A few weeks ago I was reviewing the contents of the Venturelab workshop Effectuation by professor Saras Sarasvathy, to see if I could apply the effectual principles for personal development.

In this process I got connected via Twitter with Thomas Blekman, a part-time lecturer in Corporate Effectuation and Strategy at Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University Rotterdam, who recently published the book Corporate Effectuation.

In the article below I will write down my thoughts and experiences while reading the book. I hope it will provide a helpful overview, and invites you to read the book Corporate Effectuation (and apply its principles  in everyday life).

Effectuation ?

If you are not familiar with the term Effectuation, a fair question certainly is “What is Effectuation ?”. On the Effectuation website you can read the following definition:

“Effectuation is a logic used by expert entrepreneurs to solve problems in highly uncertain market environments. Entrepreneurs can learn to think and act effectually, thereby increasing their ability to create successful ventures.”

Five Principles of Effectuation

Effectuation consists of five principles, which are extensively explained in the the first chapters of the book.  The five principles of effectuation are:

1. Bird-in-hand principle:  Start with Who you are, What you know and Whom you know;
2. Affordable loss principle:  Invest what you can afford to lose;
3. Crazy Quilt principle:  Build a network of self-selected stakeholders;
4. Lemonde principle:  Embrace and leverage surprises (every day);
5. Pilot-in-the-plane principle:  The future comes from what people do.

Some time ago I reviewed The One Minute Manager — (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983) and The One Minute Sales Person  – (Johnson & Wilson, 1984). In these books I particularly liked the One Minute Manager’s- and the One Minute $alesperon’s Game Plan. The effectuation game plan is summarized below, while a larger version can be downloaded as long a s you share it with others.

If you are interested in some more background reading on effectuation, than the paper Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift From Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency, is highly recommended.

The first two chapters of the book introduce the theoretical framework- and the essence of effectuation. The other seven chapters link effectuation to various other scientific approaches and like business modelling, reframing or the granularity of innovation. I will cover six of those chapters in the sections below.

High Performance Organization and Corporate Effectuation

This is an highly interesting chapter because in practice you can see process optimizations (focussed on improving efficiency and productivity) while on the other hand companies would like to innovate. At first sight it seems like a tension area, however with applying effectuation and its principles it might

Thomas Blekman uses Essent as an excellent practical example to illustrate that innovation and a focus on cost reduction and process optimization can go hand in hand (if effectuation is used). Effectuation empowers the explorative power of the organization, which perfectly fits the long term strategy of adding value to propositions.

Furthermore interesting to see three different levels of High Performance Organization(s), in line with sustainable change leadership types (Rowland & Higgs, 2008).

Business Modeling and Corporate Effectuation

When I got in touch with Thomas Blekman, one of my main interests was the relation of Corporate Effectuation and Business Modeling. But what is a business model ? According Osterwalder’s research a definition is:

“A business model describes the rational of how an organization creates, delivers and captures value“

A little more than a year ago I met Osterwalder and his book team, after which I wrote a preview of the book Business Model Generation. The essence of the book is the business model canvas, which consists of 9 building blocks.

Camilla van den Boom from Business Models Inc. describes in this chapter the use of this canvas as flexbile strategic business planning- or change management tool. She uses the case of the university hospital Maastricht, which made it highly interesting to read. Further more each of the effectual principles is applied during the process of developing a new (set of) business model(s) for the university hospital.

Reframing and Corporate Effectuation

Before reading Corporate Effectuation I didn’t knew Reframing.

On the KVD Reframing, a design and innovation consultancy firm, founded bij Ir. Gijs Ockeloen and professor Ir. Matthijs van Dijk, you can read a definition of the term reframing:

“Reframing is a design method aimed at understanding and predicting how people will interact with future products and services. Companies, instututes or any other other organisation may use the method to open the door towards innovation opportunities while bringing the future under control. Reframing adresses human behaviour rather than technology. Reframing offers a new way of looking at the relations between people and products and a practical tool to steer innovation.”

When you read the definition carefully it consists of a few highly interesting aspects (highlighted in bold). The focus on human behavior and the relations between people and products is an interesting approach. The focus on future products and services reminds me a little of scenario planning and future planning concepts I have heard during the vision on the future symposium some time ago.The picture above describes the reframing process, with the starting point in a current set of products (or services). Decomposing the product, man-product-interactions and the contextual aspects in the first phase. And designing the new product or service in 8 steps over the context, interaction and product levels.

I will certainly dive a little more in this framework !

Granularity of Innovation and Corporate Effectuation

Back in 2008 I attended the fith European Masterclass on Corporate Entrepeneurship & Open Innovation with Henry Chesbrough & Kenneth Morse together with a lot of people from Philips Research. During this masterclass I’ve met Corina Kuiper as one of the involved experts.

Therefore it is really cool to read her chapter in the corporate effectuation book about the granularity of innovation and the innovation portfolio management within Philips.

“Granularity of innovation is the degree of differentiation among the different types of innovation.”  (p.136, 137)

Disruptiveness to the customer determines how to innovate. Philips has developed a 4×4 innovation martix, with disruptiveness and market life cycle on both axis.  Furthermore you can see that the left blue half of the matrix is aimed at existing (more mature) product categories, while the orange right half is aimed at new categories.

On the diagonal you can futhermore see numbered green dots, that combine the different stages of market life cycle and disruptivess. In fact you move from radical innovations in the upper right corner to incremental innovations in the bottom left corner.

Inspired by a book  The Living Company (Arie de Geus, 1997) the numbered green dots can be compared with different maturity stages of humans as well:

1. Baby
2. Adolescent
3. Adult
4. Senior

Almost every company has these four types of (innovation) projects, where probably most of the projects are in the adult stage. A baby is an radical innovation project for the long term in a very early stage. Management teams foster both adults and babies.

