Jan 31 0 comments
Bridging Generational Divide, Navigating New Normal

Breaking free from the tyranny of internal emails

I haven’t been excited by a news bulletin in so long. No, I am not talking about the prospect of Gingrich debating Obama (THAT would be a debate), the resurgence of the Clippers (The other better Lakers) or the forthcoming NY vs Boston Superbowl commercials extravaganza of almost $4 million for a 30 seconds spot (probably less during the Madonna half time show, but that’s just an educated guess…).

So no, the major news that is getting me giddy is that FINALLY a large corporation is stopping the insanity of emails. The tyranny of emails has been a pet peeve of mine and a significant tenet of C3.0 workshops and consulting to companies for several years now. There is a reason Blackberry is number one in Indonesia. Or maybe your epiphany will come after every single one of your younger employees and newest hires keep starring at you blankly when you tell them your company use Outlook. Out what? They never used it until they step foot in your organization.

The company I am talking about is Atos, one of the World’s largest IT Services company with almost 80,000 employees scattered in 42 countries and sales over $10 Billion. Its CEO and fellow Frenchman, Thierry Breton, noticed like every other executive that not only younger workers were not using emails, but that after studying the 100 daily internal emails the average Atos employee receive, only 15% turn out to be actually useful. However, because employees fear missing something important, they spend about 15 to 20 hours a week, from work and home combined, working on those 100 daily internal emails.

His solution is to phase out internal emails over a three-year period, vowing to totally eradicate them by February 2014 when every single Atos employee will be using a mix of cloud computing environment and internal social networks expressed via instant messaging, micro blogging, document sharing in order to truly develop a real-time knowledge community. Five hundred test employees are already internal email free, and they are now ready to go company wide.

And yes, Athos employees will still be using email to communicate outside of the organization, with clients, vendors…That is until the rest of the world catch-up. It wont be as long as one might think. Athos hire about 10,000 new employees every year, the vast majority under 30, and almost all of them ready to work internal email free from the get go.

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Jan 19 0 comments
Bridging Generational Divide, Navigating New Normal, Social Media

2012 with a Bang

What a year, what a year, what a year. 2011 has really been good to CESSON 3.0, or C3.0 as we like to call it. We have been super busy helping clients after clients discover the incredible opportunities offered by Social Media, Bridging the Generational Divide or Navigating the New Normal while I personally broke the 250 presentation mark as speaker.

And of course we launched our private client portal called C3.0 Resource Center that allows anyone to go from 0 to 60 in our fields in a few hours. This portal is filled with C3.0 written guides on everything Social Media, covering all the bases you need to be successful, from creating sites in Facebook, Twitter, Google + Blog etc.. to running campaigns. And of course many specially made tutorials, presentations & videos, with access to a private forum to ask C3.0 any Social Media or Generational questions. Please consider joining the over 100 companies using this portal by visiting www.SocialMediaWork4U.com

As we are working towards a banner 2012 filled with exciting developments, I would like to send a big shout out filled with gratitude to our C3.0 stars, Chelsea, Patricia, Necia, Levy, Brian and Howard and all our clients. Please stick to this column for updates and sneak peeks.

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Oct 04 1 comments
Navigating New Normal, Social Media

Cleveland and Puerto Vallerta

I am blessed in October to travel to many places for regular business (Philly, Chicago and New York) as well as two major conferences to address the crowds on how to make money using social media.

I love those keynote speeches and I will definitively do more of them next year. For some reasons there is a difference addressing a crowd of 50 versus a crowd of over 500. You can’t possibly imagine all of them naked for once, so that doesn’t work. JK, I never do that. On purpose.

What’s interesting about those two is not just that they will take me to very different places, Puerto Vallerta, Mexico and Cleveland, OH in a short amount of time. Incidentally, places that somehow have to fight clichés. From my own experience, Cleveland is a much more interesting city that most people on the Coasts give it credit for, and the Riviera Nayarit region of Mexico is much safer than Americans give it credit for.

But what’s really fascinating to me is how the audiences are very different, and yet incredibly similar.
The 27th World Convention of the International Apparel Federation (IAF) in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallerta is about the transformation of fashion business whereas the 2011 Global Forecasting & Marketing Conference by the Association of Manufacturing Technology is about the changes affecting manufacturers. So on one hand we have the creative, high-strung international world of fashion and on the other hand we have, literally, nuts and bolts makers. And yet every single one of those companies is impacted by the increasing pace of change, the constant demand of faster and better results, and in the case of Social Media, the larger and larger importance of content and customer engagement in their overall marketing success.

Stick to this blog for more behind the scene looks at those fascinating events 2,500 miles apart, and yet so close.

