30 November 2005

Innovate or die!: At AMP

Troubled AMP finds the pursuit of innovation pays dividends in improved staff engagement. Unleash the ‘intrapreneur’ and boot up the ‘conversation cafes’.

Lee Barnett, CIO, AMPThere has been precious little good news for embattled Aussie icon AMP of late. Its share price plummeted from a high of more than A$19 in March 2001 to now hover around the A$5 mark.

AMP’s story is not unique. Rather, it has joined a long list of Australian corporations undone by failed global growth strategies. The company is now de-merging from its under performing UK operations, now called Henderson, aiming to raise A$2 billion and write down A$2.6b in assets in the process. But earnings outlooks from CEO Andrew Mohl remain bleak.

While these corporate strategies are being played out in boardrooms and regulators’ offices in the UK and Australia, at the coalface here, AMP is following through on an innovation initiative instigated by former CEO Paul Batchelor.

Sparks of genius are random and unpredictable, yet many organisations seek a formula for innovation to help them stand out from their competitors. For most, applying a formula is as far as they go but while many companies pay lip service to innovation, a few have gone a step further to create a culture of innovation. They include Carter Holt Harvey in New Zealand, Hydro Tasmania, TAFE in the Hunter Valley and AMP Financial Services (AMP).

Early last year, AMP began putting together the ingredients for creative thinking in a move that has already demonstrated some promising results. Among them is an estimated 100 per cent return on investment, a staff engagement of 25 per cent and a coveted finalist’s position in the MIS Innovations Awards 2003.

Considering the payback, AMP’s move to become more innovative was timely. The company’s innovation program has injected an upbeat mood during a period of unsurpassed anxiety in the workplace.

Head of innovation Annalie Killian says the project had a slow beginning because of this.
“There was a lot of fear and worry around that created a lot of noise, so it was hard to engage people often,” she says, although she adds that change is hard to implement even in boom times.

“Getting the innovation wheel cranking is damn hard. Many organisations run this only as part of research and development,” says Killian. “Here we are trying to get it as part of the organisational culture – and this is fairly new in Australia.”


CIO as champion
The project began when former chief executive Paul Batchelor asked a team of senior executives to examine best practice in innovation around the world. AMP’s CIO Lee Barnett was one of the team and became its champion.

“I decided innovation was important – not just the ideas but what it does to enhance a culture and foster collaboration and staff engagement, especially when that culture is risk averse,” she says.

As a result, Barnett set up a small unit to spearhead innovation within the IT department, with the blessing of AMP’s managing director, Craig Dunn. It is seen as a test-bed for other departments, although Barnett says AMP is unlikely to consider expanding the initiative before early next year.

Although it was simply fortuitous that the innovation program was seeded in the IT department, Barnett says it offers a great value proposition for technology.

“In AMP, IT has been through an enormous amount of change in the past few years,” she says. “The IT investment bubble has burst so people have to be smarter and cleverer about the way you work at the front end, to manage with a lower budget.”
AMP has also experienced significant headcount reduction due to reduced project spend in IT.

Tight unit
Against this background, Barnett set up the unit with a budget of just A$50,000 and a staff of two – head of the unit, Annalie Killian, and a full-time engagement officer. Killian was appointed to the role alongside her responsibility for employee communication and also recently inherited the Knowledge Sharing function.

“There is a logical fit and overlap among these functions – they are complementary,” she says. “It’s really about how we return greater value from our intellectual assets, both people and systems.”

Despite the financial constraints, working on the smell of an oily rag had some benefits. Killian says if she had been allocated a “fat” budget she would have taken a different route that may not have been sustainable during lean times.

“It has been constraining but it has forced us to think differently,” says Killian. “Because we didn’t have a huge budget, we were forced to be innovative to get more mileage and that resulted in us being more sustainable.

“I’ve worked before in organisations that employed in-house consultants for special projects and as soon as the business contracted, the whole project imploded,” she says. “What we really needed was to drive this through people’s normal day jobs.”

Essentially, Killian aimed to engender a culture that was by nature innovative so that it didn’t have to be shored up by costly coaches and other third parties.

“I saw my brief as making innovation top of mind and systemic for AMP to the point that it penetrates the consciousness of everyone and gives them an opportunity to innovate in their everyday jobs in a way that’s woven into their daily activities.”

She took suggestions from a report put out initially by the executive team that identified common traits and drivers for innovation around the world, with pointers to how it may be implemented in AMP.

A key recommendation was ‘intrapreneurship’ or the creation of mentors who would champion change in the business. These are volunteers who offer to undertake the role of mentor on top of their normal jobs.

Most are selected from middle management because they have the benefit of both practical skills and a big picture view of the business, says Killian.

Volunteers are given special training in creativity once a fortnight that includes programs from thinking skills specialists such as Edward de Bono, Mind Mapping and Zing.

Innovation evolution
Aside from this, the program has evolved rather than followed a roadmap, according to Barnett. “It has been something of a journey – there is no instant answer,” she says.
Killian began the evolution by turning the wheel of ideas.

