sascom voices - The sascom magazine blog

We're working on an education piece for the second quarter 2009 issue of sascom. If that's an area that interests you, watch these videos to set the mood.

Do pull quotes actually pull you into a story?

What about contests?

Let's make this fun. The quotes below are all from the fourth quarter 2008 issue of sascom magazine. The first person who can tell me the name, title and organization of each person quoted below wins a book.

The prize? A copy of the book Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott.

You can enter by putting your answers in the comment area below.

"Ultimately, it’s about exceeding the customers’ expectations, surprising them with a level of personalization, and treating them with warmth and friendliness.”

++++++++

“You can’t look at a gigabyte of data. You can’t scroll through a million rows and a thousand columns. There’s not enough time in your life.”

++++++++

“The better a company is at extracting useful knowledge from data and quickly translating this knowledge into the right products and initiatives, the stronger your competitive position is."

++++++++

"We have yet to come across anything we can't do in SAS."

++++++++

Official contest rules are after the jump.

Before I get into the industry news that everyone's covering today, I'd like to post a few final thoughts on the Premier Business Leadership Series in Vegas.

I never did get a chance to talk with Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, but I did attend his keynote presentation and was impressed with how thorougly he summarized the book while also covering newer information and research he's uncovered since writing it. I was most struck by a comment he made regarding blogs, wikis and other social media technologies, saying that using these tools to communicate and interact with customers and other stakeholders is "so 2006." Ouch. That's a bit disheartening for most businesses, who are still just learning how to understand these tools as the "newest" technologies at their disposal.

Instead of focusing on social networking, however, Don encourages businesses to focus on social production. This involves using social networks to produce new products and ideas, instead of just producing relationships. He offers lots of examples in the book, from open source software to outsourcing R&D problems, but the overall theme is to create a platform that encourages innovation and the creation of ideas. It's worth considering what that might look like for your company. For SAS does it look like sasCommunity.org or more like good, old-fashioned SASware Ballot? Probably it looks completely different than either of these - but it's up to us to figure out how to build on these types of past initiatives and create something even better for the future.

Another fascinating presentation I attended came from Alan Murray, executive editor of the Wall Street Journal Online and author of Revolt in the Boardroom. His book discusses the recent trend of CEOs getting fired by their Boards of Directors, using the heads of AIG, Morgan Stanley, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Pfizer and others as examples.

When discussing this flattening of the hierarchy in large, public companies, one of Alan's main points is that CEOs now need the good will of the public to thrive and survive. In fact, many companies are discovering that they're political organizations vulnerable to public scrutiny. As a result, CEOs must become more like politicians and learn to respond to broader societal forces. Some pros: CEOs are more transparent, more public, more open about social responsibilities and environmental impacts. And a big con: We might end up with companies that are afraid to take risks.

A dynamic presenter, Alan talked for an hour without a single slide. Later, I sat at his table for a networking luncheon with an interesting group of SAS customers and resellers where we discussed - among other things - the differences between online vs. print readers, the ownership changes at WSJ, and the fact that lobbyists in many cases are now lobbying businesses directly instead of Congress.

One final presentation worth mentioning was a talk on the future of business intelligence by SAS Fellow, Allan Russell. He covered this topic pretty thorougly in a recent sascom column, but I enjoyed hearing him present the material in person and hearing audience reactions/questions following the talk.

Overall, I came away from the conference sensing a strong theme of change for businesses today. Everything from communications practices and executive responsibilities to societal influences and business analytics are changing at unprecedented rates. Don Tapscott summed it up succinctly when discussing the profound changes to the architecture and structures of today's organizations. He said, "One thing's for sure. The next period will not be boring."

I'm here live in Vegas for the Premier Business Leadership Series, and nobody is visiting my sascom booth, so I've decided to spend more time listening to speakers and digging up stories. Sam Donaldson spoke about leadership during the Keynote address, peppering his talk with political commentary, insider stories, witty asides - and lots of name dropping. According to Donaldson, good leaders:

1. Recognize the need for change and manage the change.
   
2. Are flexible. They stick to their original goals but keep trying different tactics to reach those goals.
   
3. Get results.

Next, I'm heading out to hear Don Tapscott talk about his book Wikinomics, and hear from him how mass collaboration changes everything. I'm hoping to find time to talk to him later today about the topic - and his blog.