The McKinsey Quarterly: An executive take on the top business trends : A McKinsey Global Survey

The McKinsey Quarterly: An executive take on the top business trends : A McKinsey Global Survey
Here it is again. Consistent with the IBM results posted in a previous entrance, this sample of 3470 CEO and other C-level executives conducted by McKinsey Worldwide through similar conclusions: "Innovation (products, services and business models)" and "greater ease of obtaining information and developing knowledge" are the two biggest factors that contribute to the accelerating pace of change in global business environments. This last one is as well the one trend that is perceived as having the biggest impact in profitability of companies.
As mentioned before in this blog, one of the biggest challenges for organizations today consists in combining the fact of global presence and speed of change with the ability to cooperate and communicate among teams inside and outside the main orgnization boundaries.
What the web has developed as Web 2.0 technologies with a great emphasis on social capabilities driven by technology standards, still needs to hit the corporate world.
A very good perspective of how these technologies can impact the corporate world and about the strategic thinking behind it cna befound in this excellent blog entry by John Hagel: SOA versus Web 2.0

Corporate search needs to heed workers, Google exec says | CNET News.com

Corporate search needs to heed workers, Google exec says | CNET News.com
The most important statement in this article is when Dave Girouard says "consumers and employees are the same people". I entirely agree and that is the reason why I see the standards for corporate technology being set today by end user internet tools. Why exactly can't I get the Google experience inside my company? is a question that most end users do. The same goes for email, calendars, groupwork tools, instant messaging...Be bullish on corporate software as it will need to catch up quickly with the end-user experience employees get in the Internet.

Innovation: The View From The Top

Innovation: The View From The Top
IBM' survey of CEOs this year topic: innovation. And the most interesting conclusion is that the challenge business leaders see is management innovation. Or innovation in their business models. With a lot of things commoditizing and competitors becoming global and moving online, the thing is how do you create and maintain a business model that differentiates from your competition? The holy grial of strategic thinking. Of course, the key element here is the collaboration or how to extract the maximum collective intelligence from your teams. More on this very soon.
For another view on the same topic, see John Hagel's post about Hamel on Innovation.

Wired 14.02: Would You Buy a Used Dotcom from this Man?

Wired 14.02: Would You Buy a Used Dotcom from this Man?

I found this article as well as the research in this one particularly balanced and full of common sense. The Google effect is dragging a lot of other technology companies to the market, but with a much more rational approach this time than during the boom with it's crazy valuations. It is true that the Internet brought all the changes that those outdated business models where predicted. Only that it came a bit slower than we thought. Then, why not revisit those business models and see which would be valid now? Indeed, technology changes usually take longer to happen than we predict, but have more profound impacts than we expect.

TIME.com: TIME Poll: Global Warming -- Apr. 03, 2006 -- Page 1

TIME.com: TIME Poll: Global Warming -- Apr. 03, 2006 -- Page 1
Global warming is one of those big issues that draw people's attention as they make the headlines but hardly changes behaviours from politicians due to unlikely impact in next elections' results. That is starting to change though, and for the good. Environmental concerns are now much more present in people's minds and they start to make decisions: from buying hybird cars to volunteering to limiting CO2 emissions. Companies and governments working for alternative energy sources will see a raise in their reputation...and stock prices

There's Not One Recipe for Success :: AO

There's Not One Recipe for Success :: AO
For anyone in the business of technology and VC, this is a basic guideline on what to focus on when building a new company. If only it was that easy...! Stay tuned to upcoming posts