Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.
Eugene "B"-log
360 degrees of curiosity
Leaders are not what many people think–people with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see whether anyone is following them. ‘Leadership qualities’ are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. The include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, determination, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head even when things are going badly. This is the opposite of the ‘charisma’ that we hear so much about.
Why are corporations failing? cc: @jeffjarvis @edyson
“In one of the first chapters of “In The Plex”, Steve Levy says it’s the “superbrainy engineering mentality that represented the future of business in the Internet age.” How true! What is not driven by the technology today? Toothbrush - can be electronic, refrigerators could automatically re-order food for you (granted this one didn’t take off just yet), peanut butter is automatically scraped from barrels with six sigma quality and stuffed into a jar, GE producing PAC imaging systems and American Express tracking fraud and abuse and at the same time partnering with @FourSquare to engage with the consumers.
An then there is complexity in tracking all these data points to be able to make just-in-time, accurate decision support capabilities of the living breathing organization.
An organization is like a human body. Everything needs to function perfectly in perfect unison or else you are sick. Well, corporations are sick today and will be for the foreseeable future.
So why, you ask? This is my theory and please don’t assume that I am talking about 100% of large enterprises. There is a small percentage (I dont have empirical data, maybe somebody does) of companies that are run by “super brainy mentality” that get just GET IT!!!
The business people who are the top of organizations today just don’t get it. They know the phrase “real time”, but don’t know what to do with it or how to “install it”. Decisions are made on stale information. There is so much data that becomes information, but DOES NOT become KNOWLEDGE.
The leaders of today also do not understand that everything is transparent. That there are no more secrets and backhanded deals. Employees have a million ways to communicate anything from inside of the corporation’s skin using today;s technology. Protectionism DOES NOT work
Tomorrow’s corporations need to inspire their workforce, they need to innovate in the marketplace, they need to engage with their customers and most importantly trust the future leaders. The leaders of today do not know how to accomplish this. They don’t understand in what ways technology can help. They just place demands based on inaccurate information, hire CIO’ who are pure operators and not business thinkers and lose the edge… Technology was a back thought of the business goal not the leading dog of the pack.
And this is why I think corporations as living and breathing organisms are becoming extinct. The future is entrepreneurship. And while, the word “entrepreneur” most of the time signifies two guys in a garage I am not just describing that. It also is a corporation that allows freedom to innovate, freedom to make decisions, acceptance of quick failure and quick recovery as well as rewarding risks at the rank and file.
There are two lessons here. One is a famous phrase by Esther Dyson: ” “Fail cheap. Fail fast. Fail often. Always make new mistakes.” Secondly is to embrace the new corporate leaders that know how to apply technology to grow a business, innovate and at the end create jobs!!!
1st ever Health 2.0 NYC Hackathon #gov20 cc: @todd_park
Well, Alex Fair from @FairCareMD and the rest of the great team at Health 2.0 NYC has done it again! Sold out event, star speaker and a mission - a mission to change our healthcare system. Please see below from Alex and re-tweet, blog, shout, poke and enthuse the health data geeks around you to participate! “Announcing the first ever Health 2.0 NYC UXathon/ Hackathon Health 2.0 NYC is not about passively listening, we DO stuff. So let’s meet Todd Park (CTO of HHS) halfway and live the dream he has been proselytizing so well. Let’s liberate all that crunchy data he has Opened Up from Government Data Sources and make some killer apps for health living! This contest is for the Designers, Programmers or Companies that can use the Healthdata.gov datasets out there. Everyone else, please ignore or pass on to your friendly neighborhood designer or programmer with a little time on their hands. Potential sponsors who want to tap into the creativity of the developers and designers of New York, please read on too… The Challenge. Do this: 1. Go to the www.healthdata.gov site 2. Imagine a useful application you could build with the many data sets there or ask a potential sponsor to help dream one up - see below if you need an idea. 3. Mash it up and build a prototype and/or design a killer User Experience (UX) by the 10th at Noon (EST) and post it to the forumfor general review and comment. We will send a survey to gather votes. The members of Health 2.0 will serve as judges for the big prize. (Note, you could win with just an amazing design, but it is better if you team up with a programmer to make a prototype too.) The Big Prize The top 2 entries get to be displayed as part of the Health 2.0 Meet Todd Park Event. Sponsorship winners will be determined by individual sponsors. Qualifications: 1. No companies or teams, just individual programmers and / or designers - max team size = 2 2. It has to be the work that was substantially done now, don’t dust off an old project and submit it. You can build on previous work, just note what is new. 3. It has to be beneficial to the delivery or practice of healthcare 4. You need to be able to attend live or via webcam on 8/12 in NYC @ 3 PM and do a demo. Sponsorship: Example: FairCareMD Physician Profiles make choosing a doctor easy but no great dataset exists that incorporates all the data freely available. Demographics, Quality and Cost data for every Practicing Physician, Dentist, Hospital, Urgicare center, or Allied Health Professional in America should be readily and easily available to all patients. FairCareMD is willing to sponsor the project but we need a great leader for it and to kickstart the development cycle. The data are interspersed among many of the .gov data sets. Mash them up and if you knock our socks off we will sponsor further development and pay a $1,000 cash prize. Why do this? 1. Hackathons are great for hiring and jobs. If you have the stuff and can strut it here you will get hired and have rock star status. 2. National Exposure - this event is big and will be livestreamed as well as published and tweeted online 3. Get Paid in Cash and maybe Equity - Sponsors like FairCareMD are looking for great new team members who can handle big data but we can’t afford to hire non-producers and most of us have been burned at least once. Get into a great startup by showing your skills and don’t just be a programmer, earn some sweat equity in the next big thing. 4. UXathon? Well, because often the hacked up creations are often not all that usable - so usability is also part of this contest, where relevant Please feel welcome to pass this on to others who might be interested. To see more about Todd Park or the event, click here. Once again, thank you for making our group and events what they are. Best Regards, Alex Fair”
Wow - found old checks from ‘98 - these companies do not exist #extinct Bell Atlantic, MCI, Smart Beep
It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition — and come with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing gives out and then that — ‘Bugs’ — as such little faults and difficulties are called.
Here’s the logo for the project I just mentioned that helps nurses learn about new innovations that make their jobs easier. We worked with our favorite design firm, Liitle Fury! They’re amazing little furies…
Thieves want your things… But neighbors want your time.. ” - haha
In 2009, Kate Moss said “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
In 1964, our Surgeon General said, smoking is bad for you. This was released when about 50% of all adults smoked. Now, in NYC, only about 12% of adults smoke. 46 years later.
Which one has the most influence over people? Pop culture vs. the surgeon general?
The issue of obesity is much, much more complicated than smoking. Smoking is one addictive behavior. Obesity is an entire ecosystem around you— your neighborhood, your means of transport, your corner store, your supermarket, your family, your culture, your attitude toward exercise, our media’s attitude toward skinny and overweight, our retail stores gradually increasing the measurements of a size to make us feel we’re not gaining weight, etc..
There is no quick fix to obesity.
So what does “quick” mean? In the world of smoking, quick meant 46 years to see a 38% decrease in a city with a very progressive, multi-factorial anti-smoking campaign. Regarding obesity, en masse behavior change takes generations. Just in the past decade, we’ve gotten the obesity conversation started. Hopefully, in 50 years and about the time I die, we’ll have seen a 38% decrease in obesity.
It’s just important to have some perspective and keep the conversation, awareness, and inspiration going.
You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy
