Almost 43% of respondents in a survey online if you prefer to choose a single medium. More than half of consumers seeking information network about brands that interest them. And a 30% rate that are well positioned in search engines.

When choosing a single means of communication for their lives, 42.8 percent of respondents prefer the Internet, according to the fourth survey that made the digital production agency and SG2.
The study reveals that more than half of Internet users on the network looking for information on the brands that interest them. With regard to the validity of such data, 39.4 percent believe that the best information is on the official sites, whereas for 34.3 percent,
As for the contents of the websites of companies, 34.7 percent of users prefer services that will be useful, 22.1 percent content of interest and a 15.6 percent which gives you a data presentation and product / service.
It is also important that the mark appears well positioned on search engines like Google or Yahoo (28.9 percent) and having a good website itself (27.1 percent).
With regard to companies with better presence online, Nike was number one (with 12.6 percent of the vote), followed closely by Google (12 percent) and thirdly Sony, which was June 1 , 7 percent.

The marks on the Social Networks

Nearly seven in ten Internet users have expressed to be social network, demographics more likely to use applications such as young people and women.
47.4 percent of respondents claim to be a fan of any brand and claims to have been a fan because he likes the brand, 22.5 percent did so because he wants the promotion, whereas 21.6 percent were recommendation of a friend.
40 percent of social network users will like to say about brands, products or services on the same.

A survey conducted in Europe revealed that 41% said theGeneral of enterprises as the main responsible for the marketing errors. Only 24% is attributed to the lack of professionalism of the sales team.


The vast majority of professionals, up to 73% are of the opinion that the company and its marketing strategy to blame for the reduction of customers, according to results of market survey "Why lose customers?" by RMG & Associates. In this sense, up to 41%, pointing to the address as the main cause, compared with 32% who blame the lack of a marketing policy. However, only 24% of respondents give this responsibility to the lack of professionalism of the sales team.
The lack of solutions to current customer needs and the absence of an added value to their expectations are the main causes of the loss of customers in organizations, as 57% of respondents. The results of the survey relegated to second place other reasons such as availability of low price competition (15%), or the mismanagement that often makes claims (11%). As to what are the best ways to build customer loyalty, 30% of respondents indicated that add value to the management and 23.44% cited loyalty programs. Only 6.7% named promotions and discounts

The key to the success of a commercial product may be to keep the head away from the creative team, according to a report by Nielsen and published by Ad Age magazine, which estimates that the benefits are indirectly proportional to the presence of superiors.

Nielsen oversaw the process of creation of 30 products and then measured the income and benefits they threw, determining that the independent teams generate 80% more profit.

"Until the dispute with the hands high things work, because they often engage in the creative process too, especially when things do not work," said Tom Agan, Nielsen vicre president management.

In this sense, Peter Klein, director of development for advertisers like Gillette and Kraft, told the publication that the managerial staff often have little experience in this field, so the job is best left to specialists.

Doug Hall, consultant, disagrees and argues that this idea is wrong, unless they are completely incompetent management, while recognizing that this problem is quite widespread in business

One day, Ray Kroc's advisers advised him not to buy McDonald's. But he ignored and went on his instinct. The rest is history ...

All people are born with different capacities, whose phylogenetic origin is difficult to trace. These skills are being lulled as we mature, socialized and "educated."

After the great tsunami that hit several countries in Africa and Southeast Asia in 2004, there were no remains or skeletons of animals.

Obviously, the animals retain some ability to perceive signals that humans have forgotten. And this ability is what we call "intuition."

What is intuition?

One of the most successful definitions of intuition (at least for me) said that intuition is to know, without knowing how we know it.

It is a form of knowledge that helps us recognize the possibilities of any situation without resorting to the reasoning and perceiving the hidden or do not appear at first sight.

Intuition allows us to grasp the truth immediately and accurately, obtaining certain conclusions based on limited information.

Weston Agor refers to intuition as "the ability to integrate and use the information stored on both sides of the brain", and tells us that "the intuitive signals are transmitted in the form of feelings"

Burke and Miller argue that "intuition is an unconscious mental process that builds on the previous history of the individual."

