One of the biggest challenges for luxury brands is how they preserve their aura of exclusivity in the digital domain. If you walk around a high end shopping district, you will see the investment luxury brands make in their retail experience. The luxury boutique is not where you go to buy, it is where reverent consumers pay homage to the brands they idolise. But how do you replicate that quasi religious experience when that same customer goes online and Google serves up pages of fake products, poorly merchandised wholesalers, and amateur review forums?

Two things have happened in the last few years that indicate a shift in the way that luxury brands view the Web. The first is that many major brands have taken back control over the distribution and presentation of their products online. They have restricted online wholesaling and treated their own websites as a kind of master boutique designed to educate and extend the in-store experience. Secondly, some of the major luxury groups have started to purchase or establish their own retail platforms. Case in point is Richemont’s acquisition last year of fashion innovator Net-A-Porter.

Watch carefully what happens next with luxury online. For many brands, and especially those in the prestige space - content and storytelling is a crucial component of the way that the luxury brand mythology is created and sustained. Transmedia is an ideal vehicle for this - and also for careful brand cross fertilisation. For example, if you venture onto the newly designed IWC website, you will note a new collaboration with the men’s department of Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter. Entitled the ‘Portofino Watch Lover’s Look’ - the section is a clever integration between style advice, product merchandising and brand storytelling. And naturally - both companies are owned by Richemont. They say you can tell a man by his shoes - so what should a man’s watch say about his clothes?

I had fun this week playing with the GQ’s UK edition iPad app. With its slick interface, rich additional materials and engaging content - it was not only superior to its US counterpart, but also one of the better iPad magazines I’ve seen. That said, something was still missing. And, as is often the case - it was missing from my mind. One of the most interesting theories on mental states is ‘flow’ - proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. The theory is deceptively simple - during certain activities it is possible to be so happily immersed in your task that you reach a point when action and awareness seem to merge. Musicians, racing car drivers and Buddhist monks have all experienced it. And normally, while reading the print edition of GQ in a cool cafe with a strong expresso - I can also get pretty close. But alas, not so much on my iPad. Somewhere in all that exploring, poking, rotating, and sliding of screen elements - while admirably interactive - the experience of media flow is disrupted.

Please don’t take this as a simple preference of analogue versus digital mediums. I can lose myself in a Kindle book, or while typing in a flow orientated interface like the IA Writer. The problem is more subtle. Years ago, when the first CD-ROMs made multimedia sexy, we envisioned a day when all of our entertainment content would become non-linear, multi-path adventures. It didn’t take long to discover that there is a reason that the likes of Stephen Spielberg and Ridley Scott are famous directors - they do a better job of selecting scenes and narrative options than the average Joe. Interactivity, quite simply, can get in the way of a good story. Or, it would seem, also a little glossy magazine gratification.

It seems fashionable lately for hard boiled tech types to talk about consumers with a wide eyed fervor bordering on the frightening. And even worse, they have even come up with a new word to assault the language - Consumerization. Hype aside, what the trend really means is this: enterprise technology is being increasingly driven by the platform and device choices of everyday consumers. Rest assured, this is more than just your employees spending time accessing Facebook when they should be working. The changing role of IT is part of a much bigger shift in the nature of the Web. Applications are being replaced by platforms, and software by the Cloud - and that ultimately means a change in the way we work and, as organisations, create value for our customers.


If you are in a business that regularly deals with consumers, you might find it strange that it is only recently that IT departments have discovered their importance. But in a way, it is not their fault. First you have to understand the way that enterprise systems are bought and sold. The main difference between enterprise and consumer facing technology has to do with accountability. Enterprise software has traditionally been sold to a handful of decision makers in an organisation who commit to platform on behalf of thousands of users. Consumer platforms live or die by whether or not their actual customers - end users - love them or hate them. That is why Apple's best marketing is not its advertisements, but its products.

Try this experiment. Get someone to print out some web pages of a few large software vendors and black out references to their company name. Now I challenge you to discern from the print outs either the name of the company, or even the product category they are in. Welcome to solution selling! Enterprise software is about pitching your platform as an comprehensive integrated solution to a company’s every need. In reality, what you are actually get once you sign off on the purchase order is a proprietary set of tools that will trigger off years of complicated and expensive integration work with existing legacy systems.

The good news is that the model is changing. The bad news is the forces of change are largely out of the control of IT managers. End users are increasingly bringing their own gadgets to work, and demanding that enterprise systems can interface with it. According to a recent study by IDC for Unisys, 95% of information workers use technology for work that they purchased themselves. It started with mobile phones, then it become smart devices like iPads, and then video conferences tools like Skype, networking tools like Linkedin, filesharing services like Box.net and Dropbox - and now even Facebook (for legitimate marketing purposes, naturally).