According to research large firms have problems with managing adolecents, because there are tensions with for example the current business model, current supply chains or first customers.

Philips uses the innovation matrix (and specific area’s like you can see in the picture of the book above) to visualize the different types of innovation (and the resulting specific approach). Boxed budgets, incubators, balanced scorecards for ventures and the stage-gated Bell Mason Group framework for new business creation are specific tools that support the various types of innovations.

Additional recommended reading is the slidedeck The flavors in corporate innovation by Fred van Ommen and Corina Kuiper for the Corporate Venturing Conference 2011.

Personal Development and Corporate Effectuation

Effectuation in a personal development setting, was the primary driver to review the scientific effectual framework and got me connected with Thomas Blekman.

Michael Faschingbauer has written the book “Effectuation, Wie erfolgreiche Unternehmer denken, entscheiden und handlen.”  (Effectuation, How successful entrepreneurs think, decide and act.) It has been the management book of the year in 2010.

Faschingbauer provides a few very helpfull tips, complemented with tips from Thomas Blekman. Despite the highly interesting tips, I will try to get my hands on the book of Faschingbauer, and go a few steps deeper into the personal development aspects of effectuation.

Orchestration of Corporate Effectuation

Orchestration of corporate effectuation is the final chapter of the book, which focuses on integrating a Corporate Effectuation mindset into a company or how can Corporate Effectuation become part of an organization’s DNA. Thomas Blekman and Henri Mennens provide an overview  of relevant organizational “parts” where Corporate Effectuation can make the difference:

1. Support of top management;
2. Organizational structures;
3. IT Systems;
4. People development;
5. Other HR processes;
6. Other corporate processes;
7. Integration in operational processes;

While it really depends on the organization which of the “parts” are applicable and which set of the organizational parts has the highest impact.

I was interested in the combination of IT systems and the Corporate Effectuation mindset. IT systems can provide the latest information, latest views, latest research or even ideas that help employees with driving innovation and absorbing new knowledge. Furthermore you could think about the use of knowledge management platforms combining the brain-power in a company, or the use of business intelligence solutions that help to make informed decisions.

Thomas Blekman and Henri Mennens provide an approach to integrate the Corporate Effectuation mindset into a company. The Corporate Effectuation Business Program is a seven-step process that combines different tools that are covered before in the book like business modelling and reframing.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

I got connected with Thomas Blekman via social technology (thank you Charlene Li) while in our meetup he explained his background and drivers to write the book !

The Corporate Effectuation book first builds the foundation with effectual principles in the first two chapters and connects with other scientific frameworks and management theories in the other chapters.

I really liked this positioning between academic research/science and everyday business practice. However that really represents the personality of Thomas Blekman:

“In Thomas’ opinion scietific knowledge is only relevant if it has practical value.”

Corporate Effectuation consists of a bulk load of highly interesting examples that help building understanding of the Effectual principles in various settings and situations. The look and feel of the book shows similarities with the Business Model Generation handbook (Osterwalder et al. 2010).

Overall it is fun to read and remark the post-it on the front cover: “Irritant goed boek !” That is what the Corporate Effectuation book is, a must read for every entrepreneur, manager or professional. Corporate Effectuation is available in Dutch and English.

About Thomas Blekman

Thomas Blekman is a part-time lecturer in Corporate Effectuation and Strategy at Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has recently finished his new book Corporate Effectuation. Corporate Effectuation is the very first work in The Netherlands about this new and very successful approach. Thomas Blekman is partner of De Beukelaar Group, dean of Corsendonk College in Belgium. In other words, he is with one foot firmly in daily practice, while footing the other on solid science; in short, the living proof of Effectuation! Thomas has extensive experience in the corporate field and is specialized in consulting and facilitating firms becoming more innovative and entrepreneurial. In Thomas’ opinion scietific knowledge is only relevant if it has practical value.

By accident I noticed the Move Collective Bobble water bottle in a store. I was directly caught by the cool design, and the fact that a water filter is integrated into the nozzle of the water bottle. However there is a great story of entrepreneurship and environment behind this product !

Bobble Water Bottle – A closer look

I’m using the Bobble water bottle for a few weeks now, and the comments I get are about the fancy design, mainly aimed at the integrated filter in the nozzle. The Move Collective Bobble is the work of a great designer, Karim Rashid.

“Bobble is designed, under exclusive agreement, byu the famous multi award winning designer Karim Rashid.”

The bottle itself has a great (female) curve, which gives it elegant looks. The used plastic is thin, which makes it easy to squeeze the bottle while maintaining the strength (just in case you would accidentally drop the Bobble Water Botttle). The bottle diameter is not a perfect circle, but a little elliptical, which makes it easier squeeze (and drink). The Bobble water bottle is made of recycled plastic:

“Bobble is made from FDA approved recycled PET that is free of BPAm Phthalates and PVC & is 100% recyclable.”

The most eye-catching part is the colorful nozzle, with integrated filter, of the Bobble water bottle. It is a carbon filter, like you might know from outdoor- or hicking activities. The carbon filter cleans the water as you drink.

Therefore you can use the bottle in area’s where you can’t drink clean drinking water from the tap. But also in the Netherlands where you can drink from the tap, it seems like the water taste gets a little more sweet (assuming that the carbon filter has some impact).

I haven’t tried if you can put the nozzle with integrated filter on a different bottle, for example a 1.5 l soda bottle. This was a question I got from a fellow traveler during my commute from the office to home.

Business case – The entrepreneurial view

I mentioned in the introduction that there is a great business case behind the Bobble water bottle. From a business perspective it is not just the design that matters, but also the hard facts and financial numbers. So let’s do the math:

“Americans alone spend $17 billion every year to slake their thirst for portable water. The cost are not limited to our wallets either. Each year nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to make plastic water bottles. Most of those bottles are casually discarded. They end up in our landfills, in our oceans, littlering our sidewalks.”

