That footprint in the moon-dust

Forty years ago today, when the Cadillac was undisputedly the best mass-production automobile on the planet and Woodstock was still a place and not a thing, the United States pulled off the coup de grace of the space race by planting a human footprint in the shallow moon-dust of the Sea of Tranquility. A popular colloquial phrase to come out of this achievement was, "Yep, we can put a man on the moon, but we can't... (make a car that doesn't rust out in five years or insert your favorite pet-peeve of technological shortcomings)."

This was before anyone had cell phones, the internet, cheap handheld calculators, microwave ovens, digital watches, and yes, even before post-its or velcro. We don't talk so much about the shortcomings of ingenuity or the lack of technological marvels designed specifically for mass consumption anymore. The free market and the global flow of goods and capital since the 60's and now, even more importantly, the free flow of information, have made you and me some of the most fortunate people to live in any time or any place in the history of the world.

As if that weren't enough, here's another bit of recent news: When Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the moon forty years ago, mid-life for the babies being born was right about now, in 2009. But a new study puts mid-life at 50, so you who are 1969 babies will now have to wait until 2019 to get that shiny red MLC Corvette. And those of us born in the ten years prior to that have no longer officially reached middle age. Nice!

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The new transparency

Being a web 2.0 business has become synonymous with using the internet to become more "open and transparent." Does transparency in commerce mean that your community discussions are live, spontaneous, interactive and accessible?

For a hyper-individualized, billion-dollar company like Zappos that is built on service and also happens to sell shoes (and other neat stuff), it seems to come with the territory. For other businesses, it may still be safely diluted down to discussions that are recent, honest but controlled, and filtered by qualifying criteria.



What about the federal government? Can it follow a business-collaboration meme? In this C-Span clip, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs weighs in on how questions coming from Facebook and Twitter give the new Town Hall meetings a sense of openness and transparency. (Chip and Helen are not buying it.) I have a feeling Helen Thomas wins the transparency award no matter which side of the aisle you're on.

Video Marketing (Evian)

Does this make you want to go out and get some Evian water or what?

Changing the rules

Have you ever gotten directions from someone with descriptions of one mile, two left turns, three stoplights, but no street address? And the ending address is what you really need to plug into your map application or GPS. The rules about giving directions have changed.

In business, you can adapt to the new rules like Verizon is doing with its rollout of 500 downloadable applications for their phones, (although new iPhone apps like copy & paste or a radio player came loaded on Verizon's Palm Centro last year). You'll also see the new rules about using your database to create most-popular and recommended lists, as well as offering text updates.

Or (sometimes) you can change the rules. Amazon changed the way we think about customer data, reviews and feedback. Now they're changing the way we think about books, as Adam Penenberg points out in the latest Fast Company, to adapt to the kind of rules Apple has already introduced for music.

The other option of course is to ignore the rules, as in the company formerly known as GM (of which you are now part-owner) and the major newspapers.

Skiing In July (not just in the Alps)

If you're a summer skiier, get ready to save your plane fare to Zermatt this year. Briton Engineering has already built several of their "Snowflex" runs in Spain, France, Scotland, England and Denmark. Now for the first time in the US, you can ski or snowboard year-round at this new synthetic-surface slope in Virginia. (It's also pretty cool that the guy promoting it in this video is my son Axel.)

photo credit: plasticsnow aka Kat

Inflight Wi-fi - still disconnected?

Last year I wrote a piece for TechRepublic about wi-fi on domestic airlines. I'm still suspicious that encroachment into this last haven of being disconnected may not be welcomed across the board, but inflight web access continues to expand its reach every day.

The Gogo Inflight offering by Aircell is at eight dollars for mobile access and ten for normal wi-fi on flights of three hours or less. American Airlines and Delta have this now. United has a plan in the works. Here's a link to the corporate video from Aircell's CEO.

Tip: you can also save 25% by using promo code "wifi25" through 7/3/09.

Making IT visible at Accenture

Here's an interview I just did with Bob Kress of Accenture that was published today in TechRepublic. Bob is a very interesting guy and has streamlined their technology at the same time the company has been going through phenomenal growth. His philosophy of showcasing the efficiency of his IT operation at Accenture is a model other companies should (and Bob says they can) emulate.

A Nation's Gratitude

"Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from his honor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan."

- General John A. Logan, from the general order proclaiming Memorial Day on May 30, 1868.

Logan echoed Abraham Lincoln's words of three years earlier calling on our divided nation to "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan," of which there were many at the time.

Earlier this month, the three young men below died in battle near the village of Nishagam, in Konar Province, Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. William D. Vile, 27, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas
Specialist Ryan C. King, 22, Dallas, Georgia, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
Sgt. James D. Pirtle, 21, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas

As a soldier and the son of a soldier, I salute you and your sacrifice on this day of remembrance.

The Price of Security

This three-part "free security suite" is touted by Consumer Reports as being "on a par" with the ones that will cost you, and better than last year's versions. 

(links to free downloads)

1. Avira - Antivirus Personal 

2. MS Windows Defender
(If you're running Vista, this is already included.)

3. Spamfighter Standard

Beats complaining about it.

Unthinking Marketing

OK, so the KFC Grilled rollout on Oprah didn't work out so well.

Many locations were quickly out of any kind of chicken, and now that it's back, it's for paying customers only. (Is this the best path to new customer acquisition?) Your coupon is still good for about another week, you just have to mail in the accompanying form.

Wow. Grilled chicken is just not that revolutionary for me, and a form to fill out is the wrong response. If you're thinking like I am, you're unthinking KFC. A bad marketing plan has the potential to leave your business worse off than you started.

On the other hand, how about this deal: would you move up your scheduled plan to buy a new car if you had a chance to get it free? What if whether you pay or not were entirely dependent on the weather?

Weld County Garage in Greeley, CO is giving away their cars and trucks if it rains more than an inch on Memorial Day. If they do end up giving away cars, you can bet the publicity will be enormous, maybe even better than a spot on Oprah. There's something fundamentally intriguing about the outcome being based on the weather - kind of like the Spanish Armada.

Is it likely to happen? Better odds than the lottery - or free grilled chicken.

Before there was Zappos there was Ben Stein

Ben Stein recently wrote this New York Times piece about the art of sales. I personally think there's actually more here about marketing than sales.

He writes about his first job in shoe sales which, as he says, "entailed selling shoes." It's not always glorious is it? But the way Ben describes it, he remembers it with a certain penchant for getting back to the drama/ballet/high-wire act of selling those shoes.

Interestingly, along with being a lawyer, writer, actor and economist, Mr. Stein is also a highly regarded commencement speaker.

Intentionality - Pointers and Filters

The transformation is all but complete. Ten years ago, for a given network's broadcast there were a certain number of viewers watching at any one time. Some were watching intentionally and for some it was just channel surfing. In some cases a show might be replayed again later and get a small second wave of viewers.

Now think about the huge change going on not just in the technology at work but in the social element and the reduction of randomness. A piece comes on somewhere in the world like Susan Boyle in this Britain's Got Talent from last Saturday, gets posted to youtube in various forms and has five million hits in three days. A posting of the same show's Paul Potts video from two years ago has over 43 million views. Most of the new viewers didn't watch the original airing, and almost all are watching it intentionally.

The link for a viral video gets sent to you (like it was to me), someone e-mails it, finds it in a Google search, or sees it in a school, club meeting or a church (i.e. the Jason McElwain basketball video). I probably wouldn't have come across Penn Jillette's videoblog about sincerity in your beliefs and being a "good man" if someone hadn't pointed me to it. The pointers, blogs, twitter, facebook, social bookmarks are ubiquitous (and they're all over the place too), and they have all but replaced cold-callers in qualifying an audience.

Whether it's the design of your car, the news you watch/read, or your presentation next week, there's a lot more intentionality involved - and expected in the details. "Leave nothing to chance" has taken on a new meaning. You get to choose, and with freedom comes... yes, responsibility.

Adapt, or be ignored.

Your audience expects it.

Technology and the 2016 Olympics

If you're interested in what kind of part is played by technology in the 2016 Olympics, and specifically the bid by the city of Chicago against the other contender cities, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid, here's an interview I did with Ellen Barry for TechRepublic.

Ellen is the CIO of the MPEA, which includes McCormick Place and Navy Pier. The level of technology, overall space and versatility Chicago offered to the International Olympic Committee in their recent visit is astounding. I'd say we've got a good shot at it. Be sure to check out the photo gallery link for some great shots - nice screensavers for Chicagoans (or former Chicagoans).

Apropos government, happy day between tax days! Today falls between Tax Freedom Day and Tax Day (the regular IRS one).

International Leadership at Siemens - Interview with David Edelstein

Overseeing IT operations for a global company in a flat world brings some unique challenges.

Here's a new interview that just came out in TechRepublic with David Edelstein of Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics with some interesting insights and experiences.

David took over as CIO in 2007, following Siemens’ acquisition of Dade Behring, where he had served as CIO for nine years. He is responsible for leading the development of the advanced information and eBusiness systems that support the worldwide organization.

Idiosyncratic Marketing

When it comes to marketing (and general business) strategy, there's unique - and then there's idiosyncratic.

And the idiosyncratic can continue to be that way because they wouldn't be where they are if they didn't know what they are doing.

Classic: Spike Lee fires back to his more-than-gracious interviewer, "Hey, did you make 'Do the right thing?' Well, just how many movies did you make anyway?" For celebrities, automakers, bailout recipients, tenured professors, NEA bosses - success becomes its own hemlock. There are special rules for me because, well, I wouldn't be here if I weren't special.

With success, you can insulate yourself from the voices you don't want to hear. And there are always other voices seeking to curry favor. Don't fall for it Spike. Don't surround yourself with sycophants. If someone tells you you're still running your 5000-customer business as if it were 500, or that this kaizen thing is something you may want to look into, don't get miffed. Maybe you're just the last one to realize it.

If your marketing looks like General Motors "best resale value of any domestic truck!" because you get rid of the Jim Harbours (barred from GM property in the 80's) and surround yourself with people who tell you "sure, that resonates," get ready for the ode to the CEO.

It may take a few years. It took fifteen years at $7 billion a year being spent on GM pensions and retiree healthcare until CEO Rick Wagoner said before Congress in December, "If we had the $103 billion... it would enable us to be even farther ahead on technology or newer equipment in our plants, or whatever." (Pardon?) No, zero percent financing is not a sustainable marketing plan.

Being able to carry on with boatload of idiosyncracies can be the mark of someone who has enough success to insulate themselves from their critics, but it's not necessarily a badge of honor.

Hard Times

A lot of people are suffering these days. Not only because of unemployment and the troubled economy, although those are certainly a part of it for many. Responses to the suffering of others seem to fall into three major categories: 1.) the tabloids, 2.) the government and 3.) the widow with the mite.

The tabloids sensationalize the suffering of people we don't know and won't have any real response to, other than the consolation that other people are suffering too. It could be a sort of schadenfreude, but mainly it's just knowing we all have suffering in common, and some possibly even more than we do, and that some who don't seem to suffer really do after all.

The government sees a purpose in suffering. There is opportunity waiting when people are in difficult circumstances. The government can help. Of course, the government is ultimately not a benevolent creature - its motives are votes in the next election or an increased sense of dependence on its liberal largesse.

Then there's the widow in the New Testament with her coin. She gave all she had. Why? Well, the story doesn't say but it wasn't just her tithe because it was everything she had. It would make sense that she gave it through the vehicle of the church's coffers to help those less fortunate; the ones who were suffering. And she did it anonymously - no receipt, no tax deduction, no name on a plaque, no quid pro quo. She just quietly dropped it in the box.

