How Do You Cultivate Innovation ?

Being innovative means solving a problem in a unique and creative way. Companies like Google, Apple, GE and Facebook have made billions because innovation is a principal value in everything they do. Given the positive associations with it, every organization likes to think it fosters innovation, but unfortunately, the truth is often much different. This week's Culture Beat explores the qualities of truly innovative cultures. How does yours stack up?
Promoting Pride in the Individual and the Organization
According to research recently published in the Journal of Business Venturing, which looked at two decades of data on 62 countries, both individualistic and nationalistic cultures support innovation. While it’s not a major surprise that individualism is strongly associated with innovation, a more intriguing finding is that cultures that value the success of the group and have high degrees of patriotism also encourage innovation in their people. Countries like Japan and Sweden, for instance, are traditionally more collectivist but are also extremely innovative.
Employing Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is a management style that seeks to positively impact the attitudes and behaviors of followers. Frequently described as high-energy and high on passion, transformational leaders are focused more on success of the people responsible for the outcome than the success of the outcome itself. Such managers promote intellectual curiosity, open communication, performance rewards and professional development. They are able to articulate a clear vision for progress and, by appealing to the moral high ground, serve as an inspirational role model for employees. Michael Dell of Dell, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Lou Gerstner of IBM and Martin Luther King Jr. are oft-cited examples of transformational leaders.
Giving People Permission to Fail
True innovators know that hitting upon a successful idea is a process of trial and error, and more often than not, you have to experiment with several approaches before finding one that works. Cultures infused with innovation are not risk-averse and don’t hold people back by always insisting on a revenue-winning outcome. By giving employees the freedom to fail, organizations also open themselves up to spectacular wins. Sounds a bit like transformational leadership, doesn’t it? And one need only to look at Microsoft to see it in action.

Don’t Restrict the Focus to R&D
Throwing some budget at research and development departments, or launching a siloed “innovation committee” will not definitively move your culture in the right direction.  Instead, employees in all areas of the business must be encouraged to weave innovative thinking into everyday tasks and projects, and should be rewarded for doing so.
Innovative Cultures Don’t Need Gatekeepers
Fast Company Co.Design bloggers Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen claim that there is a new type of professional in American businesses specifically tasked with innovation. “Innovation custodians” are middle managers assigned to oversee innovators and their processes. “Innovation word-slingers” are external consultants who lead in-house innovation workshops. The problem with innovation professionals, say Skibsted and Hansen, is that they rarely have the maverick outlook that it takes to innovate in a substantive way. Also, innovation should be an attitude that organically runs through the heart of an organization and cannot be easily implemented by a manager with a to-do list.
Do you think your culture breeds innovation?  What advantages and disadvantages do small businesses have in this regard?
Alexandra Levit is a former nationally syndicated business and workplace columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success. Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year, she regularly speaks at organizations and conferences on issues facing modern employees.

12:49 by Robert dawne · 1

Finding Your Small-Business Calling on Vacation

Most tourists enjoy shopping, but two former corporate executives took it a step further by importing the products they discovered on vacation.
Debby Ruth, an executive on the fast track at a major cable television company, fell in love with Hester van Eeghen’s quirky and colorful handmade leather bags on a shopping trip to Amsterdam in 2004.
“I was absolutely mesmerized and spent half a day in Hester’s boutique,” recalled Ruth, who is now the exclusive U.S. importer of van Eeghen’s handbags, gloves and wallets via Hester van Eeghen U.S.
Ruth admits she never planned to start a small business. But when she was laid off in 2008, she decided to invest her severance package in her own venture: selling van Eeghen’s goods in the U.S.
Amsterdam or Bust
Contacting van Eeghen to discuss the potential business venture was the first challenge. “It took eight months to reach her,” Ruth says. “Hester is one of the busiest women you’ve ever met. I finally hopped on a plane and flew to Amsterdam—without even having an appointment.”
When they finally met over dinner, they explored ways to sell the Italian-made purses, gloves, wallets and briefcases to American fashionistas. Van Eeghen’s hand-sewn bags are pricey, retailing for around $900 for a purse and $300 for leather gloves.
But Ruth’s persistence paid off and so far, the relationship has been positive, according to van Eeghen.
"Working with Debby on the HVE US online boutique was a natural way to have a greater presence in the United States,” said Hester Van Eeghen via e-mail. “We have found the American customers in our Amsterdam shop to be very enthusiastic about my designs. I thought creating the online boutique first would be an ideal way to reach as many people as possible but in a way that was organic."
A Walking Billboard
Soon after van Eeghen made Debby Ruth her exclusive U.S. distributor, Ruth tapped her husband, Tim Lenz, to help her design the sophisticated, minimalist website. Lenz also shot all the photos of van Eeghen’s wares.
Launched in 2010, sales have grown steadily. Ruth said she and van Eeghen split the revenue on the bags sold via the U.S. website. She declined to reveal the financial details of the arrangement or share annual revenues for the privately held U.S. company.
“Our goal is to get big enough to open physical locations,” Ruth says. Meanwhile, she is a walking billboard for her product. “Whenever I’m carrying one of Hester’s bags, people stop me to ask where to buy it.”
Boutique Bubbly
While Debby Ruth found a new career importing handbags, Ruth Frantz, a beverage industry executive, also had a life-changing experience while vacationing abroad. She was visiting several small, mostly family-owned vineyards in France when she was inspired to import the boutique champagne into the U.S. Frantz felt confident she could pull it off, having worked on the global marketing of Ketel One Vodka for a major liquor distributor.
“There are about 4,000 champagne producers in France, yet most Americans only know Moet and Veuve Clicquot,” Frantz says.
Her mission is educating Americans to enjoy the sparkling wine more freely. It’s a challenge, because most Americans drink champagne only for special occasions, Frantz says. Europeans, however, drink champagne to kick off an evening of eating and drinking.
She created a character called Henri and founded Connecticut-based Henri's Reserve about two years ago. For sale is a gift package called the “Guaranteed Seduction Kit” for $300, which includes truffles and candles. One top seller is the $160 "tasting kit" featuring three bottles of champagne and pre-printed cards for making notes about the different wines.
Scaling Up
Frantz depends on food writers, wine bloggers, Facebook and other social media platforms to spread the word about Henri’s Reserve. “We started very small and now it’s all about scaling up,” she says.
Because importing liquor to the U.S. is highly regulated and complicated, Frantz relies on Robert Houde, a Chicago-based wine expert, to manage the logistics. “I source the wines and get them into the country for Ruth,” Houde says. “Our customers really like that these are real wines from real vineyards, versus mass blended wines from big companies.”
Small restaurants looking to set themselves apart from the competition by offering a selection of unique, boutique champagne are a growing percentage of Henri’s Reserve's sales. The privately held company does not release revenues, but Frantz says that although she started the business during the recent recession, sales are growing.
Have you ever drawn business inspiration from a vacation?

