Paul McKey - Synergistic Design

Redbean - If you want to know the key words and messages that appear on your blog or website try running it through Wordle.

Wordle.

Redbean - I live in the southern hemisphere so it is spring. I also live in the sub-tropics. That means the trees are losing their leaves. Is that counter-intuitive for you?

When white fellas came to this country about 200 years ago they dismissed 30,000 years of experience and labelled everything they saw with European names. Including the seasons.

Australia is currently the leading performing economy in the world in terms of growth in the past quarter. It grew by 0.6%. Business is gearing up again and there is a general confidence around the place. Yet reading the press and talking with my clients I am not hearing anything new. Everyone seems to be back to Plan A - Sell more stuff.

In the subtropics it can be argued we have the same seasons as those in the northern tropics though not as severe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australian_seasons
This means that in Spring it is the dry season or Rarranhdharr in Yolngu language.
The indigenous trees know this too so they drop their leaves to conserve water. Not fully (there are only a handful of native deciduous trees in Australia) but just enough to survive.

Yet each ’spring’ we are inundated with images of flowers blooming and bees buzzing. Yet those images are surreal. They are images of the inverse of a repressed memory from over 200 years ago. One we can’t forget and continue to reinvent.

Does business do the same thing? Do we just have one picture on our wall of the good times. One based upon unlimited credit and excessive consumption? Are we just hibernating waiting for that time to return? We can’t seem to get out the door, take a look around and observe for ourselves. If we did we would see a different outlook.

Growing sub-tropical fruits you can watch them deal with the extremes of the seasons. They fruit before the wet season. So they flower in summer. In addition to native bees they use birds and migrating bats to pollenate. And unlike the European fruits have few pests and need little attention. My Sterculia quadrifida is currently bare and the fruit is ripening in time for the wet season.

Do you think business will ever come to understand the ‘new world’ we now live in? One where Seth Godin describes the “post-consumption consumer” as having less desire to return high debt and business having less ability to consume precious resources at past levels.

I hope so because in a bizarre sense it is business that has got us into this mess yet it is also business that will have to get us out of it. We have become so dependent upon business and the economy that we can’t unravel the connections. Yet it won’t be the dumb or even the ordinary business models of yesteryear that save us. No we have to build something smarter. And that is both the need and the opportunity!

So what is your new plan for dealing with the new world? Is it the same old image or are you going to get out and observe for yourself? If you need some help reviewing your strategy just let me know. We can start with a walk around my property and have a look at some of the four thousand trees that I had to plant after some white fella had tried to turn the original rainforest into a picture of the rolling green hills of England!

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Knowing when to bring in outside assistance and how to get value for your money is a skill every business manager needs to master. Below is a ‘classic’ post that explains how to engage a consultant based on your needs - and not what they are selling.

*****

I have two types of clients. Those that think I am too expensive and those that think I am too cheap. Both are suspicious.

I feel sorry for the former and very happy for the latter. Yet how does this conundrum come about?

The engagement of a consultant begins in a number of ways for a number of reasons. The major scenarios are;

1. You have a non-specific problem which requires some creative thinking and possible innovation (you are buying a creative process);
2. You have a specific problem which requires an efficient and predictable outcome (you are buying a solution);
3. You need to brainstorm 1 to be able to reach 2.

So are you sure why you are engaging a consultant? Do you want Brains work, innovative fresh ideas, or do you just want a pair of hands to help out? There is a big difference in both approach and outcomes. The first is consulting, the latter is really contracting. In fact David Maister (Managing the Professional Services Firm) divides consulting work into three major styles defined by the outcome you need:

Expert - Brains work solving unique problems. Time is irrelevant here but results are critical. Strategic, organisational change and new design work falls into this category. This is defined by a partnering model and the client relationship. Good relationships with a creative team should yield ongoing results and competitive advantage.

Experience - Hiring a firm who has done this sort of work before and can therefore save you a lot of time and money by utilising their expertise and processes. Many law or market research firms fall into this category. This is about product and quality of service.

Efficiency - This is straight out commodity work. Repeatable processes you require done at a standard quality and price. This is the sort of work now being outsourced to India by the banks, software developers and even some accounting and legal firms. This is primarily about price and time.

Many consultants, when offered, will jump at all three styles of work. They argue they are efficient, have a solution and that they can help you solve problems. In fact these are highly specialised areas of service which require completely different approaches and business structures. Yes small generalist, and large multi-division, firms do exist, but even within these you should still look for individualised approaches to feel confident they can deliver. Yet surprisingly most consultants use the same fee structure regardless of the style of work (this is an indication that they are fee centric, not customer centric - beware! )

Hence an experienced consultant doing efficiency work will always look expensive. Conversely a good process consultant who helps your organisation to solve problems and create unique opportunities will always look cheap since the ‘value’ they can bring should be many times greater than their fee. Good consultants will often charge a value-based fee. The result may be nothing. This is the risk. Yet the process should always provide a rich learning experience for all involved. You can ask the consultant to separate process and performance fees. This will lower your risk and provide some incentive to the consultant for a tangible outcome, not just another report.

