Deloitte Digital Blog

My time at Deloitte

2012-01-30T12:37:00.001+11:00

Our Summer Vacation Program allows students to come into Deloitte for four to eight weeks in a service line to gain experience in an office environment. Students in the program enjoy significant client exposure, networking opportunities, training, and feedback from a strong support system.

The following post was written by one of our Deloitte Digital vacationers Daniel Conlon.

There probably aren’t many people reading this that haven’t picked up the phone to hear the words “Congratulations! You got the job”, from a new employer. From stacking shelves at Coles to becoming the new general manager of a big firm we can all relate to the process in one way or another. Just on 2 months ago I got that exact call from Deloitte Digital offering a month long position as a summer vacationer to work on a small marketing project for the social media team, and I was understandably pretty chuffed.

After getting off the phone the second thought that crosses your mind, after the initial one of ‘Wow I must have really pulled the wool over their eyes if they think I’m the one for the job!’ is the thought of ‘well I got the job, that’s not bad……so now what?!’

As one of the millions of kids who was born one year too late to be able to claim they came into the world the same year as the movie Top Gun, I too wanted to be fighter pilot, though the HR department at Bunnings Warehouse had other plans; so there I was, a little fifteen year old kid advising people on the best way to attach their garden hose to the wall and how to keep mice out of their cupboards. Since then I’ve travelled around, done the work-for-peanuts snow season thing in Canada (highly recommend it!), been through all of South America , Mexico, and California, lived and studied in Montreal, as well as spending a little time in Nepal, Thailand, the UK and the land of the long white cloud , New Zealand.

Up until 2 months ago when I graduated, and was forced to slightly decrease the very typical student way of overspending and under-saving, I was still of the mindset that a nine to five job was something only ‘grown-ups’ had, and I was most certainly not one of them.

What insights have I gleaned from my time in Deloitte? If anything it’s that sooner or later everyone grows up at least a little bit, and although my time may soon be up I do feel that to some extent that has happened. I’ve learnt that the words ‘enjoyable’ and ‘work’ are not mutually exclusive and that in fact the sense of having put in a good days work and having created something of worth is quite rewarding; especially if you’ve actually applied something that university taught you!

I’ve also learnt that in a department where ‘design thinking’ is the norm, creativity is usually spawned in a fun environment where potential ideas are explored in a divergent way. In this way of thinking the approach is one of expanding on ideas and really exploring the possibilities rather than, responding to an idea with why it won’t work or jumping too soon to the conclusion. But most of all I think I’ve learnt the part each piece of life experience plays when you do get to a place where they are of use, and that every opportunity is just a step to something new and exciting and should be made the most of for that reason.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at Deloitte Digital, once you settle in get to know people and get a feel for how things are done it’s a pretty good place to be. Also one final tip, don’t show up to your first day with your arm in plaster, I tried it first-hand (no pun intended) and the shirts I had to learn to iron don’t fit that well over a cast!

@conlondaniel

Wanted: Bloggers

2012-01-27T15:19:00.001+11:00

Our blog has been up and running (albeit occasionally spluttering) since 2009 and last year was our most successful year yet with 58 posts and almost quadruple our normal traffic coming through to the site.

But we're not into complacency here in the Deloitte Digital team, this year we want to try and double our posts, and we want you to help us out. We know that many of you see members of our team like @rexster speaking or attend our events and if you're writing about them then we want to share your posts. Or if you're writing about the topics and issues we write about that's also welcome (e.g. social media, leadership, technology, data analytics and benchmarking etc).

If you'd like to contribute a post this year drop us a line via the comments or deloittedigitaltwitter @ deloitte.com.au and we'll provide you with details of submission and approval process.

How to get 13 million YouTube views

2012-01-24T11:42:00.001+11:00

You may have already heard of this Australian artist. Her latest single has had over 13 million YouTube views, she currently has a number one single on the iTunes metal charts, has her own line of merchandise and a Facebook fan page with 7,900 fans. Guessed who yet?

I’m talking about 8 year old Juliet, who loves her dog Robert and her 'fishes'. Amazing right? Well it gets better. The incredible thing about Juliet’s story is that five days ago (her debut single was uploaded on January 19th 2012) no one had even heard of her. Which means within five days, 8 year-old Juliet, who has her own trampoline moshpit, has racked up 13 millions YouTube views and has rocketed to number one on iTunes.

This story highlights something which we’ve been talking about here at Deloitte for about 2 years and something all businesses need to stop and think about. At a marginal cost of zero, we all have the ability to become our own media. Granted yes, this video has been produced to perfection by Rob Sharpe and features an adorable 8 eight-year-old (two assets most businesses probably don’t have at their disposal). However the underlying lessons here remain the same. We now all have the tools we need to broadcast our messages, products, brands, music further than we’ve ever imagined and we don’t need any cash to do it.

It’s no longer about out spending. It’s about out-thinking, out-executing and out-witting. It’s about creating genuine relationships with your customers/fans/community, and being better at it than your competitors. It’s no longer about the quality of your marketing department. The quality of your product/service/brand/music is what really matters, because if you can get the crowd talking about you, it’ll be for all the right reasons.

If you missed it, here’s 'My First Hardcore Song' by 8 year-old Juliet. Get your two step on!

Twitter Best Practice

2012-01-23T12:39:00.000+11:00

Twitter is a great tool for real time news and updates, and when it comes to sporting events it really comes into its own.

Cycling is a sport that twitter is extremely well suited to, in a race the standings can change quickly, a crash can change the entire stage and a break away can topple the leader. If it is done well twitter can be one of the best ways to follow what is happening in a race especially if there is sub par television coverage.

During the last week the Australian Tour Down Under team managed two twitter accounts @TourDownUnder and @SantosTDU_Live and throughout the race (and prior) these accounts made sure that fans all across the world knew what was happening in the race.

But more than just sharing the news the team behind these accounts did everything right and here is what they did.

Engaged with fans - by replying to tweets, retweeting pictures and news and creating a conversation. This makes people feel more involved in the action and of course is great for spreading news of the event.

Separated the streams - The two twitter accounts mean that it is clear which account to go to for questions or specific news and the live race account provides you with the updates throughout the race.

Optimise for mobile - The Tour Down Under website works perfectly on both iPhone and iPad and allows you to keep track of the race when the rider's are out of site. During the Willunga stage we used these to find out when to go back roadside for the peloton to pass.

With Cadel Evans winning the Tour De France last year and now an Australian Pro Team GreenEDGE we will see cycling gain more recognition in Australia, which will lead to even more fans. Sporting bodies and teams are in an enviable position when it comes to reach on social media. Fans are always willing to share their excitement and passion and if groups can tap into this the fans will be doing a lot of the work for you.

You only have to see the reach for fifty of the thousands of tweets that were sent out over the last week to know that when you're doing social media well the results will be immeasurable.

If you’re interested in using social media in your company & want to find out how to make it work, get in touch with us. You can tweet us here @DeloitteDigital contact us here or call Luke McCormack on +61 (0) 3 9671 6240.

Practice What You Preach: LinkedIn

2012-01-17T15:21:00.001+11:00

When we're talking to clients we're often recommending solutions for them based on our own experience and what we've seen work well. It also means that when it comes to implementing a solution we know how to do it and have already worked out how to deal with potential problems.

Within digital we like to learn by doing and it's how we've become successful with blogging, using twitter and creating a facebook presence. But there was a piece missing, while our employees have been on LinkedIn and using it we haven't had a company presence for Deloitte Digital, instead people have sat within the Deloitte Australia or Global profiles and which we do not have ownership of.

Your own company page allows you to;

List your products, services and specialities
Make employees the contact for a product, simplifying sales processes
Get recommended by clients
Cultivate a larger network of potential clients or employees
Track analytics to see which of your products is the most popular
And finally, it leads to even greater entanglement, with the ability to bring in blog feeds and other relevant resources such as news

The obvious solution for us was to create our own company page which we've now done, this will allow us to find out how useful it is, whether it would be worthwhile for our clients and importantly what investment of time is required to maintain the page and spread it to our network.

We'll keep you updated on our progress and what we learn along the way.

Follow Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn. Discover job openings, news, and more.

Reflections on 2011: Crowds, Clouds and Data Rockstars, with some Social and Mobile

2011-12-23T10:55:00.000+11:00

I saw that the Time Magazine Person of the Year was "The Protester". I think they might have got it wrong because it wasn't "The Protester" it was "The Crowd". I wrote a post "The Power of the Crowd" in March this year after Tunisia and Egypt but I have been amazed to see how crowds have risen up across the world. I think the image of 2011 is Crowds facing up to Riot Police. It even happened in my home town of Melbourne. In my view people have the means to create movements like never before and rigid hierarchies need to watch out.

I was really happy to see a couple of Melbourne based Crowdsourcing startups, 99 Designs and Kaggle, gain some significant investments. I have always said Melbourne is a crowd going population, we love a great sporting contest or event, so it makes sense that it is happening here.

I have been talking about Clomosoda (Cloud, Mobile, Social,Data) a lot this year. My view is that cloud is the way to go unless there are some special reasons why you need to manage infrastructure or software yourself. I use the analogy of using a tap or digging a well when you want a glass of water.

Mobile has gone ballistic this year. I have seen a uniform 400% increase in Mobile Access to both our sites and client sites not taking into account apps. I have commenced a project to redevelop and mobile optimise the Deloitte Digital Website (which is terrible right now).

Social is also going off the scale. I have one prominent client that is seeing 30 times more activity and interaction through social than its website. My advice is that while you still need a website in most situations, social is more important to you than your website, and pretty much anything you can do on your website can be delivered through social channels, check out Best Buy for a great example. At this stage don't give up on your website but prioritise social and entangle everything.

In terms of Data everyone seems to be talking about big data. I have been immersing myself in it by playing in Kaggle Competitions. I am in awe of my partner Eu Jin who has now put me on the bench and been Mapping Dark Matter amongst other things.

If you really want to understand the opportunity with data this video by the Data Rockstar, Matt Kuperholz, is well worth a watch, he also explains the origins of eating your own dogfood as an added bonus.

Plenty of thoughts for next year, which I will post in the New Year, expect plenty on gaming, more social and mobile.

We'd like to thank everyone for their support this year and for helping us to be one of Australia's Best 25 Business Blogs two years in a row.

Social: Understand Don't Ban

2011-12-22T17:08:00.000+11:00

I was recently invited to speak at a Clayton Utz seminar on social media which looked at the novel and challenging questions which arise when considering social media use in the workplace. While there are many benefits to using the technologies and networks that are now available it would be foolish to suggest there are no risks.

A social media policy is just the first step but is only a small part of being able to manage your online presence and address the conduct of your employees. For employers there are huge challenges for how to address behaviour and there have been a myriad of cases lately that have addressed employee dismissals and possible unfair dismissal in connection to comments posted on Facebook or other networks.

A key point was made at the seminar I spoke at which was, 'you may have no personal interest in these networks but professionally you need to understand them and know how people are using them'. This is one of the most logical points I have heard when it comes to this topic. This is key not just for those people within the business who are responsible for marketing and client facing work but also for employees. If you provide the opportunity for employees to learn how to use networks, how to use privacy settings and ensure that people are aware of what is public and what's not you can reduce the risks, because people will have the knowledge to use the tools appropriately.

In a recent Fair Work decision in favour of an employee who was dismissed it was accepted that the employee 'was unaware that he could delete comments once they were made [on Facebook]'. In this case a number of the offending comments made were not made by the employee but by his 'friends' on Facebook. The employee's profile was set up by 'his wife and daughter and he believed that the account had been set on the maximum privacy setting available and he did nothing to vary that setting'.

Social media not only amplifies your message but magnifies the messages of others, a tweet once retweeted will continue even if it has been deleted, and even tight privacy settings on profiles such as Facebook will be reduced in effectiveness if your colleagues or your manager are on your friends list.

If you teach people how to use the networks, and you understand how they are being used you can protect not only yourself but your employees. Education doesn't have to be high cost, it can involve using the knowledge your employee base has through social media mentoring and the resources which are already available online from sites such as Mashable. Where your needs are more broad and you want to embed social fully in your business you can use an outside provider to help make this happen.

We are going to continue to see cases where employees are disciplined or dismissed because of the things they have posted online, but if you understand not ban you can become an example of what to do instead of one of the horror stories.

If you’re interested in using social media in your company & want to find out how to make it work, get in touch with us. You can tweet us here @DeloitteDigital contact us here or call Luke McCormack on +61 (0) 3 9671 6240.

Avoiding the Innovation Killers

2011-12-06T16:55:00.001+11:00

On Friday October 7, Deloitte Digital CEO Pete Williams was a speaker at TEDxMelbourne on the topic of Innovation, the following video is an excerpt from his talk.

Pete explains that small moves smartly made can be more effective when it comes to innovating successfully as there is less risk associated when costs are low and individuals are empowered to prototype and test ideas in the market.

Innovation Must Be...

2011-11-28T13:32:00.001+11:00

We recently posted on culture being the key to innovationand we received a lot of feedback around it, innovation is always going to be atopic which is divisive. Depending upon your position in a business you willhave different views on whether innovation is important, what investment shouldbe made and whether you even need to innovate.

For those companies that are already innovating there isargument around how to implement innovations, what method works best, andshould it be sustainable or disruptive? We could put forward arguments all dayabout what works and what doesn't, but all this will prove is that talkingabout innovation doesn't achieve anything.

According to Alan Noble Google Australia's EngineeringDirector as a nation we are good at 'incremental innovation, but we fall behindwhen it comes to creating our own opportunities and bringing new things to aninternational marketplace.' There is argument that incremental innovation isn'tas beneficial, but these innovations can be more sustainable and as a resultthe behaviours required for successful innovation are embedded in anorganisation.

Deloitte has found that embedding innovation into our DNAgives 'individuals permission to contribute and becomes paramount to retainingthe talent essential for sustained innovation'. As Noble has found, ideas arecheap, it's the translation of ideas that takes time and it's imperative to focuson real problems. The Innovation Program at Deloitte allows individuals toenter ideas and then puts the power in the hands of individuals who are able tovote on the ideas. This model not only ensures that the ideas which are actedupon are real problems it also puts responsibility for execution in the handsof the idea generator and makes individuals accountable.

