February 2012 This edition covers: • Pinterest-ing •Future of Leadership • 3-D Printing Revolution
SOCIAL MEDIA/BRANDS
PINTEREST-ING Along came the big bad wolf and he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down. Yes, that was a fairy tale but over the last few months a new social networking phenomenon has been rapidly gathering oxygen and is even rattling at the doors of the seemingly impregnable house of Facebook. There are now over 2.5m monthly active Pinterest users on Facebook. Real and growing ➔Curation site Pinterest allows users to create virtual pin boards around specific topics – fashion, interior design, travel destinations – and pin images to illustrate their topic. ➔ Pinterest has added to the lexicon of “like” and “retweet” with its ability to “pin” content and then “repin” it across the site & networks. ➔ Considering that the word Pinterest didn’t exist in 2010, by October 2011 nearly 900,000 has searched for the term “Pinterest” more than 2.4 million times. Search data like this can often be a leading indicator to investors regarding the viral growth of a company. ➔ In 2011, it was valued through venture financing at$40m and, most recently, just a few months later, at around $200m. ➔ A recent infographic from Monetate shows that in terms of driving traffic to retailers’ websites, Pinterest does a better job than Google+. From September to December 2011, non-subscribed Pinterest users went from 1.68 million to 7.21 million people, an increase of 329% in only four months. The infographic suggests Pinterest might have built a new model for social media referrals.
Retailers take note ➔ Although still very new, the start-up is attracting more and more attention , as its pin boards are becoming a major source of traffic to retailer websites. ➔ Each image is actually a link that redirects the user to the original webpage containing the image. When users pin a retailers’ product, the image therefore redirects directly to the individual product page on the retailer’s website, turning their virtual pin-board into a source of referrals. ➔ It was just recently discovered that Pinterest is earning affiliate commission from some of their referral links, depending on companies that are participating in an affiliate programme. ➔ A number of retailers and other brands like General Electric, have started to create their own pin boards for Pinterest users to share pictures of products across the social platform. Changing the future of search to discovery ➔ Sites like Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Snip.it, Clipboard and Curisma, etc.,all allow their users to decide what aspects of the web (text, media, etc.) are worth saving and sharing, instead of browsing the web from Google, or even Facebook for that matter. ➔ These networks allow for self-expression, and in doing so, re-sort and re-shape the web we see, and that is a very big shift away from traditional search toward social discovery. Warning: Copyright quagmire The obvious question is who owns the content. Whilst Pinterest has a carefully crafted copyright policy it leaves liability for infringement squarely on members’ shoulders.
COMMUNICATIONS TAKEOUT
GET PINNING 1) Pin content that relates to your target audience Look for ways to create a good mix between the audience’s interests and what your company stands for. 2) Have company related pins Find creative and stylistic ways of showcasing products and include a price tag with the image. Make sure your website is image optimised. 3) Follow and Engage Search for those users that fall under your target demographic and begin interacting with them through comments or repinning. This will hopefully result in comments and repins of your own content. 4) Observe and research You can go and explore the boards of your clients and others that fall under your target audience and use this information to build a better relationship with your audience. 5) Social recruiting opportunity See these 7 creative resumes .
TOP TIPS FOR BRANDS ON PINTEREST
HR/WAR FOR TALENT
FUTURE OF LEADERSHIP Who wants to be a millionaire CEO? There was a time not so long ago when most senior executives would aspire to CEO status. With it came increased responsibility but also considerable financial rewards. Then along came Enron and other wellknown corporate scandals and suddenly the top job lost some of its allure. Particularly when the concept of ‘the buck stops here’ could actually lead to a CEO being marched off in handcuffs on national TV. Charismatic, celebrity leadership ➔ It is tempting to see the demise of Steve Jobs as representing the end of an era in terms of charismatic leadership. It is hard to foresee other leaders reaching those iconic heights. ➔ Indeed, it may be argued that the cult of celebrity leadership, when it is linked to personal betterment at the expense of the company, is to be avoided at all costs – as witness Royal Bank of Scotland.
Ethics and transparency to the fore ➔ One thing is certain and that is that transparency , integrity and authenticity are qualities that will be absolutely essential for any successful leader of the future. The end of the fat cat ➔ The all-pervasive nature of new media, along with citizen mobilisation (as seen in the #occupy movement) will make it increasingly hard to hide any misdemeanors or for massive bonuses to be accepted.
