Smarter IT

Blackberry Marketing and Cash Value

2011-10-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

Remember S&H and other store stamps that had a value other than cash, like "mills?"

Today companies still substitute benefits or free accessories that have some specific proprietary value, but little or no cash value. As long as the two are distinct, there's no problem. But intentionally or otherwise confusing some dollar value other than the real one for cash value is a big marketing mistake.

Blackberry has responded to its latest high-profile service outages by offering a consolation to their subscribers: for their inconvenience, they get $100 in free apps like poker and "Bejeweled." But wait, there's more. RIM also throws in free technical maintenance for a month, which is a value of, well, let's say it's not immediately obvious on their web site. (And just how much do Blackberry owners expect to call technical support next month in the event of a problem, say, another outage?)

The lesson to learn here, as RIM flounders in their marketing efforts, is that marketing is not a standalone entity. It needs to be integrated with the business. When the purposes of the marketing and accounting or other departments collide, you often get a solution that does badly for both.

In this situation, if RIM offered a second option for a discount on next month's phone bill for example, the dollar value would certainly be lower than the one for free apps and support. What would the value of a third option for getting a check in the mail from RIM be? My guess is about $10. That's the real value.

Does RIM really want to address the legitimate concern and inconvenience of their subscribers resulting from significant outages, even down to the phone's daily alarms and reminders not working, with a consolation that has a real value of $10? Of course not. But there's a left-hand, right-hand conflict going on between the business execs and the ones carrying on the dialog with the customer (marketing) that is deeper than this one incident. As the iPhone 4S and steady developments by Android encroach even further on Blackberry's base, RIM is pouring gasoline on the fire.

Making the Law Accessible on the Web - 10 Questions with LegalZoom CIO Tracy Terrill

2011-04-22T12:48:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Making the Law Accessible on the Web - 10 Questions with LegalZoom CIO Tracy Terrill

View more presentations from Prospero Marketing Group.

Making the law accessible on the Web

2011-04-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs access to the law eventually.

At some point, you're going to incorporate your business, write your will or get a copyright or patent. Ten years ago, a couple clever lawyers put their heads together and hatched the idea of making some standard things related to the law available on the internet. Today LegalZoom has been able to provide those services to over a million people, not eliminating all the paperwork and hassle, but a good part of it.

LegalZoom's CIO Tracy Terrill talked with me about his job combining technology and the law for an article in CBS Interactive this week. He brings a tech background from some other notable companies, including Universal Studios, Warner Brothers and Gartner.

One of the most interesting things going on with LegalZoom these days is their Facebook page, where attorney Joe Escalante masquerades as "Free Joe Friday," and has gained the page more than 50,000 followers with his gratis advice.

On social media marketing Tracy says:

"We're still in the early days of our social media presence, but things are starting to come together... Free Joe Friday is an example of that... We actually have about 10 times more followers on Facebook than on Twitter right now."

You can find the free PDF download of the entire interview here.

Making logical steps in your presentation - and your data management

2011-02-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

When he's making a presentation, ZL Technologies' founder and CEO Kon Leong believes in the power of making a logical segue before changing the slide.

"One thing I try to do that I believe makes a huge difference for any presenter is to build a verbal segue before changing the slide. It's more effective to set up the mind of the listener to anticipate the next slide, or even what they think it might be. The logical flow is important to maintain, and presenters sometimes overlook that when they cut to the next slide and then read. The thought process should transition into the next visual rather than the other way around."

But when it comes to the stages in managing your data, it's not the transitions but the elimination of the document that Kon believes is the most important, and the most challenging, part of the process.

For the complete interview with this data management expert about his views on how to scale that mountain of records at your company, see today's CBS Interactive article here.

Bending the failed expectations curve - 10 Questions with Jay Gardner of NetIQ

2011-02-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

After 30 years in IT, Jay Gardner has landed as the GM and VP at NetIQ, a recent acquisition of Attachmate, privately held company that seeks to "bridge the divide between open source and proprietary source software.

Jay talked with me about getting IT value and bending the "failed expectations curve" when it comes to technology adoption.

