Praising Followership: The “Other” Leadership Skill you Need for Success

It’s not taught in MBA schools, yet it is probably the most critical success factor in the workplace: Followership accounts for the majority of our professional lives. Despite its bad reputation, followership hoists a professional into an organization leader. So potent is this skill set that the army has, in fact, instilled followership curriculums in the late 1970s, updating them ever since, with great success.

 

Defining Followership

Much has been said about the merits of leadership – a very important quality in the workplace. Leadership, however, does not exist without its flip side, followership. Some researchers go as far as stating that the real decision-makers are in fact the followers, because they make or break the leader’s vision. Followership, in essence, is the willingness and ability to follow a leader.

In large companies, the environment is too complex to affirm that one either leads or follows. In truth, every professional down the chain leads in some instances while they follow in other: The CEO may have authority on many levels into the company, but he has to respond to a board. Team managers may have an authority position with their team, but they must respond to the client. At any given time, professionals are involved in a myriad of interactions that can never be entirely of an either/or nature when it comes to leadership and followership.

 

Qualities of a Follower

Contrary to popular belief, followers have a tremendous power and impact over what the work and mission being accomplished; they are just as important as leaders, since they make it happen. The concept of followership has long been studied and applied in the army. Already in 1975, Sgt. 1st Class Michael T. Woodward from the U.S. Army’s Infantry magazine published an article defining the scope of a followership course.

From the onset, it becomes clear Woodward does not view the follower as a passive role, but as a crucial, intelligent actor on the stage. In his article he writes: “Effective leadership requires followers who are more than Pavlovian reactors to their leaders’ influences. When followers actively contribute, are aware of their function and take personal pride in the art of followership, then the joint purpose of leadership and followership — higher levels of mission accomplishment — is achieved effectively. Professionalism in followership is as important in the military service as professionalism in leadership.”

Not all followers are made equal. In fact, the spectrum of followership runs along several paths: from dependent to self-managed, from indifferent to having team-spirit, from being detached to having a positive attitude, from being passive to being a contributor, unthinking to competent, amoral to ethical. The idea of following does not entail an element of complete submissiveness: a follower can and should ask questions, challenge, and generally help improve the ideas brought forth by the leader. The motives for following are also an indicator of the quality of the followership: while fear of retribution, blind hope and faith in the leader are a sign of weak followership, intellectual agreement and buying the vision are great indicators for a solid followership base.

 

Developping Followership

Four main competencies may be developed for great followership: Self-management, commitment, competence and focus, and courage.

• Self management
  • Are you thinking for yourself, especially when there is no one working closely with you to supervise you? Leaders may often be swamped with their own deliverables: how well can you help lift off some of the burden without creating additional management work for them? This could mark you as a future leader, and gradually get you more responsibilities in the organization.
  • Do you feel you have the ability to deliver the results you want? Do you feel confident about your capability to get things done? Believing in yourself is an important step that can lead you to increased responsibilities over time.
• Commitment
  • Are you able to show that you are committed to something beyond yourself, such as the company ideals, the leader’s vision or the mission you are part of?
  • Are you able to “buy into” your position and come to work excited everyday, over the possibilities of what you can achieve? This may vary according to how good your leader is at making you feel part of and important to the general mission, but you can also muster some motivation for excellence and achievement from within.
• Competence and focus
  • How do you continue to develop existing skills and learn new ones day, after day? Are you always stretching out of your comfort zone to become a better professional? This kind of thinking will certainly reinforce your relationship with the leaders in the organization, while making you gradually more fit to become one yourself.
  • Are you proactive about your career development and learning path? Often people around you will not have the time to help you grow, and advise you as much as is possible. Do you actively find mentors to learn from? Do you seek continual education to better yourself? Opportunities to take on new mandates and assignments to learn new skills? Proactivity is a key element to your growth.
• Courage
  • Do behave as a competent, thinking individual, or just as a “yes man”? The value of intelligent, challenging followers to a leader is priceless: it can build a good idea into a great idea, collectively.
  • When you disagree, do you stand up for your beliefs? Even though it is scary at first, it will earn you respect over time, and mark you as a true leader.

 

Followership is only a beginning

In the quest for leadership, followership will accompany you everywhere. No matter the position you will reach, and the title you will be granted, true leadership also means stepping down at times and letting others lead. Followership gives the long-praised value of “team work” a new meaning: lead and follow in turns, as both will help your organization further its vision and projects. It is your willingness to listen to, work with, and help others in the organization that will truly set you apart as a leader, down the road – not your constant competing or fighting to be heard and followed.

 

Sources :

Click to access elk1205.pdf

http://www.qualitydigest.com/dec97/html/townsnd.html

Click to access Raffo%202013.pdf

Showrooming : Forcing Retailers to Rethink their Strategy

They come in store and later buy online… sometimes from competitors.  They are the Showroomers, these customers that have been drawing a lot of attention from the media recently.  With online stores stealing away retailers’ sales,  some companies took a rather radical approach, and removed some products from their brick-and-mortar stores altogether, as did Target with the Kindle reader.   “What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices”, the retailer giant wrote, in a letter to its vendors.   Other retailers find clever ways to leverage these showroomers, and make a hefty profit in the process.   One thing is certain: the mobile is disrupting the retail pricing strategies.

 

The Showrooming Trend

Selling isn’t what is used to be.  Clients now come in trendy stores like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s bargaining for prices, based on what they’ve been able to gather online.  The trend is so popular in fact that the New York Times even mentions companies are starting to train their employees in order to better respond to customers’ haggling.  In most cases, it also turns out that engaging in bargaining upon customer request is actually corporate policy.

