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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 13, 2013 1:12 PM
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I believe that the next 10 years is a decade that must be willed instead of unveiled. I believe that the next 10 years will be fueled by innovation that disrupts thinking, behavior and markets. As a digital analyst, my work focuses on studying disruptive technology and its impact on business. I also study disruptive technology’s affect on consumer behavior. I live in Silicon Valley but I spend most of my time visiting hubs of innovation around the world. And, I’m happy to see that innovation and the spirit of entrepreneurialism is wildly spreading. While in Paris for Le Web as an example, I spent time with Fleur Pellerin, Minister Delegate with responsibility for Small and Medium Enterprises, Innovation, and the Digital Economy. Her mission is to make France the epicenter for innovation in Europe. Indeed there are now many other champions for innovation globally and specifically in Europe that will give France a good race. But it is this race that is important. This is a time for global innovation and disruptive ideas, but they need a supporting and nurturing ecosystem. Every day, I am pitched by startups hoping to change the world and some actually do. Lately however, it seems that many entrepreneurs are confusing creativity with innovation. Now more than ever, I see apps, services, and companies that are uninspired or uninspiring. While this itself is not a problem, the fact that many of these ideas are funded creates a benchmark for mediocrity. While clever or interesting, more than a fair share of ideas are not original, unusual, experimental or grand enough to will the next 10 years in a direction that fulfills its true potential. In the grand ecosystem of innovation, most ideas are infrequently innovative and as a result, waves of potential disruption are erratic or fleeting. Ideas are a commodity these days. The next 10 years will be defined by those who do more than innovate. The future lies in the hands of those who disrupt markets and industries. But, often innovation and disruption are not linked together. Our world and the way we live in it is in desperate need of either an upgrade, reboot or complete refresh. This is a time to think bigger. This is a time to not just create but innovate.The future takes architecture and for that we need architects who see the world for what it has the potential to be. This is a time when anything and everything can be re-imagined. The way things are doesn’t necessarily reflect the way things ought to be. We have an opportunity to change the world and it starts with the way we see it for what it is and what we can make of it. The Dilemma's InnovatorI think back to Clay Christensen’s landmark book, The Innovator's Dilemma. In it, Christensen shared his framework for helping companies build a process around internal disruption to stay competitive and survive digital Darwinism. Lately, I’ve found myself aligning disruption with problem solving or opportunity creation. The journey to innovation here begins differently than it might if I started simply with a great idea. I think back to Le Web 2008. It was cold and it snowed, not heavily but enough to disrupt the normal flow of traffic. The city practically shut down. As a result, getting a taxi from Les Docks where the event is hosted back into Paris proper was almost impossible. It was then that the idea for Uber was born as its CEO Travis Kalanick explains. Born out of necessity, Uber would solve a common problem. But it was more than the ability to order a car on demand. Uber’s true value proposition was that it created a platform where available drivers could easily connect with passengers via smart phones integrating payments, ratings, and commerce on one screen. Uber was innovative indeed. But more so, Uber would go on to disrupt every market it entered. The cold winter day in Paris several years ago would eventually unfold into political battles in cities where governments or regulated unions were threatened by Uber’s digital competition. Could any of those industries have innovated in their own right? Absolutely. But they didn’t and therefore their world is being disrupted as a result. Now Uber’s model will serve as a foundation for additional “on demand” services. Disrupt or be disrupted! But they’re not alone of course. Airbnb is transforming the hospitality industry through an integrated platform that connects places and people. Like Uber, Airbnb faces political challenges from the hospitality industry. Square is helping businesses everywhere receive and manage payments through smart devices bypassing traditional banks and financial services providers. Instagram changed the way you take and share pictures. Twitter became not a social network but an information network that reflects the pulse of society. TOMS and Warby Parker helped you get stylish necessities such as shoes and eye glasses and turned customers into benefactors by donating a product to someone in need for each one sold. Bitcoin is disrupting currencies. Per David Meyer it is to state-issued currencies – often referred to as fiat money – as P2P file-sharing is to traditional broadcast media. It’s all about decentralization. Innovative. Disruptive. Companies such as these are more than great ideas. They solve problems that fundamentally change behavior. They introduce a deviation in our current path to lead us in a new direction. Each were born by the dilemma's innovator. Changing the Design of Our Thinking to Change the Outcome of Ideation Imagine what the next 10 years could look like if we didn’t just pursue ideas but instead relentlessly ventured to solve problems or create opportunities. The difference between innovation and disruption is the affect on behavior and the impact on existing markets.
Not only are companies finding new ways to have a positive impact on society, they’re creating ecosystems that bring together disparate functions into a holistic and enjoyable experience. Sometimes these ideas are inspired because of the pain that’s felt in the absence of a solution. Sometimes a vision of possibility is what drives someone to create something new. Imagine if the next 10 years was built upon a foundation of both. It’s part design thinking and part systems thinking.
Without deviating too much from the main subject, and whatever your stance is on it as a philosophy, the basis of design thinking simply describes an object or an end result. Design thinking is about improving the future and it represents the foundation for becoming the dilemma’s innovator. As Fast Company describes, design in its most effective form is a process, an action, a verb not a noun. It’s a methodology that solves problems or creates opportunities and consists of four key elements. Define the problem.Create and consider many options that attempt to solve that problem and/or create new opportunities in the process.Refine selected directions without worrying about the “idea killers” who dominate critical thinking by devaluing or disregarding early ideas. Great ideas and bad ideas sound equally ridiculous early on.Select your idea/s. Test and learn. Repeat. Design thinking is often linked to extraordinary ideas that might not have otherwise arisen. At its core is something that I believe also serves as a pillar of innovation and that is both empathy and context. Empathy for a problem or opportunity is where innovation becomes personal. Context serves as the setting and allows for us to understand the emotion in order to assess and address it. It’s this type of thinking that can lead to innovation that fuels disruption. Innovation starts with why. Why do we do things this way? Why can’t we do something? Why doesn’t this exist yet? Why isn’t this something we can do today? When you set out to answer these questions you cannot help but feel the empathy in context that adds a sense of meaning and urgency to “why.” Design thinking can also be simplified to these four pillars… 1) Empathy (the why) 2) Context (the connected world in which you are building something) 3) Creativity (in your approach to problem-solving) 4) Rationality (logic in testing the reasons and feasibility behind what you have created) Why Ask Why Simon Sinek wrote the book on the importance of asking and answering why. He believes all great leaders share that they start with why in their approach to leadership. In an inspiringTEDTalk, Sinek shares an example of why Apple is different than every other technology company it competes against. To illustrate this example, he refers to his Golden Circle which demonstrates the relationships between Why, How and What. In his presentation, Sinek states that every company on the planet knows WHAT they do. Some companies know HOW they do WHAT they do. Very few though can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do With Apple, the “What” is that it “makes great computers.” The “how” is that they’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. He then asks the audience, “Would you like to buy one?” The answer of course is no. His point is though that the what and how are generic or unbranded without the why. When you start with “why” however, you see the difference. Sinek explains the why. “At Apple, in everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. We just happen to make great computers.” All he did was reverse the order of what and how Apple sells to start with why. If you start with why, before how and what of your product or service, then you can build something bigger than what you may have originally set out to create or discover something altogether new to pursue. To influence the next 10 years takes ideas and execution of course. But the next 10 years require a imaginative and productive approach to problem solving and creativity that rethink the very things we take for granted today or under estimate in our ability to affect. There are only two ways to influence human behavior: manipulate it or inspire it. Innovation begins with an idea on how to improve something that may or may not be broken. It’s driven by a higher purpose. It starts with vision. And it’s empathy that will ultimately provoke the core of your vision as an innovator. The next 10 years will either happen to us or because of us. I believe in the latter.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 10, 2013 4:50 PM
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Paul Meshanko has highlighted the importance of demonstrating respect in all of our interactions in The Respect Effect. The desired result is that those we interact with will feel valued in some way. He offers 12 Ways of thinking and behaving around others: 1. Be Aware of Your Nonverbal and Extra-verbal Cues.
What we say is important but how we say it can make or break the communication. “Extra-verbal cues include the speed with which we speak, our volume relative to background noise, our inflection, and our willing ness to pause to make space for others to speak.”
2. Develop Curiosity About the Perspectives of Others.
“Empathy is demonstrated when it becomes evident to others around us that we are interested in what they think, why they think it, and how they feel about it. When this happens, it becomes easier to communicate respect to others, even if we disagree with them.”
3. Assume that Everyone is Smart About Something.
“Because I like to think I’m smart, it is reasonable to assume that other people like to think they are also smart. The only difference is that we are all smart through different histories and life experiences.”
4. Become a Better Listener by Shaking Your “But.” The word “but” can be used in a way that hinders our ability to show respect. The word “but” negates what came before it. Replacing it with “and” and other words that validate and convey consideration, the entire tone is changed.