"The failed expectations curve is really a financial picture of the business case where the Y-axis is value and the X-axis is time... There is going to be a certain amount of deterioration in the value, or at least a diminishing gain, as the adoption curve levels off and you go from the value of implementing to the value of maintaining and improving... it often comes down to the talent in the organization that makes things happen..."

Once we had covered ten questions on this topic, I also asked Jay to draw on his experience for his best recommendation on making a remarkable business presentation.

"My best recommendation is to tell a story. Always try to relate an example of what you're talking about, either a business process or a customer story. Make it memorable and credible, and unique. That's the way to get people's attention and keep it. Data can support it, but people have to be able to relate to what you're talking about in an illustration rather than bullets. When you can tell a good story, being persuasive is a natural outcome."

You can read the complete interview with Jay on the CBS Interactive site.

___

(* Did you already read my interviews on cloud computing with Jimmy Harris and virtualization with Mark Egan?)

Trying hard to be real (Cathy Thomas' insight)

2011-01-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

How much do you pick up on the red flags in marketing that announce something less than real (often a .gov or a .org strategy with little or no free-market competition)?

- Over the top repetition: if repeating the phone number or web site six times is good, ten is better.

- Urgency: "you must respond within the next 24 hours," every time you see or hear it. It means nothing really.

- Struggling sincerity: talking a lot about being real, in genuine words that contradict actions.

Rather than being a panacea, technology becomes a megaphone to amplify bad behavior. An e-mail came to me recently from a marketing author/speaker and self-described "relationship master" with a lengthy apology about how his outsourced e-mail campaign didn't maintain the genuineness he truly believes in. Here's an excerpt:

"So let’s talk about how a guy who believes in authenticity, candor, and generosity above all ends up sending out a bunch of crazy-Eddie "act now or else" give away-style emails to his fans and clients. I think the details will just feel like excuses and are frankly not that important for the purposes of passing on what I’ve learned. But basically, we hired outside experts who have made a science of how to hit the numbers in email campaigns. And our team, new and under pressure to succeed right out of the box in the online consumer space, thought we could control and customize their techniques to avoid messaging that wasn’t in line with my identity. The campaign was a financial success and at the same time we utterly failed. And I am sorry."

That sounded like a refreshing epiphany, so I replied to him directly the same day.

Three weeks later I received a fairly generic reply from his assistant. End of story.

Cathy Thomas is a computer technician with over fifteen years of experience in technology who has created a site with a colleague called computertechnician.net where aspiring tech students can get free information on national programs. Here's a list of her three top recommendations on intrusions, promises and social media.

Three Best Practices for using Technology as a Marketing Tool

It’s not an exaggeration to say the world revolves around technology today. If some higher power were to eliminate technology for good from our lives, the world would come to a standstill. There would be chaos all around, and we would forget how to function. However, even though technology has its advantages and is almost impossible to live without, it does have a host of cons as well.

Consider the field of marketing. Technology has now moved to the forefront of all operations; marketers and advertisers have woken up the power and potential of technology, and are tapping it to push their advantage with customers, both old and new. However, in their eagerness and enthusiasm to maximize the utilization of technology, marketers fail to use it judiciously and to their advantage. In short, they fail to adopt the best marketing practices when using technology as a marketing tool. Marketers must still remember some fundamentals:

· Avoid intrusive marketing practices: Telemarketing, text message marketing, and spam email may be easy ways to market your product or service, but you can bet your last dollar these practices are bound to get on the nerves of your customers. No one wants their schedules disturbed by pesky marketing calls, especially for products and services they no longer want. Avoid intruding, especially if you know you’re doing it. One call should be enough to take a hint, and if you persist in calling over and over again or hanging on the line even after the customer has made their displeasure evident, it amounts to badgering.

· Fulfill the promises they make: Many marketers are guilty of this mistake; it’s like they have short term amnesia and completely forget the promises they make when trying to market their products and services once the customer has been won over and signed up for a sizeable package. Soon customers discover that no one answers their calls and emails, and even if they do, they’re given the runaround and redirected to the “fine print.” Fine print may seem to be a good marketing technique to scam unsuspecting customers, but remember, in this age of technology one disgruntled customer is enough to spread the word of your unscrupulous practices and lose more customers rather than gain any significant profit.

