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McKinsey Quarterly

Saturday, February 28, 2009

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The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
Pierre Corneille

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Friday, February 27, 2009

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It is not every question that deserves an answer.
Publilius Syrus

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

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The more you know the less you need to say.
Jim Rohn

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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Fate loves the fearless.
James Russell Lowell

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

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It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
James Thurber

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Monday, February 23, 2009

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Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles de Gaulle

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

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It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.
Anatole France

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

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We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
Herman Melville

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Friday, February 20, 2009

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Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Laurence J. Peter

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McKinsey about "Six ways to make Web 2.0 work"

So far many have been wondering about how businesses can take the most out from web 2.0 tools. Plenty of discussions on the social web, all over the globe, have expressed their opinions. The following is the opinion that for sure will get much more the business leaders attention; it's an article by McKinsey and, as rightly comments "Link to your world" in a very recent news I have been receiving from: "This article should be considered a tipping point. When McKinsey speaks business leaders listen and you can bet this article will stir more engagement in social media activities from businesses around the globe."......"The irony is that this one article will lift the tides of interest and all boats, those fitted for duty, will rise."

here follows the article reported from McKinsey Quarterly:

Web 2.0 tools present a vast array of opportunities—for companies that know how to use them.

FEBRUARY 2009 • Michael Chui, Andy Miller, and Roger P. Roberts


Technologies known collectively as Web 2.0 have spread widely among consumers over the past five years. Social-networking Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, now attract more than 100 million visitors a month. As the popularity of Web 2.0 has grown, companies have noted the intense consumer engagement and creativity surrounding these technologies. Many organizations, keen to harness Web 2.0 internally, are experimenting with the tools or deploying them on a trial basis.

Over the past two years, McKinsey has studied more than 50 early adopters to garner insights into successful efforts to use Web 2.0 as a way of unlocking participation. We have surveyed, independently, a range of executives on Web 2.0 adoption. Our work suggests the challenges that lie ahead. To date, as many survey respondents are dissatisfied with their use of Web 2.0 technologies as are satisfied. Many of the dissenters cite impediments such as organizational structure, the inability of managers to understand the new levers of change, and a lack of understanding about how value is created using Web 2.0 tools. We have found that, unless a number of success factors are present, Web 2.0 efforts often fail to launch or to reach expected heights of usage. Executives who are suspicious or uncomfortable with perceived changes or risks often call off these efforts. Others fail because managers simply don’t know how to encourage the type of participation that will produce meaningful results.

Some historical perspective is useful. Web 2.0, the latest wave in corporate technology adoptions, could have a more far-reaching organizational impact than technologies adopted in the 1990s—such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (Exhibit 1). The latest Web tools have a strong bottom-up element and engage a broad base of workers. They also demand a mind-set different from that of earlier IT programs, which were instituted primarily by edicts from senior managers.

Web 2.0 covers a range of technologies. The most widely used are blogs, wikis, podcasts, information tagging, prediction markets, and social networks (Exhibit 2). New technologies constantly appear as the Internet continues to evolve. Of the companies we interviewed for our research, all were using at least one of these tools. What distinguishes them from previous technologies is the high degree of participation they require to be effective. Unlike ERP and CRM, where most users either simply process information in the form of reports or use the technology to execute transactions (such as issuing payments or entering customer orders), Web 2.0 technologies are interactive and require users to generate new information and content or to edit the work of other participants.

Earlier technologies often required expensive and lengthy technical implementations, as well as the realignment of formal business processes. With such memories still fresh, some executives naturally remain wary of Web 2.0. But the new tools are different. While they are inherently disruptive and often challenge an organization and its culture, they are not technically complex to implement. Rather, they are a relatively lightweight overlay to the existing infrastructure and do not necessarily require complex technology integration.
Gains from participation

Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor at New York University, calls the underused human potential at companies an immense “cognitive surplus” and one that could be tapped by participatory tools. Corporate leaders are, of course, eager to find new ways to add value. Over the past 15 years, using a combination of technology investments and process reengineering, they have substantially raised the productivity of transactional processes. Web 2.0 promises further gains, although the capabilities differ from those of the past technologies (Exhibit 3).

Research by our colleagues shows how differences in collaboration are correlated with large differences in corporate performance.1 Our most recent Web 2.0 survey demonstrates that despite early frustrations, a growing number of companies remain committed to capturing the collaborative benefits of Web 2.0.2 Since we first polled global executives two years ago, the adoption of these tools has continued. Spending on them is now a relatively modest $1 billion, but the level of investment is expected to grow by more than 15 percent annually over the next five years, despite the current recession.3
Management imperatives for unlocking participation

To help companies navigate the Web 2.0 landscape, we have identified six critical factors that determine the outcome of efforts to implement these technologies.