12:43 by Robert dawne · 1

Microsoft Launches Office 365 For Government

Google scored an important win over Microsoft a few weeks ago when it won a $35 million U.S. government contract to bring its cloud-based office solution to the Department of the Interior. Microsoft’s legacy solutions, of course, remain a staple in government offices, but as more and more agencies want to move their productivity and collaboration services to the cloud, Microsoft is running the risk of losing out in this lucrative market. Today, however, the company is launching a new service that should give more of its government customers, which tend to have very strict data security and privacy regulations, the option to move to the cloud. Microsoft’s new Office 365 for Government is, in the company’s own words, “a new multi-tenant service that stores US government data in a segregated community cloud.”
Google touted its ISO 27001 certification for Google Apps for Business last week, which Office 365 for Government also qualifies for. Just like its predecessor, the Business Productivity Online Suite Federal, Microsoft’s new service also supports a plethora of other certifications, including SAS70 Type II, the US Health Insurance Portability, Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the US Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Microsoft also plans to support Criminal Justice Information Security policies soon. The service will soon offer support for IPv6 as well.
The major difference between Microsoft’s enterprise solution and this government cloud is that the government data lives on its own segregated infrastructure. Besides this – and the additional certifications – Microsoft’s government solution includes virtually the same services as the enterprise version, including Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online and Office Professional Plus. Given that Microsoft’s enterprise solution is also now FISMA certified, this new service is mainly meant for agencies that have requirements beyond this certification.

11:05 by Robert dawne · 1

Tim Cook Honors Steve Jobs, and Faces the Future

If there’s such a thing as a master class for new CEOs, I think Tim Cook held it last night. In a warm, funny, smart and highly controlled interview with All Thing D‘s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the 10th annual D Conference, the still-newish Apple CEO expertly handled dozens of questions on everything from Apple’s relationship with Facebook, which he says is good, to its steady migration into the TV business, to “pain in the ass” patent wars. It was a performance that would have made his friend and mentor, the late Steve Jobs, proud.
Throughout the interview (a transcript of our live coverage is here) Cook never lost his cool or good humor, and stayed on message.
While never offering any tangible product update information (though some believe he more or less buried the Ping social network), Cook did paint a clearer picture of who he really is as a CEO, the devotion he has to the company and to carrying forward Job’s vision without the need to “be” the legendary company founder. “Steve was a genius and visionary. I never viewed my role was to replace him. Steve was an original. I don’t think another one of those is being made… I never felt the weight of being Steve.”

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True Believer

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Cook, who has been with Apple for 14 years is a true believer and explained that he knew he wanted to join Jobs at the company within five minutes of meeting him at their first interview in 1998. He told me that he was attracted to Jobs’ apparent lack of interest in money and desire to move heavily into the consumer space, at a time when the rest of the industry was heading in the opposite direction. Cook was so entranced, he resigned his job at Compaq the next day and essentially never looked back.
Despite his obvious admiration for Jobs, Cook was well aware of the late CEO’s quirks. He recounted how Jobs could passionately argue one position and then, a day later, just as passionately support the opposite position. “Jobs would flip on something so fast, that you would forget that he was the person taking a 180 position.” Mossberg said they had video evidence of this characteristic and Cook retorted, “You’ve got proof. I saw it daily.” He also refuted the widely held belief that Steve Jobs was the product sole curator. Cook said that now with Jobs gone the “curator role moves around as it always had.” If Steve Jobs were there, continued Cook, “he’d say, ‘no one person does it all.’ ”
Cook has, it’s clear, fully embraced the role of CEO. He called the Job “his oxygen” and relished the new responsibilities and the unique customer engagement Apple enjoys. He described Apple customers as “a different breed” and spoke of the privilege of getting thousands of e-mails a day from customers.

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Patents, Their Way

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Cook, though, didn’t just effortlessly handle the softball questions. He managed some interesting Jobsian logic on the difficult question of patents. Yes, he acknowledged that Apple is engaged in patent disputes, but Apple never, he said, goes after “standards essential” patents. In other words, a patent that, say, might define how you connect to a 3G network. Owners of those kinds of patents “have a responsibility,” said Cook, to “license them on a fair and reasonable” basis.
When Apple goes after others for patent disputes, though, it’s invariably for something Apple has built. Complained Cook, The whole thing is “a pain in the ass. Is it a problem for innovation? From our point of view, it’s important that Apple is not the developer for the world. We can’t take all the care and finish all the painting and have someone else put their name on it.”
Still, when Kara Swisher tried to draw Cook into some negative commentary on Google, Cook demurred, saying he did not want to talk about other companies. Though the exchange left us with little solid information about the state of Apple’s patent battles, we were still oddly satisfied. Cook may not be Jobs, but he clearly possesses some of his persuasive gifts.
Repeatedly, Cook buffeted back questions on future product developments and business activities, though he did promise great things from Siri, continued engagement in the Apple TV space and possible blockbuster acquisitions. He said all this without offering any real news, telling the audience only, “We’re going to introduce some great stuff.”

