BusinessQuests - tailored advice and facilitation for business progress

Planet Google?

Just read a piece about where Google might be in ten years and considering the success of Gmail between 2004 and now, the author might just be right even though his forecasts may seem wild at times (e.g. Android prevailing in the mobile OS wars). That gives me an opportunity to comment and discuss a bit further Google's amazing ability to execute beautifully a bold strategy of massive innovation to deliver on an audacious vision to organize the world's information.

Top global brands: big swings and US dominance

The list of top global brands was published a few days ago by Interbrand and BusinessWeek. The top 10 brands are largely the same as last year, but the list of brands that have made the biggest gains is interesting: Google (+25% in brand value), Amazon (+22%),  Zara (+14%), Nestlé (+13%) and Apple (+12%) make up the top-5 of the year's winners. Brands that have lost value are (unsurprisingly) those of financial institutions with UBS (-50%), Citi (-49%) and Amex (-32%) leading the pack.

A break-down by country shows the US brands account for nearly two thirds of top global brands, while the top 3 countries of origin (US, Japan, Germany) are home to over 80% of top global brands (see chart - click to enlarge).

The total value of global brands based in the US reaches an amazing 744.2 billion US dollars, while Japan's are worth about 91.8 billion dollars, only slightly above Germany's 91.2 bn$.

P&G lead by example in engaging constructively: Ariel's facts and figures

Recently I posted some thoughts based on a case study that questioned the practices of P&G which stood accused of trying to fool customers by falsely stating that the new bottle type of Ariel contained "10% more product" (tan the previous type of bottle presumably). 

Much to my surprise, I got an answer from somebody working for P&G who reacted within just a couple of hours and that's quite impressive since this blog has never been about building audience or making noise and is therefore not particularly influential. I'm absolutely WOWed by P&G ability to monitor online resources and take reasonable action on any alerts and that's the kind of defensive marketing tactics modern brand management should always feature. More often than not that's not the case.

In this post there's a quick analysis of the facts provided by P&G, which infirm the assertions of the presentation although they do not necessarily prove the accuracy of the "+10%" claim, which I'd rate as "almost true" or "true enough" if I were to run the "truth-o-meter". Naturally that means there is no reason to state that P&G is fooling their customers and the very fact that they engaged in a discussion with this blog shows that they're treating online sources and people out there in a very respectful manner.

Dating, an anti-cyclical business?

A most intriguing article in the latest issue of The Economist states that dating sites seem to be doing rather well in the recession. The correlation between the Dow Jones falling by more than 100 points and the increase in the traffic of one of the dating sites was arguably the most astonishing of all facts presented in this article.

clipped from www.economist.com

Online-dating websites prosper in the recession

It may be that people have more time to devote to their private lives as the economy slows; that uncertain times increase the desire for companionship; or that living alone is expensive, whereas couples can split many of their costs.

25% of women said stress about the state of the economy made them more inclined to seek a long-term relationship. The company also noticed that the number of visits to its website was higher than average on days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 100 points.

Back in September, users were sending 6,000 on-site instant messages a day, says Sam Yagan, OkCupid’s boss. Now that number is over 18,000.

“The majority of relationship discord stems from economic troubles,” he says. Instead of fighting, married people are taking stock of their lives. “They want to do something that makes them feel better about themselves,” Mr Biderman says, “and $49 is a tiny expenditure for a life-altering affair.”

Conference on the economic situation

Last Thursday BusinessQuests helped organize a conference on the financial situation. We had Prof. Bruno Colmant, who also happens to be the CEO of Euronext, and Prof. Philippe Defeyt on the panel and they presented a number of interesting developments to explain the causes and the dynamics of the current situation. Aside from the content, which is very much within my field of attention, the event has been a great opportunity for me to test the adoption of online tools by a predominantly tech-conservative  audience. Results of my tests in a future post. This one is about the content of the conference.

How would you salvage the banking system?

Over the past few weeks I've been doing some research work around the financial system because I have an idea that I might pursue as an entrepreneurial venture aimed at making a difference in the following areas:

• funding for privately owned European SMB companies
• the way investors (LPs) structure their deals with fund managers
• how relationships are (not) created between LPs and companies in which a fund invests
• the degree of transparency allowed into the system for various stakeholders
• the way investment performance is measured to account for environmental, social and human cost of decisions taken by companies and by the financiers to pursue growth (and wealth)
• how companies share the benefits of their success with all stakeholders not just between shareholders
• ...