5. Look for Opportunities to Connect with and Support Others.
“Even in the heat of conflict, there are ways to connect with people if we want to. When we demonstrate a willingness to move away from our immediate agenda and search for positions of agreement first, it makes working through the actual differences a bit easier.”
6. When You Disagree, Explain Why.
“It is disrespectful when we fail to share our observations and opinions in order to avoid conflict. We have an obligation to others to be truthful with our perspectives and points of view. When done with civility, tact, and room for counterarguments, sharing our perspectives leads to the best decisions and optimal results. It also prevents the accumulation of ‘baggage’ that builds up when we keep things bottled up.” And remember, it works both ways.
7. Look for Opportunities to Grow, Stretch, and Change.
“As we develop the desire and the willingness to hold ourselves up to the proverbial ‘bright light’ for an occasional reality check, two things happen. First, we become infinitely easier to be around because we are less critical of others. Second, we grow in wisdom and perspective. That’s because we start considering that, in situations where we might initially view others critically, the problems may be ours to deal with and not theirs.
8. Learn to Be Wrong on Occasion.
“From a neurological perspective, there is absolutely no correlation between our degree of certainty about a subject and the likelihood that we are actually correct in our beliefs. This means that our feeling of certainty about something is nothing more than a strong emotion. The stronger the emotion, the more likely we are to develop blind spots around it.” An open mind is a demonstration of respect.
9. Never Hesitate to Say You Are Sorry.
“Unfortunately, it is often when we’re at our worst that our actions are most memorable to others. While we don’t expect everybody to be perfect, “we do expect people to make it right when their words, actions, or decisions cause damage.”
10. Intentionally Engage Others in Ways that Build Their Self-Esteem.
“Building esteem in people we work with or for requires a shift in agendas. It takes a shift in focus away from what we need to what others need.” Meshanko colleague Teresa Welborne said, “If you are in a leadership position and you are not a people person, you become a liability to your organization. And if you’re not willing to make the effort to become a people person, you should not be in a position of leadership.”
11. Be Respectful of Time When Making Comments.
“If we don’t become curious or have value for what other people have to say, it is difficult to consistently fake the behaviors that demonstrate interest.”
12. Smile!
“Sometimes the most effective strategies are also the simplest. With rare exception, when we meet people who greet us with a smile, they are sending us important information about heir intentions.”
Meshanko concludes with 3 keys ingredients to improving your ability to demonstrate respect for others: Respect is about you and me, not “them,” and our commitment to it influences everyone around us. Once we understand the value proposition respect offers, that insight can provide us with patience, courage, and creativity.
Patience permits us to maintain our composure and respectful demeanor when others are not acting at their best.
Courage enables us to candidly challenge disrespectful behavior and actions directed toward others.
Creativity allows us to see points of connection, even in the midst of conflict.
When we bring these qualities online and into our work interactions, everyone benefits, including our peers, customers, vendors, and ultimately, our shareholders.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 10, 2013 2:19 PM
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The older I get, the more I find time losing its reliable cadence in favor of a disconcerting fluidity. One day can seem epic, but every passing year - especially this one - accelerates in a flash. How is it that my sense of time is so extremely subjective? In search of answers, I've found out that smart people say time is ultimately a mind game. Here are some of the reasons that time can be so slow and so fast, depending on the circumstances. These insights make for an interesting way to look at your work day. 1. We're not that great at marking time. Karl von Vierordt - who studied time perception -found that people tend to overestimate short durations of time and underestimate long. As recently shown on Radiolab, if you play a metronome slow and fast and get someone to try to predict the next tick, you'll see this human foible in action. I think this explains a lot about a day at work. 2. When we're afraid, time crawls. In a post in Brainpickings about Claudia Hammond's book Time Warped, Hammond describes a study in which people with arachnophobia were asked to look at spiders — which they feared — for 45 seconds. They thought the experience was far longer than that. Another study found novice skydivers thought other divers' falls were short while their own were longer. You know the feeling if you've ever been in an accident. Time seems to stand still when we're terrified. I think this is because we're aware of each passing second in a way we usually are not. 3. Time seems to speed up as we age. Some people think this is a matter of proportion - for example, your 40th year is proportionally smaller than your fourth. But I doubt we do that kind of mental mathematics. I think it's because we sense the unknown but finite measure of what's left in our lives. Regardless, it's a universal feeling. 4. When we're on vacation, we lose our sense of time. Vacations flash by, but we remember them for a long time. That's apparently because -- like our life from ages 15 to 25 -- vacations are full of novelty. So we remember them best. We know their measure in slower time because they were new.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 6, 2013 3:26 PM
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Former South African President Nelson Mandela, died today at the age of 95. He spent 27 years in prison for battling the apartheid government, but it transformed him. He became the Mandela we know with a remarkable capacity to forgive and a moral courage that would heal the wounds of his country.
In 1993, he and Frederik Willem de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." He went on the following year to become South Africa's first black president.
Richard Stengel, who collaborated with Nelson Mandela on Mandela’s best-selling 1993 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, wrote an article for Time Magazinein 2008 in which he extracted 8 lessons of leadership from Mandela’s life: Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it "I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world." But as a leader, you cannot let people know. "You must put up a front." He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about tactics, not principles. Throughout his life, he has always made that distinction. His unwavering principle — the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote — was immutable, but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic. He is the most pragmatic of idealists.Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. "You know," he would say, "you can only lead them from behind." He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy. The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. "It is wise," he said, "to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea."Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport As far back as the 1960s, Mandela began studying Afrikaans, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid. His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner's worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs. He even brushed up on his knowledge of rugby, the Afrikaners' beloved sport, so he would be able to compare notes on teams and players.Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer Mandela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect on his rivals than on his allies. He cherished loyalty, but he was never obsessed by it. After all, he used to say, "people act in their own interest." It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect. The flip side of being an optimist — and he is one — is trusting people too much. But Mandela recognized that the way to deal with those he didn't trust was to neutralize them with charm.Appearances matter — and remember to smile When Mandela was running for the presidency in 1994, he knew that symbols mattered as much as substance. He was never a great public speaker, and people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. But more important was that dazzling, beatific, all-inclusive smile. For white South Africans, the smile symbolized Mandela's lack of bitterness and suggested that he was sympathetic to them. To black voters, it said, I am the happy warrior, and we will triumph.Nothing is black or white Mandela is comfortable with contradiction. As a politician, he was a pragmatist who saw the world as infinitely nuanced. Every problem has many causes. Mandela's calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?Quitting is leading too Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 3, 2013 1:47 PM
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Why do so few MBAs go into sales? Sales is the lifeblood of any company. CEOs are often picked from the sales ranks ... MBAs are risk averse and don't like leveraged (quota) comp modelsMBAs view sales pejoratively as many great sales people are not pedigreedMBAs think sales is not strategic
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
November 27, 2013 6:26 PM
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So each year during the Thanksgiving holiday, I try to find a few tidbits about work for which we can be thankful. The first Thanksgiving was, after all, a lesson in workplace cooperation. Or so we are taught. When it comes to workplace thanks, it is easier for some to be thankful than others. But as always, we all have some things to be thankful for when it comes to the workplace. We can be thankful for the Internet and the knowledge of the universe it can provide when it comes to work research. We can also be thankful we didn’t design the website for the Affordable Health Care sign-up.We can be thankful for all the technologies like conference calls and Skype that allow us to stay off airplanes for business travel. And be thankful for good earphones that block out the crazy guy in the cube next door while we can listen to our favorite music.We can be thankful that business casual is now more the norm than the exception.If we have a good boss who supports us and mentors us, we should be very thankful. Having a good boss is always the number one factor in job satisfaction.If we enjoy our colleagues at work and learn from them and can’t wait to be around them, we should be really thankful. If not, find a new group and be thankful that there are alternatives.If we derive a real sense of worth and purpose from our work, and we get paid for it too, that’s as good as it gets. Be thankful.If we have a job with healthcare benefits, where free coffee with real cream is provided and the possibility of a promotion exists, be thankful.And most of all, be thankful if your organization has an IT person who can fix whatever damage we do on a daily basis. This year, we can all be thankful for the love or our family and friends, our health and if we have meaningful work too, what a bonus. So put the smartphones down, even if for a minute, and enjoy it.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
November 11, 2013 4:51 PM
