What Are You Waiting For?

By Bill Frech, Co-Founder, CandidAdvisors

Are you under pressure from management and the board to cut costs but not cut service, you may even have to increase service or support new offerings. What can you do?

Have you thought about implementing shared services, or if you already have shared services, should you expand the scope and remit?

The Shared Services concept has been around as a business solution for reducing costs, improving performance and providing better information to businesses since the mid-80’s (For a definition of Shared Services see the blog post entitled Defining Shared Services, Enabling a Capability to do More With Less). However, there are a number of companies who have not implemented shared services or taken full advantage of their shared service operation. They are either agonizing over the wisdom of doing so and/or are still battling the politics that encumber any change.

If you stop and think about what is entailed in undertaking the implementation of a shared services strategy it is much less costly, faster and less contentious than an ERP implementation… AND the benefits are achieved faster and the cost savings can be truly significant, often quoted at greater than a 30% cost reduction. As a matter of fact, it is often the move to Shared Services and not the ERP implementation that drives the majority of the savings.

Politics aside for the moment, how do you know determine if shared services is a viable solution for your company? Let us start by asking; does you company have any of the following indicators?

• Redundant staff or functions in the business units/divisions/etc.
• Multiple ERP systems or instances of ERP systems
• No data standards
• Difficulty in answering questions like:

- How many employees do we have?

- How much do I spend on travel?

- What does Finance, HR, or IT cost me?

- Are my outsourcing contracts delivering the value promised?

- Can I get a business case to see how this new acquisition might fit into with my other businesses?

Outsourcing contracts are managed by various groups, business units, etc. with no standards and minimal leverage between arrangements

If these indicators ring a bell or you are under pressure to reduce cost while keeping up performance, you should consider implementing shared services as part of your business optimization strategy.

An easy way to get started and verify if this is the right strategy for your organization is to perform an assessment. An assessment involves gathering the costs associated with the operation of the area(s) you are considering for shared services. Envision how the shared service will operate and what your staffing needs would be and then compare current to future state costs. You should also consider what the costs would be to move to your new operating model and what some of the non-financial benefits will be. This should give you an indication as to whether you should consider implementing shared services.

Defining Shared Services, Enabling a Capability to do More With Less

Shared Services refers to the organizational construct and operational allocation of responsibility that bundles certain business processes and activities into a separate organization, which in turn treats those processes and activities as the core of its own business offering them as a product or service to its customers. The concept behind Shared Services is the sharing common business processes, improving service and access to information while reducing cost through leveraging economies of scale.

Shared services is generally considered tactical solutions, in that they are not typically core areas of the business and do not provide a significant competitive advantage to the business they serve. By collecting nonstrategic processes and activities into a common organization, under its own management, the potential exists for individual business units to focus on their core business. Freeing up business unit management to focus on solving business problems by enhancing the business unit’s core processes can result in enhancement of the value chain, which in turn can lead to company growth.

But why stop at non-core activities? A few companies are implementing Shared Services for Marketing, Sales, Customer support, Product development, Product support, etc. This expansion of the Shared Services concept is critical in today’s climate of having to achieve more with less (people, budget, access to enabling technologies, etc.) CandidAdvisors believes this is an essential trend and that Shared Services are more than simply aggregating work into a group, organization or center.

Some of the characteristics of effective Shared Service operations:

• They operate as a stand-alone organization with a mission to serve the business regardless of function, business unit or location.
• They treat their internal customers with a powerful customer service ethic.
• They are function agnostic.
• Their goals are reduced cost, improved service and better information.
• They can offer value-added services such as analysis and project support.
• They can serve as an innovation center for the business support functions.
• They operate as a business, with a demand planning and product/price orientation towards their customers.
• They are an excellent structure to perform governance over outsourcing contracts and services.

Overall Shared Services is a well-accepted and proven way of providing business services to corporations. They are especially effective in helping corporations reduce costs while improving service, information accuracy and accessibility. However, it is now time to expand their role into enabling corporations to do more with less and to expand their remit into new areas.

INNOVATION - THE "ILLUSIVE" GOAL IN OUTSOURCING AND SHARED SERVICES

By Bill Frech, Co-Founder, CandidAdvisors

When you ask an executive to describe what they would consider innovation, you’ll get answers that are all over the map; from standardization of support service processes, implementing best in class processes, to implementing leading edge processes that differentiate them with customers.

