ifridge

Creating a Corporate Culture

Stefanie Lightman — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:14:00 +0000

The other day I read an article on inc.com about “How to Work more Like a Start-Up”. Since I love a good case study on successful management styles, this one quickly had me engaged. In this story, a CEO enhanced productivity in the workplace by taking the agile development process and applying it to all aspects of the business. This allowed his team to be energized by short sprints to success, staying focused and motivated by reaching regular milestones. Like a good article should, it got me thinking. There is something energizing about a “start-up” work environment. It produces a corporate culture of involvement, focus, and going the “extra mile” while having fun. But this type of culture becomes harder to maintain as your business grows. In my opinion, this “Start-Up” culture does not have such a short shelf life. If you focus on keeping the energy alive, you can maintain this environment even with hundreds of employees. A few things for the management team to consider: State your vision and align your execution. At ifridge, we would call this the “Why” and we see that companies who have a clear vision are more successful than those that don’t take the time to focus. When it comes to corporate culture, as important as establishing the “Why”, is articulating it to the team. People are more motivated when they know where they are going. Alignment gets the entire organization to not only know where they are going but also gain satisfaction from being part of the journey. Stay close no matter how big and virtual you become. Every company has the handful of evangelists. These are often the people who started the company and just being in their presence motivates everyone. As your company grows, make an effort to provide access to these individuals. A combination of face-to-face and virtual meetings will go a long way. Remember that a 30 minute brown bag lunch session every other month can keep up the motivation and moral during the times when visibility is less. Lead & Develop. As executives we often don’t realize how much the rest of the organization respects and admires your success. A small introduction in the hall or email of a job well done can have a strong impact. When you look at where to invest consider a portion towards your people. Offer continuing education, more face-to-face meetings, or even simple “spot” thank you awards. Invest early and see the payoff. Lastly, LIVE it. Setting an example is the best way to lead. Culture can’t be constructed - it needs to evolve naturally. Embracing the uniqueness of the team and allowing everyone’s strength to shine motivates not only that individual but also everyone around them.

What is Really in a Name?

Stefanie Lightman — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:17:00 +0000

Recently I was involved in a conversation set out to rename a company. As names were tossed into the ring and opinions of like and dislike were becoming more and more vocal, it made me stop and think -- “What is really in a name?”

Whether it’s naming a company or a product, there is this need to come up with the “perfect” name. So I started to research how many of the prominent brands got their name. Of course, the first I picked was Apple (no pun intended). Interestingly, in one quick search I was pointed towards several stories - everything from Steve Jobs having a summer job on an apple farm to a story about it being a last minute suggestion because they were hours from launch and had no name. So I would ask, have you ever looked at Apple as a company and said, “boy that name really doesn’t express their business”. Of course not -- the name is only a piece of the exercise.

So of course this led me to hours of reading and lots of smiles to see that so many of the names out there were picked for reasons far removed from the business but made sense to the founders at the time. Clearly I am not alone in this interest, as I found dozens of postings. The most valuable one was of course Wikipedia. It has a List of Company Name Etymologies and there you can study almost any company you can think of.

I am not knocking the naming process. In fact, I have been involved in this exercise several time and the energy that comes from finding the “perfect” name cannot be underestimated. More recently I worked on a naming exercise with Stokefire and found the entire process to be very exciting. They approached it from a branding perspective, which is really what the naming exercise should be about.

So what would be my advice during the naming process? Three simple rules:
1) Pick a name that you can stand behind. Have a reason for the name that makes sense. As my colleague Daniel Kraft mentioned in his recent post, explore the WHY. It doesn’t need to make sense in the context of the company or product but there should be a reason (a thought process) behind the name that can be explained.
2) Think global. Regardless of how broad your market reach is, plan for a global audience. Don’t set yourself up to be the next example in a globalization story. We’ve all heard about the Chevy Nova, right?
3) It’s not about the name, it’s about the brand you build. Remember you are building a brand not a name. This is probably the most important. If you build the brand successfully, the name will be a success as well.

I would love to hear any naming advice that you have, or perhaps you’re now just a bit curious how we came up with ifridge.

WHY !?

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:28:00 +0000

When my kids reached the age of about three or four they started to ask us WHY. In the beginning it was about the basic things in our daily life, later they expanded it in almost every direction, and by the time they hit puberty they started questioning everything and everybody. As parents they often drive us crazy but we know for our kids this is the ultimate and most intense development and learning experience.

Most people outgrow this phase and become contributors to society as bankers, taxi drivers or sales people. Their relationship to the WHY develops to a commentary position in which they observe and comment but have no intention to actually answer the WHY. The most prominent demonstration of this are the millions of fans that comment on every move of their favorite sports team – like being the coach – while never actually participating.

Others continue their quest for answers and develop a very passionate relationship to the WHY. While they sometimes struggle, they often find their own personal mission as they join a humanitarian or even spiritual cause and become nurses, firefighters, teachers or religious leaders. Those demonstrate to us what an amazing power is unleashed when life has a purpose around defining and answering the WHY.

Finally there is a group of people that transition the ability to ask for WHY into their professional lives by developing a mission not just for themselves but for their teams or co-workers. Those people usually become scientists, adventurers or entrepreneurs. The ability to align all of their passion, energy and intellectual power behind one – their own – cause, makes them unique and provides a key ingredient to greatness.

Unfortunately greatness in business is not always appreciated, especially when it meets bureaucracy. “Because excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering.” (William Deresiewicz). In order for greatness to succeed a lot of maneuvering and HOW expertise is needed -- for example, to secure funding, to find the right people, to get all the infrastructure in place, and last but not least to keep things running.

Much too often the Vision and Mission exist only in the head of the founder or even worse is a well polished assembly of marketing words. Building them is hard work and in my experience a great investment with a phenomenal return on that investment. But in order to prevent bureaucracy (structure, environment, circumstances) to dictate what to do, what to think, and what to believe, we need to be able to explain our Vision and Mission - our WHY. Only with that we can rally the people behind our WHY and get them excited to work on WHAT is required to succeed.

So anytime you ask yourself WHAT is the next step for you .... don’t!

Ask WHY.

This post was inspired by Simon Sinek's speach on TED:

The thing is, I love it more than I hate it

Dean Lenzotti — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:45:00 +0000

So, last week I completed my second move to Manhattan. The first one was last month, with lots of stuff but no dogs. This time, I drove by myself from Ohio to NYC with my two dogs and a mini-SUV full of more stuff. It started with a positive energy when I took off at 4am, but turned into one of those days, as one of my colleagues at ifridge & Company describes, where “the city got the better of me”. I finally understood what she meant by that expression.

After the long day, I started to question (again) why I moved here. Manhattan seriously was the last place I’d ever consider moving; I call it “Crazy Town”. I’ve realized my experiences here have fit into either the “I Love It” or the “I Hate It” category (and hardly ever mundane). To me, it is a city of extremes, as others have noted before. Being analytical and with a love for tables, I thought I would assess things that happened to me (mostly that day) along these two extreme criteria.

I love it	I hate it
It was pleasant enough to drive here from Ohio, after drinking a few energy shots and listening to the awesome Sirius XM satellite radio for the first time	… but it is a long 9 hours from my parents now by car, if they want to see the dogs and maybe me
Downtown NYC has a charming, non-grid street setup	The GPS was outdated and I couldn’t make that left turn before the bridge that I needed to to get to my apartment so I ended up in Brooklyn, adding 45 minutes to a 9 hour car ride
My apartment building has a nice loading zone that is such a convenience; I’ve previously seen so many moving trucks park there for hours to unload their contents	Oh, it’s actually bike lane, and I got a ticket for leaving the car there unattended. Attempting the move by myself was not the best idea.
Taxis are plentiful if you need them to get around	This taxi driver on his third day on the job said I would have to give him the directions to my apartment, and then I made a navigation mistake painfully lengthening the trip but couldn’t convince the dang newbee to make a U-turn (he’ll learn)
I live in a quaint little apartment with a view of the Empire State Building	I live in a little apartment. I continue to miscalculate how much room I have as I am still trying to unpack this load of stuff
There is a surprisingly good volume of air from the apartment window air conditioners	…that remind me a bit of a takeoff at the airport on every cycle-on and the room swings from hot to warm all day
You don’t need to own a car here	Doing like many Manhattanites, I carried a broken 7 ft. long piece of my bed back to IKEA in Brooklyn last week, via subway and bus, so I could finish the assembly job; on the plus side, holding it seemed to discourage a randomly screaming bus patron from messing with me
My dogs will get to socialize and meet new people while living in an apartment instead of a stand-alone house	The dogs hear any little apartment noise from other tenants, or see any other dogs, and bark and run around (uh, Manhattan is not a quiet island)
I live in probably the most diverse neighborhood anywhere; it is always colorful and surprising.	My neighborhood is especially colorful and surprising, AT NIGHT
There are so many interesting food choices in my neighborhood	“Seriously, dogs, what did you just eat off the sidewalk?”
You can get almost anything delivered here	I have no problem with this
Not so much	It is a bit expensive to live here ($12 for a panini sandwich is just wrong). And not sure if you’ve heard, but the rents are high

If I look at these lists, even though they appear to be pretty equal, I have to admit that I already love it more than I hate it. And to some degree, that is all that matters, because the love is pretty awesome. And the “hate it” ones are irritating enough to make you realize you’ve worked hard to earn the “love it” ones. Not a bad thing.

So, I started to think about this “love it more than I hate it” conclusion in other contexts, such as how a business presents itself to its customers or makes decisions, because frankly I needed the distraction from the chaotic day. Are there any products or businesses or events that you love more than you hate, and that are therefore strangely appealing? Does the hate make you feel like you’ve worked hard to earn the love?

So, the iPhone is a pretty good, useful device (ok, I admit I sleep with it now because at any moment of insomnia I can check Facebook). BUT THE BATTERY CAN’T BE REPLACED AND DOESN’T LAST LONG ENOUGH! This is outrageous! But I still carry on though, suffering, and justify it maybe by the fact that the device is so useful that must be why I keep draining the battery (by noon). Oh, and btw, Apple, THAT VIRTUAL KEYBOARD DRIVES ME NUTS BECAUSE THE BACKSPACE KEY PLACEMENT CAUSES ME TO DELETE MY TYPING EVERY TIME A WORD HAS AN “M” IN IT! I surely love it, but I also hate it!

Think about a training course you might take. Is the training more memorable if the course has elements of extremes, of big surprise and delight as well as frustration? Definitely. If the training is just a by-the-book good delivery, do you forget everything on the plane ride home?

The fact is too that most business decisions have love and hate elements, more often referred to less interestingly as “pros” and “cons”. A decision can be a great one even if it has ramifications that aren’t so good. The keys are to make the pros (the love) outweigh as much as possible the cons (the hate), and to make the cons as least impactful as possible.

Do you have other examples where this combination of love and hate just works or is necessary? Where the polar extremes are the way to go, versus just being ordinary and middle-of-the-road? Where a
business decision needed to be made even though it had its love and hate results? Boy, you might even have a personal relationship with these extremes – is it worth it?

(Oh, and I was telling a new friend about this post and he said he once had to lay in the street in NYC so he wasn’t shot during a gang fight. Hmm, my “hate it” issues are pretty pathetic. Okay, New York, I love you even more.)

Think Globally, Act Locally

Stefanie Lightman — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:14:00 +0000

The other day I was talking to a colleague about an experience she was having with her team members over in Europe. She was struggling because while they were all strong professionals in their own right, they didn’t always see eye to eye on the tactical execution. It got me thinking about this amazing global marketplace so many of us are now working in and how often we overlook the cultural differences that can play a part when interacting across borders.

For me, I’ve now worked with several companies headquartered in Europe expanding a presence here in North America. In the early days I too was often frustrated by the constant disagreements in process but when I took a step back I began to see the value of having different opinions driven by our local influences. Culture can have a strong impact on how we do business, how we prioritize and how we interact.