“Innovation is very random and unpredictable. You can’t bottle it or create a recipe for it,” she says. “But one of the ways of letting innovation happen organically is to get people from different disciplines to spark one another off. A logical starting point is to create mechanisms for ideas to be heard and acted upon.”

A critical aspect for success is the forums should provide a safe environment to air new ideas.

“Trust is fundamental because there is a huge element of personal risk taking and failure involved,” says Killian.

To start with, AMP’s Web development team created an intranet-based capture and tracking tool, which was called Circul8, as a forum for ideas and suggestions.

Killian then stipulated a proviso for posting ideas: each suggestion must be accompanied by a quick one-page business case and the author has to take responsibility for pushing it through to its conclusion. “That focuses people on thinking the idea through,” she says.

Once accepted, the author is assigned an intrapreneur because, says Killian, “we recognise it is hard to implement new ideas and cut across bureaucracy”.

AMP also set up ‘conversation cafes’ to act as brainstorming forums to generate new ideas. This is how they work: the unit advertises discussion of a particular topic on the intranet. On the assigned day, interested people from across the business form groups of four to six around a table to discuss the topic and record their ideas on paper tablecloths or butchers’ paper.

After 10 to 15 minutes, they rotate, leaving one person as an anchor to provide continuity, and the new group drills down further on the topic. Outcomes are published on the intranet. “This has spread like wildfire,” says Killian.

Both these forums have generated a slew of good initiatives. Some are simple but smart – such as the idea to reduce the font on printed-paper so that two screens can fit into a single page, thus saving paper costs.

Others need to be taken further, such as to reduce the default calendar time on Lotus Notes from 60 minutes to 30 minutes in order to reduce time spent in meetings.

Although they spring from the IT department, some initiatives cut across the entire organisation, such as the no-email day, which was designed to remind people of other forms of communicating internally.

Ideas with far reaching implications must be endorsed at top level: the author of the idea presents a five-minute business case to directors at AMP’s executive meetings and it is ratified or rejected on the spot. Line managers then fund the new initiatives. Killian says the value proposition is usually clear to them.

Another key advance has been to introduce a mechanism to monitor and reduce the IT infrastructure expenditure.

The initiative, which cut costs by 10 per cent in 2002, saw AMP gain a finalist position in the Outsourcing category at the MIS Innovation Awards 2003.

As well as generating new ideas, the unit seeks ways to look at problems as opportunities through a newly launched initiative called Program Unexpected Value.

Rewarding system
An important aspect of fostering an innovative culture is to reward innovative behaviour. Given its tight budget, the Innovation Program does not offer material rewards for participation but instead it celebrates innovators and the group of intrapreneurs who act as innovation evangelists across the teams.

“For example, these people were all publicly praised at an all-employee event last week and they are getting exposure to many other opportunities, which supports their career growth,” says Killian.

The effort has started to pay off, but only just recently. During the past three months, the pace of ideas has accelerated. “We now have about 25 per cent of our IT employees involved. We’re now averaging an idea per day on Circul8 and it’s increasing.”

So much so that Killian now wonders whether the model she created can support current growth.
By the end of this year, Killian plans to have undertaken a cost benefit on the unit’s ROI, although she believes the cost of the unit has already been “more than twice” returned.

Nevertheless, she stresses cost savings are not the only drivers of the program.

“Operational results overall are improving and innovation will play a big role but to make a linear connection would be difficult,” she says.
CIO Barnett adds it’s too early to declare the initiative an unqualified success although, she says, “it is certainly looking healthy”.

“We have just about got our momentum,” she says.
Futurists Pick Top Tech Trends
By Joanna Glasner

Taking a long-term view isn't easy nowadays.

Even the recent past seems blurry at times. Google's just seven years old, but it's hard to imagine life before instant search. Broadband has been widely available for only a few years, but already dialup internet seems to high-speed users like a throwback to the Neanderthal era.


Future Stock
In an age of rapid-fire change, contemplating the future is downright headache-inducing. Investors who plan strategies over multiple years or decades recognize that today's must-have technologies are probably destined for tomorrow's waste bins. But there's no scientific method for identifying their replacements.
That's why this week's column includes input from an assortment of experts who share their views on top contenders to be the technologies of tomorrow.

Next time around, we'll see what future-thinking folks predict about the opposite question: Which heavily touted technologies are destined to flop? For now, let's take a look at the positive trends futurists see on the horizon.

Simplicity: Over the past couple of decades, gadget makers have toiled ceaselessly to add functionality. As a result, your cell phone can now play games, do math and sound off like a barking dog when your ex calls. Your digital camera can shoot extremely poor-quality video. And nearly every device you own with a screen also contains a clock.

The problem, says Ian Pearson, futurist in residence at British Telecommunications, is that most people buy a device for a particular purpose. They neither want nor care about all the extra capabilities.

"We've done 20 years of adding functionality, and 99 percent of that functionality isn't needed," Pearson said. "There will be an enormous market over the next several years for really simple stuff."

