5 Possibilities for 2015: Our Futures of Work

Professor/Author/Speaker
Simon Fraser University

Terri Griffith holds the Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. She spent two decades in the Silicon Valley and, in 2012 was honored as a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Terri helps her students and their organizations accelerate performance and prepare for the futures of work. Through her speaking, writing, teaching, and research, she brings evidence-based leadership and innovation to high-tech, education, and global agribusiness organizations. She inspires and coaches groups on negotiating change and uniquely mixing existing and new capabilities. Her most recent work uses a “bottom-up” approach to automation, including artificial intelligence. Her award-winning book, The Plugged-In Manager:…...

I’ve kicked off 2015 thinking of the “futures of work.” Notice that I did not say the future, but rather the “futures.” No one clear future is on the horizon -- artificial intelligence in the workplace? further integration of global workforces? new technologies? -- but I am certain 2015 will be a year of discovery in each such area and more. I feel these five resolutions will help position you for the nimbleness and lighter touch that has become the hallmark of today’s manager. I welcome your suggestions for further resolutions in the comments field!

Use light-weight experiments rather than all-or-nothing approaches to change in your organization. Taking small steps in organizational change is more important than ever these days given the pace of the world around us. In 2015, go to the next level by finding fast, cheap ways to test the leap-of-faith assumptions underlying the adjustments you want to make. Use a crowdfunding campaign to test the market for a new product, for instance, or have half your teams try one form of flexible work scheduling and the other half another -- learn from both. Steer clear of surveys, you don’t want to base your change on someone giving you an answer they think you want to hear. Instead, measure behaviors like prepayments, performance, or repeat business.

Take advantage of the on-demand global workforce for addressing your temporary, cyclical, or even long-term needs. In March, two of the most visible online freelance job markets merged to become Elance-oDesk. They offer managers everything from on-demand software development to virtual receptionists and business card design. The combined company has grown to 9.3M freelancers worldwide -- a big move from the Kelly Girls of the 1940s.

Combine the growing trend of “wearable computers,” with personal responsibility for productivity (and perhaps light-weight experiments) to create a more healthy, productive workplace. Smart watches, fitness trackers, and the like can serve as more than just gizmos for your employees in their personal time. The US Centers for Disease Control notes that workplace health programs can increase productivity . Consider a contest in which your employees conduct experiments showing the effects of walking meetings, or short walking breaks on performance. The most effective experiment can become a permanent fixture of the workplace. I hope to do this myself: I’d like to connect my fitness tracker data to number of quality articles written and my students’ engagement in class. If I walk more before class, do they learn more from our sessions together?

Move away from once a year or once a quarter performance reviews and instead focus on feedback tied to projects and “check-in” style peer review. With the infusion of millennials into the workplace, demand has grown for managers to shorten the distance between goal-setting, feedback, and coaching. Similar to a Facebook post, managers who use Salesforce.com’s Work.com tool can post feedback when it’s most useful -- right after (or even during) a project.

Consider making IBM’s Watson (the artificial intelligence that won Jeopardy!) your next employee. If your business is health care, finance, retail, or the public sector, subscribing to this AI technology could be a great addition to your team. Watson can play a role in customer interactions, the management of big data, or accelerating research. My colleague Christine Isakson and I are just starting to look into the issues of whether we should think of artificial intelligence as a full-on member of the team, a consultant, or a tool. No doubt Watson will be covering more industries soon and I hope he will soon help us with our research. Another technology that I predict you’ll be finding ways to integrate in the near future: drones. Unmanned vehicles (drones) in the air, on the land, or in the water have the potential to conduct mission-critical tasks including photography, surveying, environmental research, package delivery, security, and cell tower and road inspections. Perhaps a drone crew will loom large in your 2015 future!

Click here to provide your comments. I would love to hear about your own futures of work.

Many thanks to Deborah Lohse. She asked me if I had ideas for managers looking forward in the new year and kept me on the straight and narrow through the development, including helping see the connection to drones!

"Futures of work" image care of CoolText.com

Future of Work Chief Executive Officer

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Medallia Releases Next-Generation Module to Help Companies Systematically Eliminate Recurring Customer Issues

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

Medallia® Customer Experience Management (CEM) provider announced the release of Medallia Resolve, an advanced customer experience capability that helps companies quickly find the root causes of recurring customer pain points so they can be addressed at the source of the problem. One of the biggest issues is that companies don’t keep track of what reoccurring issues their customers have and use that feedback to correct things in their company. As a result, the same problems happen over and over and over again, waisting thousands and sometimes millions of dollars. Closing the ‘inner loop’ with customers has become standard practice for some companies resolve individual customer issues. And even more difficult is the challenge is to increase the strategic impact of customer feedback by closing the ‘outer loop,’ or aggregating feedback to uncover business improvement opportunities that provide tangible value for large groups of customers.