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Don Fornes, founder and CEO at Software Advice, wrote a series called Psychological Profiles of the Dream Team. In the series of 4 articles, he details the attributes of four types of employee in today's work force. These include: The Giver, The Savant, The Champ (and the chip), and The Matrix Thinker. Each of these profiles has strengths and weaknesses. Over the next four weeks I plan to release one of these a week so you can see what they entail. I believe that if you know which type of worker you are, you can make a change in your career path that will not only put you on a path to greater success, but will also, make you happier at work. Let’s start with the first one. The Giver A 'Giver' is an employee that puts others before his or herself. They are fully committed to giving to the company and are constantly working above and beyond. Fornes compares them to an attentive spouse or thoughtful roommate at home. Givers have some key qualities that identify them. Some common characteristics of this group include: They exhibit loyalty to the companyThey are excellent team playersThey are often the first in to the office and the last to leaveThey believe in the importance of playing by the rules As a result of these tendencies and characteristics, givers have to be careful of a few pitfalls of their work personality. The first is burnout. They can literally work themselves to exhaustion. They also should be cautious about suffering from a tunnel vision effect that can alienate coworkers or direct reports. They are also likely to be guilty of passive aggressive behavior because givers are also the most likely to avoid confrontation. So for those of you that see yourself in these words, you might consider the following types of positions to help enhance your job satisfaction: Customer service: as a giver, was there ever a job more suited to your skills as a job where you serve customers? I would argue probably not with the caveat that givers need to work in a relatively calm and non-confrontational customer service role.Producer roles: now, I am not referring to the movie business per se, although you would likely do well as a film producer. I mean producing a tangible product for the company. Fornes and his team say that givers feel a sense of satisfaction from making something and have the skills to keep it on schedule.In a job that goes in to the office. You do best in an environment around others. According to Fornes, It’s too hard for givers to be in a remote office because they thrive in places where they are physically part of a team. Some roles to AVOID are: Any C-Suite role. Givers are not as happy running the show as they are being the right-hand man. This does not imply that you will not be a high level in the company.Sales. This is a great role for a person that is self-focused. But you are not the best choice for this role because your focus is anywhere but yourself. For this reason, givers tend not to excel in Sales roles.Customer Service Roles with LOTS of Dissatisfied customers. Unhappy customers are likely to be confrontational and as a result really dishearten these types of workers. So you should avoid being on the call center line at the Ryanair at all costs.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
November 5, 2013 3:19 PM
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Learnings to date about the “Unicorn Club”: We found 39 companies belong to what we call the “Unicorn Club” (by our definition, U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors). That’s about .07 percent of venture-backed consumer and enterprise software startups. On average, four unicorns were born per year in the past decade, with Facebook being the breakout “super-unicorn” (worth >$100 billion). In each recent decade, 1-3 super unicorns have been born. Consumer-oriented unicorns have been more plentiful and created more value in aggregate, even excluding Facebook. But enterprise-oriented unicorns have become worth more on average, and raised much less private capital, delivering a higher return on private investment. Companies fall somewhat evenly into four major business models: consumer e-commerce, consumer audience, software-as-a-service, and enterprise software. It has taken seven-plus years on average before a “liquidity event” for companies, not including the third of our list that is still private. It’s a long journey beyond vesting periods. Inexperienced, twentysomething founders were an outlier. Companies with well-educated, thirtysomething co-founders who have history together have built the most successes The “big pivot” after starting with a different initial product is an outlier. San Francisco (not the Valley) now reigns as the home of unicorns. There is very little diversity among founders in the Unicorn Club. Some deeper explanation and additional findings: 1) Welcome to the exclusive, 39-member Unicorn Club: the Top .07% Figuring out the denominator to unicorn probability is hard. The NVCA says over 16,000 internet-related companies were funded since 2003; Mattermark says 12,291 in the past 2 years; and theCVR says 10-15,000 software companies are seeded each year. So let’s say 60,000 software and internet companies were funded in the past decade. That would mean .07 percent have become unicorns. Or, 1 in every 1,538. Takeaway: it’s really hard, and highly unlikely, to build or invest in a billion dollar company. The tech news may make it seem like there’s a winner being born every minute — but the reality is,the odds are somewhere between catching a foul ball at an MLB game and being struck by lightning in one’s lifetime. Or, more than 100x harder than getting into Stanford. That said, these 39 companies have shown it’s possible – and they do offer a lot that can be learned from.2) Facebook is the super-unicorn of the decade (by our definition, worth >$100B). Every major technology wave has given birth to one or more super-unicorns Facebook is what we call a super-unicorn: it accounts for almost half of the $260 billion aggregate value of the companies on our list. (As such, we excluded them from analysis related to valuations or capital raised) Prior decades have also given birth to tech super-unicorns. The 1990s gave birth to Google, currently worth nearly 3x Facebook; and Amazon, worth ~ $160 billion. The 1980’s: Cisco. The 1970s: Apple (currently the most valuable company in the world), Oracle, and Microsoft; and Intel was founded in the 1960s. What do super-unicorns have in common? The 1960s marked the era of the semiconductor; the 1970s, the birth of the personal computer; the 1980s, a new networked world; the 1990s, the dawn of the modern Internet; and in the 2000s, new social networks were built. Each major wave of technology innovation has given rise to one or more super-unicorns — companies that could change your life to work at or invest in, if you’re not lucky/genius enough to be a co-founder. This leads to more questions. What is the fundamental technology change of the next decade (mobile?); and will a new super-unicorn or two be born as a result? Only four unicorns are born per year on average. But not all years have been as fertile: The 38 companies on our list outside of Facebook are worth about $3.6 billion on average. This might feel like a letdown after reading about super-unicorns, but remember, startups generally start as ideas that most people think are crazy, dumb, or not that important (remember when people ridiculed Twitter as the place to share that you were eating a ham sandwich?). Only after many years and extraordinary good fortune, a few grow into unicorns, which is extremely rare and pretty awesome. Unicorn founding was not front-end-loaded in the past decade. The best year was 2007 (8 of 36); the fewest were born in 2003, 2005 and 2008 (as far as we know today; there are none yet founded in 2011 to today). From this snapshot in time, it’s not clear whether the number of unicorns per year is changing over time. It would be interesting to plot the trajectory of unicorns over time — which become more valuable and which fall off the list — and to understand the list of potential unicorns-in-waiting, currently valued at <$1 billion. Hopefully for a future post. 3) Consumer-oriented companies have created the majority of value in the past decade Venture investing into early-stage consumer tech companies has cooled significantly in the past year. But it’s worth realizing that: Three consumer companies — Facebook, Google and Amazon — have been the super-unicorns of the past two decades. There are more consumer-oriented than enterprise unicorns, and they have generated more than 60 percent of the aggregate value on our list outside of Facebook. Our list likely seriously underestimates the value of consumer tech. Of the 14 still-private companies on our list, 85 percent are consumer-oriented (e.g. Twitter, Pinterest, Zulily). They should see a significant step up in value if/when a liquidity event occurs, increasing the aggregate value of the consumer unicorns. 4) Enterprise-oriented unicorns have delivered more value per private dollar invested One reason why enterprise ventures seem so attractive right now: the average enterprise-oriented unicorn on our list raised on average $138 million in the private markets – and they are currently worth 26x their private capital raised to date. The companies that seriously improved this metric are Nicira, Splunk and Tableau, who all raised <$50 million in private markets and are worth $3.8 billion today on average. Plus Workday, ServiceNow and FireEye who are currently worth >60x the private capital raised. Wow. Contrary to conventional VC wisdom about enterprise companies requiring more early-stage capital, we didn’t see a difference in Series A dollars raised by enterprise versus consumer unicorns. Consumer companies have delivered less value per private dollar invested The consumer unicorns have raised $348 million on average, ~2.5x more private capital than enterprise unicorns; and they are worth about 11x the private capital raised. Companies who raised lots of private money relative to their most recent valuation are Fab, Gilt Groupe, Groupon, HomeAway and Zynga. It may just take more capital to build a super successful consumer tech company in a “get big fast” world; and/or, founders and investors are guilty of over-capitalizing consumer Internet companies at too-high valuations in the past decade, driving lower returns for consumer tech investors. 5) Four primary business models drive the value and network effects help We categorized companies into four business models, which share fairly equally in driving value in aggregate: 1) E-commerce: the consumer pays for goods or services (11 companies); 2) Audience: free for consumers, monetization through ads or leads (11 companies); 3) SaaS:Users pay (often via a “freemium” model) for cloud-based software (7 companies); and 4) Enterprise: Companies pay for larger scale software (10 companies). None of the e-commerce companies on our list hold physical inventory as a key part of their business models. Despite that, e-commerce companies raised the most private dollars on average — delivering the lowest valuations vs capital raised, and likely driving the recent cool down in e-commerce investing. Only four of the 38 companies are mobile-first. Not surprising, the iPhone was only launched in 2007 and the first Android device in 2008. Another characteristic almost half of the companies on our list share: network effects. Network effects in the social age can help companies scale users dramatically, seriously reducing capital requirements (YouTube and Instagram) and/or increasing valuations quickly (Facebook). 6) It’s a marathon, not a sprint: it takes 7+ years to get to a “liquidity event” It took seven years on average for 24 companies on our list to go public or be acquired, excluding extreme outliers YouTube and Instagram, both of which were acquired for over $1 billion in about two years since founding. 