Do you speak global? ➔ Increased globalisation will pose many challenges for CEOs, not least dealing with complex multi-cultural and diversified demographic issues . Techno/multi-media savviness ➔ There may still be some companies where CEOs are not tech savvy, but this will become a must-have skill of the future. Not least because of technology’s ability to shrink the world and deal with a complex set of stakeholders.
ROI ➔ Perhaps the strongest pressure facing leaders in the future will be to demonstrate ROI. Demonstrating and quantifying the impact of leadership development investments is likely to emerge as a priority for organisations. Work Life Balance ➔ Lloyds Banking Group CEO recently had to take time out due to stress. In the past, this would have been seen as a sign of weakness but more attention will be paid in the future to the well being of senior executives. Feminomics and CEOs ➔ In virtually all markets many fewer women than men are active in the labour market, leading to a shortage of women CEOs. This will continue to be an unmet challenge. ➔ Only 12% of CEOs say they see poor retention of female talents as a key business challenge over the next three years and 56% of businesses say they have no plans to change their policies. Only 11% of CEOs globally are planning significant change to policies aimed at attracting and retaining more of female employees today.
COMMUNICATIONS TAKEOUT
10 LEADERSHIP TRENDS IN BUSINESS (see link below) 1.
The rise of complex challenges 2. The innovation revolution 3. The art of virtual leadership 4. Collaboration nation 5. The world of interruption 6. Authenticity is the next celebrity 7. The fallout from the baby boom – part 1 8. The fallout from the baby boom – part 2 9. Leadership for longevity 10. What’s next? 10 LEADERSHIP TRENDS IN BUSINESS [Source: Center for Creative Leadership]
DIGITAL / MANUFACTURING
3D PRINTING REVOLUTION Dictionaries have multiple definitions of the verb “to print” but none of them remotely conjure up images of objects like prosthetic jaws, jewellery, lampshades, iphone covers , shoes or even museum exhibits — all of which can now be printed with the help of special 3D printing machines. Manufacturing at the click of a mouse ➔ Printing in 3D may seem bizarre. In fact it is similar to clicking on the print button on a computer screen and sending a digital file to an inkjet printer. The difference is that the “ink” in a 3D printer is a material which is deposited in successive, thin layers until a solid object emerges. ➔ The general term the industry uses for this is “additive manufacturing”, but the most widely used devices are called 3-D printers. ➔ The printing of parts and products has the potential to transform manufacturing because it lowers the costs and risks. No longer does a producer have to make thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of items to recover his fixed costs.
Medical devices ➔ By far the biggest adopter of additive technology is the medical devices sector and, around the world, many patients sport hip replacements, dental crowns or even cranial implants that have been produced by clinicians on laser-sintering machines. Indeed, the largest-volume application of additive manufacturing is in the production of hearing aids, with customised hearing-aid casings now almost exclusively made using additive techniques. ➔ The biggest spur for adoption of the technology in the medical world is not customisation, but economics. With additive, because the component is built in particles, densities can be changed and surfaces made porous so that it’s not necessary to go through secondary processes. It’s a lot cheaper.
Ideas and intellectual property issues ➔ Perhaps the most exciting aspect of additive manufacturing is that it lowers the cost of entry into the business of making things. ➔ Ultimately, this suggests that success in manufacturing will depend less on scale and more on the quality of ideas. Brilliance alone, though, will not be enough. A new industrial revolution ➔ Good ideas can be copied even more rapidly ➔ Mass-manufacturing identical items may not with 3D printing, so battles over intellectual be necessary or appropriate any more, since 3D property may become even more intense. It printing allows for a great deal of customisation. will be easier for imitators as well as innovators Indeed, in the future some see consumers to get goods to market fast. Competitive downloading products as they do digital music advantages may thus be shorter-lived than and printing them out at home, or at a local 3D ever before. production centre, having tweaked the designs ➔ As with past industrial revolutions, the to their own tastes. That is probably a faraway greatest beneficiaries may not be companies dream. Nevertheless, a new industrial but their customers. revolution may well be on the way.
COMMUNICATIONS TAKEOUT
9 WAYS 3D PRINTING CAN CHANGE THE WORLD (see link below) 1. Medical Procedures 2. Advances In Research 3. Product Prototyping 4. Historic Preservation 5. AEC 6. Manufacturing 7. Food Industries 8. Automotive 9. Accessories 9 WAYS 3D PRINTING CAN CHANGE THE WORLD [Source: Mashable] CONTACT Elaine Cameron Strategic Research & Trend Analysis, EMEA elaine.cameron@bm.com Don’t forget to follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/FUTUREPers p