The personal/professional balance?

It seems to me that social media blurs the line between your personal life and your professional life. How do you manage a Facebook account when half of your friends are your business associates and the other half are your college frat buddies? Or worse, your EMBA cohort! What do you do when your boss sees the picture of you doing [fill in the blank] at a bar in Disney World? Personally, I like to have a little bit of a “safety zone” between my professional image and my personal life. How do you deal with this?

Twitterophobia?

I think it's great that Team 4 is pushing everyone to jump on the Twitter wagon, because otherwise I would have found every excuse not to join! Why do so many people, who are already used to being overly connected via the Internet, cell phones, Facebook, etc. still hesitant to Tweet? What is it about Twitter that scares away many modern day professionals?

For me I think it's the idea that Twitter is one more way to be connected when I am already overwhelmed with "connectedness" - I can't remember the last time I turned off my cell phone nor the last day I didn't check my e-mail at least ten times. Enough!

I do vastly appreciate the fact that Twitter has become an integral part of communication when disaster strikes - such as the recent earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. Twitter has been priceless as a communications tool when other methods would have been too slow.

Overall, I think the "connectedness" Twitter provides is both the enticement and the repulsion - regardless, the benefits provided in times of crisis wash out all the negativity. What are your thoughts?

Tweeting

Thanks for Team 4 for getting us all out on Twitter! I was just out there for the first time and am not sure I have it mastered but know I will get there. Twitter is certainly one way to get a message out to millions of people but the self centered nature of so many tweets and benign chatter seems to take away from this potenially powerful tool. Is that a valid concern?

The China Stand

An undertone in the "Google In China" case was that Google's decision to stand by their principles was made easy because they did not have market share, nor were they deriving a profit from China. 

What do you think? Is there a price tag on principles? If China accounted for 50% of Google's revenue, do you think their principles would have been as important?

Timely Article from PC World

Gmail Disruption in China Could Signal Tighter Control
By Michael Kan, IDG News


This article was posted today (3/14) on PC World highlighting Gmail's continued access problems in China. They surmise it may be a reaction to the unrest in the middle east. So I ask you:

Will increased censorship "prevent the recent wave of politcal upheavel in the Middle East from breaking out at home"?

Does direct internal competition work or hinder?

In this weeks reading, the Google case describes a practice whereby Google executives would allow multiple teams work "full time"on competing solutions to one problem. I found this interesting. Is anyone familiar with this (or something similar) being done at their companies? If so, what is the reaction of the team on the losing end when the final decision is made and all their work is thrown away in favor of the other team? I would think that this would be a very discouraging blow and perhaps dissuade others from internally competing in a similar manor?? What do you think?

Uncertainty ?

When the business environment is uncertain it's difficult to define all the potential variables, develop a discreet set of scenarios, and limit a choice based on a clear view of the future.

That clear view of the future is the place where the standard MBA toolkit is applied; things like market research, value chain analysis, five-forces frameworks, or discounted cash flows.

If the future is really that uncertain does that mean we've spent the last two years learning tools that are no longer effective?