strategy: asking the right questions
March 24, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
This is a must read ($) for anyone leading strategy. NYTimes ($)25 Key Questions on Iraq
What the Bush administration and the American public should have been asking then, and what they should be asking now.
By DAVID C. UNGER Published: March 15, 2006If America had taken the trouble to learn more about Iraq before invading it in 2003, a lot of the problems we face there today could have been avoided. In fact, had the right questions been asked and answered accurately, the invasion might have been canceled before it began. For example, if the Bush administration had spent more time poring over the actual findings of American intelligence agencies, they might have realized then what almost everyone acknowledges today — that Iraq's most dangerous weapons programs had been effectively shut down by sanctions and inspections, and that Baghdad was not helping Al Qaeda and had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.
But leave aside that biggest "what if" and consider how much better the invasion and occupation could have gone if Washington had taken the trouble to find out some crucial things about the country it was preparing to remold. Here are 25 of the most important questions about the Iraq invasion — 10 that policy makers should have asked before invading, 10 that they should have asked as it unfolded, and 5 that they should be asking themselves now.
survey I made up: my cableco and me
March 23, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
co: on scale of 1-10 how valuable are your bundled services to you?
cust: video (basic) - 2, data - 10, voice (incl l.d) - 4
co: on scale of 1-10 how valuable to you are our tools, content, commerce, upsells, on demand etc ?
cust: - 0
co: what are main reasons for your wanting to break up your bundle?
cust: what I perceive as deliberately confusing pricing and billing; I rarely watch TV
co: what are actions we could take to change your perception?
cust: clarify and simplify your communications and bills; give me
something back to acknowledge my loyalty (speed increase, rebate), know
my preferences and don't try to sell me what I don't care about
co: what are your main reasons for not breaking up your bundle as of yet?
cust: speed, no contract, reliable, don't want to risk downtime
The bundle debate misses the big point
March 23, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I love my broadband, greatly regret buying a bundle and I'm
developing a visceral dislike of my cableco. Since I've been tracking
the industry for years I know that many feel this way. I greatly value
my service and really do not have the time to spend finding an
alternative and switching..but I'm increasingly compelled to do so. I
don't think I'd feel so strongly if I did not buy into the triple play
(video/voice/data). Never again.
Here's one of many articles recently out about this subject. I sense that a pent-up dam of customer dis-satisfaction is about to break.
No Bundle of Joy
Some Buyers Find Packaged Telecom Services a Tangle of Trouble
By Yuki Noguchi Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 22, 2006; Page D01
"The assumption that everybody wants a bundle is flawed," said Maribel Lopez, an analyst with Forrester Research. Surveys show that only 5 percent of subscribers buy bundled services, and only about quarter of consumers are interested in buying all their services from a single provider, she said.
Some buyers remember the days of being in the driver's seat as they played long-distance providers off one another for better deals, and they are reluctant to put all their subscriptions in the hands of a single company in an industry whose customer service is notoriously inconsistent. The more services added to the bundle, the fewer people it appeals to, Lopez said.
Customers who buy bundles usually buy only two or three services at once, primarily to get a discount on the total bill. Over time, cable and telephone operators say the bigger selling point will come from tying the services together in innovative ways -- making it possible, for example, to record and view television programming on a cellphone.
(Via .)
the payoff of being authentic on the job
March 23, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I'm so tired of 'duh' advice...those headlined, pervasive,
manipulative, low-value media filler advice articles that regurgitate
pat solutions for a world that no longer exists. You sense a
contradiction every time you read them and a twinge of fear, or regret.
I find the ones about money, housing, jobs and child-raising to be
among the most offensive. If I find myself reading one (like a moth to
flame), and I get that icky feeling and want to yell "duh!" I
immediately shift to: do the opposite!
But there are good stories out there. They are thoughtful, are in
context and intuitive. The problem is that they are longer, do not
propose an easy answer, and require thought and contemplation. So they
not as popular as the headlined 'duh' sound-bites that people crave..
How sad.
Well, here's nice essay about being yourself, taking a risk, and
long-term benefits of acting on your intuition. The writer, a
high-power financial services executive, describes how his uniqueness
(love of architecture) served his career, and how he resisted the
'social assertiveness' status quo which was not his nature.
Recognition warms deeper when it's natural
By James McCown | March 19, 2006
Had I forced myself to be the glad-handing bon vivant I imagined my father and boss to be, I would probably have failed miserably. Ironically, as I polished my shtick, the kind of casual banter I previously found difficult now came easily.
I had gained notice not by following the narrow job description, but by identifying a need within the company and filling it. It was more gratifying than being noticed by Mr. D. as another young guy in a suit, or even making it onto his party list. I had defined myself on my own terms, and both my company and I were better for the experience.
integrating masculine/feminine
March 23, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
IMO, the best leaders communicate with both masculine and feminine power, or energy. I think of the masculine being the 'catalyst' (cutting through, energizing) and the feminine the 'receptive' (nurturing, empathetic, soothing). The skill (art?) is knowing how to integrate these energies in our communications and being aware of when we swing too far either way. It was recently explained to me as: "too far masculine can lead to hurting others; too far feminine and people won't stop following you around".
