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Development Laboratory

An International Development Practice

Featured Topic: How's your eWoM?

Social media marketing is the process of advertising through social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. As well as the placing of traditional advertisements within the social media sites, social media marketing attempts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks (sometimes referred to as electronic word of mouth (eWoM)).
 

When was the last time you assessed your eWoM?  It is more than counting  "hits" or orders. It has become equally important to avoid some adverse social media impacts.

Providers Need to Learn from Entrepreneurs.


Sure, standardization promotes efficiency and compliance and helps manage enterprise risk, but it can also introduce rigidity, limit information flow, and discourage creativity. To counter rigidity, break down silos, and manage the risks that accompany innovation, learn from entrepreneurs:

Remain open to change. Open communication among smaller team-groups, cross-team collaboration, and crowdsourcing ideas are key.

Reduce bureaucracy. Clearly define areas for experimentation that may end in failure. The risks of an experimental zone are controlled, managed, and measured. Ring-fence budgets for early-stage research and development projects, which financially separates assets of a company without necessarily creating a separate entity.

Become more agile in adjusting to patient expectations. Software can harness customer data from multiple channels and analyze the data to pick up on changes in demand. Risk-scenario analysis can test the vulnerabilities and opportunities of launching a service product that targets a change in customer demand.

Encourage risk-taking. Managers can invest tremendous time and effort in starting new projects. Once the project is up and running, failure is hard to digest, and recovery from a lost opportunity tends to be slow. To be more entrepreneurial, a provider can redefine its risk appetite by determining which risks are acceptable based on potential returns. It can create a safe environment for experiments and provide rules, parameters, and measurements to guide investments. To avoid missing out on opportunities once the enterprise risk management process is implemented, finance and risk management should work together closely.

Be more imaginative. A provider culture that focuses too closely on the bottom line may not have much appetite for creativity and may have a potentially wasteful innovation process. Changing that culture is difficult and requires leadership and constant effort. It must be undertaken and communicated by executive management.  A tone at the top issue.

Put a premium on speed. Be hungry for results.

Featured Topic:  Linking Appropriate Technology to your Value Chain

Does your IT strategy support your business?  Here is a list of nine (9) common touch-points within a value chain and potential IT initiatives that can contribute to the organization's purpose.  What is your value chain?  Is your IT strategy making a contribution?  Bring out your best.

1. Inbound Logistics

  • Inventory Control (MRP/JIT/ERP etc.)
  • Automated Warehouse Mgt.
  • Virtual Logistical material Mgt. and Fulfilment

2. Operations

  • CAM/CIM Computer Aided & Integrated Manufacturing
  • Production Control & Scheduling/Load
  • Robotics

3. Outbound Logistics

  • Order Processing
  • Vehicle/Aircraft/Ship/Rail Scheduling
  • Automated Warehousing

4. Sales & Marketing

  • EPOS
  • CRM
  • Customer databases
  • Push/Pull Online Marketing

5. Services

  • Remote Services
  • Expert Systems
  • FAQ
  • Knowledge Center

6. Procurement

  • EDI
  • Extranets

7. HR Management

  • Competency-Based Training Programs
  • Workforce Planning
  • Benefit Management

8. Technology Development

  • Extranet/Intranets/Wed-based
  • Computer Aided Design (CAD)

9. Infrastructure

  • Workflow and Collaboration (Team/Program/Project)
  • Enterprise resource Planning (ERP)
  • Intranets

Featured Topic:  Do you have a TBL? (triple bottom line)


Organizations that follow a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach generally seek to expand traditional accountancy reporting systems.  Performance reporting should include social and environmental performance, rather than simply financial performance. 
 
Of interest, a TBL model put forward by Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA) notes three areas of performance measurement: 


  • Profit (or economic prosperity) – the economic value created by the company, or the economic benefit to the surrounding community and society.
  • People (social justice) – the fair and favorable business practices regarding labor and the wider community in which the company conducts its business.
  • Planet (environmental quality) – the use of sustainable environmental practices and the reduction of the environmental impact of the organization.


To support such an approach, The Global Reporting Initiative (an international independent standards organization) helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights and corruption.  Combined with a standard set of financial statements, a new level of transparency has evolved.


The Four Seasons (Hotel Group) approach for a TBL seems to be slightly modified: People, product and profit.    Implicit in the Four Seasons model is the sequence of their TBL:  Great people will deliver superior products which will result in sustainable profit growth.  Issues of environmental and social responsibility are reflected within the “people” and “product” focus.  Cool, huh?

TBL has a number of advantages, many of which relate to its improvement of the organization's corporate social responsibility position:


  •  attracting ethically aware customers
  •  attracting better quality staff
  • cost reductions (i.e. savings in energy, reduced pollution clean–­up costs)
  • reduced chance of government legislation


However, there are some challenges to any TBL, including: 

Difficult to Quantify 

It is often difficult to quantify appropriate people, product, social and environmental measures. For example, when a business makes a commitment to protecting the environment by recycling, for example, its impact is not always easily discernible.

 Management Conflict Risk

An organization's management usually aims to maximize shareholder return. TBL reporting might create conflict as the benefits of any social and environmental actions that a business engages in are likely to emerge over the long term. However, they could have a short­–term negative impact on profits, leading to conflict with some shareholders.

At the end of the day, sensible and meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) can minimize the challenges of a TBL.  We are fans of the Four Seasons approach.  Big fans.  A special shout-out to the Seattle Four Seasons property.