Sep 22, 2010 | Change, Communication, Innovation, Leadership, Social Media, Strategy
A Wall Street Journal op-ed by Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google argues that the demise of printed media, particularly newspapers and magazines is as much a result of their own hubris as it is the advent of new media, and that the opportunities for journalism have flourished rather than diminished.
Fairfax have just announced that the outcomes of a strategic review conducted by McKinsey will result in significant changes to their commercial profile over time, with greater emphasis on electronic media. About time they woke up, having lost huge slabs of classified advertising, their “Rivers of Gold” revenue streams, to specialist web sites like “Car Sales”, “Seek” and others. The tenor of the public announcements still smells of them seeing electronic publishing as a competitive force, rather than a very different but complementary one that will not go away.
Print has lost its immediacy over a long time, first to radio, then TV, more latterly the web, but the process has not been one that should have taken them by surprise, the challenge is to harness the fundamental two differences the web has enabled:
- Anyone can be a publisher now, in a variety of formats from print to photographic and video.
- The whole communication process is now 2 way, hugely networked and fragmented, no longer a one way broadcast, the source of Fairfax’s success last century.
My instinct is that it is too late for incremental change to their business model, even at a rapid rate, the game has moved on too far for them to recapture the fortunes of the past. Glad I am not a shareholder, although Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett has a track record in instituting rapid improvement that generates great returns.
Sep 20, 2010 | Change, Innovation, Social Media, Strategy
“Open source innovation” is rapidly becoming an accepted strategy, an increasing trend as the communication tools on the net make it progressively easier, and people think up new ways to use them.
Eric Von Hippel a professor at MIT wrote “Democratising Innovation” some years ago, and put it on the web for free download, P&G have a deliberate strategy of seeking innovation from outside the firm rather than keeping it all internal, this is not outsourcing, rather it is casting around for the best ideas wherever they come from. Now, the idea has spread to more modest companies, one of my clients is experimenting with a “Wiki” as an adjunct to their more traditional and too slow technical processes.
These types of initiatives thrive on low communication costs, low barriers and transaction costs, it is the speed to market, the creative networks, personal kudos, and energy created that works for the initiators and participants, not necessarily the promise of royalties.
Sep 6, 2010 | Change, Strategy
Nobody wins all the time, in fact, most lose most of the time, so something distinguishes the winners from those who just give up, I reckon it is two simple things:
- Winners learn from losing, what not to do, what to do better, how to prepare, what the competition will do,
- Winners are able to marshal their personal resolve and come back again, again, and again, and eventually, they win.
Aug 31, 2010 | Change, Leadership, Strategy
This almost completed Federal election was about a lot of things, many of them contradictory, and beyond the wisdom of the bulk of the electorate to distinguish the rhetoric and spin from the facts. Does the sad view of the crumbling social and economic infrastructure taken by Paul Krugman in the NY Times apply as much to Australia as it does to the US?
Take the NBN broadband “debate” for instance. Depending on which commentator you read, or listen to, the answer is different, a 45 billion dollar bet on technology and a future need for the 100mps speeds to be delivered, or a 6 billion dollar patch up that will allow markets and technological developments to deliver a satisfactory outcome. All the other debates in this election, health, education, infrastructure, and the rest (apart from the localised pork-barreling, everyone knows what that is for) are in the same boat, long on words, and promises, short on anything resembling a responsible analysis of the things we know, and assumptions underpinning those we do not know much about, but that may emerge.
One thing I believe, is that unless we have some sort of vision about where we need to be, and what we need to do to get there, together with the long term investments that need to be made, the institutions we currently have will erode further, as is apparently happening in the US.
As a start, lets find a way to bring back some of the manufacturing capability that has been exported over the last 20 years, as it is pretty clear now that actually making stuff is far better in the long run for the whole economy than just managing the transactions.
Aug 26, 2010 | Change, Innovation, Social Media, Strategy
The challenge of competing successfully in the digital age is to build the advantages of scale, without the inertia of the bureaucratic structures that usually come with it as a means to manage and control activities and investment priorities, not to mention the governance and compliance challenges.
This remains as true for services delivery as it is of manufacturing demand chains, private, NFP and public sectors.
The evolution of technology and its application to communication has wrought profound changes in the way we manage, and the pace is quickening.
For those of us who remember the emergence of the Fax, just 30 odd years ago, the sense that something extraordinary had happened was profound, but who has used a fax for the last 5 years? Since then email has emerged, followed by an explosion of web tools and mobile technology.
It is probable that the next innovation is just around the corner, are you ready?
Aug 22, 2010 | Branding, Strategy
Almost everyone has heard the term “Dow Jones” or perhaps “The Dow” and know at least that it is something to do with stocks in the US, but few would immediately think of it in the context of a brand. It probably would not get onto a list of the most famous brands, unlike Marlborough, Microsoft, Exxon, Coca-Cola, and others, but is nevertheless is a great brand.
The “Dow” was created in 1896 by Wall Street Journal founder Charles Dow, and originally indexed 12 stocks on the NY exchange, since expanded to 30 in 1916, and has had various indices added to follow differing segments of the US economy.
The Dow now has 116 years of delivering a simple, transparent, and consistent service to its consumers, who have faith in the integrity and purpose of the product they consume, and is the standard against which others are measured.
What more could you want in a brand?
