Who owns what online?

Larry Downes

The emergence of the Internet and especially the WWW has raised all manner of questions about ownership of intellectual property. In his recently published book, The Laws of Disruption, Larry Downes asserts that business leaders and their newly enlightened legal counsel should focus their efforts on the development of an organic code of business created in collaborations with customers and developed outside the courts. “The model for that effort would be the ‘law merchant,’ rules and tribunals that grew alongside expanded trade routs and markets during the Middle Ages.”

Downes expresses concerns about the risks of overregulation while suggesting what a healthy information infrastructure requires in terms of oversight. As in the past, lawmakers should

• establish the basic protocols and allocate sparse resources such as spectrum

• provide research and other incentives to nurture new technologies with high build-out and low operating costs

• intervene when markets fail and monopolistic practices harm consumers

“The law, to paraphrase Brooks Adams, will either change to meet the new reality or collapse. In its present form much of it is law in name only, largely unenforceable and taken seriously by a shrinking segment of the population. Another decade and it may simply be forgotten.”

Predictions for 2010: Five Changes in the Way We Work

Tammy Erickson

Here is an excerpt from an article that Tammy Erickson has just posted at the Harvard Business blog. To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and/or sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Daily Alerts, please visit dailyalert@email.harvardbusiness.org.

Predictions for 2010: Five Changes in the Way We Work
Tammy Erickson

The experiences of the past two years imprinted the workforce with a new understanding: even a “full-time job” does not (necessarily) equate to the equivalent full-time pay. As a result, expect to see these five characteristics of the way we work becoming even more prominent throughout 2010:

[Here are two:]

1. Two-Job Norm: More people will maintain two sources of income than ever before. Instead of relying on the onetime holy grail of employment — a salaried job with full benefits — workers will create a series of backup options. For many, especially those in creative or knowledge-based work, this is likely to include becoming entrepreneurs. A second job or even a small entrepreneurial venture provides a safety net, giving workers a small measure of control over their fate in an increasingly unstable environment.

3. Competition for Discretionary Energy: Engagement has been a hot topic in talent management circles for the past decade. But its benefits have focused primarily on attracting and retaining employees. Increasingly, managers’ focus will shift to competing for an employee’s discretionary energy — competing with other priorities in the employee’s life, including other options for work — but also competing against employees who are only “going through the motions.” More and more of the work in today’s economy cannot be done rotely — success requires a spark of extra effort, creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

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Erickson has authored the books Retire Retirement, Plugged In, and What’s Next, Gen X? She is the co-author of four Harvard Business Review articles and the book Workforce Crisis.

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To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Daily Alerts, please visit dailyalert@email.harvardbusiness.org.

Here’s the most important business question to ask: WITRBD?

The acronym WITRBD refers to a question that should be asked whenever an important business decision must be made:

What is the right business decision?

I was again reminded of that during a recent meeting with a senior-level executive of a major corporation. We had been discussing what he referred to as “downsizing.” In fact, the correct term is “rightsizing” and it can describe either a reduction or increase of the given workforce.

What is the right business decision?

In 1982, then chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, James Burke, ordered a recall of all Tylenol capsules from retail shelves throughout the U.S. when several people in the Chicago area died of cyanide poisoning after ingesting Tylenol capsules with which someone had tampered. Yes, it was a humanitarian gesture but, more to the point, it was a decision based on the company’s core values.

What is the right business decision?

It is ludicrous to intensify efforts to reduce waste only when an organization is encountering serious financial problems. Waste must be avoided or eliminated whatever the economics may be.

What is the right business decision?

Coming in February for the First Friday Book Synopsis – Supercorp and The Design of Business

We had a wonderful gathering, with a full room, at the First Friday Book Synopsis this morning to kick off 2010.  Karl presented the synopsis of the book The Tyranny of E-mail, and I presented the synopsis of Trade-Off.  Both good books.  Karl’s book strongly recommended that we control our e-mail time rather than letting e-mail control our time, with “scheduled check and respond” times for e-mail.  Trade-off called us to make the right distinction, and the right choice, between high-fidelity and high-convenience.  You cannot deliver both!

For February, we have two more terrific books scheduled.  They are:

Synopsis by Karl Krayer
SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good
by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Crown Business (2009)

Synopsis by Randy Mayeux
The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking
Is the Next Competitive Advantage
by Roger Martin.  Harvard Business School Press (2009).

If you live in the Dallas area, plan to join us for the first Friday of February.  The home page will be set up soon for your registration.  And, as always, we thank those who support our monthly event.