Intelligent Consumers
Consumers are intelligent.
It is my belief that in order to gain wholesome consumers, a company must get into the hearts and minds of its client base. Creating a positive emotional connection with the consumer is a key first step. Getting to know them is the second. Providing cut dry value is the next.
Telecom deregulation – what are the implications to ‘Urban Canadians’?
Espace Bell – The Final Frontier
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations — to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Espace Bell…what a journey it has been.
In the early days, Bell Distribution was where it was at. Limitless possibilities, highly motivated individuals who worked as a truly unified team to revolutionize the way Bell Canada and Bell Mobility did business. Looking back over the seven years, my company (and I will always consider BDI to be my company even though I am no longer employed by BDI directly) has evolved in ways its initial founders could never have imagined.
In its simplest form, BDI was created to merge the operations of PhoneCentre/TeleBoutique (Traditional Bell Canada Wireline Retail locations) and the independently owned/controlled Bell Mobility retail locations in order to create synergies, operating efficiencies, scalability, economies of scale, and provide a new growth engine for the enterprise.
BDI’s founding members had all the drive, excitement, passion, and economic resources to truly invigorate the way Bell Canada did business. A clear, well thought out mission and vision was key to BDI’s runaway success. BDI was a combination of both old and new; Partnering and Co-Operating were the new defacto standard. As an employee of BDI you fully understood your role; everyone at BDI was responsible for truly managing some facet of the organization. Bottom up management was deemed as the only productive and value creating way. Virtual teams, cross functional teams, and true customer focus. It was about the relentless pursuit of charting uncharted territories. True responsibilities, accountabilities, and rewards were the norm.
Age, Politics, Gender, Race, and Socio-Economic status were irrelevant. It was about who could do the best job; Every single employee truly brought value to the organization. Why do I say this? Because a great deal of effort went into planning the organizational structure and employee hierarchy within BDI. Even BDI’s flagship head office was developed and designed in a way that promoted barrier free, open thinking. An employee’s dream work oasis (at least it was for me).
So what’s my point? I’m hoping with the right people engaged we can reclaim this culture. Re-invigorate. Plan a new future together and boldly go where others dare not. Selfless motivation and the relentless pursuit of excellence is what I believe to be the key to reinvigorating our workforce. Each and every one of us is responsible for instilling motivation and work-life balance so that people can breathe, have fun, and be extremely productive stakeholders.
Medium Sized Corporations
Medium sized corporations – how do they fit in today’s global economy? Is larger better?
At what point due inefficiencies begin to make their way into growing companies? Growth creates pressure points on a companies ability to operate at the most efficient level. There needs to be a balanced approach to growth. Grow your company too slowly and you’ll get gobbled up by the big guys; grow it too quickly and you’ll get gobbled up by yourself.
Relatively new medium sized corporations are distinct legal entities, with the same entitlements as you or I formed by people who had the drive, and leadership to travel along uncharted territory. Growing corporations have the power to be as sucessful as the next. A brand can only be as powerful as the people who grow it. Officers sometimes fail to take a stand back and evaluate.
How can this be accomplished? – Evaluate using the question , Why?
To really evaluate analysis must go deep, getting at the very core of the corporations existence. Analysis need not take a lot of time, just a great deal of effort. One need only analyze the answers to the following questions in order to do an evaluation:
1. How is the corporation surviving
2. How is it thriving
3. How is it diving
Some of my best friends are Who, What, Where, When, and Why. Bureaucracy is inevitable – its something that will always exist in large corporations. It’s how large corporations survive. An enterprising organization takes a balanced approach to figuring itself out.
A corporation needs a self identity regardless of how big or small – and it is usually when a corporation whose performance has been lack lustre in the past few year which eventually precipitates a loss of self identity. A loss of corporate self identity can also lead to lack lustre financial performance. It is my understanding that small to medium sized corporations have the best understanding of their companies self identity, its strategic thrust, its reason for existence. In medium sized corporations fewer people have the ability to instill greater change (when compared to larger organizations with greater amounts of people). This is not to say that these larger organizations should respond by divesting themselves of their employees and associated intellectual capital, but rather create new enterprises where these people will have a greater opportunity to succeed, thrive, grow revenues and profits.
Balance. Innovate. Take risks which require little mitigation, yet reap in-proportionately large rewards. Do the hard things.
Simplicity in the ICT industry
Simple means different things to different people. I personally, think that computers and information communication technology (ICT) are the driving forces for bringing simplicity to our lives. However, rapid change advances in these sectors also represent a massive paradigm shift in the way that our world acts and interacts.
Right now I am typing this entry while driving through Upper New York State. If you could have explained 20 years ago what our world would look like they would have thought you were crazy. The Internet as we know it (was not available to the public) didn’t exist. You couldn’t be typing into a ‘laptop’ computer.
I use and see my computer as a tool to broaden myself, allow me to learn, allow me to talk to people I would never have had the opportunity to have talked to twenty years ago.
Computers and ICT
-Computer analogy
-EVDO Capable Network
-Sympatico Unplugged
Characteristics of Belonging to an Open Organization
Your work day resides within a welcoming, open environment
You believe in the power of new ideas
Where one of your policies is “Honesty is the best Policy”
You have an “I can do it, and will” attitude
You know the power of “Execution, Execution, Execution, and more Execution”
Everytime a roadblock appears, you speed right through it
You understand the matchstick analogy
Strategic Initiatives
Strategic Initiatives – What are they?
Strategic initiatives are projects which add value to an enterprise through the use of information technology. In order to achieve success, the project team must ensure that the project will create a significant return on investment for the organization’s stakeholders.
How the project should be evaluated:
The acceptable Return on Investment amount (dollar or percentage) should be agreed upon prior to the analysis work being initiated.
Substantial research should be undertaken to determine the specific reaons for the project’s creation. This research should include productive discussions with the project sponsor. The information collected should act as a base from which the project’s scope can be created. Based on the project’s scope, one can then estimate the approximate cost associated with the project’s implementation. The next step includes analyzing the potential value the project will create. The expected benefits associated with the strategic initiative must then be analyzed against the expected or estimated cost. A dollar value must be associated with the tangible and intangible benefits. The dollar value associated with the strategic initiatives intangible benefits should be validated with Subject Matter Experts.
Once the project costs and benefits have been analyzed, the project team along with the Project Sponsor will determine whether the project creates enough stakeholder value to warrant the strategic initiative.
Trust, Respect and Ethics
Higher purpose in the workplace means creating an environment of trust, respect, and ethics where each individual can do his or her best work.
Employees are seeking a workplace based on trust and on the respect and responsibility that grows from trust. This type of workplace is made up of informed employees and emphasizes constant, open communication. It encourages the highest and best in each individual employee. Most importantly, the enlightened company lives these values and ethics every day-day in and day out.
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Work priorities are CHANGING:
The top three priorities now speak clearly of a shift toward fulfillment, which links to spirituality. The employee priorities for work are, in order:
1. The ability to realize my full potential
2. Working for a good and ethical organization
3. Performing interesting work
4. Making money
Critical to the success of an enlightened workplace are leaders who make upholding these values a priority. These leaders must champion trust, respect and ethics throughout all levels of the organization.
Here’s to being the better person! By the way…I am for hire.