Get your daily Joost

Joost is the new internet TV concept being developed by highly successful entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype which they sold to ebay for $2.6 billion cash!

Joost pronounced ‘juiced’ is an interactive software for distributing TV shows and you will be able to watch whatever you want, whenever you want. Joost has signed up providers like MTV, National Geographic, The Soccer Channel, Warner Brothers Music and IndyCar Series and by the sounds of it FOX TV will soon be a partner.

Joost stands to revolutionise marketing and the way in which we watch TV. Have Niklas and Janus done it again? I have to wonder how much they will sell Joost for, it definitely appears to have all the right ingredients to be a huge success.

There is speculation that the launch is scheduled for 1st May 2007, but as clever marketers Joost is letting the internet community speculate and blogs have been set up to monitor the “countdown!”

Joost itself is not revealing when they will go live, but you can leave your email details with them and become part of their community and be amongst the first to receive the software.

Go to www.joost.com and sign up. You need to get involved in the joost community so that you can get an invite code from a community member. This invite is required before you can download the software – another clever marketing trick…Joost is getting future clients to engage with the brand on a number of different levels. There are hints on how to get an invite!! Sign up and watch out for the launch and get your daily Joost!

Dean van Leeuwen is a TomorrowToday UK partner and expert on talent, innovation and business connectivity

Being off balance: cricket and organisational development

The 2007 Cricket World Cup was a dismal affair for English and South African cricket fans alike. The hosts would also not be proud of their efforts, while Australia has marched on from strength to strength, not even missing Brett Lee and saying a mighty farewell to Glen McGrath.

As a die hard Protea’s supporter, I struggled to find anything good in the tournament. Yet, two things stood out for me in the end.

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The Pope’s Limbo

It’s official. After 800 years of being Catholic church policy, the theological construct of “limbo” has been abolished (read the International Herald Tribune on this). This was a place were unbaptised babies were said to go, awaiting some kind of final judgement at the end of times. It was “created” over 800 years ago, as a way of dealing with two competing theological factions in the Catholic Church. Last week, after a 3 year theological review, the Pope agreed that it was an error in judgement, and officially “abolished” it as a concept in Catholic dogma.

Good for him!

I suppose the lesson for us all is to ask what long held beliefs we each have that we need to be prepared to give up – no matter how embarrassing or life-changing it might be to do so. You can criticise the Vatican for this change. But you can’t argue with their guts to do something!

What do you need to change? And do you have the guts to do so?

Ten Faces of Innovation

I was recently sent the outline of a book, “The Ten Faces of Innovation”, by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman (Profile, 2005) – buy it online at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net. In our work on “Invitational Innovation“, we have been telling clients for a long time that just like there are different types of personality, there are different styles of innovative thinking. Not a big thought, really, but an important one, nevertheless.

This book appears to put some nice labels on different innovation types.

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Best Speaker Award 2007

One of South Africa’s leading speaker’s agencies, SpeakersInc, recently held their first annual speaker’s awards.  We’re pleased to announce that Dr Graeme Codrington, of TomorrowToday, won the award for Best Speaker of the Year 2007.

This was a peer nominated and voted award, based on on-line voting by people from the industry, organised by one speaker’s agent.  But it is nevertheless nice to get recognition from your peers and the industry.

Other award winners were Vernon Creswell (best newcomer) and Stef du Plessis (lifetime achievement award).

Cheeky companies with happy customers and even happier bottomlines!

Every business has customers who are convinced they can design a new product that is better than the product they are being sold. So the question is why not let them? Crowdsourcing is a new and innovative research methodology that allows customers to help design the products they want online. It’s a methodology that is saving companies thousands of pounds on research bills and is proving highly effective because customers are getting the chance to mould and shape the products they are going to be buying. And because products are not being designed by remote head office R&D teams the chances of product flops are greatly reduced.

