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RKD Articles, News & Case Studies
News, Press Releases
 Former Southwest Airlines CEO Rapidly Moves
Knowledge Instead of People
Corporate Internet Radio - Not Just for "Listeners"
Anymore
So Simple, Even a CEO Can Do It
Internet
Radio Now Targeting Private Corporate Broadcasts
RKD Executive Management Articles
How Information Overload in E-business Is KILLING
Your Company's Productivity by Howard Putnam, Former CEO of Southwest Airlines
RKD Case Studies
The following are knowledge delivery case studies of clients we have worked with:
Association Case Study - The American Association of Critical Care Nurses
produced One Million Dollars of Profits in less than two years!
View Presentation
Company Results Case Study - How sponsoring and delivering knowledge created
many millions of dollars of additional sales for large mutual funds broker.
View Presentation
Company Results Case Study - How Sealy Mattress Company differentiated
themselves as business partners versus just suppliers.
View Presentation
Contact MENTORU.COM
Please call me!
Former Southwest Airlines CEO Rapidly Moves Knowledge
Instead of People
San Diego, CA - Howard Putnam, author and former CEO of Southwest Airlines when it was a
struggling start-up, says the information highway is more customer "crash and burn"
dangerous than air space, because of information overload and lost productivity. He
highlights a plan to avoid that and seize a knowledge and communications-based competitive
advantage, through a new rapid knowledge delivery eBroadcast system called "Corporate
Internet Radio".
Corporate Internet Radio uses a live online radio interview and interactive show format
to conduct "private internal or external" company meetings, presentations, and collaborative
sessions. When combined with a rapid multimedia self- authoring tool, and an online
communications center with many eLearning-type tracking and management features, the
resulting "turnkey toolset" creates a powerful Rapid Knowledge Delivery solution.
The goal of a Rapid Knowledge Delivery toolset and process is to "simply" and "rapidly"
connect key experts to a company's stakeholders, by delivering the right piece of highly
targeted and concise knowledge when THEY need it.
Said Putnam, ""In an environment of increasing demands on our people, exacerbated by
information overload, complex technology, and the layers of internal and external clutter,
making any solution to a problem more targeted, concise, easy and time efficient is not so
simple. At Southwest it was always about moving people from a cost effective transportation
point of view versus being in the airline business. The Corporate Internet Radio toolset
and process is about moving knowledge from a communications point of view versus an information,
eLearning or technology perspective.
"Making it an experience that has more impact with the customer and saves both the provider and
the receiver of the experience more time are the common factors of both ventures.
"Less is worth more", a factor we used in creating many new operational processes at Southwest."
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Corporate Internet Radio - Not Just for "Listeners"
Anymore
San Diego, CA - First there was radio, and we listened with our ears. Then there was television
and we watched with our eyes. Computers allowed us to learn with our hands. Today, through Corporate
Internet Radio, we have the best of all those worlds combined, leading to a 400% increase in user
information retention.
The Corporate Internet Radio toolset combines the tools and experience of two communication-focused
companies with templates and a customizable process. MentorU.com, a company that focuses on rapid
content delivery from business experts, teamed up with wsRadio.com, who produces and broadcasts
Internet radio shows.
The partnership developed as MentorU started broadcasting a weekly Internet radio show through
wsRadio.com, called "Business Best Practices Radio" in September of 2004 .The show featured Jesse
Wacht, co-founder of MentorU, as host and Howard Putnam, former CEO of Southwest Airlines when it
was a startup, as the contributing editor and monthly Q&A Show participant.
Said MentorU's Wacht, "Since 1999, our experience in producing web conferences and rapid online
learning content, with 40 other experts like Howard Putnam, kept us focusing on the message and
the messenger. In 2001 we expanded that to transmitting industry and internal content for companies
within elearning centers. The last two pieces were our rapid multimedia authoring tool combined with
the wsRadio show."
Still airing every Friday at 8am PT, "Business Best Practices" was the first show to combine online
lessons with archived interviews as a more time effective and "recipient controlled" way to acquire
knowledge. Chris Murch, President of wsRadio, commented " The concise and targeted online lessons
that Business Best Practice Radio was providing its' listeners before and after the show via its
web site, created a new value proposition for a radio show segment.
This led us to nine months of weekly discussions about how a private radio show could be used to more
effectively replace many current uses of more expensive but less effective conference calls and web
conferences, as well as the value of enhancing a company's current training, marketing and internal/external
relationship development strategy."
Said Murch, "Professionally produced radio interview segments always have to be short, concise and
targeted, so as I listened to the communication of knowledge objectives Business Best Practice was
trying to help clients fulfill, the potential to use a private radio show in a new way became obvious.
