As many of you know, I have a keen interest in Turkey and recent events are quite disconcerting.  Last week,  Islamic-leaning Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrested 49 of Turkey's high-ranking military officers for an alleged coup plot in 2003.  This is unprecedented.  The Turkish military has instigated 4 coups in Turkey's modern history - all to restore Ataturk's policy of democracy.  Erdogan has been trying to reduce the influence and power of the military to appease the EU (which will deny entry anyway, what a farce), and oh by the way, help lead the country down a more Islamic path.  

Regardless of what may be stated (you should read the Iranian press on this one, praising Erdogan), Erdogan has been trying to move the country to be more Islamic (remember April 2007 when Erdogan tried to get Abdullah Gul elected as Turkey's President - mostly a ceremonial post, but still significant - especially given Gul's blatant pro-Islamic stance).  The military has protected the secularism of Turkey, which is now at risk, especially with these recent moves by the government.Opposition parties are calling for early elections, which Erdogan has refused. 

Keep an eye on this - especially with what is also going on in Iran...this is not trivial and has very profound implications for the Middle East.

 

Yesterday was Cleveland's first TEDx event and it was incredible.  Organized by  Hallie Bram and Eric Kogelschatz,  the event was a total success - despite the snow that closed down virtually every school system in NE Ohio and snarled roads.  Check out the event and the speakers.  On a gray snowy day, it was one of the most uplifting, exciting, encouraging events in Cleveland in a long time - there is so much passion and creativity,  invention and innovation going on that you would wonder why someone is paying the press (Forbes??) to give us such bad 'press'!  The range of speakers talking about what they are doing in CLE - from healthcare innovation to design and fashion to urban renewal to advanced energy and electric vehicle s to hi-tech/art to cooking to finding unique ways to give back (by lawyers no less!) shows the depth and breadth of talent, knowledge and opportunity here.  Who knew that outside of NYC, CLE was the fashion mecca decades ago?

So, please, take a look at the TEDxCLE site (www.tedxcle.com ) and make sure you can get to it next year because it will be sold out again.  And keep an eye on Cleveland, very very cool things are happening...on the North Coast. 

This morning, on Marketplace Radio (NPR) , I heard about Alice.com (named after the Brady Bunch maid, Alice).  You can buy your household ‘staples' (e.g., detergent, shampoo, toothpaste, TP, etc.) online and have them delivered - FREE! And without mark-ups that you get at the store (e.g., 10oz bottle of Aveeno shampoo is 25¢ less than at Target (didn't mention Wal*Mart).  They say they let the manufacturers (Consumer Product Goods - CPGs) sell directly to consumers (but actually it's thru a distributor cuz the CPGs aren't stupid - they don't want to tick off their retailers and lose shelf space!)

So what's the business model (cuz if these guys are for real, I will use them and want them around!) - because Alice says it doesn't make money off handling the transaction and the shipping (which it does)?

• Alice makes $$ (or will) off the ads! (no, you don't say!) - they'll offer manufacturers ad space on the site
• Alice makes $$ off the data they collect (The CPGs get great consumer information -in the aggregate since I don't think Alice will sell individual names/addresses if it wants business).
• Alice will be the "Switzerland" between the CPG and the consumer

For now, membership is free.  That could be another source of revenue.  Reminds me a bit of the wholesale clubs - like Sams & Costco.  Costco's revenue comes from the membership dues (several levels)...stay tuned.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger's blog post "The Business Value of Social Networks", cites The Economist's Jan. 30^th special issue on social networking that regardless of the skepticism of some in the business world, companies will have to address social networking - and blocking it (e.g, twitter, facebook) on corporate intranets is not the answer.  Many companies recognize the importance of collaborative tools, but stop with ‘commercial' social networking tools. They worry that their employees waste time, are unproductive, may say something improper that gets out into the world and is embarassing.  They give their employees little credit for being mature, reasonable people - gee, sounds like the old ‘command and control' management style - where people were treated as cogs in wheels.  In all fairness, that 100+yr old management style is hard to shake and will take time to diminish.  And most companies don't realize how they really treat their employees (ok, like cogs).

Instead of avoiding the issue - why not deal with it straight on? Set guidelines, trust your people (hey, they may actually live up to it - most people rise to the expectations if allowed).  IBM has a set of guidelines for using social media, even at AT&T years ago we did.  Set guidelines and let go.  The underlying fear of losing control of one's employees is unrealistic...when did you really ever have control anyway?  The whole point is not to control but to liberate - which leads to innovating and solving real problems. 

The market value of companies today is based more on intangibles than tangibles (are Google's data centers and software really worth about $170B?) - and the intangibles are your IP, your people, their knowledge and their networks...which is why it's all about talent.  The more you set your people free to learn, share, network, the more valuable your company is...this is a big change for some, but a necessary, and very rewarding one.

Yesterday, Saul Kaplan (founder and Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory) and I  started a brief discussion (during that fabulous hockey game) about institutions that are irrelevant, outdated for today's world.  Saul mentioned how our workforce development system is designed for an industrial economy.  That got me thinking - can any of us name 3 'institutions' in America today that are designed for our new world and new economy?  Saul wondered "perhaps 21st century is more about purposeful networks than institutions."   Perhaps it is - and perhaps it is about both!

We're seeing the death of institutions (that can't or won't adapt), the creation of new institutions, and the morphing of existing institutions.  An article in the current (March) issue of Wired, part of their series on the Future of Money , they talk about all the new modes of 'paying' for things that no longer involve an individual's interaction with an actual, traditional bank (not that it may happen behind the scenes).  Now while we've seen this with credit cards and with PayPal, non-traditional finance/banking institutions are on the rise.

So what institutions do you see that are morphing? what new institutions do you see emerging or should emerge?