Brands ranking, according to Forbes

The creator of the popular Mac computers and other devices like ipodand mobile Tefon iPhoneLeads the top of this ranking that recognizes the weight of the image of some of the largest companies in the world, and the effects it has on your benefits.

Despite the challenges of the new iPhone and Reputation crisis facing the mark, experts and managers Forbes"It will take more than a problem with receiving antenna 4 for iPhone Apple brand is affected." The experts ranked Apple at the top of this ranking with an approximate value of your brand 57,400 million.

The heads of Forbes indicated that Apple is an example to analyze. "A brand that can survive even when its parent company stumbles, it reminds users that Apple's sales fell 46 percent in the decade of 1990, but the brand value resisted to get the current benefits.

In the second place in this ranking is the manufacturer of SotfwareMicrosoftthat on the heels of the company which runs Steve Jobsthanks to a brand value56,600 million.

Then Coca-coca, With an approximate value of55,400 million, Ranks third in the list of most valuable brands in the world.

On a list of fifty positions and dominated by technology companies by 30 percent, two industry giants shut out the top five: IBM (43,000 million)benefiting from its "strong innovation in the sector, andGoogle (39,700 million)whose value has risen 450 percent since 2005.

The following trademarks appear in this ranking are the fast food chainMcDonald's (35,900 million), Cluster General Electric (33,700)cigarette firm Marlboro (29100)distributed by Altria and Philip Morris International, the technologyIntel (28 600)and Finnish phone maker Nokia (27 400).

The rankings also appear as the Japanese car companies Toyota, Which occupies the eleventh position 24,100 millionDespite the damage they have caused in the different brand of cars removed from the U.S. market due to safety problems that presented some of their designs.

It also highlights the presence of Cisco (23 900 million)The telephoneVodafone (23,500), HP (23,400)U.S. telecom operator AT & T (22,000), BMW (19,900), Oracle (19,800), Louis Vuitton (19,000), Mercedes (18 800) and Disney, which closes the first twenty posts with 18,500 million.

The list does not see any Spanish or Latin American brand though Forbes explained that its analysis was studied over a hundred companies and firms from around the world, but at least have some presence in the United States, "and that is considered a global brand should be a player "in this country.

To develop the ranking, Forbes experts studied the pre-tax profits reached different firms over the past three years and took into account other factors such as the role they play in each of their sectors.

Other brands are also present Gillette (18,000 million), Honda (17,500), Walmart (17,200), Pepsi (15,700), Verizon (15,500), Nintendo (14,200), Budweiser (14,100), Nescafe (14,100), Nike (13,500), American Express (13,000 ), Samsung (12,800), L'Oréal (12,100), BlackBerry (11,700) or Ikea (11,200).

Persumer, the new consumer by Gustavo Adamovsky under Branding

. Companies that are not on the web will not exist for the new consumer, born of a mix between individual and consumer, and named "persumer", which requires marks a closer relationship, according to a study.


Internet is a vital tool in the list of consumer brands with the post-crisis and now he is not in the network does not exist, predicts the study "The Next Best Brand" by Method Helmer through its Permanent Observatory Trends, FUTUR E.

This study has christened a new term to the consumer of the future: Persumer, a new figure that is emerging and whose name comes from the fusion of people and "Consumer." The claim Persumer other relationship with the brands that requires communication from you to you and to the point, much more involved in their lives, their problems and everyday life. The post-crisis consumer wants to feel closer to the mark, committed to their world and capable of offering new alternatives, brave and firm.

The future consumer is strengthened from the crisis. Has maintained a cautious stance over consumption and critical marks. And in this line is defined Persumer, a customer who knows his power, his place in the brand-consumer relationship, and is considered the protagonist of this relationship.
His critical spirit puts you in position to choose and will choose brands that always perceived as well defined which are clear and not mince words. Credibility is a rising star in this new scenario and the marks should go for that closeness and clarity if they are to a Persumer that is demanding and mature.

