Collaboration: Greater than the sum of its parts

On June 3, Avanade launched a thought leadership campaign backed by original research of more than 500 C-level executives, business leaders and IT professionals from among the largest companies in 17 countries. This campaign focused on collaboration, where we have a variety of content including point of view, Podcasts, executive summary of the research, our press announcement and so on. Avanade also published a perspective on collaboration in the cloud. You can read that here.

The act of collaborating is as old as cave men trying to work together to catch the meat and start the BBQ. Collaboration is simply working together to achieve something. Modern technologies including the emergence of Web 2.0 has drawn more attention to the role of collaboration as fundamental to business success -- contributing to growth (new markets, new strategies), productivity, innovation, etc.

We timed our campaign to Microsoft's launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 with the intent of riding the wave of increased interest in two dominant communication and collaboration technologies. We used the survey to learn about key issues surrounding collaboration, perceived value of collaboration as well as adoption and collaboration technology investment trends.

What we found most interesting was that while leaders see business value from collaboration technologies, and many organizations continue to make significant investments in this type of technology, employees are a little disillusioned with the act of collaborating (not the technology). It's not that collaboration doesn't yield business benefits, but that collaboration has some perceived drawbacks. Indeed, Avanade's research showed that some employees are skeptical of the benefits of collaborating with others, and in fact feel that it has led some to skirt responsibilities and pass on work to others.

I work remotely. There's no way I could not be effective in my job without technologies that enable me to connect with executive leadership, department leads, colleagues and staff globally at any time. Technology is a powerful enabler. But at times I can also relate to the drawbacks to collaboration. Coming from the consulting business, I admit I am predisposed -- and enjoy -- providing a service in support of a business need, serving others to contribute to overall success. It's in my nature. But, I definitely have been a "victim" of collaboration. And no doubt those that I have worked with could say the same about collaborating with me -- more work handed out (though I deny any accusation I skirted responsibilities). Let there be no mistake ... I am also the recipient of huge benefits through collaboration.

The current research project is Avanade's third collaboration-oriented campaign in the past 3 years. With nearly 60% tier 1 IT press and about 25% business press coverage of our most recent study, as well as the blogosphere and micro-blogosphere discussing our research and viewpoint, we believe we have hit a nerve on the topic ... that there are great business benefits in collaboration underpinned by technology, but a recognition that trying to retrofit the culture with technology doesn't work.

Memories to have and to hold

Twenty years ago my nephew, Bryan, was a groomsman in my wedding. Yesterday, my wife and I were privileged to be part of his wedding to Becky, a lovely young lady who quickly became part of the family long before their wedding day.

The wedding was at a restaurant on the water in Los Angeles -- a wonderful celebration of their relationship over the past many years.

I was given an opportunity to say a few words. I tried to impart some advice that has helped me in my marriage, but regret I didn't take the opportunity to say other things that were on my mind (I crumbled under pressure).

So I'll say them now.

I was there for most of Bryan's major events ... When he was born. Family gatherings for birthdays, Christmases and Thanksgivings. Family vacations in Big Bear. Watching him learn to surf when he was 10, 11, 12 (he'd spend more time talking to the other surfers than actually surfing in those early years). I remember watching him play football. Seeing him at his high school graduation. And he's matured over the years (slowly but surely). Today he's in sales and travels all over the country.

As an uncle, I've thoroughly enjoyed watching him grow into a responsible man ready to take on life's challenges, and always with a sense of humor and a killer smile.

When we first met Becky, it sure seemed like they had a genuine friendship built on mutual respect -- the basis for all lasting relationships.

Now Bryan and Becky are husband and wife, enjoying a honeymoon for 10 days in Europe, and starting their life together. I couldn't be more proud or excited for them both.

Congratulations, Bryan and Becky.

Pew Research: Traditional media still generate most news

Reading Andres Witterman's blog (disclosure: Andres works at LEWIS PR, Avanade's PR agency in Europe), he points to a new study by the Pew Research Center. Turns out that the vast majority of "new information" published online or in traditional media forms is generated by newspapers.

Here is the Pew's graph showing who reports the news.

But, an article by AFP reporting on the research says that as the traditional business model (ie advertising) crumbles, forcing more newsroom cutbacks and, in worse scenarios, witness media closures, the logical media to replace it will be new media.

This should cause some concern, as the story says: "This may lead to greater government influence over the news since much of the 'new media' reports simply convey the official version of events without attempting to offer different points of view."

The report goes on to cite several concerns about new media reporting, which you can read here.

I agree with Andres' closing comment: The web often breaks the news, but traditional media are still making them relevant.

However, I think the same could be said of some traditional news sources. For example, I tend to track breaking news from wire services (usually through my Web home page), like Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg or AP ... not so much new media sources (i.e. bloggers). I then turn to The Wall Street Journal or BusinessWeek or FORTUNE to add context and perspective.

Or, as Andres says, relevance.