DealScience, the online deals comparison tool, even noted back in 2013 that many stores had best-price guarantees even though sometimes not advertised.  Better yet, some companies such as Air Canada, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe’s carry policies not only to match the price but also to beat it – using discounts when users find a better deal.  Other companies find ways to keep the prices while luring in the customer who has found a better deal elsewhere by offering add-on benefits at no cost, such as insurance, free delivery or free installation.

 

Amazon’s Direct Attack to Brick-and-Mortar

Half of the showroomers who buy online do so directly on Amazon.  No other online store collects more than 5% of business, so this is the clear winner of the retail wars with the web.  Riding this trend, Amazon has issued two apps in the last two years, the first one being the price checker, which gives the user up to 15$ discount on items found in stores, and, more recently, the Flow app, released this January 2014, which combines augmented reality to give you the information you want regarding any in-store item you take a picture of.   This app threatens to turn retailers into nothing more than showrooms for users.

Other online threats have since appeared, not only in the travel industry, where bargaining tools such as Hot Wire and Priceline are well known, but also in the everyday consumer products.  Companies like Greentoe.com and ebay have been seizing that share of the market which is ready to bargain online to find the best deals.

 

New Business Models Emerging 

Retailers’ answers to the phenomenon have been diverse.  In some cases, mainly in the US and Australia, some retailers have started imposing a 50$ fee to try clothes in their stores, in an effort to clear off showroomers from their brands.  More often than not, however, retailers have found that working with showroomers, as opposed to against them, proved more lucrative.

Marks & Spencer is one of many stores to provide free wifii in store, helping the user leverage their experience with the brand online, on their app and in-store for a seamless omni-channel experience.   Some stores leverage their free wifii offering by populating the home page appearing upon login with their in-store deals.  Others go a step further, integrating new technology such as iBeacons, to lure customers in.

Electronics store Best Buy focused on its staff: putting a new system in place called 360pi, and its mobile companion, 360mobile, it enables sales people on the floor to quickly access accurate information on sales prices of online competitors, effectively enabling them to engage with consumers and turn the showroomer into an in-store purchaser.

Nordstrom took a novel approach by having an in-store app using the most popular pins on Pinterest appear on screen with details for in-store purchase.  This is an excellent example of how retailers can use consumer’s engagement with online platforms, and transform it into non-costly customer research.

In the UK, a new concept entirely may soon be emerging: plans for the Silvertown Quays involve offering big brands such as Apple, Burberry and Nike large spaces for displays in stores where users can watch, compare, but not buy.  A less extreme version of this has already appeared under the form of Box Park Shoreditch, where Nike, Puma, Vans and X-Box have built micro-sites in containers, containing only a small sub-set of their products onsite – but very knowledgeable staff who know all there is to know on the full line of products available on their online store or at flagship stores.  These mini-stores have proved very useful in helping inspire customers, and bridge the gap between the real-world and online shopping experience.  By holding so little stock (the containers are fairly small compared to a full-size store), the focus is on the experience rather than on the products, and acts as a teaser.

 

A Trend Here to Stay?

Although Showrooming is causing many retailers to worry, the newest statistics have shown the opposite behaviour, dubbed “Reserve Showrooming” to be more popular with the millennials – the age group with the biggest financial growth potential over the next few decades.

Specialists also point out that one thing online stores will never be able to reproduce is the instant gratification of walking out of a store with your new purchase in-hand.  In fact, studies showed that 86% of consumers who chose to shop in-store rather than online find the ability to immediately take the item home with them a big benefit.  In addition, 83% of them find that avoiding the hassle to return online to find the product and dealing with shipping and other steps involved in the online purchasing experience is also a factor that determines them to shop in-store, rather than online.

For the moment, however, showrooming remains a concern that retailers cannot simply wait on to act.

 

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-as-reverse-showroomers-2014-5

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/business/more-retailers-see-haggling-as-a-price-of-doing-business.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

http://adage.com/article/global-news/u-k-retailers-embrace-showroomers/243139/

http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-news/Best-Buy-Canada-Converts-Showroomers-into-Buyers87811

http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/majority-of-showroomers-say-permanent-price-matching-encourages-in-store-purchase-30156/

http://mashable.com/2013/04/16/showrooming-infographic-4-16/

 

Work-Life Balance : Couples’ Lives

  A recent series of studies published in the Harvard Business Review in March 2014 shed some light on the ways top organization leaders seek help and support from their life partners.  In total, 4,000 executives and board members interviewed on the span of five years, to uncover their insights when it comes to personal life for a successful professional.

Different Proportions, but Similar Paths

From 1980 to 2011, the number of senior executive women in Fortune 100 companies has grown from 0% to 11% in 2001 and to 17.7% in 2011.  Interestingly, the women’s path to success was very similar to the men’s : It took on average 28 years for women to get to their current position, versus 29 years for men.  They have generally been promoted every four years, versus every five years for men.   Despite these similarities, the challenges they face proved to be different.  Hence, the way in which a spouse can contribute to their success differs.

 

Conciliating Family and Work

The support executive men and women have at home in their daily chores varies a lot according to gender: 60% of men have spouses who don’t work full-time outside of home, compared to 10% of women.  In the surveys, 26% of the men said their spouses were contributing to practical help as a form of support, raising children, housekeeping, etc., compared to 13% of women.  Men were also much more prone to view themselves as “working for their family”, and justifying their absence through a “provider of the family” narrative than women.  They were often appreciative of the fact their spouses tolerated long hours and relocated when needed.

