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VIDEO CAN STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS

A major challenge today is that many companies are going into crisis mode. Because air travel and gas costs are high, they’re using video and Web conferencing, as well as the new high-end videoconferencing called telepresence offered by Cisco and HP, to save travel money and meeting costs. However, if their only motivation is to save money on travel, rather than the more important goal of enhancing communication and collaboration throughout the enterprise, then they’re simply creating another fad. Video conferencing has evolved tremendously over the past few years, and companies need to use the technology of today to pave the path to future profits, all of which hinge on relationships.

To add fuel to the fire is the fact that rising gas prices and travel costs are not cyclical this time; they’re permanent. Major social changes are taking place worldwide in such places as China and India, and the increased global energy consumption affects everyone. In other words, fuel costs will fluctuate but will not go back to the low levels we once enjoyed.

Therefore, smart companies are changing how they think about meetings and the new video conferencing technology, and they’re realizing that it offers business something more powerful than they’ve had in the past. These companies are thinking in terms of “visual communications” rather than simply video and Web conferencing.

Visual communications heighten the bond you have with someone when you cannot see them face-to-face. It’s about adding dimension to the communication. There’s a reason why you shake someone’s hand when you meet them: The more senses you involve, the higher the connection. Those companies that can enhance their communication, both internally and externally, are the ones who can cause change faster and stay competitive longer.

Despite the current conditions of gas prices, transportation costs, and airline cuts, the need to meet, share knowledge, and develop relationships will not only continue, it will accelerate. Therefore, successful interactions will depend on your ability to master the concept of visual communications and develop guidelines that leverage both old and new tools to build trusting relationships that foster greater communication, collaboration, and community.

Posted in Cyclical and Permanent Change, Environmental, Future Tech, New Tools, Planning. Tags: Burrus, Collaboration, Communication, Community, Costs, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Relationships, Video, Video Conferencing. No Comments »

7 FAILURES OF BUSINESS GROWTH (PART III)

Over the last two months I have covered five of the seven failures of business growth: #1 Failure to anticipate, #2 Failure to communicate, #3 Failure to collaborate, #4 Failure to innovate, and #5 Failure to pre-solve problems.

In this issue, I’ll share the final two failures of business growth and the strategies needed to grow your business for years to come.

#6 FAILURE TO DE-COMMODITIZE
Any product or service can be de-commoditized. Unfortunately, many companies don’t take the initiative to make their product unique. They come up with something new, and make that their main product. But other people copy the product. Margins get thin. Sales slow down. And they end up competing on price. The key is to take your product and put a service wrapper around it. Here’s an example: In the electricity industry, the utility provider cannot increase prices without permission from ratepayers. To de-commoditize themselves, one electric company created what they called “digital electricity.” They told their customers, “If your company runs a lot of expensive computerized equipment and you don’t want the electricity coming into your office to ever turn off or fluctuate in current or voltage, then you need digital electricity, which will cost more.” Many big companies signed up for the more expensive service, and in the near future, homeowners will have a similar interest because they will have multiple computers streaming audio and video in their home. This electric utility took a product and wrapped a service around it so they could charge more. Look at your product or service and think of ways that you can wrap a service around it to add value. But don’t stop there. Keep adding value to it every year so you never become a commodity again.

#7 FAILURE TO DIFFERENTIATE
Over time, too many companies become just like everyone else. They don’t continue to stand out. Even though they do strategic planning, it’s usually just financial planning in disguise. True strategic planning needs to be more than numbers-based; it needs to focus on how you can differentiate your company and products from your competition instead of being and doing more of the same. So how do you differentiate? Simple…you stop doing all the failures of business growth just discussed. You start anticipating, communicating, collaborating, innovating, pre-solving problems, and de-commoditizing. Realize that you can infinitely differentiate your company if you have the courage to do the things your competition isn’t doing.