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Jul 27 0 comments
Navigating New Normal

I dumped my iPad

That’s right I said it! It feels really weird to write it frankly, and I feel like I am swimming upstream, but I just stopped using it a couple of months ago, and gave it to one of our team members.
So you know, I am definitively the early adopter, awed by Apple and Steve Jobs kinda guy. And I stood in line with my kids on that fateful day April 3rd 2010 when the iPad was launched to be one of the first person to get it in California. Actually we were even featured on the San Diego Union Tribune (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/03/ipad-goes-on-sale/)

I even bought a second one a month later, just in case I lost the first one (which happened of course). But after the initial awe and love and intimacy brought by the iPad, the limitations just ended up irritating me. I can do without a full keyboard, but let’s be honest here people, an actual full size keyboard just work faster. Yes, I use the cloud and all my files are there, and some good apps save those on your hard drive, but sometimes the convenience of plugging a USB key is just what you need.
I am disappointed but the time it is taking publishers and Apple to come to terms with content that truly takes advantage of the iPad gorgeous display without making us pay for what is essentially free on the web.
And of course, although I see the point of moving forward and pushing HTML5, the fact of the matter is not seeing Flash on the iPad just cut you off from a lot of sites.

I think the final straw came when I bought the new MacBook Air, that phenomenal little laptop almost matches the iPad in its intimacy and portability, specially booting up right away with a full keyboard and USB slots, without any of its shortcomings.

My iPad just got stuck between my iPhone 4 and the MacBook Air and fell by the wayside. Don’t worry Apple, I will gladly buy the iPhone 5 and already think about dumping my 6-month-old Air for the latest one with a lit keyboard. I mean, how cool is that?

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Jul 11 0 comments
Navigating New Normal, Social Media

Social Media and Mexico City

Wow, what a week! A trip to Mexico City is always a special affair, and this trip was no exception. It was my third trip to that megalopolis of 20 + million habitants, but the first time it was for business. After meeting with many business leaders, companies and organizations, I am glad to report that Social Media is about to explode in this country.

An apt comparison would be that Mexico is about where America was a year ago, meaning companies know about Social Media but need help understanding it and getting started. CESSON 3.0 anyone?

For many of our clients in the United States (and almost to the same extent Canada) we are now more acting as coach in their social media efforts rather than practitioners as most of them already have a social media presence. The challenge (and what we deliver) is to make it better and more successful.

If you think about Social Media adoption in a particular country as a five-stage process, Mexico would be Stage two, and we (Americans) would be Stage three, still leading the world.

1. Social Media is truly nascent with only a few brands using it, targeting younger consumers

2. Social Media is becoming part of the marketing lingo of most companies selling to consumers who at least maintain a site, while still the domain of early adopters

3. Social Media is the expected major marketing communication focus for B2C while B2B is starting to use it as well in a more targeted way, with a user base closely matching the overall internet population

4. Social Media overtakes any other form of communication in volume, blending B2C and B2B into a truly human mobile connection network

5. Stage five – Facebook is bailing out Greece
(Obviously Stage five is pure speculation. Greece has already been bailed out, right?)

And, last but not least, a big thanks to Patricia from our office who made that exploratory trip possible, relentlessly calling those companies and organizations to set up meetings, introducing both Philippe Cesson “el conferencista” and CESSON 3.0 “la agencia”

And keeping us on schedule thru several meeting a days, under pouring rain I might add, while giving accurate directions to taxi drivers who have never seen a GPS. Or a space they cant fit their taxis; no matter how small that space seems to my obviously untrained tourist eye. Good times, good times.

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Jun 22 0 comments
Navigating New Normal

Tech issues with non-exempt employees

What better place than 36,000 feet above North America to blog? After all, flying is what I do. A lot. Coming back from Baltimore on my way to San Diego for more exciting adventures.

Thanks to our friends at Gogo internet, the electrical outlet, the personal satellite TV, the comfort of being upgraded to first class (we’re not savages!!!), there is really no excuses to not work 24 hours a day any more. Want to switch out from the world while above, let me check, slightly south of Colorado Springs, you’re out of luck.

Which reminds me of the conversation I had during my workshop yesterday with the nice CEOs of Baltimore. Be very very very mindful of government agencies looking after your emails and other technology driven communications to non-exempt employees (those workers typically paid hourly and subject to overtime pay).

Yes my friend, technology is a double edge sword and can quickly be used to back up costly fines if some state or federal agency find them working after hours. Sending work emails from the beach or after Sunday dinner might used to impress the boss, but it shouldn’t anymore. Unless you like paying fines or fighting potential lawsuits.