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Rise of the Tablet

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Cook spent a lot of time talking about the rise of the tablet market, which he still thinks is in the “early innings,” and, like Jobs, was able to slip in the occasional veiled dig at the competition. “We didn’t invent tablet market. It was there. We invented the modern tablet market,” he told Mossberg.
Perhaps the most interesting exchange came when Cook explained that Apple would “double-down on product secrecy.” Apple is famous for how it manages its limited product lineup roll-out, with levels of secrecy that, reportedly, extend inside the company so only those groups working directly on a future product know exactly what it is. Again Cook offered no specific example but did add that the company would now balance that secrecy by “being the most transparent” in other areas, more specifically, how it manages its supply chain.
Cook said Apple is working hard to improve conditions at the Foxconn manufacturing plant where many of its most popular products are assembled. Still the change is not coming easy. As Apple tries to reduce the long hours some Foxconn employees work, Cook said it’s finding resistance from employees who want to work a lot of hours, quickly earn overtime hours and bring the money back to their more impoverished hometowns in China.
When Jobs died last October, it was, Cook recalled, “absolutely one of the saddest days of my life.” Cook mourned, but then “last year someone kind of shook me and said, ‘It’s time to get on.’ ”
Getting on means Cook “will change things” at Apple. But one thing he won’t change is its culture of excellence: “Not accepting good or very good. That’s embedded in Apple.” He made it clear that, going forward, this would be his Apple: “I love museums, but I don’t want to live in one. Steve taught us to not focus on the past. Be future focused.”

10:22 by Robert dawne · 0

Why Microsoft Is Being Left in the Dust

Alex Goldfayn’s new book is called Evangelist Marketing: What Apple Amazon and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn’t). He is CEO of the Evangelist Marketing Institute, a marketing consultancy with clients that include T-Mobile, TiVo, and Logitech. Follow him @alexgoldfayn.
There are now a number of companies — Apple, Google, Amazon, and others — that have Microsoft in their rear-view mirrors, disappearing quickly on the horizon in a cloud of dust.
That kick of dust in the company’s face is being emitted by Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Amazon’s Kindle, and Google’s search and cloud domination. Microsoft’s own wild lunges into various technology segments are also contributing considerably to it being left behind. Take the company’s recent partnership with Barnes & Noble, where it took 18% of the Nook e-reader for $605 million in cash and future guarantees. This was a move to compete with Amazon, but can it really compete?
If you want to know why Microsoft’s share price has been flat for 11 years while Apple, Amazon, and Google shares have soared, this is why. Microsoft is not innovating aggressively. It is not leading categories or blazing trails. No, it’s acquiring aggressively as a shortcut to innovation. That isn’t working. Its own history suggests as much.

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Microsoft Has Not Capitalized on its Partnerships and Acquisitions

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Last year, Microsoft announced a broad strategic partnership with Nokia, presumably to use Windows operating systems and software on Nokia’s smartphones. This was 15 months ago. But last week, a report found that Apple and Samsung generated 99 percent of the profits in the mobile phone category. Nokia, which once enjoyed more than half of all mobile phone profits, made zero.
In 2009, Microsoft acquired a 10-year license to use Yahoo’s core search technology, which later became the Bing search engine. Today, Google’s search market share is a dominant 66%, with Microsoft’s Bing a very distant second at 15%. After spending billions building and marketing Bing, Microsoft is barely visible in Google’s rear-view mirror.
Finally, what of Microsoft’s Skype acquisition a year ago? It’s too early to tell, but here’s a fact worth noting: The Wall Street Journal reports that 85% of Microsoft’s revenue comes from Windows and Office software. The rest of it? Barely a blip.
And so, Microsoft is proving, like many have before it, that acquiring companies outside your core competencies are recipes for failure. Remember when Cisco purchased the Flip video camera, at the time one of the most popular consumer electronics products on the planet? How did that work out? In 2010, HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion, but we haven’t seen any industry-altering smartphones from HP.
Conversely, consider Apple’s acquisition of Siri: a technology that immediately and profoundly complimented and enhanced its iPhone. It fit obviously and very successfully.

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Microsoft Does Not Need to Compete with Amazon

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Another major problem with Microsoft’s partnership involving the Nook is that there is simply no need for it to compete with Amazon. This is like Best Buy focusing all of its efforts on its ecommerce site while neglecting its one major competitive advantage: its brick-and-mortar stores. This is also like Research in Motion spending a year building its atrociously received tablet, the PlayBook, while neglecting its core competency of Blackberry smartphones.
Microsoft dominates the competition in computer operating systems and software. Computers are dying, right? And yet, in May 2012, there is no Microsoft Office for tablets and smartphones. Millions of iPads and Android tablets are being adopted in corporate environments, and most of those customers would be happy to spend $70 on Microsoft Office for each device. Except, it does not exist.
I can only guess why: because with its many categories, acquisitions and partnerships, Microsoft is physically incapable of putting its full focus behind converting its desktop products to mobile devices.

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Microsoft is Going Wide, Not Deep

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Which brings me to the third and final big problem with Microsoft’s Nook play. It is keeping with the strategy of going as wide as possible. Microsoft is not, and cannot be, all things to all people. In fact, no company can.
Here’s the truth: The wider you go, the more priorities you focus on, the less chance you have to be successful. But when you go deep, you can dominate. (See Apple, and Amazon.) When you go deep, you can continue perfecting. You become the world’s expert on a certain specialty. Apple is seen as the world’s expert on smartphones and tablets. Amazon is the accepted leader in online shopping and electronic reading. It’s because these two companies relentlessly focus on their strengths, saying no to nearly everything else. No. That’s a word Microsoft should consider trying out before it gets left in the dust permanently.

