Cultural Sustainability
Since Davos, I've been thinking about cultural sustainability. This isn't a term that I heard there, but one that I wish that I had.
|
FUTURELAB |
Home - Services - About us - Team - Business and Games Blog - Publications |
To find out more about Futurelab: Click here
For our other blog on Business and Games, Click here
In one of the more unusual appearances that I've been a part of, here is a "fireside chat"
with Steve Ballmer at Mix 2008. (He sidestepped by question about Vista
twice, so if you want the latest news about Windows, you'll have to go here.)"Often times our first interaction with a brand is through a digital touch point like a site. Maybe we heard about it from a friend or somewhere else. We interact with it--we give it a try. If we like it--that leads to deeper levels of engagement. Maybe this repeats itself adding more "cycles" to the spiral. We continue to engage. Some of us even begin to participate. We transition from downloading to uploading our media. We talk about how great the experience is. To our peers, to each other. We become evangelists--the spiral actually expands as we engage with multiple touchpoints--not only the digital ones."
by: Jon Miller
The relationship between Sales and Marketing at B2B companies is too often precarious and subject to change day by day.
Continue reading "Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus - Podcast" »
Continue reading "Developing an Effective Channel Strategy in the World of Channel Proliferations" »
by: Yann Gourvennec
At Cisco France's request I wrote this brief article (see per below) on the role that innovation can play in customer relationships. This article will be published shortly in the client publication, which is entitled Ciscomag. In order to write this article, I used the material developed for a previous interview carried out in September 2007 for NextTimes, which is the Orange equivalent of Ciscomag for Orange Business Services (click here to read the September issue of NextTimes, the article being on page 2).
Continue reading "Innovation in Outsourcing: Definitely Not a Pipe-dream" »
by: John Caddell
The Stall Points Initiative is an effort by the Corporate Executive Board, a business research group, to pinpoint why companies suddenly stop growing, then stagnate or decline for years thereafter.
Continue reading "Companies Stall Because They Don't Listen to Customers" »
by: Roger Dooley
by: Christian Smagg
There are risks associated with adopting any new technology, and Enterprise 2.0 is no different. Enterprise 2.0 holds the promise of dramatically increasing business productivity, stimulating greater innovation, and creating tighter connections between employees, as well as with partners, suppliers and customers.
Continue reading "Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts" »
by: John Caddell
Every CEO these days wants to reinvent her business. One problem is thinking big enough. Being part of an industry, a market, a sector tends to limit a company's peripheral vision. How do companies break out of their comfort zone and find strategies that take advantage of their unique strengths while opening up new markets?
Continue reading ""Big Think Strategy" Is a Fun, Inspiring Read on Reinventing Business" »

Continue reading "The Communist Manifesto of Chris Anderson" »
by: Christian Smagg
There are risks associated with adopting any new technology, and Enterprise 2.0 is no different. Enterprise 2.0 holds the promise of dramatically increasing business productivity, stimulating greater innovation, and creating tighter connections between employees, as well as with partners, suppliers and customers.
Continue reading "Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts" »
Continue reading "Building an Innovative Culture - What Does It Mean?" »
Continue reading "Does Your Business Strategy Have a Purpose?" »
by: danah boydLots of folks are unaware that multiple brands are owned by the same company (e.g., the same company owns Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy). Consumer activists often complain that this practice is deceptive because it tricks consumers into believing that there are big distinctions between brands when, often, the differences are minimal. Personally, while I'd love to see more consumer brand awareness, but I think that brand distinctions play an important role. I just wish that the tech industry would figure this out.
Continue reading "one company, ten brands: lessons from retail for tech companies" »
by: Idris Mootee
I was often asked the question of what "design thinking" has to do with business strategy. When talked about "design thinking" people refer to aesthetics (mainly high stlye design or usability) and generally they cannot relate to strategy (strategy means spreadsheet).
Continue reading "10 Design Thinking Principles for Strategic Business Innovation" »
by: Guy Kawasaki
Continue reading "Marc Laperrouza on Mobile Telephony in China (LIFT'08)" »
by: David Wigder
This past week, the Industry Standard (IS), an icon of the late nineties Internet boom, relaunched its online property. It did so, however, not as a publisher of industry content but rather as a consumer-driven platform to predict the future.
by: John Caddell
The new book "Executing Your Strategy: How To Break It Down And Get It Done," by Mark Morgan, William Malek and Raymond Levitt, is an invaluable resource for leaders seeking to plot a course for the future.
by: Idris Mootee
We're playing with the new MacBook Air in the office today and we all appreciate what Apple put into this machine. Apple is no question a company that focuses not on its product, but on innovation.
Continue reading "Productivity and the Design + Usability Culture" »
by: David Armano
While I still have great appreciation and admiration for the field of graphic design--the simple fact is that I have a tough time relating to many aspects of it. I haven't looked at an an issue of Communication Arts in years and AIGA becomes less relevant to me as digital media continues to evolve.
Continue reading "Subject to Change: Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World" »
by: Idris Mootee
The most amazing thing with strategic experience innovation is that it takes one kind of company and leadership to create the idea and another kind of company to scale it up and drive industry transformation and we see it in markets after market.
Continue reading "Strategy and Innovation: from Clausewitz to Lao Tzu" »
by: Joel Makower
My colleagues and I at GreenBiz.com have just published State of Green Business 2008, an accounting for how, and how much, the greening of business is moving the needle on environmental issues.
The simple answer: not much -- and certainly not enough.
by: John Caddell
In which we select the best of the annual Harvard Business Review list of twenty breakthrough ideas (free link) for the benefit of time-constrained executives everywhere. This service is provided at no extra charge.
Continue reading "Top 5 Harvard Business Review Breakthrough Ideas" »
by: Ilya Vedrashko

