Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-10
- H&M cutting up unsold garments instead of giving them to the homeless – interesting to see how they respond http://tinyurl.com/yejrxsy #
- just completed an interesting job at a Berlin start-up in the medical field – communication training and mentoring #
- probably a change of goverment in the UK – what will this mean if you work or do business there? #
- do drivers need internet access as they drive? I say No, but companies are putting profit first says NYTimes http://tinyurl.com/y9eqv27 #
- very poor communcation by German banks about their debit card problems http://tinyurl.com/y88clfp #
- good point made here: is #Apple's lack of openness going to be a misake in the face of Goggles new phone? http://tinyurl.com/ydq7knx #
- #ryanair is anything but transparent in the way it deals with customers but is still successful Why? #FT http://tinyurl.com/yeen8ux #
- #walmart is aiming to change some of its purchasing models, but at what cost? #FT. http://tinyurl.com/y9n35mr #
- more change in the phama industry. #novartis buys another company http://tinyurl.com/y8kv4l5 #
Ford and social networking
There’s an interesting article – How Ford Got Social Marketing Right - on the Harvard Business Review blog, by Grant McCracken. In it, he talks about Ford have used social networking in an innovative and successful way to market the Fiesta model.
Ford did not approach early adopters to generate interest, but what he calls culture creators – people who create content on sites like YouTube. One hundred of them were given a car and encouraged to create content by being set challenges which they could then document.
How successful was this?
Fiesta got 6.5 million YouTube views and 50,000 requests for information about the car — virtually none from people who already had a Ford in the garage. Ford sold 10,000 units in the first six days of sales. The results came at a relatively small cost. The Fiesta Movement is reputed to have cost a small fraction of the typical national TV campaign.
McCracken outlines a three-step process for success:
- Engage culturally creative consumers to create content.
- Encourage them to distribute this content on social networks and digital markets in the form of a digital currency.
- Craft this is a way that it rebounds to the credit of the brand, turning digital currency (and narrative meaning) into a value for the brand.
Overall, a very good article, well worth a read.
Detroit and its problems
One of the basic points about managing organization change is that organizations must change before it becomes too late to change. A good example of how not to manage change is provided by the car companies of Detroit. They made the wrong products in the wrong way.
This video from the Economist looks at Detroit today – what people are doing for themselves…
Change in an uncertain world
I recently did a search of the online journals of the academic publishers Taylor and Francis. This revealed that the phrase “unprecedented change” has been used in reference to many, many topics, including life in rural communities, Italian politics, healthcare, libraries, information technology and education.
It is not surprising, then, that implicit in many management texts, articles on business in newspapers and magazines, and management training courses is the view that the world is changing more quickly than ever. This point is made explicitly equally often. To give but three examples:
- “We are living at a time when the competitive environment has a steep and rapid learning curve. It’s also a time of unprecedented change.”
- “Today, however, companies are in a process of retooling and developing new strategies which will assist them to be competitive at a time of unprecedented change in product and labour markets and technology.”
- “All parts of organizations are going through unprecedented change as a result of the volatile business environment, including such well-known items as exploding technology, globalization, and new work processes.”
In the terms we use at Turris Consulting, this means that the outer context is not stable. This in turn means…. organizational change! So how should managers deal with this instability?
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-03
- using a company's history can be very worthwhile. #FT http://tinyurl.com/ygkflr6 #
- I like the #FinancialTimes, but to have the head of Goldman Sachs as Person of the Year is just wrong http://tinyurl.com/yayx9d8 #
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-27
- we use twitter for business, but can twitter (the company) make money? http://tinyurl.com/yzgcatk #
- time for organizational change at Liverpool football club, I think. And at Hertha Berlin #
- Eurostar PR nightmare – trains stuck in chunnel http://tinyurl.com/yfz2jcf. how to get over this? they made good offer #
- facebook, twitter, linkedin – they're all good marketing tools, but we must use them intelligently #
- iPhone apps: eBay has one, should your company? http://tinyurl.com/ye4eodc #
- Rewriting history? NYTimes: Accenture, as if Tiger Woods Were Never There http://s.nyt.com/u/vnV #
- a very difficult thing to do – what's the best way to tell someone they are losing their job? #
- newsflash: middle managers are important! http://tinyurl.com/yag6dgk Once out of fashin, now back in – as they should be. a vital cog #
- intersting article on managing a team of survivors after organizational change related layoffs http://tinyurl.com/ydyqpt3 #
- excellent alternative analysis from union view of #ba strike – danger of macho management styles http://tinyurl.com/yb55xhb #
- christmas markets – a microcosm of german business http://tinyurl.com/yhjeoym #
Managing change in the business environment
Is there an economic downturn? Either way, a change in the business environment is one of the prime causes of organizational change. At Turris Consulting, we say that the business environment is part of the external context of change. (Click here to read more.)
Of course, smart organizations are very aware of what is going on in their business world. In this Wall Street Journal article – In Chaos Lies Opportunity – the authors argue that companies can do well even in difficult times if they understand the environment.
For most industries, the optimal time to hit the brakes and downshift was months ago. The questions to be asking now are: Where is the apex of the curve, and how hard should we accelerate to take advantage of competitor mistakes? Who is in trouble and dumping valuable assets in order to survive? Can we add great people who are now available?
What does this mean in terms of organizational change management? It means that good managers scan the outer context of change, and then work out what they need to change within their company so that the company can do well even in in difficult times.
Pharma industry change – Sanofi
As if to emphasise what my last post said, today came an announcement from Sanofi, the French pharma company, that they are buying Chattem for $1.9bn. Chattem provides over-the-counter drugs like Gold Bond or Selsun Blue. 
What’s the rationale for this? Probably Sanofi wants to become less reliant on the blockbuster patented drug business.
