Disqus - Latest Comments for rikwuts

Re: The Management Team - Guest Post From JLM

Rik Wuts — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:19:48 -0000

Wow. Great post, very insightful. Love the style, too.

I will follow @awaldstein 's lead and put this somewhere visible.

Re: The future of business is social

Rik Wuts — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:57:59 -0000

*The following comment was posted by Anne C. Graham (http://www.legendaryvalue.com) on BusinessInsider.com:*

A very thoughtful article on Porter's Shared Value, Rik, and I appreciate you identifying Haque's Constructive Capitalism as an additional resource. I've been on the "Value" page for years, so both concepts really resonate with me. I'd like to offer up some additional resources to help your readers with the "execution" side, because while Porter presents a grand vision, the challenge for most busy business leaders in the small to mid-size firms who will really have impact will be in execution, unlike the major players who have legions of MBAs to do the ground work. I believe that first companies have to get their own house in order in terms of creating value for all stakeholders, and for those who are interested, the Legendary Value model http://bit.ly/gVqRVo illustrates a very executable 10 step plan that may help readers who are intrigued with the Shared Value concept but are uncertain of where to start. And contrary to some current negative opinion about the term "Profit Maximization", I believe that profits, earned with integrity, are the best measure of the value an organization is delivering to the marketplace. Readers may find a benchmark report containing 5 years of profit-per-employee data across 72 industry categories VERY eyeopening, and can obtain a complementary copy at http://bit.ly/eeji55. Last but not least, I've just created a Linked In group for those interested in pursuing the "how to" part of the Shared Value discussion. You can join at Business Leaders: Creating Legendary Value, Shared Value. Whether Legendary Valie, Shared Value, Constructive Capitalism, or another buzzword, the time has come for companies to connect societal and economic progress. As you've noted with sustainability and CSR programs, the momentum is already under way. Now its time to start creating the next level of Management Thinking around the 'how to's' to get there. Be part of the discussion, part of the solution.

Re: The future of business is social

Rik Wuts — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:51:00 -0000

Jacqueline, als marketeers zullen we bereid moeten zijn toe te geven dat de grote veranderingen zoals Haque die voorstelt veel verder gaan dan marketing alleen. Dit gaat echt terug tot de manier waarop de onderneming georganiseerd wordt, hoe mensen beloond en beoordeeld worden, en welke doelstellingen nagestreefd worden.

Re: The future of business is social

Rik Wuts — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:49:11 -0000

Yeah you're probably right Paul. I think in general this kind of profound change is more likely to come from upstarts and small companies that don't have as much vested interest in the status quo.

Thanks for reading!

Re: Building Better Social Graphs

Rik Wuts — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:57:50 -0000

Maybe this is for you: www.mynameise.com
(I'm not involved in any way)

Re: The Pricing Strategy that Can Save Brick and Mortar Stores

Rik Wuts — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:08:16 -0000

Great idea. But it seems to me that you need ALL of the manufacturers to offer this discount on all products, or you will have effectively given the retailer an incentive to promote one brand or device in particular. Which then cancels the 'soft' value they are adding because they're not on the side of the consumer anymore.

Re: On the origin of ideas

Rik Wuts — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:42:29 -0000

This reminds me of something a teacher in creative facilitation at uni once told me: "Ideas are not 'yours', they float around the room, emerging from what goes on in the room. There is just someone who happens to pick up on it most quickly."

The room itself is also important, and does not necessarily need to be a 'room'. Many big innovations (telephony, lightbulbs, facebook) where invented at two or three places at the same time, inspired by the zeitgeist and available tools.

Re: The designer of the future

Rik Wuts — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:47:41 -0000

Hi Wim,

Thanks for the thoughtful answer. And I agree with you – my initial inspiration for this post was a kind of knee-jerk reaction to the fact that this debate is apparently still going on.
And the apparent solution, shared logic and language, is also crystal clear. But we are not going to get there until design really grows up and starts claiming its position in the chain.

That's where my final point relates to: since design (thinking) is more and more essential to doing business successfully, it seems to me that designers ought to share in the revenue they generate, rather than be sent off with a one-off project fee.

You see many examples of this popping us, the most prominent of which are Fuseproject and Fahrenheit 212.

That's what I mean: design is a crucial thing to successful products, yet it often has the same status in the bigger chain as outsourced call centers.

And as design thinking progresses, the practitioners are gaining all the tools and skills needed to develop profitable businesses. For which they can hire operators to keep them going.