MIT’s Sloan Management Review recently published a paper, written by Susumu Ogawa, a professor of marketing at Kobe University in Tokyo, and Frank Piller, a professor at TUM Business School in Munich, on the concept of crowdsourcing. This is how these two professors put it “Forecasting the demand for new products is becoming increasingly difficult in many markets. But collective customer commitment (crowdsourcing), a new method to decrease the flop rate of new products, offers a solution by integrating customers deeply in the innovation process and asking for their commitment to purchase before development is finalized and manufacturing starts.â€?

Incredible, can you imagine the benefit in cost savings of getting your customers to design the products they want and then getting them to pre-order the product before it’s manufactured? 

This really is harnessing the power of the “connection economy!�

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Getting and Keeping Talent

“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.�Funky Business, Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle

The Funky Business guys have a point. In most industries, the world has been “flattened” and its very difficult to differentiae competitors these days. We’re selling similar products and services, to the same clients, at about the same price, delivering through similar channels, using similar techniques to advertise in the same media, and making similar promises. We even swap staff every few years. If that’s not entirely true in your industry, it probably will be soon. In an environment like this, competitive advantage is found less and less in what you sell, and more and more in who you are and how you sell. And if “who you are is who you hire”, then the ability to attract and retain the most talented people in your industry, and get more out of them than your competitors could, are core strategic competencies to be developed and maintained.

Our problem is, that at just the time this “war for talent” started, a new generation of young people started entering the workplace, bringing with them new values, different expectations and a fresh outlook on work and the workplace. The shift in the values of these young people is necessitating a shift in workplace culture and environments. Those companies wishing to attract the attention of these young stars must take these shifts seriously.

In particular, today’s young talent do not accept the old contract of employment. That old contract included terms such as “paying your duesâ€? and “the system will provideâ€?. They know that the system will not provide for them. The old contract swapped loyalty for security. In essence, the employee would come into an organisation and sell its products and services to its clients at its price through its channels, using its systems and processes. In exchange for the employee becoming that unmarketable (think about it – the more you learn about one company’s systems and processes, the more unmarketable you become), the employee asked for one thing in return: Security. It was a simple contract, and it worked! But how many companies can offer security these days?

Not one!

But that does not concern today’s young workers. They are not looking for security, because they know that it is an illusion, even if it is offered. So, if your company cannot offer security, why is it still asking for loyalty? That’s what today’s young people want to know. If you can’t give a long-term commitment, why are you asking for one?
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Generation Y: They’ve arrived at work with a new attitude

An excellent article in the USA Today, 11 June 2006, reports on the Millennial generation’s entrance into the workforce. In the USA, Millennials are defined as those young people born 1984 to 2000, so they’ve been entering the workforce for a few years now, and managers and researchers are starting to get their heads around a new set of values and expectations that they bring.

This generation is going to have a massive impact on the workplace – all around the world, and employers need to start getting ready for them now.

Read the article at the USA Today site, or read a summary of it below.

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Dealing with Top Talent – sometimes you need to use a heavy hand!

A few months ago, Keith Coats wrote about his disappointment at Ryk Neethling, the South Africa swimming superstar, and his lack of respect for the etiquette and rules of competition when competing in an event in Durban (read his post here). Now the other 3 members of the Olympic gold winning relay team have fallen foul of Swmming South Africa, but not bothering to pitch up for the National trials. Read the story in today’s Saturday Star.

The online version doesn’t give the same detail the actual front page article did. Apparently Swimming SA gives overseas swimmers money for travel and accommodation to the trials and competitions in SA. Sponsors have agreed to pay additional funds. Roland Schoeman wanted to fly business class – Swimming SA only gives enough to fly economy, and apparently the sponsors didn’t come through with extra money. Now, I fully understand that an athlete of Schoeman’s ability has the right to earn a good income from his sport. I also can understand that as “Top Talent” he probably feels he has the right to be a prima donna. He refused to fly economy. He has spoken to the media saying Swimming SA would not pay for him to come. And now SSA has booted off the national team. He will therefore not be eligible to swim in the FINA World Cup next year, which is due to be held in Durban, South Africa. So, home fans will be disappointed!! He can still qualify for the Olympics in 2008.

There will probably be some deal done soon. But, although that may be good for the FINA champs, it will not be good for swimming in SA. The problem with top talent is that they often feel they live outside the system and can play by their own rules. Whilst this is sometimes healthy – as it can be the basis of them pushing the boundaries, being creative, and generating innovatioon – it can also be extremely unhealthy and produce a destructive vibe and culture. As a manager of talent, a critical skill is knowing where to draw the line, and knowing when to use the heavy hand, and even get rid of people who “bring in the numbers but don’t have the values” (to quote Jack Welch).

Phenomenonal, You

I write a regular column for the Intelligence magazine in South Africa. Its the Back Page column, and is meant to be fun, irreverent, interesting. (I have secret ambitions to emulate the back page of the Fortune magazine).

I thought you might be interested in a recent contribution about Web 2.0 and interactive websites.

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Second Life? Get a First Life first…

If you don’t know what Second Life is, check it out here first. Its an online, virtual reality game that has created a completely online world. You select a character, buy into the game, and start “living” a life in the game. You can run a shop, be an explorer, run for political office, or do anything you could do in “real life”. There are some people who have made Second Life a profession, selling “land”, “clothes” for characters (called avatars) and just living this “second life”.

At TomorrowToday.biz, we’re really interested in game theory, and how gamer culture is influencing the world and business culture. See some of our previous blog entries: Lessons from the gamer generation, and The Gamers are coming.

But, I stumbled on a magnificent site recently. Its mainly a bit of fun, but there’s a very important and serious message behind the site. Its “Get a First Life” – http://www.getafirstlife.com/. Its a brilliant parody of the Second Life site, and you’ll laugh out loud at the cleverness of the look alike site. Great message, too — some gamers need to get out more!!

Enjoy. And, PS, get a first life!

Mount Grace Country House and Spa: how NOT to manage a management change

One of our family’s favourite luxury holiday destinations has been Mount Grace. My father was a friend of the founder, and so I have known about this hotel literally since attending its opening many years ago. Before our youngest child came, Mount Grace Easter breakaways were a favourite – as children (not normally allowed at the hotel) were catered for spectacularly. This was the hotel I took my wife to on our first “parents only” night away after the birth of our first child. And, as a professional conference speaker and facilitator, I have been a day and overnight conference guest at the hotel many times. A Sunday drive was well worth it – the buffet lunch the stuff of legends. We’ve also made use of the Spa on stay overs and day trips. Sure, they know how to charge for this luxury and reputation, but it has always been well worth it. And so, it was with great anticipation that my family and I (with in-laws in tow) set off for Mount Grace Country Hotel and Spa for an Easter weekend getaway!

Our expectations were rudely shattered. Short version: we shall not be going back to Mount Grace anytime soon! What a disappointing and shocking weekend we’ve had!

You can read the gory details below, if you’re the type of person who tends to slow down to rubberneck at car crashes on the side of the highway. But, for casual readers of this blog, let me start this piece by giving you the lessons that can be learned.

• The hotel was recently taken over by a new company. They have clearly lost key staff. But when you take over an existing brand, you should be absolutely sure that systems are in place, that you know what these systems are, that you have the staff to back you up, and that you have a proper transitional process and knowledge continuity plan in place. This has clearly not happened at Mount Grace, as systems have almost entirely collapsed and staff are undertrained. What a waste of such a good brand (I shudder to think what was paid in goodwill, and how much of that payment has already been lost!)
• “The Luxury Touch” is what distinguishes the truly great from the also rans at this end of the market – see the previous blog entry for four things that must be maintained in order to ensure the luxury touch is always there.
• When a problem occurs, admit it, and ask the simple question: “what can we do to make this right?” Apologies are one thing, but when they come from a junior manager, who’s obvious role is to just stand there and take your abuse with an appropriately sad looking face, they are meaningless. When a customer indicates they’ve had a bad experience, agreeing with them, but obviously not having any intent to resolve the issue just serves to inflame the customer even more.
• It takes a team – it was obvious that there were certain staff members who knew that the systems were collapsing and were incredibly frustrated at the rest of the team who were messing things up. This is understandable, but should not be allowed to come into the client space. It showed distinct low morale amongst the competent staff. It would not surprise me if Mount Grace lost even more of its talent very soon. So sadly, as always, its likely to get worse before it gets better.
• Communication is the basis of all teamwork. The most basic error made over our weekend was a breakdown in communication between different people, and different departments. Some were actually hilarious in their magnitude – read below for some of the howlers. A lot of our frustration could have been avoided by simple communication between staff.
• Leadership required. Ultimately this was a lack of leadership/management. We left detailed written comments for management, and I will be interested to see if they respond. BREAKING NEWS: AS I WRITE THIS, I HAVE JUST RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER. He has said, “No apologies, we dropped the ball. We were overwhelmed, and our new team couldn’t cope.” Well, maybe that accounts for some of what you’ll read below, but not all of it. Anyway, they’ve offered my wife and I a free weekend to attempt to show that the Easter weekend was a once off slip. I suppose I can’t ask for much more, and I really, really hope that they will get it sorted, as I love the venue. When that weekend happens, I will write a follow up to this blog. For now, our story is what our story is…
• You only get one chance. In the 21st century, with so much consumer choice, your customers will only give you one chance to impress or disappoint them. There’s no need for my family to go back to Mount Grace – there are plenty of other options. And so, we won’t. It costs you about 5 times more to get new customers than it does to retain existing ones. And bad news tends to travel, especially when it comes from people who are perceived as knowledgeable in the field they’re commenting on. So, make sure you know what’s going on with your customers, and keep them in the fold!! HAVING SAID YOU GET ONLY ONE CHANCE, I suppose if you really grovel you can get just one more . This is what Mount Grace have now done, and my wife and I will give them another chance. It’s going to cost them the price of a weekend for two, but I suppose that’s ultimately cheaper than losing us forever, and living with the bad press we can create.

Simple lesson: stay away from Mount Grace – at least until they have their systems sorted.

So, now for our story…

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So just how important is the planet?

It doesn’t matter what your stand is on the planet and our relationship with it, there’s no denying that 2006/7 has seen a dramatic shift in people’s exposure and interest in what we’re doing to this planet called Earth. The New York Times featured this article about a document recently released by United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Generationally it’s an interesting debate. My very general observation is that older generations are less interested and more apathetic around climate change, our role in it, and our ability to change the current approach (or lack of) by the species called ‘us’. It’s a hot topic as you observe younger people’s approach to the planet. We’re headed for some very interesting times within society and business, as a fresh world view begins to assert its ability to influence the status quo.

What you do and don’t do to the planet will determine both your stage and your audience.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines….. (hydrogen, electric, hybrid – whatever)

The Luxury Touch

In Strategy+Business, recently, there was a great article on “The Luxury Touch” by by Robert Reppa and Evan Hirsh. They suggest four things that luxury brands have to consistently get right in order to differentiate themselves from the also rans:

“Although there’s no single process for achieving high levels of customer satisfaction, four principles are common to nearly all top-performing luxury brand companies:

• They create a customer-centered culture that identifies, nurtures, and reinforces service as a primary value.
• They use a rigorous selection process to populate the organization with superior sales and support staff. The impulse to care about accommodating customers cannot be taught to people who are not predisposed to it.
• They constantly retrain employees to perpetuate organizational values and to help them attain greater mastery of products and procedures.
• They systematically measure and reward customer-centric behavior and excellence in sales and service to enforce high standards and reinforce expectations.

When these four principles are at work, the result is a highly integrated business model that combines a superior product line with outstanding sales and service quality, driving strong growth and profitability in the process.”

Read the full article here.

Campaigning on the Internet

This report from The Economist, 15 March 2007 (may need subscription):

Of slips and video clips
Candidates for 2008 are racing to master a new medium

DURING the presidential campaign of 1800, partisans harnessed high-speed technology to spread their message. Like today, that message was often scurrilous. Unlike today, the technology they harnessed needed real harnesses. When Thomas Jefferson’s enemies wanted to distribute pamphlets accusing him of atheism and adultery, or to spread a premature report of his death, they used horses, which could outrun even the most rapid rebuttal.

