|
June 13, 2008
This is our group at Google's HQ. I just wanted to share with you this picture (thanks Pablo for sharing this with us), because I think it reflects part of the spirit of the experience. Fun, excitement, openness, curiosity... we were just happy, to be there and to have the opportunity to ask and receive answers. What in many places would have been a polite and empty answer, here was an honest point of view, personal, close to the ground and the reality of each company. I was reading the reports that the students prepared based on their experience during this week, and wanted to share some of the ideas with you. They have somewhat been here in the comments I have been doing these weeks. But the fact that I see them coming from the group and sort of emerging from different points of view and even radically different approaches to the experiences... well, reinforces the idea: something interesting is going on in this companies, besides success, which is the easy and fast answer. As always looking at companies that have been successful during a while (EA or Cisco), and comparing them with others like Google or even Linden, is not easy. Different metrics, different approach to people and to the definition of success. But there is something special in how these successful people approach their careers, and the opportunities they see around them. A different approach to risk, a strong financial market and a history of success that sort of infuses or coats every deal, every idea. Those reasons are at the center of what one can see. Of course failure, extremely long hours and people driven to make the American dream a reality are also there. But the key is that you are allowed to fail and try again. Sort of business as usual. But the main lesson is that people is the key asset. And you need to not only talk, but also do the walking. Those companies that invest in freedom, collaboration, and shared decision process will have something to say. It's just a matter of time. I don't think is a fad. They tolerate/create/foster a special passion that leads to strong commitment, innovation, results. Just the opposite that many have done -successfully- during the years. Will see what happens. At least from what we see in this small place on earth, there are alternative ways to make success happen. 
June 10, 2008 Durante la tarde de ayer, y con la presencia de Alberto Mazagatos, Director de Strategic Development para la región del Mediterraneo todo el grupo del Master de Telecom y Digital Business nos fuimos a la sede de Madrid de Cisco para continuar las conversaciones que habíamos iniciado en San Jose hace unas semanas. La idea de la visita era intentar entender un poco mejor la relación que tienen los proveedores como Cisco con grandes corporaciones no solo desde el punto de vista de proporcionar el hardware, sino también hablar de soluciones y de cómo financiarlas. Gracias a las soluciones de Telepresencia que poseen en la mayoría de sus oficinas pudimos mantener una conversación a tres bandas con una persona del equipo de Capital Finance, encargado de ayudar a las empresas a gestionar de forma eficiente la adquisición y financiación de equipamiento de Cisco. Lo interesante del tema es la función casi de consultoría que realizan para que sus clientes puedan encontrar formas alternativas de adquisición (renting, leasing...) de sus productos. Gracias a Rafael Chacón, que estuvo con nosotros en Madrid, y a Stuart Hall desde Londres, ambos pertenecientes al equipo de Capital Finance. Previamente Donald Witte, Director de TI para la región del Mediterráneo, nos había ayudado a entender cómo Cisco intenta aprender de los límites de la tecnología que postula utilizándola para su propia organización. No hay que olvidar que se trata de una multinacional de casi 70.000 empleados, así que hay mucho trabajo por hacer en colaboración, gestión de la innovación, gestión del talento... todo orientado a la línea que defienden de la Human Network. Un experimento muy interesante y que parece que, al menos por los resultados financieros que mantiene la empresa, está dando un resultado excelente. Finalmente tuvimos la oportunidad de charlar con Pablo Giraldez, Director de Recursos Humanos para España, sobre las políticas que les han hecho acreedores del primer puesto en la competición de la mejor empresa para trabajar en España (justo el primer año en que se presentaban al título, no está nada mal). Colaboración y dialogo, y una orientación total a resultados y a libertad personal. Una combinación difícil para aquellos que no tengan un carácter fuerte y una motivación intrínseca muy alta... o al menos un lugar complicado para esconderse. En resumen, una empresa interesante por su acercamiento al talento, a la gestión totalmente orientada a los resultados y por la libertad que intentan transmitir.