Seems simple? Of course if you think about it, this makes sense, but how do you distinguish when these differences are just that, cultural influences. Personally, I have a few things I practice when working with a global team.

Take a step back from the issue at hand. We are all human and opinions are just that, opinions. But the delivery can be misinterpreted quite easily. When conflict arises, I take a 24-hour break from the issue. Usually I find after the “waiting period”, that the emotions settle down and alignments happen on their own.

Understand the local dynamics. I am just as guilty as the next person of thinking that the way “we do it here” is the right way. But remember, markets are different and best practices vary. I guarantee you will also find some useful practices that work in your own markets.

Have a dialogue. Email can be the biggest barrier to communication. Digital conversations can be misinterpreted so easily. Pick of the phone and have a live dialogue. While the digital workplace is one of the greatest innovations we much too often forget about the person behind the e-mail.

Feed on the energy. If you have the opportunity to work with many different cultures, enjoy the opportunity. You are getting a lesson that no amount of school could ever teach. Embrace it and ask questions. Learn more about your fellow colleagues and how they operate - it can be an exciting learning opportunity.

A Crazy Cake & the “Triple Dip” Sales Tool

Dean Lenzotti — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:17:00 +0000

So after reading the story written by my colleague at ifridge & Company, Stefanie Lightman, about the cake she made and couldn't transport, I thought of last year when I had a cake made for my parents' anniversary party. I had a few phone and email conversations with a bakery in Wilmington NC to arrange for the cake (contact me if you need a cake there so I can tell you where NOT to go). After watching all those cake making shows on TV, I was excited about this, especially since I wasn't baking like Stefanie. I had just recently seen some fondant cakes, didn't really know what fondant was, but just knew I had to have it. The themes of the cake were horseshoes (for my father who throws them), and a pillow (for my mother who sews). I was going for a fancy wedding-style cake. And good bakers can do amazing things with cake. Unfortunately... I picked up the cake on the day of the party, and it was nothing what I expected. Besides the obvious quality issues (oh, visible cardboard between tiers, half-inch thick fondant, fingerprints in the fondant from the baker, etc.), the baker (who suddenly wasn't at the shop) had ignored many of my requests for the implementation, such as --

Requested: Two fondant tiers, "Tiffany" blue
Received: One buttercream tier, "Smurf" blue (I think they ran out of fondant on the first ultra-thick tier)

Requested: Fancy looking horseshoes
Received: "Tootsie Roll" looking things (could actually be described more indelicately)

Requested: One tier as a fancy pillow with tassles
Received: My sister thought it looked like my mother was in some sort of "dance" business

All of this reminded me of one my favorite types of sales tools that we at ifridge like to build for organizations, what I call the "Triple Dip" (Seinfeld reference intentional). Unlike many sales tools or collateral items, the "Triple Dip" serves three purposes, to:

Educate the sales force about the fundamentals of a product and the selling strategies,
Educate the customer about how the product can address their business needs, and
Get them talking and figuring out how to work together, connecting the customer to the solution that is offered.

Sales enablement and marketing initiatives for products are often considered disparate initiatives, even managed by different people in the organization. This can be inefficient and only scratch the surface on how impactful the programs can be. The Triple Dip provides this efficiency. And can be particularly useful for technology organizations who need to map their technology to the customer's specific requirements. An ordinary data sheet, PowerPoint presentation or FAQ just can't do this. A good example of a "Triple Dip" is the Content-O-Wheel created for Open Text Corporation. Here, in a printed as well as electronically available tool, we consolidated in one structured place all of the ways Open Text aides a SharePoint customer. Not all are relevant to every customer, so the tool allows the sales person and customer to pick the ones that are relevant, and the detail underlying each can provide for an interesting discussion. I've done "Triple Dips" in the form of workbooks that are completed by the sales person and customer together, that can layout a short or long term plan of action applying the technology to the customer's issues. Or "Cosmo"-style questionnaires, where you can evaluate where the customer is with respect to certain business issues by having them answer a series of questions with weighted values, allow the conversation to occur around their rankings and the resulting total. So, I suppose my thinking here is that the cake might have turned out better if the baker had had a "Triple Dip". The baker might have used it to dialog with me about my requirements for the cake, and she could talk about exactly what they do as optional features or what they are particularly good at. She could have presented me with options which made the cake more appealing for me as a cake novice. And we could have ended up with speaking with a common language and documented our understanding of how the cake should be made so I might not have been disappointed with the result. (I'm living a bit of a fantasy here. Actually, I think the baker ended up getting tied up making other cakes, and passed my cake off to her interns. I can just imagine her, covered wth flour, shouting "Horseshoes! Tassles! Blue!" to weakly educate them at the last minute on my well thought out requirements for the cake. And probably would have always disregarded any documentation that might have come from our conversation that clearly laid out my needs.) "It is what it is" as I say, and surprisingly enough, the cake turned out to be the highlight of the party. As my father said after, if it had been a nice, elegant cake, the family would have noted that and the moment have have passed quickly. Instead, it became a running joke for days that got our family talking and bonding (well, at my expense). I still hear about it almost a year later, and my sister bought me the Cake Wrecks book and inserted a profile of my cake in it. Needless to say, however, bad technology decisions of your customer wouldn't have such a happy result. There wouldn't be much for you to mutually laugh about if they buy something from you that doesn't solve their needs. So think about how you might leverage a "Triple Dip" to help your sales people help their customers to figure that all out.

Not My Father’s Branding Anymore

Dean Lenzotti — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:32:00 +0000

I recently put my house on the market in Columbus, Ohio, USA as I venture to the great land of Manhattan (seriously, it is 3bd/2.5ba, French Country-style, 3300+ sq ft with a truly open floor plan and first floor master, if you know of anyone.) So I needed to do a few projects around the house. One day I decided to paint the rusty entry gate (there is no fence so it is one of those useless but pretty gates). I figured I’d call my father for some advice. He worked for Sherwin-Williams, the great paint company, for over 30 years, so needless to say we didn’t buy other brands, and growing up we knew how to paint a room. My father suggested that I do some sanding with a wire brush (good point) and then put on a coat of metal primer or an acrylic before I put on the exterior paint. I knew I had a boatload of cans of paint down there and figured there had to be some primer. I came across a can of “METALATEX” from Sherwin-Williams, and wasn’t sure what it was used for. I’m not sure why I even had it or what color it was, and the instructions on the back did not provide much clarity – it said something about “commercial” and “industrial” applications. So I asked him, “Hey what about this ‘Meh-tail-uh-tex’? Is that a primer?” He said, “Wait a sec. Do you mean ‘Meh-tul-Lay-tex’?” I said, “Yes, I do, but seriously, is that how it is pronounced? Weird.” Then he says, “Yes. Metal Latex. By the way, you know who came up with that name, right?” Then my heart sank and I knew I had faux pas’d big time. “Uh, you?” I asked. “Yes, remember I was the VP of the Coatings division years ago.” Luckily, he didn’t seem to be too interested in my mispronunciation. And he ended up discouraging me from using it as a primer anyway, so it was a bit of a rat hole. Still, I wonder about that conversation. I’ve known that I tend to pronounce new terms or proper nouns in unusual ways, and this was probably the worst since my father was the marketer! As another example, before I met a colleague once and asked her, I couldn’t get my head around how to pronounce one of her names, which was “Smadahl” (ok, I found out later it is easy as “smuh-doll”, and I now yell it when leaving a voicemail for her, apparently sounding like her uncle). Gosh, I wonder if when I was younger I was going around ordering Diet “Pee-Pa-Sees”? I once had two English-as-a-second-language friends fall out of chairs laughing at me because I pronounce the real name of "Motor City" in Michigan with three syllables – “De-Troy-Utt”. But I still don't agree with them. I think I speak like an 8 Mile native. Thankfully, it is not just me I know. My friend Stephanie admitted that she used to say a certain brand of shoes as "See-Ahh-O", which happens to be the Italian word for goodbye ("Chow bella, Stephanie!"). In this paint case, I had come up with my own wacky way to say it. Or did I? Wait a minute! Where did that second “L” go in the name? Why did my father presume you are supposed to say the “L” twice, at the end of “Metal” and the beginning of “Latex”, even though there is only one “L” and no hyphen? Bold branding, I thought, almost obnoxious if you think about it. Maybe I was right… So, what had I learned? 1. It is best not to challenge your father when you disagree with something he did 20 years ago. Just let it go. Of course, I am arguing my case with this post, so this is probably not a good example of that. 2. Honestly, I think my pronunciation of the word provides a more exciting way to talk about the paint. I would even have considered adding an explanation point at the end. Say it out loud yourself using my way, and you will see what I mean. 3. I’ll probably end up leaving the paint cans in the basement as a gift to the new owner. Handy. I will miss them. 4. Don’t assume people will get your branding or know how to even pronounce it. I think sometimes people spend far too much time stressing about branding, but a few alternative viewpoints from people not in your industry couldn’t hurt in the process. And maybe think out of the box and actually go back to basics instead of names like “Lufsatran” (I just made that up; uh, please contact me if you want to license it). Of course, you might not even care if they mispronounce it. I like the idea of a brand name that has some connection to the product or service in question. I never found out, but the METALATEX coating probably has some use on “metal”, and being “latex” I know it will clean up easily with water (ok, again, we grew up with this stuff), and it is a clever combination of words. But sometimes these names people come up with could apply to a iPhone app, an industrial supplier of compressors, or a new line at Victoria’s Secret, all at the same time. Really? I do like the idea of branding sometimes that serves as a conversation starter. When I tell people I work for ifridge & Company, I might get a bit of a “what now??” either out loud or by facial expression if they’ve never heard of us before, and I then get to explain to them what we’re all about (you know, it started with the idea of collaboration around the fridge door as a way to develop fresh ideas). Oh, and with that, they remember us. We’re not “Lufsatran!” and lacking a good story about the name, and we are not mistaken for a new type of brassiere. As a product manager at a software company, I once named a free software module “Livelink UNITE & Atlas” with the “Atlas” part being the free component. Months later, I was told by a customer trainer that he grew very tired of having to explain to “Atlas” administrators what “UNITE” was. I told him I thought that was awesome! “UNITE” was the for-sale product that I wanted to upsell people from Atlas, and his simple explanation of the name at each course was a sales opportunity. Maybe a little confusion in the branding can be a valuable marketing ploy? (Hard to apply metrics to that one.) Oh, and I also like the fact that we say “& Company” at the end of our name. Sure, I am an ifridger that actually works for ifridge, but we also pull from a variety of amazing resources in order to help our clients and these people are virtual ifridgers, like my buddy Elise Smadahl Segar at Lucre Systems (ah, remember her from one of my earlier examples?). Our “ifridge & Company” name tells a story even by the choice of this seemingly inconsequential portion of the name. We could be “ifridge Inc.”, but it is not quite the same, right? All this leads me to ask… Do you have any examples of surprising pronunciations of names that have caught you off guard, or comments about good or crazy brand names?

Flat or Matrix.. Is that really the question?

Stefanie Lightman — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:48:00 +0000

Having worked with many large organizations, I can no longer count the number of times I’ve participated in the same meeting. The scenario is as follows. It’s the end of the fiscal year and plans are being made for the upcoming year. Whether the year has been successful or not, restructure always remains a topic. I wonder why structure is the leading dialogue and transparency and communication (which this is often the intention for the restructure) is not the main issue.

In general the conversation is the same but it is directed internally versus externally. Internally we get caught up in how to organize departments. Should we be flat or matrixed? Should sales be aligned by territory, by vertical, by key account? Same dialogue different year and way too often the organization doesn’t see the new structure through for a long enough period of time to warrant results. It may take more than a year and if you set to restructure again at the new fiscal year, you may never see success. Enhanced communication and transparency has many benefits but let’s look at the ones most easily achieved.