Noble suggests that ideas are, 'audited, accepted andadapted' which is similar to what we do which is 'Aim, Fire, Adjust', thismeans that if ideas fail it happens fast and cheap and it is simple to correct.We fail fast and fail forward.

What's the upshot? Innovation can easily be a catch cry, butinnovation without execution is useless, so whether it's disruptive, orsustainable make sure it's happening.

There is a Chinese proverb, 'the best time to plant a treewas 20 years ago. The next best time is now'. Innovation can be a tree in yourbusiness, but you have to plant it first.

Learning to Draw (In Real Life)

2011-11-15T11:35:00.005+11:00

Back in April Deloitte Digital hosted Launch48 in our Melbourne office. The idea was to launch four start up businesses over one weekend. One of the businesses to emerge from the weekend was WeTeachMe.

The premise of WeTeachMe is that we all have something we can teach people and we all have something we would like to learn. So while the platform uses the web to connect people, most of the lessons are delivered in real life.

WeTeachMe Trailer from WeTeachMe on Vimeo.

The thing I wanted to learn was how to draw. I am always up at the whiteboard but in my heart I knew my stick figures were not really cutting it. WeTeachMe stepped in and introduced me to Brent Harpur, a cartoonist who recently arrived in Melbourne.

I had a fantastic session with Brent and while Michael Leunig doesn't have anything to worry about right now Brent certainly taught me a lot and gave me plenty of confidence to keep practising and learning. I also found that having a lesson in real life was really useful and I have been able to use resources on the web to help me with ongoing learning.

The takeaway from this for me is that while we work in a digital business there is still plenty to be learnt offline and face to face. We can then build on these experiences and relationships using the online tools and resources that are available.

Culture is the Key to Innovation

2011-11-08T12:15:00.002+11:00

What does it take to make innovation successful in a company? If you're thinking it's about time and money spent, then according to an annual study from Booz & Company you're wrong.

When it comes to innovation and success (that is, actually delivering on ideas) the companies that do it well are able to do so because of one key thing: culture. Now I know I've just thrown in two of the biggest buzz words out there, but stick with me. The culture of a company is what allows innovation to happen, often it's collaborative and allows for mistakes, for prototyping and testing and encourages people to challenge the status quo.

Culture is the first step, but once you've got that in place how do you capture the ideas or who do you seek input from? Soma Somasundaram of Dover Corporation sums up the challenge well, by saying that, 'poor innovation performance is usually not caused by a lack of ideas of a lack of aspirations. What some companies lack is the structure needed to effectively dedicate resources to innovation. It's the lack of will to develop a strategy that can balance today's need versus tomorrow's.'

The structure you use depends on what you're trying to achieve: if you want to engage with your customers or clients then you can ask them for ideas such as what Save the Children is currently doing with an Idea Zone. By involving clients in innovation they become part of the solution and will engage more with the eventual outputs.

The same is true for employees, and through rewarding and recognising innovators within the company the desired culture can be further reinforced. Innovation Academies provide a platform for employees to input ideas and vote on the best ideas. At Deloitte micro-funds are offered for approved ideas which leads to greater execution and in turn new products and revenue streams (such as Bamboo). Through leveraging all potential sources of good ideas truly differentiated products can be created.

Innovation comes from having an integrated strategy that works with the culture of the organisation. Are you getting results from innovation?

If you'd like to find out more about Innovation at Deloitte contact James Sanders on 03 9671 7952 or tweet us @DeloitteDigital.

Performance Under Pressure

2011-10-28T16:36:00.000+11:00

We all want to achieve results, what’s the point of turningup to work every day if we’re not achieving anything? But do we focus too muchon the end result and not enough on the process required to get these results? Furthermore, how efficient are we when it comes to getting results?

We ran a Leadership Event recently on performing underpressure and our guest Jesse McDonald who is an archer with the AIS was asked,‘how can you not think about the prize at the end when you’re competing?’without hesitation Jesse answered, ‘ifyou focus on the end result and not on the process then you’ll never hit yourtarget’. It’s a valid point; it’s easy to lose focus of what we’re tryingto achieve when there are so many distractions around us.

But how can you work on a project if you don’t think aboutthe end result? For an athlete, getting onto the podium is as much about thepreparation beforehand as it is the performance on the day. They have a process that they follow, thatthey have practiced and that is refined which will lead to success. Jesse said,‘I know what I have to do to get theresults, if I follow my process then the results will follow, I don’t need toworry about the end result’.

In business the end game might change and the project we’reworking on will differ but how we respond to the situation, to the pressure andto crises when they arise will often be similar. We tend to revert to type inthese situations but it’s important to train ourselves to focus on tasks in thepresent and not what might happen in the future. This is all about being able to operate efficiently, to prioritise our tasks and to practice our craft, whether we're an athlete or in the business world.

We recently filmed Li Cunxin for the Leadership Academy andwhen we asked how he managed to make the transition from being a successful ballet dancer to a stockbroker he said it all came down to being able to focus on what is important and not get distracted by outside factors.

It all comes down to training, you can teach yourself tofocus on what’s in front of you and to ignore what’s in your peripheral vision.

To find outmore about the Leadership Academy and hear more insights from business leadersyou can join here. If youhave any questions or would like to join the discussion tweet us @DeloitteLA or become a member of our LinkedIn Group.

Deep Dive - Creating an Innovation Dashboard

2011-10-19T19:09:00.003+11:00

You work for the government and you have to build from scratch a dashboard that measures innovation in your agency. Never mind that your government probably hasn’t even developed a comprehensive system of innovation. Oh, did we mention that you have less than a day to do it?

Welcome to the 2011 Victoria Public Service (VPS) DeepDive TM innovation workshop. Here, innovators from the Victoria Public Service (VPS)—and earlier in the week the Australian federal government--gathered to design systems that gauge whether their innovation efforts were delivering results. And with that one-day timeframe, it wasn’t going to be easy.

That’s where Deloitte’s DeepDive comes in. An approach for rapid brainstorming and problem solving, DeepDive has been used hundreds of times by Deloitte to help companies, governments, and nonprofits innovate. DeepDive enables teams to create breakthrough solutions in a dramatically shorter time than conventional problem-solving approaches.

But getting the hang of DeepDive prototyping takes some practice. To get their feet wet, teams were told to create a game using any of the materials on their table—dice, game boards, bubbles, string, etc. In ten minutes.

In a blink of an eye, time was up. Now it was time for the first frenzy. Their game was tested by participants from other tables who suggested improvements. After more refinement and another round or two of frenzying, participants voted on the best game.

This same frenzied activity ensued when participants moved on to developing their dashboard prototypes. Ideas flowed, were debated, and revised as each group tried to sell their prototype—from measuring the diversity of various stakeholder groups to feedback loops that determined the extent an idea was replicated by others.

Teams brainstormed and debated the best ways to assess how and if government departments were reaching out externally for innovations. One team even developed an entire system for measuring the ripple effect of an idea, from impact on productivity to outcomes and externalities.

Developing complex dashboards, in one day, that offer concrete measurement of something as elusive as innovation may sound like crazy talk. But it works. Because DeepDive is not just about getting things done fast. It’s about energizing people, challenging them. Asking them to give you the seemingly impossible—and then getting it.

In the end, an energized group of public service employees, together with their partners in the private and not-for-profit sectors, took months of work and managed to condense it into less than a day. That’s what DeepDiveTM does. What can it do for you?

You can see the Victorian DeepDive in action, in this short video produced by the Victoria Department of Premier and Cabinet’s office.

About the Victorian Public Service Innovation Action Plan: The Innovation Action Plan was launched in November 2009. The Plan focuses on creating connections, and on developing skills and culture, which support and encourage greater innovation in the Victorian Public Service. To learn more please visit the Victoria Department of Premier and Cabinet’s office innovation site

Original Post by Bill Eggers @wdeggers
(This workshop was delivered by Bill and our very own Simon Townsend and readers of the blog will see we used our Rapid Prototyping Game to kick it off, if you would like to use the DeepDive process in your innovation efforts @ mention me on Twitter @rexster)

AHRI Technology Conference

2011-10-12T17:20:00.001+11:00

Today I attended the AHRITechnology Conference in Melbourne. I had the opportunity to hear Frank Farrallspeak and also the keynote session with a social media panel comprised of Ross Dawson, Pete Williams, Sam Mutimer, Steve Barham and Laurel Papworth.

There have been a lot of changes in technology since I moved from a straight HRrole into my role at Deloitte, but one thing seems to be a constant: theconcerns that people have about the risks. What if our people say something badonline? What if people are wasting time on facebook when they are supposed tobe working?

It makes sense that people who are in roles that deal with policy, compliance(and at the end of the day have to resolve the issues that arise) consider these things first, but bygetting stuck worrying about risk we can miss the point. You have to askyourself, if you can trust your people to do their day job why can't you trustthem online?

The speakers on the panel raised some pretty relevant points about this, socialmedia will expose problems but it doesn't create them. If there are issues withyour culture you didn't know about, you can do something about them once theyare in the open.

But I understand that jumping straight in and using social media can beconfronting and being able to trial something is useful. Frank Farrall spokeabout how social media at Deloitte started internally before going public. Theenterprise networking tool we use called Yammer allowed people to get used tosharing information but in a safe environment. You must empower people andallow them to make mistakes, while giving them the skills they need to get itright.

Giam Swiegers realised a few years ago that social media was going to changethe way we communicate and he empowered the executive team at Deloitte to geton board. As an employee it breaks down hierarchies and smashes silos andenables us to do better business.

From internal mediums we have gone external and created our presence onFacebook, Twitter and YouTube and not just for the organisation, but fordivisions, service lines and down to the individual level. Through doing thiswe're able to present an authentic picture of who our people are and what ourbusiness does. It's not marketing spin, it's real people.

Our iPhone app Join Deloitte means that we're connecting with graduates andstudents in the way they want to be engaged with, we're speaking their languageand we're changing how they think about our brand.

We also acknowledge that the skills levels and abilities of individuals willdiffer, so support Digital Dinosaurs with a mentoring program that links themwith Digital Natives.

When I was speaking about Deloitte and what we do with social media someonesaid to me, 'oh so you must have a really comprehensive social media policythen, right?'. I'll be honest with you, all I know about our policy is whatI've always been told: 'use common sense, don't write anything you wouldn'twant your Mum to read, and don't diss the firm or your clients'.

I've been at Deloitte for nearly a year now and I've never felt that I had tochange my personality to meet expectations at work. When you fit the cultureand when you've chosen the company you want to work at you shouldn't have to.

What's the take away from #AHRITech? Don't be afraid of what you don't know:learn, adapt and engage.

Social media is just another wayto communicate.

RMIT Fastrack: The Student Perspective

2011-10-11T16:08:00.000+11:00

The RMIT Fastrack program has been running for a number of years now and the final presentations for the 2011 group are being held this week. The program provides students with an opportunity to work with Deloitte and be mentored by senior managers and partners as well as coaching from other members of the Deloitte Digital team. The post below was written by one of the teams who have been working on the online data rooms product.

For the past 12 weeks, theRMIT student team working on the Board rooms project have been developing a product extension for the currentdata room service offered by Deloitte. With the end goal being the feasibilityand commercialisation of a board portal: a web based portal that streamlinesboard meeting preparation and the meetings themselves.

Initially, the was a period of education: completelyunfamiliar with board portals, data rooms, Software-as-a-Service or thecorporate board environment, a large amount of research was conducted to get usto speed. It was a gradual process, and with several other teams all competingto come out on top at the end of semester, it certainly became a little heatedat times!

Over the course of the next 8 weeks, considerable effort wasput into conducting both primary and secondary research, which culminated inover 30 interviews with executive assistants and board member from 4 differentcountries, cover 14 different industries. The findings from these interviews,often followed up with questionnaires, was coupled with over 50 secondaryresearch papers to produce validated, research-backed recommendations toDeloitte.

The first presentation to Deloitte was nerve-wracking, aswas expected, but also fantastic in that it was something achievable, somethingwe could do well. The remaining few weeks after that was just a process offeedback, tweaking and fine-tuning, all in preparation for the final week 12presentations.

Andrew, Hemli & Andrew

The program itself has been challenging and eye-opening: arefreshing taste of the real world. But above all that, it’s been brilliant!From the chaos of the first few weeks, the planning stage, the hopelessness ofrunning off track, and the satisfaction of finding your feet again, all of ithas been a phenomenal experience that we as a team have learnt a great dealfrom. More importantly, it was great to see that Deloitte isn’t just about taxand accounting!

It’s been an amazing semester, and we’re proud to say thatwe’ve achieved a lot in such a short period of time. We are certainly betterequipped to take on future employers, and have developed a confidence that canonly be found in an environment like the Innovation Fastrack Program. It willbe sad to be finished with it all, but great to step up to the next challenge!

To find out more about our Online Data Rooms contact Ryan Kagan on +61 3 9671 6486 or lodge an enquiry on our website.

Social Data is now Social Life

2011-10-07T12:07:00.002+11:00

We've written in the past about how much we'resharing online and how much data we leak without even realising it and thesubsequent benefits to business, and a new DeloitteReview sheds even more light on these trends.

Utilising data isn't just about selling moreproducts or better customer service, but also about allowing companiesto target future employees, for governments to build betterinfrastructure and a host of other uses that haven't yet been realised.

Andreas Weigend, former chief scientest at Amazon.com says,social media users have 'started to actively contribute explicit data suchas information about themselve, their friends or about the items they'vepurchased'. The way that people are sharing information now provides greatercontext for their personal decisions, shopping habits and is an insight intohow they may behave in the future.

Companies are now able to to personalise and tailor whatthey are putting out to their customers and feedback from customers can help tobetter target ongoing interactions and build better products.

Many companies have realised how important it is to havea presence on twitter and facebook and now respond to questions,comments and complaints, but this is only a first step and the very basics ofwhat can be done. By integrating analytics and tailoring their approachcompanies are able to be proactive with customers as opposed to reacting oncean issue has become negative for their brand and customer relationship.

It's not easy, and it takes time, resources and commitmentbut in order to continue to get the best results for your customers and in turnyour business deeper analysis is required.

