CEO Bloggers' Club

Next meeting : thursday the 2nd. December

Dear CEO Bloggers, our next meeting will take place as planned, thursday the 2nd. December in Paris at around 8 pm. This will be a great opportunity for us all to meet each other, please leave a comment to say if you'll be attending or not to help me organise the venue and cocktail asap.

Hope to see you there !

To all the CEO Bloggers: wake up and make Business!

We are more than 60 CEOs on this page.
Most of us do not know what to say or what to do with this blog (me first).
I propose something : let’s try to make business connexions !

Please write who and where you are, what your company does, your ambitions, your key benefits, your markets, your expectations, the things you propose and the things you need. Then, may be some of us could “start a business conversation” and see how this blog would allow us to discover each other, in France and all over Europe (World?).
I’m sure that everybody here is convinced by the blog power, that’s why we have one.
So let’s use this tool for what it is: a media between people, worlds, companies, etc.

Terrorist Threats May Lead to Blogging

By Robb Hecht from PR Machine

Americans have a healthy concern about terrorism, feel most secure at home, yet most believe our "War On Terrorism" won't help anything. (So says a recent study by Euro RSCG Worldwide).

Are terrorist fears one of the key drivers behind why America is blogging?

The online survey of more than 13,000 respondents in six countries included 2,000 US respondents and reveals some striking results on the threats Americans perceive they face.

Monopoly friendly: Google king of the world?

The Internet is an observation deck for the theory of free trade.
It’s a near-perfect example: on the Internet, exchanges take place without obstacles, and competition is constant.

This natural selection breeds champions.  In economics, we call these monopolies.

I believe that we can be optimistic because we’re in a system of free choice.  In the end, consumers vote for “moral” leaders (1): the system is self-regulating.

To illustrate this, I would like to use Google as an example of a “friendly monopoly.” (2)

What is behind Google’s success?

Rieses Challenged by National Geographic?

By Robb Hecht from PR Machine

Does God act through PR managers in evolving and building great brands? Or do brands mutate over time based on Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution?

It's clear from the recent national election results that this country's Christians are a very powerful force. Mastermind PR guru Karl Rove knew this and mobilized the voter base to reinstate our Republican president and throw in the House and Senate to boot.

Monopoly friendly: Be open

Google and I enjoy an “open relationship.”
It’s a near-perfect love story that’s been going on for years.
He is enriched by my presence. Since he’s afraid that I’ll leave him for somebody younger, he must always find new ways of seducing me. But everyone knows I’m happy because I come back to see him every day.

Microsoft is a part of the “older generation.”
I signed a marriage contract with things in fine print. The divorce was complicated, and his lawyers weren’t amusing. I know now he was only after my money, but I didn’t realize it until too late.

The case is similar for young people and technology: they’re in open relationships and, thanks to blogging and other tools, they can tell each other everything.

Long live “open” monopolies?

Monopoly friendly (1/X)

Today, technology and the Internet favor more than ever the rapid emergence of new monopolies.  Google and eBay are the best examples.

I think that certain monopolies are both a necessary and natural part of the economic evolution. We must stop them from turning into predators.

Let’s begin with an example of a monopoly that is posing problems and talk about Microsoft.

Let’s recognize that technological innovation today owes a lot to Microsoft.  Bill Gates’ initial vision of “having a computer on every desk and in every home” was a good one.
Undeniably, the standardization of the operating system favored progress, just as Henry Ford favored the development of the automobile industry.

This “positive” monopoly has become over time a “hostile” monopoly.
The empire has become a sort of economic dictatorship, and its means for self-preservation have not always been legal.

The capitalist system today encourages the natural emergence of monopolies:
Shareholders are conservative by nature.  It’s not the innovation of Microsoft that interests them; it’s Microsoft’s monopoly status.  Shareholders don’t like surprises. 

Though some companies like Enron, Parmalat and Carlyle went too far, destroying monopolies or the stock market is not the right response.  That would be throwing the baby out with the bath water.  Both monopolies and the stock market are natural products of a kind of evolution, and we should strive to preserve them for the sake the economic ecosystem.

How can we encourage the growth of friendly monopolies?

We the democracy (Democracy V2.0)

My previous post described the return of the “new economy.” The examples I cited underlined the fact that the majority of monopolies need to reinvent themselves quickly: major record labels, telecommunications companies, the press, TV …

I’d like to go a bit further by anticipating the advent of a “new democracy.”

Various participants in this blog have stressed the consumer’s desire for truth. We argue that businesses of the future need to establish an adult relationship with their clients – a relationship based on respect and confidence.
The company that figures out how to earn this consumer confidence will emerge the winner in any market.

Blogging both manifests and enables this democratic revolution.

We could even go so far as to draw the comparison between the worlds of economy and politics, between the consumer and the elector.

In the political sphere, the desire for truth is at least as strong, if not more.
But political discourse today is a reflection of marketing discourse: it’s still cynicism that dominates.

If we accept the idea that the blog will become a necessary tool for the economic leaders of tomorrow, we could assume (and hope) that the blog will become a necessary tool for the next political leaders.

The blog is the new Agora, a gathering place in Ancient Greece where democratic debates took place with everybody watching and participating.
Blogging is returning to the roots of democracy.

Beyond the horizon, we hope to find a new world. “America is not far.”
Are new CEOs the explorers of the future?

New economy V2.0

I have the impression that the rapid emergence of blogs (and most notably of this blog;) is tied to the collective sentiment that something important is happening. We want to share new ideas, to verify that we’re not the only ones thinking them …

I think that since September 11 our attention has been diverted, keeping us from fully recognizing the digital revolution that is already well on its way. It’s also possible that the web of traditional opinions (economical and political, brought to us by traditional media) had good reasons to not talk about it …

I’m going to cite 4 recent breakthroughs in the domain of technology:

When innovation sucks

I don’t watch much TV, but my heart simply goes out to those who do. Besides tolerating the agonizing channel-surfing moments, you also have to make your ears re-adapt to the changes in sound volume. Some smarter TVs can save your personal preferences, equalizer settings et al according to the channels; but then again, I’m sure you’ve heard stories of rogue cable-guys! Besides, most people in the world don’t have personal TVs… so much for the personal preferences.

I think instead of the TVs making an attempt at being smart, the TV designers should. Is it really difficult for a TV sense to ambient sound volume in the room and adjust its sound volume accordingly?