On Reading the Master’s Thesis of Crimethinc founder Brian Dingledine

Crimethinc is a decentralized network pledged to anonymous collective action.

And yet despite the “anonymous” nature of the organization, every person leaves traces wherever they’ve gone – all those more so in this information age.

Crimethinc’s founder is Brian Dingledine, who I met for the first and only time at an anarchist  convergence in Gainesville, Florida almost 20 years ago.

As his organization keeps coming up in my current research, I decided to give his M.A. thesis – title Nietzsche and Knowledge: A Study of Nietzsche’s Contribution to Philosophy as the Quest for Truth – a read.

I have to admit a certain level of disappointment in it. It was all academic formulations without any of the intoxicating rhetoric of Inside Front, Rolling Thunder, or the Crimethinc books. Not that I’m surprised, but I have to admit I was hoping for something more interesting.

Per the terms of my agreement with UNC I can’t share it should it have a niche interest for anyone else, but I will share the fact that it’s already been digitized so should you want to include the thesis of one of the most important American Anarchist organizers of the past 20 years in your own work to contact the UNC Library.

Updating HUAC legal framework to a Bolivarian Context

In Notes from Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications, the Congressional Committee provides two descriptions in the form of checklists which provide the legal basis for a Front Organization and a Subversive Organization.

They’re able to be viewed in plain text by clicking the above, however, I’ve also adapted them into an Excel file so that it’s easier to chart/view such organizations.

Front Organizations

Subversive Organization Guide

Given that one aspect of my SSRC project is “updating” this into a Bolivarian context, below I’ve attached Excel files which change the subject from Soviet Russia to Bolivarian Venezuela.

Bolivarian Front Organizations

Bolivarian Subversive Organization Guide

 

Notes on Implementing and Managing eGovernment: An International Text

I’ve been reading Richard Heek’s book Implementing and Managing eGovernment: An International Text as part of my doctoral thesis research and the book is, in a few words, foundational, seminal, required reading for anyone in the field of Innovation and Technology Management with a focus on eGovernment. I highly reccommend it.

Below are two organizational spreadsheets, followed by notes from the book.

Data Stakeholder Governance Considerations

Sample Item Costs for eGovernment Planning

Notes

There may be a focus on problem solving and innovation, and a focus on team-working and flexibility (Hafeez and Savani, 2003). The agencies may be characterized by what is known as a ‘task culture’. 

This hybrid management model argues first for an analysis of current public sector realities; and second for an assessment of which management and e-government system designs will best fit this reality. 

The sectors differ in many ways, including:

their espoused objectives (broader in the public sector); 

their view of ‘customers’ (more holistic in the public sector); 

their relation to ‘customers’ (mixed with roles as citizens and compliers in the public sector)

their accountabilities and perceived stakeholders (broader in the public sector)

their human and technological infra- structure (weaker in the public sector); 

the politicization of their processes (greater in the public sector); 

the scale and nature of competition (smaller and political in the public sector) 

Where decentralized information systems, manual or computerized, are already in place, barriers to centralization may be severe. In order to centralize, changes may need to be made to the organization’s whole information systems architecture: new data fields and formats, new hardware and software, new processes by which to handle data, and new processes by which to make decisions and take actions. 

Differences between the objectives and values (that is, the cultures) of particular groups in the public sector also cause a problem. 

Centralized approaches require the commitment of four key resources – money, time, people, and skills – all in short supply in the public sector. For many public organizations, a centralized approach may not be possible because of financial constraints; because staff are too busy on other things; or because no-one has the confidence or capabilities to undertake the necessary planning and coordination tasks. 

decentralized units develop different ways of working, different mindsets that create quite different views of the world between groups; different jargon used in communication; and different issues and people that are valued. 

aspects of system use such as implementation, operation, troubleshooting and maintenance are also likely to occur more quickly under a decentralized regime. 

Training, maintenance and administration costs also contribute. Large, centralized computing systems are estimated to cost something like one-third to one-half of this amount per user per year (CBR, 2001). 

A decentralized approach may be most economic for public organizations, because it saves on overt input costs. A centralized approach may be most efficient, because it avoids waste and duplication. But a successful hybrid approach may be most effective because it can simultaneously provide: 

  • the control necessary to share key resources (including data), to avoid duplication, and to achieve economies of scale; and
  • the freedom necessary to meet user needs, and to overcome blocks to IT usage and system development. 

US State Department, for example, successful progress on e-government has come from retaining computing and data management architecture under control of a central IT office, while decentralizing systems develop- ment responsibilities 

Division is compatible with – indeed, is defined as – simultaneous centralization and decentralization. It can be seen in the possible division of responsibilities described for systems development. It can also be seen in the division of responsibilities between client and server computers. 

That which we can call a managerial or information systems centralization, reflects Nolan’s (1979) well-known ‘stages of growth’. It shows the gradual increase in managerial attempts to control the information systems (which would include e-government systems) within an organization. Nolan’s model has been criticized for a lack of predictive power and a generality that fails to match individual organizational experience. However, its core sense of increasing managerial engagement with IT does appear sound. 

A decentralized approach will also help to spread IT awareness and skills, and even some understanding of the informational aspect of e-government, in a way that other approaches might not. For some public agencies, it is the lack of just such awareness, skills and under- standing that represents a key barrier to effective use of IT in government. 

there are tensions between the somewhat theoretical notions of organizational rationality, and the more real forces of politics in government. Hence, rational logic may play only a minor role in determining which approach is used. 

For example, the approach adopted will be shaped by the organization’s technology (e.g. whether the computing architecture is already centralized or decentralized); staffing and skills (e.g. what skills are avail- able); management systems and structures (e.g. whether the main organization has a centralized or decentralized structure) and other resources (e.g. the availability of finance). 

Stakeholder values will also play a role, such as their perceptions, their awareness of the costs and benefits of particular approaches, and their historical experi- ences. For instance, the recent experiences of staff with e-government systems create either a satisfaction that is inertial, or a dis- satisfaction that demands change. 

buuuut it is organizational politics and its roots in the self-interest of particular stakeholders that will help determine what management approach to e-government is selected 

Four familiar political constituencies (see Figure 2.2) can be identified, whose conflict or compromise within organizations helps to determine which approach is chosen: senior managers, politicians, IT staff, and mainstream staff. 

Broader political, pressures from the outside world – ranging from national political initiatives to dominant ideologies/philosophies – also play their part. Staff in public sector organizations are subject to continuous external pressures, that include (Barrett and Greene, 2001; Abramson and Morin, 2003): 

  • Pressure to conform to the requirements of external bodies, such as central government bodies and funding agencies. An e-government unit run by central government may, for example, be pushing a department to adopt certain centralized ‘best practices’: see, for example, Box 2.6. 
  • Pressure through (mis)perception of what other organizations are doing, which may be transmitted through informal contacts, management texts and training programs, or dealings with consultancy organizations. 
  • Pressure from private sector IT vendors to purchase particular technologies and systems. 

Chapter 3

eGovernment Strategy 

Centralized e-government strategic planning is a six-step process that, overall, asks: ‘Where
are we now?’, ‘Where do we want to get to?’, and ‘How do we get there from here?’

a successful strategy can develop senior management understanding that e-government systems are information systems not just IT, and build consensus and commitment to a strategic vision for e-government. It permits a fundamental review of the organization’s use of informa- tion and technology, leading to a comprehensive understanding of information systems requirements. 

It also provides a detailed plan of action on e-government for the organization. 

Problems of Federal eGovernment Expenditure in the US 

The 2003 US federal budget identified ‘six chronic problems that limit results from Federal IT spending: 

  • Agencies have automated existing outdated processes, instead of fixing underlying management problems or simplifying agency procedures to take advantage of new e-business and e-government capabilities. 
  • Agencies have made unnecessarily duplicative IT investments. 
  • Inadequate program management – many major IT projects have not met cost,
    schedule and performance goals. 
  • Few agencies have had plans demonstrating the linkage between IT capabilities
    and the business needs of the agency. 
  • Agencies have built individual capabilities that are not interoperable with one
    another. Few IT investments significantly improve mission performance. 
  • Poor IT security – major gaps have existed in agency and Government-wide inforsmation and IT-related security.’ 

e 2003 Federal Enterprise Architecture: A ‘business-based framework for Government-wide improvement … constructed through a collection of interrelated ‘reference models’ designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis and the identification of duplicative investments, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration within and across federal agencies.’ (FEAPMO, 2003)

The Strategic Context for Federal Public Agency eGovernment Strategy in the US 

The 2002 eGovernment Act

The 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act

The 2001 President’s Management Agenda

The 1998 Government Paperwork Elimination Act

The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act

The 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Act amendment:

The 1993 Government Performance Results Act:

Where are we now?

An answer would include details of the organization’s current structure and functions; key client groups; existing problems that need to be addressed; and important current and forth- coming factors – particularly policies and political priorities 

Where do we want to get to? 

An answer would include details of the organization’s objectives, and some vision of the future organization that will enable it to overcome current and forthcoming problems, and to achieve its objectives. Finally, it asks, ‘How do we get there?’ This would be achieved through a statement of management strategy about major changes to organizational structure and functions in order to reach its future vision. 

two types of organizational function are derived from the organization’s wider business strategy and prioritized for further investigation: 

  1. Existing organizational functions that are to be retained in order to meet organizational objectives 
  2. New organizational functions that need to be introduced in order to meet organizational objectives.

This is the essence of ‘portfolio’ or ‘program’ management: using criteria to align projects with agency strategy. 

Impact priorities, for example, might be: 

highest savings/financial return on investment

highest public visibility/political return on investment

highest learning/demonstrator effect

strongest focus on existing organizational deficiencies

strongest support to key external client  services (as opposed to internal administrative activities). 

Implementation priorities, for example, might be: 

lowest risk/highest feasibility

lowest cost to implement

fastest time for completion

eGovernment Systems Architecture needs three main components:

  1. A data model showing the structure of unified, organization-wide data to which the e-government systems will have access; often illustrated using an entity-relationship diagram (this and the other diagrams mentioned here are described in greater detail in Chapter 8).
  2. A process model showing the key activities of the organization that the e-government systems will either support or under- take; often illustrated using a process diagram.
  3. A data/process model showing the organization-wide connection between business processes and data entities, and the organization-wide movement of data that e-government systems will enable; often illustrated using a data flow diagram. 

