McCain Links Up to Potential Voters on LinkedIn

Senator John McCain debuted with a question on LinkedIn this morning, with over 500 connections in his profile – something that takes less well-known people months or even years to accomplish unless they make LinkedIn a hobby.   The question, "What is the Biggest Challenge America Faces? received 70 answers in 9 hours. Althought less anwers than Bill Gates receieved, Senator McCain is the first national political figure to leverage a truly business-oriented social network to ask questions about what is important in American politics to a hyper-connected technology and business savvy network.  At last count, over 1,680 people have now responded to Senator McCain's question.  We would not rule out increased momentum online for the McCain campaign as they show their savvy for using mediums not yet tested by Senators Obama or Clinton.  View McCain's linkedin group here.

Obama - $1 Million Minute on the Web

"AnObamaMinute.com calls for pledgers to register a donation within 60 seconds, at 1pm on Apr. 21. Could the site be interpreted as just another stunt in an environment where $1 million isn't what it used to be? "There is certainly an element of theater," admits one member of Obama's national finance committee who's familiar with the project (the campaign is participating to make sure all contributions meet federal giving requirements). But, it is also another ambitious fund-raising effort in a political season marked by campaigns that have aggressively pushed the boundaries of raising money, both off and online." – Business Week

"This is another wrinkle, another innovation that confirms the Internet's potential." 

says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia

"In some ways, the Internet connects Obama supporters better," adds Sabato. "Clinton and McCain supporters are generally older, and this kind of high-speed fund-raising may not exactly be the way they think." The irony, of course, is that Pennsylvania primary voters tend to be older, comprising exactly the demographic that might not be attuned to such online events. His war chest well-funded, Obama's biggest hurdle is to convince more white, working, and lower- and middle-class voters to back him.

 

 

 

Be an Arsonist and a Fire Fighter – by Paul Sloane

Innovative leaders are comfortable with ambiguity. They know that there are many ways forward. They are evangelical about the vision but agnostic about how to achieve it. They have a clear strategy but are quite prepared to change tactics. They recognise the need for different leadership styles at different times. When it comes to innovative ideas they are alternately arsonists and fire fighters. They go around starting fires under people – challenging them. They ask questions that confront their teams - the kinds of questions that demand answers and actions:

• Can you find a new route to market?
  
• Can you halve our service response time?
  
• How can we break into the Chinese market?
  
• Can we find a better way to provide this service?
  
• Can you design a lighter, cheaper, faster version?

The leader starts many initiatives and then follows up to ask how things are going. The projects that are not succeeding are cut back. If the new product prototype does not please customers, or is not technically feasible or is very costly then the fire is extinguished. Lessons are learnt and the team moves on. The leader has a restless curiosity to try new things. Some people may find this frustrating and ask, 'Why does she keep asking us to try new things and then stop them just when they are getting interesting?' The answer is that only by trying lots of different things are we likely to find the radical new initiatives that we need. Not every interesting project can be pursued to completion. Life is too short and resources are limited. It is essential to eliminate the less promising projects so that we can devote resources to those that show the most potential.

Innovative leaders are a little schizophrenic. They strive for success but fear it. They love to win yet they applaud failure. They are coldly analytical some times and hotly passionate at others. They use left brain and right brain techniques. Their management styles are sometimes tight and sometimes loose. They are proud of what their team achieves yet they are humble enough to listen to feedback. They start fires and they put them out.  

Paul Sloane is an advisor to No World Borders and the author of The Innovative Leader, published by Kogan Page. His website is www.destination-innovation.com

Overcoming Customer Resistance to Innovation, by Paul Sloane

Sometimes the biggest resistance to innovation comes from the person who should benefit most from it – the customer. Customers can be very conservative. When you come along with an unorthodox new product or service they are often initially unimpressed. Why should the buyer take a risk with your unproven new gismo? He knows that new products often have bugs and he does not want to be the guinea pig on which you experiment. He is familiar with the current method – why should he change?

Who would want to be the first customer for a fax machine or indeed for a telephone? It seems ridiculous now but selling the first few telephones must have been really difficult. And how about laser eye treatment? How would you find the first person to try it when there was a safe alternative in a pair of spectacles?

