We’re probably all aware of the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’. That we are all connected by six or fewer steps. From a human perspective, in a world of 7+ billion people it sounds far fetched, however, having completed a course on social and economic networks I’ve seen the mathematical proof and been forced…
Today is a big day in the UK with the Chancellor’s budget speech. Whilst he will be laying out what is a set of political policies, much of the proverbial ‘column inches’ will be focused on the underpinning economic facts, figures, and assumptions. In a recent post (‘Are you a ‘digital native’ – and how…
The term ‘digital native’ is increasingly being used to describe a set of skills that organisations look to have throughout their teams. But how many organisations have really thought through what they actually mean? Having asked a few people what they mean, my rough and ready research would lead me to believe that there is…
Increasingly we live in a society where we expect everything to be available instantly, 24/7/365. Yet often we take for granted the time and effort that it has taken to achieve this for each individual product or service. On another axis the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and therefore more complex. How many of us…
Whether you like it or not we are all contributors and users of crowdsourced data on a daily basis. Examples are all around us, whether it’s: voting on TV talent shows; product ratings on Amazon; or traffic on Google Maps; or mobile phone coverage maps collated by RootMetrics from user supplied data. Whilst the first…
In an interview for CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ program, Bill Gates talked about his relationship with Steve Jobs. In it he talks about tablets, “We did tablets – lots of tablet – well before Apple did” he states, before conceding “they put the pieces together in a different way that succeeded.” In the world of tablets,…
In one of my sessions at the recent IACCM EMEA conference which looked at contracting skills I posed the question that whilst we would rarely let a product get to market without some form of testing or prototyping, how many commercial or contract management professionals consider testing their contracting structures or agreements? If we look…
The Ubiquity of Apps – An Opportunity in Education (via innov8-Ed) It’s difficult to think about a world without apps, however, it is only five years since the launch of the iTunes App Store. In this time apps have become ubiquitous and found across all platforms and not just the Apple iOS. Over the past…
Almost every organisation has somewhere in its values a statement that equates to “people are our greatest asset” yet from experience, many employees read such a statement with cynicism and many employers don’t truly mean it. Interestingly both are probably right in their views of such a sweeping statement, yet a good match between employees and employer…
Competition is acknowledged as a core tool for procurement and whilst suppliers often decry it there are even upsides for them. Often the fact that a buyer is running a competition shows intent to purchase, gives a finishing line to aim for, and boundaries to work within. A well run competition, through focus and by…