Here's a timely Washington Post column on the subject.
Man Overboard
By Ruth Marcus
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; Page A17
"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.
.....Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.
But that's just my view.
life changes? good time for a home makeover
March 23, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
The examples in this story are large-scale. I know you can get the same boost with a very small budget. I find it a great step to 'inhabiting' the lifestyle that you claim for yourself.
Personal Style, Unleashed by Divorce - New York Times: "
Personal Style, Unleashed by Divorce
By JILL BROOKE
Published: March 23, 2006
As design consciousness has spread in the United States, so has the idea of interior design as a form of self expression. As a result, newly separated or divorced people — at least those who can afford it — have a heightened desire to radically remake their environments to suit their new lives, spite their new exes, or both. According to the Census Bureau, most Americans marry for the first time in their 20's when many people have barely established a sense of self, let alone developed a clear sense of style.
(Via .)
integrating masculine/feminine
March 21, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
IMO, the best leaders communicate with both masculine and feminine style, or energy. I think of the masculine being the 'catalyst' (cutting through, energizing) and the feminine the 'receptive' (nurturing, empathetic, soothing). The skill (art?) is knowing how to integrate these energies in our communications and being aware of when we swing too far either way. It was recently explained to me as: "too far masculine can lead to hurting others; too far feminine and people won't stop following you around". I find it increasingly hard to listen to anyone (and they are everywhere) who is unaware of, or who denies, half of who they are. There's no authenticity or meaningful connection. Here's a timely Washington Post column on the subject.Man Overboard
By Ruth Marcus Tuesday, March 21, 2006; Page A17"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute. .....Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt. But that's just my view.
Feeling stuck? Think “cosmos”
March 17, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Funny..you can spend hours wading through inane stories about real estate bubbles, celebrity sightings and tax tips, just trying to find something that will get you out of whatever box you may be in, and then you find it and you say aaahh..now this is something worth thinking about and thank you NASA and WMAP
Wired News:: "
Proving How the Universe Was Born
Associated Press11:26 AM Mar, 16, 2006 EST
Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.
"
(Via .)
Internet level playing field in danger? Bad for small biz.
March 17, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town: — James Surowiecki
"The Internet has become a remarkable fount of economic and social innovation largely because it’s been an archetypal level playing field, on which even sites with little or no money behind them—blogs, say, or Wikipedia—can become influential. If the Internet turns into a zone of tiered access, it will be harder for noncommercial sites or startup companies to compete with bigger firms.
Broadband providers insist that they have no plans to block access or degrade service to those who don’t pay a premium rate. But if some companies are getting better service, then all the others are getting worse service. "Market forces will offer some check to this kind of interference—if a particular provider goes too far, customers will take their business elsewhere—but, in the world of broadband, market forces are weak, because most cities have only two major providers. More than ninety per cent of Americans get Internet service from either their local phone company or their local cable company, and A.T. & T.’s newly announced acquisition of BellSouth means that there will soon be only three major phone companies in the entire U.S.
Decisions that once were made collectively by hundreds of millions of Internet users would now be shaped in large part by a handful of telecom executives. It used to be said that the Internet was all about “disintermediation.” With the end of network neutrality, the middlemen are striking back.
(Via .)
Wired News: Good Idea: Reinventing Invention
March 7, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
This is a good (although a bit confusing) article for anyone interested in infopreneurship, innovation or knowledge sharing.Wired News:: " Futurist Fears End of Innovation Commentary by Joanna Glasner 02:00 AM Mar, 07, 2006 EST
Innovation used to be easy. Imagine the caveman, forced to move a giant rock, discovering by accident that rolling it on a log made the job easier. Luckily, the concept of intellectual property wasn't around then. Today, that same caveman would've filed a patent and demanded licensing payments from anyone else who wanted to roll things on logs or other cylindrical objects. The part is easier to change than the whole: Some advances come from focusing on a small part of a technology, but more specialization does not necessarily mean more education. It's not necessary to complete six Ph.D.s in order to innovate. That's the view of Eric von Hippel, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, who says technologies can be developed in such a way that innovations are easier to make. The basic idea is to break complex systems into simpler "modules." A product can be improved upon by focusing not on the whole, but on a small part. "Existing technology gets gradually shaped into large user-friendly chunks that you don't need to know the insides of to use," he said. "You can work with an operating system without knowing everything about how it works. And you can modify a car without necessarily understanding how the engine works." The module concept doesn't only apply to technology. Von Hippel sees the same approach in areas like cooking and composing. People with relatively little expertise do sophisticated things using ready-made food products or music software that make complex tasks easy. As for corporate R&D, von Hippel says companies are finding that more and more innovation is coming not from in-house developers, but from products users who do their own re-engineering. "People are innovating for themselves," he said.