The Next Big Thing

Wow, I guess this is my last required blog entry... Let's pause for a moment and reflect...

Okay, reflection over.

Today's group assignment to propose a new business model, product or process got me thinking about "new ideas." Everyone's always trying to coe up with "the next big thing" at the intersection of business and technology. But let's face it, that's hard to do. So maybe a better way to go about it is to try to come up with "the next better thing," i.e., using technology to build a better mousetrap instead of building a hologram of the mouse (or a mechanical flea to implant a chip in the mouse so that an unmanned drone cat can follow it...).

On a totally different note, I wonder what percentage of the technology in 24 is actually realistic...

Ripley's Believe it or Not...

(Anyone else remember that show? Probably not...)

Or should I call this one "In pursuit of trivia"?

Thursday's class had a lot of fascinating "facts" about what technology can do currently and what it's projected to do in the next few years. Obviously, there have been a lot of powerful technological advances in the past few years.

But I have issue with some of the blanket statements that were just thrown out there. For example, the whole thing about "forget about forgetting." In the examples given, technology isn't improving memory. It would be more accurate to say that technology is making it possible so that you don't need to remember anything -- because there will be something to remind you. Only the last point on that slide -- about mind exercises to improve memory -- had anything to do with the broad, oversimplified title of "forget about forgetting."

I'm all in favor of using technology to make life easier. And I'm also in favor of using technology to free up more "thinking time." I'm just a little concerned that there are some people who will be using technology as an excuse to NOT think and to free up more "Second Life time" -- and that's a sad, sad statement of human nature.

Scary Things

I find the whole idea of computer viruses horrifying. People REALLY have nothing better to do than to spend hours and hours to figure out ways to screw up other people's computers (and lives)?? These are probably the same people that are hanging out in Second Life... With any benefit comes risks, and as we continue to benefit from all these great technological advances, we'll continue to find more and new risks as well.

Thanks, Oscar, for your illustration of SOA -- I found it very helpful. Plus, you are a Powerpoint KING!!

Gruesse aus Wien!

Technology can do some amazing things, like allow me to get email from hotel rooms in London, Berlin and Vienna. It also allowed me to keep up on my reading for school without carrying a ton of books -- I had the pdfs on my computer. And, I even had four bars in most of Europe. (When I turned my phone on, that is. The rates are a little ridiculous!)

But technology -- at least in the current state -- still can't replace the experience of a live concert. I heard the MN Orch with Joshua Bell at a sold-out concert at the Barbican in London. Incredible. (Josh Bell may be a diva, but that boy can sure play the violin!) Modern recording technology is getting pretty good, but it still can't capture the full power of the fortissimo louds (without distortion) and the barely audible pianissimos. You could watch a video recording of the concert but you might miss some of the looks of intense concentration on the faces of individual musicians, or the beauty of all the strings bowing together, or the percussionist dancing in the back at a part that's really fun to play. (I highly recommend "Slonimsky's Earbox" by John Adams if you have the chance to hear it live! I didn't think I liked Adams...) With any kind of recording I'm sure that you would definitely miss the collective intake of breath before a difficult passage, and the collective holding of breath at a tender moment. A group of 80 professional musicians produce vibrations that you can hear AND feel -- and this is an incredible thing. Also, the communal experience of being a part of an audience -- each member having individual experiences but having those experiences all together -- is pretty amazing.

So I don't think live music is going to die any time soon. This is why some of the rock bands are willing to give away downloads for free, right? They know that the real money is in touring. The recordings are just a way to get more people to come to live concerts.

And one thing about Second Life... Yeah, I did my "experience." It is SOOOOOOOOOO not for me! It frightens me that people spend hours and hours online in virtual reality. GET A REAL LIFE! I even signed up for a "neighborhood" in Vienna -- I thought that might make it more interesting for me, but it really didn't! I'd rather just GO there and meet people face-to-face. I can't get a decent bottle of Gruener Veltliner in the States anyway...

Alphabet Soup & Cookies

Perhaps one of the most important things that came out of the conversation with Peter Stilson from Godengo was the definition of two acronyms that haunted me all summer...
CMS = content management system
CDN = content distribution network

The cookies were also REALLY good! I love cookies that are soft like that... Thanks, Peter!

Peter's other tips for success in business:

• Manage a P&L
• Recognize that people are the greatest asset
• Know your customers
• Stay close to sales
• Leverage technology

I'm going to leverage some of that aerospace technology. See y'all in March!

Holly vs. Technology -- the rematch

Another day of not getting along with technology. Can SOMEone PLEASE fix the frikkin' wireless connection at school???????

I think I understand the whole service-oriented architecture thing, at least conceptually. And I also understand the importance of knowledge management and knowledge exchange. Heck, I'm going to be working at a consulting company, so I get it. We need to talk to each other, we need to share knowledge, and it needs to be a seamless transaction in order to work well.

