To progress and achieve new goals, we must let go of old mindsets, habits, and behaviours that no longer serve us.
Holding onto our past experiences and some historical knowledge can hinder our growth and keep us stuck in familiar but unfulfilling behavioural and mindset patterns. As one evolves and matures and takes on new challenges, one should adapt one’s approach accordingly.
As the saying suggests, trying to use the same “keys” from the past to unlock the doors of the future can be very frustrating and even futile.
To open new doors of opportunity, work, and endeavour, one must be willing to sometimes embrace radical change and embrace new ways of thinking and acting. This may require completely unlearning some of our old and potentially limiting beliefs about ourselves, those around us, and their and our potential. We should not let yesterday’s experiences and mindset dictate today’s possibilities.
Discarding the “dead weight” of a bunch of old keys that jangle our lives, creates cognitive and emotional space for the new keys we need to succeed. This discard could mean breaking old habits, ending toxic relationships and associations, or adopting a fresh perspective.
This all takes work, but the potential rewards in terms of personal growth and new opportunities often make it very worthwhile. The key is to focus on the new vision you have for your life, and take small daily actions to make it a reality.
Swapping out unproductive habits for ones that serve your goals with growth integral to your mindset, accompanied by a consistent effort can often open doors to a better future.
To embark upon this change is not easy, but it may well be necessary for your growth and to release you from being stuck in a rut or dissatisfied with your current circumstances. If these characteristics encumber your daily life, then it’s a sign that it’s time to let go of the old and embrace the new.
It’s important to take an honest look at one’s life and identify the areas that need improvement. Dead-end job, unfulfilling relationship, bad habits? Once we pinpoint the issues, we can start to develop a plan for change.
Letting Go
One of the biggest obstacles to change is our attachment to the past. Humans by their very nature are mostly nostalgic and sentimental.
Nostalgia is such a common human experience, with most people reflecting on the past as often as once a week, according to some studies. This involves sentimentally longing or having an affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. This is often triggered by something reminding an individual of a positive experience from the past, such as songs, smells, photographs, or loneliness. Often it is characterized by bittersweet or even painful memories of the past.
The most nostalgic of us do tend to have certain personality traits, such as daydreaming frequently, being sentimental, overthinking, romanticizing the past, and not liking change. Nostalgia peaks during transitional age ranges like the teens through 20s and over 50. This nostalgia can have both positive and negative effects, positively boosting one’s mood, increasing self-esteem, providing a sense of social support, and helping one cope with difficult life transitions. Excessive nostalgia and dwelling too much on the past may have corrosive negative consequences.
We may cling to old habits, relationships, or beliefs because they feel comfortable and familiar. However, this attachment can prevent us from moving forward and reaching our full potential. It’s important to acknowledge that the past is gone and that we can’t change it but what we can change is our perspective on it.
Instead of viewing the past as a burden, we can see it as a learning experience that has shaped us into who we are today. Letting go of the past, we create space for new opportunities and experiences. We free ourselves from the weight of old baggage and can focus on the present moment and the future.
Growth and Rewards
To open new doors in life, we need to adopt a growth mindset.
This means embracing challenges, learning from mistakes, and continuously striving for improvement.A growth mindset allows us to see obstacles as opportunities for growth rather than roadblocks. When we face a challenge, we can approach it with curiosity and a willingness to learn rather than fear and resistance.Developing a growth mindset also requires us to be receptive to feedback and criticism despite it being hard to hear and accept. That feedback can provide valuable insights into areas where we can improve and inform our growth, we can accelerate our progress and open new doors more quickly with new keys.
Change is tied to action, so it’s not enough to simply think about the changes we want to make; we need to take concrete steps to make them happen – one way is with setting clear goals for ourselves. Understanding where we want to go and what we want to achieve. Understanding what we think success looks like. By setting specific, measurable goals, we can create our own personal roadmap for growth to help us stay focused on the path ahead.
Another important action is to develop a support system; seeking out supportive friends, family, or mentors who can make a difference in terms of providing emotional support and perhaps other kinds of support too. These people can provide encouragement, advice, and accountability as we work towards our goals.
Finally, it’s important to celebrate one’s progress and successes along the way; since change is a journey, it’s important to acknowledge the small wins that keep us motivated and inspired and celebrate our achievements, from which we can build momentum and stay focused on the bigger picture.
Cloud computing has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past decade.
What was once hailed as a panacea for companies struggling with the high costs and unsustainability of on-premise IT infrastructure has now become a more nuanced and complex landscape. Businesses continue to grapple with the decision to migrate to the cloud or maintain a hybrid approach, the complexity, costs and risk are essential to understand the evolving dynamics and the potential pitfalls that lie ahead.
The initial appeal of cloud solutions was undeniable.
By offloading the burden of hardware maintenance, software updates, and data storage to cloud providers, companies could focus on their core business activities and enjoy the benefits of scalability, flexibility, and cost optimization. The cloud promised to revolutionize the way organizations managed their IT resources, allowing them to adapt quickly to changing market demands and technological advancements.
However, not all businesses have fully embraced the cloud, especially when it comes to their mission-critical systems. Companies that handle sensitive or proprietary data have often been more cautious in their approach, opting to maintain a significant portion of their operations on-premise. These organizations may have felt a sense of vindication as they watched some of their cloud-first counterparts grapple with the complexities and potential risks associated with entrusting such critical systems to third-party providers.
The recent news from Basecamp, for example, was driven by spiraling costs, irrespective of the cloud provider (they tried AWS and GCP). Thus, Basecamp decided to leave the cloud computing model and move back to on-premise infrastructure to contain costs, reduce complexity, avoid hidden costs, and retain margin. This way they felt that they had more control of the delivery and sustainment outcomes.
The Ongoing Costs of Cloud-First Strategies
Cloud bills, for example, can comprise hundreds of millions or billions of rows of data, making them difficult to analyze in traditional tools like Excel and cloud computing reduces upfront startup costs, including setup and maintenance costs, with 94% of IT professionals reporting this benefit. Accenture for example, found cloud migration leads to 30-40% Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings.
As many as 60% of C-suite executives also cite security as the top benefit of cloud computing, ahead of cost savings, scalability, ease of maintenance, and speed.
The private cloud services market for example, is projected to experience significant growth in the coming years. According to Technavio, the global private cloud services market size is expected to grow by $276.36 billion from 2022 to 2027, at a CAGR of 26.71%.
The cloud of course supports automation, reducing the risk of human errors that cause security breaches and accoridnly the platforms help capture the cost of tagged, untagged, and untaggable cloud resources, as well as allocate 100% of shared costs. For those organizations that have wholeheartedly adopted a cloud-first strategy, the operational budgets for cloud technologies have often continued to climb year-over-year.
Instead of fully capitalizing on the advances in cloud technology, these companies may find themselves having to maintain or even grow their cost base to take advantage of the latest offerings. The promise of cost savings and operational efficiency that initially drew them to the cloud may not have materialized as expected.
As this cloud landscape continues to evolve, a critical question arises: is there a breaking point where cloud solutions may become unviable for all but the smallest or most virtualized cloud-interwoven businesses?
This concern is particularly relevant in the context of customer data management, where the increasing number of bad actors and risk vectors, coupled with the growing web of regulations and restrictions at local, regional, and international levels, can contribute to a sense of unease about entrusting sensitive customer data to cloud environments.
The Evolving Regulatory Landscape & Cyber threats
The proliferation of data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States, has added a new layer of complexity to the cloud adoption equation.
These regulations, along with a growing number of industry-specific compliance requirements, have placed significant demands on organizations to ensure the security and privacy of the data they handle, regardless of where it is stored or processed.For businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions, navigating the web of regulations can be a daunting task, as the requirements and restrictions can vary widely across different regions.
Failure to comply with these regulations can result in hefty fines, reputational damage, and even legal consequences, making the decision to entrust sensitive data to cloud providers a high-stakes proposition.
Alongside the evolving regulatory landscape, the threat of cyber attacks has also intensified, with bad actors constantly seeking new vulnerabilities to exploit.
Cloud environments, while offering robust security measures, are not immune to these threats, and the potential for data breaches or system compromises can have devastating consequences for businesses and their customers.
The growing sophistication of cyber attacks, coupled with the increasing value of customer data, has heightened the need for robust security measures and comprehensive risk management strategies. Companies must carefully evaluate the security protocols and safeguards offered by cloud providers, as well as their own internal security practices, to ensure the protection of their most valuable assets.
Balancing Innovation and Risk Management
In light of these challenges, many businesses are exploring hybrid approaches that combine on-premise and cloud-based solutions.
This strategy allows organizations to maintain control over their mission-critical systems and sensitive data, while still leveraging the benefits of cloud computing for less sensitive or more scalable workloads.
Some companies are also taking a more selective approach to cloud adoption, carefully evaluating which workloads and data sets are suitable for cloud migration.
By adopting a risk-based approach, they can balance the potential benefits of cloud solutions with the need to maintain a high level of control and security over their most critical assets.
As the cloud landscape continues to evolve, it is essential for businesses to carefully evaluate their cloud strategies and adapt them to the changing circumstances.
This may involve regularly reviewing their cloud usage, cost optimization strategies, and the evolving regulatory and security landscape to ensure that their cloud solutions remain aligned with their business objectives and risk tolerance.Regular monitoring and assessment of cloud performance, cost-effectiveness, and security posture can help organizations identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions about their cloud investments.
Collaboration with cloud providers and industry experts can also provide valuable insights and best practices to navigate the complexities of the cloud ecosystem.
As the cloud landscape continues to evolve, it is clear that the path forward will not be a one-size-fits-all solution.
Businesses must be careful in weighing the potential benefits of cloud adoption against the risks and challenges that come with entrusting their critical data and systems to third-party providers.The future of cloud solutions will likely involve a more nuanced and balanced approach, where organizations leverage the power of cloud computing selectively and strategically, while maintaining a strong focus on data security, regulatory compliance, and risk management.
Collaboration between businesses, cloud providers, and regulatory bodies will likely be crucial in shaping the next chapter of the cloud revolution, ensuring that the benefits of cloud technology are realized in a secure and sustainable manner.
Leaders are often driven by a deep, unwavering passion for their cause, political position, product, or objective.
This dedication can be a powerful force, fuelling determination and propelling them towards their goals. However, this very passion can also become a source of frustration when others fail to share the same level of enthusiasm.
It can be disheartening for leaders when employees are not as excited about new initiatives, when family members do not fully support their efforts, or when outsiders seem disinterested in engaging with the leader’s agenda.
Such a lack of shared passion can leave the leader feeling alone, angry, misunderstood, and under-appreciated. While it is tempting to argue, debate, or pressure others into aligning with one’s vision, this approach often proves counterproductive.
Overcoming this frustration lies in the one’s ability to inspire others, rather than simply asserting their own desires. Inspiring leaders understand that the most effective way to achieve their goals is to focus on what others want, rather than solely on their own agenda.
By explaining one’s passion in the language and perspective of those you seek to influence, you can create a shared vision that resonates with the needs and desires of your audience.
Connecting the collective’s needs and dsires
One of the hallmarks of an inspiring leader is often their ability to shift the conversation focus from themselves to that of the collective.
Instead of simply extolling the virtues of their own position or product, they take the time to understand the needs, concerns, and aspirations of those they wish to engage. In the absence of this, you have tghe master-serf relationship where employees in particular are just wage-slaves; or in clubs or societies where the leader is the prophet and the others are just acolytes or disciples.
By doing so, a leader can craft a narrative that speaks directly to the interests and motivations of those around them; but it needs to be grounded in everyone’s reality.
“The more scarce and valuable commodity is cold-shower-self-honesty”
Joel Runyon
Rather than relying just on passion alone, inspiring leaders are willing to step back and critically examine their own circumstances, their assumptions, biases, and communication strategies. They recognize that their personal enthusiasm, while genuine, may not be enough to sway others who have different priorities and perspectives.
The Shared Vision
By focusing on the needs and desires of the team, an inspiring leader is able to craft a shared vision that aligns with the goals and personal and collective aspirations of those around them.
This shared vision becomes a powerful tool for overcoming the frustration that can arise when others do not immediately embrace the leader’s passion.Rather than simply pushing their own agenda, inspiring leaders take the time to understand what motivates their employees, family members, or external stakeholders. They then weave these insights into a narrative that highlights how the leader’s vision can help others achieve their own objectives.
Such an approach creates a sense of mutual investment and shared purpose, fostering a collaborative environment where everyone feels invested in the success of the endeavor.
Empathy and Emotional Connection
Inspiring leaders often understand that passion alone is not enough to drive meaningful change.
Recognizing the importance of empathy and emotional connection in engaging others and cultivating a shared vision, they actively listen to the concerns and perspectives of others, they are able to tailor their message in a way that resonates on a deeper level.
An emotional connection is crucial in overcoming the frustration that can arise when others do not immediately share the same passion. By demonstrating a genuine understanding of the challenges and aspirations of their audience, inspiring leaders are able to build trust and foster a sense of shared purpose. This, in turn, helps to overcome resistance and create a collaborative environment for all.
The Art of Inspiration
Inspiring leaders understand that the role is not to simply assert their own desires, but to create a compelling vision that aligns with the needs and aspirations of those they seek to influence.
This requires a delicate balance of passion, empathy, and strategic communication.
A focus on “them” speaks directly to the concerns and motivations of others. The most valuable commodity is not just passion, but the willingness to engage in that “cold-shower-self-honesty” – critically examining own assumptions, biases, and communication strategies.
A process of self-reflection and audience-centric communication, inspiring leaders are able to overcome the frustration that can arise when others do not immediately share their passion and potential impatience.
A shared vision that resonates with the needs and desires of their audience fosters collaborative environment where everyone feels invested in the success of the endeavor.
Ultimately, the art of inspiration is not about forcing others to conform to the leader’s agenda, but about cultivating a shared sense of purpose and mutual investment and having everyone else naturally come together on the journey of exploration, discovery and execution. Only through connecting with the needs and desires of others, inspiring leaders are able to achieve greater success and create lasting change.
If there is one thing that the recent shake-up in the employment market has brought home to many, especially those in tech, it is that work as traditionally understood by many of previous generations, can be unstable. Late in 2023 TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, dismissed about 1,000 employees in its gaming unit. Fortnite developer Epic Games parted ways with over 800 personnel and Unity has continued a spree that started in 2023 and runs into 2024. The estimates for 2023 are 9000 people impacted in the gaming entertainment sector alone.
I always find a look at layoffs.fyi kind of interesting, they have been around a couple of years now with data going back to 2020. Frontdesk, Invision, Twitch, Lazada, Citrix, Audible, Flipkart Trend Micro, Unity, New Work SE, Google. Some of the numbers are substantial. As of today, 51 Tech companies and 7528 known layoffs in 2024 alone.
The recent changes in the employment market have highlighted the instability of traditional work structures. This has been particularly evident in the tech industry but it is not isolated to tech.
Several factors contribute to this shift:
High job openings: Despite a slight decrease in November, job openings in the US remain high by historical standards. This indicates a strong demand for workers.
Job market resilience: The US economy added more jobs than expected, demonstrating the resilience in the labor market.
Inflation and interest rates: The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate multiple times to combat inflation, which has led to a gradual decline in job openings since peaking in March 2022. This could potentially lead to a cooling of the job market. In Europe, inflation dogged many European countries in 2022 and 2023 falling to 3.1% in the EU and 4.7% in the UK
Occupational Shift: occupational mixes shifted, with the most highly skilled individuals enjoying the strongest job growth over the last decade, while middle-skill workers had fewer opportunities.
Labor Mobility: Labor mobility in the EU has been rising as workers in the lower-income regions migrate to dynamic cities to fill jobs.
COVID-19 Impact: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decrease in national employment rates for 23 of the EU Member States in 2020 compared with the previous year. In the US, the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant job losses, but many of these jobs have since been restored.
Fake Work: According to Fortune, some companies reportedly hired people simply to snub competitors and neutralize the likelihood of those valued resources being snatched up by them. What they described as also being “thanks to an over-hiring spree to satisfy the “vanity” of bosses at the likes of Meta and Alphabet“.
