FdP Weblog

Go innocentive!

fdprome — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:27:48 +0000

innovation light

I told you in my recent posts about my strong belief that social networks can effectively help Small and Medium enterprises to develop their products and solve specific business and organizational problems/challenges, thus filling the void created by the failure of the academic and scientific research world to meet these needs.

The main sources of this belief are Chesbrough, who five years ago (in the book “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology“) coined the concept of open innovation and obviously Tapscott/Williams, the outstanding authors of Wikinomics.

Now I’ve recently discovered innocentive.com a virtual platform of ideas and technologies where seekers and solvers are free to meet and exchange value.

Many European and American SMEs have got the habit to use this platform as their virtual R&D. Adhering to the open innovation paradygm these companies have learnt that involving other parties outside their boundaries, when developing new products and technologies, can be of great added value. On this platform they can find the best mix of experts in a wide range of subjects, from Organic, Polymer, Synthetic Chemistry to Artificial Intelligence, Bioinformatics, Bioengineering, Civil Engineering, Electronics, Biology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Game Theory, Modeling/Optimization, Operations, etc…………………… and develop with them open and flexible cooperations.

The principle by which Innocentive works is pretty smart and simple. As you can find in the Innocentive website, “Using InnoCentive’s Web 2.0 platform, a “Seeker” organization posts a “Challenge” – a problem for which it seeks a breakthrough solution – to the InnoCentive Marketplace and commits to pay a successful “Solver” a cash award. InnoCentive Seekers benefit from a “pay for performance” low-risk environment where they only pay for solutions they accept. The not-for-profit Seeker organization posts its R&D Challenge on Innocentive’s website along with an appropriate award. Innocentive’s Solvers submit solutions to the challenge. The Seeker pays an award to the winning Solver only if the Challenge is solved“

Don’t you think this is absolutely original and inspiring?

Business Schools and traditional Universities have lost their way: can we trust social networks to address the learning needs of Italian small-medium sized businesses and foster their strategic goals?

fdprome — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:44:53 +0000

The first medieval universities were created when, with the revival of mercantilism and the increasing growth of cities and their middle class, the most important corporations recognized their responsibility to foster their own communities sustained success through their members’ education and fulfill the increasing social demand for lawyers, educated priests, clerks for business, administrators and physicians.

The most interesting model was the students controlled one, well represented by the University of Bologna. At the Bologna university students used to run everything, they hired themselves their teachers and the emphasis was mostly put on secular studies (like law) rather than canon law, classics and Bible which were the favorite curricula of the northern universities (Paris and Oxford for instance) run by teachers who in turn were sponsored and controlled by either the Church or the crown.

I believe that after ages the students’ governance medieval model is the perfect expression of what Universities should be for! The University of Bologna arose from an audience with specific learning needs, was governed and sponsored by this audience and had a clearly defined set of strategic goals.

This model is successfully replicated nowadays by the so called Corporate Universities, which are a growing trend increasingly moving from leading American organizations to European ones.

Companies like Motorola, MCDonald, Walt Disney, Boeing – just to cite a few examples – have created their own degree granting branches with the initial purpose to deliver specific company’s training to their own managerial staff in order to stay competitive in the global marketplace. While providing hands-on and directly applicable learning, these projects have contributed to 1) reinforce the staff’s sense of belonging to their companies, 2) help staff to keep up with changing business needs, 3) start and support strategic change[Education in the Workplace: An Examination of Corporate University Models ©2001 Denise R. Hearn]

Now if these companies have perceived the need to create their own academies, this is the signal that traditional universities and business schools have lost their way!

As Henry Mintzberg and Warren G. Bennis with James O’Toole pointed out respectively in 2004 [Managers not MBAs] and in 2005 [How Business Schools lost their way], although many business schools claim to provide programs focused on practice they keep adopting the scientific model and hiring research-oriented professors.

But Business is not an academic discipline like chemistry or biology. According Warren and O’Toole business is a profession like law or medicine. Business schools should be therefore professional schools that deliberately engage with the outside world. According Mintzberg management is not science neither a profession. Management certainly applies and uses science, but is ultimately a blend of art (intuition, vision, insight) and craft (learning on the Job) that only corporate universities – but this is my opinion - can allow in practice.

Now setting up a corporate university is not easy at all. It requires funds, technologies, ability to deploy resources, deal with suppliers, assess learning needs, align business strategies, measure performance…something that small-medium sized companies (which in Italy represent the highest part of our economic system) can not easily afford or do not have the skills to plan and implement by their own.

So why don’t we give social networks the task and the opportunity to express the emerging training needs of the Italian companies and family businesses? What is your opinion?

Social networking and new trends: where do we – users – want to go?

fdprome — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:23:04 +0000

Do current social networking sites (myspace, facebook just to provide a few recognisable examples) provide real access to our social graph?

