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Welcome to the post-normal age of work

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:00:07 +0000

It’s a now-prevalent notion that companies can advance by simply adding a social layer on top of existing business processes, integrating social tools with existing functional tools such as ERP, CRM, and HR solutions. The idea goes that this will make companies more social and therefore more productive.

That idea isn’t going to work.

Why? In a nutshell, social network-based communication is primarily organized around the concept of a “pull” medium — that is, a medium where individuals subscribe to whichever information sources they prefer and find useful. Traditional business processes, on the other hand, use “push” communications, where whoever created the information gets to decide whom it’s most important to. Simply put, the two parties don’t gibe.

Perhaps more importantly, the nature of work in our era has changed. Most people now have jobs based on non-routine work, where the predefined and fixed roles of business process do not reach.

I recently wrote a report as part of my activities in GigaOM Research, entitled “Social networks will displace business processes, not socialize them” (subscription required). In the report, I argue that we are drifting away from a business-process defined culture and towards a social network-shaped, cooperative one.

Source: Stowe Boyd/GigaOM Research

Above we see the variance between process-oriented organizational cultures and network-oriented ones. I consider this part of the transition from post-modern (1970-2005) to what I’ll call post-normal (2005-present and beyond) economic eras. These cultures also differ in the nature of social affiliation, with a loosening of the bonds that tie people together in cooperative cultures contrasted with collaborative ones. People in cooperative organizations will have a higher number on connections, but the proportion of those that are strong ties decreases relative to collaborative cultures.

Source: Stowe Boyd/GigaOM Research

Some corporate cultures are stuck even farther back in time because they are based on competition. I don’t mean competing with others in the marketplace, like Toyota competing with BMW. I am talking about a corporate culture based on zero-sum competition among workers, where one person’s advancement is someone else’s demotion. These are cultures strongly based on authority-based decision-making, and really are a holdover from the late modern era: the late industrial era.

Source: Stowe Boyd/GigaOM Research

In the report, I discuss the “fit” of different psychological profiles, or archetypes, in these cultures. For example, the Entrepreneur archetype (see above) fits well in collaborative and competitive cultures, and fits the entrepreneurial culture perfectly. But Entrepreneurs won’t like working in a purely traditional, “cooperative” culture, because they like to lead collectives that are managed through consensus. A cooperative organization is too loose for them: It’s a connective, and is based on laissez-faire decision making.

Source: Stowe Boyd/GigaOM Research

This is the debut of the 3C model — competitive, collaborative, and cooperative. It’s a psychosocial model of organizational culture, and I hope it helps address some key issues in organizational dynamics in organizations today as social technologies and practices are being adopted. Marshal McLuhan said, “we make our tools, and they shape us.” Keeping that in mind, we see the change that social network-based communication is causing.

Businesses are not making these changes on a whim or because individuals are made happier by cooperative work relationships. The fast-and-loose business is most in sync with the digital realities of today’s world, although most companies are still operating principally in a more traditional mode, and may even have a healthy dose of the “frozen-and-immobile” at the core. Nonetheless, businesses must move towards a more cooperative work environment because in doing so they will successfully compete in today’s fast-paced, digitally focused world. Older cultures that cling to traditional business processes will not.

To read the full report, click here (subscription required).

Thumbnail image courtesy of flickr user ShellVacationsHospitality.

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Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:55:57 +0000

The first quarter of cleantech was a mix of good and bad news. Avis’ purchase of Zipcar and Silver Spring Networks’ long-awaited IPO finally occurring were further signs of thawing capital markets and movement in the acquisition space. However, in both situations valuations were lower than hoped, a sign of how investors view cleantech.

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Cleantech third-quarter 2012

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 06:55:12 +0000

The third quarter in cleantech brought into focus the successes and challenges of more-mature companies like Tesla, Airbnb, and Zipcar. It also highlighted energy challenges in India and China. This quarter Tesla’s production schedule came under fire, and share economy leaders Airbnb raised cash while Zipcar struggled with its membership model. Meanwhile the Indian power outage in July prompted questions about how the developing economy will power itself. This quarterly wrap-up discusses these milestones and provides a near-term outlook for trends, technologies, and companies to watch in the next 18 to 24 months.

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BMW backs electric car charging startup Coulomb

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:51:21 +0000

BMW’s venture fund, BMW i Ventures, has invested in electric car charging company Coulomb Technologies, according to a release. BMW launched its $100 million fund — its first to date — last year to focus on “mobility,” including mobile apps, in car services and auto navigation.

Five-year-old Coulomb installs and manages electric car charging stations for its customers, like businesses and government agencies. Coulomb says it operates the largest global electric car charging network in the world. Electric cars are still a small and emerging market, but companies like Coulomb are looking to get in front of the curve as more cars like Nissan’s LEAF, Tesla’s Model S and GM’s Volt make it onto the roads.

Coulomb announced a large round of $47.5 million in funding in May, but back then hadn’t yet announced BMW i Ventures as an investor. Other investors in that round included new investors Kleiner Perkins and Toyota Tsusho, and returning previous investors Braemar Energy Ventures and Rho Ventures.

BMW’s investment is interesting because it shows that the car company’s venture arm is also interested in strategically investing in electric car technology, not just mobility tools for traditional vehicles. BMW has only been modestly interested in electric cars — the company has their prototype Mini-E’s and has talked about creating its MegaCity Vehicle by 2013.

While the electric car market is only emerging, charging stations could one day be a substantial source of revenue. Other companies that are building electric car charging networks include NRG Energy, which won a controversial deal in California recently, and Ecotality, which has sued California regulators to stop the NRG Energy California deal.

