Tag Archives: technology innovation

Community, collaboration, content and conversations

We all watch Netflix and Amazon Prime at home why can’t we watch work related videos at work?

The way we do business is changing. Phones are becoming redundant from desks. Less people are doing the daily commute to the office as home work becomes more widely accepted. In marketing it use to be about position, placement and price. It’s now about building community, creating content, collaborating and conversations.

With this in mind the business tools we use on a daily basis need to measure up to these changing needs. Employees need to start creating content in communities with customers. The lower value information can be gained on demand at the point of need. Live video calls can then be used for the higher value interactions.

Watch and Learn is a catalyst to all this. Meeting face to face is important but what happens before and after? Take an annual event there is a spike of interest and then conversations die down. People might connect on LinkedIn or email and arrange follow up meetings. However this is only a small fraction of the total potential when it comes to conversations. Indeed at these events there is no smart matching of individuals to enable partnerships or customer transactions.

Watch and Learn builds rich communities which harvest people’s voices and videos making interactions feel more human. This gets away from the sea of emails which don’t build lasting relationships.

Private groups, timelines, playlists, profiles, direct messages allow for content creation, collaboration and conversations. Building community is the new smartest way to do business. It is more targeted, more convenient and a richer experience. Traditional phone calls after all are being replaced by video calls. The truth is we have to keep switching tools from video conferencing software, to email, to CRM and chat apps.

Watch and Learn is one platform where you can build community just in time or in real time. You communicate to people using their preferred method of contact be it text messages, voice messages, video calls, screencasts or live video calls.

Activating all of this leads to a more enjoyable and memorable business culture. Everything is transparent and relationships are built with full accountability and responsibility. There is no he said she said and it’s like a gold fish bowl with clear water. Most businesses are currently operating in an opaque world. Even if an organisation is open and transparent in outlook their systems don’t give this level of transparency all in one place. We all watch Netflix or Amazon Prime at home why can’t we watch more videos in the workplace? 

Learn more at

https://watchandlearn.io

Skilling up our children for the future workplace

Dave Coplin Chief Envisioning Officer Microsoft UK

Dave Coplin Chief Envisioning Officer Microsoft UK

In 10 years’ time there will be large, established companies which do not exist now. Within those companies there will probably be roles and jobs fulfilled, again which are not even advertised in the here and now. If you have watched the latest episode of Panorama on the BBC, Rohan Silva talks about the opportunities and threats of the digital age. Some jobs in the future are more threatened by the digital revolution than others. Thankfully, teachers’ threat of loosing their jobs at the hand of digital innovation is just 2%, whilst other roles such as paralegal and secretarial positions and becoming less and less widespread.

KPMG Enterprise held a seminar with keynote speakers today, presenting at Aspire in Leeds city centre. Chief Envisaging Office Dave Coplin of Microsoft UK; Adam Beaumont, Managing Director of AQL; Bryan Redpath, Rugby Coach at Yorkshire Carnegie; and Luke Allen, Director at KPMG Nunwood gave speeches, with audience participation taking place via an audience voting system. The event was hosted by David Parkin, former Business Editor at the Yorkshire Post.

Firstly, Dave Coplin talked about how human beings need to use technology in the future. Business needs to be reimagined because the way we work today does not work. How many computers at home are better than those in the workplace? This leads to productivity problems. The answer to the question asked of hundreds of employees in the workplace was astounding. What constitutes a productive day at work? Lots of people answer “clearing my inbox”, a rigid process that does not change a real issue in businesses. Organisations naturally resist change. What businesses need to focus on is the outcomes, not the processes. We are still working like the Victorians, when a digital society can give you new, different options. Dave Coplin has written a book called “The Rise of the Humans” which is well worth a read.

In the modern workplace, mobile disruption and the problem of “too much information” are becoming real issues. Indeed, in some schools mobile phones have been banned from classes for this very reason.  Dave talks about the problem being the people sending the emails. Data holds the key; data will define our future. The ability to use data in different ways allows businesses to predict the future. Gathering more data gives you fundamentally different answers. An example of this would be asking which of the following cars in the most environmentally friendly: The Toyota Prius or the Land Rover Defender? Most of the audience thought Toyota’s flagship hybrid had fine green credentials, but when you look at the data over the life time the Land Rover wins. You might ask why? The answer is there are lots old Land Rovers still going strong on our roads – they last longer!

Pattern-matching in data will allow us to create awesome new services. Take a resent innovation with Skype, where you can now, in real-time, speak to someone in a foreign language and Skype will translate your words into English, or indeed any other supported language! This changes the game, and will allow future generations to do business in non-English-speaking jurisdictions much more easily.

Our children in the modern workplace will have to embrace a culture of transformation. The rise of the machines will allow us to greatly extend our businesses in ways we have not yet thought possible. The core skills the future workforce will have to demonstrate are those which cannot be replaced by robots. Creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and empathy are the skills that future business will want to invest in. Our children must work with the machines and not against them, as our traditional middle-class, white-collar jobs become redundant in the new digital age, and new higher value digital jobs are created.