Like this employer who was hit by an overtime claim after handing out smartphones to non-exempt employees (http://www.adn.com/2011/06/12/v-printer/1912960/issuing-employees-smart-phones.html). We are leaving in a world where technology bypasses any legislation. So give legislation time to catch up and protect yourself and your company in the meantime.

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Oct 13 0 comments
Conference Tijuana Innovadora 2010

Biz Stone, co-founder Twitter keynote speech

Too many people in the audience for that speech apparently. The organization asked us to all leave and come back so people with tickets could seat in one of the 1,000 seat theater.
Why did they let people come without tickets in the first place is beyond me. Anyway, after all of us had to leave and re-enter the theater so they could check tickets, Biz is about to get started.

It seems like only Americans like myself are bothered. Mexicans take this is stride. Why not relax after all?

Starts with a joke in Spanish about how much he enjoyed the Tijuana beer. Very happy to be here and the opportunity to help showing the good side of Tijuana

Self deprecating humor. Talk about his wife and how his wife looks horrified in the picture.
Biz and his friend worked at google and quit to form a company. Started as a podcasting company. Raised much money andbthen realized we didn’t really like podcasting. Problem. We were not emotionally invested.

Spent 2 weeks creating another company, the ancestor of Twitter. In 2006 SMS was just starting to be popular in the US.
First 9 months had very little growth and users. Feedback was it’s not useful. Response was so is ice cream, so should we ban it?

March 2007 at South by Southwest event in Austin, first time Twitter was released to the wild. In the beginning of a panel, many people left en masse. No public announcement but via Twitter people knew a much more interesting conference was across the hall.

Flock of birds. Looks choreographed and complicated, but it’s not. People were doing this. Incorporated Twitter right after that.
Twitter grew around the world into unanticipated ways, political unrest, wild fires…
NYT asked Mr Stone what is your involvement with coup in Moldovia?

It’s a triumph of humanity, not technology.

Opportunity can be manufactured is a strong belief of his. Strong background in graphic design at a Boston publishing house.
Creativity is a renewable resource.

I decided that mistakes are just opportunities in disguise. Show character, integrity, take responsibility and make sure it never happens again. We made many mistakes in Twitter for sure. I learned to be a mistake artist.

Wings of desire, German movie of the 80s. Use that movie a lot when coaching startups.
To succeed spectacularly, be ready to fall spectacularly.

We can change the world, build a business and have fun. Every new hire at Twitter spend an hour with Evan and an hour with me.
We don’t always know what’s going to happen.
There is a creative answer to every single problem.
There are more smart people outside our company than inside it.
We will win if we always do the right thing for our users.
The only deal worth doing is a win-win deal.
Your coworkers are all smart and full of good intentions (that’s why we hire them)

We decided to make wine a year ago, way before we made money. Employees participate in all aspects, and profits go to charity.
Improve our brand image obviously as so many of our users use it in case of emergency. All business need to have a social department, pretty soon marketing is going to be about that engine of good.

Question. Why tweet? A. Do a search and see for yourself the amount said on Twitter. People then want to respond, and that’s why people start tweeting.

Promoted tweets and other changes are happening. What’s next?
A. We are just getting started with promoted tweets, looks good, more coming. New redesign of site. 90 million tweets a day. You can now watch videos and other medias inside Twitter.
Big push to mobile, huge upside with 5 billion phones and only 1.3 billion with Internet access. Answer is SMS that all can use for free. In Haiti or carribean where it makes no financial sense but good sense otherwise.
Continue to polish that site and make experience much better.

To make money we wanted to first create value, and that was initially the reason. We wanted to grow the network and not use ads, but VC money.
Now we have 165 million users and can make money. Promoted Trends (similar to PPC) or Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts.
Companies and organizations see a lot of value into Twitter.

And that about concludes a great day that was really much more than just about technology, but also about showing another side of a city that desesperatly needs good press.

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Oct 13 0 comments
Conference Tijuana Innovadora 2010

Jimmy Wales keynote speech about Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales, co-founder of wikipedia, the worlds largest encyclopedia, written by volunteers, free knowledge to anyone

16 million articles, 270 languages, 400 monthly visitors.
Wikipedians are 87% male, average of 26, twice as many phd’s as the population as a whole.

Newest project is wikia. Key concept of wikipedia is neutral point of view. With wikia, they are moving towards a hotpost of pop culture, a funnier version. Wikia.com/go to get started.
By making software even easier to use, the goal is to get less geeks involved, but anyone.

Using Muppet Wiki as an example. People all over the world are inputting information and content about every single sesame street episode ever aired.
Glee Wiki anyone?

Different than traditional media in the fact that it is social, but share with traditional media the same quality.

Wikia has 36 million visitors a month. Same number of page views as the New York Times. A new wiki launches every 6 minutes.
2 million registered users with 120,000 edits a day.

