Prof Bruce's definitions
Today, pro teams are highly restricted in what they are allowed to do in their local markets by League head office. For example, fans are often not able to create images, merchandise, videos, mashups, stories or music about their favorite team without getting a ‘cease and desist’ letter from highly paid League lawyers who are looking to protect league licensees. So fans need to create underground websites, Twitter/Facebook/YouTube accounts, blogs, podcasts and other online as well as real life properties that hide their real identity—they are forced to become underground fans.
“A while ago I created a bunch of t-shirts with my favourite football players on them using the motif of the film 'SIN CITY'. The idea was to create cool stuff that folks could buy during the playoffs with all the funds raised going to benefit local charities. But after I got a bit of media traction, we received a cease and desist letter from a League lawyer and we had to stop. Now I am an underground fan of my team—if I ever do this again, I’ll do it anonymously. The thing that gets me is that league policies destroy any creativity by fans as well as local teams, everything is just the same everywhere.”
by Prof Bruce May 21, 2010
Get the Underground Fanmug. In a tough, competitive world, it is crucial for CEOs to have direct and forthright conversations with clients and suppliers. To do that effectively, they have to disintermediate their direct reports and even their techies, which means that they will be able to get accurate information from the field without it being filtered or biased, say, by their direct reports who may only want to tell their CEO what they think he or she wants to hear.
“By using social media tools like Twitter themselves, CEOs can disintermediate everyone from the data stream. They can connect directly with customers, clients, suppliers and others and hear unfiltered reports of what is really going on in their enterprises. Just as importantly, they can make their views known to their followers and stakeholder group without it being filtered by their PR people or the media. In times of crisis, this might save the organization.”
by Prof Bruce February 21, 2010
Get the Disintermediatemug. “Why are you spending so much of your time on Twitter? If you’re not careful, you’ll turn into a Twitterbug.”
by Prof Bruce November 9, 2009
Get the Twitterbugmug. Today’s strict privacy laws require that you protect consumer information. For this and many other reasons, it is often necessary to anonymize a data set, a blog article, a media report or a case study. Anonomizing a story or a case study can also help protect a confidential source or informant.
“You are doing work for a private Foundation and you believe that their case would make interesting reading for your students. The only problem—you are under a confidentiality agreement. With their permission, you anonymize the information and data and write up their story on your blog—sans anything that can point back to the original.”
by Prof Bruce December 8, 2009
Get the anonymizemug. You’ve heard of SAAS, Software as a Service, well make way for PAAS, Product as a Service. Customers are subscribing to services that regularly deliver products they need over and over again. This could create a whole new class of business models.
Instead of selling your product to one customer, once, you might be able to turn it into PAAS, ‘product as a service’—people would subscribe to your service and you would deliver the product to them, say, once a quarter. It could be anything people use over and over again— like hair gel, shaving cream, razor blades, perfume, face cream, hey, maybe even socks and underwear.
by Prof Bruce April 20, 2011
Get the PAASmug. Triangulation is a geometric method of locating a point by first determining two angles on a fixed baseline. It is used in times of war to locate hidden radio transmitters, ships on the high seas or aiming an artillery piece.
In business, it is used in a different way—CEOs, for example, triangulate on employees or other sources of information to be sure that they are getting accurate information which is mission critical to any enterprise’s longevity and sustainability. CEOs know that direct reports often tell them what they think the CEO wants to hear instead of the unvarnished truth. That is a reason why many CEOs like to speak directly to customers and suppliers—they disintermediate everyone else.
In business, it is used in a different way—CEOs, for example, triangulate on employees or other sources of information to be sure that they are getting accurate information which is mission critical to any enterprise’s longevity and sustainability. CEOs know that direct reports often tell them what they think the CEO wants to hear instead of the unvarnished truth. That is a reason why many CEOs like to speak directly to customers and suppliers—they disintermediate everyone else.
“Tom Sanders (played by Michael Douglas in the 1994 film, Disclosure) is a manager at tech company, Digicom. He is told by ambitious executive Meredith Johnson (played by Demi Moore) that the drives they are working on are failing at an unacceptable rate due to Tom’s negligence (in software design). Only by triangulating on Meredith (by checking with two independent sources) does Tom discover the truth and save his career—that Meredith had authorized a cheaper solution (they are using a lower level clean room) which is actually causing tiny specs of dirt to foul operation of their new drives.”
by Prof Bruce February 21, 2010
Get the triangulatingmug.