Blog Assignment #5

After reading the “six senses” and the beginning of the paper leading up to them I thought of multiple obstacles but before I get into them I would like to cover the MFA being a “coveted” degree. While I have no doubt that in a flat world/global economy the companies that can differentiate themselves from the competition are the ones that will succeed. The important part is that there has to be some kind of balance. If you take into account that Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class and had an epiphany about the fusion of art and technology then I can meet you halfway. But, if it is purely the fusion of art with something why isn’t Ikea furniture in every household. It’s not there because most of it is uncomfortable. Jobs took exceptional technology and presented it in an artful way. So, I am not completely bought into the MFA degree bit.

With that, let’s Segway into the “six senses,” listed below with comments:

Design: I agree that design is important. Consumers are much more educated about quality depending on the product. Someone that is not necessarily artistic may have a difficult time with this one. I know I would.

Story: Content enriched by emotion. From a knowledge management perspective I would imagine that this is where empowerment comes into play, which would be something that would require leadership qualities from the person initiating it. This could be an obstacle.

Symphony: This is all about people skills. This is crucial to build teams that trust one another. 

Empathy: I think that most people can be empathetic.

Play: As we get older we do forget the importance of being able to unwind and be creative. One important note is that a company’s culture has to support play. At my current employer we have an Xbox in the break-room. I’ve never seen anyone play it.

Meaning: I think this also plays into empowerment but could be an obstacle in that there is a lot going from a psychology of personality perspective with meaning. For me personally meaning is fluid. We have to continually refocus ourselves to stay the course.

Blog Assignment #4

An example of a neural network application that I found on the Internet that helps make a product or service more valuable to both the customers and the company is a GPU-powered neural network that is being designed by Netflix that will be used for predicting better movie recommendations for its customers. This is actually a win-win for both Netflix and it’s consumers because for the consumer it creates a better experience. For Netflix it helps it to also better control and utilize it’s physical inventory and to also get the most benefit from licensing fees for digital content. The approach that Netflix is using uses GPU’s and the cloud for a much more powerful application that is in the vein of exascale computing. What this will ultimately do is to give Netflix a competitive advantage by exceeding the consumer’s expectations. If the network is significantly better at modeling and predicting users interests then the application will differentiate Netflix form its competitors and do so in a way that will be difficult for it’s competitors to replicate.

While searching for an expert system that helps to make a product or service more valuable to the customers and the company I found several but realized that that the neural network being created by Netflix is part of a predictive expert system that attempts to classify or identify the interests of the customer. The neural network is just the “brain” behind the knowledge system. The system being designed will use multiple decision trees and multiple decision variables that are in an ever-changing fluid state due to the customer constantly watching movies. It is an intelligent system that further defines or continually improves the quality of its suggestions based upon customer habits within a construct of categories or types of movies. Netflix is essentially doing what Pandora did for music. Pandora’s playlists are the result of the Music Genome Project that group’s music by multiple variables to create streaming music that will be in the vein of the musician or band that the customer used to create the channel. 

http://hothardware.com/News/Netflix-To-Deploy-GPUPowered-Neural-Networks-For-Deep-Learning-In-Movie-Recommendations/

Blog Assignment #3

Blog Assignment 3: Read the article about Nucor Steel's social ecology. Discuss how can a company of your choice learn from Nucor Steel in pursuit of competitive advantage.

My current employer (Asurion) has a lot of the same characteristics as Nucor. One similarity is that they strive to attract and retain high-caliber talent. I think this is a common practice and is probably currently a lot easier in the current economy in that it is an employers market. They can be much more selective about who they higher due to higher unemployment but a lot of companies have always had this quality hiring/recruiting process. The key is hiring an employee with an internal locus of control who has an entrepreneurial spirit; and hiring lots of them. With Nucor, they have put a huge emphasis on social ecology and how they have done that is the foundation for their success. Using high-caliber employees that where held accountable but where in a culture that made it okay to make mistakes when you where trying something new. There compensation was a huge variable in their success also in that even employees at the production levels could get extremely high annual bonuses. They also were able to successfully bring in knowledge from the outside that complimented their internal goals and do so in such a way that it is not easily duplicated. 