This is understandable and needs careful handling. Your sales people will doubtless be adept at explaining the benefits of your new products but the customer is right to be sceptical. You need to find ways to reassure him and to mitigate his risk.

At the same time you need early adopters so that you can get some traction in the market, customer feedback and positive references for your innovation. So acknowledge the client's concerns and put offers in place to allay them. You cannot just use your standard terms and conditions for a radical new product. You have to be innovative in your sales approach too. For example you could:

• Allow them a free trial of the new product
  
• Continue to provide the old service so that they can go back to it at any time.
  
• Offer a money back guarantee.
  
• Provide a special service level that gives them immediate access to your top support experts.
  
• Agree joint service level agreements.
  
• Stress the payback and benefits they will receive and even make payment dependent on their being achieved.
  
• Promise to arrange a positive PR result for them in the trade press if the trial succeeds.
  

Above all you must choose the right early customers. Some people love new technology and others hate it. Select the best early adopters from among your top clients. Appeal to their sense of pioneering adventure. Stress the prestige that goes with early success – for both of you. Make sure that they share in the recognition of a successful launch. If all goes well then ask them for a testimonial. You can help them be seen as an industry leader in trade journal stories and at conferences. You are in it together and it must be a win/win for both parties.

Significance to our readers: No World Borders specializes in unlocking the value in your organization by facilitating change and maximizing innovation that develops value.  We have helped early stage ventures launch new products, and enterprise companies transform process.  Paul Sloan, our advisor is available for speaking engagements.  Contact us for more details.

Paul Sloane is the founder of Destination Innovation. He writes and speaks on lateral thinking and innovation. His book, The Innovative Leader, is published by Kogan-Page.

Ten Digital Media Issues to Watch in 2008

Distributing Experiences

The digital media business is no longer simply about buying ad space. It's a discipline focused on distributing experiences—through social networks, videos, widgets and applications, branded content, and, yes, ad placements. Make no mistake; the traditional practice of media buying is still a critical component of online marketing. However, to view ads as the only way to promote a brand or product is to ensure that the brand is seen as stiff, commercial, and inward-looking.

1. Accountable Marketing Channels are Best Insulated from Recession

In difficult economic conditions, the most accountable marketing channels will be best insulated from cuts in spending. This clearly bodes well for online advertising relative to other channels. However, there will be an impact, even in the most efficient digital channel—search marketing. Search has become a powerful tool for shoppers, and in a recessionary environment, consumers will search, shop, and buy less frequently. Revenue derived from the cost-per-click ad model is driven by the volume of clicks and the cost a marketer is willing to pay for each of those clicks. While a marketer may keep the same cost-per-click during a recession, it's quite likely that a difficult economic environment will lead to fewer commerce-driven searches, which leads to fewer clicks. The end result is less money being spent in search.

2. Apple opens the iPhone to third party developers – a big year for mobile innovation

The mobile industry is poised for tremendous growth. Mobile search and location-based services are growing in importance. Apple is opening the iPhone to third-party developers. Carriers are becoming more flexible—maybe. With all of these developments, mobile advertising is sure to gain momentum in 2008, but we are still a year away from seeing it break out and become a staple for marketers.

3. Rise of the Semantic Web

Semantic web tools have long been predicted to shape the next wave of online innovation but many are predicting that 2008 will be the year that they finally take off. While such tools have traditionally been confined to research purposes, mainstream applications such as StumbleUpon and del.icio.us are allowing marketers to leverage a wealth of user data.

In addition, companies such as TrueKnowledge, Twine, and Spock will allow semantic web to continue to make progress in 2008.

4. Beyond clicks - improvements in effectiveness measurement

With the proliferation of publisher sites and advertising models has come the challenge of measuring and tracking user activity. As more advertisers launch online branding campaigns, the metrics need to extend beyond clicks. Advertisers increasingly want more detailed feedback on the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts, both to justify spending on the web and to help guide their future media allocations.

5. A limited increase in advertising rates

With an ever-increasing number of advertising choices, it will be difficult for publishers to raise advertising rates substantially. In a January survey of media planners, 37% forecasted a pricing increase of 1% to 5% in 2008, while 38% expected a rise of 5% to 10%. Nearly 20% of the media staff felt prices would fall year over year.

