing investment.
Thirdly, opportunities exist to develop reward and recognition systems that consolidate and reward the learning. Finally, LMD investment could be more effectively applied by redirecting budgets and resources away from low impact initiatives such as conferences and generic external programs and towards those of higher impact, including assessment of potential, executive coaching and the introduction of tailored internal programs.
LMD needs to stand and deliver
Many firms that are highly committed in budget terms to LMD initiatives are reconsidering this expenditure, with up to 38% considering reducing overall budgets in the coming year. Perhaps this is related to their inability to effectively demonstrate relevance of LMD initiatives as discussed above.
Despite this finding, respondents indicated that they intend to increase investment in two emerging areas – assessment of potential and executive coaching. Interestingly, very few firms intend to scale down those programs regarded as least effective (literature, conferences and seminars) – perhaps because these initiatives required few resources or effort internally and may be lower in cost.
Institute researches the value of management qualifications (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls070919.htm
Extract: Survey suggests that senior leadership job prospects are increasingly being influenced by an individual’s commitment to their long-term professional development:
- 64 per cent of employers – and 74 per cent of individuals - believe management qualifications will grow in importance over the next 5 years.
- Many employers argue that having qualified managers leads to productivity gains (60 per cent). Most highly valued are MBAs (74 per cent) and Diplomas (70 per cent)
- The majority of respondents (84 per cent) also claim that qualifications improve 'self awareness'. High numbers focus on how they have 'helped me deal with interpersonal issues' (66 per cent) or 'improved my business knowledge' (84 per cent).
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls080110.htm
Extract: While senior executives are rated highest in business competence, it is their empathy and trustworthiness that are the best predictors of overall effective leadership, according to a study of 1,405 leaders in 47 organisations by consultants BlessingWhite.
BlessingWhite - based in Princeton, NJ, with locations in London, Chicago, San Francisco and Melbourne - says the six-year study analysed feedback on the executives from nearly 8,000 colleagues including direct reports, peers and superiors.
Respondents were asked to rate the individuals in 54 areas, which were combined into eight categories spanning both business and personal characteristics.
The study found that the executives were generally rated highest in the core competencies of business aptitude, responsibility, clarity and internal attunement/self-confidence. However, it was high scores in empathy and trustworthiness, followed by business aptitude, that were found to be most predictive of high ratings for overall leadership effectiveness. According to the study:
What are leaders good at? (ratings highest-to-lowest)
- Business aptitude
- Responsibility
- Clarity
- Internal attunement
- Trustworthiness
- Empathy
- External attunement
- Depth
What matters most? (correlation with effectiveness)
- Empathy
- Trustworthiness
- Business aptitude
- Depth
- External attunement
- Clarity
- Responsibility
- Internal attunement
http://www.ideashape.com/leadership-research.htm
Extracts: 265 leaders participated by invitation in this extensive online survey. One-third are executives, another third directors or managers, and the rest are primarily business owners and consultants.
What Makes a Successful Leader?
Vision topped the list of critical leadership capacities for nearly all leaders. Two other "applied EI" capacities -- Relationship Building and People Development -- were ranked in the top 5, along with Strategic Thinking and Execution.
Of the remaining 15 capacities studied, all the EI items -- including Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Adaptability -- were rated as more important than the traditional leadership capacities, such as External/Market Orientation, Financial Acumen, and Planning.
However, leaders of different personality type, job level, and experience rated many capacities quite differently. For example, Executives were more than twice as likely to value Optimism as were Managers/Directors or Consultants. Regardless of job level, participants of different personality type showed substantial variation in what they consider important to successful leadership.
Leaders Speak Out on Emotional Intelligence
Most leaders believe Emotional Intelligence is about building relationships and using emotions wisely, reading people, and being aware of their own emotions. These responses are consistent across levels, experience, and personality.
Nearly all leaders believe EI can be developed and are able to offer recommendations developing EI. These recommendations vary substantially by years of leadership experience. For example, the more experienced the leader, the more likely to recommend training, coaching, feedback, and self-directed development.
When leaders describe how they develop their own EI, years of experience is far less significant in differentiating their responses. Instead, leaders of different personality types (MBTI) develop their own EI very differently. For example, people with Feeling Perceiving preferences (FP's) are nearly three times more likely than people with Thinking Perceiving preferences (TP's) to cite training/group experiences as important in developing their EI.
Surprisingly, gender matters not at all in any of our findings. Men and women provided similar answers in describing EI, how it can be developed, how they develop their own EI, and how they rate their own EI.
How these leaders rate various aspects of their own Emotional Intelligence
Leaders at all levels are open to developing Emotional Intelligence, but they talk about it quite differently than do many consultants and EI theorists. Leadership coaches, HR professionals, and others who help people develop their EI should adjust their language and initial focus to reflect aspects of EI that resonate most with executives and managers – relationships, reading people, self-awareness, rather than empathy, self-confidence, and self-control.
"Soft skills" development programs would benefit from a richer view of what leaders actually value. In particular, leaders are deeply interested in resources that help them extract the learning from their own experiences.
Multiple types of EI development programs are needed to advance leaders of different personality types. MBTI is a significant predictor of the how leaders describe developing their own EI. For example, group learning is indispensable to some types and anathema to others.
To excel at the highly-ranked Relationship Management capacities, leaders should develop their EI "building block" capabilities of self-awareness, reading others, and adaptability. This study shows that leaders may underestimate the importance of these basics in performing the complex capabilities they highly value.
When assessing development needs or engaging in succession planning, leaders should be aware of blind spots or stereotypes they may hold. To the extent that executives view their own strength profiles as especially desirable, they may overlook leaders with different and perhaps complementary strengths. Also, look beyond common MBTI stereotypes. For example, J’s and P’s were indistinguishable in how they valued Execution, Achievement Drive, and Adaptability.
Leadership Research Study: Return on Investment for Various Leadership Development Initiatives (Sensis example)
http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_leadershipresearchsummary_rr.pdf
Extract: Sensis (one of Australia’s leading directory, advertising, and information providers) aims to be the major player in local Australian advertising and search. To meet this objective, the organization places a high priority on developing its people. Sensis chose DDI’s Maximizing Performance®, which is designed to create a high-performance workplace. Using behavior change ratings, the dollar value of the improvements based on salary was estimated. Program costs were subtracted and computed an overall percentage ROI. ROI: This increase in confidence and skills represents a return of 1,060 percent, or $2.2 million, on the training investment made by Sensis.
Study suggests senior managers are missing easy opportunities to build skills (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071206.htm
The research, outlined in a report called 'Realising Value from Online Learning', is based on the views of 998 respondents and includes interviews with 12 large employers.
The findings confirm that Internet access is readily available for the majority of senior managers (90 per cent). However, the study suggests that most (67 per cent) spend 30 minutes or less using company intranets, the Internet or e-learning materials to solve any one problem. Only 54 per cent have made use of online management resources in the past year and just 1 in 5 have participated in a structured e-learning programme.
58 per cent of respondents suggest online learning is a powerful resource for senior managers as they can 'dip in and out as time allows'. Over one-third (35 per cent) also believe the 'constant availability for reference' is a benefit and 1 in 4 (23 per cent) focus on the cost-effectiveness of online resources.
47 per cent of respondents claim resistance to e-learning is caused by the 'loss of the human touch'. 72 per cent still prefer face-to-face conversations and 37 per cent suggest 'tutor-led' development is most effective.
46 per cent of respondents say they have 'too many distractions' diverting them from PC-based development and 20 per cent argue the content fails to 'engage' them. 28 per cent say they lack the motivation to complete online courses, with 17 per cent blaming lack of 'appropriate support'.
What’s Next? The 2007 Changing Nature of Leadership Survey
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/WhatsNext.pdf
Summary: Following a successful launch of the groundbreaking Changing Nature of
Leadership (CNL) research in 2003, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) commissioned a second study on the current field of leadership. The goal: To examine any shifts in thinking over the past four years and to collect data on emerging trends important to current and future leaders. The data was compiled in April 2007 by surveying 1,131 people online. All of the respondents were either past participants of CCL programs or members of our online community, myCCL.
Changing nature of leadership
Results indicate that respondents still believe the definition of leadership has changed over the past five years (76 percent) and the challenges they face are increasingly complex (91 percent). This study sheds light on the why and how behind these findings.
Complex Challenges are Resisting Solutions and Driving the Need for New Approaches
More than 40 percent of respondents noted that their organizations have been facing a complex challenge for two years or more, which shows the challenges are either resisting solutions or morphing into new challenges. Further, these challenges are affecting organizations by forcing leaders to create more innovative solutions and work more collaboratively.
Talent and Talent Development is a Top Priority
When asked to describe the primary challenge their organization is facing, respondents placed talent acquisition/talent development at the top (17 percent). Additionally, 65 percent of respondents believe there will be a talent crisis in the next five years.
To Be Effective in the Future, Leaders Will Need to Develop New Skills
Leaders have a clear view of what skills will be needed to provide effective leadership
in the future. The survey shows that future leadership skills will focus on a number of key characteristics, the foremost being collaboration (49 percent). In addition, leadership change, building effective teams, and influence without authority ranked high in terms of leadership skills needed for the future.
Collaboration Will Be Important in Sustaining High Performance
Not only was collaboration considered the top skill leaders must develop for the future, only 30 percent of respondents believed their leaders are skilled collaborators. Further, when we surveyed a smaller sample of senior leaders, 97 percent said that collaboration was essential to success.
Rewarding Leaders in the Future Will Require a New Approach
When asked to compare their current reward systems with one that would be optimal, some important shifts occurred. First, most organizations currently reward their employees based almost entirely on making the numbers (33 percent) and individual performance (24 percent). While these two metrics for reward remained at the top of the optimal scenario, developing others, collaboration, and innovation rose significantly.
Transformational leadership and shared values: the building blocks of trust
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=271DD7C8F57AA1EEFD0C9E1542508447?contentType=Article&contentId=881606
Abstract: Interpersonal trust is central to sustaining team effectiveness. Whilst leaders play the primary role in establishing and developing trust, little research has examined the specific leadership practices which engender trust toward team leaders. This study investigated the relationship between a set of leadership practices (transformational, transactional, and consultative) and members' trust in their leader, in research and development (R&D) teams. Usable questionnaires were completed by 83 team members drawn from 33 R&D project teams. Three factors together predicted 67 per cent of the variance in team members' trust towards leaders, namely: consulting team members when making decisions, communicating a collective vision, and sharing common values with the leader. Trust in the leader was also strongly associated with the leader's effectiveness. The implications of these findings for leadership development, team building and future research are discussed.
The realities of management promotion
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/RealitiesMgtPromotion.pdf
Description: An interesting but academic article that explores the factors that affect the promotion of managers within organisations.
Differences in the Developmental Needs of Managers at Multiple Levels
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/community/siop2004emerging.pdf
Description: PowerPoint summary of a major multicountry quantitative study of managers.
Conclusions:
- Managers have an accurate perception of what training they need to be effective. This being the case, efforts should be made to ensure that programs are in place with the appropriate topics targeted for each level.
- Traditional pedagogic methods are still preferred for learning “Hard”/Technical Skills. This training should be reinforced with relevant job assignments, especially for younger employees.
