Wave Bye Bye

Talk about a Game Changer. Google has done it again, they are in the final stages of preparing to release their next innovation - Google Wave. Wave promises to change email as much as email changed traditional mail. The fundamental fact is, this will revolutionize how people communicate.

See it in action...

Down to the Wire at Netflix

After a three-year long competition, the winning team won with less than 10 minutes to spare. In a true testament to the power of collaboration, open door innovation, and global teams, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos won the $1 million dollar Netflix Prize for improving the search results on the popular movie rental company's website.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced the results today. The winning team consists of two researchers at AT&T Inc., two engineers from Montreal, a research scientist at Yahoo Inc. and two machine-learning researchers from Austria.

Not only was the fact that the winning solution was submitted with nearly 10 minutes to go, Netflix said all seven met in person as a group for the first time Monday.

In true Open Door Innovation fashion, here's how they won (and how the second place team was so successful) from Wired Magazine:

"The secret sauce for both Bellkor’s Pragmatic Chaos and The Ensemble was collaboration between diverse ideas, and not in some touchy-feely, unquantifiable, “when people work together things are better” sort of way. The top two teams beat the challenge by combining teams and their algorithms into more complex algorithms incorporating everybody’s work. The more people joined, the more the resulting team’s score would increase."

Want to see what collaboration looks like?



Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article.

Click here to read the Wired article.

GFCI Rankings Are In!

The 6th Global Financial Centre Index was published today, and the results showed some significant changes in ranking around the world. The report is published twice a year by the City of London, and ranks the world's top financial cities.

A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation, which commissioned the research said:

"This independent research demonstrates three trends: cautious optimism that the global financial services industry is showing signs of recovery, further movement of the financial business centre of gravity towards fast-developing markets - especially in Asia; and the emergence of a 'Premier League' of economically and socially interconnected cities."

To read the full report click here.

Clarity, Clarity, Clarity

Whether you believe the economy is turning around, or not, the signs are looking up. That being said your employees are probably seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. If the video post below of Ram Charan reminded me of one thing is that this time, the change is real. Business models are changing, markets are changing, and management is changing. The one thing however that hasn't, and won't change is enthusiasm.

With that said, the coming light will lead your people to conjure up great new projects, and plans for your company to follow. Be calm, be smart, be prudent. Choose wisely.

Now is the time to ensure that plans are comprehensive, well thought out, and intelligent. Oh, and clear. With your corporate coffers at an all time low (or all time lock-down) money will only be spent on well thought out ideas.

Consider the today's report from the IOC summarizing the overall bids of the four bidding cities for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games. Keeping in mind the final vote is one month away, two of the four cities had rather harsh reviews that included a note on the lack of "a full understanding of the need for clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, including financial, between different stakeholders" in their bid.

My thought would be that if anyone could provide a professional bid it would be for the Olympics. However, even at the highest level clarity is still an issue. Even the IOC knows that the times have changed.

So, as we all move forward, move faster, aim higher, in order to get stronger.

Click here to read the full article from CTVOlympics.ca

Ram Charan - Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty

Just stumbled across this video, and thought it always helps to a new take on things. So hope you enjoy this take from Ram Charan on Leadership in the the era of economic uncertainty.