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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Community of Practice, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Celia: Maybe I’ll see you at the SHRM conference this year! I agree that the biggest benefit of membership are the community events. It’s encouraging to share stories with like-minded people. I belong to an organization called IABC (International Association of Business Communicators). It’s a relief to get our of your silo and realize that there…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Assessing Open Innovation at Siemens, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, Adam: These are all solid financial measures. I also believe that Siemens could look at additional measures as well. For instance, they could set goals around the number of new prototypes or products developed each year as a result of open innovation products. This would be a simple measurable outcome. Or they could use employee surveys.…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Radiohead, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, John: I agree that Radiohead was able to do this because they had already established themselves in the music business. The record labels for a long time have been the main gatekeepers of which bands make it and which do not. The bands used to have zero leverage. They were totally dependent on the labels. Of course, there were exceptions to…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Open Innovation, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
The Siemens example feels particularly relevant to me because company is currently going through much of the same process. Last month I went through a “Radical Innovation Academy” that was designed as a cross-functional exercise to encourage more collaborative thinking between R&D, product teams, and marketing. The goal was to identify ways to enc…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Weekly Question #6: Complete by October 15, 2015, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Digital media has distinct advantage over physical media related to cost and speed of delivery. Producing digital media requires far less of a manufacturing capability than physical media. With traditional media, the record labels would have needed the physical records, tapes, and CDs, as well as the necessary equipment or outsourcing company to…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Disruption of Abundance, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
I also believe that abundance is more disruptive than scarcity. Interestingly, there has been some psychological research related to this as well. Barry Schwartz wrote a book called, The Paradox of Choice in which he argues that more options have created increased anxiety among shoppers. He discusses this within a framework of happinesss, and how…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Disruptive Change and Book Publishing, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
I do not think the age of publishers and agents is dead. Instead, the disruptive innovation here has allowed for greater opportunity for artists. Publishers and agents will need to adjust their mindsets in order to capture the new market. Previously, they had monopolies over artists. It was extremely difficult for an artist to get their work…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Weekly Question #5: Complete by February 25, 2016, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
The four major web services offered by Amazon are Simple Storage Service (S3), Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Simple DB, and Simple Queue Service (SQS). Each offering provides services to developers, with S3 and EC2 identified as the two largest. S3 provides basic, secure storage capabilities for data. EC2 provides computing capabilities in a…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: BYOD, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, Will: I do tend to skew towards separation between work and personal lives. But I feel I can make that choice without carrying around multiple devices. There are times I really do need to be connected to e-mail. However, I make a conscious decision whether to “work” at that moment or not. I guess for me I like knowing what’s going on, but I…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: BYOD, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, Brandon: I need to have a password on my phone to unlock it. I do believe my company also has the ability to remotely wipe the device if I lose it, but I’m honestly not sure about that. Otherwise, I can access all email resources. I cannot access our intranet, however.
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Global & Information Technology, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Dan: I think you raise an interesting point related to competitive advantage that I had not previously considered. I had been thinking of IT as primarily an enabler or corporations to operate globally. You’re correct, though. Any IT provider that hopes to play in the big leagues will need to be a global company in order to support these efforts.…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Globalization and Decentralization, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, Rich: I think you make a solid point about IT globalization being a more significant endeavor that the decision to centralize/decentralize. In an ever-increasingly connected market, IT systems have greater influence on business productivity and efficiency. The IT function now permeates all parts of an organization. Centralizing or…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Wyeth Global IT, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
The global nature of the ERP system and the “Global Data Warehouse” would have had significant influence on their design, development, and implementation. For both of these systems there would be a significant challenge to bring together legacy systems and associated data. We saw this in part with the need to “normalize” data in the global…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: BYOD, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
BYOD was recently embraced in my organization when it comes to smart phones. It made a lot of sense. Before this change, the company issued Blackberries to all the staff who needed them. However, as Android devices and iPhones eclipsed the market for Blackberry, the company faced a decision. It could have continued to force us to use outdated…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: The Cloud, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
I would explain that “the cloud” is basically the internet. It is a virtual place where your interactions, documents, programs, and other activities take place online. Your computer is no longer the machine that stores the information and programs you need, but rather it is now your gateway to “the cloud.” A more simple understanding might be to…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Global & Information Technology, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Pearson makes the argument that in order to become a global company, communication is key. To that end, IT certainly has an impact. Never before has the process of communication been easier. Technological advances enable faster modes (texting, e-mail) as well as more efficient and robust processes for sharing information. However, a company must…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Business Models, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Volkswagen – Critical Unfunded Project, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Yes. It absolutely should continue to be funding. The challenge here is that no one had ownership and therefore it seems to have basically been forgotten.
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Reading Question: Systems Thinking, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, Dan: I like your discussion about the hiring process. Taken further, this line of thinking also justifies multiple interviews of candidates, with members across the organization. ETS does this for directors and above, but I think it’s just as important for more mid-level employees as well. This would also help an organization out of a “silo…[Read more]
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Chris Lentz commented on the post, Case Question: Volkswagen Process Assessment, on the site 9 years, 5 months ago
Hi, Andrew: I agree with you that the new process seems to be an improvement over the old one. I think too often people look for solutions, i.e., ‘silver bullets”, that are perfect. When in reality, most improvements happen in stages. You take two steps forward and perhaps one step back. One glaring flaw in the system is that a global supply chain…[Read more]
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