These factors all lead to a reevaluation of traditional employment models, with many individuals and companies now exploring more flexible and resilient alternatives. This includes remote work, contract-based roles, and a greater emphasis on skills rather than specific job titles.
It’s a complex issue with many facets, and the job market will evolve in response to these and other pressures.
Organizations, much like living organisms, undergo cycles of growth and contraction influenced by economic conditions. During economic upturns, companies often seize expansion opportunities, hiring more talent to meet increased demands.
This growth phase can lead to a sense of abundance and optimism within the workforce. Conversely, economic downturns may prompt organizations to reassess their structures, resulting in layoffs, restructuring, or a more streamlined approach to operations.
Individual contributors must recognize these patterns to better navigate the shifts in their work environments. Understanding that these changes are often not personal but strategic responses to economic realities can provide a valuable perspective. By staying attuned to the broader organizational context, individuals can position themselves to adapt and contribute effectively during periods of change.
People-to-Manager Ratio
The people-to-manager ratio is a critical aspect of organizational dynamics. This ratio influences the effectiveness of management and the well-being of individual contributors. While there’s no universal formula for the perfect ratio, finding the right balance is essential.
In scenarios where the ratio is too high, individual contributors may feel a lack of guidance or support, leading to burnout and diminished performance. On the other hand, an excessively low ratio might result in micromanagement and hinder autonomy.
Organizations that strike the right balance empower managers to provide meaningful support to their teams while ensuring that individual contributors have the autonomy and resources needed to excel in their roles. This balance fosters a healthy work environment where everyone can thrive.
Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome is a common challenge that individual contributors, especially very competent younger people, and women in particular, may face. This is prevalent, particularly during times of organizational change. It involves persistent feelings of inadequacy and a fear of being exposed as a fraud, despite evidence of competence or clear qualification.
To overcome imposter syndrome, one should actively reflect on achievements, skills, and the unique perspectives one brings to the role. Seeking constructive feedback from colleagues and mentors can provide valuable insights into one’s strengths. Acknowledging accomplishments, no matter how small helps build confidence and dispel the irrational belief of being an imposter. Watch out for gaslighters though.
In the face of organizational shifts, individuals need to recognize their intrinsic value. Understanding that you were hired for a reason and have the skills to contribute meaningfully can be a powerful antidote to any imposter syndrome you may suffer from.
Professional Growth
Regular self-assessment is a cornerstone of professional growth.
Individual contributors should evaluate their roles in the broader organizational context, considering how their work aligns with overarching goals. This involves a critical examination of tasks, responsibilities, and the impact of their contributions.
An effective self-evaluation goes beyond job responsibilities; it delves into the quality of work, initiative, and the ability to collaborate with colleagues. By identifying areas for improvement and actively seeking growth opportunities, individuals position themselves as proactive contributors to the organization’s success.
This reflective process allows individuals to align their goals with the organization’s objectives, ensuring that their contributions remain relevant and valuable, even in the face of organizational changes.
Reinvention of the self
In times of uncertainty, like now, the ability to reinvent oneself becomes a strategic advantage. This reinvention can take various forms, including acquiring new knowledge, adapting behaviors to meet evolving challenges, and delivering tangible results.
Continuous learning is another cornerstone of professional development. If we end up with more than four cornerstones, consider that the building that is your occupation, career, and role, may not be a quadrilateral.
We should all actively seek opportunities to acquire new skills, stay informed about industry trends, and engage in relevant training programs. This not only enhances individual capabilities but also contributes to the organization’s overall resilience.
Adapting behaviors involves staying attuned to evolving workplace dynamics. This may include embracing collaborative technologies, refining communication skills, and fostering a mindset of adaptability. Being open to change and displaying a positive attitude can position you as an asset during times of organizational flux.
Delivering tangible results is also a fundamental aspect of proving one’s value. Individual contributors should focus on outcomes, highlighting achievements and the positive impact of work. This may involve setting measurable goals, taking ownership of projects, and consistently delivering high-quality results that contribute to the organization’s success.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a catalyst for innovation and problem-solving. Those who cultivate such a skill can navigate uncertainties with agility. During periods of organizational change, critical thinking involves strategic analysis, identifying potential challenges, and proposing effective solutions.
Proactive engagement in critical thinking demonstrates leadership qualities. Individual contributors should actively participate in discussions, offer insights, and contribute to decision-making processes. This not only showcases value but positions one as an essential contributor to the organization’s resilience and adaptability.
Critical thinking involves anticipating future trends and challenges. By staying ahead of the curve, you can position yourself as a more valuable asset, contributing to the organization’s ability to navigate changing economic climates.
Good luck otherwise with the current storm that we seem to be sailing through and hope for calmer waters soon, but hopefully not so calm that you get bored.
Back in 2020, I offered up some thoughts for consideration around generic or homogenous data governance playbooks. Revisit it if you care to.
This was in part fueled by frustrations with the various maturity models and potential frameworks available but also by the push, particularly from some software vendors, to suggest that a data governance program could be relatively easily captured and implemented generically using boiler-plated scenarios by any organization without necessarily going through the painful process of analysis, assessment and design.
Of course, there is the adage, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well“, and that remains a truism as applicable to a data governance program as anything else in the data management space.
You can’t scrimp on the planning and evaluation phase if you want to get your data governance program to be widely adopted and effective irrespective of how many bucks you drop and irrespective of the mandates and prescripts yelled from the boardroom.
Like any change program, a DG initiative needs advocacy and design appropriate to the context and no vendor is going to do that perfectly well for you without you making a significant investment of time, people and effort to get the program running. If you’re evaluating a software vendor to do this for you, in particular, you need to be sure to check out their implementation chops and assess their domain knowledge, particularly relevant to your industry sector, market and organizational culture. This is a consulting focus area that “The Big Four” have started to look more closely at and are competing with boutique consultancies on. So if you have a passion for consulting and you feel all the big ERP and CRM projects have been done and you want to break into this space, then here is an area to consider.
What is it exactly?
The term “playbook” in a business context is borrowed from American football. In sports, a playbook is often a collection of a team’s plays and strategies, all compiled and organized into one book or binder. Players are expected to learn “the plays” and ahead of the game the coach and team work out the play that they are likely to run at the opposing team or the approach that they will use if the opposing team is observed to run a particular play of their own. Some plays may be offensive, some defensive and then there may be other plays for specialised tactical runs at a given goal or target.
A “business playbook” contains all your company’s processes, policies, and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Also termed a “company playbook”, it is effectively a manual outlining how your business does what it does, down to each business operations role, responsibility, business strategy, and differentiator. This should be differentiated from a RunBook where the latter is your “go-to” if a team needs step-by-step instructions for certain tasks. Playbooks have a broader focus and are great for teams that need to document more complex processes. It is a subtlety that is appreciated more when you are in the weeds of the work than when you are talking or thinking conceptually about new ways of optimizing organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
A data governance playbook is then effectively a library of documented processes and procedures that describe each activity in terms of the inputs and capture or adoption criteria, the processes to be completed, who would be accountable for which tasks, and the interactions required. It also often outlines the deliverables, quality expectations, data controls, and the like.
Under the US President’s management agenda, the federal Data Strategy offers up a Data Governance Playbook that is worth taking a look at as an example. Similarly, the Health IT Playbook is a tool for administrators, physician practice owners, clinicians and practitioners, practice staff, and anyone else who wants to leverage health IT. The focus is on the protection and security of patient information and ensuring patient safety.
So, in 2024, if you’re just picking up the concept of a playbook, and a data governance playbook in particular, it is likely that you’ll look at what the software vendors have in mind; you’ll evaluate a couple of implementation proposals from consultants and you’ll consider repurposing something from adjacent industry, a past project or a comparable organization.
Taking a “roll-your-own” approach
There’s plenty of reading content out there from books written by industry practitioners, and analysts, to technology vendors, as mentioned. Some are as dry as ditchwater and very few get beyond a first edition, although some authors have been moderately successful at pushing out subsequent volumes with different titles. A lot of the content though, will demonstrate itself to be thought exercises with examples, things/factors to consider, experiences and industry or context-specific understandings or challenges. Some will focus on particular functionality or expectations around the complementary implementation or adoption of particular technologies.
With the latest LLM and AI/ML innovations, you’ll also discover a great deal of content. Many of these publications, articles and posts found across the internet have already been parsed and assimilated into the LLM engines so, a good starting point is for you to ask your favourite chatbot what it thinks.
Using a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT to facilitate the building of data playbooks might be feasible to a certain extent but there will be challenges.
On the plus-side. An LLM could generate content and provide templates for various sections of a data playbook, such as data classification, access controls, data lifecycle management, and compliance. It can also assist in drafting policy statements, guidelines, and procedures.
It could help in explaining complex data governance concepts, definitions, and best practices in a more accessible language for use in say a business glossary or thesaurus. This could be beneficial for individuals who might not have a deep understanding of data governance – think about your data literacy campaigning in this context.
Users can also directly interact with an LLM in a question-answer format to seek clarity on specific aspects of data governance and help build an understanding of key data governance concepts and data management requirements.
Just as for generic playbooks, there are going to be problems with this approach, LLMs operate based on patterns learned from a diverse range of data, but they often lack domain specificity. A data management platform or data catalog itself might have an LLM attached to it but has it been trained with data governance practice content?
Data governance often requires an understanding of industry-specific regulations, data types, and organizational contexts that might not be captured adequately by a generic model.
We’ve also heard about AI hallucinations, and some of us may have even experienced a chatbot hallucination. Without the particular character of data governance practice and domain knowledge, there’s a risk that the AI might generate content that is wholly or partially inaccurate, incomplete, or not aligned with the actual organizational need. This then, would have you second-guessing the results and having to dig into the details to ensure that the suggested content is appropriate. You’ll need to have a domain expert on hand to validate the machine-generated output.
Data governance practices and regulations are also ever-evolving. What the LLM might not be aware of, is new regulations, new compliance expectations or new industry standards. So leaning purely on machine-generated content may be deficient in revealing emerging best practices unless it gets to be trained with updates.
Each organization has its unique culture, structure, and processes. The intertwined nature of DG with the various organizational processes, and understanding these interconnections is vital; that’s best achieved with careful analysis, process design and domain knowledge. The tool you use to help elaborate your playbook might simply provide information in isolation, without any grasp of the broader organizational context. Without appropriate training and prompting, the specific nuances of the organization will make it almost impossible to tailor the generated content to align with organizational goals and practices.
I guess my whole point is that you will not escape the human factor. If you insist on going it alone and relying on machine-generated content in particular then that same content should undergo thorough validation by domain experts and organizational stakeholders to ensure that the results are accurate and aligned with organizational and industry requirements.
The use of modern-day tooling to assist human experts in drafting and refining data playbooks is a valuable acceleration approach that has merit but just as for generic playbooks and templates, you need to leverage the strengths of canned, automated generation and human expertise to arrive at a good result.
I’d love to hear what if anything you’ve done with chatbots, AI, ML and LLM to generate content. If you are implementing any data management or data governance initiatives, I would love to know how successful you have been and any tips or tricks you acquired along the way.
There is a delicate balance between the needs of data scientists and the requirements of data security and privacy.
Data scientists often need large volumes of data to build robust models and derive valuable insights. However, the accumulation of data increases the risk of data breaches, which is a concern for security teams.
This hunger for data and the need for suitable control over sensitive data creates a tension between the data scientists seeking more data and the security teams implementing measures to protect data from inappropriate use and abuse.
A strategic approach to data management is needed, one that satisfies the need for data-driven insights while also mitigating security risks.
There needs to be an emphasis on understanding the depth of the data, rather than just hoarding it indiscriminately.
Towards Data Science article Author, Stephanie Kirmer reflects on her experience as a senior machine learning engineer and discusses the challenges organizations face as they transition from data scarcity to data abundance.
Kirmer highlights the importance of making decisions about data retention and striking a balance between accumulating enough data for effective machine learning and avoiding the pitfalls of data hoarding.
Kirmer also touches on the impact of data security regulations, which add a layer of complexity to the issue. Despite the challenges, Kirmer advocates for a nuanced approach that balances the interests of consumers, security professionals, and data scientists.
Kirmer also stresses the importance of establishing principles for data retention and usage to guide organizations through the decisions surrounding data storage.
Paul Gillin, Technology Journalist at Computerworld raised this topic back in 2021. in his piece Data hoarding: The consequences go far beyond compliance risk, Gillin discusses the implications of data hoarding, which extends beyond just compliance risks. It highlights how the decline in storage costs has led to a tendency to retain information rather than discard it.
Pijus Jauniškis a writer in Internet Security at Surfshark describes how the practice can lead to significant risks, especially with regulations like the General Data Protection Act in Europe and similar legislation in other parts of the world.
There is however a landscape where data is both a valuable asset and a potential liability, a balanced and strategic approach to data management is crucial to ensure that the needs of both groups are met.
The data community has a significant responsibility in recognizing both.
Data management responsibilities extend beyond the individual who created or collected the data. Various parties are involved in the research process and play a role in ensuring quality data stewardship.
To generate valuable data insights, people need to become fluent in data. Data communities can help individuals immerse themselves in the language of data, encouraging data literacy.
A governing body organizationally, is often responsible for the strategic guidance of a data governance program, prioritization for the data governance projects and initiatives, approval of organization-wide data policies and standards and if there isn’t one, one should be established.
Accountability includes the responsible handling of classified and controlled information, upholding data use agreements made with data providers, minimizing data collection, informing individuals and organizations of the potential uses of their data.
In the world of data management, there is a collective duty to prioritize and respond to the ethical, legal, social, and privacy-related challenges that come from using data in new and different ways in advocacy and social change.
A balanced and strategic approach to data management is crucial to ensure that the needs of all stakeholders are met. We collectively need to find the right balance between leveraging data for insights and innovation, while also respecting privacy, security, and ethical considerations.
Organizations are constantly seeking ways to unlock the full potential of their data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) portfolios.
Gartner, Inc., a global research and advisory firm, identified the top 10 trends shaping the Data and Analytics landscape in 2023 earlier this year.
.These trends not only provide a roadmap for organizations to create new sources of value but also emphasize the imperative for D&A leaders to articulate and optimize the value they deliver in business terms.
Bridging the Communication Gap
The first and foremost trend highlighted by Gartner is “Value Optimization.”
Many D&A leaders struggle to articulate the tangible value their initiatives bring to the organization in terms that resonate with business objectives.
Gareth Herschel, VP Analyst at Gartner, emphasizes the importance of building “value stories” that establish clear links between D&A initiatives and an organization’s mission-critical priorities.
Achieving value optimization requires a multifaceted approach, integrating competencies such as value storytelling, value stream analysis, investment prioritization, and the measurement of business outcomes.
Managing AI Risk: Beyond Compliance
As organizations increasingly embrace AI, they face new risks, including ethical concerns, data poisoning, and fraud detection circumvention.
“Managing AI Risk” is the second trend outlined by Gartner, highlighting the need for effective governance and responsible AI practices.
This goes beyond regulatory compliance, focusing on building trust among stakeholders and fostering the adoption of AI across the organization.
Observability: Unveiling System Behaviour
Another trend, “Observability,” emphasizes the importance of understanding and answering questions about the behaviour of D&A systems. .
This characteristic allows organizations to reduce the time it takes to identify performance-impacting issues and make timely, informed decisions.
Data and analytics leaders are encouraged to evaluate observability tools that align with the needs of primary users and fit into the overall enterprise ecosystem.
Creating a Data-Driven Ecosystem
Gartner’s fourth trend, “Data Sharing Is Essential,” underscores the significance of sharing data both internally and externally.
Organizations are encouraged to treat data as a product, preparing D&A assets as deliverables for internal and external use.
Collaborations in data sharing enhance value by incorporating reusable data assets, and the adoption of a data fabric design is recommended for creating a unified architecture for data sharing across diverse sources.
Nurturing Responsible Practices
“D&A Sustainability,” extends the responsibility of D&A leaders beyond providing insights for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) projects.