But it's really the CEO feedback on the user friendliness, impact and digestibility of our new
communication delivery approach plus Howard's input that helped us finalize a simple package and plan
for rapid implementation".
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So Simple, Even a CEO Can Do It
San Diego - Howard Putnam says, "I always pick the 'easy' tasks. As the CEO of Southwest Airlines,
during it's startup years, the team of people I worked with were 'contrarians'. We created an entirely
new value proposition - then, as with many 'new ways', had the immense task of actually training our
potential customers. First we had to train them on our value proposition and then on the trade-offs
and advantages of doing business with us. Just to make it a little more of a challenge we picked an
industry where intense competition from large suppliers made it very difficult to make a profit.
So, when Business Best Practices Radio approached me about hosting the show, I couldn't resist. Every
week, guest business experts present their business best practices. Once a month, I summarize those
business best practices and offer insight on how companies can best apply them. Listeners can get
more information from both me and the show's guests at http://www.businessbestpractices.com/bbpradio.
The Business Best Practice Pipeline dramatically lowers training costs for companies and associations
with online technology. It packages the knowledge and expertise of a company's experts, trainers and
leaders into secure, learning modules that can be easily, rapidly and economically produced and
distributed company-wide throughout the world without any investment in new software or hardware.
Because of the pipeline's simplicity and in spite of my busy consulting and speaking schedule, I was
able to personally author, produce and publish my own multi-media learning modules on the learning
website - so easy a CEO could do it!
The ease of production to construct concise best practices, and time scarcity are problems shared by me,
the team members of most of my customers and equally, by most of their customers --- that's what makes
my involvement in creating a Best Practice Delivery Pipeline so exciting, even for an old- school guy
like me. After minimal training, the current process is almost as easy as a telephone with considerable
advantages over that medium in cost and comprehension, while also insuring that the recipient is using
the service at a good time for them. "
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Internet
Radio Now Targeting Private Corporate Broadcasts
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- "Talk Show listeners, get ready. The
future of radio is now, and it is found on your computer," says Internet Talk
Radio pioneer Lee Mirabal. As a former top-market radio station owner and
syndicated talk show host in nearly 250 markets, Lee should know.
It was nearly 4 years ago that Mirabal sensed a shift and made a change
from traditional radio to the World Wide Web. In a leap of faith, she took on
the duties as General Manager and Program Director of San Diego's startup
Internet Talk Station, wsRadio.com, which they brand as the "worldwide leader
in internet talk."
Says Mirabal, "From podcasting to private corporate broadcasts, radio is
migrating to the internet." It all started years ago when radio stations
began streaming their shows on the Web. The new audience clicked on.
Although the revolution was slowed by some legal battles, the growth continued
as technology improved from the pc level to new delivery platforms like Ipods
and MP3 players. "To get a sense of the change in consumer acceptance,
consider the wireless hot spots in your local Starbucks and other trend-
setting companies," Lee explains. "Consumer demand fuels all revolutions and
the consumer is finding that they can not live without internet access."
"Several aspects of Internet Talk Radio intrigued me, from the worldwide
audience potential to the ability to actually track the number of listeners
per show," Lee adds. Another interesting twist was creating and marketing
shows that may never be supported in local or even syndicated markets.
However, they would prove viable with world-wide audiences. One example on
Lee's wsRadio is a stamp collecting show, APS Stamp Talk. Though the audience
would be too small for a traditional station, it drew a lot of attention from
internet consumers, and subsequently, from savvy advertisers, such as The
American Philatelic Society.
"Another key success of internet talk radio is our ability to archive
shows by topic or date, for listening on demand 24/7." "Radio on demand," as
Lee calls it, has proved to be a big hit with the listeners. Over 95% of the
total listeners on her network do so via the archives. Over the years,
wsRadio has compiled more than 12,000 audio archives.
The key to any venture is the ability to profit from it. By combining
audiences from various shows, Lee's network was able to attract marketers and
advertisers that are beginning to see the advantages of an online audience.
Even the American Marketing Association (AMA) headquartered in Chicago, Ill.,
the largest Marketing Association in the world, is utilizing the new media to
get their own message out. "Marking Matters Live!" was launched in January of
this year and broadcasts on wsRadio every Wednesday from Noon-1:00 PM Eastern
Time.
An emerging use of "Internet Talk Radio" is for private corporate
broadcasts. wsRadio has provided this service to The United States Postal
Service (USPS) and IBM for their sales forces. Access to the shows is
restricted by pin numbers and a comprehensive elearning package tracks who
logged on, while incorporating short quizzes to ensure the information is
well-received. The private broadcasts include "Best Practices," hosted by
their top sales people.