I still need to do some work, but the thing is taking a nice shape, especially after a sudden satori I had over the weekend... It now seems so obvious I am in bewildered wonder at the idea that something so evident that was right before my eyes could have escaped my attention even as I was working on stumbling blocks that it helps remove! Anyway, more in a future post. For now, I'd be grateful if you could help me by voting on a question I have: how would you go about salvaging the financial system? To answer on LinkedIn, please click here.

Keeping copyright sound

That's a worthy cause. Copyright extension is perfectly useless for people who create new stuff and only a means to securing the dominance of organizations that are increasingly made irrelevant by the radical changes in the media distribution landscape. We don't need our legislators spending time, energy and money on building perpetual streams of income for antiquated forms of content usage. Perhaps they'd be much better inspired to consider enforcing Creative Commons as the official copyright management system.

Watch this and sign the petition on the site of Sound Copyright.

Becky Hogge: Speech at Sound Copyright conference in the EU Parliament 27.01.09 from Open Rights Group on Vimeo

More pressure on marketing expected

A few short months ago there were worries about marketing budgets being cut but most professionals were sounding reassuring in saying that the bulk of marketing budgets would be transferred to online and interactive initiatives. The theory went that brands would want to keep taking initiatives and would continue the same intensity of communication by shifting their marketing dollars to more affordable channels like the Internet.

Even then this thesis did not seem to hold against careful analysis and discussions with senior decision makers even back then. Recent news seem to confirm the pain to come for agencies and marketing professionals, irrespective of the nature of their business, with an exception that is not what most people seemed to think, but makes economic sense.

Continue reading "More pressure on marketing expected" »

Skype seems to be showing signs of sustainable growth not only in terms of new accounts but also in terms of turnover and profitability. What's the impact of VoIP adoption overall and how good an investment has Skype been for eBay? Follow the link below the clipping for more on these questions.

clipped from business2press.com

Internet telephone company Skype, an eBay company, has released impressive user numbers. The company now has 405 million users worldwide, and it is adding 380,000 new accounts daily. Skype continues to offer free calling between Skype users and low cost rates to all other physical phones. The company also posted a $45 million Q4 2008 profit, the 8th consecutive quarterly profit for the company. Skype also says 2.6 billion SkypeOut minutes were used, and SkypeOut minutes are estimated to be growing 61% quarterly, which will bring significantly more revenue to the company if the trend continues. Skype recently launched Skype 4.0, the biggest and most comprehensive upgrade to its service.

How could one disagree with the opinion expressed by President Obama regarding the bonuses some Wall Street bankers have decided to pay themselves? We’re really witnessing recklessness of untold and unprecedented proportions. Those bankers’ behaviro testifies to the fact that there is a complete disconnect between modern finance and the field reality of what we call the "real" economy. But of course when things are getting tough for their girlfriends, wives and mistresses who need to change lifestyle (see the DABA Girls blog to get a feel for the utter disconnect of this crowd from real life), these guys feel the pressure to do something, no? Sadly enough a limited number of people damage the reputation of an entire profession. Most of my contacts in the world of finance are just very fine persons, working hard and decently to fulfill their mission and serve real companies with real customers and real services and real employees and real profits and real problems. They’re part of economic life, whereas the people President Obama is targeting are causing economic death and loss of confidence. If we are serious about solving the current crisis, both they and the pervert system they’ve created must be taken out of the system.

Read on for an analysis take and a video embedded.

Nouriel Roubini’s (RGE – Wikipedia –  Page at NYU Stern) interview on Bloomberg is something you ought to listen carefully (podcast at the end of this post) if you’re a business founder, a manager or an asset owner. It’s not exactly the sort of content that will boost your morale, but I don’t believe the Coué method is the right way to go because it’s much more than a mere crisis of confidence. On the other hand neither denial, nor pessimism are going to take us anywhere.

Rather a pragmatic take on the situation is an essential first step if you’re serious about adapting and being in a position to fully benefit from an eventually recovering economy. This is only one of the reasons why it’s worth getting down to some of the implications of this analysis for business. Today helping business people deal with anxiety and make sense of this chaos is part of my work in different industries, from commodities to tech-innovative sectors, in different areas of Europe. So what does a pragmatic analysis of the situation mean for business? Read on and listen to the podcast.

Interesting and worrying figures from a recent study on click fraud showing deterioration of the situation on the front of click fraud. I wonder whether fraud can be curtailed and if not whether it can derail the project of genuinely measurable advertising and marketing communications...

A very interesting conclusion of recent study by Pew shows that social media is on track for faster adoption than previously believed. And this means that the media landscape is on the brink of yet another radical change in the way owners of content relate to their audience and communities. Exciting stuff.

clipped from www.poynter.org

"The share of adult Internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years -- from eight percent in 2005 to 35 percent now."

