The Transformation of Customers and Organizations

Josh Bernoff just delivered his latest book Empowered, with co-author Ted Schalder, and its worth a read. Included in his writing are views on how customers of ALL industries have been transformed and more importantly how organizations must deal with it.

Technology has empowered individuals so that the manner with which organizations must interact and deal with them as customers has fundamentally changed. They have the power and so the world has shifted to a sort of "social chaos" and organizations must avoid being fearful and instead take advantage of these technology tools. Doing so, however, requires redefining leadership and control, among other dna of traditional businesses.

Watch this interview with Brian Solis as he explores the book's various themes with Josh Bernoff. Reach out to me, Bryan O'Rourke, to let me know your thoughts on Empowered.

How to Differentiate - Are YOU Different ?

My colleague Kelli Hatton of fitmarc  shared this video on the book "Different". The book addresses, in a unique way, how to differentiate your business. But its more than that really. Its about transparency, meaning, purpose and the essence of being and doing what is important.

XPLANE partnered with Youngme Moon of the Harvard Business School to create a powerful video that promotes the release of the book.

Moon’s book challenges us to consider the meaning of business differentiation and what it takes to be different in a way that actually MAKES a difference. Watch the 3 minute video to learn more and read it !

How Can Fitness And Wellness Businesses Achieve Growth in 2011 ?

If you've followed me for long, you know I am a big fan of Rita McGrath. Well its that time of year for many of the companies I own and work in as well as for our strategic partners and clients - we are all planning for 2011 and we are all still reeling a bit from the economy while trying to figure out "how we could grow". Rita has an excellent view on planning for growth. Her notions are on point: so many companies don't plan for growth very well.

An important notion McGrath shares is one of the ratio of assumptions to knowledge. Often because an organization or its leadership has had success in the past leading there is a false belief that they will be able to replicate that success in new growth initiatives. Problem is there ordinarily isn't enough knowledge about the new growth area to succesfully create reliable plans from inception and a "dysfunctional" dynamic is created around planning for growth. Leaders plan thinking their plan will be right instead of realizing the high ratio of assumptions to knowledge and accepting their plans will more likely be wrong.

As a result most leaders need to rethink planning and strategy. Many leaders should stop thinking that planning is about being right. They should also stop thinking failing is bad. Low cost intelligent learning is invaluable and businesses have great opportunities to improve how they learn to create value but this thinking remains uncommon today. The implications of this thinking to organization's planning processes are significant.

Watch this interview where Rita and her esteemed co-author explain their concepts. It is an invaluable approach in this day and time and you should consider adopting it in your organization. Contact me, Bryan O'Rourke, and share - How is your fitness or wellness business planning for growth in 2011 ?

Our Legal System is Killing Progress - Here Are 4 Fixes

Most people will tell you based on routine life experiences that our legal system is out of control. The land of the free has become a legal minefield particularly for teachers and doctors, whose work has been paralyzed by fear of suits. What's the answer? Lawyer Philip K. Howard shares his 4 basic ideas to fix what's broken.

Philip Howard is the founder of Common Good, a drive to overhaul the US legal system. His new book is Life Without Lawyers. Full bio and more links

Innovation in Fitness - The ViPR

Working in the fitness and wellness world is a blessing on many levels. More than helping people get healthy is the fact you get to work with a lot of smart and fun folks, particularly the FitPro team. As you might know, I write a lot about technology and innovation. But interestingly there is a lot of great innovation that isn't as much about technology as it is about great ideas that generate a great solution. Organizations that figure this type of stuff out reflect the many years of experience necessary to see obvious opportunities. This is where a new product like the ViPR comes into play.

ViPr (Vitality, Performance and Reconditioning) uses the four pillars of human movement: gravity infused, stretch-to-shorten, tri-planar and integrated. Brilliant innovation. Check it out with the product's creator, Michol Dalcourt at Equinox below.