Information engineering

This looks across the whole organization and focuses on two components:
business processes: the individual activities of the organization that help meet public sector objectives. 

data classes: data entities of relevance to the organization that are made up from individual data elements (or attributes). 

Data and process are principally connected, and therefore principally investigated, through the mechanism of decision making and action. 

From this investigation, the entire organization is analyzed into two long lists of business processes and data entities. These are cross-checked through a process/data matrix that shows which processes create or use which data. The data entities and processes can then be grouped together into clusters of data and processes that represent required e-government systems within the organization.

Critical success factors
it starts by asking managers to specify the factors they consider to be critical for the successful performance of particular organizational functions

It is the intention that e-government strategy be shaped by organizational objectives and process/information requirements rather than by technology: 

Determining eGovernment organizational architecture:

As part of the ITSPMO analysis, general strategic decisions may include:

  1. making sure that it is the government rather than the company that steers e-government 
  2. stating the approach to management of organizational change, including a determination of the needs for cultural change
  3. clearly allocating responsibilities for e-government systems development and management
  4. identifying major competency gaps and approaches to closing them through human resource strategies
  5. deciding how back-office procedures may be restructured to support e-government
  6. locating the e-government/IT function within the wider organizational structure
  7. demarcating which services (e.g. systems development, training and systems operation) are to be sourced in-house and outsourced
  8. identifying procedures to be used when tendering for and selecting e-government systems products and services
  9. specifying standard systems development methodologies and tools to be used 
  10. identifying financial approaches to be adopted, such as public–private partnerships.

Strategy Implementation 

Disseminate and Plan eGovernment Actions 

A typical business case for an e-government project might include a statement of project objectives; an estimation of benefits, risks and constraints; and an estimation of resource requirements covering finance, human resources (i.e. jobs and skills), technology, and timescales. Details of project deliverables (i.e. things the e-government projects should produce such as feasibility reports, specification documents, and both interim and final versions of the system) and timetables can be approved at this stage. So, too, can mechanisms for reporting back to the eGovernment Steering Group on progress. 

for personnel training and development, for finance, for technology, etc. There may also be an additional dimension to the matrix – time – showing what is to occur and be paid for within particular financial years. 

Many public organizations also find themselves in situations of constant and largely uncontrollable flux from factors such as changeover in ruling political parties; constant circulation of senior politicians and officials; emergence of new political initiatives and legislation that alter organizational activities, priorities and even structures; sudden imposition of cost- cutting measures; sudden external crises that demand a reaction; changes within the client groups the organizations serve; and changes in IT, IT standards and IT suppliers. 

The Outcome of eGovernment Strategy 

There are many ways for strategies to go wrong:

  • Lack of Strategy
  • Underused Strategy – The strategies give the impression of box-ticking – doing just enough to meet the demands of external policies and oversight agencies; and often doing that in a hurry – without true internal ownership of, or commitment to, the strategy. 
  • When strategy has been hijacked
  • When strategy is ‘strategic concrete’

Focus on process, not content

The process of trying to create a strategy may be more valuable than the formal deliverables. Value is sought from the informal process deliverables such as: making sense of the past, learning from experience, encouraging dialogue and communication, and making choices 

A hybrid approach to e-government planning will mean a balance between central and local. So, for instance, it could mean that e-government planning is seen as incremental, as participative, as limited in scope: guiding more than dictating. This approach is sometimes referred to as ‘pick- ing a course and steering it’: being adaptable to new constraints and new circumstances as they arise rather than imagining that the strategy is cast in ‘tablets of stone’. 

Sub-Strategic eGovernment Planning 

Given the many constraints to strategic plan- ning, it may be more feasible to plan at what might be termed the ‘sub-strategic’ level. This pares back what planning hopes to achieve until the intention matches what can be achieved in the organization. 

Tactical-Plus eGovernment Planning 

pushing the objectives of an individual e-government system ‘upstream’ to think how it contributes to the overall work of the organization; 

assessing the opportunity costs of going ahead with this particular e-government system rather than others; and/or 

assessing whether there should be com- patibilities between this and other exist- ing or planned systems. 

Chapter 4 Managing Public Data 

CARTA 

Completeness 

Accuracy
Relevance
Timeliness
Appropriate presentation

Prosumption – Where the consumers of public services themselves become producers of their own data often via web-based electronic forms.

What are the Positions to Consider when Managing?

Situation A: Departmental Location 

Situation B: Low-Level Independence 

Situation C: High-Level Independence 

Situation D: Outsourcing 

Outsourcing 

An equal, if not greater drive to outsourcing is to address human resource constraints by accessing staff, skills and ideas that are not available in-house. Other perceived benefits of outsourcing include the provision of a higher quality of service; greater certainty about costs; greater flexibility, especially of labor since it is easier to hire and fire external staff; access to advanced technology; and greater ability to focus management on the core deliverables of the public sector 

Cons

a clash of work cultures and understanding between the public sector client and the private sector sub-contractor; 

a loss of control over the service being provided, with the sub-contractor starting to dictate to a dependent client; 

a loss of core e-government competencies to the sub-contractor, such as controls over security. 

However, in practice, decision making about outsourcing in the public sector has only partly been driven by organizational rationality. It has also been driven by behavioral/political factors (Peled, 2000a). Managers are found to outsource e-government work because they: 

  • have been naive in their assumptions about the benefits that will ensue
  • believe association with such an initiative will be good for their careers 
  • wish to ‘clip the wings’ of the in-house IT unit
  • stand to gain financially thanks to the covert generosity of the sub-contractor

5.2 People

Competencies can be understood in relation to three domains:

Skills, Knowledge, Attitude 

Attitude is changes by appeals to the the rational mind, the political mind, and the heart. 

Greater use of case studies of e-government failure and/or best practice will likely be a move in the right direction (Parrado, 2002). Cases can persuade stake- holders, for instance, of the dangers of ignoring basic systems development prac- tice, or of the importance of understanding the organizational and human context of e-government systems. 

A good hybrid manager will recognize that psychological factors play a role: autonomy, challenge, recognition and the opportunity for career advancement. Direct work content factors are also important, such as training opportunities, flexibility of work schedule and clarity of task specification. 

On a shorter-term basis, responsibility for a personal development plan can be shifted to the employees, and used as part of the annual performance review. 

Plans must be far more than just a critical path; they must include deliverables, resource requirements, and reporting arrangements. Over time, the number of elements that must be planned has grown, typically in response to perceived problems with past projects. What was once just a ‘project plan’ has now been broken down; for example into: a scope management plan, a resource plan, a risk management plan, a procurement plan, a quality plan, a communication plan, a security plan, a change management plan, and a cost management plan.

Which standards should be followed? ISO 9001:2000 

Peer review – a hybrid rather than rational project technique – seems to have a better record, and has now been adopted by a number of governments as a best practice. 

Behavioral Approaches to Project Management 

the rational model fails to fully explain or predict what happens in the public sector. It also fails to fully guide real-world best practice, leading e-government practitioners to criticize PMMs for their inflexibility. Indeed, some who study the realities of projects see the rational approach as potentially guiding worst practice: 

“IT projects die by their own hand. The more they are bound by lists, rules, checks, restrictions, regulations, and so on, the more they drive out the human spirit of creativity, of innovation, of dealing with ambiguity, and of fun. People brought up in technical environments may not see the horror of this kind of approach.”

To plug this gap, and ensure that a more behavioral approach and more behavioral expertise are introduced, some governments are mandating the involvement of senior non-IT officials. The Canadian government, for example, defines a formal requirement on e-government projects for two things (OECD, 2001). First, a project sponsor who is responsible for the business function, and who has solely behavioral-side competencies ( judgment, leadership, communication, organizational awareness). Second, a project leader who is a senior departmental official with, again, largely behavioral-side competencies and only cursory IT management skills at best. Similarly, the UK government’s analysis of e-government project failures concluded with the requirement for projects to have a ‘senior responsible officer’ (CITU, 2000). The officer would be drawn from the business not the IT side of the organization. 

Primary Project Stakeholders

decision makers: those who make major project-related decisions, such as whether or not to proceed with the project

gatekeepers: those who control access to higher authorities

influencers: those who advise decision makers or whom decision makers take note of

end users: those who will directly use the output from the e-government system and/or from the business function it supports

champions: those who will support and muster resources for the project

Smart behavioral players work to break through the rationality barrier to get to the real objectives and values underneath. 

  • by understanding that professional relationships have different bases and require different techniques from those adopted with social relationships
  • by establishing rapport with the other person: looking for common ground 
  • developing on their areas of interest; even mirroring their speech and body language in order to ‘tune in’
  • by active listening that involves really concentrating and asking questions to get to the root of issues, beliefs, problems, needs, and so on 
  • by tailoring communication to the needs of the recipient 

Tailoring your Message 

The sociable ones: The idealistic ones:
  • Be clear and explicit, don’t just imply. 
  • Show me how people will benefit. 
  • Demonstrate immediate and
    practical results. 
  • Show me respect.
  • Engage with my personal values. 
  • Paint pictures and draw analogies
    that have meaning. 
  • Be passionate and engage my
    imagination. 
  • Show how it will contribute to
    the greater good of human kind.
The theoretical ones: The down to earth ones:
  • Show how it fits into the bigger picture. 
  • Ensure the theoretical base is sound. 
  • Appeal to my intellect and imagination. 
  • Be a credible source of information.
  • Be organized and structured. 
  • Be practical and realistic. 
  • Work logically and systematically
    through your analysis. 
  • Offer proof and evidence.

1. Preparation: Getting as much information as possible not just in relation to the topic under discussion but also in relation to the objectives and values of other parties; being clear about one’s own ‘bottom line’. 

2. Initial exchange: Drawing out other individuals and probing with questions to develop a better sense of their objectives and values; weighing up relative bargain- ing powers. 

