In TweetDeck you can shorten a long URL with services like bit.ly, digg, is.gd, tinyurl... Christian Godefroid recently sent me an email where he promoted url-ok.com and I have to say it's indeed a good idea. Just a few minutes after you have twitted something you can see the impact by the number of clicks.
IBM just announced its 2009 Q1 results. What we can see is that IBM's revenue has decreased (example : 6 % for Software Group) but thanks to IBM's ability to control costs, the margins more or less stay (-1%).
What's nice is that my favorite topic, BPM, is going up :
For the WebSphere family of software products, which facilitate customers? ability to manage a wide variety of business processes using open standards to interconnect applications, data and operating systems, revenues increased 5 percent year over year.
Septembre 2008. Jean-Paul Servais, le président de la Commission bancaire belge, déclare que les banques belges n'ont "aucun problème de solvabilité, ni de liquidité". Et le ministre Reynders va jusqu'à comparer le risque de faillite d'une banque belge à "celui que le ciel nous tombe sur la tête". Moins d'une semaine après, ce dernier passait quelques nuits blanches à négocier le sauvetage des mastodontes bancaires Fortis et Dexia.
Would I pay for Yahoo Mail ? Yes, I already do. Would I pay for Gmail ? Maybe Would I pay for Facebook ? No Would I pay for Twitter ? Probably No Would I pay for Friendfeed ? No Would I pay for Linked In : Yes (I don't do them all...)
I found the following interview of Hartmut Esslinger by Guy Kawazaki about Design really great. I like Kawazaki's questions. They lead to good answers. Here are some some elements of Esslinger's answers I recognize in my daily work.
Passion and Courage
"Excellent products require more then just a good designer or a good design agency?they require humanistic and cultural vision, courage and discipline in execution"
I had already noted this in one of my books on Strategy: "Passion and courage distinguish those who lead from those who manage" (The Art and Discipline of Strategic Leadership - Mike Freedman).
And indeed, I have experienced that when I want to design an ambitious system, I need the support of a visionnary executive. My problem is : I always design ambitious systems. So most of the time people don't understand (no vision) or don't follow (no courage), which often creates me some frustration.
Innovation
"The professional task of innovation includes to balance technological advancements with social relevance and sustainability".
At IBM we call it "innvovation that matters" and it's one of our 3 IBM values. So called "Innovation funnel" techniques can be also applied. It was the subject of my MBA Thesis applied to Software AG Belgium's Go-To-Market Strategy.
Who is a designer ?
?Design? isn?t a clear-cut talent profession, but one of coordination and catalyst between human needs, science and technology, business and economy, as well as sociology and ecology. The artistic talent required is more of an enabler at the end of rational and emotional analysis as well as strategic conceptualization
When I think about Passion, Innovation & Design I realize I'm probably indeed a good candidate for "Designer", or "Architect" (there is a difference between Architecture and Design but it's another story). Those elements are very close to my heart.
My only "problem" is that design only doesn't satisfy me completely. I would like to see the impact of Ambitious Designs on the bottom line, this will eventually lead me on the path of Entrepreneurship and Business Development.
In November last year, I was looking for an association which could give a second life to 2 bicycles I don't use anymore. Via O2Bikers I found such an association :
So today I gave them 2 bikes : a GT Timberline (1993, I think)
and a Specialized Stumpjumper Comp (1996)
Let's hope Voot will allow them a few more rides.
En Français:
En Novembre l'année passée je cherchais une association qui pourrait donner une seconde vie à deux vélos que je n'utilisait plus. Via O2Bikers, J'ai trouvé une telle association : Les ateliers vélos de la rue Voot. Je leur ai donné les deux vélos ci-dessus. Espérons que mes deux vélos aient une belle deuxième vie !
C'est bien possible car depuis mon MBA je suis souvent très critique vis-à-vis du top management - voir par exemple, mon article sur la creative class. La crise financière conforte mes opinions, d'ailleurs.
Faut-il arrêter de dire ce qu'on a envie au cas où ce qu'on blogge ne va pas plaire ? Faut-il avoir peur du qu'en dira t'on ?
Je ne pense pas; Au contraire, je préfère m'associer avec des gens qui me connaissent vraiment et qui m'acceptent comme je suis. Comme disait un de mes amis surfeur à l'université:
"I prefer to die on my feets than to live on my knees"