6. The Internet's impact on the 2008 presidential election and U.S. Olympics

The Web will be the most impactful and influential medium in the 2008 presidential race, not only for presidential hopefuls but for voter self-education and self-expression. Much like radio for Roosevelt and TV for JFK, the 2008 race for the White House will be determined by candidates' abilities to connect with and galvanize supporters online. The Internet has changed the political environment. Despite the importance of digital channels in the elections, online ad spending by campaigns will continue to lag well behind television spending. The importance of digital in the 2008 elections is rooted in connecting with and motivating communities, but online advertising is likely to play a secondary role in doing so. Similarly, more people will watch events on the Internet for the Olympics this year than ever before.

7. Behavioral targeting expands, and brings new focus on privacy

Behavioral targeting is expected to increase ten-fold over the next five years, according to eMarketer. Behavioural targeting allows marketers to offer more personalised customer experiences, whilst consumers gain from more relevant advertising and content as they have been targeted based on their online footprint (e.g. what sites they have visited).

Last year saw the formation of an alliance enabling large publishers to share behavioral information on their users, facilitated by Revenue Science. There was also the launch of Wunderloop Connect, a self-service ad exchange for behavioural-based online advertising. This should be the year that it becomes something that advertisers and publishers want to embrace automatically, or expect as part of their ad serving technology, rather than still needing to be convinced that this is a no-brainer.

We will be looking out for more case studies and research to show how effectively behavioral targeting works.

8. Emergence of vertical ad networks

With spending on ad networks increasingly concentrated with the largest players, it will become increasingly difficult for small ad networks to break through. Ad network efficiency is largely a matter of matching the right advertiser to the right placement, and the likelihood of being able to do so increases as a network increases its ad inventory and number of advertisers. This means the largest players should be able to best monetize ad space for publishers (and provide the most relevant inventory for advertisers). T he bigger and more efficient the large networks get, the more ad dollars will be directed to them. It will become more difficult for second-tier players to earn ad budgets, and therefore less necessary for the larger players to acquire them. One related area to watch closely is the growth of vertical ad networks. Martha Stewart Living's lifestyle network and Forbes' Audience Network are two recent examples of strong brands extending their reach by building out ad networks. It's a reasonable extension for brands and helps the smaller sites and blogs within a vertical network gain needed exposure with large advertisers. Look for more vertical ad networks in the year ahead.

9. Nokia's emergence as a player in the digital marketing industry as it expands to software & services

Nokia made two important moves in 2007 that will impact digital marketing in the coming year. It acquired both Enpocket, a leading mobile advertising and marketing services firm, and Navteq, a leader in navigation data and systems software. While there have been no formal announcements from Nokia about how its assets will fit together, it is clearly going to be a company to watch in the coming year. Nokia appears to be vying to expand its own business outside of consumer mobile devices and into the software and services that consumers are able to use on those devices. Nokia now has assets that may accelerate the use of smart devices that use location-based services that know where we are. The potential benefit for marketers is the ability to deliver relevant, geographically contextual advertising opportunities to customers. Accomplishing this feat in the U.S. today, while not impossible, often involve orchestrating a small army of carriers, devices, marketing services providers, and agencies whose interests are not always aligned.

10. Local search marketing & social media and advertising platforms can expect growth

Local search platforms will cross over to the mainstream, with US companies such as Yelp, Yoono, and Outside.in becoming more popular.

Local search platforms will become more niche with vertical search playing an important role. Additionally, companies who focus on enhancing user experience and gaining repeat users will succeed in this space.

Watch new UK players such as Welovelocal and Tipped, and the recently revamped Yell.com. And let's not forget Google, which has the power to crush search startups that are reliant on Google referrals for the majority of their traffic.

This is a competitive market and we should also expect continued consolidation in 2008.

From Today’s WSJ: Timing is Everything for Private Equity Firms

Having bought up $1.9 trillion of companies from 2005 to 2007, private owners will inevitably confront how to monetize their investments, what is so cynically called "the exit."