14 of the companies on our list are still private, which will increase the average time to liquidity to eight-plus years. Not surprisingly, enterprise companies tend to take about a year longer to see a liquidity event than consumer companies Of the nine companies that have been acquired, the average valuation was $1.3 billion; likely a valuation sweet spot for acquirers to take them off the market before they become less affordable 7) The twentysomething inexperienced founder is an outlier, not the norm The companies on our list were generally not founded by inexperienced, first-time entrepreneurs. The average age on our list of founders at founding is 34. Yes, the founders of Facebook were on average 20 when it was founded; but the founders of LinkedIn, the second-most valuable company on our list, were 36 on average; and the founders of Workday, the third-most valuable, were 52 years old on average. Audience-driven companies like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have the youngest founders, with an average age at founding of 30 (seemingly imminent unicorn Snapchat will lower this average). SaaS and e-commerce founders averaged aged 35 and 36; enterprise software founders were 38 on average at founding. Co-founders with years of history together have driven the most successes A supermajority (35) of the unicorns on our list have chosen to blaze trails with more than one founder — with three co-founders on average. The role of co-founders varies from Co-CEOs (Workday) to technical co-founders who live in a different country (Fab.com). Looking at co-founder equity stakes at liquidity might be another interesting way to look at founder status, which we have not done. Ninety percent of co-founding teams comprise people who have years of history together, either from school or work; 60 percent have co-founders who worked together; and 46 percent who went to school together. Teams that worked together have driven more value per company than those who went to school together. Only four teams of co-founders didn’t have common work or school experience, but all had a common thread. Two were known and introduced by the investors at founding/funding; one team was friends in the local tech scene; and one team met while working on similar ideas. That said, the four unicorns with sole founders (ServiceNow, FireEye, RetailMeNot, Tumblr — half enterprise, half consumer) have all had liquidity events and are worth more on average than companies with co-founders. Most founding CEOs scale their companies for the long run. But not all founders stay for the whole journey An impressive 76 percent of founding CEOs led their companies to a liquidity event, and 69 percent are still CEO of their company, many as public company CEOs. This says a lot about these founders in terms of their long-term vision, commitment and their capability to scale from almost nothing in terms of money, product, and people, to their current unicorn company status. That said, 31 percent of companies did make a CEO change along the way; and those companies are worth more on average. One reason: about 40 percent of the enterprise companies made a CEO change (versus 25 percent of consumer companies). And all CEO changes prior to a liquidity event were at enterprise companies that added seasoned, “brand-name” leaders to their helms prior to being bought or going public. Only half of the companies on our list show all original founders still working in the company. On average, 2 of 3 co-founders remain. Not their first rodeo: founders have lots of startup and tech experience Nearly 80 percent of unicorns had at least one co-founder who had previously founded a company of some sort. Some founders showed theirentrepreneurial DNA as early as junior high. The list of prior startups co-founded spans failure and success; and from tutoring and bagel delivery companies, to PayPal and Twitter. All but two companies had founders with prior experience working in tech/software; and only three of 38 did not have a technical co-founder on board (HomeAway and RetailMeNot, founded as industry rollups; and Box, founded in college). The majority of founding CEOs, and 90 percent of enterprise CEOs have technical degrees from college. An educational barbell: many “top 10 school grads” and dropouts The vast majority of all co-founders went to selective universities (e.g. Cornell, Northwestern, University of Illinois). And more than two-thirds of our list has at least one co-founder who graduated from a “top 10 school.” Stanford leads the roster with an impressive one-third of the companies having at least one Stanford grad as a co-founder. Former Harvard students are co-founders in eight of 38 unicorns; Berkeley in five; and MIT grads in four of the 38 companies. Conversely, eight companies had a college dropout as a co-founder. And three out of five of the most valuable companies (Facebook, Twitter and ServiceNow) on our list were or are led by college dropouts, although dropouts with tech-company experience, with the exception of Facebook. 8) The “big pivot” is also an outlier, especially for enterprise companies Few companies are the result of a successful pivot. Nearly 90 percent of companies are working on their original product vision. The four “pivots” after a different initial product were all in consumer companies (Groupon, Instagram, Pinterest and Fab). 9) The Bay Area, especially San Francisco, is home to the vast majority of unicorns Probably not a surprise, but 27 of 39 on our list are based in the Bay Area. What might be a surprise is how much the center of gravity has moved to San Francisco from the Valley: 15 unicorns are headquartered in San Francisco; 11 are on the Peninsula; and one is in the East Bay. New York City has emerged as the No. 2 city for unicorns, home to three. Seattle (2) and Austin (2) are the next most-concentrated cities for unicorns. 10) There is A LOT of opportunity to bring diversity into the founders club Only two companies have female co-founders: Gilt Groupe and Fab, both consumer e-commerce. And no unicorns have female founding CEOs. While there is some ethnic diversity on founding teams, the diversity of founders in the unicorn club is far from the diversity of college grads with relevant technical degrees. Feels like some important records to break. So, what does this all mean? For those aspiring to found, work at, or invest in future unicorns, it still means anything is possible. All these companies are technically outliers: they are the top .07 percent. As such, we don’t think this provides a unicorn-hunting investor checklist, i.e. 34-year-old male ex-PayPal-ers with Stanford degrees, one who founded a software startup in junior high, where should we sign? That said, it surprised us how much the unicorn club has in common. In some cases, 90 percent in common, such as enterprise founder/CEOs with technical degrees; companies with 2+ co-founders who worked or went to school together; companies whose founders had prior tech startup experience; and whose founders were in their 30s or older. It is also good to be reminded that most successful startups take a lot of time and commitment to break out. While vesting periods are usually four years, the most valuable startups will take at least eight years before a “liquidity event,” and most founders and CEOs will stay in their companies beyond such an event. Unicorns also tend to raise a lot of capital over time — way beyond the Series A. So these founding teams had the ability to share a compelling company vision over many years and rounds of fundraising, plus scale themselves and recruit teams, despite economic ups and downs. We tip our hats to these 39 companies that have delighted millions of customers with fantastic products and generated so much value in just 10 years despite a crowded startup environment. They are the lucky/genius few of the Unicorn Club – and we look forward to learning about (and meeting) those who will break into this elite group next.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 30, 2013 11:24 AM
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The 8 elements required for a collaborative network to succeed:
1. A Common Pain is a shared problem that motivates different people/groups to work together in ways that could otherwise seem counterintuitive. Value alliances “exist at the intersection of self-interest and common interest.” We often become collaborators when we discover that we can solve a problem on our own. “Few people are willing to place themselves in a collaborative position of they have an alternative.” (As a side note, leaders, because of their position and the authority it brings them, usually have an alternative—my way or the highway. The best leaders collaborate anyway.) Collaborations require time, money, and people. The collaborative process is more complex, slower, and messier than independent decision making. To be willing to give up a degree of independence and control, a given leader must believe the problem poses a serious threat to the enterprise. 2. A Convener of Stature is a respected and influential presence who can bring people to the table and, when necessary, keep them there. “The inability to turn down an offer is one sign that you’re dealing with a convener of stature.” The book lays out the roles and responsibilities of the convener.
3. Representatives of Substance. The collaborative participants must bring the right mix of experience and expertise for legitimacy and have the authority to make decisions. Look for participants who possess at least one and ideally all three varieties of substance: authoritative, cognitive, and reputational. Sometimes it is wise to create additional layers of participants beyond the primary or core group. “Omitting people from the collaboration often guarantees that they’ll become external critics or even saboteurs.”
4. Committed Leaders are individuals who possess the skill, creativity, dedication and tenacity to move an alliance forward even when it hits the inevitable rough patches. Value alliances require committed leaders who fulfill many of these ten roles: organizer, diplomat, technician, teacher, counselor, matchmaker, salesperson, referee, judge, and disciplinarian. “If committed leaders can consistently achieve consensus, they will move the alliance forward. Finding consensus is an art form that alliance leaders must master.”
5. A Clearly Defined Purpose is a driving idea that keeps people on task rather than being sidetracked by complexity, ambiguity and other distractions. It is important to identify and deal with purpose creep—“an inexorable broadening of scope that eventually makes it impossible to relieve the common pain that drew the group together in the first place.” The authors provide a step-by-step guide to creating a purpose in a collaborative setting. They advise, “find a golden mean: big enough to matter and small enough to do.” And add, “As a committed leader, you need to develop a sixth sense for when people are setting goals that are too difficult to achieve or too wide-ranging; you also need to grasp when you’ve shrunk the purpose to the point that its achievement won’t have any real impact.”
6. A Formal Charter establishes rules that help resolve differences and avoid stalemates. The three crucial parts of a charter are: the Purpose section, the Principles section, and the Operating Procedures.
7. The Northbound Train is an intuitive confidence that an alliance will get to its destination, achieve something of unique value, and that those who aren’t on board will be disadvantaged. The idea is, “decisions that matter to me are going to be made and I need to be there. The train is headed north and I want a seat on it.” They explain why a northbound train slows and what to do about it. “The feeling generated by a northbound train is what carries the collaboration to its destination.”