To assist companies in figuring out what those reoccuring issues are, Medallia Resolve’s new features include:

Best-practice-tailored case management tools that help companies engage in a productive dialogue with customers when things go wrong: by alerting the employee who is closest to the problem to close the loop with the customer, helping them better understand the issue, and letting them record findings for systemic learning and analysis.
Enhanced internal collaboration tools: which aggregate historical data from all touchpoints to give employees the context they need to solve customer problems — and allow them to pull in teammates for help.
An upgraded reporting dashboard: which opens the ‘outer loop’ by identifying root causes of recurring customer pain points — includingbroken processes, common misunderstandings, and training gaps.
A real-time mobile app: which alerts employees about customer issues on the go and provides the ability for them to respond directly even if they’re away from their desk.

In a time where margins are thin and customer expectations are higher than ever, it only makes sense to learn from a brand’s mistake, fix time and try best not to repeat them. Having this process automated can accelerate the ability of the company to better meet the needs of their customers and provide better customer experiences and engagement. How does your company find and resolve reoccurring issues?

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

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Survey: Real Forces Disrupting Marketing Effectiveness

Partner, Sensei Marketing
Partner, Sensei Marketing

Sales & marketing veteran with almost 30 years’ experience and now 1800 digital projects to his credit for clients including Morgan Stanley, AOL, Hyatt Gaming Management, Snyder's of Hanover, Hitachi, the Home Depot, Kraft Foods, Drees Homes, American Idol, and hundreds more, including leading agencies around the North America.     ...

In a 2014 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company and the ANA, B2B and B2C marketers revealed the real forces disrupting marketing effectiveness today. Below is a summary highlighting the results.

1. Complexity and Fragmentation

48% of marketers reported that the fragmentations of the audience, and complexity of solutions and options for audience engagement, are significant disruptions to the success of their marketing efforts. There doesn’t seem to be much hope for a near-term fix; 44% of marketers reported that these factors will remain a challenge in the next 1-3 years.

2. Mobile Tops Budget Allocation

There is a lot of debate on what effect mobile technologies and mobile adoption among consumers have really had on marketing; many of the mobile opportunities and threats once prophesized by analysts have yet to come to fruition here in North America. Yet, B2B and B2C marketers once again point to mobile as both a major obstacle and opportunity – so much so that it tops the 5 areas that are being allocated greater budgets.

3. Migration to Networked Organizational Structures

A challenge that is receiving less publicity than technology and social networking is the shift from more traditional organizational structures (where lines of authority are clearly defined and linear) to matrixed organizational structures, which feature multiple reporting lines that see employees reporting to more than one formal boss.

4. Analytics Capabilities to Understand Customer Behavior

While marketers are keen to report the disruptions their businesses face, they also acknowledge the number of challenges in managing those disruptions. It should not surprise us that decision-making based on big data analysis and ROI measurement still top the list.

5. Poorly Defined “Customer Journey”

What dismayed me the most in reviewing the study’s findings is that only half of the businesses surveyed have a clearly defined “customer journey” mapped out.

That said, with 77% stating that they will have this figured out within the next 3 years, it seems that the importance of this roadmap is understood, if perhaps not how to map it. The customer journey can be defined as the full experience of being the customer of a specific business. In other words, it’s the sum of interactions between an individual and a brand and the net effect that journey has on the business’s bottom line. Those interactions include initial awareness of a product or the brand (lead generation, community, advertising, etc.) to the purchase decision (sales transaction, billing, sales personnel), and from purchase to advocacy (customer service, billing, loyalty programs, etc.).

It’s this customer journey that is at the center of almost every disruption and challenge highlighted by this study. Managing any of these disruptions, be they mobile adoption, data analytics, or changing organizational structures, requires an understanding of the customer journey – and where that journey may be blocked – as a baseline from which to effect change, make improvements, or track progress in the business’s value.

Marketing Transformation Chief Marketing Officer

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Where Big Data Jobs Will Be In 2015

Demand for Computer Systems Analysts with big data expertise increased 89.9% in the last twelve months and 85.40% for Computer and Information Research Scientists.

Demand for Python programming expertise increased 96.9% in big-data related positions in the last twelve months.

These and other key insights are from a recent analysis completed of big data hiring trends using WANTED Analytics, the leading provider of data analytics on the workplace. For purposes of this analysis, the term “big data” is comprised of the four skill sets of data analysis, data acquisition, data mining and data structures. The WANTED Analytics taxonomy references these skill sets when queries are made on the term “big data”.