Improved Transparency

Having lots of reporting lines does not necessarily solve the issue of transparency. The leadership team needs to understand what is going on in the business but access to this information can come in many ways. I’ve seen a few organizations successfully implement scorecards and dashboards to measure corporate performance. The information is available to who ever needs it from all levels of the organization. Marketers are more familiar with this concept. We've been tracking success metrics and reviewing information in real time on dashboards for a while. I read an article recently that took a new approach to metrics; exposing that it's not always in the numbers. These are the type of metrics an organization can share without getting bogged down in the structure.

Shorter Sales Cycle and Improve Market Awareness

If you asked an inside sales person what the company strategy was, do you think they would know? Often with strong organizational lines, the communication stops at the highest level. Every person plays a roll in the sales cycle in some way so ensuring that they are all working towards the common goals are key.

Here is where the social workplace comes into play. Make it easy for your employees to communicate across the organization, not bound by reporting lines. Mandate that senior executives blog (even if just internally) to share their vision with the entire chain of command. Remember the people out on the front lines reflect your company every day - in front of the customer, talking to vendors, etc.. Arm them with the right information to be successful. A friend of ifridge, Elise Segar of Lucre Systems points out the value of informed outbound communication. This needs to be solved internally first and restructuring most likely isn’t the answer.

So what I am proposing is to have the dialogue all year round about moving the company forward and include all levels of the organization. Don’t assume that structure has all the answers. The answers are with the people, now go find them and empower them to be successful through transparency and fluid communication.

Meet me at CeBIT

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:39:00 +0000

Es ist mal wieder Zeit für die CeBIT und natürlich ist ifridge & Company ebenfalls vertreten. Gemeinsam mit unseremPartner netmedia stellen wir den Social Workplace - den Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft - vor.

Hierbei gehen wir der Frage nach wie man Enterprise 2.0 in den Unternehmensalltag integrieren kann. Neben den technischen Möglichkeiten geht es auch um die richtige Strategie, die Einbindung in die Prozesse und die richtige Abwägung der Risiken.

Darüber hinaus moderieren wir zwei sehr interessante Sessions zum Thema:

Social Messaging & Collaboration 5. März 2010, Halle 6, 11.40 Uhr

Flexiblere Informations- und Kollaborationsformen sind wichtige Elemente des "Enterprise 2.0"-Ansatzes. In der Praxis geht es dabei um öffentliche bzw. im Unternehmen öffentliche Kurznachrichten-Dienste a la Twitter (auch als Social Messaging-Lösungen bezeichnet) und anderen Social Software-Ansätzen, die die Kommunikation, Kooperation und Koordination unterstützen. Als wichtige Herausforderung dieser neuen Groupware-Ansätze ist der Aspekt der Strukturierung und Entwicklung des entlang der von diesen Systemen unterstützen Zusammenarbeit generierten Wissens zu diskutieren.

Auf dem Panel sollen die verschiedenen Ansätze und die besonderen Herausforderungen dieses Konzeptes in der Praxis anhand mehrerer Erfahrungsberichte und Lösungswege diskutiert werden. Social CRM - Kundenvertrieb & Service 2.0 5. März 2010, Halle 6, 13.50 Uhr

Die Einbindung der sozialen Medien und Netzwerke in die Prozesse des Kundenmanagement - sei es für den Vertrieb oder den Service - das ist die Idee von "Social CRM" und bietet den Ausgangspunkt für eine Reihe von neuen Anwendungen und Servicelösungen. Dabei stehen derzeit sicherlich noch zwei gegensätzliche Zielsetzungen im Raum: aus vertrieblicher Sicht soll durch die Anreicherung der Kundendaten mit den Diskussionsbeiträgen, Meinungen und sonstigen Profildaten der Kunden der Kunde transparenter und besser "verständlich" gemacht werden. Aus der Service-Sicht sollen Dienste wie GetStatisfaction.com oder BrandsListen.com das Feedback der Kunden frühzeitig kanalisieren, einen Selbsthilfeprozess initieren und Impulse in Richtung eines offenen Geschäftsmodells geben. Das Panel "Social CRM - Kundenvertrieb & Service 2.0" diskutiert diese zwei durchaus widersprüchlichen Ansätze und ihr Potentiale sowie Herausforderungen.

Mehr Hintergründe zum Enterprise 2.0 und Social Media, insbesondere Details zu

Social Workplace - dem Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft
Social Business Design, d.h. die Einbindung der Möglichkeiten im Enterprise 2.0 in die Prozesse des Unternehmens und dem
Reputation Management welches sicherstellt, dass sich die Dialoge sowohl inhaltlich als auch vom Stil im angemessenen Rahmen halten (Thema Risiko Management)

gibt es hier im Enterprise 2.0 Special von netmedia sowie in nachfolgender Präsentation.

Enterprise 2.0 Alltagstauglich on Prezi

Online Marketing Summit – THE event for marketers

Stefanie Lightman — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:11:00 +0000

The event is called “Online Marketing Summit” but as I attended the sessions and networked with fellow marketing professionals, it was clear that an “Online” focused event is really a “Marketing Best Practices” conference because I challenge to find a strong marketing strategy today that doesn’t wisely incorporate online elements.

The attendees range from savvy online marketers who are pushing their company to think outside the box, to the marketer held back by the conservative company afraid of damaging their brand or even better loosing employee productivity by letting them engage in social media.

Regardless of where you fall in the spectrum and I suggest most fit somewhere in between, many of the questions revolved around “Buy In” and how to convince the CEO to spend dollars in this fast growing area. Here’s my approach:

Be Tangible

Presenting ROI from your marketing efforts is no different today than years ago. However, now you have the ability to present who’s visiting your site, where are they coming from, what are they doing, and who’s buying. Start tracking these trends now to have data to look back on months down the road and show value.

Teach Them to Listen

Whether you have started to engage socially or not, most likely the conversation has already started. I heard in several sessions this week on social media to “Listen First” so help your CEO listen and make them aware of the conversation that is happening around them. A similar perspective can be seen in a presentation we recently delivered on "Taking the Next Step".

“Me Too” Can Actually Work

When we were younger and you wanted to get something you often said “well EVERYONE has it” and this “me too” attitude was not rewarded. Take this approach to your CEO and show them what the competition is doing. Different than the argument you may have lost as a child, if the competition is doing it, you won’t want to miss out.

Baby Steps

Remember that not everything has to be done all at once. Present a plan that gets you from where you are today to where you want to be and set milestones and metrics along the way.

Online Marketing and Marketing are now synonymous. Taking your company on this journey is part of the job but making it successful is where the rewards are found.

*Photo courtesy of Online Marketing Mavens

If It Doesn’t Fit, Don’t Force It

Stefanie Lightman — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:35:00 +0000

The other day, I baked a cake for my niece and nephew’s birthday. And if I can compliment myself, it was one of my better creations. After 8 labor-intensive hours, I had completed my masterpiece only to realize that the cake was too big to fit into the container I needed to transport it to their house.

Without thinking, I tried desperately to make the cake fit. The outcome was that all my hard work was no longer the exquisite creation I worked so hard to create; but a broken version tailored to fit the container.

Of course when I mentioned my challenge to those not so close to the cake creation, they were full of ideas on how I could have fixed the situation. As I drove to NJ to deliver the crushed cake, I started to think of the similarities of my cake challenge with what so many companies deal with in their corporate development.

Building a strategy to take a company forward can be an intensive process and the outcome if most often something you can be proud of. But then, so often we see that the current organization doesn’t “fit” to this new strategy and trying to “force it” (like with my cake) will most often crumble and destroy the creation.

What if you didn’t quick try to “make it work” but thought about ways to compromise and adjust to the current climate? What if you sought advise from others outside the organization that may have a different and often fresh perspective?

This thinking is often discussed but so often forgotten during the implementation. I’ve read great case studies and articles, like this one from Harvard Business Review, on this very topic. But my cake story reminded me how easily we can successfully plan and let the execution fall short.

Successful companies are taking the time to create the perfect organization but recognize that this new approach needs to fit the current situation. And if it doesn’t, don’t force it. Think about alternatives and seek advice and options from those a bit more removed from the exercise. A fresh perspective can go a long way.

Alltagstaugliches Enterprise 2.0

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:26:00 +0000

Es gibt so Tage, die es in sich haben. Der heutige begann mit einer SMS von Lufthansa: Ihr Flug wurde leider annuliert! Grundsätzlich war damit zu rechnen, aber nachdem am Abend der Flug noch bestätigt wurde, war die SMS um 5 Uhr etwas überraschend. Aber wenn man von etwas begeistert ist, gibt es auch einen Weg und so kamen wir über Hannover und viel Diplomatie doch noch zu Open Text Web Solutions Group User Group. Airberlin sei Dank.

Menschen, Prozesse, Sicherheit

Wenn es um Social Media geht, ist immer noch eine grosse Unsicherheit zu spüren. Die folgende Präsentation schafft einen Überblick wie man das Thema in den Unternehmensalltag einbinden kann - sowohl strategisch als auch pragmatisch operativ.

Enterprise 2.0 Alltagstauglich on Prezi

Der Start ist einfach

Tobias Mitter von netmedia präsentiert spannende Anwendungsfälle zum Unternehmenseinsatz. Insbesondere stellt er dabei in Demos vor, wie man verschiedene Systeme zum Nutzen der Mitarbeiter integriert.

Inhouse Twitter auf Basis von Open Text und Yammer.

Volle "Wall" analog Facebook aber sicher und intern
Aufbau von Experten Profilen
Integration von allen Inhalten (Dokumente, Bilder, etc)
Einbeziehung bestehender Investitionen (RedDot, Open Text)

Echtzeit Kundensupport auf Basis von Open Text und Google Wave

Direkter Dialog zwischen Kunde und Mitarbeiter
Single sign-on für den Mitarbeiter
Steigerung der Kundenzufriedenheit
Aufbau einer Knowledge Base oder FAQ

Hierzu empfehle ich einen Blick auf das netmedia Enterprise 2.0 Special! Mehr dazu in der Präsentation von Tobias Mitter:

Enterprise 2.0 - Anwendungsfälle im Social Workplace (OTWSUG 2010)

View more presentations from netmedianer GmbH.

Online Marketing

Boris Crismancich von CYBERhouse präsentierte die Integration von verschiedenen Publizierungspotentialen in das Content Management, wie z.B. Twitter oder Flickr sowie einen Ansatz von Social Analytics, der sich nahtlos in den Begriff des Reputation Management der Strategiepräsentation integriert. Einen Link zur CYBERhouse Präsentation wird es demnächst auf der User Group Seite geben.

Open Text setzt strategisch auf Enterprise 2.0

Lars Onasch stellte klar, das Open Text strategisch hinter dem Enterprise 2.0 steht und sein Portfolio entsprechend ausrichtet. Trotz anfänglicher Unsicherheiten setzt die Firma nun eindeutig auf die Social Media Komponenten aus der Vignette Übernahme. Spannend war auch der Vortrag von Bernfried Howe und Martin Schwanke, die die technische Architektur der Social Media von Open Text präsentierten. Die erfrischend offene Darstellung der verschiedenen Optionen von RedDot über Vignette verschaffte einen guten technischen Überlick. Besonderes Interesse weckte die Integration zwischen den verschiedenen Produktwelten, die es erlauben, auch bestehende Investitionen aufzusetzen. Nach Wochen der Unsicherheit dürfte das bei Kunden für etwas Ruhe und Sicherheit sorgen.

Enterprise 2.0 bleibt spannend

Die Kernaussage der Veranstaltung ist ganz klar, dass Enterprise 2.0 seinen Einzug in den Unternehmensalltag fortsetzen wird. Mit richtigen Anwendungsbeispielen und einer klaren Zieldefinition lassen sich bereits heute beachtliche Mehrwerte für die Wertschöpfung der Organisationen erzielen.

Maps meets Picture meets Video and flys to the Moon

Daniel Kraft — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:22:00 +0000

If you like Google maps, you're going to love this presentation! Presented at the recent TED event in Long Beach. Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. It's not so much about the feature but the actual demo he gives that I like. You can see the fun the team has building those new tools.