It urges leaders to optimize their own processes for sustainability, addressing concerns about the energy footprint of D&A and AI practices. This involves practices such as using renewable energy, energy-efficient hardware, and adopting small data and machine learning techniques.
Enhancing Data Management
“Practical Data Fabric,” introduces a data management design pattern leveraging metadata to observe, analyse, and recommend data management solutions. .
By enriching the semantics of underlying data and applying continuous analytics over metadata, data fabric generates actionable insights for both human and automated decision-making. It empowers business users to confidently consume data and enables less-skilled developers in the integration and modelling process.
Emergent AI
“Emergent AI,” heralds the transformative potential of AI technologies like ChatGPT and generative AI. As one AI researcher described it, “AI ‘Emergent Abilities’ Are A Mirage”. Per a paper presented in May at the Stanford Data Science 2023 Conference related to claims of emergent abilities in artificially intelligent large language models (LLMs) in particular and cited by Andréa Morris Contributor on Science, Robots & The Arts in Forbes.
This emerging trend however seemingly trivial, is expected to redefine how companies operate, offering scalability, versatility, and adaptability. As AI becomes more pervasive, it is poised to enable organizations to apply AI in novel situations, expanding its value across diverse business domains.
Gartner’s highlights another trend, “Converged and Composable Ecosystems,” and old topic from the start of the 2020s, it is focused on designing and deploying data ana analytics platforms that operate cohesively through seamless integrations, governance, and technical interoperability.
The trend advocates for modular, adaptable architectures that can dynamically scale to meet evolving business needs.
“Consumers as Creators,” is nothing particularly new, it envisions a shift from predefined dashboards to conversational, dynamic, and embedded user experiences as a ninth trend.
Werner Geyser described 20 Creator Economy Statistics That Will Blow You Away in 2023 in his Influencer marketing hub piece
A large percentage of consumers identify as creators. Over 200 Million People globally, consider themselves as “creators”.
Content Creators Can Earn Over $50k a Year and the global influencer market size has increased now to a potential revenue earner of $21 Billion In 2023.
Organizations are encouraged to empower content consumers by providing easy-to-use automated and embedded insights, fostering a culture where users can become content creators.
Humans remain the key decision makers and not every decision can or should be automated. Decision support and the human role in automated and augmented decision-making remain as critical considerations.
Organizations need to combine data and analytics with human decision-making in their data literacy programs. While indicators from marketing analysts like Gartner may serve as a compass, guiding leaders toward creating value, managing risks, and embracing innovations the imperative is to deliver provable value at scale underscores the strategic role of data and analytics leaders in shaping the future for their organizations.
As the data and analytics landscape continues to evolve, organizations that leverage the trends strategically will be well-positioned to turn extreme uncertainty into new business opportunities.
The spectre of an impending economic downturn looms large, prompting business leaders to re-evaluate their strategic decisions, particularly regarding cloud transformation.
Simon Jelley, General Manager for SaaS Protection, Endpoint and Backup Exec at Veritas Technologiesnotes that despite the economic uncertainty, cloud migration remains a prevalent trend, with 60% of enterprise data already residing in the cloud.
However, the challenge lies in maintaining the cost benefits associated with the cloud, as evidenced by the fact that 94% of enterprises fail to stay within their cloud budgets.
To address this, businesses are encouraged to adopt a hybrid multicloud environment, necessitating careful data management strategies. Here are key steps organizations should take:
Establish Data Visibility: Gain a comprehensive understanding of where your data resides, whether on-premises or in the public cloud.
Enable Workload Migration/Portability: Facilitate seamless movement of workloads between on-premises infrastructure and various cloud service providers.
Leverage Software-Defined Storage: Embrace agile and scalable storage solutions to accommodate the dynamic nature of multicloud environments.
Prioritize Data Regulatory and Compliance Issues: Ensure compliance with data regulations across different cloud environments.
Eliminate Data Protection Silos: Streamline data protection processes to avoid fragmentation and enhance overall security.
By implementing these measures, organizations can fortify their data management capabilities, ensure resilience and meet compliance objectives amid economic uncertainties.
Cybercrime: A Persistent Threat, Demands Proactive Measures
As cybercrime continues to evolve, organizations must adapt their data management strategies to withstand increasingly sophisticated attacks. Ransomware, in particular, remains a potent weapon for cybercriminals seeking to exploit the value of organizational data.
While addressing cyber resilience is crucial, Jelley also advocates for a proactive approach to reduce the risk of attacks. The focus is on increasing data visibility, and the suggested steps include:
Create a Data Taxonomy or Classification System: Classify data based on sensitivity and importance to establish a clear understanding of information assets.
Establish a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) Location: Designate centralized locations for each category of data to streamline management and control.
Define and Implement Policies: Develop and enforce policies tailored to the specific requirements of identified data types.
Continually Update and Maintain Data Taxonomy, SSOT, and Policies: Keep data management strategies agile and responsive to evolving cyber threats.
By adhering to these proactive measures, organizations can limit exposure and enhance their ability to recover in the event of a cyber attack, ultimately safeguarding their critical data.
Digitization 3.0: Unleashing the Power of Usable Data
Digitization has undergone significant phases, with the current era—Digitization 3.0—focusing on extracting maximum value from data while ensuring security, resiliency, and privacy. Jelley emphasizes the importance of contextualizing data to enhance its usability, paving the way for user experience-driven workflows. Building upon the foundation of the preceding trends, organizations can achieve this by:
Consolidating Data Control: Utilize platforms capable of managing data across diverse environments, including on-premises, virtual, and multicloud.
Map Uses and Users: Conduct a thorough analysis of existing tools and users to seamlessly transition to a consolidated platform.
Implement Adequate Training: Ensure that teams are well-versed in utilizing the new consolidated platform to maximize its functionalities.
Digitization 3.0 represents a paradigm shift in data utilization, emphasizing the need for organizations to not only manage and protect their data but also harness its full potential to drive innovation and customer-centric experiences.
As businesses navigate the intricate landscape of data management in 2023, Simon Jelley’s insights shed light on the pivotal trends shaping the industry.
Economic uncertainty, cybercrime, and Digitization 3.0 collectively underscore the importance of proactive, adaptive data management strategies. By embracing data visibility, fortifying cybersecurity measures, and leveraging the power of contextualized data, organizations can not only weather the challenges of the present but also position themselves for success in the data-driven future.
Jelley reiterates the fundamental importance of caring about data—its management, protection, and the ability to address prevailing trends. In a world where information is a critical asset, businesses that prioritize effective data management will not only survive but thrive in the face of evolving challenges.
As we close out 2023, staying abreast of these trends and implementing strategic data management practices will be integral to achieving long-term success in a data-centric business landscape.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), today more than ever before, stands out as a transformative force reshaping the way businesses operate.
Like all modern technologies, it has infiltrated many aspects of business, enhancing efficiency, improving customer experiences, and driving innovation. It’s touch, is felt from customer service to data analytics.
AI is revolutionizing traditional approaches and propelling organizations into a new era of possibilities but it is challenged by concerns about bias, transparency and its ability to hallucinate.
Some history
The Turing Test, proposed by British mathematician, computer scientist and codebreaker Alan Turing in 1950, was considered a measure of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from that of a human.
The test serves as a rudimentary benchmark for assessing a machine’s capability to display human-like intelligence in natural language conversation but the latest developments with Large Language Models (LLMs) and how they naively behave may have most broken the fundamentals of this test and we may need to think of new ways to assess AI.
The basic premise of the Turing Test is to assess a machine’s ability to engage in human-like conversation, that’s still relevant, but its applicability and limitations have become more pronounced in the context of LLMs. LLMs don’t actually understand what you’re saying or asking.
Despite all this, one of the most significant impacts of AI on business operations is evident in customer service. The very space where we want a conversation, may be better served by an AI.
Chatterbots
The reason may be quite simple. We’re not actually looking for a social conversation with an AI when we use a chatbot or a virtual assistant, instead we’re looking for information, or answers to solve the thing that has brought us to the chatbot in the first place.
The first “chatterbot” is reputed to be ELIZA, created in the mid-1960s by Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
ELIZA operated by processing user responses to supplied prompts and generating pre-defined, contextually appropriate replies.
Using a combination of pattern matching and simple keyword recognition techniques it simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist.
Although the interactions were relatively basic, ELIZA’s ability to mimic human conversation and provide responses that seemed meaningful and engaging was groundbreaking at the time.
If you’re interested, there is a javascript version of ELIZA originally written by Michal Wallace and significantly enhanced by George Dunlop that you can try out at the CSU Fullerton Psychology Department.
When applications are integrated with NLP capabilities, the application “understands” and processes human language. This feature can be part of augmentation of chatbots and virtual assistants and facilitates interactions with customers, employees, and others. Chatbots and virtual assistants powered by AI-driven RPA can engage in natural language conversations, answer queries, and provide assistance, enhancing customer service and user experience.
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have come a long way and are just starting to revolutionize the way businesses interact with their customers. With instant responses to customer queries, personalized recommendations, routine task handling, they can ensure a relatively seamless customer experience.
The process robots are coming
An area I have dipped in and out of at various points in my work career since Y2K, is robotic process automation (RPA). The goal of the RPA being to automate mundane and repetitive tasks. Tasks that were previously low value and time-consuming for employees. Early RPAs were very prescriptive and simplistically programmed but today they are amore adaptive. One of the earliest examples of RPA-like automation can be traced back to the introduction of screen scraping software in the 1990s.
AI-driven RPA goes beyond basic task automation by incorporating so called cognitive capabilities. With machine learning (ML) algorithms, RPA systems can analyze vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and make decisions based on historical and real-time information. This “cognitive” automation allows businesses to automate complex tasks that require decision-making, such as data analysis, customer service interactions, and fraud detection.
AI in fraud detection, risk management, and algorithmic trading has machine learning algorithms analyze financial data in real-time, identifying unusual patterns and potential bad actor activities, thereby enhancing security and minimizing financial losses.
RPA integrated with AI can excel in processing unstructured data, such as invoices, forms, and emails. Through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and machine learning, such systems can extract relevant information from documents more accurately than people and faster! This capability streamlines document-based processes, such as invoice processing and claims management, reducing manual errors and improving overall document handling efficiency.
Automation liberates human resources, allowing employees to focus on more strategic and creative aspects of their roles; the kinds of applications include dataentry, invoice processing, and report generation are now handled efficiently by AI-driven systems, leading to higher productivity and reduced operational costs.
Smart reporting
AI has been transforming data analysis for a while now, by enabling businesses to glean improved insights from vast datasets.
Machine learning algorithms analyze historical data, identify patterns, and predict future trends with remarkable accuracy. This predictive analytics can help a business make better informed decisions, optimize inventory practices, more precisely forecast customer demands, and enhance overall operational efficiency.
AI-driven applications optimizing supply chain operations look to historical sales data, market trends, and weather patterns, for example, to predict demand more accurately.
This multi-threaded predictive capability aids businesses in avoiding stock-outs, reducing inventory holdings, and minimizing waste. AI-powered algorithms are also used to optimize route planning and delivery scheduling, which can all improve the effectiveness and cost profile of logistics operations.
By combining data analytics with AI, businesses automate their data analysis and generate more precise actionable insights. AI-driven analytics systems process vast datasets, identify trends, and provide answers in near real-time. Decision-makers now have timely and accurate information, enabling them to make better informed choices to drive business growth and innovation.
More business focus areas
The examples cited above are probably the areas I have seen benefits more commonly from AI in the business setting, but there are at least almost a dozen more that can be considered.
AI algorithms that analyze customer behavior and preferences, enable businesses to create highly targeted marketing campaigns. The campaigns might include personalized recommendations, content, and advertisements to enhance customer engagement and increase conversion rates.
Healthcare professionals have started to consider the use of AI in diagnosing diseases, analyzing medical images, and predicting patient outcomes. Machine learning algorithms can process vast amounts of medical data, leading to more accurate diagnoses and personalized treatment plans.
Analysing medical images, such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, lab slides and mammograms, AI, can process these artefacts at speeds much faster than human medical professionals. Algorithms can quickly identify patterns, anomalies, and potential areas of concern.
Subtle changes in medical images that might not be immediately apparent to human eyes are more easily indetified by AI. This early detection can lead to the diagnosis of diseases at their nascent stages, improving the chances of successful treatment and recovery. This is particularly crucial in diseases like cancer, where early detection significantly improves patient outcomes. In critical cases, rapid analysis can be life-saving.
Intelligent tutoring and educational systems adapt to learner styles, providing customized educational content and feedback. AI also aids in automating the administrative tasks for educational institutions, improving efficiency.
In manufacturing and operations, the use of AI can assist businesses in anticipating equipment failures, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
In talent acquisition processes, automating resume screening, candidate matching, and even conducting initial interviews can accelerate candidate evaluation. Chatbots powered by AI handle the routine HR inquiries, HR professionals focus on more strategic and higher value tasks like employee engagement and development.
AI is employed in environmental monitoring and conservation efforts to predict natural disasters, monitor pollution levels, and aid in wildlife conservation, contributing to more effective environmental preservation strategies.
Legal assistance tools that are AI-powered can help legal professionals in document review, contract analysis, and legal research. Natural Language Processing algorithms enable these tools to process and analyze large volumes of legal documents efficiently, improving accuracy and saving time for lawyers and paralegals.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force revolutionizing various aspects of business operations. From customer service to data analytics.
AI-driven technologies have significantly enhanced efficiency, improved customer experiences, and driven innovation across diverse sectors.
However, the rapid integration of AI in business processes has raised concerns regarding bias, transparency, and the ability of AI systems to comprehend human-like conversations, especially in the context of Large Language Models (LLMs).
The traditional Turing Test, once a benchmark for assessing machine intelligence, now faces challenges due to the complex behavior of LLMs, prompting the need for new evaluation methods.
Despite these challenges, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have reshaped customer interactions, providing instant responses and personalized recommendations, thereby ensuring seamless customer experiences. AI-driven Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has automated mundane tasks, liberating human resources and enabling employees to focus on strategic and creative aspects of their roles.
AI has revolutionized data analysis, supply chain optimization, healthcare diagnostics, education, talent acquisition, environmental monitoring, and legal assistance, showcasing its vast potential in diverse business focus areas.
As businesses continue to harness the power of AI, it is imperative to address the ethical concerns and develop innovative solutions, ensuring that AI remains a valuable asset in shaping the future of business operations.
Becoming progressively smarter, or continuously improving one’s intelligence and personal success, is a goal that anyone can pursue. However, naturally smart people can easily sabotage their work or social progress through certain behaviors or thoughtless acts.
If you embrace lifelong learning by reading books, taking courses, attending seminars, and staying updated with the latest information in your field you will know that this is an effective way to become progressively smarter.
Naturally smart individuals may occasionally become complacent, assuming they already know enough, which can hinder further growth. If you regularly challenge yourself with complex problems and puzzles you will find this encourages critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Natural intelligence and over-reliance on talent can lead to relying solely on one’s innate abilities, neglecting the importance of practice and effort. Over time others will overtake you. Practices like mindfulness and meditation can improve focus, reduce stress, and enhance cognitive abilities over time.
Smart individuals may become so engrossed in their pursuits that they overlook their mental well-being, potentially leading to burnout. This can have a negative impact not only on their mental health but also on their physical health. Those who choose to focus on building a diverse social network of people with different perspectives find themselves in discussions with others on many topics which can broaden horizons and introduce new ideas and divergent thinking.
Overconfidence in one’s intelligence may lead to dismissing others’ ideas and missing out on valuable insights. Seek out feedback on your work and actively incorporate constructive criticism. This helps you identify areas for personal improvement and growth. Being naturally smart can make you sensitive to criticism, leading to you avoiding feedback or becoming defensive.
Efficient management of your time wherein you allocate enough hours for learning, work, and relaxation leads to a well-balanced schedule which can enhance personal productivity and creativity. Perfectionism is the enemy of good and some smart people might become perfectionists, spending too much time on one task, which can hinder their overall progress.
