customer focus Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 3 of 3
Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 3 of 3

Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 3 of 3

By Bill Wood|April 5th, 2010|

In the first two parts of this series, we looked at the current innovation paradigm. That paradigm consists mostly of two primary approaches: namely incremental innovation that looks more like continuous improvement, and a free-for-all that is more like chaos. We also looked at a third approach to innovation: leveraging existing marketing infrastructure to produce a future state narrative. That narrative acts as a future state blueprint for product or service development to move toward. Innovat [...]

Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 1 of 3
Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 1 of 3

Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 1 of 3

By Bill Wood|March 26th, 2010|

If your company does any kind of innovation, how would you describe it? Stoic – slow, plodding, methodical, and generally consisting of small incremental improvements (minimalist). Stretch – evaluating current as well as future needs and wants of the customer with some structured framework for achieving a future state (striving). Maelstrom – creative “free-for-all,” sky’s the limit, and a “no holds barred” barrage of brainstorming and chaos (directionless). The Common Approach to Innovation, Ge [...]

IT Outsourcing, Off Shore Support, Cost Cutting and IT Department Changes
IT Outsourcing, Off Shore Support, Cost Cutting and IT Department Changes

IT Outsourcing, Off Shore Support, Cost Cutting and IT Department Changes

By Bill Wood|March 23rd, 2010|

Businesses everywhere are looking to shore up their bottom lines by cutting costs. As a result, cost centers such as IT departments are prime targets for outsourcing and offshore maintenance. The typical business script is that as the IT organization moves into maintenance mode, cost centers with high overhead become a prime target for reducing costs. However, despite how things might appear, cost is not the real driver of IT outsourcing. The real driver of IT outsourcing is function. IT departm [...]

Social Media Fads and the Risk to the Enterprise
Social Media Fads and the Risk to the Enterprise

Social Media Fads and the Risk to the Enterprise

By Bill Wood|March 17th, 2010|

Today's IT landscape is filled with hype around Web 2.0. While collaboration is a key forward-looking initiative for any organization, social media requires a specific purpose and goal. Without a clear direction and purpose for social media initiatives, they are at best a distracting fad, and at worst an enterprise disaster. When I look at today's social media applications, I see them as a fad. Popular today, and they will be around for a while, but like all social outlets they are waiting for [...]

Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior
Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior

Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior

By Bill Wood|March 11th, 2010|

Great companies are almost always run by great management teams. And great management teams know that the only way to improve a process is to start by measuring it. Good metrics should also be actionable and drive successful behavior. In this post, I reveal how to figure out which metrics matter the most, and how to design them in such a way as to drive behavior that will lead to the results that you want. This post is applicable to any kind of business. In a follow-up post, I will use th [...]

CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape
CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape

CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape

By Bill Wood|February 17th, 2010|

The first part of this series looked at the proper relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO. In today's business environment, the CIO role is already challenging and gaining in difficulty. Today's CIO must not only keep up with technology and business process improvement, but also become a "mini-MBA" in applying technology solutions to forward-looking business strategies, including customer acquisition, customer retention, revenue growth and profitability. Although it is a monumental task, it is [...]