Technolgies for Group Cooperation

Howard Rheingold presents an insightful talk on cooperation at TED.com. He highlights key characteristics of technologies of cooperation and sharing economies:

• easy to use


• open


• self-instructing


• enable connection


• group forming


• leverage self-interests that adds up to more

He shows us a glimpse of the future with powerful handheld devices linking us in powerful groups and discusses the new wealth which will accompany this revolution. Check it out!

Trends: Instapreneur

Wired Magazine has a great article this month on business trends and a fascinating look at instapreneurs. This is a trend to watch, and participate in. The process seems simple: a designer uploads their design to a website such as ponoko, zazzle, or styleshake, and let buyers order the product. An outsourced firm manufactures the product with short lead time (like two weeks) and profits go to the designer.

Is this the beginning of the end of mass production? The long tail of the Internet demand curve allows buyers to specify exactly what they want, in nearly infinite variety, so a nearly infinite variety of products can be produced. Henry Ford invented mass production with the first assembly line... and the Internet is dismantling it in favor of lean, demand-driven operations exploiting information on what the customer wants, supplanting producer-driven marketing on what the producer makes.

Mass production will live on indefinitely, supporting commodity products such as raw materials. However, the future belongs to those who adapt; manufacturers must remember, the information economy doesn't stop at the factory door.

Simply Powerful Meetings: A Quick Overview

View from the Grove Park Inn, Asheville, courtesy of Grove Park Inn.

Simply Powerful Meetings are just that. We plan and execute meetings that matter. Subjects vary depending on your needs but can include

• strategic planning SWOT analysis,


• critical success factor development,


• focused improvement,


• action planning,


• initiatives development,


• matrix analysis

When you need to get a group together, we promise you will achieve far better results with us.

I have a new course on effective meetings... click here and create a new account to check it out!

Cost Reduction

My toolshed contains ways to save money. We analyze cost drivers and exploit them to improve the bottom line.

Cost drivers, from Michael Porter’s work, are listed:
Knowledge
o Discretionary Policy
§ Wages
§ Technology
§ Mix
§ Service level
§ Material specifications
§ HR policies

o Learning
§ Plant layout
§ Schedule improvement
§ Labor efficiency
§ Design changes
§ Increased yield
§ Increased utilization
§ Tailoring raw materials
· Relationships

o Linkages
§ Internal
· Optimize
· Coordinate
· Inventory
§ External
· Channels

o Interrelationships
§ Share savings

o Integration
§ Reduce cost
§ Increase market power
· Macro Issues
o Location
o Institutional factors
o Timing (first to market, mover?)
· Volume
o Scale
o Utilization patterns

Art Imitating Life... Science

Left: painting by Gino Severini, Sea=Dancer, 1914 Source: Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Right: BrainBows: Credit: Jean Livet. Genetically engineering mice so that their brain cells express different combinations of fluorescent colors reveals the brain’s complicated anatomy. In the image round green neurons are interspersed with diffuse support cells called astrocytes. Source: Technology Reveiw

I had the opportunity to visit Venice some years back and fell in love with Sea=Dancer by Severini. This painting spoke to me and I stood in font of it, transfixed for what seemed like hours. Severini, a futurist, painted about dance, dynamism in art. You can imagine movement from his work portrayed here. I wanted to remain in the museum, but my schedule pulled me away. I bought the print and carefully hauled it back across the Atlantic. Neither the print, nor the small facsimile here, do this marvelous painting justice, so if you visit Venice, go to the Guggenheim and see it.

As I read Technology Review the other day, I read about experiments in brain imaging and was once again transfixed by images. An interesting correlation exists to the inner workings of the brain, as shown in the image of brain cells shown on the right, and Sea=Dancer. Severini portrayed a dynamism in Sea=Dancer that we now find, almost a century later, in the brain.

Asheville Retreats

A view of Asheville, NC in March, 2008. Photo by Bob Michel

"You seldom get what you go after unless you know in advance what you want. Indecision has often given an advantage to the other fellow because he did his thinking beforehand." Maurice Switzer

Deciding what he wants for his business is clearly one of the most important things a leader can do. Often the leader is well served having the input of key constituents on strategic matters. When a leadership team begins to stall, it is time to get clear in everyone's minds what is wanted... what is the goal.

I lead teams through excellent corporate events and retreats in Asheville, NC and other locations. I provide a proven framework to work through today's business problems and emerge with effective action plans that teams have developed and buy into. We also provide meeting facilitation training to develop key employees abilities and help transform their work groups. These trained facilitators generate process improvement profit with the team.

I have a new course on effective meetings... click here to create a new account and check it out!

Shadowboards Matter

Tolli and I visited Alcatraz during our California trip last year. The tour was excellent and provided a look at early 5S principles at work. Normally when we apply workplace organization methods we emphasize the importance of "a place for everything and everything in its place" because of efficiency. At Alcatraz, it was a matter of life and death.




