Building a platform (and thinking about Google's Knol)

From Seth Godin's blog ...

At the end of November, I flew out to give a speech to 350 Google folks. They had invited me to join a panel on the best way to for Google to work with partners.

My riff (I only had about 8 minutes... gotta hate panels) was to point out that AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and others before them had had the same challenges in building an environment that attracted partners and media companies. (I had run companies that worked with each of them). The question it turns out, is always the same: do you have a platform that I can build a business on?

Obviously, a lot goes into that calculation. It’s not just tools and technology. It’s attitude and predictability. It also involves a threshold, an attainable goal that separates insiders from outsiders.

Take Hollywood, for example. There are literally tens of thousands of people and organizations that have built a business around the movie-making platform. The major studios provide a predictable, profitable place to make a living. Screenwriters, technology companies, advertising agencies--they know that they can depend on the system, and even better, they realize that once they’ve paid some dues, they can profit over time by getting better gigs, more reliable income streams, etc.

Wal-Mart has done the same thing with the businesses and vendors that count on them. They have created a series of rules and procedures and over time, it gets easier and easier to make a living working with them.

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Best Practices in Leadership Development

It is just being announced that Mick is co-chairing the "Best Practices in Leadership Development Summit" in San Diego, September 16th -19th this year.

The keynote faculty includes:

• Carly FIORINA, CEO, Hewlett-Packard (1999-2005) and author of Tough Choices
• Bill GEORGE, professor, Harvard Business School; former CEO of Medtronic; author of Authentic Leadership
• Steve KERR, former managing director and CLO of Goldman Sachs, former CLO and VP of Leadership Development at GE
• Tom KELLEY, general manager of IDEO; best-selling author of The Art of Innovation
• Gary HAMEL, “the world’s reigning strategy guru” according to The Economist
• W. Chan KIM, author of Blue Ocean Strategy; professor of management, INSEAD
• Kelly HANNUM and Jennifer MARTINEAU, Center for Creative Leadership
• Roger NIERENBERG, former conductor of the Stanford Symphony; creator of The Music Paradigm
• Stephen MILES, regional managing partner Americas, Heidrick & Struggles; author of HBR article entitled: The Leadership Team—Complementary Strengths or Conflicting Agendas?
• Erin GRUWELL, celebrated and inspirational teacher depicted in the movie The Freedom Writers
• Bob FULMER, renowned expert in leadership development, co-author, Leadership by Design

The idea is to gain insight into the critical success factors, latest innovations, and greatest strategies used by the most advanced management and leadership development practitioners.

Developing great leaders and building a distinguished leadership brand is becoming more complex and more difficult with every passing year. How do you acquire or develop leaders with the range of skills, knowledge, and abilities required? How do you provide them with the tools and techniques needed for success? How do you stand apart from your competitors?

The Summit aims to provide the knowledge, network, and tools needed to maximize an organization’s leadership capability and brand.

You can find out more here ...
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