Dare to be true

The marks must dare to innovate and reach consumers in a future renewed and different. It is time to revisit creativity as a fundamental tool for the renewal of the brand, which will help to convey a different image, distinct and authentic. As identified in the study, brands must reinvent it to be sustainable and dare to be different, innovating not only in your message, but the channels for communicating.

It should default to break the mold and dare to explore new forms of communication. What is different is now well accepted, but there are no parameters closed flexible approach openly seeking to surprise the consumer of the future.

The demand Persumer brands known address him know all your circumstances and anticipate their needs and desires. In this new direct and close relationship, the post-crisis consumer wants to experience the difference and authenticity of the brand. Cease to be faithful to the brand to become addicted to the experiences they provide them.

Social and business networks

In the last ten years the functioning and strategies of companies, as well as ways and means by which each person does their work have changed radically thanks to the possibilities and tools that have been offered online.

Organizations in general have tried to keep up and leaving adapting to technological changes and trends that they have made, so that they can remain competitive in an increasingly demanding and dynamic.

But no they succeed or all of them are willing to let the new tools take over their work environment and that often do not feel ready, do not know how to handle and do not fully trust the benefits that they can provide, there is a certain fear of risk of implementing these new tools, unknown and so radically different from what used so far.

This applies, for example, online social networks, some companies have become his most loyal allies of work and others do not even want to mention. A new survey by Accountemps found the feelings being experienced finance directors of organizations on this issue, are concerned that the use of social networking is a waste of time, but recognize that this brings benefits such as improved customer service.

The survey was conducted by an independent firm to Accountemps from over 1400 CFOs of U.S. companies with twenty or more workers.

Prospective Planning

Strategic and forward planning are concepts that are closely linked, to the point which is often confused. The cause of the latter is that one loses the sense if there is no other.

Speaking of prospective analysis, we refer, in short, to advance. Involves analyzing the different paths they can take the future. This analysis has no reason to be, if they never planned. Why try to understand the future scenarios, if we do not do anything about it?. If we limit ourselves to analyze and consider the future and our situation in it, are predetermined, what plan?.

The leading experts in strategy, Hamel and Prahalad, in his book, "Competing for the Future" (1994), referring to differences between companies that succeed and those that do not mention that "The conclusion was imposed: Some teams direction showed a higher level of insight than others. Some even imagine products, services, and entire sectors of activity not previously existed and were determined to accelerate its birth. In a way states could say they lost little time worrying on positioning your company with respect to the existing competitive environment since their task was precisely to create a new one. Other companies, laggards-were more concerned with preserving the past that the Conquest of the future "
Herein lies the importance it gives to a combination of strategy with foresight. Envision the future and innovate, whether in product, services, processes or forms of business.

Education and engagement

The lack of training or outright lack of interest of managers is the main obstacle encountered by companies that want to increase the level of commitment to their employees. According to Martin Vickers argues, the Institute for Corporate Productivity, promote commitment in times of economic uncertainty we live is key for organizations. Manea to inculcate the best, he says, is that companies are serious about training their managers in this regard.

The commitment the company is always a matter of prime importance, but in a moment of uncertainty as we live it is even more. When the faltering labor and employees are asked to do more for less, their stress levels rise and fall of commitment. As suggested by Mark Vickers, Institute for Corporate Productivity, in an article published by the American Association Manager, develop effective strategies for workers to have a good level of commitment is key today.

According to a survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, late last year, only one third of American workers were very committed to your business. The level of commitment of nearly a quarter did not exist.

The survey, which involved 776 people, also revealed that four out of five workers, the commitment was important or very important. What happens then? According to Vickers, the problem is that many organizations do not know how to deal with this issue. "Commitment", in fact, can be seen as an unclear term that is so difficult to measure as to inculcate. Still, the author argues that there are several practical things that can be carried out to increase that commitment.

Culture and leadership

What the survey shows the Vickers referred to is that companies in which there is a higher percentage of workers involved are different from those where this percentage is lower in strategic areas that have actively promoted it. It also suggests that one of the best ways of strengthening it is to make sure that managers, including immediate supervisors are adequately trained in this area. In fact, a good relationship between employee and supervisor is seen as the main lever for which the worker agrees.

