I am set to graduate college in a weak and have been both mentally and physically preparing myself for the dramatic shift that is set to take place.  As I begin to veer away from my education and further explore my career options, it is imperative to conclude which options and decisions will be most beneficial in optimizes my professional and personal happiness. Individuals, who are dissatisfied with their job, commonly label their work as a dispiriting and overall detrimental experience. This has lead managers to uncover new insights into the leading cause of employee dissatisfaction.

According to “How To Be Happy At Work” by Steve Denning, the leading factors of employee disengagement can be segmented into four key drivers including physical needs, recognition, autonomy, and purpose. Of the four, the author believes purpose is the most important, for it is the “spiritual need to feel connected to some kind of higher purpose at work.” When purpose is properly managed and exercised, employees report 1.7 times higher job satisfaction and are 1.4 times more engaged at work. It is obvious from this report, that I must engage in work that is emotionally gratifying to remain consistently happy.

Steven Denning also refers to the work of Jonathan Haidt in his book “The Happiness Hypothesis”, to further explore the issue of workplace happiness. In the book happiness is broken down into the formula H=S+C+V, where “S” is the set point or basic disposition to greater or lesser happiness, “C” is the amount of happiness generated by current work conditions, and “V” is the amount of happiness generated through individual’s voluntary activities.  With this simple formula we may better understand the leading factors inherent in workplace happiness.

The setpoint or basic disposition per individual is largely based on their overall positive or negative mentality at work. This factor varies significantly between each individual, for it encompasses both personal and work-related factors. While individual’s “conditions” are attributed to their social relationships, as humans are considered “ultra-social” beings, and therefore more susceptible to positive or negative personal relationships. Humans are also largely independent, and therefore demand the freedom to exercise voluntary actions. Meaning people don’t want to feel pressured to enact certain actions without first voluntarily consenting.

Through the three-step process, I can further rationalize how to turn my career into a calling rather than a burden. The research suggests that through positive and voluntary effort, I can be happy in my career. Of course this is will not be easy as conditions are subject to change, which therefore requires that I routinely re-evaluate my goals and objectives. Holding all else constant, if I consider the most important factors in my personal H=S+C+V formula, and pursue the career options that advance, promote, and elicit the most optimal outcomes, I will achieve a lifetime of happiness.

Many mass media outlets fail to recognize the underlining facts, when stating that the American economy is in recovery. They fail to mention that the American unemployment rate has increased a merger 1.3% sense January of 2008, and the average student debt per person continues to forge upward, due to the 600% increase in college tuition sense 1970.

In Steve Denning’s “Leadership in the Three Speed Economy”, he identifies the “economy” as an aggregate of three major and largely independent economies, the “Traditional, the Financial, and the Creative”. Each economy works at different speeds, dynamics, and trajectories simultaneously, and as one sector of the economy declines another begins to rise.

Steven Denning argues that the long-term economic growth of the “Traditional Economy” or real economy; which produces goods and services, is in a vulnerable state of reformation. Denning argues that, “responding to a marketplace in which customers require quicker, faster, cheaper, and more convenient lies outside the performance capabilities of firms run with the traditional management and leadership practices.” It is more and more difficult for corporate entities to grow, due to the high marginal costs associated with a strict vertical structure of middle management, and their capital investments.

The second economy Denning refers to as, “Financial Economy”, composed of large corporate banking institutions. Although, this sector of the economy is reaching record profitability, it is believed to be largely susceptible to future economic turmoil. Denning states, “a world of financial instruments that are increasingly focused on making money out of money, often disconnected from the real economy”, for a large portion of financial profits are based on gambling techniques known as “financial derivatives”. This process is structured to make banks money based on artificial assets, such as stocks and interest. When trading artificial assets based on an inflated currency, the “Financial Economy” is susceptible to successive crashes in the market, such as the Dot-Com Crash of 2000.

The third and most important economy for the future of America, resides in the “Creative Economy”, which Denning refers to as “a real economy that generates products and services for real customers, based on the interconnected constellation of technological innovations, and dramatic reductions in cost, size, time, and convenience.” This economy continues to grow even through the “Great Stagnation” of 2008, because it recognizes and embraces long-term customer value.  Successful firms in the “Creative Economy” focus on mobilizing innovative products, and mass customization techniques. The “Financial” and “Traditional” economies are vulnerable to the innovative practices of the “Creative”, and must adopt similar practices in order to survive the shift of power from seller to buyer. Denning, recognizing that long-term profitability is based on the continuous creation of customer value, for traditional business practices will no longer suffice. Although the future is ambiguous and difficult to define, it is imperative that businesses in the future recognize the changes happening in their industry, and remain committed to the real economy’s customer demands.