What do you think, is that good enough to defeat Google? Check out the TED page to see what happens if the old dinosaur Microsoft is doing something that looks cooler than the web darling Google.

Coke says: Fans First

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:29:00 +0000

Short follow-up on last weeks iStrategy event in Berlin about Social Media and Enterprise 2.0. The Coca Cola Company presented their view on social media with some interesting statements.

Social Media Management is a tactic ... not a strategy? While I agree that once established it's used on a tactical level but given the recent move by Pepsi to shift their investment towards social media, I am sure the Coca Cola people have some strategic angle to it.

Keep it simple: Spot on! Usability is a key element of todays "technologized" world. When you listen to the comments about the Apple iPad you hear a lot of noise about what is missing from the iPad. Who cares? I am very certain the iPad is going to be a great success because it is simple and fun ... just like social media should be.

Always work with the pros. I am sure the advisors love that statement :-) and there have been some good ones at the event (see my comment about Ogilvy). But I have to agree with that statement from own experiences. When my former company entered the space some years ago, we had no idea and had to learn it the hard way. We later turned to Electric Artists and netmedia and got things done.

There are many more good ideas from the Coca Cola people, check the full presentation below. You might also see Geert Bestens' perspective.

Coke's 'fans first' approach in social communities

View more presentations from iStrategy.

iStrategy – Some Feedback

Daniel Kraft — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Just on the way home from the iStrategy event in Berlin about Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media - sharing some of my observations. Overall a good event with real companies presenting real projects. And an international event, over lunch our table had eight people from seven countries.

Is it just marketing?

The audience seemed to be focused a lot on marketing. While the agenda was somewhat guiding towards this, it was interesting to see that the business impact of social media is still considered a new way of outbound communication and marketing. Making your customers a "partner in crime" is a great approach but if your team is not embracing it internally you'll not be able to execute on all the wonderful feedback you get from the market. It somehow feels like 1999 … "I need a website!" … "Why?" … "Because!" Another interesting quote from the team at Coca Cola: "Social media management is a tactic, not a strategy"... not sure I can agree with that.

We are on the way

A refreshing openness was presented when Nicole Yershon and Alex Mecklenburg explored a mixture of an internal case study and an Ogilvy marketing pitch. An agency admitting to have not much of a clue but working hard to change was encouraging to see. Cases included the Ford Fiesta Movement and the Japan's soccer "kick" machine from Castrol. Nicole shared some ideas about the Ogilvy Lab and her challenge to get middle management to embrace social media. I think the firm is on a good path, definitely a team to consider if you aim for the marketing side of 2.0 (and have the budget for it).

"We are all in the cloud ...

... at least 76% use >1 cloud service today and 90% plan to in 2010". A session by Microsoft turned into a discussion about cloud computing. While everybody in the room was willing to do "cloud banking" (online banking), many had reservations to trust their data to the cloud. Talking about what trigger event would change this and when, didn't reveal a clear answer but the terms 'trust' and 'over time' came up multiple times. Personally I got the impression that the word "cloud" is not helping, once called by it's solution name like online banking, sales management or partner portal the acceptance level rises.

Meet the Boss

Lars Hilse was the *Boss* we were invited to meet. He did a great job answering all sorts of questions and it turned out that he knows a great deal about the subject. Craig Hepburn covered more of this session.

We need more "how"

Speaking with some high profile companies at the event unveiled the need for a shift from "what" to "how". Everybody was willing to do something, most even had an idea where to start but many struggle with the "how", especially the "how to get my management on board". And this brings me back to the beginning … approaching it from a marketing perspective is falling short.

If you're a CEO and want to succeed with social media, you need to believe in it. Signing off the budget is not enough, take some time to really understand it … you'll learn that it has much to offer. And don't let anybody make you believe you're late ... it didn't even really start, yet.

PS: What is with the fish tank? … The hotel had this gorgeous fish tank in the center of the hotel and I couldn't help but to compare it with the state of the industry. We all believe to be so important, being the big fish in the sea … but we have a long way to go. Today social media is nothing more but a preview of what is coming … like the little fish in fish tank makes you dream about the ocean.

Posted via email from my ifridge

Which Came First?

Stefanie Lightman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:10:00 +0000

Like the age old debate of “which came first, the chicken or the egg”, I question a newer but yet similar topic “which comes first, the company name or the URL”. Recently I was having a dialogue with an entrepreneur who is starting his own company. We were exploring company names and my first reaction was to open my laptop and connect to Go Daddy because in my opinion, would you really choose a company name with an unavailable URL?

Today your web site is as important as the reception area when you first enter your building. Why would you put the entrance to your company behind a different name? So with this in mind we started the search for a new company name. It turned out the first name explored was not available and was in fact already in use by another established company. The company was in another state, but still the chances of confusing future clients was there. We started to develop different combinations of the name to find a URL that fit and that’s when it hit me - would you really jeopardize such an important component like the web address just to keep the name you originally liked?

The game has changed for starting a company. Online presence is a priority and building a brand will only be successful if you start with this key initiative in mind.

More ideas on winning at this new game are explored in this presentation from Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company. Your URL is just one of many considerations and opportunities in the digital economy.

Taking the Next Step

View more presentations from ifridge & Company.

Social Media im Unternehmenseinsatz

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Die einen können es nicht mehr hören, und die anderen wollen es nicht wahrhaben: Social Media oder Enterprise 2.0 steht in der Tür ... auch in Deutschland. Was mich in den Dialogen immer wieder überrascht ist wie wenig Bezug bei der Diskussion zum echten Geschäftseinsatz genommen wird. Natürlich sind Begriffe wie Facebook oder YouTube spannender als Mitarbeitermotivation oder Reputationsmanagement. Aber jeder, der mal ein Unternehmen geleitet hat weiß, dass es den leichten Weg nicht gibt.

Der Social Workplace

Ein Thema, das mich bereits seit vielen Jahren fesselt, lässt sich am besten mit dem Begriff Social Workplace beschreiben. Damit gemeint ist die persönliche (daher soziale) Interaktion (Dialog) am Arbeitsplatz, und wie man dieses überaus wichtige Thema in die digitale Welt überführen kann.
Dieser persönliche Dialog bei einem Kaffee im Büro oder die kleinen Kommentare während einer Präsentation auf einer Konferenz sind es, die eine Bindung entstehen lassen. Und genau dieses Netzwerk an Bindungen ist es, auf das wir jeden Tag zurückgreifen, wenn wir etwas bewegen, erledigen oder verstehen wollen.

Man sollte dabei nicht den Fehler machen, das als "Klönen" abzutun. Das gehört auch dazu, aber viele Menschen begegnen sich kaum noch persönlich, sondern sind auf andere Kommunikationswege angewiesen, und genau hier greift das "Social" im "Workplace". Reisen sind teuer, oft unproduktiv und lassen sich nicht so spontan einrichten. Daher muss es unsere Aufgabe sein, diesen Dialog digital abzubilden.

Ansätze für den Unternehmensalltag

Genau hier setzt die Idee des Social Workplace an! Wie schaffen wir Möglichkeiten zum Dialog für die Menschen in unserer Firma, die miteinander reden sollten, sich vielleicht aber gar nicht kennen oder bisher keinen Ansatz gefunden haben, in Kontakt zu treten? Hier hilft ein Grundinstinkt des Menschen : die Neugierde. Menschen möchten gerne wissen, was um sie herum geschieht. Jeder, der länger in einem Unternehmen ist, kennt die verschiedenen inoffiziellen Kommunikationskanäle.

Der Ansatz des Social Workplace schafft ein offenes Umfeld mit direktem Zugang zu allen relevanten Informationen. Aber er geht noch einen Schritt weiter und fördert den Dialog über genau diese Informationen. Wobei wir hier nicht den Fehler machen sollten und Informationen zu eng zu definieren. Auch die Ergebnisse der Betriebssportmannschaften, der Gewinn eines großen Auftrages oder Umbaumassnahmen in der Fertigung sind Informationen, die wichtig sind und über die ohnehin jeder im Unternehmen spricht, nun eben auch digital.

Strategie: Top-Down oder Bottom-Up

Immer wieder stellt man mir die Frage, wie wir damit anfangen sollten. Zentral von Seiten des Management oder aus den Abteilungen von unten nach oben. Die Anwort ist so einfach wie unbefriedigend: es kommt darauf an. Jedes Unternehmen hat seine eigene Kultur, und keine noch so gut durchdachte Idee kann dies ignorieren. Daher ist es so wichtig, dass man sich mit dem Thema strategisch befasst und nicht nur darüber nachdenkt, welche Tools wie Wikis oder Blogs man einsetzen soll.

Hier muss ich allerdings anmerken, dass mein Ansatz davon ausgeht, dass ein Unternehmen es wirklich ernst meint. "Einfach mal ausprobieren" ist zwar ein beliebter Rat unter Social-Media-Gurus, und ich habe das anfangs auch so vertreten, aber wir können ein so grundlegendes Thema nicht dem Zufall überlassen oder gar der IT. Meine Meinung hierzu ist mittlerweile sehr eindeutig: nicht jeder muss das machen, aber wenn, dann richtig. Falls man unsicher ist, sollte man einfach externe Hilfe in Anspruch nehmen.

Von oben, aber nicht von oben herab

Eine Sache liegt mir allerdings noch am Herzen. Dialoge erfordern Vertrauen. Wir kennen es aus dem Alltag, erst wenn man sich etwas vertrauter wird, tauscht man auch mal etwas persönliches aus. Gleiches gilt im Unternehmensalltag, erst wenn man sich sicher ist, dass die Idee, der Kommentar oder das Feedback ernst genommen wird, entsteht eine Kultur des Dialoges. Daher ist es wichtig, dass "die da oben" auch mitmachen.

Genauso wichtig ist es, dass im Dialog zunächst die Hierachien keine Rolle spielen dürfen. Wohl gemerkt im Dialog. Wenn es an die Entscheidungen geht, ist es immer noch unsere Aufgabe als Manager die Entscheidungen zu treffen und dafür auch einzustehen. Auch wenn immer von der Demokratisierung gesprochen wird, einer muss sagen, wo es lang geht. Das werden die Puristen im Social Media nicht gerne hören, aber in der Regel haben die auch noch keine ihrer Empfehlungen im Unternehmensalltag umsetzen müssen. Der große Unterschied für Manager liegt nun darin, zunächst zu moderieren, dann zu entscheiden und auch zu begeistern.

Präsentation: Alltagstauglichen Enterprise 2.0 im Rahmen einer gemeinsamen Veranstaltung mit netmedia und Open Text:

Alltagstaugliches Enterprise 2 0 Public

View more presentations from netmedianer GmbH.

