a petter idea

Urbanized – an amazing story

petter — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:04:13 +0000

Over half the world’s population now lives in an urban area, and 75% will call a city home by 2050. But not all cities are experiencing growth, some are actually shrinking.
Urbanized is a fascinating documentary about cities, looking at strategies behind urban design of some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. The film opened my eyes to several urban design projects around the world.
Housing, public transport, public space, people’s engagement, economic development, and environmental policy are universal concerns. Yet many of us feel that decisions on these issues are made by an isolated elite.
I feel that we all should be able to take part in these plans so important for our future life.

How the mighty fall…?

petter — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:45:05 +0000

It’s remarkable that reports in the general media — including the numerous stories putting a gratuitous, how-the-mighty-have-fallen spin on the travails of Kodak — have had almost nothing to say about the condition or even the existence of its graphic communications product lines.
Patrick Henry, WhatTheyThink, January 20, 2012.

Oh yes, Kodak missed the opportunity to prosper from their innovations in digital imaging and the digital camera. So how come they didn’t see what was coming? I guess they were just too stuck in their old business model of making film that had made them fortunes over decades. When you’re feeling comfortable with the old and the old still brings in some money, it seems impossible to look up and get a grasp of the long view. At least not without taking help from a outsider that isn’t trapped in the present.

Another similar example is Nokia, who were so certain on their own technology and design that they ignored the iPhone as just a geeky gadget with no commercial potential. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention met a similar reaction from a record company director – no commercial potential. The favorite act of that record company later ended up doing background singing for the Mothers!

In their time, Kodak used some of their money to become the main supporter of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the RIT School of Print Media. This might have been a unplanned foresight of their more recent focus on digital production printing systems. Rumors say that Kodak will launch a newspaper version of the Prosper inkjet press that will run at 300 meters/min and will be able to print the impressive equivalent of 3,098 64-page tabloid newspaper/hour. Ironically, this may be another mistake, putting their hope to another industry that is reluctant to understanding the need for change. Most newspaper companies just don’t get it! It seems however like Kodak is making moves towards other business areas within printing and publishing, like magazines.

You can read more about Kodak’s reorganization on the web. Under the heading Leadership Insights you can find two informative videos.

Chairman & CEO Antonio Perez discusses Kodak’s restructuring
President & COO Philip Faraci answers top questions on customers’ minds

This is Important!

petter — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:47:14 +0000

Clay Shirky explains the real problem with the SOPA/PIPA bill that the US Congress is about to make into a legislation that threatens to close down the Internet. At the TED offices, Shirky delivers a proper manifesto – a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.

It may seem that this is a US only problem, but it actually is directed against the Internet globally.
Please watch the whole video and act!

If you’re on an iOS gadget you may click this link to watch the video.

Maximizing Shareholder Value

petter — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:25:12 +0000

“On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy… your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products. Managers and investors should not set share price increases as their overarching goal. … Short-term profits should be allied with an increase in the long-term value of a company.”
This statement came from the one person who might have been the best CEO ever to run the trick of maximizing shareholder value. It was Jack Welch who said this to Financial Times in 2009.
When I came to STORA (now Stora Enso) in 1996, the first words I heard from the CEO Lars-Åke Helgesson were that his job was to increase shareholder value. To me this was back then a major surprise; I thought that the products were the core. Well, that’s what it all comes back to in the paper industry – tonnes! There was soon a chicken race between the newly formed Stora Enso and International Paper. IP had always been the biggest of them all – in tonnes. This race continued several years, seemingly resulting in big bonuses for the kamikaze pilots Jukka Härmälä and John Dillon.
Early on, I started to believe that it was the customer that should be in focus. This was however not often a standpoint we saw in leaders of the paper industry. They often referred to their business as “the industry”, and were regarded as highly arrogant by most of their customers. This attitude was present on almost all levels, the standard answer to a complaint on poor performance in a printing press being it is not paper related. An answer that actually never resulted in happy customers.
Recently, there has been some improvement in the attitude from paper companies. I have even heard the concept of “customer success” being mentioned by at least one CEO. It may never be to late to change…

For more comments on shareholder value not being a wise strategy, please read Steve Denning’s column in Forbes: The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value.

Print your own 3D objects

petter — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:53:21 +0000

An amazing look into the future when we can print any object at home. It will even be possible to print human organs for transplantation. I would say that this is a realistic view of the “Beam me up, Scotty” concept.
The first hobby machine being made available is called Printrbot:

Make it easy to find good reading

petter — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:40:59 +0000

When in Madrid, I spotted a library for modern commuting people. I wonder if anything like this may be found in other city metros? Maybe there is one in Stockholm, even though I’ve never seen that…

Social media presence?

petter — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:09:50 +0000

Why do companies chose to set up a presence in social media? It makes much sense to find B2C companies on Facebook and Twitter, but what about B2B? Stora Enso has chosen to follow no one and has tweeted only 29 times to its 532 followers. What’s the purpose with a twitter account that looks like this?

Experience…

petter — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:05:34 +0000

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Randy Pausch told us so in his now super-famous Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams that has now had more than 14 million views on YouTube. This even exceeds the 12,5 million views of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

Please view Randy’s lecture – be prepared for a one hour plus amazing session.

Curiosity killed the cat …Not!

petter — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:54:54 +0000

No, curiosity is something good. Today there’s even talk about not killing young children’s curiosity during their first school years. Amazing if that will happen within reasonable time…

Personally, I am devoted to make a living from my curiosity. People used to say that “I don’t want to die curious”, meaning that they were devoted to satisfy their curiosity. I would rather state that I’m going to die still being curious. My almost unlimited interest lies in many things, especially the extremely fast technology development. Digital communication and social media are some of my favourite areas. All this is very useful in my new role as a free agent doing situational and scenario analysis. I even found a new title – Future Strategist – after taking an extended course at Kairos Future.
So now I’m looking for challenging opportunities to do some work in my new role. Anyone up for a new strategy? I am here to assist you!

What counts?

petter — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:28:53 +0000

Math is a real challenge for many. Admittedly, calculus takes some training, but simple tasks such as addition and subtraction may ocassionally be just too much. Percentages are another major obstacle. I meet almost daily statements that you can save as much as 5%, 10% or even 20% by some irresistible deal. The other day Ryanair provided yet another example. They promised me to save over 20% buying six scratch cards for €10 when one card was sold for €2. What’s wrong you might say? Well, €2 off from €12 is not over 20%. It’s less — only 16,7%. So are Ryanair cheating or just poor at math?