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Blog: Are great strategic thinkers born or made?

Interesting post from Michael Watkins on How to Think Strategically,



“Are great strategic thinkers born or made? The answer turns out to be “yes.” Yes, individuals sit somewhere on a spectrum of innate talent and yes, you can develop that talent.


“Approaches to develop your strategic thinking ability include…



  • Immersion.

  • Apprenticeships.

  • Simulations.

  • Game-theory training.

  • Case-based education.

  • Cognitive reshaping.

“What suggestions do you have for developing the ability to think strategically?”


You can join Mr. Watkins’ discussion here.

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CNET on the challenges of trial and bundled software on a new PC

Of interest: CNET’s Ina Fried on the impact of trial and bundled third-party software on your PC in this article on MSN Tech & Gadgets…



PC makers walk fine line with 'crapware' (© Push Pictures/Corbis)“Down with ‘crapware’ Despite some outcry from consumers, there’s still plenty of free software loaded onto new retail PCs. While adding software, setting default search engines and including toolbars can all put money in PC makers’ pockets, the practice has also alienated some consumers who say all such “crapware” is clogging their hard drives and bogging down their systems.


“Despite some outcry from consumers, there’s still plenty of software being loaded on new machines. In part, that’s because the PC industry needs the cash that such deals offer. Even if the companies get less than $1 per software program that they include on a PC, that can still add up to $10 or $20 in revenue.

“On a $400 PC, that’s a big thing to get,” said Stephen Baker, an analyst at The NPD Group.

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Xerox’ customer focus and interaction (BusinessWeek)

Good article in this week’s issue of businessweek.com on Xerox customer focus. Their tech chief, Sophie Vandebroek, is pushing greater emphasis on customer focused design, bouncing new ideas around in focus groups attended by more than just Xerox marketing folks: they include Xerox “scientists and engineers… encouraged to meet face to face with some of the 1,500 to 2,000 customers who visit showrooms at the company’s four global research facilities each year.”



“Three years ago, a team of Xerox (XRX ) researchers came up with an idea for a new kind of commercial printer. But rather than follow the company’s standard development process—build the prototype, then get customer feedback—they decided to hold focus groups with customers first.


“It’s a good example of what Xerox Chief Technology Officer Sophie V. Vandebroek calls “customer-led innovation.” The process played a key role in the design of the company’s new duel-engine Nuvera 288 Digital Perfecting System, which was officially introduced on Apr. 18. Brainstorming, or “dreaming with the customer,” is critical, she says. The goal: “Involving experts who know the technology with customers who know the pain points.”


As noted, we have our own Frontline programme (noted here and here) where members of our engineering teams meet with customer service, field staff and ultimately spend a week on-site paired with a relevant customer. Interesting to hear how Xerox has developed/ adopted a similar practice.


On a related note, BusinessWeek has also published their World’s Most Innovative Companies list for 2007 (complete listing is here, sans Xerox) — Microsoft is #5. I noticed that 2007 is not yet over, so we should have six or seven more months for companies to move up and down the rankings.

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MSN Money’s article on the “Customer Service Hall of Shame”

Christopher Oster writes in MSN Money about the “companies topped a list of more than 400 nominated by MSN Money readers,” and ranked the worst performers in the poll in their own “Top Ten” list. 



Customer Service: The Hall of Shame“Last month, we asked readers to tell us about their worst customer service experiences, and more than 3,000 responded within 24 hours of our request. Now, with the help of pollster Zogby International, we are introducing MSN Money’s Customer Service Hall of Shame, a ranking of the companies whose service is most often rated “poor” by consumers.


“The results are in, and one company ranks below all the rest: Sprint Nextel, one of the country’s largest wireless-phone carriers.
great customer service is not hard.


“At right is the Bottom 10, ranked by the percentage of people who said a company’s customer service was “poor.”


Some included in the list are not surprising (this is my personal view, having shopped at several of the retailers mentioned), but I was surprised at a couple of the “dishonorable mentions” in the article (listed here). In my opinion and experience, Wells Fargo and Dell rank consistently high.


I have had excellent in-person customer service at Wells Fargo: the latest experience was when my son opened up his first savings account, and without first knowing if I even had an account at the branch, the staff (thanks, Efi) treated him like a high-roller flying into Vegas for a six-figure weekend. Better, when he came back to make a deposit of a whopping few bucks in birthday haul, they remembered his name and once again rolled out the red carpet (and cookies).


As for Dell, we have Dell computers at home and I have a desktop in my office, among others, and have written here and here about some of my (generally positive) experiences with Dell’s customer support (all, so far, via chat and email). Related to the experiences we have at home, AFAIK Dell had no idea of my affiliation with MS when I pinged them, and they’ve always been professional and courteous. There was one experience where we ‘stumped the band’ with an esoteric software application problem, that was eventually solved with a bump up to second level support… and they called me back on their dime when they had the answer, rather than keep me on hold.

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Gordon Bell and MyLifeBits in Levy’s article “This Is Your Life, Every Bit of It!”

This in a recent Newsweek magazine, Steven Levy’s article “This Is Your Life, Every Bit of It!” with a look at individuals (such as Gordon Bell) who are working on “capturing everything [they] see and hear… a Pandora’s box for the digital age.”



“Since 2001, Gordon Bell, a 72-year-old computing legend now at Microsoft Research, has been heading a project called “My Life Bits.” The idea is to accumulate a definitive record of one’s life, from images and sounds captured by a “SenseCam,” to phone calls, e-mail, Web searches and so on—and then to develop techniques to search those disparate media on demand. You won’t be surprised to hear that Google is also developing its own solutions to searching video and audio. And a start-up called Ustream (now in beta) lets anyone do Webcasts live—sort of Justin.tv lite.”


And, for reference, this on Bell’s MyLifeBits…



“He is putting all of his atom- and electron-based bits in his local Cyberspace. It is called by MyLifeBits the successor to the Cyber All project. This includes everything he has accumulated, written, photographed, presented, and owns (e.g. CDs). In February 2005 an epiphany occurred with the realization that MyLifeBits goes beyond Vannevar Bush’s “memex” and is a personal transaction processing database for everything described in June 14, 2005 SIGMOD Keynote.”


As noted in a previous entry, see “How To Build Your Own version of Gordon Bell’s “MyLifeBits” (Wired)” Wired, Nov 2006. See the complete article “A head for detail.” 


At home, we’ve attempted our own small slice of MyLifeBits, with a couple of scanners (sheet fed and a slick yet inexpensive see-thru HP Scanjet 4600 Scanner), Paperport software (for collecting scans and managing image files) and Windows Desktop Search. In addition, we have the bulk of our bills and statements sent in electronic form.


But we’re not as hard-core as Bell: one of the biggest collection of papers so far that we simply don’t have (or make) the time to process? Paper receipts (a drawer in the kitchen is just easier, thank you), our children’s artwork and schoolwork, and hard copies of a select few magazines: I enjoy having the paper versions of Wired, Fast Company and Fine Homebuilding. Everything else is scanned or referenced on the web, especially nice as so many magazines are now available via on-line archives (usually free for subscribers).