12:05 by Robert dawne · 1

Coda Electric Sedan Zooms Into California

Name: Coda

The World at Work is powered by GE. This new series highlights the people, projects and startups that are driving innovation and making the world a better place.
Big Idea: The new, all-electric car company is offering potential owners (in California only) to design and reserve their own electric vehicle for only $99.
Why It’s Working: Focused on reducing vehicle emissions while also providing a wallet-friendly and eco-friendly option for consumers, Coda aims to make a major splash in the consumer electric vehicle industry — and the automotive industry at large.

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Ladies and gentlemen, charge your engines. Consumer car industry newcomer Coda Automotive is making electric car ownership much more affordable.
Priced at $37,000 (not including federal incentives), the four-seat Coda sedan contains a lithium-ion battery and an active thermal management system that ensures the battery’s temperatures are regulated inside the vehicle for maximum use. Alloy wheels and an eco-friendly interior come standard in the vehicle, but you can also upgrade to leather seating and a premium audio system. You can also chose the color of your Coda, which comes in white, black, gray, silver, dark blue or red.
According to the company, the Coda sedan can travel 125 miles on one full charge of its 31kWh battery pack. The EPA has a more conservative (but still impressive) estimate of 88 miles on one full charge. Anecdotal evidence has also shown that the car can travel even further on a single charge, depending on how fast the driver is going and the nature of the roadway. However, there’s an extra cost of installing a proper charging station, which is not included in the vehicle price.
“What sets Coda apart is that we’re a 100% all-electric company dedicated to developing cost-effective and efficient EVs and energy storage systems,” says Thomas Hausch, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Coda. “Since day one, we’ve focused on developing a safe, affordable battery system to support the deployment of EVs and renewable energy globally.”
Coda is based in Los Angeles, with an assembly plant in Benicia, Calif. As for the nuts and bolts, the body of the Coda sedan is purchased from Great Wall Motors, the fastest growing car manufacturer in China. But the auto company leaves the battery to its team of engineers, who develop and design the battery to fit performance goals. The battery is assembled by Lishen Coda Energy Systems — a joint-venture between CODA and China-based lithium-ion cell manufacturer Lishen.
Coda Automotive began as Miles Electric Vehicles, founded by Miles Rubin in 2007. Rubin’s initial idea was to create a clean-technology vehicle and lower our dependence on fossil fuels while cleaning up the environment. The company made small electric vehicles universities and other institutions before branching off to become Coda. The idea, says a company spokesperson, was to develop an EV around an already existing body and modify the car to match the market’s needs.
The auto company is working with existing dealerships to sell the sedan. If you want to drive it off a lot, there are a handful of showrooms in California, but eventually there will be a major roll-out to other states. There are also five “experience centers” in California where you can test drive the car and learn about EVs — but you can’t buy one there. For now, the best bet is to place an order for a customized vehicle on the manufacturer’s website at a paltry cost of $99.
There is also a new Coda model on the horizon, with a slightly beefier battery pack. Think of it like a V4 versus a V6 engine — the larger battery, when fully charged, should last up to 150 miles. This Coda starts at around $39,900 and will be available to consumers in the coming months.
A spokesperson for Coda won’t say how many vehicles have been sold so far, but said the company would be releasing that information in the future.

10:30 by Robert dawne · 0

RIM CEO: We’re Not Leaving the Consumer Business

ORLANDO — Thorsten Heins, the CEO of Research In Motion, today clarified comments he made weeks ago about RIM refocusing on the enterprise market, saying the company was not leaving the consumer business behind.
Heins said what he meant was the company needed to eliminate some services the company was doing in-house, and instead achieve those consumer-based goals with partnerships rather than going it alone. While enterprise is still RIM’s core strength, Heins said the company would continue to market and sell devices and services to the consumer segment.
Heins also unequivocally contradicted reports that RIM was abandoning physical keyboards on phones, a traditional RIM strength. Saying BlackBerrys had the best physical keyboards on the planet, Heins 100% confirmed there will be a BlackBerry 10 device with a keyboard when the new platform debuts this fall.
He wouldn’t say whether or not there would be a new tablet when BlackBerry 10 devices arrive, but he did say that if RIM creates a new tablet, it would be marketed to enterprise customers first, with a consumer play later, if at all. Broadly, Heins sees tablets as an “on-ramp” to mobile computing.
Heins also spoke about his philosophies and RIM’s approach to the market.
“We spend a lot of time on who are we mostly talking to, who is the target customer,” he said. “The common denominator with all our customers is that they are striving to succeed.”
Heins said “success” didn’t necessarily mean in business. It could also be personal, but the main challenge that they all have is managing their relationships.

“What do I need to succeed?” Heins said RIM’s customers are asking. “How do I manage all these connections and communications channels? I’m creating them with relationships, but i’m now subject to them as well.”
To Heins, the answer to those questions is BlackBerry 10. Heins emphasized the benefits and abilities the new OS, which has “real-time” multitasking, with apps that don’t stop or pause when they’re in the background.
Between now and then, though, Heins provided little guidance for customers. He said RIM would continue to develop and support BlackBerry 7 (the OS on current RIM devices, except the PlayBook tablet), but he was unspecific when asked about what sort of upgrade path there might be for BB7 customers.
What do you think of Heins’s comments? Is it the right strategy, or does it need adjustment? Have your say in the comments.