The company currently maintains a database of more than one billion unique job listings and is collecting hiring trend data from more than 150 countries. WANTED Analytics has never been a client, they provided complimentary access based on my requesting a trial account. Many Forbes readers are interested in staying current on big data hiring trends, which led me to complete this analysis.

Key Take-aways include the following:

Demand for big data expertise across a range of occupations saw significant growth over the last twelve months. There was a 123.60% jump in demand for Information Technology Project Managers with big data expertise, and an 89.8% increase for Computer Systems Analysts. The following table provides an overview of the distribution of open positions by occupation and the percentage growth in job demand over time.

The five leading industries with the most job openings requiring big data expertise include Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (27.14%), Information Technologies (18.89%), Manufacturing (12.35%), Retail Trade (9.62%) and Sustainability, Waste Management & Remediation Services (8.20%). The following graphic shows the distribution of open positions between September 1, 2014 to today, December 29, 2014:

The Hiring Scale is 76 for jobs that require big data skills with 12 candidates per job opening as of December 29, 2014. The higher the Hiring Scale score, the more difficult it is for employers to find the right applicants for open positions. Nationally an average job posting for an IT professional with cloud computing expertise is open just 47 days.

The median salary for professionals with big data expertise is $103,000 a year. Sample jobs in this category include Big Data Solution Architect, Linux Systems and Big Data Engineer, Big Data Platform Engineer, Lead Software Engineer, Big Data (Java, Hadoop, SQL) and others. The distribution of median salaries across all industries shown below:

San Jose – Sunnyvale – Santa Clara, CA, San Francisco – Oakland – Fremont, CA, and Washington – Arlington – Alexandria, DC are the top three U.S. employment markets for big data related jobs as of today. Mapping the distribution of job volume, salary range, candidate supply, posting period and hiring scale by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or states and counties is supported by WANTED Analytics and shown in the following graphic. A summary of the top twenty employment markets is also shown following the map:

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) have the most open big data-related positions today. Cisco, its supplier, partner and support ecosystem companies have 3,613 related big data positions available. The following table shows the top ten big data employers today, the distribution of jobs, and the number of new jobs added over the last year.

Python programming (96.90%), Linux expertise (76.60%) and Structured Query Language (SQL) (76%) are the three most in-demand skills in positions that mention big data as a requirement. The following table provides an overview of the top 10 most in-demand skills:

Data to Decisions Tech Optimization AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership business Marketing finance Customer Service Content Management Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

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Why Top Marketers Create Branded Social Networks for Customer Engagement

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

My new report, Why Top Marketers Create Branded Social Networks for Customer Engagement is about how Marketers can create social networks to deliver better engagement and business results with branded online communities. In the business environment that dominated the past few decades, successful marketers helped drive business value by demonstrating proficiency in customer acquisition and lead conversion.

In the digital era, however, top marketers help their brands reap the business value of using branded social networks to drive enhanced customer engagement/experience. The business value of branded social networks comes from the simple idea that forward-looking brands should reimagine their businesses as social networks of customers, fans, partners and many stakeholders who share an enthusiasm for the brand and thus provide the essential elements of a top-performing, revenue-generating brand.

This report explores how smart marketers can apply investments in social networks to drive business results. Constellation provides key criteria for marketing leaders to evaluate when selecting a brand-owned social network technology. In addition, Constellation shares six best practices for successful deployment of brand-owned social networks.

For more information about this report, you con find it here.

Why Top Marketers Create Branded Social Networks for Customer Engagement

Download the report snapshot and table of contents

Next-Generation Customer Experience Marketing Transformation Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

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Constellation Publishes "State of Enterprise Technology" Research

Updated March 12, 2015

Constellation recently published our State of Enterprise Technology series of research reports. These reports assess the current state and describe the future direction of several technologies. Use these reports to measure your organization's progress with your enterprise solutions and plan for the future.

Check our research library often as Constellation will publish reports in our State of Enterprise Technology series throughout Q1. Want to suggest a topic for a report in the "State of Enterprise Technology" series? Drop us a line.

The State of Marketing

By Natalie Petouhoff

Customer Experiences and Marketing Further Intertwine

Seven measures early adopters must take to prepare for the disruptive forces influencing marketing. Use this report to benchmark and plan for your marketing future.

The State of Manufacturing

By Guy Courtin and R "Ray" Wang

Manufacturing Adopts Mass Personalization Ideology

In 2015 manufacturing will dive into digital transformation as producers take advantage of data insights to create ever-more customized products.