Given this range of answers how does one not only define innovation but also realize when they have achieved it?

A number of outsourcing contracts I’ve worked on have defined innovation as:

 “XX% savings in contract cost every year after “steady state” is reached.”

But is that really innovation or just cost reduction?

The bottom line is innovation means different things to each person and is heavily dependent upon your starting point. 

Ideally, contracts should be structured to assure both parties consider innovation and discuss and adjust on a regular basis.

Your view of innovation will change and evolve over time as you implement improvement.  Therefore it is essential that innovation be clearly defined as part of a contract such as adding gain sharing to incent both parties to develop and implement innovative solutions.

Nurturing Alumni for the Right Reasons

By Steve Jandrell - Co-Founder, CandidAdvisors

As a former Principal with Ernst and Young, I attended the Atlanta Alumni meeting at Villa Christina on November 19, 2009.

I have to commend E&Y for a well organized and productive Alumni meeting.   It was a real pleasure to reconnect with some great people – former colleagues - who are friends and thorough professionals. While the evening was primarily social - catching up with where folks are and what they are doing - it was also a good opportunity for networking.

It was also a great reminder of the caliber of people who are part of the E&Y family: John Fridley, Bill Hartman, Jim Jancik, Ian Cooper, Steve Bucalo, Ron Barton, Chris Clark, Matt Rodgers, and Harlan Graiser, just to name a few.

In this economy, where there are challenges at every turn, the notion of client service and offering value has never been more important. As we’ve watched the consulting model become more of a commodity where  cost is the primary criterion for clients to buy advice, to be among folks who know how important it is to add value and make a difference is so refreshing.

The E&Y Alumni model is a good one. In building our new company CandidAdvisors, we have adopted the standards, ethics and client service focus that are part of the E&Y DNA. Thank you E&Y for a great evening and for the values that the Firm lives and each of us have adopted.

3 Critical Questions to Simplifying Complexity

By Bill Frech

How many different outsourcing contracts does your company have?

Most large companies find themselves with multiple contracts in the IT and BPO space, often with different providers. In fact according to Julia Kotlarsky, an Associate Professor at the Warwick Business School, most businesses are throwing billions of dollars at IT outsourcing contracts despite having little understanding of what they spend or get for their money.

This multitude of contracts has resulted in more management complexity and in some cases more complexity for the end-user. Frequently, separate organizations or different groups within the same organization manage these contracts.

3 critical questions:

1) Are contracts still providing value to the company?
2) Are contracts still in support of the company goals?
3) Are the end-users of these contracts getting what they need to run their business on a daily basis or are shadow organizations and solutions arising?

This white-paper "Outsourcing has become an Evolution to Complexity, Increased Cost and Unknown Value" will discuss how companies have evolved to this situation and what they need to do to put mechanisms in place to ensure the outsourcing agreements support the long-term business goals.

Simplifying Complexity - Part 1: Integrating the Large Team

By Steve Jandrell

Integrating the Large Team:

The Challenge of Unplanned Complexity

Large scale projects, whether they are; the result of a business transformation program, technology based, the result of a merger or acquisition, part of a move to a shared services model or the result of an outsourcing arrangement may be characterized by one or more of the following:

• Multiple teams with individual goals
• A blend of employees and consultants
• Independent contractors
• Outsourcing vendor(s)
• Specialty advisors (e.g., legal, audit, tax)
• Trainers
• Different working styles

This is a complex operating environment. Even the best planning can lead to complexity, but when decisions are made at the tactical level, or are incrementally made, this complexity can grow exponentially. The complexity issue has many dimensions, including differing methodologies, performance expectations, operating cultures (even national culture), standards, definitions of team work and success criteria.

The challenge becomes one of integrating potentially disparate groups into one cohesive whole. To achieve this, these questions need to be answered in the affirmative:

- Is there clear, visible and active sponsorship?
- Is the end goal defined in tangible and specific terms for the entire effort?
- Is a leadership structure in place with roles and responsibilities unambiguously defined?
- Has a brand identity been created?
- Is there a detailed program plan with supporting project plans?
- Are milestones and measures built into that program and project plans?
- Is there one overarching set of methods and approaches?
- Have performance standards been set and communicated?
- Have cultural differences been discussed, defined and accounted for in plans?
- Have team based and cross team reward and recognition plans been developed and implemented?
- Is a retention and re-entry plan in place for employees/associates on the program?

