Buckman Labs Is Nothing but Net explains that “Buckman Labs makes chemicals, but it sells knowledge” — with the help of the Buckman knowledge sharing system, K’Netix:
It came to him eight years ago, when he was flat on his back, confined to bed after rupturing his back. Unable to get up, unable even to sit up, Buckman propped a laptop computer on his belly and took dead aim on the real power of knowledge.
“Lying there thinking how isolated I was,” says Buckman, recalling his two weeks in bed. “I got to thinking about what I wanted.”
What he wanted was information, not just for himself but for all his people, a steady stream of information about products, markets, customers. And he wanted it to be easily accessible, easily shared. A relentless student of business and management writing, he had recently read a comment from Jan Carlzon, the former head of SAS, and it had struck a chord with him: “An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility.”
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Fast Company published its 2003-2004 list of the spineless in this month’s issue. See who’s on it here. How to become a member of the cowardly clan: act inconsistently, make soft decisions, or take no responsibility for your actions. The list reminds us of an important strategic communication fact: Leadership behavior and policy decisions send the most powerful messages. The best leaders get it, and the best communication professionals help leaders to understand the implications of their decisions and the power of the convincing decision.
The Wise Marketer reports…
The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) stands at an overall score of 74.4 (out of 100) for the second quarter of 2004, remaining at its ten-year peak for the second quarter running.
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But higher satisfaction scores have implications for companies beyond simply making customers happier. “A company that improves in customer satisfaction tends to perform better financially by generating more repeat business, which leads to greater profits and a higher stock price,” explained Fornell. “Sales of Apple computers are up and its stock value has improved by more than 50% over the past year.
You can view the entire article here: US customer satisfaction levels off at ten-year high
According to a recent study from the University of Washington, people are much more likely to misfile and lose track of paper information than information stored on a computer:
More than half of survey participants admitted losing track of a paper document at least once a week — more than twice the number of people who reported losing electronic information.
The result? While more than 60 percent reported being satisfied with their ability to handle computerized records such as e-mails, electronic documents and Web bookmarks, only 31 percent were satisfied with their ability to organize their papers.
Intranet Trends to Watch For: Cultures and priorities vary, but there are some common issues for organizations as intranets continue to evolve. From Line56.
Shiv Singh hypothesizes about what’s next for the land of corporate intranets:
The trends identified below based on experiences with several large organizations will give you a hint of what’s coming and how to prepare for the next wave in your intranet’s evolution. Be careful, some of these trends may already be moving across your organization. Make sure that you’re ready for them.
Singh’s predictions include the following (for more detail about each, please see the full article):
# Intranets return to the domain of the departments
# The records management and the legal departments get involved
# All employees become intranet publishers
# The corporate telephone directory loses its luster
# The new killer app — the knowledge management tool
# Real time information delivery becomes a priority
# Information retrieval remains unsolved but there’s hope
# Employees demand a more aesthetic user experience
Based on recent conversations with clients, especially those who will implement Share Point in the coming months, these are right on. The only thing we’d add is that more and more of our clients are using their Intranet site to communicate what’s important to the organization by focusing it around their strategy. Ask yourself: How is our Intranet site supporting our organizations strategic communication objectives? Or even: What is our current site communicating that is in direct opposition to these objectives? The answers to both questions may include key metrics highlighted, reward and recognition systems, and even layout and headings.
Friendster, the group that popularized social networking services, recently fired one of their developers for information she posted on her private blog. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this (Microsoft fires worker over weblog), nor will it be the last.
To help protect organizations and employees, however, it seems like it’s time to update the old policy and procedure manual and communicate these changes to make sure employees understand the implications of publishing a personal blog.