- “Soft” Skills may be introduced through traditional pedagogic methods, but they should be reinforced through action learning groups.
- Investing in technology based training may not be truly cost
effective if employees are not receptive to those methods of
content delivery.
- Develop a core curriculum of “Soft” skills focusing on Leadership, Team Building, Communication and Coaching to provide managers and their direct reports with a common organizational language and framework for these skills.
- Develop a general core curriculum of “Hard” skills that includes Problem Solving/Decision Making and Public Speaking. Ensure that increased complexity/sophistication is added to address the needs of upper level managers.
- Develop role-based “Hard” skills training programs that are strategically alignedto yield best cost/benefit results.
- Form action learning groups to provide an ongoing support network to develop, practice and hone “Soft” skills. Action learning groups may be beneficial to the development of some role-based “Hard” skills as well. (e.g. Software Development)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/co080325.htm
Extract: The tenth annual CIPD learning and development survey found that almost three-quarters (71%) of UK employers currently use coaching in their organisations, compared to 63% in 2007. A similar proportion of respondents (72%) found coaching to be an effective tool.
Within organisations that offer coaching to all their employees, general personal development (79%) and helping poor performance (74%) were both cited as the most common purposes for which coaching is used. In organisations that only offer coaching to managers, the survey found that the emphasis shifted towards its positioning as part of a wider management and leadership development programme (61%).
According to the survey, more than two fifths of organisations offer coaching to all employees, 39% offer it to directors and senior management and a third offer it to senior managers and line managers/supervisors.
Leadership Development: Past, Present, and Future
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/cclLeadershipDevelopment.pdf
Abstract: This excellent article reviews notable trends in the leadership development field. In the past two decades, such trends included the proliferation of new leadership development methods and a growing recognition of the importance of a leader’s emotional resonance with others. A growing recognition that leadership development involves more than just developing individual leaders has now led to a greater focus on the context in which leadership is developed, thoughtful consideration about how to best use leadership competencies, and work/life balance issues. Future trends include exciting potential advances in globalization, technology, return on investment (ROI), and new ways of thinking about the nature of leadership and leadership
development.
ASPIRING AUSTRALIAN MIDDLE MANAGERS: A FOLLOW UP STUDY
http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/business/research/resources/2005-08.pdf
Abstract:
Purpose: The current study followed up middle managers who had participated in a survey on Attitudes to Promotion in 1996. The vast majority of the original sample had responded favourably to the question: "Do you want to obtain a senior management position during your managerial career?" In addition, respondents were asked "How confident are you that this will happen?" and "How soon do you feel this will happen?" The aim of the follow up qualitative study was to contact as many of these individuals as possible, to explore the outcome to these questions, and to track what had happened to them in their management careers over the past eight years.
Methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with 19 male and 11 female managers. Outcomes of promotion aspirations were sought, and factors that contributed to success and personal strategies that may have been set in place were explored, as were factors that had hindered their progress. In addition, views were sought on future aspirations for promotion.
Findings: Results indicated gender differences in outcome of promotion, in both proportions of women achieving senior roles, and the time it took for males and females to obtain these promotions with more male middle managers achieving their promotion to senior roles, in less time, than their female colleagues.
Practical implications: The findings were considered in relation to the ongoing career advancement of men and women in management, and in particular, the disproportionate numbers of men and women in senior management roles.
Report finds 'negative' management styles most common in UK organisations
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071212.htm
Extacts: The report, which questioned 1,511 managers, found that the majority (69 per cent) are motivated by 'a sense of achievement from reaching organisational goals'. However, the research says that management style also has a dramatic impact on job satisfaction. For example, the presence of an authoritarian approach depresses enjoyment of work by 27 points, from 71 to 44 per cent. Confidence in senior management teams also declines from 60 to 27 per cent, where the dominant style is bureaucratic.
The most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). All three have become increasingly common; the top two have increased by 6 per cent since 2004, with authoritarian leadership also rising 5 per cent.
Only 1 in 10 respondents said absence increased in organisations with 'innovative' and 'trusting' cultures. This was in contrast to 45 per cent suggesting sickness rates have gone up where employers were 'suspicious'.
Leadership: The Right Stuff
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/By_Subject/Leadership_And_Talent_Management/LeadershipTheRightStuff.htm Extracts: As part of a broader study, we interviewed two generations of accomplished men and women—members of the first group were over 70 years of age and members of the second were under 33—drawn from business, the professions, government, academia, the military and nonprofit organizations.The over-70 group is noteworthy for its members' ability to renew themselves and their organizations over a lifetime. Members of the under-33 group collectively serve as a kind of proxy for the hopes and aspirations of the next generation of leaders, offering glimpses of what that generation knows, doesn't know and needs to learn.
The study identified four key experiences that are common to most leaders:
Mentoring Relationships
Mentors have long exerted dramatic influence on those they mentor, of course, particularly on young people. But two critical elements appeared in virtually every mentoring relationship described in our interviews. First, protégés attracted mentors; there was something compelling about them that made them approachable and interesting. Second, mentors were recruitable; they were open to caring for a particular protégé and willing to share valuable insight without any expectations of reward for their efforts.
Enforced Reflection
This crucible has at its core an opportunity for both exploration and reflection. College has the potential to be such a crucible, particularly as it affords a young person the time and space to explore other possible selves and lifestyles. The same can be said for more regimented settings that emphasize introspection, like yoga retreats, martial arts training and seminaries.
Insertion Into Foreign Territory
Most people find themselves operating in foreign, sometimes hostile, territory at some point in their lives. However, the leaders we interviewed demonstrated a remarkable capacity not only to survive those tough experiences but to extract profound insights from them.
Disruption and Loss
Personal loss, particularly of an associate, has the capacity to destabilize. But as Jeff Wilke, senior vice president of operations at Amazon.com, told us, loss can also allow leaders to understand their organizations in a fundamentally new—and more comprehensive—way.
Before joining the online bookseller, Wilke had been the plant manager at an industrial facility where a machine operator was killed on the job. Wilke was confronted with the very tender fabric of human life that sometimes gets lost when leading "by the numbers." According to Wilke, "It's a transformational experience . . . to realize that in the end it's all these lives that are all wrapped up together. And every so often an event happens that isn't just about whether we made the quarter."
In other instances, loss of a parent (particularly when it requires a person to take on family responsibility or live independently at an early age), loss of a sibling or close friend (which often occurs during war-time), bankruptcy, or failure in an important assignment or undertaking (including a run for public office) can stimulate a search for greater understanding of self, of relationships and of larger webs of affiliation. All these events carry the potential to catalyze a search for meaning and develop a far keener ability to extract insights from experience.
Research suggests executives struggle to juggle as priorities compete for attention (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071101.htm
Extract: According to the study of 1,175 managers and directors:
- 84 per cent of respondents grapple with the challenge of 'prioritising work'. Two-thirds (63 per cent) claim to have 'little time to think' and 53 per cent also say they struggle to find 'time for strategic planning'. Only 5 in 10 find it easy to make time for their staff, while a similar proportion (44 per cent) are diverted by internal politics.
- 51 per cent find their own administration a challenge, 54 per cent often find it hard to get home on time and only 1 in 10 strongly agree they can relax in their free time.
- 71 per cent say that 'finishing tasks' is a battle. 50 per cent of respondents blame an organisational culture of 'meeting overload' for this, with 46 per cent also saying that 'meeting preparation time' diverts too much attention.
- Only 16 per cent believe 'innovation' is a challenge, and 72 per cent claim new product development is not high on the organisational agenda. In terms of long-term growth, 70 per cent view 'seeking new markets for products and services' as unimportant.
- Despite 81 per cent of organisations struggling to recruit the best candidates, only 1 in 3 respondents claim that internal talent management is important to their employer and just 33 per cent agree with the statement that they 'understand how their career will progress'.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Smartcard marketing
Mobile phone payment system trialled in Australia
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080828-Mobile-phone-payment-system-trialled-in-Australia.html?source=cmailer
Thursday, 28 August 2008: A payment system in which consumers just have to swipe their mobile phones over special readers is being trialled at Melbourne’s Docklands, Inside Retail reports.
Telstra, NAB and Visa are testing the “contactless mobile payments” system with 12 vendors and 200 selected consumers in the Docklands precinct.
For the consumers, it simply involves downloading a credit card software application to their mobile phone SIM card. They then simply have to pass their phone over a merchant’s reader installed in the stores to pay for goods on their credit card.
The idea is that contactless payment could become a quick and easy way of making quick purchases like a coffee or sandwhich, without having to fiddle with change or sign a paper slip.
Visa general manager Chris Clark told Inside Retail that payments made using the mobile system are two to three times faster than the average cash transaction.
“As the technology evolves, we expect it will be possible for consumers to use their mobile phones to download electronic coupons tailored to their interests, monitor their accounts, make mobile internet payments and access other applications that provide a compelling customer experience.”
High-Tech Cards Stymied by Low Trust
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006437&src=article2_newsltr
Extracts: London's Oyster card, Seoul's Upass and the SmartRider card in Perth, Australia are all examples of contactless smartcards using NFC With readers incorporated in mobile phones, posters and billboards with NFC chips can beam personalized product information and offers to users as they pass.
Marketing pitches may be stored on handsets and viewed later, rather than just on a passing billboard or gas pump display. By 2013, payments made using near-field communications (NFC) will reach $75 billion worldwide, according to a new Juniper Research report, "Mobile Payments Markets Contactless NFC 2008-2013."
Berg Insight believes that contactless cards are an expanding market, but one that will take time to catch on. The research firm anticipates a 43.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for NFC-enabled mobile phone shipments between 2007 and 2012.
Currently, mobile ticketing is one the most common applications for contactless technology. Juniper Research reported 37 million transactions last year and anticipates a massive 1.8 billion by 2011.
Ease of transport might not be a hard sell, but consumers in many countries have been slow to embrace waving and paying for goods. According to a recent Auriemma Consulting Group survey, only 3% of UK credit card users were aware of contactless technology and nearly one-quarter (23%) would refuse to use a contactless credit card due to fears of identity theft.
"Evidence is quite clear that the consumer is not familiar enough with contactless cards in order to make a decision to own one of these cards," said Matt Simester, director of Auriemma Consulting, in a statement.
ANZ/Visa card loses contact
http://www.east.com.au/bankingnews.asp?id=2420
(23 July 2008 – Australia) ANZ and Visa have launched the first reloadable, prepaid contactless card in Australia.The card uses new technology developed to take away the need for signature or pin verification on low value transactions.
The ANZ Visa card allows customers to make payments for transactions under the value of $35 without the need for a PIN or signature, by holding their card within five centimetres of a contactless reader.
The new ANZ Stadium Visa payWave card is so named because of its launch at the first Bledisloe Cup rugby union match of 2008 at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. Credit of $25 will be provided for 2000 cards at the launch to pay for food and beverages.
Visa’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Chris Clark said that the new card is designed to improve the customer experience at major events by reducing transaction times.Clark also said that an average transaction with the new card can be completed in four to six seconds, less than half the time of a cash transaction which averages 12 to 14 seconds.
The new technology is part of Visa’s long term strategy in Australia.The cards carry an antenna and computer chip embedded in the card which securely transmits payment instructions to and from a specially adapted card terminal. The cardholder keeps control of the card throughout the transaction to reduce the risk of fraud.
The card can be reloaded with funds using BPAY via internet or phone banking and has a magnetic stripe so it can be used as a Visa prepaid card for merchant outlets outside of ANZ Stadium.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080828-Mobile-phone-payment-system-trialled-in-Australia.html?source=cmailer
Thursday, 28 August 2008: A payment system in which consumers just have to swipe their mobile phones over special readers is being trialled at Melbourne’s Docklands, Inside Retail reports.
Telstra, NAB and Visa are testing the “contactless mobile payments” system with 12 vendors and 200 selected consumers in the Docklands precinct.
For the consumers, it simply involves downloading a credit card software application to their mobile phone SIM card. They then simply have to pass their phone over a merchant’s reader installed in the stores to pay for goods on their credit card.
The idea is that contactless payment could become a quick and easy way of making quick purchases like a coffee or sandwhich, without having to fiddle with change or sign a paper slip.
Visa general manager Chris Clark told Inside Retail that payments made using the mobile system are two to three times faster than the average cash transaction.
“As the technology evolves, we expect it will be possible for consumers to use their mobile phones to download electronic coupons tailored to their interests, monitor their accounts, make mobile internet payments and access other applications that provide a compelling customer experience.”
High-Tech Cards Stymied by Low Trust
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006437&src=article2_newsltr
Extracts: London's Oyster card, Seoul's Upass and the SmartRider card in Perth, Australia are all examples of contactless smartcards using NFC With readers incorporated in mobile phones, posters and billboards with NFC chips can beam personalized product information and offers to users as they pass.
Marketing pitches may be stored on handsets and viewed later, rather than just on a passing billboard or gas pump display. By 2013, payments made using near-field communications (NFC) will reach $75 billion worldwide, according to a new Juniper Research report, "Mobile Payments Markets Contactless NFC 2008-2013."
Berg Insight believes that contactless cards are an expanding market, but one that will take time to catch on. The research firm anticipates a 43.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for NFC-enabled mobile phone shipments between 2007 and 2012.
Currently, mobile ticketing is one the most common applications for contactless technology. Juniper Research reported 37 million transactions last year and anticipates a massive 1.8 billion by 2011.
Ease of transport might not be a hard sell, but consumers in many countries have been slow to embrace waving and paying for goods. According to a recent Auriemma Consulting Group survey, only 3% of UK credit card users were aware of contactless technology and nearly one-quarter (23%) would refuse to use a contactless credit card due to fears of identity theft.
"Evidence is quite clear that the consumer is not familiar enough with contactless cards in order to make a decision to own one of these cards," said Matt Simester, director of Auriemma Consulting, in a statement.
ANZ/Visa card loses contact
http://www.east.com.au/bankingnews.asp?id=2420
(23 July 2008 – Australia) ANZ and Visa have launched the first reloadable, prepaid contactless card in Australia.The card uses new technology developed to take away the need for signature or pin verification on low value transactions.
The ANZ Visa card allows customers to make payments for transactions under the value of $35 without the need for a PIN or signature, by holding their card within five centimetres of a contactless reader.
The new ANZ Stadium Visa payWave card is so named because of its launch at the first Bledisloe Cup rugby union match of 2008 at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. Credit of $25 will be provided for 2000 cards at the launch to pay for food and beverages.
Visa’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Chris Clark said that the new card is designed to improve the customer experience at major events by reducing transaction times.Clark also said that an average transaction with the new card can be completed in four to six seconds, less than half the time of a cash transaction which averages 12 to 14 seconds.
The new technology is part of Visa’s long term strategy in Australia.The cards carry an antenna and computer chip embedded in the card which securely transmits payment instructions to and from a specially adapted card terminal. The cardholder keeps control of the card throughout the transaction to reduce the risk of fraud.
The card can be reloaded with funds using BPAY via internet or phone banking and has a magnetic stripe so it can be used as a Visa prepaid card for merchant outlets outside of ANZ Stadium.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Available grants
Grants available for emerging businesses - Federal
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080721-Free-money-for-growth-part-one.html
Complete listing of available Federal grants with links
Grants available for emerging businesses - State
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080723-Free-money-for-growth-part-two.html
Complete listing of available State grants with links
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080721-Free-money-for-growth-part-one.html
Complete listing of available Federal grants with links
Grants available for emerging businesses - State
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080723-Free-money-for-growth-part-two.html
Complete listing of available State grants with links
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Fostering creativity
The MFA is the New MBA HBR IdeaCast
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1771&tag=content;col1&tag=nl.e713
Companies like GM increasingly value right-brain creative thinking. In this podcast, Katherine Bell explains that creative training also teaches skills that directly transfer to management: how to take criticism, what motivates people, how to engage your audience, and when to let go of good ideas.
Getting Down to the Business of Creativity
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5902.html
Business leaders must manage and support creativity just as they would any other asset. Harvard Business School professors Teresa Amabile, Mary Tripsas, and Mukti Khaire discuss where creativity comes from, how entrepreneurs use it, and why innovation is often a team sport. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Key concepts include:
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1771&tag=content;col1&tag=nl.e713
Companies like GM increasingly value right-brain creative thinking. In this podcast, Katherine Bell explains that creative training also teaches skills that directly transfer to management: how to take criticism, what motivates people, how to engage your audience, and when to let go of good ideas.
Getting Down to the Business of Creativity
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5902.html
Business leaders must manage and support creativity just as they would any other asset. Harvard Business School professors Teresa Amabile, Mary Tripsas, and Mukti Khaire discuss where creativity comes from, how entrepreneurs use it, and why innovation is often a team sport. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Key concepts include:
- People have their best days and do their best work when they are allowed to make progress.
- Whenever a firm introduces a truly novel product, suppliers, complementary producers, distribution channels, and consumers must often develop new capabilities, beliefs, and behaviors for the product to succeed, creating a challenge for the innovator.
- The perception exists that creative businesses can just start up, when in fact it takes a while for an entire ecosystem to actually generate an industry.
Stress relief strategies
Study shows laughter helps blood vessels function better
http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/laughter2.htm
Abstract: Using laughter-provoking movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels. Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow.
http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/laughter2.htm
Abstract: Using laughter-provoking movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels. Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Pharmaceutical marketing
Pharmaceuticals and Word-of-Mouth
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006425&src=article1_newsltr
Extracts: Less than 10% of pharmaceutical-related word-of-mouth in the US takes place online, compared with nearly three-quarters that happens in person, according to a Keller Fay Group report.
"For some brands, it's important to facilitate talk online, but reaching influencers at events or by providing information they can share offline is crucial," said Ed Keller, CEO of Keller Fay Group, in a statement.
Nearly 70% of consumers surveyed thought that pharmaceutical information from peers was credible and believable, even if the peers were not experts. "The [word-of-mouth] majority isn't coming from healthcare professionals," Mr. Keller said.
Millward Brown surveyed doctors in the UK, and found that despite the growing popularity of patient blogs and Websites, healthcare and pharmaceutical brands were failing to use digital promotion and marketing.
Doctors said that many of the patient-run sites reported negatively on patient care and prescription drugs. They also said they were receptive to engaging online since they themselves used blogs, social networking and other Websites for information and advice. Nearly all respondents said they used the Internet at least once per day, for an average of 12 hours every week.
"Healthcare and pharmaceutical brands need to listen and measure what is being said about their brands offline and online," said Fergus Hampton, CEO of Millward Brown Precis, in a statement. "Even though more than 80% of word-of-mouth still happens offline, when it's online, it's magnified."
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006425&src=article1_newsltr
Extracts: Less than 10% of pharmaceutical-related word-of-mouth in the US takes place online, compared with nearly three-quarters that happens in person, according to a Keller Fay Group report.
"For some brands, it's important to facilitate talk online, but reaching influencers at events or by providing information they can share offline is crucial," said Ed Keller, CEO of Keller Fay Group, in a statement.
Nearly 70% of consumers surveyed thought that pharmaceutical information from peers was credible and believable, even if the peers were not experts. "The [word-of-mouth] majority isn't coming from healthcare professionals," Mr. Keller said.
Millward Brown surveyed doctors in the UK, and found that despite the growing popularity of patient blogs and Websites, healthcare and pharmaceutical brands were failing to use digital promotion and marketing.
Doctors said that many of the patient-run sites reported negatively on patient care and prescription drugs. They also said they were receptive to engaging online since they themselves used blogs, social networking and other Websites for information and advice. Nearly all respondents said they used the Internet at least once per day, for an average of 12 hours every week.
"Healthcare and pharmaceutical brands need to listen and measure what is being said about their brands offline and online," said Fergus Hampton, CEO of Millward Brown Precis, in a statement. "Even though more than 80% of word-of-mouth still happens offline, when it's online, it's magnified."
Marketing to teens
Personal Care Product Marketers Reach for a Teeny Edge
http://kellerfay.com/?page_id=143
Extracts: “If you can hook teens when they’re young, you have a customer for a lifetime,” said Matt Britton, chief of brand development at Mr. Youth, a marketing firm.
About two-thirds of teens are loyal to brands they like, according to Harris Interactive, a market research firm. Forrester Research has found that more than 60% of teens ages 15 to 17 will remain with their bank after they graduate from high school and recommend it to friends.
Nearly half of teens talk about personal care and beauty products, compared with just 29% of the general public, according to a study by research firm Keller Fay Group.
Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble Co.’s strategy to get free samples into the hands of cheerleader Jessica appears to have had its intended effect. “I used Dove [deodorant] once, but ever since I got the little Secret ones, I use those,” she said.
Giving away products can backfire when people have a bad experience with them. Brooke Morgan, 13, said she received a sample of Suave deodorant but wasn’t happy with it. And bad word gets out: Keller Fay found that teens are slightly more likely than the general public to dis a product if they don’t like it.
http://kellerfay.com/?page_id=143
Extracts: “If you can hook teens when they’re young, you have a customer for a lifetime,” said Matt Britton, chief of brand development at Mr. Youth, a marketing firm.
About two-thirds of teens are loyal to brands they like, according to Harris Interactive, a market research firm. Forrester Research has found that more than 60% of teens ages 15 to 17 will remain with their bank after they graduate from high school and recommend it to friends.
Nearly half of teens talk about personal care and beauty products, compared with just 29% of the general public, according to a study by research firm Keller Fay Group.
Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble Co.’s strategy to get free samples into the hands of cheerleader Jessica appears to have had its intended effect. “I used Dove [deodorant] once, but ever since I got the little Secret ones, I use those,” she said.
Giving away products can backfire when people have a bad experience with them. Brooke Morgan, 13, said she received a sample of Suave deodorant but wasn’t happy with it. And bad word gets out: Keller Fay found that teens are slightly more likely than the general public to dis a product if they don’t like it.