You can access the full Deloitte Review here.

If you’re interested in using social media in your company orwant to know more about what we do, get in touch with us. You can tweet ushere @DeloitteDigital contactus here orcall Luke McCormack on +61 (0) 3 9671 6240.

Winning a Forrester Groundswell Award

2011-09-27T11:39:00.001+10:00

Our use of Yammer hereat Deloitte has been well documented, blogged, YouTubed and Tweeted. As many ofyou probably know, we’ve been using the enterprise social networking tool forapproximately three years now with amazing results being created right acrossour business. Yammer has helped us to transform the way we communicate as anorganisation, improved the flow of information, knowledge and ideas, loweredemployee turnover, provided better management visibility and flattened thecommunication hierarchy of the firm.

Almost three years later, we’re excited to announce that we’ve just been handed a prestigious ForresterGroundswell Award as the 2011 winner of the Management: Collaboration Systemcategory in recognition of our use of Yammer. The Forrester Groundswell Awardsrecognise excellence in achieving business and organisational goals with socialtechnology applications and we’re incredibly proud of the fact that Yammer nominatedus for this award.

Founder and CEO ofYammer, David Sacks said, “Deloitte Australia is a great example ofprogressive, transparent leadership and the transformative power of enterprisesocial networking. Deloitte Australia has fully embraced enterprise socialnetworking, which has helped to flatten the organization and create a morecohesive and collaborative culture. We are privileged to count them as acustomer and proud of their well-deserved recognition in the ForresterGroundswell Awards.”

When you have upwardsof 5,500 people operating across every piece of Australia, it’s often difficultfor the right-hand to know what the left-hand is doing. Our Yammer network hasbroken down those silos and connected the firm like no other communication toolwe’ve ever seen.

For information on theway we use Yammer here at Deloitte, check out our Forrest Groundswellnomination here and have a listen to what Giam Swiegers, our CEO, has to say about Yammer here.

TEDxMelbourne Innovation

2011-09-26T13:47:00.000+10:00

We are proud once again to be a sponsor of TEDxMelbourne with Innovation in the spotlight at the next event on October 7.

The following post is from the TEDx site and profiles Pete Williams CEO of Deloitte Digital and a speaker at the event.

Peter Williams is recognised as a global thought leader on innovation and the use of online technologies, and is one of Australia’s most sought after guest speakers on social media and digital strategy. Recognised as one of Australia’s leading thinkers and practitioners in the area of innovation, technology commercialisation and all things web as well as being one of the most well known Australian CEO’s on Twitter. A Chartered Accountant by background Pete moved into the online space in 1993.

Pete is CEO of Deloitte Digital and Chairman of the Deloitte Innovation council. Prior to his role in Deloitte Digital, Peter was CEO of the Eclipse Group, previously known as one of Australia’s largest web development companies.

Recently, Pete was made an adjunct professor of RMIT University and has been described by media outlets as: “…a Deloitte Digital internet god, or maybe Mick Jagger’s illegitimate lovechild, we can’t quite decide.”

Pete has been featured in books such as Empowered by Josh Bernoff, As One by Mehrdad Baghai & James Quigley and recently authored Sitepoint’s latest release – Web Design Business Kit.

Pete’s articles have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times (UK), The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, BRW and many others. Pete has also appeared on Sky Business News, Channel Nine and the ABC in addition to the 2010 Knowledge Cities World Summit, Battle of the Big Thinkers and TEDxCanberra as a keynote speaker.

Pete has worked with a number of high profile clients such as the Carlton Football Club, BHP, Telstra, AFL, NAB, ANZ, Google, Microsoft, Yammer and the Federal and Victorian Governments and is also a Board Member of Circus Oz and Emue Technologies Pty Ltd.

Social media was central to how Peter was able to have a huge impact during the black Saturday bushfires and then also how he supported the town of Flowerdale during the recovery. This included using twitter for real-time updates and attracting support and donations of goods and services and blogging the progress of Flowerdale.

In recognition of his extensive work in this area he recently won a Forrester Groundswell award from Forrester Media (the first of its kind to be awarded outside of the United States) for best use of social media for social change.

A prolific tweeter, you can follow @rexster and be sure to find some inspiration in his revolutionary creed.

How Carlton Football Club Use Social Media to Engage Fans

2011-09-20T10:12:00.000+10:00

The post below was written by Darren Rowse and originally appeared on Pro Blogger on September 10. Thanks to Darren for sharing his experience with Carlton FC.

* * *

Today was an exciting day for me – I was one of asmall group of bloggers invited to cover a training session of the Carlton Football Club (the ‘Blues’) – the football team I support.

Marc Murphy (@marcmurphy3 onTwitter)

For those of you outside of Australia – the Carlton FootballClub (CFC) is an Australian Rules Football team based in Melbourne Australia.Aussie Rules Football (or AFL or ‘footy’ as we call it) is an amazing game –the biggest professional football code in Australia. It’s difficult to describebut it is a fast paced and spectacular game that people in Melbourne and manyother parts of Australia follow religiously – particularly at this time of yearas we’ve just started our final series – our Grand Final (think AussieSuperbowl) is in just a few weeks time.

Learn more about AFL on the official AFL site, Wikipedia, or check out thisvideo to get some visuals of the game being played and this oneof a video of one of the most spectacular marks of the year.

Today was the last training session for the Blues before our finals appearance tomorrow so it was a big event for Blues Supporters and the club were keen to bring in a group of bloggers to cover the day. I’ve included a few pics of training in this post.

One of the cool things about the Carlton Football Club in the last 12-18 months is the way that they’ve been reaching out to their supporters via social media – this blogger outreach day is just one example of it.

I first noticed their increased focus upon social media 18 months ago when they started ramping up their use of Facebook, Twitter and when I was invited to a small gathering of Blues supporters who were active on Social Media. At that gathering the club listened to supporters about how they’d like to see the club engaging online. Since then there have been a variety of other such meetings as well as larger scale social media meetups for Blues supporters (last week there was one for 200 supporters).

The last year has seen a growing number of players on Twitter and having their own Facebook pages, an increased use of Video from within the club and some creative use of media to allow supporters to get a peak at the inner sanctum of the club (such as their Blue and Answer videos where fans submit questions to players for them to answer on video).

While they are by no means the only sporting club to be using social media it is exciting to see them embracing it and throwing resources and energy into the field.

Captain Chris Judd

While at training today I took the opportunity to speak with Carlton FC’s recently appointed social media coordinator Luca Gonano who answered a few of my questions about how they are using social media. I thought it might be of interest to others around the world looking at similar initiatives (whether in sporting clubs or other organisations).

Can you tell me a little about the reasons behind CFCs increased push into Social Media in 2011?

The Club was keen to develop its relationship with supporters and build the membership base, so it was decided last year that social media was a vital ingredient in the communications mix. We employed the services of Deloitte Digital who worked with Carlton to develop a social media strategy, working closely with Fan Development and Communications. Part of the strategy included the creation of a new role, Social Media Co-ordinator, which I was lucky enough to be offered in April this year. The strategy has provided the plan for the development of our social media presence and in the last year Carlton’s numbers on Facebook have increased by 50,000 (currently have 91,000 fans) and Twitter by 10,000 (currently 15,000 followers). This has been achieved without advertising or match-day gimmicks, it has been built around engagement with the supporters. The Carlton Football Club’s social media numbers are now third overall in the AFL and we are growing faster than any other team.

Could you briefly outline the main push in 2011 in terms of Social Media? What worked best?

It might sound simple, but making our supporters feel a part of the club. We’ve made a conscious effort to keep our fans informed with all the happenings at the club and I think we’ve gone a long way in bridging the gap between fans and players. It’s no secret that supporters want to feel as if they ‘know’ the players. Thankfully for us we’ve got a group of young, enthusiastic players who have been very receptive to being a part of our social media plans and have become more interactive with the Carlton supporters. We’ve set-up fan pages on Facebook for four of our more popular players and run competitions through the players and it’s worked both-ways. Players learn just how much the Navy Blue jumper means to our fans, and the supporters find out the human side of our players. It has also reduced the number of fake player accounts on Facebook.

How did the Social Media meetup go in the last week or so?

The Carlton Social was a great success. We wanted to say thank you to a few of our Facebook/Twitter followers for helping us grow as quickly as we have in 2011, so we invited them to the Club to thank them in person. The 200 who attended were taken on a tour of Visy Park by Carlton legends Syd Jackson and Geoff Southby, treated to supper and given vouchers to spend at the Carlton Shop. The only thing we asked of our guests was to fill out a brief survey to find out what they like and what they don’t like about our social media. We were able to gather some fantastic feedback and we’re already acting upon some of the suggestions. We had over 1000 apply to be part of the night, and we’re planning bringing each of them through the Club at some stage in the off-season. It was an opportunity to say thank you with the bonus of providing Carlton with important feedback to ensure we continue to develop our social media platforms for our supporters.

What is your hope for inviting bloggers along to training tomorrow?

The Club has enjoyed its best season in 10 years and our supporters are hungry for success. Everyone at Carlton is aware that we’ve come from a very dark place over the last decade and our supporters have stuck with us through the bad times. The bloggers that we’ve organised to cover the finals for us each have their own stories about being a Carlton supporter. We’re hoping that they are able to portray the energy around the club from a fan’s perspective and that supporters all across the world, who are following their blogging can relate to their emotions. We want everyone who supports Carlton to feel like they’re a part of the push for our 17th flag. Having bloggers from outside the club involved helps to open the club up to supporters.

As much as you can – what are the plans for 2012 shaping up like with your Social Media strategy?

We’ve got some really exciting things planned for 2012. We are currently renovating a space in the Richard Pratt Stand that will become the “Bruce Doull Social Hub”, a place where bloggers/tweeters/facebookers can get together and communicate online about the happenings around the club. We’re also working really closely with Fan Development to devise a social media outlet for those who are new to AFL. Finally, we’re looking to recruit a group of bloggers for the entire 2012 to cover club events, training sessions and matches. We’re really excited with the direction that we’re heading in.

Today’s Training: Blogger Outreach

To recap on today – we spent most of the time with Luca. We were given a tour of the club facilities, training areas, pools, locker room, board room etc. We were given access to the on field press conference with coach Brett Ratten and then allowed to watch and photograph training from the sidelines (right up close). We were also given a bit of insight into some of the clubs plans for social media in 2013 and asked for input into what we heard.

Brett Ratten Press Conference

All in all it was a fun and insightful morning – partly in being able to get up close to players and coaching staff, partly because it is an exciting time for the club with tomorrows big game and partly to see and hear about CFC’s social media strategy going forward (and to be a part of shaping that).

Go Blues!

Deloitte Digital has been working with Carlton Football Club for the last twelve months, if you’re interested in using social media in your company or want to know more about what we do, get in touch with us. You can tweet us here @deloitteDigital contact us here or call Luke McCormack on +61 (0) 3 9671 6240.

Who Are You?

2011-09-13T11:56:00.000+10:00

Ever been online and selected the item or transaction you’re looking for, headed to the checkout and then been invited to a registration process that is TOO HARD and decided to abandon to another vendor? Or been lured by a fantastic online offer, only to be forced to the dreaded PDCP (Print, Download, Certify, Post)? Yuck...

The drivers for online commerce are everywhere – speed to entry, waning of brick and mortar, perception of the value of immediacy, the list goes on.

In most cases a fundamental truth exists across all boundaries – the user of a service must present some form of footprint on earth to complete the transaction or interaction. The footprint, commonly labelled 'identity' manifests itself in a broad spectrum of mechanisms, from the simple name/email, to the regulatory, name/address/date of birth verified across a range of independent data sources.

The pace of change and growth of online transactions continues to evolve, but several foundation tenets are solidifying:

Most people are good – not bad; despite the constant barrage around identity theft being ubiquitous, it remains true that 99.999% of people who want to interact online present proper bona fides and are visiting a site to use it as intended
Patience may be a virtue, but swift, efficient, pragmatic process prevails (= service sucks). People’s virtual interactions have developed in line with their physical presence. If something is taking too long or perceived to be more invasive than generally required – they’ll abandon
Beyond Reasonable Doubt, is great! Know the laws, know your market, know your competition – understand the de-facto standard. This establishes the basis for a constructive dialogue between the $ getters and risk/compliance
Exceptions do exist. Despite an inferential “the internet can do anything” some instances exist where good’ ole eye-to-eye is required – don’t try to spend or code your way to perfection, let 1 in 1,000’s through to the keeper

So, as you ponder how to address “who wants to do business with me?” take it personally. Let common sense rule the day and remember, if you’d abandon the process, so will they!

Mike Israel is a Director at Deloitte Digital and manages a product called greenID, an online verification tool that allows you to know your customer. If you need to comply with the Electronic Verification requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) legislation, then greenID is the fastest, most accurate solution available.

Social Media, It's as Easy as 1,2,3

2011-08-31T10:29:00.000+10:00

After being asked to speak at a B2B Women's Network event on Social Media, I was faced with two challenges. Firstly, the crowd were mainly made up of digital dinosaurs and secondly I wasn't going to have access to a computer so I had to talk about social media without being able to show it.

So I had to think about it, out of all of the benefits that social media can offer what key things do I want people to get? This is what I came up with:

1. Social media is about relationships: It doesn't matter what medium or tool you're using you get results and see the benefits of it by creating relationships. I spoke about how I created a network, gained followers and paid it forward when I was trying to get my role at Deloitte. The reality is that I never would have had success using twitter and my blog to get a job if I didn't have people who I'd created a relationship with supporting me (and harassing @Rexster on my behalf).

2. Social media breaks down barriers: Whether it's internally such as with Yammer (Giam Swiegers just liked one of my posts!) or externally (Mike Tomalaris replied and retweeted me during the Tour De France) there is no hierarchy online. It's easier to communicate with people, to share your opinion and to engage in a conversation. In a firm of nearly 6,000 people it can be easy to get lost in the crowd or be overwhelmed when you're meeting people. By connecting with people online first I'm able to create a starting point for a conversation.

3. Social media isn't about doing everything: It's not feasible or even logical for every business to have a stream on every channel available - for example I wouldn't recommend blogging to all clients because if you can't maintain it then it looks worse for your brand. Find out what works for your client or customer, you need to engage with people in the way they want to be engaged with. Don't waste time on a tool that won't work for your business or your clients.