1. The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top. Web 2.0 projects often are seen as grassroots experiments, and leaders sometimes believe the technologies will be adopted without management intervention—a “build it and they will come” philosophy. These business leaders are correct in thinking that participatory technologies are founded upon bottom-up involvement from frontline staffers and that this pattern is fundamentally different from the rollout of ERP systems, for example, where compliance with rules is mandatory. Successful participation, however, requires not only grassroots activity but also a different leadership approach: senior executives often become role models and lead through informal channels.

At Lockheed Martin, for instance, a direct report to the CIO championed the use of blogs and wikis when they were introduced. The executive evangelized the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies to other senior leaders and acted as a role model by establishing his own blog. He set goals for adoption across the organization, as well as for the volume of contributions. The result was widespread acceptance and collaboration across the company’s divisions.

2. The best uses come from users—but they require help to scale. In earlier IT campaigns, identifying and prioritizing the applications that would generate the greatest business value was relatively easy. These applications focused primarily on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of known business processes within functional silos (for example, supply-chain-management software to improve coordination across the network). By contrast, our research shows the applications that drive the most value through participatory technologies often aren’t those that management expects.

Efforts go awry when organizations try to dictate their preferred uses of the technologies—a strategy that fits applications designed specifically to improve the performance of known processes—rather than observing what works and then scaling it up. When management chooses the wrong uses, organizations often don’t regroup by switching to applications that might be successful. One global technology player, for example, introduced a collection of participatory tools that management judged would help the company’s new hires quickly get up to speed in their jobs. The intended use never caught on, but people in the company’s recruiting staff began using the tools to share recruiting tips and pass along information about specific candidates and their qualifications. The company, however, has yet to scale up this successful, albeit unintended, use.

At AT&T, it was frontline staffers who found the best use for a participatory technology—in this case, using Web 2.0 for collaborative project management. Rather than dictating the use, management broadened participation by supporting an awareness campaign to seed further experimentation. Over a 12-month period, the use of the technology rose to 95 percent of employees, from 65 percent.

3. What’s in the workflow is what gets used. Perhaps because of the novelty of Web 2.0 initiatives, they’re often considered separate from mainstream work. Earlier generations of technologies, by contrast, often explicitly replaced the tools employees used to accomplish tasks. Thus, using Web 2.0 and participating in online work communities often becomes just another “to do” on an already crowded list of tasks.

Participatory technologies have the highest chance of success when incorporated into a user’s daily workflow. The importance of this principle is sometimes masked by short-term success when technologies are unveiled with great fanfare; with the excitement of the launch, contributions seem to flourish. As normal daily workloads pile up, however, the energy and attention surrounding the rollout decline, as does participation. One professional-services firm introduced a wiki-based knowledge-management system, to which employees were expected to contribute, in addition to their daily tasks. Immediately following the launch, a group of enthusiasts used the wikis vigorously, but as time passed they gave the effort less personal time—outside their daily workflow—and participation levels fell.

Google is an instructive case to the contrary. It has modified the way work is typically done and has made Web tools relevant to how employees actually do their jobs. The company’s engineers use blogs and wikis as core tools for reporting on the progress of their work. Managers stay abreast of their progress and provide direction by using tools that make it easy to mine data on workflows. Engineers are better able to coordinate work with one another and can request or provide backup help when needed. The easily accessible project data allows senior managers to allocate resources to the most important and time-sensitive projects.

Pixar moved in a similar direction when it upgraded a Web 2.0 tool that didn’t quite mesh with the way animators did their jobs. The company started with basic text-based wikis to share information about films in production and to document meeting notes. That was unsatisfactory, since collaborative problem solving at the studio works best when animators, software engineers, managers, and directors analyze and discuss real clips and frames from a movie.4 Once Pixar built video into the wikis, their quality improved as critiques became more relevant. The efficiency of the project groups increased as well.