June 06, 2008 As thursday came to an end, we were on the road again (:-)) towards San Francisco, after an exciting morning in Cisco. But not to our hotel, we were headed to Linden Lab headquarters, to visit Claudia L'Amoreaux, who helped with our different initiatives in Second Life, and Chris Collins, in charge of Business Development for the company. As you might expect the company has a great feeling to the people working there, the organization and flexibility, the stuff going on there... everything creative, fast, changing... we met Claudia and Chris in a very open discussion about their future, how they face the new situation of second life for the press, I mean, after being the new big thing las year today everybody wants to bury them... The first answer from Chris was "we are already profitable", and growing from there... So basically the exploration today is what should have been from the beginning: companies trying to understand what they can do in this environment that ADDS VALUE to the experience of their clients. Not being there for the sake of it. A great experience also in terms of how they organize themselves: from an application were you post a "thank you note" to some coworker that has helped you with something, to a democratic approach to decision making... A very interesting approach to organizational innovation, which also fits a visionary group that started to talk about virtual worlds almost ten years ago. This was the final activity of our trip. We went back to the hotel for a wrap-up session, to analyze what we had learned those days and to share our vision of what is the secret sauce for all this innovation that happens in this corner of the world. Again, as almost every time I face this question, people and freedom were at the center of the equation.
June 05, 2008 Our last day in our Silicon Valley Tour 08 started at Ciscois EBC in San Jose. It was a packed agenda, with two tracks organized by Alberto Mazagatos, former CEO of Cisco in Spain and now in Strategic Development for the Mediterranean Region. The day was designed to help the group understand how a clear leader in an industry like Cisco pushes for the next level, to keep innovation and growth at the center of their strategy and, more importantly, at the center of the efforts undertaken by its employees. The first thing to notice when you are there is that high level meetings and demonstrations are at the core of the activity of Cisco. The EBC was a great display of technologies, even with administrative staff serving several positions thanks to telepresence. There was also a feeling of success that was somehow around in anything you could see there.
The two tracks where managed by Alberto and Noni Alwood. The first one was oriented towards understanding the position of Cisco in the telecom and media industries, the link between marketing, strategy and a deep understanding of industry trends, and challenges. The second one was centered around the need to manage IT in a different way, more integrated and with a global vision of its role for different industries. We also had the opportunity to visit the solutions center that presents some of Cisco's technologies in context (a retail shop, a business office, a home, a hotel...), which gives you a grasp of how detailed the vision for a specific set of technologies can be articulated. The connection research- our daily lives- products and services was obvious during all our time spent there, and the degree of connection with the reality of corporations, institutions and even professionals working for Ciscso and its partners was really high. Great approach and, again, pride and success all over the place. Thanks again to Alberto Mazagatos for this great opportunity.
June 04, 2008 Our last conference for Wednesday was Michele Libraro, with a long history of success in the industry, he now runs Global Startups, a VC firm in the Valley specialized in telecommunications and technology (he was a top executive at Cisco before). Thanks Michele as always for your help (we were a bit late with traffic from Santa Clara...). He did a great job explaining the basics of the activity and steps for getting funds in the area, and how the relationship financial markets - innovation - startup works. It seems like such a natural process for the area, and so difficult for other countries like Spain. The amount of money, the type of projects, its ambition... the size of everything is just different to the average project you will see in so many places. And it just works. There is something in the approach to risk and failure, and the amount of people -good, very good and skilled people- and ideas that move around that money and some support from the legal system is what you need to close the virtuous circle. In this space the role of VC's is, as I understand it, sort of professionalizing the life cycle of companies and helping them move faster to the place where you get the money and go to the next one. Many efforts will fail in the process. But that is sort of part of the game. And the final goal is to cash out, something that might be odd for the concept of entrepreneur that at least I see around in Europe. Thus comes the serial entrepreneur as a key role in the development of areas like Silicon Valley. Starting again and again is just a way of life.
June 03, 2008 Wednesday afternoon, after our time in Electronic Arts with the Sims team, we moved to Sun EBC in Menlo Park, where we had the opportunity to meet Brian Moriarty, VP of Corporate Development & Alliances and Rick Moss, Senior Director of Corporate Development (they are the ones in the photo). We spent some time talking about the strategies of growth and innovation of Sun, especially in the open source arena. The balance of internal research and external acquisitions was also an issue to discuss. Although they have gone through difficult times, you could see that they have a clear orientation towards creating their own space in the relationship hardware-open software. Will be very interesting to see how it plays out. After this interesting talk we moved to Santa Clara to visit Sun's ECO Data Center. It was great to see imagination, invention and innovation (the one that brings benefits to a company, in this case huge savings), play along in a way that was intended to reduce pollution, consumption of electricity and costs, and that is (at least in my opinion) going to bring revenues and new ideas to Sun. The reasons and description of the project, how it was developed with the intervention of all the stakeholders and oriented to experimentation… how it is bringing new and revolutionary ideas on how to reduce electricity costs or ventilation efforts… all in all a great example of invention then innovation.