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Electric vehicle outlook: 2012–2017

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:06:18 +0000

In the future, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) will be offered in a variety of vehicle segments, with the vast majority on the road being small cars. Overall, between 2012 and 2017, more than 900,000 light-duty PEVs will be sold in the United States. This report predicts the growth and diversity of the electric vehicle (EV) market over the next five years. In addition to forecasting the market and its different segments, the report also examines car-sharing programs like Car2Go and smart transportation systems that, along with EVs, promise to change the nature of transportation in the 21st century.

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Data sovereignty issues still weigh on cloud adoption

Barb Darrow — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 21:57:40 +0000

Large enterprises that embrace cloud computing for many tasks still refuse to use public cloud infrastructure for key jobs because of what they see as restrictive data sovereignty regulations.

These laws, which are proliferating in countries around the world, according to attendees of this week’s Forecast 2012 event in New York, mandate that a company keep a customer’s data in that customer’s home country. One oft-cited reason is to prevent that data from being subpoenaed by a foreign power (read: the U.S.)

And that factor is the biggest difference between an enterprise’s virtualized data center and a public infrastructure as a service, said Matt Louth, principal security architect for the National Australia Bank.

Multiple regulations governing where a company can store customer data means that multinationals have to field data centers in every country where they have a presence — a trend that flies in the face of the appeal of borderless clouds.

With these rules, the fact that data lies within the control of the enterprise is absolutely key, said Ian Lamont, IT security specialist at BMW. A photograph from a brochure can live anywhere, but customer data or the company’s crown jewels? No way, he said. “Companies don’t feel they have the relevant levels of control, management, visibility,” from their cloud providers about where data will be stored, he said.

It doesn’t help for a bank to hear its customer data will be in this European cloud “region.” Not specific enough.

Andrew Stokes, chief scientist of Deutsche Bank Global Technology brought up the same issue in another keynote Wednesday. “There are so many regulators and regulations — we need to be safe. Every geography has its own unique sector and laws.”

“We’re in 75 countries I think. We need a superset of all these regulations that makes sense and that we can comply with,” he said. His hope is that the Open Data Center Alliance that sponsored this week’s event can help with that.

One of his takeaways was that cloud service providers have to be able to meet regulatory obligations specific to the business sectors they address in auditable ways, he said. “Cloud customers must have the right of audit, we have to assess and assert that we’re meeting our regulatory obligations.” For them to be able to do that, they must have the documentation from their cloud partners.

This is a topic that will keep cropping up, including at next week’s GigaOM Structure conference. Unless and until the various rules and regulations converge or cloud providers can provide detailed assurances of exactly where data will reside, a good chunk of business will stay on premises or in private clouds

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Todd Ehlers

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CES 2012: a recap and analysis

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:40:31 +0000

This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history, boasting 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. The Kerton Group sent three delegates to CES to scout out new products, listen to keynotes, watch announcements and get tips from insiders. This report, which bundles those findings together, serves as an outline of the major launches and overarching trends at CES (think smartphones for $0, Androidification and connectivity) as well as an analysis of what those developments mean for the larger consumer electronics picture. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Tesla and T-Mobile. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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Tendril test-drives its electric car software with BMW

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:00:06 +0000

After a variety of strategies and around $100 million in funding, startup Tendril is now largely a software company, and on Tuesday at the DistribuTECH conference in San Antonio, Tendril announced a big partner in its play to provide the software layer for electric vehicles: BMW. Tendril says it will provide its software for a demonstration project with BMW Group Technology Office USA, which will feature a smart energy home and smart charging of BMW’s Active E electric car.

The demo home will be in Mountain View, Calif., and Tendril’s software will be able to connect the electric car with the devices and appliances in the home as well as a solar panel, a local battery and the utility’s back office. The Tendril software can make sure that the charging of the electric car is managed for the utility so that it doesn’t overload the grid and is also managed for the car owner, so it can charge at off-peak lower rates.

It is not a commercial-scale deal by any means, but the news shows Tendril’s ambition to provide the analytics and software to connect all energy-consuming devices, including the EV. After initially looking to provide hardware and energy dashboards for utility smart grid projects, Tendril has now developed an expansive software layer and an open API that other developers can use to launch new energy services. Tendril says it has licensed its software to 35 customers, including appliance makers like Whirlpool and Siemens Energy.

In the summer of 2011 Tendril also scored Siemens as an investor. Other investors in Tendril include VantagePoint Venture Partners, Good Energies and RRE Ventures. Back in 2010, Tendril bought up behavioral analytics company Grounded Power.

We will give you more information from the DistribuTECH conference this week!

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Forecast: the future of the digital music industry

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:55:33 +0000

The music industry has been in trouble for a long time. But now, aided by smartphone proliferation, new entrants are aggressively pushing alternative business models. This report examines the U.S. digital music market’s key disruption vectors: the areas where large market shifts are occurring and where companies will position themselves to gain share and increase revenues. These vectors will take some time to play out, but the overall industry should finally return to growth within the five-year forecast horizon, as digital music spending, driven by subscriptions, will average double-digit yearly growth to total $4.1 billion in 2015. Disruptive companies include Facebook, MOG and Pandora. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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Green IT 2012: looking for bright spots amid the clouds

Adam Lesser — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:01:09 +0000

As we look toward the next year, the cleantech sector faces many challenges, which we examine in detail in this 2012 outlook. Renewable energy generators encounter an increasingly difficult subsidy environment, and key cleantech innovations like electric vehicles face an uphill climb in terms of connecting with a larger market. The effort to build cleaner data centers continues. Meanwhile, low-power chips will get a shot at creating further energy savings at the server level. There remains, however, something of a silver lining, with companies like Nest poised to innovate in the home energy management space and Silver Spring Network’s potentially successful IPO offering a shot in the arm for the smart grid. Additional companies mentioned in this report include ARM, Calxeda, Getaround and Solyndra. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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