Do you know someone who's suffering?

Three Steps In Your Job Search

Are you one of the 12 million Americans now working on a job search (a 25-year high today)? Here are three things to help you get started:

1.) After you take your best shot at making it simple but powerful, get a free professional review and recommendations on your resume from Executive Career Services courtesy of longtime resume expert Steven Provenzano (send it to careers@execareers.net).

2.) Take the information in the new version of your CV and update (or create if you need to) your profile on LinkedIn. Be sure to look at how it appears to the outsider as well as how your name comes up in Google/Yahoo/Altavista.

3.) Next Tuesday, take advantage of Fedex/Kinko's offer to print 25 free copies of your new resume.

- bonus tip: remember to go to sleep an hour early tomorrow and set your clocks to spring-forward this weekend, so your interview doesn't look like this.

How recession-proof are you?

This month the Illinois Chamber of Commerce is co-hosting a half-day seminar called "Recession-protect Your Business: strategies for survival and growth." If you're part of a small to medium ($500K to $20M) business digging in for the long haul in 2009, mark your calendar for this executive level event in downtown Chicago on Friday 3/20.

Presentations from Melissa Giovagnoli, Founder and CEO of Networlding, and Don Paullin, CEO of Hiring Firing Experts, Inc., will cover recession strategies and ways to build business in challenging times.

The cost to attend is $85 and you can see the agenda, invitation and speaker bios at this link.

Do you have a corporate slapper?

Back when I was working for one of the world's more bureaucratic organizations, there was a certain manager who was a walking bad attitude, obstacle to any progress other than her own, and certainly a candidate for a good slapping.

HR policy being what it is, she remained somewhat confidently insulated and managed a good deal of swagger up until the day she was finally ousted from her position as the team's resident paterfamilias. What we needed was Malcolm.



Malcolm Fry - the corporate slapper. Here's a video to explain exactly how this works.

Just how important is a smart healthcare IT executive?

Not many issues approach the universal concern over the healthcare situation (crisis?) in this country.  The changing role of the CIO at a hospital or other health service provider seemed like a great topic for a few questions.  

So I asked Patrick Moroney, who is among the best authorities out there in this area, for his candid opinions.  Here's the interview with Patrick that came out in TechRepublic today.  (Add your comment and/or vote if you like it.)

Thanks!

Have IBM and Google noticed the $20B ERP market?

If you haven't seen it already, I hope you'll take a look at my interview with Jeffrey Carr on ERP in TechRepublic.  If you like it, be sure to click on the "worthwhile?" voting button at the top right.  It's also portable in a free PDF download (link right below the intro).

* Speaking of free downloads, you can get a free sample of Starbucks new Via instant right here.  Not in time for this month's survey, but give it a try.  (thanks Jon -)

Detroit in the crosshairs at the auto show

Japanese steel was a different story than its car manufacturers. Under the Marshall plan after the second world war, the allies (mainly the US) rebuilt Japan's steel plants with the result that our own aging mills couldn't compete. 

In the auto industry on the other hand, Detroit started by ignoring Deming, then ignored Japan (and Korea), and now is looking for tax dollars to finance the effects.  With their very existence in the balance, looking only slightly more viable than Joaquin Phoenix's rap music career, you might expect they would emphasize a good showing in the annual auto show circuit, like the one going on in Chicago right now.  Not necessarily that they would make a record financial investment, but a smart one.

You might expect to see Saturn distance itself a bit from parent GM and its $30B request to the US taxpayer this month.  You might expect to see some vision for hybrids or electrics that trumps the competition.  Most importantly, you might expect a different presentation of new ideas and products than you could find on the internet ("this vehicle has six cylinders and has sunroof, leather and automatic transmission options").  No.  None of the above.

An expo is not a giant television ad. TV is more or less a scripted visual storytelling for the masses, punctuated by zero-interaction advertising that is increasingly blaring and increasingly ignored - or tivoed out entirely.  The internet makes a huge leap by providing more interaction, customization and selective content.  If you enter the right keywords, you can find it.  But a live event offers dialog and personal experience and should highlight the strongest presentation points you have to offer.  A car I can see in the parking lot outside the show is not extraordinary enough to be in the auto show.  Seeing a vehicle from behind a ropeline is not necessarily extraordinary either.  A display of a vehicle where you can't sit behind the wheel, or where the sales reps can only repeat the factory specs might as well be online.

There were a couple automakers with impressive concept cars you won't see on the street and reps who could compare different vehicles and knew enough about cars in general enough to ask you questions back, but they weren't from Detroit.  VW and Acura were the standouts in my book.  Saab's replacement of the Aero-X with a beautiful concept convertible was a show-stopper, and the rep had a wonderful Scandanavian accent while most of the reps were clearly hired guns.

I still enjoyed the auto show of course.  I'd just like to see the automakers, especially the ones in Detroit, make better use of our tax dollars with their marketing.  Only two companies asked for my e-mail address.  Auto marketers should be at least as good as the US Army's impressive display at the same show.  They did an outstanding job by comparison.

note: If you plan to make it to this year's show in Chicago, be sure to stop by a Shell station to fill up on your way and get their half-price tickets for admission.  If you have a couple people with you, it will pay for your parking.

Mark Cuban's Open Source Funding Rules

Feeling Mavericky?  This week's offer by broadcast.com billionaire Mark Cuban to provide stimulus funding for entrepreneurs offers a few guidelines that the public sector might do well to imitate.  