3. Negotiation: being assertive; using and observing body language; identifying issues that can easily be agreed and issues that are low-cost to one side but high benefit to the other; being creative about what can be traded; exploring 

possible compromises. 

4. Agreement: summarizing the discussion; avoiding/dealing with last minute conditions. 

5. Implementation: setting out a clear schedule of tasks and responsibilities.

The acquisition of negotiating skills and the ability to apply the techniques just described is becoming increasingly integral to e-government project management 

Components of Massachusetts model: 

  • business problem and scope of work: the problem being addressed; the rationale for the e-government project; and the major tasks to be undertaken; 
  • workplan and time schedule: a Gantt chart ‘not intended to be a project log of each and every small detail, but rather a comprehensive plan of tasks, team resources and timelines’
  • management approach and personnel: for both the steering committee and project implementation team; 
  • acceptance criteria and deliverables: the key outputs from the project and criteria that will be used to judge whether or not that output is acceptable
  • task order budget
  • signatures: of all the key ‘business partners’.

Such structures as the above will allow 

  1. early identification of failures 
  2. mechanisms to disperse learning about both success and failure. 

Why should there be so much politicking around e-government? In short, because two pre-conditions of politicking are met. 

First, there are interdependent groups that have different objectives and values. This is clearly the case in public sector organizations. The ‘interdependent but different’ perspective applies to the formal functional divisions within public agencies. 

Second, there are important but scarce resources involved. 

e-Government brings together in large amounts both critical tangible resources – people, money and equipment – and critical intangible resources – information, power and kudos. They therefore form a key locus for organizational politics. 

Techniques of Influence 

Reason: ‘Relies on the presentation of data and information as the basis for a logical argument that supports a request.’ Reason is typically a first choice for influencing a boss or subordinate, and it often relates to a base of expert or information power. 

Friendliness: ‘Depends on the influencee thinking well of the influencer.’ It is often used with co-workers, but may also be used with subordinates and supe- riors. It often relates to a base of personal power. 

Coalition: ‘Mobilizing other people in the organization to support you, and thereby strengthening your request.’ It depends 

Bargaining: Negotiation and exchanging benefits based upon the social norms of obligation and reciprocate. The resources that are traded are very varied but can include assistance, support and information. It often relates to a base of reward power. Assertiveness: Uses continuous reminders via an insistent and forceful manner. It is often used with subordinates and relates to a base of legitimate power. 

Higher authority: ‘Uses the chain of command and outside sources of power to influence the target person.’ This can be the threat or promise of involving the influencee’s boss, or invoking that boss’ own priorities. It can also involve an appeal to higher ethical or cultural values within the organization. It may involve recourse to outside ‘experts’, such as consultants, or to the media. A variation, much found in e-government, is to blame the technology or the data, though this may fall under the heading of manipulation. Its strength relies particularly on affiliation power. 

Sanctions: Influence through the promise of reward or threat of punishments. In its negative form, this may encompass all formal disciplinary procedures up to dis- missal. It may encompass informal actions: blame, bad-mouthing, bullying. It may also encompass the removal of rewards (e.g. transfer, demotion). Sanctions often relate to a base of legitimate or coercive power. 

Manipulation: Influence by controlling the framing of discussions, or the claimed rules for discussion, or the information that is allowing into a negotiation. Part of this process will be the manipulation of the public discussions and public relations that set much of the agenda for government. This type of approach may also include undermining others involved. 

Withdrawal: Influence through disengagement or non-compliance. 

Time and again, middle managers in public sector organizations have good ideas for new or redesigned e-government systems. Yet they cannot get those ideas implemented. They blame their bosses, or the IT staff, or politicians, and so on. In many cases, though, they should blame themselves for failing to recognize their own need for better communication, negotiation and, above all, influencing skills. 

Chapter 6

Emerging Management Issues for eGovernment 

Great care must be taken that measures are valid (i.e. that they do measure what they seek to measure), relevant (i.e. that they measure something on which the employee’s actions have an effect) and valuable (i.e. that they measure what is organizationally important about the job). IT staff behavior will be skewed by performance measurement towards the measured components of the job and away from the non-measured. Only careful selection of indicators will ensure that this skewing is beneficial for the organization. 

Performance management in the public sector 

  • offer career development opportunities, or psychic pay: quasi-financial incentives such as paid time off or new equipment. In some surveys, public servants rate these above money as preferred rewards. 
  • Use group incentives since individual rewards can demotivate other team members, whereas group rewards tend to encourage collaboration.  
  • do not punish occasional mistakes, only chronic poor performance. Use progressive discipline but also use training and peer pressure. 

Three main focal points for performance indicators can be applied to the IS/IT function: 

Input- IT Measures

Output- Information Services

Outcome- Business Process

Measurement of Performance 

In most cases the measurement procedure will be clear within the indicator definition. Three main assessment indicators:

  • Internal subjective: The measures are based on the judgment of internal clients, such as customer satisfaction rating scales. 
  • Internal objective: The measures are based on objective quantification within the organization, such as the jobseeker placement measure. 
  • External: The measures are based on quantification from outside the organization. 
  • Price testing: Comparing the internal costs of a service with the estimated cost/price of external providers and benchmarking (which includes a broader set of performance measures) 

Control of Performance 

Provider management control: Managers within the IS/IT service provider are responsible for managerial rewards and remedial measures. 

Client management control: Managers within the IS/IT service client are responsible for managerial rewards and remedial measures. 

Client financial control: Managers within the IS/IT service client are responsible for financial rewards and remedial measures. 

Arbitrary basis: The sum paid does not relate to service use but to some relatively arbitrary measure such as the size of the user department. The lack of linkage creates limited financial control on performance; arguably less than that available via a managed service level agreement. 

Cost basis

Market basis 

The central thrust is that agencies must be good at writing documents and at managing projects. It would thus be possible to score a ‘green’ without producing anything that had actually made life better for citizens and other agency clients. 

The more the government charges for its data, the greater the barriers to access become. Yet the wider it allows access, the less it can earn from data sales. 

Access Policies for Freedom of Information

The enactment of FOI legislation has required the development of in-house policies by public agencies within its purview. Typical issues to be dealt with include (DOI, 2002): 

Terminology: Explicitly defining what is meant by terms such as records and requests; and classification of different types of data held by the agency.

Procedures: Clarifying how citizens/ businesses can obtain data direct without requests; how information requests are to be made; and the means by which those requests will be responded to.

Data management: Ensuring that the type of back-office, records and data manage- ment procedures described elsewhere in this chapter are followed so that data and records can be located in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Performance measures: Setting out performance indicators (typically time taken) for the FOI response service.

Charges: Determining a reasonable level of charges to be levied for searches and copying; determining policy on any fee waivers; putting a billing and payment system in place.

Handling variations: Determining procedures in the case of various types of data/records such as those not held by the agency; those held by other public agencies; those deemed sensitive or covered by privacy legislation; those held by other non-public agencies.

Appeals: Setting in place an appeals procedure to appeal against problems with performance, charges or denial of access.

Responsibilities: Designating specific officers as responsible for FOI implementation, and for appeals. 

Update: Putting in place a mechanism for review and update of FOI procedures (e.g. in response to new technology, case law, organizational changes, new orders, or FOI response performance and feedback). 

Digital Divide

Because of those costs, there is an uneven profile of those who own and use IT: the rich not the poor; the graduate not the school leaver; the ethnic majority not the ethnic minority; the urban not the rural citizen; the young not the old; men not women. 

Pouring resources into e-government can therefore benefit the haves rather than have nots, and increase polarization within society. There are already some signs of this, with evidence that local government electronic service delivery is of poorer quality in areas with lower levels of Internet access 

Governments may set up initiatives focused on increasing access to IT that is government-or-community-owned IT. Such IT may be placed in a variety of locations: 

  • public spaces, such as common areas within shopping malls; 
  • semi-public spaces, such as libraries or sport facilities; 
  • dedicated spaces, such as community telecentres housing a room-full of Internet- linked PCs. 

The watch- word for government must therefore be ‘supplement’ not ‘supplant’. Provision of public sector data and other services electronically should be seen as an additional weapon in the armory that sits alongside traditional face-to-face and phone-based methods. It should not be seen as a way of replacing those more traditional methods. 

Reviewing Sensitive Public Information

The following questions will assist security professionals in reviewing sensitive infor- mation that has been, or could be, made publicly accessible. 

Has the information been cleared and authorized for public release?

What impact could the information have if it was inadvertently transferred to an
unintended audience?

Does the information provide details concerning enterprise security?

Does the information contain personnel information such as biographical data,
addresses, etc.?

How could someone intent on causing harm misuse the information?

What instructions should be given to legitimate custodians of sensitive information
with regard to disseminating the information to other parties such as contractors?

Could this information be dangerous if it were used in conjunction with other
publicly available information?

Could someone use the information to target personnel, facilities or operations? 

Could the same or similar information be found elsewhere?

Does the information increase the attractiveness of a target? (OCIPEP, 2002)

Policies on Disability

the law sets a clear threshold that must be achieved. However, in practice, e-government managers often seem to be ‘satisficing’ the issue: doing just enough to cover their backs but still leaving a gap between policy and practice.

Difficulties

public managers face a difficult balancing act between the requirements of central legislation and the localized needs of the public agency. These may conflict where, for example, the agency has to make the best of an outdated physical environ- ment, or where lack of money means what is ergonomically-best cannot be afforded. This balancing act can appear in the gap between policy on paper and policy in prac- tice. eGovernment managers may develop an internal policy document that fully meets all legislative requirements, but may then not fully implement the document. 

Chapter 7

Success in e-government comes from intelligent selection of individual techniques, from
‘hybrid thinking’, and from action on design–reality gaps rather than from slavish adherence to one particular methodology.

Background understanding of a proposed e-government project comes from asking five
questions: Who is involved? What is the problem? Why is the project happening? What
constraints exist? What will change in the near future?

eGovernment projects can be assessed in relation to their feasibility, priority, opportunity costs, and impact.

