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.

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."

Innovate to compete

Gone are the years in which after a successful product, companies are assured years of success and leadership. Innovation became a basic variable, if not change, we perish.
Without doubt the technological advances made shorter the life cycle of products, and in this situation there are two options: we see as a major threat to the continuity of the company, or consider it a great opportunity to compete and grow by innovation.




In this context, the development process of new products becomes a competitive advantage for those who are well oriented. The companies with efficient innovation processes and are able to introduce new products geared to the wishes of customers in the shortest period of time, have an important advantage over its direct competitors. A short development cycle allows the company ahead of its competitors in the market, so that the speed of innovation is one of the basic skills for success or failure of new product or service.

You can not argue the fact that the company has to learn to live with the challenge of innovation. The key to successful innovation is not so much have the technology and the direction of the innovation process. The real advantage is that the company displayed its ability to distinguish signals from the environment to warn you about opportunities and threats, understand the changes and define a strategy.
The management of innovation, it becomes a management tool that leads to success in the field of business.

Changing rules in the music business

Sudden technological changes, are accompanied by uncertainties, risks and changes in rules.
Take for example the music market. In recent times, the advance of the sale of online music is advancing steadily. Within this market we found today, three different models:

• The buying unit where people decide to buy a track or entire album, and only pay for it.
• That is done by subscription, where you pay a monthly fee and in return you can download a certain number of songs
• The real-time playback, which pay a monthly fee and you can hear the entire quantity of items you want (but no transfer of ownership).





What will be the dominant model?. We must not neglect the sale of music through traditional channels and formats, much less a free trade possibilities (namely, Kazaa, eMule, Morpheus, etc.).

We must also consider changes in actors. As technology advances and allows authors to produce their own albums, what is the role that they will comply with the record companies?, Do they have the same power as the current one?, "Will also compete with current players selling music online?

It is clear that the business is transfigured by the day. This implies a major strategic challenge for those involved, because of uncertainty about the dominant design that will prevail in the near future.

Many more questions remain unanswered. If there is anything we can ensure, is that the technological changes, as mentioned in the example, come to change the rules forever.

Innovation: invest more, is it better?

A study by Booz Allen Hamilton said that investment in R & D does not mean innovation. It casts doubt very established that investment in R & D is a good indicator of innovation success and, therefore, it automatically has to innovate more to think about spending more. Further details of the study are:

Be quinnovacionand invests less bad, but being the most, gives no security to be good. Of the 1,000 companies surveyed, 10% with the lowest investment rate out clearly hurt sales in gross margins, profits and returns for shareholders. On the other hand, 10% more investment in R & D is slightly better than the rest, but was not statistically significant.

At one point, the number of innovations that a company may develop commercially is limited. Why not hold a patent with the results. Probably there is a limit beyond which the benefit of the projects be used by others.

Yes there is an association between the ratio of R & D on sales and gross profit, although profit is reached. Firms with greater R & D sell higher margin products, but after deducting general and administrative costs, marketing, etc ... are not significantly more profitable.

Against the common belief that smaller firms are better able to innovate for its flexibility, the results indicate that economies of scale are useful. Larger companies invest a smaller proportion of their sales on R & D, without necessarily having significantly worse outcomes.

New technologies, new business

The Brazilian Mauricio Machado, 35, always wanted to combine his passion for literature with a good deal, and he got on the Internet. In mid-2005, and after the collapse of Banco Santos Brazil, where he worked in the international arena, the company created Integrare Machado Publishing, a publisher of books páginque, as its name implies, incorporates in its chain to authors, readers and booksellers, and also is linked to social responsibility, all on a virtual platform. "It's an old dream of mine and my family," says Machado. "We believe in making a different publisher, with a business plan that did not exist in Brazil."

This is key to using the Internet as a platform for its operating model. Through its website Authors can track the sales of its items (the information is renewed monthly), monitor their marketing campaigns and even to know what cities have sold more books or what the preferred age range. For their part, readers who buy them may have access to digital conversations with the authors that last 20 minutes on average, meet their careers and even informed of the annual agenda of events and visits within the country if they want to keep track of them or go to his talks. Meanwhile, booksellers can also feed back more information, short stories in digital video where the authors explain the contents of their books for the bookseller can offer more certainty to the public indicated. In addition, sellers of fish have a space on the page with links to their websites so that readers see prices or buy the publications that are offered online.

The CD is no longer business in Britain

The CD is no longer heard as before. At least that is happening in Britain, where the musicians get more revenue from internet and radio, recorded music sales. This was announced by the alliance MCPS-PRS, Which handles copyright in the music industry in the country.

The cold numbers show that during 2007 in the UK, the radio and Internet downloads for a profit totaled 707.5 million euros. According to the agency states in its websiteIn 2007 alone increased by 54% the turnover of the online downloads.

Radios and televisions, along with internet, contributed € 195.7 million, up 8% over 2006, with significant growth of online downloads, whose turnover increased by 54%, led by the iTunes platform. However, the MCPS-PRS said that revenue from Internet (€ 12.6 million) still remain a small weight in total of this group.

Physical products like CDs and DVDs, which had always been a major source of income for musicians in the country, contributed € 191.1 million last year 11% less than last year.

"Much has been written about the state of the music industry, but these results show the good health of the sector, an increase of revenue in most areas," said CEO of MCPS-PRS, Steve Porter.

The alliance said the sharp fall in CD sales was partly offset by the sale of other physical products such as USB drives with built-in songs.