Reisen sind teuer, oft unproduktiv und lassen sich nicht so spontan einrichten. Daher muss es unsere Aufgabe sein, diesen Dialog digital abzubilden. Ansätze für den UnternehmensalltagGenau hier setzt die Idee des Social Workplace an! Wie schaffen wir Möglichkeiten zum Dialog für die Menschen in unserer Firma, die miteinander reden sollten, sich vielleicht aber gar nicht kennen oder bisher keinen Ansatz gefunden haben, in Kontakt zu treten? Hier hilft ein Grundinstinkt des Menschen: die Neugierde. Menschen möchten gerne wissen, was um sie herum geschieht. Jeder, der länger in einem Unternehmen ist, kennt die verschiedenen inoffiziellen Kommunikationskanäle. Der Ansatz des Social Workplace schafft ein offenes Umfeld mit direktem Zugang zu allen relevanten Informationen. Aber er geht noch einen Schritt weiter und fördert den Dialog über genau diese Informationen. Wobei wir hier nicht den Fehler machen sollten und Informationen zu eng zu definieren. Auch die Ergebnisse der Betriebssportmannschaften, der Gewinn eines großen Auftrages oder Umbaumassnahmen in der Fertigung sind Informationen, die wichtig sind und über die ohnehin jeder im Unternehmen spricht, nun eben auch digital.Strategie: Top-Down oder Bottom-UpImmer wieder stellt man mir die Frage, wie wir damit anfangen sollten. Zentral von Seiten des Management oder aus den Abteilungen von unten nach oben. Die Anwort ist so einfach wie unbefriedigend: es kommt darauf an. Jedes Unternehmen hat seine eigene Kultur, und keine noch so gut durchdachte Idee kann dies ignorieren. Daher ist es so wichtig, dass man sich mit dem Thema strategisch befasst und nicht nur darüber nachdenkt, welche Tools wie Wikis oder Blogs man einsetzen soll. Hier muss ich allerdings anmerken, dass mein Ansatz davon ausgeht, dass ein Unternehmen es wirklich ernst meint. "Einfach mal ausprobieren" ist zwar ein beliebter Rat unter Social-Media-Gurus, und ich habe das anfangs auch so vertreten, aber wir können ein so grundlegendes Thema nicht dem Zufall überlassen oder gar der IT. Meine Meinung hierzu ist mittlerweile sehr eindeutig: nicht jeder muss das machen, aber wenn, dann richtig. Falls man unsicher ist, sollte man einfach externe Hilfe in Anspruch nehmen. Von oben, aber nicht von oben herabEine Sache liegt mir allerdings noch am Herzen. Dialoge erfordern Vertrauen. Wir kennen es aus dem Alltag, erst wenn man sich etwas vertrauter wird, tauscht man auch mal etwas persönliches aus. Gleiches gilt im Unternehmensalltag, erst wenn man sich sicher ist, dass die Idee, der Kommentar oder das Feedback ernst genommen wird, entsteht eine Kultur des Dialoges. Daher ist es wichtig, dass "die da oben" auch mitmachen.Genauso wichtig ist es, dass im Dialog zunächst die Hierachien keine Rolle spielen dürfen. Wohl gemerkt im Dialog. Wenn es an die Entscheidungen geht, ist es immer noch unsere Aufgabe als Manager die Entscheidungen zu treffen und dafür auch einzustehen. Auch wenn immer von der Demokratisierung gesprochen wird, einer muss sagen, wo es lang geht. Das werden die Puristen im Social Media nicht gerne hören, aber in der Regel haben die auch noch keine ihrer Empfehlungen im Unternehmensalltag umsetzen müssen. Der große Unterschied für Manager liegt nun darin, zunächst zu moderieren, dann zu entscheiden und auch zu begeistern." class="__wave_paste">

Thank you for visiting…how may I help you?

Stefanie Lightman — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:00:00 +0000

The company reception area is messy and the brochures are from last year. Not acceptable, right? So why do we see so many company’s neglect their Web presence? Today, our prospects, customers, and partners visit our Web site well before they even make it into the front door of our business. This is not unique by industry. Just as it is expected that you have a front reception that is appropriate for visitors, people expect that your Web presence have the same amount of respect for site traffic. So why would you neglect this extremely important first impression?

Now if someone walks into the front reception, wouldn’t you engage with them in a conversation? Ask the reason for their visit; make sure their needs are taken care of? Same again applies to the Web. Site visitors, are visitors, regardless of the medium so why not understand what brought them to your site and more importantly engage them in a conversation that provides them with value for taking the time to visit.

As Executives we are tasked to prioritize how to spend money and focus our resources. When you look at where you are spending your marketing dollars I would ask how much is being spent to move your online presence forward. Think first about the experience you want your customers to have when they visit your offices and remind yourself that today the Web is your main area of reception. So deliver a compelling first impression and engage them in a conversation that will help secure their repeat visits in the future.

More (i)fridges

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:49:00 +0000

Thanks for your encouraging support on the launch of our new website last week. While we're still working on some features, we'd be happy to get your feedback. Let us know what you like, let us know what we should improve or add. We are definitely committed to deliver on the original idea of the ifridge.

In fact parts of the site are already inspired by your feedback. Some days ago we asked our followers on Twitter to provide feedback about the ifridge concept and to submit your favorite (i)fridge picture. The feedback was overwhelming and here is a selection of what you have provided:

ifridge with Character

View more presentations from ifridge & Company.

In addition to those great pictures we received tons of great feedback, comments and retweets. Some got inspired and some others even shared very personal blog posts. We really appreciate all your participation.

Finally let me thank the team of netmedia for their amazing support, strategy and execution in putting www.ifridge.com online. Great to have you on board.

Great People can Change the World

Daniel Kraft — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:03:00 +0000

No worries, I am not going sentimental but when you start a new adventure you need to say something, right? In fact the header might not say anything to you but it means a lot to me.

I recall a conversation I had about two years ago, we were about to launch a new program and I had to internally recruit some people to join me on that. I had nothing to offer, no raise, no promotion, not even a real budget, just my commitment that this is going to be a ride they'll never forget. And believe it or not but we gathered a group of people that truly changed the world - for me.

The project ultimately failed, not because we didn't believe in it but maybe because we didn't fully execute on our beliefs. But I now know for a fact that great people can change the world and the dialogues with our customers proves that every day. Many of the team members at the time embarked to new adventures. One became a CMO and social media guru, another one started his own business and one became co-founder with me at ifridge & Company.

Working with great people on exciting projects is a real privilege and and we therefore made it the core mission of our new adventure at ifridge & Company ... excited to work with people that are ready to execute on their beliefs.

Picture: Cultphotos. Stay tuned for more great pictures.

Let the Journey Begin

Stefanie Lightman — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:43:00 +0000

Today marks the official launch of ifridge & Company. While today may be the “official” day, to me ifridge & Company has been around for quite some time. Our team has worked together for years and share the passion and energy around doing business in this exciting and fast moving digital economy. Now instead of sharing the excitement with one company, we get to explore the “art of the possible” with companies of different sizes, offerings, and differentiation. It seems odd to call this a journey - it’s more of an adventure and one I am thrilled to be embarking on.

For us at ifridge & Company it is all about you taking the next big step. As a global team we draw from an extensive experiences around vision, strategy, and execution in a wide-range of disciplines. We share a passion for a variety of business drivers including strategy, marketing, social media, product management, mergers & acquisitions, and business development. At the end of the day, we are motivated by two things: great people and exciting projects. Supporting you in making strategic decisions through experience and execution is our commitment.

Like most adventures, I am taking a moment to think about what I hope to get out of this experience. A year from now if I look back, what do I hope we’ve accomplished?

First and foremost, share with great organizations their strategic success. Not just participate in the conversation but have a hand in execution - a true member of each team.

Second, embrace the digital economy for all it’s worth. Learn from those that challenge greatness and hopefully share with others some of our great successes.

And last but absolutely not least. Have fun. Work with great people on exciting projects and stay motivated by the energy that surrounds many of your great companies.

So for those that know me and the team at ifridge & Company, I invite you to take this adventure with us. Let’s connect and share ideas, exploring together is really where the fun begins.

Taking the Next Step

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:23:56 +0000

[slideshare id=2925238&doc=takethenextstep-100115121600-phpapp01] With today's maturing digital economy, new opportunities arise every day. While most of us already been shopping online for years, the digital economy has reached a tipping point from a user perspective. Dialogues that used to happen between networks “friends”, now include the discussion about you. You may find this challenging or scary, but we think this new world opens up endless possibilities.

Product Success

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:15:47 +0000

[slideshare id=2925290&doc=productsuccess-1-100115122753-phpapp02] Strong product strategies look at the 4 "P"s - Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. But if it was that easy wouldn't all organizations deliver cutting edge products on time and on budget? Product success can be a challenge but to us that challenge is an opportunity. An opportunity to deliver products to the market that will drive revenues.

New Year’s Resolutions

Stefanie Lightman — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:07:00 +0000

Every New Year, I make my list of resolutions and prepare for the success of the upcoming year. My resolutions tend to be pretty similar to most of you but this year I looked at them in a different light. As I jotted down my commitment to 2010 I began to see a strong synergy between my plans for the upcoming year and the resolutions we should all make to be better marketers.

1. Be More Social
Conversations among our customers and prospect are happening whether we participate or not. At this point I see lots of company doing little bits here and there. Perhaps a corporate blog or Tweeting from time to time but this year being more social is about using social media to achieve your marketing goals. Forrester Research surveyed levels of social participation and produced some interesting results.

Social Technographics Explained

2. Try New Things
Smart marketers recognize that it is much easier today to test new concepts with real time results. Learning about your audience and what they are reacting to within messaging is an obtainable goal. So why not test new ideas and think beyond the traditional tactics we’ve been using over the past years.

3. Eat Healthier
How does this relate to marketing? Probably more of a stretch but I was thinking about how I look to find foods that make me feel good and are best for my health. This year I challenge you to embrace the technology available to ensure marketing success. Leveraging the tools that are available to marketers that produce results.

4. Spend Less
Marketing today can be done more affordably than years past. Be smart about where dollars are invested and find the opportunities that produce ROI. I read an article a while back that helps put this into practice. http://tiny.cc/cbaBw

5. Travel More
Finding new markets is what we marketers can do best. This year travel more will mean taking products to audiences that we haven’t met before. Applying the other resolutions to do this wisely and successfully.

Reaching New Markets

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:45:56 +0000

[slideshare id=2925320&doc=5keystoreachingnewmarkets-100115123350-phpapp01] LIke many organizations, you have the right ingredients to reach new markets but with everything on the priority list, the execution seems to fall short. This should not be discouraging but rather encouraging because it means that there is new business opportunity we just need to execute. Let's discuss the key ingredients to get started on this new endeavor.

Social Media Birthday Statistics

Daniel Kraft — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:07:00 +0000

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes so many expressed yesterday (Central European Time). As you know, that entire social media phenomenon has been my passion for a long time now and it therefore was just time for my very own Social Media Birthday Statistics :-)

The most interesting result is that more than two thirds of the people reached out via some sort of social media platform. For those who participated in the recent Social Media Workshops in Germany and Canada this might be an interesting exercise to see the network effect of your online profile and your networking activities.

Thanks everybody for participating in this real life social media exercise. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time or holiday season!

PS: I am also very proud to present this Social Media Birthday Statistics 100% software free. The blog is based on Blogger, the spreadsheet is based on Google Docs, the graphic is an embedded graph including real-time updates.

Listen, Learn & Execute

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Inspired by the Blog Mother we hosted our first Social Media Workshop. Over some cups of coffee we went on a journey through the universe of LinkedIn, XING, Facebook and Twitter, and all the other little tools to manage your digital identity.

The group consisted of developers and QA engineers, product managers and even a VP. While we all agreed on the need on the need for a digital identity, we discovered some key findings.

Keep it Simple: you might impress your co-workers with your perfect worded online profile and all the fantastic buzz words you copied from your company's marketing message. But keep in mind, that most of the people that read your profile have no clue what eDiscovery in a 2.0 World means.
Build it Early: it is never to early to build your network. Working in a 70 people R&D team but having only 40 "connections" is not a good ratio. Just keep in mind: the others also want to connect.
Be Yourself: Online is not a different planet, it is just a different format. So be yourself: online and offline, paper and digital. The greatest chance to succeed is to be consistent and authentic.

During the discussion we also learned that there are different maturity levels, both for people as well as organizations. While some of us have incorporated the digital world into their life, most of you still try to find your way around. There is nothing to worry about, you're still the majority and there is plenty of opportunity to discover the great opportunities out there. As a little guidance we came up with the following three steps into the digital economy:

Listen: there is no need to say anything if you feel there is nothing to say. Simply keep a finger on the pulse. Listen to what your industry people have to say. Turn on your Twitter search, screen the groups and forums and make sure you know what's going on.
Learn: "Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal" ... look around. Do you like an idea how somebody crafted his/her profile? Let them inspire you, there is nothing wrong in learning from others.
Execute: Make sure you're take this last step! Once you understand how things are working in your community it is time to step up and make yourself visible.