The explosion of Podcasting with Apples' Ipod and other mp3 players is
another example of how technology from the internet is fueling the revolution.
It is pull technology with the consumer being offered a wide range of choices
verse the push of traditional media.
"As internet access expands, the medium's marketability will expand,"
predicts Lee. "We'll see internet radio begin out-stripping traditional
broadcast by growing strides. This will be accelerated when the internet is
fully accessible in vehicles. That's coming soon to an automobile near you."
WsRadio has 32 remote studios world-wide and produces "eBay Radio" for
eBay Inc., 7 shows for Entrepreneur Magazine, "Entrepreneur Radio" and
HayHouse Radio for HayHouse Publications, whose famous authors include Wayne
Dyer and Sylvia Brown.
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How Information Overload in E-business Is KILLING Your Company's Productivity
By Howard Putnam, Former CEO of Southwest Airlines, Contributing Editor of Business Best Practices
Radio
Team, employee and company productivity and profitability were always dear to my heart when I was CEO
of Southwest Airlines. Just five years ago, I would have totally agreed with many executives that the
power of using the Internet to find and deliver information would help achieve many key objectives.
But today, up to two hours daily are wasted wading through useless information that gets in the way of
productivity, rather than helps us do our jobs. With the growth rate of elearning, we need to trim
that down. Middle managers and executives will spend one to two hours a day on non-productive activities
related to acquiring information to do their jobs, causing employee communication information overload.
Think about it. How much time is squandered on:
- Sorting through emails, weeding out spam, hoping not to trash critical messages?
- Phone calls that waste too much of your time?
- Unraveling the intent of long emails so poorly written they don't make any sense?
- Responding to instant messages popping up that interrupt your work flow?
- Searching for answers online only to find out much, much later that even though you've discovered
some fascinating information that may be useful for some other project, you've forgotten what you
were originally searching for?
Based on pilot projects over the last five years, I now believe that unless corporate culture and jargon
focus on communication instead of information, we actually may be facing challenges with employee retention,
and personal and company effectiveness.
The good news is that, new tools and processes highlight some major opportunities for companies to create
communications- based competitive advantages -- to increase employee, partner, an organization's channels
of distribution, and customer loyalty by more efficiently leveraging intellectual capital. To begin that
process, you need to stop thinking in terms of information, and focus on an important part of my executive
summary - communication in the workplace. Let me explain how shifting your focus can be the key.
I was the CEO of Southwest Airlines during its formative years. Our team of people thought and acted like
"contrarians." We created an entirely new value proposition that required us to educate our potential
customers.
First we had to educate them on our value proposition and then on the trade-offs and advantages of doing
business with us. And just to make it a "little" more of a challenge, we picked an industry where intense
competition from large suppliers made it very difficult to make a profit.
Southwest Airlines has been very successful. Why? Because we redefined our business and industry. To most
people (including our competitors), we were in the airline business. But we didn't think of it in that
way.
We were in the business of mass transportation, which required speed, simplicity and a highly
productive team.
That is a world of difference from our competitors. From that vision, we were able to make major conceptual
breakthroughs. From that vision, we designed the customer experience. From that vision, we did a lot of
things that people said we couldn't do.
We made "less is more" decisions about the operation and amenities. "Peanuts Only" was certainly less food.
Our turn around time at the gate was only ten minutes, unheard of in the industry. We designed simple processes
for ticketing and boarding. Process and execution were top of mind with every team member.
And even though we killed a lot of industry "sacred cows," we were able to thrive in an industry where others
were not able to consistently be profitable, as Southwest has been. We couldn't have made those decisions if
we thought we were in the airline business. It was only from making decisions and taking action as if we were
in the transportation business, that allowed us to conceive of these "radical" ideas that lead us to
success.
Why You Must Think "Communication" Instead of Information
Companies are finding the need to create communications- based competitive advantages -- to increase employee,
partner, an organization's channels of distribution, and customer loyalty by more efficiently leveraging
intellectual capital. To begin that process, companies need to stop thinking in terms of information, and focus
on an important part of my executive summary - communication in the workplace. The key here is to not think
about information in the way we've been thinking about it for the past half-century, i.e., more is better.
We need to take it to a higher conceptual level.
We need to think about what we're trying to do with the information, then do it faster, more concisely and in
a much more targeted fashion so we can maximize everyone's intellectual and "time" bandwidth. We need to develop
a "Rapid Knowledge Delivery Plan"
With the growth rate of elearning, part of that plan includes an online learning center - web based collaboration
tools and online learning combined into one easy to use center. I am familiar with some impressive learning
centers, using basic principles elearning enhanced. Several have over 10,000 people using a single learning
center. Those particular online learning centers operated within organizations, so they could also deliver
industry-specific and internal best practices or "lessons" - helping to manage employee communication
information overload.
