TOM SHORT

+1 415.912.0297 Email: tom.short at sbcglobal.net

SUMMARY

Service innovation specialist. Thoughleader, researcher, published author and conference presenter. Creative problem solver. Systems thinker. Innovator/creator of new services and service offerings. Inventor.

EXPERIENCE

Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation, San Francisco, CA 2006-present

Principal, Enterprise Knowledge Management

Internal consultant responsible for pioneering new services and tools for addressing the risk of knowledge loss due to an aging workforce.

• Created industry-leading knowledge transfer toolkit to mitigate the risk of knowledge loss due to retirements.

• Designed and implemented innovative engineering skills survey and analysis for assessing nuclear power plant systems engineering skills and retirement risk areas.

• Advised various lines of business on information management strategies, tools and approaches to collect and reuse best practices across dispersed work teams.

Business Innovation Consultant, Milwaukee, WI 2004-2006

Designed and delivered strategic planning and innovation strategy services. Projects included:

• For the engineering group of a multinational bio-tech, led creation of best practices sharing strategy and associated implementation plan for increasing the level of engineering innovation and innovation reuse.

• For various non-profit organizations provided strategic planning services including the design and facilitation of planning workshops; and coaching for executive directors.

IBM Corporation, Milwaukee, WI 1996-2004

Associate Partner – Business Consulting Services – Life Sciences Industry Vertical 2001-2004

Founding member of the global leadership team responsible for creating new, integrated product and services solution offerings for this $200 million new business startup at IBM.

• Led multi-disciplinary team of IBM scientists and researchers in the development of a first-of-a-kind Life Sciences researcher collaboration product offering; presented to life sciences researchers globally.

• Led creation of a breakthrough software demo platform to showcase researcher collaboration solution offering, and shot and edited the demo using screen capture software and editing tools.

• Inventor of novel business method for wireless device-based networking and collaboration, resulting in invention achievement award.

Senior Associate – Business Consulting Services – Knowledge Management Practice 1997-2001

As a founding member of new BCS consulting practice developed new knowledge management consulting service offerings resulting in over $1 million in first year revenue. Represented IBM worldwide as SME in knowledge management.

• Created new consulting solution offerings in support of the newly formed Global Knowledge Management consulting practice. Sold and delivered client-facing solutions.

• Wrote and published articles and book chapters on knowledge management.

• Presented at conferences around the world on topic of knowledge strategy.

Lotus Development, Subsidiary of IBM, Sydney, Australia 1996-1997

Project Manager - Knowledge Management, Notes Strategy

Responsible for creating new consulting service offerings to support the launch of the Domino Server platform.

• Developed innovative knowledge management consulting services framework to leverage the Lotus Notes/Domino platform.

• Prepared and delivered training on this framework for Lotus Consulting staff worldwide.

Business Innovation Consultant, Sydney, Australia 1994-1996

Enterprise Metrics System, Intranet/Internet Strategy

• For a major telecommunications company created and implemented enterprise-level performance metrics system.

• Speaker and writer on strategic business use of internet and intranet technologies.

Cost Reconstruction, Sydney, Australia 1992-1994

Senior Manager and founding member of new consulting firm

• Sold and directed business process re-engineering and profit improvement in Australia and New Zealand, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in annual profit improvement for clients and additional engagement work for the firm.

• Developed new engagement tools, and designed and delivered training for firm staff and client team members in process re-engineering and cost reduction techniques.

Coopers & Lybrand, Management Consulting Services, New York, NY 1989-1992

Senior Associate, cost analysis and reduction services

• Analyzed and reduced overhead and operations costs in a variety of industries in the US, Australia, Canada, and Europe, using Activity Based Costing (ABC), Business Process Re-engineering, inventory analysis, workload analysis and organization restructuring and streamlining techniques, resulting in total annualized client savings in excess of $100 million.

• Developed and delivered cost reduction training to new consultants and client team members.

EDUCATION

MS Industrial & Operations Engineering

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Major: Organizational Psychology

BS Industrial & Operations Engineering

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Major: Behavioral Science

CURRENT AFFILIATIONS

Account Director – Strategic Planning – Taproot Foundation, San Francisco, CA

• Leader of strategic planning and brand strategy engagements for nonprofits.

• Assisted national office in developing and piloting new engagement models.

PAST AFFILIATIONS

Knowledge Management Program Advisory Board member – Dominican University (Chicago)

Committee Member – IBM Academy of Technology Knowledge Management Conference

Strategic Planning Consultant – Management Assistance Program – Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee

Board Member – OurSpace, Inc, Milwaukee, WI nonprofit/NGO

Board Member – Walkers Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee

Co-founder – Knowledge Network of Wisconsin (Knowledge Management business forum)

Is *all* innovation good??

This is a seeming no-brainer, pitting anti-technology types against technology progressives. Yet in today's NYTimes I read an article about Craig Venter's success in creating the first synthetic DNA sequence, which his scientists are planning to put in a cellular shell and start growing into an organism. This would be a first. The article goes on to quote Venter as he discusses miraculous capabilities living cells and organisms possess.

“We have micro-organisms that live in such strong acid or base solutions that if you put your finger in, the skin would dissolve almost instantly,” Dr. Venter said in an interview. “There’s another organism that can take three million rads of radiation and not be killed.” How can a microbe withstand a blast of radioactivity that is a good 1,500 times greater than what would kill any of us virtually on the spot? “Its chromosome gets blown apart,” Dr. Venter said, “but it stitches everything back together and just starts replicating again.” - New York Times, Feb 5, 2008.

In response to this remarkable achievement I couldn't help but conjure up the film, Jurassic Park, and fired off a letter to the editor:

To the Editor,

Given what we already know about the adaptability and seeming indestructibility of various natural lifeforms (Synthetic Life, Science Times, 2/5/08), the reality of synthetic lifeforms scares me. In an age where spam, identity theft and hackers continue to plague internet users despite the expenditure of billions of dollars to combat them, how could we possibly have the hubris to believe we can control a new life form that happens to have a malevolent modus operandi?

Scary stuff, I reckon.

evhead: The Focus Paradox

evhead: The Focus Paradox

So EvHead wrote on his blog:

Both Facebook and Google had early success in (large?) part because of their focus. Google in terms of what they did, Facebook in terms of who could use it.
That success provided both pressure and opportunities to grow in new directions. Expansion is always tricky, and each company has handled it in different ways.
Discuss.

Reminds me of an article from the early 90s about the degree to which tech companies can successfully vertically integrate. For instance, in computers you've got

hardware
components
hardware systems (ie, computers)
operating systems
middleware
software (apps)
content

The argument was that companies that tried to go farther than two levels above or below the one that was their core business would struggle. So take IBM. Core business initially was hardware. They also quickly got into components, like hard drives, which made sense for them. And they had to write their own O/S because no one else built the big boxes. Made sense. Same thing with some of the middleware apps, like DB2 (if that could be considered middleware). But look what happened when they tried to do software apps - when they bought Lotus. Notes could be considered a middleware app - it really is just a development environment, not an app. Most companies didn't appreciate that. But the real Lotus apps - 123, WordPro, and Freelance Graphics - are pretty much gone. IBM paid around $3 b for all this stuff, and couldn't make a successful run on Big Bill.

So....If I was Google or Facebook, I'd be thinking about the levels thing. First, what *are* the levels in the webworld? I've seen lists of them before, but I don't have them at hand. Then, what would represent "two steps" in either direction from search?