For investors, there are few obvious examples of simplicity-minded gadget makers. Apple Computer's iPod is often cited as a model of the simpler-is-better ethos. With shares selling for close to their all-time high, however, Apple (AAPL) is a pricey pick. Royal Philips Electronics (PHG) has an internal strategy effort called "simplicity-led design." But many of the products incorporating the simplicity concept won't be on the market for several years.

Pearson says the simplicity principle can apply to software as well. It's something, he says, that he'd like Microsoft to consider before adding yet another feature to its next version of Word.

Mobile socialization: Already our cell phones and PDAs work well at both contributing to our social lives (i.e., getting in touch with friends) and spoiling them (i.e., meeting friends but ignoring them to answer cell-phone calls).

But according to futurists, we've only scratched the surface of figuring out how our portable communications devices can be of service.

What's in store? How about mapping programs that show us whether anyone we'd like to see is nearby. Or a mobile reference modeled on Wikipedia that can tell us if the restaurant on the corner is any good. Perhaps a few voice-recognition applications that actually work.

While we're at it, why not throw in programs to protect our privacy by limiting who has access to information about where we are?

"Those sorts of things can easily be built into mobile devices," said Pearson.

Speech-recognition technology will be instrumental in enabling new mobile services, said Ronald Gruia, author of the blog Technology Futurist and emerging communications program leader at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. In recent years, speech software developers, in particular Nuance Communications, which until recently went by the name ScanSoft (SSFT), have gotten much better at what they do. Gruia believes it's only a matter of time before speech-enabled mobile apps for tasks like composing e-mail while driving can be commonplace.

R.I.P. combustion engine?: Gas-guzzling cars and trucks are such an integral part of the modern landscape that we practically take them for granted. When you think about it, that's a pretty amazing feat, considering the noise and smog they generate.

At some point, escalating fuel prices, surging global oil demand and a dwindling supply of easily accessible crude will take their toll, however. That point is closer than ever, says Jennifer Jarratt, a partner at Leading Futurists.

"There's a wide-open space there for disruptive technology in the hybrid car market," she said, noting that established automakers are still reluctant to consider life without the combustion engine.

The World Future Society estimates in its annual list of top predictions for the future that only 40 years' worth of oil is left in the ground, "so action is needed now to plan for a smooth transition to alternatives -- notably hydrogen."

Investing in alternative fuels, however, is a tricky business. Options are limited, and for the most part, quite risky.

Going green: Futurists have been warning about our over-consumptive, pollution- and nonbiodegradable-waste-generating ways for decades. Lately, those warnings are getting more strident.

"I have actually told my own investment adviser: Don't put my money in energy companies that aren't investing in alternatives," said Marsha Rhea, senior futurist at the Institute for Alternative Futures.

Many futurists predict that growth in the market for renewable energy sources will be particularly strong. The World Future Society, for one, forecasts that offshore wind farms will grow into a $3 billion-a-year industry by 2008.

Andy Hines, a lecturer in futures studies at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, also envisions growing demand for information-sensing devices that can reduce energy consumption.

IT revolution of 2006: Even futurists sometimes prefer the short-term horizon. Pearson, for one, expects 2006 will bring one of the more fascinating inflection points in the evolution of digital technology.

"We see the convergence of a whole stack of IT trends," said Pearson, who's gearing up for what he calls "the 2006 IT explosion." Basically, the explosion will consist of a number of technologies: better screens, improved location technology and highly sophisticated gaming consoles that provide a hub for home entertainment.

Pearson expects 2006 to be a good year for gadget sellers. The broad selection of fancy new electronics will provide consumers plenty of temptation. He, however, plans to wait.

"One of the big reasons I don't buy things is because as a futurist I see what they're going to do in the next few years," he said.

27 November 2005

Podcasting And The Future Of Traditional Radio

Is podcasting going to "alter" traditional radio as we know it today?

Some even believe that radio is dying altogether because of the rapid and sweeping emergence of podcasting and satellite radio complemented by the very low-quality programming of US-like commercial radio stations.

button_by_DartVader.jpg
Photo credit: Ronaldo Taveira

While I do not think this will happen, I am 100% positive that podcasting will indeed have a major influence on traditional radio as we know it today.

Early adopters on the user side and aggressive radio station managers on the other are already driving some of the changes that will characterize the future of FM radio, and although the long-term effects of this impact are not yet fully recognizable, the transformation is already happening.

If it is not happening at your radio station too, it is time to regroup and ask yourself some serious questions.

Like:

Why would your audience keep listening to your radio if all the music they want and like can be more easily accessed via other means, with greater audio quality and more user-control?

How can your FM radio signal match the audio quality and reliability of a portable MP3 player, media phone or notebook?

Why would listeners continue to give attention to long, obnoxious, interruptive and irrelevant ad breaks like many commercial radios provide?

But there are traits and features that are unique to FM radio, and just like for Television, unless traditional broadcasters learn how to open themselves to the inevitable convergence with new media and the Internet they are indeed doomed to a slow and painful death.

The first thing traditional radio should acknowledge is that the times for being essentially a music jukebox are soon gone.

The competition coming from new media technologies like P2P file sharing, online music clearinghouses like iTunes, portable MP3 players, other nifty audio devices such as smart- and media-phones, and the gigantic podcasting wave provide so much more for the user experience, that for radio intended as a "music jukebox" this is a loosing battle from the very start.

