Once knowledge will be outsourced, enterprises will only be expertise coordinators

In a previous post I was saying that, one day, enterprise’s main role will be to organize a value chain and coordinate expertises, some of them being internal and some others internal. Economy’s “knowledgization” where assets resides more in individual knowledge, transaction costs near to zero which may cause a reversed application of Coase’s law,  and the ability go organize without organization can make us think that enterprises will only have a role of principal and skills unifier.

I won’t be listing again the long list of thinks that are or can be outsourced today, from recruitment to innovation, without forgetting manufacturing, invoicing, R&D.

Fortunately, companies keep what matters : knowledge, expertises. But, perhaps, not for long.

Have you ever heard of KPO ? No ? So please be informed that after Business Process Outsourcing, here comes Knowledge Process Outsourcing

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With I-Prize Cisco Hammer It into Crowdsourcing for Innovation

A little time ago I wrote about Cisco’s Human Network. One of the point I raised was to know is Cisco was about to only play a facilitator’s game or try to exploit its network’s fruits when relevant. The answer was obvious,  but now it gets materialized and is called  I-Prize.

It’s nothing less that a context in which people submit business ideas and concepts. Contestants will be able to refine their ideas relying on Human Network.

What can they expect  ?

Being hired by cisco to run the business they invented with a $250 000 signing bonus. Not that bad. Cisco is investing $10M in this program, which proves the profitability of externalized, distributed innovation, that’s to say crowdsourcing.

It’s been a while I don’t watch American Idol’s french clones anymore. But in this case the finalist’s presentation maybe worth.

I also see another point : CISCO shows it’s an open minded, agile and innovative company. Very important to seduce Gen Yers.. A great work on employer’s brand.

cisco, crowdsourcing, human network, Innovation, innovation collaborative, innovation participative, innovation-distribuée, marque-employeur

How Enterprise 2.0 can help managing and improving organizational capital to support strategy

This is the third (and last) post of the series about enterprise 2.0 and intangible assets. Why do “organization capital” ? It’s the ability to mobilize and support the change process that is needed to support strategy.

It’s made of four elements :

- culture : appropriation of the vision and key values needed to support strategy

- leadershp : presence of skilled leaders at every level of the organization

- alignment : link between objective and individual and collective reawards to reach strategic goals

- teamwork : shared knowledge across the organization;

In concrete terms those components are about behavioral change. Some are dedicated to value creation (focus on client, be reative and innovant, deliver results), some to strategy execution (undertanding the mission, the rules, link the financial aspects to strategy, communicate with transparency, team work).

Do we really need to add anything since the link with E2.0 seems obvious ?

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The Next Step in Open Innovation

Distributed innovation, collaboration with clients and partners are becoming central in companies’ strategic reflexion.

To learn more about this subject I often discuss here, it’s at McKinsey’s.

Developing and managing information capital to support strategy : can enterprise 2.0 help ?

After some days “off” (too busy at work to take care of my blog), this is the second post of my series about how enterprise may support strategy. After human capital comes information capital.

It’s about assessing the availability of the information systems, networks and infrastructure which aee needed to support strategy.

A first sight the two concepts are very far one from the other. If we consider Norton and Kaplan’s model, we’re in the ERP field. As a matter of fact they talk about “transformational applications”, ” Analytic Applications”, Technology infrastructure” and “transaction processing applications”.

But it inspires me a few thoughts . [Read more...]

Meeting Rex Lee : collaboration, problem solving and innovation on the programme

I took advantage from my trip to attend Webcom Montreal to make a flying visit to Toronto. The main purpose was family but it was also the occasion to meet Rex Lee in person at his Toronto’s office. For those who don’t know him, he’s collaboration director at Bell Canada and, although less mediatized than many others, he’s blog is one of the most relevant on collaboration and social computing.

First step in the office, a wide open space, white boards all over the walls, a call for creativity. A “cross” space, as the team that makes it live, where people from all parts of the company can be gathered in order to improve the way they collaborate.

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Organization’s networking potential will drive talents

I’ve just read with a real interest this post, about the power of people networks. Top make it short it says that people will be increasingly attracted by regions who offer a strong potential of networking and interactions because it allows them to exploit more their talents and maximise its economic reward.

The author concludes this way ;

I would submit a hypothesis: The capacity of a region for innovation can be measured by the number of formal and informal networking organizations that create “bridging” opportunities across the broadest possible spectrum of society. The richer and denser the skein of bridging networks, the more easily ideas can be communicated through a region, the more spontaneously creative ideas will erupt, and the more speedily people can convert novel notions into business opportunities.

Of course it’s about local development but I think we can transpose it to the enterprise world. That would mean that talents will be more likely to join companies who offer, internally and in the way they interact with their ecosystem, this ability to work as networks, to quickly create value through exchanges and to move quickly from ideas to effective projects.

What say you ?

With Human-Network Cisco steps into societal innovation

When we talk about enterprise 2.0 it’s often about organization or marketing. But it can also be about activities that are not directly business related but ma be important considering the societal role enterpises now have to play in a protean ecosystem.

That’s the purpose in which Cisco launched Human-Network in France. I know there’s an US equivalent but I don’t know if both are simultaneous or if the US one is much older;

It aims at gathering people aroung a commun project : sharing a good idea, a suggestion on how making our society more united, educated, tolerant, socially aware, respectful of environment, enterprising…

On www.human-network.fr, internauts may submit projects to share them with the largest audience, look for support, partners, and, of course, discuss with all the community members about employement, environment, economy, eduction, health care, community life…

It’s too early to give a definitive opinion but here’s what it inspires to me : [Read more...]

How to link formal and informal within the enterprise : the “still” company

Since intangible assets only create value when they support formal business process, enterprises don’t have to create an enterprise 2.0 organization relying on informal but a system allowing formal and structured activities to take advantage from what isn’t.

If we want to visualize that, the “still” metaphor seems very relevant to me.

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Creating a corporate memory is about telling stories

I really believe conversations are key to capturing tacit knowledge, best practices,  all those things that are parts of the individual’s patrimony and can only be captured an harnessed by stimulating individual memories through conversations, since they are the most accessible form of knowledge.

Hence the necessity to provide the organization with tools that make those open discussions and their stimulation possible, just as their capitalization.

Most often, when I talk about conversations it’s about best practices, knowledge transfer, everything that can suport the business function and I think there’s nothing more to say on this point, but this note from Scott Monty made me think of another dimension that would really fit with the idea of “corporate memories”, going beyond pure business to adress corporate culture purposes. [Read more...]