The State of HCM

By Holger Mueller

Inside the Future of HCM

This report examines seven trends influencing human capital management. Find out how organizations will manage their most valuable resource: their people.

The State of the Cloud

By Holger Mueller

Inside the Nine Cloud Trends Every CxO Needs to Know in 2015

As internal and external apps continue to dominate business, the cloud evolves into the responsibility of the entire C-suite. Consequently, all CxOs should be aware of major trends in cloud technology. Prepare yourself for a productive conversation about the future of the cloud in your organization.

The State of IT Services

By R "Ray" Wang

State of Digital Transformation Services

Digital Transformation Services Take Center Stage For 2015

The Digital Transformation Services market is set to explode in 2015. Constellation forecasts it to surpass $100.7B in 2020. This report defines the Digital Transformation Services space, identifies seven trends to watch as the market gains traction in 2015, and provides notes on identified services providers.

The State of Retail in 2015 and Beyond

By Guy Courtin

Digital Technologies Reshape Retail and Shift Customer-Retailer Relationship

The customer-retailer relationship will become more cooperative in 2015. Learn about the Amazon Trap, visibility, the Internet of Things, network insights, and more trends in the state retail in 2015.

The State of Collaboration in 2015

By Alan Lepofsky

The Future of Collaboration Lies at the Intersection of Social Interaction and Data-Driven Insights

Currently collaboration shows maturity in market and user adoption. The future of collaboration must address the human element in Digital Transformation.

The State of Customer Success Management in 2015

By Natalie Petouhoff

Next-Generation Customer Experience Is Guiding Customer Success Management

Customer service and support evolves into customer success management. Customer success management becomes a top priority for all companies, at all levels.

The State of Digital Safety and Privacy in 2015

By Steve Wilson

Digital Safety and Privacy is about the art and science of maximizing the information assets of a business, including its most important assets – its people. The future of digital safety and privacy requires new awareness of data flows.

The State of Post-Sale Commerce in 2015

By Guy Courtin

Post-sale commerce is set to be an important revenue driver for many organizations. Organizations moving to post-sale commerce must consider five key elements included in this report.

The State of Digital Transformation and Digital Leadership

By Andy Mulholland

The State of the Digital Boardroom and CxO in 2015

Digital transformation remains an important initiative for businesses in 2015 and boards need to learn how to guide digital transformation projects. The Internet of Things emerges as the key to real digital business transformation.

The State of Supply Chain Management

By Guy Courtin

The future of supply chains demonstrates how digital will transform business models.

Being demand-driven remains the goal to achieve, the Future of Work and BYOD will affect the supply chain, and data is the product in the state of the supply chain in 2015.

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Innovation & Product-led Growth B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience business Marketing eCommerce Supply Chain Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service AI Analytics Automation Machine Learning Generative AI ML LLMs Agentic AI HR HCM SaaS PaaS IaaS Chief Customer Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Growth Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Operating Officer

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Understanding your Digital Business Model by its Business Functional Requirements for Operational Technology

Andy Mulholland

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Andy Mulholland is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cloud business models. Formerly the Global Chief Technology Officer for the Capgemini Group from 2001 to 2011, Mulholland successfully led the organization through a period of mass disruption. Mulholland brings this experience to Constellation’s clients seeking to understand how Digital Business models will be built and deployed in conjunction with existing IT systems. Coverage Areas Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite: BYOD, Internet of Things, IoT, technology and business use Previous experience: Mulholland co authored four major books that chronicled the change and its impact on Enterprises starting in 2006 with the well-recognised book ‘Mashup Corporations’ with Chris Thomas of Intel. This was followed in…...

Part 2; The role of existing business functions and technology provisioning when Digital Business adds new business functions and technology provisioning Digital Business models stress agile, dynamic, and responsive to external opportunities using sense and respond. Is this just adding a new technology operation to the Front Office? Its difficult to see how the Back Office IT model built for optimization of internal operations can support such a flexible business-operating model without some changes at least. Its time to re-examine and identify the business functions and what and how technologies provide them.

Slowly but surely all enterprises have become dependent on technology to operate their internal processes, but now with new externally oriented market processes bringing a new dependency on even more technologies its time for a serious review of the integrated Digital enterprises functions

Part I ended with a diagram that identified just how different the operational environments of the Front and Back Office are, and why it’s not only the technologies that are different but also the provisioning. In Part 2 the starting point is to identify the core Business functions and from this examine how they should be provisioned to align with the Business requirement for that function.

The diagram below outlines eight core functional operating areas each with different business requirements leading to different technologies operations.

In explaining the principle behind this type of functional analysis it is perhaps easiest to start with the three functions in the bottom layer of the diagram working from left to right.

