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Some interesting ideas by Roger Martin here on how management education can be improved. First he mentions in his assessment of the MBA that most programs tend to be very shallow versus deep. Students are taught a variety of models, theories, and approaches but what remains unexperienced is the ability to decide which should be applied to a particular circumstance. Roger is rightly critical of standardized approaches when he discusses an financial options valuation formula that is applied to every conceivable options type.

Second, he discusses how MBA programs teach subjects individually with very little overlap of other disciplines. This narrow versus broad approach doesn’t allow for people to appreciate how other business functions can have an impact. Also, the philosophical approach of current management education is based on looking after one self, reminiscent of Milton Friedman’s ideas on business’ responsibility. Very true. Ethics, CSR, and Sustainability are definitely elective courses. Shouldn’t social and environmental values in addition to self-interest be integrated into all courses? Beyond what’s merely lawful or customary. What about having courses on other kinds of business models like social enterprises and entrepreneurships?

Lastly, he criticizes the approach of having students analyzing the here and now, then choosing among a set of existing options. Thereupon people are called to calculate the internal rate of return, forecast probability based on past data, and things of the like. In other words, students aren’t being challenged to imagine and create new options. Ultimately we should be more dynamic versus static-oriented.

He goes on to describe how management education can be improved by becoming more deep, broad, and dynamic. By going beyond inductive and deductive logic which refine and hone that which exists, to incorporating abductive logic which explores what can be.

Enter Design Thinking, a balanced orientation to administering business by being analytical (seeking 100% reliability on one end), and intuitive (seeking 100% validity on the other). And that’s how management education should be taught

Sustainability is a vast field covering multiple topics in operations, marketing, design, innovation, and new business models. While articles, books, and conferences (if you have the budget and time to attend) can be great, nothing beats having professionals giving you the inside scoop.

The creators of the Sustainable Brands Conference, with whom I work as their community engagement manager, are organizing an online training seminar for 13 weeks. In order to help further this movement along, we’ve recognized many smart business people need to get up to speed - and we’ve done so by getting some of the world’s leading practitioners to teach the subjects they’re passionate about for 90min - available live and on-demand for a very affordable price.

If you’d like to learn more, go ahead and check out the speakers, session descriptions, and dates here. I’ve included the titles of the sessions here for you to see. P.S. - I’ll be speaking on the last session in February on public relations and social media

1. Introduction to Opportunities in Sustainable Innovation
2. Innovation Opportunities in Response to Today’s Environmental Hot Buttons: Climate Change, Water & Waste
3. The Changing Consumer Marketplace
4. Organizational Models for Integrating CSR with Brands
5. Building a Balanced Sustainable Brand Strategy
6. Sustainable Product Design – An Overview of Prevailing Approaches
7. Building Collaborative Supply Chain Partnerships
8. Transforming Your Company Through Sustainability – and Engaging Your Customers and Employees in the Process
9. Introduction to Life Cycle Impact Assessment
10. Business Metrics: Dashboards, KPI’s and other strategies for Goal Setting and Measurement
11. Building Credibility/Avoiding Greenwashing
12. Designing Communications that Resonate
13. PR/Social Media and Alternate Community Building Strategies

“Every Company is Running for Office. To Win, Give the Voters What They Want”

The second of Alan’s principles deals with customers’ desires and expectations. While marketers could expand on this topic in a plethora of ways, Alan breaks desires down to three things tied to American culture followed by the question every business leader should ask:

1. Practicality and the desire for things that simply get the job done - “Does it Work?”
2. Adaptability and the capacity for continuous improvement - “Can we Make it Work Better?”
3. Love for innovative ideas and solutions that improve lives - “Is it New and Better?”

What I like about these three things is their very objective focus. By addressing one, we have to ask many more questions to achieve an answer. Sometimes the answer is intuitive, and other times it isn’t. What does a competitive analysis, customer service, or design/engineering have to say? What do managers and executives think, but haven’t publicly expressed?

There’s two areas I’d like to highlight: Quality and Audience.

Quality - How well do the primary/secondary products and services perform against established goals and competitive benchmarks? Is there a reason for the surplus or deficiency? Is there a bottleneck or trampoline that’s influencing performance, as perceived by the customer?

Audience - Are we targeting the right people? Does our product/service fit their expectations for quality, price, service, or other attributes? Have our communication touch points been well designed to convey that quality? Have we taken sufficient steps to measure customer satisfaction and what quality aspects can be improved? Have lead users or customers been involved in the product development process, whether from ideation or usability testing?

When we conduct a qualitative acid test like this perhaps through brief questionnaires to various stakeholders and customer segments, combined with some competitive analysis, the answers to the three questions will become clear.

But remember to keep asking

Note - This review is based on my reading of Alan Webber’s “Rules of Thumb” which I received as a gift from the publisher. Visit the Facebook Fan Page for more insights.

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Adam Werbach, Chief Leader at Saatchi S, describes the thinking and ideas behind his latest book, “Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto”. In many ways, this primarily involves thinking about the long term.

via McKinsey Quarterly

There’s a variety of factors that make a brand appealing. The traditional marketing principles are still important, but the last five years have shown us that a shift to humanistic branding and personal engagement is increasingly important for gaining and retaining customers. Some of this might imply trying to create a passion brand. In other ways, it can be conceived as doing a better job of customer service.