Jagdish Parikh speaks of an "access to the internal reservoir of expertise and experience accumulated for years, and obtaining a response, or an impulse to do something, or a choice among several alternatives, all without being aware of how to obtain "

Frances Vaughan goes further: "Intuition allows us to use the vast supply of knowledge which we are not aware, including not only what one has experienced or learned intentionally or subliminally, but also the infinite reservoir of universal knowledge, in which exceed the limits of the individual. "

More and more users have become multitasking, ie two simultaneous consuming media, particularly television and the Internet and to avoid TV commercials no longer need to zap, but enough for them to surf the net. The research, conducted at the request of Microsoft, shows that the target of 16-24 deepens this habit.

39% of users change channels during commercial breaks, while 34% use the internet along these intermediates, according to a study conducted at the request of meshing Media Microsoft Advertising from 1050 adults from seven European countries ( United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Belgium.
This paper highlights two of every three Internet users surf the web while watching TV at least once a week and 40% do so most of the day or night.

As for the distinction by sex and age, the study asserts that there is no significant gender bias in the simultaneous use of these means and that users aged between 16 and 24 years show a greater propensity to consume internet TV at the same time. Another highlight of the report is that the day of the week is a differentiating factor in the simultaneous use of media. On weekends this use throughout the day (from 10:00 to 17:30) is almost twice that week: 47% versus 23%.

The dominant activity during the simultaneous use of media, as in the regular use of internet is the e-mail query, followed by surfing the web, social networks and instant messaging. At this point it found gender differences: while browsing the net contents looking men while women focus on communication in its various forms.

For multitasking roles of advertising in television and internet are complementary: both serve a similar function in providing consumers information about products and brands as well as providing information on products they already know. In regard to stimulate interest, proof of product, and persuasion, the force that has traditionally been advertising on television is still substantial, but Internet advertising also obtained good results in the study.

Another preconceived idea is the widespread perception that Internet is not just a channel response and the great fans of the brand perception are the TV spots, print and outdoor. However, when asked to multitask on this topic, 51% choose the network as the most effective time to make known brands or products.

Blind spots, a threat to sustainable growth

The successful products of many companies end up losing its charm after a couple of years, taking with him the success he brought at first. The sustained growth of the products of a business depends on effective use of strategic intelligence, as it is through this that you can avoid falling into the trap of blind spots that exist in the environment of an organization.

When a company launches a product that proves to be very successful one must be very careful in the strategy to follow, because, generally, that success is usually temporary and go off slowly in the early years, unless the business is analyzed smart way to maximize all opportunities that may arise there.

The professor at IMD Business School, Bettina Büchel, touches on this issue in an article explaining that to maintain growth and success over time is necessary for companies to discover and develop services, solutions and product families, so the success of a decision or successful product are not left behind, but to continue producing and contributing to the organization.

She explains that the greatest risk to a company at the time to analyze their opportunities are in some blind spots of the organization consist of areas in which executives do not see or understand certain important information, thus taking their business ends fall into a series of traps as miscalculating the boundaries of the industry, not properly identify emerging powers, losing touch with customers, putting too much emphasis on competition and allow visible corporate taboos or the lack of foresight limit under reference.

To overcome these obstacles and avoid falling into traps set by the blind spots of the organization, Büchel recommends making use of strategic intelligence, which is, according to her, "a coordinated combination of research, analysis and distribution of the information needed to make strategic decisions that enable growth opportunities flourish. "

Six strategic intelligence sources

The expert mentions and explains six important sources of strategic intelligence to be taken into account in any business, and integrated decision making, to exploit the opportunities available and not fall into the trap of inflexibility:

1. Trends. Büchel said that executives must understand the trends and global movements in areas such as demographics, regulation and consumer markets, and emphasizes that the issue should not be thought of two or three years but five or ten. Also mentions that not only have to analyze the future trends, but also to establish the actions to be carried out to take the opportunities that may arise.

2. Clients. This point is known to customers, study their behavior and receive feedback on your part to have clarity about what their needs are being met and which not, so they can identify and exploit opportunities for new products or services.

3. Benchmarking. The teacher advised to look beyond the organization and analyze where they come from the highest levels of innovation in the industry and how new discoveries affect the company and its market niche. She recommends not to assume that industry participants remain within the traditional boundaries, but prepare for that at any time new powers arising from different spaces.

