Syntegrity and Allende’s cybernetic dream

Syntegrity is a formal model presented by British theorist Anthony Stafford Beer in 1990. Now a trademark, it is “a form of non-hierarchical problem solving that can be used in a small team of 10 to 42 people. It is a business consultation product that is licensed as a basis model for solving problems in a team environment”. From synergistic tensegrity

 

Another good description is this one: “a future-oriented approach to the design of democratic management in the sense of the heterarchical-participative type of organization. It is a holographic model for organizing processes of communication, in particular for the (self-) management of social systems. Based on the structure of polyhedra it is especially suitable for realizing team-oriented structures as well as for supporting processes of planning, knowledge generation and innovation in turbulent environments”.

But the really amazing thing that I read recently is that Beer is the brainchild of Project Cybersyn, an attempt by Chile’s Socialist government under Salvador Allende to achieve a real-time, computer controlled planned economy of sorts. The year was 1971.

 

“A network of about 500 telex machines linking the country from north to south supported all this. A single computer center in Santiago controlled them, using principles of cybernetics. Its futurist design offered the hope of a more participative and less bureaucratic society. The project had the participation of a multidisciplinary group of national and international scientists. Their task was to build a system for distributed decision-making supported by relevant information. But their efforts were interrupted by the coup d’etat of 1973“

Photos from top to bottom: Stafford Beer from The Very Secret Plan; Salvador Allende from Axisglobe; CyberSyn operations room view (futuristic chair design for data reading and analytics)

In workaholic mode

I really liked this tip list on how to save costs and other clever tricks to use when running a start up, provided by Jason Calacanis. Definitely enjoyed point 11 about seeking talented workaholics when managing a start up.

Verbatim:

“Fire people who are not workaholics.don’t love their work… come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. don’t work at a startup if you’re not into it–go work at the post office or stabucks if you’re not into it you want balance in your life. For realz.“

Infact, I think it’s fair to say that also in large companies, in new projects, you need to abide by some similar set of rules in taking talent from outside or handpicking it from other divisions. It’s critical to ignite and steer certain projects within the corporation at large and if you don’t infuse innovative projects with individuals who also have a true entrepreneurial edge and a desire to outdo themselves, you may never lift to even the design phase.

Mobile advertising immobilized

It seems there are still too many hurdles to mobile advertising picking up big time. I mean, the forecast of emarketer to 2012 (19M$) is still very quiet compared to the overall advertising market size. I think it’s fair to say that one of the hurdles to this advertising format will not be overcome until mobile users stop getting charged a premium for all kinds of services related to the use of this most precious hand-held device.

The table below is a clear indication of this phenomenon, which is just one (but a biggie) of the significant hurdles to be overcome.

In the meantime, have a look at the different types of mobile advertising: mobile seo, mobile search, mobile social media, mobile display, personalised start pages

Project management gone astray

You could be in one or various of the following situations: projects stuck in logjams nobody can fix; non-strategic projects consuming too many of your critical resources; delays you cannot set objective milestones to; well run project parts which were executed perfectly (as parts) but which don’t wield together as a whole… and so on.

 

Some great authors in HBR explained that the problem is that in companies “we look at projects individually and try to push them, as such, through the pipeline with speed and cost efficiency”. But who keeps an eye on the big picture? Who decides which is the right blend of projects we should be nurturing in a period of time? Who sets the pace for strategic versus maintenance? Who provides metrics and confidence to roll out mega-projects with a calm mind?

The authors suggest a few techniques:

“Achieve the right blend of project types: including breakthrough, platform and derivative products; R&D efforts; partnerships

Eliminate strategically irrelevant initiatives

Replace project management with process management: unplug the bottlenecks; smooth the workloads; increase the time to market

Build small projects into large initiatives early: to deliver fast measurable payoffs and iron out problems before they doom the effort”

I like all the principles hereby stated. They are pragmatic and propose a good high-level framework to reduce noise and achieve speed to market in a reasonable priority setting.

More reading: Why Good Projects Fail Anyway by Nadim F. Matta and Ronald N. Ashkenas

Project plan schema visualization (Gantt chart) courtesy of Ambysoft

The Camondo Family

The origins of the Jewish Istanbulite Camondo family probably start in 1492 Spain, from where they were expelled like all Jewish and Muslim citizens. After that their traces reappear in the ghettos of Venice and in Constantinople, Ortakoy, in 1758.

