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Strategic Planning – vital for any business
Posted by Fred Zimny
See on Scoop.it – Designing design thinking driven operations
Strategic planning is a vital undertaking for any organization. Most successful organizations have a comprehensive method of strategic planning that is revised periodically.
The interval between planning sessions has diminished over the past few years. The interval used to be about five years. These days, it’s closer to 2 years in many organizations. As a rule, the more the organization is impacted by technological developments, the shorter the interval. These days, with the global and national economic system as uncertain as it is, strategic planning is more difficult, but more important, than ever.
Plans do not always succeed in their execution. There are a variety of reasons for this, but most fall into the following categories:
1. Lack of motivation and personal ownership
2. Poor communication
3. Idea behind the plan is too vague
5. No/poor Leadership
For a plan to succeed, there needs to be a connection with the real world, not just an idealized vision. The real world includes (among others) items such as:
~ Customer expectations
~ Employees
~ Resources
~ Local and national Economy
~ Demographics
And your business is also professional and personal goals
See on workforcesolutions.stlcc.edu
Photocredit: pretty-glamorous
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Strategy or Execution: Which Is More Important?
Posted by Fred Zimny
Found at Strategy or Execution: Which Is More Important?.
Many business leaders think they’d rather have great execution than superior strategies, but you can’t have the first without the second.
Read all at Strategy or Execution: Which Is More Important?.
My point of view: strategy first, execution second (with very little distance between these 2 concepts).

Photocredit: Approaches to the History of Art”, Edie Campbell photographed by Aladair McLellan in 032C Fall 2012
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Posted in Because i like to share again and again, Recovery and the way out of the crisis, recession and depression
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serve4impact’s best read items of this week
Posted by Fred Zimny
Baskin Dim Bulb branding advertising social media business strategy: The Digital Shakedown
Highly popular paper: Design methods for developing services
Recommended exhibition: The Subversion of Images Surrealism, Photography, and Film @Winterthur
Infographic The Rise of Walking and Biking
Rethinking the Marketing Funnel in a World of Social Media | David Rogers Blog22
Schumpeter: The magic of good service | The Economist
5 Ideas That Are Changing the World: The Case For Optimism! #outofthemiseryindex
The ROI of User Experience with Dr. Susan Weinschenk
A nice mix of this blog’s classics (and my roots) and the posts of this last week.
Hope you enjoy them!

Photocredit:
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Heather Fraser Design Works
The rise and ohoh rise of the collaborative organization
Posted by Fred Zimny
The core
This is a nuts-and-bolts guide.
Jacob Morgan provides the information, insights and a strategic framework you need to use emergent collaborative software behind your company‘s firewall to solve business problems, unearth new opportunies and to drive innovation.
This book is about enterprise 2.0. As defined as the use of emergent social software platforms by business in pursuit of their goals regardless of whether it is inside or outside the firewall.
Jacob Morgan is the principal and co-founder of Chess Media Group, a management consulting and strategic advisory firm on collaboration. He is the author of his new book “The Collaborative Organization,” the first strategic guide for executives and decision makers seeking to deploy emerging technologies and strategies in the workplace (published by McGraw Hill, due out June 2012).
My rating
4,5 stars on a scale 0-5.
In an earlier post I wrote about the inertia of some managers for investing in knowledge management.
In that post I made a reference to Kaplan and Norton’s Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Jacob includes one – at least for me – essential part of it:
None of these intangible assets has value that can be measured seperately or independently.
The value of these intangible assets derives from their ability to help the organization implement its strategy…..
Intangible assets such as knowledge and technology seldom have a direct impact on financial outcome such as increased revenues, lowered costs and higher profits, Improvements in tangible assets affect financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships.
Jacob and I agree completely with that statement.
The author claims that one can use the book as a guide for a one’s collaborative journey. One should utilize everything you can in this chapter and in the book, adapt it, change it and make it your own. Regular readers may see a similar approach as of my blog serve4impact: context, connect, construct and compact changes. But be cautious: the book has a technology focus. To really start your collaborative journey I would like to recommend Morton Hansen book on Collaboration and Andrew McAfee’s Enterprise 2.0.
I refer buying this book to anyone who is working in a knowledge intensive industry. As a manager or profesional. It is not limited to leaders for creating , implementing and adapting a strategy. Buy the book and do not read all of it. Check out your action points and start reading. As stated before, there is even more food of thougth (such as this fine reading list).
One flaw of the approach is that the approach of collaboration is limited at the enterprise level. Be aware of that.
But to mitigate that flaw, I will include some fine decks. Not for reading, but for creating action.
Decks and further reading
Senior executives are skeptical of the value of social software.
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Posted in Recovery and the way out of the crisis, recession and depression
Tags: Andrew Mason, Andrew McAfee, Apple, Arab Spring, Business, Business process, carol velthuis, Chess Media Group, Christine Lagarde, Collaboration, Company, EBay, Enterprise 2.0, Facebook, Good to Great, Hewlett Packard, Jacob Morgan, Knowledge management, Leadership, Management, Marché de La Viande, McGraw-Hill, McKinsey & Company, Personal development, Recovery and the way out of the crisis, recession and depression, Sheryl Sandberg, social, Social Enterprise, Strategic management, Vision, visionaries, vision things, trends
Retail branding in financial services by Marcin Chlodnicki
Posted by Fred Zimny

From the author
Cases and know-how for financial services, mainly. Major part was taken from KSDP Design – I think it doesn’t exist any more, however it was one of the first service design companies. Those days it was called strategic brand consulting, hollistic approach and inclusive branding. Thank you KSDP for your works
Photocredit: y Julianna Collett Photography
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Posted in Recovery and the way out of the crisis, recession and depression, Social CRM and social business
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The social side of strategy – McKinsey Quarterly – Strategy – Strategy in Practice
Posted by Fred Zimny
Crowdsourcing your strategy may sound crazy. But a few pioneering companies are starting to do just that, boosting organizational alignment in the process. Should you join them? A McKinsey Quarterly Strategy article.
See on www.mckinseyquarterly.com
Photocredit: Glamgerous – Fashion Blogger: Polka Fever
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Dear [insert Business Name], What’s Your Promise?
Posted by Fred Zimny

Not only functional but also emotional. And not only business but also as a professional or as a person.
See on Scoop.it – Designing design thinking driven operations
“You say you want to get closer to customers, but your actions are different than your words.
You say you want to “surprise and delight” customers, but your product development teams are too busy building against a roadmap without consideration of the 5th P of marketing…people.”
If we are to truly change, we must find purpose. We must uncover the essence of our business and the value it delivers to traditional and connected consumers. We must rethink the spirit of today’s embrace and clearly articulate how transformation is going to improve customer and employee experiences and relationships now and over time.
What’s Your Promise? Your promise to me as your consumer, stakeholder, and partner.
An Inspirational Post by Brian Solis – http://bit.ly/w1AGy8 , Read Entire Article Here: http://bit.ly/LxjGnM
See on www.briansolis.com
Photocredit: Geschwisterliebe
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Posted in Because i like to share again and again, Recovery and the way out of the crisis, recession and depression
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