I was impressed with the ammount of oil barrels used in the times where predictions are made about running out of fossil fuels. On the other hand there is are complete industry value chains and supply chains build around the production and distribution of bottled water.

“Approximately 38 billion plastic water bottles end up in landfills each year. By using bobble, which is made from recycled materials, we can do all our part to eleminate unnecessary waste. Bobble helps fix the problem by using recycled material to make new bobbles. Botteled water is also a costly addiction. Bobble retails under $10 and can be refilled at least 300 times before changing the filter.”

Again an impressive figure how the environment is affected. The costs are kept relatively low, however $10,- is a lot of money in developing countries. At the office of my employer Earth water bottles are used, which are made of bio-degradable plastics. This could be a next step for Bobble 2.0 !

Overall you can build an strong business case from the number above, and I do hope that some impact can be made.

Overall conclusion and wrap-up

I’m using the Bobble water bottle for a few weeks now. I get a lot of questions when I’m commuting by train about the modern design and the colorful nozzle. I would conclude Karim Rashid did an excellent design job, it looks fresh, modern, minimalistic and clean. :)

As a hobby cyclist I’m used to drinking from a water bottle on my road bike, with the difference that these sports water bottles are not fitted with a filter. There is no need for it as well, otherwise the filter would get full of Maxim Electrolyte energy drink.

Over the past weeks it seems to be a very durable product. Just like the Camelbak drinking systems you need to be aware of cleaning the bottle and end cap from time to time.

The filters can be replaced as well, so you don’t need to throw away the bottle itself. I’m not sure if I will be counting the number of refills, however everyone should create some (corporate) social responsibility and save the environment about 299 bottles with the Bobble water bottle.

Matt Miller, Editor of ZDNet Smartphones & Cell Phones blog and one of my international Möbius friends has published the book “Windows Phone 7 Companion” on Wiley. I’ve been fortunate to receive a signed (!!!) review copy of the book, and the overall conclusion is that I’m very impressed with the incredible amount of detail that Matt was able to include in the book.

A little while ago I wrote an extensive 5000-word review about the core OS features of Windows Phone 7 on MobilityMinded. Windows Phone 7 is the latest mobile operating system from Microsoft which has recently been launched. When I published this review Matt commented in a blogpost on ZDNet:

“Remo broke the review up into sections similar to a few chapters in my upcoming Windows Phone 7 Companion book, including the lock screen, six hubs, other core features, settings, and other thoughts. Similar to his experiences, I have found Windows Phone 7 to be extremely stable in both the Technical Preview phase and in the final retail release candidate. Remo likes Windows Phone 7 and as I spend the last couple of days on the road in DC with the HTC Surround I am finding I too am really liking Windows Phone 7 and am planning to buy the HTC HD7 next week.”

When I read the book I could see the similarities Matt was talking about, however writing a book is something completely different than writing a complete book about Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 Companion – Table of Contents

The book consists of an impressive 22 chapters that cover every function or feature of the mobile operating system:

• Chapter 1 How Do I Set Up and Customize My Windows Phone 7 Device?
• Chapter 2 How Do I Get Around My New Windows Phone?
• Chapter 3 How Can I Make Calls and Send Text Messages?
• Chapter 4 How Do I Connect with My Family and Friends?
• Chapter 5 How Can I Set Up and Sync Services to My New Windows Phone?
• Chapter 6 How Do I Connect My Windows Phone to My Computer?
• Chapter 7 How Can I Enjoy Music and Videos on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 8 How Can I View, Share, and Capture Pictures on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 9 How Can I Read and Use Email on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 10 How Do I Get More Organized Using My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 12 How Do I Use GPS Navigation and Mapping on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 13 How Do I Surf the Internet from My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 14 How Can I Play Games and Connect with Others Using Xbox LIVE on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 15 How Do I Use Word Mobile 2010 on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 16 How Do I Use Excel Mobile 2010 on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 17 How Do I Use OneNote Mobile 2010 on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 18 How Do I Use PowerPoint Mobile 2010 on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 19 How Do I Use SharePoint Mobile 2010 on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 20 What Other Apps are Loaded and How Do I Get More from the Marketplace?
• Chapter 21 How Do I Manage Settings on My Windows Phone?
• Chapter 22 How Do I Deal with Problems on My Windows Phone?

On the Wiley website you can download the pdf versions and experts of Windows Phone 7 Companion:

Read Excerpt: Chapter (PDF)
Read Excerpt: Table of Contents (PDF)
Read Excerpt: Index (PDF) 

Let me echo again that the 22 chapters cover every aspect and function of Windows Phone 7. In the picture above you can see that each chapter features one of the Windows Phone 7 theme colors. Cool to see the themes and its colors return in paper form as well.

Matt provides general information as wel as step-by-step tutorials how to set-up or change certain features or functionality. Matt futhermore had a look at the Zune desktop software that is the connection of your Windows Phone 7 device with your Windows PC or Mac.

Personally I liked the chapters about the Xbox LIVE Hub (chapter 14) and the Zune Hub (chapter 7), mainly because the backend of the services isn’t available yet in the Netherlands until a later point in time this year (according to the Dutch Windows Phone Lead, Maarten Sonneveld).

Part of the Windows Phone 7 value proposition is Office 2010 for Windows Phone. Matt provides a deep-dive into this well known productivity suite from Microsoft. Each of the Office applications is included in a separate chapter.

Since I don’t have a SharePoint environment at home, it was highly interesting to read about SharePoint Mobile 2010 (chapter 19). Since the Windows Phone 7 operating system is highly stable and very robust, I don’t think you need the last chapter for trouble shooting.

