Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

Are You Encouraging Innovation?

I don't think it matters if you have 10 people in your company or 10k. Your employees are your most valuable asset.

We've talked at length on this blog about the power of harnessing the social computer... The power of connecting people who otherwise wouldn't be, the power of enabling everyone to have a voice, and encouraging open-sharing of ideas for global collaboration on scales like we've never seen before.

It's powerful stuff, and we're watching it transform our company first hand.

So I get a nice reminder yesterday that it's again time for our annual Innovation Conference. Don't read that to mean we get together once a year to innovate... That's not the case. Innovation is an inherent part of this culture. The Innovation Conference simply celebrates the trait through an annual gathering.

Two years ago there were about 300 participants. Last year, over a thousand participated thanks to live video feeds and a strong community presence on EMC|ONE. It's an exciting event and definitely a humbling thing to be a part of.

One of the things that caught my eye this year is a new approach for collecting and sharing ideas within the employee community. The team is leveraging something that feels very similar in capability to Dell's IdeaStorm or My StarBucks Idea. It enables submission, and subsequent collaboration / commenting and ranking from other EMC'ers.

It's only recently been launched... Perhaps a week old, maybe two, but there are already over 200 ideas submitted from our global employees. By no stretch are these bad ideas, either. In fact, the vast majority falling in the 'wow, THAT'S cool' category.

So, you're employees are innovating 365x24x7. The question is, are you encouraging them to do so? Are you providing the channel and tools necessary to help explore and share their ideas?

Welcome New EMC Bloggers

But a little housekeeping first. Friends, May was a tough month. If I could only monetize the frequent flyer miles and hotel award points, I'd be blogging from my own private island in the Pacific.

With all of the activity last month, I'm taking a much needed week off next week and will be completely unplugged... Assuming I can actually handle being disconnected for any period of time. Let's see if I can do it.

On to more important topics...

I'm thrilled to introduce to you the latest additions to our EMC Blogging Corps. You can find the whole lot of us over at the Community Section on EMC.com.

Specifically, let me introduce you to Kathrin Winkler, Sr. Director, Corporate Sustainability at EMC. Her blog, Interconnected World, shares her experiences putting sustainability front and center at EMC.

Natalie Corridan-Gregg falls in the 'nicest people in the world' camp. She's a lead contributor to the Working Mother Experience Blog / Book and also manages her own blog, Natalie's Corner, discussing how she balances the demand of wife, mother and employee. She also has one heck of a cute kid...

Lastly, I'm so happy to introduce you to the nice folks over at Conchango, EMC's UK-based consulting practice. I've been on a few calls with the folks from this team, and they're thinking way ahead of the curve. It's a team blog and is simply chock full of rich and interesting content.

You'll want to bookmark all of these... There's a wealth of good information and conversation.

Enjoy our new blogging friends and we'll see you in a week... Or sooner ;)

EMC World 2009 - Recap & Thank you

I'm delayed in getting this post up... Last week was an absolute whirlwind. I returned home and slept for about three days straight, and have since been paying the price for a week out of the office.

This was my first EMC World event. To say I was blown away would be the understatement of the year. What a great show! Despite a tough economy and tougher travel budgets, about 7k passionate folks showed up and made it one heck of an event. The energy and the passion from this crowd was simply amazing.

Please, Help Save Nick

Nick Glasglow is an EMC employee from our Pleasanton, CA. office. In March, he learned that he has leukemia and is in desperate need of a bone marrow donor to help save his life. Such stories are always tragic, but Nick's is especially so as he's a mere 28 years old.

We need your help. Please consider being added to the National Bone Marrow Registry. I did so myself this past week, and it took a matter of minutes. Too often we don't take the time to act on such things until they hit close to home. I think we can all be a bit more proactive by signing up for such registries, donating blood. etc;. Minutes out of our days can save lives, folks. Let's rally to help save Nick, and many others who need our help.

EMC's Mark Fredrickson is providing real time updates on his blog. I'd also like to thank the many news outlets, friends & employees of EMC, our customers, partners and competitors, and many others - who are helping drive awareness around this desparate need.

Please use the banner above to help spread the word. You can also follow the #helpnick hashtag on Twitter to follow progress.

Friends of EMC World - Peter Ross and Studio E

More cool information to share from EMC World Orlando... I sat down with Peter Ross to learn more about Studio E - EMC's exclusive customer reference community where customers connect with other customers from across the globe. Check it out...