International Journal of Information Management just accepted another paper I have coauthored:
Jaka Lindič, Peter Baloh, Vincent Ribiere, Kevin C Desouza: Deploying Information Technologies for Organizational Innovation: Lessons from Case Studies.
Abstract: Organizations must innovate if they are to survive in today’s fiercely competitive marketplace. In this paper, we explore how leading organizations are using emerging technologies to enable novel forms of ideation that can radically increase the sheer volume of ideas they explore. In addition, we outline how organizations use technologies to cost effectively manage this increased volume of ideas by optimizing generation, mobilization, advocacy and screening, experimentation, commercialization, and even the diffusion and implementation of ideas. Critical to this is the management of knowledge during the innovation process.
The paper is coming out in April 2011 issue of IJIM. Thanx to the coauthoring team, to the journal’ case editor Prof Dr Ray Hackney, reviewers who provided plentiful and meaningful comments, and the editor Prof Dr Philip J Hills.
IJIM is an international, SSCI indexed peer-reviewed journal which aims to bring its readers the very best analysis and discussion in the developing field of information management. According to JCR2009, it has a 5-year impact factor of 1.23, plus, an excellent reputation among scholars in the Inf Sys / Inf Mmgt / Org Change areas.
Changes are inevitable, and 2010 will definitely be remembered by significant steps in my life. One of them is switch of professional career – out of part time researcher, part time academic, and part time consultant, I have now moved into a full time executive. Today I have joined the executive board of BISOL, a rapidly growing high tech Slovenian company which operates in world’s most demanding markets.
BISOL is a solar power plant solution provider and a premium quality photovoltaic modules producer. We build the most important component of solar power plants and we build the plants which have high above average characteristics and qualities. The company of 250 people grows with over 100% rate of growth in turnover yearly. My responsibilities in the executive board broadly (currently) include:
- Strategy, innovation management, business process change — bringing order, learning habits and agility into “chaos” which is caused by rapid growth
- Management of investment portfolio — settting up, financing, monitoring, and management of 30+ power plants that are owned by BISOL.
My working day is never a routine, and the excitement never stops. Whadda change.
/me Like, lots.
Next week I will be speaking at the NT Konferenca, the biggest IT gathering in Slovenia, organized by Microsoft. I will be presenting the benefits and new features of the Microsoft Office System 2010. This is the outline of my speech (in Slovenian):
Office 2010 novosti – odjemalec
Peter Baloh (Ujemi znanje)
Časi prestrukturiranja podjetij v smeri še večje učinkovitosti postavljajo v ospredje informacijska orodja, ki obljubljajo njen dvig po načelu “z manj ljudmi narediti več”. Mednje zagotovo sodi nov sistem Microsoft Office 2010, ki izboljšuje aktivnosti pisarniškega poslovanja in odločanja vseh zaposlenih. Pisarniški delavci za te aktivnosti porabimo v povprečju nekaj ur dnevno in ni težko izračunati, koliko prihranimo pri množici zaposlenih, če samo za 10% povečamo njihovo učinkovitost.
Predavanje bo osvetlilo glavne prednosti in novosti sistema MS Office 2010 (odjemalskega dela, torej tipičnih aplikacij Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook…), ki nas bodo prepričale, kako je teh 10% (in še mnogo več) možno doseči.
Povedano drugače, v predavanju bodo na zgoščen način predstavljene bistvene prednosti in novosti posameznih aplikacij sistema Office 2010. Ne zamudite! :)
Not to be missed, of course :)
I will be spending month of April in Seattle at University of Washington (www.washington.edu), where I will be collaborating on future research with Prof Kevin C Desouza and will be delivering a series of lectures / guest speeches.
After two years I am in Daegu, South Korea again. This time to attend SAIPEKS meeting and do a few guest lectures. SAIPEKS is an EU-Korean project where 4 partner universities from Europe (Metropolia Helsinki Finland, Warzsaw Poland, Northumbria UK, University of Ljubljana Slovenia) and 3 partner universities from Korea (Kyungbook National University, Keimyung University, Yungnam University) collaborate in establishing means and structure for student and teaching mobilities. Besides meetings of project-control and project-future nature, i have delivered a visiting talk at each of the three Korean universities.
This is the title of my talk: State of the art innovation processes: organizational design and the role of information technology and here is the outline:
Innovation is one of the key critical success factors of today’s companies. The goal of the lecture is to discuss and present how to improve the innovation processes in companies by structuring them and opening them up to external partners such as customers, suppliers. It presents how and in which stages of the innovation processes contemporary information technology (traditional such as corporate solutions and emerging such as crowdsourcing, wiki, tagging, twitting, social networking) can be used fruitfully. The aim of the presentation is thus to show how technologies can be embedded into the innovation process to increase its effectiveness and efficiencies. The presentation is based on latest academic findings and state of the art practices of innovative companies such as Boeing, Dell, Siemens, Swarowski, Procter & Gamble, Google, Whirlpool, Washington Mutual, Lego, Flavors and Fragrances, and others.
I will be presenting the new MS Office 2010 System to the Microsoft Slovenia’ partner network this February. The focus of the presentations will be on the business value and benefits of the new applications, and on how to present those benefits to potential customers. See below for the call by MS.