Alcatraz inmates were considered the most dangerous of all prisoners and were held in cells most of the day. The exception was at meal time, when any prisoners who weren't in solitary confinement would eat together. There were prisoners who helped in the kitchen. The challenge for the guards was making sure this was done safely. Shadowboards enabled guards to account for every piece of cutlery.


Here you see an example of a shadowboard used in Alcatraz prison to alert guards when inmates had not returned knives.



It is hard to imagine in today's prisons that tools like these might be available to inmates, but at Alcatraz, they found a way to deal with them effectively, by employing a shadowboard.


While today's workplaces are much safer than the Alcatraz of the past, employing best practices, such as workplace organization -- including shadowboards -- sets apart top performing companies.

Responses to economic slowdown

Higher energy prices drive the US economy toward a slowdown. What are businesses doing in response?

In casual conversations over the past week, here is what I've heard:

1. 
   Cut travel costs first, it is the easiest and most logical place to start
   Cut operating costs, outside of personnel; use layoffs as last resort
   Work to retain clients: avoid losing customers as a first defense
   Retrench: bolster your market position by reinforcing your strengths
   Innovate: develop new products and launch them now to offset sluggish sales

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Alva Edison

What is your experience, your plan, your method to turn this opportunity into profit? Share your comments...

This may seem like a crazy time to start a business, but that's what I'm doing! Businesses need help in this economy... to generate profit from process improvement, to cut costs using virtual meetings, to harvest ideas from teams and employees, or to gain alignment with key constituents. To that end, my business offers solutions to today's toughest business challenges. My website will be up and running soon!

Exporting... where to start in NC?

I attended a session of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council (BREC) on networking the other night, and I heard about an upcoming program that caught my attention. The North Carolina Department of Commerce is hosting several sessions on how to export to various markets. There will be trade representatives from several countries at the sessions, and local businesses can schedule free meetings with the representatives to ask questions, show their products, and find out what they need to do to begin global trading. Countries to be represented are Germany, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Korea. Additionally, there will be seminars on how to do trade in various markets. The first session is on trade with China and it will be in Charlotte, March 31st. April first, a seminar on doing business in Canada will be presented in Asheville. See the program information here.

To register or for additional information on any or all of these free Lunch and Learn sessions, please contact:
Katie Newcombe: knewcombe@nccommerce.com or 919-733-7193.

Exporting is an excellent corporate retreat topic: gathering ideas on what to do, and how to do it, can be a great topic of a staff retreat to Asheville.

Developments In China

It will be 30 years since the establishment of formal communications between the US and The Peoples Republic of China this year. By all accounts, the relationship has come a long way in 30 years. It is important for businesspeople to know about developments in China, as this nation is swiftly becoming an overwhelming force in the global economy.

Recently, Zhou Wenzhong, The Peoples Republic of China's Ambassador to the US, spoke in Ohio about developments in China. I read his speech in Vital Speeches, and provide a summary here. Zhou spoke of peace and development being the overall themes of our relationship, and that the most prominent trend is globalization driving increasing international trade and transnational direct investment. He remarked that these trends underscore the interdependence now in place between the US and China.

There will be "no glorious isolation" in tomorrow's world, based on this interdependence. There will be continued Chinese economic growth. He said that China will apply a "Scientific outlook on development," aiming to moderate growth to a manageable ongoing level. Further, China aims to continue reform and opening up, enhance social harmony, quadruple per capita GDP by 2020 (from 2000), and build a moderately prosperous society. Zhou then said China, recognizing the imbalance in trade, will try to increase imports from the US.

According to Daniel Workman, "zinc, nickel, lumber, mining & oil equipment lead China's fastest-growing exports to U.S. while tobacco, corn & precious metals are popular American imports in China.…

China Imports from U.S.
Of the $55.2 billion in American exports to China in 2006, the following product categories had the highest values.

1. Semi-conductors … US$5.9 billion (10.6% of China from U.S. imports, up 74.7% from 2005)
2. Civilian aircraft … $5.3 billion (9.6%, up 39.7%)
3. Soybeans … $2.5 billion (4.6%, up 12.5%)
4. Plastics …. $2.2 billion (3.9%, up 18.8%)
5. Raw cotton … $2.1 billion (3.7%, up 47%)
6. Industrial machines … $1.97 billion (3.6%, up 29%)
7. Copper … $1.86 billion (3.4%, up 99.7%)
8. Computer accessories … $1.82 billion (3.3%, up 27.5%)
9. Aluminum … $1.7 billion (3.1%, up 90.3%)
10. Steelmaking material … $1.69 billion (3.1%, up 11.9%)

Fastest-Growing Chinese Imports from U.S.
Below are American exports to China in 2006 with the highest percentage sales increases from 2005.

1. Unmanufactured tobacco … US$61.4 million (up 3127% from 2005)
2. Corn … $22.6 million (up 2963%)
3. Oilseeds & food oils … $60.7 million (up 970%)
4. Precious metals … $305 million (up 205.2%)
5. Railway transportation equipment … $220 million (up 146%)"

With today's falling dollar, astute managers look to China and other nations as potential markets. Some ideas of "how" in my next blog entry...