Still, most managers fail in this area. Less than a third (29%) of respondents to that survey said their officers were carrying out actions in this regard. 79% said their companies should. Only 15% agreed that their managers were well qualified to build commitment among its workforce.

Many leaders and managers must improve their skills. His lack of knowledge is a major barrier to get the employee's commitment. Therefore, companies should train their managers and make them responsible for actively apply their knowledge.

Interestingly, the highest levels of commitment are closely linked to good market performance (earnings growth, customer satisfaction, profitability ...)

Learning Culture

On the other hand, the article says, companies with more engaged employees rely on communities of practice drive or extending the powers of its employees. In short, they put emphasis on what can be termed "learning culture."

By contrast, organizations with lower levels of commitment does not take actions to avoid it, show ultimately passive. Moreover, when they have financial difficulties, many managers are tempted to overlook this issue for a second term.

It is true, on the other hand, stressful working conditions are an almost insurmountable barrier to generate commitment among workers. A third of respondents in the study referred Vickers said that such conditions inhibited to commit. These situations are not seen, however, as a major impediment in comparison with the fact that we mentioned before, ie, lack of skills (or interest) between management

Vickers argues, finally, that the commitment levels can be increased even in bad times, in which organizations can address and make the right decisions. A high level of commitment is linked to an improvement in customer service, improved productivity, is, in short, "healthy."

Forward planning: a "discipline" intellectual

Reading a text by Michel Godet, bestselling author of "Forward Planning", rescued this interesting segment. Certainly in later grades, I will add other readings.

Anticipation not make much sense if it is not which serves to clarify the action. That is why foresight and strategy are usually inseparable. Hence the expression of strategic foresight. However, the complexity of the problems and the need to collectively raise impose the use of methods that are as rigorous and participatory as possible, in order that solutions are recognized and accepted by all. Nor should we forget the limitations imposed by the formalization of the problems, since men are also guided by intuition and passion. The models are inventions of the mind to represent a world that does not leave locked in the cage of the equations. This is beautiful because without this freedom, motivated by the desire will be without hope!. Such is the conviction that motivates us, use all the possibilities of reason, knowing all its limitations, as well as their virtues. Between intuition and reason there should be no opposition but on the contrary, complementarity. To be a "discipline" intellectually fruitful and credible, foresight needed rigor.


The debate of ideas on change, the role of men and organizations, the usefulness of the methods, it is blocked by a significant number of recurring issues reemerge to the surface whatever the arguments put forward. This occurs, for example, when we talk about the differences and relations between the concepts of foresight, planning and strategy, the interest of the probabilización of scenarios, by involvement of the complexity and specificity of studies territorial prospective. On all these matters, experience accumulated for over 30 years and captured several hundred statements, we can provide clear answers, at least from our spirit.

The wishes of the prospective reality of the strategy

Following Godet's reflections about the prospective planning, I suggest reading the following text.

The wishes of the prospective reality of the strategy.

It is always tempting to take the desires and realities. Anyway, because there are a few visions or scenarios that you should not look desirable, and we need to be convenient, stop, or the strategic option of the company, according to this unique proactive vision. It is also necessary to show proactive and know how to prepare for the changes expected to occur in the future environment of the company.

All possible scenarios are not equally likely or desirable and is therefore necessary to distinguish the general environment settings of the strategies of the actors. Thus, the success of the word scenario has led to some abuse and confusion with the strategy that should be clarified.



It would be wise to distinguish between an exploratory phase that seeks to identify future challenges and a phase law that seeks to define strategic options possible and desirable for the company, against these odds, it can maintain the course of his ship.

The distinction between these two phases is more than justified if we understand that the choice of strategies is influenced by uncertainty, rather large, weighing on the stage and nature, more or less proven, of which, between them scenarios are the most likely.