Any new kid born today will never select to listen to radio over accessing her own MP3 playlist or personalized streaming radio station on the net. There is just no comparison.

So, what should traditional radio stations do to safeguard their future?

1. Embrace convergence is the answer.

2. Focus on uniqueness and thematic content is the solution.

3. Retain radio characterizing strengths while combining and enhancing them with the power of new media technologies is the strategy.

Radio as we know, has indeed some unique characteristics, and some of them, combined with the opportunities offered by the web and new media, can permit">Podcasting And The Future Of Traditional Radio - Robin Good's Latest News: "Why would your audience keep listening to your radio if all the music they want and like can be more easily accessed via other means, with greater audio quality and more user-control?

How can your FM radio signal match the audio quality and reliability of a portable MP3 player, media phone or notebook?

Why would listeners continue to give attention to long, obnoxious, interruptive and irrelevant ad breaks like many commercial radios provide?

But there are traits and features that are unique to FM radio, and just like for Television, unless traditional broadcasters learn how to open themselves to the inevitable convergence with new media and the Internet they are indeed doomed to a slow and painful death.

The first thing traditional radio should acknowledge is that the times for being essentially a music jukebox are soon gone.

The competition coming from new media technologies like P2P file sharing, online music clearinghouses like iTunes, portable MP3 players, other nifty audio devices such as smart- and media-phones, and the gigantic podcasting wave provide so much more for the user experience, that for radio intended as a 'music jukebox' this is a loosing battle from the very start.

Any new kid born today will never select to listen to radio over accessing her own MP3 playlist or personalized streaming radio station on the net. There is just no comparison.

So, what should traditional radio stations do to safeguard their future?

1. Embrace convergence is the answer.

2. Focus on uniqueness and thematic content is the solution.

3. Retain radio characterizing strengths while combining and enhancing them with the power of new media technologies is the strategy.

Radio as we know, has indeed some unique characteristics, and some of them, combined with the opportunities offered by the web and new media, can permit"
www.inewsnetwork.com - the leading global network for broadcast monitoring: "inewsnetwork is the leading global network upon which media monitors proactively search, filter, and redistribute relevant international content to their clients.

inewsnetwork is a technology company providing enhanced services to the global media monitoring industry. inewsnetwork enables media monitoring firms to source, share, and re-distribute out-of-market media content to clients from local, national, and international sources.

Collectively, inewsnetwork affiliates share and distribute broadcast content that reaches all major media markets in 30 countries on 5 different continents. We offer coverage of broadcast media in:

Americas (2) - United States, Canada
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Australia | Asia - (9) Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, New Zealand
Africa - (1) South Africa
Market trials are currently underway with other content providers from key regions in Europe, the Pacific Rim, and the Americas."

26 November 2005

| Emerging Technology Trends | ZDNet.com: "Faster lasers for telecommunications

Posted by Roland Piquepaille @ 9:41 am

Current solid-state laser technologies have become vital components in telecommunications and networking equipment, but are reaching limits in speed and efficiency. But now, researchers at Stanford University have developed a new laser technology which wastes less energy than today's lasers and is faster, able to operate at rates exceeding 100 billion bps. And because up to 400,000 lasers will be able to fit within a square centimeter chip, this also means that this new technology will be cheaper to manufacture. So far, this technology is only working in labs, so it might take some time before the industry adopts it.
This new laser technology has been developed by electrical engineering Assistant Professor Jelena Vuckovic and doctoral student Hatice Altug, who is part of Vuckovic's group at the Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab.
Below is a picture of Jelena Vuckovic in her lab (Credit: Stanford University). Here is a link to a larger version of this photo (3,008 x 2,000 pixels, 1.95 MB).

How does this new laser technology work?
The new laser is based on a photonic crystal, a square layer cake of indium phosphide-based material that is 300 billionths-of-a-meter (nanometers) thick and that is etched to create an array of regularly spaced, 400-nanometer-wide holes through the cake. At regular intervals among the holes are areas where no hole has been etched, called microcavities, which trap light. The filling of the layer cake is four layers of indium gallium arsenide phosphide. Each layer is called a 'quantum well.'
How does the laser work? When Vuckovic shines pulses of light onto the crystal, the energy that the light 'pumps' into the quantum wells excites them to emit light of a desired wavelength. That light then bounces around in the microcavities and back into the wells again, setting off a chain reaction of light emission from the crystal that produces a laser beam.
And here are some details on how this new laser technology promises to be more efficient than current ones.
Researchers recently have made lasers using just a single photonic crystal microcavity in an attempt to outdo vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) [, which are way too weak.]
Vuckovic and Altug's laser successfully combines 81 microcavities (in a 9 by 9 array) to make it more powerful, and it operates with greater energy efficiency. In fact, [in Vuckovic and Altug experiments,] their laser was about 20 times as efficient as single-cavity lasers, putting out 100 times more power (12 millionths of a watt when pumped with 2.4 thousandths of a watt)."

