A Season of Change in the UK

jljones — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:00:34 +0000

Springtime in the UK is usually an idyllic time as the crocus and daffodils bloom and the winter gives way to lush surroundings.. However, this year had a crescendo of events amassed to create several major global shifts to businesses: natural, political and technological.

The first major disruption came from nature. As many Denuoer’s experienced first hand, the ash cloud plume from Iceland halted life for millions of people and businesses alike. For days it tested business capabilities to run virtually as people were stranded throughout the world. While the photos of Eyjafjallajokull are stunning, as this infographic shows, the economic impact was devastating.

(Via: Online MBA)

Within days of the volcano, the UK held one of its most historic general elections with several firsts: televised debates, use of social platforms and the establishment of a coalition government. Like Obama’s campaign in the U.S., this was the year of social media for UK political process. The mock election on Facebook closely mirrored the real results and the momentum continues with the new government coalition launch of http://www.number10.gov.uk/ – a unification of their outreach across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Despite this outreach, many pundits criticize the authenticity and real transparency a government can have on social platforms and tools.

While a natural disaster and political election are massive, one of the more intriguing announcements was made by the UK newspaper, The Guardian, last week. In a progressive move for the newspaper industry, The Guardian unveiled its new Open Platform; it shifts its commercial model from content publisher to service and application platform. It’s the next evolution of the newspaper API for which the New York Times is best known; unlike the NYT, the Guardian is offering a fully open API It will allow anyone to develop applications that can be integrated into the Guardian website or allow people to pull from the Guardian (e.g. content or data) to develop applications or services outside of the website. The Guardian has a host of case examples, from travel to the election results, for its Open Platform. As Rishad stressed in his keynote to the Newspaper Association of America in April, the industry must rethink their business model to stay relevant in the modern market. While only time will tell if the Open Platform is truly a viable commercial model for the Guardian, it is a notable move by one of the more innovative players in the industry.

Are We Listening?

jljones — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:23:20 +0000

Being a bank holiday in the UK this past week, I was afforded the rare opportunity to finally try a restaurant in my neighbourhood tailored to American style breakfasts. Normally there is an absurd line out the door of this restaurant – mostly of other ex-Pats seeking a reprieve from the otherwise hearty British breakfast of black pudding, bake beans and sausage. But on this weekend, most of London retreats to warmer locations. As I sat and relaxed – enjoying my filtered coffee and huevos rancheros, I spotted a number of large yellow stickers smattered across the other business along the Camden Passage. The sticker said ‘We are listening.’ I immediately thought ‘that is brilliant’ (borrowing a term from my current homeland). Were these stickers a way for business to show that they are actually listening to their customers and acting upon that feedback?

Unfortunately upon further review the sticker was really to denote that the store was listening to a certain UK radio station, but it made me think about signalling that companies are listening to customers. I believe there is a space for this visual or symbol.

It’s a core tactic of business and especially restaurants to display a sticker which promotes their community reviews from the likes of Yelp, Top Table or Zagat. These stickers instantaneously help us, as potential patrons to filter through the hundreds if not thousands of businesses, products and services out there. Since these stickers are awarded to business that receive high consumer ratings and those ratings tend to come from other likeminded individuals, it is as if our peers our providing us a recommendation on the spot.

What if there was a visual way for these businesses to show potential patrons that they are not only liked by past patrons but that they proactively solicit feedback from their customers, they understand what customers are saying and they have acted upon that feedback. It would show that they were truly listening.

Denuology: The Observation and Observations of Denuo. » jljones

A Season of Change in the UK

Are We Listening?