May 27, 2008 We finished our visit to Google, of course, having lunch at the main cafeteria. I had been there already, but it is all you might expect: people from all over the world, food also from everywhere... and a combination between fast and slow, work and fun, that is so difficult to achieve... We went back to our hotel in SF, where Rob Weiner, Chief Evangelist and Innovation officer for Genesys offered his vision on how to manage innovation in mature industries. This is a compelling and interesting vision combining the role of engeneering and management teams and the life cycles of products and industries. They have managed to lead their industry for decades and now is trying to keep ahead of the market as part of a group (Alcatel-Lucent) that is not doing so well and is struggling to maintain its position and create a culture of innovation (remember, this is the same company that owns Bell Labs…). The next day we move to the entertainment industry: Electronic Arst and The Sims management/development teams. Again the culture and the approach to the market are key. We spent some time with Steve Seabolt, VP Brand Development for the Sim Franchise. He has been in the industry for years, and the vision of how seriously they take the customer was very interesting. A couple of interesting projects with Ford and Ikea are a signal of the times to come, with more advertising into the game –the good one. Later on, Ben Bell, Sims3 executive producer, guided us through the evolution of the game, its nature as a play-alone game, and the efforts to coordinate and motivate a team of +200, with different profiles and interests. The industry is becoming more and more like a film studio, with long and expensive projects where big bets are placed in each project. As always one of the most interesting parts of the day was the visit to the development teams, where in the same floor you have creative staff, management, programming, testing… and again a feeling of freedom and at the same time tight control over timing and results… tough combination to manage. Probably it has something to do with their position as leaders. The combination of really advanced software development methodologies with the creative aspects of a game was somehow challenging, but apparently it worked very well. The key point: creating a common vision of the game to pursue as a team. Thanks to Bart Menayas for his engagement and openness. He is one of the producers of the Sims (coming to EA from Maxis) and added great value to our understanding of the industry and the process of creating a successful game in a very competitive environment.
May 20, 2008 Our first day was oriented to understand what is the "secret sauce" of silicon valley, what makes it a special place on earth where everybody in the technology world is eager to go and create "the next big thing". On this day (last monday) we had a number of conferences: personal perspectives during the morning, success stories in the afternoon. During the morning trying to understand it form the personal perspective of two visions of the valley: Marco Marinucci, entrepreneur and now in Google, and Philipp Stauffer, with a long career at Accenture and now working as a sort of bridge between startups and big 500 companies that Accenture collaborates with. The perspective is somewhat clear: part of the secret is the money and the legal/financial system, part of it is the special culture of risk and failure. Where in most other places you will be considered a failure after you tried, here it this failure can become positive, help you in your next endeavor. Cultural shock coming from Spain, where failure is... let's say not a good thing for your career even as an entrepreneur. During the afternoon we had Jaleh Rezaei-Homami, from VMWare and Babur Odzen, CEO of Berggi and Naverggi. You all know Vmware. Great success story and they are just becoming bigger and better. One thing that was interesting about their approach was that they considered their main competitor... Microsoft. Which to me is a sign that there is still a number of issues to be said in the OS arena before Microsoft loses its leadership. Great start for our adventure. One of the first conclusions that will stay with us all the week was openness. The approach to sharing information and ideas is totally open, creating and environment of collaboration and positive feedback that is very interesting and different to a mora traditional "closed" approach.
May 19, 2008 After a week on long days filled with company visits and conferences we are back to madrid, with something equivalent to a battery charge: the energy that the abundance of talent, the openness and the love and passion for innovation and pushing the limits that are essential ingredients of the "secret sauce" for the success of this special region of the world. After spending time in companies with a lot of management innovation like Google, Linden Lab or EA, and others with lots of technological innovations like Cisco, Vmware or SUN, one of clear concussions I draw from these days is that people is what matters, and although capital and top universities are also important, the key to maintaining success is the people that have assimilated that trying to create the next big thing is the way to go, no matter if you fail, the next one will be better. I will try to summarize for you in the following days some of the issues covered and companies visited. Let's see if we can travel there together.