24 November 2005


Word-of-Mouth Marketing Picks Up Speed

Published: November 03, 2005

There are dozens of metrics defining online advertising, but no one has locked down the defining numbers for word-of-mouth marketing. A new eMarketer report uncovers the "hidden statistics" of word of mouth.

Despite a long history, word of mouth as a marketing discipline is only just coming into its own, and the data indicate its best years are yet to come. eMarketer estimates that about half of all online marketers are engaging in some form of word of mouth or viral campaign, and that number will grow.

"While online advertising and all of its many subcategories such as search have dozens of metrics defining their size, shape and growth rates, no one has locked down defining numbers for word-of-mouth marketing," says Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer CEO and author of the Word of Mouth Marketing report. "It has been the 'hidden statistic.'"

Based on aggregated data from dozens of sources, as well as interviews with various word of mouth marketing experts, for the first time, eMarketer — in partnership with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), uncovers the numbers behind the rumors, the facts behind the myths.

"Word of mouth has always been there, and it's always been the thing that gets us to buy," says Andy Sernovitz, CEO of WOMMA. "What's exciting is that marketers can finally do something to harness this power—and measure the results. Word of Mouth has moved from anecdotal to actionable."

Today, according to consulting giant McKinsey, approximately two-thirds of all economic activity in the US is influenced by shared opinions about a product, brand or service.

A wide variety of surveys indicate that Americans are far more likely to turn to family, friends and other personal "experts" than to use traditional media for ideas and information about products and services. In fact, RoperASW, part of GfK Group, finds that over 90% of Americans cite word of mouth as one of the best sources of ideas and information. Further, they rate "word of mouth twice as important as advertising or editorial content and put one-and-a-half times more value on it today than they did 25 years ago."

A recent UK survey conducted by Mediaedge:cia asked consumers which factors made them most comfortable when purchasing a product. More than three-quarters cited the recommendation of a friend.

Word of mouth is often referred to as "friends and family marketing," and with good reason. According to NOP (like Roper, a GfK unit), people are more likely to pass along messages via word of mouth to their friends and family members.

"The Internet has created a vast new social network of people," says Mr. Ramsey. "These online connections may be as profound as any offline relationship, such as members of health support groups, or they may be only fleeting, such as one consumer reading another's recommendation of a hotel on a travel site. But whether the connection is long or short, the person-to-person information exchanged online carries a weight that traditional corporate messaging simply can't match."

Advertising messages can be amplified by the new electronic social network. According to the Online Publishers Association (OPA), 10% of consumers who report seeing online video advertisements say they forward them on to a friend or family member — that means they were more often influencers than purchasers.

"The aggregation of the numbers gives us a powerful new lens through which we can more clearly see the entire story," says Mr. Sernovitz. "But now that word of mouth marketing is rapidly becoming part of the marketing mainstream, it faces the same big question being asked of all types of marketing: How do you measure it?"

Committed to answering that question, eMarketer and WOMMA have published the new Word of Mouth Marketing report. Take it from us, you should read it today.

22 November 2005

Fisher and Paykel
John Bongard


Long a corporate institution in New Zealand , appliance maker Fisher and Paykel is now well-established in Australia and expanding into Europe and the United States. CEO John Bongard describes how he approaches his trans-Tasman management task, and how the company nurtures its highly regarded innovation culture.

ceoforum.com.au: What do you see at the key challenges in managing across the Australian and New Zealand markets?

John Bongard: We see Australia and New Zealand as being our home market, so we generally look at a single Australasian market. Nevertheless, they are certainly not the same from a management point of view. One of the lessons we learnt early on was not to send over too many Kiwi managers unfamiliar with the Australian market and expect them to successfully run an Australian business. Personally, I think this is a mistake that too many New Zealand companies make when they are looking to expand into Australia.

ceoforum.com.au: What are the differences that can trip people up between the two business environments?

JB: Size, of course, is one key difference, both in revenue terms and geography. One consequence of this, for example, is that we have reasonably autonomous business units in each of the states, reporting back to our Australian head of sales and marketing. Having these autonomous business units is one thing I think that has worked very well for us in Australia.

You also need a different business infrastructure in Australia . It's a much more expensive market to operate in, the sheer size makes the logistics more complex, and the working capital requirements are much greater. This makes for a very different experience running the business.

One thing that is pretty much the same between the two mark

Long a corporate institution in New Zealand , appliance maker Fisher and Paykel is now well-established in Australia and expanding into Europe and the United States. CEO John Bongard describes how he approaches his trans-Tasman management task, and how the company nurtures its highly regarded innovation culture.

ceoforum.com.au: What do you see at the key challenges in managing across the Australian and New Zealand markets?

John Bongard: We see Australia and New Zealand as being our home market, so we generally look at a single Australasian market. Nevertheless, they are certainly not the same from a management point of view. One of the lessons we learnt early on was not to send over too many Kiwi managers unfamiliar with the Australian market and expect them to successfully run an Australian business. Personally, I think this is a mistake that too many New Zealand companies make when they are looking to expand into Australia.

ceoforum.com.au: What are the differences that can trip people up between the two business environments?

