What is An Isoquantic Shift?

Strategy: What Say You? with Jay Deragon

John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, described a new theory of change in 1993, called an "isoquantic shift." This theory, said Sculley, "refers to a significant technological advancement that dramatically changes the way people do things and completely re-orients people's concepts of how things are done. For example, the fractional horsepower electric motor was an isoquantic shift from the centralized steam engines that powered many factories during the 19th century."

Jack Myers says “The introduction of real time audio and video to computer Internet access and the integration of the computer and the television set represent another isoquantic shift. The ability of individuals to interact represents a convergence of the telephone, the computer, the television and high-speed cable and telephone modems, altering the ways in which consumers perceive media.”

“A paradigm shift is merely a restructuring of the patterns that we rely on for our decision-making. Paradigm shifts require changes in traditional behavior because we are required to rethink our assumptions. They reflect a change in how people perceive and react to reality. The transition of audiences from broadcast television to cable TV has been a paradigm shift - a slow change in patternistic behavior. Cable has not radically altered the way advertisers communicate to audiences or the way viewers interact with the medium. Successful managers in the 1980s and 1990s conformed to shifting technological, sociological, and regulatory paradigms. The isoquantic shifts on the
horizon are creating even greater apprehension and anxiety. While change has been continuous, pervasive, and overwhelming, it has rarely been so dramatic that it totally alters the way people do things. The changes we are facing today in business are isoquantic shifts, not simple paradigm shifts.”

Sculley points out that "we have seen an isoquantic shift in the computer industry with the microprocessor. The microprocessor clearly changed the whole concept of what computers were, from a centralized device, to one on every desk, to one you are carrying around with you." Sculley also envisioned the isoquantic shifts affecting the television industry: "We're seeing a new isoquantic shift taking place in this decade that is replacing the old analog communications we have known - digital compression communications. That's a very significant factor for all of us because of the convergence of our respective industries, whether it is computers, communications, or content. They're all coming together."

How Fast Are Things Coming Together?

All this social stuff has accelerated change. Change comes from learning new ways of doing old things and creating new things. The power of conversational rivers about anything and everything is accelerating change. The reason is because we are all learning from each other and the idea exchange has been fueled by social technology which has create new markets of conversations never before experienced or envisioned. The conversations are creating new knowledge which fuels innovation.

The business narrative is full of terms like "momentum", "velocity to market", "dynamic", "production" - all of these are time dependent variables.

Wherever one can observe a high rate of change of knowledge among people, there is innovation happening. If the innovation corresponds to your business plan - you are in luck. If it does not, then you need to change your business plan.

The best policy is that which accommodates what people are going to do naturally. Successful companies will align themselves to what people are doing. People will not necessarily align themselves to what companies are doing. The social web is the medium for Isoquantic shifts which is changing how we the people do things and how business gets things done. The change is swift and the more things change the more things come together.

What say you?

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What is An Isoquantic Shift?

Would You Like an Apple or a Berry?

By Chris Kauza
Technology Editor

How do you stay in touch with your network? This month I wanted to investigate some of the more popular devices used in networking – especially since we are currently considering upgrading ours.

We are a boutique consultancy, and are finding that we need to be able to text message and instant message more than we have in the past. That means we are not only spending a lot of time talking on the phone, and we are also doing more texting and IMing (instant messaging) while “on the go”.

As for me, I currently have a five year old Motorola Razr. I had a Blackberry Pearl when they first came out, and really enjoyed its features. However, I went back to the razor, because I didn't need the enterprise functionality of the Pearl, and only used it for calls, quick email checks and playing music.

We don't need many of the enterprise-class functions found in Blackberry's offerings. We have been very intrigued by Apple's iPhone and Blackberry's Bold. We've narrowed our considerations down to Apple's newest iPhone and either Blackberry's Bold, Curve, or Pearl.

The iPhone is cool, but we have heard and experienced horror stories where people have not always been able to send e-mails on time, accidentally hanging up phone calls with inadvertent touches on the touch screen, and a menu navigation difficulty while multitasking (i.e. - driving).

Price is relevant but longevity and functionality are more important, as are:

• Ease of use.
• Support.
• Upgradability and Memory capacity.
• Durability.
• Global portability.

Web browsing is interesting at this point, but most uses will be for phone calls (cell and Skype), e-mail, texting, playing games and listening to music.

So what do you do when you find yourself in a quandary? You through the question out to your network.

