Successful Workplace

We’re reached the moment where old information pathways won’t work anymore. Managing right here, right now requires a framework that we’ll get to in a moment. First some history. Growing up before the Internet, ‘right now’ technology showed up as the rare long distance call or watching live television coverage of an Apollo launch. Everything […]

You might think that the corporate human resources function doesn’t have much of a role in improving business processes, such as product development, operations, customer service, or distribution. But I’ve found that it does. HR can propel or inhibit process improvement because it has an outsized influence on people: how they are recruited, rewarded, and […]

In our love affair with all things Big Data we easily forget the nuances that make it more about ubiquitous data than anything else. The oversimplification of the term is what frustrates many. Just last weekend Forrester’s John Rymer penned Big Data: The Worst Category Name Ever. Strong words? Not really. The term Big Data […]

Today Disney bought LucasFilm in a $4B deal that set the social world afire with comments and comedy, even spawning a Twitter account named, “@DepressedDarth” who tweeted, “…there is no way I am wearing Mickey Mouse ears.” Just the thought of the über-villain Vader sharing the spotlight with Pocahontas and Princess Ariel is just good […]

It came as a surprise as I left the Navy officer’s life that so many people thought my former world was so different from the ‘civilian’ world I was entering.  In my first assignment with Perot Systems, I heard comments like, “Life is easy when you can just order someone to do it,” and, “Everything […]

There’s very good news on the social front for some companies…social media is unlocking the creativity of marketing. There are many great ways to place product, and below is a brilliant example. Coke is teamed up with the latest 007 Bond film, Skyfall.  They realize they need to get the public to be the stars […]

In 1964 Bob Dylan wrote a song which in his recollection was to create an “anthem of change for the moment.” For the time it was a statement of the political situation as much as it was about the 60′s but even now the song transcends that decade into the here and now. For those […]

Forrester’s John Rymer sums up his opinion succinctly when he says, “Big Data: The worst category name ever.” It certainly has challenges in name and how people conceive of it. Big Data as the hype would have it, I call, “The elephant riding the bicycle.” I’ll give you the seven things you need to consider, […]

To make big improvements in productivity and customer service, people in an organization must collaborate across corporate hierarchies, functions, companies, and geographies. Emerging social networking technologies offer new ways to overcome these boundaries. Leading companies such as IBM, Ford, and Avery Dennison are making major improvements in key processes by creating online communities to share […]

Have our candidates for president completely missed out? This evening, my 14-year old step daughter was looking at the Twitter app on her iPhone and reading off trending topics. After just a few were mentioned, like #DescribeYourExUsingOnlyAMovieTitle, #CBO (McDonalds new sandwich), #HurricaneSandy and #CloudAtlas, it became crystal clear that the real conversations…the one happening between […]

I work in frameworks every day. I know their power in business, but for me, an idea is truly proven when it works everywhere. There’s real proof in successful, diverse use cases. Last weekend my family attended the MCAS Miramar Air Show in San Diego. The show is stunning visually. The world famous Blue Angels […]

Thomas Been is based in Paris, France and is an expert in service oriented architecture (SOA) and enterprise information architecture. Thomas has extensive international experience in technology sales, consulting, marketing and alliance management. Today, on stage at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2012 in Orlando, I was able to catch a great presentation by Anne Thomas […]

A recent blog post by Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) created one of the “POW!” moments for me. The writeup was about organizations that always deal with “problems,” and what happens when there are no more problems to solve. Problem solvers don’t function well when they don’t have any problems to solve. They often seem lost. We’re […]

I had the pleasure of seeing a presentation by The Nielsen Company (NLSN) as part of TIBCO’s sponsorship of the 2012 Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando, Florida. Ken Rabolt, Chief Data Architect to the CTO of Nielsen presented on Nielsen’s move from independent IT systems spanning 110 countries to a consolidated market research platform that […]

Today was Day 1 of the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando, Florida. In a keynote address, Gartner’s Peter Sondegaard made the statement that most enterprises won’t consider updating their PC operating systems until at least 2016. He said there is no compelling business reason to update sooner.  Four years. In today’s age, that’s a lifetime. If […]

Have statistics taken all of the fun out of the U.S. election? Advanced analytics and the electoral college combine to make the outcome less about popularity and more about focused messages and ad spends. It makes it science more than politics. Today is the third and final debate of the 2012 Presidential Election. Mitt Romney […]