A good consultant always brings an enquiring mind and modicum of cynicism to any task. I suggest these ‘fresh eyes’ are what you are really buying otherwise they are just a pair-of-hands and will always look expensive.

In summary then, your first step to a successful consulting engagement is to understand your needs sufficiently to define which style of service you require. One way to test this is to ask your prospective consultants which category they consider they fall into and why. This will expose their capability and allow you to evaluate if they will fit your needs and budget. Otherwise you will always remain suspicious.

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Leon Young from www.change2.com.au shared his thoughts on how to make corporate learning and sustainability more engaging.

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Redbean - In my ongoing fascination with the book industry - because it is a litmus test for digitising existing ‘analogue’ industries - here is a blog post that neatly spells out the converging forces at play.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bits_of_destruction_hit_book_publishing_part1.php
by Bernard Lunn over at ReadWriteWeb

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Redbean - One of the common themes we hear after dominant players in any industry suddenly lose the plot is that their leaders were getting just the advice they wanted to hear - but not the advice they needed. When bosses in the car industry surround themselves with BIG car people they invariably make more BIG cars regardless of what the market wants.

And so it seems with News Ltd. Richard Freudenstein, CEO of News Digtital Media, was quoted in this week’s press as saying “For a lot of the things people want to do, the broadband we have now is probably quick enough to allow that to happen… it will just be an extension of what is already happening.” (20090730 - SMH - Broadband revolution fails to excite News)

For me this rates right up there with the lack of foresight, denial and other bad predictions of the visionless. You wonder whether these people actually use the services they sell. Or maybe it is just the vested interests talking, seeing that Fraudenstein is also a director of the pay TV operator Foxtel?

Pay TV and free to air TV are both under threat from increased broadband speeds and using denial of that fact as a strategy doesn’t sound too smart to me.

Note to Mr. Murdoch. I am available to advise you at exorbitant rates of pay but there is a caveat - I may not tell you what you want to hear.

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Redbean - This is a comment from Dan Holloway, a US based author trying to shake up the book publsihing industry. I thought it deserved a blog of its own:

Dan - I’m trying to drag writers into the twenty-first century but it’s hard - they’re a pretty reactionary bunch - as a result, as a collective we look rather unradical to the outside world because we have to keep pace in our publicity with our slowest members out of respect, but I think the future is in grass-roots community building, and that means direct engagement with the fans, which is what I’m trying to do with the Free-e-day festival (www.freeeday.wordpress.com) - it’s interesting to see so far the reaction I’ve had from filmmakers and musicians has been more positive than from writers, who are a deeply suspicious bunch (convinced you’re trying to do them out of a living, rather than trying to create a larger interface between readers and writers - in the new landscape the ones who’ll be done out of a living are the publishers not the writers!).

Here’s my post:

The publishing industry’s main failing is that it refuses to be reader-centred (hence the lack of engaging experiences – what we need to do is learn to listen, to offer up models, and respond to the feedback – which is what I’m trying to do with my interactive Facebook novel The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes). It is also uniquely badly placed by being so cumbersome and keeping everything in house – the future will bring, I am sure, flatter models where editing, design, printing, logistics are directly outsourced by writers or their PRs. Social media work bottom-up, which is why traditional businesses suffer – they have to listen and not impose – which ties in with the last of your four points – great networkers would be an invaluable asset to publishers, but impossible for them to justify in the current economic climate.

All of which is great news for the likes of us, because unless the publishers stop looking down their noses at the newbies and realise sometimes we can do it better, some of us newbies will before too long be buying them up and asset-stripping them.

I wrote a long article on this in May if anyone would like to take a look:
http://streamwriting.com/blog/?p=116
Best
Dan

http://www.yearzerowriters.wordpress.com

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I love this question. Is design too important to be left only to designers? It is a question that has been posed by Bruce Nussbaum at Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2009/06/is_design_too_i_1.html

In this post he quotes Anne Burdick who takes up, quite eloquently, that if designers don’t expand their thinking about design then others will do it for them. This is the same threat to a particular herd that has been felt before by, for instance, artists are threatened by patrons buying primitive art, ‘real’ musicians are threatened by folk music and so on. Now Designers are being threatened by sites promoting non-designers.

So if you can get around the absolutely whacko design of yellow and orange text and reverse video colour schemes then you should find the speech and supporting movies on the place of design pretty interesting.
http://www.burdickoffices.com/Design-wo-Designers/

So here is a question for you. What is the difference between a designer and a non-designer?

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New York - I am in the Big Apple to attend Book Expo America - one of the largest book fairs in the world. This trade only show brings together nearly everyone in the biz from the big six publishers to many of the independent publishers and bookstores across North America. It is quite a gathering of the literati.