JB: Size, of course, is one key difference, both in revenue terms and geography. One consequence of this, for example, is that we have reasonably autonomous business units in each of the states, reporting back to our Australian head of sales and marketing. Having these autonomous business units is one thing I think that has worked very well for us in Australia.

You also need a different business infrastructure in Australia . It's a much more expensive market to operate in, the sheer size makes the logistics more complex, and the working capital requirements are much greater. This makes for a very different experience running the business.

One thing that is pretty much the same between the two mark"

04 November 2005

Bird flu fight must start now

David Lazarus
Lazarus At Large Archives


President Bush asked Congress this week for $7.1 billion to prepare for a global flu epidemic that health experts believe may be imminent and would likely kill millions.

"A pandemic is a lot like a fire -- a forest fire," Bush said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health. "If caught early, it might be extinguished with limited damage. If allowed to smolder undetected, it can grow to an inferno that spreads quickly beyond our ability to control it."

Regina Phelps, a leading San Francisco emergency-management consultant, said she appreciates the president's belated attention to the matter. But she isn't encouraged.

"I don't know if our government is going to be able to do what it needs to do to meet this challenge," Phelps told me. "In light of what's happening in Iraq and the recent hurricanes, we can't look to government to save us from this.

"Businesses are going to have to rise to the occasion," she said. "It's going to have to happen on the private-sector level."

H5N1 avian influenza -- "bird flu" -- has caused 122 known human cases since December 2003. At least 62 have been fatal.

The deadly virus has already reached Europe from Asia. It's expected to arrive soon in this country. If bird flu adapts (as experts say is likely) to make human-to-human infection more common, a worldwide pandemic could erupt within months.

"I think a pandemic is inevitable," Phelps said in the cool, detached tone of someone who spends a lot of time thinking about the unimaginable. "Pandemics happen only about three times every 100 years. It seems likely that H5N1 will be the next one."

She said she's increasingly being asked by companies to help lay the groundwork for a pandemic response. She's also instructing corporate clients to begin planning now, before it's too late.

Phelps' clients include the likes of Visa, Levi Strauss, Intuit, Macromedia and the World Bank.

In 2003, she worked with Stanford University on a training exercise that simulated an outbreak of highly infectious pneumonic plague on the Palo Alto campus. The elaborate drill was meant to prepare for a terrorist attack or a flu pandemic.

In the United States, Phelps predicted an outbreak of bird flu among humans would kill between 500,000 and 2 million people. Globally, perhaps as many as 200 million could die.

Phelps' projections for U.S. fatalities are in line with figures released by the White House on Wednesday.

"We could be facing the greatest disaster of our lifetime," she said.

50 million died

By comparison, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, including 550,000 in this country. And this was before air travel allowed viruses to hop continents in just a matter of hours.

Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Toronto investment firm BMO Nesbitt Burns, said in a report last month that ordinary flu outbreaks each year cost the U.S. economy as much as $12 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity.

A flu pandemic, she warned, would have an economic impact of up to $167 billion on the United States and perhaps a more disastrous financial impact on other nations.

"The repercussions on global trade would be devastating," Cooper wrote. "Given that virtually all major economies have a surplus with the (United States), trade disruptions would shutter manufacturing plants and curtail global demand for most commodities."

Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank said Thursday that a flu pandemic could kill 3 million people in Asia and cost regional economies almost $300 billion. "Growth in Asia would virtually stop," the bank predicted.

So what should we be doing?

On the individual level, health experts strongly advocate proven methods to fight the spread of viruses: frequent hand washing, along with routine cleansing of surfaces and equipment shared by others.

For companies, Phelps is warning clients to prepare for as much as a third of their workforce being out sick at any one time. Similar absenteeism will be experienced by vendors and other business partners (not to mention multitudes of customers being stricken or avoiding stores and other public places).

Phelps says employers need to closely monitor workers' health to stay ahead of a fast-moving outbreak. If a pandemic appears likely, face-to-face meetings should be all but eliminated in favor of conference calls and online discussions.

Companies will need plans in place to deal with a worker who becomes seriously ill on the job and to disseminate information among employees as rapidly as possible.

Working from home

Ailing workers must be required to stay home. But for companies to remain operational, Phelps says all "mission critical" employees must be provided in advance with desktop computers in their homes, broadband connections and all necessary supplies.

She knows that few companies have either the financial resources or the wherewithal for such a move. But Phelps says the contingency of what she calls "robust work from home" can make all the difference in allowing a company to ride out a major emergency.

"It's a great strategy if we're trying to recover from an earthquake," she said. "It's really great if we're trying to recover from a pandemic."

As it stands, Phelps believes the disruption to business caused by a pandemic would almost certainly plunge the world into a global recession.

"There are going to be a lot of companies that won't survive this," she said.

Phelps acknowledges that there will be people who won't want to even discuss the prospect of a pandemic because of the enormity of the consequences. Denial is a common response in her line of work.

"I have a pretty bizarre job," she observed. "I spend my time thinking about things that horrify people. But I work on what to do about them."

Should we be frightened?