 

Women, on the other hand, stressed they received help from their partner when men were willing to “free them from traditional roles”, letting them focus on their carers.  Women mentioned they regularly paid for services that included getting the groceries, cooking, even getting the children dressed, so they could use their spare free time for “the important stuff” with their children, instead of spending time doing chores.   The interesting conclusion seemed to be that men often praised their spouses for the positive contributions they made to their careers, while women praised their other half for not interfering in it.

 

Support Networks 

Both men and women stressed the important of support systems at home and at work, to make it to the top.  They said their partners “shared their vision of success, brought complementary skills, and provide various types of support”.    Interestingly, both men and women ranked emotional support as the most important thing their partner brought to them, along with accepting career demands.

 

Relocation for International Assignments

Willingness to relocate was another contribution deemed important by both genders to a very similar degree (8% for women, 10% for men).  Both genders mentioned they had turned down offers for international assignments due to children (32%) or to keep their marriage (28%).  Some executives pointed out that young children were very mobile – that it was more 12-13 years old teenagers that were a concern in terms of moving.

 

Support in Colleagues

Support also extended to the professional network.  While men tend to prefer separating professional and personal networks, women were divided 50-50 on the question, with some preferring to mix both, since they spend so much time in the workplace, while others made an effort to keep them separated in order to look more professional.   Many women mentioned the need to be a different person at work, and the fact they had been coached not to mention their family or children at work, so as to not be discredited as a leader, or seen as someone with less dedication for work (because of larger obligations at home).  If this seems like a strange statement, have a look at the findings below.

 

Downplaying Differences

A study conducted by Harvard and Duke on minorities showed the kind of issues just described was a problem across all groups: gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity.  In this study, 3000 employees coming from 20 different large US companies discussed their experience in becoming successful leaders.  All of them stressed the importance of inclusiveness and blending in.

 

In fact, 61% of them mentioned they had felt pressure either over or covert, to cover their differences in some ways, in order to fit in and succeed.  Of these, 66% felt it undermined their sense of self, 51% felt it affected how they viewed their chances of progression in the company and 50% felt it lowered their sense of commitment.   The surprising find was that even though covering behaviours were more common amongst minority groups (83% gays, 79% blacks, 66% women, 63% Hispanics and 61% Asians), an impressive 45% of men used covering-up tactics, aimed at masking their differences such as age, physical disabilities and mental health issues.  The four tactics most commonly used across all groups to cover their differences were the following:

– Appearance: 29% of respondents changes how they dressed and behaved to fit into the economical-social class befitting their aspirations

– Affiliation: 40% of respondents were careful not to mention anything about themselves that may associate them with a certain group in society that may be ridden with stereotypes or negative assumptions.

– Advocacy: 57% of respondents did not stick up for their own groups (cultural, gender or sexual orientation) when inappropriate jokes or comments were being made, for fear of being alienated.

– Association: 18% were careful not to be in contact with other members from the same group – be it by avoiding hanging out with others from their own culture, or avoiding Cancer Causes in order not to let on colleagues on their personal situation at home.

 

What Does this All Mean?

The conclusion of these three studies are quite interesting: although it seems men and women have similar needs in terms of succeeding, their most pressing issues may differ, since their situation may be different.  It is important to keep in mind the remarks below concern a sub-set of men and women, and not the entire population, as this study was specifically conducted with executives in large US organizations.  It is reasonable to think that certain character traits and types of personalities are naturally more drawn to these positions, and hence the following conclusions can not be generalized for men and women at large.

Men’s Greatest Spouse

In the studies, executive men tend to value organizational achievements and ongoing learning and development.  Financial success is also very important.  For men, it seems that the outward recognition be very important.  Praising, celebrating and encouraging the partner throughout their progress in the organization may be a way to support him.  In order to achieve high positions and earn more money, many men in this study relied on their spouses to support them: The most notable things they expect from their spouse are emotional understanding, practical help, as well as advice on their business or career.  Many men said they loved bouncing back ideas with their partner to get some practice at countering different points of views.

Women’s Greatest Spouse

Women in the studies mentioned seemed to pursue personal achievement, a career where they are passionate about what they do, receiving respect and making a difference.  They also faced increased difficulties due to stereotypes and being minorities in the workplace.  Not surprisingly, emotional support was the highest-ranking item on their wish list when it came to their spouse’s support.  Praising and celebrating  a woman’s achievements in terms of being fulfilled in her professional life and achieving her life dreams may be a way to support her.  Displaying respect and admiration for her endeavours and professional achievements, and celebrating the impact she has on other people’s lives, or in her professional field, is also a way to emotionally support a female leader spouse.  In addition, going beyond simply “not hindering” a woman’s career, a spouse may help contribute positively to it, be it through support at home with chores and children upbringing, or by offering the opportunities for relocation and supporting her  with business and career advice for her life.

When Both are Leaders

Regardless of the gender, both men and women executives mentioned their highest need to be emotional support from their spouse.  This is something that cannot be bought and requires an honest effort on both parts to support each other.  Most other things, however, can be bought.  Help for house chores, children upbringing and other such things can be provided by third parties, in a couple where both spouses are high-profile.  The HBR article “Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life” opens the article with defining what is important to leaders – males, and females.  That is perhaps no coincidence: the secret to managing a household where two high-achievers cohabit may be in truly understanding what matters most to each – and making choices to optimize that and support each other.

