Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

As with all enterprise search systems, the usefulness of a BI search tool depends primarily on the relevancy of the search results returned to the user when conducting searches and the ease with which users can carry out their searches successfully.

There was an interesting story a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal about the electronic retailer Best Buy's internal prediction market [1]. Company executives use the prediction market, called TagTrade, to see how successful Best Buy employees think a particular project, idea, or initiative will be.

We like to think that knowledge is cumulative -- what mathematicians refer to as monotonically increasing. Unfortunately, that is not the case. For example, we no longer know how to build pyramids as the Egyptians did, make violins and cellos the way 18th-century Italians did, or, surprisingly, how to build the rockets that got the first man to the moon.

Although virtual-world technology is in its developmental stage, its impact on societies and business operations is already evident. Last year, in Q4 alone, more than US $425 million had been invested in 15 virtual worlds; in Q1 2008, more than $184 million was invested in 23 companies. 1 In addition, many children are being raised with broad access to virtual worlds. Indeed, they may spend more time watching TV, playing, socializing, and learning in a virtual world than in real life.

We need to rethink dispute resolution. It has matured in concept and approach so that it becomes not just a useful tool in managing conflict by problem solving but a vehicle for creative collaboration. We might want to start by renaming it, because what we call it influences our perceptions of its uses.

Strategic orientation toward customers and innovation needs to be grounded, understood, and directed in response to the business strategic plan. Businesses that develop a comprehensive strategic plan will have the insight to know which strategic-orientation mode will best help them reach their goals.

A couple of months ago, we complimented the folks at Cutter about the recent Cutter IT Journal (CITJ) on Project Management 2.0. 1 We were impressed with the breadth and quality of the articles and their general themes. However, we also noted that the term "business value" was mentioned only once in CITJ -- and was not discussed in any of the articles.

There is a lot of interest at the present time in the role that Enterprise 2.0 Web applications can play in enhancing business performance. In a survey recently conducted by Trampoline Systems, a London-based provider of social networking software, 94% of UK and 82% of US businesses believe the new technologies will be beneficial to use at work. Other recent research shows similar results.