How analytics and social media are being combined in a unique way

BizIntelligence.TV, the video channel initiative created by Microsoft's Bruno Aziza, has published great video interviews. I recently watched two interesting interviews on social media measurement.

The first interview is with Dave Mariani, VP of Engineering at Klout. According the video information: "What's your Klout? By now you may have heard of the social media scoring company, but how do they measure influence? We recently sat down with Dave Mariani, VP of Engineering at the rapidly growing firm. Dave has a history of working with big data, and is right at home with Klout. Dave discusses how Klout works, the networks they currently measure and plan to expand to, and how they are helping brands connect with consumers. Watch the video and see how analytics and social media are being combined in a unique way!"



The second interview is with Brian Solis. According the video information: "Brian is well-known in the social media space and has written a number of books that deal with this topic including his most recent, Engage! He is also a principal at the Altimeter Group, an advisory firm dealing with disruptive technologies. Bruno and Brian cover many different topics including companies that "get" social media, the concept of Nine-Inch Marketing, and measuring effectiveness of social media campaigns. Watch the video and learn more from the man Bruno titled a "Social Media Anthropologist!"

Interview with Balanced Scorecard Co-Creator Dr. Robert Kaplan

Bruno Aziza published today a great interview with Dr. Robert Kaplan in the BizIntelligence.TV, with the title: Risk Reduction Advice from a Legend. Robert Kaplan is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School, and co-creator, together with David P. Norton, of the Balanced Scorecard.

In formulating strategic plans, senior executives tend to overlook two key elements: effectively communicating those plans to the employees who must execute them, and factoring in what might go wrong with the plans, according BizIntelligence.TV's post. Dr.Kaplan says: "You have to communicate the plans to employees seven times in seven ways" for them to understand those plans, he says. "At the end, they need to understand the organization's strategy and understand what they can do to contribute to the success of the strategy."



I was glad because Dr.Kaplan mentioned Volkswagen Brazil (I'm Brazilian) as a successful example of effective employee engagement, motivation, and communication when implementing a turnaround strategy.

Robert Kaplan wrote several books on management and strategy. He and David Norton are the creators of the Balanced Scorecard, and their books about the subject are worth reading (I wrote a book review about the first book: The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action). Their latest book, The Execution Premium, focuses on linking strategy to execution.

BizIntelligence.TV

Bruno Aziza created an interesting initiative called BizIntelligence.TV, where he is a show host speaking with experts on BI issues. According Aziza, "BizIntelligence.TV is a weekly web-based show that allows leaders like you to hear from industry luminaries and interact with them via comments or emails. Each show lasts less than 10 minutes, and is designed to provide you and your employees with actionable best practices."

He already recorded some videos with Wayne Eckerson, John Santaferraro, Tony Scott, among others. The last video published is about Business Intelligence and Social Media, with John Myers, Shawn Rogers and Donald Farmer.

Business Intelligence and the Soccer World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa finished today (Spain won the World Cup, congratulations Spain!) During the world cup, I saw some interesting initiatives regarding BI and the world cup.


SAP created a BI solution called SAP BusinessObjects 2010 Football Experience. According SAP's website: "Can't travel to South Africa this year? Let SAP bring the excitement of world soccer to you! Whether you're a novice or an obsessed fan, "YOUR World Soccer Experience" lets you become part of the action and participate in a whole new way. See how a live working business intelligence system from SAP can help enhance your experience of the game." Timo Elliott published a good post in his blog detailing the SAP solution.



idashboards created an interactive dashboard software to track the 2010 World Cup tournament. According idashboards' website: "These dashboards monitor the matches played by each team, match scores and points earned by each team in easy-to-view charts and graphs which are updated after each game. Teams compete to make it past the Group Stage and be among the top 16 teams. From the Round of 16, users can view at-a-glance information on team standings and follow who wins the title. There is also an interactive customized map of South Africa where users can roll-over a stadium to see the matches being played there."


Bruno Aziza created a YouTube channel called Soccer Analytics, where he is publishing several videos about analytics and soccer.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Corporate culture has a powerful influence in the leadership style of any organization. When you are implementing a strategy management initiative, you need to take care with the corporate culture. Sometimes you want to change the strategy without realizing that the culture need to change first. For a well-implemented strategy, one of the principles is consider the strategy as everyone's job, you need motivated people to implement the strategy. The way you are going to drive your company need to be well understood. You need to align the organization with the strategy.

Jonathan Becher wrote a good piece in his blog on this issue, entitled Culture eats strategy for breakfast. He commented about his experience, and explained why he first concentrated on changing the culture rather than working on strategy or objectives or metrics.

He mentioned a 2005 Harvard Business Review study of more than 100 corporations and thousands of executive assessments showed that culture influences leadership style more than any other factor. Regardless of job function, employees who work in the same organization are 30% more likely to exhibit similar leadership styles than people who do the same job but work in different companies. He also mentioned an article of The Wall Street Journal that concluded that the biggest roadblocks for new leaders include:
1 - Not understanding or caring about the current culture
2 - Assuming the current leadership culture can support the new direction/strategy
3 - Not articulating his/her aspirational culture for the team

Becher finished with the statement: "Goals, initiatives, and metrics. I have a huge appetite for strategy management. But I shouldn’t forget that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – it all starts with culture."

When I mentioned Jonathan Becher's post on Twitter, Bruno Aziza replied me with: "culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However it is not a substitute for strategy!" I agreed with him, you need to embrace both the culture and strategy. A corporate culture is a key factor in a corporate strategy. The number one purpose of strategy management is alignment. It's interesting for the organizations to foster the culture of performance. Bruno Aziza himself co-wrote with Joey Fitts a great book, where they also mention this issue called: Drive Business Performance - Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution.

How to Drive Business Performance

Business Finance published a couple of days ago, a good video with Joey Fitts, where he describes how to achieve enterprise performance management objectives, using firsthand examples from Fortune 500 companies.

He currently works on Microsoft’s Global Business Intelligence strategy, and wrote with Bruno Aziza the book Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution.