The new power of one
The power in commercial relationships has shifted dramatically since the net. It has removed the power previously held by companies and institutions and handed it to individuals who choose to use it. No more can an enterprise afford to ignore or annoy an individual...
Few transaction costs = easy group formation = new corporate risk
Corporations default to functional silos, despite the efforts of most to recognise the horizontal cross functional nature of processes, the things that gets stuff done. This is because in the past, you required hands to move things around, make calls, stuff envelopes,...
What next for “Free”?
As the marginal cost of transactions on the web approaches zero, more and more stuff is "free" . When something is given, the act of giving usually sets up a dynamic of "obligation" on the part of the receiver. This blog is published on Wordpress, for free, the cost...
Opposites attract?
Only in physics, in personal relationships we seek common ground, people who under stand instinctively what we are saying and thinking, and who work the way we do. Collaborative teams and alliances of many types often fail from the start because those who join, or...
Planning and politics.
The reluctance of the Federal Government to be transparent about the assumptions underpinning the investment in the NBN would fail the tests of due diligence most boards undertake when making a major commercial allocation of resources. As a cynical shareholder in...
Innovation requires simplicity
Peter Drucker once said that innovation is the only sustainable competitive advantage, and most who have thought about it would agree. However, in most situations, this commitment to innovation tends to result in more and more potential products and technical...
Location of a consumers wallet
I am a member of three frequent flier programs, Qantas, Virgin and Singapore, and get frequent updates, offers, and spam from all three, all ignored. I know where and why my business is split, but they do not, and none have ever asked me the question, although it...
Long term trends, short steps.
Innovation breakthroughs are rare, but the innovation that rewrites the rules of an industry is the focus of most management attention. Most innovation activity, and the source of most value from innovation, comes in small steps, one day at a time, along a path whose...
The four challenges of collaboration.
When all the verbiage is removed, there seems to be four great challenges to effective collaboration, irrespective in my experience of the specific environment in which the collaboration takes place. The need to be cross functional, which cuts across all the...
Data free zone of innovation.
By definition, Innovation exists in situations where there is little information available to make an objective assessment of risk, rather than one where you can assemble a range of data to make that risk assessment. Submitting innovation ideas to a data driven test...