Those who ponder the power and possibilities of social media—and its role in our organizations, lives, and culture are all positing predictions for 2010. But, at the end of the day, the big question on everyone’s lips seems to be, “What is the next big thing”? Will it be about catching the Google Wave, the open source document sharing platform—or will our growing mobile obsession drive the success of location-based applications like Foursquare and Brightkite?

Even the experts are unsure. However, I’m not sure forecasting the next Twitter is really the useful question—particularly for those us who focus on leveraging social media in a business context. Most thoughtful professionals I know—particularly in the educational advancement and alumni space—are looking for ways to harness the tools that are already in play more effectively and strategically. Approaching the social media landscape is a little like trying to take a drink from a fire hose—like organizing chaos. We all see the strength of the tools, but we wonder how it all fits and how it will make a difference in our organizations. With this concept as a backdrop, here is how I interpret my crystal ball:

1. Social Media Will Become Less Social.

First of all, I’d like to revisit the term “social media.” There is something about this nomenclature that sounds almost trivial or lacking in substance. I’d like to coin a new term – “engagement media.” It’s more active and deliberate. David Armano said on his Harvard Business School blog recently, “With groups, lists, and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more ‘exclusive.’ Not everyone can fit on someone’s newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it’s likely that user behavior such as ‘hiding’ the hyperactive ‘updaters’ that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it’s not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks—while filtering out the clutter.” And I think David is spot on here. We will be looking for more sophisticated, relevant experiences—greater value and ROE, return on engagement.

2. More Enterprise Social Software Platforms Will Emerge.

As an extension of the above development, major software providers, such as IBM, SAP, and Oracle will continue to innovate and launch enterprise-grade social networking and Web 2.0 collaboration applications/suites. Already, Oracle has Beehive; Microsoft enhanced SharePoint with social media functionality, and IBM offers Lotus Connections. Targeted niche solutions, such as ENGAGE by PCI for education institutions will emerge to address industry and stakeholder-specific needs. Currently, many organizations are piecing together solutions with blogs on TypePad/WordPress—or investing significant amounts of time and money in developing in-house communities using tools such as Ruby on Rails.

3. Social Media (“Engagement Media”) Fundraising Will Become More Integrated.

Organizations of all sizes will see the value of fully integrated multi-channel strategies. Using social media channels alone for fundraising will not be as effective as designing coordinated campaigns and communication strategies that include traditional fundraising techniques. This includes email, your website, Google ads, face-to-face events, and managed promotion to the online and mainstream media. Beth Kanter confirms this predication and gives a great example. Just last week, GiveMN, a new online web site that hopes to encourage more Minnesotans to give and help create a stronger nonprofit community for Minnesota, raised over $14 million dollars in 24 hours using a multi-channel campaign.

4. Relevance and Ease Will Become Increasingly Important in Peer-to-Peer Fundraising.

There is no more compelling spokesperson for an organization or school that a passionate supporter. This is the core strength of peer-to-peer fundraising. And there are a range of scenarios—from a class agent soliciting annual fund gifts for his or her school, to a stakeholder requesting donations in lieu of birthday presents or wedding gifts for an organization. In fact, Facebook Causes now offers a birthday wish feature, and we will likely see more peer-to-peer fundraising applications sprouting up in the coming months. In 2010, I suspect donors will demand more meaningful interaction—not so much with organizations, but with recipients and “the mission on the ground.” Epic Change’s TweetsGiving 2009 connects friends around the world with Mama Lucy Kamptoni, who used income from selling chickens to build an innovative school in her village’s community in Tanzania. Last year, TweetsGiving, raised $11,000—with a goal of$100,000 this year.

5. Email as We Know it Will Become Passé.

As Erik Qualman says in his popular Social Media Revolution video, GEN X and Y already view email as passé. And the trend will accelerate—or rather, morph technologically. The New York Times iPhone application recently added functionality which allows a user to easily share an article across networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many websites already support this functionality, but this next iteration of sharing behavior will gradually replace email list communications—particularly through the exponential expansion of mobile phone adoption. And this will provide renewed opportunities for withering content purveyors, such as traditional newspapers and network television. So, stay tuned. Fasten your seat belt.

It’s likely to be a wild ride! What are your prognostications?

by Raghuram Rajan, for The Harvard Law School Forum at Harvard Law School, November 25, 2009.

