My Top 5 Business Interests
I am a person who likes to learn many different things, but my mind doesn't go all directions at once. I often find a handful of topics that dominate 80% of my free thoughts. I thought it might be interesting to highlight my top 5 topics every couple of months. I encourage everyone to share what business related topics dominate their thoughts in the comments. Here are my top 5 in no particular order:
- Mobile Convergence - Slowly the mobile phone is becoming the center of our universe. A recent survey said that people generally leave home with three items: keys, wallet, and cell phone. In time the phone will do the tasks of the first two. This will demand that we adapt current services we use from the desktop to the mobile environment or find how a mobile service can enhance the desktop experience.
- Innovation - Studies show that companies that strategically innovate reap larger returns than their competitors. More importantly, innovators survive, while those that fence themselves into looking at the world from the perspective that used to bring success are doomed. Every company I know wants to innovate, yet so many companies struggle innovating. That is because it is a complex formula of initiatives, culture beliefs, practices, and networks that fuel innovation. One piece of the puzzle will not deliver long term success. I am really fascinated on how to create environments where innovation thrives.
- Customer Data Problem - It is strange that in so short a period of time we went from expensive and difficult to collect customer data to having an overwhelming amount of customer data. Where companies segmented people by age, gender, zip code, now they can easily get all that and details about their life such as schools they went to, who their friends are, what color car they drive. In theory companies can segment customers to an infinite level. Companies that master this data will earn a short term competitve advantage. The advantage is only short term, because their competitors will either also master it or quickly die (with new companies taking their place). I think this is a big risk companies have not truly understood yet because few companies have mastered this amount of data (I can only think of Amazon.com).
- The Social Game - Video games are going the way of the hollywood blockbuster. All the major companies are focused on finding the next hit title, but these required significant resource expenditures. All this time the web has brought about a dramatic shift that video game companies seem to ignore because one title will likely not bring in sales of $70 million like Halo 3. People now spend more time online, bandwidth to deliver a faster and more rich internet experience has expanded, a little thing called social networking has occurred, and, oh by the way, people are building applications (and games) on the web and offering them to consumers for free. Video game industry, I would like to introduce you to the music industry. You may have alot to talk about. The opportunities and challenges presented by this paradigm shift are immense.
- Connecting With Customers - Marketing is also going through a dramatic shift. The time of Marketing operating a one-way pipe is over. Marketers must strategize on how to engage their customers in a dialog. What's the best way to connect and grow the community and nurture the relationships are still undefined, but some companies are using social media tools to do it. Most interesting, no single company is doing the exact same thing; lots of exploration is happening. The one thing people can agree on is that a dialog must be open, transparent, and honest - a challenge for traditional marketers who are used to shaping messages in a positive light.