 

Sources:  You can read the articles “Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life”, “Who’s Got the Top Jobs?” and “Fear of Being Different Stifles Talent” in the Harvard Business Review’s issue of March 2014.

Your site analytics could uncover a new kind of consumers

What do cheese, sour cream and staples have in common?  They all went through a rough spot.   When their product managers learned to look at their client-base a little differently, they started increasing the stagnant sales for those rather ordinary products!  Here’s what they found: Superconsumers are different from what is commonly described as a Heavy User in the field of marketing.  And it’s the superconsumers who can bring the most cash!

 

Kraft’s Velveeta Cheese gets a Fan Club

Velveeta was having a tough time on the market, as trends such as healthy eating and organic products rivalled.  To many consumers, Velveeta was a once-a-year purchase for a dip at a party – and so Kraft’s sales with this product were stagnating.  Upon analyzing its data, Kraft came to realize there was a core 10% of its clients (a group that represented about 2.4 million consumers) that were generating 50% of its profits.  When asked to talk about the cheese, their description ranked Velveeta as a superior cheese: it melted nicely, was very versatile, etc.  Even more so- these hardcore fans, once the focus group finished, would exchange phone numbers and stay connected through their passion for the product.  In effect, Velveeta was almost a lifestyle for them, a common passion.  Kraft soon realized the best way to increase sales for this product was not, as they had previously tried, to get light consumers to use more of this product, but rather, to get superconsumers to do so: Kraft found ways to share more user-generated recipes, they created new derived products such as cheese slices for hamburgers and shredded cheese for pizza toppings, and they switched the product from un-refrigerated displays to the milk and cheese section in the groceries.  All of these efforts contributed to over a $100 million sales.

Kraft’s Breakstone Sour Cream Gets a Makeover

Similarly, when faced with stagnant sales of there sour cream Breakstone’s, Shannon Lester, the Kraft-brand manager at the time, had his team look into the small group of superconsumers to understand how Kraft could improve its sales with this category of users.  They found out that many of its superconsumers were mixing the sour cream with greek yogurt, to obtain a mix that had half the fat and cholesterol, while having twice the protein and calcium.  Ironically enough, Kraft had already put a similar product on the market years ago, with no traction.  But this time, focusing on the superconsumers, it was able to introduce it on the market and have it available in 60% of the US grocery stores in a few months only from the launch.  In this industry, these numbers were gaged as quite impressive.

How about an 8th stapler?

Conventional wisdom would dictate that offering a user with one or two staples at home with an additional one may get you sale, while offering someone who’s already got 7, would not.   Interestingly, researchers found that the superconsumers in the world of staples had on average eight staples each.  They were concerned with neat-ness and were super-organizers.  To them, having the right staple format was very important so that the quality of the content of their documents were also reflected in the quality of the stapled papers they were delivering.  Those users had various staples of various sizes on their work desk, a smaller one in their purse, another one at home, etc.  It is precisely by targeting them that the office supply company would be able to increase its revenue substantially, for this product category.

Beyond the Pareto Rule

Although these stories may seem anecdotal, they are actually illustrations of a very important and emerging concept in marketing.  When looking at a base of clients, marketers will generally seek that 20% of users that generate about 80% of the business.  The Nielsen supermarket scanner data enabled researchers to discover a very similar phenomenon with the top 10% of consumers accounting for 30-70% of sales.  These users are labeled as “Superconsumers”.

There is a substantial difference between what was dubbed as heavy users, and superconsumers: while heavy users simply buy a large amount of a product, superconsumers are actually very passionate about the product and are highly engaged with the brand or product.  Not only do they spend a lot – they have a very positive, vocal attitude towards the product.  In essence, superconsumers are a sub-set of the heavy users, and despite what was traditionally thought about heavy users, they are not maxed out when it comes to purchasing more.  These users live and breathe the product, and if they could imagine new uses for it, they would purchase even more.  These are the consumers that can boost sales effectively with a minimum investment.

Analytics to track “Superconsumers”

With the arrival of big data, CRMs and analytic tools in the retail world, getting data on consumers is increasingly more feasible.  Just by looking at website statistics and user engagement over social media, brands can already start identifying their superconsumers.  By linking loyalty programs and tracking the multi-channel purchasing history of users, companies can leverage the sum of the information available about users, from the brick-and-mortar operations down to the online store.  It may well be that by focusing on the consumers who most love them, and by giving them back a little love, that the companies may be able to break out of stagnant ruts and start increasing profits again.

 

This article was based on Harvard Business Review’s Idea Watch of March 2014, “Make Your Best Customers Even Better”.  You may access the magazine here.

Corina Paraschiv named Top 30 under 30 in IT

In June 2014, the business magazine Les Affaires issued the Top 30 Under 30 in IT issue.  I was very happy to be part of the selected young professionals to be featured, representing youth in large companies and multi-nationals.

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While the article and the 30-seconds video can be found online here, the integral (2-minutes-long) video may be found below, with an English transcription.  Credits to Chris Cochrane for the video production.

A Surprising Experience in Big Companies

Following my experience in small and medium enterprises, I discovered that the creativity and the wide array of tasks were very encouraged, and that’s something that was very appealing to me.  I was, however, very surprised to discover that the same entrepreneurial spirit and initiative spirit were encouraged in such a large multinational as CGI.  It really broke down some stereotypes I had about working for larger companies!

