Salesforce.com built a billion-dollar company by allowing companies to ditch their CRM software and bringing CRM to the cloud. Now it has its sights set on perhaps an even bigger feat: bringing social media to the enterprise.

Yesterday, the company announced that it will be launching a new service called Salesforce Chatter in 2010. Think of it as Facebook for the enterprise: a social networking service for companies with an application platform to boot.

Enterprise social networking is one of those 'no-brainer' concepts, and for that reason Salesforce.com isn't the first company to try cracking the enterprise social networking nut.

It's a tough nut to crack, however. For obvious reasons, many businesses are tepid when it comes to anything involving the two words 'social networking'. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, et. al. may be employee favorites but most employees aren't using these popular social networks for work purposes when they log on at 10 am. Social networks have also created a number of risks for businesses, from the possibility that confidential information could be posted to the possibility that employee conduct could embarrass the company.

So while the application of social networking technology to the workplace seems like a no-brainer, consumer-facing social networks are often more likely to become a nuisance or threat to businesses than they are to serve as a viable hub for constructive employee interaction. That makes social networking in general a tough sell for many companies.

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Tags: social networking, technology, digital media, innovation

Categories: News

(BusinessWeek) -- While they continue to slog through the longest economic downturn in decades, companies are no longer making cost-cutting their primary focus. Innovation is now front and center on the corporate agenda, according to a global survey we recently conducted with 65 senior executives from diverse industries. Executives are adding more breakthrough innovations and business model changes to their portfolio to fuel the growth engine for the recovery.

Yet our survey reveals that companies by and large are having trouble making innovation efforts work. Executives are struggling to find the right combination of business strategy, operational model, and execution to deliver profitable growth.

Why the concern with execution? Currently every aspect of business is fair game for reinvention—revenue and margin models, functional areas, and even the organization itself. The risks are also a lot higher than in the past. With so many moving parts and so much riding on the outcome, it's no wonder executives are anxious that they will miss the target when they execute. As one executive told us: "Management feels very comfortable about our ability to manage costs—we have a good track record. We don't have the same track record for organic growth from innovation." In other words, it's harder to innovate than it used to be.

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Tags: new economy, innovation, productivity, business acumen

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U.S. President Barack Obama says innovation will be the key to creating the jobs of the future.  Mr. Obama says he is looking for new ways to recoup the jobs lost during the economic recession.

With a new round of dismal job loss figures expected later the week, President Obama says he is searching for ways to create new employment opportunities.

"This is my administration's overriding focus," said President Obama. "Having brought the economy back from the brink, the question is how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work and able to support their families."

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Tags: innovation, jobs, new economy, federal government

Categories: News

The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University has announced the winnersof the 2009 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. The Center for Court Innovation, a New York-based nonprofit think tank thathelps courts and criminal justice agencies aid victims, reduce crime and improvepublic trust in the justice system, is the recipient of the $100,000 first-placeprize-an award made possible in large part through the generosity of TheCoca-Cola Foundation. Founded as a public-private partnership between the New York State Unified CourtSystem and the Fund for the City of New York, the Center serves as the court`sindependent research and development arm, creating demonstration projects thattest new ideas. The Center`s projects include community courts, drug courts,reentry courts, domestic violence courts and mental-health courts. 

This year`s second-place winner (to receive $7,500) is Urban Farming, aDetroit-based organization that plants gardens on unused land and in otherspaces (such as rooftops and "edible walls" on building exteriors) to growproduce for people in the inner-city who are food insecure. The organization`sfenceless gardens allow people to pick food for free at any time, day or night,without compromising their dignity. The third-place winner (to receive $5,000)is the Population Media Center in Shelburne, Vt. It uses serialized melodramas(such as prime-time soap operas), written and produced in the local languages ofparticipating countries, to impart lessons about family planning, avoidance ofAIDS, the elevation of the status of women and the prevention of childexploitation.

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Tags: innovation, nonprofit, award, drucker

Categories: News

(From Knoxville Biz.com) Like scores of successful entrepreneurs, Kamilia Kozlowski built a business to fill what she saw as a void in the marketplace.

Her ability to fill that gap saved lives.

Kozlowski is marking her 26th year of detecting breast cancer by expanding the Knoxville Comprehensive Breast Center. The facility is nearly tripling its size and furthering Kozlowski's mission to stay on the forefront of breast health technology with a new 39,054-square-foot location in the Dowell Springs Business Park off Middlebrook Pike in West Knoxville.

The doctor is to be recognized as a breast health pioneer in a "Profiles Series" educational documentary on PBS, to air this fall.

When Kozlowski was doing her residency in the late 1970s, many doctors thought the best way to detect a breast tumor was to feel it, although mammography was gaining acceptance. More women were getting screened, but the mammograms were being analyzed by general radiologists - doctors who might be looking at an image of a breast lump one minute and a leg fracture the next.