My attendance was primarily as an author, hawking a new book currently titled “Smart Business Design - How to gain competitive advantage in the 21st century”.
The book deals with a fundamental concern of what Chris Anderson of Wired magazine has this month called the New new economy. That is that the majority of business people struggle to develop in all four areas critical to the success of a 21st century business - areas outside their experience which include:
* understanding and developing business models
* designing and delivering compelling experiences
* understanding how to leverage new media and social networks
* developing the skills to attract and nurture great people

Unfortunately, nowhere was the above problem more apparent than in the book publishing industry.

They are seeing their business model being eroded by online sellers and they have virtually no answer. Amazon are releasing their books for USD9.99. Far below the $25 or so the industry requires to maintain profitability.

They are seeing their well developed marketing channels being eroded by a lack of understanding about online tactics. Tactics their ebook competitors and smaller publishers are quickly mastering.

They are seeing their independent booksellers suffering in most markets. With fewer people browsing their shelves there is little they can do. Their best tactic is to develop and promote their local community of readers yet few have the skills (and as was pointed out, the personality) required to utilise social networking techniques.

While the demise of books and the book industry is slow and inevitable there appears to be no demise in reading. If anything we are all reading more these days. It’s just that it is in other forms to a physical book. Hence the online market is developing at breakneck speed driven by digital readers such as Kindle, Sony Reader and even the iPhone.

Yet the industry hangs on tight to its structured, physical distribution model. As the president of one major publisher told me “there is still a lot of money to be made behind the front line”. Yet digital is growing rapidly and starting to really eat into traditional channels. As one presenter pointed out there is some hope and he said the companies to watch are Wiley and O’Reilly.

http://www.wiley.com/

http://oreilly.com/

And the publishers look like dinosaurs caught in the spotlight. They have little to no constructive response. One panel session which included three CEOs of the big six publishers spent most of their time arguing over how to deal with Amazon and Google. They had little insight into how to deal with a shifting demographic and industry in confusion.

And it comes down to the people. Unfortunately the book industry is an older population of literate folk who don’t really get online that much. And that is out of step with their market.

What is concerning is that they are not spinning off innovative smaller companies to test and develop new channels. They are unwilling to adjust while watching their US$28B industry erode before their eyes. They are terrified of going the same way as the music industry, where all the major labels have lost market and influence due to online forces, yet seem incapable of responding.

This is an industry in crisis. The irony is it may be where I can realise the best sales of my book, which is designed to help individual organisations and even industry sectors migrate into the modern world. I know of at least six CEOs who should be reading it.

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The Australian Prime MInister Kevin Rudd this week announced an AUD43 billion plan to deliver high-speed fibre-to-the-node broadband to 90% of Australian homes within 8 years.
CNet News

I congratulate the government which has had the vision and is providing the funds, and is taking the risk. They have had to step in since the private sector was providing none of these elements and waiting for them to do so was a classic case of market forces failing to deliver.

Australia has several unique problems when it comes to delivering telecommunication services. Firstly it has one of the lowest rates of population per square kilometre in the world. And even though most cling to the coast like barnacles the expense of delivering physical services to a very spread out population is rarely cost-effective.

The second problem is that it is resource rich so it hasn’t seen the above problem as a problem till now. Australia just crushes more rocks and turns that into money.
Until of course the resources boom finally came to an end. Until of course the Global Financial Crisis left it clambering for new ways to turn a dollar. Until of course it compares itself with the rest of the world and finds it has not kept up with investment in infrastructure.
International Telecommunications Union Statistics

So here is some news Australia. The resources boom is over and the knowledge boom is just beginning.

Many struggle to see what spending all this money on some fibre cables is going to do for them. This infrastructure is long overdue.

It can be argued that the countries like those of the G20 have had little vision in the past ten years other than to make money. That’s fine but as we know, money has this capacity to disappear and we see few benefits of the ‘good times’.

The benefits of this initiative will flow to the three core areas of economic, social and environmental improvement for many years to come.

I am much happier to see the money going to fibre cable than some of the choices that face the USA right now. For instance spending the equivalent amount on bailing out General Motors. GM is an industrial age dinosaur. Its products don’t fit with the economic, social and environmental future yet they still persist in making brands for numbskulls like the Hummer. Bankruptcy is the best thing for them.

These challenges are echoing around the world and the question is when do we finally give up on the industrial age, bring it to a graceful close and start facing and investing in the knowledge age that is out inevitable future?

Embracing a knowledge rich and sustainable future is now becoming our responsibility. It also just makes plain good sense. The time has come for a new mindset.

The economy of the future will revolve around the exchange of ideas not commodities. The social fabric of the future will benefit from knowledge based services in diverse areas like finance, education and medicine (such as the ability to deliver high quality diagnosis in the home) with the use of simple and existing technology (except for those missing pipes). The environment will win in a multitude of ways as we remove the drudge from our lives and concentrate on improving the planet.

So thanks Kevin Rudd for getting the ball rolling into the future.

Phew I think I’ll go and have a soy/chai latté down at the Internet café after that rant!

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