Top 10 B2B Marketing Trends

If you haven't read Ed Brice's blog post on Top B2B Marketing Trends for 2010, you should. It's long, but for good reason -- it's packed with terrific insight and ideas to ponder. I was particularly intrigued by his point about community thought leadership, something we've been experimenting with at Avanade (though we didn't call it out as such) to advance our views on key trends.

The other point that got my attention was on social media measurement. Not sure the origin of the attached graphic from his blog post, but his point that social media should focus on building trust, advocate points of view and influence ideas is exactly how we've been building our social media program at Avanade. I also appreciate his progression of B2B social media. Whether Ed meant it as a progression as such, I don't know, but the idea of moving from awareness to engagement to listening and finally to innovation is dead on, IMO.

Image source: Marketing-Gimbal

December 2009 -- Finally!

I am ashamed at the infrequency of my posts for 2009, but I can say it's one year I'm happy to see in the rearview mirror -- at least from a business standpoint. To say it was one of the most challenging of my professional and personal life is an understatement -- not bad, but extremely challenging. I guess that's where 'stretching' makes us more flexible.

I started my second year at Avanade (two years January 2010). The global economic meltdown of 2008 and 2009 put tremendous strain on the business of our customers. However, as a company we still grew a few percentage points, which cannot be said for most of our competitors. In fact, IT services as a sector declined anywhere between 4 and 6 percent, depending on which analyst report you read. But when you're used to growing 20% y-o-y for nine years, growing a few percentage points is a sharp contrast.

It prompted us to make adjustments to our business to accommodate the changes in buying patterns. That forced the marketing team to reassess our own priorities and make adjustments to the function.

There were a lot of programs the marketing team executed, even in this tough business climate. And there were some additions to our team, as well.

One area of investment we didn't sacrifice was our thought leadership initiatives, or what the IT Services Marketing Association calls "Idea Marketing." In essence, Avanade provides the same services as our competitors -- application development, business solutions, outsourcing, and so on. So in the marketplace of ideas, what differentiates Avanade from the competition is our views on business and technology issues and trends. That, essentially, is our thought leadership initiative. We launched two thought leadership campaigns in calendar 2009, both on the topic of cloud computing, both of which placed Avanade in the thick of the debate regarding cloud and positioned us as a leader. Here's one in a series of videos we produced discussing our views on cloud by Avanade's CTO, Tyson Hartman.



Another big area of focus for me was when internal communications folded into external communications within marketing. This was an unexpected change. It's an area of organizational communications that has interested me for many years, but not an area in which I have had much experience. I have enjoyed getting to know my new colleagues and learning a tremendous amount about internal communications from them.

We continued to globalize the Avanade public relations and analyst relations function. In fact, we will soon be bringing on our first dedicated communications lead for Europe. That's a big step in helping us shape our PR, AR and executive communications functions in our two largest markets -- Americas and Europe.

Finally, we upleveled the Avanade story toward business outcomes, not technology outputs. Many of our competitors tend to talk about IT for IT sake (emphasis on outputs). We decided to focus our positioning on business technology services.

And while all this was going on at work, and the stresses of the economy were in full force, home life continued to be as busy as ever. Henry started the terrible twos at 18 months and at 3.5 years old he hasn't let up. But, we're trying to stay consistent in focusing on shepherding his heart (great book by that title from Ted Tripp if you need some solid parenting counsel).

Clara entered Kindergarten, and hates to miss one day. And Isabella is taking 7th grade by storm. Both girls are at Valley Christian School.

And, my beautiful bride, Antonia, and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. Two hearts united in one purpose who also happens to be my best friend. It doesn't get any better than that.

So as I look back on 2009, if I were to sum it all up, I would say it was a year of stretching, a humbling year that I hope helped me stay grounded and focused, a year of gratitude -- for my family, my wife, my job, and for work of God in my life.

Happy New Year.

Trust Continued

To give you an update, my youngest is adjusting to Kindergarten. She's learning that there are those you can trust on the playground, and those you can't. She's also learned there are those with whom trust is best bestowed (mostly teachers, but not all).

Which brings me to last week's edition of BusinessWeek (Sept. 28 issue date -- 100 Best Global Brands).

ADDED SEPT. 26. You're wondering, what does Kindergarten, playground and teacher trust have to do with Brands -- more on that in a moment.

First, kudos to Avanade parents -- Microsoft ranked #3 and Accenture #45.

You may have also seen the article titled The Great Trust Offensive. It's been a long week, and I'm sitting at Seattle Tacoma Airport waiting to board Southwest to Oakland, but let me share a few thoughts on the piece.

The first thing that caught my attention was this statement: "Trust is what drives profit margin and share price." So says Larry Light, CEO of brand consultancy Arcature, who comes from McDonald's and BBDO advertising. I couldn't agree more. But then this from the writer: Not long ago, trust and reputation were the domain of the PR department. Marketing executives, by contrast, pushed products and brands using the classic Procter & Gamble two-step: spending huge sums to maintain "share of voice" ... and it went on.