8. Defining Common Ground. “Participants and leaders need to discuss the beliefs and ideas that they take for granted in their collaborative efforts.” A Common Information Base keeps everyone in the loop and avoids divisive secrets and opaqueness. “Defining common standards boils down to the capacity of collaborators to reach foundational agreements.” People are coming from all different places with different values and beliefs, but to get to the point where there is a recommendation or decision that everyone can buy into, and to hold the collaboration together until that point is reached, “Agreement about operating modes and information protocols is necessary.”
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 29, 2013 12:17 PM
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If you ask employees, there’s a short-list of what they want from their leaders. As you read what follows, think about how you’re doing, and where you might need to focus to better engage your employees. Here’s what employees expect: Authenticity. Be real, self-disclose, be human and approachable.Foresight. Paint a picture of what’s possible; define and articulate your desired end-state. Help me imagine too what you envision.Context. Explain why you’ve set the course you have; link your strategy to your desired end-states. Help me understand how you think, and why you think what you do.Connection. Connect the dots between your business priorities and my work. Help me understand how I fit in and what’s in it for me. Easier said than done, in many cases. Although the difference between success and failure is the difference between engaged employees and those that aren’t willing to give their best effort.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 28, 2013 12:44 PM
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The Top 10 Workplace Trends For 2014 Earlier this week, I gave you my top trends for 2013 and now it’s time to look ahead to 2014. The economy is showing no signs of getting better and now with Obamacare next year, there are going to be some major changes. 2014 will be a slow period, where a lot of major workplace issues will surface and executives will be scrambling. As more boomers retire and more people work from home, the idea of “work” will start to change. Hiring processes are going to start to shift as more recruiters rely on the Internet and the word “reputation” will become even more important to professionals and companies alike. Here are the trends I’m following that will affect you one way or another next year: 1. Healthcare’s impact on the workplace CNNMoney.com found that 9 out of 14 economists say that businesses are putting off hiring because of health care reform next year. The reform will force employers with 50 or more workers to provide affordable health insurance starting in 2015. Starting next year, small businesses will be able to get a credit for up to 50% of their health care premium costs if they buy insurance. It’s debatable exactly how Obamacare will impact the workplace but many are saying (at least Republicans and some economists) that companies will be laying off more full-time workers and hiring more contingent workers in order to dodge the penalty. 2. Freelancing becomes a normal way of life One third of Americans are freelancers (17 million people), contractors and consultants right now and there will be more of them than full-time employees in six years. Employers are saving more money hiring freelancers because they don’t have to pay benefits (they will want to avoid the Obamacare penalties for instance) and they are looking to hire experts who can complete specialized projects. This also means that more professionals will be working from home instead of a traditional office setting, which saves companies money. Despite how the public views the working from home phenomenon, Gallup reports that you are more engaged when working from home. 3. Gender pay gap starts to close Earlier this year, Gallup found that only 24% of women are happy with what they earn at work compared to 32% of men. This was a more general view of the workforce but what we found recently was that if you break it down by generation, there isn’t much discrepancy between millennials. After controlling for all other factors, there is only a 2-3% difference between male and female pay across all 3 generations, and that difference is the smallest for Gen Y. The gap is going to shrink overall because 36% of the American workforce will be millennials by next year and that number will continue to rise. As more women are becoming educated and more men leave the workforce, the gap will shrink even more. Millennials are all about equality in every aspect of life and want women and men to be treated the same. For instance, 74% of millennials support same sex marriage, which is a big reason why it passed in many states. 4. The economy delays career growth The economy hit the workforce really hard and there are no clear signs that it’s going to bounce back any time soon. The Congressional Budget Office expects unemployment to remain near 8% in 2014 and Generation Opportunity reports that there is a 15.9% unemployment rate for millennials. A new study between my company and PayScale.com shows that millennials are most likely to have had to move back home with their parents due to financial hardship after starting their careers (28 percent) compared to Gen X (11 percent) or Baby Boomers (5 percent). Millennial workers are now 30 years old before hitting a median wage of $42,000–up from 26 back in 1980. Millions of millennials are moving back in with their parents when they graduate and Pew Reports that 36% of millennials are choosing to put off moving out on their own. Many recent graduates are finally getting internships, which delay their ability to actually get a full time job. Degrees and internships don’t guarantee jobs anymore and the economy has slowed down career development for many. 5. Boomers retiring – changing demographics in the workplace We’re going to see a lot of boomers retire starting next year and it’s going to cause major shifts in workplace demographics. In fact, 18% of boomers will retire within five years and 68% of HR professionals say that boomers retiring will have a major impact on the workforce. Next year, millennials will account for 36% of the American workforce too. One of the biggest problems companies will have is succession planning. They are going to have to train Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers before their boomers retire or they will be in major trouble. On the flip side, new opportunities will be created for younger generations who are more loyal to their companies. 6. Employers create new ways of filtering candidates Every year it becomes more competitive to apply for jobs because there are more applicants for fewer positions. In the past, I’ve called this the black hole of resumes and the Wall Street Journal calls it “resume oblivion“. Companies, especially larger ones, are finding new ways to filter candidates. One of them is to have HR programs that filter out those who didn’t graduate from college. The second way is to use social networks to screen candidates. Jobvite.com reports that 94% of employers are using social networks for recruiting and that number will be about 100% next year I predict. More smaller companies and even midsize companies are looking at your online footprint first before giving you an interview to see if you would fit into the corporate culture and if there’s anything negative that comes up for your name. More companies will be using tests next year to try and close the skills gap. One test is called the “Collegiate Learning Assessment“, which provides an objective, benchmarked report card for critical thinking skills. 7. More companies provide wellness programs Health and wellness at work will become one of the biggest conversations next year, especially with the Affordable Care Act coming into effect. Employers will be able to use financial rewards and penalties to encourage healthier behaviors. Currently, employees who smoke cost companies an average of $5,800 per year and depressed employees cost companies $23 billion each year in loss of productivity. 10.8% of the workforce suffers from depression and they miss an average of 8.7 days per year due to poor health. Companies know they can save a lot of money and be more productive and effective with a healthier workforce. Professionals who are healthier are happier in their jobs too. 8. The continuous job search Research shows that people are always searching for new jobs and opportunities. People are just not satisfied anymore with the work they do so they are continuously searching even after getting a new job. 73% of workers don’t have a problem looking for new employment before leaving their current employer and 48% of millennials say they conduct job search activities at work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that people have about eleven jobs between the ages of 18 and 34. People are going to get even more restless in the future as the internet creates an even larger marketplace for jobs. 9. ROI of college is looked at closer Next year the pressure is going to be on colleges much more than in years past. College’s continue to increase their tuition rates for 2014 and there are still one trillion outstanding student loans out there. Due to all the unpaid internships, it’s becoming harder for students to pay back their loans and save up to live on their own when they graduate (26 million of them live at home). In response, colleges are being forced to prove their worth and one way they are doing it is to offset unpaid internships with money. The other threat that colleges have to worry about is MOOC’s that offer free online courses that people can take from their homes. More colleges are going to be offering online courses next year in order to lower costs and allow for more diversity in the student body. 10. Reputation become more important for both professionals and companies The word “reputation” will be talked about in length next year by employers and professionals alike because people will be hired and promoted based on it and will only work at a company that has a positive one. For professionals, companies are focusing their recruiting on outcomes, waiting for the perfect hire and are more risk averse. They want to hire a candidate that already has a reputation built on a strong track record. From the professionals standpoint, they are starting to judge companies based on reputation when deciding where to work. A recent study by CareerBuilder shows that about 75% of job seekers will accept a lower salary for a good brand.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 25, 2013 11:03 AM
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How to Discover Your What Your WHAT is the “single most crucial element of your life that needs to be identified, defined, and fulfilled,” says Steve Olsher inWhat is Your What? Here’s why:
Your unfulfilled WHAT will absolutely affect you in a variety of unexpected ways. It could be the source of your high blood pressure, the reason you don’t feel “good enough.” the cause of your general sense of loathing when you wake up, or the impetus behind your efforts at self-sabotage.
It should be noted here that finding your what is not a surefire way to fame and riches—or gainful employment for that matter. And while each person is unique, many others possess similar abilities and may fill a need in the marketplace better than you do. It takes work. At the same time, some people chose to work at jobs that do not fulfill or satisfy their what because it fills a purpose or a value that they consider to be greater than their own personal needs. Perhaps that is their what. That said, What is Your What? will help you get to gain control over your life rather than letting it happen haphazardly.
What is Your What? is a self-awareness book to help you connect with who you really are. What you do from there is your choice. Olsher has developed a three-step process to help you uncover and reconnect with your natural strengths, identify the vehicle you’ll leverage to share your gifts with the world and the specific audiences who’ll benefit most from your gifts.
