A Tool to Map Your Next Digital Initiative
One tool that I have used to great effect to improve the likelihood of a successful result from digital investments is the benefits dependency network (BDN). This tool seeks to get managers to identify and map all the changes that they will be required to make if expected benefits and outcomes are going to be delivered. It also illustrates very clearly how this change will be enabled and shaped by digital technologies. The resultant network shows how each of the expected benefits will be delivered through a combination of technology and business changes and how these are related to each other.
Five minute must read for those that make tech decissions ^ADJ
Complex Cities
Complex adaptive systems are hard to understand. Messy and complicated, they cannot be broken down into smaller bits. It would be easier to ignore them, or simply leave them as mysteries. But given that we are living in one such system, it might be more useful to buckle down and sort it out. That way, we can make choices that are aligned with how the world actually operates.
5 minute read - now if only our policy makers thought more about this stuff ^ADJ
Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age - The New York Times
Amazon is a juggernaught, but some retailors are adapting ^ADJ
Three minute read
John Lanchester reviews ‘you are the product'
At the end of June, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit a new level: two billion monthly active users. That number, the company’s preferred ‘metric’ when measuring its own size, means two billion different people used Facebook in the preceding month. It is hard to grasp just how extraordinary that is. Bear in mind that thefacebook – its original name – was launched exclusively for Harvard students in 2004. No human enterprise, no new technology or utility or service, has ever been adopted so widely so quickly. The speed of uptake far exceeds that of the internet itself, let alone ancient technologies such as television or cinema or radio.
10 minute read - this is facinating and gives you detailed insight into Facebook and the web.
The Habit Behind This Founder’s Fast Financings, Product Development and Book Deal
In this exclusive interview, Braun breaks down exactly how he organizes his listening tours, including how he identifies who to meet and what to ask them. He walks through how to structure your process to not only make the decision at hand, but also to build lasting relationships with potential hires, partners, advisors and investors.
10 minute read