Non-Differentiating Business Processes are those that have to be performed, usually for compliance reasons, but do not provide any competitive differentiation other than by the cost and efficiency with which they are carried out. Invoicing and HR are two common examples where the entire business operation is outsourced with payment based on a business metric such as per invoice, or per employee.

Interestingly Business Process Outsource, or BPO, is an existing example of shifting from CapEx overhead to OpEx operational expenditure and therefore totally aligned to the Digital Business goals of attributable cost, agility and flexibility. New Cloud based service capabilities are widening the range and types of Business Operations that can be outsourced on an OpEx business.

It makes sense to re consider exactly what could or should be moved to Business Process Outsourcing and in particular to think through the whole book to bill cycle and its relationship to your enterprises external digital business. Before doing this it helps to firmly identify exactly what makes up the functional block of ‘Core Competencies in Production and Fulfillment’

These are the activities that actually create the products that make up the enterprises business to sell with associated activities that fulfill orders, and as such are the basic competitive activities that keep an enterprise in business. Whether orders come from existing ‘traditional’ channels, or as part of new ‘digital business’ models.

Some two decades of applying IT expertise to ‘Core Competencies in Production and Fulfillment’ to optimizing processes and integrating data, etc. lie behind the original mission statement of IT, and ERP, in producing Competitive Differentiation. But for many enterprise mission creep’ has led to this vital activity becoming almost obscured behind a morass of other IT services. Hence the need to rethink competitive focus versus distracting operations better outsourced!

Returning to Business Process Outsourcing functions and re considering what to outsource by function against this criteria should result in fresh critical analysis. Add to this a further checklist of questions; should it be directly cost attributable to their activities and volume; is this now competitively available through Cloud based Services; and most significantly, who uses the function defined by where in the Business and Technology model there activities are primarily located.

Digital Business is usually seen in terms of using technology outside the enterprise IT systems and firewall to do business in new ways with Clouds, Mobility, and Services at the heart of the new capabilities. It makes sense to question if non-differentiating activities in support such as Book to Bill, and others, should not be provided in a similar manner as Cloud based BPO functions.

The usual arguments will of course be made as to preservation of the statue quo, and there are of course functions and activities where this is the right action. Here the two traditional outsource functionalities illustrated in the diagram provide the answers, but as the topic of traditional outsourcing has been argued in full in many places it does not necessary to provide a further airing here.

Its tempting to accept the continuation of the current status, but its difficult to see how without some really careful and strategic thinking a transformed Front Office using new technologies and deployment models can be made to work in a new, and reset, competitive market places with out some impacts in the rest of the enterprise and its business functions.

Digital Business Transformation must, by definition, mean a wider consideration of exactly how an enterprise does functional operate when its business model becomes based not only on Technology, but also on external Technology and Services provided by new deployment models.

This is not an argument for the chaos of Enterprise wide transformation in response to the introduction of IT, and PCs and ERP technologies as in the past. Instead it is an argument for managing a graceful change by letting go of non-core activities and re focusing on what will increase competitive differentiation in support of Digital Business.

Part 3 of this series; will focus on examining the functions of the Front Office and its aligned technology model. Part 1 can be found here

Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer

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Visual Influencer Marketing Is On The Rise, But Is It Worth The Investment?

Partner, Sensei Marketing
Partner, Sensei Marketing

Images, videos, infographics, and other visual content have become increasingly popular forms of digital expression for individuals and content marketing fodder for bloggers and marketers. This content has spurred the growth of social networks in which such content is produced and shared such as Vine, Pinterest, and Instagram. So it should be no surprise that advertisers and brands are once again seeking to capitalize on perceived “influencers” within these sites despite the fact that these social networks are still in their infancy. There’s no question that visual influencer marketing is on the rise, but is it worth the investment at this point?

“Beyond YouTube, the new visual influencer marketplace is anything but established or mature,” said Weber Shandwick’s global president of digital Chris Perry. “It’s growing and fragmenting across newer networks like Instagram, Vine and others as we speak. And access to cheap production apps and networks are fueling more content being created and shared.” Current estimates have the PR firm dedicating approximately 20% of some client’s PR budgets to engaging social media influencers in these networks.

As with the now largely discredited social scoring platform Klout, there’s a new crop of influence marketing platforms emerging that claim to identify, engage, and in some cases act as talent agents for those people who have amassed large followings in these visual networks. While some agencies like Weber Shandwick build their own relationships with popular social celebrities, many, such as Staples, Clinique, and Nordstrom are turning to third party influencer managers and software for a short cut.

What’s In An App?