Finally, the most important thing is entanglement, your online profiles should all lead back to the same place, you want people to get immersed in what you're doing and want to come back for more.

When you build upon all of these things you can create a place where people want to engage with you, share what you're doing and they feel like they're part of something.

This is what creates communities and who doesn't want to be a part of that?

The Real Costs

2011-08-30T16:46:00.005+10:00

While we might pay attention to a damaged piece of machinery or a chemical spill we often overlook the non physical risks in a workplace. But while bullying and harassment may not be as visible, they are just as dangerous as the risks we can see. A productivity commission report in 2010 found that even though bullying and harassment tend to be more costly on average than claims for most types of physical injury they are given less attention (by both legislation and employers).

The same report estimates of the annual cost of workplace bullying to employers and the economy in Australia ranged from $6 billion to $36 billion. That equates to 3% of Australia's GDP and if bullying is prevalent in your business then it will be costing you a lot more than you think. Bullying doesn't just affect the person being bullied, but their families, the people they work with and if they leave their job the (poor) person who replaces them.

Bullying, as Josh Bornstein wrote in the AFR, is illegitimate and toxic and often by the time action is taken the damage has been done as was seen in the case of Victorian woman Brodie Panlock (who committed suicide after sustained workplace bullying).

How do we deal with it then? Josh goes on to say, that bullying behaviour thrives in a culture of darkness. It can persist for years in workplaces that are not exposed to external scrutiny. The key to addressing bullying is for policymakers to legislate a practical means for employees to expose their work environment to external scrutiny in a court or tribunal. Once the spotlight is activated on bullying behaviour, it tends to wither and die.

While the Crimes Amendment (Bullying) Bill 2011 was introduced in Victoria to increase the protection offered to individuals the onus of responsibility still lies heavily with employers. However, the simple fact is that there is only so much internal divisions can do, many HR departments don't have the expertise to deal with these cases and employees often do not perceive them as impartial.

By providing an external resource and service businesses expose themselves to scrutiny and individuals have a safe outlet to report bullying, harassment and other potentially dangerous behaviour.

The cost of doing nothing is far greater than the cost of taking action.

The Deloitte Whistleblower service is an anonymous and independent employee hotline and email service that can help reduce the costs and risks of workplace misconduct. To find out more contact Damian Adriaanse on 03 9671 7378 or via email.

Rapid Prototyping at Deloitte: Building an Ideas Factory

2011-08-26T12:23:00.000+10:00

We live in the Knowledge Economy where knowledge is the hard currency. And, like with any other hard currency, quantity is only upstaged by how you use it. One single insight into customers’ needs makes all the difference. This insight comes not from endless research and asking customers questions about their intentions or preferences (Henry Ford), but from observing how your solution solves their problem better. This can only be done by giving form to the idea and putting it into the hands of real users and learning from their experience using your solution: product, service or business model.

This article is about how fast prototyping helps achieve three key business results: faster, cheaper, repeatable performance.

There is one danger though: you already know about Rapid Prototyping. If you have been involved in any creative activities such as product development, advertising or marketing campaigns, or graphic design – you have done it many times. So, here is the danger: you think that you will not learn anything new here. And you will be right, and that’s the danger. But, if not…

Let’s start with the results

Machine Head, the sixth studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, was recorded through December 1971 in Montreux, Switzerland, in record three weeks. It is Deep Purple’s most successful recording. The album reached #1 in the United Kingdom, where it stayed for 20 weeks in the top-40, and #7 in the United States, remaining on the Billboard 200 for 118 weeks.

What was outstanding about it was how it was made. It was a classic example of fast prototyping, despite the many setbacks associated with the project. In fact, one of the setbacks, the burning down of the Montreux Cassino, the planned recording venue, gave birth to the band’s most famous songs of all times, ‘Smoke on the Water’. In our previous article we have provided thoughts from two band members on the lessons from the process.

The term Fast Prototyping is all about minimising the risk by giving an idea shape and form that allows the end-users to try it and you to see if that’s the right direction. If it captures users’ imagination, you have the clear path to not only getting it to market fast, but also, if you pay enough attention to the process, repeat the process over and over.

Fast Prototyping is an essential part of innovation. And the term ‘Fast’ has nothing to do with jumping into the unknown. It encompasses and reflects all your and your team’s knowledge, experience, all the life’s lessons that sit readily under the surface and become that ‘gut feeling’ or as Malcolm Gladwell generously documents it in his 2005 bestseller, ‘Blink – Thinking without Thinking’. Ian Gillan, lead singer of Deep Purple explains the concept like this:

“All the practice, all the other gigs, everything you’ve ever done, comes down to today. This is as good as I get in this moment. Tomorrow is another matter. We’ll get up again and practice and try to get a little better … but this music is about the point of truth today.”

When you create that prototype, it encapsulates your experience to date. You cannot improve it further without the next experience, and that is the feedback of the user. User experience is your next step in gaining valuable knowledge to give the market what it truly wants and desires. Any further attempts to improve it are only unnecessary investment. Let it fly!

Fast prototyping culture at Deloitte:

If learning from hairy, unconventionally dressed guys, keeping unhealthy hours and lifestyles, is not credible enough for you, here is a lesson from Deloitte. In this 20 minute presentation Peter Williams, CEO Deloitte Digital shares the principles and processes the firm has been applying so successfully, it has created ‘an ideas factory from a firm of accountants’.

This post originally appeared on the InnoFuture site and can be accessed here.

Social media strategy in 10 minutes

2011-08-18T14:29:00.002+10:00

“The question is not ‘should we participate in social media?’ The question is ‘how can we get value from it?”

Here at Deloitte Digital we run a social media consulting business. Everyday we’re out in the marketplace talking to clients about our experience, capability and how we use social media in our own business. The question which comes our way most frequently, is not ‘should we participate in social media?’ The question is ‘how can we get value from it?’

With that exact question in mind, last Wednesday (August 10^th 2011) our CEO, Pete Williams (aka @rexster on Twitter) presented at the Primus Digital Strategy Conference here in Melbourne.

Pete chats about how we use social media here at Deloitte, how you can use social media in your own business and most importantly, how you can get value from social media in business. If you’re thinking about social media, grab a pen because this is a social media strategy in 10mins.

After watching the video if like many of the attendees at the conference you have a few questions or you would like some more information about social media here at Deloitte. Contact Luke McCormack on +61 (0) 3 9671 6240 or lmccormack at deloitte dot com dot au.

Data, Data Everywhere...

2011-08-09T16:24:00.000+10:00

Emails and internet browsing are just the beginning in the creation of digital breadcrumbs. We are constantly creating them and often without even knowing. The fact is that many of us pay little attention to the trail we’re creating and the ease of which it can be tracked.

Who owns the trail of breadcrumbs that you’re leaving behind? What’s the value to those who know how you created them, where you visit and what you’re interested in? Some would suggest this trail is a bad thing, but is it really? Personally, I’d like to think not. I think there’s a positive side to it...

As a member of the team from the Deloitte Online Data Room service, I often find this power to monitor the data of the data creators is a significant influence in what are day-to-day game changers in business.

Further to facilitating due diligence, our online data room offering has the capability to securely track and monitor how each of the documents are being used by each of the guests in M&A deals and other business transactions.

By understanding how the documents are being used, administrators and members of the selling team are well-equipped to make judgement on which bidding teams are interested and to what degree; or whether they have ulterior motives.

Ultimately, by collecting and analysing this data trail – the sellers have the capability to align and disclose particular documents and restrict how they use it to increase the competitive tension, reduce risk and provide strategic information to aid smart decision making and Q&A.

This is just one application of analysing the trail of data and there are many more. There is much value to be drawn from this and it’s nothing new or as scary as the unknowing would fear.

It’s time to embrace the value of the data breadcrumbs we’re creating. It’s more important than ever and it is powerful.

To find out more about our Online Data Rooms contact Ryan Kagan or lodge an enquiry on our website.

The Internet Is Going to Kill Your Business

2011-08-08T18:41:00.000+10:00

Well sure if you believe, this and this oh and this then the internet and online shopping will be the downfall of retailers and we will never step foot in a store again. There is no questioning that Australian retailers have been slow to adapt and as a result many have subpar websites and even worse online shopping experiences (if any at all) than their overseas counterparts.

As a consumer I question why it is cheaper for me to purchase something from the UK and have it shipped to Australia than it is to buy the same product locally. We now have the ability to thoroughly research what we want, who we are going to buy it from and where we’re going to get it. Consumers are ‘smarter’ than ever before because the information is so readily available.

So there are a couple of options here, you can ignore what’s happening and hope it goes away (it won’t) or you can update, improve and embrace the change (and win customers). How can you do this, well as a consumer this is the advice I would give:

1. Make information easy to access – so maybe you have a product or business that will always require a store front that doesn’t mean you don’t need a web presence. Make sure your website has up to date information, including what products you have, which locations they are in and if applicable create an app for consumers to find this information. Consumers are thoroughly researching what and where they are going to shop now, so make it easier for them to choose you.

2. Be Consistent – if you advertise something in a catalogue, in store or online make sure the prices are the same. If I see something advertised and then find that the prices are different I feel like I’m being tricked and it makes me hesitant to shop with a brand.

3. Improve the customer experience – if I’m shopping online I want to be able to find the product I want and purchase it with the minimum of fuss and if I’m going into a store I want to get good customer service. It doesn’t matter what medium it is, if you’re offering a bad customer experience you’ll lose business.

4. Listen – the benefit of people spending so much time online and sharing their opinions is that you can find out what people want and how you can improve what you’re doing. It also means that your fans are able to share your business and products with their network, so enable them to do so easily through Facebook, Twitter etc.

It doesn’t matter where or how someone comes into contact with your business and your brand they will form an impression, so why not make it a positive one?

QLD Police: Leading the Way

2011-07-29T16:08:00.001+10:00

Like many people during the Queensland floods I was watching as the disaster unfolded, and I was one of the many people who started following @QPSMedia to follow the news and find out what was happening. Today the Queensland Police Service has released a case study on how they used Social Media throughout the disaster and it truly is a best practice example.

The QPS were proactive with their social media presence and ensured that they already had influence on online channels such as Facebook and Twitter. This meant that when a disaster did hit they would had an engaged audience with the ability to share their updates. In the 24 hour period after the flash floods in QLD, Facebook likes for QPS went from 17,000 to 100,000 which enabled all of these people to get up to date and most importantly correct information immediately.

As we saw with the Black Saturday fires in Victoria misinformation and lack of information can lead to deaths and puts members of the public in greater danger. The QPS tackled this issue by using the tag #mythbusters to correct information being tweeted by the public and to let people know what was really going on in the danger zones.

In emergency situations responses are often going to be reactive, there isn't time for drafting or approval, as the information has to be shared immediately. Here's the most important thing that QPS did through this whole thing: they trusted people. The processes were in place, the facts were provided and the people in charge of sending the updates to Twitter or Facebook were given the accountability to do so without having to go through a rigorous process.

What were the benefits of social media for QPS?

It is immediate: Updates were online and shared on mainstream media as well as ensuring people without power could access news via their iPhones or other technology.
It is trusted: government organisations can provide authoritative information and advice to the public.
It has weight: large amounts of information can be shared easily.
It kills rumours: QPS were able to ensure that the facts were spread and rumours quashed.
It is two way: Members of the public were able to provide updates and QPS were able to respond to queries immediately.

We hope to see other government agencies using social media not only as an everyday resource but to share information with the public to better manage emergency situations.

The Deloitte Digital Social Media team works closely with many clients to help them benefit from using Social Media. If you’re interested in helping your company or want to know more about what we do, get in touch with us, you can tweet us here @deloitteDigital or contact us here.

Innovation: The Green Room

2011-07-25T15:49:00.001+10:00

Last week in the Green Room Pete Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital, was interviewed by Erin Sanderson, a consultant who has worked closely with our Innovation Program. They talked social media, our innovation culture and how you can become an innovation pro.

Pete says, when it comes to innovation it's about working out how you can solve your problems with what you already have.

If you'd like to find out more about Deloitte and how we can help you to innovate in your business please contact us here or tweet us @DeloitteDigital.

Deloitte Innovation Fastrack Program 2011

2011-07-19T00:00:00.001+10:00

The RMIT Fastrack program is now in its fourth year with Deloitte and is commencing tomorrow in Melbourne. The program provides students with an opportunity to work with Deloitte and be mentored by senior managers and partners as well as coaching from other members of the Deloitte Digital team.

As someone who has studied at University and found that my course lacked 'real life' experience and also with my background in HR who has seen the skills that this program provides graduates I'm pretty excited to be able to see it from day one this year.

Dr David Gilbert believes that 'the program allows students to develop new skills and apply what they've been learning'. But the proof is in the results - eleven students who have gone through the program are now working at Deloitte.

Ori Fixler, a student who has been through the program says, 'there's a view that you can only be entrepreneurial if you're your own boss, but what I've seen through the program is that entrepreneurs exist even in a corporate environment'.

We wish the best of luck to the students undertaking the program this semester and we're looking forward to sharing the ideas and innovations they create with you along the way.

Follow @DeloitteDigital tomorrow for live tweeting during the first Fastrack event of 2011.

Mentoring: It Works Both Ways

2011-07-13T17:02:00.000+10:00

I sit on the Victorian AHRI council and one of my roles is to assist with the mentoring program which is a traditional mentoring program, matching an experienced HR professional with a less experienced professional or student. These mentoring arrangements are often extremely beneficial for mentees and provide an opportunity for mentors to share their knowledge and contribute to their industry. I have been a mentee in this program and the advice I received from my mentor helped me to get a new job and further my career.

I am also involved in the mentoring that we do at Deloitte around Social Media and for this I am a mentor. The social media mentoring program at Deloitte is a bit different, the program is made up of digital dinosaurs (Partners & Directors) and digital natives (Graduates & up). For this program a junior employee is matched with a partner to teach them how to use social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc).