May 09, 2008 Next week the Master and Executive Master in Telecom and Digital Business Management will be in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for a study trip, with conferences and company visits to Cisco*, Google, Electronic Arts, Sun, Linden Labs, VMWare, Genesys Labs, Accenture*, Berggi and Global Startups. I will be blogging from San Francisco trying to summarize some of their messages, and the experience. As you know this is the second year we organize this study trip (info about last year in several posts of this blog). It's a privilege for us to have the opportunity to discuss the evolution and future of these companies with some of their key executives, and a great learning experience. One interesting fact is the openness in which they share their ideas and approach questions and comments. I guess this is part of the spirit of the area, and one of the secret ingredients for its success: sharing your ideas is not bad, it can help you improve them. * Accenture and Cisco are sponsors of the Master in Telecom and Digital Business Management..
January 21, 2008 Today at IE Business School we will host a new Mobile Monday Madrid event. The theme for today is Mobile Advertising, something that we will hear a lot during this new year. The group of speakers is amazing (thanks Rudy, Carles and Marcos). If you are interested in these issues, that are probably the new fighting grounds for publicists, media companies and operators, you can still subscribe to the event. Note: for those that have been to previous mobile monday events at IE, this time we will be using (exceptionally) a differnt room, go to Serrano 105 instead of the traditional venue)
November 28, 2007 Reading Confused of Calcutta, a blog written by one of the technology and business gurus at BT, on Facebook and the value of sharing, I stumbled upon this video on the future of education: In fact it is more a video on what is lacking in modern graduate education from a student perspective. It presents some of the right questions, though assuming that all the students, methodologies and motivations are equal, which is not the case. Let’s say it is correct in the analysis. Some of the answers relate to the fact that some professors and institutions are not ready to change the way they see creation and dissemination of content. Of quality content. The one they are ready to deem as valid for its use in the classroom. A big shift is needed here, and blogs, wikis, video content... are good steps towards this change. A great challenge for our business. The question I have is related to that change of roles in corporations: what is the "right" knowledge to have in a specific position. And how well it is moves through the organization. This is probably one of the biggest challenges for companies trying to compete in a converging environment.
June 28, 2007 With weekly, even daily, news about Second Life, we decided to try it officially and, with the help of Jaime Casado from Telefónica, we decided to have an official meeting with students from the Master of Management in Telecom and Digital Business to discuss the approach to how SL can be used in education. Specifically how it can be used in business education. It is not something that you can decide or envision immediately. The potential is enormous, but also the current limitations. Starting with how difficult it is to control the different in-world stuff you need to control only to have an avatar and move around. It is difficult at least for those that are not from the playstation generation. That is, most of the customers of executive education for an average business school. Just the same group that is eager to know what is this entire buzz about. Also the interaction (mainly chat by now, voice is coming slowly), is effective for those used to the tool as their principal way of communication. You really see the difference. I cannot follow the conversations, though I use chat for work, not at that level. We will have more meetings, and they will probably get better and better. I will leave you notes on how they improve. The first note to remember is that the platform can fail, so you need a plan B. The second is that group control is very important, and though you see the avatars, it is also useful to have some sort of connection with the real world (list of people, with their photo, and the avatar)... probably old-fashioned, but I think we also need links to the world, as in any virtual platform.
