When you lose, You actually gain as well

After establishing the company and in the process of looking for the employees fitting your own created standards; there could be nothing more important then keeping your knowledgeable workers by your side for as long as possible. Years go by and employees get more and more knowledgeable in their field. Once you lose your employee it is very tough to get them back unless you can offer them better conditions/pay. To do this you will likely have to meet your competitor’s offers and step up your offer, sometimes higher than you would like to. Once you employee leaves, his knowledge and skills leave with him, but that’s not what Wharton management professor Lori Rosenkopf thinks, in the article “The Social Network Benefit: Losing an Employee Doesn't Have to Mean Losing Knowledge”.

She believes that once you let your employee go, you can actually gain knowledge and valuable information for your firms to keep the same pace of growth. She also talks about the research that has been done to prove that people are willing to share their knowledge with the colleagues that they had to leave behind at their old workplace. Sometimes they won’t even realize they are giving information back to the current employees of the company that they left. After firing your employee for not doing his/her job, you can always benefit from the fact that he/she will work somewhere else and he/she will still be in touch with his old colleagues, which means he/she will be bringing some valuable information to you no matter what.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1565

Do not want to be too much off track…..

Graduation is coming at the lightning speed and some very scary thoughts keep jumping in to my head about what I should do after graduation. I know one thing for sure; I am definitely going home to see my friends and family that I have not seen in two years. I already know that I am going to experience a cultural shock and I know that after couple of weeks everything will be moving at the same pace as it was 7 years ago (I came to US 7 years ago). After sitting around and enjoying the comfort of my home, the time will come when I will have to search for a job.

I already have some ideas about what I want to do, due to the connections that I made in the United States. People that I made connections with and created mutual friendships with have already been gone; most of them are back at home in Lithuania. They brought their knowledge, skill, and experience to Lithuania which has enabled them to open up their own very successful companies.

Coming back home is very exciting for me, for many reasons, but one reason in particular; I can not wait to start working and applying my knowledge about what I have learned in the past years at American University. As scary as it seems of not knowing what is going to happen next, the fact that you hold your own destiny in your hands, is not as scary a thought. Each summer when I go home I try to pay close attention to the way companies are operating, and stuff as simple as looking at the way companies treat their customers. Able to sit aside, observe and compare the way customers are treated back home and in the United States gives me some valuable insight about the way it should be done.

Some people back home have not even heard of blogs, so the first thing I will try to do is to convince the company to start blogging. After reading my own blogs and other people’s blogs in the class, I not only get information, but I also will be able to apply that information into real life situations. Blogging in United States is very big right now, but it is also at the decline. But it is not going to be at the decline in Lithuania, blogs are there, but only a few companies have it. More and more people will be buying computer and connecting to the internet service and that’s were the power of blogging will capture their mind.

Second Life, what's next ?

Second Life is a virtual world, where anyone with an internet access can log in and become a resident of this computerized world. Virtual world was created by Linden Labs and it is recently becoming a massive advertisement portal. The majority of the companies are opening stores and offices in Second Life. The main reason for the companies to go to a Virtual World is to promote their brand and products. While people perambulate in a Second Life, they can always go to any of the company’s office or stores, where they can find information about company’s products and prices, and also links to their official sites. Instead for companies coming to you and giving you all that information that you are so sick of hearing, you are going to the companies, when it is convenient to you. (www.silicon.com)

I really wanted to know how far second life could go, in terms of innovations. My prediction is that some day in the Second Life people will be able to try out their product. People can do that right know, but I want to know if they can really feel the features the products has to offer. Nissan gave people opportunity to choose and to test-drive their cars. But I really doubt if people on the Second Life could really feel the sense of comfort, acceleration, and engine of the car. (www.silicon.com)

In the near future, we going to be able to see and feel these features. One company after another will open up their stores or even car dealerships, where people will test-drive their cars and compare one brand to another, giving people a better sense about each product.

Dell joins Chinese Blogosphere

As I mentioned before, blogs are becoming the main source of communication between employees and customers. After long days of searching through the internet, I accidentally stopped by the Dell’s news room. Dell announced the launch of Direct2Dell Chinese, which simply means that Dell is going to open a corporate blog in Chinese. Mr. Dell mentions a good point, saying that by listening directly to Chinese customers through digital-community tools and networks, we can deliver better, more customized products and a superior experience. He also mentions that 1/5 of the population in the world speak Chinese, following up on that thought he said it would be very wise to hear what Chinese have to say about their products. Mr. Dell intentions are to acquire some valued information and feedback from their customers.

While Dell is the first computer system to open a corporate blog in Chinese, on this article alone I could predict that other companies will follow the same strategy. It is a good way to strengthen market position in a different country. I think it will be interesting to see Dell’s market share grow in the near future in China. I’m wondering how much effect it will have on the people and how other companies will react, not only the ones that are in technology sectors, but in other sectors as well.