Ross Dawson: "While last year's map was based on the London tube map, the 2008 map is derived from Shanghai's underground routes. Limited to just five lines, the map uncovers key trends across Society, Politics, Demographics, Economy, and Technology."
Original Post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/01/world-trend-map-2008.html
by: David Wigder
One of the most effective ways to syndicate content is to activate power users on sites such as Digg. Quite simply, “Diggers” uncover and bookmark interesting content – news articles, images and videos – for others to view.
Continue reading "Green Content Syndication: Part II - Top Environmental Diggers" »
by: John Caddell
Collaboration is in. The WSJ Business Insight article "Leading From Below" states, "at most companies, senior managers are increasingly hamstrung by the demand from investors and analysts for immediate results"--requiring middle managers to provide leadership at the company level. Other scholars say dissent in the workplace is to be encouraged. The democratic organization is gaining traction.
Continue reading "Collaboration or Individual Leadership? Which Is It?" »
by: Yann Gourvennec
Good morning, we are on Monday, the twenty first of January zero two thousand and eight. No this isn’t a typo, but rather a sign that we are taking into account the fact that humanity still has a few millenniums to go through. Well… hopefully!
Continue reading "Long Now Foundation: Slower Pace, Better Future ... Well Maybe" »
by: Christian Smagg
While every day seems to bring a whole bunch of predictions and thoughts for this new year (and the decade to come!), I have selected this excellent article from The McKinsey Quarterly entitled "Eight business technology trends to watch". In a Nutshell, this article provides an extremely interesting overview of emerging technology-enabled trends that will shape businesses and the economy in coming years.
Continue reading "Predictions for 2008 ... Eight business technology trends to watch" »
Dave Snowden, whose posts are always interesting and instructive, says this in a post today:
What I am finding is that the more accurately you can describe the situation, the less you need formal intervention methods. For example if I can show a statistically valid trend, supported by narrative then most people in leadership or management positions can work out what they need to do.
Continue reading "Complex business problems need diagnosis, not packaged solutions" »
![]()
A broker friend of mine sent me this Merrill Lynch report, "Top Internet Themes for 1H'08", by Justin Post. The report contains useful information if you're in online businesses. It discusses these six themes/events:
Continue reading "Merrill Lynch 2008 Internet Trends Report" »

Continue reading "B-Week Innovation Predictions 2008 - Some Thoughts" »
Over the past few years, one of the most interesting innovations in the
airline industry has been the growth & expansion of the "business
class only" travel segment for service between international cities
such as New York and London. Companies like Eos, SilverJet and MAXJet
were early pioneers and deserve enormous kudos for their courage and
tenacity for taking on the airline majors in a brazen attempt to siphon
away the industry's most profitable customers.Continue reading "The company that went bankrupt on Christmas Eve" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Following my prior post Microsoft Shaping The Serious Games Movement Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Market, where I state that "by no means would Microsoft join either a current $ 150 million dollar market or a to-be $ 1 billion market only in 2011" (as projected by a few sources), BusinessWeek has published an article this week where David Boker, senior director of the Business Development Group at Microsoft's Aces Studio, one of Microsoft's game studios where ESP was developed, says Microsoft conservatively estimates this market at $9 billion.
Continue reading "$9 Bi: Microsoft's Conservative Estimate for the Serious Games Market" »