Eh?

Re: Business Plan Workbook

Rik Wuts — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:12:56 -0000

Oh dear, no need to get your knickers in a twist.

A) I have nothing at all to do with the book I linked to, just happens to be one of the best on the subject - which will in fact get you started (and 200 pages is a bargain, the other best one is over 1000).

B) if you want to use this structure to write a plan and show to investors, good luck but I doubt many will listen to you.

Re: Want to Know How VC’s Calculate Valuation Differently from Founders?

Rik Wuts — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:52:52 -0000

Thanks! That's what I figured.
Can you elaborate a bit on what exactly will change in the deals in that situation?

Re: Want to Know How VC’s Calculate Valuation Differently from Founders?

Rik Wuts — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:25:27 -0000

How would this conversation change when the founders have put in cash and/or already have a meaningful revenue stream? What would that mean for the preferred-ratios in particular?

Re: The curse of the innovation age

Rik Wuts — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:35:19 -0000

Try to look at this from a business perspective, or an ecosystem, rather than just the product. Design thinking allows us to go beyond the product, and create a new way of working altogether.
My reasoning is that taking a more artisan approach instead of plain mass production is probably the answer. That means that as a designer you should worry about creating the system and the tools that others can use to make, sell, repair, update the products. Not so much a 'project' then but a continuously evolving platform.

Re: The curse of the innovation age

Rik Wuts — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:42:43 -0000

Why not take matters into your own hands?

Re: The curse of the innovation age

Rik Wuts — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:31:02 -0000

Can't help but thinking he has a bit of a point there. Traveling light is a good concept in many ways.

Re: The curse of the innovation age

Rik Wuts — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:30:12 -0000

The thing is that even people with zero money are not satisfied with hand-me-downs. They want the latest and greatest. So there is a social part to this as well: we're trained very well to want new things. The poor regard technology in general and mobiles in particular as status objects.

As for free Wifi, not so much of an issue - network equipment is such a massive expense that this is generally well planned. Wifi. wimax, LTE, we'll have to see which one prevails.

Re: The curse of the innovation age

Rik Wuts — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:26:41 -0000

Spot on. In fact there are many jobs in the ecosystem that could be improved by taking a new approach.

Re: Brand appeals and personal drives, a scientific research

Rik Wuts — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:58:08 -0000

Sounds like great news for consultants and 'brand experts', branding by recipe :-)

Wouldn't you say that

# Brands which trigger ‘unexpected’ drives, deviating from category conformity, increase in brand appeal.
# There are no universal mixing rules. The most effective ‘drive cocktail’ is category-dependent.

may be mutually contradicting?

Re: The Future of Retail

Rik Wuts — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:29:39 -0000

Nice one, this report is really insightful and comprehensive. I'm a strong believer in the need for fresh thinking in retail and this is (almost) enough inspiration to start building a new retail business ;-)

A lot of the tips tie in nicely with the observations made by the Monocle staff, who comment on retail experiences across the world regularly.

Re: Business Plan Workbook

Rik Wuts — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:50:16 -0000

Is this a joke? Who writes a business plan like that? Find a much more useful and innovative method here: http://www.businessmodelgen...

Chances are you'll actually write down an actionable plan then.

Re: Extension.fm

Rik Wuts — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:21:01 -0000

Nice, would love to try out! twitter.com/rik_wuts

Re: How to do business with human beings

Rik Wuts — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:01:34 -0000

Nice job! Other companies might find inspiration to work in a similar way form the book Speak Human, written by Smashlab CD Eric Karjaluoto: http://www.speakhuman.com/

Re: Rebranding an Airliner

Rik Wuts — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:29:17 -0000

I love the message this sends! And very nicely executed. But, one if left to wonder, have they applied the same simplifying thinking to the total check-in and flying experience?

Re: Business Model Generation Session

Rik Wuts — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:31:05 -0000

Man, I would have loved to attend that session. Will there be another one soon?

Re: The $160 Lesson: Apps Beat Devices

Rik Wuts — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:54:45 -0000

Good way to illustrate a very interesting point. In a broader sense, I think software is much more important to the overall user experience than many think. Look at all the harddisk recorders (or mobile phones still) with horrible usability. The whole 'app ecosystem' idea is bound to go beyond mobile devices and pcs eventually.

Re: The dynamics of innovation

Rik Wuts — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:32:07 -0000

Thanks for the kind words Pete. Any time you have a great new project you can talk about, we'd love to hear about it.