Thanks everybody for your contributing to the lively conversations. Social Media might change it's name again but the concept is here to stay. Make the most of the new opportunities and don't be shy to connect!

Social Media Workshop oder ‘Jobs für Alle’

Daniel Kraft — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:27:00 +0000

Es ist schon eine interessante Situation, dass jeder mit jedem im Social Web (Facebook, LinkedIn, XING) verbunden ist, aber wenn es darum geht das Ganze zu seinen Gunsten zu nutzen sind wir oft recht einfallslos.

Besonders wenn es darum geht einen Job zu finden, seine Chancen auf einen Job zu erhöhen oder unsere Qualifikationen ins rechte Licht zu rücken, können die neuen Ideen sehr hilfreich sein.

Um meinen Anteil zu tragen lade ich Euch zu einem kleinen - kostenfreien - Workshop ein. Ein erster Workshop fand bereits sehr erfolgreich in Toronto statt. Und nun kommen wir nach Deutschland:

Wir treffen uns am kommenden Montag (14. Dez) um 18.00 Uhr im Vapiano in Oldenburg. Freunde des RedDot sind ausdrücklich willkommen aber keine Bedingung! Bitte gebt mir kurzes Feedback per Twitter @danielkraft oder schickt mir eine Nachricht per Facebook, XING oder LinkedIn.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Stefanie Lightman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:52:00 +0000

I can no longer count the number of conversations I’ve had with fellow marketers about Twitter. For those that have embraced it, the benefits are obvious. For those who have not yet entered this world, it seems to be a confusing concept and hard to recognize the true benefits. I must admit, I sit somewhere in the middle. I am completely in favor of Twitter and follow it with fascination as marketing has now become a 140 character opportunity. And hey, with 10million visitors reported in February 2009, can you really afford to ignore it?

Personally, I only Tweet from time to time but as a marketing professional, I see the benefits to be tremendous. To help me realize the true value of Twitter, I needed to break it down to where I would see the biggest return. Think about your organization and what your key marketing objectives are and then align Twitter to help successful reach these goals.

Here are some successful ways companies today are using Twitter.

Building Community - I follow salesforce. They have a strong community of followers and ultimately salesforce can use this community to drive their business forward. With the recent customer event Dreamforce 09, salesforce now has their over 3,000 followers providing feedback and spreading the word about all the great announcement that were made at the event.

Customer Service - Twitter can successfully engage with customers that need help. Zappos has over 1 million followers. As a retailer, customer service is number one. Zappos found Twitter to be a way to connect with customers that live all around the world.

Generating Revenue - I recently attended a session by Dell talking about IdeaStorm and their use of Twitter. They cited a substantial increase in revenue that has come from being active on Twitter. Dell uses Twitter to drive online sales and post promotions. Their Dell outlet has over 1 million followers who are the first to know when new offers are available.

Prospecting - Do you follow topics relevant to your industry? Imagine if you see a post by someone unhappy with their current solution. Respond with a solution that makes more sense. 140 characters can start a sales cycle.

Branding - This is the “soft” approach to Twitter but should not be ignored. Building a brand is hard. In years past it was expensive. Today, you can build a brand by being present. Being part of the social conversation and the followers will come.

Other success stories? I’d love to hear them.

Bloom Democratized

Daniel Kraft — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Not too long ago a small group of people started a project to take the corporate memory social. Among many ideas our goal was to build an environment that allows for the corporate memory, represented by the combined knowledge of the people, to be general available in the organization using approaches we learnt from the social media movement. Some may recall the term Bloom.

Today I was reading an interesting little blog post from one of the thinkers behind the Bloom idea. Cheryl McKinnon, now CMO at Nuxeo just offered a social media 101 workshop to improve the professional online profiles of those that have been hit be the recent restructuring or are simply interested to learn more about their ID in a digital economy.

While this may not make much sense to those that haven't been part of the original dialogues, but I am just fascinated how the spirit of Bloom isn't quitting. It looks that we were right in the first place but our thinking was too narrow. A dream can never fit in a repository.

I'd like to offer my support to what Cheryl has started. Did you believe in our idea, than I believe in you and I'd like to make the investment in your digital future. Would you like to learn about the digital economy, you have a profile to review, a blog to link to, an idea you'd like to talk about? Go visit Cheryl at the event or find my online.

For those that need local support: I am at Vapiano in Oldenburg on Monday Dec 14 from 6-8pm. Just post a comment on this blog or Tweet @DanielKraft so I know what to expect.

Was I Dreaming?

Stefanie Lightman — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:41:00 +0000

This week I attended Dreamforce in San Francisco. A long time Salesforce.com user, this was my first experience at this event and what an experience it was. If you’ve never been to Dreamforce, imagine an event with 20,000 people who all LOVE the same product and meet on fluffy beanbag chairs among the floating clouds to share success stories and brainstorm about how to take their implementation further. So after three days of walking among the clouds, here is my impression:

1. Salesforce is one of the innovators. What they’ve done with their platform and what they announced at the event is truly visionary. Marc Benioff did a great of giving credit to the industry pioneers like Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Eric Schmidt of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, but let’s face it. Salesforce is also a pioneer and this event just solidified that in my mind. I would try to explain the vision Marc presented, but better you see for yourself.

2. They served plenty of Kool-Aid and I drank every drop. As a marketer, you cannot attend Dreamforce and not be impressed with the amazing branding, superior execution, and overall creative enthusiasm behind this event. From the photo booth with SaaSy (the stuffed “no software” character) to the inspirational videos about moving forward in the cloud, I applaud the marketing team at Salesforce for a job well done.

3. Social Success. Watching Salesforce as a company inspires you to bring your company forward in this new social world. Their community is growing by the day. You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and the users are truly shaping the experience. Prior to the event, they ran a contest to submit videos on “Why you should be at Dreamforce”. What I expected to see where a bunch of home video explaining company budget constraints but what I saw were real heartfelt expressions about what Dreamforce and Salesforce means and why attending this event really matters. Here is one of my favorites but I encourage you to check them all out on the YouTube Salesforce Channel.

RedDot is back!

Daniel Kraft — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Not too long ago we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends. While it appeared, at the time, that the RedDot has embarked on his last journey, we might just witnessed once again the wisdom of one of the greatest web visionaries of all times.

Chatter - Social Media for the Enterprise

In his key note address at Dreamforce this week, salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff introduced a new social service for the enterprise: salesforce Chatter. This new service is taking "the magic of facebook and Twitter" to the enterprise and serves as the foundation of the company's latest cloud service: the collaboration cloud.

While many vendors have introduced new social services this comes from a player that has a proven track record in changing an entire industry. salesforce.com is making this new service available to all of their existing customers, which makes the company the largest player in social media for the enterprise.

A Wave in the Clouds

This new service is another signal that the future of enterprise "software" is in the cloud. While many of the traditional vendors try to seed fear by claiming that social services need to be "behind the firewall", salesforce.com proofs them wrong again. More than 60,000 customers trust their most valuable information - customer data - to be stored in the cloud. Why wouldn't we trust this same vendor with our communication ... or chatter?

If you combine this latest development with the direction Google has taken with the introduction of Google Apps, Google Wave and most recently with Google Chrome OS, we might have seen that magic tipping point towards a cloud economy. Name one reason why we still need to buy software?

Inspired by our good old Friend!

You may wonder what all of that has to do with our good old friend RedDot? As mentioned earlier many believed his time was over but it appears that he is the master mind behind all that as his appearance live on stage with salesfoce.com CEO proofs. He has been an inspiration to many of us and might also played a key role in the new direction salesforce.com is taking. In fact many consider him the force behind many other new ideas and ventures. Stay tuned for more.

Can Marketing Start Projects?

Stefanie Lightman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Demand generation for me has always been about driving leads into the sales funnel. And qualified leads are considered the ones that have an immediate project and can turn into revenue in the next 6-12 months. But I often question what truly makes a qualified lead. If the definition of “qualified” is to have budget and project requirements than marketing to really no more than casting a wider net than perhaps sales can do on their own. Now don’t get me wrong, this is an important function of marketing and a key measurement to determine success but I want to explore the idea of marketing not always “catching” the projects but being instrumental in starting the discussion.

Currently I am working with a company that sells business intelligence solutions. Now this space is quite mature and most of the larger organizations already have a solution in place (and have spent a great deal of money already) so do I just focus on the new businesses, those who are ready to purchase a solution or the ones who already know they need an alternative? I do and sales would gladly take those leads all day long but with that usually comes a nice RFP or some sort of competitive shoot out. So we started to discuss, how can marketing not just capture “qualified” leads but start customer projects and thus generate the “qualified” lead from scratch.

Package the pain and provide the band aide
We recently tried a new approach in one of our marketing campaigns. We found a customer who had a pain and used our solution to stop this pain and has recognized results. Now we packaged up that pain and the great success stories and sought out other companies with the same need. In our case, we have a great customer who is a package manufacturer and when we were there on a recent visit, I happened to meet Tara, Tara is the manager of global supplier quality and while she would never be someone who discussed BI solutions, she used the outcome of our solution in her every day job. Tara explained that with our solution she is looking at real time information on supplier quality (a huge pain in her industry) and has already attributed millions of dollars in saving because she is able to be better informed and negotiate better rates with her suppliers.

Now, time to find the rest of the Taras in the world. We focused our latest campaign on supplier quality. Subtle messages around BI but more importantly solutions to pain that Global Suppliers around the world are experiencing. The response was overwhelming and I would say that marketing is starting projects. We are helping business find a unique case for BI and starting the dialogue in an organization that may have thought their current solution was just good enough.

No doubt this approach will take longer, these are not the “hottest” leads in the batch but we are building a brand among a new part of the business that can be influential and guide the discussion starting a new project. Nothing has closed as of yet but I am optimistic. Stay tuned for some results soon.

Surf, Dive or Die … the Wave is coming

Daniel Kraft — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:59:00 +0000

You most likely have been reading about Google Wave already, like Robert Scoble who finds it "Much more mentally challenging" or Louis Gray who provides a good summary what Google Wave is today: "... an opportunity to further eliminate distance ... ". I understand their points but they are too much focused on what Google Wave is today and not what it's going to be.

For me Google Wave is the biggest threat to the ECM space since the introduction of SharePoint. Google already offers a wide range of content and communication related services like Google Docs, GMail, Google Analytics and with Wave now also a collaborative and social (net)working environment. But more important those are real web services ... no software, no investment, no budget. You don't believe me? Imagine this:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. May 19, 2010 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Salesforce.com will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Google.

That puts an interesting perspective on the topic, isn't it? And it underlines my point from last month's conversation about innovation in the WCM space: It's over, isn't it? I actually agree with some of the comments made there (standards, usability, etc) but it is not even close to innovation, especially in light of above's scenario.

In know, Google Wave is far from being ready but so was (is?) SharePoint. Do you recall the introduction of SharePoint? You could find hundreds of comments, blogs and news about how bad it is and still, it is the #1 content infrastructure. Imagine now Google and Salesforce.com presenting a web-leadgeneration-collaboration-social-content-mail-contact-network-service for 1$ per user ... would you still pay 250k for a single system, when you can have it all for 1$ ... ?

The one thing that keeps Google out of the enterprise is trust but if they combine their ability to innovate with Marc Benioff's ability to sell ... you remember what happened to Siebel? As a vendor you have two options: Ride the wave: see what NewsGator is doing with SharePoint or Dive deep like Open Text does with SharePoint and SAP by providing back-office infrastructure to a front-office offering.

So what are you up for: Surfing or diving or ...

PS: Never heard of Google Wave? See this two minute summary:

It’s over, isn’t it?

Daniel Kraft — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:39:00 +0000

Every time a software company gets acquired the relevant community starts spinning. Employees fear for their jobs, customers are concerned about their projects, analysts write another paper and of course the competition has a field day. The recent acquisition of Vignette by Open Text has been no different. Of course Open Text needs to reduce head count since Vignette has been reporting losses since before the term WCM was even invented. Everybody that followed Tom Jenkins and John Shackleton over the years knows that burning cash is not an option. But before you bitch about it: 2.2 billion in market cap suggest they doing something right...