Four Core Stages:

1. analysis of what is currently happening, and of whether and why a new e-government system is needed
2. design of the new e-government system’s components
3. construction of the new e-government system

4. implementation of the new e-government system 

Successfully planned e-government systems will therefore be those that require a manageable degree of change. 

In order to assess this ‘degree of change’, the core of the systems development method described here will therefore consist of three activities: 

  1. mapping out the realities of the current situation
  2. designing a proposal for the new situation
  3. assessing the difference between the two, and reacting to that difference 

Systems Development Life Cycle

1. Project assessment: Identifying possible e-government projects; outlining basic project parameters; and assessing whether or not to proceed with the project. 

2. Analysis of current reality: Description and analysis of the seven ITPOSMO dimensions as they exist within the current situation of the organization. 

3. Design of the proposed new situation: Setting objectives for the proposed new e-government system, and then describing in general terms how the seven ITPOSMO dimensions should be different for the new system to meet these objectives. Different options for the new system may be evaluated at this point. 

4. System construction: Acquiring any new technology; undertaking detailed design of the new system; then building it, testing it and documenting it. 

5. Implementation and beyond: Training users to use the new system; converting data to new formats; introducing the new system; monitoring and evaluating its performance and context; then undertaking any necessary system maintenance. 

SSADM: Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology, 

No method is perfect but there are dangers for the public sector in adopting some of the harder methods. The public sector has had a tendency to choose such methods which then prove too old, inflexible, top-down, detailed, jargonized and time-consuming (Korac-Boisvert and Kouzmin, 1995). While these might have been appropriate to the routine clerical automations of the 1960s, they work poorly in politicized situations of change and uncertainty. 

 

Potential Book Titles on Venezuela’s Intelligence Operations in America

Since I’ve decided to expand the research I’ve been building into a book, I decided to do a creative exercise as to possible titles for it. Which of the below resonates with you the most?  

*

The New Historic Block: How Hugo Chavez Used Oil Exports to Promote His Vision of Marx

Tracing 21st Century Socialism: A Political Revolution in Venezuela Meets an Epistemological Revolution via Data Science

Building The New Historic Block: How Hugo Chavez Exported Socialism to America

Marketing Marx in North America: Venezuela’s Gramscian Plan to Spread Socialism

Kultural Marxism and 21st Century Socialism’s Trajectory from Venezuela to North America

Marching South to North: How Hugo Chavez’s Specter Came to Haunt the United States  

Children of the Bolivarian Revolution: Venezuela’s PSUV and the Birth of America’s First United Socialist Party  

Towards a Multipolar World Order: How Hugo Chavez’s Multitude of Gramsican Agents Tried to Remake the World

Chavez’s Hopes and Gramsci’s Ghost: The PSUV’s Support of Socialism in America

Officer, Agent, Asset, Stooge: How Venezuela Helped Seed Revolutionary Socialism in the United States

Red Scare 3.0: The Definitive Guide as to the Who, What, Where and Why’s of Venezuela’s Attempted Socialist Infiltration of U.S. Institutions

Poets as Legislators of a New World Order: Anti-Globalization Activism, Solidarity and Why Technics Trumps Specious Ideologies

Ariel Sheen and the TeleSur Archive: How a Determined Activist for Truth Uncovered a Long-Running Violent Anti-Government Activist Network

Precursors to Transatlantic War? How CivOp and MilOp Intersect in Foreign Military Policy

How Guiado’s Superior to Gramsci: Why Pre-Information Age Radicals Add Little to Modern Politics

Illegalism as Pathology: A Longitudal, Iconographic and Textual Based Investigation Into A Foreign Communist Party’s Radicalization Efforts

PSUA: The Story of the Birth of the United Socialist Party of America

Inhibiting Agents of Multi-Polarity: How Political Cadres Funded By Russia and Venezuela Led to Legislation that Finally Addresses New Information and Communication Technologies

Venezuela’s Investments Into American Art and Culture: A Longitudinal Analysis of Systematic Negation of the American State 

Building A Dual Power From Venezuela’s Chosen People: Foreign Artists, autistics, transexuals, and political  Actors Interactions with American Law Enforcement

The Great Recategorization: How Evidence, Data Science and Rubrics Lead to an Algorithmic Shift in an Understanding of How Political Discourse Operates on Facebook

“Why having a Star by your Name on Social Media in the Colors of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is not the same as the one people were forced to wear in the 1940s, you hack!” and 19 Other Disdainful Phrases of Advice for Kultural Marxism Content Creator.

Tales from TeleSUR: An Open-Source Historical Investigation Into The Roots of Phenomenon of Kultural Marxism

Thinking like the CIA: A Case Study Examining Venezuela’s Intelligence Operations in America

Categorical Faces on Names and Places: A Case Study on the Possibilities Inherent in Modern Data

Project-Mapping After Public Data Source Grabbing: Why the FBI’s Investigation into American Political Group’s Funding by Venezuela is Valid and Should Start Again in Earnest

Why Later Historians Will Say Chelsea and Julian Sitting in a Jail Was “Just The Start”: How Venezuela Sought Revancha on America it’s Trans-Atlantic Allies and Lost

Findings of the Investigation Into Whether of Not Venezuela Had A Measurable Impact On America’s 2016 Elections: An Open-Source Research Project That Makes RussiaGate Seem Cute and Quaint

 

Notes on Strategic Management of Technological Innovation

I had a feeling that my fellow New York University Alumnus Mellissa A. Schilling would produce a worthy written work explaining the technical language used within the Innovation and Technology Management field, a discipline I’m now studying at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin, Colombia.

The case studies included covers a wide variety of topics. Innovation and strategy in high technology industries such as smartphones, videogames, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electric vehicles, and renewable energies. All interspersed with comments on issues related to platform dynamics, networks, creativity, and breakthrough innovation.

I made the below notes for myself, and highly encourage those also in this field to also purchase her book.

absorptive capacity
The ability of an organization to recognize, assim- ilate, and utilize new knowledge. 

whereby as firms accumulate knowledge, they also increase their future ability to assimi- late information. A firm’s prior related experience shapes its ability to recognize the value of new information, and to utilize that information effectively. 

This knowledge base enables the firm to more rapidly assess the value of related new materials, technologies, and methods. The effects of absorptive capacity suggest that firms that develop new technologies ahead of others may have an advantage in staying ahead. 

network externalities Also termed posi- tive consumption externalities, this is when the value of a good to a user increases with the number of other users of the same or simi- lar good. 

installed base The number of users of a particular good. For instance, the installed base of a particular video game console refers to the number of those consoles that are installed in homes worldwide. 

complementary goods Additional goods and services that enable or enhance the value of another good. For example, the value of a video game console is directly related to the availability of complementary goods such as video games, periph- eral devices, and services such as online gaming. 

path dependency When end results depend greatly on the events that took place leading up to the outcome. It is often impossible to reproduce the results that occur in such a situation. 

Firms will tend to use and build on their existing knowledge base rather than enter unfamiliar areas.

This can result in a very “sticky” technological paradigm that directs future technological inquiry in the area.

Thus, a dominant design is likely to influence the nature of the technological discontinuity that will eventually replace it. 

Increasing returns
When the rate of return (not just gross returns) from a product or process increases with the size of its installed base. 

Technologically superior products do not always win—the firms that win are usually the ones that know how to manage the multiple dimensions of value that shape design selection. 

Buyer Utility Map

It is important to consider six different utility levers, as well as six stages of the buyer experience cycle, to understand a new technol- ogy’s utility to a buyer. 

The stages they identify are purchase, delivery, use, supplements, maintenance, and disposal. The six utility levers they consider are customer productivity, simplicity, convenience, risk, fun and image, and environmental friendliness. Creating a grid with stages and levers yields a 36-cell utility map. Each cell provides an opportunity to offer a new value proposition to a customer. 

For example, instead of having a single entry for customer productivity, the map could have rows for several dimensions of productiv- ity such as speed, efficiency, scalability, and reliability. The map provides a guide for managers to consider multiple dimensions of technological value and multiple stages of the customer experience. 

Even if a new innovation has a significant advantage in functionality, its overall value may be significantly less than the incum- bent standard. 

For the new technology to compete on its stand-alone util- ity alone, that utility must be so great that it eclipses the combined value of an existing technology’s stand-alone utility, its installed base, and its complementary goods. 

When users are comparing the value of a new technology to an existing technology, they are weighing a combination of objective information (e.g., actual technological benefits, actual information on installed base or complementary goods), subjec- tive information (e.g., perceived technological benefits, perceived installed base or complementary goods), and expectations for the future (e.g., anticipated technological benefits, anticipated installed base and complementary goods). Thus, each of the primary value components described above also has corresponding perceived or anticipated value components 

“vaporware”—products that are not actually on the market and may not even exist but are advertised—by many software vendors. By building the impression among customers that a product is ubiquitous, firms can prompt rapid adoption of the product when it actually is available. Vaporware may also buy a firm valuable time in bringing its product to market. If other vendors beat the firm to market and the firm fears that customers may select a dominant design before its offering is introduced, it can use vaporware to attempt to persuade custom- ers to delay purchase until the firm’s product is available. 

first movers the first entrants to sell in a new product or ser- vice category. 

early followers Entrants that are early to market, but not first. 

late entrants Entrants that do not enter the market until the time the product begins to penetrate the mass market or later. 

in an industry characterized by increasing returns to adoption, there can be powerful advantages to being an early provider; a technol- ogy that is adopted early may rise in market power through self-reinforcing positive feedback mechanisms, culminating in its entrenchment as a dominant design. 

First movers typically bear the bulk of the research and development expenses for their product or service technologies, and they must also often pay to develop suppliers and distribution channels, plus consumer awareness. 

incumbent inertia – The tendency for incumbents to be slow to respond to changes in the industry environ- ment due to their large size, established routines, or prior strategic commitments to existing suppliers and customers. 

enabling technologies Component technologies that are necessary for the performance or desirability of a given innovation. 