“As we endure life’s hardships, we tend to lose touch with our inner greatness. We start to make distasteful compromises, settle for less, and become people different from our deepest selves.” Becoming aware of how you were knocked down is the first step in ascending to your most natural state of being.
Olsher bases his program on seven principles:
1. Recognize YaNo Moments are those moments when you are faced with a choice. Some are big; some are small. “Any time you undertake an activity without evaluating the impact your choice will have on your life, you run the risk of compromising your state of mind. The key to regaining control of your life is to make deliberate choices with an understanding of the consequences.”
2. Reclaim the Canyon. Establish space between life as it happens and your reaction to those events.
3. The Sufficiency Theory. Attain satisfaction, peace, and contentment by minimizing material desires and the effect of outside influences. Olsher suggests that we stop drawing lines in the sand. “Happiness is not a destination that can be reached by attaining select milestones. Shift your approach from waiting for certain things to happen in order to feel a certain way to feeling and acting that way now. Surprisingly often, this will spur the results you desire to happen.”
4. Retrain Your Brain. “Anything from your past that you choose to relive becomes a part of your identity. Be careful about which memories you commit to.”
5. Incorporate Jack Welch’s successful business practices into your behavior. Specifically, become highly focused on who you are, what you stand for, and what your purpose is; identify the Top 20 Percent, Vital 70 Percent, and Bottom 10 Percent for each area of your life; achieve Six Sigma in all key aspects of your life and strive to accept nothing less than your best.
6. The Not-So-Golden Rule. Eliminate fear or expectation as a motive for your actions. Your motive does matter. Act out of love, without the expectation of anything in return.
7. The Slow Death of Not Being the Star. Shift your focus away from time-consuming distractions and toward the pursuit of your personal goals. Keep track of your activities for a week. “Chances are you’ll find that what you’ve been thinking of as relaxing ‘downtime’ is actually the dominant force in your life, devouring months and years you can never get back.”
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 24, 2013 2:10 PM
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9 Amazing Mobile Marketing Statistics 1. The growth of the iPhone was 10 times faster than the growth of America Online. (Source: Nielsen) (This is an amazing statistic for those of us who remember mailboxes stuffed with AOL discs during the 1990s.) 2. It takes 26 hours for the average person to report a lost wallet. It takes 68 minutes for them to report a lost phone. (Source: Unisys) 3. There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Source: Mobile Marketing Association Asia) 4. In some countries, there are more mobile subscriptions than there are people. (Source: Mobile Marketing Association) (How can this be? It’s because some people own more than one mobile phone.) 5. It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message. (Source: CTIA.org) 6. 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour. (Source: Mobile Marketer) 7. Mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of traditional coupons. (Source: Borrell Associates) 8. There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are TVs. (Source: Jupiter) 9. 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7. (Source: Morgan Stanley)
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 10, 2013 4:58 PM
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How might 2014 play out in tech? 1. Siris Move Into Silos. Internet assistants display their importance as a category by spreading out into a large number of new Siri-like products, many of which work to increase utility by going deep into vertical markets. The results are improved success in voice recognition, knowledge-base utility, and customer trust and acceptance. 2. Visualization Goes Mainstream. As big data, cloud computing, and vast increases in storage and processing take hold, the role of data visualization becomes much more common in our tools. Having created systems much more advanced than the human brain in these categories, we now must find improved ways of digesting all of this information. 3. The Cheaper Factor. Low price becomes a critical driver in global consumer-electronics product creation, as emerging economies absorb a dramatically larger fraction of all devices sold. The result of bringing hundreds of millions out of poverty is a shift in design motivation from the radically innovative, to incremental change at low cost, driven by the creation of a new purchaser segment in consumer electronics. 4. Sub-$100 Smartphones dominate the phone category 5. Sub-$250 pads dominate the pad /CarryAlong category. These ought to be the top two best-selling product types in their categories for the year , and these two categories ought to be the top two consumer electronics categories for the year, when measured by volume. 6. Software Plays on a Flat Hardware Field, as We Build Out the Global Computer. This is the real mover behind everything in IT, from the blank black real estate of your cellphone and pad, to virtualized storage and servers, emulated processors, software-defined networks and the most advanced cloud-computing services. Even as hardware continues to advance, software is where most of the energy, innovation, and action occur. 7. The New Microsoft That No One Expected. Microsoft gets a new CEO, with a new power structure that encourages cooperation instead of warring factions, and which leads to improved success in consumer markets. The stock continues to climb, on an annualized basis, and Redmond starts to get some of its “mojo” back, defined by people wanting to work there. 8. Micromapping arrives. Various firms open the door on a brand new category in mapping, advertising, location and ID, and transactions. This MALT category launches in 2014, with small but fast-growing revenue that will become mammoth in years ahead. 9. The Quantified Self Goes Mainstream. The idea of knowing more and more detail about your personal health and characteristics goes from being a science story to a jogger’s delight to a mainstream market. Keeping track of your own health data in real time is no longer something for geeks and workout fanatics, but is accepted as a new and mainstream category of behavior, products, and preventative medicine. Doctors will have to start catching up. 10. Encryption Everywhere. The direct commercial result of Edward Snowden’s leaks will be a massive move by large technology companies, both in enterprise and consumer markets, to evolve new encryption technologies and products that use them. While NSA-proofing will be the motivator, the real benefit may be improved protection of commercial IP from theft by China and other nations.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 10, 2013 4:44 PM
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Among the encouraging findings in this year’s UC Davis study:
Fewer companies are without women — the number of companies that have no women executives and no women board members has dropped to 107, or a little more than one-fourth. This figure is a new low, showing more women are being appointed to existing or new board seats and executive positions.More companies than ever before have at least one woman leader. All 12 of the public Fortune 100 companies in California have at least one woman director on their board. Two of the top 25 companies in the study, SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc., have a majority of highest-paid executive positions, 3 of 5, held by women.Although a majority of the 400 largest public companies in the state still have no women among their highest-paid executives, more women than ever before are filling these ranks, from 8.9 percent last year to 10.5 percent this year. Women chief financial officers are increasing, while the number of women serving as chief executive officers is holding steady at 13, or 3.3 percent.
Among counties with at least 20 companies, San Francisco County has the most women board directors (17.3 percent), and Alameda County has the fewest (9 percent). San Mateo County has the most highest-paid women executives (15.4 percent), and Orange County has the fewest (8.1 percent).
The study tracks the members of the boards of directors and the five highest-paid executives, also called “named executive officers,” for each company as reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The study examined filing data available as of Aug. 31, 2013. The 400 companies were selected based on market capitalization.
The study also looked at the race and ethnicity of women and men corporate directors at the 94 public companies that also appeared on the 2013 Fortune 1000 list. Ethnic representation is poor among directors of both genders, with about nine out of 10 directors being Caucasian — even though California is more diverse than the country as a whole. (Only 39 percent of Californians identify as Caucasian alone.)