BUSINSESS SUCCESS IS ON YOUR HORIZON
A weak economy doesn’t have to limit business growth. When you know the failures to avoid and the strategies to combat them, you’ll be well on your way to creating an organization that continues to grow despite outside conditions. So learn from these failures and rethink the way you do business. It’ll pay off for years to come.

Posted in Anticipating the future, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Solving Problems. Tags: Anticipate, Burrus, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Collaboration, Communication, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Exceed Expectations, Informing, Innovate, Innovation, problem solving, Success. No Comments »

7 FAILURES OF BUSINESS GROWTH (PART II)

Last month I covered two of the seven failures of business growth: #1 Failure to anticipate, and #2 Failure to communicate.

This month I would like to share some additional insights on the failures of business growth. When you know the failures to avoid and the strategies to combat them, you’ll be well on your way to creating an organization that continues to grow despite outside conditions.

#3 FAILURE TO COLLABORATE
The majority of people tend to cooperate, which is very different from collaborating. Even though we often use the word “collaborate,” we’re really just cooperating, which is a lower level function. Cooperating means, “The pie is only so big, and to make sure we both get our fair share, I won’t get in your way if you won’t get in mine. Maybe we’ll even work together…if we have to.” Such an approach produces results but certainly not outstanding results, because it’s based on a scarcity mentality. Collaboration, on the other hand, is based on abundance. It occurs when we put our heads together and ask ourselves, “How can we create a bigger pie for everyone?” That’s the secret to getting competitors to work with you and not against you. Remember that today’s technologies allow us to collaborate in new and amazing ways. Make sure you’re using them properly.

#4 FAILURE TO INNOVATE
When asked what their last big innovation was, most companies have to go back five or ten years to cite something meaningful. Why? Because the majority of companies innovate once, come up with a great product or service, form a company around it, and then they let it ride. They don’t continue to innovate and create new products and services. Instead they spend a great deal of effort asking themselves how they can be more efficient…how they can do more with less…how they can reduce staff and overhead…how they can use technology better. Those are all good questions. However, you also want to ask yourself how you can use technology and your people to create new products and services that will increase the sales of your old products and services. The more time you devote to innovation, the more profitable and efficient you’ll ultimately be.

#5 FAILURE TO PRE-SOLVE PROBLEMS
Some people say that a problem is an opportunity in disguise. Nonsense! A problem is a problem. A problem is only an opportunity before you have it. Realize that most of the problems our customers and our company experience are predictable. In today’s world of rapid change, if you ask customers what they want and then give it to them, you’re missing the real opportunity. Why? Because your competitors are asking the same question, getting the same answer, and providing the same solution. Instead, you need to think a level higher and ask yourself and your customers, “What problems are we about to have?” Then you can develop new solutions based on the answers you receive. At that point, you can base your product development on your customer’s future problems and deliver the product or service right when the problem becomes a reality.

A WEAK ECONOMY DOES NOT HAVE TO LIMIT BUSINESS GROWTH
By implementing the strategies needed to overcome these business failures you can grow your business for years to come. Next month I will share the final two failures to avoid and the strategies to combat them.

Posted in Anticipating the future, Competitive Advantage, New Tools, Planning, Solving Problems. Tags: Anticipate, Burrus, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Collaboration, Communication, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Exceed Expectations, Informing, Innovate, Innovation, problem solving, Success. 1 Comment »

X-BOX For Business & Education (Part I)

The recent launch of the Sony Play Station 3 video game player has generated a lot of buzz due to the fact that it has the computer processing power of a multi-million-dollar supercomputer from six short years ago. However, the X-Box 360 video game player from Microsoft is not only a computing powerhouse, it is far better positioned than the Sony to be used to revolutionize training and education.

How can a kid’s toy revolutionize education and be used by business? Think of it this way. The games our kids (as well as a relatively few adults) are playing take them into a highly immersive, interspatial, 3D world where they often play very intensive and sophisticated strategy games. They learn how a wide variety of tools operate, in many cases weapons, futuristic vehicles, and various machines, and they develop strategies and tactics they can use to win the game. And, they don’t do it alone! You will often find them wearing a head set, collaborating with teammates from all over the world. In addition, they can now use a video conferencing feature to see the people they are collaborating with in real time.