4. Appeal to the participants’ egos and needs—not just their wallets. Traditional management incentives aren’t particularly useful for encouraging participation.5 Earlier technology adoptions could be guided readily with techniques such as management by objectives, as well as standardized bonus pay or individual feedback. The failure of employees to use a mandated application would affect their performance metrics and reviews. These methods tend to fall short when applied to unlocking participation. In one failed attempt, a leading Web company set performance evaluation criteria that included the frequency of postings on the company’s newly launched wiki. While individuals were posting enough entries to meet the benchmarks, the contributions were generally of low quality. Similarly, a professional-services firm tried to use steady management pressure to get individuals to post on wikis. Participation increased when managers doled out frequent feedback but never reached self-sustaining levels.

A more effective approach plays to the Web’s ethos and the participants’ desire for recognition: bolstering the reputation of participants in relevant communities, rewarding enthusiasm, or acknowledging the quality and usefulness of contributions. ArcelorMittal, for instance, found that when prizes for contributions were handed out at prominent company meetings, employees submitted many more ideas for business improvements than they did when the awards were given in less-public forums.

5. The right solution comes from the right participants. Targeting users who can create a critical mass for participation as well as add value is another key to success. With an ERP rollout, the process is straightforward: a company simply identifies the number of installations (or “seats”) it needs to buy for functions such as purchasing or finance and accounting. With participatory technologies, it’s far from obvious which individuals will be the best participants. Without the right base, efforts are often ineffective. A pharmaceutical company tried to generate new product ideas by tapping suggestions from visitors to its corporate Web site. It soon discovered that most of them had neither the skills nor the knowledge to make meaningful contributions, so the quality of the ideas was very low.

To select users who will help drive a self-sustaining effort (often enthusiastic early technology adopters who have rich personal networks and will thus share knowledge and exchange ideas), a thoughtful approach is required. When P&G introduced wikis and blogs to foster collaboration among its workgroups, the company targeted technology-savvy and respected opinion leaders within the organization. Some of these people ranked high in the corporate hierarchy, while others were influential scientists or employees to whom other colleagues would turn for advice or other assistance.

When Best Buy experimented with internal information markets, the goal was to ensure that participation helped to create value. In these markets, employees place bets on business outcomes, such as sales forecasts.6 To improve the chances of success, Best Buy cast its net widely, going beyond in-house forecasting experts; it also sought out participants with a more diverse base of operational knowledge who could apply independent judgment to the prediction markets. The resulting forecasts were more accurate than those produced by the company’s experts.

6. Balance the top-down and self-management of risk. A common reason for failed participation is discomfort with it, or even fear. In some cases, the lack of management control over the self-organizing nature and power of dissent is the issue. In others, it’s the potential repercussions of content—through blogs, social networks, and other venues—that is detrimental to the company. Numerous executives we interviewed said that participatory initiatives had been stalled by legal and HR concerns. These risks differ markedly from those of previous technology adoptions, where the chief downside was high costs and poor execution.

Companies often have difficulty maintaining the right balance of freedom and control. Some organizations, trying to accommodate new Web standards, have adopted total laissez-faire policies, eschewing even basic controls that screen out inappropriate postings. In some cases, these organizations have been burned.

Prudent managers should work with the legal, HR, and IT security functions to establish reasonable policies, such as prohibiting anonymous posting. Fears are often overblown, however, and the social norms enforced by users in the participating communities can be very effective at policing user exchanges and thus mitigating risks. The sites of some companies incorporate “flag as inappropriate” buttons, which temporarily remove suspect postings until they can be reviewed, though officials report that these functions are rarely used. Participatory technologies should include auditing functions, similar to those for e-mail, that track all contributions and their authors. Ultimately, however, companies must recognize that successful participation means engaging in authentic conversations with participants.
Next steps

Acceptance of Web 2.0 technologies in business is growing. Encouraging participation calls for new approaches that break with the methods used to deploy IT in the past. Company leaders first need to survey their current practices. Once they feel comfortable with some level of controlled disruption, they can begin testing the new participatory tools. The management imperatives we have outlined should improve the likelihood of success.
Keep the conversation going on Twitter


About the Authors

Michael Chui is a consultant in McKinsey’s San Francisco office; Andy Miller is an associate principal in the Silicon Valley office, where Roger Roberts is a principal.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of their colleagues James Manyika, Yooki Park, Bryan Pate, and Kausik Rajgopal. •
Back to top
Notes

1Scott C. Beardsley, Bradford C. Johnson, and James M. Manyika, “Competitive advantage from better interactions,” mckinseyquarterly.com, May 2006.

2Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey Global Survey Results,” mckinseyquarterly.com, July 2008.

3See G. Oliver Young et al., “Can enterprise Web 2.0 survive the recession?” forrester.com, January 6, 2009.