Marketing to women
New Word of Mouth Research Finds Moms Buzzing About Brands
http://kellerfay.com/?page_id=152
Extract: New research released today by BabyCenter®, the largest online resource for expectant and new parents around the world, and industry-leading market research company, the Keller Fay Group, reveals that today’s pregnant women and new moms engage in one-third more word of mouth conversations per day than the total public or women and almost two-thirds of these conversations include brand recommendations. This group has an average of 109 word of mouth conversations per week about products, services and brands, most of which are positive and considered highly credible by other moms.
http://kellerfay.com/?page_id=152
Extract: New research released today by BabyCenter®, the largest online resource for expectant and new parents around the world, and industry-leading market research company, the Keller Fay Group, reveals that today’s pregnant women and new moms engage in one-third more word of mouth conversations per day than the total public or women and almost two-thirds of these conversations include brand recommendations. This group has an average of 109 word of mouth conversations per week about products, services and brands, most of which are positive and considered highly credible by other moms.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Human Resources
How to Measure HR Success Like Capital One
http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=548&tag=nl.e713
The Find: HR functions can sometimes seem far removed from a company’s strategic core, but new techniques of “evidence-based” HR are allowing much-maligned talent managers to show the links between soft HR programs and the cold, hard realities of the bottom line.
The Source: A soon to be published study from the Conference Board.
The Takeaway: In the abstract, everyone acknowledges that talent can make or break a company, but HR still retains a less than glamorous reputation as an unscientific warren of paperwork and gut instincts far from a company’s strategic core. Perhaps that’s because it’s been hard to link specific HR practices with a company’s bottom line. The Conference Board is stepping into this gap with a new report entitled “Evidence-Based HR in Action,” which shows how HR departments can make the seemingly intangible, tangible.
What’s evidence-based HR (or EBHR)? Using newly developed HR metrics to “empirically demonstrate [human capital’s] impact on business outcomes.” The Conference Board acknowledges that the approach is not yet widespread but offers case studies to show how EBHR can benefit a range of organizations.
The human resources folks at Capital One, for example, not only do the all the usual hiring, paperwork and employee performance evaluations, but also have a “workforce analytics function.” Using EBHR they have developed quantitative measures that establish links between touchy-feely HR policies like the executive coaching program and key performance metrics such as “teller attrition, customer satisfaction, and revenues per account at retail branches.”
The Conference Board also takes a look at two other companies that have jumped on the EBHR bandwagon - Harvard University and Hewlett Packard - to see how they have put they put the idea into practice. Intrigued? The full report will soon be available at the Conference Board’s website.
The Question: Is HR “possibly the most vital yet overlooked means of establishing competitive advantage” as the Conference Board claims?
Making talent a strategic priority
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Making_talent_a_strategic_priority_2092 Review: Excellent article summarising 10 years of McKinsey research on the 'War for Talent'.
Realigning the HR function to manage talent
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/chartfocus/2008_08.html
Extract: Although McKinsey surveys show that business leaders around the world are deeply concerned about the intensifying competition for talent, few companies make it an integral part of a long-term business strategy, and many even try to raise their short-term earnings by cutting talent-development expenditures. Other factors compound the difficulties of recruiting enough appropriate talent: minimal collaboration and talent sharing among business units, ineffective line management, and confusion about the role of HR, not to mention challenges such as Generation Y employees seeking greater work/life balance, expansion into global markets, and the specific needs of the fast-growing category of knowledge workers.
The exhibit below focuses on another problem: the declining influence of the human-resources function. Yet only HR can translate a company’s business strategy into a detailed talent strategy. HR professionals should assert their influence and provide credible and proactive business counsel and support for individual business units.
Talent retention and development are the most critical business issues for FY08/09
http://www.zdnet.com.au/special/announce/BNET/BNET_concern_release/BNET_concerns.htm Extract: Despite consumer concerns around inflation and rising petrol prices, it is the battle for talent, skill development and staff retention that is of the greatest challenge this new financial year according to a recent reader poll by BNET Australia (http://www.bnet.com/). As the leading resource for over 4.5 million Australian managers, BNET Australia developed the survey to benchmark the needs of the nation’s business community at the cusp of the new fiscal year.
The online survey of 250 Australian managers included industries ranging from business services, consulting, government, retail and telecommunications. It was designed to provide a reflection of the top-of-mind concerns of Australia’s management community as many organisations take the opportunity to replan and reprioritise for growth and development at this important time of the business year.
“The end of the financial year is a key period for business, regardless of size, to plan toward improved professional and fiscal performance as budgets are set and reported and performance reviewed” said Brian Haverty, Editorial Director for BNET Australia. “The comments of BNET Australia readers have really reflected the notion that learning is a career-long process. Our research demonstrates that organisations need to focus on skills, learning and development opportunities for management and employees to alleviate tensions and concerns which could ultimately result in staff departures, both in the short and long term”.
The long-discussed battle for talent is still dominating the minds and business plans of Australian managers with professional development, skill shortage and staff retention issues each cited by 14 per cent of respondents as their most key concerns for FY08-09. Despite this though, managers are feeling confident about client retention and customer growth with just 10 per cent seeing the issue as a concern moving forward. The research was conducted across multiple sized companies ranging from businesses with under 100 employees and up to 500 and above.
While consumers, unions and media have debated the virtues and vices of the Rudd government, Australian managers are taking a ‘business as usual’ approach with the new leadership cited by only 3 per cent of respondents as being of a concern to their prospective business performance. Petrol prices (7 per cent) and inflation (6 per cent) are considered, but again contrast as less important factors affecting business performance in comparison to the performance and capabilities of customer and industry facing staff.
http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=548&tag=nl.e713
The Find: HR functions can sometimes seem far removed from a company’s strategic core, but new techniques of “evidence-based” HR are allowing much-maligned talent managers to show the links between soft HR programs and the cold, hard realities of the bottom line.
The Source: A soon to be published study from the Conference Board.
The Takeaway: In the abstract, everyone acknowledges that talent can make or break a company, but HR still retains a less than glamorous reputation as an unscientific warren of paperwork and gut instincts far from a company’s strategic core. Perhaps that’s because it’s been hard to link specific HR practices with a company’s bottom line. The Conference Board is stepping into this gap with a new report entitled “Evidence-Based HR in Action,” which shows how HR departments can make the seemingly intangible, tangible.
What’s evidence-based HR (or EBHR)? Using newly developed HR metrics to “empirically demonstrate [human capital’s] impact on business outcomes.” The Conference Board acknowledges that the approach is not yet widespread but offers case studies to show how EBHR can benefit a range of organizations.
The human resources folks at Capital One, for example, not only do the all the usual hiring, paperwork and employee performance evaluations, but also have a “workforce analytics function.” Using EBHR they have developed quantitative measures that establish links between touchy-feely HR policies like the executive coaching program and key performance metrics such as “teller attrition, customer satisfaction, and revenues per account at retail branches.”
The Conference Board also takes a look at two other companies that have jumped on the EBHR bandwagon - Harvard University and Hewlett Packard - to see how they have put they put the idea into practice. Intrigued? The full report will soon be available at the Conference Board’s website.
The Question: Is HR “possibly the most vital yet overlooked means of establishing competitive advantage” as the Conference Board claims?
Making talent a strategic priority
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Making_talent_a_strategic_priority_2092 Review: Excellent article summarising 10 years of McKinsey research on the 'War for Talent'.
Realigning the HR function to manage talent
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/chartfocus/2008_08.html
Extract: Although McKinsey surveys show that business leaders around the world are deeply concerned about the intensifying competition for talent, few companies make it an integral part of a long-term business strategy, and many even try to raise their short-term earnings by cutting talent-development expenditures. Other factors compound the difficulties of recruiting enough appropriate talent: minimal collaboration and talent sharing among business units, ineffective line management, and confusion about the role of HR, not to mention challenges such as Generation Y employees seeking greater work/life balance, expansion into global markets, and the specific needs of the fast-growing category of knowledge workers.
The exhibit below focuses on another problem: the declining influence of the human-resources function. Yet only HR can translate a company’s business strategy into a detailed talent strategy. HR professionals should assert their influence and provide credible and proactive business counsel and support for individual business units.
Talent retention and development are the most critical business issues for FY08/09
http://www.zdnet.com.au/special/announce/BNET/BNET_concern_release/BNET_concerns.htm Extract: Despite consumer concerns around inflation and rising petrol prices, it is the battle for talent, skill development and staff retention that is of the greatest challenge this new financial year according to a recent reader poll by BNET Australia (http://www.bnet.com/). As the leading resource for over 4.5 million Australian managers, BNET Australia developed the survey to benchmark the needs of the nation’s business community at the cusp of the new fiscal year.
The online survey of 250 Australian managers included industries ranging from business services, consulting, government, retail and telecommunications. It was designed to provide a reflection of the top-of-mind concerns of Australia’s management community as many organisations take the opportunity to replan and reprioritise for growth and development at this important time of the business year.
“The end of the financial year is a key period for business, regardless of size, to plan toward improved professional and fiscal performance as budgets are set and reported and performance reviewed” said Brian Haverty, Editorial Director for BNET Australia. “The comments of BNET Australia readers have really reflected the notion that learning is a career-long process. Our research demonstrates that organisations need to focus on skills, learning and development opportunities for management and employees to alleviate tensions and concerns which could ultimately result in staff departures, both in the short and long term”.
The long-discussed battle for talent is still dominating the minds and business plans of Australian managers with professional development, skill shortage and staff retention issues each cited by 14 per cent of respondents as their most key concerns for FY08-09. Despite this though, managers are feeling confident about client retention and customer growth with just 10 per cent seeing the issue as a concern moving forward. The research was conducted across multiple sized companies ranging from businesses with under 100 employees and up to 500 and above.
While consumers, unions and media have debated the virtues and vices of the Rudd government, Australian managers are taking a ‘business as usual’ approach with the new leadership cited by only 3 per cent of respondents as being of a concern to their prospective business performance. Petrol prices (7 per cent) and inflation (6 per cent) are considered, but again contrast as less important factors affecting business performance in comparison to the performance and capabilities of customer and industry facing staff.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Background briefings
Online Research Traps That Can Derail Your Marketing Strategy
http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/online-research-traps-derail-marketing-strategy-horne.asp?sp=1
It's hard to believe how different it was, just a mere 15 years ago, to conduct secondary market research. There was no Internet (commercial at least), no Yahoo portal, no Google search, no Web-accessible databases to tap. Almost every effort required a phone call, a trip to the library, a subscription to a third-party source, a read-through of hardcopy reference material. How times have changed.
But, not always for the better. The seemingly bottomless pit of content that makes up today's Web poses some distinct challenges to marketers looking for precise, credible facts on which to build a strategy.
This article points out some of the online research traps—which can put your marketing strategy atop the proverbial house of cards.
Misleading Definitions
It is not uncommon for a data source to use imprecise terminology. My favorite example is the oft-quoted number of cell phone users in the US. You constantly see or hear 255 million, since that number is prominently displayed on the home page "ticker" of the wireless trade association CTIA.org. It seemed high to me, and when I contacted CTIA's head researcher, he admitted the number is for subscriptions, not subscribers.
When I later saw the 255 million number used, once again, in The New York Times April 13 "Week in Review" section, I requested a correction. The Times did its own research and two weeks later published a retraction, with a new number of 226 million.
