Institutional Memory

Institutional memory is the collective knowledge, facts, ideas, experiences and know-how of a group of people. It can be found in corporations, government organizations, professional groups, religious groups, sports teams, academia and in entire cultures. In every business there is a group or an individual that knows where everything is stored. From paper clips to new invoicing forms, this group or person holds the knowledge that keeps the business running smoothly. If this person is lost, that information is lost.

Institutional memory is a good way to instill a group's ideology or work methods. You build a team (or as Seth Godin calls it, a "Tribe") by teaching new members of the team your traditions, jargon and work processes. Members of the group can identify one another based solely on their knowledge of this information and can therefore ostracize those who do not belong. This is a common practice in the military. The training methods used force the new recruit to undergo a personality change to adapt to their new environment. This is a total change including a new language, new ways of getting things done and so forth.

Institutional memory requires the ongoing transmission of information between members of the group in order to remain viable. If people with information do not pass it along to new members, there is no way to ensure the preservation of that knowledge. Many businesses try to overcome this problem by developing Employee Manuals or other such guidebooks. Sadly, most of these documents are out-of-date or, in the worst cases, completely useless.

On the flip side, institutional memory can be indoctrinated to the point that it becomes impossible to challenge when something is found that contradicts it. When institutional memory becomes intractable and unable to adjust to new circumstances, it actually becomes a hinderance to your business. You cannot usually solve new problems using old methods.

Institutional memory is the collected knowledge of all the members of any team. It helps to instill team spirit and to foster team unity. Institutional memory must be transmitted, usually verbally, to new members of the team if they are ever going to be accepted into the group. Beware when it becomes inflexible and does not adapt to changing situtations. The key is to harness institutional memory and derive all the benefits without incurring any of the penalties.


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Source: Wikipedia: Institutional Memory

Technology Enabled Micro Business

A micro business is defined as any business with 1 or 2 employees. With the power of modern technology these businesses have an equal chance to achieve lasting success. Hard work, dedication, quality, exceptional service and exceeding expectations are still required.

The internet has leveled the playing field. A new startup doesn't have to create a bigger and more expensive product or service than the competition. Actually, current internet success stories argue for the exact opposite. The most successful new internet companies are not engaging in the traditional business cold war of feature escalation.

These companies are focusing on providing fewer features to control their costs. But they are also ensuring that the features they do offer are well executed and easy to understand. They are taking the time to distill the actual useful essence of the product into a viable competitive product. Focus on solving the simple problems that people have and leave your competition to choke on the complexities.

For example, in the book Getting Real, by 37signals, the developers of Basecamp write how they chose Microsoft Project as their software "enemy." A good project management software should not be about charts and graphs, they argue, but about collaboration between team members set on completing the task at hand. The top-down dictatorial approach embodied by Project was not the ideal way to operate in the new web enabled world.

With the wealth of available tools and the power of direct outsourcing, micro businesses are proving to be capable competitors. With the amazing tools available online, it is now possible to do the impossible. What is clusmily called Web 2.0 has opened the floodgates for new businesses to provide remarkable products at low costs and still exceed customer expectations. The old business models required enormous overhead to, hopefully, achieve these goals. The old ways are dead; it's time to embrace the new paradigms.

Using This Recession Wisely

You don't have to be an economist to figure out that any decline in GDP always translates into a decline in technology spending. During the last recession (2001-2003), tech spending collapsed as companies around the country pulled the plug on new projects and slashed IT budgets.

However, things have changed dramatically since 2003. There are now 3 times more cell phone users. Internet users have more than doubled, with even grandmothers getting online now. Technology has penetrated into almost every corner of our lives. Where once an office might have one computer for 50 employees, now there are more computers than employees. Information technology has become Business Technology.

So, while tech spending might drop over the next three years, we will see the birth of some amazing new techs at the same time. We will see:

• A new host of gadgets for the national wireless broadband networks.
• Magnetic plastics that will revolutionize data storage.
• Laptops will start to vanish when ultra-thin, flexible display screens come standard on cell phones.
• New generations of cloud computing platforms will emerge.
• Enterprise social networks will become commonplace.
• Nanotechnology will become more pervasive with applications expanding into more industries.
• Biotechnology will continue to make phenomenal leaps forward.

These are just a few of the changes for the next 3 years. The recession will not stop them.

