Trend Watch List

The Self Tending Mushroom Award is given to individuals, companies, entities and even countries who choose the dark over the truth. I was surprised when I stumbled upon this month’s STeMie recipient who displays a subtle but deadly mindset that may spell the end of this internet giant. This month’s STeMie is awarded to Yahoo for perpetuating a decade-old business style that goes from product development to leadership strategy...not an ill-conceived style, but one that has not evolved with the times and is the root of Yahoo being slowly but surely left in the dust of their competitors. Yahoo emerged successful because of their unique product that catered to what people wanted at the time. Leadership was novel as well. Leaders sought to listen, so navigate the information age, and to develop products that helped their customers navigate the information as well. Times change, however, and Yahoo has not changed. Yahoo has, however, with the installation of a new and pedigreed CEO, Carol Bartz, embarked on a new brand campaign. A bright shiny wrapper on what is otherwise the same organization same unimaginative products and last-decade leadership. In a press release for the campaign, Ms. Bartz notes that, “Today the Web and your world are inseparable...Hundreds of millions of people use Yahoo! (R) to get the information they need.” I suspect real authenticity and innovation are hiding within the brilliant minds working at Yahoo, but the old leadership style is so information focused that operating at the pace of the social media age is just not in the cards. In the Economist’s World in 2010, Ms. Bartz puts forth her management philosophy as, “Information will be the greatest opportunity for business leaders in the coming years—and perhaps our biggest headache.” She suggests a solution for handling the situation: “... listening... [and] identify and mentor thought leaders.“ Again, it is not wrong...it is just a decade out of date and in Yahoo’s world, good but old adds up to failure as your world leaves you behind. So join me in awarding this STeMie to Yahoo for staying safely in place with what worked in the 90s while their entire business environment passed them by. Lessons within this STeMie are many. You need not operate at the speed of light, but stay ahead of the pace of your business environment. Assess your business. Update yearly (or quarterly if your industry dictates). Lastly, when introducing new leadership, ensure modern styles are coming on board. Consider it well and the advantage will be yours.

The dream of the completely paperless company is not new. We imagine offices free of paper clutter, neatly organized shelves and desktops...the vision is quite attractive. For the large majority of businesses, however, it is not even close to reality. Today the evolution of multi-media and internet security is making the completely paperless office a distinct possibility...and eliminating some organizations and business models through this digitization. The question will be, is there sufficient reason for your organization to go paperless, how to estimate the costs in time, effort and more intangible resources, and when to make the jump. Reduced printing and mailing costs are key for many organizations. Increased efficiency is also a great reason to go paperless. Beyond all of that time saved you are even more likely to save some serious real estate in terms of storage and the need for an office in the first place. Those seeking to go paperless are confronted with challenges that mark an abrupt stopping point for companies not prepared to address them. Major challenges include resistance to change, employees or clients (gulp!) that cannot receive, read, edit or annotate the document, security of proprietary or other critical information and making sure your contracts and other agreements are legally binding even though they are electronically or digitally signed. Modern paperless operations include a number of components to address all manner of these and other challenges including: multimedia, clickwrap, electronic signatures, digital signatures, biometric signatures, authentication and computing devices. Software capabilities such as those from Adobe, NFi Studios, Alfresco, Ademero, Knowledge Tree Echosign, Docusign and others solve the remainder of these issues with ease. To turn this trend into a competitive advantage, understand that not every paperless device or method is right for your business. To develop the right strategy for your organization, do your homework on needs, capabilities and issues before you dive in. Once all of your homework is in place, estimate the cost and benefit in time, effort and more intangible resources such as morale, corporate image, and the like. Make the jump when and only when all of these planning steps are in place.