The work is based on actual experience and the definition and implementation of techniques for development of complex membership-type organizations like clusters.

In a business network like the Spanish, the role of cooperation across clusters and regional and sector-based systems of innovation is a key factor for improving the competitiveness of these companies, who must learn to cooperate and compete simultaneously in a continuous changing environment. Tools like the Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Maps proved very useful in managing and aligning the strategic objectives of all components of a cluster.

Authors: Alvaro Gomez Vieites, Carlos Otero Barros and Ignacio Prieto
Harvard Deusto Business Review, ISSN 0210-900X, N º 202, 2011, pp. 58-71
Eg, “New principles for the management of strategic capabilities”

So I leave you with my 5 basic precautions to be taken when going to participate in a network.

1. Your e-mail. Do not use your personal or your business email. You can open your Gmail or Hotmail account to include all that comes  from the networks: message alerts, new entries in your groups, post from your contacts, etc. .. There are many people on the Net who´s role is only seek to expand its database of emails and then fill your inbox with spam (not to mention those that can trade with your mail, of course).
2. Update your profile and put real data. The difference between a complete and incomplete profile is only 15 minutes. And I speak about basic information. If you also use all the applications that most networks put at your disposal you will improve your presence. There is no need to detail everything you did, but the necessary information for someone to accept your request for contact. A summary of who you are, your picture, and the dates correctly. Making false or inflated claims is another of the “weaknesses” which should be avoided. Keeping your information up to date is also a way to gain visibility as each time you do your contacts will know and want to review your profile
3. The political and religious ideas. If you’re not a politician or an active member of a religious order, avoid these two issues. They tend to generate too much controversy and as a result of the limited space and time you have in the networks, argument becomes difficult. There are blogs and forums, specific locations where these issues can be discussed and where of course the willingness of participants avoids misunderstandings, as well of course the use of a nickname is possible to ensure anonymity.
4. Define your level of privacy. To reassure those who have just arrived, those who are not on the Web because they do not feel safe on the Internet, all networks offer different levels of privacy of information. There is even some information you will share individually with each of your contacts. I recommend starting with high levels of privacy and gradually reducing it.
5. People and groups to which you’re invited. In accordance with points 1 and 2, when someone sends you an invitation to connect check his profile to avoid joining the network of someone looking for your email or looking to fill your mailbox with ads or trying to lure you into a great business deale. Not to mention those who only seek to “suck” your contacts or to polish their profile. Some groups are simply useless and have no reason for being. And the worst are those who only seek to have thousands of members and then send their “business news” using their Newsletter to group members.

And above the list the most important is to be yourself. After all the networks are just people who come into contact with each other.

Building a brand club action is not only desirable, but its achievement is shown correctly as relevant commercial achievement, social and institutional. As with other trends, the market is an invitation to take these actions, whose implementation is being developed under the wave model (Ray Noorda, Surfing a High Tech Wave: A story of Novell’s Early Years 1980-1990):

1. If you’re riding the wave, stay hard, because you’ve accomplished.
2. If you are behind the wave, forget about surfing because you lost the race.
3. But, if you’ve rushed ahead and go for it, the wave will pass over you.

As each day comes a new fan club a few weeks left empty and without management or a brand with a presence born twittered that the fifth tweet stops issuing either a new executive blog content remains unchanged, we suggest that this model of Noorda´s technology adoption is completely applicable to corporate communication, where few companies ride the wave.

Focus on the CC, the reasons why companies fail to ride the wave are crystal clear:

• They are quick and are overwhelmed by the wave: are the first to be mounted on new technologies, but lack the resources to manage, plan, execute and measure the benefits of digital communication, giving up this identity shortly.
• Or you arrive late (if ever) to the wave: ie, they underestimate the digital presence of their audiences (employees, customers, suppliers, opinion leaders, media) by not taking the exercise of strategic communication as part of the culture corporate. Thus, it builds a process of digital ignorance about the brand by the public above.

Rather than contradictory, these two business situations facing the digital communication are complementary and can coexist even when an organization makes the strategic communication tactics 2.0.

The problem is in focus. In a strategic definition of the communication, the message flow between the receivers-transmitters (digitally speaking, because all the channels would be dynamic and dual) carrying the corporate identity, where digital identity is a representation of that.

In short, it’s exhilarating to use all digital artillery through a strategic approach from communication.

Of course, if you leave aside the methodical planning, which will result will be noise, smoke and much wasted effort.

If you liked this post, I recommend other related posts:
Facebooknomics
Social networking laboratory
SRM – Stakeholder Relationship Management (Ignacio Prieto)
El valor de la Red (David Soler)
Lo que no sabes de Facebook y de Twitter (Gaby Castellanos)

1. Blue World composed of large corporations as a result of successive mergers and acquisitions. Employees having global geographic mobility, good salaries  and great benefits.
2. Green World where all those concerned about the environment, ecology and social responsibility work professionally.
3. Orange World based on small businesses and professional specialists working in networks with each other.

Until now companies felt more comfortable contracting with well known suppliers to discuss certain projects (the blue world). It seemed that the recruitment of micro-businesses or independent professionals was reserved for very specific jobs, more operational and based on trust in the practitioner. But every day we see more often  great professionals – many come from managerial and executive positions in multinational enterprises – are launched to make available to the market, large enterprises and SMEs, experience and know-how outside the typical great brand operation schemes. That is the Orange World.

This new scenario opens up a world of possibilities to both companies whose resources did not allow them before to enjoy higher levels of expertise services and provides skilled professionals interesting and challenging tasks.

A development that does not generate a sense of “emptiness” for those who were accustomed to the blue world large structures.

Projects can be addressed with equal or perhaps greater professionalism that those done by a general purpose company as it brings together and network specialists in each area.