Problems with social networking outside the organization

My last blog post was about initiating relationships amongst employees. Throughout this blog I want to talk a little bit more about the problems that appear in a process of initiating relationships and collaboration across Organizational Boundaries.
We all know that well established companies eventually move abroad sending some of their executives and managers to operate some place else. While company scatter through different parts of the world, it gets even harder and harder to collaborate with one another, especially when companies hire other nationality workers into their staff. All of the managers that operate in scattered companies are in need of a strong social network. Specific expertise of the employee is highly valued, but to connect and encourage collaboration amongst them becomes extremely difficult. To strengthen the link between employees outside the organizational boundaries, we first have to analyze the network and find the problems that initiated the separation between people.
Most of the managers are using collaborative technologies, such as virtual problem-solving spaces and online resumes that help employees find colleagues with specific expertise (The Hidden Powers of Social Networks). Most importantly managers cannot escape the problems they face trying to bridge the physical distance across organizational boundaries.
The book Hidden Powers of Social Networks does a great job pointing out that the lack of trust is extremely missing in the organizations; most of the workers are willing to share their expertise only with their long term colleagues or friends. The other problems that organizations face are cultural.
“People in different countries preferred to interact with others of the same nationality. And, as often occurs in technical work, a “not-invented-here” mentality contributed substantially to the isolation of subgroups.” (The Hidden Powers of Social Networks)
Organization leaders have to ascertain, and really find out what is their identity, position and level of connectivity with other employees, excluding other executives outside the company. Most of the executives tend to collaborate with other executives, leaving other employees outside of their own created social network barrier. Based on this characteristic and through their actions, they insensibly encourage other people to collaborate the same way; with people with the same shared expertise in particular field. People end up talking about common things, which is not very functional, because the lack of different point of views from different experts could not really guide to any innovations or to a complete improvement of the organization’s operations.

Building the relationship

Most companies’ success is relied on the relationship amongst CEO’s, top managers and all other lower ranked employees. When it comes to difficult decision making, already developed social networks through the company and its members, could really benefit the process of the company’s operations. Sometimes we face problems when we have a quite large social network within the company. More people are not necessarily better, managers are more likely experience a lot of pressure and information overload while listening to majority of the people. After awhile managers and CEO’s are most likely to reduce the number of the employees to a manageable size. That way they reduced the information overload and strengthen the link between the most trusted employees; which lets members use their strength more efficiently. While we bring all of our trusted employees together, not only do we have all the information that we need, but we also come up with all sort of other problems such as lack of the information about the colleagues background and difficulty applying and directing all of the gathered information towards the main goal. (Hidden Powers of Social Networks).

That’s where blogs come in; blogs could be a very effective and easy way to distribute information to each member of the group. I believe that each member of the group could create their own blogs and update it once a week. People should not overload themselves with blogs, of course they are busy and they have other tasks, but posting about yourself, and what you do could very much help the other members of the group. This way the corporation could work more like a unit, every time they come to the meeting, they already have knowledge about one another. I think it will really help to consume some time. While people are more likely to engage in conversations that are common to all of them, preparation could lead to a more efficient information implementation into the discussion.

Blogs and Polititians

After reading the article “How the Web Polarized Politics” it was obvious that politicians didn’t agree with blogging. The politicians felt this way because they didn’t want to be questioned or interrogated by society. The article explained the politician’s point of view and why they didn’t like to blog. I felt that there were many points missing in the article, for example what the average person thinks about blogs in politics. Another point that the article failed to mention was how blogging could affect the outcomes of elections, and how they could also cause information overload to the reader.

I also read a very interesting article in the SmartMoney magazine titled “ten things blogger won’t tell you.” Once I read both these articles I was able to draw out some conclusions why people would not feel comfortable reading blogs from politicians.

Most people that get paid to write blogs for their company are most likely to brag about their company’s product or in this case taking one side of a political party, which could cause the writer bias. People get hired to write blogs and sometimes these people use this opportunity to boost their own carriers.

People that read blogs don’t know for sure who actually wrote the blog. If the name is shown on the blog does it mean that he/she wrote it. Some random writers could create a blog and give out the wrong information to the reader causing the reader to be even more confused with the overloaded information.

Text Messaging

After reading “Smart Mob: The power of The Mobile Many”, written by Howard Rheingold, I was not surprised about what text messaging does and has done to our society. Bringing down the Philippines’ government or simply flirting with your “someone,” texting has become a powerful tool. It has become tough to imagine life without it.

It was interesting how “Smart Mob” gave a perfect example of how addicted and dependent we have become on cellular phones. When Faye Stylatgco saw most of the people playing with their phones during her friend’s father’s wake, I could not stop bringing back similar memories from my past. “If you do not have a phone, it is hard to consider you a complete citizen”- these words were usually addressed to the people that did not own a cell phone yet. Almost every person in Lithuania owns a phone, starting at the age of fourteen. During our friends’ gatherings it is not uncommon to see someone completely isolated and just typing on their number pad on their phone. It was not uncommon to become invisible if you did not own a cell phone.

What I am trying to say is that in the today’s society anyone could be connected to anyone they wish, but someone that does not keep up with the innovation could also be extremely left out. While text messaging brings 1 million Manila residents together, others are still left out because of their lack of a cell phone, for them it’s just another typical day.

eBay and reputation

Reputation is the general opinion of the public towards a person, a group, or an organization. Building a positive reputation is a very important factor in not only improving your social status but also in fields, such as business and online communities such as eBay, Amazon and all sorts of other customers’ feedback oriented websites.