Finally Matt has included very helpfull tips throughout the book, just like the example below:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

MAKE YOUR APPOINTMENT YOUR DESTINATION. If you add in an address for your appointment location, you can tap the location in your calendar and have Bing Maps launch with the location defined. You can then choose the location as your destination and have your Windows Phone guide you to the location.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Concluding thoughts

Matt Miller has pulled of an incredible job with the Windows Phone 7 Companion book, that is extensively packed with tips, tricks and tools to get the most out of your Windows Phone 7 device.

I think it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or a power-user. For both types of end-users there are interesting parts in the book. In the Netherlands the full Zune (Pass) experience as well as Xbox LIVE won’t be available until some point later this year. Windows Phone 7 Companion provided me with very helpful insights in these area’s.

Wiley is a well known publisher of high quality books, and I would summarize that this book provides a complete in-depth overview of Windows Phone 7 (and its features). It is like the Dubbel work for Mechanical Engineering, that provides a complete overview as well.

For about € 16,00 , which is more than a fair pricepoint, you can order the book at Amazon or directly from Wiley.

Furthermore I hope that it will help a lot of people to get more expertise about Windows Phone 7, or it might provide people with an idea about the options, features and possibilities that Windows Phone 7 provides. Finally I would like to thank Matt for all the hard work he has put into writing the book, in my opinion you can be really proud of the result.

About Matthew Miller

“Matthew Miller is a co-author of Master Visually Windows Mobile 2003; regularly writes news, reviews, commentary, and analysis for ZDNet; has published works in the Sideways iPad Magazine, Pocket PC Magazine, and iPhone Life Magazine; and is a cohost of the Mobile Tech Roundup podcast.”

Stress, the University of Twente’s largest study association, organized an awesome guest-lecture with Steve van Wyk, CIO @ ING Bank. The theme of the lecture is  ”Challenges @ ING” and one of the topics is the merger of the Postbank and ING, the challenges that came with it and how they were overcome.

In this article I will provide some of the interesting topics from the lecture, and for those who haven’t attended this lecture you really missed a great opportunity to have a detailed look at the technology-side of ING.

Picture used with permission of Stress, study association

Who is Steve Van Wyk and why working for ING ?

Steve van Wyk briefly introduces himself and his family. He has Dutch roots, worked 11 years for Morgan Stanley in the USA and is now at ING for about 5 years now.

Remarkable was the fact that Steve van Wyk was at work in the Twin Towers at 9-11, because Morgan Stanley was at the second floor of tower two ! That day has made tremendous impact, and he will never forget how it required leadership. Not only to get the co-workers safe out of the building, but also a leader in terms of technology (off-load the data to other data centers and get the bank back online as soon as possible).

Honestly I think this is an event that shaped and polished someone as a person. Therefore I’m not surprised by his mantra that there are three important things in professional life:

1. People;
2. People;
3. and people !!

Why ING ?

Steve van Wyk shares three reasons why he loves working for ING:

1. Great entrepreneurial and bright people with lots of passion and corporate responsibility;
2. ING is an excellent brand and company, with exceptional distribution. Remark for example that ING developed the direct online (banking) model !
3. The ability to make a difference, personally as well as inspirational for the surrounding team Steve van Wyk works with on a daily basis.

Later in the Q&A session Steve van Wyk would share that he is most proud of the cultural change within his team and the whole organization, to make a difference and be aware of that ability every day.

]]> http://www.remo-knops.com/2576/steve-van-wyk-cio-ing-bank-building-the-preferred-bank-with-technology/feed/ 0 http://www.remo-knops.com/2480/endnote-x4-thomson-reuters-excellent-customer-service-using-an-open-strategy/ http://www.remo-knops.com/2480/endnote-x4-thomson-reuters-excellent-customer-service-using-an-open-strategy/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:26 +0000 Remo Knops http://www.remo-knops.com/?p=2480

Last week I published a book review of Open Leadership – How Social Technology Can Transofrm the Way You Lead,  the latest book of Charlene Li. 

In this article I will share some personal practical experiences about the use of social technology and some form of open strategy that was in place at the company. 

Introduction of EndNote X3 ”problem”

Since a few years I use Thomson Reuters EndNote to manage my references and easily include these in academic texts and -assignments. 

Therefore I bought Thomson EndNot X3 at Surfspot.nl, an online shop for higher education students. It worked perfectly with Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate, especially the integration with Microsoft Word 2007 has been excellent. 

Back in May this year I was fortunate to attend the Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 launch event in the Netherlands. Impressed with the new productivity features it didn’t take long for me to install Microsoft Office 2010 Professional on my Lenovo X60 Tablet powered by Windows 7 Ultimate.  

Unfortunatly Thomson EndNote X3 didn’t integrate with Microsoft Office 2010 Professional. Some online research taught me that Thomson Reuters released EndNote X4 that did integrate really well with Microsoft Office 2010 (plus EndNote X4 included other new helpfull features as well).    

After contacting the local distributor that provided me with different options, I shared my thoughts about a possible, rather expensive upgrade, on Twitter: 

“Thomson Endnote X3 is not compatible with Microsoft Office 2010 ! Endnote X4 is but that requires an upgrade of +/- E100,-  #expensive” 

Thomson Reuters’ “solution”

A Thomson Reuters’ employee Nancy noticed my tweet and replied to me via the EndNoteNews Twitter account: 

“@remoknops When did you purchase EndNote X3?” 

“@remoknops Yes – a message was posted via your web site requesting proof of purchase.” 

She also left a similar message via the contact form on this website, my personal blog which you can read below: 

“I sent you the tweet about your EndNote purchase and possible upgrade for Word 2010 compatibilty. If you could email your proof of purchase, [...]“ 

Of course I sent the proof of purchase of my EndNote X3 copy, an Adobe PDF scan from the original invoice, to Nancy for approval.

If it was the timeframe in which I bought Thomson EndNote X3 that made me eligible for an upgrade to Thomson EndNote X4, or I was simply lucky to experience a great example of customer satisfaction. 