Prioritize physical health through regular exercise, a balanced diet, and adequate sleep. Physical well-being positively impacts cognitive function. Getting something like 10,000 paces in daily is a simple ritual that can help. Neglecting Self-Care because you are focused on intellectual pursuits can have a bad effect on your general health so keep this always in mind as you balance out your days.
Establish clear, achievable goals and track your progress. This provides motivation and direction for personal growth. However, keep in mind that setting unrealistic expectations and overly ambitious goals can lead to frustration when they’re not immediately achieved.
Embrace change and be willing to adapt to new technologies and methods. The ability to learn and adapt quickly is a key trait of smart individuals. Conversely, resistance to change and being attached to existing knowledge and methods can impede progress when better alternatives emerge.
Develop your emotional intelligence by understanding and managing your emotions and the emotions of others. This skill is crucial for success in various aspects of life. Recognize that a lack of empathy especially amongst highly intelligent individuals can harm relationships and limit success in teamwork and leadership roles.
Becoming progressively smarter requires a commitment to learning, adaptability, and self-improvement. Even naturally smart individuals can hinder their own progress by falling into the traps of arrogance, and perfectionism, and neglecting their well-being. It’s essential to strike a balance between leveraging natural intelligence and putting in the effort to continually grow and develop.
Intelligence is a multifaceted and complex concept that has intrigued intellectuals for centuries. Its definition, measurement, and understanding have evolved over time, and it continues to be a subject of debate and research.
Can it be viewed as a product, a process, content, or style? Why it is often described as encompassing all of these aspects?
Intelligence as a Product
One way to think about intelligence is as a product, an outcome, or a result of cognitive processes. This perspective is often associated with the idea of intelligence quotient (IQ) and standardized intelligence tests. IQ tests are designed to measure a person’s cognitive abilities and compare them to a standardized population and the distribution across that population. Scores on such tests are often considered a product of one’s intellectual abilities.
IQ tests, such as the Stanford-Binet or Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, are designed to assess a range of cognitive abilities, including logical reasoning, problem-solving, verbal comprehension, and mathematical skills. The scores derived from these tests are used to classify individuals into categories of intellectual ability, such as “average,” “above average,” or “below average.”
The product-oriented view of intelligence involves assigning numerical scores to individuals based on their performance on these standardized tests. This scoring allows for the comparison of individuals’ cognitive abilities, and it can be used for various practical purposes, such as educational placement and job selection.
However, it’s important to recognize the limitations of this perspective; standardized tests may not capture the full spectrum of human cognitive abilities, and they can be influenced by cultural and socioeconomic factors. They also do not account for other important aspects of intelligence, such as creativity, emotional intelligence, or practical problem-solving skills.
Intelligence as a Process
Intelligence is not static, it is dynamic and ever-evolving. If you take this perspective there is an emphasis on the cognitive activities and mental processes involved in thinking, learning, and problem-solving. From this viewpoint, intelligence is the ability to adapt to new situations, acquire knowledge, and make informed decisions.
Intelligence as a process encompasses a wide range of cognitive processes, including memory, perception, attention, reasoning, and problem-solving. These processes work together to enable individuals to gather information, process it, and use it to make decisions.
Intelligence also involves the capacity to learn from experience and adapt to changing circumstances. It is not solely determined by innate abilities but is influenced by factors such as education, exposure to new ideas, and the ability to apply knowledge effectively.
Viewing intelligence as a process also allows for an understanding of its development over one’s life. Children may develop cognitive skills at different rates, and most adults can continue to learn and adapt throughout their lives.
Recognizing intelligence as a process has practical implications for education and training. Effective teaching methods should consider the cognitive processes involved in learning and adapt instruction accordingly.
Intelligence as Content
Intelligence includes the content of knowledge and information that we possess at a point in time. This aspect of intelligence relates to what one knows and understands about the world. However, having knowledge alone does not necessarily equate to intelligence; intelligence also involves the ability to use and apply that knowledge practically and effectively.
The content-oriented perspective of intelligence acknowledges that individuals differ in the depth and breadth of their knowledge. Some people may have extensive knowledge in specific domains, such as mathematics, history, and art, while others may have a more general knowledge base.
Intelligence can be domain-specific, meaning that an individual may excel in one area of knowledge but not in others. For example, a person could be highly knowledgeable about music but less knowledgeable about science; this doesn’t make them particularly more or less intelligent, the assessment largely depends on what they are being assessed against and for what purpose.
Intelligence is not just about what one knows, therefore, but also about how effectively you can apply that knowledge to solve problems, make decisions, and navigate real-world situations. This ability to apply knowledge is a crucial aspect of practical intelligence.
Intelligence as Style
Cognitive styles refer to individual differences in how people approach and process information. Styles can be considered as aspects of intelligence because they influence how individuals think, learn, and solve problems. Different cognitive styles can be seen as different approaches to using one’s cognitive abilities.
The Analytical vs. Creative is an interesting way to think about style as some individuals have an analytical cognitive style, characterized by a preference for systematic and logical thinking. Others may have a creative cognitive style, which involves generating novel ideas and thinking outside the box. Both styles can be valuable in different contexts.
Another cognitive style relates to practical problem-solving. Some people may excel at finding efficient solutions to everyday challenges, the proverbial “MacGyver”, demonstrating a practical intelligence style. This is particularly valuable in real-world situations like sticky situations where coming up with imaginative ways to extricate oneself from the situation is essentially a show of intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is a distinct cognitive style that involves the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. This has become a very popular trait in the corporate world. Those who have high emotional intelligence are acknowledged as having an edge over those for whom the EQ is low. EQ plays a crucial role in social interactions and interpersonal relationships.
The “All Dimensions” intelligence
While each of these perspectives—intelligence as a product, process, content, and style—provides valuable insights into the nature of intelligence, it is essential to recognize that intelligence is complex and multidimensional. Intelligence cannot be fully captured by any one dimension alone. Instead, it is the integration of all or at least many of these dimensions; giving us a more comprehensive understanding of human intelligence.
A holistic view of intelligence acknowledges both cognitive abilities and the capacity to apply these abilities to real-world situations. Holistic assessment of intelligence recognizes that intelligence is not limited to a single aspect but involves a combination of cognitive processes, knowledge, cognitive styles, and practical problem-solving abilities.
Intelligence is highly context-dependent. What may be considered intelligent behavior in one situation may not be so in another. This contextual aspect of intelligence highlights the importance of adaptability and flexibility in using cognitive abilities effectively.
The variance among individuals, with some excelling in different aspects of intelligence witnesses the presence of some with superior analytical intelligence, while others are creative or practical. Recognizing and valuing these individual differences is crucial for fostering diversity and innovation especially when building teams.
Cultural and societal factors shape the way intelligence is defined and valued and certain aspects of intelligence are more highly valued over others, this leads to variations in what is considered “intelligent behaviour”.
Since intelligence is not fixed but can be developed and enhanced throughout one’s life, the educational and experiential opportunities offered to individuals often play a significant role in shaping and expanding an individual’s intelligence.
Diverse needs hold significant importance in modern education for a multitude of compelling reasons. First and foremost, contemporary education places a strong emphasis on inclusivity and equity.
Inclusivity entails recognizing and addressing the diverse needs of students to ensure that all individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, or disabilities, have equal access to a high-quality education.
Such a focus on equity is aligned with the principles of social justice and human rights.
Legal and ethical obligations also play a pivotal role in emphasizing the consideration of diverse needs. Numerous countries have enacted laws and regulations that mandate educational institutions to provide equal educational opportunities for all students.
This includes the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the United States, which necessitates the provision of services and accommodations to meet the diverse needs of students. Complying with these legal obligations is an integral aspect of contemporary education.
In addition to legal imperatives, the realities of today’s world further underscore the significance of recognizing diverse needs. Globalization and cultural diversity have made schools more diverse than ever before, with students hailing from various cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds. It is essential to understand and address the diverse needs of these students to foster cross-cultural understanding, tolerance, and effective communication in an interconnected global society.
Advancements in educational research and knowledge have also heightened the awareness of diverse needs. Developments in educational psychology and neuroscience have provided educators with a deeper understanding of how students learn. This knowledge has underscored the wide variability in learning styles, cognitive abilities, and neurological profiles among students. Consequently, tailoring instruction to meet diverse needs is crucial for enhancing learning outcomes.
Contemporary educational theories, such as Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, acknowledge that intelligence is not confined to a singular dimension. Instead, students possess a range of strengths and abilities. Consequently, education should be adaptable to accommodate these diverse talents and aptitudes.
Preparing students for a diverse and inclusive workforce is another paramount goal of modern education. To thrive in today’s job market, students must develop skills in collaboration, problem-solving, and communication. Embracing diverse needs within the classroom helps students build these essential skills.
Education is not solely concerned with academic development; it also plays a pivotal role in shaping students’ moral and social growth. Recognizing and respecting diverse needs fosters empathy, tolerance, and social responsibility, contributing to the development of well-rounded citizens.
Inclusive education is seen as the gold standard for students with disabilities. It promotes their integration into mainstream classrooms, offering them opportunities for socialization and access to a more comprehensive curriculum. This, in turn, can significantly improve their long-term outcomes.
The expectations of parents and communities have also evolved to expect more. Parents and communities increasingly expect schools to provide inclusive education that caters to the diverse needs of their children which has led to higher expectations for educational institutions to implement them.
In education inclusion and integration are two distinct approaches for accommodating students with diverse needs.
Both approaches aim to provide an equitable and supportive learning environment, but they differ in their philosophies and practices. Additionally, there are nuanced alternatives that blend elements of both approaches.
Inclusion
Inclusion is a philosophy that advocates for the full and active participation of all students, including those with disabilities or special needs, in regular education classrooms and activities. It promotes the idea that every student has a right to be part of the general education setting.
This approach typically involves modifying the curriculum in teaching practice, teaching methods, and classroom arrangements to accommodate the diverse needs of all students. Support services, such as special education teachers or aides, may be provided within the regular classroom to help students with disabilities.
Prioritizing the creation of a diverse and accepting learning environment where students of all abilities learn together is the focus, for inclusion, the goal is to minimize segregation and promote social interaction among students.
Integration
Integration’s philosophy is to emphasize bringing students with disabilities into regular education classrooms on a temporary or partial basis. It may not necessarily involve a commitment to the full inclusion of all students, but rather a blending of students with and without disabilities for specific activities or lessons.
In practice, integrated settings are where students with disabilities may spend some of their time in regular classrooms and the rest in special education classrooms or resource rooms. The degree of participation in the general education setting can vary widely.
Integration focuses on providing students with disabilities access to the regular curriculum and social experiences to the extent deemed appropriate, while still acknowledging the existence of separate special education programs.
Alternative approaches
Inclusive Integration: This approach combines elements of both inclusion and integration. It recognizes that students have varying needs and abilities, so it allows for flexibility. Some students may spend most of their time in regular classrooms (inclusion), whilst others may participate in specific subjects or activities in a more specialized setting (integration).
Differentiated Instruction: involves tailoring teaching methods and content to meet the diverse needs of all students within a regular classroom. Teachers adjust their instruction to accommodate different learning styles and abilities, providing individualized support as needed.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL): UDL is a framework that promotes the design of educational materials, environments, and practices that are accessible to all students from the outset. It reduces the need for separate accommodations by creating inclusive learning experiences.
Co-Teaching: In co-teaching, a general education teacher and a special education teacher work together in the same classroom. This collaborative approach allows for a wide range of support within the regular classroom, catering to diverse needs.
Inclusion and integration represent different approaches to inclusive education, with inclusion being more focused on full participation and integration allowing for varying degrees of participation.
Some alternatives aim to strike a balance between these approaches to best meet the needs of diverse learners in an inclusive education setting. The choice of approach depends on the individual needs of students and the goals of the educational institution.
More formally, it is referred to as “The Gartner Hype Cycle”, a graphical representation and methodology developed by the research and advisory firm Gartner and first introduced by Jackie Fenn, a VP at Gartner in the 1995 research report titled “The Hype Cycle”.
The objective is to depict the lifecycle stages that emerging technologies typically go through as they evolve from initial conception to mainstream adoption.
The cycle attempts to provides insights into how technologies are perceived and how they progress in terms of visibility, expectations, and maturity. The Hype Cycle was ultimately developed as a response to the observations of Gartner, that many new technologies were subject to exaggerated expectations followed by disappointment when those technologies failed to deliver immediate revolutionary changes.
Gartner recognized the need for a more structured way to manage these expectations and provide more realistic guidance for the adoption of emerging technologies. In the 25+ years that have passed since its introduction, it has become well-known and widely used as a framework in the technology industry to analyse and discuss the trajectories of new technologies, their adoption patterns, and the challenges they face.
TL;DR The Cycle is an adaptation of a view on technology life cycles and ultimately tries to deal with perceived discontinuities in adoption.
“One of the more interesting features of Gartner’s Hype Cycle is that it takes into account the unbridled and almost euphoric optimism that accompanies the introduction of some technologies and, of course, the inevitable precipitous decline of the next-best thing.” 1
Usage
The Hype Cycle has its critics, but has helped technology leaders, investors, and decision-makers make informed decisions about when and how to engage with emerging technologies based on a more balanced understanding of their potential benefits and risks.
Business leaders could use the Gartner Hype Cycle as a strategic tool to guide decisions about adopting and investing in specific emerging technologies in the absence of their own proofs.
For example, the Cycle provides an overview of various technologies and their maturity levels as part of Landscape Assessment such that it can be used to identify technologies that are relevant to specific industry and business objectives. This helps one stay informed about the latest trends and innovations.
The Hype Cycle can help leaders anticipate the potential impact of emerging technologies on their business in their Strategic Planning; for future technology adoption and integration by considering the expected trajectory of each technology along the cycle.
By understanding where a technology stands on the Hype Cycle, leaders can better assess the associated risks in Adoption Risk Assessments, thereby avoiding being caught up in the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” and instead make decisions based on a balanced view of the technology’s potential benefits and challenges.
When leaders engage in Resource Allocation, they can do this more effectively by considering which technologies are approaching the “Slope of Enlightenment” and “Plateau of Productivity.” These phases indicate that the technology is becoming more practical and can yield tangible results, making it a better candidate for investment.
The Hype Cycle helps leaders create an innovation strategy that aligns with an organization’s goals guiding them in deciding whether to be early adopters or wait until a technology matures further before investing resources.
Being aware of where competitors are in terms of technology adoption can provide insights into potential competitive advantage if a business successfully navigates the Hype Cycle it can gain an edge by embracing transformative technologies at the right time.
When considering technology solutions or partnerships, business leaders can refer to the Hype Cycle to understand the vendor landscape. Businesses can make informed decisions about which vendors align with their technology adoption timeline and objectives.
The Hype Cycle can help leaders educate executive leadership teams, investors, and other stakeholders about the expected progression of technologies and promotes a more realistic understanding of the potential outcomes and timelines.
The Hype Cycle encourages leaders to think long-term trends and consider these relative to short-term implications of technology adoption. This perspective is crucial for creating sustainable strategies.
Extra considerations
By recognizing that technologies go through different phases, leaders can adjust their expectations accordingly. This minimizes disappointment when a technology doesn’t deliver immediate transformative results.
The Hype Cycle was specifically designed to track the adoption of technologies, as mentioned. It might not capture the nuances of non-technological innovations or concepts that don’t fit the typical technology lifecycle. Different types of innovations may follow different adoption trajectories; for example, consumer products might have their own adoption patterns that are influenced by factors like fashion trends and lifestyle choices.
Some innovations might be deeply rooted in cultural or societal changes that don’t fit the linear progression of the Hype Cycle. The cycle might not adequately account for cultural shifts and their impact on adoption. Innovations in fields with strong regulatory frameworks (such as healthcare or finance) might also be influenced by legal and compliance factors in ways that the Hype Cycle might not fully capture.