June 11, 2007
You may have read about the historical episode, which happened at the time of the Battle of Waterloo (18th June 1815), that contributed decisively to build up Rothschild Family’s financial empire. Rothschild had offices in different European capitals and acted as lender to important individuals and institutions, including the British Crown in its efforts to beat Napoleon. They had a potent information network, composed of messengers, carrier pigeons and regional offices, which earned them the reputation of being first with the news. When their informers reported "the scoop" of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, Rothschild agents in London started to sell stocks, acting as if the French had won. Many other brokers, unaware of the British victory, replicated Rothschild’s initiative, causing the crash of stock prices. Shortly before news about the victory reached London, Rothschild started to buy stocks. As a result, the family amassed a huge fortune. This episode epitomises the economic value of scoops and being first with the news. In the early 19th century, the elapsed time between the occurrence of events and their reporting could be many hours or even days. Nowadays, it may take just seconds. Perhaps a defining moment in the realisation (at least mine) of the power of blogs took place recently when Engadget (no.1 blog according to Technorati) inaccurately reported an Apple product-release delay causing Apple, in six minutes, to lose 4 billion dollars in stock market capitalisation. As you can see from Apple Inc price chart, (Zoom "1m") it quickly recovered. Futhermore the web and multiple complementary devices, such as instant text messaging and “Twitter”, (the personal view of the head of Ogilvy PR Interactive Marketing Team) have amplified the sources of information and anyone can virtually report about events as they attend them, even providing live pictures or video (e.g. "London Bombing Pictures Mark New Role for Camera Phones"). In addition, the channels of distribution have become massive, cheap and universally accessible. We live in the age of real time information, conditions that changes the way managers understand business and the time and forms of decision making processes. For example, how much time do you take to respond to an e-mail or a text message? When ordinary mail was the prevalent channel of business communication it took days or weeks to get answers to letters. Facsimile machines reduced response time to hours. Today, agile managers answer text messages in minutes. Moreover, courtesy demands that light messages are answered on the same day and that messages that require elaborated responses take no more than two days –unless they are urgent. My golden rule is that e-mails should be answered, at most, on the same week. In order to comply with this I regularly dedicate the needed time over weekends to get updated. In an interesting post published in Harvard Business Online Tammy Erickson explains that the “use of technology is heavily centered in Gen Y today. About half of Y’s surveyed say they sent or received a text message over the phone within the past day, approximately double the proportion of those in Gen X. It’s something that will, however, grow in use and eventually enter the world of business”. I am sure you have heard mentions of the "Blackberry withdrawal", felt by "Crackberries" when they cannot access their email. There is even TwitterBerry, used to write those previously mentioned Twitter updates on a Blackberry. If you are interested in whats happening in Australia as regards to the changing nature of communication at work you might want to read this PhD study. I am intrigued about further developments of instant messaging devices. For example, how can mobile telephones, which are truly ubiquitous, (and especially Wifi-enabled ones) be used effectively as an education tool? Technorati Tags: Apple, Blackberry, Engadget, Harvard, HBR, HBS, Rothschild, Twitter
May 29, 2007 Finally the last day of our visit we spend time talking about venture capital and financial support in the valley versus some of the examples we could share from the different perspectives of the students. We also visited Electronic Arts and had the opportunity to share some time with the group working in the Sims – Survivor game. Finally, we spent the rest of the day at Ideo, working with them to understand the type of work they do with clients and the processes they apply to help them find new ideas and make them work.
May 25, 2007 Our third day in the valley started with a visit to... yes, the GooglePlex. Thanks to the collaboration of Marco Marinucci (he has posted a couple of videos of our visit in his blog), IE Alumni working at Google, we had the opportunity not only to walk around the facilities with help from a volunteer guide (anybody can help out with this in the company, as I guess the place has become sort of "the place to go" when you are around from anywhere in the world, but also to meet and discuss with several executives from the company. As you may expect if you know the company, the conversation was very open at all times, and the pride of being at a company leading the industry that it had previously changed, was obvious and created a great feeling in the group. The fact that the whole framework of buildings, offices and services has been created to help googlers feel at home and be able to work and interact at all times is more than a note on the strategy of the company. Though one can discuss if this is appropriate for all companies, probably not, those that want to improve creativity and innovation (and many companies in the world say they want to do so), should have a good look at this place. The philosophy of the company is something you all know, but probably one thing you can understand better after being there is the magic recipe of flexibility and agility in terms of being able to ask anybody about anything and feeling really close to "the action". I wonder what will happen when all this great group of young geniuses grow up and change a bit their priorities, but for know you can see this is a company difficult to beat, at least their spirit. While we were at Google, we had the opportunity (thanks again Marco) of meeting Fabrizio Capobianco, founder of Funambol. Open source and mobility connected to making money. That sounds improbable enough to be successful. And they are. Fabrizio's passion for his ideas, and the possibilities of development with capital from the valley and intellectual capital from Europe (the development team is in Italy), were a great lesson on how to use the spikes of this not-so-flat world to your advantage. Finally we spent the afternoon with HP, looking at their latest products (I loved the Misto prototype, great product for the digital living room). One thing that was extremely interesting was the approach to simple solutions for the living room that is going to change the way we interact with our digital life. I wonder how long it will take until you can find a touch screen like this in every house… that will be an interesting change, and also a generational gap for all of us… We also had the opportunity to experience their videoconference/telepresence product Halo (on Monday we had a meeting with London from Cisco’s offices in the valley, and the differences in approach are extremely interesting, being both solutions a real step forward towards avoiding all those business trips), and finally we spend time talking about their strategy in the Telecom and media markets. What is interesting is how they are building and delivering the concept of platform to help large telcos move faster towards new business and revenue models that can leave behind the memories of the before-the-flat-rate times. Again a great day, and many thanks to Google, Funambol and HP for their help building it.