The part that I still really don't get, though, is HOW this all happens. Over the summer with Deloitte, we tried to compile a comprehensive service delivery model, and the client (the IT department, for the record) couldn't do it. There were just so many different services housed so many different places that it became an exercise in futility. Obviously, this is part of the problem, but I still don't understand what I'm supposed to DO about it.

N may be for knowledge, but at this point N is also for no clue.

Technology sucks

Technology and I did not get along very well today. First, my alarm didn't go off and I over slept. Then, I couldn't get a wireless connection at school. And finally, class confused me.



I get the whole thing about service-oriented architecture and breaking things up into components. The stereo analogy is a good one. It seems to me that another advantage of the separate service components is that if something "breaks" (like when my receiver stopped working), you can just fix or replace that component without having to overhaul the whole system. Also, you can target your resources (i.e., I put a lot more money into my speakers than I did each individual component).

But then when we had to do that whole modular analysis thing, I got confused. I think part of my confusion stems from the use of the terms "competency." Supposedly, the competencies are the column headers, but isn't competency (by the business school definition) supposed to be something that differentiates you -- something you do better than (at least most) others? So, how exactly is "Treasury" a competency of the Finance department? Doesn't EVERY Finance department have to do those functions?? I think that, in this case, these competencies are really just functional areas.

Anyway, it will be fascinating to see what I manage to come up with for this assignment...

Luckily technology and I will end the day on a good note. I'm going to go turn on my TV -- it's time for Burn Notice!

Come on baby, let's do the twist....

Contrary to popular belief, the sole purpose of today's class was NOT to put Holly in compromising positions...

The discussion about a need for integrated enterprise solutions made a lot of sense. In the last decade or so, the need to integrate databases has been a big topic among performing arts organizations. Normally, a symphony (or ballet, or opera company) has one database that tracks ticket purchases (housed in the Marketing department) and another that tracks donations (in the Development department). This is a big issue when you're trying to look at the customer in a holistic way or gauge loyalty. So the Metropolitan Opera developed a software called Tessitura that integrates ticketing and donation history. What makes it even more interesting is that the Tessitura Network is actually owned and operated by the member organizations, and they meet periodically to talk about upgrades, best practices, etc. Member organizations are charged a fee based on the budget size, so Tessitura is affordable even for small theatres.

Obviously, when you're talking about a multi-national, multi-billion dollar organization, the need for integration and everyone to speak the same language becomes even more important!

The Twister game was a nice illustration of the need to be nimble. You're very funny, Doug!

If you build it....

Cole Orndorff from Mortenson Construction spoke to us today about how that company is utilizing technology. I really appreciate what he was saying about not using new technology just for the sake of technology. I think that sometimes any of us can get dazzled by bells and whistles and forget that a true "solution" needs to solve a problem (or drive efficiency, or drive value, or improve the customer experience...). Perhaps the best example of this was technology enabling Mort to be more nimble, regardless of the location or environment. (Yeah, being able to hook up to a satellite at the drop of a hat is pretty cool.)

But I have to say that the COOLEST and most impressive thing to come out of Cole's talk was that Mort did Disney Hall in LA! That is an incredibly neat building, inside and out.

I wonder if there's a technology that would have warned them about all the reflection issues??? Maybe they then wouldn't have had all the complaints from neighboring buildings requiring them to go back and sandblast the building to make it reflect less sunlight. I wonder what THAT ended up costing them...

Swammi says...

(Yes, Joan, that one was for you!)



Today's class was all about how technology will shape the enterprise of the future. I must say that I like assignments about trying to predict the future about as much as ones to come up with something "innovative." (Thanks, Steve, for reminding the class about my lack of innovating skills!) But, that said, I think our group came up with some reasonable ideas.



Both of my classes today touched on how to manage change. In Managing the Strategy Process we discussed the case of Charlotte Beers arriving at Ogilvy and trying to turn the company around through clarifying the vision and providing direction. In IT today we talked about the need for businesses (and departments) to be proactive to change and flexible enough to adapt quickly. I'd like to think that I, personally, am able to manage change pretty well. Heck, I've changed jobs so many times since undergrad, I MUST be good at change, right? But at the same time, I recognize that I can also be set in my ways, especially when it comes to some issues with technology. (Case in point: how long it took me to get a digital camera and an iPod -- and just a Shuffle, no less.)



So, in an effort to be open to both change and technology, here are the technological advances that I plan to make before starting my consulting career at Deloitte:

1. Buy a DVR (because I can't miss Burn Notice, 24, The Office, The Closer, and Leverage just because I'm on the road)
2. Buy a Kindle (because I refuse to read work stuff while I'm on the plane)
3. Buy a real iPod instead of just the Shuffle

I've even started making my list of songs for my iPod...

