Use Social to Kick Some Innovation Ass!

What can I say that hasn't been said already. You want to give your people the power to innovate. Give them what they need to communicate and collaborate. Help them talk to each other and share ideas. Allow them to vote up or down and to participate in the laying, incubating, and hatching of innovative concepts, processes, services, and products. No limits.



PS - Note the use of Jive SBS by Cerner, mentioned at the end of the article.

Amplify’d from www.business2community.com

Innovation: Make It Bigger. Make It Badder. Make It Awesome!

Gia Lyons | Aug 23, 2011 | Comments: 0

(Attribution to Duff Goldman from Food Network’s Ace of Cakes for using his trademark slogan in our title. Thanks, Duff!)

What does it take to come up with a good idea? Sometimes, all you need is a good night’s sleep and time to think. But for companies who live or die based on their ability to innovate, it takes much more, and on a grander scale.

Using Social Business Software, some of our customers have figured out how to scale their innovative efforts beyond traditional R&D teams, knowledge management systems, and customer focus groups.

They’ve recognized that:

* Innovation can happen anywhere, by anyone, not just in R&D;

* Innovative conversations get stuck in people’s Sent Mail folder, lost to the ether after hanging up the phone, or never written down after a meeting; and

* People sometimes don’t know what they know until someone asks them the right question (or, to quote one of my KM friends, “It’s about the interaction, stupid.”)

Companies using Social Business Software are able to cast a wider net for innovative ideas, not only among employees, but also with partners, customers, industry thought leaders, and more.

Take, for example, what Joe Bush from Cerner, a healthcare innovator, says:

A majority of our members, clinicians and IT staffers, simply want a  valuable way to connect, learn, and share with others like them.  The ER  physician in Seattle wants to know how he can decrease wait times for his patients through advanced queuing.  An ER physician in Tampa has done just that.  uCern [powered by Jive] helps establish that relationship as well as provide a community where that process can be shared with the physician in Seattle, as well as with thousands of other physicians in uCern.  uCern is not only Jive SBS technology, it is a highly connected web of  interactions across Cerner, our clients, and the complex healthcare environment, with information and relationships at the core.

How is your organization using Social Business Software to amplify innovation? Read more at www.business2community.com

 

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Oy is Right!

What can I say? I run into this on a daily basis, peddling my services to small business (and I do mean small) here in my little corner of the world. I emphasize it's free, available, and that I plan to show them how and get out of the way; not do it for them. Unfortunately, most of those who want to engage me also want me to do it for them.



They don't get much for what I cost and they're willing to pay, but I keep on harping and showing them how they can find the time for it and how to minimize just how much time they need. What's astonishing is the knowledge that many small business owners will sit around and chew the fat with their customers, but see social media as a waste of their valuable time. OY, indeed!

Amplify’d from smallbiztrends.com

47 Percent of SMBs Still Not Using Social Media. Oy.

Social Media August 24, 2011 By Lisa Barone

Hiscox, a small business insurance company, recently published a survey of 304 small business leaders to find out more about their social media use. Somewhat shockingly (at least to me), only 12 percent of respondents described social media promotion as a “must” for their businesses, with 47 percent of SMBs admitting that they still don’t use social media at all for business purposes. However, they are still hooked on word of mouth marketing, with 50 percent of SMBs saying they couldn’t live without it.

Hmm, I guess social media, that place where people sign on to talk about your business, doesn’t count as “word of mouth marketing.”

While the education component acknowledges a natural learning curve, it is one that small business owners will need to overcome and tackle if they want to compete in the digital age. With more than 100 million users on LinkedIn, 500+ million users on Facebook and 200+ million users on Twitter, your audience is waiting for you to get involved. Your customers are on social media, which means you need to be, as well. And though the tools are new and can be intimidating until you find your legs, the core of social media isn’t much more than just talking to people. More specifically, social media is about talking to your customers. You need to make time to do that

And that really is the most important component – making time. Read more at smallbiztrends.com

 

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Good Thing We're Depending on the Russians!

Two failures in less than 10 days? Pretty ironic this would happen almost immediately after America's Shuttle program comes to an end, forcing us to depend almost solely on Russian spacecraft to resupply ISS. As it now stands, I don't believe we will have the domestic capability to launch supplies, let alone human beings, for at least a couple of years and, if NASA doesn't pull the trigger on a new heavy lift configuration for the nation, it will be even longer. This may just be a speed bump but, as I said, it's rather ironic given Russia's long history of success.

Amplify’d from www.cnn.com

Russia: Cargo rocket crashes in Siberia

A rocket blasts off from the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 18.

(CNN) -- A Russian space freighter carrying cargo to the International Space Station has crashed in a remote area of Siberia, Russian emergency officials said Wednesday.

The unmanned Progress cargo craft, which launched at 7 p.m. in Kazakhstan (9 a.m. ET) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, was due to dock with the ISS on Friday.

"The situation with the loss of the Progress is not good, of course, but there are stocks of necessities aboard the ISS to support the cosmonauts that will be sufficient to last out until the arrival of the next Progress" cargo ship, Russia's Space Mission Control executive Vladimir Solovyov told Russia's Interfax news agency.

Space experts said Wednesday's crash was the first failure of a Progress cargo unit in more than 30 years of operation.

However, it is the second failed space launch in Russia in less than 10 days.

On August 18, Russia lost a sophisticated Express-AM4 telecommunications satellite when the launch vehicle put it into the wrong orbit.

He said the six people currently living on the ISS are "well supplied -- actually oversupplied" since the delivery of goods by the final U.S. shuttle mission, carried out by Atlantis last month.

NASA is now reliant on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit, since the grounding of the U.S. shuttle fleet has left the United States with no way to lift humans into space.

Plans are in the works for private companies to begin shipping cargo to the station, and eventually to carry astronauts as well. Read more at www.cnn.com

 

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