The doors look barred. The mergers-and-acquisition markets have shut, as potential buyers wait for asset prices to decline. One can only hope that a mass of over leveraged and overpriced assets will stay out of public-investor portfolios. But don't bet on it. There is too much inventory to move. If the IPO markets re-vitalize, will values be bloated for these assets?

Below is a video from the Wall Street Journal's Dennis K. Berman explaining the challenge for these firms. No World Borders is still finding value in innovative companies as a sell-side representative for an Enterprise-class IT outsourcing firm targeted at SMB, and a leading Internet search marketing firm ranked in the top 15 among agencies and consulting firms in the U.S.

REI sells a new model for the future of retail

"Retail is moving toward capital-E environments," explains REI President and CEO Wally Smith. "For some people, that means Entertainment. For us, it means Education." This educational mission is behind almost every feature in the store: One of the basic filters that we ran each of our ideas through was, Does it teach customers something?

The REI superstore is enthusiastically interactive. But you won't find flashy video screens, high-speed Internet connections, or any of the other all-too-familiar trappings of entertainment retailing. Here, interactivity takes the form of testing stations, where customers can use the products before committing to them. The store's climbing rock and bike track are its two most high-profile stations. There's also a Rain Room, where hikers test weather-resistant outerwear; a pool filled with brackish water, where campers test water purifiers; and an Illumination Station, where cyclists test lights.

Such work-life integration makes for energized salespeople -- and a better store. "The buyers don't just say, 'Here's the gear,' " Edquist explains. "They see us as a resource: 'This guy has used every ice tool we sell. Is our selection where it needs to be?' " Diane Levy, 32, a sales specialist in the snowsport and paddling specialty shops, shares Edquist's perspective. "We've chased bad products out of here," she says. "That helps make us feel that this is our store."

This clever mix of customer experience and organizational development has supercharged REI's growth. Value through innovation and employee engagement makes the firm cutting edge in setting the tone for the future of retail. No World Borders organizational development and process innovation consulting teams can help you unlock the value in your firm.

FDA Unveils Database of Drug Side Effects, Procedural Changes

It could be argued that the pharmaceutical and medical products industry—with its high-value, high-regulation product lines—could have the most at stake for achieving operational excellence. Regulatory requirements have risen for this industry struggling to hold down cost.

Today, the Food and Drug Administration unveiled a new effort to bolster its oversight of drugs after they're on the market, in the agency's latest response to years of criticism about its handling of medication safety issues. Ultimately, the FDA is supposed to implement a second phase to the plan, called Safe Use, that will focus on ensuring that drugs are used safely in the real world. But the agency official said there were few details available yet about the plan.

Among other changes, the plan, dubbed "Safety First," involves creating a new database listing possible side effects of drugs, along with clear schedules for following up on questions about them. Also, the FDA plans to make changes to its procedures for making certain regulatory decisions, particularly those based on emerging safety worries, though the new moves don't go as far as some critics have advocated. The FDA plans to grant some new powers to the office that focuses largely on the safety of marketed drugs, known as the Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, among others, has raised concerns about the agency's current decision-making process, because regulatory power over drugs once they are approved rests primarily with the same drug-review divisions that decided to approve them for marketing in the first place. The plan was announced to FDA staff in an email today, and the agency is expected to testify about it tomorrow on Capitol Hill.

The new moves stop short of divorcing the two functions. The safety office will not get the ultimate power to sign off on label changes or recommendations to remove a drug from the market.

The agency will have multidisciplinary groups, including the pre-market review division and the safety office, come together to make decisions. If one office disagrees, it can appeal to higher-level officials. Currently, while this may often occur, it is more ad-hoc. Also, the pre-market drug-review divisions will each get their own new, dedicated officials whose responsibilities focus on safety.

The drug safety office will get primary authority over decisions to approve drug brand names and packaging, though this change will not occur immediately. Eventually, the safety office is supposed to formally get another power as well: the ability to commission certain kinds of research, the epidemiological studies often drawn from patient databases. This could involve requiring drug makers to do such studies -- a power the FDA gained under a new law passed last year -- or contracting with outside sources.

We help your organization keep compliance standards at their highest, while holding costs in check. Our services help companies achieve world-class regulatory compliance and drive operational excellence throughout their organizations.

