MAY 2010

There’s no getting away from the fact that the world has changed and will keep changing whether we want it or are ready for it. This issue of Agility Update draws your attention to two articles. The first looks at the changing employee traits that will define success in the new world order. The second illustrates the ways socially adept companies are using Twitter to deliver commercial success. As a final item, we have an article that offers good advice on how to develop a personal system to help us remember all our passwords.

Hierarchy of Employee Traits for the Creative Economy
In his recent keynote for the Spigit Customer Summit, management guru Gary Hamel discusses the Creative Economy and his view of the hierarchy of employee traits that will define the winners in the future. He observes that the traits of obedience, diligence and intellect which defined success in the Industrial and Information Economies are now commoditised. He suggests that the traits that employers should now be encouraging are:

1. Initiative: Seeing opportunities to try something new, and actually following up on them. This is a marked contrast to the obedience trait.
2. Creativity: Designing something different than what exists currently, be it business, product or process. Contrast creativity with intellect. Creativity is less bound to the         rigours of logic and proof, more responsive to our individual yearning for things that are new.
3. Passion: Our internal engines provide the fuel that spurs us to action. We pursue something because it answers an internal calling. Contrast this with diligence, which is the application of one's mind and efforts to a task or project. Diligence is a more mechanical effort, passion is an emotional one.

For more from Gary Hamel visit:
http://blog.spigit.com/permalink/2009/08/17/

Twitter Tips from Socially Savvy Companies
Twitter is more than just noise. Companies from computer seller Dell to coffee franchise Starbucks and Comcast, the largest cable operator and home internet service provider in the United States, are already successfully building online communities that deliver direct to their bottomlines. In an article adapted from his book Engage, Brian Solis presents his list of suggestions to help businesses learn how to engage customers on Twitter through the examples of these companies. The top 6 tips are as follows:

1. Special Offers: People make decisions on what to read, view, purchase, visit and sample based on the information that filters through to their attention. For example, @delloutlet uses Twitter and Facebook to send coupons to customers. In just one year, Dell recorded upwards of US$3 million in sales directly sourced from Twitter.       
2. Ordering: Many businesses are using Twitter to log orders.  For example, Coffee Groundz (@coffeegroundz) uses the direct message channel on Twitter to receive and prepare orders and gained a 20% to 30% increased sales and market share.
3. Word of Mouth Marketing: Website builder Moonfruit (@moonfruit) ran a campaign offering 11 Macbook Pros and 10 iPod Touches to celebrate its 10th anniversary. In order to qualify, contestants had to send a tweet using the hashtag (a Twitter ‘grouping’ device) #moonfruit. One month following the completion of the contest, Moonfruit site traffic was up 300% and sales also increased by 20%. Read more about hashtags at: http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags 
4. Conversation Marketing: At current count, 436 employees at online shoe and accessories retailer Zappos (@zappos) use Twitter, including CEO Tony Hsieh (who has over 1 million followers) to proactively share the company culture and values. In effect, this invites people to be part of the community, and also acts as a sales driver.
5. Customer Service:  Frank Eliason of Comcast (@comcastcares), whose title is      Director of Digital Care, uses Twitter to help 200 to 300 subscribers a day. Frank and his 10-person help desk receive direct questions, but also proactively seek out complaints.

 
Read more at: http://www.fastcompany.com/article/21-twitter-tips-from-socially-savvy-companies?partner=leadership_newsletter
Meanwhile, in the run-up to the Australian Federal elections Dr Chris Scanlon, a journalism researcher and lecturer in media studies at La Trobe University, created #ozelectionat upstart.net.au to "track the political pulse of the nation".

Work Smart: A Single Trick for Remembering Countless Passwords
One of the most annoying things in using technology is keeping track of dozens of passwords. Even more so, passwords that are easy to remember are also easy for an identity thief to guess. And, using one complex password for everything is like having the same key for your house, your car, and your office. Once someone steals one key, they can get into everything. The trick     (is)     to creating and remembering different complex passwords for each situation is to create them based on a single pattern that combines your keyword with the service you’re logging into. For added security, when you choose your pattern, make sure it creates passwords that are at least eight characters, and includes letters and numbers, and even a symbol for good measure. Here are examples of patterns based on:

• a keyword: For example, if your keyword is robot, your password for Amazon.com is robotama and for your Westpac ATM is robotwes and so on.
• The chorus of classic songs e.g. “One is the loneliest number” yields 1itln giving you 1itlnama and 1itlnwes for the two examples above
• Interleave two words e.g. blue and 123 yields b1l2u3e
• A tactile pattern using letters and numbers based on their location and proximity on the keyboard. e.g. asdf or qwerty

Read more at: http://www.fastcompany.com/article/work-smart-a-single-trick-for-remembering-countless-passwords?partner=homepage_newsletter