May 23, 2007 Our second day in San Francisco was a mix of conferences and a visit to Sun Microsystem's headquarters. For the conferences we had the opportunity to talk about the innovation process and its link with regional clusters with Marco Marinucci, IE Alumni working for Google and dealing mainly with content acquisition activities for the company; Philipp Stauffer, a member of the Strategy group with Accenture at their offices in San Francisco, and finally Robert Winder, in charge of innovation for Genesys, the leader in technology solutions for call centers in the telecom industry. The first part of the morning was devoted to understanding what is special in terms of the working, social and cultural environment about the region we call Silicon Valley. Marco and Philipp helped us in that effort, both of them being Europeans attracted to the area either by and entrepreneurial spirit -the case of Marco- or by the great professional opportunities that come when you are very successful in a multinational consulting company helping others build what is differential about the region - the case of Philip. The fact that Marco is also an IE alumnus created a strong connection with the group which helped the conversation. The discussion ranged from the work ethics of the long hours to the myths and realities of the garage companies, and one of the ideas that was mentioned several times during the week kept being part of the conversation: the approach to risk by individuals, organizations and, most of all, the venture capital money funding all the entrepreneurship going on. We have discussed this issue here several times before, but it still strikes me as one of the key competitive advantages that countries can build: what happens when you fail? The rule is: if you fail, at least you tried and now you have the experience, try again. The approach is quite different from many cultures and countries. Their vision helped us understand some of the big issues behind the success of the ecosystem: work mobility, pool of talent, access to funds, low aversion to risk, a push to share ideas, world class universities in the area… difficult to find in the same place at the same time, and a big force to create and develop ideas and products that change entire industries. With Robert we changed gears towards a specific example: Genesys. The industry might seem boring, but they actually redefined it, helping companies understand in a different way what they could do with their call centers. This approach, based on innovation and knowledge of the industry, has been so successful that they are by far world leaders in their industry and expanding to other rapidly. The passion of Robert for finding new ideas and new talent was a reflection of the type of approach that companies need to create if they want to really do “different” things. After lunch we moved on to visit Sun Microsystems, interested in listening to their approach to the market after several years of being in trouble… but that will be the subject of a different post.
May 22, 2007 As I mentioned last week, we have spent a week at Silicon Valley visiting companies, amongst them Cisco, Sun, HP, Google, Electronic Arts or Ideo. This is the first post trying to describe the most interesting points (that are within the NDA's we signed) we covered there. Our first day (monday) was all about Cisco. As you know they are the leaders in providing the technology that makes the internet what it is today, and looking at their plans, they have a lot to do in terms of what internet will look like in the future, helping telecoms and other companies improve their communications, and, more importantly, make them simple and based on the user context. The visit started the day before, when the group (remember, our Master of Management in Telecom and Digital Business) had the opportunity to share dinner with Alberto Mazagatos, country manager of Cisco Spain. During the conversation one idea was clear: Cisco is willing to explore new opportunities in different industries and is not afraid of change, something we had the opportunity to see the following day. During our time at Cisco we had the opportunity to talk to several executives from different business areas about their specific strategies related to the Telecom industry, and their position in the market as a partner more than a provider of many of the key companies in the industry. A couple of those meetings used their Telepresence solution, in the real internal rooms they will use for internal meetings. A quite interesting experience, in which after some time you almost forget the distance from your counterpart (we were connecting to London). But one of the most interesting parts of the visit was a discussion on diversity and retention of the workforce and their approach to the "new office", where open spaces, shared spaces and a concept of a shared purpose and shared environment was key. This is not new or a strategy that only this company can claim, but the fact that a leader in the market is investing and paying that much attention to new ways of collaboration and the needs of those working with them... well gives a hint of what is going to take to keep being first in an industry based on invention and innovation. Their motto "welcome to the human network" is something you see reflected in every conversation you have there, which also talks to the way you build a culture in a young company.
