5 things to tweet and 5 things NOT to tweet

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Earlier this week I spoke at a financial advisor retreat in the stunning Margaret River region of Western Australia, a region of wide-open beauty that is the source of many extraordinary wines.

I gave two keynotes at the event on subsequent days, on How to Lock-in Your Clients, and Success in a Connected World, which drew on my connected world visual framework.

I will write more later on the quite specific topic of Success in a Connected World for Financial Advisors. For now I thought I’d share a brief extract of the content I covered in my keynote on how to approach Twitter.

Around 15-20% of the audience had Twitter accounts, so my suggestions were intended as a high-level introduction on how to get started on Twitter, though the advice is relevant to anyone. The recommendations are based on my own thoughts as well as a range of research, notably the excellent Who Gives A Tweet? Evaluating Microblog Content Value from Carnegie Mellon University. This is what I suggested:

WHAT TO TWEET
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Value based pricing is at the heart of the future of professional services

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In my first book Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships: The Future of Professional Services the final chapter was titled Value-Based Pricing: Implementing New Revenue Models. Pricing by value rather than time is clearly a central aspect to building true knowledge-based relationships, since knowledge should be measured by the value of its application rather than time spent by professionals.

The chapter in my book provides a fair overview of the key possibilities and factors in value-based pricing. However I am not a deep expert in the field. When discussing the issue with clients, I usually refer to Ron Baker, who among other claims to fame has written books including Pricing on Purpose, Professionals Guide to Value Pricing, and one I’ve long had on my bookself, The Firm of the Future.

Ron is currently in Australia running a series of workshops on The Firm of the Future, and he kindly invited me to join his masterclass session in Sydney this morning.
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Scenario Planning in Action: What, Why, Success Factors, and Process

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Scenario planning as a management discipline has a long and rich pedigree. It is just one of a wide variety of tools and processes that have been developed to help executives and organizations build strategies and succeed in an uncertain world. However almost 15 years experience in applying a wide variety of strategic futures tools have lead me to believe that scenario planning is the single most powerful approach available.

This certainly doesn’t mean that scenario planning is always the best approach to help organizations explore the future. However I see it as the single broadest and most powerful tool to facilitate rigorous, structured decision-making about the long-term future in high levels of uncertainty.

As I have written, the greater the uncertainty, the greater the value of scenario planning, and in almost every industry today uncertainty is increasing. The many industries to which we have applied scenario planning include financial services, media, infrastructure, and many others.

In fact, engendering scenario thinking among executives is far more important than scenario planning, however scenario planning is often the best route to that outcome.

Scenario planning is a rich and varied domain, and should be implemented uniquely depending on the context and the objectives. One of the challenges is that many people talk about ‘scenario planning’, often meaning very different things, and not infrequently degrading the term by applying it to unsophisticated approaches to dealing with uncertain futures.

To help a large consumer-goods organization we worked with last year on a scenario planning project to understand the issues, I pulled together an overview of what scenario planning is and a typical process. We have summarized that in the following two page document.


Click on the image for full-size pdf
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Availability in Europe for keynotes/ workshops/ consulting late April to late May

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I will spending a month in Europe from late April to late May, with a busy but not yet full schedule, so I’m open to offers on possible work in that period.

My trip kicks off with a keynote on The Future of Crowds at TheNextWeb Conference April 25-27 – more on that soon. I was originally planning to do some events in London and Paris shortly before then, but some potential engagements in Shanghai and Singapore mean I will probably arrive in Europe not long before TheNextWeb.

Building on my visit, the consulting firm Across Technology told me they were “impressed by my engaging style as a keynote speaker and talent as a workshop facilitator”, and invited me do a European tour. That has already resulted in them confirming a series of keynote engagements in early to mid-May in locations including Luxembourg, Italy, and Moscow.
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Is Manifesto the right word for our times?

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It strikes me that in these these confused and confusing times we should lay down clear thoughts about what we believe in. I am mustering my thoughts across a number domains to express what I think is important.

However one of the questions is what to call these statements. On the face of it ‘Manifesto’ is an admirable description.

From the political domain the Communist Manifesto (1848) and Anarchist Manifesto (1850) flowed through into artistic domain, with notably the Futurist Manifesto (1909) and Surrealist Manifesto (1924), and on into the social domain, with the SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto (1968) among the many marking the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Since then the technological domain has been rife with statements from the GNU Manifesto (1985) and Hackers Manifesto (1986) through to the bestselling Cluetrain Manifesto (1999).


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New ideas: Building the organizations of tomorrow

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I recently spoke at an event organised by Building the Organisation of Tomorrow, a group created by alumni of University of Technology Sydney’s Master of Business in IT Management program.

The format was very stimulating, with three 15 minute presentations, each followed by 15 minutes Q&A and then a ‘disruptive event’, including some awesome satirical musical performances and a planted heckler in the audience. Below are notes from the three speakers.
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Crowdsourcing infographic: Choosing between fixed fees and hourly rates

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[This post first appeared on the Getting Results From Crowds book website]

One of the most important issues in using service marketplaces is choosing between fixed fees and hourly rates.


Click on the image for full-size pdf
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Launch of new keynote speaker website

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The site rossdawson.com has long been where I point potential clients for my keynote speaking and other personal work. As usual it has taken longer than planned, but we now have just launched an entirely redesigned website.


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New keynote speaker video

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For a keynote speaker having a good showcase video is critical. Potential clients want to get an idea of your style and presence before booking you, and usually a video is the only way to provide that.

I have just finished producing a new keynote speaker video. This was long overdue as the last one wasn’t nearly as good as it should be. The new one is a big improvement, though I think there is more scope for improvement yet. This video is also on the front page of my new rossdawson.com website and on the video page.

I will soon write more about the process of creating a keynote speaker video. In the meantime, I would love your feedback on the video, including any suggestions for improvement.

Insights and perspectives on Facebook’s IPO

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Last week I did an interview on radio 2SER on Facebook’s IPO and its future. You can listen to a podcast of the interview below.

A few key points I covered:
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