When we talk about the products the situation seems complicated. But unlike many "experts" believe, the actual product is not really the issue. If customers would buy software from a startup with a handful of developers, why would they be concerned if a billion dollar company maintains a handful of those developers to keep the product alive? Do you know of any customer of Gauss or Obtree that was forced to migrate to RedDot? Face it: every player is going to get acquired at some time and keeping a product alive keeps the maintenance revenue consistent.

Don't get me wrong, just maintaining a product is always easier (and cheaper) than to innovate. But we also need to admit that the WCM market hasn’t innovated for a long time. What actually happens is that as the products mature and become more stable they work better within the orchestra of tools we need to run a business. But real innovation is not happening. And just to be perfectly clear, social media doesn't count. The fundamentals have been invented 15 years ago and it doesn't count as innovation just because we call it "social" instead of "collaboration" adding some AJAX and better usability. In the auto industry they call that a facelift. Ask your vendor about the top 3 minds behind their social media product and I am sure you'll find 2 of 3 being a collaboration or communication veteran.

But there is something with this deal, which is different. It's the last big one! Believe it or not, there are no more fighters for the greater good in that market; no more idealists that are on a mission. Over are the days when Vignette and Interwoven outsmarted each other to charge a million $ for a website, over are the days of RedDot kicking both their asses :-) Do you even remember Stellent? What is left is a long list of small or smaller companies. Believe me, many are decent businesses run by good managers but still: it is time to exit my friends.

Vendors have two options. Focus on a niche market and sell later or sell the business now. I am happy to discuss my logic behind that but if you follow me for a moment, that leaves two options for customers - either buy from a big player and get an 80/20 solution or buy from a smaller, more focused player and deal with them being acquired sooner or later. Both options come with pain and your decision depends on how mature you think WCM truly is.

So is it over?

Enterprise 2.0 / Make Love not War

Daniel Kraft — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:23:00 +0000

I enjoyed some great days in Boston this week, visiting the Enterprise 2.0 conference and gaining new perpectives on strategy at MIT Sloan.

At the E2.0 conference it seemed that Social Media has entered the main stream. Big sponsors includes IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Novell, SAP ... so basically the who-is-who of corporate IT. While not much progress has been made on the product front since last year's event I was very pleased to see my friends at Open Text release their Social Media offering. You may recall that this was originally presented as part of the overall Bloom vision.

What I found most interesting about the E2.0 show this year was not what was presented but what was missing: Customer Focus & Strategy. With the economy down and budgets tight, you would have expected everybody to be 100% focussed on the customer, with clear use cases, easy to implement solutions and a solid strategy how to not just implement a piece of software (or to turn on a service) but how to achieve real results. But interestingly the focus was again entirely on products. Sure we need good products but I have to agree with Craig Hepburn from Open Text that we need "more education and understanding".

This brings me to my second stop, which was just across the river in Cambridge. I had two exciting days with Professor Arnoldo Hax from MIT Sloan. In his executive training session "Reinventing Your Business Strategy" he presents a remarkably simple and compelling strategy model (the Delta Model) that puts the customer in the center of the strategy. Instead of fighting your competition (war) you should care about your customer (love).

I wish that concept would also be applied to by all stakeholders in Social Media: focus on the customer, care so much about them, that you even base your strategy on that. I strongly believe that Social Media will have a major (and positiv) impact on the way we do business. The Social Workplace and the Social Marketplace are going to be a reality very soon. But in order to be successful we need put the customers and their needs in the centre of our thinking.

It’s all about people – it’s all about You!

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Everybody can change the Web

This was the RedDot tag line many years before the term Web 2.0 was created. We started in a time when the Web was only for those with technical skills or deep pockets. And now we see a world where the people manage the experience and the best Web initiatives are truly social. You have achieved this!

Time to Bloom

Most recently I have been driving what I believe to be the most strategic initiative an ECM company could consider. I worked with an amazing team and learned a tremendous amount about not only breaking new ground but this fascinating momentum we have in the Social Web. Bloom is a movement I truly believe in, I see the world Blooming – growing in ways I was only dreaming for when I started in the Web space so many years ago. It is up to You now to deliver on that dream.

I believe!

The first day I set foot in this company I knew this was going to be different. The people did not work here, they believed in it. Believed in our product, believed in our mission … and after many successful battles believed in me. I will always remember this trust and believe, as it was the most rewarding experience in my entire professional career. It was You that turned me into a believer.

Thank You

I was privileged to work with some of the greatest people I have ever met. It was a pleasure to work with you every day. It was an honor to fight with you side by side to make this business one of the greatest in the industry. I hope the team continues to prosper and finds the enthusiasm to keep our momentum moving forward but for those that know me I am sure you will also understand why I have to start this next adventure in my career.

I leave those that have been so instrumental in my career the wisdom of Yoda: "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." … and for me, now is the time to DO.

Sicherheit & Social Networking

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Das Fraunhofer Institut - Sichere Informations-Technologie hat sich mit dem Thema "Privatsphärenschutz in Soziale-Netzwerke-Platformen" beschäftigt. Auf 124 Seiten (!) kann man in derStudie alles darüber lesen warum diese Netze nicht immer den optimalen Schutz bieten.

Dabei stellt sich die Frage, ob es eine Privatsphären in Social Networks im klassischen Sinne überhaupt geben kann. Ich bin sich

er kein Vertreter der "alles offen" Philosophie aber wenn ich meine Informationen in ein öffentliches Netz stelle muss ich damit rechnen, dass diese von anderen gefunden, gesehen und verwendet wird. Hier ist allerdings auch zu beachten, dass es verschiedene Level an Sicherheitsbedürfnissen gibt und diesen jeweils Rechnung getragen werden muss.

Auf jeden Fall bietet die Studie einen guten Einblick wie Social Networks funktionieren, wie Daten erhoben und verwendet werden und wer Zugriff auf diese Informationen hat. Gerade wer sich neu mit diesen Themen auseinandersetzt, wird hier viele Informationen finden. Darüber hinaus bietet die Studie eine gute Basis für die interne Überzeugungsarbeit und den Fragen den man sich im Rahmen der Einführung einer Social Networking Infrastruktur stellen

muss.

Auch wird durch die Studie schnell klar, dass öffentliche Social Networks für den Einsatz in Organisationen nur bedingt geeignet sind. Für den "Enterprise" Nutzer finden sich gute Informationen worauf man beim Aufbau von eigenen Social Networks in Organisationen wie Firmen, Vereinen, Parteien, etc. achten sollte. Entgegen den öffentlichen Social Networks sind hier sehr viel komplexere Zusammenhänge zu beachten. Das beginnt bei simplen Zugangsberechtigungen bis hin zu rechtlichen Verpflichtungen aus dem Compliance Bereich, die ich als Organisation zu erfüllen habe.

Siehe auch Pressemeldung meiner Firma zum Thema Sicheres Web 2.0.

Siehe auch Candy & AspirinBlog (Englisch) meinerOpen Text Kollegin Cheryl McKinnon.

Artikel zum Thema:

Deutschland verpasst den Zug bei Social Networking?

Daniel Kraft — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Die Fazit-Unternehmensbefragung besagt, dass 64% der Unternehmen Kooperationen mit anderen Unternehmen, Hochschulen oder Forschungseinrichtungen unterhalten. Insbesondere das Thema Produktentwicklung (80%) spielt hierbei eine besondere Rolle.

Das Spannende ist, dass etwa 2/3 dieser Kooperationen auf Basis regelmäßiger informeller Treffen gepflegt werden. Das bedeutet, die Soziale Interaktion stellt eine bedeutenden Komponente in der Pflege von Kooperationen dar. Mit dem starken Fokus auf Produktentwicklung entsteht ein Bild der kommunikativen, informellen Innovation in Deutschland ...

Das erschreckende an der Studie ist allerdings, dass nur etwa 30% der Unternehmen ein Intranet betreiben (leider sind keine Angaben zu Extranets in der Umfrage enthalten). Des weiteren nutzen nur etwa 9% der Unternehmen Social Networking. Da bereits 70% der Unternehmen einen Webauftritt haben und mehr als 76% der Befragten angeben von den entsprechenden Möglichkeiten des Social Networking zu wissen, stellt sich die Frage was die Firmen zurück hält dies zu verwenden.

Diese Frage wird umso interessante, wenn man eine andere Größe hinzunimmt. Statistiken zu Facebook belegen, dass das Wachstum weiter anhält und mittlerweile die Zahl von 150 Mio. Teilnehmern überschritten wurde. Hierbei besonders spannend ist die Tatsache, dass die Altersgruppe von 35-54 Jahren mit 276% zulegte. Das ist ein weitere Anstieg der Wachstumsrate von zuletzt 172%. Gerade diese Altersgruppe stellt die Leistungsträger in vielen Unternehmen.

Fassen wir zusammen:

Firmen unterhalten Kooperationen, insbesondere in innovativen Bereichen wie der Produktentwicklung und pflegen diese vor allem durch informelle Treffen. Genau diese Firmen nutzen allerdings die neuen Möglichkeiten von informellem Informationsaustausch durch Social Networking kaum, obwohl die Kernaltersgruppe mit grossen Schritten in diese Richtung marschiert. Es bleibt abzuwarten ob dies nur eine Momentaufnahme oder eine besonders konservative Schicht der deutschen Unternehmer darstellt. Es sollte uns in jedem Fall zum Denken und dann auch zum Handeln anregen.

Hinweis: Ergebnisse beziehen sich auf die siebten FAZIT Unternehmensbefragung (Herbst/Winter 2008 von baden-württembergischen Unternehmen, landesweite Ergebnisse können abweichen. Details Verfügbar unter www.fazit-forschung.de.

my ifridge 2009-03-03 22:25:00

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:25:00 +0000

Noch wenige Stunden und es geht los: CeBIT, die größte IT Messe der Welt ...

Das Team hat wieder Großartiges vorbereitet und natürlich kann man sich all die neuen Dinge (und auch eine Vorschau auf das was noch kommen wird) live auf der Messe anschauen. Siehe auch die offizielle PR.

Aber es gibt noch mehr spannendes zu berichten. Wie bereits erwähnt, haben wir unsere eigene 2.0 University eingerichtet. Das Open Text Research Centre of Digital Media unterstreicht unser Commitment zu Web 2.0 oder besser unserer Enterprise 2.0 Strategie besser bekannt unter Bloom.

Dazu passend hat heute Tom Jenkins, Chairman meiner Firma Open Text einen Artikel veröffentlicht, in dem er die Digital Revolution für Kanada fordert. Während der Artikel seine kanadischen Landsleute daran erinnert, dass die Digitale Economy in Kanada evtl. hinter den USA und Europa zurück bleiben könnte, enthält er auch einen für uns alle wichtigen Punkt:

"Today's teenagers – tomorrow's work force – are immersed in the digital world, constantly connected to friends via text messages and social websites. They will lead a cultural shift in the way people collaborate and share knowledge in the workplace, with a premium placed on openness and the free flow of information."

Ich mag besonders: "a premium placed on openness and the free flow of information." Ist das nicht der Kern der ganzen 2.0 Bewegung? Ich bin auf derCeBIT zu erreichen und freue mich auf Feedback zu unseren Ideen der Digitalen Revolution und wie wir das in unseren Alltag einbauen.

Bloom Basics February 2009

View more presentations from Daniel Kraft. (tags: enterprise text)

CeBIT & the Digital Revolution – a great day!

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:39:00 +0000

I have been working all day to prepare for CeBIT the largest global IT show starting tomorrow. We are ready to go and from what I can see it is going to be a great event. Most of what the team what has been working on will be available for you to see live on the floor. For more check-out the official PR.

But that's not all. You may have seen my earlier post about our very own 2.0 University we launched last year. The Open Text Research Centre of Digital Media underlines our commitment to the Enterprise 2.0 movement best know as Bloom.

