Innovation suffocates in a culture of mediocrity. Here’s how to breathe life into company culture to compete for the future. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone seems to have one or more. I just wish that more organizations would appreciate how plentiful and beneficial ideas are to the future of their business. The challenges are all too common. Often, ideas are shared in fleeting moments with the same zeal as observing the weather. Once expressed they recede from view,…
26 Disruptive Tech Trends for 2016 – 2018
Each year at this time, I read all of the predictions for the new year plus the “top X” lists wrapping out the previous year. Add to that the first week of chaos that is CES and all of the new tech debuting in Las Vegas. And each year, I’m left wanting more substance as I plan my research. So, in 2015, I officially threw my hat into the mix with my inaugural look at “25 Disruptive Technology Trends in 2015 –…
Medium vs. Twitter and The Tech War in San Francisco – ContextMatters Episode 4
Medium vs. Twitter Have you used Medium the >140 version of Twitter? During the early days of social media, platforms such as WordPress and Blogger offered technology and networks to anyone with something to say. Over the years, blogging would give rise to a new generation of authoritative, engaging and entertaining voices that might not otherwise found their stage. At the same time, new social channels would emerge that would introduce a subtler more rapid form of publishing that focused…
Employees are as or More Important Than Customers: Why Ignoring Employee Engagement Hurts Business
In a late 2013 study, Gallup found that only 13% of workers actually feel engaged at their jobs. What’s worse is that 63% of the workforce is not engaged at all. But wait, the news gets even more disheartening. An astounding 24%, one-quarter of the global workforce, is actively disengaged right now. Essentially we have a significant number of workers doing their best impression of corporate zombies who go through the everyday motions to collect a paycheck. So are employees…
Digital Transformation and the Race Against Digital Darwinism
Digital Darwinism is a fate that threatens most organizations in almost every industry. Because of this, businesses not only have to compete for today but also for the unforeseeable future. Digital Darwinism is the phenomenon when technology and society evolve faster than an organization can adapt. There are many reasons for this of course. Every fabric of a company is strained due to internal and external influences. The challenge lies amongst the very leaders running the show today. Their mission…
Your Workforce is Disengaged: Here’s What To Do About it
Change is in the air. With disruptive technologies hitting businesses from the outside in and the inside out, how companies invest in technology and ultimately how people use it to get work done is under significant re-evaluation. At the same time, the rising workforce clash between older and younger generations is also pushing HR to radically reform management processes and education programs. Indeed, change is the air. In fact it’s imminent. But change is never programmatic nor is it ever…
Apple Still Lives in the Shadow of Steve Jobs and That’s a Problem for Its Future
Don’t be fooled by the coming iWatch. Don’t see Apple’s new TV product as the dawn of a new era of Apple innovation. The new products you’re going to see from Apple this year and next are the final new designs coming to fruition from Steve Jobs’ vision. And, that means that in just a few short years, Apple is at risk of losing its throne as the world’s most valuable brand. Think about this for a moment…what happens after…
2014 – The Embolden Years: Change agents lead the way for digital transformation
Happy New Year! 2014 is upon us and it’s once again time to share our (Altimeter Group) predictions for the year ahead. Except this time, predictions are moved aside in favor of important trends that are on the horizon. Let’s use this time together wisely in the hopes of prioritizing our investments in relevant strategies and the time and resources necessary to bring them to life this year and next. In 2013, Charlene Li and I published several reports, infographics,…
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Adopts Startup Culture in Government
Welcome to the season 4 premier of Revolution! Believe it or not, this is the fourth season of bring you some of the best minds exploring the revolution and evolution in tech, business, and culture. In this premier episode, I’m more than proud to host San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on the show. Together we explore how governments can adapt and improve services by embracing startups and the culture that helps them accelerate and excel. As you’ll hear, Mayor Ed…
Culture Shock: Culture’s Impact on Social Marketing and Business
Guest post by Ekaterina Walter, a social media strategist at Intel. She was recently elected to serve on the Board of Directors of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). Follow her on Twitter Culture is one of the largest components of how we communicate: not just how we say something but how we choose the tools we use to get a message across. This is as true for social media as it was for the telegraph. For example, if you…