Raghuram Rajan is the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

In The Internal Governance of Firms, which was co-written with Viral Acharya and Stewart Myers, and which I recently presented at the Finance Seminar at Harvard Business School, we argue that there are important stakeholders in the firm, particularly its junior managers, who care about its future even if the CEO acts in his or her short-term self interest and shareholders are dispersed and powerless. These stakeholders, because of their power to withdraw their contributions to the firm, can force the CEO to act in a more public-spirited and far-sighted way. We call this process internal governance.

The basic intuition behind the model is as follows. Think of a partnership run by an old CEO who is about to retire. The CEO has a young manager working under him who will be the future CEO. Three ingredients go into producing the firm’s cash flow: the firm’s capital stock; the CEO’s ability to manage the firm, based on his skill and firm specific knowledge, and the young manager’s effort, which allows her to learn and prepare for promotion. We assume the CEO can commit to a pre-determined amount of investment. The CEO will leave the investment behind as the firm’s capital stock. The CEO can appropriate everything else: he can tunnel cash out of the firm, consume perks, or convert cash to leisure by shirking. Because the CEO has a short horizon, he could simply decide to take all of the cash flow, investing nothing for the future. But he needs the young manager’s effort in order to generate the cash flow. If the manager sees that the CEO will leave nothing behind, she has scant incentive to exert effort, and cash flow falls significantly. To forestall this, the CEO commits to investing some fraction of current cash flow, building or enhancing the firm’s capital stock in order to create a future for his young employee, thereby motivating her. This allows the firm to build substantial value, despite being led by a sequence of myopic and rapacious CEOs…(continue reading)

Do you ever wonder what it’s all about?  Well, as the unemployment rate in NYC reaches 17%, I certainly do.  I’m a Harvard Business School graduate without a job.   And I’ve graduated Harvard not once, but twice!  With fifteen years of work experience.   You can relate.   Now that I think of it, I’ve spent most of my life “searching”.  For the right job.  And for the right guy.   But somehow my picket fence remains my 500 square foot studio on East 72^nd Street    Have you noticed that interviews and dating are pretty similar experiences?   So, let me tell you about myself.  I’m Jane, and I’m currently lying in my bed on the upper east side of Manhattan with my teddy bear, Solace.  And multiple Hershey bar wrappers.  Where does one go from here?

Most recently, I worked for an internet marketing start-up in NYC.  Starting last January, business took a nose-dive as a result of the recession.  During the summer, we couldn’t generate any new business.  Nervous marketing managers slashed budgets.  “Spend” became the new “four letter” word.  Two weeks before my birthday last October, I’m handed my “pink slip”.  Happy Birthday Jane!

I gathered my shoes, photos, and mouse pad before my computer unceremoniously goes black. Looking back, I saw it coming. But I wasn’t prepared.  Now an outsider, I embark on a new journey.  To figure “It” out.  Life is a puzzle.

I must ask you, “Is your pink slip showing?”

• Early Stage Venture Fair hosted by Connecticut Venture Group will be held on December 9, 2009 at the New Haven Lawn Club in New Haven, CT (registration info here).
• 2010 Alumni New Venture Contest was announced by the Harvard Business School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and Alumni.  It is a business plan competition for Harvard Business School alumni with a $25,000 cash prize to the winning team.
• 2009 New England Venture Summit will be held on December 8, 2009 at the Hilton Boston Dedham in Dedham, MA.  The conference is presented by youngStartUp Ventures, which is a company that assists companies in finding/accessing angel and venture capital investments.  According to the Summit’s website, it “is the premier industry gathering connecting senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, venture capitalists, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, university researchers, incubators, successful entrepreneurs and premier service providers”.  Registration info can be found here, and an agenda for the event can be found here. 

Below is a video highlight of the 2008 New England Summit:

   - Gregg J. Lallier 

Being a tour guide at Trinity Church has its many perks. However, becoming one is a grueling and arduous, but intellectually rewarding journey.  Trinity’s docent undergo a 10 week training course during which one is expected to master the art and architectural history of one of America’s most beloved buildings. Surrounded by H.H. Richardson’s massive Romanesque interior, John Lafarge’s awe inspiring murals, and some of the country’s finest stained glass windows, one of my life long dreams came true on Wednesday November 18, 2009.