In this week’s blog post, I am going to review the viral marketing video “Imaginate” by Danny Macaskill, and it’s ability to influence young action sports enthusiast. Viral marketing is the creation of captivating content that promotes consumer awareness and online sharing, in order to increase consumers’ engagement with a company or brand. Content relates to popular videos, commercials, blog posts, and any other online communications device that persuades consumers to spread the message and interact with the company directly.

Viral videos are one of the most persuasive viral marketing techniques used to attract attention toward a company because they are widely spread on the Internet and reach a large population. One of Red Bulls most recent viral successes was their short film series Danny MacAskill’s Imaginate[1]. The video turned into a viral marketing success, being shared over 10 million times on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  Along the video, Red Bull’s website hosted a series interviews with the athlete, where he answered questions submitted by fans on Reddit.com.[2]

By using real athletes to perform essentially unreal tricks, Red Bull takes habitual human actions such as riding a bike and turns them into a thrilling experience. Red Bull is the best at innovating action sports, and in doing so, creates a brand personality that is clearly more favorable and unique than its competitors. This helps to create an interdependent relationship between caffeine users and Red Bull products. The Red Bull brand personality is hip, unique, and trendy largely due to their success with action sports online marketing.

Many Millennials today, drink Red Bull because the companies success with viral marketing and their ability to outperform the competition. Innovation is a key component in action sports industry and the main criteria of developing the next greatest video. Red Bull is at the forefront because their athlete’s aggressive persona. This post is successful because of its creative content and engaging material. After watching this video I could not help but be amazed, so it is no wonder why this video and many others created by Red Bull are constantly shared and reviewed.

In this week’s blog post I will re-visit Steve Denning’s work to review his writing on the future of successful business strategy. In his blog post “Making Management as Simple as Frisbee”, Denning defines the inherent complexities of modern business management as a case of heuristic choice, where managers must rely on instinct in order control disruptive changes within the business environment.

Undoubtedly, the complexity of modern business management has grown substantially throughout the years. Big data analysis is a requirement for successful decision-making, and has begun to transform the historical nature of strategic management. Denning argues, that although traditional strategic management has been disrupted by technological innovation, successful managers must still rely on heuristics as the primary driver toward successful decision-making. He states, “heuristics, or rules of thumb, allow people in all kinds of situations — including fast-changing business environments —to forge ahead rather than being paralyzed by complexity.” The current business environment has adopted an emergent behavior. Decision-making today is more reliant on one’s ability to re-act with instinct rather than planned action.

To reduce the risk associated with impromptu decision-making, Denning offers managers several actions to take. He places emphasis on the importance of communicating goals to employee’s and letting them self-organize, relying on customer feedback, working in cycles, and using the intelligence of the group when taking future action. If we believe in Denning’s opinions, then future business strategy will be structured to decentralized control, flatten management, highlight cooperation, and embrace spontaneity.  By adopting this structure businesses will be more successful only after taking the necessary steps to control the new system.

Denning argues that a radically re-engineered system is only the first step to successful strategic management. Once the new structure is in place, it is imperative that management teams refute hierarchical structure, continuously communicate with local decision makers, and focus on new opportunities to improve current actions.  I agree entirely with Denning’s positions on businesses’ need to adopt an emergent strategy to remain profitable. This task is  easier said than done. As a business student and future manager, I accept that the business world is continuously revolving, but like so many other prospective graduates will not fully understand the implications, until I am thrown in to the competitive landscape.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/06/making-management-as-simple-as/

Author: Steve Denning

In this weeks blog post I will review Steve Denning’s ambiguous pursuit to expose the inherent issues within Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model. Denning presents a persuasive and reputable argument against Porter’s belief that a successful company’s main objective must focus on curtailing the power of their competitors. Denning incorporates the writings of Peter F. Drucker and Matthew Stewart to argue the importance of a customer-centric approach to strategy, and understands that past performance does not constitute future success due to customer’s newly realized power in the market.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces is one of the most recognized business models taught in business schools throughout the U.S. The model focuses on the bargaining power of the supplier, the bargaining power of the customers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products, and the rivalry within the industry. Most business schools forget to mention the inherent failures in Porter’s Five Forces, which is why Denning’s oppositional stance is intriguing.