"We should definitely be frightened," Phelps replied without hesitation. Then she reconsidered.

"Maybe that's too strong a word," she said. "Fear prevents activity. It renders people impotent."

Well, at least the president has requested billions of dollars to help us get ready.

Phelps was silent a moment.

"I don't know if $7 billion is going to be enough," she said softly. "We have so much to do."
ST Recruit - Six ways to talk about change: "Six ways to talk about change
Transform your workplace with conversations that encourage staff to be accountable and committed to the change process.

Transformation occurs through choice, not mandate. An invitation is the call to create an alternative future. What is the invitation that we can make to support people to participate and own the relationships, tasks, and process that lead to change and success?

The key could lie in six conversations that we can have to effect positive change while creating accountability and commitment by all participants. The conversations are based on the belief that all change and transformation is linguistic in nature.

Also, it is believed that focusing on people's potential and their best nature is much better than solving problems of the past or people's deficits. Another premise is that by having these conversations, we can create a community that helps organisations succeed beyond average performance.

Below are the six conversations as well as the role that the leader should play in order to facilitate the process of change.

1. The Invitation Conversation

The invitation must contain a hurdle or demand if accepted. It is a challenge to engage. Most leadership initiatives or training are about how we get or 'enrol' people to do tasks and feel good about doing things they may not want to do. People need to 'self-enrol' in order to experience their freedom of choice and commitment.

The leadership task is to name the debate, issue the invitation, and invest in those who choose to show up. Those who accept the call will bring the next circle of people into the conversation.

2. The Ownership Conversation

This conversation begins with the question: "How have I contributed to creating the current reality?"

Confusion, blame and waiting for someone else to change are a defence against ownership and personal power. The enemy of ownership is innocence and indifference. The future is denied with the response: "It doesn't matter to me. Whatever you want to do is fine."

Such a statement is always a lie and just a polite way of avoiding a difficult conversation about ownership.

People best create that which they own and co-creation is the bedrock of accountability. It is the belief that I am the cause, not the effect. The leadership task is to confront people with their freedom.

3. The Possibility Conversation

This focuses on what we want our future to be as opposed to problem-solving the past. This is based on an understanding that living systems are really propelled towards the future.

The possibility conversation frees people to innovate, challenge the status quo, and create new futures that make a difference.

In new work environments, this conversation has the ability for breaking new ground and in understanding the prevailing culture.

Problem-solving and negotiation of interests makes tomorrow only a little different from yesterday. Possibility is a break from the past and opens the space for a future we had only dreamed of. Declaring a possibility wholeheartedly is the transformation.

The leadership task is to postpone problem solving and stay focused on possibility until it is spoken with resonance and passion.

4. The Dissent Conversation

This allows people the space to say 'no'. If we cannot say 'no', then our 'yes' has no meaning. People have a chance to express their doubts and reservations as a way of clarifying their roles, needs, and yearnings within the vision and mission being presented.

Genuine commitment begins with doubt, and 'no' is a symbolic expression of people finding their space and role in the strategy. It is when we fully understand what people do not want that we can fully design what they want. Refusal is the foundation for commitment.

The leadership task is to surface doubts and dissent without having an answer to every question.

5. The Commitment Conversation

This is about individuals making promises to their peers about their contribution to the success of the whole organisation.

It is centred in two questions: What promise am I willing to make to this enterprise? And what is the price I am willing to pay for the success of the whole effort? It is a promise for the sake of a larger purpose, not for the sake of personal return.

The leadership task is to reject lip service and demand either authentic commitment or ask people to say no and pass. We need the commitment of much fewer people than we thought to create the future we have in mind.

6. The Gifts Conversation

What are the gifts and assets we bring to the enterprise? Rather than focus on our deficiencies and weaknesses, which will most likely not go away, focus on the gifts we bring and capitalise on those. Instead of seeing problems in people and work, the conversation is about searching for the mystery that brings the highest achievement and success in work organisations.

Confront people with their essential core that has the potential to make the difference and change lives for good. This resolves the unnatural separation between work and life.

The leadership task is to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the centre.
Ten Reasons Why Word-of-Mouth Marketing Works
by Geoff Ramsey, Friday, Sep 23, 2005 6:00 AM EST

THE INTERNET PROVIDES SO MANY ways for users to spread information in ways never before possible. E-mail, for example, can easily extend the reach of someone's brand by a factor of 10, 100, 1,000 or over 10,000. The Internet also serves as a vast digital repository of such information -- accessible at any time, from anywhere and by anyone. Millions of opinions about your company's brand are only a click away on search engines, blogs, product ratings sites, podcasts and other digital platforms. The immediacy of the Internet is giving way to more word-of-mouth marketing and viral campaigns. Below are eMarketer's top ten reasons for the explosive growth of word-of mouth marketing, and why we feel it will continue to be a major factor in consumers' and companies' lives.

#1. The consumer is in control. It's hardly a news flash, but consumers today have unprecedented control over their media and content. Using everything from MP3 players to blogs, Blackberries, podcasts, digital video recorders and search, consumers are accessing information when they want it, where they want it and how they want it. According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, 44 percent of online U.S. adults, or over 50 million Americans, are "content creators," meaning that they contribute in some way to the Internet, such as via blogs, podcasts and product recommendations and reviews. Factor in the word-of-mouth effect through these communication channels and you see the cascading effect right across the top.