"It appears that American adults are moving into social networks more quickly than top 100 news organizations."

McLellan cited recent Bivings Group research, which found that only one in 10 major news organization sites offer social networking features

It's not the site, it's the links, the connections and the network.

I think McLellan is on to a couple of interesting ideas here. First, that mindset and culture -- not resources and technology -- are the key barriers to news organizations benefiting from social media.

the willingness to continuously experiment is the most likely path to success in media. This includes not just trying out new technologies, but learning how to value engagement other than page views on your site.

one of the more rewarding ways news orgs can connect more fully with their audiences

Skype growing impressively but what's the ROI?

Skype seems to be showing signs of sustainable growth not only in terms of new accounts but also in terms of turnover and profitability. What's the impact of VoIP adoption overall and how good an investment has Skype been for eBay? Follow the link below the clipping for more on these questions.

clipped from business2press.com

Internet telephone company Skype, an eBay company, has released impressive user numbers. The company now has 405 million users worldwide, and it is adding 380,000 new accounts daily. Skype continues to offer free calling between Skype users and low cost rates to all other physical phones. The company also posted a $45 million Q4 2008 profit, the 8th consecutive quarterly profit for the company. Skype also says 2.6 billion SkypeOut minutes were used, and SkypeOut minutes are estimated to be growing 61% quarterly, which will bring significantly more revenue to the company if the trend continues. Skype recently launched Skype 4.0, the biggest and most comprehensive upgrade to its service.

President Obama blasting bankers' bonuses

How could one disagree with the opinion expressed by President Obama regarding the bonuses some Wall Street bankers have decided to pay themselves? We’re really witnessing recklessness of untold and unprecedented proportions. Those bankers’ behaviro testifies to the fact that there is a complete disconnect between modern finance and the field reality of what we call the "real" economy. But of course when things are getting tough for their girlfriends, wives and mistresses who need to change lifestyle (see the DABA Girls blog to get a feel for the utter disconnect of this crowd from real life), these guys feel the pressure to do something, no? Sadly enough a limited number of people damage the reputation of an entire profession. Most of my contacts in the world of finance are just very fine persons, working hard and decently to fulfill their mission and serve real companies with real customers and real services and real employees and real profits and real problems. They’re part of economic life, whereas the people President Obama is targeting are causing economic death and loss of confidence. If we are serious about solving the current crisis, both they and the pervert system they’ve created must be taken out of the system.

Read on for an analysis take and a video embedded.

Roubini confirms deep crisis: how will you shield your business?

Nouriel Roubini’s (RGE – Wikipedia –  Page at NYU Stern) interview on Bloomberg is something you ought to listen carefully (podcast at the end of this post) if you’re a business founder, a manager or an asset owner. It’s not exactly the sort of content that will boost your morale, but I don’t believe the Coué method is the right way to go because it’s much more than a mere crisis of confidence. On the other hand neither denial, nor pessimism are going to take us anywhere.

Rather a pragmatic take on the situation is an essential first step if you’re serious about adapting and being in a position to fully benefit from an eventually recovering economy. This is only one of the reasons why it’s worth getting down to some of the implications of this analysis for business. Today helping business people deal with anxiety and make sense of this chaos is part of my work in different industries, from commodities to tech-innovative sectors, in different areas of Europe. So what does a pragmatic analysis of the situation mean for business? Read on and listen to the podcast.

Click fraud on the rise: a threat to measurability of ads?

Interesting and worrying figures from a recent study on click fraud showing deterioration of the situation on the front of click fraud. I wonder whether fraud can be curtailed and if not whether it can derail the project of genuinely measurable advertising and marketing communications...

Social media gaining more traction than expected

A very interesting conclusion of recent study by Pew shows that social media is on track for faster adoption than previously believed. And this means that the media landscape is on the brink of yet another radical change in the way owners of content relate to their audience and communities. Exciting stuff.

clipped from www.poynter.org

"The share of adult Internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years -- from eight percent in 2005 to 35 percent now."

"It appears that American adults are moving into social networks more quickly than top 100 news organizations."

McLellan cited recent Bivings Group research, which found that only one in 10 major news organization sites offer social networking features

It's not the site, it's the links, the connections and the network.

I think McLellan is on to a couple of interesting ideas here. First, that mindset and culture -- not resources and technology -- are the key barriers to news organizations benefiting from social media.

the willingness to continuously experiment is the most likely path to success in media. This includes not just trying out new technologies, but learning how to value engagement other than page views on your site.

one of the more rewarding ways news orgs can connect more fully with their audiences