Other data definitions to double-check include households vs. individuals, visits vs. visitors, total population vs. Internet users. These types of mistakes can really throw off your work in sizing market opportunities.
Bad Math
Most mistakes in this category seem to come from analysts' providing interpretation of data, comparing one set of numbers to another.
For example, research reports frequently reference market growth. Be careful: For example, an analysis might say that a company went from 10% to 11% market share, achieving 10% growth (1 divide by 10). Misleading, and easily misinterpreted by your researcher.
A more dangerous form is where interpretations are developed on "scaled" qualitative information. For example, if 60% of people rated factor A as a "5," and 30% rated factor B as a "5," the analyst might conclude people are twice as likely to choose A over B. Nonsense. Don't be swayed by this kind of math. (The scale may be using numbers, but it's not quantitative; it could just as easily be using "OK, good, better, awesome, and way cool...")
Unclear Percentages
A common example in this category relates to surveys that allow respondents to check off multiple answers, where the total response can be well over 100%. If the source is not clear, or your researcher isn't paying close attention, some ludicrous conclusions might find their way into your marketing strategy.
Would you believe there are also surveys out there that add up to less than 100%? Last fall I came across a report on DVR usage, with key data shown in two bar charts. One mapped 36% of total TV viewing time as "real time," the other showed 32% as "time shifted."
I contacted the research company to find out about the remaining 32%—what other definition of time had they come up with? The answer led me to conclude that this particular study was completely unusable.
No Check on Reality
This trap is the most challenging, as you need some experience and a healthy dose of skepticism to spot it. It is most common with emerging topics (where almost no prior research exists) and with surveys of customer intent (what people say they will do versus how they might actually behave).
The first example comes from a story about genealogy that I read earlier this year. It cited a study claiming 75% of the US "was interested in genealogy." The skeptic in me didn't believe that 75% of the population could even define genealogy. But, being an emerging topic, it was hard to refute factually.
For these kind of traps, I use my "rule of 20." I survey 5 friends, 5 work colleagues, 5 family members, and 5 citizens (bus driver, deli clerk, lobby security guard, etc.) to see if the data is in the ballpark. Try it yourself using this genealogy example—see whether you get 75%. (I didn't come close.)
A second example comes from a research company that claimed some months ago that over 40% of US internet users had watched a full episode of a TV show online. This time I had seen plenty of other data that didn't add up, specifically for full episodes, so I contacted the source directly (see a pattern here?). Turns out the 40% was an amalgamation of several inputs, only half of them true behavioral tracking.
Conclusion
To be sure, this is not an exhaustive list of the traps awaiting us as we mine the depths of online research sources. For now, keep these simple guidelines in mind:
http://www.guideline.com/capabilities/business-research/rapidresponse.html
Guideline On-Demand, previously known as FIND Inquiry Business Service, continues to meet your quick research needs by tapping into vast industry knowledge and accessing a large in-house library of resources. One phone call, email or click gives you one-stop, immediate access to our wide range of subject matter experts who are able to provide fast, focused, actionable answers. We become a virtual part of your research team and our approach to business research integrates smoothly into your daily workflow.
How On-Demand works:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/online-research-traps-derail-marketing-strategy-horne.asp?sp=1
It's hard to believe how different it was, just a mere 15 years ago, to conduct secondary market research. There was no Internet (commercial at least), no Yahoo portal, no Google search, no Web-accessible databases to tap. Almost every effort required a phone call, a trip to the library, a subscription to a third-party source, a read-through of hardcopy reference material. How times have changed.
But, not always for the better. The seemingly bottomless pit of content that makes up today's Web poses some distinct challenges to marketers looking for precise, credible facts on which to build a strategy.
This article points out some of the online research traps—which can put your marketing strategy atop the proverbial house of cards.
Misleading Definitions
It is not uncommon for a data source to use imprecise terminology. My favorite example is the oft-quoted number of cell phone users in the US. You constantly see or hear 255 million, since that number is prominently displayed on the home page "ticker" of the wireless trade association CTIA.org. It seemed high to me, and when I contacted CTIA's head researcher, he admitted the number is for subscriptions, not subscribers.
When I later saw the 255 million number used, once again, in The New York Times April 13 "Week in Review" section, I requested a correction. The Times did its own research and two weeks later published a retraction, with a new number of 226 million.
Other data definitions to double-check include households vs. individuals, visits vs. visitors, total population vs. Internet users. These types of mistakes can really throw off your work in sizing market opportunities.
Bad Math
Most mistakes in this category seem to come from analysts' providing interpretation of data, comparing one set of numbers to another.
For example, research reports frequently reference market growth. Be careful: For example, an analysis might say that a company went from 10% to 11% market share, achieving 10% growth (1 divide by 10). Misleading, and easily misinterpreted by your researcher.
A more dangerous form is where interpretations are developed on "scaled" qualitative information. For example, if 60% of people rated factor A as a "5," and 30% rated factor B as a "5," the analyst might conclude people are twice as likely to choose A over B. Nonsense. Don't be swayed by this kind of math. (The scale may be using numbers, but it's not quantitative; it could just as easily be using "OK, good, better, awesome, and way cool...")
Unclear Percentages
A common example in this category relates to surveys that allow respondents to check off multiple answers, where the total response can be well over 100%. If the source is not clear, or your researcher isn't paying close attention, some ludicrous conclusions might find their way into your marketing strategy.
Would you believe there are also surveys out there that add up to less than 100%? Last fall I came across a report on DVR usage, with key data shown in two bar charts. One mapped 36% of total TV viewing time as "real time," the other showed 32% as "time shifted."
I contacted the research company to find out about the remaining 32%—what other definition of time had they come up with? The answer led me to conclude that this particular study was completely unusable.
No Check on Reality
This trap is the most challenging, as you need some experience and a healthy dose of skepticism to spot it. It is most common with emerging topics (where almost no prior research exists) and with surveys of customer intent (what people say they will do versus how they might actually behave).
The first example comes from a story about genealogy that I read earlier this year. It cited a study claiming 75% of the US "was interested in genealogy." The skeptic in me didn't believe that 75% of the population could even define genealogy. But, being an emerging topic, it was hard to refute factually.
For these kind of traps, I use my "rule of 20." I survey 5 friends, 5 work colleagues, 5 family members, and 5 citizens (bus driver, deli clerk, lobby security guard, etc.) to see if the data is in the ballpark. Try it yourself using this genealogy example—see whether you get 75%. (I didn't come close.)
A second example comes from a research company that claimed some months ago that over 40% of US internet users had watched a full episode of a TV show online. This time I had seen plenty of other data that didn't add up, specifically for full episodes, so I contacted the source directly (see a pattern here?). Turns out the 40% was an amalgamation of several inputs, only half of them true behavioral tracking.
Conclusion
To be sure, this is not an exhaustive list of the traps awaiting us as we mine the depths of online research sources. For now, keep these simple guidelines in mind:
- Ensure data definitions are precise.
- Check the math, especially on data comparisons.
- Watch those percentages (totaling more than or less than 100%).
- If it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't: Do a reality check.
- When all else fails, don't be afraid to contact the source.
Unfortunately, there is no quality control or Good Housekeeping seal of approval for online research. Which means, of course, that's one more task the marketing department has to take on.
http://www.guideline.com/capabilities/business-research/rapidresponse.html
Guideline On-Demand, previously known as FIND Inquiry Business Service, continues to meet your quick research needs by tapping into vast industry knowledge and accessing a large in-house library of resources. One phone call, email or click gives you one-stop, immediate access to our wide range of subject matter experts who are able to provide fast, focused, actionable answers. We become a virtual part of your research team and our approach to business research integrates smoothly into your daily workflow.
How On-Demand works:
- Formulate Question and Objective. To ensure your urgent research need is met quickly and accurately, you'll receive a live diagnostic consultation with one of our analysts. We'll help you frame your issue and ask the right questions to distill your needs.
- Research and Retrieve. Based on the consultation, we research and retrieve the data by scouring the massive collection of resources and databases available at our fingertips.
- Synthesize and Summarize. Our analysts will take the next step to synthesize and analyze the findings to reveal key findings and new insights.
- Delivery. Receive a summarized brief that includes the answer to your question and highlights key findings and insights. Attached to this brief is all of the supporting materials, so that when you want to take a deeper look, you can access relevant data quickly and easily. Via email, phone, fax, in a PowerPoint or word document, we deliver your information in the format of your choice when you need it.
- You Decide. Equipped with fact-based information, you'll be able to weigh all options and make an educated business decision with confidence.
- Are we paying too much for our employee healthcare plan?
- Does a patent already exist for a technology area that I'm pursuing?
- Evaluate a vendor that supplies a component for one of my products.
- Find me a reliable report on new trends in marketing to teens.
- Help me learn about microchip manufacturing in France.
- Help us brainstorm new product names
- What are the demographics on small aircraft owners?
- Who competes in the gourmet coffee market?
Market research auditing
‘MR Department Audit’ Earns High ImpactMRAward
http://www.solutionpartners.com/rbr.pdf
Extract: Up until two years ago, other than by contrasting its personnel’s personal experiences or picking the brains of peers at other MRDs, a research department had no formal or physical way to benchmark its productivity, efficiency or responsiveness. Assessing those in line with your company’s needs was completely out of the question.
Any curiosity in this regard is also squelched by the realities of everyday MRD life. Executives are asking research to do more, identify more opportunities and get a feel for where the company should go, in addition to remaining on top of everyday client needs and staff management. MRDs certainly don’t have time to think about where they are and how they’re doing in any substantial way.
http://www.solutionpartners.com/rbr.pdf
Extract: Up until two years ago, other than by contrasting its personnel’s personal experiences or picking the brains of peers at other MRDs, a research department had no formal or physical way to benchmark its productivity, efficiency or responsiveness. Assessing those in line with your company’s needs was completely out of the question.
Any curiosity in this regard is also squelched by the realities of everyday MRD life. Executives are asking research to do more, identify more opportunities and get a feel for where the company should go, in addition to remaining on top of everyday client needs and staff management. MRDs certainly don’t have time to think about where they are and how they’re doing in any substantial way.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sports marketing
Sports Video on the Web
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006446&src=article2_newsltr
Extracts: The continued success of the sports industry will depend largely on how well sports properties migrate their video content online.
Screen Digest expects sports sites in the US to more than double the number of video streams and downloads they serve online, reaching 10.9 billion in 2012, up from 5.3 billion in 2007. While this increase is large, it actually represents a declining share of total online TV streams and downloads. That decline is more a measure of the expected growth of online video as a whole than an indication of any weakness in the sports sector.
Other forms of online video—such as entertainment and music video—are growing at faster rates than sports as a result of user-generated content, according to a study by AccuStream iMedia Research.
In contrast, the vast majority of online sports video content is made up of professional media. This suggests that sports fans go online to watch highlights of their favorite teams, not to view homemade clips of athletic exploits by average citizens.
An eMarketer estimate based on a weighted average of data from eight research firms determined that 30% of US online video viewers watched sports clips and highlights on the Internet at least once per month. This does not include live sporting events, which fall into the "other" category in the ranking.