This model also prevents from growing overheads by reducing structures, offices, etc.  It’s about being nimble, fast and “light”.

When taking the opportunities that technology offers and the Internet, some models look almost redundant. You have to take everything the Net puts at our disposal. And this serves to businesses of all sizes.

The study covers the most important factors executives value the most. Easy access to markets followed by qualified staff, communications and transport connections list the main concerns leaders want to take into consideration before deciding where to open up.

#   1       LONDON

#   2       PARIS

#   3       FRANKFURT

#   4       BARCELONA

#   5       BRUSSELS

#   6       MADRID

#   7       MUNICH

#   8       AMSTERDAM

#   9       BERLIN

# 10       MILAN

Elaine Rossall, author of this report, says that London – a perpetual number one on the list – has not been affected by the financial crisis as people are already factoring in the up-and-coming Olympic Games on 2012.

Cities like Barcelona jumped to the top 10 ranking thanks to the great city renovation done at the time of the 1992 Olympic Games and an effective promotional plans. Barcelona ranks first for quality like of employees.

In spite of the Spanish severe economic downturn, Madrid rose one place to the number 6 city in Europe probably because international executives recognize Madrid as the economic capital of the South of Europe.

The housing slump and a favorable exchange rate of 1.50 USD per Euro, prices look quite affordable now.

A house on the outskirts of Miami for only $ 50,000 (33,240 euros). If you want a more exclusive area, like West Palm Beach, could do it for $ 179,000 (119,000 euros), according to consulting firm Fiserv. In Miami, Spanish buyers usually opt for Key Biscayne, Brickell and Coral Gables. Everything from $ 200,000 (132,900 euros).

The new market condition gave rise to a new form of speculation, the very-cheap for cheap model is gaining momentum among new specialists in buying from desperate owners. An up and coming big noise.

A house in Orange County (an exclusive suburb of Los Angeles, known for the OC) costs $ 418,000 (278,000 euros) in San Francisco prices have fallen by 40% and New York lost 10% on average.

There will also be good opportunities buying American art but who wants such an small profit when you can triple your investment as soon as the housing market recover?

Will it last for long? Some economist are now predicting a 2010 exchange rate around 1.20/1.25 USD/Euro so, the time to buy is now.

Based on EL PAIS “Un El Dorado de ladrillo y arte” October 25, 2009

Nothing better than been under a flu state to start an article about it. Well, about flu and media.

As a easy comparison, it´s so profitable the fact to live expatriate a couple of seasons in order to acquire foreign cultures´ knowledge -our corporate DNA claim- than analysis done from our minor daily experiences. My flu made me collect and read many articles over this and other flues and hence this reflection has emerged in media communication, and the probable lack of crisis management plans related to this high profile flu -on media-, which is coming in a brief.

Surely, ending this text and get 100% well will go hand in hand, so here we go.

What about on that has already happened?

Beginning southern summer and new northern winter, now appear three conclusions about swine flu development, as a colophon of other hemisphere´s facts:

1. High profiled diseases are the cause of new cultural stages affecting companies operations, beyond the actual spread of the disease.
2. Crisis management planning goes top as a priority to reduce media exposure, especially on a corporate leaderless probability.
3. Pandemic diseases bring public actors into corporate reality, with no past precedents.

Clearly close to the information treatment of bird flu, influenza A (swine flu, N1H1) has a number of morbid components such as illness, death, pandemia, poverty, crisis in addition to trivial components of “current events” as being global, as its recognition by the institutions and even, the interest in strains mutated. And so there is an annoying media noise, with figures and facts in an adulterated mixture forced to connect, just to “ride the waves” of the news. And therefore impacts on public opinion-at least-causing strain, whose social involvement may end up creating collateral damage health such as stress, insomnia, despair, fear.

With the likely exposure of the company to these collateral damage, I suggest therefore to take planning of communication actions a truly cost cutting initiative. Especially, seeing the economic implication suggested by some recent reports. Just need to add more stress factors as the financial crisis (perhaps political), or as the known Spanish effect called “holidays ending syndrome” and we´ll see that there are many elements to take seriously those preventive issues.

But turning again into the reality, over the past few years, crisis management planning has appeared to be strategic, coming from a embryonic Communication´s document. But this Plan is usually far of be known and less, been probed. We deeply know that this is one of the unfinished businesses of many mid-sized companies in Spain and Latin-American.

There in the South hemisphere we can found two contrasting examples of crisis management, on their countries Administrations, but with corporate implications: the management case in Argentina (with absolute panic and disorder) and the one from Australia (all about organization and efficiency). In the first case, denying the facts being overwhelmed by them, with the loss credibility in institutions.

In the second one, they contain and understand the pandemic flu as what it is (influenza A is a benign disease, with lower mortality than seasonal flu), carrying out actions under strict crisis management plan.

Rather than deny a flu variation, we must remember to focus on what we played: the operation of the company. And, since the praxis and ethics, we have to deal on ending unhealthy myths.

References:
Australia ABC News: Victoria 'losing control' of swine flu spread
BMJ: Australia's swine flu vaccination plans come under fire
Universia: Universidades argentinas ante la Gripe A
Perfil: Gripe A: Argentina es el segundo país con más muertes
Gripe A CARTA ABIERTA A LA MINISTRA Y A LOS CONSEJEROS DE SANIDAD Juan Gérvas Doctor en Medicina

It will encourage foreign companies to develop high technology industry, promote outsourcing industry, and support investment in clean technology, energy saving and environmental protection industry.
The country will also create a convenient law and policy environment in mutual investment, gradually granting foreign-funded enterprises the same treatment as their Chinese counterparts, Chen said.
This information has been provided by Xinhua, the official press agency of the government of the People’s Republic of China