Cultivating Success

My goal has always been to improve myself; that is – always learn something new, always go a little further.  I think there were really three important factors in my life, to explain my professional success.

First, there is the understanding that there is no substitute for hard work; even an important natural gift cannot replace hard work.  The second important success factor for me was what we call in French the “savoir-etre”, meaning the way we interact with others around us.  This is something that is a little harder to learn because it is not traditionally taught in school, but it is very important: to understand the others, to be able to work with others, to have humility.  The third factor is undeniably opportunities: beyond having opportunities, it’s important to recognize them, and engage with them.  An opportunity can be a person that we meet along the way (often they become mentors, and friends), or a project with which we decide to engage or even to start.

A Fascination for IT

There are two things that have always fascinated me with IT.   On the one hand, IT is omnipresent in our society.  No matter what you do today, there will have been computers (and IT teams) supporting your daily activities.  This means the career opportunities are very interesting as you get to touch up on so many industries and different kinds of projects.  On the other hand, I believe we are now at the frontier of a new era.  Just like the previous generation has built machines that took the whole room and only begun to connect through this wild thing we now know as the Internet, today’s mobile technologies represent a profound shift in how the society will conduct business, report on news, interact with governments and with each other as citizens.  To be part of the pioneers building tomorrow’s world is very exciting to me.

Some Further Thoughts

When speaking about opportunities, one cannot leave unnamed the programs that made a substantial difference in achieving success.  I have a deep belief that it is the sum of our experience that shapes who we are, and that the early experiences in our lives shape our future to a great extent.  Hence, the importance of trying many things early on; one never knows where a passion might begin.  That is one of the main reasons I continue to be involved with community programs to help young people discover interesting career paths and fight school drop-out rates.  Similarly, people will play a great role in our lives.  It is they who help us in our successes and our failures, they who help us know ourselves better, and understand our own strengths and weaknesses, through their continuous feedback.

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Taking Client Presentations to a New Level

Going from a good to great presentation with power point can turn an informative reunion into a great adventure.  Here are five things you can change in your presentation today to improve your client presentations.

1  Using Personas

Using full-bled pages with the customer images help convey a human story.

Having people, rather than theory, speak of the real-life customer experience can be a great way to introduce pain points and discuss end-customer needs.  Let the person take up the whole screen for a bigger impact.

2  Transforming Text into Conceptual Diagrams 

Complex ideas are simply a collection of relationships between different ideas. You can use Slide:ology’s useful directory of digrams to express just the right idea!

Complex ideas can often be boiled down to a diagram depicting the relationship between various items.  They can be a great tool to synthesize, be it technical solutions or strategy-level information.

3  Helping Clients understand Main Points

How you choose to display information on a slide can help a client hone in on the important point right away.

Using shade, shape, colour, size or any other distinctive attribute, you may be able to help the client instinctively grasp the main point by contrasting it with the rest of the items on the slide.  Make the visual reflect the speech.

4  Making Numbers Speak

By using a three step process, it’s easy to turn a jumble of numbers into meaningful data. Help the client see your point.

By putting emphasis on the data you wish you highlight, and keeping the rest smooth in the background, you help the client digest graphs and see your point.  Always select trends and statistics graphs with a precise message in mind : what is the message to wish to deliver with the chosen graph?  Proceed to highlighting that message, either with different colours, with arrows, shading or with any other means to drive your point.

5  Creating Marketecture Sketches

Visual design is always easier to express an idea than slides with words or too many unconnected diagrams. An elegant solution is to bring it all together in one centralized conceptual drawing.

Marketecture sketches are marketing materials with embed concepts.  They illustrate a metaphorical ecosystem, strategy or IT landscape.  By combining several diagram types, one may build a marketecture structure to drive across the complex relationships between several ideas.  You may use your iPad or a tablet computer with Art Rage, or any other suitable stylus-sensitive app/software.

 

All these ideas, and many more, can be found in Slideology, by Nancy Duarte.   Check it out on Amazon now!

Hue Lights as Personal Time Management Tool

For roughly 200$, anyone can walk into an Apple store and grab a Philipp’s Hue Light starter kit (and for even less you can purchase one of their competitors, though they may work with less applications on the Apple Store).  Past the initial excitement of changing colours and ambiance through the ready-apps Philip’s Hue (your basic controller), Goldee (Rotates through various tones and colours for a more lively ambiance), and Invadr (plays to your music with a light show), you may find yourself looking for uses that will turn your house into a smart house.

A demo of Philip’s Hue Light application.

Light for Time Management 

Although not greatly marketed, an interesting use of Philip’s Hue Lights can be time management.  Philip’s has hinted at this use through this promotional video, where a young Londoneer learns about the rigours and discipline she will need growing up, through the Hue Lights.  While the light cues in this video are essentially driven by her parents manually entering the colour on the Philip’s Hue application at the right time, the idea has potential for automation, using a few additional free tools and some grown-up thinking!

 

How to Create your Personal Time Management System by Using Philip’s Hue Lights 

Adult life is also regulated by repetitive tasks and daily, weekly and monthly routines.  Light cues are a great alternative to phone reminders or emails:  You may be saturated with incoming phone vibrations and emails, you certainly will have a harder time ignoring a light changing colour in your home.  Philip’s Hue Lights remain on a set colour when programmed, until you come and manually turn it off or change it back to the colour you want.  This helps you be attentive to the light when it is signalling something.  A second advantage is that while emails and phone are peripheral tools (which may be in another room or simply not heard), the lights are immersive to your experience, and hence easier to notice.  Even when captivated by a good book in the morning, or when you’re preparing tomorrow’s lunch in the evening, a flashing light will be easily noticed, and will help you keep up with your schedule.  Of course, if you have kids, this may become an excellent tool to get them out the door on time for their school bus, too.