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 10, 2013 1:47 PM
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PredictionsIDC issued today its top 10 predictions for 2014. IDC’s Frank Gens predicted that 2014 “will be about pitched battles” and a coming IT industry consolidation around a small number of big “winners.” The industry landscape will change as “incumbents will no longer be foolish enough to say we don’t compete with Amazon.” Here’s my edited version of the predictions in the IDC press release and webcast: Overall IT spending to grow 5.1% to $2.14 trillion, PC revenues to decline 6% Worldwide sales of smartphones (12% growth) and tablets (18%) will continue at a “torrid pace” (accounting for over 60% of total IT market growth) at the expense of PC sales which will continue to decline. Spending on servers, storage, networks, software, and services will “fare better” than in 2013. Android vs Apple, round 6 The Samsung-led Android community “will maintain its volume advantage over Apple,” but Apple will continue to enjoy “higher average selling prices and an established ecosystem of apps.” Google Play (Android) app downloads and revenues, however, “are making dramatic gains.” IDC advises Microsoft to “quickly double mobile developer interest in Windows.” Or else? Amazon (and possibly Google) to take on traditional IT suppliers Amazon Web Services’ “avalanche of platform-as-a-service offerings for developers and higher value services for businesses” will force traditional IT suppliers to “urgently reconfigure themselves.” Google, IDC predicts, will join in the fight, as it realizes “it is at risk of being boxed out of a market where it should be vying for leadership.”*** Emerging markets will return to double-digit growth of 10% Emerging markets will account for 35% of worldwide IT revenues and, for the first time, more than 60% of worldwide IT spending growth. “In dollar terms,” IDC says, “China’s IT spending growth will match that of the United States, even though the Chinese market is only one third the size of the U.S. market.” In 2014, the number of smart connected devices shipped in emerging markets will be almost double that shipped in developed markets and emerging markets will be a hotbed of Internet of Things market development. There’s a $100 billion cloud in our future Spending on cloud services and the technology to enable these services “will surge by 25% in 2014, reaching over $100 billion.” IDC predicts “a dramatic increase in the number of datacenters as cloud players race to achieve global scale.” Cloud service providers will increasingly drive the IT market As cloud-dedicated datacenters grow in number and importance, the market for server, storage, and networking components “will increasingly be driven by cloud service providers, who have traditionally favored highly componentized and commoditized designs.” The incumbent IT hardware vendors will be forced to adopt a “cloud-first” strategy, IDC predicts. 25–30% of server shipments will go to datacenters managed by service providers, growing to 43% by 2017. Bigger big data spending IDC predicts spending of more than $14 billion on big data technologies and services or 30% growth year-over-year, “as demand for big data analytics skills continues to outstrip supply.” The cloud will play a bigger role with IDC predicting a race to develop cloud-based platforms capable of streaming data in real time. There will be increased use by enterprises of externally-sourced data and applications and “data brokers will proliferate.” IDC predicts explosive growth in big data analytics services, with the number of providers to triple in three years. 2014 spending on these services will exceed $4.5 billion, growing by 21%. Here comes the social enterprise IDC predicts increased integration of social technologies into existing enterprise applications. “In addition to being a strategic component in virtually all customer engagement and marketing strategies,” IDC says, “data from social applications will feed the product and service development process.” By 2017, 80% of Fortune 500 companies will have an active customer community, up from 30% today. Here comes the Internet of Things By 2020, the Internet of Things will generate 30 billion autonomously connected end points and $8.9 trillion in revenues. IDC predicts that in 2014 we will see new partnerships among IT vendors, service providers, and semiconductor vendors that will address this market. Again, China will be a key player: The average Chinese home in 2030 will have 40–50 intelligent devices/sensors, generating 200TB of data annually. The digitization of all industries By 2018, 1/3 of share leaders in virtually all industries will be “Amazoned” by new and incumbent players. “A key to competing in these disrupted and reinvented industries,” IDC says, “will be to create industry-focused innovation platforms (like GE’s Predix) that attract and enable large communities of innovators – dozens to hundreds will emerge in the next several years.” Concomitant with this digitization of everything trend, “the IT buyer profile continues to shift to business executives. In 2014, and through 2017, IT spending by groups outside of IT departments will grow at more than 6% per year.” ***Can’t resist quoting my August 2011 post: “Consumer vs. enterprise is an old and soon-to-be obsolete distinction. If Google will not take away some of Microsoft’s (and IBM’s, etc. for that matter) “enterprise” revenues, someone else will. At stake are the $1.5 trillion spent annually by enterprises on hardware, software, and services. If you include what enterprises spend on IT internally (staff, etc.), you get at least $3 trillion. A big chunk of that will move to the cloud over the next fifteen years. Compare this $3 trillion to the $400 billion spent annually on all types of advertising worldwide. Why leave money on the table?”
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 3, 2013 1:51 PM
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From my experience, here are some of the more common blind spots: Doing it alone – You’re smart, and your great work as an individual contributor got you where you are today. It’s all too easy, and all too common, for leaders to assume they can do it all—without any help.Lack of self-awareness – As a leader, your comments and actions carry a different weight than they did before. What may be a small comment to you can be analyzed and scrutinized by your team, creating confusion and concern.Assuming everyone “gets it” – You’ve spent hours, days, weeks on a new business strategy or plan for growth. But frequently leaders don’t give their teams the information and context they need to succeed. You “get it” and they do too, you believe.Waiting to communicate – Waiting until you have “all” the information creates a communication vacuum that feeds the grapevine with misinformation.Believing you are always right – Ignoring the ideas, thoughts and input of others creates disengagement and limits your ability to succeed.Being unwilling to admit when you’re wrong or when you don’t know an answer – You’re not going to always be right and you won’t always have every answer. Not being able to admit it is a credibility killer.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
December 2, 2013 12:40 PM
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Ultimate Influence is based on five key principles that occur on an ongoing basis:
1. Control your own emotions. When we have our emotions under control we are able to “act out of thought, out of consciousness, and help create a situation in which everyone involved can come away as winners.” Your default setting to pressure situations is directly proportional to your ability to problem solve, to live in the solution, and to lead. 2. Understand the clash of belief systems. Learn to get out of your own head and into the head of the person you’re trying to influence. Not only is it our responsibility to be certain our message is understood by the recipient, it’s just as important to be sure we understand their message, as well. 3. Acknowledge their ego. When dealing with others, remember that “their ego is highly sensitive, and if you want someone to agree with your wishes, you must handle it with extreme caution and care.” Be a judge, not a lawyer. Whereas a lawyer is paid to win the case for his or her client by any legal and ethical means possible, a judge is not. A judge needs to understand both sides of the issue and be as impartial as possible. Human that we are, being impartial is difficult when the ego wants to win at all costs—even if you’re wrong. But the best way to overcome this unproductive desire is to practice being a judge. 4. Set the proper frame. The frame—the context—determines the direction of every interpersonal transaction. If you set the frame you are in control. Expecting someone to be helpful doesn’t change them, it changes you. And that is what changes them.
The key point in all this is humility, which often leads to effective communication. When we are truly desirous of the truth and not just in winning an argument, people understand our intent and much quicker to accept our position.
Avoid negative framing. [“I don’t like what you do or how you do it.”] It’s interesting how often I hear someone begin a conversation in a way that’s almost guaranteed to upset the person whom they, for whatever reason, want or need to win over. Instead, ask yourself what you can do at this very moment to set the person at ease and make them as receptive as possible to you and your message. 5. Communicate with tact and empathy. “Tact is the ability to say something in a way that makes the other person feel less threatened or defensive and more open to you and your ideas.” It’s key to becoming an Ultimate Influencer. Empathy—the ability to identify with another’s feelings—and tact go hand-in-hand. “You will naturally display tact when you are truly empathetic to another’s situation. And speaking tactfully will communicate your empathy to that person.” [Give people an out.] You have honored this person by removing pressure and giving him or her the option to escape through the back door. You are not giving them the out so they will take it. Your goal is to make them feel comfortable enough not to feel the need to take it.
Sometimes the most influential thing we can ever do is listen. Just listen. Burg ends with character. “Even more important that what you say and what you do is who you are.” Your character is what ultimately determines your long-term influence. Be who you say you are. Say little and do much. Develop a reputation as a person who, rather than talking a good game, actually plays a good game. One who, instead of talking about being honest, is honest. Instead of talking about thinking of others,thinks of others.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
November 27, 2013 2:53 PM
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I’m privileged to be amidst the smartest, most motivated and creative community and culture in the world. I was born in Asia and have done my limited amount of traveling, including trips across the US and a trip to Europe decades ago, but there’s no place like the Silicon Valley for the tech entrepreneur, no more stimulating business environment if that is your passion. Ever open to the lessons and gifts of leaders across the valley, I’ve decided to collect ten pearls of wisdom to share, in honor of the holidays. 1. Better no relationship than a bad one. Many frustrated people are deeply tied to relationships that bring them down, that focuses on old, looping or stale patterns that hold them in place. Spinning out of that mode means believing that they can choose to stop the pattern, that they believe it is better to stand alone than to be with someone who makes them stand still or stand down.
2. Don’t put lipstick on the pig. See with clarity what is before you for embellishing what’s in front of you does not change the heart of what it is.
3. Humor connects. When emotions run high, conflict is palpable, connect with each other and find the common human spirit and shared goals leveraging humor. Laugh at yourself, laugh at the situation, laugh at the lessons of life.
4. I must. Successful are those who do what they must do, rather than spend the time and energy complaining about the why and the how of it.
5. Innovation comes from the top down, from the bottom up, from the outside in. A culture of innovation emanates from the top, is executed from the bottom, and is focused on the needs of the customer.
6. More carrot, less stick. Praise, reward and positive feedback bring out the best in all of us. Most of us high-achievers also have to tone down on the stick – the voice within us that judges ourselves too harshly.
7. Be fearless: if you succeed, it’s on you, if you fail, it’s on me. Give others around you the freedom to fail forward, to learn and grow.
