Competitiveness and Innovation

Value Pivots

30 Mar 2020  

One of the more timely parts of my upcoming book The Value of Knowledge is Section 7.7, Value Dynamics. This includes the idea of value entropy, which essentially means that once you get your value proposition finely tuned to user needs, if left unchanged it then slowly begins to leave perfect alignment with those needs. This happens […]

Organization and Management

Uncertainty + Danger = Fear

17 Mar 2020  

When people are in a crisis, a flow of good information can help them to focus, quiet their nerves, and lead to productive outcomes. Bad information — much more readily available — can increase anxiety and confusion, and quickly becomes unproductively disruptive. The tank crew effect I came across a study years ago — I […]

Security and Privacy

Who Am I?

5 Feb 2020  

The promises of technology are vast. I recall the first time, decades ago, that I was impressed with “artificial intelligence” — which I continue to call “machine intelligence,” since there’s nothing artificial about it. At that time, I became aware that a major credit card company was (and probably still is) using neural networks to […]

Analytics and Forecasting

10 Digital-Social Media (DSM) Trends for 2020

10 Jan 2020  

I recently joined The Conference Board’s (TCB) Marketing and Communications Center as a Senior Fellow. I’ve been able to meet many interesting people, to create and execute my first research study, and to get involved in some of their programming. One of the fun things we’re asked to do is provide a list of predictions […]

Branding and Reputation

On Dis-Knowledge

29 Jun 2019  

In most writings and speakings about the knowledge value chain, I have intentionally avoided discussions of Truth and Falsehood. Not because I don’t believe these are valid and important constructs, they definitely are — but because the KVC is essentially content-agnostic. That is, it works similarly regardless of what is fed into it. GIGO The old […]

Branding and Reputation

Boeing and the KVC Breaches

16 Apr 2019  

The KVC is something that regrettably is often noticed by its absence. In recognition of this, my first paper nearly two decades ago was titled, “The KVC: How to fix it when it breaks.” The tragic recent case of the Boeing 737 Max 8 illustrates this perfectly. In this case, a “new and improved” plane was […]

Branding and Reputation

TKA Brand Equity Risk Survey Published

3 Apr 2019  

I’m delighted to announce that The Conference Board® (TCB) has published my study Brand Equity Risk:  Challenges in the Digital Marketing Era.  Thanks to all at TCB who made this possible, and to those of you who responded to the survey. TCB is making copies free to download once you create a free user account: https://conference-board.org/publications/publicationdetail.cfm?publicationid=8431 […]

Knowledge Strategy

Making Knowledge Sustainable

7 Jan 2019  

As we enter 2019, the global economy stands at a level of volatility and uncertainty not seen since the Great Recession a decade ago. Trends like rising interest rates, the US-led trade wars, and sales slowdowns are affecting a range of sectors in many global economies at once. The experience of working during a recession […]

Branding and Reputation

The Brand Risk Spectrum

16 Oct 2018  

In my previous post, I introduced the observation that though Digital/Social Branding is fast becoming the dominant model, its financial implications for Brand Equity are neither well-known nor (as a result) well-managed. I’m currently testing my hypothesis with a survey fielded by The Conference Board.  The survey will be open through Friday, December 7th, and I […]

Branding and Reputation

Brand Risk 2.0

5 Oct 2018  

On a bright September morning in 2001, the world changed quickly when two commercial airliners headed west out of Boston’s Logan Airport were hijacked, then turned around and deliberately flown into the two main towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. I watched in shock from a safe distance on a pier on the […]

Organization and Management

What Drives Effectiveness?

1 Oct 2018  

The name Drucker always gets my attention. Peter “the Great” Drucker wrote the only book (Management:  Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices) that I can honestly say changed the course of my life. After reading it I switched from pre-medical studies to management, and the rest is my personal history. When I read things now that Drucker wrote […]

Knowledge Strategy

Industrial-Strength Knowledge

5 Aug 2018  

In my talks with students and work with clients, I often use the terms Enterprise Knowledge (EK) and Enterprise Value (EV) — and, specifically, how the former supports and enables the latter. But what are these? Here, I’ll clarify the basics of EK — knowledge as an enterprise asset or resource. Let’s start at the […]