I just read a really interesting article from McKinsey on the disconnect between the factors that B2B suppliers emphasise in their branding and what their customers care about.. so much for customer-centricity reaching the B2B space..
Checking it out here.
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Thursday, 24 October 2013
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Business survivors - BBC podcast
It has been a while since I posted; let us put it down to a summer break ;-).
Just a quick one this morning. Sitting on a bus in a traffic jam listening to Business survivors (link here), a thoroughly enjoyable summary of 25 years of Peter Day's "In Business" radio show.
I have listened to the In Business podcast for many years and almost always find it interesting - rather than taking a specialist view on a topic, he has a real skill at addressing even the most "innovative" topics from a layman'a point of view. In doing so he cuts through a lot of the crap by focusing on a basic premise; people serving people the best way possible to make money.
You can find the archive of
In Business with Peter Day here.
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Just a quick one this morning. Sitting on a bus in a traffic jam listening to Business survivors (link here), a thoroughly enjoyable summary of 25 years of Peter Day's "In Business" radio show.
I have listened to the In Business podcast for many years and almost always find it interesting - rather than taking a specialist view on a topic, he has a real skill at addressing even the most "innovative" topics from a layman'a point of view. In doing so he cuts through a lot of the crap by focusing on a basic premise; people serving people the best way possible to make money.
You can find the archive of
In Business with Peter Day here.
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Friday, 4 October 2013
Great map of most popular sites across globe
Great map of the most popular internet sites across the globe: here is the link
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
McKinsey & use case points ;-)
It is a sad day when McKinsey delivers an article on transformation in application development effectiveness that has nothing to say beyond "use use cases and then estimate use case points as an output oriented measure / KPI."
I found nothing new in the article that reads like the standard fare from the late Nineties/early Naughties on this topic (and probably before to be honest) ...still, if nothing else, it is a sign of the maturity of a process in IT when it pops up on McKinsey's radar.
The full article is here.
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I found nothing new in the article that reads like the standard fare from the late Nineties/early Naughties on this topic (and probably before to be honest) ...still, if nothing else, it is a sign of the maturity of a process in IT when it pops up on McKinsey's radar.
The full article is here.
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Tuesday, 30 July 2013
eCommerce statistics and outlook
That the UK is the most developed online market in some ways will surprise nobody, but this report nevertheless has lots of interesting statistics comparing countries. Here is the full report.
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
"Infobesity" and decision making
A recent article by Bain caught my attention.
Admittedly, this was initially because of the dreadful term "Infobesity" (information overload), but the article makes a succinct case that in the age of big data most companies are missing the point and losing themselves in their data.
I think this is true to a point; though "big data" certainly holds much promise, it also has the potential to waste even more time of more and more people if not managed well.
This is especially true in the context of decision-making. More data can mean better decisions, but as often as not it just means more circles. To my mind, being clear about the decision process, being aware of the soundness of the underlying data and then making the decision and moving on is almost always better than analysis paralysis.
Good quality data, rather than massive volumes of data seems preferable to me ;-).
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Admittedly, this was initially because of the dreadful term "Infobesity" (information overload), but the article makes a succinct case that in the age of big data most companies are missing the point and losing themselves in their data.
I think this is true to a point; though "big data" certainly holds much promise, it also has the potential to waste even more time of more and more people if not managed well.
This is especially true in the context of decision-making. More data can mean better decisions, but as often as not it just means more circles. To my mind, being clear about the decision process, being aware of the soundness of the underlying data and then making the decision and moving on is almost always better than analysis paralysis.
Good quality data, rather than massive volumes of data seems preferable to me ;-).
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Book review: Strategy maps (Kaplan & Norton)
Always on the look out for good ideas on structured strategy development, I have just finished "Strategy Maps" by Kaplan & Norton.
It is OK.
It is not great.
Although the book is full of examples and case-studies that feel genuine and are certainly informative, ultimately the core of the book seemed like a rehashing of well-known ground around the balanced scorecard:
Use the four facets of the balanced scorecard to build up an understanding of what is required from an organisation to deliver a strategy.
As far as it goes this is fine and certainly a useful tool. The book contains dozens of specific examples of one page strategy maps that do describe the complex interaction of the four facets and how the organisation should be measured to develop the capabilities required of a strategy. But in the end, they remained descriptive.
Do not get me wrong - I am a big fan of the balanced scorecard, but I was hoping that the book might do more to guide through the different flavours of strategies available and how to understand and evaluate the tradeoffs implicit to them (to ensure the balance in the card, so to speak).
I recommend the book if you are not already familiar with the balanced scorecard. Otherwise just google the summary!
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It is OK.
It is not great.
Although the book is full of examples and case-studies that feel genuine and are certainly informative, ultimately the core of the book seemed like a rehashing of well-known ground around the balanced scorecard:
Use the four facets of the balanced scorecard to build up an understanding of what is required from an organisation to deliver a strategy.
As far as it goes this is fine and certainly a useful tool. The book contains dozens of specific examples of one page strategy maps that do describe the complex interaction of the four facets and how the organisation should be measured to develop the capabilities required of a strategy. But in the end, they remained descriptive.
Do not get me wrong - I am a big fan of the balanced scorecard, but I was hoping that the book might do more to guide through the different flavours of strategies available and how to understand and evaluate the tradeoffs implicit to them (to ensure the balance in the card, so to speak).
I recommend the book if you are not already familiar with the balanced scorecard. Otherwise just google the summary!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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