A comScore study that tracked unique viewers and videos viewed on US sports sites found that ESPN.com and MLB.com were well ahead of the competition in both categories. During the year leading up to April 2008, ESPN.com averaged roughly 8.8 million unique viewers and 78.2 million clips per month, while MLB.com logged an average of 5.7 million viewers and 25.4 million videos.
"These findings are a clear indication that the Internet is reshaping how Americans consume sports content," said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna.
"It started with news and scores and then evolved into fantasy leagues and post-game highlights. Now, more consumers are using online channels to stream live games, and we expect this trend to continue as leagues get more comfortable with this model—and as broadcast contracts allow for greater leeway in how content is syndicated on multiple platforms."
Sports Sites Score Big
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006440&src=article1_newsltr
Extracts: Most importantly to marketers, sports fans are willing to pay for premium content and merchandise, and are used to the presence of sponsors and advertisers around sports events.
"As the Internet continues to evolve toward ad-supported models," says Mr. Verna, "sports sites will follow suit."
eMarketer estimates that total revenues for US sports sites will reach $2.96 billion in 2012, up from $1.49 billion in 2007.
"The increase will be largely due to the growth of ad-supported sports content models," says Mr. Verna.
eMarketer estimates that US sports site revenues from advertising will rise from 55% in 2007 to 66% in 2012.
"Additional revenues will come from ancillary sources such as ticket sales, merchandise and memorabilia, partnerships, and Website and production services that sports sites provide for third parties," says Mr. Verna.
Cycling - Getting Australia Moving
http://www.cyclingpromotion.com.au/images/stories/downloads/CPFHlthRpr08V3prf1.pdf
Abstract: This report has been developed to assist practitioners, policy makers and planners to increase adult physical activity levels through bicycle riding. It does this by first setting the scene on Australian cycling and then outlines current barriers and facilitators to greater participation. Finally, the report delivers a set of recommendations to overcome these barriers and increase bicycle riding among Australian adults.
The Revenue Model: Why Baseball Is Booming
http://www.bnet.com/2403-13502_23-210671.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713
Abstract: On the face of it, it’s amazing the $6.1 billion that Major League Baseball took in last year is within spitting distance of the NFL’s 2007 revenue of $6.3 billion. The Super Bowl broke TV ratings records once again in 2008, drawing nearly 100 million viewers, while only 17 million bothered to tune in to the 2007 World Series. But baseball has found increasingly inventive ways to ramp up revenue — from counterintuitively reducing the number of seats in stadiums to selling streaming video of baseball games online — hitting record high revenues for five consecutive years.
Baseball remains an especially local, live form of entertainment — an aspect some analysts trace to its historical roots, which predate national markets and TV by a half-century. Unlike the NFL, which takes in more than two-thirds of revenue from national TV, baseball’s national broadcasts generate less than 20 percent of overall sales ($935 million in 2006). The lion’s share comes from revenue at its ballparks and via local broadcasts.
It’s at the local level — soaring sales of higher-priced tickets, concessions, and advertising at new theme-park style stadiums — that MLB is hitting some of its biggest home runs.
Article explores the key drivers of growth being:
Stadiums as high margin retail outlets
Smaller stadiums: bigger profits
New media, new money
Stadiums as sponsorship platforms
Regional sports network revenues
Can the right brand strategy popularise major league soccer?
http://www.brandchannel.com/forum.asp?bd_id=97
Vigorous and interesting online debate on this issue.
How soccer can be represented on a global scale
http://show.mappingworlds.com/
Go to Lifestyle/Sports/Football and see how the world map is resized proportional to participation in soccer.
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006446&src=article2_newsltr
Extracts: The continued success of the sports industry will depend largely on how well sports properties migrate their video content online.
Screen Digest expects sports sites in the US to more than double the number of video streams and downloads they serve online, reaching 10.9 billion in 2012, up from 5.3 billion in 2007. While this increase is large, it actually represents a declining share of total online TV streams and downloads. That decline is more a measure of the expected growth of online video as a whole than an indication of any weakness in the sports sector.
Other forms of online video—such as entertainment and music video—are growing at faster rates than sports as a result of user-generated content, according to a study by AccuStream iMedia Research.
In contrast, the vast majority of online sports video content is made up of professional media. This suggests that sports fans go online to watch highlights of their favorite teams, not to view homemade clips of athletic exploits by average citizens.
An eMarketer estimate based on a weighted average of data from eight research firms determined that 30% of US online video viewers watched sports clips and highlights on the Internet at least once per month. This does not include live sporting events, which fall into the "other" category in the ranking.
A comScore study that tracked unique viewers and videos viewed on US sports sites found that ESPN.com and MLB.com were well ahead of the competition in both categories. During the year leading up to April 2008, ESPN.com averaged roughly 8.8 million unique viewers and 78.2 million clips per month, while MLB.com logged an average of 5.7 million viewers and 25.4 million videos.
"These findings are a clear indication that the Internet is reshaping how Americans consume sports content," said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna.
"It started with news and scores and then evolved into fantasy leagues and post-game highlights. Now, more consumers are using online channels to stream live games, and we expect this trend to continue as leagues get more comfortable with this model—and as broadcast contracts allow for greater leeway in how content is syndicated on multiple platforms."
Sports Sites Score Big
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006440&src=article1_newsltr
Extracts: Most importantly to marketers, sports fans are willing to pay for premium content and merchandise, and are used to the presence of sponsors and advertisers around sports events.
"As the Internet continues to evolve toward ad-supported models," says Mr. Verna, "sports sites will follow suit."
eMarketer estimates that total revenues for US sports sites will reach $2.96 billion in 2012, up from $1.49 billion in 2007.
"The increase will be largely due to the growth of ad-supported sports content models," says Mr. Verna.
eMarketer estimates that US sports site revenues from advertising will rise from 55% in 2007 to 66% in 2012.
"Additional revenues will come from ancillary sources such as ticket sales, merchandise and memorabilia, partnerships, and Website and production services that sports sites provide for third parties," says Mr. Verna.
Cycling - Getting Australia Moving
http://www.cyclingpromotion.com.au/images/stories/downloads/CPFHlthRpr08V3prf1.pdf
Abstract: This report has been developed to assist practitioners, policy makers and planners to increase adult physical activity levels through bicycle riding. It does this by first setting the scene on Australian cycling and then outlines current barriers and facilitators to greater participation. Finally, the report delivers a set of recommendations to overcome these barriers and increase bicycle riding among Australian adults.
The Revenue Model: Why Baseball Is Booming
http://www.bnet.com/2403-13502_23-210671.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713
Abstract: On the face of it, it’s amazing the $6.1 billion that Major League Baseball took in last year is within spitting distance of the NFL’s 2007 revenue of $6.3 billion. The Super Bowl broke TV ratings records once again in 2008, drawing nearly 100 million viewers, while only 17 million bothered to tune in to the 2007 World Series. But baseball has found increasingly inventive ways to ramp up revenue — from counterintuitively reducing the number of seats in stadiums to selling streaming video of baseball games online — hitting record high revenues for five consecutive years.
Baseball remains an especially local, live form of entertainment — an aspect some analysts trace to its historical roots, which predate national markets and TV by a half-century. Unlike the NFL, which takes in more than two-thirds of revenue from national TV, baseball’s national broadcasts generate less than 20 percent of overall sales ($935 million in 2006). The lion’s share comes from revenue at its ballparks and via local broadcasts.
It’s at the local level — soaring sales of higher-priced tickets, concessions, and advertising at new theme-park style stadiums — that MLB is hitting some of its biggest home runs.
Article explores the key drivers of growth being:
Stadiums as high margin retail outlets
Smaller stadiums: bigger profits
New media, new money
Stadiums as sponsorship platforms
Regional sports network revenues
Can the right brand strategy popularise major league soccer?
http://www.brandchannel.com/forum.asp?bd_id=97
Vigorous and interesting online debate on this issue.
How soccer can be represented on a global scale
http://show.mappingworlds.com/
Go to Lifestyle/Sports/Football and see how the world map is resized proportional to participation in soccer.
Marketing to schools
4221.0 - Schools, Australia, 2007 - Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 29/02/2008
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4221.0Main%20Features42007?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4221.0&issue=2007&num=&view=
Full breakdown by State, type of school etc. of number of schools in Australia
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4221.0Main%20Features42007?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4221.0&issue=2007&num=&view=
Full breakdown by State, type of school etc. of number of schools in Australia
Employer brand equity
Culture and reputation count more than money in war for talent
http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/31/research/culture-and-reputation-count-more-than-money-in-war-for-talent.asp
A company's reputation and its workplace culture are more important than pay and benefits when it comes to attracting top talent, new research has suggested.
An international survey of more than 500 HR executives by global talent management firm, Bernard Hodes, has found that the quality or reputation of products and services, the corporate culture and the work environment were a business's most important attributes when it came to bringing talent aboard.
Ethical reputation also scored highly. But benefits and compensation were, perhaps surprisingly, bottom of the list.
The research also concluded that four out of 10 employers did not have a formal programme in place to position and promote their employer brand to new recruits and top talent.
Just a quarter of those polled felt their organisation had the tools and capability to measure their employer brand in terms of recruitment and retention.
Even fewer - only one in eight - indicated that the value of their employer brand was calibrated by their overall company performance.
One possible reason for this discrepancy, argued Bernard Hodes, was that employer brand programmes have traditionally been notoriously hard to justify to the bottom-line.
Nevertheless, just over one third of those polled who worked for organisations that did not have an employer brand programme in place said there were plans to formalise existing ad hoc branding efforts.
And two thirds (66 per cent) said they hoped to have a programme in place within the next five years.
The advantages of an building employer brand were also clearly recognised, with 81 per cent saying it made it easier to attract candidates, 79 per cent feeling it made them more of an employer of choice and nearly two thirds (63 per cent) believing it improved retention.
Organisations that fail to recognise the power of the concept are limited in their ability to attract and retain the new generation of talent, the survey warned.
Surprisingly, a quarter of employer brand initiatives were managed outside the HR function, the poll found.
Other departments that took a lead included the Board and marketing, it emerged.
Encouragingly, just over half of those polled said there had to be an internal as well as an external component to their brand as an employer if it was to be maintained and to be successful.
Helen Rosethorn, chief executive of Bernard Hodes, said: "Employees are increasingly asking some tough questions of their employers. These days people think about the implications of aligning their own long-term career reputation with the brand of a particular organisation. "The brand of an organisation as a good employer plays an essential role in attracting and retaining a new generation of employee talent, and allowing them to align their interests and aspirations with those of the organisation," she added.
http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/31/research/culture-and-reputation-count-more-than-money-in-war-for-talent.asp
A company's reputation and its workplace culture are more important than pay and benefits when it comes to attracting top talent, new research has suggested.
An international survey of more than 500 HR executives by global talent management firm, Bernard Hodes, has found that the quality or reputation of products and services, the corporate culture and the work environment were a business's most important attributes when it came to bringing talent aboard.
Ethical reputation also scored highly. But benefits and compensation were, perhaps surprisingly, bottom of the list.
The research also concluded that four out of 10 employers did not have a formal programme in place to position and promote their employer brand to new recruits and top talent.