Achieving this level of organization is very simple: it requires only 4 easy steps.

Step 1 : Chose your Flow

Think of the routines you want to establish for yourself.  These are things you must do on a repetitive basis, either daily, weekly or monthly.  Here are some ideas:

(1) Banking Activities: Monthly bill payments, mortgages or rent payment, stocks follow-up, etc.

(2) Winding down or relaxation time: If you keep a moment to yourself during the day to wind down or relax before heading to bed, lights can signal the time change

(3) Waking up and Going to Bed times: your lights can be programmed to automatically wake you up or dim down and close for the night, for a more natural light experience.  This can be especially useful in winter times in the Northen Hemisphere countries, where the natural light decreases in the cold seasons.

(4) Getting ready: you can have the lights flash three times at set times in the morning, reminding you to be on your way shortly; the lights can be programmed to automatically go on or off when you approach or leave the house as well.

(5) Gardening Uses: Once a week, you can have a green light go on to remind you to water the plants (or as often as needed)

(6) Kitchen Uses: While you cannot program this ahead of time, it is possible to set a timer to change colours when cooking a roast or other items that are at risk of being forgotten.

(7) Any other repetitive task which requires reminders such as : computer back-ups, planning your weekly meals, laundry, brushing teeth, etc.

No one person will chose exactly the same set of rules for their lights, and it is possible to personalize the warnings (ex. children vs parents) by letting the apps know which lights to flicker or change colour from.  It is important to be selective when choosing the routines that will be associated to the light changes, so that they remain effective, and do not overwhelm or otherwise become “noise”.

Step 2 : Download IFTTT, Goldee and Philip’s Hue Lights

These three applications are fairly intuitive to use.  Here are ideas on possible uses:

IFTTT: If This Then That is the automator for most of the ideas explored above.   It allows lights to blink, loop through a series of colour, or change to a set colour based on various parameters such as time and date (the most useful for time management systems), incoming email or tweet, or even the weather outside.

Goldee: Goldee lets you program a light show which slowly dims down the light on the night setting.  This may be a way to wind down without having to do something active such as read.  The lights will close themselves off automatically after a pre-programmed time.  (This is a timer functionality and must be manually activated each time you wish to use it)

Philip’s Hue Lights: This application can come handy for pre-programming lights turning on and off depending on time of the day, the day of the week (but will not work for monthly reminders), and your location.  You can also use the functionality timer for uses such as kitchen timers.

 

Step 3:  Configure the Lights

Once your have downloaded the apps, select the appropriate app as described above and set the colours, times and dates according to your specific routine.  If you want more inspiration, you may look up the recipes posted by other users on IFTTT.

Philips Hue Lights with Timer & Location Options

 

Step 4: Configure the SMS

In some cases, it may be useful to combine the lights with an SMS reminder, highlighting what the colour is signalling.  For instance, when your lights blink in the morning, to get you going, you can also configure IFTTT to send you an email simultaneously, reminding you it’s time to go.  This may not only be helpful as a reminder in the beginning (when you may not know your system off by heart yet), but it may also prove interesting later on, as a reinforcement for your message.  You can also supplement your regular system with extra SMS messages programmed through IFTTT, such as a weather forecast for the upcoming day, so you know what clothes to prepare the night before!

iBeacon Technology in Retail

In the industry, this is old news: the official introduction of iBeacons took place last year at Apple’s developers conference (WWDC).  Most users have this technology active on their phones, yet very few are  aware of it.  One thing is certain, though: iBeacon technology will transform the retail landscape in a  very near future.

What is iBeacon Technology?

iBeacon Technology enables your phone to emit and receive location-related information using bluetooth.

iBeacon Technology is a location service that uses bluetooth to notify an app on a user’s phone that it is entering or exiting a location (or perimeter).  All users of iOS7 have it active on their phone, under Settings > Privacy > Location Services.  As of last year, the location services encompass iBeacon Technology.

iBeacons Uses

Although fairly recent, the iBeacon Technology has already been adopted by a few innovative brands.  As is the case for many new technologies, early adopters are trying to define how this new product category can best be utilized in order to deliver business value.  Here are a few ways in which the iBeacon technology has already been adopted.

Retail Promotions

American Eagle was amongst the first retailer to tap into the potential of iBeacons; the American chain launched an iBeacon promotional app in 100 flagship stores across the USA to help users chose their jeans and see the discounts available to them.  Upon approaching the jeans section, the iBeacon technology detects the visitor and launches promotions to lure them into a purchase.  This is the most commonly imagined use for iBeacons in tomorrow’s society.

American Eagles adopts iBeacon Technology

Better Retail Service

In December 2013, Apple introduced the iBeacon Technology in 254 US Apple Stores in order to give users a better customer service.  The app enabled users to receive notifications for their online orders, to see events taking place in the store and to have a look at reviews and product information while browsing the store.  It’s like having a personal assistant while shopping!

Apple store introduces iBeacons in selected stores (December 2013)

 

Another example of better service is the Major League Baseball’s application, launched in February 2014, which aims at improving the flow of traffic in the stadium.  The app also adds in some tailored advertising, knowing where you are located enables the app to feed you deals regarding concessions and loyalty programs.    Apps will vary according to each stadium.