In the other realm of design/innovation though, there’s a massive contribution to the brand in terms of desirability, appeal, and when done exceptionally well: evangelism. Some of this is visible, such as function and aesthetics. Other areas though, like interaction design lie under the radar. Both of these are just as important as the marketing functions. They all have to meld together nicely. It can be extremely difficult, especially if this holistic mindset and its benefits are not fully understood and applied, or financial and human resources just aren’t available.

So Erik put together this presentation below that highlights much of this thinking in a very thorough manner, using BMW as the example. A service business can just as easily apply. Enjoy!

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This presentation is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share-alike license

From Ralf Beuker @iterations, comes this awesome diagram he posted on Flickr last month (click on picture or here for full detail version). Here’s his official description:

“In the course of the strategic collaboration with my friend and business partner Erik Roscam Abbing from Zilverinnovation.com we’ve recently dedicated a whole day on framing our key areas of expertise in a meaningful concept.

What we came up with is a map that is defining our view on what a ‘Design Strategy’ actually comprises and how to transform ‘Design Strategy’ into actionable, logic steps.

In order to give interested folks a better idea on the tools and outcomes of our approach we’ve added some examples from recent client projects as well.”

Great job guys! Love it

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Great video on leadership, produced by the information design company Xplane and Nitin Nohria, who had this to say from the press release:

“It is my desire to inspire people of all ages and social demographics to think about leadership on a broad level, contemplate what it means to them and what individual impact they can have when it comes to leading.”

via @rtkrum

It really is the place to be. Why? Because I’m going, and you can meet me there! (ending silly vain attempt).

I am writing for their SB09 Blog though and will be doing event coverage throughout the next 3 weeks. Follow me on Twitter @mvellandi if you’d like to stay abreast of some of the topics discussed before & after the event (interviews links, photos, whole 900 yards).

It’s the best mix of large and small business, nonprofit, politics, and NGOs in one place. I went last year and had an amazing time to say the very least.

The organizer and President, KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, is a black-belt master event planner (click here for bio) who knows that putting on a conference is not just a bunch of smart speakers presenting in a lecture hall style format with some Q&A here and there. It’s about community. It’s about provocative (but naturally respectful) dialogue between folks of various professional disciplines - because this dialogue is so important. The world (and organizations) don’t have to operate in silos. If you’ve ever read up on Eastern Philosophy, you’ll know the value of Awareness and Interdependence. When people listen to, converse with, and understand others from different backgrounds, especially at a conference, we are purposely shutting out our stereotypes and in effect disabling the ever-malicious Groupthink potential.

I can go on, but I do have to hit the gym now before I fly out to Miami tonight for a WOM marketing conference. So in my albeit lazy (but loving) manner, I’ll leave you with little bits of their press release copy so you can get a better idea.

Oh, and if you’re interested in ANY form of Sustainable Business, Design, Marketing, Culture, or Operations, go on and join their LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=92408. They also have a discussion board & a members tab: http://bit.ly/O61YK, where you can browse community members too, using keywords (or do an advanced search if you like). With over 1,100 members, maybe you’ll come across someone with similar interests (who knows?)

Okay, I’ve talked enough now. Here’s the official scoop…

This world-class conference features three full days of plenary & breakout sessions, as well as a full day of hands-on workshops, to both inspire & equip attendees to succeed by responding to growing stakeholder demand for more environmentally and socially innovative product and service solutions.

Widely reputed to be the most compelling sustainability conference of the year, Sustainable Brands ‘09 will convene business strategists, along with sustainability, design and brand leaders from a cross section of organizations such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dell, Clorox, FedEx, Interbrand, Johnson & Johnson, Kohler, Mohawk, Nestle/Purina, SC Johnson, Waste Management, and an unprecedented list of others.

In addition to a newly expanded Solutions Showcase Expo and Sponsored Sessions series, an extended “Un-conference” where participants create the conversations, and a plethora of evening networking activities over the four days of the event, a dozen hands-on workshops are planned along side this year’s conference providing interactive exploration of topics in business strategy, product/service design, marketing communications, psychology & cultural influence, and operations.

Also, Eight startups will be selected to participate in the Venture Exchange, and will receive an opportunity to pitch at an evening event to a group of green/social investors, executives in leading companies, top brand consultants and peers.

Details on the conference are currently unfolding at: http://www.sustainablebrands09.com

If you are attending the event, you might want to check out the Event page on LinkedIn to see other people who are coming as well. Not too many have come to the page yet, but it’ll be a good reference in a couple weeks to see who’s coming.

Also shoot me an email or call me up! Just please, after Thursday

~Ciao

A few days ago, I read a fantastic article: Foreign Policy: The Next Big Thing: Resilience. In it, environmental futurist Jamais Cascio describes some of the primary differences between the philosophical construct of sustainability versus resiliency, and describes the latter as what’s needed with the following words:

“As we look ahead, we need to strive for an environment, and a civilization, able to handle unexpected changes without threatening to collapse. Such a world would be more than simply sustainable; it would be regenerative and diverse, relying on the capacity not only to absorb shocks like the popped housing bubble or rising sea levels, but to evolve with them. In a word, it would be resilient.”

He goes on to describe the following 8 principles below. Please read the article; I promise it’s brief. Without context, the nice little graphic I drew below won’t mean jack. To read more from Jamais, please visit his blog: Open the Future.

After coming upon this great article by Stefan Lindegaard, I decided to draw it up in an infographic for quick reference and your enjoyment.

Please read his article for a detailed description on each attribute.

If you like this illustration, feel free to use it under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 License