Do they provide a real map of our ties and links with other individuals? Do they closely depict our personal profile, i.e. an overall picture of our values, visions, ideas, financial resources, friends, kins, competitors and enemies, partners, web links, sexual orientations, dietary habits, airline routes……?

Still they don’t!

To reach this outcome, they should have access to the carbon copies of our e.mails, phones, address books, favourite sites, and to a number of applications we daily use to network with other people, even if they are not considered straight forward as social networking applications!

In practice current systems do not allow an exhaustive picture of our relationships, neither a distinction between a close friendship and a shallow connection. Our networks are full of intruders who want just to take quick advantage of our knowledge and contacts or bald who want to sell their hair growth lotions and spam us with infomercials, without being interested to build any long term or mutually beneficial relationship!

On the other side you may think that an advanced, exhaustive social graph could be too intrusive of your privacy! Guess what a mine of detailed info for any company willing to identify its best markets.

I agree with you, BUT…this is where technology is going in the next 4-5 years.

Do we want to watch things happen or make things happen? Where do WE – users – want to go?

I’ve been working for ten years in the education sector and I can’t help but believing that spontaneous groups built on the real interests and credibility of their members can really enhance research and students’ professional opportunities .

Guess for a while what could happen if when you do a research on the web you can have access to a list of people and groups who have made any significant contribution to the topic at hand! This way students can discover insights and connections that bring their researches out of a mere theoretical perspective and provide a real link with the professional world.

This is just an example that refers to my professional interests. But my personal interests about social operating systems go far beyond education. Education is just one of the possible fields of application which can take advantage of my contacts’ professional and personal interests .

Read this blog (blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7503) , where Jerry Yang (Yahoo co-founder and CEO) presents YahooLIFE, and let me know your ideas!

Obviously my post is also an experiment to see how many members of my facebook community really share my interests. Your replies will contribute to tailor and define my social graph

Just been told by Gordon Bethune that execution makes the difference

fdprome — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:54:17 +0000

Today I’ve had the privilege to meet again Gordon Bethune in Rome Fortune-Article Gordon is a “man of great stature”, not only for his physical presence but also because he’s strong in mind and in character.

What else can you expect from the man who in the 90′s led the monumental change of Continental Airlines from being the worst among the nation’s ten biggest airlines to the now recognised as one of Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America”?

Gordon did with CA exactly what WE need to do with Alitalia: changed the management and managed the change starting from people. He developed a plan for success and had the committment and the responsibility to implement that plan! The real problem with Alitalia – he told me today – is that too many changes have been made without changing anything. You need a leader, one who takes responsibility and builds value relationships with workers and customers, a people person not just a front man! You’ve got to know that the secret is execution, i.e. being strongly committed to do something successfully, design a simple plan addressing all the critical aspects of a business and put it in action“.

In a few words execution means being “responsible to get things done“, as he briefly explained the concept to one of my students asking today the tips to be a successful leader. You can’t expect to communicate value to your peers, staff and customers, just by proposing some different. “Different from what”? Each human being has a personal way to perceive value - he told him.

And Gordon – the creator of the Go-Forward Plan – is exactly “a man in motion” who doesn’t look back, able to challenge all the people who meet him to develop and use their speed and agility…. the kind of men and attitude we need to reverse the decline of Alitalia. Can youuuu hear me…………

TWITTER ITALY – connecting Italian social networkers with their international peers via twitter

fdprome — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:06:05 +0000

Hi Folks

I’ve just started TWITTER Italy http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12428909303, the only facebook group where you will soon find the elite of the Italian Social Networkers twittering with their international peers!

I’m looking for smart talented officers and therefore here I am to launch an appeal to the Twitter experts living in Italy! Please 1) send me your application to be a TWITTER ITALY officer 2) feel free to create and put video/posts and other material regarding TWITTER on the Discussion Board and relevant sections of this group!

I’ve started this group to:

- provide more information in Italian about Twitter.

- spread the word and promote the culture of social networking in Italy.

- Allow Italian social networkers to interact with each other and with foreign networkers who have some special interests to pursue here in Italy. This will provide the chance to exchange experiences, opportunities, projects and VALUE.

This means that any member of this group is free to post information about:

- Special projects requiring cross cultural experience

- Services and job/internship opportunities

- Events, seminars and workshops, especially (but on only) those involving prominent International speakers in visit to our country

- Interesting news and opinions about Media, Politics, Economics, Investments, and so far so on……

Of course take good notice that any defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, offensive, threatening, harassing, racially offensive, illegal material or any material that infringes or violates another party’s rights, chain letters and junk e.mails with infomercials not related to the specific purposes of this group, will be immediately deleted at the sole discretion of the Administrator.

What is Twitter?

Twitter allows you to update your friends about your real and virtual activities just by posting short messages (no more than 140 letters, links included). If you have a blog, a website, a thread…or just a feeling/opinion to share with your network, you will post a message+ link on your twitter and in real time all your friends will get updated.