· Know how to use social media wisely: Social media is all the rage in the marketing world today, and if you have an online presence in the most popular ones, you’re well on your way to tapping your target market. However, if you fail to follow the unwritten rules of social media, you could be blacklisted and kicked out, virtually if not physically. In short, social media marketing must be used with discretion, taking care not to offend customers with unsolicited messages and unsavory tricks that lure them to your pages with false promises.

It all boils down to being ethical in your business practices, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because customers today won’t come back if they perceive or know you use underhand tactics to get what you want. I recently received an e-mail from a reader pointing out that spammers are successful if even one percent of the people they spam respond, considering the ease and cost of sending out huge volumes of email. My response to this is that Internet users are getting more savvy every day. They have spam filters in place, they don’t click on unverified links, and they’re aware that deals that sound too good to be true are likely just that. They read the fine print, they don’t read spam and they blacklist you if you keep badgering them. So while a spam strategy may work for some time, it certainly is not sustainable in the long run. Unless you’re a fly-by-night operator on the lookout for a quick buck, it’s time to take the high road in your marketing practices.

This guest post is contributed by Cathy Thomas. She writes on the topic of online computer technician training, and welcomes your comments at cathy83.thomas@gmail.com.

Thanks Cathy!

Virtualizing your Reality

2010-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

Mark Egan, whose company VMware is synonymous with trailblazing and dominating the area of virtualization, recently talked with me about his perspectives on the future of real technology in a virtualized world.

"...if you think of social-media apps, for example, how do we take some of these systems with a Soviet-era interface and make them look like Facebook and be as easy as Twitter? I believe the user interface trumps functionality."

Another insight from Mark was on his top recommendation for making a more remarkable business presentation.

"I always like to see a speaker who keeps the focus on the question, 'What is the business problem we're trying to solve?' and ultimately answers it. In my humble opinion, as a CIO I should always be focusing on three areas for the company: growing revenue, reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction. Everything I do should track back to those three. Sometimes in our presentations I think we lose the translation to those areas. Those are the things I think we need to see made relevant, and in some cases I've seen my peer presenters get sidetracked to other things."

You can find the entire discussion with Mark in the article out today at CBS Interactive.

25 bullets will kill you - Cloud expert Jimmy Harris on making better presentations

2010-11-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

Accenture's Director of Cloud Services Jimmy Harris talked with me recently for an article in TechRepublic about his ideas on cloud technology. Part of our discussion also covered his best recommendations for making more effective presentations. His first thought: cut down on the bullets.

"This is my first rule of presentations: the density of the data presented is inversely proportional to understanding. If I put up a slide with 25 bullet points on it, I'm just distracting people. No one can remember 25 things anyway.

Another mistake I hear presenters make is saying, 'I know you probably can't see this, but...'

One variation on this I've seen is the presenter who put up a detailed, hyper-convoluted chart, pointed to an indistinguishable spot, and said, 'There it is!' Not a single person had any idea what he was talking about.

To the expert making a presentation, that kind of data represents a command of information and demonstrates their credibility. To the audience, the fact that your the epidemiologist, or whatever other kind of expert you may be, already demonstrates that you know more about it than I do.

Another thing I can tell you about my own presentation approach is that it's about extending understanding through storytelling and symbols. We're brought up to remember things that way. For example, in describing the cloud, I imagine I'm trying to tell people in Asia about banking. There are two billion people there with no experience in personal banking. The question is how to create an environment in which you can economically deliver banking services to these people who have none of the infrastructure, who have never even seen a bank. So in my presentation I talk about the components of the cloud in terms of deploying bank services across multiple devices at a lower cost."

For the rest of the conversation with Jimmy on the way cloud computing changes things, see the article published this week by CBS Interactive.

i.c. stars and the proverbial leg-up

2010-11-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

The job market has taken a toll on new graduates, with greater numbers either staying in school or coming back home for the time being, and the information technology field is no exception.

i.c. stars founder Sandee Kastrul says economics and competition have increased the need for a "longer runway" for the program's inner-city technology graduates after their four months of concentrated business, leadership and technology training.

Among other business leaders, Bob Kress at Accenture has been at the end of that runway with a good fit for the skills being developed at i.c. stars, hiring almost a dozen graduates over the past few years.