Innovations that cater to niche markets or localized needs might not exhibit the same wide-ranging adoption patterns that technology trends often do, and ideas that are incremental improvements or evolutionary changes to existing solutions might not experience the same hype-disillusionment cycle as radical and transformative innovations. The Hype Cycle involves subjective perceptions and market trends, which might not be as relevant for innovations driven by other factors, such as scientific discoveries.
Industry specific implications
The Hype Cycle has been used to analyse the adoption of new medical technologies, healthcare IT solutions, and digital health innovations and as such it helps healthcare organizations understand the stages of acceptance and integration for technologies like telemedicine, electronic health records, and medical wearables.
In educational technology (EdTech) it has helped educators and educational institutions assess the potential impact and adoption of new teaching tools, e-learning platforms, and educational software. The financial services sector has used the Hype Cycle to evaluate the adoption of financial technologies (fintech) such as blockchain, robo-advisors, and mobile payment solutions.
In automotive the Hype Cycle is often applied to emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and connected car systems. Similar analysis has appeared in the adoption of renewable energy technologies, smart grid solutions, and sustainable practices within the energy sector. The Hype Cycle has been applied to emerging trends in environmental conservation and sustainability, such as circular economy practices, green technologies, and eco-friendly product innovations.
Retailers use the Hype Cycle to understand the adoption of technologies like augmented reality (AR) for shopping experiences, Internet of Things (IoT) devices for inventory management, and contactless payment methods. Media and entertainment in trends around virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, streaming platforms, and content delivery technologies.
Applicability is also found in aggrotech, travel, tourism, real estate and even the adoption of technologies by government and the public sector.
The hype cycle is an adaptable framework that has proven valuable in understanding the adoption and maturation patterns of innovations across a wide range of industries but the applicability may need to be tailored to suit the specific characteristics of each industry.
Shifting to remote work has had a significant impact on B2B audiences and attendance of webinars. Work-from-home accelerated by the pandemic brought several changes in how people engage with media and webinars and other online events in particular.
Imagine you’re a software company hosting a webinar for B2B clients. Instead of a generic topic, you decide to address a specific pain point your clients face – data security.
Your webinar perhaps offers insights into the latest data breach trends, real-life case studies of companies that suffered breaches, and actionable steps to strengthen data protection. Attendees leave with a comprehensive understanding of potential vulnerabilities and practical solutions they can implement.
Sounds pretty compelling doesn’t it?
If you’re a software company and you’re not running regular webinars, you’re missing a trick.
For marketing agencies hosting webinars on content strategy the standard title of “Effective Content Strategy Tips” is likely more compelling when rephrased as “Unlocking the Power of Content for greater ROI”; this re-hook captures attention and conveys the value attendees can ultimately expect. So while content hasn’t changed necessarily, the way it is positioned may change your signup rates.
Would you attend a medical technology webinar on telehealth where there is no expert on the agenda? Probably not, having an SME (Subject Matter Expert) on the agenda could make all the difference in terms of credibility. Medtech companies usually target presenting professionals of repute, who have been at the forefront of their field, like virtual healthcare. The SME’s reputation will likely draw in a better-sized audience interested in hearing insights from a recognized expert.
Management consulting firms that conduct webinars on leadership development ask attendees to share their top leadership challenges through live polls. This interactivity with the audience in real-time, makes participants feel their concerns are being addressed directly and keeps the audience engaged. Polls are always a great frame-up for speakers too!
If you run an e-commerce platform then prospects and existing customers want to hear stories from the trenches – they want to hear other customers’ experiences. Combining slides, video content, and successful customer interaction scenarios combined with a live chat with customer support teams could create a multi-faceted experience that keeps attendees engaged.
Trying to engage a global B2B audience is tough with time zones. Instead of hosting a single webinar consider multiple sessions at different times to cater to different time zones. Hold a session during European business hours and another during Asian business hours, to increase your international reach.
You’d think the day of the week doesn’t matter; selecting a Wednesday for a webinar on say streamlining logistics processes is an astute move when considered in the context of knowing that midweek is generally when businesses are in a “working mode” and are more likely to allocate time for professional development.
A one-hour webinar is tidy, but your speakers will fill all the time you allocate. A two-hour webinar is a bit long and will likely see audiences drop off after sixty minutes anyway. Settle on a 45-minute session where you cover key strategies, present a real-life success story, and host a brief Q&A, ensuring participants’ attention is maintained throughout the event.
The webinar invitation is underestimated in terms of its impact. Invitations highlight the message you want to convey and depending on where you received your mailing list from, could be just what existing customers are looking for, or might spur prospects into action, point out that you plan to showcase your company’s understanding of customer and prospect-specific needs.
Something you can leverage as part of the early signup is an incentive. Mention this on the landing page, in the invitation, and in the various calls to action that you might send to customers and prospects. Tempt them with details of a white paper, a discount, a private consultation, or a tchotchke for early signup.
Running a webinar solo, even with an expert in tow, may not tell the whol story you want to tell. Consider finding a partner to join the webinar with you. This could be a reseller, an integrator, a promoter, or an organization with adjacent and vested interest. This will diversify the content and you likely harvest sign-ups from their stable of contacts too!
Observers love social proof, this can come in the form of customer or beneficiary testimonials that showcase the positive impact of past webinars, your product, or services. The value derived from webinars should be spoken about to encourage signups and build audience trust and demonstrate the value participants could gain.
After a webinar o always send attendees a follow-up email. The email should include a link to the webinar recording, a summary of key takeaways, and perhaps even something exclusive.
Provided you recorded that webinar, it could have a half-life beyond your wildest expectations. Once you’ve held the live session, post and promote the past event online in order to harvest more viewers and contacts.
Each of these strategies, when thoughtfully executed, contributes to a successful B2B webinar campaign that holds the potential for attracting a willing and engaged audience.
By focusing on delivering genuine value and respecting the audience’s time and needs, your company can build strong connections and foster lasting relationships.
In today’s fast-paced world, customers demand immediate gratification and personalized experiences.
To meet these expectations, businesses must understand their customers’ needs and preferences to create memorable experiences that drive customer loyalty. In this article, we explore various ways that businesses can utilize real-time data to improve their customer experience.
Keeping Customer Data in the Cloud
Storing customer information in the cloud is a convenient and efficient way for businesses to access real-time data. By tracking customer activity, purchase history, and preferences, businesses can gain valuable insights into their customers’ behavior and needs. This information can help businesses personalize marketing campaigns, tailor promotions, and ultimately enhance their overall customer experience.
Inventory Management
In addition to improving customer satisfaction, real-time data can also assist businesses with inventory management. By tracking stock levels and sales patterns, businesses can optimize their inventory and ensure they have the right products available when customers need them. This not only reduces stockouts but also increases sales and ultimately leads to a better overall customer experience.
Real-Time Price Adjustments
Real-time data also provides businesses with the ability to adjust prices in real-time, which is particularly advantageous in the retail industry. With price fluctuations based on demand or supply, monitoring market trends and consumer behavior enables businesses to optimize profits and meet customer expectations. By utilizing real-time data for pricing, businesses can create a competitive edge in the marketplace and build customer loyalty.
Single Customer View
To provide personalized experiences, businesses must understand their customers fully. Using a single customer view, businesses can consolidate customer data from multiple sources into one central location. This provides a holistic view of the customer, including their behavior, preferences, and activity across all channels. With this information, businesses can provide personalized recommendations and tailored promotions that meet the customer’s needs.
Geolocation Services
Geolocation services, such as GPS and beacons, offer businesses an excellent opportunity to engage with customers more effectively. Location-based data enables businesses to send personalized promotions and alerts to customers when they are near their stores, which helps drive traffic and improve the overall customer experience. By leveraging location-based data, businesses can create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with their customers, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction.
Personalizing the Customer Experience
In today’s competitive marketplace, personalization has become a requirement for businesses that want to succeed. Real-time data provides businesses with the ability to create personalized experiences that resonate with their customers, including tailored marketing campaigns, personalized recommendations, and customized promotions. By utilizing real-time data for personalization, businesses can enhance customer loyalty, improve customer retention rates, and ultimately increase profits.
Improve Customer Service
Real-time data can also help businesses improve their customer service. By tracking customer behavior and preferences, businesses can anticipate their needs and provide proactive support. For example, if a customer has purchased a product, they might need help setting it up. By anticipating this need and offering support, businesses can enhance their customer experience and build loyalty.
Leveraging real-time data can be a game-changer for businesses looking to enhance their customer experience and stay ahead of the competition. With cloud-based storage of customer information, a single customer view, and personalized promotions, businesses can engage with customers more effectively, improving overall satisfaction and loyalty. By providing proactive support and anticipating customer needs through data analysis, businesses can take their customer service to the next level.
I couldn’t help myself, I was so incensed by the latest article I read on the insistence of some execs that people return to the office, that I felt a compulsion to write something a little extended on the topic.
Few would dispute the suggestion that office work has undergone a remarkable transformation in the last couple of years, transitioning from rigid hierarchies and traditional cubicles to flexible, collaborative spaces that embrace remote work and digital communication.
The transformation has been driven by technological advancements, changing societal norms, and a reevaluation of the nature of work itself.
The history and nature of office work is a curiosity, if you were to explore the kinds of jobs associated with office environments you might even be surprised, if you analyze the shift away from the traditional office setting you start to recognise the implications for corporate culture, collaboration, and information security.
History The concept of office work can be traced back to ancient civilizations where scribes and administrators maintained records and facilitated communication for rulers and governments. We often forget that clerical staff existed in the time of the Babylonians, the Pharaohs and the Emperors of Rome, and the Moghuls.
The modern office as we know it emerged only during the Industrial Revolution. With the rise of industrialization and the need for efficient administration, large corporations and government agencies established centralized offices to manage various tasks such as record-keeping, communication, and coordination.
Women at work in the bookkeeping room at the Bank of America in 1970. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
By the mid-20th century, offices had become synonymous with rows of cubicles, typewriters, and paper files. The hierarchical structure was prominent, with managers overseeing clerical staff performing repetitive tasks. Communication was mostly face-to-face or conducted through interoffice memos.
Office work encompasses a wide range of roles across industries. Some of the typical office jobs include:
Administrative Assistants: These individuals provide administrative support, manage schedules, coordinate meetings, and handle correspondence.
Accountants and Finance Professionals: Responsible for managing financial records, budgeting, and preparing reports for the organization’s financial well-being.
Human Resources Personnel: Oversee recruitment, employee relations, benefits administration, and training programs.
Marketing and Sales Teams: Plan and execute marketing strategies, analyze customer data, and manage client relationships.
IT Professionals: Maintain the organization’s technological infrastructure, provide technical support, and ensure data security.
Project Managers: Coordinate tasks, timelines, and resources to ensure projects are executed efficiently.
There is a nice Indeed article that lays out a raft of once-associated office-bound occupations
All Change The advent of technology, especially the internet, has brought about a significant shift in how work is done.
The rise of personal computers, email, and digital communication platforms redefined the traditional office space. The concept of remote work emerged, allowing employees to perform tasks from locations other than the physical office. Think “teleworkers”.
Many who still hold “office jobs” today witnessed a shift in their understanding of work-life balance. They sought more flexibility in their work arrangements, and employers recognized the benefits of remote work in attracting and retaining talent.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift further, as many organizations were forced to swiftly transition to remote work to ensure business continuity.
Remote work not only offers employees the flexibility to balance personal and professional responsibilities but also reduces commute-related stress and expenses. Additionally, it allows organizations to tap into a global talent pool, leading to increased diversity and innovative thinking within teams.
However, remote work is not without its challenges. The lack of face-to-face interaction can hinder spontaneous collaboration, and feelings of isolation might affect employee morale. To overcome these challenges, organizations turn to digital collaboration tools, video conferencing, and project management platforms to foster communication and teamwork. People’s calendars now get filled up with potentially many more meetings.
Virtual team-building activities, online workshops, and regular check-ins help maintain a sense of community among remote workers. Organizations are also incorporating flexible work hours to accommodate different time zones and individual preferences, further enhancing employee satisfaction and well-being.
The shift toward remote work has also prompted a reevaluation of corporate culture (and expenditure). Traditional office cultures often focused on visible signs of productivity, such as time spent at a desk, rather than on outcomes. In contrast, remote work emphasizes results over mere presence. This change in focus should lead to a more results-oriented and trust-based work environment. But all this assumes that business leaders are actually focused on outcomes and are willing to measure and track outcomes and dare I say, even recognize what kind of outcomes they want to see. What is the baseline measure for productivity? Many can’t say for certain.
Focusing on Effectiveness Productivity and effective communication often go hand in hand, it is quite obviously essential for any organization’s success what needs to be done, and how, should be communicated with clarity. It is equally important for team members to understand how they will be assessed and how they should self-assess.
The digital age has brought both opportunities and challenges and digital tooling facilitates quick communication but can also lead to information overload and misinterpretation.
It’s crucial for organizations to establish clear communication guidelines and encourage active listening and empathy, irrespective of whether employees are working remotely or in the office.
Clerical, administrative, and office work has moved squarely beyond the physical office but has brought another challenge front and center. That concern is ensuring information security.
Controlling information assets has become paramount. Remote work opens up new avenues for cyberattacks and data breaches. Organizations now have to invest in robust cybersecurity measures, including encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular employee training on recognizing and responding to security threats.
Moonlighters A further concern that has been raised, is principally focused on offshore workers, but it is as relevant on shire and near-shore too. The concern is about the potential for remote workers to engage in moonlighting activities.
Moonlighting refers to the practice of employees taking on additional jobs, often during their official work hours, without the knowledge or consent of their primary employer.
This phenomenon can lead to decreased productivity, compromised work quality, and conflicts of interest. Additionally, moonlighting might result in the leakage of sensitive company information to competitors or unauthorized parties. Addressing this risk is essential to maintain the integrity of remote work arrangements and uphold the organization’s values.
Clear Communication and Policies are the first steps in mitigating the risk of moonlighting. It requires clear communication regarding the organization’s policies.
It should include explicit clauses in employment contracts or remote work agreements that address moonlighting, specifying whether it’s allowed, prohibited, or requires prior approval. These policies should outline the potential consequences of engaging in unauthorized work during official work hours, emphasizing the importance of transparency and ethical behavior.
Organizations that implement robust performance metrics that allow managers to gauge remote workers’ productivity and work quality objectively will help.
Regular performance evaluations and goal-setting sessions can provide insights into an employee’s commitment and focus. When employees are held accountable for their output, they are more likely to prioritize their primary job responsibilities over moonlighting activities.
Cultivating a culture of trust and engagement within the organization is the fine line to walk here.
When employees feel valued and respected, they are less likely to seek external employment opportunities that might compromise their primary role. Encouraging open dialogue between managers and remote workers, allows them to voice any concerns or challenges they might be facing. This approach fosters a sense of belonging and reduces the temptation to engage in moonlighting.
Business leaders should also consider offering flexible work arrangements that accommodate employees’ personal needs and interests.
By allowing flexible work hours, employees may have the opportunity to pursue personal projects or interests outside of their primary role without resorting to moonlighting during official work hours. This can strike a balance between promoting individual growth and ensuring productivity.
The technology can also be used to monitor employee productivity and engagement during work hours, it can provide insights into how employees spend their time while working remotely. However, it’s important to use these tools transparently and ethically, respecting employees’ privacy and autonomy and of course respecting local laws.
Leaders that maintain regular check-ins and communication channels between managers and remote workers and who stay connected and informed about ongoing projects and challenges have the advantage.
Engaged managers can identify potential signs of moonlighting and address them proactively. These interactions also reinforce the organization’s commitment to maintaining high work standards.
Dealing with executive fear Executives have long associated the visibility of their employees’ physical presence in the office with a sense of control, productivity, and the traditional markers of success.
However, focusing solely on the visibility of physical bodies is not conducive to fostering a thriving and innovative work environment. Execs should overcome their concerns about visibility and consider rethinking the nature of corporate offices.
Success is measured not by the number of hours an employee spends at their desk but by the results they achieve. Rigid adherence to physical presence can create a culture where employees prioritize appearing busy over-delivering meaningful outcomes. Execs who shift their focus to valuing tangible contributions rather than mere visibility encourage a more results-oriented approach among their teams.
