Talking around the town – Friday, 10/23/09

This week, I had much to say about a number of topics.

Holding central place is my continuing championship of letting business objectives and strategies lead technology.  The latter is the servant of the former, by gum. 

Go. Read.

 

The Next Big Thing is not Social “XYZ”

Wim Rampen wrote a short article that generated active discussion on the topic of the co-creation being at the core of Social CRM and Social Business Design.  Much of the discussion centered on the Next Big Thing. 

I'm a technology lover and, hey, partner in an IT firm here.  In my mind, though too much discussion still centers on technology, when many businesses are still at the starting point of defining objectives and strategies for social business design. 

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How communication styles impact collaboration

I love my mother but some conversations with her drives me crazy.  She needs to explain everything is in excruciating detail, even when I get it, or she provides me with such a minutia of detail that I lose sight of her point.  She can take 5 minutes what it takes me 15 seconds to convey.

The reason?  She and I have conflicting communication styles that require us to work hard to adjust for each others.

While that’s a personal example, variations in communication styles directly impact in the business world and on the ease of collaboration within a group.

There are four primary styles of communication.  Different folks have variable names for them but I playfully call the styles Airheads, Firebrands, Waterways, and Earthworks. Let’s explore how each style is conveyed and the stylistic impacts on social media and internal collaboration.

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Should you fire clients? – Salesforce insights

Jeremiah Owyang wrote a recent article about the strategic value of firing problematic clients during a recession.

In particular, the best candidates for termination are those who lead to some sort of net negative that lowers profitability.

Makes sense to me – although I’d look at the situation in any economic environment.  The question then is how you determine who those net-neg clients are.  The answer is to balance anecdotal information with hard analytics.

Let me show you how you can use your Salesforce solution to determine a thumbs up or down on a client.

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6 tips to protect your Intellectual Property

Intellicore Design Consulting’s business practice is focused on small- to medium-sized businesses.  Some of our clients and prospects are just moving up the line to having professionally managed IT resources.

Nothing wrong with that.  However, whether you build internal or use external IT resources, you'll want to employ best practices to ensure that you safeguard your intellectual property and facilitate smooth-running IT resources.  Here are 6 tips to help you do so.

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