The Chicago Tribune has done a nice write-up of what i.c. stars is doing in their article this past weekend.

Some people should not vote

2010-11-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

Everyone should vote? I don't think so. Paraphrasing one of Neal Postman's principles of new technologies: just because you can doesn't mean you should.

So who should not vote?

- The apathetic.
- Those who don't know what apathetic means, and don't want to.
- People for whom emotion always trumps reason.
- Those who think all politicians are equal.
- People just voting for any change at all.
- Those who believe the only motivation for change is fear.
- Those who believe the only motivation for keeping things the same is fear.
- People who are willfully uninformed in an information age.

America is not great because we were born here. It is great because of the ideas and the system of government we have a chance to go out and be a part of today.

Do-not-call - sometimes

2010-10-06T10:21:00.001-07:00

Did you sign up for the national do-not-call list when it came out a couple years ago? I can't say whether it really made a huge difference or not. My wife has always seemed to get most of the sales calls for some reason. Are you on any do-not-call lists you didn't even know about? Say, for example with prospective employers?

As much as the big tech companies are known to compete for and lure over competitors' top executives (i.e. Mark Hurd and Leo Apotheker), it's hard to believe that there is a need for the Department of Justice to eliminate gentlemen's agreements between them when it comes to poaching other companies' employees in general. But six of the biggest names in tech, including Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Adobe and Pixar, recently agreed, with a little encouragement from the DOJ, not to continue their no-cold-call-recruiting arrangements.

In times of record unemployment, this sort of collusion may sound like an urban myth (like Congressman Phil Hare considers the national debt). No, big companies really have been playing by these rules in their hiring. Contrary to the free market they esteem for their products and services, this defensive agreement has been considered a mutual advantage among the big players. It's an even bigger advantage to sit on boards of more than one of these companies, or have your CEO sitting on another firm's board, but that habit has come under scrutiny recently as well.

Along with the new corporate hiring glasnost, according to a new SIM survey in eWeek, most executives plan to increase IT salaries in 2011, with a specific focus on business intelligence.

Why IT is not a department anymore

2010-09-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

My ten-question interview with longtime technologist and top Fortune 100 executive, Julius Tomei, is out in today's TechRepublic. His job covers 50,000 end users in 45 countries, and his experience runs the gamut of technology-related positions. Among other topics like outsourcing, mobility and consolidation, Julius talks about his perception that IT should no longer be thought of as a department.

I also asked Julius for his insights on delivering remarkable presentations, both the ones he gives and the ones he has attended:

"Two things stand out to me when it comes to Powerpoint: getting the right number of slides, and using good graphics and illustrations. What I see most often is either more slides than necessary or not enough. Then there are people who are good at developing very elaborate slides that actually end up losing the audience's attention. Using relevant pictures and graphics is the way to keep people focused. I try to put together slides I can talk to and not read from, and discuss the background behind the slides.

In 2007 I was invited to speak at the annual itSMF conference in Atlanta on the topic of how I got ITIL to work. I took them through the process by illustrating in terms of golf. You don't win by hitting holes in one every time. You do it by making a series of putts. So I was able to keep the discussion at a high level for a larger audience. I can get technical when I need to, but in this case I needed to make it very accessible. When I do include technical information in a presentation, I like to keep it to one or two slides. What people really want to know is, 'How did you come to think of that? What was your thought process?' In this case it was to run a lights-out data center very efficiently and at the lowest practical cost. I needed people to speak the same language and operate from the same framework, and that was ITIL. Explaining in those terms really resonated with the audience."

You can also find this and other technology leadership interviews at 10QatAtime.com.

Funnel, Filter, Guru.

2010-08-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

Not only has the availability of information has moved the needle from the haystack out into the field; it's also a smaller needle.

The streams of information are flowing past us on all sides rather than neatly unfolding on the table beside a cup of coffee, and the key-points summary is taking center stage. There's not so much discussion of "sound-bites" anymore because it's the status quo. Other things equal, a three-minute youtube video gets more hits than a ten-minute one.

What about the whole truth and nothing but the truth? No time. Tell me the main points. And remember, the more concise the summary, the greater the need to trust the summarizer. Your trusted-advisor status is on the line, every time.