As the federal job-creation stimulus package rolls out with $30 million taxpayer dollars earmarked for Nancy Pelosi's favorite kind of mouse, Cuban's open source funding offer lays out a few ground rules worth noting:

- Your plan must be posted publicly - transparent and imitable

- 60 days to break-even

- 90 days to show a profit

- Flat organizational structure

- No guarantees of continuation

- Cash flow is monitored

- No Multi-level marketing

- (best of all) Any agreement with Mark will be published openly

Want to take a shot at the cash (no minimum and no maximum) for your current or startup business? You can see the full details of Cuban's offer posted in his blog here.

Ironic Choices

There's a certain irony in offering silly choices.  Does anyone press the "No, I don't want a receipt" button at the gas pump, or press 9 when they want to hang up the phone?

Then there's the irony of offering a choice that doesn't really exist.  A proud union member is issued his obligatory bumper sticker "Union - Yes" with a picture of a check box.  Of course "Yes" is the only vote there is.  If you want the job, you're in the union.

This kind of irony has left Detroit in a bad way these days.  The UAW, in its upward-ratcheting need for self-perpetuation, call the shots like Rod Effen Blagojevich's wife screaming vulgarities in the background of his now famous phone calls.  "Labor demands" are not balanced with any "labor accountability" for performance.  The CEO's are up in front of Congress, but the shrewish-wife union bosses are in the wings telling them why they can't make those concessions.  

This situation is aggravated by a poor economy, but the latest reviews of the big three show a continuing lack of competitiveness.  Depending on blind patriotic loyalty from your customers more than competitive excellence in a free market is rather unpatriotic.  

So is pretending there's a choice where there isn't.

Caribou Bumps The Brand Owner

Americans drink more coffee than any other country in the world.

So it's a big deal when the current brand owner (here's a little word association - coffee: ______ ) shows up as an also-ran. At least one reason Starbucks is closing stores and locking up for an afternoon of re-training is Caribou, a little company out of Minneapolis with stores in 16 states.

The atmosphere at every Caribou I've ever been to is great, and wi-fi is free, vs. a charge of about $4 for two hours at Starbucks, down from the old $10 rate. But those are the perks (ha!) - the core product is still the coffee right? While I've always thought Caribou's product was competitive, I'm no connoisseur, so take the results of the March Consumer Reports coffee survey. Caribou's Columbia Timana comes in second only to Eight O'Clock's 100% Columbian for flavor, and for you coffee-achievers, it's highest among the top four for caffeine content at 195 mg/cup. (Starbucks top brew comes in at #4, but that puts it in the "good" category, down a notch from the "very good.")

For the long haul, build your brand on a quality product and customer service (and a little caffeine helps too).

SEO Expertise

If you need some technical advice on optimizing search and making it work for you (and who doesn't?), Kelly Jones is an SEO specialist at Plexus Web who is remarkably good at what she does. I'll bet you won't be able to ask something she can't help you with.

Will "complications" with outsourcing serve to stem the tide of domestic job cuts?

Companies that are immune to the latest labor cuts don't seem to fall into any particular categories. Even stalwarts like Caterpillar, Sprint and Home Depot added to the more than 40,000 layoffs announced this week. There's some hidden pain in these numbers as well. Cuts in overtime hours and part-time or temporary workers don't show up.

Apropos hidden numbers, what if companies were required to state how many of their layoffs are domestic vis-a-vis offshored positions as a percentage of the total? Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of the free market, but only when minimum standards for business practices are met. Somalian pirates do not qualify, for example. Nor does Satyam Computer Services, where State Farm is cutting 400 jobs because of fraud, which has also complicated things for PriceWaterhouseCoopers as two of its auditors responsible for Satyam's books were arrested in India over the weekend. Early last year, Moira Herbst was prescient in pointing out other risks and conflicts of reckless outsourcing in her Business Week article about the then half-million H1B-visa workers.

It may be wishful thinking, but the numbers of outsourced jobs being cut could actually become a statistic companies would be pleased to have splashed across the FOX News business page. My friend George Moraetes is a displaced State Farm consultant who would like to see that.

Ten Questions on Risk and Compliance with Joe Degidio

Got risk?

If you're a small (or large) business looking for new ideas and some prognostication on risk and compliance over the next few years, here's an interview I did with compliance expert Joe Degidio in TechRepublic today.

You can post a comment or add a question below the article. (FYI - they are going to ask you to do a one-time registration to make a comment, but this is a great publication and you should be registered anyway.) Thanks!

Synchronicity 2.0 (mashups)

Is it CNN or is it Facebook?  To quote the inimitable Bo Jackson, "Both."  

It's a cool mashup of CNN's video coverage of the inauguration with all your friends' simaltaneous discussion in a live forum. Apparently the idea went over fairly well as the site was maxed out on user-spots shortly before the ceremony started.  It's been unmashed again now, but bookmark the link for the next memorable event that comes up.

It was a good day for Twitter too.  The growing deluge of the world's most transient blog posts had about five times the normal amount of "tweets per second" during the ceremonies.  Of course, depending on who's in your "following" list, these might be anything from, "I just ate a bagel" to "Watch my new life-coaching video."  But here's a new twist on it - again with an interesting mashup.  Yahoo! has gotten together with the folks at Twitter to create "Tweetnews," which matches up the latest headlines and their sources with the related "tweets." This adds a bit of authenticity to the frivolity (and immediacy) of newsflashes on Twitter with a measure of mainstream corroboration.

Remember when the future was in plastics?  Now it's in mashups.

The Great Accelerator

A lot of people are in a hurry to break with the past, leave Q4 and 2008 behind and get on with their tabula rasa using the new social media tools, web 2.0, 3G, etc.  OK, so did your new year's resolutions have to do with doing things better, or just faster?  

Hopefully your marketing was structured and personal before and is going to get even better - and not just faster.  In itself, the internet only makes things faster.  It is excruciatingly ambivalent to good or bad and serves to accelerate the effects of either one.  If your communication is powerful and relevant, it will get to more people faster.  If you make mistakes and underestimations, the web will also syndicate those errors faster.  

