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Audioboo's Mark Rock - Making The Spoken Word Social

Posted: 10 Dec 2012 07:14 AM PST

I first heard of Audioboo via Paul O'Mahony on Twitter. Paul must be one of the most prolific Audioboo users. He introduced me to Mark Rock who created the social platform and immediately I wanted to know more - as I do. Living in London Mark has an extensive TV branding background and has previously led successful companies. Mark explains how he got the idea for Audioboo and how big it has grown in such a short time; he also shares some business tips and his favourite Audioboos.

What was your background before Audioboo?

I started a company called Static2358 in 1997 with a colleague. We focused on broadcast motion graphics and interactive technology. As one of the first company's to use Apple Mac's for the entire creation process, we were lucky enough to land the job of creating the on screen branding for FilmFour, Channel 4's first digital only channel. The company then went on to rebrand Channel 4, Sky One, Star TV in Asia and many more. At the same time, we were creating an interactive TV division which worked for Teletext, QVC and Sky on applications for set top boxes.

Fusing these two disciplines together led us to launch PlayJam, a TV games Channel on Sky that allowed viewers to download simple games via their TV. We later rolled this brand out to cable in the UK, Canal+ and TPS in France and Cablevision in the US. We sold the business in 2001 to a large US company and I continued to work there as Chief Creative Officer till 2006.

What gave you the idea to create Audioboo?

Memory, or rather the loss of it. My mother died and all those vibrant memories of her's – about the dogfights of Spitfires and Messerschimts above her Croydon home during the war or walking the Swiss Alps in the 50's with my dad – were gone. When Channel 4 asked us to look at their nascent radio initiative in 2008, we came up with the idea of a mobile recorder, always with you, always capturing the most mundane of stuff but complete with core metadate like location, image, title etc. Very much an accidental startup.

Please can you explain what it does? How many users and Audioboos are there?

Audioboo is all about making sound social again. The spoken word is the key way culture, information, emotion has been exchanged since we first started to talk. In the era of social networks, it's lost that power, as people tweet or video or take pictures. Audioboo allows you to capture high quality audio off a smartphone, add info to it and immediately upload to the web, where it can be effortlessly shared with your friends, family or the world.

We currently have about 500,000 registered users and many more unregistered. We have over a million individual audioboos from 220 countries and get around 150,000 listens a day, up 200% from 6 months ago.

We've been very lucky in attracting a lot of companies like BBC, Guardian, Royal OperaHouse, Christian Aid and British Library into an official partnership with Audioboo, as well as great individual users like Stephen Fry.

Can you give me 5 bullet points of advice for someone who has a great idea that they want to bring to fruition?

1. Get a partner with different skills than you. A creative needs a marketeer, a techno needs a commercial person.
2. Make something that is as simple a proff as possible and show it around. Don't keep things to yourself.
3. Raise money early and don't worry too much about your ownership percentage or valuation. You can sort that later.
4. Hire people better than you
5. Above all, enjoy yourself.

Which Social Media platform(s) have you found most useful for your business?

Linked in for checking people out.
Twitter for allowing a new kind of customer interaction.
Facebook for knowing what my son is up to.

Have you any favourite Audioboos you can provide some links to with the reason why you think they are great?

Too many:-

Imogen Heap for showing a new way to connect with a fanbase.

This one, just to break your heart

For making you feel great

Showing the human side of David Miliband

And our Delores for showing the power of the human voice

What is next on the agenda for Audioboo in 2013?

Far too much and most of it is secret. And most, actually, will happen before the end of this year. But personalisation, notifications, finally good UIX and reward are up there at the top.

Plus a holiday at last

Have you started using Audioboo yet? What do you think of it and do you have any questions for Mark?

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The post Audioboo's Mark Rock - Making The Spoken Word Social appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

7 Ways To Master Managing Change Without Breaking A Sweat

Posted: 10 Dec 2012 05:17 AM PST

Some time ago one of my leadership coaching clients asked me how managing change effectively would improve her business. First off I needed to understand what level of change management procedures her company had in place. Second, I needed to understand what her level of interest was in engaging her employees and supervisors in the process. She indicated that she did want to involve them in the process so I described the following process and environment she needed to create in order for it to be successful.