Pulitzer Prize winning critic Paul Goldberger, former architectural critic for The New York Times and author of several books including On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Post-Modern Age and the latest Why Architecture Matters elated (at least I was ecstatic) an audience over 100 people with a lecture titled Architecture, Spirituality and the Challenge of Modernism. Goldberger spoke of the sacred and how it relates to modern architecture and relied on Trinity Church several times  as an example of a building that is “fresh and vibrant [which] transcends our normal sense of time.”

According to Goldberger, architecture must express what is not material, that is, the idea of God. This must be achieved by using the physical to express the transcending. At Trinity Church, Richardson was able to create a work of art by inventing new ways for buildings to inspire and move us. It is a space where time loses its fleeting momentum and grounds each and every one of us who experience its seductive and sumptuous interior.  What architecture has done is to establish a connection between everyday life and the sacred.  Who are we to say that Saarinen’s 1954 Kresge Chapel at MIT, or Safdie’s Class of 1959 Chapel at Harvard Business School or Le Corbusier’s Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp are not sacred places? In the end, what makes a space sacred depends on who is feeling the experience. The same way we all experience a building, we can also be moved by it in different ways.

As to the challenges of modernism? Aesthetics have become indistinguishable from the sacred and as an example; Goldberger spoke of Kahn’s Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas as a model of how art institutions have become the emblems of cultural aspirations. These institutions have chosen to attract the beautiful rather than the divine (to illustrate this point, Goldberger questioned whether the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is considered a sacred place, to Mrs. Gardner it may have been, to others, it may just be another museum).

As a student and a professional, I have been delighted to meet and take classes with well respected scholars in the field of art and architectural history. Having attended this inspiring lecture by Paul Goldberger was not only a dream come true, but it gave me a reason to continue writing, learning and being a critic. Thank you Paul!

Scott Anthony

What Innovators Can Learn from Bill Belichick
Scott Anthony

Even non-football fans probably heard about Bill Belichick’s “blunder” of a call on Sunday night. Believe it or not, the call — and the firestorm that followed — has important lessons for innovation managers.

A quick recap. The New England Patriots led the Indianapolis Colts by six points with two minutes to go. It was fourth down, the ball was on the New England 28 yard line, and the Patriots needed just two yards for a first down that would almost certainly have sealed a victory. Conventional wisdom called for a punt, but Coach Belichick decided to go for it. After the Patriots fell just short of the first down, the Colts marched into the end zone and won the game.

* * *

What does this have to do with innovation?

First, the “Belichick incident” highlights the challenges facing a leader who makes the hard, right choices. If Belichick had punted and the Patriots lost, no one would have complained. Following a seemingly non-conventional approach opened Belichick up to criticism. Successful innovation requires similar bravery. It isn’t easy to go after non-existent markets or follow non-obvious approaches when analysts and investors are grilling you over minute-by-minute results. After all, naysayers tend not to criticize risks you don’t take.

The other important implication relates to rewards. People moaned about Belichick’s decision because the result was negative. Just like companies reward people who hit their numbers and penalize those who don’t. Getting world-class at innovation requires moving beyond rewarding results to rewarding behaviors. Remember, the odds that an initial strategy is right are very low. If a team learns quickly and cheaply that initial assumptions won’t pan out, they should be celebrated, not castigated. In the long run, those behaviors will lead to more successes than failures.

No one said leading innovation was easy. Getting uncommon results, however, sometimes requires following uncommon approaches.

* * *

You can read the complete article by visiting http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org.

Anthony is the Managing Director of Innosight Ventures. He has written three books on innovation: Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change with Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business Press, 2004), The Innovator’s Guide to Growth with Mark Johnson, Joe Sinfield, and Elizabeth Altman (Harvard Business Press, 2008), and The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times (Harvard Business Press, June 2009). He has published articles in various, is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Online and serves as the editorial director of Strategy & Innovation.

by Scott Hirst, for The Harvard Law School Forum at Harvard Law School, November 19, 2009.

This post is a review of Robert Pozen’s recent book, “Too Big to Save: How to Fix the US Financial System” by Sean Cameron, MBA Candidate at Harvard Business School.

