Saeed Khan's recent series of posts about social media started with a video that purports to explain the new rules of marketing in which social media play a critical role. This video repeats a familiar argument: old-style marketing went one direction, from the vendor to the customer. The consumer, presented with a smaller number of choices than they have today, based their purchase decisions on a variety of motives, both tangible ("Costs less!") and intangible ("Be more attractive to the opposite sex!"). Vendors created their own messages and transmitted them through normal advertising and marketing channels, in the hope that they would deflect consumers in their direction ("We cost less, and we'll make you look even better!").

While this blog spent its first year as a place of general conversation, I am changing it to focus on CEOs. I am the CEO of a small public company but I often spend time with big company CEOs – the leaders of the organizations that Forrester advises. This blog will contain ideas, research, observations, and analysis pointed at increasing the success of CEOs. It will identify what CEOs must accomplish to improve the prospects for their organizations and increase their own personal effectiveness. It will help CEOs take unique approaches to their challenges – hence “The Counterintuitive CEO.” This is in keeping with Forrester’s role focus – the company goes to market helping 19 roles attain high performance.

To keep all of this from becoming too sterile and boring, I will also include some personal observations -- recommendations for books, articles, music, things I love and things I hate. My intention is to share information that may make you think counterintuitively…or simply take the edge off.

While I am targeting CEOs, all are welcome here…and I ask all to join in on the conversation. Ping me when I’m off-base and please add ideas and information to push the discussion to a more valuable plane. I’m honored to have you participate.

It’s bad enough when your boss puts you on the spot about a recent project you’ve finished...it’s even more interesting when that conversation is recorded for the general public.

Listen to Research Director Rob Whiteley interview me about one of my recent reports in our new podcast, The GRC Technology Puzzle: Getting All The Pieces To Fit.

For those of you interested in why analysts write the reports they do and how they might have done things differently, our podcasts provide a behind-the-scenes look at what customer conversations, market trends, and other issues motivate our research.

This report specifically tackles the increasingly complicated GRC technology landscape, a market segment that includes literally hundreds of vendors vying for their share of corporate budgets. The highlight is a graphic that illustrates the different categories of technology available on the market and the distinct role they play in a broad GRC program.

[Posted by Sucharita Mulpuru]

Now available over here. (Or, here's the feed for The Heretech blog, if you prefer.)

In this episode, principal analyst Peter Burris discusses community marketing, the real meaning of innovation, and the economy's effect on the technology industry. Plus, a surprise guest appearance by Lionel Richie!