The result

A Thomson Reuters EndNote X4 upgrade that perfectly integrates with Microsoft Office 2010 Professional !

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

A first I want to thank Nancy (and Thomson Reuters) for contacting me and providing excellent customer service, that has been initiated by the social network Twitter.

“We no longer search for the news, the news finds us. We will no longer search for products or services, they will find us via social media.”

Above you can read one of the final screens of the video introduction of the “Making the Social Connection” session with Tony Krijnen,  Daniel van Soest and Charlie Kindel @ DevDays 2010 !“. The described situation certainly holds for the Thomson Endnote X4 customer service example that I have described in this article. So this is an interesting fundamental shift in communication that wasn’t there some years ago !

Let’s recall the four open driven objectives, (1) learn, (2) dialog, (3) support, and (4) innovate, that are integrated into almost every successful strategic plan. If you have a quick look at this example there are certainly a few of these objectives in place.

Furthermore the publication of social media guidelines on the Thomson Reuters website is evidence that an open strategy and use of social technology is integrated in the overall corporate strategy of Thomson Reuters. The leadership part is a little hard to oversee from this side, however you can clearly see that Thomson Reuters is practicing a long the open leadership line of thinking !

A few days ago my attention was caught by a message communicated via the verified Google Twitter account, that introduces the role of Google as an engine of economic growth: 

“We’re not just a search engine, we’re an engine of economic growth. Our U.S. economic impact in 2009 was $54 billion“ 

Introduction

On the official Google Blog you can read a related article, posted by Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales @ Google. 

“This week is National Small Business Week, and Ross will be with me on Capitol Hill in Washington today to share his story and help unveil something that means a tremendous amount to me: a new report detailing, for the first time ever, Google’s economic impact in all 50 states.” 

Let me be clear that the financial number of $54 billion is pretty impressive, but still I find the first time ever part remarkable. I’m pretty sure that the quantification on a state level is the first time ever in a public available document. Google is a public traded company, so you should be able to find estimates of the economic impact in the annual reports. 

But what does the financial number of $54 billion, represent? If you download the Google’s Economic Impact – United States, 2009 – report, you can read that: 

“In the pages that follow, we describe Google’s economic impact across the U.S. This impact is reflected by the number of advertisers and website publishers in every state, the non–profits we provide with free advertising, and the real–life stories of small businesses that have benefited from using Google.” (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.3) 

What I really like about the report, is that start-ups, entrepreneurs and small business are included in this report. I recall the statement of Professor Pieper on the title slide of the opening speech presentation of the vision on the future symposium: “Value creation, nothing else matters.” 

This task of value creation is perfectly suited for the entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, since entrepreneurship is an engine of the economy especially in the current hard economic times. Personally I think this is a highly interesting area to look into more detail.

Google Search, AdWords, AdSense and Google Grants

Google is well known for its search engine activities, but with regard to the economic impact let’s have a look at the business side where the money flows! In the the Google’s Economic Impact – United States, 2009 – report, you can read that: 

“Aside from being a well-known search engine, Google is also a successful advertising company. We make most of our revenue from the ads shown next to our search results, on our other websites and on the websites of our partners. Through these ad programs, we help many others make a living too. This booklet presents a conservative estimate of Google’s economic impact on businesses across the U.S. based on three core parts of our business: Google Search and AdWords, AdSense and Google Grants.” (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.4) 

As you can see all three advertising related core parts of the Google business-side are closely tied to Google Search, which is the key resource (control point) in the Google Business Model. 

Google Adwords

The first advertising pillar the generates Google revenue is Google Adwords, that shows ads next to the search results based on the keywords that you have entered in the search field. In other words these are more or less “targeted” advertisements. 

Google AdSense

The second advertising pillar that contributes to Googles Economic Impact is Google AdSense. On the Google AdSense product page you can read the following description: 

“Google AdSense is a free program that enables website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads and earn.” 

Almost everyone I know in online publishing is using Google AdSense to some extent, since Google AdSense can place advertisements in: (1) content, (2) mobile, (3) search, and (4) feeds. In fact it is a mutual relationship, since Google needs websites and online publishers to sell advertisements, while online publishers can use Google AdSense at no costs, and start earning money. 

The most interesting part of Google AdSense is the multiple channel characteristic, each with different financial business (model) parameters. 

Google Grants

The third advertising pillar from that contributes to the Google revenue is Google Grants. For me personally this was a pillar I don’t know that well, however if you look at the description on the Google Grants website, it is nothing more than Google AdWords for non-profit organizations: 

“Google Grants is a unique in-kind donation program awarding free AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. We support organizations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.” 

Calculations of Google US Economic Impact

In addition the financial number of $54 billion as the total of Google’s US Economic Impact in 2009, it is interesting to have a look at the underlying calculations. 

You can find a pretty detailed description of the calculations in the Google’s Economic Impact – United States, 2009 – report, as shown in the picture above. (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.6-7) Furthermore you can find a video of Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales @ Google and Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian, who provides additional background information on the underlying calculations: 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGn8HPGrMM 

When I first watched the video, I heard the word estimates a few times, which raised some skepticism. Of course I do understand that it is  hard to make the calculations with a mathematical accuracy on two digits behind the comma, that are 110% reflecting the real world situation. However in  the Google’s Economic Impact – United States, 2009 – report (p. 7) you can read: 

“This is a first attempt to estimate the economic impact of Google’s core search and advertising business. In search and advertising, we’ve derived a conservative estimate of the impact of our tools on businesses, website publishers and non–profits, but we’ve left out such estimates as the cost savings for consumers now able to find the information they need more easily than before. We also have not estimated the economic impact our employees provide, or that of other major products like Google Maps and YouTube. So while we’re reasonably confident in our estimates, consider them a lower bound on Google’s true economic impact.” 

