Dr. Neil Hair

I recently acted as guest essayist for the Democrat and Chronicle's visions for Rochester 2033 (25 years from now). Here is the article which purposefully paints a troubled picture;

October 2033: Business as we know it will be radically transformed. The days of working for one organization at any one time will be gone. Most U.S. employees will act as technical subcontractors to a portfolio of virtual organizations, domestic and international. People will work from where they are situated, permanently logged onto a super-fast Internet. Access will come from a range of connection devices. Wearable computers will be all the rage, but early adopters will have opted for more permanent machinery that is physically implanted. Employees will work in teams that have a truly global makeup. As a result of technologically enhanced globalization, working days will run on WT (world time) in one language — a hybrid known as Global English.

Regular work meetings will take place in a virtual world. "Total Immersion Technology" will add sensory data such as touch, smell and natural movement to the virtual environment. You will feel virtual handshakes and physically walk to meeting spaces online without actually moving from your real world location. Increasingly, humans will have difficulty differentiating between their virtual life and nonvirtual life. For your efforts as a global technology worker, you will be paid in the universal currency of Credits — payment will be directly related to consumer or industrial demand for products or services and will be received in real time at the point of transaction.

Increasingly, those who succeed in business will be those with an enlarged online social network. Most recruitment will take place within these social spaces. Digital divides will become more apparent between those who are socially enabled online and those who are technologically challenged or "techno-socially disabled." Retirement will be an obsolete term as workers are able to continue to farm out their networks for economic gain, and work/life balance will become increasingly blurred.

As is the tradition with the International Colloquium in Relationship Marketing the final day of the conference focuses on practitioner relevance of our theories. I was given the opportunity to start the day off with a presentation on how you monetize relationship marketing activities in social networks like facebook. The event was sponsored by the worlds largest professional marketing body The Chartered Institute of Marketing (my own professional body that grants licenses to practice with chartered status). The event was well attended, over 60 execs from all backgrounds, B2B and B2C. One thing that struck me listening to their questions and concerns about Web 2.0 was that European marketing managers are facing exactly the same questions as their American counterparts. Namely; how can I use essentially a personal platform such as facebook to make money? how do I engage my network to help further both personal AND business ambitions, what works and doesn't work? Why? I covered all of these issues in 40 minutes. Congratulations if you were there - my apologies if you weren't

Just returned from the 16th ICRM (International Colloquium on Relationship Marketing) 2008 which was held in Swansea in Wales. Three papers being presented - one on B2B web experience with colleagues at Henley, and two poster sessions with former RIT students Ryan Kearns and Melanie Cufio (e-word of mouth and 2-brand communities alike). A very rewarding conference as usual - single track which means everyone presents, listens and comments on your work (far more rewarding than the usual multi track affair). The conference dinner was excellent - we listened to a Welsh Male choir - a first for me - and tucked into rare Welsh lamb cutlets. The relative smallish nature of the colloquium is what makes it so special - in the past it's seen me deep in research conversation with such gurus as Ballantyne, Lobler, Gronroose, Hunt and Gummesson. All of which are demigods in the relationship marketing space. You dont get that at the Summer or Winter AMA's I can tell you. An additional two papers have come out of the conference for me as well - one methodological and one an extension of a survey study into the Asian / Australasian markets. Good to also see the family and especially good now to be home in Rochester (the best thing about travel is coming home).

Welcome to the world new secret research facility! This morning at approximately 10.05am a new facility was built in Facebook to house a motley crew of friends, alums and current students dedicated to offering themselves and their advice to Neil's all important research questions. You too can join this facility and answer occasional survey type questions on what's moving and shaking in the internet marketing area. You will - by contributing - also benefit career wise by being the first to get the results of the efforts. And who wouldn't want to impress the boss with the latest ideas built off the back of some of the worlds finest lab rats. Welcome lab rats to a brave new world of hackademia!

p.s No rats are ever harmed at this facility.

The marketing was brilliant - the following extremely loyal. It is with great regret to hear today that Zoom - a low cost carrier with umpf went into administration. I am gutted for them. Not least because they offered great prices from Canada to the UK - but because they appeared to be one of the very few airlines capable of marketing to their consumers effectively. Their business model was fundamentally flawed however. It doesnt matter how great your marketing is, when the price of oil jumps from $80 to over $120 your costs exceed revenue. So - what can we learn from this? Marketers and budding entrepreneurs alike need to appreciate the importance of forward planning when putting together business plans and of course learning the jargon of finance! Whether you got into marketing or not to avoid the numbers - to be successful you cant ultimately avoid them. Make sure an introduction to finance course is on your list of must have classes if youre planning on starting a business. No excuses. Thankfully I remained loyal to British Airways when booking my flight to the ICRM conference in Swansea this September but it was a close call.

