Social Business Is Growing and Morphing !
I was re reading the recent ibm.biz/SocStudy on social business impact! If you haven't read it, please take the time to comb through it!
Some things that struck me!
First, enterprises are rapidly adopting, investing in and achieving business outcomes from social. In fact, Pacesetters, those who are exceeding in the market, are 4x more likely to embed social into both their internal and external processes! 43% of the best embed social into their processes but we need more to think this way! Social is not a channel, but a more effective and efficient ways to transform business processes!
But how do they approach social? Organizations tend to deploy clusters of capabilities together, each aimed at achieving a specific goal. Most are driving both internal and external collaboration but the #1 social entry point for most organizations deploying is on a client engagement mobile app.
To ensure success, these organizations are building, educating and protecting the workforce. 82% of these companies also recruit their employees via social networks.
However, most of these organizations are using social analytics to support their decisions, not for making decisions. For instance, 70% of those who are deploying social analytics still DO NOT USE THEM to influence marketing decisions - still rely on gut feel!!!!
Employees are critical in the battle for mindshare and relationships online! 43% of those deploying rely on employee evangelists to spread the word
Visit ibm.biz/SocStudy to read the full study and start driving your social business impact!
Don't go it alone: Create partnerships to prepare for the future A Chat with Ray Wang!
Ray Wang is one of the most visionary guys I've spoken to. So I caught up with him on the Business Tech Trend report. And his advice: Don't go it alone: Create partnerships to prepare for the future
Ray Wang, founder and chairman of Constellation Analytics, talked about this partnership idea during our launch of the Business Tech Trends webcast. He commented that what clients are looking for today are "system integrators, partners, and value-added resellers to co-innovate, co-create. They are looking for new ideas and the ability to transform."
Ray is absolutely right! Furthermore, we're on the horizon of a digital business disruption. This disruption is more than just technology and networks talking to each other, it means a fundamental shift in business models. Ray went on to list seven elements of the digital disruption, which you can listen to on the webcast!
I suggest getting started on these three things:
1. Pursue creative partnerships. Build partnerships that will help you create the next level of solutions.
2. Increase analytics into your decision-making. Ray suggested that if 20% of your business isn't built on insight patterns by 2020, your enterprise won't survive. To start, register for the Watson Analytics Beta! Watson Analytics Beta -> http://www.watsonanalytics.com
3.Re-imagine the hiring process. Your ideal candidate shouldn't be one that already fits the mold of your business. You need candidates that are considered outside of the box that will help re-imagine your business model.
Learn more here! http://ibm.biz/biztechhuddle
9 Spokes and Tapit win at SmartCamp Down Under with Cloud and Analytics!
A huge congratulations to 9 Spokes and Tapit for being named the winner and people's choice winner, respectively, of the SmartCamp Sydney competition!
9 Spokes was the judges' choice with its integrated software dashboard. They select apps through a rigorous accreditation program and then make them available to the user through a dashboard environment. No more sifting through thousands of apps trying to find the best match for your industry. They've already located them for you, and made it easy to access!
Also, they use the power of the cloud! You can access 9 Spokes and all your apps from any Internet connected device. Everything is at your finger tips!
Tapit's solution deploys, manages and analyses contactless technology, such as Near Field Communications tags, Beacons and QR codes. Using powerful Tapit visualization reporting, clients can easily make sense of how people are interacting with their Tapit-enabled infrastructure in real-time. Their solution provides an easy to use platform that instantly tells you how and where people are engaging with your content, as well as channel format and device.
With Tapit, it's easy to see how people are interacting with your Tapit-enabled infrastructure in real-time.
Great job to our winners and good show to the Sydney team!
London Welcomes Business Tech Trends! What are the European differences?
I will be in London this week for the Entrepreneur County event entitled "Follow the Entrepreneur!"with Julie Myers as well as spending a few days at Shoreditch ... especially highlighting some Europe differences of our Business Tech Trend Study.
So in prep for Europe, I wanted to know the specific differences that we were seeing in Europe! Here's the highlights! As a reference, European companies make up 47% of those who contributed to the study (primarily from UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia)
Differences:
• Social adoption is lower in Europe:
64% of European enterprises have deployed social (vs. 70% of non-Europe enterprises)
• Plans for increasing Big Data and Analytics investment are lower:
66% of European enterprises are planning to increase investment over next 2 years, vs. 75% non-Europe
• Europeans report having the needed cloud skills needed:
63% Europe vs. 56% non-Europe
• European companies are less likely to be engaging academia and clients as a partner:
73% use for activities, vs. 81% of non-European enterprises
79% use clients for activities, vs. 84% of non-European enterprises
• They are less likely to use analytical insights in their decision making:
30% Europe vs. 43% non-Europe (vs. 7 in 10 Pacesetters)
• And Finally, European enterprises are less likely to report gaining major competitive advantage from their initiatives in these areas:
- Mobile: 66% in Europe gain major comp. advantage (vs. 77% non-Europe)
- Social: 63% in Europe (vs. 77% non-Europe)
- BDA: 65% in Europe (vs. 82% non-Europe)
- Cloud: 67% in Europe (vs. 82% non-Europe)
While here I found this cool app as well -- for seeing the sights ..not that I will get to this trip but it is a fascinating app!