As you can read in the “what is not included” section  (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.7) there are some limitations and constraints. For example the is purely focussed on the core search and advertising businesses. YouTube is excluded despite it has become the second largest search engine online, is another example. 

“For more information about our methodology and to download the two cited studies, please visit: http://www.google.com/economicimpact/methodology.html“ 

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

At first I think the Google’s Economic Impact – United States, 2009 – report is a highly interesting one, especially since there are some real-life examples included from each of the 50 states. I think both this report and the total economic impact, represent quite an amount of entrepreneurship.The report furthermore shows some core aspects of the Google business (model) side, where the search technology is an enabler for the advertising revenue model. 

However there are certainly also constraints and limitations in this report about Google’s Economic Impact. You could also phrase it differently: the report has a clear focus on search and advertising, and it is a first attempt with recommendations for further research. It would be interesting to do some math and compare the numbers from the Google’s Economic Impact 2009 report, with the Google Annual Report 2009. 

Last year I was fortunate to visit Microsoft TechNet_Live, an event for IT  Professionals and Technical Decision Makers, that started with a keynote “Join the New Efficiency” from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. If you have a look at section 1. and the included picture, you can see that Steve Ballmer is performing a similar exercise with the slide “IT More Critical Than Ever”: 

“Steve Ballmer describes the impact of the Microsoft Ecosystem in the Netherlands in terms of hard numbers:  for example jobs, revenues, new business opportunities and even as percentage of the  GDP.” 

It is not only Google, Microsoft or Apple who have a significant economic impact, but I think you can extend this reasoning and generalize that every (major) company has strategically build ecosystem that directly or indirectly includes other “surrounding” companies in the ecosystem. 

Google AdMob in Google’s Economic Impact 2010 report ?

Do you remember the article on the Official Google Blog, in which Google closed the acquisition of AdMob. Mobile Advertising has become a central part of the Google Advertising business with the AdMob acquisition. 

Combined with the growing global market-share of the open source Google Android mobile operating system, I’m really curious to find out what percentage of next year’s Google’s Economic Impact is generated from Mobile and Mobile advertising. …. and with these last thoughts I would like to finalize this article ! 

Last week Facebook announced the release of Microsoft Docs -a collaborative project of Microsoft and Facebook- during the Facebook F8 conference.

In addition to the Microsoft Docs introduction of Lili Cheng, General Manager of FUSE Labs, you can read the following description of Microsoft Docs on the Fuse Labs website: 

“Discover. Create. Share.

Now you can discover, create, and share Microsoft Office documents with your Facebook friends. Built using Microsoft Office 2010 – Docs for Facebook provides the best possible document service for the Facebook environment.

Docs gives you a great, flexible social–productivity experience. You can decide who to share with… from privately creating, editing, and collaborating around docs, all the way to public sharing on the web. You can upload or start doc online, have someone help you edit it, incorporate feedback, and then share it with the world. Docs can be viewed and edited directly within a web browser – or, with a single click, you can edit them more richly and powerfully through the Microsoft Office software on your PC or Mac.

Seamless integration with Facebook means that the service is all about sharing your documents. Finally docs can be friendly too!”

Microsoft Docs – Some hands-on experiences

On the Microsoft Docs website you can find two video’s: (1) Welcome to Docs – Video Tutorial and (2) Getting Started for Docs – Video Tutorial. These video’s should give you a basic impression of the capabilities of Microsoft Docs. 

Furthermore I would like to recommend a Microsoft Docs hands-on tour article published on PCWorld by JR Raphael, a  contributing editor @ PCWorld and and the co-founder of eSarcasm. The article consists of pictures of the different steps of the document lifecycle.

Matt Singley, Senior Director of Social Media Strategy for M80, the leading provider of social media marketing and digital publicity services to Fortune 500 brands, has written an excellent article about Microsoft Docs as well and has some interesting feedback to share:

“You can visit the site and download existing homepage docs, but unfortunately full participation is still limited to beta users that have received an invite code. That means that until you are in the beta test group, you cannot actually upload anything…too bad.

I should also mention that I tried this site in four browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. It worked great in all of them except Chrome initially; I got a compatibility error in the Google-born browser.”

Microsoft Docs vs. Google Docs

Just like Matt Singley and Jeremiah Owyang, Partner, Customer Strategy @ Altimeter Group  and Columnist for Forbes CMO Network, I expected this result from the strategic Microsoft Facebook partnership as an attempt to compete with the Google Docs service.

Mary-Jo Foley, Editor from the All About Microsoft Blog on ZDNet, describes Microsoft Docs as ”a version of Office Web Apps tailored for Facebook users“, while she furthermore states in the ZDNet article:

“Office Web Apps is going to be available to different sets of customers in different ways, Microsoft officials have said. Business users who want to run them inside a company on their own servers and/or via a Microsoft-hosted server will be required to pay some still-unknown subscription fee.”

Therefore I do think that it is fair to conclude that the Microsoft Docs vs Google Docs comparison is clearly wrong, since this is a different product offering aimed at a different target audience. I would decribe Microsoft Docs as a derivative of the Microsoft Office Web Apps that serve the more “general” market. I think it would make more sence to make a comparison between these two services !

Pat Kinsel from FUSE Labs also addresses the comparison with Google Docs in the Microsoft Docs overview on the website:

“There are other services out there that let you create and collaborate on documents.  And there are others that support sharing, discussing and discovering documents.  But what makes Docs special is it’s the only service that supports the complete document lifecycle.  That coupled with seamless integration of Microsoft Office 2010 and Facebook makes Docs the best possible document service for the Facebook environment.”

Overall thoughts and wrap-up

Microsoft and Facebook have already sucessfully teamed-up in the past, for example with the development of Facebook for Windows Phone that brings the Facebook experience to your Windows Mobile powered smartphone. 

If you think about Microsoft Docs from a more abstract level, than it is the combination of the world’s leading Office suite with one of the most powerful global social networks. A clever combination that might result in a new market opportunities for both Microsoft and Facebook. However I’m trying to think a little more about the business- and revenue model behind, mainly because of the currently advertising driven Facebook network.

John Obeto, Microsoft MVP and owner of Absolutely Windows, proposed an integrsting question in this context: “Will Facebook expose the contents of the docs on docs.com to advertisers?“ Are revnues mainly created on the continued advertising model with the resulting yes answer to the question above, or will Microsoft simply get a license fee for leveraging the Microsoft Office Web Apps ?? Remark also the quote from the Mary-Jo Foley article that Microsoft Office Web Apps will be available in different ways to different sets of customers.

Business users might use the more traditional Microsoft Office Web Apps as an extention of the Microsoft Office 2010 software on the workstations and notebooks, while I wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft Docs, as a more consumer oriented offering, become part of the well known Windows Live bundle.

However these are just some thoughts and with the current information available there are no insights in the mid- and longterm goals of this start-up project. Furthermore the comparison of Microsoft Docs and Google Docs is clearly wrong, mainly due to the derivative character of Microsoft Docs. In order to complete the wrap-up I would love to hear your thoughts and invite you to sign-up for the beta of Microsoft Docs. Twelve of my friends did also sign-up as you can see in the screenshot above.

UPDATE

Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Management Group, just published the article “Cloud creates new opportunities for Office: thoughts on Docs.com for Facebook” with his thoughts about- and the explorative nature of the Microsoft Docs approach.

About Microsoft Fuse Labs

“FUSE Labs works in partnership with product and research teams to ideate, develop, and deliver new social, real-time, and media-rich experiences for home and work. FUSE Labs experiences give users new ways to create, connect and collaborate with the people, information and ideas that matter to them.”

I was fortunate being invited to attend the highly succesful first edition of the Android Experience, an event that adresses the Android ecosystem from different perspectives.

In this article I will briefly summarize some of the highlights of Android Experience 2010 @ the Amsterdam Convention Factory.

On the MobilityMinded website I have written an extensive event report, inline with the following structure:

1. The importance of openness for innovation – Vincent Everts, trendwatcher;
2. The mobile future is bright and open, the impact of Android – Ed Achterberg, founder, CEO  and senior research analyst at Telecompaper;
3. The power of Android:  User experience is key – Mark Moons, Regional Director Benelux HTC;
4. Developing Apps: Doing business making money – Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar;
5. Banking with apps – David-Jan Janse, Manager of Rabo Mobile, Rabobank Netherlands;

The highlights of Android Experience 2010, in my personal opinion, are marked in itallic in the list structure above.

The mobile future is bright and open, the impact of Android – Ed Achterberg, founder, CEO  and senior research analyst at Telecompaper;

I really liked the objective scientific approach of Ed Achterberg, founder, CEO  and senior research analyst at Telecompaper. While some very interesting facts about the competitive mobile landscape were presented, Ed Achterberg also made some points that really make you think.

• The misuse of the term personal computer for a desktop computer at home, while you take your smartphone with you all the time. A smartphone, which has taken over a lot of computer capabilities, is probably the most personal electronic device. Also the impact of other devices, like the netbook, e-book readers and devices like the Apple iPad will change the landscape;
• Ed Achterberg presented a graph with the indexed results of the simplicity of device configuration at first use. Honestly I didn’t expect this measurements. However with the average age of the Dutch society rising, fast and easy configuration for the Joe Average end-user becomes critical, with increase of complexity among mobile electronic devices;
• The Android operating system has got a very explosive growth curve with rapid development cycles. From the launch of the HTC Dream, which was the first Android device several versions of the Android OS have been released, 1.5 , 1.6 , 2.0 , 2.1 and a variety of handset manufacturer customizations. The open source nature has driven the growth of the platform, but it also fragments to Android OS at a fast rate. An interesting question is if Google should step up and close the open source model a little. Ed Achterberg suggests that a more uniform quality and user exprience could help the Android OS.

Especially about this last bullet I had some discussion about, among mobile friends and on Twitter with for example JeanPaul Horn (Planet Android / iPhoneclub) and Arnoud Wokke (Tweakers). I’m also curious if and how Google tries to manage the Android Marketplace with an explosive growth of developed applications (indexing and categorizing applications vs. sending in new applications) ?

The power of Android:  User experience is key – Mark Moons, Regional Director Benelux HTC;

Mark Moons, Regional Director Benelux HTC, builds further on the market figures from the previous session of Ed Achterberg by sharing the HTC marketshares and the position of the Android OS in the Dutch mobile market.

A significant part of the session is about the Android ecosystem. Mark Moons explains the necessity of a healthy ecosystem in which the different players challenge each other and drive true innocation. In this light both open- and closed ecosystem are addressed, as well as the opportunity to educate end-users and create a competitive advantage for retailers.

The main conclusion is that an operating system with a healty ecosystem and an excellent user experience will be sustainable on the long term. According to Mark Moons, “Android will become the second operating system in the Netherlands within two years“.

Picture used with permission of Daphne Channa Horn, Independent Photographer

Developing Apps: Doing business making money – Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar;

Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar, is the fourth speaker on the Android Experience, and shares the challenges, opportunities and reconfigurations of business model and strategy in time of Layar.

Layar now aimes at becoming a platform (in contrast with the initial content focus) on top of which other developers can build their services, and in which Layar more or less takes care of a stable platform/environment, the distribution, the installed userbase and pre-installation on Android smartphones, for example the Samsung Galaxy S.