Just a quarter of those polled felt their organisation had the tools and capability to measure their employer brand in terms of recruitment and retention.
Even fewer - only one in eight - indicated that the value of their employer brand was calibrated by their overall company performance.
One possible reason for this discrepancy, argued Bernard Hodes, was that employer brand programmes have traditionally been notoriously hard to justify to the bottom-line.
Nevertheless, just over one third of those polled who worked for organisations that did not have an employer brand programme in place said there were plans to formalise existing ad hoc branding efforts.
And two thirds (66 per cent) said they hoped to have a programme in place within the next five years.
The advantages of an building employer brand were also clearly recognised, with 81 per cent saying it made it easier to attract candidates, 79 per cent feeling it made them more of an employer of choice and nearly two thirds (63 per cent) believing it improved retention.
Organisations that fail to recognise the power of the concept are limited in their ability to attract and retain the new generation of talent, the survey warned.
Surprisingly, a quarter of employer brand initiatives were managed outside the HR function, the poll found.
Other departments that took a lead included the Board and marketing, it emerged.
Encouragingly, just over half of those polled said there had to be an internal as well as an external component to their brand as an employer if it was to be maintained and to be successful.
Helen Rosethorn, chief executive of Bernard Hodes, said: "Employees are increasingly asking some tough questions of their employers. These days people think about the implications of aligning their own long-term career reputation with the brand of a particular organisation. "The brand of an organisation as a good employer plays an essential role in attracting and retaining a new generation of employee talent, and allowing them to align their interests and aspirations with those of the organisation," she added.
Mobile phone marketing
Australia’s top 10 mobile moguls
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080827-Australias-top-10-mobile-moguls-.html?source=cmailer
Following the launch of the iPhone, the mobile industry has become hot property. But this is not a new sector. A group of industry pioneers have been slowly building Australia’s mobile industry for more than a decade.
Building an industry can be a thankless slog, especially when the idea is compelling but the business models elusive. Such is the lot of many of Australia’s innovators in content and applications for mobile phones.
While the idea of getting the internet and other content on your phone seems like an obvious one, lining up all of the elements to make it happen has proven tricky, requiring cooperation between carriers, advertisers and content creators.
So while they may not command the biggest pay cheques or helm the largest companies, when it comes to the development of the mobile internet in Australia, the 10 individuals listed here are rated by their peers for their hard work, innovation and success in a sector where the rewards today are small, but may potentially be enormous tomorrow.
Angus Beattie – 3 Mobile:
Since joining 3 Mobile in July 2007, Beattie has been responsible for the company’s mobile advertising strategy and delivery, delivering campaigns for Ford, 20th Century Fox and Tourism Canberra. 3 Mobile has been a strong supporter of the local mobile industry, and Beattie has maintained the tradition, and is a regular speaker on mobile content and advertising issues.
Justin Brow – mega:
While his background is in marketing and media at Disney Internet Group and Spin Communications, these days Brow devotes his energy to digital media industry development initiatives such as 60Sox.org (a showcase for talent) and now mega, the mobile enterprise growth alliance.
The latter group gives entrepreneurs with a cool idea for a mobile technology or service the opportunity to pitch in front of a panel of experts and investors. “We seem to have a productive mix of innovation, creativity, tenacity, technical wherewithal and business sense to really compete very well on an international level,” Brow says.
Oliver Weidlich – Ideal Interfaces:
An expert in user experience with a passion for making mobile technology easier to use, Weidlich has also been a driving force behind many of the events that have bound Australia’s mobile developers into a community, including the AIMIA Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index survey of consumer habits and attitudes. His business provides usability testing services and emerging technology consulting, servicing customers including Hutchison, Optus, Telstra, ninemsn and the ABC.
Dave Green – Vodafone Australia:
With 15 years experience in international sales, product and marketing experience within the telecommunications industry, Green formulates and delivers the mobile advertising strategy for Vodafone in Australia. In 2007, he developed the “mobile advertising charter” as a standard for the local market, which has since been embraced by agencies and operators around the world.
Luke Janssen and Oliver Palmer – TigerSpike:
Janssen and Palmer founded TigerSpike in 2003, and since then have been blazing a trail for integrated mobile marketing campaigns. In February TigerSpike set up an innovation lab to further push the envelope of what’s possible. “The innovation lab that we have set up makes sure that we not only know what is coming up, but we have made a call on whether we think it is important and our tech guys have played around with it,” Janssen says. The company now has offices in Auckland, New York and London.
Che Metcalfe and Karyn Lanthois – Podmo/Kukan Studio:
A driving force within Adelaide’s digital media community and president of the South Australian chapter of the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), Metcalfe co-founded Kukan Studio with Lanthois as a specialist developer of games and other content for mobile phones.
Metcalfe’s new venture, Podmo Mobile, is seeking to build out entirely new city-wide mobile phone infrastructure using Bluetooth wireless technology, effectively bypassing traditional carriers when it comes to distributing digital content. He is currently exploring opportunities for Podmo in international markets.
Chris Noone – NineMSN:
Noone got his start in mobile in 2001 when he worked for Vizzavi, a joint venture of Vivendi and Vodafone that was the forerunner of Vodafone’s Live service. He then established Vodafone’s mobile games and content business across Europe, before returning to Australia to establish the mobile group at ninemsn in 2006 where he launched and grew its mobile advertising business to take a 17% market share. Noone is also founder of the “You Can on a Mobile” consumer education campaign, and is now working as an independent consultant.
Paz Saavedra – News Corporation:
News Digital Media’s mobile product manager is described by her peers as a leading innovative thinker, and has been responsible for the strategic direction of mobile services across brands including carguide.com and News.com.au, which claims to be Australia’s first customisable mobile site. She also oversaw development of News’s first three sites customised for the iPhone.
Jennifer Wilson – Lean Forward:
As managing director of HWW, Wilson was a pioneer in the development of mobile content in Australia, creating the yourTime series of mobile information sites. HWW was acquired by ninemsn in December 2005, and Wilson moved on to a role as head of innovation.
Earlier this year she left to set up her own business, Lean Forward, which provides consulting services around creating engaging consumer experiences both on mobile and online. “Things like the iPhone are game-changing, not because of what the device is, but because it opens up our mind to the possibilities of what this could become,” Wilson says.
“We are getting more ‘connected’ – and connection is going to extend to every device so we are going to need to rethink our ideas of ‘internet’ – which will become synonymous with ‘connected’; and ‘mobile’ – which even now, doesn’t just mean phone.”
Alex Young – Mostyle:
With a career background that includes Telstra, Nokia and Singapore’s Starhub, Young was born mobile. He began working with the mobile internet way back in 2000 when Nokia released its first phone featuring wireless application protocol (WAP), and went on to found Mostyle in 2004.
While Young has spent much of his life creating developing innovative mobile community and entertainment services, his current business hands that capability back to the general public, allowing anyone to publish their own mobile website outside the portals of the carriers. It has already attracted significant interest in south east Asia.
“We see much of the success of Mostyle coming to bear in the global realisation that the off-portal mobile internet space is much like the web reborn; a time for new tools, new communities and a new eco-system.”
What is the profile of an iPhone buyer?
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080714-Who-is-behind-the-iPhone-hype.html?source=cmailer
Extracts: Marketing Charts has put together a combination of data from Nielsen Online and Hitwise to produce a snapshot of the iPhone demographic.
In a nutshell, iPhone enthusiasts tend to be young and well paid. Close to 35% of visitors to Apple’s iPhone website for the past four weeks were aged between 18 and 24, more than any other age group, while a relatively high 25% earn more than $US100,000 a year.
Interestingly, the gender split between iPhone site visitors was very even, with just over 50% men and just under 50% women.
Nielsen data on current iPhone users in the US suggests they are quite different from your average mobile phone user. Men make up two-thirds of iPhone users, compared to just 48% of normal mobile users, and are twice as likely to earn more than $US75,000 a year.
Compared to your average mobile user they are also much more likely to watch a video, access the internet, stream music or play games on their phone.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080827-Australias-top-10-mobile-moguls-.html?source=cmailer
Following the launch of the iPhone, the mobile industry has become hot property. But this is not a new sector. A group of industry pioneers have been slowly building Australia’s mobile industry for more than a decade.
Building an industry can be a thankless slog, especially when the idea is compelling but the business models elusive. Such is the lot of many of Australia’s innovators in content and applications for mobile phones.
While the idea of getting the internet and other content on your phone seems like an obvious one, lining up all of the elements to make it happen has proven tricky, requiring cooperation between carriers, advertisers and content creators.
So while they may not command the biggest pay cheques or helm the largest companies, when it comes to the development of the mobile internet in Australia, the 10 individuals listed here are rated by their peers for their hard work, innovation and success in a sector where the rewards today are small, but may potentially be enormous tomorrow.
Angus Beattie – 3 Mobile:
Since joining 3 Mobile in July 2007, Beattie has been responsible for the company’s mobile advertising strategy and delivery, delivering campaigns for Ford, 20th Century Fox and Tourism Canberra. 3 Mobile has been a strong supporter of the local mobile industry, and Beattie has maintained the tradition, and is a regular speaker on mobile content and advertising issues.
Justin Brow – mega:
While his background is in marketing and media at Disney Internet Group and Spin Communications, these days Brow devotes his energy to digital media industry development initiatives such as 60Sox.org (a showcase for talent) and now mega, the mobile enterprise growth alliance.
The latter group gives entrepreneurs with a cool idea for a mobile technology or service the opportunity to pitch in front of a panel of experts and investors. “We seem to have a productive mix of innovation, creativity, tenacity, technical wherewithal and business sense to really compete very well on an international level,” Brow says.
Oliver Weidlich – Ideal Interfaces:
An expert in user experience with a passion for making mobile technology easier to use, Weidlich has also been a driving force behind many of the events that have bound Australia’s mobile developers into a community, including the AIMIA Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index survey of consumer habits and attitudes. His business provides usability testing services and emerging technology consulting, servicing customers including Hutchison, Optus, Telstra, ninemsn and the ABC.
Dave Green – Vodafone Australia:
With 15 years experience in international sales, product and marketing experience within the telecommunications industry, Green formulates and delivers the mobile advertising strategy for Vodafone in Australia. In 2007, he developed the “mobile advertising charter” as a standard for the local market, which has since been embraced by agencies and operators around the world.
Luke Janssen and Oliver Palmer – TigerSpike:
Janssen and Palmer founded TigerSpike in 2003, and since then have been blazing a trail for integrated mobile marketing campaigns. In February TigerSpike set up an innovation lab to further push the envelope of what’s possible. “The innovation lab that we have set up makes sure that we not only know what is coming up, but we have made a call on whether we think it is important and our tech guys have played around with it,” Janssen says. The company now has offices in Auckland, New York and London.
Che Metcalfe and Karyn Lanthois – Podmo/Kukan Studio:
A driving force within Adelaide’s digital media community and president of the South Australian chapter of the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), Metcalfe co-founded Kukan Studio with Lanthois as a specialist developer of games and other content for mobile phones.
Metcalfe’s new venture, Podmo Mobile, is seeking to build out entirely new city-wide mobile phone infrastructure using Bluetooth wireless technology, effectively bypassing traditional carriers when it comes to distributing digital content. He is currently exploring opportunities for Podmo in international markets.