12:37 by Robert dawne · 0

Yahoo Escalates Patent War With Facebook

Yahoo just took its war of lawsuits with Facebook to the next level, adding two more patent-infringement claims to the 10 it filed for back in March.
The company also accused Facebook of not having a good-faith belief in the counterclaim it filed almost a month ago.
“Today Yahoo! filed additional claims against Facebook in U.S. District Court related to two additional patents on which Facebook infringes,” Yahoo said in an emailed statement.
“As we have stated previously, Yahoo!’s technologies are the foundation of our business that engages over 700 million monthly unique visitors and represent the spirit of innovation upon which Yahoo! is built. We intend to vigorously protect these technologies for our customers and shareholders.”
In the face of the new claims, Facebook was more succinct: “We remain perplexed by Yahoo’s erratic actions,” a Facebook spokesperson said, also in an emailed statement. “We disagree with these latest claims and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.”
With the “erratic” dig, Facebook seems to be depicting Yahoo as the tech-company equivalent of a crotchety old man. Considering Yahoo specifically calls out Facebook for using recently acquired patents as the basis of its lawsuit — even though some of the patents in Yahoo’s claim were acquired as well — the image may well stick.

A quick recap: Shortly after appointing former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as CEO, Yahoo warned Facebook that the social network was infringing on its intellectual property — specifically, 10 patents that relate to Internet technologies.
It then went ahead and sued Facebook a few weeks later, becoming something of a tech-industry pariah in the process.
Facebook, rather than try to end the suit with a quick settlement, set out to arm itself for a retaliatory strike. The social network quickly acquired many patents from both IBM and Microsoft. Facebook also countersued Yahoo — saying that it, too, was guilty of patent infringement.
The whole affair would be funny if it wasn’t a symptom of a wider, all-out patent war. In the last year we’ve seen Apple, Google, Microsoft and a host of others sue the pants of each other, and a company that barely does anything can claim to hold a patent on the web itself.
So this latest salvo in the Facebook-Yahoo patent war likely won’t be the last. What’s your take on the ongoing dispute? Sound off in the comments.

10:32 by Robert dawne · 2

LinkedIn Introduces Targeted Updates and Follower Statistics

LinkedIn’s 150m+ users worldwide are a marketers dream.  Professionals with lots of money and desperate me-too job seekers.  A marketer with the ability to craft intelligent relevant messaging would be able to do good business on the network.  But fortunately for everyone, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is not necessarily keen on spamming the fragile LinkedIn ecosystem with ads.  But that doesn’t mean he’s not building better ways for brands to connect with people who are interested.
The new services give marketers access to targeting and analytics for advertising campaigns for LinkedIn company pages.  This is an attempt help brands that want to connect with interested users: a brand can now target and analyze whether they are attracting users of certain demographics to their brand pages.  LinkedIn can target “hyper-focused” follower lists based on industry, seniority, job function and other features.  And they can then deliver specific content to those users.  An image of the process of targeting is given below.

After this content is sent out to those users, brands can look at their analytics dashboard which can track engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments and more.  LinkedIn has provided some more data about the new follower ecosystem, as they’re calling it, below.  Check it out and let us know if you agree that this is an effective way for brands to engage on LI.
Additional Information about LinkedIn’s Follower Ecosystem:

• LinkedIn’s Unique Follower Ecosystem: LinkedIn’s follower ecosystem has been designed to enable marketers to: identify and acquire the right followers; more effectively engage and communicate with followers on a regular basis via relevant content; and analyze and optimize the impact of their follower relationships.
• LinkedIn’s Follow Company Button: LinkedIn Targeted Updates and Follower Statistics’ launch follows on the heels of the introduction of the LinkedIn Follow Company button – the first phase of LinkedIn’s follower ecosystem strategy – in February.  It facilitates engagement through a button added to businesses’ Web pages and other marketing materials.

Additional Research about LinkedIn Members and the Value of LinkedIn’s Follower Ecosystem:

• Members expect companies to have a presence and engage on LinkedIn:

o   63% of LinkedIn members expect companies to have a presence on LinkedIn.

• Members are “following” companies and want to maintain these relationships:

o   70% of LinkedIn members follow or would follow companies on LinkedIn.
o   Two out of three LinkedIn followers (64%) would follow companies “indefinitely.”

• Followers are active on LinkedIn:

o   LinkedIn followers are 2x more connected than the average member.
o   LinkedIn followers are in 2x more LinkedIn groups than the average member.

• Engaging followers on LinkedIn significantly impacts brand metrics:

o   Half (49%) of current followers state that they are more likely to purchase products or services from a company that is more engaged with its followers.

• Members are motivated to follow companies on LinkedIn in contrast to other social platforms:

o   Half (47%) of current followers agree that LinkedIn is a more appropriate social environment for hearing company news and updates.

10:39 by Robert dawne · 0

Everyone’s Curious About Instagram; Android App Hits 5 Million Downloads

What a week.  As if being purchased for $1 Billion by the most influential social media company in the world wasn’t enough, Instagram has just reached 5 million downloads for the Android version of their photo software — and that’s in 6 days.  We reported when they hit a million earlier this week, and now it looks like they’ve continued their ascent.  Judging by my personal experience, I can see that there is definitely a buzz about Instagram — people are wondering what exactly it is after the Facebook purchase and this may have led to a snowball effect for the app.
As reported first by The Next Web, by studiously watching the Google Play page for the Instagram app, the app has now jumped into the category of “5,000,000 – 10,000,000″ installs where it was previously in the “1,000,000 – 5,000,000″ install range.  I’ve picked up the application myself, and while I still think it’s a close call with Camera ZOOM FX, Instagram’s ability to auto upload and share with others is pretty slick.
Are you using Instagram for Android?