You need to ask yourself:

• How do these changes impact my business?
• Do these changes create new opportunities?
• How do I take advantage of these techs?

Technology is poised to take some staggering steps over the next three years. You must think on these emerging techs so you can stay ahead of the curve. The changes that are coming will be significant and they will impact every aspect of your business.

Are you ready for the future?

Firm Wisdom

Would you like to be able to:

• Minimize training costs
• Eliminate repetitive questions
• Aggregate important business data
• Enable collaboration between workers
• Tap into the collective intelligence of your entire organization
• Build stronger business teams
• Provide seamless communication between departments
• Gather all your best business ideas together
• Open a frank dialogue with your customers
• Build a strong business culture even across geographic divisions
• Enable key customers to provide feedback during R&D
• Convert your customers into a "tribe"
• Convert your customers into fanatics for your products

Sounds great doesn't it? So much power all available to you and your workers, and all you need is a Business Social Network, or what I prefer to call Firm Wisdom.

By harnessing the power of Facebook or LinkedIn within your organization, you can unleash the collective knowledge of all your employees and customers. You will build a community centered around your business which will further strengthen your brand and encourage customers to promote your products.

Get started building Firm Wisdom. Find out how by contacting me today.

5 Warning Signs of a Ponderous Business

They say that the miracle of the dancing bear is not how well it dances, but that it dances at all. That reminds me of some companies I've worked with over the years. They were bloated, ponderous business enterprises that were slow to react to change and burdened down by poor processes. The miracle is not how well they survived, but that they survived at all. In a slow economy, you cannot afford to let your ponderous business slow you further.

Fortunately there are five signs that can warn you if your business is ponderous and slow.

1. Nasty Surprises
Frankly, as a business owner, I hate surprises. Usually because they are rarely good surprises. I can't remember the last time my accountant called me with good news. Do you understand what I mean? Do you get too many nasty surpsies? If you do, there is a serious problem with your information systems.

2. Breakdowns in communication
Do your subordinates know The Big Picture? Are they on board and pulling in the same direction? Are all the teams playing nicely and sharing information with one another? Have meetings ever turned into sessions of "Pass the Blame"? Do people complain about a lack of communication? If you understand what I mean than you have a serious information problem.

3. Constant firefighting
Are you constantly fighting fires? Are you being pulled back and forth by the crisis of the hour? Have you ever had to abandon a crisis to fight a bigger disaster only to be summoned to battle a catastrophe? Is there always something that demands your immediate attention, right now or the world will end? If so, than you have a serious problem.

4. Constant errors
Have you stopped to think what a bad decision can cost your business? Have you ever wondered if the data you use to make decisions is accurate? Do you have evidence of a time when bad data lead to a bad decision? Can bad information cause you to make a career ending error? If so, than you have a serious data problem.

5. Slow response times
Does it take forever to get answers to questions? Do you wait hours/days/weeks for reports? How long does it take a decision to be implemented? How does your company react to adversity? Does your business react smoothly, avoiding obstacles by adapting or does it grind to a halt? If not, than you have a serious problem.

Ponderous Beast
You need to retool your business! You need to trim down and prepare for hard economic times. You need to accomplish more with less and that's just the hard truth of it. If your business is slow to react, does not adapt easily to change, is constantly on the brink of a disaster or has concerns about the quality of information then you need to contact me immediately. I will happily explain how I can solve those problems for you.

Free telephone consultation.
(800) 784-8045 ext. 500

Innovation & the Social Web

There are a number of ways a business can leverage the benefits of social networking and other open collaboration websites to assist in product innovation. When you think of the incredible community of people willing to express their opinions for free that the web makes available, you now have the largest virtual test market for new ideas ever seen. Also, you can leverage the knowledge of engineers and scientists depending on which open community you tap.

Corporations should be making a large investment of time in developing relationships within these different communities as best suits their needs. By building up their "street credit" within these organizations they will grow a strong base of support for new products. Think of the hype Apple managed to build for the iPhone largely through the clever use of the internet. Consider the huge fundraising advantage won by presidential primary candidate Barack Obama, again all through judicious and intelligent use of available internet resources.

Those companies best able to make the transition away from traditionally secretive and closed development cycles towards more open and community-based development will reap the largest rewards. They will benefit from the accumulated wisdom of the masses and get a better understanding for what features and designs will best meet the needs and desires of their target consumer base.