Raimo van der Klein explains the different business models and some specific business details in an interview with Vincent Everts (in Dutch and remark that Android World = Android Experience, Ed Achterberg is from Telecompaper not from Telecomworld)

THE FACTS

• Layar had 3-5 business models from the start about a year ago and now;
• Layar was one of five concepts the Layar team planned to do, however now there is fulltime focus on Layar only;
• 32 people are working on Layar;
• Layar is funded (with venture capital) for E2.5 milion euro;
• 2700 Layar developers worldwide;
• 450 Layars published already and 1700 Layars in development;

THE BUSINESS MODELS

1. Content Layars, payment for hosting;
2. Opening the platform, payment when content is published, for example with a monthly fee;
3. Analytics, premium payments for advanced analytics;
4. Currently Layar focusses on building and expanding the brand, distribution and things like the pre-installation deal with Samsung;

AND ALSO

• Games and tourists guides will become available in Layar in the near future (remark business model 2 in the list above);
• Currently Layar has more end-users on Android devices than on the Apple iPhone devices;
• The release of every Android device caused some change in the Layar code. Upcoming year about 90 handsets, and 2 people working fulltime on a stable Layar experience on all these devices;
• Looking at a collaboration with Nokia (Symbian, Meamo). Nokia is stil the largest handset manufacturer that ships 400 milion handset per year;
• Nokia plays the retail game very strong and pushing the distribution among stores;

Raimo van der Klein illustrates the Layar platform startegy with a new venture: TAB worldmedia, who connect augmented reality with outdoor advertising. I was fortunate to talk with Remco Vroom and Johannes la Poutre in the late afternoon, which was highly interesting.

At first I’m glad that Raimo van der Klein is willing to share these details on a business model level. It is very interesting, and these facts simply illustrate that business model innovation and the constant search for new strategic opportunities and exapnding competitive advantage are a necessity for every entrepreneur.

I’m curious if the Layar team used a business model design tool, like the business model canvas proposed by business model expert Alexander Osterwalder.

Final thoughts and wrap-up

I would like to compliment everyone who has been involved with the organization of the first edition of the Android Experience.  The great industrial atmosphere of the Amsterdam Convention Factory was excellent for a technology event like this.

In addition to the excellent presentations above, Android Experience was also about meeting old friends (developers, press, bloggers, handset manufacturers, distributors) and meeting new friends. During and after the Planet Android App Challenge 2010, I had a few drinks with Patrick de Laive of the Next Web. A great guy with an exceptional entrepreneurial drive.

Other examples of this creativity and entrepreneurship are my discussion with the guys from TAB Worldmedia, or the described presentation of Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar, and Koen Krijns of Hardware.info with the barcode scanning application for Android.

The conclusion is simple, first edition of the Android Experience was a huge success !!

Dynamic Content Gallery Picture used with permission of Daphne Channa Horn, Independent Photographer

In this short article I would like to bring Exnovate, the highly interesting Network of Excellence on Open & Collaborative Innovation, to your attention.

Back in 2008 I was fortunate to attend the fith European Masterclass on Corporate Entrepeneurship & Open Innovation with Henry Chesbrough & Kenneth Morse, where I first experienced the importance of the “business model”.

During the this Masterclass I was able to meet, experience and work with both professor VanHaverbeke and professor Henry Chesbrough. Both are the co-founders of Exnovate, as you can read in the about us section of the Exnovate website:

“Exnovate, the European Network of Excellence on Open & Collaborative Innovation, originated from the pioneering work of prof.dr. Wim Vanhaverbeke together with prof. Henry Chesbrough and other domain experts.”

What is Exnovate ??

The picture above shows an overview the Exnovate website, with the section “Exnovate in a nutshell” that provides a little more extensive description:

“Exnovate is a platform for companies and knowledge intensive organizations that are practicing open innovation. In particular, Exnovate serves as a clearinghouse and network platform, linking together the international community of companies, academia, governments and service providers. Since most knowledge and best practices on open & collaborative innovation are scattered around in different organizations, the platform can significantly speed up the learning process of the partners involved. In addition, Exnovate can help create and valorize knowledge on open & collaborative innovation, hence bridging the gap between theory and practice.”

On the left side of the website, below the Exnovate logo you can see a number of arrows, that provide additional information for a specific group of actors in the Open & Collaborative Innovation field:

1. Companies;
2. Acadamic World;
3. Public Policy Makers;
4. Service Providers;
5. Venture Captial;

While VentureLab Twente is aimed at entrepreneurs in ”assisting high-technology, high potential start-ups to develop and reach their full potential”, I can see similar concepts of connecting practitioners, researchers, experts and even venture capitalists. Exnovate however is focussed on the Open & Collaborative Innovation expertise.

Acadamic papers and network of innovators

Professor Frank Piller, who I was fortunate to meet during a masterclass @ Webster University in Amsterdam, wrote in the article “Exnovate and Open Innovation Forum: Two New Open Innovation Community Sites” on his Mass Customization & Open Innovation News blog:

I found three features especially useful:

• A list of case studies on open innovation for teaching;
• A list of academic papers on open innovation, most with a link to download
• A list of people working in the field;

Despite the fact that the list of academic papers isn’t completed yet (assumption since download links are missing), I really like this section and downloaded some papers that interested me. If you are interested in Open Innovation I can certainly recommend the academic paper list.

Concluding thoughts

I would like to recommend you to read the Exnovate vision, mission and strategy.

Such a European Network of Excellence on Open & Collaborative Innovation is highly valuable no matter if you are from a company, university, government, service provider or a venture captital firm. The amount of knowledge and experience on Open & Collaborative Innovation in such a Network of Excellence is tremendous !

I was able to meet and experience professor VanHaverbeke and professor Henry Chesbrough. Combining their drive and passion for Open & Collaborative Innovation with the high quality of the European Masterclass on Corporate Entrepeneurship & Open Innovation with Henry Chesbrough & Kenneth Morse, I can only conclude that the Exnovate Network of Excellence will be game-changing for many people out there !!