10:32 by Robert dawne · 1

Groupon Stock Drops 12% As Customer Refunds Increase

While other IPOs such as LinkedIn and YELP have had tremendous recent success, social buying startup Groupon has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride and it looks like they just went over a steep drop.  The stock is down over 10% today on news that four-quarter revenue and income is down due to a higher than expected number of customers asking for refunds.
Groupon is a social buying service that allows users to buy specific items at discount as long as a large number of people participate in a given deal.  For example, a massage parlour can offer 30% off their regular price, as long as 100 people purchase the deal.  This incentivizes users to invite their friends to participate in the deal, and if the 100 number is hit, the deal is activated.
The problem is that a lot of businesses have not prepared themselves for the influx of customers, and the poor service has sometimes led to users demanding refunds.  Another anecdotal reason for the refunds is that the deals are often so enticing that people begin to hoard massive numbers of deals, but then realize they probably won’t need to cash in on 6 massages in the next few months.  Read more about the refund issue here.

As we can see in the chart, the stock began to rebound after a big hit in November during the IPO, and had reached heights above 20.  As reported in MarketWatch, Justin Post of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch had recommended a buy on the stock, but the company has not performed as well as hoped.

“Groupon has been our most disappointing call in 2012 as we thought 4Q margin upside, a rebound in 4Q take rates, and data suggesting an improving competitive landscape would improve sentiment on the stock,” wrote Justin Post of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in a note to clients on Monday.

This is a far cry from when Google was attempting to buy the company at a valuation of $6B, although today’s price does have its market capitalization at $8B… but that number is falling fast.

19:45 by Robert dawne · 0

Sony Shakes Things Up Under New CEO, Reorganizes For The Post-PC Era

Sony enters a new era April 1st. On that day Kazuo Hirai will replace Sir Howard Stringer as Sony’s president and CEO. The challenges ahead are massive; Sony is facing a financial and organizational calamity. Sony is simply too big and has fallen too far and Hirai is tasked to bring Sony back to glory.
Sony just announced a new corporate organization that shows drastic change is underway. Under this strategy, dubbed One Sony, separate Sony divisions will share management, hopefully streamlining decisions and creating a more unified end-user experience that better utilizes Sony’s content offering. Sony under Stringer was an unwieldy multi-headed beast. Hirai is clearly trying to tighten the reins. It just might work and it has to work.
Prior to Stringer, Sony was led by Nobuyuki Idei who started feeding the hungry Sony machine. Under his watch Sony established Sony BMG Music Entertainment and purchased Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn Mayer studio in 2005. He entered into the joint mobile-phone venture with Ericsson. He was also the Sony exec that green-lighted the loveable, but still a bit strange, Aibo robotic dog.
Stringer was left with a bit of mess when he took over in the summer of 2005. At that time Sony was far from being just a consumer electronic company and majorly involved in nearly ever aspect of media creation and distribution. Now, in 2012, Sony’s once-mainstay TV division is drowning in red ink, the company just dissolved its partnership with Ericsson, and there is little, if any, compelling reason for a consumer to use one of Sony’s many media distribution platforms over Netflix, iTunes or Amazon.
Sony is simply not built for the current consumer electronics game. We’re entering into the age of digital appliances, a post-PC era if you will, and 15 years ago Sony would have been the top player. But now, in 2012, Apple and Samsung are the big kids on the playground; Sony is hiding under the slide doing his homework.
The PlayStation happens to be the one bright spot in Sony’s recent history. Sony’s incoming CEO, Kazuo, led that division for the last 5 years. There is hope, Sony fans.
Under the One Sony structure, Sony sees digital imaging, gaming and mobile devices to be the three cornerstones of its electronic business. Hirai himself will be in charge of Sony’s troubled HDTV division. The company will still pursue the medical technology field but what was separate medical-related divisions within Sony will be consolidated into one unit. Perhaps most promising though, Sony is appointing Kunimasas Suzuki, currently Executive Deputy President of Consumer Products. & Services Group, to be the officer in charge of unifying Sony products and creating a better user experience across the company’s entire product and network service line — something the company desperately needs. He is also in charge of Sony’s mobile business, showing that Hirai understands that going forward user experiences start in the mobile sector.
Sony of old is long gone. Sony will never be the same nimble company again. However, with the proper structure and leadership Sony might once again regain its swagger. Sony was once the shining example of user experience and hardware design done right. Sony needs to find its soul. If any company can properly battle Apple in the arena of consumer electronics, it’s Sony. After all, it’s Sony that Apple and Steve Jobs were aiming to dethrone 15 years ago.

09:18 by iliot Atlas · 0

Employee Passwords Are None of Your Business, Says Facebook

If the growing number of companies and law enforcement agencies asking job applicants for Facebook passwords was encouraging you to do the same, think again.
Facebook Friday issued a warning to employers that requesting passwords is an invasion of privacy that opens companies to legal liabilities.
The world's largest social network also is threatening legal action. Wrote Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, in a lengthy post: "We'll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges."
The company says it has seen a "distressing increase" of reports of employers attempting to access user accounts, Facebook's Egan wrote. "The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidences of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords," she said.
A user should never be forced to cough up private information just to get a job—"and as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job," Egan wrote.
The company has changed its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, making requests to share or solicit a Facebook log-in a violation of the rules.
The American Civil Liberties Union this week used the reports to urge support for its "Demand your dotRights campaign."
ACLU attorney Catherine Crump called the password solicitation an "invasion of privacy."
"You’d be appalled if your employer insisted on opening up your postal mail to see if there was anything of interest inside," she said. "It’s equally out of bounds for an employer to go on a fishing expedition through a person’s private social media account."
The ACLU of Maryland currently is fighting for a social media privacy bill in the state, where the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services asks applicants to "voluntarily" provide access to their social media accounts during interviews.

16:42 by Robert dawne · 0

Would You Fire Someone for Mocking Your Company Online?

Gailen David, an American Airlines flight attendant who mocked the beleaguered company in a series of online videos, has been fired, according to a post on his Facebook page.

David, a flight attendant for 24 years, also runs a website called DearSkySteward.com that includes company gossip.

David has long provoked the company, but the incidents that were his undoing, it seems, began when the American Airlines vice president for onboard services sent a letter to flight attendants David described as "patronizing."