I already mentioned flexible work arrangements, including remote and hybrid models. This demonstrates trust in employees’ ability to manage their work effectively regardless of their physical location. This trust, in turn, boosts employee morale, loyalty, and commitment to the organization. By allowing employees to balance work and personal responsibilities, executives show their dedication to employee well-being and work-life integration.
Rethinking the traditional office model allows organizations to tap into a diverse talent pool that might not be able to commute to a physical office location. Remote work and flexible arrangements open the doors to hiring individuals from different geographies, backgrounds, and perspectives. Diversity can drive innovation, creativity, and a broader range of ideas.
Redefining the nature of corporate offices can lead to cost savings related to office space, utilities, and facilities management. Such resources can be redirected toward investing in technology, employee development, and other areas that contribute to the organization’s growth and sustainability.
Execs should shift their perspective on corporate offices from being showcases of power and impressiveness to becoming hubs of collaboration, innovation, and employee well-being.
Rather than focusing on grandeur, consider designing office spaces that foster collaboration and teamwork. Create open and flexible workspaces that encourage spontaneous interactions, idea sharing, and cross-functional collaboration. These spaces can include communal areas, breakout rooms, and digital tools that facilitate virtual collaboration for remote team members.
Prioritize employee well-being by providing amenities that enhance their physical and mental health. Incorporate elements like ergonomic furniture, natural lighting, recreational spaces, and wellness programs. Execs who invest in employee well-being create an environment where employees feel valued and motivated to contribute their best.
Technology infusion throughout the office environment facilitates communication and enhances productivity. Video conferencing systems, interactive displays, and collaboration platforms connect teams across different locations and time zones. This approach ensures that both in-office and remote employees can participate in discussions and projects effectively and seamlessly.
Shifting the focus from measuring success based on office hours to evaluating outcomes and contributions and setting clear performance metrics that align with business goals and encourage employees, allows them to take ownership of their work. This approach empowers employees to demonstrate their value through tangible results.
Consider giving employees the ability to design their workdays and environments in ways that optimize their productivity and well-being. Allow them to choose when and where they work, within the boundaries of team collaboration and project deadlines. Execs who prioritize employee empowerment create a sense of ownership and accountability.
Remote work is here to stay, organizations need to reimagine their corporate culture, they need to foster collaboration across distances, and address the challenges of effective communication and information security.
The office is no longer bound by physical walls; it’s now a dynamic space where technology and human creativity intersect to shape the future of work.
By embracing these changes, organizations create a harmonious balance between tradition and innovation, leading to increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and success in the ever-evolving landscape of office work.
In my view, effective leadership involves empowering employees and fostering a culture of innovation amongst teams. This is particularly important in industry sectors that are bound up in imprecise ways to achieve both specific and vaguely specified outcomes. These may include technology and software development, entertainment and media, fashion and design, advertising and marketing, renewable energy, and sustainability.
The concept of autonomous yet thoughtful decision-making is a powerful leadership strategy that helps to drive desired productive outcomes. Many may understand the significance of autonomy and empowerment but not acknowledge the importance in various business settings.
This often means emphasizing the need for a shift away from very traditional command and control models (C&C). C&C is prevalent in more traditional and bureaucratic organizations it has often been associated with industries where standardization, efficiency, and compliance were crucial, such as military, manufacturing, and certain government sectors.
Some of the key characteristics of C&C include centralized decision-making where the decision-making power is concentrated in the hands of those at the top. This approach often leaves little room for input from the lower levels of employees. There’s a chain of command and decisions are typically passed down that chain.
A second common characteristic is the strictness of the hierarchy. Organizationally the structure is typically like a pyramid with clearly delineated lines of authority and control. Each level reports to the one above it, and instructions flow from the top down. There may be an emphasis on discipline and control to ensure that employees adhere to prescribed and somewhat predictable processes in order to meet performance expectations.
C&C is often characterized by rigid adherence to rules, procedures, and protocols. Employees are expected to follow specific guidelines as prescribed without deviation. In line with the pyramid, communication follows formal channels, such as through managers and supervisors and information or insights may be limited as the communication slows up and down the hierarchy. Everyone is assigned specific roles and responsibilities, and tasks are somewhat clearly defined. Employees have little autonomy to make decisions or exercise creativity. The focus is on carrying out assigned tasks as directed.
While this leadership model can be effective in certain circumstances as I previously described, it is often criticized for its limitations in an ambiguous, dynamic, and fluid business environment.
In industries that require adaptability, creativity, and innovation, like the tech sector, the command and control model in my experience, actually hinders employee engagement, limits the flow of ideas, and inhibits organizational agility. I am more in favor of participative and collaborative leadership that empowers employees and fosters a culture of innovation and a genuine desire for ownership and accountability.
Instead, I advocate for a more informal and relaxed, and collaborative leadership approach that encourages creativity and innovation where the leadership team functions as player-coaches and builds genuine consensus and collective agreement on big and small decisions through dialog and negotiation.
Growth through empowerment
If you want growth, then empowering employees goes beyond simple delegation; it requires trusting individuals to make informed decisions and providing them with the necessary resources and autonomy to act. In so doing you foster a sense of ownership and accountability within the workforce which then leads to higher job satisfaction and improved overall productivity.
The core of successful empowerment lies in striking the right balance between autonomy and thoughtful decision-making. You should want autonomous yet well-considered decision-making from your employees. Autonomy allows teams and individuals to leverage their expertise and creativity to address complex challenges effectively. However, it must be complemented with considered decision-making, where employees gather information, seek advice, and analyze potential outcomes before acting. Remember you’re paying these people for their expertise and to perform a particular job. If you’re only interested in barking instructions at them then you may as well just hire unskilled people with no particular specialisms or experience.
Tailoring empowerment models to your business settings is important since the universal benefits of empowerment and autonomy don’t necessarily manifest in all cultures or work settings. The application should therefore be tailored to suit the specific business contexts you have. There are a few different implementation models to consider. Task-based, Team-based, and Individualized
Task-based empowerment is typical for industries with routine tasks. Task-based empowerment can streamline processes and enhance productivity. By granting employees authority over specific responsibilities, business leaders enable them to make decisions related to their assigned tasks, boosting efficiency. Without disrupting efficiency and effectiveness, for example, employees can rotate and resequence their tasking according to their preferences and observed optimality.
Team-based empowerment is most appropriate in dynamic environments which ultimately benefit from improved collaboration and collective decision-making and where these activities take center stage. By allowing teams to pool diverse perspectives and expertise, leaders have the potential to tap into the opportunities afforded by collective innovation.
In roles requiring specialized skills, individual-based empowerment can be highly effective. Leaders empower subject matter experts to make decisions in their areas according to proficiency, fostering innovation and excellence in technology-driven fields. This is individual-based empowerment
C&C with its centralized decision-making and strict protocols works somewhat well in highly regulated industries, this approach stifles creativity though and limits adaptability in technology development. Employees may feel restricted, resulting in decreased motivation, innovation, and engagement.
Conversely, the informal and relaxed leadership style promotes open communication, trust, and collaboration. By empowering employees to make autonomous decisions, leadership fosters an essential culture of innovation and agility. This approach is particularly effective in software development and technology-driven operations, where creativity thrives in a flexible environment.
Getting the best out of teams and individuals
Getting the best out of the two quite different approaches still requires you to set clear objectives with agreed measurable outcomes. Empowering employees requires providing clear objectives and expectations. Well-defined goals using the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) help individuals self-manage their work efficiently.
Another facet is effective time management; autonomy allows individuals to manage their own time. To be effective though, there needs to be discipline. Discipline is essential for ensuring its effective use. Encouraging employees to prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and avoid distractions maintains their productivity.
Autonomous employees must also be accountable for their work. Encouraging ownership and transparent progress reporting foster a sense of responsibility.
Self-Management in Project and Program Management
In technology development, adopting an agile methodology enhances self-management. Empowered teams self-organize, collaborate, and make quick decisions to adapt to changing requirements effectively.
Leaders can further empower teams by providing autonomy in decision-making. Open communication and input from team members drive a self-managed and collaborative environment.
Project management itself involves ongoing learning and improvement allowing employees to reflect on progress and take initiative. These empowering approaches support positive change and have a greater likelihood of driving success.
As already suggested, empowerment also requires balancing discipline with flexibility. Through research, it has been found that Innovation thrives in more flexible environments. Leaders must therefore be open to diverse methods and ideas, trusting teams to find effective solutions. Open channels of communication facilitate not only bidirectional trust, they also support employee self-management and lead to continuous improvement.
A few words of caution
Sometimes, in our earnest efforts to empower others and provide autonomy, we may inadvertently deceive ourselves into believing that we have relinquished command and control.
Despite statements of intent, the empowerment we claim to have granted is a self-deceiving illusion. We might unknowingly perpetuate a micro-management overreach by behaving in exactly the opposite way to what we suggest we are thinking. This can occur when we continuously bombard teams with questions, second-guess their independent decisions, and challenge their judgment with frequency. Individuals and teams need to occasionally fail to learn. While our intention may be to offer support and ensure success, our actions may inadvertently stifle creativity and autonomy.
True empowerment necessitates trust and allowing individuals the space to take ownership of their work is critical. Constantly questioning decisions sends mixed signals, who is actually making the decisions? Undermining the confidence of team leads and team members impedes their ability to innovate freely. To genuinely empower others, we must genuinely let go of control, offer guidance only when sought, celebrate their success, recognize missteps, and offer encouragement, coaching, and reassurance.
Occasional mistakes are part of the learning process. By fostering a culture of trust and granting autonomy, we can break free from the C&C mindset, unleashing the full potential of our teams to drive creativity and achieve remarkable results.
Nurturing a culture of empowerment is essential for fostering innovation in business leadership. By tailoring empowerment models to the specifics of the business setting and adopting informal leadership styles, leaders can cultivate creativity and adaptability, particularly in software development and technology-driven operations. Encouraging discipline and self-management in tasking and project and program management enables employees to thrive in an environment that values autonomy while maintaining focus and efficiency. Striking the right balance between discipline and flexibility empowers teams to innovate, drive success, and contribute to sustainable growth.
Factors Influencing Decision-Making in Parity Competitive Products
It is interesting when you work in a competitive technology space, exploring how decisions are arrived at, especially in terms of customer technology choices.
As individuals, we face these challenges regularly, perhaps not even really thinking about the process much. We do it, by choosing appliances, mobile phones, cars, houses, etc. Our choices and decisions about products are influenced by a complex interplay of cognitive, emotional, social, and situational factors.
Researchers delve ever deeper into trying to understand these dynamics to help businesses create more effective marketing strategies and to aid policymakers in promoting informed decision-making among consumers but in the end, we don’t seem to really have a magic formula for how we settle on a decision.
In the corporate world, the same challenge for consumers is of selecting the most suitable technology solutions to meet their specific needs and objectives. Whether it’s for software, hardware, or other IT solutions, the decision-making process is often complex and critical for success, both personally, and for the organization.
In cases where competing technologies exhibit similar functionality and capabilities, additional factors become crucial in influencing the final selection. Consider the significance of various factors in the decision-making process, including the character and personality of the customer account manager, the presales consultant, the engagement process, pricing, company size, customer references, and other pertinent aspects, all of which, in my experience, influence the final outcome.
Picking and choosing
Organizationally, defining a need and a budget is often the starting point. Something doesn’t work, something is broken, or something is problematic. The idea might be to automate, it may be to replace or renew. When organizations seek particular technology solutions they will typically define requirements and objectives clearly.
The framing of the problem is often part of the budget-requesting process but sometimes the solution is already conceived and the problem or problem statement is already relegated. Appropriate requirements definition involves understanding the specific problems to be solved, suggesting the desired outcomes, and trying to arrive at the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure the success of the chosen solution. If you don’t have a problem statement and you don’t have success measures then you likely don’t have a clear vision.
This may seem incredibly obvious, but if we again revert to thinking like a consumer, if you want to replace your refrigerator, you must be clear as to why you want to replace it. You may have experienced a windfall, but what is the problem with the fridge you have? You may have moved, and have no room for your old fridge or no fridge at all, or your existing fridge may actually be defective or broken. Your problem statement likely isn’t “I have money to burn – I will buy a fridge” it has to be something else. As an organization there has to be a clear vision about what problems are to be solved through the acquisition, this in turn initiates an evaluation and selection process.
Requests
For big corporate purchases, there is the RFI, RFP, RFQ process. Some have all of these, some have just a couple of these and the thresholds vary according to the specific purchasing policies.
An organization may start by issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to potential vendors. This initial step helps gather general information about products and solutions available in the market. The RFI allows the vendor to provide high-level overviews of offerings, giving the organization a broad understanding of what is available. The trigger for an RFI is often off the back of preliminary or cursory research. Using industry analyst insights, using comparison sites, or simply familiarity with particular technology vendors.
After the RFI phase (which might be skipped altogether), the organization may choose to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ) to a select group of vendors. These documents contain detailed specifications, requirements, and evaluation criteria.
Vendors respond with comprehensive proposals outlining how their technology solutions align with the organization’s needs. Invited participants may need to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA) or may choose to ignore the RFP/RFQ entirely because they determine the prospective customer is not their ideal customer or because the expectations of the request are misaligned with their capabilities.
My first exposure to “tenders” was back in the late 1980’s when I participated in a closed technology consulting services tender to a governmental tourism department. Naively, I was pretty confident about my abilities and those of my partners, in being able to deliver a comprehensive and coherent service that was perfectly framed in the requirements document. What I hadn’t considered, was who I would be competing with and their approach to providing proof of past successes. The price of effectively the offer, it seemed, would not be the only selection criteria.
So this then, brings us to the competitive selection process. It isn’t always a bidding war. In cases where the RFP/RFQ responses reveal that multiple technology solutions demonstrate parity with similar functionality and capabilities, the decision-making process is more intricate. Identifying the subtle differentiators among competing products needs careful consideration in selecting the best-fit solution.
The hard comparisons
Exposure to the UI is often had, by asking for live or recorded demonstrations. Though these are often delivered in a heavily managed way, the User experience (UX) is a significant factor that can sway the decision. A technology solution that appears to be intuitive, user-friendly, and purportedly requires minimal training for employees will likely be preferred over one that is complex and seemingly difficult to navigate. Usability assessments, user testing, and interface evaluations may be the next step and may help gauge the product’s intuitiveness and its potential impact on productivity. These typically occur, when using evaluations, asking for Proof of Concept (POC) demos, or the like.
The ability of a technology solution to seamlessly integrate with the organization’s existing systems and infrastructure can significantly impact its perceived value. It is one thing to say or respond that the integration is there, it is another thing when the integration is physically demonstrated or proven. Compatibility and interoperability are often essential considerations, they can reduce implementation complexity and overall cost. Organizations assess the extent of existing integrations, the ease of connecting with a new solution, and the potential for future integration needs or promises.
Scale is important too. Organizations often prioritize solutions that can grow and adapt to future needs and growth. A technology solution that can accommodate expansion and changes in requirements ultimately offers longer-term value. Scalability assessments involve evaluating how the solution performs under various load scenarios, such as increased user counts or expanded datasets or integrations are also something which may be tested or require detailed testing evidence.
The level of support and maintenance offered by the vendor can heavily influence the decision. A responsive support team and well-defined service level agreements (SLAs) are often deemed critical, especially in complex technology implementations. The availability of a 24/7 help desk, an online knowledge base, and timely issue resolution are aspects that can significantly impact the organization’s overall satisfaction with the vendor.
Softer comparators
Execs often don’t like to hear that people count. The preferred perspective is that the solution and the company’s reputation stand for itself. The idea that buying IBM for example was a safe technology bet, was something that was echoed in many IT dept halls in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s even though it was never actually the company’s tagline. Though IBM never used the phrase in advertising, some strap lines did allude to it: “At IBM, we sell a good night’s sleep.” per Origin.
“It was thought up by someone in corporate America cleverly commentating on the danger to one’s job when selecting pricey software that… didn’t quite pan out.” opines Cole Shafer on Honey Copy.