How does a firm decide whether to attempt to pioneer a technology category or to wait while others do so? The answer will depend on several factors, including customer certainty, the margin of improvement offered by the new technology, the state of enabling technologies and complementary goods, the threat of competitive entry, the degree to which the industry exhibits increasing returns, and the firm’s resources. 

parallel development process When multiple stages of the new product  development process occur simultaneously. 

oligopolistic industries Highly consoli- dated industries with a few large competitors. 

exit barriers Costs or other commitments that make it difficult for firms to abandon an industry (large fixed-asset investments, emotional commitment to the industry, etc.). 

entry barriers Conditions that make it difficult or expensive for new firms to enter an industry (government regulation, large start-up costs, etc.). 

switching costs Factors that make it difficult or expensive to change suppliers or buyers, such as investments in specialized assets to work with a particular supplier or buyer. 

vertical integration Getting into
the business of one’s suppliers (backward vertical integration) or one’s buyers (forward vertical integration). For example, a firm that begins producing its own supplies has practiced backward vertical integration, and a firm that buys its distributor has practiced forward vertical integration. 

complements  Products or services that enhance the usefulness
or desirability of another product. 

stakeholder Any entity that has an interest (“stake”) in the organization. 

A strategic stakeholder analysis emphasizes the stakeholder management issues that are likely to impact the firm’s financial performance, while a normative stakeholder analysis emphasizes the stakeholder management issues the firm ought to attend to due to their ethical or moral implications. 

In Michael Porter’s model of a value chain, activities are divided into primary activities and support activities. Primary activities include inbound logistics (all activities required to receive, store, and disseminate inputs), operations (activities involved in the transformation of inputs into outputs), outbound logistics (activities required to collect, store, and distribute outputs), marketing and sales (activities to inform buyers about products and services and to induce their purchase), and service (after-sales activities required to keep the product or service working effectively). Support activities include procurement (the acquisition of inputs, but not their physical transfer, as that would be covered in inbound logistics), human resource management (activities such as recruiting, hiring, training, and compensating personnel), technology development (activities involved in developing and managing equipment, hardware, software, procedures, and knowledge necessary to transform inputs into outputs), and infrastructure (functions such as accounting, le- gal counsel, finance, planning, public affairs, government relations, quality assurance, and general management necessary to ensure smooth functioning of the firm). 

tacit resources – Resources of an intangible nature (such as knowl- edge) that cannot be readily codified. 

socially complex resources Resources or activities that emerge through the interaction of multiple individuals. 

causal ambiguity The relationship between a resource and the outcome it produces is poorly understood
(the causal mechanism is ambiguous). 

core competencies (or core capabilities) A set of integrated and harmonized abilities that distinguish the firm in the marketplace. 

By viewing the business as a portfolio of core competencies, managers are better able to focus on value creation and meaningful new business development, rather than cost cutting or opportunistic expansion. 

Sometimes the very things that a firm excels at can enslave it, making the firm rigid and overly committed to inappropriate skills and resources. 

While these systems and norms can prove beneficial in reinforcing and leveraging the firm’s existing core competencies, they can also inhibit the development of new core competencies. For example, a firm’s emphasis on a scientific discipline that is central to its core competency can make the firm less attractive to individuals from other disciplines. Rewards for engaging in core competency activities can discourage employees from pursuing more exploratory activities. 

dynamic capabilities A set of abilities that make a firm more agile and responsive to change. 

Strategic intent is to create value, which entails more than just improving operations or cutting costs; it means leveraging corporate resources to create more performance for customers, more well-being for employees, and more returns for shareholders. A company’s strategic intent is a long-term goal that is ambitious, builds upon and stretches the firm’s existing core competencies, and draws from all levels of the orga- nization. 

Successful and innovative firms question existing price-performance assumptions. They lead customers by developing and introducing products that extend well beyond current market requirements and help mold the market’s expectations for the future. 

The balanced scorecard is a measurement system that encourages the firm to consider its goals from multiple perspectives (financial, customer, business process, and innovation and learning), and establish measures that correspond to each of those perspectives. 

The Pareto principle refers to the fact that many events (such as a customer choosing a particular book) have a power law distribution, meaning that 20 percent of the books, shows, or songs attract 80 percent of the business. 

capital rationing – the allocation of a finite quantity of resources over different possible uses. 

R&D intensity – The ratio of R&D expendi- tures to sales. 

net present value (NPV) The discounted cash inflows of a project minus the discounted cash outflows. 

internal rate of return (IRR) The rate of return yielded by a project, nor- mally calculated as the discount rate that makes the net present value of an investment equal zero. 

discounted payback period
The time required to break even on a project using discounted cash flows. 

The internal rate of return of a project is the discount rate that makes the net present value of the investment zero. Managers can compare this rate of return to their required return to decide if the investment should be made. 

discounted cash flow estimates are only as accurate as the original estimates of the profits from the technology, and in many situations it is extremely difficult to antici- pate the returns of the technology… such methods discriminate heavily against projects that are long term or risky, and the methods may fail to capture the strategic importance of the investment decision. Technology development projects play a crucial role in building and leveraging firm capabilities, and creating options for the future. Investments in new core technologies are investments in the organization’s capabilities and learning, and they create opportunities for the firm that might other- wise be unavailable.1 Thus, standard discounted cash flow analysis has the potential to severely undervalue a development project’s contribution to the firm. 

To better incorporate strategic implications in the new product development investment decision, some managers and scholars have recently begun promoting the idea of treating new product development decisions as real options 

real options 

The applica- tion of stock option valua- tion methods to investments in nonfinancial assets. 

  • The cost of the R&D program can be considered the price of a call option. 
  • The cost of future investment required to capitalize on the R&D program (such as the cost of commercializing a new technology that is developed) can be considered the exercise price. 
  • The returns to the R&D investment are analogous to the value of a stock purchased with a call option.

Companies that use the project map categorize all their existing projects and proj- ects under consideration by the resources they require (e.g., engineers, time, capital, etc.) and by how they contribute to the company’s product line. The company can then map the project types and identify gaps in the development strategy. 

The mix of projects represented on such a map should be consistent both with the company’s resources, strategic position, and with its strategic intent 

As once noted by Jack Welch, for- mer CEO of General Electric, “You can’t grow long term if you can’t eat short term. Anyone can manage short. Anyone can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.”19 

conjoint analysis
A family of tech- niques that ena- bles assessment of the weight individuals put on different attributes of a choice. 

data envelopment analysis (DEA)
A method of ranking projects based on multiple decision criteria by comparing them to a hypo- thetical efficiency frontier. 

efficiency frontier The range of hypothetical configurations that optimize a combination of features. 

alliance Alliance is a general term that can refer to any type of relation- ship between firms. Alliances may be short or long term and may include for- mally contracted agreements or be entirely informal in nature. 

joint venture A partnership between two or more firms involving a sig- nificant equity stake by the part- ners and often resulting in the creation of a new business entity. 

Collaboration can include partnering with suppliers, customers, competitors, comple- mentors, organizations that offer similar products in different markets, organizations that offer different products in similar markets, nonprofit organizations, government organi- zations, universities, or others. Collaboration can also be used for many different pur- poses, including manufacturing, services, marketing, or technology-based objectives. 

The most common forms of collaborative arrangements used in technological innova- tion include strategic alliances, joint ventures, licensing, outsourcing, and collective research organizations. 

licensing A contractual arrangement whereby one organization or individual (the licensee) obtains the rights to use the proprietary technology (or trademark, or copyright, etc.) of another organization or individual (the licensor). 

capability complemen- tation Combining (“pooling”) the capabilities and other resources of partner firms, but not necessar- ily transferring those resources between the partners. 

capability transfer Exchange of capabilities across firms in such a manner that partners can internalize the capabilities and use them inde- pendently of the particular devel- opment project. 

managers should consider how their portfolio of alliances positions them in the web of relationships that connects their firm, their partners, and their partners’ partners.23 Such networks can be very influential in the diffusion of information and other resources, and being positioned well in an alli- ance network can confer significant advantages 

contract manufacturing When a firm hires another firm (often a specialized manufacturer) to manufacture its products. 

These risks can be minimized if the company limits the number of collaborations in which it engages, chooses its partners very carefully, and establishes appropriate monitoring and governance mechanisms to limit opportunism. 

Resource fit refers to the degree to which potential partners have resources that can be effectively integrated into a strategy that creates value.47 Such resources may be either complementary or supplementary. Most collaborations are motivated by the need to access resources the firm does not possess; such collaborations are based on the combination of complementary resources. 

Strategic fit refers to the degree to which partners have compatible objectives and styles. The objectives of the partners need not be the same as long as the objectives can be achieved without harming the alliance or the partners. Not knowing a partner’s true objectives or forging an alliance with a partner with incompatible objectives can result in conflict, wasted resources, and forfeited opportunities. 

governance – The act or process of exerting authority and/or control. 

alliance contracts Legally bind-ing contractual arrangements to ensure that partners (a) are fully aware of their rights and obligations in the collaboration and (b) have legal remedies avail- able if a partner should violate the agreement. 

equity ownership When each partner contrib- utes capital and owns a speci- fied right to a percentage of the proceeds from the alliance. 

relational governance Self-enforcing norms based on goodwill, trust, and reputation of the partners. These typically emerge over time through repeated experi- ences of working together. 

The num- ber of links an organization has in a network is known as its “degree centrality.” In general, the degree centrality of an organization tends to be strongly related to its size and prominence. The size and prominence of an organization help to determine how attractive it is to potential part- ners, and only large organizations typically have the resources necessary to manage a large num- ber of alliances. An organization does not, how- ever, have to be large or prominent to occupy a key brokerage position. 

appropriability The degree to which a firm is able to capture the rents from its innovation. 

tacit knowledge Knowledge that cannot be readily codified or trans- ferred in written form. 

socially complex knowledge Knowledge that arises from the interaction of multiple individuals. 