The letter explained to workers the "joint" sacrifices that needed to be made at the company.

"I decided to make a video, so what I did was I dressed up," he told the Broward New Times. "All I did was read the letter, and I added a couple of y'alls and honeys."

He posted the video early last month; it now has more than 56,000 views. His success–he said it struck a chord with his fellow employees–spurred him to make a fake movie trailer called, in homage to Iron Lady, Aluminum Lady. That one featured a fictional (or so he said) vice president.

On his site, he described the video this way:

The Aluminum Lady [is] the most dangerous woman in aviation. She's skillfully taken American Airlines, one of the most admired airlines, to its lowest point and the morale of its flight attendants and their fellow employees right along with it. From their Dallas/Ft. Worth Headquarters to the lavish American Airlines London Townhouse, this historical drama will keep you on the edge of your seat and bring tears to your eyes.

The video received more than 52,000 views.

American Airlines asked him to take the video down. He refused.

"And they said, 'What do you want from us?'" he told the New Times.

The union told him they planned to fire him, but he says he told them: "It's worth it for me, because you would not believe how it's brought the workers together."

Still, he carried on making videos. On March 14, the company fired him.

According to the March 14 dismissal letter David posted on his Facebook page (view a photo of it here), he was fired for promoting rival airlines as well as for publishing private details about customers of the airline.

The letter said an American Airlines investigation found that Google had placed ads for competing airlines on David's website and that he was "making public the travel itineraries of passengers, including current and former members of the American Airlines management team. On the site, you stated that the travel information was being provided to you by 'moles' at American Airlines."

It said he was in violation of American Airlines Rules of Conduct 24,  which states: "Consider the welfare of the company and your fellow employees. Perform no act that is detrimental to either."

Bruce Hicks, a spokesman for AA, said in a statement that David had been warned previously about conflict of interest and passenger privacy violations. He added that AA was very serious about the privacy of its passengers and did not allow workers to violate that trust.

A posting on David's Facebook page said he planned to make a video in response to his firing.

17:50 by Robert dawne · 0

YouTube Responds To Reply Girls, Changes Related & Recommended Videos Algorithm

Mixed-in with all the rumors we heard about the 2012 iPad in the weeks leading up to Apple's announcement, we saw plenty of chatter about the possibility for Apple releasing a scaled-down iPad mini. Just the very idea of such a product is blasphemy to many Apple fans, after Steve Jobs publicly derided the user experience you'd get with a seven-inch screen. Nevertheless, the rumors continue, and the latest to throw some fuel on the fire comes from Samsung.

An anonymous Samsung source spoke to The Korea Times regarding Samsung's relationship as a component manufacturer for Apple. Despite legal action between the two regarding their finished, commercial products, Samsung remains Apple's favorite when it comes to producing the parts that make up the iPhone and iPad. This year alone, Apple will supposedly buy $11B worth of components from Samsung.

The source discusses Samsung's interests in advancing technologies, instead of just churning-out the same things as everyone else. To that end, he referenced the company's new PLS LCD technology for cheap, high-visibility-angle displays, and claimed that Samsung was preparing such screens for a smaller iPad that's yet to be announced.

We're not sure just where they might end up, but this Samsung source says that his company is trying to become the first supplier of OLED displays for Apple gadgets. He mentions that Apple still isn't convinced that Samsung could produce the displays in the required quantities, but it's something we might end up seeing on a future Apple product.

16:54 by Robert dawne · 0

Eyeing An IPO, Kayak 2011 Revenue Up 32 Percent To $225M; Net Income Up 21 Percent

Travel search giant Kayak just posted new revenue numbers for the fourth quarter and full year 2011 in a new S-1 filing with the SEC. As we heard last September, Kayak put its IPO plans on hold until market conditions improve. Now that the markets are more stabilized, it should be interesting to see when Kayak makes the push to become a public company. For the year, Kayak generated $224.5 million of revenues, up 32 percent from 2010.
Net income for the year was $9.7 million, up 21 percent from 2010′s net income of $8 million For the fourth quarter, Kayak saw a 27 percent increase in quarterly revenue, posting $53.9 million in Q4 2011 sales. In contrast, revenue grew 28 percent in the third quarter.
But the company says that typically its highest revenue quarters are the second and third quarters.
Kayak says it finished 2011 with 899 million user queries processes for travel information, representing growth of 42 percent from 2010. For 2011, Kayak had 7 million downloads, up over 70 percent from 2010.
Despite the IPO being on hold, Kayak has been consistently trying to improve its core product and add additional functionality. The company has been heads down on product development and improving customer experience over the past few months, as the company battles with Google in the travel search space.
In December, Kayak redesigned its iPad app and consolidated the app with its iPhone cousin. The company’s website most recently got a big UI upgrade, creating a more universal and comprehensive consumer experience across all Kayak platforms: web, mobile web and apps. And the search engine just debuted direct booking for flights.

13:17 by Robert dawne · 0

Zynga Moves Beyond Facebook to Zynga.com

Zynga, the casual gaming company that accounted for 12 percent of Facebook’s revenue in 2011, is starting its own gaming site at Zynga.com.