According to Wall Street Journal writer Nathalie Tadena, “Social media celebrities can not only help brands generate enormous buzz but can also help advertisers and agencies who are less experienced with a certain platform craft content that will thrive on these specific web sites.”

HelloSociety, for example, is one new firm that focuses on connecting “Pinterest influencers” with brand marketers and/or their agencies. Another service growing in popularity is Niche. Founded in 2013, this company is expected to generate more than $8 million in revenue this year. One of Niche’s clients is HP, which worked with Niche-identified influencers on Vine to create six-second videos featuring a new HP notebook that could turn into a tablet.

Something New or More of the Same?

Now that social media channels have allowed individuals to amass followings that compete with some popular television programs and magazine circulations, advertisers must pay attention. However, I’m not convinced that those embarking on these paid influencer marketing schemes will meet the expectations of the C-Suite approving the budgets.

I’ve been critical of many social media influencer schemes in the past, including Klout and to a lesser degree Kred and PeerIndex. However, I’ve always seen the value in the concept of influencer marketing, when done well. Danny Brown and I outlined that value in detail when we authored Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing for Pearson Publishing.

The reality is that while advertisers who engage influencer marketing companies and software in hopes of encouraging socially popular individuals to shill for their brands may be generating buzz, there’s still no correlation between the buzz generated and direct sales made when these brands are engaged. The metrics of mentions and likes are still soft metrics. Further, there’s little connection between the lead generation effort and how they affect customer lifetime value, something that businesses must be increasingly cognizant of in our multi-channel, multi-media, multi-touch world.

We still recommend that agencies turn to social media analytics companies such as Sysomos to first gauge which content creators are the most engaging around a certain topic, how their audiences match up to the demographics of highly convertible prospects, and then generate specific influencer marketing content and campaigns that target those in the buying cycle. Alternatively, for smaller businesses, we’ve found success in working with social relationship software firms like Nimble, which can identify and monitor the conversations of those who are most likely to buy specific products at a specific time by monitoring social conversations occurring among those targeted in the contact list.

That said, we’re definitely seeing improvement in influencer marketing programs like Niche, which help brands and influencers create content that will most likely engage their target audiences. At the end of the day, even the most engaging content won’t guarantee that the content will be seen by those in the appropriate stage of the buying cycle. If you plan to engage these services, be sure you’re able to segment the audience that will be targeted to be sure they’re your “most likely buyers.” Next, ensure the campaign drives those targeted to brand-owned properties where individual profiles can be captured for better performance tracking.

Marketing Transformation Chief Marketing Officer

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For retailers and CPG staying alive means living on the edge

pending

Guy Courtin was formerly Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce and how the Internet of Things drives the evolution of commerce.  Guy has over 15 years experience in the technology space and specifically in the supply chain space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. Where he focused on the service providers that empowered supply chains. Prior to SCM World, Guy held numerous senior positions. He was responsible for product marketing at RSi, a retail supply chain solution provider. There managed RSi’s go to market strategy around their leading cloud based supply chain solutions. He also spear headed Progress Software’s supply chain group. Where he was responsible for driving revenue and market share as well…...

A common thread I heard last week at the NRF Big Show, was the importance of the edges of the network. "Edge" in retail speak refers to pushing relevant and actionable data closer to the customer touch points – to the edges of the retailer’s network. I wrote in my #NRF15 recap about the importance of pushing data, insights and decision making to the edges of the network, click here for post. There is another aspect of the network edge that wasn’t prevalent last week in New York, but probably isn’t ready for prime time yet, and that is an enhanced ability to execute at the network's edge. When it comes to that extended level of execution, think 3-d printing, better usage of hardware and software to better service customers…at the edges of the retail network.

The one advantage brick and mortar retailers have over the likes of Amazon and Alibaba is also what has been seen as their weakness – their physical stores. Stores offer a host of issues that are well documented – inventory carrying cost, limited SKUs due to the physical constraints of a store, overhead associated with labor as well as having real estate. However this disadvantage may have a silver lining – face to face interaction. The challenge for retailers is how to make that face to face more attractive to consumers than their laptops or mobile devices to transact. That is where being able to offer greater personalized and flexible solutions is paramount for retailers. How can retailers address this?

