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Showing posts from August, 2011

Is Eric Schmidt right about the UK losing its way with our youth? Does the internet offer a massive education revolution?

Schmidt has just delivered the annual MacTaggart lecture to TV bosses. It's worth reading in its entirety since the main thrust is calling for lightness of touch in regulation and the freeing up of the use of data... I wonder why?... read my blog about the Marketing Virus! Google wants to help businesses sell to you. Period. But the UK media has ignored all that. It has instead picked up on a couple of comments Schmidt made about the UK abandoning sciences and mathematics in favour of humanities. He was also appalled that the UK national curriculum had dropped Computer Studies (not that I knew it was ever included). Taking this last point first, I am not so sure we need to teach our kids how computers work. Every kid in the UK can use them, and many have learned how to edit videos and pictures. Many of them will eventually be able to use spreadsheets and word processors as well, if only as part of other disciplines such as English and Business Studies etc. So why is it importan

Knowing Beats Hoping – the case for hacking employees

Q: When is it ethical to listen to other people’s phone conversations? A: When it’s in the best interest of both parties. Making sure customer gets what they want, and helping staff achieve their objectives. Maximising Customer Experience is the buzz expression these days. But less obvious is the benefit to the employee. But benefit they will. By identifying how they can improve their performance, we can not only help them achieve greater success and therefore greater job satisfaction, the resulting increase in customer satisfaction will assist profitability, which in turn translates into better employment conditions and good morale amongst work mates. They’ll be delivering for their employers and pulling their weight in a team. So what is at the heart of what ‘hacking’ or listening-in to calls to and from your organisation meant to achieve? What are we trying to measure? It’s all about really knowing what your customers are experiencing. And it’s about knowing for certain, quantit