The first games to make the transition will be “CastleVille,” “Words With Friends,” “CityVille,” “Hidden Chronicles,” and “Zynga Poker” in early March.
On the new platform, gamers will be able to connect with other players outside their networks on Facebook, called “zFriends.” Other social features include real-time chat, and the ability to post achievements, or to send gifts and messages without leaving the game. The interface shows a running tally of the number of players currently online, as well as a stream of who’s playing what on the right side of the screen. No one on Facebook is particularly impressed by their friends’ casual gaming scores, so a separate environment where everyone who is there is there to play is Zynga’s best idea yet.
But this doesn’t mean that the company is severing its ties with Facebook. According to VentureBeat, Zynga gets 90 percent of its revenue from the social network by recruiting new players through Facebook Connect and collecting payments through Facebook Credits. The company will continue to use Facebook Credits as its virtual goods payment system on the new platform, even though Credits takes a 30 percent cut of the profits.
Third-party developers will also be able to use Zynga’s platforms to publish games.  It’s possible that Zynga could take an additional cut, but Zynga COO John Schappert told TechCrunch that terms with these developers were negotiated and private.
“We’ve been a web/game company delivering content to our players and developing our own internal infrastructure and technology. And now we’re transforming into a gaming and platform company,” Schappert told VentureBeat. “We’ve listened to our players, to what they want from social gaming. They want a place where they can play together, they want a place that curates and delivers the best new social games for them, where they’ll always have a friend to play with.”

09:52 by Robert dawne · 0

(Founder Stories) Warby Parker: “Why Should A Pair Of Glasses Cost More Than An iPhone?”

If you’ve ever shopped for a pair of prescription glasses, you’ve probably seen first hand how expensive a set can be. Warby Parker’s co-founders are right there with you.
Both fed-up and puzzled over paying hundreds of dollars for a product that’s been around for hundreds of years, the Warby Parker team is shaking up the eyewear industry by selling prescription glasses online, at a price tag of just $95 a pair.
Having crafted their plan during business school, the foursome launched the company two years ago this month. Three weeks after the initial pair went on sale, co-founder, Neil Blumenthal says Warby Parker hit its sales targets for the entire year and adds “we sold out of our top 15 styles in four weeks”. The company has since ramped up to 60-employees.
Two of Warby Parker’s co-founders, David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal recently stopped by TCTV to give Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon the backstory on how the company got started.
As lifelong eyeglass wearers, Gilboa tells Dixon the group couldn’t understand why “glasses cost more than an iPhone.” After doing some research they realized “there’s a handful of companies that control the entire supply chain.” Not content to roll with the status quo, Gilboa says the team set out to change the landscape by creating “our own brand of glasses …. so we could sell the same product that normally costs $500 for $95.”
However, because their product was only available online, the team had to figure out a way for customers to try on the frames. Blumenthal says their solution was to create a “first of its kind” program “in the US where you select 5 frames, we ship it to you free of cost and you have 5 days to try them on at home, with no obligation to buy.”
Gilboa adds that this process enables customers to receive feedback from people “they trust” (versus paid sales staffers) and as an added benefit, Warby Parker receives “millions of free impressions” from users who post tryout pictures to their social networking sites.
As the interview unfolds, Gilboa and Blumenthal share plenty more insights, so sure to watch the entire video to hear more.
Past episodes for Founder Stories featuring Jeff Clavier, Cyrus Massoumi, Stephen Kaufer, Mayor Bloomberg and many other leaders are here.
Episode II of this interview is coming up.

 http://techcrunch.com/

14:18 by Robert dawne · 0

Tesla Further Responds To Battery Claims, Calls The “Bricking” Report An Unfounded Rumor

A single blogger recently relayed comments made by a single Tesla service tech who reportedly knew of five Teslas that were “bricked” by owners who left them off the charger too long. This single unverified report spread like wildfire across the blogosphere. Tesla came out and acknowledged that it was possible to destroy the Roadster’s battery pack by keeping it unplugged but Tesla has employed numerous counter-measures to prevent that from happening. The company responded further today in a lengthy blog post titled “Plug It In.
Here’s a key excerpt from the blog post,

A plugged-in Tesla is not only charging its battery, it is also keeping key systems within the car functioning properly. Tesla owners around the world keep their cars charged on a daily basis without any issues at all. If ever the battery in your Tesla runs low, the car is designed to let you know with repeated visual and audible warnings. If you continue to ignore the warnings, they will persist and increase. The vehicle also protects the battery itself by communicating with other systems in the car to conserve energy when the state of charge gets too low. Starting with Roadster 2.0, owners can also elect for their car to contact Tesla headquarters once the state of charge falls below a specified level, and we can then contact the owner.

For what it’s worth Autoblog, our sister site in our Aol Huffington Post Media Group, did a little Googling and discovered that the random blogger and apparent Tesla owner are long-time business partners and not random acquaintances as the original blog post would have you believe.
Tesla’s service is legendary. I’ve spent a lot of time following the company over the last four years and have only heard extraordinary reports. I’m not saying the company is perfect, and it is totally possible to brick a Tesla, but the company has taken reasonable steps to prevent that from happening. But sometimes morons slip through the cracks.

13:50 by Robert dawne · 0

Google to Launch TV Service

Google is looking to get into the paid TV business.
The company filed an application last week to provide video service to residents of Kansas City, Mo., according to The Wall Street Journal. If approved, the service could launch as soon as a month from now, according to the article, which cites a “media executive currently involved in negotiations to license channels to the service.” Offerings in the video package would include live TV as well as on-demand and online access to TV channels, according to the report, which was based on an earlier article by The New York Post.
The source told the WSJ that Google plans to look beyond the Kansas City market and into other areas where Verizon’s Fiber Optic Services (FIOS). Controlling the pipes to TV subscribers would offer Google a new revenue stream.
Reps from Google could not be reached for comment.
The Kansas City application coincides with another request to put a satellite antenna farm near the company’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. That addition could allow Google to receive movies and TV shows that could be bundled with a new Internet service in Kansas City that promises to be up to 100 times faster than the average Internet connection.
Google chose Kansas City for its ultra-fast service last March. Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., beat out about 1,000 other municipalities for that honor. That fiber-optic-based Internet service is expected to go live there this summer.
This isn’t the first time that Google’s ambitious plans for TV service have been exposed. The Wall Street Journal also reported in November that Google was in talks with Disney, Time Warner and Discovery Communications about providing content for its fiber-optic based video service in those cities.

07:07 by Robert dawne · 0