It's pretty empowering and flattering as a new employee to walk into the office of a Partner and for them to say, 'Please! You have to help me I have no idea what I'm doing'. The reverse mentoring allows me to meet people outside of my service line, to create new relationships and to share my knowledge. But more than that it forces me to take my tacit knowledge and articulate it and make it tangible for someone else.

Have you ever tried to explain to someone why they should use LinkedIn, or why people tweet? For me it was like being asked why the sky is blue - it just is. When I met with my first mentee I stumbled around a bit and found it difficult to explain why she should be using social media. At my next meeting I was able to explain things better, I wasn't as intimidated and I'm pretty sure I taught my mentee something. So while I'm helping my mentee to understand how to use something I'm also learning how to teach, which is just as beneficial for me.

Mentoring that works both ways, now that's different.

To find out more about Social Media at Deloitte have a gander at our most recent report.

A new use case every day

2011-07-07T13:27:00.000+10:00

The Puyehue volcano in the Andes mountains of southern Chile hadn't been active since 1960, but for the past two weeks it has been busy spewing its ash plume into the skies and in Australia disrupting many millions of dollars worth of flights in the southern states.

When I spoke to Pete Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital he said that the ash cloud was a Yammer Use: Case of the day at Deloitte.

In a crisis, people immediately ask "Did you see that?" followed by "What do we do next?" Today we could be asking that to somebody who is physically right next to us, or virtually to the thousands we are connected to online. What we have noticed at Yammer is that when a crisis strikes, people flock to their network to find the answers to these two important questions - before forming groups to instantly adapt and respond.

As the engagement grows in your network you will start to see more and more use cases appear, particularly where people are forming teams across departments, offices and even countries.

Leave a comment below with your Yammer Use Case of the day!

Ross Hill leads Yammer's Customer Success team in Asia Pacific. You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Innovation & the Leadership Academy

2011-07-05T11:03:00.001+10:00

There's a few things we're pretty passionate about here at Deloitte and one of them is innovation. From a graduate through to the CEO we're all encouraged to think about things differently, to find better ways of doing things and to create new products.

Within Deloitte Digital we have a suite of products that we offer internally and externally and while we are constantly coming up with new products, we're also coming up with ways to refresh our current products.

Most recently we have worked with Deloitte Online to create an application for our Leadership Academy for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

We've learnt a lot of things about leadership development in the years we've been working with the Leadership Academy and one of them is that leaders are busy and will not make the time needed for their own development.

Therefore we have to create opportunities for people to access our products in their downtime; when they're commuting, waiting for a meeting etc, and apps allow us to do this.

If you want to find out more about the Leadership Academy or you have any questions please feel free to contact us here or tweet us @DeloitteLA

Lots of Thoughts on Open Innovation

2011-07-01T15:17:00.007+10:00

Last week we ran a course on Open Innovation and had the luxury of having some prolific tweeters in the audience. Simon Townsend (@wittering) has compiled the tweets, pictures and thoughts and turned them into a magazine, with some help from Flipboard.

It was an excellent course with presentations from IP Australia, Griffith Hack, GSK, CSIRO, Deloitte, Emue, Kaggle, 99Designs and Australian National University.

We have put the magazine on www.issuu.com (basically YouTube for magazines). Check it out below:

Open publication - Free publishing - More deloitte

Hope you like it.

If you're interested in attending the next Open Innovation event you can tweet us here @deloitteDigital or contact us here to get on our waiting list.

Agility in Business Through Social Networks

2011-06-27T22:44:00.000+10:00

No matter what you call social media, any aspect of business can be impacted by it. We can choose to stick our head in the sand and ignore it but the reality is that the ways that people are connecting and engaging now are changing and will continue to become more agile.

Peter Williams, Deloitte Digital CEO in the two part series below by Longhaus discusses how social media has been used in disasters and how it is now being used in organisations to collaborate and improve the way we do business.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The reality is that people want to connect, people want to collaborate, people want to share. Technology allows us to do this, to out think, and to out execute.

Engage Your Workforce

2011-06-24T16:55:00.003+10:00

Last week @rexster was a guest speaker at a Michael Page event on social media and spoke about how to use social networks to engage employees, to provide better customer service and to leverage networks.

At the beginning of the talk Pete mentioned the example of Best Buy in America that uses the twitter account @Twelpforce to manage enquiries and complaints. Through empowering employees and trusting them to manage customer enquiries and complaints Best Buy has created one of the most powerful and successful customer service networks in the world.

Twelpforce is made up of a couple of thousand Best Buy employees who reply to customers within minutes of them asking a question or making a complaint. Current and potential customers are able to ask questions or seek resolutions without having to enter a store and the expertise of employees is utilised in a new way.

People are no longer satisfied to wait in a phone queue or waste time going into a store to find out that a product is out of stock. I now use twitter to manage issues with my phone account, to find out where to get the best coffee or even to organise a location to watch the Tour De France (that's the @HoneyBar by the way). Through utilising the tangible and tacit knowledge that employees hold companies are able to create better engagement (with customers & employees), reduce complaints and to build positive sentiment around their brand.

We saw last week how instantaneously the twelpforce respond to enquiries when within minutes of posting a tweet about the work they did we received a reply:

Social media and social networks are simply capitalising on what you've already got available within your own organisation: talented, passionate people who want to provide your consumers with the best experience possible.

So don't restict your people - empower them to do their job and you might just be suprised by what they are capable of.

Whistleblowers: Winners or Whiners?

2011-06-15T18:22:00.000+10:00

Now, everyone is going to have their take on this one; some will say straight off the bat “whiner” and those who have perhaps seen the positive impact of whistle-blowing might say “winner”! But who is right? What makes a whistleblower a “winner” versus being tagged a “whiner”? And why are some people so quick to label a whistleblower a whiner anyway? Ooo, lots of questions!

Part of the typical Aussie culture is to put up and shut up, and anyone who goes and “dobs” on someone else is generally shunned or ridiculed, which is why many are reluctant to be a Whistleblower. The Aussie attitude has long included; you don’t rock the boat, you don’t get your colleagues or team mates into trouble and you certainly don’t whinge or whine about anything.

So let’s clear this up right here, right now, when are you a whiner versus a winner?

A winner is the one who stands up and says something to stop, or prevent, an injustice against a person or company. When a person or company’s legal rights are being breached; i.e. fraud or when a person is being emotionally or physically harmed in the process of their daily working life (you or someone else), then this is the time to blow the whistle. It takes guts to stand up for what’s right when no one else is game to do anything about it, and doing nothing makes you as bad as the person/company committing the injustice.

A whiner is the one who calls just to report something they don’t like, as opposed to something which is actually wrong. Or they call to report something which is not a real issue, so the report has no positive impact on any individuals, or the company. For instance, calling to make a report about their boss asking them do what’s actually in their job description; nothing more, no harassment or bullying in the request, just their job.

A whiner is also someone who sees or knows of an injustice but chooses to just complain about it, never doing anything to change or fix it.

Whistleblowers have saved companies thousands and more, and in some cases they have blown the lid off some pretty spectacular schemes. Remember what happened at Enron? Had Sherryn Watkins not been a Whistleblower, Enron would have continued its fraudulent activities and conducting shady business deals, but had someone figured it out and said something earlier, it may not have affected so many innocent people; 21,000 people in 40 countries lost their jobs in an instant, let-a-lone the impact on the companies relying on Enron.

Whistleblowers can save individuals from being bullied or harassed, which we know can lead to suicide (Brodie Panlock as a recent example) and they can save people’s lives by reporting breaches in Occupational Health and Safety.

So if you ever find yourself in a position where you witness someone being harassed or bullied (or where you are the victim), or you witness someone taking money/inventory from your company, or not following safety protocols, then ask yourself “which person would I rather be?”

Winners report, whiners are all talk... What are you?

To find out more about the Deloitte Digital Whistleblower Service contact us here.

Angry Birds: The Cake Edition

2011-06-06T13:50:00.003+10:00

Today is @rexster's birthday and we wanted to do something original, so we got together and tried to come up with something that he wouldn't expect. We all know how much he enjoys Angry Birds and he often talks about how the game can be used as a model for innovators to aim, fire and adjust.

So what better gift to get him than a playable Angry Birds cake. A big thank you goes to the team at Amici Bakery who put this together with less than two days notice.

The biggest surprise of all was that Pete was so shocked he was speechless - we didn't think such a thing could happen!

Happy Birthday Pete!

Random Hacks of Kindness

2011-06-03T12:04:00.000+10:00

With new technology, and with constant connectivity it can feel like there is a new disaster, a new threat, every day. There have been countless times in the last year when I've seen that there has been an earthquake, a tsunami or some other type of devastating event via twitter and I've then seen the drama unfold through tweets.

This weekend for the first time a collaboration between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World Bank is coming to Melbourne to try to make the world a better place. Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) is a community of innovation using practical open technology to make the world a better place.

The event brings together hackers, experts in design and development and volunteers with a broad set of skills in software development and design to tackle some of the challenges faced in distasters. Hackers will be attempting to create tools and software to manage disasters such as bushfires, flooding and earthquakes.

In 2009, when the Black Saturday bushfires were engulfing Victoria, Pete Williams watched as it unfolded on twitter. The reports on the CFA and SES websites couldn't keep up with the speed of the fires, and the wind change that happened in the early evening created a fire front that has never been seen before. Because of this and the lack of accurate information many people were trapped with no way to escape.

Luckily, Pete saw on twitter that the fire was closer than people thought and called his Father-in-law and said to get out now, the fire was coming. The immediacy of twitter meant that Pete's family were able to get out before the fires engulfed their homes.

We now have technology at our disposal which allows us to communicate easier, more quickly and clearly in emergency situations and RHoK is helping to create the software to do this.

If you'd like to attend RHoK in Melbourne or to find out more about the event then check out the Melbourne RHK site.

The Talent Drain

2011-05-25T10:49:00.001+10:00

When I left my last role I was given a letter with confirmation of my resignation and a hardcopy Exit Survey with a prepaid envelope to return it. But I didn’t return it. I didn’t even read the survey, because I knew that it would be going straight back to the General Manager of HR who was the reason I was leaving. I didn’t trust the process, and I knew that my feedback would just be put straight into the shredder when it arrived in the mail.

Employee wastage is estimated to cost a company up to 150% of the leaving employee’s salary. These costs are made up of recruitment, loss of productivity, temporary replacements, and the intangible costs of adverse publicity, and loss of morale. Yet many companies don’t spend the time to calculate the cost of turnover and secondly don’t take the time to understand why people are leaving.

The possible repercussions of feedback and burning bridges with people are often reasons that exiting employees don’t complete surveys. Many organisations counter this by offering an external independent service to undertake surveys and exit interviews. These companies are able to provide a safe environment for departing employees to comment anonymously on job design, team structures, their managers, company culture and provide honest unedited feedback.

The internal tool we use at Deloitte enables all the data to be stored in a central location, ensures consistency across the organisation and service lines and is an efficient tool for the HR team that doesn’t require expert knowledge or reporting experience to manage. Reports can be generated for relevant groups to provide results for the HR team, direct managers and directors. Results’ being distributed across management levels ensures accountability and that action will be taken if feedback provided has raised a potential issue.

If I’d had access to this type of system at the company I left they would have found out that my induction was managed poorly, my role lacked clarity and constant change with poor communication lead me to feeling overwhelmed and confused about what I was there to achieve. This feedback could have helped the company to make changes to their induction process, to ensure that manager’s have the required leadership skills and that new employees are provided with ongoing support.

The Deloitte Exit Interview service discussed above is now available to organisations to manage the exit process. Benchmarking within the tool allows you to compare yourself against your industry, other companies and your own target benchmark to gain a competitive advantage.

Can you afford to keep losing talent and not know why?

Social Media - Low Cost, High Engagement

2011-05-16T15:09:00.002+10:00

Most of us have already begun to notice how social media is gaining more and more momentum, especially lately in the sporting world. We are beginning to see a change in the way sporting communities communicate. With this we are seeing more and more people beginning to use social media as a way to stay connected and “in the know” with their favourite players’, teams and clubs. People are very passionate when it comes to sport and social media allow fans to connect with others who share their passion. Through social media the potential to reach and connect with these fans has grown exponentially. In order to leverage and use this medium to drive extra value to ensure their success clubs and business alike need to start thinking cleverly about using and working with social media.

As part of my role here at Deloitte Digital I work with clients to devise ways that they can benefit from using social media. I’d like to share a few examples of how the Carlton football club have successfully used social media. Carlton identified social media as the best low cost tool to allow them to engage and connect with fans all over the world and as such the club has begun to implement a plan developed by Deloitte Digital which focuses purely on social media.

Amongst the various recommended initiatives, the following are interesting examples of low cost and high engagement approaches:

Celebrity tweeting

During round 2 against the Gold Coast Suns at the Gabba, Carlton invited a well known celebrity, Dave Hughes (@DHughesy) to take over the official club’s twitter account.

@DHughesy was a big success for the club, creating a large hype online resulting in ‘Carlton’ and ‘Hughesy’ to be trending topics on twitter. @DHughesy’s tweets were featured on the Fifth Quarter and the story ran in the Herald Sun.

Find the Player

The Club also tried something a little different with, ‘Find the Player’ which was an exciting game where fans had to find a Carlton Football Player by following the club on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for clues. GIbbs was hidden at Federation Square and within minutes fans had followed the clues and where lining up for autographs and photos.

The hashtag #FindGibbs reached 48,461 people via 165 tweets and had fans travelling from as far as Geelong to have the opportunity to meet Gibbs.

Throughout the day the hashtag Find Gibbs was trending in Melbourne and the game even caught the attention of the Footy Show with a clip from the event being featured that night.

The Club’s official Twitter account has grown to 10,000 followers and facebook fans have reached 70,000. What this means for Carlton FC is that they can easily with little or no cost, stay connect and engaged with a greater number of fans beyond just those at the games. And by having a large, highly engaged crowd the club can now also look at ways to increase its digital revenues.

The way clubs can now communicate and connect with their fans is revolutionary and sports fans love everything to do with sport, and social media allows them to have that personal connection. My advice is you need to go where the people are and they are on these platforms 24/7.

Social media has and will revolutionise how we do business and companies who do not adapt will be left behind. As part of the Deloitte Digital Social Media team, we work closely with many clients to help them benefit from using Social Media. If you’re interested in helping your company or want to know more about what we do, get in touch with us, you can tweet us here @deloitteDigital or contact us here.