 View from the top floor in the newly restored Camondo house near Galata, in Beyoglu. Photo taken by Eero Korhonen

They seemed to encounter some clashes with the Ottoman authorities and, of Austro-Hungarian nationality, fled to Cyprus only to return to Istanbul in the early 1780s. The Camondo was a family of bankers (lenders originally, “saraf”). Their institution, called after its founder Isaac Camondo & Co., started by means of lending and then diversified to control a network of retail in Galata and in Uskudar as well as a brick factory and olive oil production unit in Çorlu.

They were the bankers of the liberal Sultan Abdulaziz and later of Abdulhamit II and were allowed a very exceptional situation for foreigners: to own property. The Camondos were very active donors in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856) and philanthropists and they tried to modify the Israeli public instruction to allow Turkish and French, the languages of the official institutions and of trade, to be taught in schools (which no doubt lead to great discontent in the Jewish traditional institutions). 

 Camondo family Mansion on the Golden Horn, Istanbul. Photo from Turkey Travel Planner

By the end of the XIXth Century their wealth in France, (where they moved to in the mislead hopes of finding a more welcoming and evolved society) and in other countries span companies such as Paribas, Portland Cements, the Imperial Ottoman Bank, The Refineries of Egypt, The Constantinople Water Company, The Portuguese Railways, and Franco-Canadian Credit, among many others.

After seeking and finding prosperity and wealth in Western Europe, the Camondo family, like many of Ottoman Jewish ascent, disappeared. Sadly, the French Government, blinded by its anti-Semitism, failed to welcome them into society in spite of the magnificent donation of the Nissim de Camondo house and collection in Paris and in spite of the death of war pilot Nissim in Lorraine in 1917.

 Nissim and sister Beatrice in 1916. Image courtesy of the Musée de Camondo, Paris

Lead generation leading the way

It seems unavoidable that result based marketing is taking a lead on Internet advertising formats. The last available Internet Advertising Revenue Report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB/PwC 2006 Full Year Results) indicates the highest growth rates in lead generation advertising formats. Second highest growth segment is classifieds… :)

Can’t wait for the next edition, should be coming out in the coming days. Look out for it and see what changes are taking places in the morphology of Internet advertising spending.

For the condensation of the data in the report, see this table.

Direct Marketing: less hype, more leads…?

The Global Marketing Effectiveness Report (the name sounds very serious, right?) establishes that amongst B2C and B2B marketeers, direct marketing fares as the most efficient channel. It was, they claim, “the #1 medium for marketing effectiveness in 2007″. The survey was made with over 3,000 marketeers worldwide. In the United Kingdom, a mature venue for marketeers, direct marketing is still less than 25% of total marketing spend. (The researchers mention that although all the noise is being made around online and mobile advertising, all the cash is still in the likes of TV and print). However, they consider direct marketing best for 2 main reasons:

It generates engagement; it provides much better response

It makes sense when you consider the same set of marketeers goals in 2008:

Growing company revenue was a key, followed by generating leads for future sales. Infact, only 15% of the surveyed guys were primarily concerned by building long term brand awareness in their marketing strategy. Is brand longevity dead?

Oh, and by the way, marketeers worldwide said that 65% of their marketing efforts had “no discernible effect on consumers in 2007″.

In the image a very unfortunate outdoor advertising campaign by Chupa Chups found in Adweek

Direct value in direct traffic

In order of value, the SEO company Engine Ready has identified that direct traffic (as in: “they know your brand”) is the most relevant to e-tailers. So the most valuable are those typing URLs directly or bookmarking. Their conversion rate is estimated at 3,3% and they spend (in the US) an average 170$ per order. They’re also very engaged (312 seconds per session; 6 pages viewed on average).

They are followed by referrals, the second most valuable group, but also the one with the highest bounce rate - leaving soon after arrival. To here all clear. But what I found interesting is that the third and fourth positions are, in this order, paid search (1,4% conversion; 138$ per order) and then organic listings (also 1,4% and 117$ per order, but 5 pages per session, which is quite close to the #1).

It’s definitely very interesting data to understand how to optimise the marketing investment and the SEO actions. In any case, it seems organic listings still yield high quality, at least from the amount of pages per session.

In the image, quite off topic, Marc Andresseen, co-founder of Netscape, futurologist and originator of The New York Times Deathwatch