Today Tom Jenkins, Chairman of my company Open Text has posted an article about the Digital Revolution that is over-due in Canada. While the article reminds the Canadians that the digital economy requires some action to keep pace with the US and Europe, he states something that holds true for all of us:

I especially like: "a premium placed on openness and the free flow of information." Isn't that core of the entire 2.0 wave? Let me know if you'd like to learn more about our ideas on the Digital Revolution and how we can help implement that into our daily work.

The Best Team Ever!

Daniel Kraft — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:58:00 +0000

Many technology companies talk about the concept of “shoemaker’s children”. Well, at Open Text we to often suffer from this challenge. We have great technology (shoes) and provide amazing solutions for our customers but internally we sometimes go without shoes. This week, our team not only cobbled us a great pair of shoes but exemplified what team work and imagination can bring to an organization.

Many of you may find yourself in a similar challenge so I would like to share our success from time to time in an effort to motivate your organization to achieve the same. So as I congratulation our team, you will get to know what drives us, and why we love what we do at Open Text.

Last week we had the opportunity to pitch our latest Web Solutions offering to a group of industry experts. The team has done a wonderful job! The overall goal of the meeting was to show how marketing organizations can use our technology and mature throughout a series of online marketing initiatives.

Everything from creating multi-lingual sites (see Web Solutions for Multisites) to driving engaging social experiences online. I saw true passion come from the team delivering a story for marketing driven initiatives that included:

Personalization managed directly by the marketing team - even I could do it - incl. preview for different personas and times: you can go forward in time and see how it will look in the future, e.g. when you kick-off a campaign
Fully integrated rich media management to manage all your marketing assets (BTW: we got rated best marketing asset management in the industry)
Facebook integration: have a look at the SwitchedOn Widget
Whole set of web analytics, incl. Google Analytics integration as well as governance & popularity reporting
Campaign management with integration into Salesforce.com

And of course my favorit presentation was a full set of 2.0 capabilities (incl. Blog, Forum, Tagging, Voting, Wiki) and a full featured community solutions (enterprise class scaling and mobility support for iPhone and Blackberry) ... the true reality of our Bloom strategy we launched at Content World. And as you would expect from a leader in compliance we also showed Social Compliance: the amazing combination of Enterprise 2.0 with the Web Compliance Manager

I know this post has some more marketing to it, but our team truly did an amazing job and what I realized was that as with many solutions, the technology works great, but it’s the story that captivates the audience. The energy, the team work and passion about the web is driving our Web Solutions team. Want to learn more, meet us at CeBIT ... I am going to be there and happy to tell you more about us!

Bloom Basics February 2009

View more presentations from Daniel Kraft. (tags: enterprise text)

The end of an era – the start of a journey

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Time to say good bye.

On December 2008 we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends - the RedDot. In an emotional ceremony all of his fellow co-workers gathered together to share great stories and express their respect for one of the greatest web visionaries of all times. When we had to enable everybody to change the web, RedDot was there for us! When 3,000 companies knocked on our doors to help them with their web solutions, RedDot was there for us! When two Canadian software companies looked for a great acquisitions in WCM, RedDot was there for us. He was always there for us, our great friend, co-worker and admired leader. We have to say good bye now, but we promise that we will keep RedDot in our hearts, we promise to finish what we have started, and we'll make the Web vision a reality while Open Text Blooms."

You may have noticed that we have made some adjustments to the branding of the Web Solutions Group. Entering 2009 we decided to focus on the Open Text brand for all teams within the group, including RedDot. This is the final step of a 2 year project aligning the operation. RedDot as a product and dedication to WCM does not go away, in fact as we have become an integrated ECM offering our strength in Web Solutions will continue to grow. RedDot is now the Open Text Web Solutions Group and Web Solutions is a continued focus for Open Text.

Many customers may ask, what does this mean for me?

Over the last two years we have made excellent progress providing a fully integrated ECM strategy. It turned out that WCM is a strategic component for many of our customers and with a completely integrated approach we allow you to not only to buy a long term path for your organization with Open Text orchestrating strategic success. As a current customer, our dedication continues and our support network is expanding. For new customers, you can turn to Open Text for the WCM expertise we have gathered over the last 14 years with RedDot while joining Open Text in the journey to be Content Experts.

Join me as we say our farewell to RedDot as a brand but hello to Web Solutions a strategic component of Open Text's ECM strategy. Share with us your opinion on this journey so we can ensure that your investments in Open Text continue to drive more ROI in the future.

Dad, it’s social … 99 Friends since Christmas

Daniel Kraft — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:34:00 +0000

If you still believe that social networking is only for the digital natives … fasten your seatbelt: 5 weeks ago I introduced my father to social networking. I somehow forced him into it as I refused to provide any more family pictures by e-mail, instead setting up a group in Facebook. I was hoping to get him to use social networking to stay in contact and keeping him updated on my travels or family activities. I even got him David Weinberger’s book “Everything is Miscellaneous” as a Christmas present so he’d finally understand what my job is.

To give you some background, my dad is a great business man, running his own little business. Starting it from scratch, he’s making a good living based on hard work, a true entrepreneurial spirit and a healthy cautious view of the world. His business has nothing to do with the Internet and he wouldn’t even need a computer other to check his e-mail and to run his 199$ accounting software (I think he is the only German that doesn’t run SAP).

So we leave Christmas and a day later - checking my e-mail - I see an invite to a German Facebook-equivalent from my father. Not really paying attention I accepted and forgot about it. Tonight I checked again and he has 99 friends there. Can you believe this? He adds 2 friends a day … by the end of the year, he’ll have more than 700 friends and given his age advantage (he knows way more people than I do) I might never catch him on that.

What do we learn from that? Never underestimate your parents … if you can do it, they can do it! By the way, he still calls me for updates and asks about the family and you know what ... I am going to call him tomorrow :-)

Autonomy begräbt WCM Markt

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:28:00 +0000

Als Autonomy die Übernahme von Interwoven veröffentlichte entbrannte eine Diskussion darüber was dies für Interwoven bedeutet. Es war wirklich interessant zu sehen wie sich einige WCM Spezialisten darüber freuten, dass der vermeintliche Fokus der kombinierten Einheit weniger auf WCM sein würde. Auf CMS Wire finden sich einige sehe interessant Statements.

Aber wird es zukünftig einen eigenständigen WCM Market geben? Zwei der drei größten WCM Angebote sind mittlerweile Teil von grossen ECM Firmen (Autonomy, Open Text). Ich würde sogar behaupten, dass der größte Marktanteil in WCM mittlerweile bei den grossen ECM Anbietern ist. Wenn dies stimmt, sehen wir vielleicht sogar die lange erwartete Konsolidierung des gesamten Marktes.

So wer kommt als nächstes? Oder besser wer ist der Letzte? Denn, wenn der Markt konsolidiert möchte niemand allein zurück bleiben ...

Autonomy terminates the WCM market

Daniel Kraft — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:50:00 +0000

When Autonomy announced to acquire Interwoven the discussion started about what will be the impact on Interwoven. What was interesting to see is that the pure-play WCM vendors celebrated this as a great opportunity to highlight the lack of focus on web solutions the combined business may or may not have going forward. Look at CMS Wire for some very interesting quotes.

But will there be a stand alone WCM market going forward? Two of the three largest WCM businesses are now part of greater ECM companies (Autonomy, Open Text) . I would even go one step further and claim that majority of the WCM market share is now with larget ECM vendors. If that holds true we might finally see the long expected market consolidate to happen.

So who is next? Well, I would rather ask the question: who is last? If the stand alone market is reaching an end you don't want to be the last one left ...

Web 2.0 tötet das mittlere Management

Daniel Kraft — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:29:00 +0000

Brad Anderson, CEO von Best Buy stellt in diesem Video vor, wie sie mit Web 2.0 echten Mehrwert geschaffen haben und welche Herausforderungen dadurch auf das Management zukommen wird.

Neben einige guten Beispielen trifft er sinngemäß die folgende Aussage:

"Das ist der Tot des mittleren Managements" (Anderson)

Das Management trifft gerne die Entscheidungen und es sieht ganz so aus als würde Web 2.0 dies auf den Kopf stellen. Wenn jeder seine Ideen ausdrücken kann und wenn jeder seine Meinung zu den Ideen anderer ausdrücken kann, wandelt sich die Aufgabe des Managements zum Moderator und Beschützer von Ideen. Die eigene Meinung des Management ist immer weniger relevant und es genügt auch nicht mehr nur "zuständig" zu sein. Management muss einen Mehrwert leisten, nicht nur kurzzeitig um auf einen Posten befördert zu werden, sondern kontinuierlich um eine Führungsposition auch halten zu können.

Das ist kein gänzlich neues Phänomen: In den 90' ging die Finanzbranche durch massive strukturelle Veränderungen, unterstützt durch aufkommenden Technologien. Vieles wurde zentralisiert und eine anonyme Finanzfabrik übernahm viele Entscheidungen. Der traditionelle Bankdirektor in der Filiale wurde bedeutungslos, verlor zunächst seine Privilegien (Golfclub, Tennisclub, Dienstwagen) und später sogar seinen Job. Ähnliches geschah in der Automobil- und Versicherungsbranche mit regionalen Manager.

Im Video kann man dies an einer weitere Idee sehen: Vorhersage durch die Massen (Crowd Forecasting). Best Buy bat ihre Mitarbeiter die täglichen Verkaufszahlen für jeweils einen Monat vorauszusagen. Anderson glaubt, dass der Erfolg dieses Projektes daraus resultiert, dass man damit das intime Wissen der Organization nutzt ohne es durch die Hierarchie zu verwässern. Er glaubt, dass Manager oft zu optimistisch sind und Problem zu lange verbergen bis es zu spät ist diese zu lösen.

Wenn dies ein Trend ist, fragt man sich, warum gerade wieder massiv Arbeitsplätze abgebaut werden aber die Managementschichten unverändert bleiben. Sollten wir in der aktuellen wirtschaftlichen Lage nicht neue Wege gehen? Noch einmal zurück zu dem Banking Beispiel: Die Manager die die Zentralisierung in den 90' durchgeführt haben, sind heute etwa Ende 50 und es wird interessant zu beobachten sein, ob sie aus Vergangenheit gelernt haben oder ob ihnen Web 2.0 eine Lektion erteilen wird.

Web 2.0 is murder on middle management

Daniel Kraft — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy highlights in this video how they gained value with Web 2.0 and how this is challenging the management.

Among great examples he states:

"This is murder on middle management" (Anderson)

Management likes to make the decisions and it looks like Web 2.0 is flipping this around. If everybody can express an idea, and if everybody can express an opinion about an idea, management needs to be the moderator and protector of ideas instead of the owner. It is not enough anymore to be "in charge", managers need to add value and not just once to be promoted but every day to maintain their leadership position.

This is not a new phenomenon: During the 90' the banking industry went through a major structural change, supported by the rise of new technologies . Many decisions got centralized to teams of anonymous people in a banking factory. The traditional "banking director" of the local branch was obsolete. First they lost their privileges (Golf Club, Tennis Club, Company Car) and later even their job. The same happend in other industries like the regional managers in the automotive industry or the insurance sector.

In the video we can see this happening with a concept of crowd forecasting. Best Buy had their employees forecast the sales on a daily basis for a month in advanced. Anderson believes that the reason for being spot on with the results is that they used the insight of the organization without filtering it through the hierarchy. He believes that managers tend to be too optimistic or trying to hide issues too long until it is too late to fix it.

If this holds true, why do we see massive job cuts but very few reductions in management layers? Shouldn't we use the current economic climate to adopt new ways of running a business? Coming back to the banking examples: The middle management had too much too lose to support the change, but at the end lost it anyway. The managers that implemented the centralization and forced that change during the 90' are now in their late 50' and it will be interesting to see if they have learnt their lesson or if Web 2.0 teaching them one.