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What’s changed in advertising – Shelly Lazarus speaks

As the most powerful woman in advertising, and one of the most powerful business women in the world, Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, is someone to listen to. Recently, in a variety of different interviews, she reflected on her 35 years in the industry.

Her most recent personal intervention in the advertising industry was to oversee a campaign for Unilever’s Dove Cream Oil body wash, that culminated in a 30-second spot flighted during the Oscars. The ad was a screening of the winning entry in an online contest in which consumers were invited to create their own advertisements (see some of the entries – and some spoofs – on YouTube). This follows on from Dove’s award-winning campaign, “Campaign for Real Beauty”, that featured ordinary-looking women (see example at YouTube) and departed from conventional notions of beauty and beauty advertising. Unilever has also established a “self-esteem fund” – a worldwide campaign to persuade girls and young women to embrace more positive images of themselves.

The advert screened at the Oscars captures something of the spirit of advertising today, with its combination of old and new media, consumer-generated content, social software and an effort to engage the consumer rather than simply push a product.

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Encountering the Stars (and Stripes): The Problem with the Guru Mentality a personal experience.

Why is it that Americans always seem to have an answer? Now, before I progress let me make it clear that I have nothing against Americans per se, and in fact know many who could not be put in the category I am about to articulate. NonethelessI have noticed an alarming trend. There have been several experiences over many years that have contributed to me arriving at this opinion. But let me share a fresh experience that merely underscores the point being made.

Both these fresh observations come out of attending two Leadership conferences in Shanghai. Both involve watching and listening to the visiting American leadership Gurus that have come here (over the past two years) to share their insights. Both have come with impressive credentials and big reputations. Both have vast experience and certainly have good points worthy of attention. Both are best selling authors. Both are articulate and confident. Both offered solutions or best practices that were about their way – aka the American way of doing things. And I am sure that both would deny this and point to a global effectiveness within their sphere of influence.

And here is my issue: both seem not to listen. I found myself baulking at their quick fire, ready-made and slick answers. No hesitation, no clarifying question… just the answer wrapped, packed, sealed and delivered. They seemed unable to hear the question, to ask the question (why would you if you already have the answer?) much less pause in the space that the question invites. Both seem strangers to the gift that the question offers that space where you get to hear others, where you get to learn of a better way. For, there always is a better way. Neither, in both their formal and, as far as I could determine, their informal manner, explored the gift of the question.

During one tea break a group of us were pondering some of the more paradoxical points of coaching when the one Guru joined the group. Naturally his opinion was sought. Naturally he gave an answer offering a sweeping global formula (his technique). Naturally he didn’t hear the (small) questioning voice that challenged his opinion once he had had finished. And so the gift of the pause was lost. After sharing his wisdom (without so much as asking a question of those assembled) he moved on, no doubt to impart his wisdom elsewhere. The irony for me was that he was a coach (with some impressive CEOs as clients I might add) and the focus of his keynote address was about the virtue of listening and asking questions. And here he was in our tea group where he didn’t do either – where he didn’t join the conversation but rather took it ransom. Something that was to be repeated around the dinner table that same evening.

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Role of the Media

I heard a comment on the Daily Show a while back (I think they were reviewing ‘Time Magazine’s Person of the Year’). Something about main-stream media turning its back on its responsibility and hence the rise of citizen media in the form of blogs and podcasts, etc.

Here’s the Onion’s version of such a comment, based on the New York Time’s ‘Most e-mailed list‘. It’s a list of which articles are most e-mailed by readers.

The dog certainly has a larger grip on it’s tail. One wonders where this swing is going to turn again?

Do you fly economy?

You sit on the Executive Team of very large company. The company had a tough year last year. All through the business, costs are being contained and cut. You’ve got to attend a company conference a couple of continents away. You don’t travel that often, and while the business has decided that Executive members can fly business class, you decide to set an example and fly economy.

Your boss walks into your office and tells you that you can’t fly economy. Executives fly business class.

What do you do? Do you set the example, fly economy and take on your boss? Or do you fly business class?

I heard this scenario during the week. It’s not really important what happened, but it does pose some interesting thoughts.

So what would you do?