#2. Growing Distrust of Advertising Messages More and more Internet users are moving away from "manufactured" messages to instead trust the opinions of others, including friends, family, co-workers, etc. A recent Intelliseek study revealed that 88 percent of consumers trust "advertising" via word of mouth. In contrast, only 56 percent said newspapers were trustworthy, 47 percent said the same for television and radio, and even search was trusted by only 34 percent. Yankelovich also noted that only 27 percent of consumers polled trust experts and 8 percent trust celebrities, but a whopping 65 percent of consumers trust friends for product recommendations. Accordingly, for marketers looking to bolster the trust factor with their brands (and who isn't?), almost nothing beats word of mouth.

#3. Empowered consumers are fighting back! An astounding 87 million Americans have signed up for the national "Do-Not-Call" registry. About one-fifth of consumers use spam and online ad blockers. Next year, over 15 percent of households will be equipped with TiVos and other kinds of digital video recorders for the primary purpose of skipping over television ads. Faced with this emotional and mounting resistance, marketers must find news ways to connect with consumers, or, as some have put it, "join in the conversation." Word of mouth provides marketers with unique opportunities to do just that. Consumers will willingly share ad messages -- as long as they are entertaining, informative or otherwise compelling -- with others.

#4. Increased spending behind interactive advertising.eMarketer projects spending on online advertising in 2005 will rise 34 percent, far above the growth rate of any other single medium. A big reason for the growth in interactive advertising is the desire among marketers to exploit viral and other forms of word-of mouth-opportunities. With corporate marketing budgets increasingly opening up to interactive platforms, marketers are taking a fresh look at viral and word-of-mouth strategies, which typically involve the Internet and e-mail.

#5. Emphasis on targeting and relevance in ad campaigns. Marketers are finding that the secret to successful viral campaigns is to create advertising that is so interesting, entertaining or otherwise engaging that consumers will invite you in their front door, and invite all their friends and family as well. There is a shift underway in content models, from ad-supported mass channels to user-supported niche content. Marketers can participate in this evolution by creating valuable content of their own. In this world of fragmented media and consumer personalization, marketers are shifting their focus from mass to targeting efforts.

#6. E-mail and other platforms ease use of viral programs. Many examples abound for the successful use of e-mail in creating viral campaigns. Procter & Gamble used e-mail to create a viral campaign for its new Tide Coldwater launch, a product designed to help conserve the environment. According to data from Hitwise, the e-mail campaign increased traffic at the Tide Coldwater site by 900 percent in the first week, and then tripled that level in week two.

However, marketers trying to stimulate viral behavior should not restrict their focus entirely to e-mail and the Internet. Because e-mail viral campaigns are so inexpensive to deploy, it is critical that marketers invest a considerable amount of thought and creativity before shooting messages out to consumers. While Jupiter reports that 34 percent of marketers had tried viral campaigns as of October 2004, only 10 percent of consumers surveyed had forwarded an e-mail as a result of seeing an ad. The emphasis, therefore, should be on quality, not quantity.

#7. Word of mouth/viral marketing are relatively inexpensive to deploy.One fascinating aspect of word-of-mouth marketing is that consumers end up doing much of the heavy lifting -- communicating about your product or brand to others -- so that communication costs are in effect being 'subsidized.'

Borla, a manufacturer of exhaust systems, experimented with an e-mail-driven viral video campaign and achieved success. For about the same cost of a four-color, full-page print ad in a sports car magazine ($16,700), Borla was able to achieve significant, measurable and cost-effective results. The ads used risqué humor to spur people to view and pass the video along.

#8. Accountability and measurement. New companies and technologies have emerged to figure out how to measure and track word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. BuzzMetrics, for example, has software that can measure brand awareness among a large population of online consumers, as well as rank major topics of conversations in the blogosphere. Similarly, Intelliseek uses software that sifts through blogs to document and organize what consumers are saying to each other about various products and brands. Mazda used this service to find out how to structure a public relations campaign around the launch of its RX-8 model.

#9. The "Energizer Bunny" effect. One of the side benefits of word-of-mouth, and particularly viral, campaigns, is the opportunity for marketers to milk their campaigns over time, extending not only their reach but also their duration. A year and a half after the "Subservient Chicken" campaign was launched, it is still getting hits, and still being talked about.

#10. Word-of-mouth marketing has a ripple effect on other media. Word-of-mouth campaigns generate after-effects that can give your marketing programs more "spin" for the money. In many cases, viral campaigns can significantly extend your reach while reinforcing your message among a core group of target consumers. For example, a television spot on the Super Bowl will get relaye and talked about in thousands of blog conversations, with both positive and negative comments. An arresting or highly unusual ad campaign delivered on any medium is likely to be picked up by the blogosphere, providing it with more traction.

Geoff Ramsey is co-founder and chief executive officer of the Internet research firm eMarketer.