Using Halopedia as an example, culminating with 1.3 million Unique Visitors after the launch of the latest version of the video game Halo.

3 million articles in English but only 20% of total. About a million is French and German. Rest is below. Jimmy is passionate about the growth of wikipedia to developing world. The foundation about to open it’s first office outside of the US, in India.

Jimmy is very funny, using chocolate chip cookies and aliens to make a joke. He then use the TV Show Lost and how it’s writers were using those tools to monitor fan chatter and hide clues like Canada. Every time a character from Lost talks about Canada, he is lying. Many more clues in Lostpedia.

Wikipedia is non-profit. The public contributes an average of $35 each. Some foundation gives money as well. Google gave $2 million with no strings attached. Therefore no advertising.
Wikia is ad supported.

Question about accuracy. Jimmy talks about community rules and procedures, a passion for reliable sources. A very common discussion is whether the source is reliable or not. People become administrators, lock pages, watch list, ban people who misbehave. Errors are everywhere, from the NYT to wikipedia. So far not enough academic studies about accuracy. So far wiki scores very well.

Question from a young teenager, can I post there or just adults? Yes you can says Jimmy, if your parents don’t mind of course.

How can we use the power of wikipedia to tell the world of the good things about Tijuana? Answer from Jimmy. First things you need to know is that wikipedia is neutral, not a marketing tool.
The media about Mexico and Tijuana is about A war zone. I used to live in the murder capital of the world, Chicago and people asked me whether I was afraid to be killed. The answer was no, I am not a drug dealer.

Wikipedia was completely banned in china for 3 years, we are available now since the Olympics, but some pages are filtered, about tianemen square, Taiwan and now the current Nobel Peace Prize.
Exactly 40 countries have some kind of filtering system.

As we see Jimmy getting gifts from the local authorities, we learn that Wikipedia was actually born in San Diego while Jimmy was living there.

Next Biz Stone and Twitter.

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Oct 13 0 comments
Uncategorized

Now we are moving to the keynote speech of Joel Cherkis, Worldwide Technology Officer Microsoft. He is ultimately responsible for the software powering 150 million PCs over the world.
I don’t have the heart to tell him I stopped buying those a few years ago :(
Very personable guy, former programmer, although he does wear a suit, but with no tie, so I guess it’s ok.

First jab at Facebook, data privacy. Another trip down memory lane where PCs were bulky and slow. Showing us his very first phone.
Now talks about the Windows phone newly announced this week. It’s about the platform, not the application used apparently.

Now we are going through Datacenter Advancements over the years. So glad I’m not that much of a geek. Latest 2 data centers Microsoft built in the US have the size of 23 Costco each, per floor! 700,000 SQF

Moore’s Law is going from doubling every 2 years to every 18 months.

You heard it first, Microsoft is focusing on the Cloud! Pinky swear.

Little jab disguised as an homage to the iPhone about the flashlight app from the iPhone. Too many apps for him of uneven usefulness.

User interface, changing the way we interact with digital content. 485 million windows licenses worldwide with 1.2 billion PCs using Windows in the world. Great opportunity for MS.
He is a big fan of MS Kinect, looking at your body for interface with content. Launching first week November in xbox, but also pursuing the education market, child therapy and others.

Another trip down memory lane to explain why solitaire was shipped in the earlier version of windows. To train people on using mouse.
His 3 year old daughter is able to launch and use Skype by herself.

Tomorrow: think beyond your current technology environment
Next Week: Review how new trends will impact your business
Next year: Prepare your company for the next 10 years trends

The cloud is here, not right for every application but for most.

Yours truly asked him directly about the overwhelming trend he is seeing in the next 10 years, and the answer was very direct with no hesitation: consumerization of technology with a strong crossover between work and home. He doesn’t think we will be totally there in 10 years, but almost.

Microsoft, we just heard, donated $50 million worth of software to be used by every single school in the city, whether public or private, from kindergarten to Universities.
Standing ovation from the audience and a well deserved key to the City from his mayor Bustamente, still stuck in traffic.

Next Wikipedia

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Oct 13 0 comments
Conference Tijuana Innovadora 2010

Conference has started

Great panel to get us started with two prominent Mexican innovators, leading world class companies and Bob Slapin, the Executive Director of the San Diego Software Council.
They talked about the challenges and opportunities of the Baja -San Diego region, specifically the difficulties of finding talent in Math and and Sciences. The shortage is even more acute at the Phd level.

On a personal level, I realized that people in Tijuana, at least some of them do speak Spanish. And I don’t. Big thanks to my teammate who loaned me the instant translation to put on your ears. I mean it’s like a whole other country.

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