Greater personalization…kind of like your online experience! We all know that the power of transaction online, other than being able to do so in your pajamas, is how customized the experience is tailored for us. One reason Amazon is so entrenched in our consumer life is that they know what we want…sometimes before we are even aware of it! The power of Google is that they will place those banner ads based on what they know we have been looking at and interested in. Online experiences with the likes of Nordstrom or Banana Republic are littered with suggestions on what else we need. Looking for a a new Peacoat? May we suggest these styles and brands. Oh and if you like that item…you might like this other item that compliments it. Of course this is possible because in the eCommerce world our digital finger prints are everywhere and can be captured with much more ease than in the physical world. This is starting to change. Slowly. As more service providers are focused on helping retailers capture, analyze and provide insights on all the consumer related data sources, physical retail stores will have the potential to be “smarter” in their customer interactions. Companies like Oracle look to offer their retail customers the ability to empower the edges of their network, with the data and consumer persona necessary to transform the in-store experience more on par with the online world. Oracle, like other service providers, realizes for retailers to protect their brand must understand how customers want to research – interact – transact. This can only be achieved with a more complete view of the customer. There is also the need to perform greater levels of analytics at the edge of the network – brick and mortar retailers cannot afford the potential latency associated with having to push data back to a centralized location. For example, Cisco is working on providing the communication hardware, platform and necessary analytics at the edge of the network. Don’t move the data unless you have to. That ensures that the data, and the analytics, are done as close to the customer and execution point as possible. Again, when we transact online there is not much latency when it comes to our profiles and what is being suggested. Retailers are striving to bring some online shopping experience to the store front. But what about getting your product?
Fulfillment moved out of the traditional channels and pushed to the edges of the network. Having greater understanding of your customer and more insights at the edges of the network is wonderful, but if you cannot offer the inventory diversity or fulfill at that node, what have you gained? If retailers cannot fulfill better their stores not only become showrooms, but your store associates also become pitchmen. Not what you want in the brick and mortar world! I expect retailers to continue to focus on more flexible and intelligent manners to fulfill their customers’ demand. The first step for better fulfillment is being more savvy about your inventory. I was speaking with a former P&G executive while I was at NRF and the one issue he stated is still a headache is understanding inventory positions within a store – what is on the shelf, what is in the stock room and what item is about to have a stock out? All classic issues CPG and retailers struggle with. But to fulfill better, these need to be solved, and they cannot be solved by just looking at inventory data from your POS or warehouse system. Retailers must have greater and more reliable view of their inventory. That means being more digital with the in store management of the inventory. Service providers like Panasonic are bring such shelf level visibility to the market, something I wrote about in my last post. But it is not just about greater visibility of what is available to your customer – what about greater flexibility on delivering the customized product your customer wants? The story of how Coca Cola has rolled out their Freestyle machines, that puts a tremendous amount of control at the edge of the network, with the consumer. Other CPG companies like Maille mustard and vinegar has stores that allow you to come in and fulfill your mustard and vinegar condiments in the store. These are examples of more flexible inventory and product mix being provided at the edge. There is also the infusion of digital technologies such as 3d printing. Confectionery companies like Hersheys are rolling out 3d printing – need a special chocolate for your kid’s birthday party, have it printed in the store. Luxury retailers, such as jewelry stores, can offer on site 3d printed pieces – for customized jewelery. American Pearl is offering consumers the ability to have customized pieces created via their 3d printers. Granted they are doing this via their online channel, but brick and mortar channels could offer consumers the ability to have a design rapidly prototyped in the store and then produced. That would certainly make events like purchasing a wedding ring less stressful…well maybe not.

Whether it is better visibility and greater analytics or being more savvy in product delivery at the edges, retailers must focus here to maintain relevance for their physical stores. Simple truth – at the edges is where you find the customer. Retailers must make sure that they meet customers needs: eliminate the friction between demand, relationship, fulfillment and after sales.

Tagged: CPG, Digital Disruption, Matrix Commerce, NRF15, Retail, Supply Chain

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Read more about For retailers and CPG staying alive means living on the edge

NRF15: retail looks to streamline customer experience

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The NRF Big Show once again did not disappoint in terms of the sheer volume of attendees as well velocity of ideas being exchanged. The 104th edition of Retail’s Big Show, saw 33,000 attendees descend on the west side of Manhattan. It seems every January after NRF my head is spinning from 48 hours of back to back meetings, hoofing around the Javits Center and meeting a number of fantastic and interesting people and companies. It felt like the last two years The Big Show was picking up momentum again after hitting some slow downs due to the general economic malaise of a few years ago.