Bob Pozen’s book, Too Big to Save: How to Fix the US Financial System is one of the most important books on financial reform written to date. The book not only provides an overview of how the US economy entered into a deep recession, but also a comprehensive plan for reform and a return to growth. Filled with original insight, the book clearly explains the failure of our modern capitalist society that has morphed into one-way capitalism that penalizes taxpayers who do not participate in upside gains but are exposed to losses from bailed out financial institutions. The book offers pragmatic advice for policymakers and important guidelines for all readers to understand the nature, causes, and appropriate reforms associated with the current US financial crisis. There has not been a more timely and important book written this decade.

Furthermore, Bob Pozen approaches each potential idea of reform with a well-reasoned perspective on the legal, economic, political and cultural implications of such reform. Pozen has a unique ability to describe complex phenomona such as the housing boom and bust and explosive growth in the use and complexity of financial derivatives with ease. His grasp of the complex issues is second to none, and his ability to convey these complex ideas in easily understandable, succinct prose is remarkable. Pozen’s suggestions for reform – including reducing moral hazard problems, strengthening boards, and improving the regulatory system – present feasible, necessary steps that policymakers must heed to improve financial markets and the real economy…(continue reading)

The health care “reform” legislation is getting closer to a vote in the Senate and ultimately the sausage making process known as reconciliation.

Over the last several weeks, The Health Enterprises Network has presented two nationally recognized experts on the health care system. One, an Princeton economist, Uwe Reinhardt, provided a compelling set of facts that suggests that the “system” is anything but a system and made a compelling case for systemic reform. Regina Herzlinger, a professor at the Harvard Business School, also set the stage for reform and also provided a definative point of view. Her comments can be summed up as supporting letting the “market” reform itself with the only role of the government focused on transparency and enforcement, an “SEC” for health care to use her words. While Reinhardt didn’t push a point of view, other “experts” favor a single payer system with a greatly expanded role for the federal government.

After listening to these experts, I always find myself challenging my own thinking about what we should do as a country to reform our system. Truth and logic can be found in both extremes of the continuum of solutions if one listens with an open and inquisitive mind.

For me, I tend to view health care as something basic to human happiness and liberty and therefore view access to affordable and quality care as a responsibility of our society. That view generally causes me to support a significant role for the federal government in the health care system, much like most European countries. A single payer system doesn’t frighten me; it certainly hasn’t brought down the societies of Western Europe.

Others, including many of my friends and colleagues, view health care much like auto insurance, a business or market in the classic economic sense. Therefore, they tend to favor less government involvement and much more individual responsibility (something that resonates with me as well…see my previous post).

I marvel at those who are so certain in their views. I have worked in the industry for thirty years and one thing that is certain is the uncertainty surrounding every incremental change made the system since the 70s. I think the law of unintended consequences applies in health care with a high degree of reliability.

The one thing I do know  is that it will take a systemic change, a revolution, to bring about different results from the U.S. health care system. The incremental and evolutionary changes coming from Washington may bring about some short-term improvement in costs (resulting from reductions to payments to providers and Medicare Advantage Plans), but over the next five years, costs will increase and the march toward health care spending at 20% of the GDP will move inexorably forward.

So, at the end of the day, it matters less to me whether the change is a government-run single payer system or an unfettered free market with more individual responsibility and some SEC-like oversight as it does that we do something systemic and revolutionary and do it soon. We need to get on with it and stop the politic folly leading to more incremental, and likely harmful, changes.

What do you think?

If you have lived in NYC for any amount of time at all I am sure you have heard of Marquee, partied there or got rejected at the door by the famous doorman Wass Stevens. However now that he is at Avenue most days of the week Marquee does not have the same door that once made it famous. Don’t be fooled though, the crowd is still selective and good looking. Once you get inside, the venue is gorgeous in every way possible(see pictures below). It also happens to be the longest lasting club in the city(6 years) which helped mold NYC nightlife to what it is today. Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss did such a good job with Marquee that the Harvard Business School decided to do a case study on the club itself. I have a copy of the review and if you would like to see it please send a message and I will forward it.

Back to the club. It has 2 floors however on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s they close the top floor since the club is not nearly as packed as the rest of the week. With that being said, the club is anything but slow. The party does tend to start a little later but once it gets going, watch out. We are careful with which venues we pick because the place has to have a lot of energy first and foremost. Tuesday’s at Marquee definitely satisfies this desire of ours. In order to have great energy it must also have great what? Yes, music. Marquee has satisfied that on Tuesday nights as well. Good looking people, great music and lots of energy, what else could you ask for?