Confusing foresight scenarios the choice of strategic options that would not be the same internal actors who would be on the front line. The phase advance of the mutations must be collective and should cover as many people. The tools used in foresight to organize and structure in a transparent and effective collective thinking about the stakes and challenges of the future and, if necessary, also the evaluation of strategic options.

On the contrary, due to reasons of confidentiality and liability, the phase involving the choice of strategic options recognize that it is itself a matter for a limited number of people, in general, members of the Steering Committee of the company. Note that this last stage does not need a specific method. Decisions have to be taken after consultation and consensus reached between the leaders, taking into account the modes of regulation specific to each company's culture and temperament and personality of their leaders. The tools are useful for preparing the options and not a substitute for freedom of choice.

The future of HR: Key Challenges for 2015

According to a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group in conjunction with the European Association for Personnel Management under the name "The Future of HR: Key Challenges for 2015," Talent management is the great challenge of European firms for the year 2015. Obviously not the only challenge.

Among the 17 items considered, five emerged as more important in coming years. According to officials of this study, these five themes also represent gaps that human resource departments of European companies have today.



1. Talent management

It is about a shortage of talent, and companies will have to take some steps to address that shortage. To exploit all sources of highly qualified professionals, HR departments should be used to find new talent anywhere in the world. Also be obliged to ensure that their offerings meet the needs and aspirations of different ethnic groups and nationalities, women and older workers.

2. Population management

With the aging workforce in Western Europe, European companies must mitigate two risks: the loss of capacity and knowledge as workers retire and lost productivity as the workforce ages.

To solve these problems, the report recommends that companies introduce a family working structure to lower the average risk population and to identify specific initiatives to recruit new employees.

3. A learning organization

Another of the challenges that will face companies 2015 is the training of their employees. Specifically, human resources departments will have to train their workers to enable them to cope with the speed and complexity of the global economy.

However, spending on training programs will not result in an automatic increase in productivity. HR executives will have to assess very well the ROI they expect to achieve with the training programs to achieve tangible results.

4. Management of work-life balance

While the boundaries between public life and private life are blurred, workers tend to choose their new jobs on the basis that the balance between their professional and private lives is the most appropriate. To "catch" and retain highly qualified talent, companies have no choice but to relax the conditions of employment of its workers.

5. Change Management

Predictably, the companies will be recruiting more workers from different countries and cultures or new markets quickly. Change management becomes an essential capability of enterprises. The survey shows that executives expect their companies to be able to develop tools and methodologies to help them communicate to employees the need to address this new multicultural horizon.

Virtual Business

virtual worlds like Second Life are a new medium with many opportunities to do business and make contact with customers, yet many companies still give back. The next five years virtual worlds will be essential to brand building of large companies. Classic business models do not work in this context, companies that want to position themselves must have a long-term strategy.


An article carried out by the consultancy Deloitte has concluded that virtual worlds like Second Life, normally associated with teenagers or Internet fans are growing in popularity very quickly and that their full potential has not yet been taken into account by most companies

These virtual worlds have created a new way for people to socialize, entertain and, of course, makes economic transactions. It is estimated that some 50 virtual worlds that have already signed up 178 million people. Second Life has been that has set in among the users. And despite that is still seen by many as merely a sophisticated way to play, the truth is that business is already being done and working in Second Life.



Companies such as Coca-Cola and Sears, have created virtual shops to test there products. The prestigious INSEAD business school has developed a virtual campus to replace classroom training. In short, more and more companies use these "parallel worlds" to enter in touch with your customers or to improve their internal operations.

However, the study warns that many companies exploring these new media can be quite daunting as its traditional approach is not sustainable in the long term. Because, although such self-organized communities can be potentially a very lucrative business, the classical models can not, under any circumstances, get all your party.

Innovate

We can say that there throw imagination and innovation.

"Virtual worlds present opportunities that businesses should know sooner or later," says Kamale Lardo, the report's author, said in a statement. "The inevitable changes that will bring virtual worlds will redefine the way companies interact with their customers and facilitate more sophisticated modes of interaction between organizations," he adds.