4See Hayagreeva Rao, Robert Sutton, and Allen P. Webb, “Innovation lessons from Pixar: An interview with Oscar-winning director Brad Bird,” mckinseyquarterly.com, April 2008.

5Exceptions exist for harnessing information markets and searching crowd expertise, where formal incentives are an essential part of the mechanism for participation.

6See Renée Dye, “The promise of prediction markets: A roundtable,” mckinseyquarterly.com, April 2008; and the video “Betting on prediction markets,” mckinseyquarterly.com, November 2007.


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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Quote of the day

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Quote of the day

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

Andre Gide
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Quote of the day

Dreams are necessary to life.

Anais Nin
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Monday, February 16, 2009

Quote of the day

Education is the transmission of civilization.

Will Durant
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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Quote of the day

Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax.

Charles Kettering
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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Quote of the day

To be is to do.

Immanuel Kant
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Friday, February 13, 2009

Quote of the day

It is not how old you are, but how you are old.

Jules Renard
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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Quote of the day

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

Nelson Mandela
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Quote of the day

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.

Rene Descartes
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Quote of the day

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

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The italian Agency of Revenues has published the new tax return models "Unico 2009–PF" related to personal income tax and issued a new "mini" form

The italian Revenue Agency has proposed a new model, so called "Unico mini", a lighter version in respect of the traditional one ("Modello Unico 2009" ) and studied for about 4 million italian taxpayers who receive ordinary income.
It is a very simple form to be filled: it consists of just four sides instead of the usual eight ones and the lines and reduced in number but increased in size. There are many innovations that will bring with it the new form related to personal income tax return. Firstly, it accepts the exceptional bonus in aid of families and the application of the 10% percentage tax on benefits of overtime pay related to overtime work; yet, it is necessary to expressively opt fort his latteoption in order to get the benefit. Moreover, it has become much easier to compile also as regards earned income from labor, and deductible costs.The italian Revenue Agency has therefore estimated that the new model 2009 "Unico mini" will bemade available to around 4 million people; among them, some 3 million are employees, while the remaining one million part belongs to the category of "holders of other income "(for istance, theowners of a building). The model also can be used by those persons residing in the Italian territory and who receive various types of income, in particular, income from land and buildings, as mentioned above, earned income from labor, pension income, income related to businesses not ordinarily run who want to take advantage of tax allowances due to work and family loads. So, as you can see, a wide range of incomes are encompassed in this group. As said before, the mini One model has been conceived and designed by the Revenue Agency especially for those people who receive a simple income ; on the contrary, it cannot be made available to holders of incomes subject to VAT, to the heirs and guardians, as well as to those subjects who are obliged to draw an additional tax return.
After the green light to the model "Unico mini" 2009 related to the most ordinary and simple
incomes, the Revenue Agency has also issued the final version of the new model, so called "Unico" for 2009 year in respect of individuals: it concerns about 11 million taxpayers and relates to the 2008 solar year tax period.


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Monday, February 9, 2009

Quote of the day

Life is a comedy for those who think... and a tragedy for those who feel.
Horace Walpole

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Sunday, February 8, 2009

Quote of the day

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
Anne Frank

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Quote of the day

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.

Tom Brokaw
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Friday, February 6, 2009

Quote of the day

Be who you are and be that well.

Saint Francis de Sales
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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Quote of the day

Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.

Barbara Sher
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Quote of the day

Don't borrow someone else's spectacles to view yourself with.

Simon Travaglia
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Anobii introduces itself to Italy


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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Quote of the day

Patience is the art of hoping.
Luc de Clapier

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Monday, February 2, 2009

Quote of the day

You get the best out of others when you get the best out of yourself.

Harvey S. Firestone
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Fifht edition of "Identità golose" in Milan


Is ongoing in Milan downtown from the 1st to the 4th of February, the fifht edition of "identità golose", the congress devoted to fine italian cuisine, conceived in January of 2004 by Paolo Marchi.
The calendar of this great event related to the superlative italian cuisine, could be found at Programma 2009 page, and a short presentation grid of its speakers at relatori page .

I really think this event does deserve to be attended !


Here is a short video presentation in italian of the fourth 2008 edition, by its creator Paolo Marchi.


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Sunday, February 1, 2009

Quote of the day

The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.

Paul Tournier
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Davos Annual Meeting 2009 - Interview to Klaus Schwab


Today, the first of February is the last day of the Davos annual meeting of World Economic Forum.

Here is the interview with Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.







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Claude Monet - Some great impressionism works

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