Come check it out for yourself tonight. We will have the table and drinks set up around 12 and would love to have you swing by. See you there.

C: 585.737.4095
E: mschultz.tlg@gmail.com
F: facebook.com/mschultz.tlg
T: twitter.com/thesocialaire

This post picks up on Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and examines the sixth of Deming’s 14 Management Points, which urges:

Institute training on the job.”

This is a Deming classic, and one I’ve come to appreciate over my years in consulting and IT leadership development.  From the vantage point of 2009, one might take issue with the word “training” rather than “learning.”  As usually interpreted, the outcome, learning is a more important focal point than the approach of training.  You could train me for years on how to land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier, but you know, I’m just not going to do that!  Also, training tends to be sporadic, whereas learning can be continuous.

Institutionalize the Practice!

Let’s take apart the simple five word sentence.  Dictionary.com tells us that “institute” means (among other things):

to bring into use or practice”

So Deming is emphasizing the “institutionalization” of the practice, not just an occasional burst.  This is consistent with his first Point about “constancy of purpose.”  I find in many (most?) IT organizations, there is way too little learning going on – especially considering how rapidly the field is changing.  Training budgets are typically among the first to be cut in a recession, and the last to be reinstated.

Outside of IT, I see way too many people in jobs for which they are not properly trained.  One impact of this is that they take much longer to complete a task, especially if it is slightly outside of routine (a return, for example, at a store, or using a store coupon), so either more staff are needed than would be the case if they were properly trained, and/or, the customer experience is degraded, leading to reduced revenues.  If you don’t believe this, you need only look into the recent histories of Best Buy versus Circuit City to appreciate the impact of properly trained and motivated staff, versus untrained low wage workers!

On the Job!

Deming then emphasizes “on the job” as a form of training.  This is crucial, and is one of the reasons I like to think beyond training per se, to the whole realm of coaching and mentoring, developmental assignments, performance support and the whole gestalt that leads to people growing their working competencies.

I’ve had to privilege to participate on the faculty of an IT Leadership Development program with Harvard Business School’s Professor Jim Cash.  I’ve watched Jim skillfully facilitate a group of senior executives through an exercise about their most powerful learning moments.  A couple of points are notable:

1. The most powerful leadership learnings are almost always “on the job.”
2. The most powerful leadership learnings almost always came from a mistake made and learned from.

Towards Continuous Learning and Development

So, how can you establish a continuous learning and development capacity in your organization?  How many of these practices are institutionalized in your IT group?  If not, would they help if they were?  What would it take to make them common practice?

• Do you have competency models for all the major IT roles?
• Are people regularly assessed against these models?
• Are competency gaps addressed through learning programs, including learning assignments, on-the-job coaching, and formal training programs?
• Are people’s compensation and growth prospects tied to growth in competency footprints (i.e., either adding more competencies or deepening existing ones)?
• Are performance support materials readily available on line and in the same context that people use to complete their jobs?

Cartoon courtesy of Management Plus.

Found at http://www.gilyehuda.com/enterprise-20/review-for-andrew-mcafees-enterprise-2-0-book

Read more at http://www.gilyehuda.com/enterprise-20/review-for-andrew-mcafees-enterprise-2-0-book

Related articles by Zemanta

• Whats In It For Me – Web2.0 (slideshare.net)

For Preity Zinta, this year has been a year of learnings.

“Someone had told me that in the beginning of the year and rightly so. Today, I’ve learned who my true friends are. I have learned not to trust people easily (after my maid robbed my house).

I have learned new forms of dancing. During Diwali, I learned to gamble and lose too! Karan also taught me not to frown and be too animated while speaking, and now I’m going to be learning at the Harvard Business School where I’ve been accepted for a short executive course in negotiating and deal-making,” she said. Not to let criticism affect her, PZ who had been written off by “regressive journalists”, said, “Let them write me off… I’ll keep coming back. I’m producing and hosting a cricket show for TV and will also be making an appearance on the Yash Chopra show that will be hosted by Karan Johar,” said the perky actress, who’s looking for a new innings in the industry.

Source