In the past year, many executives have had to make the decision to start your business career in places like Second Life, either for business, pure and simple, either to accompany a marketing strategy. It is not easy making this decision, says Deloitte, or measure their true potential. Perhaps this is why many of them were established with great media noise, have left too quickly, even seeing their number of subscribers increased steadily.

The study predicts, in any event, within five years, these worlds will begin to dominate and lead the brand building larger companies. This means that they are already positioned there will have some competitive advantage over those who take the decision to gamble in this way in the coming years.

Having a strategy

Expand the business into a virtual world is not without risks (many of them similar to what we find in the real world), especially with regard to brand and reputation.

The dramatic fall of the dot-com "in 90 should serve as example to know what to do and what not to explore this new medium. Virtual worlds have been created, also great excitement, a lot of hype and disappointments. Deloitte is time to enter a stage of maturity and productivity.

"Although the number of active visitors of virtual worlds has yet to reach critical mass, who explore and understand this context today will win the loyalty of its customers tomorrow," says Lardo. "To develop a strategy targeted at customers in this new environment, companies must first understand the marketplace and its users," he concludes.

Deloitte recommends that companies adopt a long-term strategy based on three phases. The first step would be to decide what is the reason to bet on this medium. At this point, the company has come to know well its technology foundation to keep abreast of new trends. It is also necessary that the strategic objectives of its implementation are based on measurable outcomes, such as the number of visits or appearances in the media.

The second phase, the report says, should be conducting a pilot project selected as the best option. In this case, the technological cost and risks are lower than those supporting a pilot project in the "real world."

Finally, after six months testing the operation of the pilot project, the company should make the decision whether to fully implement and continue operations, or not.

Online businesses also require a long-term

Perhaps the best way to approach the subject of the Supernova conference taking place in San Francisco on an annual basis, whether to consider the type of audience that, according to organizers, are addressed: technology executives, business strategists, entrepreneurs, investors daring, political, service providers and analysts, among others.

The main concept intended to discuss and explain, and around which try to integrate into the world of business, government institutions and technology leaders, is the decentralization caused by connectivity every day more and more global, pervasive and ubiquitous, that takes place through computers and other communication devices interconnected throughout the world.




Such phenomena are by collapsing the old industrial model and changing the world as we knew it, because businesses are distributed and shared more and the users acquire a major in the same never experienced before, using tools like blogs, recommendation services web page and cyber-connected networks.

Big numbers

In 2007, Americans bought over the network products and services worth U.S. $ 127,000 million, representing a 25% increase over the previous year, according to a recent article in Managing Technology accounts for some of the topics discussed at the last Supernova conference, held during days 16 to 18 June.

To be important, however, represents less than 4% of total retail sales in the U.S., although it should also have other online services: for example, Google admitted that last year more than 16,000 million dollars and most of them came from its advertising services.

What we have been discussing in the Supernova is that, despite the great potential of the Internet market, these figures reflect, very few companies have actually had success in developing new effective ways to make profits online. Most companies have seen on the net, at best, simply another means to insert in her traditional advertising models.

Explorers

Eric Clemons, professor of Wharton SchoolSaid that there are many sources of value and untapped business niches on the Internet, particularly in the area of online services. As a business model actually developed and operated online, as opposed to using the network as a means to implement the old models, described, among others, two examples: Gaia Online and Photoshop Express.

The first, Gaia Online is a virtual world created several years ago by a Japanese comic book artists. More than 300,000 daily users enter the same by participating in role-play multi-player, create their own avatars and interacting with each other through forums. About five million users, most of them teenagers and young adults, come every month to this page, which gives an idea of its success.

The developers began seeking small donations from users to keep the site active, and the answer was that they were three times more than they had anticipated. Then they came up with the idea of giving users the ability to buy (and sell) virtual products. Where does Gaia real incomes? To sell, the price is nothing virtual $ 2.5 each, limited editions of virtual goods have value for users to become old and start to dwindle. To this we must add also the sale of real and hats and shirts based on some of the most popular virtual items.