Came across Bag Borrow or Steal today whilst perusing the dainty delights of woot.com. The first thing that surprised me was that my attention was captured by an advert online! This doesn't normally happen and I usually drown out the annoyances of flashy ads (like we all do). So - curiosity got the better of me and off I went to the site. Interesting business concept - rent a designer bag of your choice for as long as you like without actually owning it. Now, I know what handbags mean and do to normally loving and sensitive members of the opposite sex. It drives them wild with passion, produces largely unpreventable cooing noises from them in public settings when they spot a Chloe, and convinces even the most frugal that dropping a couple of grand on a piece of sewn leather is somehow - and I quote from personal experience here - 'a sound investment for the future.' How exactly a brown and yellow strapped bag is an investment for the future is beyond this professors abilities to reason. That said, a business that rents these out is onto something I can tell you! For just $49 a week you can carry the latest, be seen with it, then ditch it back for another, and then be seen with that as well. Smart marketing and I hope my wife doesn't see this posting.

Ive known for a while that people were making money (good money relatively speaking) from farming gold - in popular virtual worlds - to sell to other gamers who dont have the time to rack up the points. Ive known for some time that people buy and sell characters developed over time with special powers and abilities. What I didnt realize however was that people from the poorest parts of the world were using it as a way of supplementing income. Part of me is amazed by the whole sub culture that has developed around virtual worlds - especially as it relates to their economies. Part of me says good for the person wanting to make money from it. And part of me realizes that making an extra $77 a month must take game play of at least ten hours a day. Im thinking digital sweat shops - and to my mind that is a rather sad reflection on a modern society that turns having fun in a virtual environment into a form of modern day serfdom.

I was delighted to learn that my blog and site has been listed in the top 50 business professor blogs by http://www.mbaexplorer.com/. Site visits continue to grow as does my reader base. People often ask me why I do it. The answer is that I enjoy it and it helps me stay in touch with my network. It also serves many additional purposes - materials for class and corporate training programs, humor, keeping family and friends updated among them. You can check the report here.

This summer I completed my third online learning class at the MBA level using the Adobe Connect suite of products. I'm a passionate convert to the platform and so are my students and their clients. The course I teach mirrors the in-class version of Marketing Concepts;

• Office hours - twice a week face to face (in one of the Connect Meeting rooms set up specifically for it).
• Small study sets of no more than 6 students working for a real client needing marketing help.
• Secure team rooms where students meet with each other, me, and the client to discuss the project.
• Bespoke lecture materials streamed in Adobe Presenter format and MP3 for those on the go.
• Client deliverables include an online presentation (sometimes pre-recorded) and a live debrief session in their Connect Meeting room.
• and the usual levels of rigor and stress that tends to accompany one of my classes and then some.

The feature I enjoy most about Adobe Connect is the ability to record and archive live meetings. This takes the whole client presentation and debrief to a new level of usability. More people get to see it. What a I love most about the process is that a team of masters students can co-exist in a virtual space, deliver top quality marketing plans and present all of their hard work without ever having physically met either myself, the client or eachother in the process. Many of us have also travelled this summer whilst still being able to fully engage in this process. Now if that isnt REAL online learning then I dont know what is. Congratulations summer class of 08. A fantastic set of projects. YouTube video of these guys in action to follow…

Ive been presenting my ideas on Marketing Trends for 2010 for some time now to the great and good of Rochester. It's proved a popular session that I've run at a number of local conferences and in the UK. One of the key issues I explore in this is the business case for online social networks, the role of virtual worlds in innovating the provision of service / customer experience, and how to build and maintain a personal brand in this new era. Towards the end of summer I will be presenting 'Marketing Trends 2010' to the Greater Rochester Area Partnership with the Elderly - looking specifically at how marketing trends affect the business of elderly care. As with my classes - one of the key outputs I use to judge the effectiveness of the presentation is the extent to which there are concrete take homes for participants to then act on. The benefits of experiential learning shouldn't be the preserve of our students alone afterall. I also find it helps keep me honest - practitioners are always very quick to pick up on practical application, relevance and the measurement of the bottom line with my suggestions.