 

Exclusive Experiences

Virgin Airline also has shown interest in integrating this technology in the famous Heathrow Airport for its passengers.  ” In one use case, passengers would receive an offer on their phone for no-fee currency exchange as they near that place of business. The program, which will utilize Apple’s iBeacon technology and the Passbook iOS app, follows a trial in which airline employees donned Google Glass as they greeted first-class passengers upon entering the airport “.

Virgin integrates iBeacon technology in Heathrow Airport

 

Future Trends

All apps having access to a user’s location are theoretically able to push on content on a person’s phone using iBeacon technology.  As this is a fairly new technology, consumers are not yet bombarded with ads and messages from third parties.  But as the technology grows more and more established, and the novelty wears off, this technology might become an equivalent to SMS, with the ability to turn on and off communications.   In an over-saturated world with television advertising, the iBeacon technology offers a useful alternative in the short-run.  The advertisers and retailers will, however, need to become increasingly customer-oriented and offer more content of interest over time, as the phone space will also become crowded with competing advertisers using the iBeacon Technology.

An interesting note should be made on a new app that has recently entered the marketplace, called Launch Here.  For the moment, this app is very primitive and simply sends an SMS signal to a user’s phone when approaching an object, but it is rumoured that future versions will enable Launch Here to launch actual apps (such as the iPhone’s Timer when you are near the kitchen stove) upon nearing iBeacons placed and determined by the user in his home.  This would bring a commercial technology in the consumer’s home for everyday use.

The Business of Fitness Wristbands

In October 2013, GigaOm Mobilze, the Californian conference on all things up-and-coming in the industry, announced the Internet of Things as the next bit hype – with a special focus on health- and fitness- monitoring wristbands.  Were their predictions correct?  We revisit the topic of fitness wristbands, half a year after.

An Example of Fitness Wristbands Today

The Winning Combination

Less than a year ago, the creators were still debating on what the optimal combination should be.  Companies has understood since 1980, when the first chip in shoes had been introduced, that the solution should be portable.  It should ideally have onboard capability for music and blue tooth.  And most of all, it should be personalized.  Yet, the product designers soon discovered this recipe wasn’t all that obvious.  There were some challenges to be solved first.

Industry Challenges

When discussing the main challenges the industry faced at the time, Paul Gaudio, the head of Adidas Interactive, and Olof Schybergson, the CEO of service design firm Fjord, mentioned the following key challenges: 

(1) The product category being so novel in itself, there are little standards to follow.  In many ways it’s very challenging because there is very little to benchmark it to – it could go any one direction.  On the other hand, it is an exciting opportunity as the new players get to envision what this technology should essentially be like.  Mobile in itself took about a decade to mature to its current form (and it is still evolving!), so what we are witnessing is similarly the baby steps of this new industry.  It’s not to be taken for granted, it is a difficult feat to define an entire industry.

(2) Consummers want less, not more.  At any given time, they want to carry one item at most.   Traditionally the items were either clip-ons (such as the iPod shuffle) or hidden in shoes, but the wrist seems like a good candidate because we already have the habit of wearing watches, not to mention the fact it “won’t introduce social awkwardness” (the way google eyeglasses may be doing right now).   “We want to bring function with what you already use and have, instead of adding a new item”, Paul Gaudio explained.

Flops & Failures

There have been attempts at things that did not work, prior to reaching the products we now enjoy on the market.  One of them was that a lot of effort was put into mobile apps, until marketers realized runners, for the most part, use exercise to disconnect and leave everything behind — they don’t want to stay connected!

The other mistake which has plagued the industry for a while at the start, is that, to put it in Olof Schybergson’s terms, “it is a category that is looking for the main functionality.  Is it about lifestyle? Is it for extending your phone?  Getting to “who is this for? and “what is its target market” is the most difficult.”

The Heart of the Matter

With some skepticism on consumers having to adopt yet another gadget with a new dashboard somewhere with new passwords and new online habits, I asked  Paul Gaudio and Olof Schybergson whether adoption will, in their opinion, be an easy curve for this product.  Their answer?  “We left certain things out.  And that’s the hardest question to ask you : What will we leave out?”

This indeed is the heart of the matter.  Looking over the last few months, the industry has done well in terms of simplifying and creating a base product that consumers can easily grasp: a wristband that records your physical activity and charts it on a graph accessible through mobile and internet.  The industry has now stepped into a second phase, with customization and targeting of products, as future trends will surely show.

FUTURE TRENDS

Analytics

Recently, a Canadian-based company put fundraised to produce their new “Airo Wristband”.  The company had to cancel its pre-orders, as it decided it may need a little more perfecting before going out onto the market, but their idea takes the wearables a little further: they provide analysis while minimizing your input.  They are currently working on developing a product that would be able to give you the nutritional breakdown of your food without you having to enter it manually, and it would be able to be proactive and help you take breaks for stress reduction, or getting more sleep, before your body becomes deprived of sleep or relaxation.  Whereas most solutions on the market simply plot graphs for their users, the next wave of wearables might be able to interpret the data, and make personalized recommendations based on said data.

Complementing Tools

Scales are an excellent example of products that have already started to integrate with wearables.  