A BACKWARDS TIME MACHINE
After spending hours of concentrated time playing in this advanced 3D learning environment, our kids go to school, stepping into what must seem like a backwards time machine.

In China, India, and other countries with rapidly developing economies, millions of families are migrating from no-tech rural areas to the cities in search of opportunity. When their kids enter the classroom, they feel as if they are stepping into the future, and opportunity. Of the two groups – industrialized nations and developing nations – which group of students is more motivated to learn in school?

AUTOMATE AND HUMANIZE EDUCATION
In 1983, I predicted that shortly after the turn of the century, technology would allow us to automate education and humanize it for the first time in history. I went on to explain in my prediction that automation seems to be the opposite of humanization, but it doesn’t have to be! The key in this case is to automate the parts of education that are not fit for a human to teach.

For example, anyone who has ever tried to teach a kid how to multiply knows that that job isn’t easy for a human. Teaching a kid what an adverb is can give you a twitch in your face. Teaching basic subjects like these would have been much more efficient, and effective, if the student would have used an interactive electronic game that was self-diagnostic, fun and competitive. They would learn how to multiply and all about adverbs, and the teacher would then have been freed to teach the higher levels of the cognitive domain, such as analysis, problem solving, and synthesis. That is what teachers went into education for in the first place, but they get bogged down teaching the lowest level of the cognitive domain and often burn out. My old predictions time has finally come.

FIVE KEYS TO AUTOMATING EDUCATION
Over the past twenty-three years of research and experimenting, I have found that there are five elements that can accelerate learning. If the experience is immersive, interactive, fun, game-like, and competitive, the learner stays at a high level of concentration and focus, and learning is dramatically enhanced.

Microsoft already has an education division, and they have a division devoted to X-Box video game development. In addition, the hardware is low cost and many kids already own one at home. All they would need to do is create games for education that take advantage of X-Box capabilities.

Posted in Future Tech, New Tools. Tags: Accelerate Learning, Automation, Burrus, Collaboration, Dan Burrus, Education, Play Station, X-Box 360. No Comments »

Wiki’s: Groupware For The Rest Of Us

All too often, e-mail is used as a tool for electronic collaboration. When that happens, your e-mail load increases greatly as your productivity and effectiveness diminishes. Why? Because e-mail does not have the features needed to allow teams to easily work together on a project. Fortunately, in the mid-1990’s, a new type of software was designed for that purpose. Groupware, or as it is sometimes called, teamware, is software that enables co-workers scattered throughout a building or around the world to use networked computers to share ideas, data, and programs almost as if they were sitting at the same desk. It functions like a secure, highly versatile online service that is dedicated to an organization’s use. One of the biggest downsides of today’s groupware is that they are enterprise applications designed from the top down, and all require learning a new user interface.

Enter the Wiki, a technology we reported on in our Technotrends Newsletter when it first appeared, a Wiki is basically a group blog (Web log) that can be easily edited by its readers. Think of it as a Web page that can be edited like a word processor. A Wiki can be used as a quick way to collaborate with colleagues, or as a way for corporate teams to manage projects. And, because a Wiki can be hosted, team members have access to it from anywhere in the world 24/7. Another great feature of a Wiki is that instead of distributing additional documents team members might need to review or contribute to as e-mail attachments that need to be downloaded into each person’s computer, documents can be posted to a Wiki. Once they are posted, team members cannot only read them, but they can make additions or corrections to them. If a change is made to a document, members of the team can be automatically notified of the change.

Posted in Competitive Advantage, Future Tech, New Tools, Planning, Social Media. Tags: Burrus, Collaboration, Daniel Burrus, Groupware, Productivity, Wiki. 2 Comments »