It's amazing how powerful good marketing is - even when it's not new; not flashy, just effective communication, as in the great communicator.  See how long it takes you to figure out how old this thirty-second video is.  

Effective presentations, web sites and podcasts still require, like the new nation, people who distinguish good from bad, technically and otherwise.  It is wholly unsuited to any other, just much faster. 

Wait - he's taking my money?

Not long ago, I had a very smart (PhD) C-level executive tell me, "One thing we don't need on our home page is a bookmark button. I think people already know how to bookmark something." 

He could only have thought this by disbelieving or ignoring the advantage of custom bookmarks/feeds to your reader and the widespread use of bookmarking icons across the footers of literally thousands of web sites.  He let the relative simplicity of the tool's sophistication obscure the fact that for most people it has a high level of everyday usefulness.

The truth is we're all myopic in some way or another. It's dangerous to insulate yourself with your success (or degree/or title). A political heiress may need someone to tell her she's not cut out for the job. A governor may need someone to tell him that an FBI wiretap is probably not capricious. A pastor may need someone to point out that the huge slide about "Calvanism" should actually be spelled "Calvinism" (at least by the time the third service rolls around). 

Faithful are the wounds of a friend - even if she might not invite you to her Martha's Vineyard bash this New Year's Eve.

A very happy and safe new year to all of you, and all the best in 2009.  If you're a praying person, say one for me - I'll return the favor.

Do you have a mystique?

Every business needs a defining quality, call it a mystique or whatever you like. It's not your purpose statement or your elevator pitch, although it's probably included in those. It's that attribute your competition just can't duplicate - the thing you go to the trouble to do better than anyone else.

I attended a briefing this week at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago and was impressed with one of their employees in particular. He's the head parking valet and his name is Kofi Boasiako. Kofi did his job so well, I honestly don't think anyone else could replace him. He took his work seriously, put things on a personal level and went the extra mile when there was a complication. I'm not easily impressed and I'm more than glad to mention it when I am.

As it turns out, Kofi works at the Ritz-Carlton for a reason. He's part of the mystique. That same afternoon, someone asked me if I had seen this article (I had not mentioned anything about the R-C in the conversation). If you can imitate this kind of attitude, you will stand out from the competition.

Whether it's your business or your own personal brand, what will ensure your success in tough times? Mystique (and your commitment to it).

Thanksgiving

In doing business of course, there's a bonus for being thankful to your customers.  They'll be less likely to think about going somewhere else.

 

But a more spontaneous general attitude of gratefulness is a mark of decency. When children aren't appropriately thankful, they ought to find themselves up in their rooms thinking about it. True thankfulness, whether it's to your host, your parents or your Creator is like wearing shoes, eating with a fork and other good manners - it civilizes you.

Even more importantly than its effect on others, being thankful gives you a heart attitude that will keep you from a prideful death-spiral that ultimately seeks to be beholden to nothing and no one.  To the contrary, a heart of real thankfulness is one that evokes generosity, as it did with Edward Winslow in his description of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, "...and although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

In tough economic times, you'll see more businesses opting for the default behavior (Walgreen's), which makes the few in the second category (Lands End), stand out all the more.  Taking your customers for granted (defining your competition differently than your customers do) will only put you in line for a government bailout.

Delegating the details

In the new era of transparency, do you still have an assistant writing your letters and then adding your electronic signature from a generic, or worse, a do-not-reply e-mail address? You might as well just start deleting people from your distribution list, rather than end up in their auto-archive filter.

How about research? Are you like Tim Conway's classic executive calling Missis-a-Whiggins on the intercom every time you need a reference source? Have you ever gotten this amusing link sent back to you? (Probably not unless your admin is in the habit of testing your sense of humor.) Hyper-delegation often has a way of making you look unprepared and hollow when there's a follow-up question.

What should your admin be doing? Well, particularly if you're sending out e-mails to thousands of customers, prospects or employees, there's a great value in getting a critical review. The CEO who "announced" an acquisition that took place two years earlier could have surely used a second pair of eyes before it went out to all of the acquired company's employees, as well as the (literally) thousands of others. The school principal who makes routine spelling errors in his updates surely amuses some sharp-eyed students, but not necessarily the members of the PTO.

Just a reminder to take your communications seriously - and make them real - if you expect people to read them that way.

The New Realities BSM Interview with Casey Kindiger

A couple years ago, the top-returned item in a google search of "BSM" was the "British School of Motoring." So it's a great leap forward already just to get to the clarification that it generally refers to "Business Service Management" (at least stateside).

Now for the next question, when a company says they do "business service management," what does that mean exactly? The entry in Wikipedia describes it as a "methodology for monitoring and measuring IT services from a business perspective" including both process and software. What it really amounts to is one of Peter Drucker's new realities of how you view and use technology to make your business work better every day.

If anyone knows what's at the heart of BSM, it's the CEO of IBM's top-ranked Tivoli partner and service management software reseller, Casey Kindiger. Here's an interview that just came out in TechRepublic where I sat down with Casey to ask ten questions about what is really at the heart of this new way of looking at the purpose of technology in business, as well as the three types of BSM players out there today.

It stands to reason

If you're working for a monolithic, impersonal, quota-driven organization in these tough economic times, you're aware of the extra scrutiny people doing the "real selling" give to those applying the "marketing spin."  Being under the loop makes it all the more important to stay above the fray, far from the madding crowd and be the voice of discreet but genuine candidness.

Seth Godin (All Marketers Are Liars) does this on a regular basis. So does fellow New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Krauthammer, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person recently.  No matter which candidate you're voting for next week, Charles has a knack for saying it like it is.  He does it again in last Friday's Washington Post. 