New scales such as this smart food scale might soon integrate into fitness wristbands too, if the trend prevails, moving from laborious calorie-counting to integrated 

One device, many users

Another innovative product that has come onboard recently is iBitz, which combined the electronic world of children and teens (a little bit like Tamagochis did a decade or two ago) with the concept of wearable tracking devices.   The innovation lies not in the tracking device itself, but in the interface through which to view the results.  Interestingly enough, the interface is able to change based on the user’s age group, displaying a game for children and teens, while displaying a plain dashboard for their parents.  

Turning emails into Efficiency!

Email can be an incredible productivity tool if used properly.  This article explores ways in which you can use emails to empower you and get more things done.

Functions of Email

Email have the potential to serve multiple roles in our daily lives:

1. Collection Point for Unprocessed “Stuff”: Those of you familiar with David Allen’s GTD methodology will recognize this as the ultimate no-no scenario.  Inboxes are often the place where we receive our information, be it from work, important people in our lives, or feed services we subscribe to.  The problem comes when we let the emails accumulate to a point where we feel overwhelmed and do not know what to do with all this information.  Inbox should be used as an entry point to items we immediately process and act upon.  Procrastination is never a good practice for emails.
2. Reference for quick access:  Many times, emails can be great to reference tool, because it is accessible anytime, anywhere.  Other reference tools exist (such as bookmarking sites, Evernote, etc.) but you can nevertheless find emails particularly good for some types of quick access referencing.  One of those ways involves creating filters and folders for your various information to be stored (you can see a step-by-step example of this here) or other tools which will be described shortly, in this article.
3. Communication tool for connecting with others: Emails are an obvious go-to tool to keep in touch with loved ones.  The information overflow can sometimes make it difficult to keep up with the latest family or friends news so we will also cover this, as well as useful tools we can integrate in our daily routines to facilitate this process.
4. Scheduling tool: Many meetings are scheduled by email.  And when that involves a group, things can get hectic!  We’ll be discussing strategies and tools to help you get on track with your scheduling!
5. Reminder tool:  How often does it happen you try to capture a to-do on your email, or you send yourself something to follow-up on to your inbox, just in case you might forget?  There’s a way to take this to the next level!

Top Tips for Email Productivity & Efficiency

Keeping in mind the potential pitfalls just discussed, here are a few ways you can optimize your email management, to finally get things done!

Tip 1: Reduce time spend doing repetitive tasks

One way to optimize your time is to automate tasks you do often, or set up your inbox in a way that makes it quicker for you to get this done:

• Do you find yourself writing an introductory email every time you meet someone to greet him and validate his contact information?  Why not make it automatic!
• Do you have to rack your brain and Google map for a list of potential places to go to for your next business lunch, your next coffee or happy hour with colleagues?  Why not have all those addresses handy in a template which you can tweak a little and send out each time!
• Do you have to shift through your calendar and then back to your email to mark down suggested meeting dates for clients or friends?  Why not let the computer suggest times to your friend in three simple clicks?

Two main tools are available for free to help you with these tasks:  ToutApp, which is typically used in the sales industry, and IFTTT which is used by media-intensive people for personal organization.  Tout App will let you create templates containing that typical message your write to your team or friends when you follow-up on something, or that message with the places you can go out to around your office, for that next business lunch.  It also has a scheduling function that opens a calendar synched with your own, and lets you suggest as many time slots and dates as you want, by simply clicking on the dates and times you would like to suggest to your recipient.  It composes a little text letting them know you have the following availabilities – and then proceeds to listing them.    IFTT, on the other hand, has an impressive collection of recipes and lets you customize your own.  For new contacts added to your iphone instantly receiving a greeting email from you, have a look at this recipe.

Tip 2: Use email more efficiently as a reference tool

There are a few great ways to use emails as a reference tool.

• You can create filters that will automatically store emails you know to keep (or ones that you manually tag into the folder) so that you can access them later.
• You can also have Smartr let you know the history of the person you are about to write to, be it in your last exchanges emails, their latest facebook or Linked post, or other such history.  This helps you remember where you are at in your conversation with them without sifting through many emails or social media items.
• IFTTT also has a great appeal for logging in useful information.  Using this free online tool, you can have your starred emails appended or have a row appearing in a chosen spreadsheet on your Google Drive.  This can help track and synthesize your important information at a glance.

Tip 3: Better timing with your emails

One of my favourite discoveries is that you may program your emails to be sent at strategic times – to your email or to others’.  Here are a few ways in which you can use this:

• When you delegate a task to someone, program yourself an email to be sent to you on their deadline day for your to follow-up with them
• When you send out an invitation or an email to a person or a group, have the email be automatically sent back to you as a reminder if one of the people on the list has not responded to it by a certain date
• If you’re swamped right now and cannot take any additional appointments, but still want to cross of <<getting back to XYZ with appointment dates>> off your agenda, you can type up your email now, include some availabilities in the next two months, and program it to be sent sometime in the following weeks.  That way you are done with this item on your to-do list, but you won’t immediately be swamped by flooding responses at a time you can’t manage them.
• If you need to pay your landlord every month, pay your credit cards, or water your plant every three days, you can automate this kind of request and get notified on your email or cell-phone when time is right!

Two useful free tools for this are Boomerang and IFTTT.

Stay Tuned!

Now you’ve unlocked the productive power of email, you’ll be able to enjoy better efficiency and less stress at home and at work.  Stay tuned for Corina on Work’s upcoming articles which will include new productivity tools and a review of the Getting Things Done book by Davis Allen – with a few tweaks suggested to the original formula, for going that extra mile!