8. Complacency kills initiative and innovation. Don’t rest on your laurels for only the paranoid survive and thrive.
9. We are all a work in progress. Don’t judge yourself too harshly. Focus on the positives and on the journey.
10. Have the courage to speak difficult truths. You are not doing your friends, family or colleagues or yourself any favors by protecting them from the truths you see. Share those truths with compassion and empathy. Share your thoughts with us at info@whenshespeaks.com.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
November 5, 2013 3:25 PM
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There are two important connections to the trouble Blackberry finds itself in today. The combination of hubris, lack of foresight, misplaced bets can be deadly faster than you can imagine. It is very, very difficult to know exactly when a competitor is serious in its threat to your existence.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
November 1, 2013 2:13 PM
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To forge connections and relationships – the kinds of relationships that reap major, long-term rewards – you need to start by putting value into the system, not by asking, asking, and asking some more with the small hope that every now and then someone will say, "Yes." You can’t make withdrawals before you make meaningful deposits. Remember, the world doesn’t owe you anything. Never expect people to respond based on your needs. Everyone has needs. Other people may feel your pain but it is in no way their responsibility to help you. Thankfully, there are lots people that will anyways, because the world can be a wonderful place. So try this: Give when you aren’t asked. Offer a quid without expecting a pro quo. Pay it forward (as opposed to pay it back). Give, give, and give some more. When you’re sincerely generous, the system starts paying you back. Here are some things you can give: 1. Unexpected compliments. We all enjoy a gift on our birthday, but surprise gifts? We love those. We also love unexpected praise because, like a gift given "just because," unexpected praise is even more powerful and can make an even bigger impact. Take a look around. Maybe a coworker has done something awesome. Sure, it’s not your job to praise her… and that’s the perfect reason to do so. (She expects her manager to compliment her, but not you.) Or maybe you just finished a great book; send the author a quick note -- or better yet, leave an Amazon review. Or maybe you love a product or service; take a second and ask to personally thank the person who made or delivered that service. I promise he or she will be delighted by the interruption – and by the public praise for a job well done. Every day people around you do great things. Most of those people don't work for or with you; in fact, most of them have no relationship with you, professional or personal. Compliment them for something they would least expect. Just make it genuine and sincere. Expected feels good. Unexpected makes a huge and lasting impact. 2. Critical feedback on products or services. Praise is awesome, but sometimes what a person really needs is constructive feedback. (I enjoy when customers compliment HubSpot tools, but I love when they let me know specific ways we can improve those tools.) Just make sure your feedback is thoughtful and considered. “That was awful!” is descriptive but not particularly helpful. Just pretend you’re giving feedback to a friend: Be clear, be precise, be honest… but also be considerate. And don’t give feedback in hopes of a refund or some other consideration. Give input simply as a way to help others and not yourself. We all know what we know, but by definition it’s impossible to know what we don’t know. Taking the time and effort to give feedback for the sole purpose of helping another person know what they might not know can be an incredible unexpected gift. 3. Useful referrals. Many people ask for referrals. (Some ask moments after they first meet you, making you feel like nothing more than a stepping-stone.) Certainly respond to those requests that make sense, but go a step farther and actively think of helpful referrals you can make. You know a number of people with incredible talents. You know a number of people who don’t have access to the right resources. Simply put them together. They’ll both benefit. And they’ll likely return the favor for you. 4. Smart introductions. Just like we can all use more friends, we can all use more connections. Everyone, no matter how high up the entrepreneurial or professional food chain, can use more connections – but not just any old connections (most of us have too many of those); the right connections. How do you know when an introduction makes sense? You have to know the other person’s needs. Malcolm Gladwell doesn’t need an introduction to a great book agent; but an unknown business thinker with awesome things to say – but no formal publishing outlet to say it – could definitely use that introduction. Jason Calacanis doesn’t need an introduction to a savvy VC; a kid with an awesome idea but limited resources could definitely use that introduction. Think of it this way: To give a gift that is personal and thoughtful, you first have to know what the other person wants or needs. Introductions work the same way. Determine what the other person needs, and then make a smart introduction. (Tip: Get permission first if you can, and make sure the intro would be welcome). 5. Time. Many companies hold or sponsor charity and fundraising events. If you believe in the cause, offer to help. Just make sure you’re sincere; it’s incredibly easy to sniff out a person who wants something more than just the good feelings that result from helping a great cause. 6. The answer to the unasked question. Some people are hesitant. Some are insecure. Some are shy. Whatever the reason, some people will ask a different question than the one they really want answered. For example, when someone asks me what I think about venture capitalists -- often what they really want to know is whether their idea is likely to get funded -- and how to go about navigating that process. Behind many questions is the unasked question. Pay attention. Answer the question that is asked, but think about the question left unsaid, and answer that question, too. Why? That’s the answer the person asking the question doesn’t just want. That’s the answer he or sheneeds.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 30, 2013 11:21 AM
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ASSUMPTIONS OF SUCCESSFUL COACHING
The Coachee is capable, resourceful, and already has the Answers – The coach fully trusts in the know-how, competencies and capabilities of the coachee. A coach may propose a course of action. Although the coachee himself will need to make decisons in the end.
The Coach is not a Hand-holder. Instead she´s a Catalyst – Since the coach assumes that the coachee is resourceful, capable, and creative she´s a fan of the coachee. As a catalyst the coach is a main piece in the coaching process by assisting in speeding up the process of change.
The Coachee is the one working and being accountable within the Coaching Process– The Coach lends a hand by creating a framework and process for the coachee. Like building a wooden frame for a painting. However, the coachee himself needs to take the brushes in his hands and needs to start drawing the picture he´d like to paint of himself and his life.
The Coach enjoys assisting the Client in achieving his higher Purpose – The coach loves to live and to display passion, commitment, and sincere interest for the coachee. By doing so it´s not only a job for her, but a mission.
The whole Coaching Process is built on Trust and Confidentiality – To hold all coaching conversations confidential certainly is a main criteria for successful coaching. Trust is also expanded by respectful, open-minded and honest exchanges among coach and coachee.
Coaching is about what the Coachee creates – As such the coachee requires sufficient space for himself to think, feel, experiment, dream, visualize, and to be able to embrace different thinking patterns, models of the world, and perspectives to possibly come up with new ideas and/or solutions.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 28, 2013 4:54 PM
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“Leaders are different,” begins Mark Miller’s The Heart of Leadership. “They see the world differently and they cultivate different character traits.” It’s a business fable that explains that “you can have impeccable character—be honest, loyal, dependable, and so on—and still not demonstrate leadership character.” Leadership character sits on top of these traits and are foundational. Leaders who don’t possess these traits and others like them, are disqualified before they start.
Skills are important, but “if you don’t demonstrate leadership character, your skills and your results will be discounted, if not dismissed. The Heart of Leadership is a well told story and is built around five lessons:
Think Others First. To think others first is not primarily about what you do—it is about how you think. It’s all about what’s in your heart. How can I Serve this person? What does a win look like for him or her?
Expect the Best. Many people in the world see events as they are; leaders are different in that they see things that could be. And the future they see is always a better version of the present. We believe we can make a difference; we think we can make the world, or at least our part of it, better. Leaders are generally more optimistic than non-leaders.
Respond With Courage. Practice taking action. As you go through your day, ask yourself what action would be appropriate here? Your missed opportunities are often no big deal in isolation. They are, however, cumulative.
Hunger for Wisdom. A hunger for wisdom fueled by a commitment to lifelong learning will equip you for whatever lies ahead. Be open to input, new ideas, contrarian opinions, and views. Establish a network of counselors to call on for their advice and wisdom.
Accept Responsibility. Assume responsibility for your actions and the action of those you lead. It is about being accountable for actions and outcomes—yours and others. Leaders accept responsibility, in part, because they are sold out to the vision. It matters more than they do.
The key issue though is discussed at the end of the story. If these qualities don’t become part of who you are, your leadership will never really change. Our leadership reflects who we are inside. You can fake it for a while, but eventually it will come out. “If you do all those activities and your heart doesn’t change, you won’t be the kind of leader you want to be. Leadership is not about what you do nearly as much as it’s about who you are becoming—the heart of leadership is a matter of the heart.”
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 25, 2013 11:12 AM
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Stephen Covey was about being mindful of the person you become on the way there. He celebrated the idea of finding one’s “true north,” the guiding set of ethics and habits through which people develop character. He liked to quote Aristotle on the subject: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act – but a habit.” Covey wasn’t talking low-level habits like brushing your teeth, washing the dishes or showing up early for meetings. His “habits” were ones of character – the kind that take time and repetition to build. Some were about thinking, some were about doing, some were about treating others with respect – but they were all about building character, about doing the right things over and over until they become ingrained -- what Aristotle called the “stable equilibrium of the soul.” Aristotle's notion – the one Covey also espoused – is a profound one. Success in life is rooted in aligning our actions with our values, until our choices flow naturally, and without calculation, from our character. Like everything else worth doing, this is a matter of consistent, determined practice – as unromantic, familiar, and headline-unfriendly a secret as that may be.
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Scooped by
Linda Holroyd
October 24, 2013 4:18 PM
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CEOs have to take ownership of this issue to ensure the ongoing viability of their companies. Otherwise: If your HR team lacks the tools to exploit social technologies to find excellent new recruits, how can your company find and hire the best people?If your HR team lacks the tools to identify high-potential stars within your organization and help create new high-impact opportunities for them, how will you retain top talent?If your HR team lacks the tools to tie compensation decisions to business strategy and real-world results, how will you be able to keep up in today’s ultracompetitive marketplace?
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First the why, then the how, then the what