Imagine If...

2011-05-12T00:32:00.001+10:00

Early this week @rexster received an email about the the Imagine Cup which is a competition that is based around the premise that students can and will change the world. This time around students are being asked to imagine and design technology innovations that could solve the big problems that the world is facing.

At Deloitte we encourage innovation every day whether it's a small idea or something huge. Often people get scared by making a big change or taking a huge leap or to think about something that seems impossible, so the challenge for students to solve a global problem through technology could be overwhelming to some.

But that is the beauty of innovation, of not getting stuck in the rational side of your brain and instead thinking with feeling, getting passionate and fired up.

We wish all the contestants luck and look forward to seeing the innovations that come out of the competition.

Beyond Facebook: building social into an organisation

2011-05-04T17:30:00.004+10:00

The following post was written by former Deloitte secondee and current Yammer-ati Bryony Cole and originally appeared on Bryony's blog.

One of the challenges of social media that organisations face, is seeing beyond the hype.

Why is it so good? What can we do today other than throw money at an agency to “do” social media for us?

Yesterday I presented to government officials as part of Innovation Week in Canberra, organised by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry.

I wanted to share the practical and personal stories of starting up social media in a risk-averse organisation, collected over the past year at the Department of Justice.

Beyond Facebook: building social media into high risk organisations

View more presentations from Bryony Cole

These stories juxtaposed nicely with the preceding talk ‘Innovation in the private sector’ by Deloitte Digital’s CEO Peter Williams.

From afar, both organisations looks drastically different, and yet on the inside there were many similarities. Both started with the basics – tools like Yammer – and an inside-out ethos, ensuring employees are well-versed and practicing in social media or innovation, before declaring to the world they actually do it.

Deloitte’s CEO Giam Swiegers spoke to Leon Gettler about leading the organisation through growth and cultural change using social media tools, like Yammer, on the inside.

Before you engage an agency for your social media, or think it will be finished in six months, look inside. You might be surprised what’s in the toolbox.

Open is better than closed

2011-04-21T12:48:00.000+10:00

It's been done to death and it has been joked that social media exists so that people can talk about social media on it. But I'm going to write about it a bit more, yesterday we had our Deloitte Digital team meeting and we spoke a lot about what we're working on externally with clients and what we do internally with social media.

It made me think about a conversation I had with someone last week about blogging and they said to me, 'but why blog?' And for me the answer is, 'why not?' Blogging is just another form of communication; we can use it to start a conversation, to promote a product or event or just to express an opinion. Like many forms of social media it is easy and it's free. The statistics from our blog give us information on what people are searching and how they are led to us, it can help us to write content that is more aligned to our readers interests and can provide us with insights into what people are associating with our brand.

But more than anything, social media whether it's blogging, twitter, facebook etc makes people accessible. It enables us to start conversations, to find out what our clients are talking about, and to find out what will attract potential employees.

Online communities and applications create connections, in the book 'Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business' they talk about how large companies used blogs as a communication tool. A search for a topic on a blog might connect someone with a person and a search for a person might connect someone with a topic that is pertinent to them. An online connection can lead to a real life connection and vice versa.

We've seen the benefits of embracing social media on a number of fronts within Deloitte Digital. Obviously there is a product element to it and a value add offering for clients, but it also allows us to promote what we do and how we do it. Within the last two weeks alone we've had a number of people approach us via social media, to find out more about working at Deloitte, based on what they've read and seen online.

There are still companies that are concerned about sharing too much or the risks of having ‘star employees’ as the face of a social media presence but as @rexster puts it, ‘open is better than closed’.

We get far more from sharing what we’re doing than not sharing.

Last night some content saved my life

2011-04-19T13:56:00.003+10:00

Here at Deloitte Digital we’re out in the marketplace everyday chatting with clients about all things online and social media related. Inevitably 11 times out of 10, someone drops that C word which makes everyone cringe... content.

How do you create it? Who do you get to make it? And once you’ve got it, what do you do with it? We all know that it’s important to engage with our audience/community/fans and to do so with relevant and rich content streams.

In his travels, Deloitte Digital CEO, @rexster – has noticed an interesting change in the way crowds are reacting in social channels and what types of content are the most effective. He calls this new phenomenon, “ambient content”.

So unless you have cracked the content code, listen to what Pete has to say about it – it might just save your life (and your business)...

Aim, Fire, Adjust - What Innovators can learn from Angry Birds?

2011-04-07T10:50:00.003+10:00

Angry Birds has taken the world by storm and as an avid player I realised that it follows one of my keys Innovation mantras, "Aim, Fire, Adjust". We have limited resources with which to solve a problem and we need to try different ways of using the resources to solve the problem. When it gets tough you have to run a range of iterations to work out how to get through the level. Basically fail fast and fail forward.

Check out the video and would love your comments.

Learning: The Smart Way

2011-03-30T07:44:00.003+11:00

At the front stood AH with his PowerPoint presentation. He is presenting the project he has been developing over the past year. He is explaining how the Wii nunchuck communicates to his self-designed motherboard, which he has connected to a toy aeroplane, allowing him to control the plane with the nunchuck. XB is next, and he has demonstrated how he used .NET technology to create a 3D rendering program. After XB came others whose projects were just as impressive.

What’s so special about this scene?

The presenters were seventeen year olds and they have never purchased a programming book. Ever. The projects were created using their own code, which had taken months to perfect. The scene was not an air-conditioned office but a run-down public school with graffiti on the walls and a peeling lino floor.

When I asked how they had learned so fast, the answer was simple: online learning communities (and high school programming class, of course!). This is different to simply online learning, where people watch videos or download course notes on the internet. An online learning community is, as good old Wikipedia puts it, “a common place on the internet that addresses the learning needs of its members through proactive and collaborative partnerships”. It often incorporates online learning but is more effective as it requires a collaborative effort.

The benefits of online learning communities include:

Access to experts;
A sense of belonging and a base for support;
A place to share ideas, which can lead to bigger ideas; and
The possibility of becoming inspired by other people

Learning is a never-ending journey in our lives and therefore an important one to master. Luckily there are some things that can make learning an easier process.

These include:

Having a mentor, this can be a colleague or a learning website with access to many experts;
Being comfortable with the meta language of the subject by reading up on the topic and speaking to people who work in the field;
Get your hands dirty, apply what you know;
Analyse the controversial topics, understand both sides of the argument and discuss it with an expert; and
Analyse the contradictory facts within your subject area and persuade others of your viewpoint

We are lucky in Deloitte that the value of online communities is encouraged through the company’s use of Yammer, YouTube and blogspot. Deloitte also offers other learning tools such as Learning with Fusion (our internal e-learning program) as well as a wealth of knowledge through the Leadership Academy.

So which online community are you going to join?

This post written by Meisy Ho.

Life Defining Moments

2011-03-29T14:06:00.000+11:00

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Li Cunxin speak at a joint Leadership Academy & Deakin Prime event, if you don't know of Li's story I highly recommend reading his book or watching the movie, 'Mao's Last Dancer'.

Li spoke about the small moments that resulted in his success, when he was chosen for the ballet it was because his teacher hesitated and asked the government officials, 'what about him?' That one moment, that question was the first that led to him becoming one of the best dancers in the world and enabled him to help his family out of poverty.

He went on to say, 'if we do not pay attention to the small moments, the small opportunities that pass us by - we won't notice the life defining moment when it happens.' When was the last time you stopped to pay attention to what was going on around you? Li continued and said, 'we live in a life of endless and boundless opportunities and possibilities, yet how many times do we stop to notice the small moments?'

I often look around on the tram on my way to work and look at people and the majority of them don't look happy. We each have the capacity and the opportunity to create great success in our lives. Because talent only counts for so much - the rest of it is determination, it's courage, it's chutzpah.

When it comes to success Li said, 'you can't get to great success without having heart breaking moments'. We have so many opportunities and so many possibilities that it can be easy to think that the small things that really count are meaningless. But if we can't enjoy the process, if we can't appreciate the journey, how will we ever appreciate the end result? Chances are you won't even realise when you've gotten there.

Life's worst moments happen at the most inopportune times, and it is at these times that we have to refresh our vision. We have to ask ourselves, 'what kind of life do I want to live? What kind of journey do I want to travel?'

Enjoy the small moments, and you might be able to fully realise the impact of the big moments.

To find out more about the Leadership Academy and the events being held in your state have a look at our website http://www.deloitte.la/ or follow us on twitter.

This post originally appeared on www.humaneresourceblog.com

Is blogging worth it?

2011-03-22T15:09:00.001+11:00

At least once a week @Rexster will come through the office and ask, 'who has written a blog this week?' It's at this point that most people duck and try to avoid eye contact and the few of us that do blog try to come up with an excuse as to why we haven't written anything.

So I was interested to read an article on a study about personal blogging at work and whether it is beneficial to the business and employees. This article would either prove to @Rexster that we need to blog more or be a convenient excuse to let the blog slide. The purpose of the study was to determine whether blogs 'were just time sucks for employees, or whether they made workers more productive', and what the affects of imposing rules on blogs are so that they are purely work related and not inclusive of personal stories and anecdotes.

The conclusion of the study was, in brief: when the company imposed rules prohibiting workers from writing about their non-work interests, work postings dropped. When the company allowed workers to post freely, blogging and reading went up and employees exchanged more information about both work and play.

At Deloitte and within Deloitte Digital we don't have rules imposed on us when it comes to blogging (or anything to do with social media really). We are trusted to behave in a way that is appropriate and that will not 'diss the firm'. When in doubt we're asked, 'how would you feel if your Mother saw this?'

What are the benefits of blogging? It was found that blogging at work pulls employees closer to one another, builds relationships, and over time, increases productivity. While it was found that 10% of employees are responsible for 80% of posts, the benefits still flowed on to other employees within the business.

So there it is, the proof is in the posts - blogging is good for your business and for employees. Now all we have to do is get the other 90% of employees to contribute to the blog!

Reducing the risk of Identity Theft

2011-03-17T16:46:00.000+11:00

More and more we find ourselves having to verify our identities online as we sign up for new products or services. The more progressive websites have begun using third party electronic identity verification solutions such as greenID^®, which lets you verify yourself within a few minutes. However many websites still require you to photocopy your driver’s license, passport and other highly sensitive records.

The risk of sending photocopies to these organisations is that they have to have the proper policies in place to store this information securely; policies that some companies still can’t get right.

In a recent article in The Age titled ‘ID protection at crisis point’ (9 March 2011), journalist Conrad Walters writes about the ongoing issue of private information being leaked over the internet. The most recent examples included:

- February 2011 - cosmetics company Lush warns Australian and New Zealand customers that details of online credit card transactions have been captured by criminals.

- February 2011 - the Privacy Commissioner rebukes Vodafone for ''an inadequate level of security'' on systems storing the personal details of up to 4 million customers.

- January 2011 - Details about thousands of University of Sydney students are found stored online where they can be downloaded or read via an internet connection.

- December 2010 - Telstra accidentally leaks personal details of hundreds of customers after an employee emails people waiting for products rather than to the stores that were to deliver the goods.

These breaches alone tell us that no matter the size of the organisation, there is still a chance they will not have the proper security in place to prevent sensitive customer information leaks.

Walters states that in some cases, the identity verification process is required by law. Companies in industries such as banking, aviation, maritime, telecommunications, chemicals, and pharmaceutical industries are required to obtain proof of customer’s identity before transacting with them. This means that we must provide the information that they request, but in some instances, people are actually providing the organisations more than they have to.

For example, the old method of sending in a photocopy of your driver’s license reveals some highly sensitive information such as your signature, your driver’s license number and whether or not you are an organ donor; information the organisation doesn’t need, and shouldn’t have access to.

Not only should these companies not have access to that kind of information, but they have no reason to hold on to it.

Using greenID^®, you can reduce the risk of identity theft by reducing the amount of sensitive information that is shared with the organisations.

greenID® allows you to verify your identity online using a range of different verification sources such as driver’s license, passport, visa, or Medicare card, but does not keep the personally identifiable information (such as driver’s license or passport numbers). Once greenID® has verified you as an individual it only sends on a ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’ back to the organisation who is requesting the verification.

This provides a more sensitive verification process and reduces the organisation’s risk as they are no longer required to hold on to old photocopies and highly sensitive, unnecessary information.

Check out the website to find out more information about greenID^® – www.greenid.com.au

This post written by Matt Leeburn

#amchamsm

2011-03-11T14:24:00.001+11:00

Today Pete Williams presented at The American Chamber of Commerce lunch and spoke about Social Media and business. We’ve crowd-sourced it from the #amchamsm tweets if you missed it:

stevec2095: Waiting for @rexster to entertain the crowd with social media brilliance
JonDDG: If Peter’s intro is anything to go by the presentation will be terrific...
janstewart: @rexster refers to himself as a nowist rather than a futurist
jeremysamuel: @rexster talking about cloud... Security worries are dumb - must admit I agree
jeremysamuel: mobile is going to kill it... D’oh
jeremysamuel: social should be part of everything you do
lukemccormack: "The Cloud - get on it or go out of business!"
KatieHague: "whatever you do, if it doesn’t have social media in it, re-think it."
jeremysamuel: @rexster says entangle your web site with social... Put the links to social sites at the top of your page
jeremysamuel: if you want to run a rigid hierarchy the crowd will come get you according to @rexster
janstewart: @rexster - get on board with crowdsourcing or become irrelevant
jeremysamuel: @rexster says Facebook is the most important site in the world
janstewart: @rexster follows people like @irldexter as Donal is on the ground, relevant meaningful news comes directly through Twitter stream
lukemccormack: "If you work in social media you don’t have to buy clothes, because everyone gives you free tshirts (like @yammer)"
jeremysamuel: livestream lets you broadcast video... Cool. Technology today is about "out-think"... Not out-spend. Have to agree with @rexster
janstewart: @rexster investment tip - invest in companies that other companies ban, e.g. Facebook, YouTube
lukemccormack: "Today the web comes to us via social media"
janstewart: @rexster staff and customers understand social media, only management doesn’t
lukemccormack: "If you don’t trust your people to use social media, you’ve got a leadership & cultural issue."
jeremysamuel: @rexster says "learn by doing" in the cloud.
NBirch1972: "See the light or feel the heat"
janstewart: @rexster speaking to Deloitte’s use of @Yammer - facilitates direct and real-time communication between CEO and all staff
janstewart: @rexster developing a business app like @foursquare Who? What? Where? Using game mechanics
jeremysamuel: @rexster says "you control the message by giving a great customer experience"... Hallelujah!
simonjoldham: @rexster MassMedia Studios take the concept of social media for business to a whole new level!
lukemccormack: "The fact that you’re not participating (in social media) doesn’t mean people won’t talk about you"
jeremysamuel: organizations need to work out internal connectivity to do external connectivity. Gee @rexster, makes sense :-)
aPaddyinOz: @rexster Thx for a great speech and great to know the cloud is a good place to be!