Creating commonality of purpose is not a one-off effort. Collective success is the definition of program and project success. It needs to communicated regularly and reinforced by leadership action and example.

Read more | Attend a Session

Now THIS is Teamwork

Achieving More with Less - Positively

From Steve Jandrell, Co-Founder CandidAdvisors

This post is a response to today's WSJ Article Employers Hold Off on Hiring - Doing More with Less - http://bit.ly/2A3Sbl

In many ways, the negatives of an economic down turn and the slow recovery from an employment and jobs perspective, dominate the debate. Economists seem to agree that even with a fair wind, getting unemployment back to 5% will take 8 or so years. As operating costs are cut, hiring freezes put in place, budgets trimmed, productivity requirements inevitably focus on doing more with less. The threat of unemployment makes workers more amenable to working fewer hours while still delivering; process efficiencies and changes in work flow add to the productivity gains. But so much is borne of fear.

There is a point however, that seems to be consistently missed. Business process efficiencies, people working harder, intelligent application of technology are all important, but what about employees raising their game based on the positive perspective of developing an individual and collective sense of high performance and mutual support, regardless of the prevailing economic environment?

Most people want to be part of a winning team. Very few wake in the morning thinking, “I want to sub-optimize my contribution today.” Yet it happens all the time. The solution is not a theoretical, “let’s all bond” but a measured and planned effort to leverage the fundamental human need to achieve and be successful. In so many cases it is at the team level where this can occur.

Internal business and work relationships in corporate America are typically superficial and polite. Stereotypes are formed (often quite wrong), and there is a prevailing attitude of leave decisions on how to improve things to the boss, or he and she will not want to delegate (or in their mind, abdicate) responsibility.

It doesn’t have to be like that. If companies organized to ride the wave of human creativity and people’s need to succeed, and thus created focused support networks, the term empowerment is taken to a different level. This economic climate may be the vehicle for this. Not just doing more with less, or even achieving more with less, but creating a work place of support, positive reinforcement and folks really playing to their strengths. Becoming the true winning team.

In the end, winning a Super Bowl is not about, for example, whether the Quarterback and the Wide Receivers like each other; it is about each player knowing their strengths and limitations, finding ways to work together for maximum impact and celebrating the fact that their individual and collective goals are clear and are given the space and encouragement to achieve them. In this scenario, performance is everyone’s responsibility. If a co-worker is not playing to their strengths, shouldn’t this be of concern to the rest of the team? In so many occasions, it is never really addressed – it is apparently safer not to.

Listen to Steve live via the CandidAdvisors webinar series: REGISTER

Read the original article at The Wall Street Journal

Google Wave - First looks

As seen on Twitter: "RT @mozami OH: Sure, President Obamas got a Nobel. But did he get a Google Wave invite?"

(This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons.

Created by User:Evil_saltine using Graph 2.6, Photoshop, and Microsoft GIF Animator)

I've been experimenting with Google Wave for about 3 hours now. I like it, but then I like waves. Sine, sound, standing, and now Google.

To start with the basics, the default view has two main panes, with a simple menu on the far left of the two panes. For my screen-shot below, I'm only showing the two main panes.


When creating a wave, you either invite only specific Google wave users to join, or you make it public.

• To make a wave private for only a select group of users, create a wave and select only specific people from your contact list.

• To make a wave public, you add public@a.gwave.com to your contacts, and then add that contact to the wave.

The left pane is the Wave In-box. This includes private and public waves. To get started, the key search term is [with:public]. Remove my brackets. Using this command, I see every wave currently public.

By viewing with:public, all waves appear.

Once I open a specific wave, it will appear on the right-hand side of my view, next to my main in-box pane. I can re-size these panes to suit my view.

If I leave a wave and return later, I can then see the number of new responses indicated by a green icon, and when I open the wave, I hit the SHIFT key on my keyboard to forward to any new messages I haven't read.

I can join in, read, drag other waves into a wave, and a wealth of other actions I'll cover in another post.



To focus in on a specific interest, subject, or group, I narrow my search terms. In my last example, I used search term with:public Charleston, SC.

In this way I found local folks, and a wealth of helpful advice. Thank you Calvin Webster!

Tomorrow, I'm going to experiment with adding Blogger and Twitter Robots, and next week I'll be real-time collaborating on a paper via Google Wave with a very talented CTO (more on that later).