I started a poll on both Plaxo and Linked and received the following responses:

Issues of sample bias and the like aside, we received a good response rate of statistically significant results, and a number of interesting responses. I thought it was interesting that we received roughly the same number responses from both LinkedIn and Plaxo. Secondly, despite all of the marketing and hype surrounding Apple, I don't see a significant difference between the iPhone and Blackberry. In fact, most (42%) would prefer a Blackberry. Of these, the responses were pretty evenly split between the Pearl, the curve, and the forthcoming bowl.

I also found it was interesting that roughly the same number of total respondents answered either iPhone or undecided. Of the “?Others” 4 people recommended the Treo (remember those?) and 2 recommended Google's Android. We are an Open Source company (as much as possible), and Android is very appealing – but it's still too new for us to adopt across the business.

One of the biggest reasons we are hesitant to get an iPhone is that we would be locked into a service relationship with AT&T – something we really want to avoid. Personally, I have consistently had a horrible experience with AT&T, both with their network reliability and quality, and also with their customer service. It was a painful experience, and one I do not wish to repeat

We currently use T-Mobile and have been very satisfied with what the service. T-Mobile also has a “hot spot” offering, which allows us to make low-cost calls from any T-Mobile hot spot - our offices, Starbucks, United Airline's Red Carpet Club - anywhere there is a T-Mobile hot spot. As the price of data services rise, costs is a consideration when thinking about the number e-mails, text messages, videos etc. that we are likely to be accessing in the coming years.

Why is this process important to networking?

A core aspect to networking is reliable connectivity. It's about the quality of connection. It's about the frequency and reliability of that connection. And this is true whether you're talking about a specific piece of technology, or an individual or company with whom you are trying to do business. If you cannot interact with them, if you cannot stay in touch with them and reach them when you need to, then the value of that contact decreases.

Choosing technology is not just about cool factor or a fashion accessory - much like the iPod has become today. It's about making sure you can connect and interact with those you want or need to, in ways that will help you be successful.

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Would You Like an Apple or a Berry?

Nokia: Oy Vey!, from A Media Circus

As Apple continues to conquer the digital download market, the threat of Apple achieving the same status in the mobile arena is weighing heavily upon the mobile industry. Apple’s potential stronghold in the mobile industry is subsequently posing a threat to various related industries. Entertainment and gaming are two industries becoming more inextricably linked to the mobile devices than ever before, and if Apple gains enough control over the handset, they will inevitably gain control over the things that run on the handset.

In response to Apple’s mobile play, Nokia issued a series of press releases announcing various devices and services for the mobile consumer.

Ovi and Content Convergence

The idea of content convergence is often mistaken. I often make reference to Henry Jenkins’ notion of The Black Box Fallacy which refers to how people tend to think, one day all of our media will be contained in one unit. This will most likely not be the case (can you imagine carrying around a cable box all day ).

The reality is that we will have many devices for different purposes (the bedroom, the car, personal devices) but the content will be interoperable across a variety of devices. (For example, Facebook online will contain the same information as the Facebook that is accessed via a mobile phone, however the interface will be appropriated for your phone, taking into account the time and place that one uses their phone).

The diagram above is a model of how content convergence/hardware divergence works.

As usual I digress, back to Ovi

Ovi is the name of Nokia’s new internet services brand. Ovi is Finnish for “door”. The metaphor here is apparent; Ovi is the door to your all of your digital content and your social network. Ovi will also act as a door to two of their other new services, The Nokia Music Store (a platform that rivals iTunes) and N-Gage, Nokia’s mobile gaming service.

Incidentally, I love the copy on the site that refers to N-Gage:

“Keep the action going while you’re on the go with the power of N-Gage”

This line furthers the notion that the gaming does not stop when you turn the console off. The convergent nature of emerging platforms is made for gamers on the go.

The Nokia Music Store

I got an iPhone about a month ago and the one thing I cannot do with it that I want to do (besides cut and paste) is download music on the spot. It seems like a no-brainer, right?

"The Nokia Music Store brings together a powerful combination of great music and great devices in an easy to use way. You can select from a huge range of music, including local music from your country, and download it directly to your Nokia device," say’s Tommi Mustonen, the head of Nokia’s music activities.

This is a big step.

Payment can be made by a variety of methods including paypal. This is certainly a big step as mobile commerce becomes more of a reality. There is another point in the release that I thought was very compelling,

…the Nokia Music Store aims to provide more locally relevant music than any other digital music store. If you want to see what others are enjoying, the Nokia Music Store provides a dynamic recommendations engine as well as genre-based instant playlists.

The one drawback to all this (for me) is that there was no mention of a US release date, however the music store will be opening across key European markets this fall with additional stores in Europe and Asia opening over the coming months.

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Nokia: Oy Vey!, from A Media Circus