Chris Noone – NineMSN:
Noone got his start in mobile in 2001 when he worked for Vizzavi, a joint venture of Vivendi and Vodafone that was the forerunner of Vodafone’s Live service. He then established Vodafone’s mobile games and content business across Europe, before returning to Australia to establish the mobile group at ninemsn in 2006 where he launched and grew its mobile advertising business to take a 17% market share. Noone is also founder of the “You Can on a Mobile” consumer education campaign, and is now working as an independent consultant.
Paz Saavedra – News Corporation:
News Digital Media’s mobile product manager is described by her peers as a leading innovative thinker, and has been responsible for the strategic direction of mobile services across brands including carguide.com and News.com.au, which claims to be Australia’s first customisable mobile site. She also oversaw development of News’s first three sites customised for the iPhone.
Jennifer Wilson – Lean Forward:
As managing director of HWW, Wilson was a pioneer in the development of mobile content in Australia, creating the yourTime series of mobile information sites. HWW was acquired by ninemsn in December 2005, and Wilson moved on to a role as head of innovation.
Earlier this year she left to set up her own business, Lean Forward, which provides consulting services around creating engaging consumer experiences both on mobile and online. “Things like the iPhone are game-changing, not because of what the device is, but because it opens up our mind to the possibilities of what this could become,” Wilson says.
“We are getting more ‘connected’ – and connection is going to extend to every device so we are going to need to rethink our ideas of ‘internet’ – which will become synonymous with ‘connected’; and ‘mobile’ – which even now, doesn’t just mean phone.”
Alex Young – Mostyle:
With a career background that includes Telstra, Nokia and Singapore’s Starhub, Young was born mobile. He began working with the mobile internet way back in 2000 when Nokia released its first phone featuring wireless application protocol (WAP), and went on to found Mostyle in 2004.
While Young has spent much of his life creating developing innovative mobile community and entertainment services, his current business hands that capability back to the general public, allowing anyone to publish their own mobile website outside the portals of the carriers. It has already attracted significant interest in south east Asia.
“We see much of the success of Mostyle coming to bear in the global realisation that the off-portal mobile internet space is much like the web reborn; a time for new tools, new communities and a new eco-system.”
What is the profile of an iPhone buyer?
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080714-Who-is-behind-the-iPhone-hype.html?source=cmailer
Extracts: Marketing Charts has put together a combination of data from Nielsen Online and Hitwise to produce a snapshot of the iPhone demographic.
In a nutshell, iPhone enthusiasts tend to be young and well paid. Close to 35% of visitors to Apple’s iPhone website for the past four weeks were aged between 18 and 24, more than any other age group, while a relatively high 25% earn more than $US100,000 a year.
Interestingly, the gender split between iPhone site visitors was very even, with just over 50% men and just under 50% women.
Nielsen data on current iPhone users in the US suggests they are quite different from your average mobile phone user. Men make up two-thirds of iPhone users, compared to just 48% of normal mobile users, and are twice as likely to earn more than $US75,000 a year.
Compared to your average mobile user they are also much more likely to watch a video, access the internet, stream music or play games on their phone.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Product development
Competing for the Digital Consumer
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Issue/Y2008/CompetingConsumer.htm
Extract: Innovation is the name of the game in consumer electronics. But the industry's two types of high performer tackle this critical capability in very different ways.
Few industries are more dependent on the development and marketing of new products than consumer electronics. And few have been more prolific in this regard. Ever smarter mobile phones and high-definition TVs are just two of the more recent in a long line of innovations that have been fueling the remarkable growth trajectory of an industry that was launched with the advent of commercial radio nearly a century ago—an industry now valued at more than $600 billion worldwide.
Recently, however, the industry has been gripped by a highly uncharacteristic crisis of confidence. The cause? Widespread uncertainty about just what form the next big product breakthrough will take.
At the core of the concern is convergence. As voice, data and cable networks become Internet protocol-enabled, and content and devices are digitized, once-distinct sectors are coming together in a single high-tech ecosystem. That's good news for the consumer, of course, who will soon be able to access content at will, using small, handheld devices that jump on and off a mix of private and public networks. But convergence represents a huge challenge for manufacturers, which are battling to win the hearts and minds of consumers with just the right kind of device.
And in the developed world, those consumers are becoming both more demanding and less loyal. If the price and features are right, they won't hesitate to buy the newest must-have gizmo from copycat manufacturers located in any number of rapidly emerging economies.
What's more, a billion new consumers are expected to enter the global marketplace within the next decade, most of them from those same emerging economies. Some will be sophisticated buyers of the latest devices. But many will have different needs—phones that work in rural environments with limited energy, for example—and growing numbers of opportunistic and inventive local manufacturers will be lining up to satisfy them.
With prices for maturing products slumping, product lifecycles shortening and the battle for retail shelf space ever more competitive, manufacturers in developed markets have their hands full. As if the situation weren't already daunting enough, formidable new heavyweight competitors from other industries are entering the game. Amazon.com, for example, recently launched the Kindle digital book reader and associated online book purchasing service that competes with Sony's Reader Digital Book. Meanwhile, Google's Android—an open-source operating system for mobile phones—has the potential to have a big impact on wireless service innovation. (For a related article, see "Catching the Next Wave of Innovation," Outlook, May 2008. Also see "Driving Service Innovation in Communications, High Tech and Media: The Impact of Google's Android Platform.")
In this industry, there are two paths to high performance—and they are quite distinct. We refer to the manufacturers of the sort of breakthrough products that are such a hit with consumers that they actually create a market as Market Definers. Other companies have achieved high performance in this industry as Value Players—by delivering a customer experience characterized by a combination of product quality, brand integrity and some kind of differentiator, usually around competitive pricing or service.
No consumer electronics company has successfully embraced both approaches to achieving high performance. Our research, moreover, confirms that the two types of high performer display dramatically different mindsets when it comes to the key capability that drives performance throughout this industry: innovation. While the Market Definers tend to be more entrepreneurial, focusing on breakthrough innovation to deliver compelling new experiences with new product categories, the Value Players' principal focus is on innovation to improve their existing product portfolio with, for example, new features. They also emphasize execution and the inno-vative use of branding and distribution to extend both their geographic scope and sales volume.
The two approaches are reflected in how the high performers manage the three building blocks that underpin high performance in all industries: market focus and position; distinctive capabilities; and performance anatomy.
For a reward, crowds name new products
http://springwise.com/weekly/2008-06-18.htm#namethis
Extract: Kluster-powered NameThis is designed to provide a quick and painless way for innovators to find a market-ready name for their company, product or service.
Those with a thing in need of a name begin by posting a request for help and paying USD 99. Members of the community then have 48 hours to suggest names and/or invest points in their favourites. At the end of the 48 hours, NameThis's system "does some fancy math" and picks three winners.
Of the fee paid by the thing's owner, USD 80 is distributed to those who contributed to the winners: USD 40 goes to the person who picked the first-place name, while USD 10 is shared amongst the influencers on that name; USD 16 goes to the second-place namer, while USD 4 is shared among the influencers on that one; and USD 8 goes to the individual who picked the third-place name, with USD 2 shared among influencers.
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Issue/Y2008/CompetingConsumer.htm
Extract: Innovation is the name of the game in consumer electronics. But the industry's two types of high performer tackle this critical capability in very different ways.
Few industries are more dependent on the development and marketing of new products than consumer electronics. And few have been more prolific in this regard. Ever smarter mobile phones and high-definition TVs are just two of the more recent in a long line of innovations that have been fueling the remarkable growth trajectory of an industry that was launched with the advent of commercial radio nearly a century ago—an industry now valued at more than $600 billion worldwide.
Recently, however, the industry has been gripped by a highly uncharacteristic crisis of confidence. The cause? Widespread uncertainty about just what form the next big product breakthrough will take.
At the core of the concern is convergence. As voice, data and cable networks become Internet protocol-enabled, and content and devices are digitized, once-distinct sectors are coming together in a single high-tech ecosystem. That's good news for the consumer, of course, who will soon be able to access content at will, using small, handheld devices that jump on and off a mix of private and public networks. But convergence represents a huge challenge for manufacturers, which are battling to win the hearts and minds of consumers with just the right kind of device.
And in the developed world, those consumers are becoming both more demanding and less loyal. If the price and features are right, they won't hesitate to buy the newest must-have gizmo from copycat manufacturers located in any number of rapidly emerging economies.
What's more, a billion new consumers are expected to enter the global marketplace within the next decade, most of them from those same emerging economies. Some will be sophisticated buyers of the latest devices. But many will have different needs—phones that work in rural environments with limited energy, for example—and growing numbers of opportunistic and inventive local manufacturers will be lining up to satisfy them.
With prices for maturing products slumping, product lifecycles shortening and the battle for retail shelf space ever more competitive, manufacturers in developed markets have their hands full. As if the situation weren't already daunting enough, formidable new heavyweight competitors from other industries are entering the game. Amazon.com, for example, recently launched the Kindle digital book reader and associated online book purchasing service that competes with Sony's Reader Digital Book. Meanwhile, Google's Android—an open-source operating system for mobile phones—has the potential to have a big impact on wireless service innovation. (For a related article, see "Catching the Next Wave of Innovation," Outlook, May 2008. Also see "Driving Service Innovation in Communications, High Tech and Media: The Impact of Google's Android Platform.")
In this industry, there are two paths to high performance—and they are quite distinct. We refer to the manufacturers of the sort of breakthrough products that are such a hit with consumers that they actually create a market as Market Definers. Other companies have achieved high performance in this industry as Value Players—by delivering a customer experience characterized by a combination of product quality, brand integrity and some kind of differentiator, usually around competitive pricing or service.
No consumer electronics company has successfully embraced both approaches to achieving high performance. Our research, moreover, confirms that the two types of high performer display dramatically different mindsets when it comes to the key capability that drives performance throughout this industry: innovation. While the Market Definers tend to be more entrepreneurial, focusing on breakthrough innovation to deliver compelling new experiences with new product categories, the Value Players' principal focus is on innovation to improve their existing product portfolio with, for example, new features. They also emphasize execution and the inno-vative use of branding and distribution to extend both their geographic scope and sales volume.
The two approaches are reflected in how the high performers manage the three building blocks that underpin high performance in all industries: market focus and position; distinctive capabilities; and performance anatomy.
For a reward, crowds name new products
http://springwise.com/weekly/2008-06-18.htm#namethis
Extract: Kluster-powered NameThis is designed to provide a quick and painless way for innovators to find a market-ready name for their company, product or service.
Those with a thing in need of a name begin by posting a request for help and paying USD 99. Members of the community then have 48 hours to suggest names and/or invest points in their favourites. At the end of the 48 hours, NameThis's system "does some fancy math" and picks three winners.
Of the fee paid by the thing's owner, USD 80 is distributed to those who contributed to the winners: USD 40 goes to the person who picked the first-place name, while USD 10 is shared amongst the influencers on that name; USD 16 goes to the second-place namer, while USD 4 is shared among the influencers on that one; and USD 8 goes to the individual who picked the third-place name, with USD 2 shared among influencers.
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