Practical experience suggests that the employer and employees who work together to create meaningful change processes can and do increase company productivity & profit.

The Managing Change Process

There are several steps to a change process. Depending on the problem, the organization, the stakeholders, the cost, the time frame, and the impact on the business this process can be more detailed. Simply put, we are describing the high level steps to a change process.

Identify the problem: Give it a name, understand it, discuss with other members in the business what it's, and, what it's not.
Identify the causes:Engage in a structured discussion with others on the potential causes and ensure that all ideas are considered, don't consciously omit ideas because your perspective or the perspective of others may dismiss a potential cause.
Select the main cause(s):Achieve agreement with others on the main cause(s) of the problem. Oftentimes using a voting system works well if there is no consensus.
Identify a solution:Engage in a structured discussion on potential solutions, ensure all ideas are considered, consider time and cost factors to the solution.
Select a solution(s):Achieve agreement with others on the preferred solution(s) ensuring that all affected stakeholders have an equal part in the discussion and the decision.
Develop an implementation plan:Identify who will be responsible for implementation of each of the various solution steps, how it will be determined to be effective, and under what circumstances should stakeholders discuss the change in process.
Evaluating the solution(s):When the rubber hits the road there are times when the prescribed solution does not fit precisely into reality. Be prepared, and prepare those with whom you work, to modify the solution. Some of the alternative solutions, or parts thereof, that were identified earlier in the process are often invaluable in this type of situation.

Anticipating Change

In every instance where there are business processes and systems, whether formal or informal, it's helpful to periodically assess the effectiveness of each process and system to accomplish its objective or purpose. Developing an environment that openly shares and discusses the effectiveness or efficiency of business processes and systems helps to stimulate employee or work team change discussions.

For example, in most instances businesses will issue invoices that are due and payable on or before 30 days, and it's customary to assess interest charges for amounts due past the 30 day period. In a challenged economy it's not uncommon to find accounts receivables moving past that 30 day mark due to restricted cash flow challenges being experienced by the customer. Normally a business would assess the charge and not change its practices.

Let's consider an alternative that then creates a change – the accounts receivable assistant sees a particular account regularly past its 30 day period. Instead of assessing the finance charge the assistant calls the customer and discusses whether there is a problem with the service, or if there is a problem in the customer's ability to pay. The assistant identifies there is a cash flow challenge with the customer and next discusses with her supervisor whether it makes sense to enable the customer to pay in smaller installments over a longer period of time.

The receivables collection process is sound yet in this example the accounts receivable assistant is valued by management to take initiative, inquire, and propose a solution in order to ensure processing of payables. The assistant is enabled to suggest a change based on economic conditions.

Discussing and Measuring the Change

In the example above the accounts receivable assistant will need to inform a variety of employees, customers, vendors, and other strategic partners of the change, unless management indicates it should be applied on an exception basis only.

The assistant will need to communicate to the customer the nature of the change, the reason for it, the terms of the change (when payments are due and in what increments weekly, for instance), and the implications if the changed terms are not followed. The assistant will be responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the change in improving cash flow, lessening time spent on receivables collection monitoring, or other factors determined relevant to the situation.

Informing others within the organization of the change can best follow the analytic process with a slight shift in focus. For instance:

The problem is identified and the solution is described.
The causes to the problem are summarized in a manner that supports the solution.
The implementation plan and evaluation process are described to ensure it's understood what the next steps will be and whether the solution will adequately address the problem.

Each time a change is proposed it should incorporate measurement criteria. Basic criteria include time and cost, qualitative, and other quantitative data. Surveys of affected stakeholders may be considered to collect data that is not readily available through existing reporting channels.

My leadership coaching client has been implementing this process for the past year. Guess what? Her employees are very pleased she provided them an opportunity to participate and a process to follow.

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Images: "Sign with the word "Change" against background of sky with clouds / Shutterstock.com"

The post 7 Ways To Master Managing Change Without Breaking A Sweat appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.