Once again I was impressed with the number of companies on the main floor as well as the lower floors. I recall being at NRF events were the lower levels would be hosting a different conference – no longer. The big idea talks I was able to attend focused on the next generation for retail – many high lighted the new touch points that will be truly customer centric. Of course where I gained the most insights were from my numerous meetings and hallway conversations. Here are the take aways from my time spent in the Big Apple:

Push data to the edge of the network. How refreshing it was to not be inundated with Big Data messaging and marketing, okay it did seep its way into some conversations, but fortunately it did not dominate. What was discussed was the ability to push the relevant and actionable data closer to the customer touch points – to the edges of the retailer’s network. Companies like Infosys and Zebra, showcased how they were leveraging a number of devices from handhelds to smart phones to Google glass to bring a higher degree of intelligence and insight at the store level (during the show it was announced that Google glass was being mothballed, whether it is Google glass or another wearable the concept is out of the genies bottle). Think about using an item such as Google glass, or a similar device, to allow your store associates to better service the store shelf. By simply looking and speaking in front of the shelf, the device can give you instant access to see if you have inventory in the backroom or when it will be replenished. Other service providers such as Epicor spoke at length about how they are working to provide a robust front end platform to provide the most complete retailer view, at the edges of the network. By leveraging their platform that ties in all the solutions retailers need to run their commerce, those sitting at the edges of the network have greater intelligence in their hands, or in their tablets and smartphones. Which is crucial for better customer service. Retailers are aware that in order to compete with the online channels, they must empower their brick and mortar presences with the data, analytics and insight to provide the best customer experience. This needs to have information and analytics at the edge of the network – on the ground of the retailer.
Hardware is cool again. Think smart mirrors, intelligent store shelves, wearables, RFID and IoT. I was impressed with the hardware Panasonic had on display. From smarter cash registers which employed front facing cameras with facial recognition to sophisticated store cameras and audio devices. What I was really excited about was what they have to transform your store shelves from dumb to smart. Panasonic demonstrated a full turn key solution to bring beacons, shelf sensors, smarter pricing tags and video displays. The solution offers retailers the ability to have a view of what is happening at the store shelf based on a digital signal, not relying on constant human monitoring (which we know is not necessarily accurate or timely). With a smarter store shelf, the retailer and their CPG partners will get closer to a real time view of what is really happening at the shelf. Service provider Checkpoint also displayed their RFID technology, which comes from their OATsystems acquisition. The ability to leverage RFID for better monitoring of shipments is one use case. However, the potential use case for retailers is in more accurate order assembly. As an ever increasing number of consumers are looking to order online and pick up in the store, the need for accurately assembled orders by the store takes on greater degree of importance. There was also the smart mirror that Zebra demonstrated. The mirror brings some online retail functionality to the brick and mortar store. Not only will the mirror allow you to “see” merchandise on the patron, but based on what merchandise you are trying on, the mirror is smart enough to start suggesting other products. Just like the experience when we are online and get suggestions based on what we have on our basket. Talk about cross sell and up sell…and impulse buys! These are a few examples of how hardware is becoming cool again. The evolution in hardware is bringing more flexibility, intelligence and online experience functionality to the brick and mortar stores.
Better servicing of the customer life cycle. With customers wanting to engage anywhere and from any devices, the need for a more complete understanding of the customer is paramount. Whether this is from the fulfillment, marketing or personalization point of view. I met with many service providers that were all tackling the customer life cycle from these angles. One of the key impacts of the JDA – IBM partnership is to have a more complete view of how to manage customer fulfillment. The offering from the partnership is tackling more efficient retail fulfillment – ensuring greater customer life cycle management from the fulfillment angle. Other service providers such a Engage.cx tackle the customer life cycle needs from the CRM perspective. I think that the term CRM does not properly describe what the service provider is offering. The basic premise of pulling customer data from the wide source of available information (regardless of where it was created) and offering a richer customer profile – like what we try to do in our legacy CRM systems – is vital for next generation retail. There are also service providers such as MomentFeed that are tackling the customer life cycle from the focused marketing angle. Retailers strive to have a better profile of their customers, but also to have a more precise way in which to target these customers with their marketing efforts. Focusing on targeted campaigns and leveraging mobility, the offering is addressing a key component of the customer life cycle: making it actionable at the most precise touch point. These are just some examples of solutions that address the growing need for richer and more complete view of the entire customer life cycle. Retailers need to be savvy about how the better fulfill, manage and target their consumers. We are truly driving to personalized retail.

These observations and trends I was able to experience during my time at NRF is all driving at the same goal – reduce the friction between demand, fulfillment, relationship and after sales. Retailers must strive to this seamless relationship between themselves and their consumers. The importance is of paramount importance when it comes to competing with online merchants, who, as we all know, have created massive digital disruption in retail. Retail channels with brick and mortar presences are looking to find solutions that will allow them to compete with the eCommerce players but more importantly pivot their position in the retail landscape and dare I say recapture some of their mojo vis-a-vis the likes of Amazon and Alibaba.

Tagged: New York City, NRF, NRF15, Retail, Supply Chain, The Big Show