4. Extension of the categories. Büchel said that too specifically define the category to which a company belongs lost growth opportunities. What we recommend is to look carefully at what the company offers and how to think can be extended taking into account the wishes of consumers.

5. Skills. At this point it is about recognizing the abilities and skills with a company that has, so there may arise opportunities to grow and develop ideas from what we know to do well.

6. Technology. The expert should be alert to new technologies and analyze how they can adapt to existing products or services, so give them added value and extend the scope of supply as they have done, for example, with cell phones.

Look beyond

Finally, Büchel mentions the importance of analyzing the sources with which account when defining the strategy and conduct research important for growth, and recommends expanding the network of contacts and go beyond what is handy to have as much diversity as possible, thus achieving higher levels of strategic intelligence that lead to overcome these blind spots in the organization.

In his words, "If all of your main sources of information have similar origins, is not very likely to get the same breadth and depth of the ideas necessary to support true innovation for growth."

Concludes that organizations should consider these tips and plunge into the strategic intelligence to find that their success and growth to become a constant and positive elements not only temporary.

For the large German software company SAP, was a typical dilemma of the chicken and egg. The year was 2003, and was launching its new SAP Net Weaver platform, a clever piece of software that fit with their existing applications for businesses, and helped them talk to each other and with applications not created by SAP.

At that time, SAP was to get the best of a new system to integrate software called service-oriented architectures, which allowed computers to more easily share their data and services.

The dilemma was this: the true potential of the product would not be apparent until they begin to deal with customers and find out what they could do with it. But customers may not adopt SAP Net Weaver, which was giving away as part of its applications until they could capture its potential.

Even the early adopters of Net Weaver, usually tech-savvy customers, had problems with the most basic aspects of the program. And SAP was not the scope nor the resources to train and educate its entire customer base, let alone educate tens of thousands of consultants in systems integration.
This is where the executive board member Shai Agassi SAP had a great idea: why not allow all SAP customers, systems integrators and independent service providers will be taught each other as equals, as they learned to use Net Weaver?

The result was the SAP Developer Network (SDN), a creative space with forums, wikis, videos and blogs aimed not only to SAP customers but also to others whose participation would be crucial to the success of the platform. SDN community grew quickly and force and thereby able to establish SAP Net Weaver as their clients.

The story is instructive how Shai Agassi and his team went beyond the corporate limits of SAP (after convincing SAP internal groups to create a community and not many ") to link a vast network of developers, consultants, users, opinion leaders and experts. Few of them were employees of SAP, but almost all were passionate about the software. With minimal cost to the company, compared with models that push the technology-SAP channeled the collective power of hundreds of thousands of talented individuals to help him achieve its strategic objectives. In fact, Shai Agassi was "pulling from the top" to raise the level of learning, innovation and performance of SAP.

How can other institutional leaders to do something similar to promote the emergence of creative spaces and curves of collaboration? Here are four general suggestions:

1. Redefine the institutional challenges and opportunities. Institutional leaders now focus primarily on attracting and developing talent within their own institution. The ingenuity of the idea of Shai was to look beyond the boundaries of the enterprise to access and develop the talent needed SAP. Put more broadly, leaders must redefine the reason why the institution exists, breaking down institutional walls to move from a scalable system to push one pull.

2. Identify and mobilize individuals passionate. Shai Agassi did it for the money, he had sold the company he founded, Top Tier Software, SAP at U.S. $ 400 million in 2001. But SAP followed six years because he was convinced of the ability of software (and in particular of Net Weaver) to produce a tremendous impact on the world through productivity improvements. SAP CEO Hasso Plattner recognized the passion of Shai and invested in it, even though many in the company perceived Shai, who had risen from the ranks of SAP, as an "upstart" or even as a renegade.

Individuals are usually passionate talented and motivated, but are often dissatisfied: they see their own potential and that of the institutions where they work, but you can feel blocked when they endeavor to achieve. Leaders must establish institutional mechanisms to ensure that these individuals are connected to each other, and they must become their champions.