January 03, 2007 "The day may not be far off when companies receive resumes that include a line reading “level 60 tauren shaman in World of Warcraft." The savviest employers will get the message." Those are the last words of a Wired article of the April edition, "You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!" written by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas, that has been receiving a lot of attention during the last months, while news about how massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) reach traditional media are, suddenly, important for “real” business. Playing one of these games and being good at it means that you have to develop and improve your skills at leading groups, managing scarce resources, decide with low levels of information, compete against organized groups with the same – or similar- needs and objectives… basically some of the skills that make the “most wanted” list in many business around the world. Being at a business school, the question to ask is clear: what is the role of gaming in business education? We have been using simulations in online learning for many years. But games and the open frontiers of MMOG are challenging for the systems of many institutions. They challenge the common assumption of someone going to a B-School to improve their negotiation or leadership skills. And though it might only be applicable to younger players, the definition of young is probably escalating to the twenty-something more than staying at the teen’s zone where it was supposed to be. What is the percentage of work your organization and your employees perform in “virtual teams”? I mean, how many times a day you decide, communicate, share… with people in different places, companies, time zones...? And the number is growing, both in companies involved in this type of work and in the number of interactions and tasks solved. Are the skills of a virtual game related to these needs? I bet (predictions for 2007) that we will see more and more companies using MMOG for their training needs, and Business Schools reacting to these trends with better simulations, some using the same platforms. At the end, these are games that blend perfectly with roles that are needed in real life, and the fact that they are not announced as such, make the experience even more important and productive. Have you tried these games? Do you feel more capable of managing/ working with teams after the experience?
May 25, 2006 Ayer tuvimos (conste que no es plural mayestático, sino que también estuvo Ricardo) la oportunidad de debatir un rato con Carlota Pérez, una profesora venezolana que lleva 25 años analizando las causas, efectos y evolución de las revoluciones tecnológicas. Aunque su trabajo tiene un sesgo macroeconómico, resultó ser una persona conocedora de las tecnologías actuales, y capaz de conectar con gran lógica algunos fenómenos que nos parecen novedosos con situaciones ya vividas en épocas precedentes.
March 31, 2006 Estos días las noticias sobre la competitividad en tecnología, en I+D, en patentes... se suceden en los medios. Detrás de todo este ruido están unos sistemas educativos con orientaciones muy distintas, con visiones de lo que debe salir de sus aulas y de qué deben ser los profesores e investigadores que marcan la capacidad de una nación para competir, entre otros, en un entorno de innovación tecnológica como el actual. Otro de los temas recurrentes ultimamente en casi todos los foros es la innovación. Cómo ser creativos e innovadores en el trabajo, como crear y gestionar equipos innovadores, como encontrar talento y retenerlo. Dejando a un lado el hecho de que la mayoría de las veces estas afirmaciones se quedan en una bonita declaración de intenciones, el problema seguramente se arrastra desde el sistema educativo. ¿Tenemos un sistema educativo que fomente la creatividad, la innovación, el convertir una idea en algo real y recibir un premio a cambio? Probablemente la respuesta es no. Los mismos incentivos dentro del sistema universitario, que debería estar produciendo empresas, patentes, ideas, productos... hacen que aquellos que intentan ir por ese camino sean minoría. ¿Una solución fácil? Casi nunca existe. Para ir acercandose lo mejor es poner los medios para que aquellos que quieren hacer algo nuevo se atrevan, sin miedo al fracaso. Se ha hablado de crear un Instituto Tecnológico Europeo al estilo del MIT en Estados Unidos. Lo dificil será replicar la relación de la empresa con la universidad: un entorno donde los proyectos están orientados a lograr patentes, mejoras reales en los métodos (procesos) que se emplean para hacer las cosas. Es un debate que implica no solo a los gobiernos y a sus políticas educativas, sino también a la actitud de las empresas a la hora de buscar recursos para aprender a hacer mejor las cosas, sin miedo al fracaso. Una de las características más sorprendentes de las universidades y empresas con más exito en innovación es su actitud ante el fracaso: no hay miedo, lo importante es buscar la solución, asumiendo que no siempre se acierta (al contrario). ¿Es esta nuestra actitud? ¿Es la formación que se defiende desde el sistema actual? Las noticias de estos días deben preocuparnos no solo porque la escala de competitivad en I+D de España siga descendiendo, sino porque es un fiel reflejo del acercamiento a la innovación que se genera en una sociedad, en sus empresas y en los responsables de incentivarlas. Si el coste de mano de obra está dificultando competir en otra cosa que no sea conocimiento - llamémoslo diseño, innovación...- y el mundo es cada vez más plano, habrá que fomentar que los emprendedores, dentro y fuera de las empresas, tengan cada vez más importancia. Para ese papel, al menos en el sector de tecnología, la relación entre investigación, tecnología y desarrollo de productos habrá de evolucionar y dejar de estar en manos de agentes que no son capaces de entenderse. Un buen lugar para empezar puede ser el sistema educativo.