The FOX News Legacy

Our family just got back from a whirlwind trip to Washington, DC over the weekend where we got to appreciate some of the uniqueness of the nation's capitol. After living in Berlin and San Francisco and Chicago and visiting some other incredibly beautiful cities like Zurich and Paris, it's always fascinating to notice the contrast in different urban settings.

The primary reason for our trip was to visit my oldest son Axel, who is interning at the only news show mentioned in the presidential debates and the gem of Rupert Murdoch's crown, FOX News.  The team at the station was very gracious and gave us a fantastic tour and even let us sit in on a live panel show covering the "generated crisis" with Bret Baier.  Here are a few FOX facts I found intriguing and highly encouraging:

- The FOX News Channel is twelve years old this month.

- Since January of 2002, FOX has ranked first overall in total day and prime time audience.

- Just last month, FOX had its second-highest rated month ever (the top month was April of 2003)

- Since 1997, FOX has grown from a 3% share of the total day cable news market to its current 39%.

- Special Report with Brit Hume, who came from ABC News in 1997, is the #1 cable news program in the nation.

Another tidbit every baseball fan is aware of this week is that FOX has the exclusive coverage of the World Series, where they've carried 10 of the last 12 matchups.

Moving Toward 1:1 Marketing

How important is your customer relationship management solution to you? Do your customers know that you know them and are working to make their experience as personally relevant as possible? I've gotten two invitations in the last week that were addressed to "Dear Lynda" and "FirstName." Here's an interview I did in TechRepublic today with CRM expert Jon Cline that covers some great insights about the future of CRM. 

Thanks Jon!

How much is your degree worth?

A good percentage of the people I hear from and work with have technology backgrounds - including degrees in information technology of one kind or another.  Here's an interesting survey being done this week by the innovative people over at TechRepublic for all of you who have pursued technology as an academic endeavor (and for managers and recruiters who hire people for IT positions!)  The anonymous results will be the basis for a special report on IT/IS undergrad programs and will include the importance of that piece of paper vs. hands-on work experience.  

(HINT: All of you who were at my presentation yesterday in Chicago should be interested in this!)

Upcoming Webinar Series on Service Management

I'll be hosting a webinar series on service management coming up in October if you're interested in ways to make your technology act more businesslike.  The series is a prequel to IBM's big annual Pulse event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas next quarter.  The three webinar presentations will come from experts at generationE and IBM and will cover automating service management, service quality management, and the service desk of the future.  The first call is on October 8. For a full description and the registration page, see the link here.

More on the OODA Loop (and Presidential Candidates)

Here's an interesting piece by Charlie Martin in The American Thinker related to my last post on the OODA Loop.  That's right, McCain was a fighter pilot too... and evidently one with a tight combat envelope.

Judgment, Leadership, and the OODA Loop

Heard a great presentation this week at the Technology Executives Network from Major Matt Tracy, USMC, a decorated officer with some recent combat experience, notably in Haditha.  One of his main points had to do with the OODA Loop popularized by fighter pilot (Col) John Boyd in the 80's.  

Tracy is by current MOS (profession in civilian-speak) a recruiter, but his premise was that this kind of fast, ultra-dynamic, guerilla-warfare mindset is highly valuable in the corporate marketplace as well.  I also appreciated his emphasis on character in both worlds, which you would expect from an officer in the corps of course.

Making good decisions involves exceptional judgment and a willingness to take responsibility for them (as opposed to being hired as an axe-man to carry out a RIF and then skating off with a big cash bonus from Houston). Good judgment is not leadership though. Great leadership inspires ordinary people to do extraordinary things. And it is much more rare.

And because of that unfortunate paucity, (have you noticed?) people are sometimes put in management positions who have more judgment than leadership. Let's avoid that when we can.

Miraculous (or just remarkable)?

What's miraculous is hard to define and it's certainly subjective, but a lot of miracles and personal sacrifices seem to go largely unnoticed.  Which should make them all the more remarkable to us when we do recognize them - and let someone know we appreciate their work to make something extraordinary happen.  It doesn't take much folks, and it's part of good leadership.  

(OK, I'm jumping down from my soapbox now, but I do think this is important - and too easy to pass up.)

What's that snazzy new icon?

I understand some people are just going to be loyal to one browser.  For better or worse, I'm finding things that work better on each of three or four now.  The new Google browser has some easy-to-appreciate smoothness and seems to be at least as fast as Safari - and it comes with its own nifty (if a bit lengthy) cartoon...

I like the idea of rolling this out and having a mammoth userbase for a more thorough beta.  Possibly an idea to be adopted with the release of the Android phone.  There's a great article by Ed Catmull in the September Harvard Business Review about how Pixar realized that operating different areas of its business with differing standards was "bad for its soul."

Mean Time to Response

There's an old axiom that action is the intersection of initiative and opportunity. Technology (and other conveniences we take for granted) very often solves the issue of lacking opportunity. It puts the world right at our fingertips. All that's left is the initiative part.

"I didn't think of it" often becomes the last refuge for us, which of course begs the question "why not?" Technology is our deus ex machina in that defense too with any number of reminders and calendars and alarms. So - no more excuses.

More than ever, the final weight of responsibility for taking action comes down to our sense of priority. That's all that's left. So is it the environment? family? career? financial security? character? reputation? respect for others and their time? You fill in the blank.

For many of us with all this ubiquitous technology at our disposal, the questions "why weren't you there?" or "why didn't you call him back?" or "why didn't you reply to that e-mail yet?" or "why was that presentation so lame?" are more dependent than ever on our priority-driven initiative rather than on a question of opportunity.

A good question now is whether our priorities today are different than they will be when we look back 100 years from now.

iOpener Event in Chicago

Today's i-Opener event packed the house at the Chicago Cultural Center and was highlighted with group discussions around the importance of creativity and innovation to the future of technology in Chicago. Edwin Lange, EVP at SAP, made some revelations about how a company like SAP harnesses innovation. Get a picture of the impact i.c. stars is having on changing young people's lives with technology here.