3. Reorient institutional activities. Mobilizing the passion means rethinking the strategy, organization and operations. The strategy gives priority to the growth needed to create new things that are made by passionate people. The organization is moving toward the scaling of equipment in building large spaces where people get better faster by working with others. Operations focus on the two or three initiatives that attract people passionate about the arrangements to operate successfully in less structured and defined situations. The modified system of incentives and rewards to help these people continue to learn-through successes and failures-and the reward for taking more short-term risks.

4. Adopt new forms of information technology. The younger generations are using Enterprise 3.0 technologies to connect with peers outside their companies. This contrasts with Enterprise 2.0 tools that focused primarily on collaboration within the company. Generation 3.0 at some point will drive the definition and development of new IT architecture designed to build relationships of trust and long term from thousands of independent institutions, rather than short-term transactions and closely defined that run mostly in a single institution. Institutional leaders must recognize and embrace these new forms of IT.

What are early examples of institutional change do you see? Are our institutional leaders prepared for the challenge? What else would you say to change in this new context of systems based on pull technology?

In science, the questions tend to have a concrete answer as "five" or "mass times velocity of light squared." In contrast, in the arts and design there is "constant" or "equation" or "laws" to settle what is "right" and "wrong." Instead, we turned to the ancient and venerable tradition of criticism as half a work that seeks to improve as many subjective criteria.

Many of the criteria that are judged works of art are increasingly useful to apply to the business:

Humanity: raises an interesting question about the way we live?

Progress: the work constitutes a breakthrough in a field?

Formalism: presentation demonstrates some expertise or talent?

Completeness: Are we at the end of the cycle of a creative or even half way?

And may I add, or invent, even more criteria can be based on evaluations. Sounds inaccurate? Yes and no. What happens in a critique is simple but powerful act of testing a hypothesis from every angle of attack or praise. But these words are dangerous.

The word "attack" should be used with care, there is an old legend about criticism in art schools where the teacher picks up a picture of the wall and walk through it to show his displeasure. This criticism falls into the category of malicious criticism ", which can serve to be dramatized in movies, but it does very little to the development of an artist. Similarly, the word "praise" should be used with care because a continuous barrage of applause can generate creative paralysis. It is always nice to hear "I love it, but every artist knows that their work can always be better, hence the" I love "can be just as harmful," This is garbage. " The specificity is important in any good review.

Criticism allows pros and cons come to light for artists to listen, and learn to defend themselves from an audience of experts and peers. Delivery method for judging the slippery answers to questions that have no concrete answers. Given the ambiguity surrounding the innovation, it is easy to see how honest criticism can also be a useful business practice. In other words, being open to criticism makes you into an avid auditor and sensitive to real-time contributions of the world around him.

Today was much debate about the best way to give feedback to employees: If you focus on the strengths or weaknesses, or doing an annual review effective. The head corresponds to "criticize" the work of their subordinates, but what about the reverse? In the traditional model of authoritarian leadership, it is expected that the leader has the right. The criticism of the boss is behind closed doors, or back, and almost never done openly. But my studies in creative leadership tells me to be critical of is an important way to ensure that their actions are relevant.

Be open to criticism means that you are open to the idea that I could be wrong, and therefore that the only way to test their hypothesis by subjecting them to criticism. It also means that you are open to larger questions about his work and its validity within the organization. In other words, be open to criticism it more accountable.

They spent less than two months since its launch and Microsoft announced yesterday that it canceled the production of their cell phones Kin, designed for young users of social networks on the Internet. In the technology company said it was to focus on the Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft went on sale two types of kin in U.S. last May 13 between 50 and worth $ 100 and planned to market the device in Europe in recent months, something that no longer occur. The company, however, continue to work with the Verizon telephone company to conduct the inventory of existing U.S. Kin
"We have decided to focus on the release of our Windows Phone 7", Microsoft said in a statement released yesterday, which said the team dedicated to Kin will become part of the personnel working in the development of Windows Phone 7 (WP7), which hit the market in October.
According to technology website Gizmodo, Microsoft's decision was based on poor sales of Kin. From MSNBC, media, formed by Microsoft and NBC Universal, Kin scored a "white elephant" because, despite its functionality and connection with social networking sites, use rates were as high as those of cell high-end but does not offer the same services.
The company said Kin advances will be applied in the next WP7, with which Microsoft hopes to compete with the iPhone, Blackberry and other phones of the so-called "smart."