On the Wave

Well, I received my Googlewave invite about an hour ago, stumbled around for 15 minutes, and then broke down and read some of the massive help material.

I gotta' tell ya', so far I like it. I conducted a quick search and found a group of 61 users in my local city, added them to my contacts, and had a great chat with Calvin D. Webster II of http://thinksea.info/blog/. Calvin is also coordinating Charleston's first BarCamp. http://www.barcampchs.org/ Cool guy.

I'll post screenshots tomorrow with some quick navigation tips. I will say for the record, it's easier to navigate and use than I first thought it would be.

Nice job Google. Now let's see what we can do with it.

Are you ready to ride the Wave?

The invites are on the way, all 100k of them, and the Wave is about to roll, but what does it all mean?

I signed up about six-months ago, and am hoping to get my invite soon, so hope to update with live data asap.

What is Google Wave?

Google Wave is a real-time communication platform. Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

From my perspective, I'm looking for something more robust than Twitter and FriendFeed, less distracting that Facebook, and something that allows me to expand my business network, manage project resources, build new business relationships, share important ideas, collaborate, and communicate with customers both internal and external in a meaningful way. Oh, and keep it all efficient and organized. Not too much to ask, eh?

From first peeks at the Wave however, my concern is that it may appear complex by many and have a high abandon rate. I believe those who abandon will come back after popularity and proof of usefulness becomes more widely known, but the learning curve for that group will be steeper as more development ensues.

Salesforce.com is getting in front of the Wave. Here's a great video describing it:

Gravity is a prototype developed by SAP Research in Brisbane, Australia and SAP NetWeaver Development. It provides real-time, cloud-based, collaborative business process modelling within Google Wave.



Mashable has some great articles related to the Wave here, and the intro video we posted a couple of months ago is below. Will you try it?

CandidAdvisors introduces Belbin Team Roles - Achieving More with Less – The Need to Create and Sustain High Performing Teams

Achieving More with Less – The Need to Create and Sustain High Performing Teams

High performance at a team level rarely just happens. Whether it’s planning to win the Super Bowl, delivering team outcomes above expectations or integrating multiple teams, there is the issue of how to maximize the talent and contribution of each team member.

While having clear, measurable and shared team goals is central, it is maximizing team member contribution and building team synergy that often presents the biggest challenge. Typically, relationships within a team are fairly superficial; stereotypes of individuals (often wrong), are easily formed and sustained and discord is not addressed. Teams can develop team dynamic dysfunction, such as a small sub-set of the team dominating discussions.

At CandidAdvisors LLC, we are able to address individual contribution, total team effectiveness and team dynamics to help improve and sustain team performance. We use a sound and pragmatic behavioral approach because behavior is visible; it can be measured, positive behavior can be replicated, and unhelpful behavior for the same reasons can be explicitly discouraged.

To accomplish this, we facilitate a process of individual and group discovery. From each team member’s own experience, we build a picture of what outstanding teaming looks like. In other words, the team creates its own benchmarks to measure itself. The team members then take the Belbin self perception inventory on team roles.

The Belbin was developed by Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team who conducted research at Henley Management College in the UK over a period of nine years and studied the behavior of managers from all over the world. Their book, Management Teams - Why They Succeed or Fail was cited by the Financial Times as one of the top fifty business books of all time.

We use the output of this tool to help the team identify its strengths, challenge unhelpful stereotypes and foster an environment of achievement where each team member’s contribution is not only valued at the individual level, but at the team level too.

For example, the full process is 5 days for a team of up to 12 people:

• 2 days of preparation – understanding specific issues, one-on-one confidential meetings with team members and development of a clear picture of the desired outcome and barriers to that outcome.
• 2 days for the workshop
• 1 day to produce the final team deliverable and record of the workshop.

The result is a focused deliverable of what the team can do to raise its game and how to keep that raised game on track. The workshop creates the energy and direction for ongoing success.

