Scan Monthly No. 006August 2003 |
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Signals of Change
E-Commerce Ecosystems
SoC021
The survivors of the dot-com debacle are healthy, huge, and ambitious. Both Amazon.com and eBay have much larger plans than simply to become the largest retailer or auction site in the world. They are competing against each other and several other dot-com survivors to become the platform of choice for conducting commerce online. They are actively evolving complex ecosystems of networked relationships, synergies, and dependencies. Businesses of all sorts need to find their niche in the new ecology.
Cognitive Computing
SoC022
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has begun another potentially revolutionary project (remember the Internet?) in the form of its cognitive-computing initiative. Tapping expertise from more than 20 research organizations, the research will develop computer systems that can learn and adapt to changing conditions.
Deregulation's Downside
SoC023
The deregulatory environment in the United States is creating some interesting phenomena, including dictates traveling down the supply chain, corporations mediating what have traditionally been public-policy issues, fragmented and conflicting state-regulatory initiatives, and shareholders who want to set corporate policy. Developing the tools, techniques, skills, and strategies to cope with the deregulated environment will prove challenging.
Product Communities
SoC024
Whirlpool is building an experience element into its marketing efforts with its Insperience center, where customers can use the appliances on offer. And Tupperware has abandoned its experiment of selling through Target stores in order to return to its community-based, party-in-the-home distribution system. Ad hoc communities based on products can be helpful to both company and consumer as long as they make certain to put the consumers' needs first.
Insights
| Opportunities in Swarm Intelligence | View summary |
| D03-2438 | Download this Insight |
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Swarm intelligence, the modeling of processes after the behavior of social insects, has evolved into a viable application for companies and government agencies across many functional areas. The brainchild of telecommunications engineer Eric Bonabeau, swarm intelligence applies the flexibility, robustness, and self-organization of social insects to real-world organizational problems. Just as ants collectively discover the shortest path to food, for example, companies can eliminate operational waste in processes. In early applications of swarm intelligence, the technology has quickly reduced costs and improved efficiencies. Employees can make autonomous decisions within a limited set of rules, often reducing the need for management and oversight. Use of swarm intelligence also allows organizations to consider many more variables in decision making than human decision makers can handle on their own, generating promising counterintuitive solutions in the process. Swarm intelligence is currently finding application in telecommunications, logistics, new-market entry, labor allocation, government intelligence, private-capital and early-stage investing, and robotics. Moreover, companies in this new field expect to overcome current barriers and continue to explore the concept's potential in many industries and processes. Author: Greg Powell. 8 pages. Index Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Computer Software; Information Technology; Planning Tools; Productivity; Research and Development. |
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| MEMS: Growing Market Applications and Opportunities | View summary |
| D03-2439 | Download this Insight |
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Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) integrate mechanical components, sensors, actuators, and electronics in micron-size devices that sense or manipulate a physical environment. Their fabrication uses technology similar to that in semiconductor manufacturing. MEMS may be a few microns or a millimeter in size. They may also be miniaturized components that have no moving parts. So far, the highest-volume applications of MEMS have been in disk-drive heads, ink-jetprinter heads, accelerometers (for air bags, for example), and pressure sensors. However, MEMS show great promise in several other areas, including bioMEMS for implantable medical devices and lab-on-a-chip devices, optical radio-frequency components and devices, automotive applications, consumer electronics, defense applications, process control and instrumentation, and home appliances. Though MEMS offer a large market opportunity, MEMS industries face many challenges, such as fragmented markets, a need for MEMS-specific fabrication processes, and lack of a common packaging process and standards. If developers can address these issues effectively, MEMS will play an important role in many industries—particularly in the medical, telecommunications, and automotive industries. Author: Jose Joseph. 16 pages. Index Keywords: Automotive Components; Electronics Technology; Medical Equipment; Sensors. |
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| Leveraging Organizational IQ to Improve Management Processes | View summary |
| D03-2440 | Download this Insight |
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To compete effectively today, companies need to do more than hire the best and brightest employees. Managers' decisions about their firms' systems, structure, and culture are also critical determinants of a company's success or failure. Such decisions determine how effectively an organization gathers and processes information, as well as how it makes and executes decisions. In a project to explore the fundamental drivers of success in high-technology firms, a Stanford University research team found that a company's organizational IQ—its "smarts" in management practices and business processes—has a high correlation with its business success. This finding is useful to companies in many industries: An understanding of organizational IQ not only provides a mental map of good management practices but also is measurable, allowing companies to diagnose problems and monitor the impact of change initiatives. This study, a recent presentation by the author, highlights the results of the research and offers a case study of a company that improved its time to market by assessing its organizational IQ and restructuring its decision-making process. Author: David B. Hansen. 20 pages. Index Keywords: Competitive Analysis; Innovation; Knowledge Management; Management; Strategic Planning. |
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| Engaging Consumers' Attention and Building Brand Awareness | View summary |
| D03-2441 | Download this Insight |
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An overwhelming number of promotional activities and messages compete for consumers' attention, complicating companies' efforts to reach target segments and build awareness of their brands. Consumers' attention is at a premium, forcing companies to look for ever-more-creative ways to rise above the sea of their competitors. The adage that "all publicity is good publicity" does not apply in the realm of marketing because a promotional technique that turns off consumers also causes them to close their pocketbooks and look elsewhere for the products and services they need. Techniques for engaging consumers' attention are at an experimental stage, with a wide range of media available for spreading the word, so companies can easily stumble into campaigns that are not only ineffective but even endanger their reputation and brands. For example, banner ads on the Internet quickly alienated consumers and spooked advertisers, causing a dip in spending for online advertising. Now, however, Google and others have found an alternative—sponsorship of unobtrusive links to words or phrases in people's searches—that is having greater success. This study explores these and other techniques, identifying those that can create favorable buzz for companies and those that are likely to alienate consumers. Author: Martin Schwirn. 9 pages. Index Keywords: Advertising; Communications; Marketing. |
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Calendar
Scan™ Briefings
The 2003 biannual Scan™ Briefings in which Scan staff present Scan analysis and findings in Menlo Park, California, will take place on:
- 23 October 2003 at 9:00 am
- 20 May 2004 at 9:00 am
Scan™ Abstract Meetings
Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI [now SBI] staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client observation/participation on:
- 17 September 2003 at 9:00 am
- 22 October 2003 at 1:30 pm
- 21 January 2004 at 9:00 am
- 17 March 2004 at 9:00 am
- 19 May 2004 at 9:00 am
- 21 July 2004 at 9:00 am.
Watch List
The Scan program's scanning and research processes identify areas on the periphery of your organizations's focus that constitute potential opportunities or threats. The areas that we decide bear watching go on Scan's watch list of defining forces that are transforming the business environment. Current watch-list topics include:
