We examine five virtual business strategies that are showing unprecedented opportunity.  The Any Place, Any Time strategy focuses on providing high quality service 24/7 by ignoring traditional geographic challenges.  The People Know Best strategy harnesses power of the everyday people to create value. The Strangers in the Night strategy provides access to unlimited innovation by acknowledging that no single company has all of the great ideas.  The Everyone has a Stake strategy, which considers the stakeholder view of the organization, guides leaders in tapping this vast store of wisdom through collaboration. Finally, the Real in the Virtual World strategy offers incredible opportunity for real businesses to sell their wares in the virtual world.

A unique feature of the book is a series of short vignettes penned by successful virtual business pioneers.  Each of the first-person accounts highlight how these virtual business innovators were able to exploit or perhaps even conquer the virtual business components of technology, law, and culture to achieve a competitive advantage.

We are looking for virtual business pioneers to participate by sharing their story of virtual business in action.  For more information, please download the invitation.  Please feel free to pass this invitation to others who you consider virtual business gurus.

Scheduled speakers include Dr. Naim Al-Thaher, Associate Professor at Zarka Privet University Jordan and Luke Naismith, Strategy Adviser Knowledge and Human at Development Authority Government of Dubai.  The forum is being organized by Success Steps and Sagology.  For more information, please download theconference brochure.

Cindy is a seasoned senior executive with over twenty years of industry experience in communications & high tech and financial services. She is currently the Founder and CEO of Helix Commerce International Inc, (www.helixcommerce.com) a company specializing in business innovation and growth acceleration strategies that leverages disruptive innovation and next generation internet business approaches. Dr. Gordon is also the Founder of Helix Virtual Worlds (www.helixvirtualworlds.com), a company specializing in Virtual World MetaVerses. Prior to founding Helix, Dr. Gordon held senior positions with: XDL Intervest, Accenture, Xerox and Citicorp.

Dr. Gordon is a frequently published author of numerous publications on the new economy, innovation, collaboration, knowledge management and eCommerce.  She has written or contributed to nine published books: “Chief Knowledge Officers in the New eEconomy”, “Knowledge: The Great Business Challenge,” Negócio Editora,  ”Knowledge Management: Classic and Contemporary Works”, Realizing the Promise of Corporate Portals and her prior best seller on Amazon Winning at Collaboration Commerce: The Next Competitive Advantage(2006) Why Buy The Cow?(2007) released looks at the impact of on demand business models in revolutionizing how work is done.  Her most recent book contributions are:The Handbook of Technology Management on the Future of Web 2.0, a three volume gold series by John Wiley on Technology Innovation(s) (May, 2010), and Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know with Editor John Girard.

Cindy is a board director / advisor to numerous high technology software web based companies like: Corent Technology, CQUAY, Eloqua, Medworxx, True Context, and View22. She is also the Founder and Past Chair of the CEO Fusion Center helping early stage technology CEO’s mentor each other for growth sustainability. She is also currently a Director for CATA for the National Board and is the National Chair of the CATA Women in Technology Forum (WIT) the Canadian organization. She is actively involved in CATA’s Innovation as a Nation Platform initiatives.

Academically, she holds a Doctorate in Innovation, eCommerce, and Knowledge Management from the University of Toronto, and a Masters of Information and Business Management, Bachelor of Administration; and a Bachelor of Education (certified educator), from the University of Alberta.

Cindy is married and has two children. In her spare time, she enjoys playing classical piano, and is an active sports enthusiast: golfing, squash, scuba diving, skiing, spas, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and walking.

Cindy Gordon can be reached at cindy@helixcommerce.com

Despite several false starts, the concept of virtual business is finally coming to fruition. This new reality is driven by a convergence of three critical enablers: social technology, uncompromising leadership, and a culture of collaboration.  This so-called TLC of virtual business has suddenly combined to create exciting and uncharted business opportunities waiting to be harnessed.  Fortunately, some pioneering leaders have blazed the path and demonstrated the untapped potential of this amazing domain.

This book will examine five virtual business strategies that are showing unprecedented opportunity.  The Any Place, Any Time strategy focuses on providing high quality service 24/7 by ignoring traditional geographic challenges.  The Stay at Home Moms and Dads strategy harnesses untapped human capital while minimizing most conventional infrastructure costs. The Strangers in the Night strategy provides access to unlimited innovation by acknowledging that no single company has all of the great ideas.  The Power of Story strategy recognizes how narrative, especially consumer-generated micro-stories, spawns astounding awareness.  Finally, the Everyone has a Stake strategy, which considers the stakeholder view of the organization, guides leaders in tapping this vast store of wisdom.

As with all innovative strategies, some potential pitfalls will demand the attention of virtual business leaders.  The first of which is developing a social media policy that creates a collaborative culture while guarding corporate intellectual capital – this is often a difficult balancing act.  Equally important and just as challenging is the difficult issue of not succumbing to the forces we plan to tap. Social technology is a double-edged sword and an angry consumer group can quickly become a network army with incredible power – witness the Twitter Moms who took on a large corporation and won.

Throughout the book, we will present a collection of best practices derived from our case studies of real virtual business successes.  We plan to include a healthy dose of not so successful stories to remind us that these strategies are not a quick win, but rather the product of sound strategic planning. Finally, we gaze into a crystal ball and consider what is on the horizon.  This uncharted territory will be of great interest to early adopters who are looking for the next big thing.

Even in tough economic times it is difficult to find this type of person in the scale that is necessary. Traditionally, managers have relied on training, both language and customer service, to help improve the situation. However, this is an expensive and time intensive process that is often does not offer a good return on the investment. The ensuing skills are very transferable to other segments, which leads to high employee turnover and unhappy customers.