Contact us at info@candidadvisors.com or call us at 404-478-4112 for more information

What the cool kids are doing with technology and film

For more information, Chris Cairn's work is here: http://www.partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/?chris_cairns

see also the Neurosonics Audiomedical Laboratory at http://www.neurosonicsaudiomedical.com/ & Faris' Blog at http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/

Creating and Sustaining High Performance Work Teams with CandidAdvisors

CandidAdvisors is pleased to partner with and offer the Belbin Team Roles Workshop

Whether you are building a new team, want to refresh an existing team, or are looking to create a common focus between two groups that desire to collaborate more effectively, CandidAdvisors can help. Using a unique and behaviorally anchored approach, CandidAdvisors offers a one to two day workshop, depending on the size of the team. The key elements are:

• Defining high performance in terms of outcomes and behavior
• Using the Belbin Self Perception Inventory, completed on line, with individual feedback and a collective assessment and aggregated team profile
• Showing the relationship between team work and heightened group creativity
• Understanding the need for a sound team process as well as agreeing what roles individual team members can play
• Exploring the options for individual team member contributions
• Having a framework to discuss and measure what total team effectiveness means

This is a facilitated process where the team itself sets its standards in the context of what the team is mandated to deliver, its measures and agrees the means for self correction moving forward. Part of the process includes insight into what each team member potentially brings to the working of the team and what each team member can reasonably expect from other members, including ongoing feedback and support.

Please contact info@candidadvisors.com for information on how you can bring the Belbin Self Perception Inventory and Belbin Team Roles Workshop into your organization, and read more about our Partners Here.

From TED - Talks Golan Levin makes art that looks back at you

Take a break with Art from TED

Golan Levin, an artist and engineer, uses modern tools -- robotics, new software, cognitive research -- to make artworks that surprise and delight. Watch as sounds become shapes, bodies create paintings, and a curious eye looks back at the curious viewer.

Half performance artist, half software engineer, Golan Levin manipulates the computer to create improvised soundscapes with dazzling corresponding visuals. He is at the forefront of defining new parameters for art. For more: Golan Levin

What is Cloud Computing? (What a difference a Year makes)

"Cloud computing is an operations model, not a technology" James Urquhart Market Manager for the Data Center 3.0 strategy at Cisco Systems.

From May 2008 Web 2.0 Expo


From July 2009 OSCON 09: Simon Wardley, "Cloud Computing - Why IT Matters"

Is finding “real” independent advice in outsourcing a challenge?

On CandidAdvisors - by Co-Founding Partner Steve Jandrell

There are many players in the world of outsourcing, from those who help companies select outsourcing vendors, to those who deliver outsourcing services. The one thing all these players have in common is that they need companies to outsource to be able to sustain and grow their own businesses.

But what happens if outsourcing a set of functions or processes is not the right answer from a strategic business plan perspective?

Whether it is on shore, near shore or off shore a key driver (some might say the driver!) in the decision to outsource is long term operating cost reduction.

While cost reduction is a vital aspect of successful management, what about creativity, innovation, knowledge management and outstanding levels of customer service? Then, if the transition to a new operating model is more focused on a date to achieve cost benefits as quickly as possible - without necessarily building in to the transition plan a people and organization perspective that encourages buy in and plans for long term performance and remedies - what needs to happen?

With many companies who have made the decision to outsource significant parts of their operations, after a two to four year arrangement with an outsourcing vendor or vendors reporting high levels of dissatisfaction, how is that recovered?

The potential for any provider of services in the world of outsourcing to have a conflict of interest is arguably obvious. They have people on their payrolls to deliver services. They incent their people to win business and as much as possible. Making the right balanced decision to outsource in the first place, taking into account all factors and not just cost, to transition in an appropriate way and to manage vendors to maintain high levels of performance over time can be a real challenge.

The role of a truly independent adviser at any stage of the outsourcing / insourcing process is clear. But where do business people go to get that independent advice? With that in mind, CandidAdvisors LLC was founded by two experienced and senior practitioners. As Founders, both Bill and I have major firm experience, and have worked internationally.

We have successful track records of providing candid and results focused business advice to top management and to those tasked with implementing changes to operating models. Using our experience of business transformation, outsourcing / insourcing, shared services and organizational change management, we apply this experience through the principal of “best advice” with no hidden agendas. Our solutions are developed based solely on client issues and options and how those solutions fit with the strategic intent of our clients.

Who silenced Google's Voice - AT&T or Apple?

By Karen Masullo for CandidAdvisors

I did two things last week: I got an iPhone and I was invited to the Google Voice Beta. I am thrilled with both. Everything working, my efficiency increasing. All good.

Also, I was excited about AT&T's partnering with Barnes & Noble to offer Free WiFi, and its new SocialScope - "a mobile inbox for your social networks".

My world was at Geekgirl peace.

Yesterday however, I looked for Google Voice applications in the iPhone store.

Boy is my timing lousy.