That we’re able to get a blog post from the tweets and post it all within minutes of Pete’s speech ending really does show the power of the crowd.

Thanks to everyone who was tweeting at the event.

Social Media @ Deloitte

2011-03-11T12:15:00.001+11:00

The Deloitte team have just released the 2010 Social Media at Deloitte report, it details how we use social media here and the reasons that we use it the way we do.

At Deloitte - Social Media is just another form of media.

Why CEOs need social media – Deloitte CEO’s story

2011-03-08T13:03:00.004+11:00

This blog post originally appeared on Bluewire Media's blog, thanks to Adam Franklin for the great post.

Who said CEOs don’t use social media…?

Certainly not Giam Swiegers. And you don’t get much higher up the corporate ladder than CEO of Deloitte Australia.

In this 3 minute interview, Giam Swiegers shares his passion for social media, how they embrace it as Deloitte and why future leaders absolutely need it!

Here’s what I discovered.

What is a Digital Native?

A Digital Native is a term coined by a Stanford professor in 2001. A digital native is considered anyone born after technology was invented. That is anybody younger than 34. In our case that makes up 75% of the people who work here.

A Digital Dinosaur is someone post that point, who is ignoring technology and ignoring how digital communication is impacting.

A Digital Immigrant is anyone over 34 years old who is willing to learn and join the digital revolution in communication.

How do you use social media at Deloitte?

We’ve had a lot of Digital Natives volunteer to mentor Digital Dinosaurs to turn them into Digital Immigrants. As this program is going on I see more and more Digital Immigrants joining the social media revolution here!

Are they enjoying it?

I think some might be enjoying it more than others. There’s some very interesting banter going on on our internal Yammer site where the discussion is raging on about how Digital Immigrants are starting to accept their mentoring by very young people!

Is social media a key for being a leader in the future

Absolutely. I reckon that social media and digital communication is going to be vital. When we talk to our partners, we say that if you’re under the age of 45 and very ambitious to lead, if you don’t get social media you are most unlikely to be an effective leader moving forward.

If you look at the role of leaders and of CEOs, our job is to get the strategy executed. You only have a chance of getting your strategy executed if you can communicate it. Communicated people must hear it and if you want them to hear it, you must do it in a way that they prefer to hear it. If you do in your way, that’s an interesting approach but not very effective.

Do you personally use social media?

We use Yammer which is somewhere between facebook and twitter – but for Deloitte Australia employees only. And I think Yammer has become a very effective communication tool to communicate with about half our people.

I’m on facebook just to see how it works but it connected me with all sorts of interesting friends and mates from a long time back.

I twitter but I’m not sure if I’m that good at it. And whatever else I can see around social media. LinkedIn, yep.

And where can people go to find out more?

We have a website Deloitte.com.au or nowadays if you Google us there’s all sorts of interesting things that pop up.

*****
You can follow @GiamSwiegers and Deloitte Australia @GreenDot

Power of the Crowd

2011-03-04T08:50:00.007+11:00

In the past, the formation of a crowd was largely dependent on proximity, we needed to be together physically in order to create a crowd. However, since the advent of the internet we now have the ability to create a virtual “crowd” which allows people to come together through common interests or ideas. This is generally achieved via social media channels, such as twitter or facebook.

In the latest episode of Pete’s news and views, Peter Williams (@rexster), CEO Deloitte Digital, discusses how the power of the crowd is currently playing a major role in bringing change to an array of situations world-wide, in particular the overthrowing of the Egyptian political regime, and also the response to the recent flash flooding of Brisbane.

Pete briefly touches on the story of Wael Ghonim (@Ghonim), Google’s Head of Marketing in the Middle East by day, and revolutionary cyberactivist by night. Ghonim anonymously ran the prolific facebook page “We are all Khaled Said” under the moniker El Shaheeed (The Martyr). Which was instrumental in organising a series of protests throughout Egypt that lead to the eventual downfall of Hosni Mubarak and his regime.

Ghonim, who has since gone on to become the face of the Egyptian revolution, has dubbed it “Revolution 2.0” stating "Our revolution is like Wikipedia, okay? Everyone is contributing content, [but] you don't know the names of the people contributing the content. This is exactly what happened. Revolution 2.0 in Egypt was exactly the same. Everyone contributing small pieces, bits and pieces. We drew this whole picture of a revolution. And no one is the hero in that picture."

This all goes to show that people now have the capacity to mobilize at a speed which is almost instantaneous and is often at times too much for corporations to fully comprehend. Following the wake of Revolution 2.0 we can only expect this capacity to mobilise to become even greater yet, in conjunction with advances in technology, such, Google and Twitter’s new innovative speak-to-tweet service, allowing people to tweet without an internet connection. Only time will tell where further advances will take us.

This post written by @Zeeman3000

Leaders are made, not born

2011-03-03T10:22:00.000+11:00

The recently released Talent Edge 2020: Blueprints for the new normal report highlighted the key areas of concern for senior executives around talent, retention and leadership development.

The findings were that even though there is high unemployment in the US and abroad this has not created a surplus of talent and it is predicted that talent shortages will again become an issue across key business units.

Leadership shortages are a concern for 56% of participants, with 64% of companies engaged in an effort to fast track the development of new corporate leaders with a focus on accelerated leadership programs.

It is obvious that companies will need to increase focus on performance planning, succession planning and retention in order to have the right people in the right place at the right time to fill key positions. The long held view that leaders are born not made is starting to fade and organisations acknowledge the importance that great leaders hold within their organisation.

Zenger & Folkman in The Extraordinary Leader state that the more “great” leaders an organisation can develop, the stronger it will be. This is true for multiple reasons, among them are the following:

· The contribution these leaders make to the units they manage.

· The example they set or role model they provide for the entire organisation.

· The cumulative impact their performance has in creating an entirely new culture for the organisation.

· The elevated standard of performance that is set within the organisation.

The question is now about ‘how’ to develop leaders, 35% of respondents stated that managing and delivering training programs is the most pressing concern for their company in relation to talent. The traditional method of delivering these training programs has been to take managers offsite for anything from 3 days to 2 weeks operationally this causes headaches with key leaders unable to respond to business needs during this time.

This new model is a move towards blended learning which allows leaders to do complete learning in their own time using online and mobile applications with offsite or workshop programs used to complement the online learning. By giving leaders the responsibility for their own learning and providing an on demand learning resource they are more engaged in their learning and development.

If Leadership Development is a concern for you as an individual or as an organisation the Deloitte Leadership Academy provides a cost effective and accessible solution to your talent needs. The Leadership Academy allows Individual to sign up on the spot and access world class content across key leadership topics immediately.

For more information see www.deloitte.la

Rexster's Creed

2011-02-24T15:55:00.005+11:00

On Thursday 18^th November 2010 at the Melbourne 2010 Knowledge Cities World Summit, Deloitte Digital’s CEO, @rexster (Pete Williams) went head to head with Baroness Susan Greenfield in the Great Brain Debate. Check out the details here

Pete and the Baroness discussed “the role social technology plays in society and the knowledge community – is it a blessing or a hindrance?”

To give you an insight into Pete’s perspective, here’s what he used in closing:

Rexster’s Creed

I believe open is better than closed.
I believe in the crowd and the cloud.
I believe in them not you.
I believe self-organising works better than hierarchy.
I believe transparency drives accountability, then authenticity.
I believe in networks, fractals and complexity.
I believe access to information drives democracy.
I believe we use technology first for what we like, then what matters.
I believe you should not fear but embrace and learn.
I believe that knowledge shared is more powerful than knowledge held.
believe that our kids are our future.
I believe that they are broad not narrow.
I believe they are deep not shallow.
I believe we can learn from them.
I believe in us.

How to Attract and Keep the Best-of-the-Best Employees!

2011-02-23T16:17:00.003+11:00

Attracting quality employees isn’t rocket science and it’s no secret that the cost of hiring new people, as well as losing people with corporate knowledge, is a very costly exercise but there are a few simple things you can do. Who you are as a company, as a leader, and the environment you create for them, play a major role, but first you need to understand what makes them stay and what makes them go.

Gone are the days where people start work and retire with the one company. Now we’re in the 21st century, people have an abundance of choice in careers, roles and perks. And just as people go from one relationship to another, they also go from one role to another; no one is quick to commit their life to anyone anymore. Job security is no longer guaranteed, happiness and financial rewards have become the new priorities, so giving someone a job and expecting that alone to create a loyal employee who loves and adores you, is just not realistic.

If you want to keep the best of the best; the quality employees who are highly skilled, productive and committed to working for you, then you have to stand out. You have to make a bit more of an effort than one phone call after the first date. This is an ongoing relationship that if you nurture and value it, will do more than just get the work done, it will build your brand and attract more clients as well. Yes, it’s true, how you care for your employees directly impacts your bottom line!

Now here is the crux of it: People stay because they are happy and feel valued, people leave because they don’t. Simple. The formula is simple too:

Phenomenal leadership = phenomenal culture= attractive environment for the best-of-the-best.

So you want to attract and keep the quality employees and create more profits for your company? Then becoming a phenomenal leader is your first priority and here are a few things you can do (although I’ll expand on them in the coming months so watch this space):

Recognise their work and contribution to your company. Phenomenal leaders do this consistently! A simple “thank you” or “great job” goes a long way but if you want to go the extra mile (especially when the contribution makes a huge difference to your bottom line), then small gifts such as gift cards, all expenses paid trips away, or something personal to them that you know they want or need, all show that they are truly valued.

Listen to them! People often just need to be heard, whether it’s something that’s bothering them or they’ve got an idea. Encourage them to come forth with ways to do things better, solutions to what’s bugging them or new directions to take the company. Phenomenal leaders empower others, are open minded and they truly listen to what their team are saying.

Create opportunities for growth, development and new experiences such as training courses or rotations into other areas. These all provide variety and prevent boredom. Bored people leave, entertained people stay. Some people are more ambitious than others so if there is a way to fast track the promotional trail, they’ll stay. Phenomenal leaders encourage and support people in their development; great leaders help others become leaders in their own right.

Get perky! Create or find other perks that make your employee’s life better. This shows you care about the person and not just about the work they do for you. Gym memberships, salary packaging, social events (drinks nights), charity events, discounts on health insurance, flexible working hours, work from home opportunities, discounts on childcare or parking, are all great perks that are considered in the “do I stay or do I go?” process if they get to that point. Phenomenal leaders care and are flexible wherever possible.

If at the very least you do the first 2, you are doing more than many companies out there, but if you can manage all 4 and more, then you’re a mile ahead of the pack!

Leadership is the key. Become, and create, other phenomenal leaders to cultivate an attractive corporate culture and you’ll draw in the best-of-the-best employees, and thus attract an abundance of happy clients who contribute to your profits. It’s a win-win!

For more information check out the Deloitte Leadership Academy or call 1300 440 277 for more information.

Image of some of Deloitte Digitals finest and courtesy of @lukemccormack. Feel free to send him some Twitter love!

Social Media @ Work

2011-02-22T10:34:00.002+11:00

Last week Deloitte Digital CEO Pete Williams was a panelist on the SkyBusiness Technology Behind Business program discussing corporate social media policies, with Adrienne Unkovitch of Workplace Guardian and author and keynote speaker Ross Dawson.

Pete speaks about how important he feels that social media is in Deloitte and in other companies as a way for professionals to connect and to create a network.

Employees at Deloitte are trusted to use social media in a responsible way that doesn't 'diss the firm', as Pete states by giving employees the accountability and responsibility for what they say and do online poeple feel they are trusted.

To find out more about Deloitte Digital and what we do have a look at our YouTube channel.

There Is No Line

2011-02-21T11:31:00.002+11:00

In the workplace we have boundaries, expectations and norms, each of us have an agenda or a place we are trying to get to. In the business world the 'glass ceiling' is spoken about (generally in relation to women), but many people feel that there are boundaries to their ability to achieve their goals. But what if you're the one creating the boundaries?

In this video Deloitte Digital CEO Pete Williams discusses the boundaries that people set for themselves and the invisible lines that they won't cross.

For more videos on Leadership check out our YouTube channel or to find out about the Leadership Academy contact us at leadershipacademy@deloitte.com.au

The Big Issue. The Big Word.

2011-02-15T09:35:00.010+11:00

Thanks to James Giang for the guest post on our latest rapid workshop. Stay tuned for the details of our Sydney event which will be happening soon.

Last night the Social Change Collaboratory Melbourne (#sccollab) meetup group came together at HubMelbourne to run a Rapid Prototyping by Deloitte Digital’s CEO Pete Williams (@rexster).

I also attended the Rapid Prototyping workshop last year at the Deloitte office – and I had to go again when I saw the event on #sccollab. Why? Because it is seriously so much fun.

The aim of the workshop is to practically demonstrate rapid prototyping techniques while creating a board game. The workshop session generally has a theme – in this case (given we were at #sccollab) was on social enterprises/social entrepreneurs/social change etc.

Our fabulous team created the game, "The Big Issue. The Big Word"

Our game was simple, fast paced and highly strategic.

The theme of the game is that you manage Big Issue vendors – and your goal is to strategically place them in the best position around Melbourne to optimize their magazine selling potential.