Denning explorers Porter’s Five Forces further by understanding the importance of managing competitor’s power, and degrading it’s believed dominance in business strategy. He states, that a market cannot be viewed as a finite pie where companies must compete for a portion of the profits. Rather, he argues that companies must use a customer-centric strategy, that focuses on the needs of the end user to better satisfy the most integral part of dominant business strategy, the customer.

Denning successfully argues against the model by exposing the dynamic nature of the modern business environment by understanding the revolutionary shift in power, from the company to the customer. In an age where information is widely available, customers are becoming more powerful due to their ability to understand and select amongst a landscape of varying options. Denning recognizes this power shift requires customer management and engagement, rather than taking actions against competition.

Throughout the article, Steve Denning draws from several prominent figures in the business community and compiles their writings into a reputable and persuasive argument. Denning refers to Peter F. Drucker’s emphasizes toward creating value for the customer. Drucker states that business is  “unlike warfare or sports in that one company’s success does not require its rivals to fail.” Instead, both companies can compete for similar customers by offering variably different products once they understand how and why their customers are different. Rather than avoiding competition and developing coping type behavior, they can further segment a market into smaller subgroups by recognizing and enacting differing strategic plans to benefit their customers.

Denning also uses Matthew Stewart to further understand Porter’s Five Forces stating that, “It merely helps to explain excessive profits in retrospect, but is useless in predicting them in prospect.” Meaning, Porter’s forces help to understand past performance, but are insufficient in predicting future behavior. Overall, the article offers a dynamically different view of successful business strategy, given that it challenges one of the most prominent figures in the business community. I would not change any portion of the article, for the writers opinions mirror many of my own. The business environment has changed dramatically, due to the influx of technology and computer-generated commercialism. Company’s strategy today must recognize this shift and view their potential profits as a value creation process rather than a competitive game against rivals.

Contributor: Steven Denning

Article: What Killed Michael Porter’s Monitor Group? The One Force That Really Matters.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/11/20/what-killed-michael-porters-monitor-group-the-one-force-that-really-matters/

I met Matt last Friday on his way home from class. We were both in good spirits because the springtime sun was finally being to pierce light through the clouds and bestow a hit of warmth on Eugene. As he approached my house, I said “hello” and we began to make small talk. I invited him to accompany me on the porch. He was dressed well, an articulate speaker, and open to share conversation. After a few minutes of conversation, I grasped my opportunity and asked him if he would like to help me out with a school project. He accepted my offer and the interview began.

I quickly learned that Matthew Chiodo was born and raised in a suburb of San Francisco known as Danville, California. An area well known for its technology and start-up business opportunities, due to its close proximity to Silicon Valley, which Matt referred to as the “technology mecca of the twenty-first century.“ Growing up in the Silicon Valley, Matt was predisposed to a future in technology, and more specifically to a concept he referred to as  “the internet of things”.

He described the “internet of things” as the direct interaction between humans and their computer-based products, where technology devices would track, manage, and inventory consumer data in real time and relaying the information to the supplier. He said the process worked in two ways, benefitting both the supplier and the consumer simultaneously.  He gave the example Google Glass, and it’s potential to give real time decision-making information to whoever was wearing the device. It was the first time I had ever heard of this term, although I understood the concept of human tracking, I had never considered the implications of using a product like Google Glass.

I asked him, “if the ability to track and monitor consumer behavior is so prevalent, why have I never heard of this concept until today?” He said, “well we are all a product of are surroundings, and because I am from a technology based community, it is obvious that I would have more insight into the internal behavior of a company like Google.” I didn’t know how to feel but I was intrigued. I replied, “so if we are all being tracked and inventoried, how do you think the community will react when the details unfold? Do you think people will be comfortable with the concept of being tracked? Where’s the privacy in that?”