Enter Verety (see www.verety.com) with an innovative solution. Verety operates a series of Customer Order Centers in rural America where the cost of living is more manageable, a high quality of life is commonplace, and many people speak English. For example, some of their most successful centers are in North Dakota. But how can a center in the Great Plains help a manager with a challenge 2000 miles away in a southern California fast food operation? That, as they say, is where the innovation comes in. The order centers take over part of the management challenge, specifically the customer interaction at the drive-thru. By eliminating part of the process, the onsite manager is able to focus on the remaining challenges in the restaurant.

So how exactly does this work? Imagine that you would like to purchase your favorite burger, fries, and drink from a local fast food restaurant. You decide to purchase your order using the drive-thru to avoiding the lines inside the store. As you approach the speaker post in your car, an agent many miles from you is alerted that you are approaching. Just as you arrive at the speaker post, you are greeted by a very courteous voice who invites you to place your order. As with many business dealings, the first few seconds of the transaction are vital in establishing the tone of the entire experience. If you are not greeted in a way that you consider acceptable, it is likely that you will not have a good experience and perhaps not return. On the other hand, if your order is taken in a professional, hassle-free manner, you will likely start the process in a good frame of mind.

The success of the Verety system is largely due to the technology that enables this solution. As with many innovative ideas we will review, Verety could not offer this creative solution without technology. In this case, the remote agents connect with the customers at the drive-thru using a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) connection. Without this technology, the innovation simply would not be possible. The technology is what allows the people – those polite, professional, and prompt remote agents – to do their job. Verety suggests their technological solution provides a robust and reliable platform capable of dealing with more than one million customers per hour. The real-time nature of Verety’s solution is key to the success – the system connects the agent to the customer within milliseconds thus avoid the delay that is sometimes associated with remote services. Most customers are unaware that the agent is not physically located in the restaurant.

A second element of the technological solution is the real-time and seamless integration with the in-store point of sales system. As an order is being taken, other team members can hear the order on their headsets, in exactly the same way as traditional, on-site ordering systems. Similarly the order appears in real-time on the in-store displays. For most team members, including the managers, the remote ordering system operates exactly as it would if it were onsite. The system receives constant feedback from the store to ensure the remote agent is aware of the minute to minute challenges, such as menus changes and the availably of various specials.

However, technology alone would not have solved this management challenge. A big part of the solution is the great people Verety recruits to work as remote agents. As we mentioned, many of the remote agents are physically located in North Dakota in cities such as Minot, Steele, Rugby, and Hazen. These cities are well-known as down-to-earth, friendly, and safe communities inhabited by some of the nicest people you will ever meet. The result is the people who work as remote agents are polite, hard-working, honest people who love their communities and do not want to leave. Verety taps into this great group of people and provides them an opportunity to stay in their communities and earn a good living – truly a win-win situation.

Although we mentioned the towns in which many Verety remotes agents work, we have not described the physical attributes of the actual Customer Order Centers. In fact, there is no physical location per se as all of the agents work from their homes. Verety works with local telecommunication companies to ensure an acceptable broadband infrastructure exists in these small communities and provides the necessary equipment for the home agents. This unique virtual order center concept ensures that high-quality people are ready and able to assist drive-thru customers miles away.

John KSA2 Interview Part 1

John KSA2 Interview Part 2

John KSA2 Interview Part 3

John KSA2 Interview Part 4

A Leader’s Guide to Knowledge Management: Drawing on the Past to Enhance Future Performance

Today when most executives consider the intellectual capital of their organization, they focus on the present. They seek tools and techniques to exploit their organizational knowledge for some immediate gain. There is an emerging shift in thinking that will provide a lasting competitive advantage – the shift is from the present to the future. This book is unique in that it focuses on what executives should be doing now (or soon) to ensure the next generation of organizational leaders know what we knew. In other words, are we creating organizational memories today, which will be useful to the next generation of leaders? Will today’s baby-boomer based practices pass the test of time? Are our current processes the most relevant ones for the next generation of organizational leaders?

To answer these questions the book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is introductory in nature and provides a concise overview of knowledge management: its genesis, the theory of knowledge, and the types of knowledge that exist. Part 2 builds on this foundation and highlights some of the successes and failures during the past two decades as baby-boomer executives struggled to develop effective ways of sharing what their organizations know. A review of projects suggests that many first generation knowledge management projects were based on collecting and classifying information. Second-generation knowledge management projects shifted the focus to codifying tacit knowledge and combining explicit knowledge to create new knowledge.

Part 3 focuses on emerging ideas that show great potential. Today we are seeing some very promising results from third generation knowledge projects, which focus on connecting people and facilitating collaboration. Some pioneering organizations are now reaping the benefits of using social media tools such as wikis for collaboration and commercial social networking tools, for connecting people. These emerging tools and techniques provide flexible, agile, and intuitive solutions for connecting people with people and facilitating coordination, communication, and collaboration.

The book is written by two Canadian authors and incorporates the lessons learned from research on Canadian middle managers as well as examples from Canadian organizations.

Print Price: $25.00
E-book Price: $15.00

Canadian Managers readers may order the book here and receive a 20% discount using code: GIR20

For the past two decades, public and private sector executives and managers have struggled to develop effective ways of sharing what their organizations know. Driven by concerns such as downsizing, the impending retirement of baby boomers, terrorism, the troubling economy, and a host of other organizational challenges, many leaders have sought ways to share knowledge with both internal and external stakeholders.

Despite the best efforts of many innovative leaders, few organizations have achieved the desired level of knowledge sharing. This is certainly not due to a lack of energy, enthusiasm, or excitement on the part of executives, but rather the result of technology-focused, complicated, and expensive tools, techniques, and technologies. Equally, a culture based on a need-to-know rather than one based on a need-to-share basis prevented the transparency necessary to achieve organizational knowledge goals.

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