As it was mentioned in the book “Smart Mobs”,

“Reputation marks the spot where technology and cooperation converge”. Today’s technology and its rapid growth open up new opportunities in doing business online. To cooperate online could interchangeably be used as a way of building up trust and developing a high reputation while billions of dollars worth of transactions are facilitated through the websites between people that do not even know each other.

eBay is using a reputation system by providing feedbacks for the buyer about the seller reputation and specific product. Sellers can build up their high status through positive sales in the auction business. Constant demand for the people that wanted to share their reputation status continues to grow; that said it also shows that there is a lot of value for those people that want to extend their reputation to the other sites.

A small portion of people have still disagreed with the fact that using a reputation system through many different websites could negatively affect the overall e-commerce. There are a number of websites that have been known for providing the best online service and in fact there are many more people that agree with the usage of a reputation system in the different sites. Reputation systems will become more portable in the near future, it’s just a matter of time. eBay could be one of the founders in creating and building up your reputation which eventually could help to move out to the other websites. eBay created its name as one of the finest services which uses a system of customer’s feedback to publicly rate each member's reputation.

Skype

Skype

Being an international student requires a lot of searching on the web, or simply reading through some of the IT magazines about the best way to communicate with family and friends that have been left abroad. I do not even know how I found out about Skype, but I was extremely happy about this discovery. I have been using Skype for five years and it helps me with the updates of the events that happens in my circle of friends.

After reading “Naked Conversations” I got really interested about Skype’s development through the years and the steps they had to take to become the most popular internet telephone survey in the world.

Skype uses word to mouth method to put themselves out into the market. Skype also uses similar tactics that ICQ used back in 1996. One of the ideas that Skypes uses from their competitors was “tell-a-friend’, which I thought was a very interesting idea.

“Whenever a new IM software version was ready, they’d contact 1,000 randomly selected users, giving them each the same “secret password,” and urging each to reveal it only to their two best friends” –Naked Conversations

By doing so, Skype made their customers feel that they were the part of the company, more like an insider and the part of something big that was about to happen. Instead of telling the “secret” to only two friends, word spread out fast, putting Skype at a 30-million-user mark. Big, did happen, everybody loves Skype, and everybody is waiting for new innovations. The method that Skype used to promote was quite unique. There were fractions of pennies spent on each customer, comparing to a 125 dollar that was spent to acquire new customer for a wireless telephone carrier. Skype is extremely efficient for those who use it and has proven to be very profitable for it’s investors.

Collective action dilemma

“Collective action dilemma” based on the “Mob Smart” book is simply a perpetual balancing of self and public good. Most of the people tend to lie back waiting for somebody else to do the job in order to benefit from it later. The main reason for this silly phenomenon is a lack of cooperation. People tend to be more isolated and more distant from one another; they are more likely to lock themselves into their own little world and do things on their own.

On the way to class, how many students do you see, just cruising along and listening to their headphones? This is one of these hints, reminding me everyday that people do not want to be involved and simply want to avoid any kind of human contact. Day after day, the repeated action occurs which later could be defined as a way of life; isolated and uninvolved. There is nothing wrong with liking and listening to the music, but doing it consistently could lead to seclusion. People are isolated and alone, they have no interest to cooperate or in fact to be a part of the group or the team. A common vision or goal that most of the teams are reaching for is simply a mystery to them.

Social networking with the help of the technology is helping people to be more connected and involved in every day life. The more we get involved the less “free riders” we have. Having every one on the same page, working as a one could make the world, overall, a better place.

Informal structure and bottlenecks

For privacy purposes I do not want to use the company name or my friend’s name.

I would like to talk about the informal structure of the company. After reading the assigned readings I realized that I was actually involved in a similar situation. I once had a friend who started a company. As the company grew he became a bottleneck. After a year it was difficult not seeing him and talking to him the way I used too, it was also hard to see him becoming a bottleneck.

Informal structure usually happens in recently formed companies. When his company started to operate he knew everyone that was working for him; his friends were his only employees. While the company started to grow more rapidly, he became more and more distant from his employees.

A year went by, and I had free time to go and see him. After I entered the building I could not sense the feeling of community that was once there. It was strange walking in and not knowing anybody, things had changed.

My friend was the most important part of the company, his knowledge and determination were a way of linking the network together. Becoming a bottleneck was not easy for him, being under a lot of stress and constantly feeling pressure, the company operation started to go down. He started to lose some money, until he figured that he could just not do it by himself. He hired some people to help him out. After making these decisions the profits started to increase again.

After creating a company, informal structure comes in to play, and after the company progress’ executives become bottlenecks. Realizing that to manage and operate the company takes a lot out of you, and that having somebody on your side that could help everyday tasks is not such a bad idea. From what I know, my friend wanted to make as much money as he could therefore he did not consider spending extra money to hire someone else, and instead he took the entire load upon himself. It hurt him and his company until he found someone to help him.

First post

I am a student.