For some competitive situations, protecting a technology may not be as desirable as liberally diffusing it. In industries characterized by increasing returns, firms sometimes choose to liberally diffuse their technologies to increase their likelihood of rising to the position of dominant design.

open source software Software whose code is made freely available to others for use, augmentation, and resale. 

wholly proprietary systems Goods based on technology that is owned and vigorously pro- tected through patents, copy- rights, secrecy, or other mecha- nisms. Wholly proprietary tech- nologies may be legally produced and augmented only by their developers. 

wholly open systems Goods based on technology that is not protected and that is freely available for production or augmentation by other producers. 

original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Firms that as- semble goods using components made by other manufacturers, also called value- added resellers (VARs). 

architectural control
The ability of a firm (or group of firms) to deter- mine the struc- ture, operation, compatibility, and development of a technology. 

If the firm is unable to produce the technology at sufficient volume or quality levels (or market the technology with sufficient intensity), then protecting the technology so that the firm is its sole provider may significantly hinder its adoption. 

if complementary goods influence the value of the technology to users, then the firm must (a) be able to produce the complements in sufficient range and quantity, (b) sponsor their production by other firms, or (c) encourage collective production of the complements through a more open technology strategy. 

If a firm lacks the production capability or expertise to produce a sufficient range of complementary goods, or the capital to acquire such capabilities quickly, it should encourage collective production of complements through a more open technology strategy and utilize forms of sponsorship. 

Resources for Internal Development 

If a firm does not have significant resources (capital, technological expertise) to invest in the technology’s functionality, it may have difficulty producing a technology that has an initial performance level, and rate of improvement, that the market finds attractive. In such instances, it can be valuable to tap the external development efforts of other firms (or individuals) through utilizing a more open technology strategy. 

A firm with architectural control can typically design the technology to be compatible with its own complements and incompatible with those of competitors. 

Technology trajectories are path dependent; minor events in their evolution can set them careen- ing off into unexpected directions. A firm that has a significant stake in a particular evolution path (because, for example, it has technological competencies that are much more amenable to one path of evolution than other potential paths) may place a high value on architectural control, which can enable it to co-opt or destroy less favorable development paths by denying their progenitors access to the market. 

Managers referred to Google as a flex- ible and flat “technocracy,” where resources and control were allocated based on the quality of people’s ideas rather than seniority or hierarchical status. Schmidt remarked, “One of the things that we’ve tried very hard to avoid at Google is the sort of divisional structure that prevents collaboration across units. It’s dif- ficult. So I understand why people want to build business units, and have their presidents. But by doing that you cut down the informal ties that, in an open culture, drive so much collaboration. If people in the organization understand the values of the company, they should be able to self-organize to work on the most interesting problems.”c 

it is often argued that small, flexible organizations with a minimum of rules and procedures will encourage creativity and experimentation, leading to more innovative ideas. At the same time, it is also frequently pointed out that well-developed procedures and standards can ensure that the organization makes better development investment decisions and is able to implement projects quickly and efficiently. 

disaggregated When something is separated into its constituent parts. 

formalization – The degree to which the firm utilizes rules, procedures, and written documentation to structure the behavior of individuals or groups within the organization. Formalization can substitute for some degree of managerial oversight, and thereby help large companies run smoothly with fewer managers. 

standardization – The degree to which activities are performed in a uniform manner. Standardization may be used to ensure quality levels are met and that custom- ers and suppliers are responded to consistently and equitably. However, by minimiz- ing variation, standardization can limit the creativity and experimentation that leads to innovative ideas. 

If a firm codifies all of its activities with detailed procedures, it may stifle employee creativity. Employees may not feel empowered or motivated to implement new solutions. 

centralization/ decentraliza- tion Centralization is the degree to which decision- making author- ity is kept at
top levels of management. Decentralization is the degree to which decision- making authority is pushed down to lower levels of the firm. 

mechanistic  An organiza- tion structure characterized by a high degree of formalization and standardiza- tion, causing operations to be almost automatic or mechanical. By establishing detailed rules, procedures, and standards, top management can push decision-making authority to lower levels of the firm while still ensuring that decisions are consistent with top management’s objectives. 

organic An organiza- tion structure characterized by a low degree of formalization and standardiza- tion. Employees may not have well-defined job responsibilities and operations may be charac- terized by a high degree of vari- ation. Employees are given far more lati- tude in their job responsibilities and operating procedures. Because much innovation arises from experimentation and improvisation, organic structures are often thought to be better for innovation despite their possible detriment to efficiency. 

ambidextrous organization The ability of an organization to behave almost as two different kinds of com- panies at once. Different divi- sions of the firm may have differ- ent structures and control systems, enabling them to have different cul- tures and patterns of operations. 

Skunk Works® 

Skunk Works® is a term that origi- nated with a divi- sion of Lockheed Martin that was formed in June of 1943 to quickly develop a jet fighter for the United States Army. It has evolved as skunk works to refer more generally to new product develop- ment teams that operate nearly autonomously from the parent organization, with considerable decentralization of authority and little bureauc- racy. 

there can be significant gains from isolating new product development teams from the mainstream organization.31 Separating the teams from the rest of the organization permits them to explore new alternatives, unfettered by the demands of the rest of the organization. 

Modularity is achieved in product design through the specification of standard inter- faces. 

Because modularity enables a wider range of end configurations to be achieved from a given set of inputs, it provides a relatively cost-effective way for firms to meet heterogeneous customer demands. Furthermore, since modularity can enable one component to be upgraded without changing other components, modular- ity can enable firms and customers to upgrade their products without replacing their entire system. 

By focusing on those activities in which the firm has a competitive advantage, the firm can improve its chance of developing a product that has a price-to-value ratio that attracts customers while reducing the overhead and administrative complexity of maintaining a wide scope of activities. This can cause whole industries to be trans- formed as large vertically integrated firms are displaced by nimbler, more specialized producers. 

center-for- global strategy
When all innova- tion activities are conducted at a central hub and innovations are then diffused throughout the company. This allows managers to:

  • Tightly coordinate all R&D activities (across both functions and projects). 
  • Achieve greater specialization and economies of scale in R&D activities while
    avoiding duplication of activities in multiple divisions. 
  • Develop and protect core competencies. 
  • Ensure that innovations are standardized and implemented throughout the company. 
  • a center-for-global approach tends to not be very responsive to the diverse demands of different markets. Furthermore, the divisions that serve these markets might resist adopting or promoting centrally developed innovations. As a result, inno- vations developed centrally may not closely fit the needs of foreign markets and may also not be deployed quickly or effectively.
  • local-for-local strategy When each divi- sion or subsidi- ary of the firm conducts its own R&D activities, tailored for the needs of the local market. 

There are several downsides to the local-for-local strategy, however. It can result in significant redundancy in activities as each division reinvents the wheel. Furthermore, each division may suffer from a lack of scale in R&D activities, and there is a risk that valuable innovations will not be diffused across the firm.

locally leveraged strategy
When each division or sub- sidiary of the firm conducts its own R&D activities, but the firm attempts to leverage result- ing innovations throughout the company. 

One way this strategy is employed in consumer markets is to assign an individual the role of international brand custodian. This person is responsible for ensuring that a successful brand is deployed into the firm’s multiple markets while also maintaining consistency in the product’s image and positioning.52 Such a strategy can be very effective if different markets the company serves have similar needs. 

globally linked strategy Innovation activities are decentralized, but also centrally coordinated for the global needs of the corporation. 

Bartlett and Ghoshal argue that, overall, the multinational firm’s objective is to make centralized innovation activities more effective (that is, better able to serve the various local markets) while making decentralized innovation activities more efficient (that is, eliminating redundancies and exploiting synergies across divisions). Bartlett and Ghoshal propose that firms should take a transnational approach wherein resources and capabilities that exist anywhere within the firm can be leveraged and deployed to exploit any opportunity that arises in any geographic market. They argue that this can be achieved by: 

  • Encouraging reciprocal interdependence among the divisions of the firm (that is, each division must recognize its dependency on the other divisions of the firm).
  • Utilizing integration mechanisms across the divisions, such as division-spanning
    teams, rotating personnel across divisions, and so on.
  • Balancing the organization’s identity between its national brands and its global image. 
  • member rotation programs facilitate the diffusion of knowledge throughout the firm.
  • We will begin by looking at the three key objectives of the new product develop- ment process: maximizing fit with customer requirements, minimizing cycle time, and controlling development costs. We then will turn to methods of achieving these objectives, including adopting parallel development processes, using project champi- ons, and involving customers and suppliers in the development process. Next we will look at a number of tools firms can utilize to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the development process, including creating go/kill decision points with stage- gate processes, defining design targets with quality function deployment, reducing costs and development time with design for manufacturing and CAD/CAM systems, and using metrics to assess the performance of the new product development process. 

For new product development to be successful, it must simultaneously achieve three sometimes-conflicting goals: (1) maximizing the product’s fit with customer requirements, (2) minimizing the development cycle time, and (3) controlling development costs. 

For a new product to be successful in the marketplace, it must offer more compelling features, greater quality, or more attractive pricing than competing products. Despite the obvious importance of this imperative, many new product development projects fail to achieve it. The firm may not have a clear sense of which features customers value the most, resulting in the firm’s overinvesting in some features at the expense of features the customer values more. Firms may also overestimate the customer’s willingness to pay for particular features, leading them to produce feature-packed products that are too expensive to gain significant market pen- etration. Firms may also have difficulty resolving heterogeneity in customer demands; if some customer groups desire different features from other groups, the firm may end up producing a product that makes compromises between these conflicting demands, and the resulting product may fail to be attractive to any of the customer groups. 

development cycle time
The time elapsed from project ini- tiation to product launch, usually measured in months or years. 

a company that is able to bring its product to market early has more time to develop (or encourage others to develop) complementary goods that enhance the value and attractiveness of the product. 

A firm with a short devel- opment cycle can take advantage of both first-mover and second-mover advantages. 

partly parallel development process
A development process in which some (or all) of the development activities at least partially overlap. That is, if activ- ity A would pre- cede activity B in a partly paral- lel development process, activity B might com- mence before activity A is completed. 

A sequential process has no early warning system to indicate that planned features are not manufacturable. Consequently, cycle time can lengthen as the project iterates back and forth between the product design and process design stages. 

