Building a 21st Century Business
A little longer than usual but.. these thoughts should provoke some interesting thoughts challenges. Hope you enjoy..?
Principles, not product. Product announcements are interesting, sometimes — but the real action's in principles announcements, because they define and shape how organizations think, reason,and act.
How is Twitter (or Facebook, or Foursquare) going not merely to "beat" its rivals today — but consistently, decisively outperform them? Not merely with a single product or service, but with the principles from which awesome stuff flows.
Be a force for good. That's Twitter's new foundational principle — and it's interesting because it takes Google's foundational principle and does it one better. Will Twitter live up to it? Perhaps. What's important about it is how it focuses Twitter, as we discussed, on creating real, meaningful, sustainable value. That's something 95% of organizations can't do — but increasingly, exactly what people, communities, and society demand.
Openness as a survival strategy. New ideas, new concepts, new applications — all flow to open organizations. That's a great way to express the point that for next-gen organizations, openness is now table stakes: fail at it, and you're not even in the game.
Organizing for experimentation. Twitter organizes for experimentation, by creating modular teams that rapidly iterate to solve tough problems. That's what 21st century organizations look like: networks, not pyramids.
Doors v. windows. The difference between openness and transparency? That's a simple but powerful way to frame the strategic differences between the two, and one that might aid entrepreneurs and investors to think more sharply about the competitive implications of each.
Win/wins. Twitter cuts deals with partners only when they think everyone wins — including end-users. Par for the course? Think again. That's pretty radical. Wall St, Detroit, Big Food, Big Software and HMOs are just a few for whom win/wins have mattered little, if at all. It's a simple, powerful way to frame next-gen strategy in a nutshell.
Amplify weak signals. For perhaps 20% of the world's population — those in less developed countries — a mobile phone is their only gateway to the information age. Witness the effects of amplifying weak signals in Chile, Haiti, and Iran. That's how next-gen organizations take on the challenge of expanding market boundaries.
Getting vs creating. There are two kinds of entrepreneurs: those who get, and those who create. "Getters" arbitrage markets — but creators make the stuff (and the markets) in the first place, and so they are fundamentally more important, it's stellar advice for entrepreneurs, strategists, and investors of all stripes.
"Create something new that wasn't there before (that's awesome), Sound simple? Then give it a shot — because in practice, it's really, really hard. A new shampoo, razor, or car may be innovative, but it will fail the test above spectacularly. It's a simple, powerful way to begin thinking disruptively and strategically at once.
The future of advertising. I pointed out that @anywhere isn't (yet another) ad platform. Twitter's trying to connect people in more meaningful ways better connections, better information — better choices. I put it a bit more technically: Just as the fundamental challenge of the 21st century is making authentically, meaningfully better stuff, for the 21st century media it's communicating in better ways — not simply bombarding the reader-"consumer" with more, bigger, louder ads. Erasing information asymmetries is where the future of advertising lies. But you can't get there unless you can build a 21st century business first.
Social tools can lead, through bandwagon effects, to bubbles and crashes — just like in markets. In bubbles, assets are overvalued — in crashes, they're undervalued. My humble suggestion is that this particular conversation is a bit of an undervalued asset. If you're interesting in building a next-generation business, well, there might just be a bit of gold to be mined in it.
Saludos:
Jerry/CMT
Principles, not product. Product announcements are interesting, sometimes — but the real action's in principles announcements, because they define and shape how organizations think, reason,and act.
How is Twitter (or Facebook, or Foursquare) going not merely to "beat" its rivals today — but consistently, decisively outperform them? Not merely with a single product or service, but with the principles from which awesome stuff flows.
Be a force for good. That's Twitter's new foundational principle — and it's interesting because it takes Google's foundational principle and does it one better. Will Twitter live up to it? Perhaps. What's important about it is how it focuses Twitter, as we discussed, on creating real, meaningful, sustainable value. That's something 95% of organizations can't do — but increasingly, exactly what people, communities, and society demand.
Openness as a survival strategy. New ideas, new concepts, new applications — all flow to open organizations. That's a great way to express the point that for next-gen organizations, openness is now table stakes: fail at it, and you're not even in the game.
Organizing for experimentation. Twitter organizes for experimentation, by creating modular teams that rapidly iterate to solve tough problems. That's what 21st century organizations look like: networks, not pyramids.
Doors v. windows. The difference between openness and transparency? That's a simple but powerful way to frame the strategic differences between the two, and one that might aid entrepreneurs and investors to think more sharply about the competitive implications of each.
Win/wins. Twitter cuts deals with partners only when they think everyone wins — including end-users. Par for the course? Think again. That's pretty radical. Wall St, Detroit, Big Food, Big Software and HMOs are just a few for whom win/wins have mattered little, if at all. It's a simple, powerful way to frame next-gen strategy in a nutshell.
Amplify weak signals. For perhaps 20% of the world's population — those in less developed countries — a mobile phone is their only gateway to the information age. Witness the effects of amplifying weak signals in Chile, Haiti, and Iran. That's how next-gen organizations take on the challenge of expanding market boundaries.
Getting vs creating. There are two kinds of entrepreneurs: those who get, and those who create. "Getters" arbitrage markets — but creators make the stuff (and the markets) in the first place, and so they are fundamentally more important, it's stellar advice for entrepreneurs, strategists, and investors of all stripes.
"Create something new that wasn't there before (that's awesome), Sound simple? Then give it a shot — because in practice, it's really, really hard. A new shampoo, razor, or car may be innovative, but it will fail the test above spectacularly. It's a simple, powerful way to begin thinking disruptively and strategically at once.
The future of advertising. I pointed out that @anywhere isn't (yet another) ad platform. Twitter's trying to connect people in more meaningful ways better connections, better information — better choices. I put it a bit more technically: Just as the fundamental challenge of the 21st century is making authentically, meaningfully better stuff, for the 21st century media it's communicating in better ways — not simply bombarding the reader-"consumer" with more, bigger, louder ads. Erasing information asymmetries is where the future of advertising lies. But you can't get there unless you can build a 21st century business first.
Social tools can lead, through bandwagon effects, to bubbles and crashes — just like in markets. In bubbles, assets are overvalued — in crashes, they're undervalued. My humble suggestion is that this particular conversation is a bit of an undervalued asset. If you're interesting in building a next-generation business, well, there might just be a bit of gold to be mined in it.
Saludos:
Jerry/CMT
Labels: Smart Growth Is Creative
posted by CMT Creative Marketing at
10:13 AM
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