Making Innovation Work in a Downturn
by Dan Keldsen
In this latest podcast, IAM Talking with Carlos Dominguez, Senior Vice President in Cisco's Office of the Chairman of the Board and CEO.
Carlos has worked at Cisco for 17 years in a variety of roles, and advocates for the broad and creative use of technologies that are transforming how companies do business, creating distinct competitive advantages and new business models for those who adopt them.
Dominguez says that video, Web 2.0 applications and the increasing use of social networks, at home and at work, are at the heart of the collaboration revolution that is helping companies use the power of collective intelligence to produce revolutionary ideas for new products, better customer service and greater cost reductions.
It was a sincere pleasure of speaking at length with Carlos, and for my part, I believe we had a stunning array of innovation and collaboration-related tangents that emerged, which I believe are well worth paying attention to. Not your average interview, by any stretch.
Social networking and open innovation:
How did Journey find the next replacement singer after languishing for years with the missing voice of Steve Perry (lead singer) in the late 80s? YouTube and social networking located a replacement singer from... well, you'll have to listen to find out.
Virtual meetings and worlds:
Cisco is not immune from the worldwide dip in the economy, has taken steps to ban all large scale travel for their sales meetings, executive meetings - at a 10x cost reduction (minimally), and with no perceived decrease in the richness or validity of the outcomes. What is the role of telepresence? Gaming as a competitive driver for salespeople? Take a listen.
Culture:
To paraphrase Carlos:
"Most great innovations are killed within organizations... as they are threats to the existing business... and the Cisco culture is specifically built and tested to prevent potential ideas from being killed"
Cisco has a requirement for executives and managers each quarter, or at the least, yearly, to indicate exactly what they are doing within their business unit to Innovate (BIG I in my vernacular or "disruptive innovation" to some) versus innovate (small i or improvememt) within their areas. How does this compare with YOUR organization?
Healthcare:
What is Cisco doing themselves, internally, to innovate in the health and wellness of it's own employees as well as their families? And what has the impact of that investment been?
We had some issues with Skype introducing noise into the system, but keep your ears open for some fantastic points on the state of Innovation within Cisco, Cisco's customers, and what Carlos' experiences in seeing and working with some of the most cutting-edge technologies available, make possible.
Listen now!
Download the MP3 of this podcast
Dan Keldsen is Co-founder and Principal at Information Architected in Boston, MA, providing analysis, consulting and training services to organizations worldwide on the application of technology to knowledge workers and managers.
In this latest podcast, IAM Talking with Carlos Dominguez, Senior Vice President in Cisco's Office of the Chairman of the Board and CEO.Carlos has worked at Cisco for 17 years in a variety of roles, and advocates for the broad and creative use of technologies that are transforming how companies do business, creating distinct competitive advantages and new business models for those who adopt them.
Dominguez says that video, Web 2.0 applications and the increasing use of social networks, at home and at work, are at the heart of the collaboration revolution that is helping companies use the power of collective intelligence to produce revolutionary ideas for new products, better customer service and greater cost reductions.
It was a sincere pleasure of speaking at length with Carlos, and for my part, I believe we had a stunning array of innovation and collaboration-related tangents that emerged, which I believe are well worth paying attention to. Not your average interview, by any stretch.
A sampling of the highlights until we have a transcription ready:
Social networking and open innovation:
How did Journey find the next replacement singer after languishing for years with the missing voice of Steve Perry (lead singer) in the late 80s? YouTube and social networking located a replacement singer from... well, you'll have to listen to find out.
Virtual meetings and worlds:
Cisco is not immune from the worldwide dip in the economy, has taken steps to ban all large scale travel for their sales meetings, executive meetings - at a 10x cost reduction (minimally), and with no perceived decrease in the richness or validity of the outcomes. What is the role of telepresence? Gaming as a competitive driver for salespeople? Take a listen.
Culture:
To paraphrase Carlos:
"Most great innovations are killed within organizations... as they are threats to the existing business... and the Cisco culture is specifically built and tested to prevent potential ideas from being killed"
Cisco has a requirement for executives and managers each quarter, or at the least, yearly, to indicate exactly what they are doing within their business unit to Innovate (BIG I in my vernacular or "disruptive innovation" to some) versus innovate (small i or improvememt) within their areas. How does this compare with YOUR organization?
Healthcare:
What is Cisco doing themselves, internally, to innovate in the health and wellness of it's own employees as well as their families? And what has the impact of that investment been?
And much, much more in this slightly more than 30 minute interview...
We had some issues with Skype introducing noise into the system, but keep your ears open for some fantastic points on the state of Innovation within Cisco, Cisco's customers, and what Carlos' experiences in seeing and working with some of the most cutting-edge technologies available, make possible.
Listen now!
Download the MP3 of this podcast
Dan Keldsen is Co-founder and Principal at Information Architected in Boston, MA, providing analysis, consulting and training services to organizations worldwide on the application of technology to knowledge workers and managers.Labels: culture, Dan Keldsen, Innovation, Open Innovation
posted by Blogging Innovation at 5:00 AM
1 Comments:
For a software startup, downturns always happen. They happen without regard to the business cycle. They happen at a specific point in Moore's technology adoption lifecycle, entry into the late market.
For a market leader, they happen when your sales reps bring in the sale that pushes you past the 50% of market or population available to sell. For the non-market leader, they happen with the onset of the fast follower, you being one. For complementors, the recession happens when you no longer can fund your promo spend.
Recessions happen. More than likely we miss a quarter, and if we are publicly funded, the investors sell the stock, driving down the stock price, driving the employees and investors away, which in turn kills the company.
Knowing that a recession is going to happen means that we can do things in advance, so that we have a viable business going into, and living long in the recession. A recession need not kill.
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