Matt answered, “well what we need is a community surrounded around a common identity. This is difficult to do when people are naturally risk-averse and do not respond well to change.” He continued, “ but the Silicon Valley is unique in this way, for they have set-aside the inherent concerns and embraced the benefits associated with sharing information.” I stared puzzled.  Matt continued, “the internet of things must be viewed with optimism, when we share our everyday experiences with one another, we can foster more positive outcomes for ourselves and our surrounding communities. Notice how the influx of social media has changed our everyday communication with one another, making it easier and more convenient to stay connected with one another.” I stopped him, and joking said, “and what more does social media provide than outlet for our peers to complain and showcase their meals and animals? Matt laughed, “well for instance companies today are held more accountable for their products than ever before. They cannot simply go on with business as usual because they will be penalized for it.” I agreed with him. He continued, “whether or not we like to accepted it, the Internet of things is the future and we must find the most practical ways to utilize it and benefit from it.”

I asked, “So you are obviously interested in technology, but where does this passion come from? Did you have an icon or role model growing up?

He thought for a moment, looked out to the street and said, “I had many, but one in-particular stands out, Bryan Diefendire. He couldn’t say the name with out chuckling to himself. “Although, he was not a technology guy like the rest of Silicon Valley, he was the greatest motivator I had ever met. He was an older swim coach, about 26, who taught alongside me when I was in high school. He paused for a moment and said, “I should take a step back here, and give you the whole story.” I thought to myself, well that’s why I’m here, and encouraged him with a nod.

Matt thought for a moment, “just outside of my hometown, there was a central swimming area in Walnut Creek, created by one of the all-time most successful Olympic athletes, Mark Spitz. Communities around the Bay Area were known for their centralized pools. I spent a lot of time growing up there with Bryan. He taught me the technical and motivational skills of swim, for the greatest swim coaches are a combination of both and Bryan was one of them.”

He went on to say that although he held an extensive set of technical skills, his greatest contribution to Walnut Creek’s swimming community was his ability to motivate. His strategy in motivating young swimmers was unique and successful in two ways. He was able to influence young athletes to become better with his charismatic personality, and was able to sustain their drive by introducing a fun competitive environment.

He made each swimmer better by grouping them in pairs based on skill, and would have them compete against one another. Matt said, “Bryan was an exceptional motivator because he made an 8 year old swimmer believe in their ability and enthusiastic to participate in the day-to-day routine, and at the same time empowered them to get better everyday.” He went on to say that Bryan, still to this day, has a huge effect on how he approaches life.

From my perspective it was obvious that Matt idolized this type of individual. Even though, I had just recently met him, I could see many of the traits he talked about in Bryan were apart of his overall character. I had asked everything I had wanted to, and told him to stop by another day when he was free. I thanked him and he got up and left. I sat there thinking, I should talk to strangers more often, because something great can come out of it, and if not something great, at least something I could write about.

My college career started at San Diego Mesa College. At that time my main concern was playing baseball at a four-year university and finding an out-of-state school that would accept me. Fortunately, I was able to accomplish one of my two original goals, when I was accepted into the University of Oregon. I have spent three years in the Northwest, and have grown to love the outdoor community that surrounds me. When I am not thinking about my future career as a marketing professional, I am snowboarding, hiking, and rock climbing. Oregon offers a unique combination of outdoor activities, and some of the best ski resorts I have been to. Over the last three years I have snowboarded at four different ski resorts around Eugene including Mt. Hoodoo, Bachelor, Hood, and Willamette Pass.

It has taken me six years to complete my undergraduate, because I switched my major, transferred colleges, and decided to take a year off of school to receive in-state tuition. I have called the Lundquist School of Business home for the last two years. My undergraduate courses have been a collection of group projects, case analysis, and financial reports; most of which I will not miss, but has also provided an opportunity to learn from the best business professors, and engage in critical dialogue with a diverse collection of intellectuals. Last year I made the decision to add a minor in multi-media to diversify my skills, which is why I am taking J333 today. I decided to take a minor in multi-media because I needed classes that would help me to refine and explore my artistic talents. Lundquist provided me with the strategy and decision-making skills I needed, but was not a sufficient enabler of artistic expression.

After the Spring Term, I will head back to San Diego to spend time with my family while working for the family business. My father started a hardwood flooring company when he was in his late twenties, which has grown into a million dollar business today. I am proud of my father’s accomplishments and grateful for everything he and his company have done for my family’s financial security, but do not want to work for the company the rest of my life. Like my father, I am in search of entrepreneurial endeavors. My long-term objective is to own a marketing firm one-day and employ a team of six to seven liked minded individuals. I know the road may be tough, but I need to challenge myself in order to feel accomplished in life.

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