These changing patterns of consumer behaviour will have a disruptive impact on the enterprise software space. Eric Schmidt at the D9 conference observed that the world was coming down to a war between four major platforms - Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple. Five years ago, it would hard to conceive of any of those companies playing a major role in corporate technology - and now, whether it be Amazon's cloud hosting services, Google enterprise apps, Facebook's brand platforms or Apple's smart devices - it is hard to imagine working without them. But there are other key players to watch too. IBM, having just celebrated its 100th birthday, has proved that you can thrive as an smart integrator of technologies without necessarily controlling your own platform. And Microsoft, with its new shift to Cloud based software services - will be an important player to watch as the mainstream technology space embraces consumerization trends.

However in the short term, the biggest beneficiaries are likely to be small to medium businesses. I recently wrote a blog post on the Cloud Nine - simple web based software tools that allow smaller organisations to deploy the kind of technology traditionally only available to companies with million dollar IT budgets. Nimble web centric companies and freelancers have already discovered what large organisations are struggling to learn - the power of Cloud based tools to connect with your customers and staff, and to soft scale your technology needs as required rather than investing in your own expensive hardware and software implementations.

So what is the future role of your CIO in the Consumerization Nation? Yesterday's CIO was defender of the realm - hired to repel security threats to the enterprise, stand fast against unnecessary capital expenditures, and hand out shiny gadgets to authorized corner office executives. Tomorrow's technology leaders will need very difficult skills. They will have the critical role of navigating a new IT ecosystem where it will be less important to buy and build your own technology - and more essential to know how to nurture a valuable ecosystem of developers and service providers and unlock the real value of consumer data within the enterprise.

Google Apps - Never Delete Anything

A few years ago I made the decision to move my entire email inbox, document storage and calendar scheduling activities to the Cloud. My inbox overload had reached apocalyptic levels and both my installed Microsoft software and communications provider were straining under the weight of a massive mail archive. At the time, the latest productivity meme was to declare email bankruptcy - which despite its anarchic appeal, also seemed to be the technology equivalent of starting with a clean sheet of problems. However, once I started using Google Enterprise Apps - I realised the absolute futility of deleting as a behaviour. A clean inbox is not a sign of personal efficiency, but wasted effort and poor filters. Storage is Google’s problem. Once I stopped worrying about keeping my inbox to a reasonable size, I started devoting energy to the more useful task of tagging conversations, setting up email filters, and using search tools to mine my own correspondence for commercial opportunities.

Wordpress - Plug-in, Not Lock In

I was a big fan of Typepad for years, but eventually I ceded to the inevitable. The power of Wordpress is its universe of third party plug-ins - modular pieces of code that extend the functionality and aesthetics of your blog to that of a professional publishing platform. And for non technical users like myself, that was a Godsend. Suddenly I could experiment with new features and design templates without spending money on development. Hiring someone to build you a website is a form of lock-in. You may have a wonderful platform for a few months, but you will both lack the ability understand the mechanics of what is going on under the hood, and the capability to make changes in response to what you learn.

Mailchimp - Don’t Wait, Automate 

Mailchimp provides incredible tracking tools, the ability to correlate social media information with your database, and advanced subscriber segmentation. But none of these features sold me on Mailchimp’s email distribution platform. My primary motivation was simple - laziness. When I write a blog post (this one included) - Mailchimp’s RSS to Email service identifies the new content, formats it into a nice template and sends it out automatically. As any writer will tell you - one less barrier to getting things done, is one more step to getting things out.

Hubspot - Nurture Your Flock

If there is one book you should read on the new rules of marketing, it is “Inbound Marketing: Get Found using Google, Social Media and Blogs”. The book has a very simple premise - in an age of decentralised discovery, the best marketing strategy is to create relevant content that allows your customers to find you when they are looking for insights and information. Reading the book led me to Hubspot - the platform created by the authors. It was not a cheap decision, but it has been worth it. I host my corporate website on Hubspot, and it handles all of my primary interactions with visitors, subscribers and potential clients. Through embedded cookies, I get a sense of both what content my audience responds to as well as real time feedback into the social platforms that generate the highest conversion rates. Landing page creation, keyword analytics, and a vast library of marketing resources - Hubspot is like a specialist digital marketing agency in a box.

Shoeboxed - Scan And Discard

Ironically for someone who published a book in physical form, I really hate paper. Receipts, business cards, letters, contracts - dead trees take up space, require organisation and inevitably in my case, get lost. Shoeboxed was a revelation. Using their mobile app I simply take pictures of my receipts and business cards. They process and verify them, and upload the results to the Web. I regularly sync the records with my CRM tools and eliminate the time consuming exercise of scanning business cards and correcting errors myself. Bliss.