Google's mobile phone is not multitouch, because Apple does not want

The main complaint from critics of the Android G1, the first mobile phone designed by Google, manufactured by HTC and distributed exclusively for the United States by the German T-Mobile, has already been answered: if this phone that wants to be the future is multi- touch, as if what is Apple's iPhone is only because the finder does not want to anger the company that runs Google Jobs.Estrategia Steve

It is considered multi-touch to any touchscreen phone that is able to process orders received from its sensors several fingers of the user ... at a time. That ability is what allows, for example, zoom in and zoom photos on an iPhone using the thumb and forefinger of one hand.

And no one understood well until now why Google had resigned to making your touch phone was also multi-touch. Now, a report in a specialized account how American's own brand of apple begged the Android development team that did not include this capability in the design of its new generation of mobile phones (which the G1 is just the first member .)

The main reasons why the giant gave information on the Internet without question appear to be two. First, both brands share the common goal to overthrow Microsoft. And second, that Apple is preparing a legal barrage against those who dare to use that technology in other devices.

Apple itself warned of the consequences in the final presentation of business results in a message that everyone understood that was directed at Palm, to use multi-touch technology in its new Intelligent Mobile Pre. "We will use every weapon at our disposal," said then one of its top officials.

The e-learning revolution

The concept of Information Society was created from the central role that was taking the information into the new routines of individuals, companies and countries, driven also by new technologies and the potential of internet and various electronic media.

The e-Learning has become a real and very valuable option for many companies and universities as well as employees and students in the world who have found a way to continue their education costs and saving time and allowing greater flexibility better suit their lifestyles.

To this is added the possibility for people to interact with other cultures and to build web content, which means that there is an enormous wealth of sources and a relatively quick update content.

It is, on the one hand, distance education self-directed, which is one in which there are separate training materials, when the user logs on and is content, materials and assessments, and, second, distance education directed that is where we exploit different tools such as chats, forums and video, and built various learning activities.



estartegia de elearning
In the U.S., for example, according to a study by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the growth of American student incorporating online education exceeds 10% annually.

Save time and money

In times of economic crisis many companies and universities have to cut expenses while working and, therefore, what they should do is get a lot less. The e-Learning becomes easy for the student because it is in their own time and less cost, but at the same time, for companies and universities and that means training and education, respectively, of an easier way for people who are hiring and receiving throughout the year, virtually without removing them from their jobs or their country of residence.

On one side are the universities, who are increasingly migrating towards providing most of its distance learning programs and even have races now face that have online activities, and, secondly, there are enterprises in which there are different forms of e-Learning as the company's own content that are closed to the public and administered by human resources, continuing professional development of employees, and courses of welfare for workers and their families.

He explained to Tendencias21 Bodil Maul, manager of corporate accounts Netting Solutions with extensive experience in implementing e-Learning solutions for multinational companies, "Today, many multinationals have e-Learning programs as part of its training strategy and some have their own platforms (LMS) and content developed internally and others choose to outsourcing. "

Ninette Gaxiola, corporate education coordinator Netting Solutions company that provides solutions for audiences in Latin America, North America and Europe, said in turn to Tendencias21: "The e-Learning, understood as the possibility of incorporating new information technologies and communication in the processes of production, transmission and management of knowledge gives us the opportunity to perform this task in a more effective, cost effective and tailored to the needs of a society in which 2.0 technology allows us to cooperate actively. It is not only to make available to staff online courses, but to identify and build, with the support of experts, the strategy that meets the needs of each group integrating the most useful technological elements for each goal and each occasion. "

"Something fundamental is to have a strategy that you know exactly why you want to use this medium of education and training, and, likewise, have clear metrics to evaluate their impact on the organization and its users," says Maul.

The mobile world

And is that e-Learning is part of a set of technologies, media, tools and strategies in today's world, a "mobile world" in which people are "on the go, do not stop, but continue their work from wherever they are. Many large companies globally accepted and even offer their employees the option of working from home, and expected everything to be faster and more efficient, no matter where or how.

Keep in mind that a large variety of these electronic tools not only work on computers, but also from mobile devices, which really makes many people to access them and can work in their training from the most unexpected places.

Today, people want flexibility and speed, you have the option to bring all its business at the leading lifestyle, work and take advantage of free time while traveling, and being able to simultaneously combine personal and educational activities that contribute to the improvement.

In short, there are many choices you have those who really are willing to learn without being affected daily activities and free time. It's a moving world where more and less important where, when and how.

Entrepreneurs: the absence of strategic partner

The entrepreneurial boom is undeniable. The socio-economic benefits Socio estrategicotoo.

No doubt the business is growing strongly and a long road ahead. But as there is growth, there is much to learn and improve.

One of the common weaknesses I find in several of the projects is the absence of a "strategic partner." I do not know if the term reflects exactly what I mean, but it's better than I thought (if I find one that surpasses it, I assure you that I modified).

In general, in these enterprises, technical feasibility is outdated. Those who develop are often specialists in the technical part of the product. Neither frequent the problems in the legal viability. With regard to economic viability, there begin to be the first obstacles, due to lack of financial evaluation tools and the difficulty of demonstrating the profitability of the business. Many times this stumbling block is saved, according to the skill and flair of the potential investor.

Is where I see serious difficulties in project management. It is necessary to set the strategist, you can view and manage the implementation of business strategies. Undoubtedly, this figure would solve also the failures in respect to what was mentioned about the economic viability.

Think of how many good ideas do not advance because of lack of management capacity, either in search of investors and in its implementation.

Those who plan to take up and not ready for enterprise management, should consider seriously the possibility of hiring, or associate, Business Management specialists.