The Business End of Social Networking - Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook

A day after the launch of the new Facebook, is COO Sheryl Sandberg focused on growing revenues? No. The emphasis is still on user growth, particularly outside their core demographic, and outside English as the core language.

Facebook's revenue stream, she says, is built more around the networking nature of the application, things like the recent ad design contest on Facebook for the Mazda 3. In spite of the monetizing of click-ads that now appear on each page, Sandberg holds that Facebook's objective is not to compete with direct-response advertisers like Google (where she worked for six years prior to taking the COO position), but on viral and brand ads.

See the interview here.

A Smartphone for the Mensa Pro

For the Mensa crowd out there, Palm has just announced a really smart new smartphone called the "Pro" this week. And if you're in that market, you know who you are.

I suspect that, like the credentials of PhD's who consistently say "for him and I" and have three points in their four-point presentation, this may be something to hang on your e-mail signature ("sent from my new Palm Pro") rather than a huge jump in thinking power.

When the latest delay in the Google Android was announced, I decided to go ahead with Palm's Centro which had just been rolled out for Verizon users. Palm had quietly sold over two million of these by the end of July at $99 each. I'm not jeans-and-sandals enough for an iPhone yet, and I'm not ready for a phone that cooks breakfast for me, so the Centro is a good fit.

I'll leave the technical details to those above my pay grade, but there are some very handy improvements in the way I use the phone every day over my old Treo. It switches smoothly from MMS to SMS, copies and pastes from one application to another, has easily accessible "stacked" text conversations, creates a customizable drop down menu for any function (i.e. "text Joe," "e-mail Sue," or "GoogleDocs"), and it runs mobile versions of applications like Facebook, YouTube, TripIt and GoogleMaps very nicely. The "pTunes" audio player works for me and offers a bevy of web-radio stations. The keyboard is smaller but very usable and fast and I prefer it to the virtual version.

See if you can save yourself a couple Ben Franklins - and if you edit your signature to say you're e-mailing from your Palm Pro, I'll never know the difference.

generationE Makes the 2008 Fast Growth 100

generationE Technologies was pleased to be included among this year's 100 fastest growing IT channel companies. Average growth for the group from 2005-07 was 153% with sales of $106 million, so it's quite an honor to be included. All contenders are required to be independent IT consulting companies based in the US, with at least $1M in sales in 2005. The full list from CRN, parent company of Channel Web and VAR Business is here.

Two Handy Tools For Your PC - Tripit and SnapShots

I've been finding these two free apps very handy and easy to use and I hope you do as well.

Tripit allows you to do two things, track travel plans and make travel reservations. Just create an account and forward any itinerary to plans@tripit.com. It picks out all the key information and puts it all in one handy schedule. Once you've got that, it collects relevant information like local maps and weather, and also shares access to schedules within your network.

On the front end of the trip, you can also use their search tool to compare expedia, hotwire, travelocity, orbitz and priceline, along with some of the major airlines' sites, all in one shot. Anyone who does any amount of traveling should try it. My instinct says there are even more features to come.

SnapShots is an easy application for a quick site preview with a mouse-over. That's it. Very simple and easy to use. You can also add it to your own site for people not using snapshots to see a preview. Try it and you'll be amazed at how un-animated a regular url looks without it.

Webinar Next Week on Performance Management

We've got a great webinar put together for anyone interested in finding out more about IBM's performance management solution "Proviso."  I'll be talking with generationE's resident expert, Gordon Owens, about the competitors, the current state of performance management and of course, why now is the right time for taking a look at the Proviso solution.  You can register at no cost at this link - just click the dropdown for the 7/22 event.

Are you finding what you're looking for?

Sometimes we really don't know what we're looking for. But we've got an idea. And we've got the right direction. Even when we get the results, we still have to be satisfied that we're headed in the right direction and we can try some further refinements. George Will used to quip, "Perfection is the enemy of the good," but it helps to keep pursuing it... relentlessly.

If I were putting together a survey about supporters of a presidential candidate, I wouldn't expect to find a correlation with pet ownership. But if you throw it in the mix and there's a connection, it's something to follow up on. What is it about pet owners anyway? Does this make sense, now that you think about it? What about cat owners vs. dog owners?

Admittedly, surveys can be quirky and the results can be subjective, but it can be interesting to see what direction the results take you. What helps you connect the dots with your customers? Do you ever let people on your team take a (more) random shot to try to uncover something totally unexpected?

What kind of work do you do?

You’re in a rut. Your job has nowhere to go and you’re not getting an abundance of direction from your first-line manager on your career path options. Your first thought is, “I’ll start sending out my resume so a potential employer sees it and contacts me about my work.”

What if you were thinking, “I need to get my work out there so a potential employer sees it and contacts me for my resume” instead? I’ve hired hundreds of employees and as much as I try to trust people until they give me a good reason not to, I always trust the ones I found more than the ones who found me.

Here are six tips to getting yourself “out there.”

Write something. Anything. One of the things consultants are encouraged to do for their own benefit, and even given performance incentives for, is to write a white paper about what they are doing. Get it posted on your corporate site, corporate blog, personal blog, networking profile, e-bulletin board, etc. It’s painful to put technical work into writing and often it just doesn’t get done; which means all the more value for you if you do.

Include a photo. It may sound funny, but it’s not like it used to be. It’s just not that much trouble anymore. Especially in a sales position, you can communicate your professional appearance with a small photo. More networkers are doing this. Sure there will still be an interview, but set expectations with a simple picture. Tip: have someone you trust pick the photo for you.

Emphasize abilities over skills. I was talking to a CIO of a large transportation firm at an executive lunch recently, and he told me his new employees over the next five years won’t have a particular skillset, but the ability to learn new skills as they become necessary. The landscape is changing too quickly to hire a bunch of people who can do process X v.5.1, when 6.1 is coming out next week and it may be part of the cloud by next quarter.