No World Borders has developed several service offerings by combining our deep industry experience with pioneering technology and capabilities. We work with our clients to achieve sustainable, long-term, integrated solutions at lower cost aligning strategy with people, processes and technology. We aim for speed to value through extensive experience, pre-packaged materials and fast implementation. Our Health & Life Sciences industry group works with clients to ensure that patient need is at the center of everything they do. Within pharmaceutical and medical products, providers, payers and public service health we are transforming global health care by connecting information, insights and technology to improve the quality of the patient experience. Process improvement is at the forefront of No World Border's competencies, which are critical in highly regulated industries.

Microsoft & Yahoo Stalled but not Over – News Corp Enters the Fray: What it Means for Software, Advertising, & Innovation

With Yahoo shares down nearly 50%, Microsoft decided to prove the rumors true and make an unsolicited offer for Yahoo. The incredible $45 billion offer for Yahoo was designed to blunt Google's advertising momentum, and stall Google with its recent entry in to core Microsoft businesses such as word processing.

At last year's Wall Street Journal "All Things Digital" conference, Steve Ballmer said, "The world-wide advertising market is a $520 Billion industry, yet only a small fraction of it is online." Their acquisition of an ad server / ad network form last year was telling, but now Microsoft wants to expand its distribution channels. But that's not all. No World Borders believes Microsoft's dominance of Windows platform based applications won't be enough to sustain the growth of the company going forward. Software as a service (Saas) is the new opportunity Microsoft sees, and Google has the lead.

News Corp would have a different angle - expanding the search channel with social networking in MySpace, and leveraging its well-respected newspaper brands such as The Wall Street Journal.

• Global spending on Internet advertising rose to nearly $20 billion in 2007, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers and eMarketer.

• Open source "free" software (nothing is free - you pay at least for support) means that more and more companies will innovate and move toward the relatively open playing field of Saas.   The distribution channels are harder to control.  Just as song artists who may have been unknowns have used MySpace for visibility and iTunes for distribution, a new "Ubiquitous Web" linked by Semantics (see our posts on the Semantic web and applications of semantics) will enable a renaissance of Saas innovation.

• Saas promises to cut licensing cost and make use of software universal, rather than tying it to a particular PC or server. No World Borders believes that as Saas permeates web sites, this development will help improve collaboration, collective intelligence, empowerful sharing of information tools with global populations. Even traditional enterprise software will have to compete with Saas, with new market entrants such as Coghead, providing asset management and other tools via Saas. This will mean more competition for Oracle, SAP and other firms who will either innovate toward more Saas or acquire companies such as Coghead in the future. Big companies like SAP have launched DNA, and Oracle is pushing OnDemand. For big companies, they have to move carefully so as not to blow up their multi-billion traditional software businesses.
  

• Those economies and demographics that have not had access to expensive Windows based systems will increasingly have access to faster internet connectivity, thus giving them access to Saas. It will lower the barriers to new products and services being viable. Analytical tools, communication techniques, and the ability to publish blogs and web sites reach more people, it will further the proliferation of empowerful individuals and small groups publishing information to the web. A renaissance of creativity and innovation will emerge with the best ideas coming from the best minds, rather than the largest corporations.
  

  
  

• Social networking usage has recently dropped. News Corp, fundamentally driven by an advertising model, would be challenged with the combination which assumes even more advertising revenue. The amount of time the average person spends on a social-networking site has dropped 14% over the last four months, according to Internet research company comScore. The reason: they're turned off by too much advertising on social-networking sites.
  

Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo, a key gateway to finding new ideas on the web, is a mixed development for innovation and advertising. As a gateway to innovation, Yahoo will be molded into something to protect Microsoft's core business, rather than be a free-thinking destination for innovation. Fortunately, Google has enough market share that Microsoft and Yahoo plus MSN do not pose a complete monopoly for the marketplace.
As a fierce competitor to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo's competition will likely cause price erosion in paid search advertising and ad placement.

News Corp (also parent of the Wall Street Journal) may actually have a more innovative plan between its well-known content assets in news, and the social network momentum of MySpace, but it will have to be careful in the rapidly maturing market about how advertising Is presented to users.