How it works:

Players are split into two teams
Each team is given a random set of characters
Each team must make 3 or more letter word to earn a vendor (chip)
Once you have a vendor, you can immediately place them on the board
You must place your first vendor anywhere on the outer ring
Each subsequent vendor can only be placed next to an existing vendor (must be a line connecting the two vendors)
If you create a word with 5 or more letters – you can either get a new vendor, or remove an opponent’s vendor (must be next to one of your vendors)
Letters cannot be re-used
Game ends when both teams cannot create anymore words or one team has completely dominated the board
Points are calculated at the end (middle spot = 50 magazines, inner ring = 20 magazines, outer ring = 10 magazines)

It was amazingly fast paced and the level of team-based complexity sky rocketed – here were some interesting observations (since I was the host for this table as others went to steal ideas from other tables)

Don’t create 5+ words too early, early use of 5 letter words wasted valuable letters and ability to steal vendors (since there were generally no enemy vendors next to your vendors that early on the board)
Roles within the team – teams which had a person placing vendors while the others created words worked out best, it was faster and less fiddly
Hold back on 3/5 letter words – one team held back a few 3 and 5 letter words until they saw the right moment to strike, dropped a 5 letter word to remove the vendor in the middle and dropping a 3 letter word to earn a vendor to take over the throne. that was smart play
Aim to take the middle spot quickly – 3 words is all you need to make your way into the centre, with such high value, you want to maintain that position
Protect the throne – some teams started placing their vendors in the inner circle to protect their middle piece from an onslaught of vendor rivalry (this requires rapid 3 letter word generation to quickly earn vendors)
Blocking the other teams vendors – placing your vendors around an enemy vendor to restrict their ability to mobilize (take over the two inner ring positions next to an outer ring vendor – they are left with only the option to move sideways along the outer ring)

As you can see, there was probably only 20 minutes of actual game play time during the session, but the number of strategies and tricks I saw was awesome. Given its speed, multiple games can be run quickly – the hardest part was finding players who were trapped playing those other boring games. haha!

Session ended with each team developing a pitch and selling the product – Robert delivered a great pitch for our team, shame we didn’t get the votes though.

So what did I learn? Rapid prototyping is great, the speed and creativity of idea generation and validation is astonishing. In an environment like this – words become action.

So now we need to rapid prototype how we approach more serious matters such as social issues, and turn fluffy words into tangible action.

The DNA of a leak - Wikileaks and Whistleblower services

2011-02-14T16:47:00.002+11:00

In the age of Wikileaks, organisations without an effective internal release valve are going to find continued challenges as employees escalate their reports of misconduct to the public sphere to find action.

Why would somebody go to Wikileaks and the media instead of a whistle-blower process within their organisation?

Peter Williams is the CEO of Deloitte Digital, who run an independent third party whistleblower service.

This post written by @RossHill

Getting the crowd together for Serious Gaming

2011-01-31T13:38:00.001+11:00

We had so much fun with the first #rapidworkshop that we’re going to run some more sessions in Melbourne and Sydney.

Pete explains why we are running these sessions and Luke shares some of the digital results with us.

You can RSVP to the February 7th Melbourne event at Meetup.

We will announce details for Sydney soon.

See you there!

The @DeloitteDigital team

Rapid Prototyping with Serious Games

2011-01-31T07:34:00.023+11:00

We recently hosted a rapid prototyping workshop in Melbourne facilitated by Peter Williams and Simon Townsend to bring together clients, thought-leaders and the innovation community from around Melbourne with a challenge to create an original board game in around 45 minutes. These are workshops that we have refined for use both within Deloitte as well as with clients to really fire up the innovation spirit in a practical way.

A few things interesting things happen during these events:

Quickly figure out the teams strengths

When you sit down at a table with breakfast you may know a couple of the other faces but usually you won’t know everybody. When you have 15 minutes to work together and build the first prototype of your board game you have to figure out really quickly what each person’s strengths are, and how to apply those to complete your first goal. Computer gamers have a natural advantage at this because this is what you do when you join a World of Warcraft or other game server and start playing with people who are scattered across the world.

Ping pong, not ten pin bowling

In school we are taught to get most of a project finished before we ask for feedback. Sometimes we will do a draft, but usually we will complete 80% of what we are asked before there is any input. The difficulty is that when we get that far we don’t want to make so many changes because we are so close to finishing. In Innovation the opposite is true. You want to do 20% and bounce the idea off somebody to see what they think. Then you get some feedback and do another prototype and ask for feedback at 40% and 60% and by the time you make it to 100% you have learned a lot while adjusting your course towards the goal. This is like ten pin bowling where you line up your shot, let it go and then wait a while for feedback.

In the rapid prototyping workshop you have 15 minutes to create your first game, then you have to show it to the other tables around you, test it and get their feedback. What you will quickly realise is that you don’t have all the answers. “How do I win?” may result in “Oh, we haven’t thought of that… you win if you get to 100 points!” – which you then test. The response may be that 100 points is impossible, or too easy, and so you adjust again. After three build and feedback sessions you have quite an interesting game to play. This is like the rapid feedback you get in ping pong – the ball is either in or out, you win or lose, and you try again.

When each group pitched their game at the end there was great diversity in what emerged. Everyone was really surprised at how refined their games had become in just 60 minutes time – so where do we go from here?

Business is a serious game

When we talk about applying theories of innovation, rapid prototyping and project management we don’t usually think of making board games – but what we have found is that after experiencing a rapid prototyping workshop staff are really energised and wanting to apply the principles they just learned in their daily business roles. By using an agile, iterative approach we can really empower and energise the way we deliver innovative products.

There will be more public Rapid Prototyping workshops running in Melbourne and Sydney soon, and if you would like to explore this in your organisation please get in touch at deloittedigital@deloitte.com.au or call us on 1800 791 434.

This post written by @RossHill

We Are The They – Peter Williams shares the Flowerdale story at TEDx Canberra

2011-01-24T13:01:00.004+11:00

13 lives and 224 homes were lost when devastating bushfires struck the town of Flowerdale on February 7th 2009. When they, the emergency services, are overwhelmed in a natural disaster you look at the people around you and ask “What are we going to do about this?”

If you don’t know what to do, that’s okay - but do something and start somewhere. Deloitte Digital CEO Pete Williams was in this position when his sister in law drove out of the town with pages of handwritten notes from people begging to get their story out there. Pete started a blog called Help Flowerdale Now, posted the notes A cry of help for the forgotten people of Flowerdale online, tweeted it out, and half an hour later he was on 3AW talking to the Red Cross and things were happening.

Three years after 60% of the residents of Flowerdale lost everything, the town not only survived but grew back stronger and built a model for other victims of disasters. At TEDx Canberra 2010 Pete shared the story of how one small town punched above its weight to not only survive but lead the way for those who find themselves in disaster situations in the future.

“If not us, who? We are the they.”

This post written by @RossHill

The Implications for Business and Government of Wikileaks and Geek War 1

2010-12-10T12:48:00.010+11:00

This week the world changed as the stakes kept rising over Wikileaks.

To start with there are effectively two basic schools of thought around the publishing of leaked information by Wikileaks.

The first and apparently most popular view is that exposing government and corporate information where there is a perceived abuse of power is something that is in the public interest and should be encouraged.

The second point of view is that exposing government and corporate information in an uncontrolled way is highly dangerous and in some camps the view is it must be stopped by any means.

Over the course of the last two weeks there were numerous Denial of Service attacks on Wikileaks itself. Since that time Wikileaks has been mirrored on over 1400 sites by self organising groups on the web. The crowd implemented a defensive strategy to ensure Wikileaks could not be taken down. To understand more check this article from NY Daily News "Wikileaks sparks Mirror Sites"

The arrest of Julian Assange provoked a massive outcry on the web and in the traditional media. But then something interesting happened, a group of hackers called Anonymous Operations enabled anyone with web access and a computer to join Operation Payback to attack firms that were seen to withdraw services from Wikileaks. These firms include Visa and Mastercard as well as web native firms like Amazon and Paypal. Social media channels, particularly twitter, were used to propagate the messages and recruit participants.

Wikileaks made the following statement "This group is not affiliated with WikiLeaks. There has been no contact between any WikiLeaks staffer and anyone at Anonymous. WikiLeaks has not received any prior notice of any of Anonymous' actions," it said on its website.

"We neither condemn nor applaud these attacks. We believe they are a reflection of public opinion on the actions of the targets," WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said.

The really interesting part was how easy the group behind Operation Payback has made it for the Garden Variety web user to turn over their machine to be used in a DDoS attack. Effectively anyone could become part of an open, public and crowsourced Denial of Service attack, because it was so easy to participate.

So what does this mean:

The Leaks come from the Inside - While all the noise is about Wikileaks the information they receive comes from inside organisation walls. Organisations need to consider whether they have trusted release valves to deal with issues when their employees feel that the whistle should be blown. If there isn't, Wikileaks is now the obvious first port of call.

Who has access to sensitive information - every organisation has sensitive information, make sure that sensitive information is not widely accessible to prevent it being copied and circulated

The Crowd has Big Teeth and they are Real Time - The speed and efficiency of the attacks as well as the capacity to rapidly recruit and scale from the web crowd has made it clear that where there is a strong sense of social injustice, and the crowd are directed at a target, they can bring you down.

Which side am I on? - This will be a vexing question for many organisations. In an incident like this should I withdraw services and face the potential of being shut down, or do I keep running with it and perhaps face the ire of Government or others. Not an easy question to answer.

It is Only the Beginning - While DDoS attacks have been carried out in the past this is the first time it has been "democratised" on a mass scale and it has gone beyond the traditional hacker/activist groups to your garden variety web user. The potential for these attacks to become more prevalent and sophisticated is pretty much a given. What this could mean for unpopular policies or actions is pretty scary and the capacity to respond is limited in most organisations. Do you have DDoS response in your Business Continuity Management Plan?

How can i control it? - In my view it comes down to culture. Organisations that are considered to be involved in questionable actions from the inside, will potentially be considered fair game by the crowd on the outside. I would be monitoring reputation closely at a board level to provide at the minimum an early warning system.

Like it or not Geek War 1 has changed the way things are. What we do know is that self organising groups on the web tend to outperform large hierarchical organisations. There are no easy answers but perhaps the safest way to play is to borrow a mantra from Google "Don't Be Evil".

Our Impact Day

2010-11-15T15:27:00.007+11:00

On Friday our Deloitte Digital bus wound up through Whittlesea, Kinglake West and through the valley that the town of Flowerdale sits in, we were being taken through the path of the Black Saturday bushfires and for most of us it was our first look at the destruction the fires left.

Globally, more than 50,000 Deloitte employees participated in IMPACT day which was providing skills based volunteering in communities and schools. For all of us here at Deloitte Digital we put our time towards a very personal project for our CEO Pete Williams and went to Flowerdale a town that lost 80 per cent of its homes and 13 locals in the 2009 fires.

We broke into three groups and our group was sent down to Moore’s Road Reserve alongside King Parrot Creek, this is the area that a memorial service was held after the fires and is a meeting place for the community to grieve, to celebrate and to survive. We were there to plant six trees along the border of the reserve but as Peter ‘Auty’ told us what we were doing was more than just planting trees. Auty told us, that in the community of Flowerdale the reserve is like their cathedral and for us to be there planting trees it was symbolic of rebuilding it for them.

We also went to plant trees and unload wood cut by another group for a woman who was hit pretty hard emotionally and financially during the fires and who is currently in hospital. While it might seem that the actions we took weren’t great, Auty talked to us about the ripple effect of what we’d contributed, by helping her she’d have the strength to help someone else and with each new action the community is rebuilt.

Throughout our IMPACT Day we heard stories about the devastation the fires left and the people, whose lives were forever changed as a result, but we also heard stories of a community who had made the word ‘survive’ a collective noun.

Our day wasn’t about the quantity of what we were able to contribute it was enough for us to simply be there with the people of Flowerdale. We were there to hear their stories and to share some small part of their experience, and the whole day had a profound effect on all of us.

We milled around after hearing Auty recite a poem, and in a pensive mood after the events of the day the Flowerdale locals wanted something to represent what we'd done, so four of us took our IMPACT Day shirts off our backs and passed them on. Fittingly, on the Deloitte t-shirts the quote on the back read, 'community, it's our business'.

We ventured out on IMPACT Day to help the community of Flowerdale – as it turns out the community of Flowerdale helped us.

To see what we got up to on the day, check out our photos

5 Tips for Job Search Success

2010-11-04T10:31:00.001+11:00

The blogs posts and questions have been flying so I suppose it’s about time to write about using social media to get a job. There are more and more stories emerging of people who have used online methods and strategies to get a job (and I’m one of them), and people seem to think that the reason for success is that it’s something completely new.

But people seem to be missing the similarities between ‘social’ job searches and ‘normal’ job searches. The elements that lead to success are the same across all methods;

Get the attention of the decision maker – whether it’s an advertised position or not you need to target the right person. It shows you’ve researched the company & know who the important people are
Demonstrate why – whether it’s a phone call, a cover letter or a blog post you have to demonstrate to the decision maker why they should hire you, follow the ‘wifm’ – what’s in it for me principle
Use appropriate strategies – research the company, the people and the culture. A youtube video won’t work for a traditional business - likewise a cover letter & resume may not work for a creative role. You need to target your approach to the role and the company
Create advocates – referrals are important, you need people to vouch for you, whether this is in references or through people vouching for you and mentioning you to possible employers. It is essential to create advocates within the organisation, these are the people that will champion your cause from within
Know what you’re good at – you need to have some self awareness and know what level of roles or what type of roles you should be applying for. It won’t matter how good your application is if you’ve got nothing to add

The reasons for success in job searching aren’t likely to change too much regardless of the technology. The benefit of technology is that it increases your audience and your influence, but if you don’t do it right it won’t work no matter what your approach is.

Ask Questions

2010-10-29T17:00:00.003+11:00

We are right in the middle of the Spring Racing Carnival and once again Bart Cummings, 82 year old Master Trainer, is dominating the big races with his latest super horse So You Think taking all before him.

Bart has managed to stay at the forefront of racing for five decades through continuously innovating with a fairly simple formula, Ask Questions.

Peter Williams, CEO Deloitte Digital, shares his thoughts on asking questions.

Bart has been in hospital for the last couple of days, hope he gets well and that we see him on the podium on Cup Day