Highrise - Always Be Closing

It always annoys me that just like Wall Street and bankers, too many real estate agents still don’t realise that Glengarry Glen Ross is a dark satire not a sales motivation movie. But you can’t argue with its most famous tagline - always be closing! Sage advice, although I'm sorry to say I only recently started using CRM tools in my business. For years, I flirted with the idea of Salesforce.com - I liked its philosophy but hated its complexity and clunky interface. Highrise, created by 37 Signals, is a great alternative. Simple, efficient, and focused on tracking the people and conversations necessary to close deals. It doesn't do everything, but what it does, it does well. And best of all, it integrates with a variety of other Cloud based programs.

Freshbooks - Show Me The Money

Freshbooks is a very simple Web based invoicing program - but don’t be deceived. Its simplicity belies the fact that asking for and collecting money represents 99% of what it takes to be successful in business. After using the service for a while I realised three things. Firstly, once you set up client profiles and billing templates, sending out an invoice is an activity that should take not more than 15 seconds. Secondly, clients will stop pretending not to have seen your invoice once you explain to them that Freshbooks informs you the minute they open it on their computer. And finally, when it is easy to see at a glance your received payments, uncollected invoices, and clients who repeatedly pay late - it completely changes your perspective on how you should run your business.

Evernote - Pay Attention To Everything

Evernote is an application that I use all the time but paradoxically, am still not entirely sure what it is for. Using my iPhone, I take pictures of newspaper articles, book spines, ticket stubs, retail displays - anything that catches my eye. I tag these with the topics I speak about, and every now and then dip into the Cloud based storage archive looking for something interesting to spice up a presentation, an article or a client meeting. For now Evernote is my ultimate visual diary - but I have a feeling it could also be a lot more in years to come. At least I can feel reassured in the meantime that I'm not forgetting anything.

Geckoboard - If You Don’t Watch A Kettle, It Will Never Boil

To paraphrase Lord Kelvin, what gets measured, gets done. My new favourite Cloud service and the final one on this list - links all the other platforms together. I have Geckoboard running on a separate screen in my office - it gives me a live dashboard of all the key operations of my business. I can see at a glance my monthly revenue from Freshbooks, my web traffic and visitor activity from Google Analytics, a feed of the deals I have waiting to close from Highrise, the performance of my last email newsletter from Mailchimp, my current total Facebook and Twitter followers and a host of other essential metrics. Real delight awaits when you can watch the magical cogs of your business spinning in real time. There is no better way to turn your day job into a video game.

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So that’s my current list of Cloud applications I use in my own business. They are not for everyone, but they are a useful set of tools for you to start redefining not just the way you work, but how your business creates value for its customers. In the end it is not even a question of saving money or being more efficient - the real driver of the Cloud Revolution is its ability to let individual users tap into the power of networked data. And that is a silver lining indeed!

Now its your turn. Are you using any of these services and if so, what has been your experience? Have I missed any that are essential to your business? Please contribute to the discussion.

Networks have power. Politicians, mafia dons, matchmakers, Freemasons and photocopier salespeople all have something in common - their ability to nurture and exploit those invisible social ties that bind us. Whether it be trading favours or swapping information, the network has always been the most subtle and powerful weapon for those astute enough to use it. So there is something deeply perverse that in the moment that online networks offer such dazzling new opportunities to connect, that we have found ways to punish people for it.

And there is a deeper irony. Even as HR and IT departments crack down on their in-house digital dissidents, marketing teams are doing their best to curry favour with the socially networked. This holiday season numerous large retail brands partnered with 'haul video' kids, whose YouTube shopping confessionals have become rallies for pampered tweens. Elsewhere, fanboy bloggers are courted aggressively by consumer electronics firms, amateur Twitter celebrities leverage their influence for social media consulting dollars, and surgically enhanced netstars trade their geek fame credentials for commercial endorsements and b-grade Hollywood roles. For now, at least, it looks like a motley parade. But the underlying trend is worth considering.

What if you could assess someone's online social standing and influence as easily as checking a credit score? Eventually employers will have access to highly sophisticated systems that will allow them to do just that. When that happens - instead of being castigated for their blogs, tweets and friend lists - job applicants will experience the opposite. The best hires will be the ones that bring their networks to the table. 

Limited social analysis software is already in the market. There are already some interesting applications like Twitter Grader, Twitalyzer, TweetLevel and Klout that use algorithymic voodoo to estimate your Twitter authority. When I tested my own handle, I was given a wide variety of different scores and curious facts which did not mean very much to me, other than it was fun to discover that I joined Twitter on the same day as eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar. More comprehensive analytical platforms are needed, with some targeted smarts that look at the relevance of networks for particular industries or goals. Sheer brute connections are not enough. Its better to have just 100 people in your network, rather than a million - if they are the right 100. 

I know what you are thinking. There is something sickening about all of this - the rabbit like multiplication of networks and connections. Surely it should be enough to be good at what you do, without having to also ape the online promiscuity of Kim Kardashian and Ashton Kutcher. But in the future, who you know will also be what you know. And to misappropriate Yeats - the best lack conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.