Another view might say, well if you’re spending your time looking for something that is likely tried and tested, go with one of the “big boys” as opposed to a Wang, RCA, Data General, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Control Data Corporation (CDC), Scientific Data Systems (SDS/Xerox) who, like the below mid-1980s advert from Wang might use the phrase to explain away a failed tender to their own execs.
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But consider yet another perspective the one where the prospective customer chases the underdog because they feel that they have a greater ability to influence the design, feel, and roadmap of a particular product because they feel that they might have leverage. This may seem counter intuitive, but it is definitely a potential factor to consider. Assuming that because you’re the underdog you don’t have a chance, may be the wrong assumption to make.
When technology solutions reach parity in functionality and capabilities, various other factors play pivotal roles in the decision-making process and some of these are unpalatably soft for execs to stomach.
The Midas touch
The personality, knowledge, expertise, and responsiveness of the customer account manager and presales consultant can leave a lasting impact on the prospect.
A strong relationship with the vendor’s representatives instills confidence in the partnership and can lead to better collaboration throughout the deal brokerage, the implementation, and beyond.
Organizations will often indirectly look for account managers and consultants who take the time to understand their unique challenges and propose appropriately tailored solutions or product positioning that align with their specific needs.
An empathetic approach that focuses on building trust and addressing concerns can ultimately be a deal-maker since it fosters a more positive and productive relationship between vendor and client.
The engagement process proposed by the vendor, including project management methodologies and communication practices, is also crucial.
A well-structured engagement plan can lead to smoother implementations and successful outcomes, basically describing to the buyer, how you plan to present your organization and offerings to the prospect.
Organizations often evaluate the vendor’s approach to project management, by looking at how they manage the opportunity as a project, including the allocation of presales and supplementary support resources, communication frequency, and risk mitigation strategies.
Effective project management processes even in the sales cycle, help ensure that the pitch stays on track and that potential derailing issues are addressed promptly.
While pricing is always going to be a factor, it becomes even more crucial when technologies are at parity. Organizations may consider other factors such as the spread of costs, including upfront costs, ongoing maintenance expenses, licensing models, and potential hidden costs.
An unseen (by the vendor) comprehensive cost-benefit analysis may be conducted, considering both short-term and long-term financial implications. This means, that as the seller you must strike a balance between budget constraints and the perceived value of the technology solution.
It’s hard to be bigger than you are, but the size and reputation of the vendor’s company is influential.
Established companies with a strong track record of successful implementations and a significant customer base may be perceived as more reliable. However, smaller companies with niche expertise may also offer unique advantages, such as personalized service and a higher level of attention to individual client needs. Organizations must evaluate their risk tolerance and assess the potential benefits and drawbacks associated with companies of different sizes.
A way to compensate for size is with physical and written, and telephonic references. Customer references and case studies provide valuable insights into real-world experiences with the solution.
Organizations often seek feedback from existing customers to gauge satisfaction and success rates. Engaging in conversations with references allows the organization to ask specific questions related to its unique requirements, implementation challenges, and the vendor’s responsiveness to their needs. Additionally, case studies that showcase successful implementations in organizations with similar profiles offer valuable validation of the technology’s suitability.
Pudding time
Some technology vendors simply won’t entertain a PoC at all. The rationale for not offering a PoC is legion. Among them, the endless PoC with seemingly infinite levels of scope creep, poorly articulated success criteria, costs to serve, deciding how to support etc
A Proof of Concept (PoC) can be a powerful tool in the decision-making process. It allows the organization to evaluate how the technology performs against specific expectations and for specific use cases before making a final commitment.
A well-designed PoC should focus on validating critical aspects, such as performance, security, scalability, and integration capabilities but success hinges on organizations working closely with the vendor to define clear success criteria for the PoC to ensure that the evaluation process remains objective and aligned with their objectives.
Communication
This is really more, of the softer stuff, but ultimately it needs to be acknowledged that in technology decision-making, the human element plays a significant enough role in shaping perceptions and building trust that it is not uncommon to see vendors roll in a larger cast of characters as the opportunity manager see the deal teeter on a buy/abandon decision.
In my days as a customer and working on the vendor side, the “suits” would often arrive when special encouragement or reassurances were needed. I was always amused for example, by the chocolate brown suits that the IBM account execs would often wear, and the shiny blue suits that the guys from SAP would often be seen wearing. I don’t remember the ones the Compaq and HP guys wore but everyone was in a suit!
The most competent account managers and presales consultants who genuinely understand the organization’s pain points and challenges pitch and propose solutions that resonate resoundingly with the organization’s objectives. They’re active listeners and respond when asked, as opposed to those who might listen to respond. Assuaging an organization’s concerns, asking clarifying questions, and demonstrating empathy for the challenges the organization faces all help in developing a deeper understanding of the organization’s unique context.
Effective communication and responsiveness build confidence in the vendor’s ability to address any concerns or issues that may arise. Timely responses to queries and proactive communication foster a sense of partnership and reliability. Candid and transparent communication about timelines, milestones, and potential risks helps manage expectations and allows the organization to plan accordingly.
Big purchases are all about partnerships rather than just transactions. A long-term commitment from the vendor fosters a sense of security and suggests a culture of collaboration. Vendors that demonstrate a vested interest in the organization’s success are perceived to be more likely to provide good ongoing support, upgrades, and enhancements, and commit to collaborate on future initiatives.
To foster a long-term partnership, organizations will always seek out vendors who prioritize customer success and demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement.
What’s your perspective, or do you think it is all a perfect confluence of timing, product, price place, and people – essentially luck?
The question of “choice” has been extensively explored in various fields such as psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, and decision-making research. Understanding how people choose products and what factors influence their decisions is of great interest to businesses, policymakers, and academics alike.
Decision-making process: Research suggests that decision-making is a complex process influenced by numerous cognitive, emotional, and social factors. People often go through multiple stages in their decision-making journey, including problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, and finally, the actual choice.
Rationality vs. heuristics: Traditional economic theory assumes that individuals make rational choices based on objective information and maximize their utility. However, numerous studies have shown that people often rely on mental shortcuts or heuristics to simplify decision-making, leading to biases and suboptimal choices.
Cognitive biases: Various cognitive biases affect how people perceive information and make decisions. For example, the “availability heuristic” causes people to overestimate the likelihood of events based on how easily they can recall related instances. The “anchoring effect” occurs when an initial piece of information (an anchor) influences subsequent judgments.
The paradox of choice: Studies have shown that an abundance of options can lead to decision paralysis and increased dissatisfaction with the chosen option. Having too many choices can overwhelm individuals, making it difficult for them to settle on a decision.
Emotional factors: Emotions play a significant role in decision-making. People may choose products based on how they want to feel or how they perceive the product will enhance their emotions (e.g., happiness, status, security).
Social influence: People are often influenced by the choices and opinions of others. Social proof, where individuals follow the actions of others in ambiguous situations, and peer recommendations can sway decision-making.
Framing and presentation: The way choices are presented can significantly impact decision-making. For instance, whether a product is framed as a “gain” or “loss” can influence how people perceive its value and desirability.
Branding and marketing: Effective branding and marketing strategies can influence consumer choices by creating strong associations between products and desirable attributes or emotions. Advertising and endorsements can sway consumer preferences.
Habit and routine: In some cases, people may choose products out of habit or routine, without consciously considering alternatives. Habitual decision-making relies on automatic processes rather than a deliberate evaluation of options.
Personal values and identity: Consumers often make choices that align with their values, self-concept, and identity. A product may be chosen because it represents a person’s ideal self-image or reflects their personal beliefs.
People’s choices and decisions about products are influenced by a complex interplay of cognitive, emotional, social, and situational factors. Researchers continue to delve deeper into understanding these dynamics to help businesses create more effective marketing strategies and to aid policymakers in promoting informed decision-making among consumers.
It’s my great pleasure and honor to begin as a columnist for TDAN.com. TDAN.com has a long and distinguished record of giving voice to ideas in the data space and I will do my best to continue that tradition. The Crossing the Data Divide column will be aimed at data leaders. That is to say, […]
The bullwhip effect is a phenomenon where small changes in one end of a system can cause large fluctuations in another end of the system. You’ll see it most frequently associated with supply chain and logistics imbalances and fluctuations in demand and supply with amplification of variability in demand.
An adjunctive area of thinking is around the cobweb theorem in economics which relates to market price variability as a result of those same market supply and demand elements. The bullwhip effect can lead to excess inventory, lost revenue, and overinvestment in production whereas the cobweb theorem can lead to radical swings in market prices.
The bullwhip effect and the cobweb theorem are related because they both show how small changes in demand can cause large changes in supply. Ultimately both relate to imperfect information and associative reactions in end-to-end system that are not perfectly aligned or coordinated, leading to overreaction or underreaction by the system participants.
Bullwhip effects and cobweb based pricing in particular often lead to inefficiency, waste, and instability.
Effects on software development
One of the systems that can experience the bullwhip effect is software development. In the process of creating, testing, and deploying software applications that meet the needs and expectations of customers I see many stages and participants. Product managers, sponsors, developers, testers, development managers and of course customers, and users. At each stage the participants have different information and incentives that affect their own decisions and actions.
The bullwhip effect can occur in software development when there is a mismatch between the actual demand for the product or features in the product and the perception of demand in the minds of those within the software organization.
A customer may request a minor enhancement for example but those involved in the development process may interpret this as a major change and vice versa. More or less time and resources may be invested in the development of feature or capability than necessary. Let’s also be clear. Changes may also be triggered by other imperfect information, such as the relationship with the customer’s value in the software house’s revenue contribution chain or the software adoption lifecycle within the customer. Customer X may be a household brand but make a small bottom line contribution or customer Y may be an unknown brand yet have significant economic value to the business and a host of other possible combinations in between.
All of these factors can lead to software product delivery delays, overruns, and potential waste. If the customer requests a major change in the software, but this is underestimated, this can lead to an inadequate results, errors, defects, and customer dissatisfaction and the risk of loss.
Interpretation of requirements is so critical and yet so often overlooked beyond the face value of the ask. Sometimes “the ask” is also founded on anecdotes and opinions instead of evidence, insufficient modelling, the absence of prototyping and minimal market feedback. It is almost as if we fear hearing the critique and are just eager to build a solution.
There is also the proverbial problem of poor communication or handoff of requirements among the various participants. This can lead to distorted information and inaccurate requirements as a whole.
When stakeholders place overly ambitious demands on product or development teams or make decision pivots in an erratic or irregular way instead of making progressive, small incremental changes regularly, you can land up with spikes of activity, abandoning of initiatives in flight and incomplete work. These lead to resourcing and planning confusion, delivery crises and potentially wild cost variations. Everything becomes urgent and predictability on delivery goes out the window in favour of the latest new shiny thing.
Delivery crises or cost and estimate variations introduce uncertainty and anxiousness into the delivery assurance and process and negatively impact the potential usefulness of the roadmap and delivery plans. Promises or suggestions of intent made today settle as dust for tomorrow.
Deals contingent on feature delivery, renewals contingent on feature delivery; omissions of detailed fact, allowing unchallenged assumptions to be made about the presence or capability of features and an over-optimism on actual capabilities relative to real and present functionality encourages and perhaps even induces customers deals but creates feature alignment uncertainty and ruins the best made roadmap plans and planning in general.
Product and engineering managers have seen it time and time again; in start-up software houses it is perhaps the worst of all. Hunger for the commercial deal leads to over promising without due consideration of the impact to roadmap execution plans for existing commitments and other competing customer priorities or issues all in pursuit of business growth.
Demand information, such as feedback or analytics data, that is not shared or not used effectively by the organization as a whole, could have a direct impact on scheduling and resourcing and could result in poor coordination and planning.
Human behaviours, such as greed, exaggeration, or panic can influence offers and commercial decisions especially in times of economic uncertainty or at critical time junctures in the calendar like month, quarter or financial year end to meet quotas or squeeze budgets.
The product backlog
From a backlog perspective, timelines often become elongated, feature backlogs grow and actual product output may crawl, developers may land up producing software features uniquely designed for particular customers or industry segments in response to commercial obligations rather than in alignment with the mission of the business or a given product line’s vision.
There can be loss of revenue too, where features and capabilities are developed in a “misaligned with the market” way. Since developers are often the order takers from product management or executives, they rarely have the real opportunity to dispute the relative priority of things and opportunities may get missed, features may get rushed and the completeness of capability overlooked in favour of a “get it out fast” mindset, all in pursuit of perhaps a box checking exercise or to meet the narrowest of possible needs and expectations quickly.
Feature proliferation without market validation and qualification is effectively overinvestment or misplaced investment. A feature ROI will reveal that some features that seemed great in principle effectively become part of a wasteland of technical debt in production. The features may not be valued and worse, may not be used or adopted at all and removing them may be more expensive than simply having them linger in the product in perpetuity.
Poor quality is often also a result of the bullwhip with developers producing software inconsistently or of a low quality, buggy, unreliable, or incompatible with customer or user expectations. This in turn leads to lowered customer satisfaction, where customers or users are unhappy with the software features they receive or do not receive.
Remediation strategies
The bullwhip effect can be reduced or prevented in software development by adopting some neutralising strategies.
The first of these is an improvement in communication where there is the deliberate use of clear and consistent language, documentation, and feedback without guile or hubris.
This means practical down to earth descriptors that relate to state, opportunity and need. This may be in relation to opportunities, actual customer situations or on the flipside, a changing situation in relation to the state of the technology landscape or resources required to the work. The communication has to go both ways, servicing demand and supply aspects of the business. Developers tell technology stories and account managers tell customer stories. Product managers play back both sides.
Smoothing demand is really about settling on a product execution plan that works for everyone. This is achieved by actually being forward thinking and prescriptive about the product roadmap, features and functions. Providing enough detail to assuage concerns about progress but no so much detail that it becomes a road for the back in terms of execution. General direction of travel and progress markers are what count.
Focusing on intentions for the product based on the core values of the business and how the product lines up against those. The challenge here is for businesses with a small or emerging foothold in the market and a young or small product portfolio that they are trying to evolve. All that said, by choosing a narrow market segment rather than anything and everything with a potential pulse, your software business is focused on where the sales effort investment is likely to yield the best possible opportunities. Customers that are too big may be overbearing, those that are too small may be too expensive to service.
Pricing is often very contentious. A combination between science and the dark arts, it is difficult to always get the price for products perfectly right at the beginning. For this reason, many software products start with a relatively straight forward pricing model that becomes infinitely more complex and sophisticated as the size of the customer opportunity grows and the deals mature. You want to leave just enough money on the table to not feel that you undersold your product.
This may sometimes lead to hockey stick pricing models that seem super affordable or even free at low levels but then grow exponentially according to use or data or something like that – these strategies often leading to debates about value based pricing models. Attempts at price banding, price stepping and the like sometimes help. When these are combined with multiyear discounts or contingencies and other complex calculations, customers and sales people sometimes may get equally confused and the value to cost understanding compromised. This in turn can lead to horse trading or bidding wars, price gouging or ballooning. Poor thinking on pricing can be a destabilizer for investment runways it can also extend them. Be prepared to always rethink your pricing.
Customer churn considerations usually only kick in after the first anniversary of the sale but again, when considered in relation to pricing, feature development, cost to serve and the relative value of the opportunity to the software vendor, these can have an extraordinary and disruptive effect on software development lifecycle management as the customer’s specific backlog requirements get dusted off and get given elevated priority to ensure renewal, all with the limited context of a renewal at risk.
Sharing details on opportunities that have specific needs and expectations should happen regularly. The main participants in this process of communication should be the account teams and the product management team. Nothing should ever be promised to prospects without a clear understanding of the criticality of the requirement to the prospect, the relative position of that thing in a backlog (it may not even exist), the alignment with the product vision and a good understanding of the cost to service the requirement and optimistic timeline. I’d encourage customer teams to regularly involve product management in their customer qualification process also. Product managers crave the indulgence of not just customers but also prospects, as bystanders in the product demos and discovery sessions, they get to hear about the customer context problems and are best positioned to spot opportunities for product improvement or enhancement first hand.
