Schlagwort-Archive: Size

Properties of a network

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The boundaries of companies dissolve in favor of cross-border networks. Actors and relationships, interests and data, expectations and information, business models and knowledge find their way on the Internet. Joining an online community can make the difference for individuals and groups. Whether private or business – it is helpful to know the new realities, the properties of a network.

The effects of the net can be better exploited, if you know its characteristics.

  • Size
    The number of actors/nodes amount to the size of the network. The more participants, the greater the benefit of the network. Additional offers, which exceed the actual purpose, expand the scope of application. A historical example illustrates the importance of size: the more people with a telephone, the more people can be reached, the more people have a telephone and the more services (e.g. information, routing, wake-up calls, telephone counseling) can be marketed. Based on the Dunbar number, the natural limit of social relationships is 150 persons, between 100 and 250. Based on the average number of Facebook friends per user of over 300 (between 250 and 500) you can presume that in the social networks of the Internet the Dunbar number doubles.
  • Density
    The actors become interconnected with one another to a more or less close meshed network. The number of actual relationships between the actors/nodes together with the possible number of connections determine the density of meshing. If the resulting connectivity is very dense, the network has a great impact on each individual. Loose attachment appears in the lack of social relationships and subsequently with frustration as well as isolation. The density can be represented by the number of relationships in respect to the possible relationships – e.g. a network of 8 people has (8-1) * (8/2) = 28 possible relationships; in this example all people are centrally only linked to one person, but not to each other, resulting in 7 relationships; this corresponds to a density of 0.25.
  • Openness
    The relationships that get out of the network determine the degree of openness. Prerequisite is the definition of the network boundaries. In companies, they are today much more permeable due to partnerships, joint ventures and outsourcing. The project relationships lead to frequent changes of the network members. The openness results from the number of external relationships in respect to the possible relationships. They are double-edged. On the one hand, a network gains new ideas and members through openness. On the other hand, experiences and insights unintentionally flow out of the network, and people get the opportunity to exert undesirable influence through openness.
  • Perseverance
    Networks have a certain life of their own because of the large number of actors. Perseverance describes the degree of stability. It results from the increase of members and relationships, the changing degree of formal structure, and the general direction, i.e. growth, consolidation or shrinkage of the network Too much change endangers the perseverance and results in the formation of new networks or internal group building.
  • Speed
    The time it takes to bring insights to all nodes defines the speed. This information flows through the relationships. With respective channels, actors can communicate in different ways, such as email, intranet, or by exchanging ideas. The distribution can take place by pull or push principle. The pull principle is based on information needs – knowledge is obligation to search; trigger is the target audience; mostly bottom-up. The push principle is aligned to the needs for informing – knowledge is an obligation to deliver; triggers are the information sources; mostly top-down. Built-in feedback, such as receipt confirmation or collection of comments, allow assumptions about the speed.

Bottom line: The network is the most likely organizational format in times of VUCA. The membership benefits are determined primarily by the number of users. Other characteristics are the density, openness, perseverance and the speed of the information flow. Although the network properties allow a better control, it is still necessary to continuously observe and evaluate the network due to the self-organizing members.

Showing figures smartly

More and more figures are nowadays created and used as the basis for decisions. This leads to the fact that one does not see the forest for the trees. Charts provide a way out. Unfortunately the users do not always consider the influence of the style of the presentation. This is amazing, since the acceptance of a message is reinforced by showing figures smartly.

Visualisierungen EXCEL scribble

Pure numbers do not always clearly convey the desired impression. Luckily most computers have nowadays MS-EXCEL with various business diagrams, like column, line, circle and bar charts etc. Graphical presentations are beneficial. Those charts add to the actual numerical value a graphical aspect: larger or smaller, rising or falling, more or less similar etc. This strengthens the desired statement. The following aspects should be considered.

  • Size
    If orders of magnitude, like quantity, length, performance etc. are presented and compared, the bar charts or bar graphs are recommended. Thus, the different values can be prepared with horizontal bars or vertical columns side by side. The choice of the range strengthens thereby the message. Ranking becomes visible through additional sorting. The number of values that might be presented should be adapted to the presentation: for projections 7plusminus2, for A4 formats not more than 40 per page.
  • Progressions
    Values that change over time are represented with the line diagram. Rising costs, employee fluctuation or changes of temperature can also be represented over very long periods. The line conveys intuitively the course of time from left to right. The number of visualized values is defined by the question, whether single values or general progressions are important.
  • Portions of a whole
    If you want to show the portions of a whole, the circle or pie chart is perfect. The total circle represents thereby the 100%. If you want to compare the portions of different wholeness’s, you can use stacked bar charts. Usually the described elements should not exceed
  • Correlations
    Scatter diagrams help showing patterns, in order to be able to recognize dependencies of values. Thus, the BCG matrix shows, based on a joint look at market growth versus market share, in which products you should invest or not. Additionally, scatter diagrams can be used, in order to identify unusual pairs of value that arise outside of the value cloud.

Bottom line: For various purposes specific representation types are best. Size comparisons are represented by column and bar charts. Courses of time are shown with line diagrams. Parts of a whole are prepared with circle or pie charts. Correlations become visible with scatter diagrams.