Firms often make decisions about projects on the basis of financial considerations and level of production and technical synergy achieved by the new product proposal rather than on marketing criteria. This can lead to an overemphasis on incremental product updates that closely fit existing business activities.16 The screening decision should focus instead on the new product’s advantage and superiority to the consumer, and the growth of its target market. 

lead users  Customers who face the same general needs of the marketplace but are likely to experience them months or years earlier than the rest of the mar- ket and stand to benefit dispro- portionately from solutions to those needs. 

research has shown that many firms produce new products in less time, at a lower cost, and with higher quality by incorporating suppliers in inte- grated product development efforts.22 For example, consider Chrysler. Beginning in 1989, Chrysler reduced its supplier base from 2,500 to 1,140, offering the remaining suppliers long-term contracts and making them integrally involved in the process of designing new cars. Chrysler also introduced an initiative called SCORE (Supplier Cost Reduction Effort) that encouraged suppliers to make cost-saving suggestions in the development process. The net result was $2.5 billion in savings by 1998. 

crowdsourcing 

A distributed problem-solving model whereby a design problem or production task is presented to a group of people who voluntarily contribute their ideas and effort in exchange for compensation, intrinsic rewards, or a combination thereof. 

go/kill deci- sion points Gates established in the develop- ment process where managers must evaluate whether or not to kill the project or allow it to proceed. 

Each gate has three components: deliverables (these are the results of the previous stage and are the inputs for the gate review), criteria (these are the questions or metrics used to make the go/kill decision), and outputs (these are the results of the gate review process and may include a decision such as go, kill, hold, or recycle; outputs should also include an action plan for the dates and deliverables of the next gate). 

Some of the most prominent tools used to improve the development process include stage-gate processes, quality function deployment (“house of quality”), design for man- ufacturing, failure modes and effects analysis, and computer-aided design/computer- aided manufacturing. Using the available tools can greatly expedite the new product development process and maximize the product’s fit with customer requirements. 

Stage 1, the team does a quick investigation and conceptualization of the project. 

Stage 2, the team builds a business case that includes a defined product, its business justification, and a detailed plan of action for the next stages. 

Stage 3, the team begins the actual design and development of the product, including mapping out the manufactur- ing process, the market launch, and operating plans. In this stage, the team also defines the test plans utilized in the next stage. 

Stage 4, the team conducts the verification and validation process for the proposed new product, and its marketing and production. 

Stage 5, the product is ready for launch, and full commercial production and selling commence. 

At Microsoft, almost all projects receive either a post- mortem discussion or a written postmortem report to ensure that the company learns from each of its development experiences. These postmortems tend to be extremely candid and can be quite critical. As noted by one Microsoft manager, “The purpose of the document is to beat yourself up.” 

Measures of the success of the new product development process can help management to: 

  • Identify which projects met their goals and why. 
  • Benchmark the organization’s performance compared to that of competitors or to the organization’s own prior performance. 
  • Improve resource allocation and employee compensation. 
  • Refine future innovation strategies.

Multiple measures are important because any measure used singly may not give a fair representation of the effectiveness of the firm’s development process or its overall innovation performance. Also, the firm’s development strategy, industry, and other environmental circumstances must be considered when formulating measures and interpreting results.

social loafing When an individual in a team does not exert the expected amount of effort and relies instead on the work of other team members. 

cross- functional teams – Teams whose members are drawn from multiple func- tional areas in the firm such as R&D, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and so on. 

Teams that are composed of people from diverse backgrounds have several advan- tages over teams that are drawn from only one or a few functional areas.9 A greater variety of specialists provides a broader knowledge base and increases the cross- fertilization of ideas. 

Functional experts often actively read journals and are involved in associations that directly affect their trade. These activities can lead to the creation and improvement of innovative ideas, as well as provide solutions to product develop- ment problems. 

homophily 

The tendency for individuals to like other people whom they perceive as being similar to themselves.

The most successful new prod- uct development teams have gatekeepers who provide important links to the environment. Ancona and Caldwell found that teams engaged in three primary types of boundary- spanning activity: 

 Ambassador activities—These activities were directed at representing the team to others and protecting the team from interference. For example, an ambassador might convince other individuals in the organization that the team’s activities are important. 

Task coordination activities—These activities emphasized coordinating and negotiating the team’s activities with other groups. For 

instance, task coordination activities might include negotiating delivery deadlines with other divisions of the firm or obtaining feed- back about the team’s performance.
Scouting activities—These activities were directed at scanning for ideas and information that might be useful to the team, enhancing its knowledge base. For example, scouting activities could include collecting data about what competitors were doing on similar projects or finding technical information that might be useful in the development project. 

Kichuk and Wiesner found that the personality characteristics that enhanced the success of a new product development team were high extroversion, high agreeableness, and low neuroticism.20 

Autonomous teams typically excel at rapid and efficient new product development, particularly when such development requires breaking away from the organization’s existing technologies and routines. Thus, autonomous teams are typically considered to be appropriate for break- through projects and some major platform projects. They can be the birthplace of new business units.25 However, the independence of the autonomous teams can cause them to underutilize the resources of the parent organization. 

In heavyweight and autonomous teams, the project manager must be someone who can lead and evalu- ate the team members, champion the development project both within the team and to the wider organization, and act as a translator between the various functions. 

The contract book provides a tool for monitoring and evaluating the team’s performance in meeting objectives by providing a set of performance benchmarks and deadlines to which the team’s performance can be compared. More important, however, the contract book is an important mechanism for estab- lishing team commitment to the project and a sense of ownership over the project. After negotiation and acceptance of this contract, all parties often sign the contract book as an indication of their intention to honor the plan and achieve the results. 

Gassman and von Zedtwitz studied 37 technology-intensive multinationals and identi- fied four patterns of teams: (1) decentralized self-coordination, (2) system integrator as coor- dinator, (3) core team as system architect, and (4) centralized venture team. 

The value of any technological innovation is only partly determined by what the tech- nology can do. A large part of the value of an innovation is determined by the degree to which people can understand it, access it, and integrate it within their lives. Deploy- ment is not just a way for the firm to earn revenues from its innovations; deployment is a core part of the innovation process itself. 

Generally, firms try to decrease their development cycles in order to decrease their costs and to increase their timing of entry options, but this does not imply that firms should always be racing to launch their products as early as possible. A firm can stra- tegically use launch timing to take advantage of business cycle or seasonal effects, to position its product with respect to previous generations of related technologies, and to ensure that production capacity and complementary goods or services are in place. 

cannibaliza- tion When a firm’s sales of one product (or at one location) diminish its sales of another of its products (or at another of its locations). 

If the firm invests in continuous innovation and willingly cannibalizes its existing products with more advanced products, the firm can make it very difficult for other firms to achieve a technological lead large enough to prove persuasive to customers. 

backward compatible When products of a technological generation can work with products of a previous generation. For example, a computer is backward compatible if it can run the same software as a previous generation of the computer. 

penetration pricing – When the price of a good is set very low (or free) to maxi- mize the good’s market share. 

When it is unclear how customers will respond to a particular price point, firms often use introductory pricing that indicates the pricing is for a stipulated time. This allows the company to test the market’s response to a product without committing to a long-term pricing structure. 

manufactur- ers’ repre- sentatives Independent agents that pro- mote and sell the product lines of one or a few man- ufacturers. They are often used when direct sell- ing is appropriate but the manu- facturer does not have a sufficiently large direct sales force to reach all appropriate mar- ket segments. 

wholesalers 

Companies that buy manufac- turer’s products in bulk, and
then resell them (often in smaller or more diverse bundles) to other supply channel members such as retailers. 

retailers 

Companies that sell goods to the public. 

original equipment manufac- turer (or value-added reseller) 

A company that buys products (or components of products) from other manufac- turers and assem- bles them or customizes them into a product that is then sold under the OEM’s own name. 

disintermedi- ation
When the number of inter- mediaries in a supply channel is reduced; for example, when manufacturers bypass whole- salers and/or retailers to sell directly to end users. 

How the product is sold may also affect the product’s positioning from the perspective of the customer. For example, if competing products are primarily sold in a high-contact mode such as specialty stores or via a direct sales force, selling the new product in a lower-contact channel such as mass discounters or through mail order might cause the customer to perceive the product as being of lower quality or more economical. 

Firms introducing a technological innovation can use strategic alliances or exclusivity contracts to encourage distributors to carry and promote their goods. By providing a distributor a stake in the success of the new technology, the firm may be able to persuade the distributor to carry and promote the new technology aggressively. 

viral marketing Sending informa- tion directly to targeted indi- viduals in effort to stimulate word-of-mouth advertising. Individuals are typically chosen on the basis of their position or role in particular social networks. 

These stages of adoption have been related to the adopter categories of inno- vators (in the very early stages); followed by early adopters, which cause adoption to accelerate; then the early majority and late majority as the innovation penetrates the mass market; and finally the laggards as the innovation approaches saturation.7 The characteristics of these groups make them responsive to different marketing strategies. 

A firm that aggressively promotes its products can increase both its actual installed base and its perceived installed base. 

Any of these individuals is capable of sparking an information epidemic:

Connectors are individuals who tend to form an exceptionally large circle of acquaintances. Sociolo- gists have found that if a random sample of people is asked to identify the individuals they know on a first-name basis, connectors will identify many times the number of people an average person identifies. 

Mavens are individuals who are driven to obtain and disseminate knowledge about one or more of their interests. Economists have widely studied “market mavens,” otherwise known as “price vigilantes.” 

salespersons are those individuals who are naturally talented persuaders. Such individu- als are gifted at providing verbal responses that their listener is likely to find compelling. 

Clarifying Concepts: Cultural Marxism vs. CastroChavismo

Cultural Marxism, left. CastroChavismo, right.

 

Out, Imperialism! – Only the People (uncertain) the People. Note the use of People here, similar to People’s Forum, People’s Movement, etc.

 

Differences between #CulturalMarxism and #CastroChavismo:

1. Names of people within the narrative.

2. Places the events occurred.

3. The organizations and agencies involved.

4. The fact that the time period is different.

5. The fact that CastroChavismo has testimonials of involvement and activity.

6. The fact that CastroChavismo has material evidence.

7. The fact that CastroChavismo uses Data Science.

8. The fact that CastroChavismo analyzes Primary Documents.

9. The fact that CastroChavismo can be live updated, commented upon, and responded to via Knowledge Management practices.