As covered yesterday in the Silicon Valley Insider:

Google said for the second time in a week that it had invested time and money in creating an iPhone app, only to have it rejected by Apple (AAPL).

This time, it's a Google Voice app that Apple snubbed. Google Voice is an Internet phone service that includes free calling, text messaging, intelligent call routing, etc. Last week, Google admitted that Apple rejected an app for its Latitude social networking service, which Google later launched as a Web site.

But was it Apple or AT&T? Apple says there were redundancies in overlapping applications (what about Skype??), but as mused by Mashable's Stan Schroeder:

Google Voice () lets you do a lot of stuff for free that the AT&T charges for; you can place free calls in the US, you can send and receive free SMS messages. The application is still in beta, invite only stage, but several cool applications that use the service already exist for the iPhone. Sean Kovacs, the developer of GV Mobile, has said on his site that Apple has rejected the application. From his site:

“Richard Chipman from Apple just called – he told me they’re removing GV Mobile from the App Store due to it duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc). He didn’t actually specify which features, although I assume the whole app in general.”

Other similar applications, such as VoiceCentral and GVDialer, have also been banned. And Google only has an official Google Voice app for the Android and BlackBerry; now, they’ve admitted that they don’t have an iPhone app because Apple said “no”.

The reason? The application(s) is too similar to iPhone’s own functionality. Like so many other Apple’s app rejection reasons, this one rings phony as well. If nothing that’s similar to functions and features iPhone already has can get approval, then no VoIP apps should be allowed. Also no camera-related apps, like Pro Camera. Fring ()? It lets you place calls, and send free messages, which is similar to SMS, right? Why is that OK, then?

If AT&T is truly the reason behind the ban, is it really in AT&T's best interest to alienate the Google Voice market? There are thousands of small businesses that have found Google Voice a welcome answer to tight budgets, and iPhone users still need an AT&T data plan. Texting still costs.

More important, if this is an AT&T driven action, calls placed to a Google Voice number forward to a real phone--in my case my iPhone.

Isn't this a bit of killing the messenger?

The Evolution of Technology and the Human Race

The Social Renaissance of Business

By CandidAdvisor's Bill Frech, @bill_frech

"The upheavals occurring in the arts and humanities were mirrored by a dynamic period of change in the sciences. Some have seen this flurry of activity as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age. Others have seen it merely as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day." Renaissance of the 14th–17th centuries, Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Forbes' Investopedia.com recently highlighted that the recession may negatively impact the quality of goods and services and will result in reduced consumer access to companies.

Adweek cites; “New research from Interpublic Group's Initiative concludes that the recession is having a far greater impact on consumer spending habits than previous downturns, and that some behavior patterns, as well as brand perceptions, will be permanently changed.”

Forrester Research views this recession as a “…gateway or portal connecting two very different eras.

“When the economic clouds clear, many prevailing elites will have been swept away, organizational structures will have fallen, and many who were formerly in control will have lost power. Those who can speak digital will thrive, and those who cannot will finally get the message and retire.”

Saying that the business world will radically change - that old-line companies will be gone and new socially aware companies will survive to take their place is grossly overstating what may happen.This will not be an overnight change where the "old" ways disappear and the "new" world exists.

There are two primary reasons;

* One, the "old" companies are still powerful from an infrastructure, capital, and customer base perspective. Some of them are willing to change to the "new" world, e.g., Comcast, and some will resist change.

* Second, and probably more significant is that there is a huge group of baby-boomers who are still a force in the marketplace. The baby-boomers represent a group with a significant amount of capital to spend, and many may be uncomfortable with the change needed to work in the "new" world.

I do agree that the way companies conduct business is changing and will continue to change and evolve; potentially this recession is an inflection point for that change.

However, I think this will be a more gradual transition as new technologies and new ways of doing business are tested and companies experiment with different tools and techniques.

Like any other seed change; we don't know what will be on the other side of the change. There will be many people and companies trying different approaches to achieve the winning solution, but only a few will succeed and yes some of the old line companies will disappear…eventually.

I welcome a dialogue. Leave your comments and let's discuss this.

Footnotes:

The CounterIntuitive CEO, George F Colony’s Blog, June 23, 2009 The Gateway Recession: What CEOs Will Face Next
Forbes Investopedia, The Impact Of Recession On Businesses by Marc Davis
Adweek, June 22, 2009 Survey: Recession Impact Permanent by Steve McCellan