Another thing that Nucor did that I feel that my current employer could improve on (and any other company) would be to improve on effective and efficient knowledge transmission channels. Even in companies with a flat organizational model that are team oriented it is not that uncommon for there to be knowledge “silos” that tend to form along the lines of classic functional departments. An example would be that employees in the finance department eventually become subject matter experts when it comes to data and systemic processes. This tacit knowledge is often difficult to transfer into “codified” knowledge and when it is there can be an interdepartmental disconnect. That is where IT at Nucor really changes things because they created a framework to facilitate the sharing of unstructured knowledge. Any company including my current employer can create a competitive advantage by finding a way to create an enterprise wide system sharing of unstructured knowledge.

Blog Assignment #2

The company that I found while researching that is no longer competitive primarily because it lacks some kind of knowledge that is important to the customers is Blackberry. Blackberry pioneered the smartphone industry by being the first company to bring email and web surfing to phones. Their initial product offerings included a QWERTY keyboard and became very popular with business users. They used this same platform to release models geared toward regular consumers but failed to innovate. Apple and other companies that were making Android based phones that were touchscreen and app driven quickly dominated the market. Blackberry did respond to the competition by releasing touchscreen phones but their first (the Blackberry Storm) which was released in November 2008 (about 6 month after the 3g iPhone) was plagued with software and hardware issues and did not have Wi-Fi. Blackberry has limped along and actually released a decent phone called the Z10 recently but it has been poorly received. At the end of Q4 2013, Blackberry had less than 1% of the U.S. smartphone market. Blackberry’s earlier success may be an example of the network effect. When you think about it in the context of the technology lifecycle.

An "old" product or service or business that is still competitive because it accommodates the new market demand that I found was Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is a worldwide-recognized brand that has consistently grown since its inception in 1886. The key to their success is that their core product is simply a good product and while its popularity has steadily grown around the world they have also diversified into other areas of the market. Diversification and acquisitions have been a significant factor in Coca-Colas success. They currently have 48 billion in revenue and 146,200 employees. The key to Coca-Colas success has been with keeping the pulse of the drink market. Coca-Cola’s website lists 112 brands that include energy drinks, water, vitamin water, regional and national soda brands and juices. 

References
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2013/12/02/blackberry-us-market-share-falls-below-1-hits-zero-in-china/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-cola_company

Blog Assignment #1

The company that I decided to research about their reasons for success is Google. Google uses a “ground up” approach to employee empowerment that from what I read reminds me a lot of some of the characteristics of continuous improvement approaches such as the Toyota Production System (TPS). In an article entitled “Google's Secrets of Innovation: Empowering Its Employees” published in Forbes magazine it mentions multiple programs that are geared to “percolate” ideas upward. Internally they are referred to as “channels” and include Google Cafes, the ability to directly email company leaders, Google Moderator, Google+ conversations, TGIF (a weekly all hands meeting), Google Universal Ticketing Systems, Fixits, Internal innovation reviews, and multiple surveys. The reason that I draw a parallel between Google’s internal programs that drive their success and TPS is that when you look at any of the programs that Google uses individually they are an effective tool for employee empowerment which is also the driving force of TPS. When you look at the programs that Google has in place holistically it is easy to see how they have managed to create a culture that fosters innovation. It’s also important to note that most of these “channels” are effectively documenting tacit knowledge in addition to documenting new ideas and solving problems. In TPS, the organizational model is effectively inverted in that the people that actually do the jobs are involved in Kaizen events and are able to have direct involvement in the decision making process. It’s a formal process of tapping into the tacit knowledge and talent of all employees. What is interesting about Google's approach is that at face value the sheer number of “channels” may seem overwhelming or to be honest a little redundant but, when you think about it from the perspective of the individual some channels may be a better fit for an individual employee. When you think about the individual personalities within an organization having multiple avenues helps to pull in employees that may not participate in a single program.  

Google's Secrets of Innovation: Empowering Its Employees
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahe/2013/03/29/googles-secrets-of-innovation-empowering-its-employees/

Link to Class Wiki

http://6720spring2014.pbworks.com/

Jan 18th

Class started today. I'm looking forward to the class.