Although several options exist for online learning centers, I had a chance to talk with Jesse Wacht, co-founder
of MentorU.com, one of the best elearning universities online. Jesse and I have talked at length about
"communication" versus "information". Jesse noticed that the information highway was becoming cluttered.
He pegged it when he said it was like a very useful drug that was also capable of killing the patient.
He predicted the information highway would create an information overload that could cut rather than bolster
productivity. If that happened, it would even slash the effectiveness of the online learning centers that
MentorU had built for some larger organizations.
He used the phase "Rapid Knowledge Delivery" to express what he thought both the provider and the receiver of
that knowledge needed. The value proposition of the near future would revolve around "less being more valuable"
and our ability to condense, filter and control the flow of the needed information from the right expert or
leader, to the right person, on a just-in-time and as needed basis.
Lastly, he said while 9/11 made companies scramble for new ways to replace face-to-face meetings with virtual
substitutes like Web Conferencing, many of those presentations were costly and not as time efficient as they
needed to be. He struck a nerve ending of mine when he said a one hour meeting should really be 15 minutes
with the other 45 minutes being knowledge transfer that should occur before and after the meeting at the most
convenient time in everyone's schedule.
The discussion that followed led to the futuristic idea that the Internet's highest value would be
communication-based rather than information-based, helping to end transfer of knowledge barriers.
Multimedia Communication Over the Internet
Why multimedia? According to a study by the Wharton School of Business, adding voice to a PowerPoint presentation
increases comprehension by 400%. This is a major finding. It means people can absorb information and perform at
their current levels in one-fourth the time. As a CEO, I would be thrilled if all I could get was double-digit
productivity gains. But 400%? That's BIG!
With that kind of increase in productivity, multimedia is consider one of the best practices for small business
websites. But how to integrate that in an already cluttered business day? I myself, was using the web more
and more on a daily basis, and had started experiencing some of the disadvantages of entering e-business - my
email kept growing and information, advertising, clever offers, spam and smut kept coming at me on a daily
basis.
I could clearly see the problem to be a runaway freight train coming at me and the average business person. I
wanted to test drive multimedia. I was especially interested to see if it was easy for an old Iowa farm boy
like me. But I was also fascinated with the idea of using multi-media as part of a total communications-focused
solution.
During my consulting assignments, plus with the growth rate of elearning, I talked with several CEOs and
executives about some long, complex, and expensive implementations of software and/or elearning systems.
Everybody agreed they needed a private, knowledge pipeline for key team members and stakeholders. But because
security and IT seemed to be where such data management solutions where born and approved, they were crawling
along with a slow (and expensive) systems-approach to the problem.
Enter online radio and rapid authoring tools. I understood about radio and had participated in many radio shows.
But where did the "multi-media" part come in? I turned to Jesse again. He scheduled me for one of the shows at
Business Best Practices on wsRadio.com.
The show had four 10-minute segments. Each segment summarized the objectives, strategies, examples of success
and desired results of the topic we were discussing. Then the listener could go to BusinessBestPractices.com,
and enter an access code, to get the step-by-step details of the best practices to achieve those results. These
would be presented through a multi-media authoring tool, that allowed PowerPoint presentations and audio to
be easily merged.
Jesse wanted me to create the first online follow-up lessons. He stressed that each of those lessons should be
done in 5-7 minutes. Why 5-7 minutes? Because that's about all people are going to stand for in today's
over-loaded world. The expanding information glut and a few decades of television and media attention span
conditioning have set the rules, and those that do not follow will get tuned out regardless of how important
"they" think their message is!
So I gave the rapid authoring tool a try. It was easy - so easy a CEO could do it! It was also the first time
I directly created communication and posted it to the field via the Internet without technical intervention,
costs and delays. I got immediate feedback from the link I sent to fellow CEOs. They believed these short and
concise chunks of information or lessons, were a way their people could acquire knowledge, even with their
busy schedules.
You can access the radio tranmission archives of my introductory lesson at by
clicking here.
There are three additional lessons that cover rethinking your
current vision, creating a mission and building your supporting culture. You can get them free at
http://www.BusinessBestPractices.com. Click on "Free Membership" and enter the special
access code "Putnam".
Remember, it's not just the authoring tool or the radio show. It's the whole process for creating clear,
concise communication and managing it online. Ultimately, it must be easy to:
- Produce clear, concise, communication
- Find the communication quickly
- Understand the communication and make decisions
- Eliminate low-quality and extraneous information
- Connect people to knowledge that produces results
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