Finally, it is worth considering that all of this relates to managing human behaviours. By educating and motivating all the teams to make rational and informed decisions based on facts rather than emotions one is better positioned to deliver superior software products consistently and affordably. By applying these strategies, software development houses can likely avoid or minimize the bullwhip effect and improve their operational and process efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction.
As a business owner or marketing professional, you have to understand the concept of customer intent and how it can be best used for personalized customer experience.
By understanding what it is, businesses can create more personalized marketing offers and tailor their strategies to customers on an individual level. Today, Jones Associates shares a quick post that opens up the doors for you to use customer intent in your marketing endeavors.
What Is Customer Intent?
Customer intent simply means your customers’ motivation behind a certain action. Their intent is what they want to accomplish. For example, if someone searches for women’s shoes, they likely want to buy women’s shoes. You can utilize Google Trends to get an idea of popular searches, but your webmaster can give you more information specific to your site. Intent does not always translate initially into a purchase. Sometimes, your customers’ intent is simply to gather information, such as pricing or size and availability.
How To Leverage Customer Intent
There are many different ways that you can get to know your customers’ underlying motivation.
To fully understand customer intent, you have to do research. You might send surveys or create a focus group. You can also do what’s known as social listening, which is simply the act of monitoring and analyzing social media conversations. You can also utilize data culled from your website to get a snapshot of your customers’ journeys. For example, if they put a pair of shoes in their shopping cart, you know that their intent is, ultimately, to purchase shoes.
If you extrapolate this to an ecommerce store, obviously the site has to be user-friendly with customizable content and an easy-to-use payment section, as well as the ability to analyze sales and inventory data to better streamline each customer’s experience. Luckily, there are options for commerce software that allow you to do just that.
Tailored Content Converts
Grazitti Interactive says it best, “Custom content is the future of marketing.” Why? Because customers don’t want to feel like they are nothing but an open wallet. Customizing your content helps set you apart from the competition and helps your customers throughout their buying journey. Nine out of 10 users rate custom content as more helpful than generic information. Think of it this way: when you reach customers with the info and insight they want, you become a more trustworthy source that shows that you truly know what they need.
Customer Retention Matters
Custom content is not only important when targeting new customers. Constant Content explains that your customized marketing materials also reinforce your image and create a stronger following of loyal customers. Everyone wants more customers, but don’t ever lose sight of the fact that simply increasing your customer retention rate by 5% can boost your revenue by up to 95%. This is not only accomplished through increased sales but also because happy customers tell their friends and family.
Ultimately, offering your customers curated content based on their actions and intent is one of the best ways to offer real value to those that support your business. Remember, custom-tailored content converts more customers, and it’s widely considered more helpful than generic pop-ups and other content. To get the most out of your efforts, make sure to listen to your customers, use data to inform your business decisions, and keep organized and accurate records of your findings.
If you’re looking for a global management consultant who can help you meet and exceed your goals, contact Jones Associates today to get started.
You know that customer surveys can provide you with valuable data for market research. But you’ve struggled to attract enough participants for your surveys in the past.
If you’re interested in transforming your market research strategy, working with the consultants can help.
There are a few methods you can use to motivate your customers to complete your surveys, providing them with gift cards, cash rewards, or freebies for example.
Cash and Discounts
Customers will be more inclined to take surveys when you’re offering cash or coupons!
You don’t want to send out surveys that customers are unlikely to fill out.
Offering exciting incentives is one of the best ways to boost survey participation rates.
By giving your customers gift cards, registering them for contests or sweepstakes, and dishing out free samples, you’ll have no trouble getting the responses you need.
Ready to take your business in a new direction? Look no further than the experts at JonesAssociates! Fill out the contact form on the website to learn more about our services.
Privacy remains a big deal and there are several reasons why consumers may be hesitant to allow organizations to master their personal data.
Organizations keep records on consumers for various reasons, among them, personalization, service, marketing, compliance and fraud prevention.
They may use your data to personalize your experience with their products or services; using your browsing and purchase history to recommend products that you are more likely to be interested in.
Keeping records of your interactions with customer service teams enables them to provide better support in the future and ensure that needs are met quickly and efficiently.
Marketing campaigns may be annoying but when they are personalized there may be a change in perception. Analysing behaviour and preferences, marketeers can create more relevant and targeted advertising that is more likely to result in a conversion.
Especially in financial services, organizations need to keep records on consumers to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. For example, they may need to keep records of your transactions for tax or accounting purposes but also to minimize the likelihood of money laundering or illegal use of financial instruments and infrastructure.
In exchange for goods, services or funding, they may use consumer data to prevent fraudulent activity.; monitoring behaviour, usage profiles and transactions, they can identify suspicious activity and take action to prevent fraud.
On the flipside, consumers may feel that their personal data is sensitive and should be kept private.
They may worry that if an organization masters their personal data, it could be used for nefarious purposes or sold to third-party companies without their consent.
Consumers may also be concerned that if an organization masters their personal data, it could be at risk of being hacked or stolen by cybercriminals, resulting in potential identity theft, personal financial loss, and other undesirable consequences.
One of the reasons is that consumers feel that if an organization masters their personal data, they lose control over it; worrying that the data will be used in ways they do not approve of, or that they will not be able to access or delete their data as they see fit.
In particular, consumers worry that their personal data could be used to discriminate against them based on their race, gender, religion, or other personal characteristics. Personal data that is used to make decisions about who to hire, who to offer loans to, or who to market products to are undesirable uses of personal data, for consumers at least.
Consumers have long held feelings that if an organization masters their personal data, it could also lead to unwanted intrusion into their personal lives accompanied by constantly being targeted with ads or other forms of marketing, based on their behaviour being monitored and analysed in ways that feel intrusive or uncomfortable and an invasion of privacy.
Zero party data
An opt-in approach with first-party data can help to address some of the concerns that consumers may have about their personal data being mastered.
First-party data refers to the information that consumers willingly provide through interactions with a website, a product, or a service. An opt-in approach means that organizations only collect and use the consumer’s data with the explicit consent of the consumer. This can give consumers greater control over their data, and can help to build trust between consumers and organizations.
Those privacy concerns can be addressed through opt-in meaning consumers must explicitly agree to allow the collection and use of the data in specific ways. This can give consumers greater control over their personal information and can help to ensure that their data is being used only for legitimate purposes.
By limiting the data that is collected to only what is necessary for specific purposes, the opt-in approach with first-party data helps to reduce the exposure risk associated with prospective data breaches. Organizations that collect first-party data are often also more invested in protecting that data, as it is valuable for building and maintaining the customer relationship.
An opt-in approach also gives consumers more control over the personal information allowing them to choose which data to continue to share, and supporting opt-out of specific data and its collection at any time.
To reduce the risk of discrimination, organizations are required to obtain explicit consent before collecting data on personal characteristics and though data is typically used for personalization and targeted advertising, the consumer can decide how it should be used especially in relation to important decisions about the consumer.
An opt-in approach with first-party data also helps to reduce the feeling of intrusiveness. Consumers now have control over what data is collected and how it is used, the personalization and customization can enhance the user experience rather than detracting from it.
If an organization is considering implementing a customer master data management solution, it’s important to understand how this approach can address consumers’ concerns about their personal data.
Through increased transparency the CMDM provides greater transparency into the data that an organization collects and how it is used; this in turn builds trust with consumers, as they can see exactly what information is being collected and why.
By centralizing the customer data in a CMDM and implementing robust security measures, a customer master data management solution reduces the vectors and edges that provide risk in the event of data breaches. This can also provide reassurance to consumers who are concerned about the security of their personal information.
A CMDM also enables organizations to provide more personalized experiences to customers which in turn helps to build stronger relationships with customers, increases loyalty, and ultimately drives revenue growth.
An opt-in approach gives customers more control over their data, the CMDM can demonstrate that the organization respects the privacy of its customers. This is often a important differentiator in the competitive marketplace, where consumers are increasingly concerned about their data privacy.
CMDM also helps with compliance. Organizations need to comply with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA. CMDM’s like that offered by Pretectum, can help to avoid legal and reputational risks associated with non-compliance by providing reassurance to customers and regulators that consumer data is being handled in a responsible and compliant manner.
Overall, a customer master data management solution can help to build trust with customers, enhance data security, deliver better customer experiences, and demonstrate respect for privacy and compliance with regulations.
Communicating with customers about how their personal data is being collected, used, and protected is increasingly important in good customer relationship management.
Consumers expect organizations to be transparent about the data they collect and how it is being used. They expect clear communication on the purpose of the data collection, and what benefits the customers can expect from it. They also expect to provide customers with easy-to-understand information about their data rights and options for managing the data.
Organizations would reassure customers that their personal data is being stored and protected securely, explaining the measures they have put in place to safeguard against data breaches, such as encryption, firewalls, and access controls.
Using an opt-in approach to data collection, means that customers have control over the data that is collected and can choose to opt out at any time. The benefits of opting in are of course more personalized experiences or access to exclusive offers.
Emphasizing respect for privacy of customers and a commitment to protecting personal data go hand in hand and would also explain compliance with relevant data privacy regulations. The responsible organization also highlights any certifications or standards they have achieved in in relation to governance and compliance regulation adherence.
The benefits that customers expect from the data collection might seem obvious such as an enhanced overall experience, but providing examples of how the data is being used to personalize products and services, improve customer service, and offer tailored promotions and discounts is important communication.
Overall, effective communication with customers about the implementation of a customer master data management solution is most critical to building trust and addressing concerns.
Transparency on intent and behaviours, emphasizing data security and privacy, using an opt-in approach, highlighting customer benefits, and complying with relevant regulations, organizations can reassure their consumers that their personal data is being handled responsibly and ethically.
In response, consumers should engage in self-service zero-party data and consent inquiries because it allows them to have greater control over their personal data and the experiences they have with an organization.
By providing preferences and consent, consumers can receive more relevant and personalized experiences, products, and services.
Ecommerce sites could show recommendations based on customer stated interests and preferences, health apps could provide workout plans tailored to a user’s fitness level and selected goals.
Reduced clutter in inboxes may make interactions with an organization more efficient and enjoyable and when accompanied by the ability to decide what information is shared with an organization and how it is used, feelings of more control of personal data and confidence that it is being handled responsibly may follow.
Keeping the interest alive
If the data is collected but not used, it should be securely stored and deleted after a reasonable period of time to ensure compliance with relevant data privacy regulations and businesses can incentivize consumers to provide their data in the context of self-service zero-party data and consent inquiry by offering exclusives, discounts, rewards and previews.
Offering exclusive content, such as whitepapers, eBooks, or reports only accessible to those who provide their data can be a powerful incentive, especially for customers who are interested in a particular topic.
Personalized discounts or coupons to customers who provide their data especially in retail could encompass discounts on next purchases based on stated interests or style preferences.
A free cup of coffee, for example, is obvious at a coffee shop but consider how Waitrose did the same for loyal card holders and how other retailers do the same for their loyalty scheme members. The offer of a free drink after a certain number of visits, with additional rewards for sharing preferences and feedback is an obvious option but the others are a little more subtle.
Giving customers early access to new products, services, or features if they provide their data like AMEX customers in association with events or event tickets is a great way to build excitement and loyalty among customers. Capital One and other financial institutions incentivize in similar ways.
Game or challenge e vents that encourages customers to provide their data like Pokémon Go, a 2016 augmented reality mobile game offers participants rewards for completing certain challenges. Additional rewards for sharing preferences and data is common with many card loyalty schemes as well as social apps.
In the end, it’s important to ensure that any incentives offered are aligned with the interests and preferences of customers, and that they are relevant and valuable.
Organizations today should ensure that they are transparent about their data collection practices and are respecting the privacy of their customers at all times.
Give customers the opportunity to self serve and drive first party data into the DNA of your business.
In recent years, the trend of remote work has gained popularity, especially in the technology industry.
The advent of modern technology has seen certain kinds of employees no longer being required to be physically present in an office to perform their job functions.
This flexibility is praised by many as having benefits but also comes with a set of challenges, not just related to the intermingling of work and home life but also the shift of some of the real estate costs and costs typically associated with office-bound workers.
Benefits particularly lauded by those working remotely, are the avoidance of long commutes and of course health and safety concerns in times of pandemic.
One particular challenge for employers is the potential for employees to engage in “moonlighting”, which can be a significant concern for certain employers, especially in the technology industry. For the uninitiated, moonlighting refers to the practice of working a second job in addition to one’s primary job.
The origin of “moonlighting” dates back to the early 1800s, when it was commonly used to describe the practice of working at night by the light of the moon.
In the early 1900s, the term began to be used more broadly to refer to working a second job in addition to the primary job. Moonlighting became increasingly prevalent in the United States during the Second World War when workers were encouraged to take on additional jobs to support the war effort.
After the war, moonlighting continued to be a common practice, especially among blue-collar workers who were looking to earn extra income to support their families.
In the 1960s and 70s, moonlighting gained even more widespread acceptance as a way for employees to pursue their passions or supplement their income. However, during this time, moonlighting also became a great source of controversy, with some employers expressing concerns about conflicts of interest and decreased productivity.
With the rise of the “gig economy” in recent years, moonlighting has become even more prevalent, especially in industries like technology, where employees have in-demand skills that can be used for side projects and freelance work.
For employees, it’s a way to earn extra income or pursue their passions. For employers, it can create a conflict of interest and pose a significant perceived and actual risk to their business. In the tech industry, where employees have access to sensitive and confidential information for example, moonlighting poses the risk of unintentional or deliberate data breaches and this in turn jeopardizes a company’s reputation and introduces avoidable potential security risks.
An employee working on a project for a competing company may unintentionally share confidential information, leading to a data breach. Policies on personal use of equipment often mitigate this but things might also be said in conversations and in other work-related circumstances.
There are several reasons why tech workers may be particularly more prone to moonlighting. Firstly, the nature of their work often involves flexible hours and remote working arrangements, which can make it easier for them to take on additional work.
Secondly, the relative shortage of competent tech workers who are in high demand at a specific price point, and the skills they possess can be valuable to other companies.
From the employer’s perspective, it could be argued that there is the potential for decreased productivity, missed deadlines, and poorer quality of work as well as potential legal and previously cited reputational risks.
To mitigate the risks associated with moonlighting, employers often take contractual, policy, and control steps. Firstly, they may include moonlighting clauses in employee contracts, they may prohibit employees from taking on additional work without prior approval.
Monitoring and tracking systems may also be considered on work assigned equipment like keyboard and screen monitors to ensure that employees are not engaging in unauthorized moonlighting or behaviors. These systems not only monitor employee activity but also flag suspicious behavior, such as accessing unauthorized websites or sharing confidential information.
It’s a difficult balancing act, employees value the flexibility and freedom to pursue side projects, and a blanket ban on moonlighting can lead to increased staff turnover and decreased job satisfaction.
Employers can consider a more nuanced approach, such as allowing employees to engage in moonlighting as long as it doesn’t create a conflict of interest or compromise the company’s security though exactly how this is measured may be difficult to establish.
Complete prohibition of moonlighting altogether may seem like an easy solution but can also create some interesting disbenefits.
Employees disallowed from the pursuit of side projects or engaging in freelance work may feel very stifled and demotivated in their primary job. This may result in decreased job satisfaction and productivity, ultimately causing harm to the quality of their work and commitment to the business.
Prohibition can also lead to talent loss as employees not allowed to pursue side projects or freelance work may be more likely to seek employment elsewhere, where they have more flexibility and autonomy. Employers who prohibit moonlighting may find themselves struggling to attract and retain top talent as a result of this restrictiveness.
Side projects and freelance work can provide valuable indirect learning experiences that help employees develop new skills they can bring back to their primary job.
The prohibition of moonlighting can also create legal risks for employers. In some states and countries, laws protect employee rights to engage in lawful off-duty activities, which may include moonlighting. Employers who prohibit moonlighting without a clear and compelling reason may be at risk of legal action from employees.
