Kelly Walsh

A key point that I would write to my future self is to be willing to learn and to be adaptable. One thing I learned in this course is that IT is constantly changing, what I learned fifteen years ago is nothing like what I’ve learned the last few works nor will it be the same in five years. Basically I need to commit to learning new tools as often…[Read more]

Vinay,
In the case of Siemens, it appeared they had more ideas than they knew what to do with and not enough people to push some of these great ideas into implementation. I almost think they had too much talent. I think a lot of time was wasted on these “contests” when a lot of good ideas were never brought to fruition. And then to go bring in…[Read more]

When considering open innovation, there are a lot of things a company should consider. They should first have specific ideas in mind that they know can be carried out. If you are going to run a contest with the intent of implementing the winner’s project, be sure it is something feasible and can be financially supported. You also want to be sure i…[Read more]

Alex,
Good point about new bands being able to replicate Radiohead’s idea of bringing their music to market through a personal/band website. It actually just made me think of how Youtube has helped establish so many artists. Justin Bieber being the biggest one today! He was able to make a career by being “discovered” through various early year…[Read more]

Thanks for your post, Mike. My son was diagnosed with epilepsy years ago and we gained support through the Epilepsy Foundation of Eastern PA (EFEPA). I joined shortly after his diagnosis and participated in a number of evens through them. This foundation has been wonderful with linking my son to children with a similar disease as well as…[Read more]

Elaine,
I really enjoyed your post. This actually reminded me of the expatriate case we read in HR and how tough it is for families to move to a foreign country with no help transitioning. This is particularly hard when you are used to a certain set of customs and enter a country that is not aware of them or understanding of them. Sounds like…[Read more]

A community of practice that I am an active member of is with my church. I attend weekly and am also heavily involved in volunteer and fundraising efforts throughout the year. From Operation Santa Claus, to 50/50 raffles, to my weekly contributions, I believe I do my part to support my community of practice. I became a member through my parents…[Read more]

I do not think the age of agents and publishers are completely dead, however I do think they are a slowly dying breed. Professional management for authors and artists will never be obsolete because agents and publishers have the network to get your book the exposure it needs to be successful. Likewise they can work through legal hurdles that can…[Read more]

Digital media has the advantage of being made available immediately once an album is released. The days of waiting at line at Tower Records for an album drop are long gone. Also, digital media has a price advantage as it is much more reasonable to release a product that isn’t tangible. CDs cost roughly $15 while a digital download costs about $…[Read more]

Bruce,

In your field, I can totally understand why you aren’t allowed to BYOD. Security, specifically with regards to your anonymity, is incredibly important. I have several friends in the military and none of them every were allowed their cell phones while on duty. While personal devices offer you a lot of leisure and comfort, it is not worth…[Read more]

Hi Sam,

I work for a large corporation who for years operated under a philosophy of “it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. Our company was fine with operating with a way that works and not dare think outside the box of what is cost efficient and operating efficient. I think this is similar to what you said out of the fear of the unknown. Likewise we…[Read more]

Hi Kevin,

Due to my company maintaining credit card info and other personal information of our customers, we are unable to wholly adopt all the cloud services have to offer. The only thing that our company operates through cloud services is our mobile app. No personal information is shared on there other than your email and it is used as tool…[Read more]

Hi Christine,

I definitely agree that the process was more complex than just a centralized/decentralized decision. In most organizations it is a joint effort to change the company to become more global. Unfortunately due to rules and regulations, and for that matter some resistance specifically in Europe, the company will never be able to…[Read more]

Without IT, Wyeth would not have had the opportunity to globalize their operations. As mentioned in the article, Wyeth was a holding company with a number of diversified businesses, who did not have the culture or the business processes of a global organization. Each of the countries were “ok” with operating independently. Top management saw IT…[Read more]

The four major web services that are offered by Amazon.com are: Simple Storage Service (S3), which provided a basic interface for storing and retrieving data from anywhere on the internet. Developers could store and access unlimited amounts of data using the same technology created for Amazon’s internal operations. Next is Elastic Compute Cloud (…[Read more]

Right now my company partially supports BYOD. They have provided us all laptops that we are able to travel with that connects to their networks through supported applications. A few people have been provided phones (mostly iPhones) that have very limited access-no app store, are unable to perform routine updates without IT reviewing, etc. We are…[Read more]

In my own words I would say the cloud is a place where you can store and access data through the internet as opposed to on your local hard drive. “The cloud” is just a term used to describe the internet. It is something that can be accessed from any computer or mobile device at any time or anywhere. Everyone can login to this one database fro…[Read more]

Hi Jon,

My mother actually works in pharmaceuticals as well so I can appreciate the intellectual resources segment as it relates to this business. Due to her companies poor planning, they were bought out several times which included a significant amount of layoffs. Generics always managed to sweep in taking a great portion of their market…[Read more]

Stephen,

I work for a sales based organization as well. While I am not directly in sales, I work on the floor with our sales representatives and see the effort that goes behind that direct person to person contact. A great portion of our business is based on retention; bringing our customers back to our venue based on all around experience.…[Read more]

Christine,

Old habits do die hard but a way of breaking them is not repeating them. If Matulovic stays firm to the decisions he made, that will begin to set a precedent to how the company intends to operate in the future. I think you make a good point of having an open conversation with executives questioning why their project wasn’t funded…[Read more]