December 12, 2005 Estos días de atrás se ha vuelto a leer sobre el portátil económico con que el MIT intenta colaborar a la alfabetización digital de los países menos favorecidos. Y suponemos que se seguirá hablando, porque la iniciativa tiene interés desde muchos ángulos distintos.
October 03, 2005 ¿Qué es lo que hace falta para que las diferencias que la tecnología produce se conviertan en oportunidades para mejorar? Sin atreverme a dar una respuesta, la semana pasada leía dos noticias que seguramente ayuden, y mucho: 150 millones de portátiles a $100 la unidad (noticia de NYT.com, requiere registro), y 60 millones de telefonos móviles por debajo de $24.
September 08, 2005 Hace un par de días, y al hilo de unas preguntas de un periodista tuve ocasión de volver sobre el concepto de inclusión digital, y muy especialmente sobre uno de los grandes puntos de ese debate, como es el rol que las administraciones deben jugar con relación al mismo. Creo recordar que una de las primeras ocasiones en que oí hablar de este tema bajo el nombre inclusión digital fue cuando en Sevilla el Consejo Europeo aprobó el plan de acción "eEurope". Estábamos en el año 2.002, y en aquella ocasión, referida al ámbito europeo, la inclusión se configuraba como la voluntad de aunar esfuerzos para no dejar a ningún grupo social al margen de la revolución digital. El concepto debía transcender al ámbito nacional o de organismos concretos y convertirse en principio inspirador de la política comunitaria y de la actividad de las administraciones públicas. Aunque en principio la idea era interesante, y acertaba sobre todo al dar la relevancia necesaria al acceso en banda ancha como elemento sin el cual es ilusorio superar la brecha digital, confieso que pensé que aquello iba a quedar en nuevo humo sin concretar. Cosas de políticos a las que no había que prestar mucha atención. Tres años después, y para mi sorpresa, parece que si ha tenido algún efecto interesante. En concreto, parece seguro afirmar que ha tenido una influencia positiva en los ámbitos políticos de reflexión vinculados a la tutela de la Sociedad de la Información españoles. Por no irnos más lejos, en el Informe al Gobierno Español presentado por el Consejo Asesor de las Telecomunicaciones y la Sociedad de la Información este mes de Junio, aparece una recomendación que me resulta realmente novedosa, como es la de establecer un nuevo derecho en favor de los ciudadanos: el derecho de personas y empresas a relacionarse telemáticamente con las Administraciones Públicas. Recomendando incluso la creación de un Defensor del Usuario, que ya es mucho concretar para un informe de este tipo. Sin ser un experto jurista, no puedo asegurar que sea novedad mundial, pero sí puedo afirmar es que se trata de la primera vez que oigo hablar de tal derecho. Y aunque se antoje a priori tan etéreo como puedan serlo el derecho a un puesto de trabajo o a una vivienda digna que recoge nuestra Constitución, estoy persuadido de que no sería una mala idea darle todo el recorrido legal pertinente, llegando incluso a otorgarle carácter de derecho constitucional para España o para la futura Constitución Europea. Al fin y al cabo, si una Carta Magna debe tener un valor programático para una sociedad, hay temas como este nuevo derecho que deberíamos incorporar al conjunto de valores por los que apostar para el futuro. Aunque sólo sea como aspiración, seguro que da fruto.
|
