Biznology

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Those who had the opportunity to attend the 2013 IDC Directions conference saw  IDC Senior Vice President & Chief Analyst, Frank Gens, talk about how business technology is migrating to the 3^rd Platform.  He defined this 3^rd platform as the intersection of mobile, social, big data and cloud.   He predicted that these technologies will change how business gets done and enable the customization of intelligent industry solutions.  It was clear from his talk that the changes that will be brought about by these technologies may exceed those ushered in by the 2^nd Platform of client servers/PCs or the 1st Platform of mainframes/terminals. Read the remainder of this entry »

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We live in a business environment characterized by network driven ecosystems, 24/7 access to global communications and the ability to access and analyze vast amounts of information.  We carry more computer power on our smart phones than the early IBM mainframe computers.  Yet, how much has the Internet, mobile devices, and social networks impacted how today’s business organizations are structured or how work gets done?  For many organizations, culture and business processes are still rooted in the “Mad Men” era.  While it is no longer a man’s only world and business causal has replaced suits, many organizations have not quite evolved. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Christopher S. Penn

In a recent blog, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, talked about the differences between professional allies and acquaintances. One of his more intriguing points was that while strong alliances are greatly valued, in many cases it is our acquaintances that help up more from a business perspective. As he stated, “Weak ties can uniquely serve as bridges to other worlds and thus can pass on information or opportunities you have not heard about” Read the remainder of this entry »

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When the Web was first available as a business tool, there were many debates about its value.  Populated by pornography, bulletin boards, and chat rooms, there was little to recommend it the business community.  And, yet, there were visionary leaders who saw behind the naked Barbies and recognized the potential that lay there. The initial wave of entrepreneurs experimented with this new medium and came up with interesting ideas with limited monetization.  Not surprisingly, most failed.  Those who did succeed, such as Amazon.com, made it very big and fundamentally shifted the world of commerce. Read the remainder of this entry »

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We all hear success stories about organizations that have developed social media marketing strategies, deployed social media tactics and reinvigorated brands and client relationships.  We applaud these efforts, cite them as case studies and continue to preach the gospel of social media.  But, what are the consequences of these changes and what comes next?  Having unleashed empowerment, transparency, collaboration and anytime anywhere access, do we honestly expect other aspects of organizations to stay unchanged?  What about organizational culture, leadership competencies, selection and reward systems?  Is there anything that will be left unaffected as the technologies we create and the social media programs we implement help transform organizations to social businesses? Read the remainder of this entry »