Then there is advertising, which has begun to experience Gaia for about year and a half, by original actions such as his association with New Line Cinema. Users of the virtual world of Gaia have to perform some activity of the same to get a trailer to a film promoted by this company. And this is, in the words of Executive Craig Sherman of Gaia Online, "to create experiences that are fun and meaningful to the Gaia community as well as beneficial to sponsors."

For its part, Adobe has long put up a different action by no less successful, made available to the public, and amateur photographer in particular, completely free of charge, a simplified, yet effective, its flagship product: the tool Professional Photoshop image processing. The popular version is called Photoshop Express offers users the ability to upload, edit, store and share their photos, as well as integrate with other services like Facebook, Photobucket or Picasa.

Do the benefits of all this to Adobe? Sales of premium and professional services in addition to potential customers from the mass public to its free services, advertising, and agreements whereby computer manufacturers buy licenses for the software components pre-installed Photoshop Express.

In line with these initiatives and this new vision of business online, include the intention of the company Sun Microsystems to continue releasing products (as they have been doing with Java or Solaris). During the Supernova conference, the company president, Jonathan Schwartz, was to present a world map showing which dots (increasing by 100,000 per day) the density of downloads ZFS, a file system released. Schwartz concluded: "Each of these points is a potential customer."

How will companies in 10 years?

The technology will advance and workplaces will be very different in 2018 about how they are now. That is the prediction made by a group of experts assembled by the Human Resources Management Worforce portal that also give a warning for companies to begin to take note.

The conclusions of this expert panel are dominated by the feeling that the job will be temporary and "village" for teams still more mobile and flexible.

They believe that the figure of "freelance" win integers. Furthermore, with regard to management style, say that social networks will change the "command and control" style prevailing in favor based on collaboration and teamwork.



Participants in this panel include amounts in human resources experts from companies such as Yahoo, Ernst & Young, Infosys Technologies and SAP. Furthermore, had the expert opinion of the American academic world.

One of the predictions in which almost everyone agreed it was about the explosion of social networking and other collaborative technologies such as wikis (web pages can be edited by many volunteers).

In fact, "collaboration" and relationships are two words that are going to sound in the workplace over the next two decades. Of course, these places will be increasingly physically and geographically distant, but very close and connected technologically.

Adaptive structure

The structure of the work will be more "adaptive," with more informal managers. In addition, the use of virtual teams will grow, with many people communicate via video, email and text messages, as submitted by the representative of Infosys in the panel.
In fact, the work seeing the faces of peers could be in danger of extinction, as face to face contacts will be increasingly scarce.

"Our communication is so dependent on email or SMS," says Nandita Gurjar, Infosys, in the journal Worforce Management "that no one will talk on the phone anymore."

Participating experts showed differing views on what effect the arrival of Generation Y or employees of the "millennium" (those born in the years 80) to work. Some predict that will contribute to the boundaries between private life and working life are diluted. Others, however, anticipate that the presence of this group have a large effect and talented people will continue to work hard and prosper in organizations.

Business Travel

There was also some disagreement over the number of business trips to be made by 2018. John Haggerty, Cornell University, says that will be made less. By contrast, other participants predict that companies will demand managers with a more global experience, so you are going to have to travel far from their country of origin.

Where there was unanimity that itself is increasingly moving to put more emphasis on ethical leadership and corporate responsibility. In 2018 this will be reflected in increased training and recruitment that is made will take into account both aspects significantly. Indeed, the recruitment process will become more virtual and for that very reason, also be global.

The SAP representative insisted that there will be a transition from a leadership based on order and control to styles that prevail in collaboration and dialogue. Therefore, organizations are going to be forced to think differently about the kind of leadership they need, and about the capabilities that they should have.

The benefits that employees have a few years, this panel of experts said that will be more creative and personalized, and that would include the care of dependent people or pets, among other things unthinkable today.

All participants agreed in pointing out that Human Resources will play a greater role than at present. In this regard, the representative of Ernst & Young predicted that the term "Human Resources" disappear, and suggested names like "personal" or "employee relations."