The rest of the article basically says that trust is now in the hands of marketers. Yet, when you look at many of the examples in the article, it is all classic PR: do good, get recognized for the good you do and EARN trust.

ADDED SEPT. 26. Like my Kindergartner learning to whom to bestow trust, with all due respect to my marketing colleagues, trust is still the domain of PR. But what the article does show, and I support, is that brand is a promise, and trust is built when companies deliver on that promise. Marketers aboslutely play a central role in partnership with PR in that capacity.

Take note. McDonald's collaborating with PETA to force egg suppliers to raise the living standards of hens. Highlighting the quality of ingredients to focus on food, nutrition and fitness. Ford is focusing on the quality of the cars, their independence from government handouts (stability), fuel efficiency, and then aggressively communicating those facts.

In essence, "branding" is moving from an emotional appeal (at least in some categories) to a rationale appeal. And for brands that relied heavily on "experience" -- like a Starbucks (after all, it's not rationale to pay that kind of money for a cup of coffee, though I'm guilty of doing so) -- it is harder for brands that rely heavily on "experience" or emotion to recover in this sort of economy. Why? When money is tight, people buy with their head. When money is abundant, people buy with their emotion.

What's really fascinating is the bottom line impact of this "trust" offensive approach for Ford. "Ford is now spending $1,800 less on incentives per car than it did a year ago, and consumers are forking over on average $1,300 more for Ford models ... a combination that drives a leading booster of customer trust: resale value." That's a powerful stat.

But the final quote of the article is an absolute fallacy.

"Trust-related marketing only works if there is a message that people want to believe in. You cannot spin an audience that doesn't want to be spun."
- Eric Dezenhall, crisis management consultant.

You're wrong, Mr. Dezenhall. First, you're assuming people want to be spun. They don't. Second, you can't spin trust. You earn trust. Third, it's not about messaging. It's about delivering on a promise, pure and simple.

The Cost of Trust

September starts next Tuesday. The summer holiday has come and gone. Though I think I missed the holiday part. And at 106 degrees today in the East Bay, it seems as if summer is trying to leave August with quite a statement.

So much has changed in the past three months, too. My youngest turned three. Celebrated 20th wedding anniversary in Mendocino, Calif. Went to Sea World, Coronado Island and Lego Land with the Family. And school started this week, with one child starting Kindergarten and the other starting 7th grade.

My wife and I took them to school. By way of contrast, my youngest had us walk her to class, hold her hand while we walked, helped her unpack her things into her desk, took a picture with her teacher and we stayed as long as we could before we were forcibly removed from the class.

My oldest told us to drop her off at the curb.

So starts the fall semester.

My youngest was walking into whole new territory. She didn't know how things worked, how the school does things (or its culture), the rules, the school's lingo (jargon), where things are located -- like the bathrooms or the lunch room and so on. Fortunately for her, most of the other kids were new as well. But some had attended the preschool that's located on the campus, so they are one step ahead of her.

She was nervous, but she was brave. She didn't cry. She smiled as we left. But she said several times that evening that she missed mommy.

My oldest, on the other hand, had no interest in having us walk her to class and all that sort of stuff. She'd been at the school since 4th grade. Many of her same friends were there. She knew the school, the system, the people, the cultural norms and so on. "Drop me off here." And off she went.

For my youngest, there was a level of trust with the situation because mommy and daddy said it's ok. Trust in us, not necessarily her new environment.

Dov Seidman, CEO of LRN, is a former client of mine in 2003 (I think) when I was at Fleishman-Hillard. It was a short-lived relationship, as we were not successful getting him in places like BusinessWeek fast enough. But, in this week's BusinessWeek, Mr. Seidman has an opinion piece (congratulations) titled Building Trust by Trusting (subscription might be required).

In the piece, he says that to build trust, you need to extend trust. I think there's some merit to his point. I just think his illustrations don't do an effective job at making the business case with hard data.

For example, he uses a doughnut shop to point out that the owner put change out on the counter so people could make their own change. He says the owner could serve customers faster and won loyalty and left customers behind. He doesn't back the story with any specific data, so it's hard to draw any conclusions from the illustration. However, he also uses Radiohead's release of their album online and letting fans decide what to pay and generating more revenue than all its previous releases. Could that be simply the band making more money because they don't have a record label to share revenue with? Not sure. He then uses a good part of the rest of the piece to talk about LRN.

There is a cost that comes in building trust. Trust is not free, it's hard work, doesn't come fast and is easily lost. Trust is the foundation of relationships, and relationships are built over an extended period of time. Successful relationships require many things, but two very important ingredients come to mind: mutual benefit and effective communication. This is true in marriage, friendships, business/customer, doctor/patient and so on.

My oldest will continue to learn the importance of building trust, extending trust and doing so by establishing foundational relationships that are mutually beneficial where effective communications abounds.

My Kindergartner will learn that too. But for now, she's just trying to get over new school jitters. I think she'll do fine.