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People who think a lot about where technology is taking us. Visionaries, talkers, savants: you decide.


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Don Tapscott is a genuine guru on the world stage. Since the '80s when we worked together, Don has been explaining how computers and the internet have been driving innovation in business models. Today, no one can argue the case for Web 2.0 better.

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TED - ideas worth spreading -  is great.

Here, Clay Shirky explains why Twitter, cellphones and Facebook are making history. What's changed in the media landscape - it, and the tools available have become global, social, ubiquitous and cheap. 

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He's perhaps a bit out-there these days, but Kevin Kelly remains one of the people I listen to ever since I read "Out of Control" when it was published in 1994.
 

NEWS WITH STRATEGY IMPLICATIONS

From The Times - March 13, 2009

It's a fabrication that Britain doesn't make things any more
The idea that we need to ‘reindustrialise' is based on a myth. Britain's manufacturing output is still bigger than France's.

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Barclays Bank - Money Transmission

In the mid 90's, Barclays Bank realised that the way that it and other banks moved money was being shaken up quite radically. The Internet was in its early stages. Concepts such as "digital cash" were being talked about among Internet entrepreneurs.

Barclays understood that the way money would be moved between it and its customers - both retail and commercial (wholesale) - was going to be impacted by these technological developments. The challenge was to understand how to deal with the forces that were now shaping this money transmission business .

Barclays realised that it could not develop a strategic position on this subject without engaging virtually every Division within its operation. After all, moving money was something that was an end result of every business transaction made by a bank. However, such a comprehensive approach would be unusual for an organisation the size of Barclays, and one that had, for obvious reasons, not been attempted before.

The Bank also realised that the strategic review should have a long-term focus, since the implications and changes that were likely could not be made quickly. A ten-year horizon was chosen as the planning time frame.

Barclays engaged Chris Ogden as the sole external consultant to assist in devising an approach and in facilitating the strategy-building process.

In discussion, Chris assisted Barclays to develop an approach that had a number of key features:

  • Scenario-based approach. The process would examine the implications of three alternative scenarios.
  • Bank-wide involvement. A thirty-strong planning team was selected with representation from every Division of the Bank.
  • Executive and middle management joint approach. Executive management provided oversight and steerage; the middle management planning team did the hard job of examining scenarios and developing recommended Bank propositions.
  • Group workshops. The main planning team met for two-day workshops every 5-6 weeks, facilitated by Chris.

The strategy process proved very successful: "our most successful strategy project" was one comment.

A key lesson from the work was that, when new and innovative futures are being developed, a large benefit is the new language that they key members of the team develop. This language embodies the new concepts that have evolved and enables the organisation to carry forward the strategic plans that have been formed. Although the planning group will not all be involved directly in the projects emanating from the strategy, they will have a sound grasp of the fundamental concepts, and this will enable them to lend support to the practical work of implementation.