10. The fact that the CastroChavismo elicits a significantly different conversation about Democracy than the other one given the role of social media

“Cultural Marxism” art was here repurposed to illustrate CastroChavismo. 

Review of Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation

Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown, CEO of the celebrate innovation and design firm IDEO, is not a book by a renowned designer for other designers. Instead, this is a guidebook for leaders – in the creative field and those outside of it – for how it is to bring design thinking into all aspects of a business enterprises’ products and services. Design thinking is a unique approach to creative problem solving that can result in powerful, effective solutions to abstract, multifaceted problems. Throughout the book, Tim Brown cites examples of this from his worth with multi-billion-dollar manufacturing companies; recently founded start-ups; NGOs in the developing world; and health care centers seeking to ensure that they are on the front lines of innovation in order to ensure that the quality of care given to their patients is the best in the world.

Defining design thinking in a paragraph allows to give an overview of what it entails, however, it is best viewed as a set of approaches to problem-solving that includes prototyping early models; testing variations of product or service; scripting improvisational interactions; surveying and anthropological research, and all around obtaining a better contextual view of those involved in a given service milieu. After all, “By testing competing ideas against one another, there is an increased likelihood that the outcome will be bolder, more creatively disruptive, and more compelling” (67).

While engaging with a company that uses design thinking as part of their design process means that deliverables will takes longer to arrive than traditional companies, it’s this sort of divergent thinking that is the route, not the obstacle, to innovation.

While Brown provides a simple set of guidelines for creative leaders, which I’ve copied below, he is more focused on showing how design thinking can be applied to improve the quality of the interpersonal dynamic between companies and their customers.

The 6 Rules for the Best Design Approach

  1. The best ideas emerge when the whole organizational ecosystem – not just its designers and engineers and certainly not just management – has room to experiment.
  2. Those most exposed to changing externalities (new technology, shifting customer base, strategic threats or opportunities) are the ones best placed to respond and most motivated to do so.
  3. Ideas should not be favored based on who creates them.
  4. Ideas that create a buzz should be favored. Indeed, ideas should gain a vocal following, however small, before being given organizational support.
  5. The “gardening” skills of senior leadership should be used to tend, prune, and harvest ideas. MBA’s call this “risk tolerance”. I call it the top-down bit.
  6. An overarching purpose should be articulated so that the organization has a sense of direction and innovators don’t feel the need for constant supervisions.

Brown believes, like many others within the current design and marketing field, that there has been a qualitative shift given the internet. For Brown, we now live in an “experience economy”. This shift is described as one people are no longer mere passive consumers of products and services, but are now more likely to actively participate in some manner – whether it be writing an online review; joining a groups related to a product or service online; or even becoming an advocate of the company in some way. Functional benefits alone are no longer enough to capture customers or create the brand distinction to retain them. Because of these new customer needs and demands, companies must not just innovate their products but also their services. This means that management must sometimes follow the lead of those on the front lines of customer service – after all, the best experiences are not scripted at corporate headquarters but delivered on the spot by service providers

With service-oriented design thinking implementation is everything. An experience must be finely crafted and precision-engineered as any other product, something that is illustrated in the anecdote he provides about Snap-On Tool’s engagement with IDEO. Wanting to ensure that they had a larger place in the market during the upcoming revolution in mechanically-oriented computer technology, IDEO helped craft a narrative of the company’s growth that highlights the strong sentiments of product loyalty automobile mechanics felt for their tools. By designing an interaction, something that allows a story to unfold over time, they were able to better visualize themselves continuing to be a market leader in an age of electronic diagnostic tools.

In the course of his narratives, we are provided many examples as to why Tim Brown thinks that we should think of a designer as “a master storyteller whose skill is measured by his or her ability to craft a compelling, consistent, and believable narrative. It’s not an accident that writers and journalists now often work alongside mechanical engineers and cultural anthropologists in design teams.” Whether it was in IDEO’s work for the European Union to determine how it is that the elderly might use technology to ward of loneliness and build community; helping Gyrus ACMI develop new techniques and instruments for non-invasive surgery; or Marriott to improve the experience of their customers – it’s clear that design thinkers view the world in a radically different manner.

What sort of divergent thinkers should be searched for? Both on the side of those that are on the creative teams and the extreme users of products and services.

Extreme users because they “are often the key to inspirational insights. These are the specialists, the aficionados, and the outright fanatics who experience the world in unexpected ways. They force us to project our thinking to the edges of our existing base and expose issues that would otherwise be disguised. Seek out extreme users and think of them as a creative asset.” (232).

As for those on the team, Tim has a lot to say about the kinds of abnormal people that should make them up. Citing findings from The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin he states that “thinkers who exploit opposing ideas to construct a new solution enjoy a built in advantage over thinkers who can consider only one model at a time.” Integrative thinkers know how to widen the scope of issues salient to the problem. They resist the “either/or” in favor of the “both/and” and see nonlinear and multidirectional relationships as a source of inspiration, not contradiction.” Reading this felt like personal validation, as in my work experiences I’ve frequently felt like the odd person out for the conclusions I’ve reached on issues and how I get there.

In the last section of the book, Brown states that a number of commercial trends convergence points to an inescapable realization: that design thinking needs to be turned toward the formulation of a new participatory social contract. While I agree with him to an extent, I found it interesting that despite his multiple laudatory references to William Morris, founder of the English Crafts movements, there’s no comment made on his socialist orientation.

To me, one of the defining characteristics of avowed socialists is their ability to use what Brown calls design thinking to see that another world is possible, that the conditions of misery in which many people live need not be so and that with collective human action this is malleable. I think it would have been interesting to explore this given the nature of the digression from how to apply design thinking in the business world to the world at large, but that’s better suited for another book.

Review of Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky, productivity expert and founder and CEO of Behance, is a guide to developing execution skills on an individual and organizational level. The book is in large part about how to use design principles to organize projects. While PMP is the standard for approaching project management in the United States, the reality is that often times the smaller scope of projects for companies with under 50 workers and start-ups don’t require someone with this specialization. Furthermore, the reality is that creative environments are no conducive to such organizational demands for specific procedures, restrictions and processes. The creative worker’s generalized rebellion against these is part of their recognition that there is no one best process for developing ideas. This does not, however, mean that chaos should reign but that other methods must be developed.

The book begins with a discussion of the Action Method, which is a set of general principles and means for organizing workflow such that there is a bias towards action rather than reaction. According to Belsky: “The state of reactionary workflow occurs when you get stuck simply reacting to whatever flows into the top of an inbox. Instead of focusing on what is most important and actionable you spend too much time just trying to stay afloat. Reactionary workflow prevents you from being more proactive with your energy. The act of processing requires discipline and imposing some blockages around your focus.”

In order to prevent this, he provides a number of techniques – such as breaking processes into elementary, actionable steps; maintaining a backburner of low-priority items; and keeping up a daily practice of journaling to ensure that there is as little as possible that is interiorized and thus likely to be forgotten about or causing sub-optimal work due to stress.

There are a large number of actionable insights from the first third of the book as it relates to personal workspace within a company as well as hiring and managerial practices. Some of the takeaways can be summarized as such:

  • Generate ideas in moderation (more is not always better).
  • Act without conviction to keep momentum and rapidly refine ideas.
  • Encourage productive conflict within your teams to refine ideas.
  • Seek competition; it will boost accountability and strengthen your approach.
  • Reduce bulky projects to just three primary elements.

The second part of the book focuses on the social, community elements within which creative enterprises occurs. The section on Dreamers, Doers and Incrementalist posits that there are three archetypes for those within the creative business world. The Dreamer is the one that is full of ideas and able to come up with solutions from a wide range of knowledge. These are the people that relish in ideas, but have trouble managing clients, staying organized or accountable, etc. The Doer is the inverse of this. They are able to help Dreamers translate the ideas through a series of specific processes and steps, as well as ensuring that the stakeholders are informed of what is going on and that the bills are paid. Belsky cites a number of famous businesses where such pairs were able to lead their companies to great success. Tim Cook & Steve Jobs of Apple; Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight of Nike; Barry Schwarz and Calvin Klein are some examples of these. The Incrementalist archetype is the combination of Dreamer and Doers. These are rare people that because of their independent attitude and capabilities must learn to work together – as the Doers and Dreamers seem naturally inclined to do – lest their projects falter due to being overwhelmed by the fact that they don’t trust other enough to help them.

The third part of the book covers how to be a respected and effective leader of creative teams.

Incorporating fun into projects whenever possible to keep minds fresh is one of the many pieces of advice that he gives. Citing his interview with Ji Lee, the creative director of Google’s Creative Lab, he illustrates how it is that a number of his personal projects have seen themselves applied in various ways into the professional field – which explains why it is that the company famously allows for 20% of the projects worked on by their workers to be personal projects. After an excessive focus on trying to solve problems, after all, an intellectual plateau can be reached – which is damaging to a creative enterprise.

Additional insight includes picking an appropriately balanced creative team. While it’s understandable that those with a “creative background” would be chosen, the variety of insights gained from having informed perspectives that are vastly different in their composition is also important. This is also why it’s suggested to involved potential end-users of products and services into the development process – something which many companies’s now practice.

Sharing appreciation is also important for managers. Most of the creative workers surveyed cite their rationale for departing a particular enterprise as stemming from a poor work environment wherein compliments towards good work is rare. Belsky cites an instance of going to a storytelling workshop in order to see how it is that merely focusing on the positives within a first edit/prototype story can lead to changes that are encouraging rather than covertly critical.

The section on self-leadership I found to be particularly engaging. In my interactions with a number of team leaders, I’ve frequently seen people acting in emotionally detached, mechanistic manner. Many of them did not seem to have psychologically developed themselves enough to direct their emotions as it relates to work situations in a positive manner, and so did not make the sort of decisions or communicate in a manner with their employees such that it garnered respect and confidence in them.