Vljudno vas vabimo, da si rezervirate čas za februarski šolanji Fit za {IT}, ki ju pripravljamo
- v torek, 23. februarja ob 14:00 v predavalnici Microsofta Slovenija Ljubljani in
- v sredo, 24. februarja ob 14:00 v Microsoftovem centru inovacij v Mariboru.
K sodelovanju smo zopet povabili Petra Baloha, predavatelja na Ekonomski fakulteti v Ljubljani in avtorja oz. soavtorja številnih priročnikov s področja Microsoft Office-a. Peter je sodeloval pri uvajanju paketa Office 2007 v mnoga slovenska podjetja in nam bo prikazal nekaj zanimivih povzetkov, ki so relevantni tudi za prihajajoči Microsoft Office 2010. V predavanju si bomo ogledali tudi novosti, ki jih prinaša sistem Microsoft Office 2010 s poudarkom na prednostih za manjše organizacije.
I’ve got a chapter published in a new book published by Cengage Learning just recently. The book has been receiving lots of praise from the reviewers, academia and businesses, so I am very glad I was able to contribute to it.
Reid V, Baloh P, Desouza K C: Strategic Knowledge Management, in Strategic Information Systems Management, Grant R, Hackney R, Edgar (eds). Cengage Learning EMEA, 2010.
International Journal of Information Management just accepted a new paper that I co-authored for publication:
Kayhan Atesci, Akshay Bhagwatwar, Trupti Deo, Kevin C Desouza, Peter Baloh: Scandals at a Business Process Outsourcing Vendor: A Case Study of Satyam Computers.
Abstract: The prominence of business process outsourcing (BPO) continues to intensify in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace. Engaging in BPO can help an organization focus on its core competencies, while gaining specialized knowledge, skills, and processes in auxiliary spaces. The literature is laden with evidence that engaging in a BPO will help organizations secure financial, operational, and even strategic advantages. While there is little doubt that organizations can attain these benefits, few BPO arrangements work out as planned. Managing risks in BPO arrangements is paramount. In this paper, we describe a significant failure through chronological description of scandals that took place at one of India’s largest outsourcing vendors, Satyam Computer Services. In describing the case study, we draw attention to the fact that organizations need to (1) improve their sensing capabilities and keep abreast of strategic transformations at their outsourcing vendors, (2) be able to plan for and execute contingency plans, and (3) balance the risks and rewards of BPOs in terms of knowledge and capabilities dependencies.
The paper is coming out in June 2010 issue of IJIM. Thanx to the coauthoring team and the PI (Prof Desouza), plus, of course, journal’ case editor Prof Dr Ray Hackney, reviewers who provided plentiful and meaningful comments, and the editor Prof Dr Phillip Hills.
IJIM is an international, SSCI indexed peer-reviewed journal which aims to bring its readers the very best analysis and discussion in the developing field of information management. According to JCR2006, it has an impact factor of 0.754 (and a growing trend), plus, an excellent reputation among scholars in the Inf Sys / Inf Mmgt / Org Change areas.
As of January 1, 2010 I am an Assistant Professor in Information Systems at University of Ljubljana. Happy new year 2010 everyone!
This is the letter the Faculty of Economics employees have just received from our Dean. We continue to be among the top!
Regarding the standards and criteria of the leading and the most important European association of business schools – European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana meets quality standards of EQUIS accreditation and therefore it remains EQUIS accredited for another three years. This classifies faculty among the 118 EQUIS world’s best business schools with the highest academic quality.
In May 2009, the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana was visited by the EQUIS 4-member peer-review team. During three days, peer-review team met with over 160 representatives of FELU’s staff, students, alumni graduates, representatives of Slovenian and international economy, university and the representatives of the Slovenian ministry. In addition to the positive recommendation of the peer-review team, the accreditation board (composed of deans of prominent international business schools) emphasizes excellence of the FELU’s high quality standards of the pedagogical process, cooperation with the corporate world and the progress in research and development. Although the faculty expanded the dimension of its internationalization (number of foreign students has risen up to almost 500 per year) FELU should, develop its long-term vision of a global positioning and make the next important step towards the internationalization until the next evaluation process.
Paying regard to the accreditation criteria is an extremely demanding process for the Faculty and all its partakers. However, EQUIS reaccreditation again proves we are on the right path; that our research results and knowledge disseminated to students and business world are equally compared to quality standards of the best business schools in global perspective. Employability of FELU students in the highest in the domestic environment is highest and EQUIS certificate of quality additionally increases it, above all on the international labour market.
Everyone who is in any way connected to the Faculty can take credit for every success of the school; beside employees and partners the merits deserve all students and graduates who distribute your knowledge with business world and employers who enable use and transfer of this knowledge.
Let me take advantage of this opportunity and express sincere thankfulness to all who help us create Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana.
There are still challenges for the future. EQUIS accreditation is award but at the same time obligation to continue with our work and complete it where necessary.
Sincere congratulations to Faculty of Economics, being a student, graduate, business partner or employee of EQUIS accredited faculty is an honour and a great opportunity!
I am looking forward to our further cooperation, your and our shared success as well as the development and growth of Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana,
Prof. Dušan Mramor, PhD
dean