Holly’s Happy Music
(a.k.a. songs that make me crank the radio up)

I Need a Lover Who Won’t Drive Me Crazy (John Cougar before he was Mellencamp)
She Moves in Mysterious Ways (U2)
Fly By Night (Rush)
Learning to Fly (Foo Fighters)
Inside Out (Eve 6)
Big Yellow Taxi (Counting Crows)
In Love with a Girl (Gavin DeGraw)
Brandy (Looking Glass)
What it Takes (Aerosmith)
Tempted (Squeeze)
Harder to Breathe (Maroon 5)
I Don’t Want to Be (Gavin DeGraw)
Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson or Alien Ant Farm)
So What – I’m a Rock Star (Pink)
Layla (Derek & the Dominos)

Technology, eh?

Our impromptu debate on outsourcing technology and the impact on national security got me thinking about cultural diplomacy. I had never heard the term until we read a statement from the Obama campaign in my Arts, Cities & Economic Development class. The statement (from January, 2008) asserts that Obama will...

Promote Cultural Diplomacy: American artists, performers and thinkers representing our values and ideals can inspire people both at home and all over the world. Through efforts like that of the United States Information Agency, America's cultural leaders were deployed around the world during the Cold War as artistic ambassadors and helped win the war of ideas by demonstrating to the world the promise of America. Artists can be utilized again to help us win the war of ideas against Islamic extremism. Unfortunately, our resources for cultural diplomacy are at their lowest level in a decade. Barack Obama will work to reverse this trend and improve and expand public-private partnerships to expand cultural and arts exchanges throughout the world.

While growing up, I was fortunate enough to travel to Europe several times with my family, study in Vienna for a semester, and then live in Vienna for four years after undergrad. It was fascinating to see what Europeans knew about America. Of course no one knew where Iowa was -- they only knew New York and California. (I would describe my home as "near Chicago" or just "in the middle.") I had someone ask me if everyone in the States owned a gun. Someone else asked me if I got mugged all the time. Most of what they knew about the US came from movies, most of them violent action flicks.

That has certainly changed today, and the internet and advancing technology have helped, but I think that technology has an even larger role to play now with cultural diplomacy and, for lack of a better way to put it, getting people to know us and like us again. If we can share the good things about our culture -- including art, music and great films (hopefully some of which don't imply that everyone is shooting everyone else) -- and not just Rambo and Britney Spears (yes, technically she sings "music," but you know what I mean!) then I think that will make things easier for the politicians as well.

2nd class - Are you Value(able) 2.0

So, I'll start off with a couple comments on Thursday's class...

While the opening slides in the deck were quite engaging, demonstrating how better systems and technology are needed to solve the problems of the world (yes, I'm purposely being over-dramatic), it was also a little over-simplified. Specifically, the comment about the empty containers (slide #10) is misleading, because it implies that these empty containers and wasted money are due to a lack of "systems, operations, [and] enterprises" (slide #8). The reality, of course, is much more complicated than a computer system that doesn't work -- it has to do with a trade deficit and foreign policy, i.e., that we're importing a heck of lot more than we're exporting. THAT's why we're shipping all these empty containers around. Maybe we need to get someone in China or India to design a better logistics software for that....

On another note, I think it's neat to see how material from my various classes overlap. I know that I'm not the only one in the room who was picturing Mark Bergen down on one knee when we were talking about customers and value.

There's also a lot of overlap at the moment with my PA 5590 class -- Arts, Cities and Economic Development with Ann Markusen of the Humph. My current reading (Bill Ivey's Arts, Inc.) for that class is all about how technology completely changed the arts scene in America, with the advent of recordings and photographs (not to mention the printing press many years earlier). These technological advances meant that there was a distinction between arts "participation" and "enjoyment," i.e., you didn't actually have to PRODUCE the art yourself -- you could read a book, look at a photograph of the Mona Lisa, watch a recording of a play or the broadcast of an opera, or listen to the recording of a symphony. One thing that I found especially interesting was that how the invention of photography paved the way for modern visual art. Arts no longer felt the need to be accurately representative -- a photo could do that -- so they were free to explore more abstract shapes and textures.

Hm. Maybe technology isn't quite as scary as I thought. But I think I'll still reserve judgement...

First Day of Class

I've always found the idea of blogging a little pretentious. Why should anyone be interested in reading the random thoughts of some random guy (or gal)? And more importantly, why on earth should I assume that ANYone would be interested in what I have to say?

But I guess that if I have to do it for class, that's okay....

So, my thoughts on the first day of class. I certainly was not looking forward to fulfilling the IT requirement, especially with the classload I that I have during the A term this semester. But based on class today, maybe it won't be quite as torturous as I feared. Maybe. "The intersection of business and technology drives innovation" certainly seems to be a little more applicable to the average business person than, say, the IT cost reduction project I did this summer with Deloitte! (Now THAT was true hell!) The very term "IT" tends to strike fear in my heart and send a chill down my spine.

We'll see how things go from here...