Kozlowski saw this practice, still common today, as a problem. Breast scans are trickier to read than images of bones or organs, she says, and she knew most of her radiology peers hated analyzing mammograms. The breast's dense and fibrous tissue can easily appear abnormal when it's perfectly healthy or mask unhealthy lumps. And no woman's mammogram looks exactly like another's.

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Tags: entrepreneurship, innovation, learning, healthcare

Categories: News

LAST month, Kevin Rudd made a speech, which although not heavily reported, set the government a significant objective and will form an important marker for its success.

In an address to the Australia New Zealand School of Government, he set out his ambition to reinvigorate the public service to be more effective and efficient. This does not sound too sexy, but given the public sector accounts for more than 40per cent of the domestic economy, reform is vital. What is more, in many areas the public sector is in serious need of improvement.

The Prime Minister said: "We need a more sweeping reform driven by a long-range blueprint for a world class, 21st century public service." He also established an advisory panel to develop such a plan.

Whatever the plan, it is vital that public sector reform is not left entirely to the public sector. Business should take it seriously and attempt to shape this reform. Like any large organisation, the public sector is difficult to change and therefore needs all the insights and pressure that can be marshalled.

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Tags: innovation, talent management, strategy, public sector, private sector

Categories: International | News

Waco, TX (PRWEB) – Profiles International, a global leader in employment evaluation and human resource management assessment tools, recently completed a report detailing the ways that companies can maximize their productivity by adapting effective management practices used by America’s most productive companies.

“We received such good feedback on our report outlining America’s Most Productive Companies that we decided to take a more in-depth look at how other companies might achieve the same success. This report outlines the top five ‘people factors’ that drive productivity for these companies, and then recommends specific practices that other companies might use in order to enjoy the same kind of success,” said Jim Sirbasku, co-founder and CEO of Profiles International.

The five people factors that are identified in the report include a performance-drive culture, effective managers, high employee utilization, high employee effectiveness, and the encouragement of innovation. They conducted a series of surveys based on these factors in order to gain further insight into the practices that separate the “most productive” companies from their peers.

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Tags: productivity, performance, innovation, managers

Categories: News

Dallas, TX -- A recent study of U.S. business leaders commissioned by Regus, the global provider of innovative workspace solutions, found that more than eight out of 10 business leaders see significant change occurring in their workplaces, but only six out of 10 claim to have successfully changed in the past, a gap that has nearly tripled since 2006.

"Today's workforce thinks beyond the four walls of an office, but today's business leaders continue to restrict their thinking to these traditional office environments," said Guillermo Rotman, CEO of the Regus Group Americas. "Our study found that organizations with trust-based workplaces -- those that grant their employees a level of independence over when and where they work -- are financially out-performing their competitors."

Another common characteristic identified among over-performing companies is a socially networked workplace, where business leaders actively encourage employees to engage and collaborate with like-minded people beyond the traditional workplace boundaries.

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Tags: social networking, research, workplace, innovation

Categories: News

People around the world interact with Alecia Dantico all day. Usually, though, they don't know whether she's young or old, male or female.

What her followers on Facebook and Twitter know is that's she's a friendly, sometimes sassy, blue and gold tin of Garrett Popcorn. That's the icon of the popular Chicago-based snack food that has tourists and locals lining up around the block at locations here and in New York City.

And when Dantico sends out a "virtual tin" of popcorn to a fan over Twitter, she's breaking new ground in the way companies market themselves, joining a growing number of social media experts hired to man Twitter, Facebook and similar sites.

"My day starts on Twitter and it doesn't really end," Dantico says. She keeps her BlackBerry on at all hours to respond to followers in different time zones. "It's driving my family crazy, but that's OK."

Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation, says Adam Brown, Coca-Cola's Atlanta-based director of social media.

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Tags: innovation, social networking, digital media, twitter

Categories: News

(Tampa, FL) -- In the workplace, do you consider yourself a constructive deviant, a destructive deviant, a little of both, or none of the above?

According to research by a University of Tampa professor, some of the most valuable individuals in an organization are both constructive and destructive deviants.

In a presentation at the Academy of Management Conference in early August, Bella Galperin, an associate professor of management, argued that deviance -- defined as voluntary behavior that violates organizational norms and can threaten the well-being of an organization -- can be constructive and functional for organizations, and employees who fail to follow the organizational norms can be the roots of successful innovations and champions of change.

“Employees who break the rules and cause harm to the organization are also your organization’s potential change agents. They will break the rules to increase the well-bring of your organization,” Galperin said.

Currently, organizations have focused their efforts on identifying and reducing destructive deviants -- potentially aggressive and dishonest employees. The costs associated with dysfunctional behavior in the workplace have been estimated in the billions.

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Tags: innovation, new economy, organizational change, workplace, employee behavior

Categories: The Economy