Googling Around London [Infographic] by the team at Cheapflights
Insight Robotics douses out the competition, wins SmartCamp China!
Insight Robotics douses out the competition, wins SmartCamp China!
Every summer in the United States, it seems like there are more and more forest fires. Literally thousands of forestland acres are lost each summer season! It always makes me wonder, "Can't we do better?"
Last week's SmartCamp China winner has a great solution for fighting forest fires, called Insight Computer Vision Wildfire Detection System. Insight Robotics uses thermal imaging sensors and advanced artificial intelligence vision technology to quickly locate a forest fire, giving first responders a jump at extinguishing the flames. So precise is their solution that is can spot fires as small as an area of 2m x 1m within 5km radius!
And that's not all it can do! Insight Robotics also says that their solution can be used in a variety of ways for undeveloped terrain, including the monitoring of illegal logging and large city parks.
Now that's what I call a smarter solution! Congratulations to Insight Robotics!
VacantBoards uses Big Data and Analytics for the SmartCamp Lagos win!
Imagine a company that uses big data and analytic software to capture data on the flow of traffic to determine the value of advertising on billboards. A solution like that could help small businesses, as well as enterprise-level businesses, maximize their advertising dollars when selecting the right billboard.
You don't have to imagine that company, because we found them at a SmartCamp event! VacantBoards was announced the winner of SmartCamp Lagos!
VacantBoards developed the very solution I described above. Driven by big data and analytics, their solution is a game changer in the African advertising industry. And, even better, their solution is provided at the touch of your fingers through a mobile app! How powerful is that?!
Congratulations to VacantBoards and to the Lagos ecosystem for putting on another great SmartCamp!
CNBC Top 50 Disruptors - Of the Top 20, 25% are Social
I love disruptors. I love innovation and creative thinking.
So the CNBC Top 50 Disruptors was interesting. (read the full story here
I found it interested that ALL these companies are either based on Cloud, Social, Mobile, or Analytics. All are based CAMS!
And of the Top 20, 25% are Social Business oriented.
Whose your favorite? And what's your biggest AHA on the list?
90% Of Companies don't have an Innovation Culture
I was just out in Silicon Valley on a panel on intrapreneurship. As prep, I read that over the last 50 years the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has dropped from 61 years to 18 years (and is forecast to grow even shorter in the future).
Most of the articles said the failures were due to companies not keeping their innovative cultures. In fact, Brandon Kelly, stated that 90% of organizations have no sustained commitment to innovation.
A great counter example to this is Telsa who today is opening its patents up to the industry to accelerate electric vehicle development. Innovation accelerates forward.
What is Innovation? The classic definitions of innovation include:
- the act of introducing something new: something newly introduced (The American Heritage Dictionary).
- the introduction of something new. (Merriam-Webster Online)
- a new idea, method or device. (Merriam-Webster Online)
- the successful exploitation of new ideas (Department of Trade and Industry, UK).
- change that creates a new dimension of performance Peter Drucker (Hesselbein)
So how can we embed innovation into a company's culture?
Innovation is strongly correlated with value creation and is a key factor in financial outperformance. However, only 25% of organizations are good at generating and converting innovations. These companies align innovation goals with business strategy.
Their efforts support the appropriate mix of product, operational and business model innovation that enables them to effectively grow and compete. And, their innovation activities are managed in a transparent program.
Organizations that strategize and manage innovation in a collaborative, open and continuous manner create a source of competitive advantage and economic benefit. Collaboration includes seamlessly engaging all employees in the innovation process and securely including external business partners and customers.
The top ten most innovative companies had two-year compound annual growth rates of 60 percent more than the overall Standard and Poors Global 1200. For these companies, innovation is much more than a “big idea.”
Innovation is an ongoing process of creating value from something new, such as new ideas, new technologies, new products or new processes. For example, 75 percent of successful companies rely on social networks to vet new ideas for success.
They use them for:
-
Openly communicating strategy
-
Openly generating and prioritizing non-traditional ideas for new products and services
-
Innovating operations by teaming with external specialists & business partner
-
Innovating business models by combining emerging technologies with biz imperatives to redefine value
Future innovation will be conducted in more open environments and CEOs interviewed for the IBM Global CEO study supported this point. The Innovation Social Business Pattern is designed to increase innovation by providing a wider reach of ideas and to help organizations increase the success and speed of bringing innovation to market.
Primary business processes
The primary business processes for this pattern include research and development, product and service management, business strategy and operations transformation.
Key stakeholders
The key stakeholders are research and development, product development, line of business executives, CMOs, CIOs and CTOs.
Recommended actions
Some specific actions are:
-
Deploy collaboration tools for more open communication and to guide innovation toward delivering the type of value desired, such as product versus business model
- Engage the crowd both internal and external to vet new ideas.
-
Deploy a portal that combines content, social and advanced mobile features to provide an exceptional digital experience for customers, partners, and employees while managing access by role.
-
Deploy social gamification and social influence reward techniques
How does your company drive Innovation?