Entry-level: focus on objective line and qualifications. If you’re pursuing an entry-level job, writing a good objective line is key. It’s your elevator pitch. Make it very clear, even narrow, what it is you are hoping to do next. “I could do any of these five positions,” is not a strong opener. Also, for your first or second job, qualifications are more important. If you just got certified for the Apple genius bar, or ITIL foundations, or Netcool Precision, put it at the top of your profile. What is valuable to a prospective employer at this level is that you have done some serious consideration of what it is you’re good at.

Career move: focus on experience with problems and opportunities. For those farther along in their career, it’s much more helpful to be able to describe two things: problems you’ve resolved and opportunities you’ve created. Spend some time building these two categories in your profile on a regular basis. At this level, you’re not all about certifications but about having developed some combination of unique and valuable abilities. Pick something you’re good at where you’re as extraordinary as possible.

Use your network. Along with the advantage of experience, a more seasoned employee should have built some relationships along the way. Using a business network like Plaxo (now a $175M part of Comcast) or LinkedIn (a $1B company by comparison) will help you to keep track. You still need a resume but use your contacts, colleagues, business associates to network. If you don’t and you’re coming to me blind with no introduction, I’m wondering why.

Don’t wait for a pink slip to start working on this. Building a profile is proactive and constant and it sets you apart from the next guy a little more every day.

The Telecoms Triple Play

If you remember back in your world history class to Europe's “Triple Alliance,” Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary joined forces to create the most powerful combination of military might in the world through the start of WWI. If you hadn't noticed, another alliance of three powers is emerging recently to dominate the world of global communications.

Over the last few years, the common objectives of our three primary media of telephone, television and the internet are increasingly being combined in bundling arrangements, both from the providers' and end-users' perspectives, with significant impact to both business and residential users. Whether you’re dialing a number on keypad, pressing a channel button on a remote, or clicking a mouse, you're likely to soon be sharing the same physical cable or fiber with the same amalgam carrier.

There are a few big names duking it out in terms of dominant standards. Cisco Systems leads the charge in supporting “Multi Protocol Label Switching” platforms to allow both the new and existing services to converge and to enable a transition to an infrastructure more dependent on internet protocol, particularly in VOIP services. IBM has rolled out internet-specific management software like the Tivoli Network Manager-IP edition to monitor events, alerts and alarms across the broadened Internet-Protocol Transfer spectrum, as well as keep tabs on overall availability and reliability.

For a more in-depth look at the significance of unified communications technologies and particularly the impact on you as business or personal user, take a look at this free webcast coming out at TechRepublic next month.

Not by Abraham Lincoln: The "Ten Cannots"

Apparently these have a lot more clout if you think Abraham Lincoln came up with them. Or if you think Ronald Reagan used them in a speech in 1992. The truth is Reagan did but Lincoln didn't. They're actually by a little-known German pastor whose life overlapped with JFK's. But they certainly do sound like Lincoln.

Sometimes you can find great stuff at Wal-Mart (don't tell Paris Hilton).

The Ten Cannots
- You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
- You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
- You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
- You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
- You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
- You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
- You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
- You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
- You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
- And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

William J. H. Boetcker, 1873-1962

The Pulse Event (IBM in Orlando)

Just got back from IBM's powerhouse "Pulse" event at the Swan and Dolphin in Orlando this week. If you can imagine every parking spot on the acres and acres of Disney property being filled, you get the idea. Of course, in the larger-than-life Disney/Epcot atmosphere, everything seems all the more enormous.

generationE Technologies was a major sponsor of the event this year as our focus on IBM solutions has become increasingly central to the business. Three big splashes were the service management partner award for our work creating a Google Earth-Tivoli Netcool mashup with Aircell (see their intro to wi-fi when you fly here), special recognition as the partner with the most certifications in IBM's new AAA partner ranking system, and a rollout of a collaborative wiki around the application dependency and discovery solution "TADDM," where generationE was a featured contributor.

In the photo above is generationE's Managed Services Director Gregg Spencer, who ranks as one of the people with the most diverse backgrounds I have ever met. Gregg has faced down an angry mob as a Dallas policeman, single-handedly rescued a large software-driven embroidery company, spent some time in firefighting, miraculously survived a high-speed truck crash and in his spare time takes care of all our internal technical systems. And he's an all-around great guy to work with.

Do You Want to Permanently Erase These Files?

Have you ever considered donating your old computer(s) to a school or other organization, but been reluctant because of the chance of your data still being on the hard drive somewhere? If you've been thinking about about selling, donating or otherwise getting rid of a pc, how do you make sure you've eliminated all the sensitive information (passwords, financial information, work-related documents) you've stored on your hard drive? Deleting only eliminates the file reference until the space on the drive is overwritten; hence the usefulness of programs that "undelete." Here's a free Windows utility to overwrite your data with a random pattern and make sure it's really gone before you find a new home for your pc.

Now i c stars

Today's big event in Chicago was the i.c. stars Capitalize on Illinois event. Wow - what an assembly of CIO and other executives all in one room. Founder Sandee Kastrul commands a fantastic energy level and a list of participants from companies like Siemens, Allstate, IBM, Hewitt, Motorola and a roomful of others. If you're in business in Chicago and you don't know about this yet, you need to get on board. i.c. stars is a remarkable program in Chicago that transforms aspiring young talent into IT professionals over 1000 hours of concentrated training, many times doubling and even tripling their income. See their recruiting page here and their corporate page here.

Kellogg MBA Dave Peak made a special presentation on his latest endeavor, LiquidTalk, which is a solution designed to increase productivity among mobile workers by pushing content out to their phones and PDA's while they're on the road. Particularly for companies with large sales teams, this has real potential for adding value. Here's an article about their launch with Blackberry earlier this year.