Joining Twitter, you will find leaders and followers.

If it is true that everyone has his/her own specialty ;-D…. you may find good reasons why to be both leader and follower of the same person.

Long story short, do you want to twitter?

1) Check this website http://twitter.com and join it, and click on Get Started-Join!

2) Customize your profile

3) To enable a successful interaction between your Twitter and Facebook accounts, add on Facebook the Friendfeed Application. This way all your Twitter microposts will pop up on your Facebook minifeed, thus allowing – with no need to import/export your contacts – your Facebook friends to get updated on your overall networking activities.

Hope you get the best social experience out of yourTwitter and do not forget to:

- follow my twitter…….. http://twitter.com/fdprome

- add your specialties on your twitter account…I may decide to be your follower ;-D

What is GMAT for?

fdprome — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:25:47 +0000

GMAT is a creature of the MBA; most MBA programs, certainly the best ones, require applicants to take the GMAT. But the GMAT has taken on a life of its own, beyond its original purpose that was to measure MBA applicants’ ability to successfully navigate an MBA program.
Just to give you an example, check out a professional networking site like LinkedIn. Many, if not most, MBAs continue to post their GMAT scores, 5 years, 10 years, or longer, after they’ve earned their MBAs, even though there’s no specific indication that the GMAT correlates to business acumen or success in the long term!

This means that the absolute and functional value of GMAT – after one earns his/her MBA – has become remarkably durable!
If you want to go in depth on this topic and discover:
- what the GMAT is not!
- How test-takers should approach the GMAT
- How the GMAT can exponentially increase your chances to succeed, if you are considering to apply for a top MBA program,
- How – beyond this specific goal – the GMAT can help you to develop the ability to manage yourselves as problem solvers and decision makers under conditions of less than perfect knowledge and resources
- How the ability to acquire (or re-acquire) and maintain these skills DOES correlate to long term success in some aspects of life and business……..

DON’T MISS the seminar that will be held in Rome (via Quintino Sella 67/69 – the European School of Economics) on May 6 (7.00/10.00 pm) by prof. Robert Eller, expert GMAT prep trainer and MBA application coach.

Meetings with remarkable men

fdprome — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:38:15 +0000

What are the distinctive features of a remarkable individual? Visionary, fearless, timeless, passionate, responsible, committed, leading the future and ……help me with the list

I believe that we need to inspire and guide a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs here in Italy.

That’s why I’m seeking outstanding, top honours CEO, Entrepreneurs, Netpreneurs, pioneers and new trend setters….. willing to share their knowledge in the following fields:

- Drivers of globalization and impact on industries and organizational structures
- Time to go green: Sustainability, Corporate Responsibility and Corporate image
- New trends in Operations and Quality Management
- New trends in the distribution industry
- Creating New Ventures and the Business Plan: tools to build Competitive Advantage
- Advanced customer relationship strategies
- New tools to capture cultural value
- Cities are back: the concept of city management
- Outsourcing, off-shoring and next generations of employees
- The Entrepreneurial mindset
————————–————————–————-
- Invisible success factors in product/service innovation
- Competitive E-marketing strategies
- Direct response advertising vs brand advertising
- New Integrated marketing approaches & 21ST Century PR
- Sponsorship techniques
- Social networking and new media trends
- Behavioural targeting
- Proximity Marketing
- New Marketing ideas for the emerging markets (resort rebirth – sachet marketing – obc – easy-asia etc)
- 21st century Sales techniques and pricing strategies
————————–————————–————-
- Financial Management techniques for multinational firms
- International Capital structure, cost of capital and capital budgeting
- Assessment techniques for M&A
- Tools to conduct due diligence
- Tools and approaches to evaluate financial value
- Strategies to identify, estimate and manage financial risk
- Emerging trends in corporate governance
- Emerging trends in the private equity market
- Entrepreneurship and finance
————————–————————–————-
- If you are/personally know “a remarkable individual”.
- If this remarkable individual believes that sharing his/her knowledge and interests is a rewarding experience
- If this remarkable individual plans to visit Rome (Italy) in the near future

please
1) JOIN MY FACEBOOK GROUP http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24903537608 AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS
2) INVITE YOUR REMARKABLE FRIENDS
3) GET IN CONTACT WITH ME AT YOUR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE

too much information

fdprome — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:39:51 +0000

running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane
Too much information running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane

Overkill
Overview
Over my dead body
Over me
Over you
Over everybody

Sting and the Police used to sing this beautiful song more than a decade ago but it is still so actual…Information is never neutral or objective…even scientific and academic research is increasingly subvented by corporate sponsors interested to manipulate the results.

We should train ourserlves to interprete the news that pervade our lives and find out by our own what/who is worthwhile to trust.