Strategy

peterme.com: No. Really. It’s not *about* the technology.

Posted on by charlie

Here’s a good conversation thread basically saying Web 2.0 is not about technology, but about attitude. Indeed, for a company like Nokia (where I am still working at), where the industry is still young and in a closed proprietary money-grubbing lock-in-those-customers state, it will be a nifty challenge to take on the open and linked attitude of Web 2.0.

Link: peterme.com: No. Really. It’s not *about* the technology..

APIs facilitate openness, but they’re meaningless if your organization doesn’t have the conceptual underpinnings to take advantage of it.

Sigh. I have so much to say on this topic, but it’s a jumble of notes.

Some day. Some day.

Strategy

Church of the Customer: The science of word of mouth

Posted on by charlie

Some interesting data on word-of-mouth. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m really big on WOM – it’s what I did in the past year.

But, thinking a bit, I am really also advocating companies participating in the conversation of the community they sell to and work with. Might WOM also be extended to include how the company interacts with its customers? Instead of WOM being about (in the end) selling a product, might it not be the way to do all your business?

Link: Church of the Customer: The science of word of mouth.

In our last podcast, we chatted with Dr. Walter Carl, an assistant professor at Northeastern University who is researching organized word-of-mouth programs and whether they alter the medium’s natural ecosystem.

BzzAgent provided Walter with a big chunk o’ data to study and today, the company released some of his findings in a six-page whitepaper. (We’re mirroring the 229kb PDF here.)

Reflections

Workers, Working and Workspaces | Darren Barefoot

Posted on by charlie

Darren uncovers some good comments on where one works that matches perfectly with my philosophy of how and where I work. I, myself, and encountering a dilemma of looking for gigs in California that let me live and work mostly from Massachusetts (or Finland or anywhere). It’s been impossible.

Link: Workers, Working and Workspaces | Darren Barefoot.

it’s more about how to run any kind of successful business and how to keep your staff happy

Tips & Tricks

Joi Ito’s Web: Where am I?

Posted on by charlie

Ahh, if I could do something similar with those ‘Where am I?’ photos I always do. Click a picture, post it with the coordinates. I bet Chris can rig something up.

Link: Joi Ito’s Web: Where am I?.

Plazes has a cool new feature called "Where is". So you can see "Where is Joi Ito?". It relies on Google maps which is a bit sketchy with addresses for Japan, but otherwise it seems to work quite well. On the other hand, it doesn’t show the routing as well as the old map using IndyJunior.

Hmm, also realized I haven’t been anywhere lately.

Sigh.

Reflections

Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz: Steve Jobs’ heritage

Posted on by charlie

As I cogitate on my future, weighing options and paths, Rodrigo posts some of his insights.

Very good.

Link: Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz: Steve Jobs’ heritage.

In the past weeks and months, I have met a number of entrepreneurs, and have had a number of very long discussions with them. Those of you who have been talking to me will recognize themselves.

I wanted to share a bit of those discussions with you

Strategy

Overserving the user!!

Posted on by charlie

I have noticed recently that I have become more rabid that we are overserving the mobile user.

Link: MobHappy: Wow, Somebody Might Be Listening.

Their argument is clear, concise and cohesive: the business is still too focused on technology, and this gets in the way of serving users. People are presented with too many features on their devices, none of which are especially good nor easy to use. When it comes to services, setup and provisioning is currently horrible, and the services themselves aren’t presented in a helpful manner.

The best test is to give an advanced smartphone to someone outside the
industry (as I do regularly) and come back later to interview them on
what they use on the phone.

My findings are pretty consitent, regardless of phone. People mostly use (usually in this order):
– Voice calling – might seem stupid to highlight that here, but it’s essential to understanding where the money is
– SMS – not MMS, not email
– Alarm clock
– Contacts
– Camera
– Maybe, calendar

And that’s it.

Heck, I’m a power user and there is a boat-load of krap that I never touch. Can’t the manufacturer let me get rid of those apps to free up space in my menu? Also, phones nowadays seem to have so much krap that is put in simply to tick off a feature list for an operator! Argh, it’s so annoying.

Innovation

ideo.com :: Careers :: Boston

Posted on by charlie

And there you go – here’s a top-notch innovation consultancy looking for biz dev folks. If you don’t know IDEO, then go read about them. A heck of a company. They have been helping companies innovate for so long, it’s hard not to bump into something nifty they had a hand in creating.

Link: ideo.com :: Careers :: Boston.

IDEO’s Boston office is seeking a mid-level business development professional to share in all aspects of business development efforts across all IDEO practice areas. The emphasis will be on bringing in new business for practices currently represented in the Boston office including the “Consumer Experience Design,” “Health,” and “Emerging Enterprises” practices.

Hmmm. Boston. Innovation. Health. Sounds interesting. 😉

Innovation

Business Week’s new Innovation sub-site

Posted on by charlie

There was a great Business Week article recently on Innovation. It came just at the right time for me: I have been thinking about and discussing various aspects of innovation these past few weeks, trying to craft a personal view of innovation and how I could lead the creation of mobile lifestyle products and services.

As you might know, when the Nokia Lifeblog team moved on to bigger and better things, I stayed on at Nokia Ventures Organization (NVO) to look for my next gig. I have been venturing in one form or another for many, many years and now see that I am a junkie for early-stage stuff and creating nifty products. And, after spending my summer holiday thinking of what to do next, I am sure I want to do continue doing something creative, innovative, and disruptive (that’s why I’ve changed my tagline, above, to better reflect where I’m heading).

As I said I’ve been reading and thinking a lot lately, mostly about networked innovation, strategic business development, community involvement, risk taking, and the creative economy (the one that comes after the knowledge economy). And, just like last summer, when Business Week came out with an article to support my crazy anti-mass-marketing ideas, this summer Business Week gives me something, once more, (a whole site!) to support my crazy collaborative innovation ideas.

In the past year or so, I tried some things that were slightly out of my scope as a marketing and sales dude, things that were more biz dev and partner collaboration. Partly because these activities were out of my scope, I wasn’t able to give them the attention or structure I wanted. But, now that I am free of my marketing and sales duties, I think it’s time to delve deeper into collaborative business development.

I have also realized that what I saw as simply ‘collaborating to create cool stuff’ was actually my way of playing to discover and tease out innovative products and services using a network of companies and people. Furthermore, what to me was just a way of creating something, is really my personal design strategy of what makes a cool product.

So, in the end, I have a better idea of what I did, what I thought was a type of collaborative business development, and that where I am heading is related to networked innovation, design strategies, and the future of the mobile lifestyle.

Now to write all this down in full and find someone to support me. 😉

Uncategorized

Brew pubs in Helsinki

Posted on by charlie


I read in the Finnair magazine, Blue Wings, about some brew pubs in town.
– Suomenlinnan Panimo; Rantakasarmi – I’ve been to this one. It’s right by the main dock on Suomenlinna Island. Good stuff.
– Restaurant Perho; Mechelinkatu 7 – Haven’t been, yet. But I read that this is a teaching restaurant. Gotta check it out one day.
– Teerenpeli Brew Pub; Vuorikatu 16 – Just had the dark lager, yum. Well located, too. Pretty much downtown, at Kaisaniemi – and near a bunch of other famous bars.