Blago's whole truth is more than 500 hours long. You're going to have to leave something out when you tell that story. The jury decides what's relevant.

John Wooden's truth was a seven-point creed from his father, which he carried around with him in his wallet. The New York Times thought seven points was a bit wordy, and made it even more concise. (They later retracted their redactions.)

There's an art to boiling things down to the relevant facts, not the ones that are important to you but the ones that are important to your listeners. Nothing less. Or more.

Whether you're talking to your kids or presenting to the board of directors, remember you're the funnel, filter and guru.

Getting to the truth of the matter - snopes

2010-07-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

If you've ever looked something up on snopes.com, you'll appreciate this interview by David Pogue in the NY Times this week with the creator, David Mikkelson.

Looking from the outside in

2010-06-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Southern California tech veteran Ian Clayton talked with me recently about his three decades of work in IT as well as his secrets to making a great personal presentation.

After starting at Ross Perot's EDS International not long after the On Wings of Eagles rescue mission in Iran, Ian went on to do consulting work with clients around the world like Caterpillar, American Express and Australia Telecomm. In the 1990's, he helped to bring the ITIL framework over from the UK as one of the cofounders of itSMF-USA.

More recently, he has been among the first to anticipate information systems as a service, even before the term cloud technology came into vogue. Ian's presentations are most often around a table of technology executives interested in a new way of looking at things. Which is what he provides them.

Here's Ian's recommendation for applying new perspective to delivering a remarkable presentation:

"Instinctively my idea of a best habit in making a presentation is being able to take an outside-in, you-based position. Speak to the problem or challenge and needs of your audience using their language. Start by making the leap of translating your own views into theirs, and connect with them right from the get-go. A habit I've seen that needs breaking is leading off with a description of the 'what' and the 'how' before explaining the 'why.'" Those are the presentations that seem to take longer, get less stakeholder buy-in and don't help the audience."

Read the full ten-question discussion on "Viewing IT service management from the outside in" in today's TechRepublic. Also watch for Ian's second book, Outside In Service Management, to be coming out this summer.

Going from podium to Web

2010-06-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

You've put together a stellar presentation for the big conference and are counting down the days. With a week to go, a tsunami/tornado/oil spill interrupts the plan and the conference is cancelled.

After hearing your practice run, your boss says, "We're going with this! Get Webex on the phone!" No problem, right?

Turning a classroom presentation into an online meeting requires some planning and rethinking. It's more than just making your delivery on a conference call.

A bicycle and a unicycle are two ways to get from here to there that seem similar, but the difference can add some new challenges. What you've done behind the podium may not translate seamlessly over to a web meeting.

Winning priority is the first major difference to consider:

Unlike a physical event, attendance on a web presentation is entirely up to you and your team. You don't have the luxury of being an alternative in a handful of speaker sessions. Your message is competing with all the normal (and ever-increasing) priorities of everyone's workday. Clicking on an invitation is a routine commitment for most people. Each reminder of the value you've promised to deliver is more important than the last, up to the final "one hour from now!" e-mail.

Read the rest of the article in today's TechRepublic.

What blindspots?

2010-06-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

Without credibility, arguments vaporize. One of the most undervalued components in credibility is objectivity - being above any hidden agenda or influence. As clear-as-a-bell as it is when we hear someone else speaking, it's still incredibly tempting to overestimate our own objectivity.

Do media spokesmen have more or less objectivity after they've been hob-nobbing (or squirt-gun fighting) over the weekend with politicians at a beach party with the Biden's?

Does a new study that shows Ford is now "the no. 1 automaker in customer satisfaction with vehicle quality" have as much clout when you learn the study was commissioned by... Ford? (It disagrees with the most recent Consumer Reports.)

As an expert in your field, you have a claim to trusted advisor sentiments, but it's dangerous to let your bias speak when you need to remain aloof. When you put together your next presentation, make a point to cite objective, third-party sources that your audience trusts, both in the slides and the dialog. And lob the first salvo at "experts agree," and "research has shown," which are even more lame than no citation at all.

(Batteries not included)

2010-06-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

Are you leaving the right things out?

Florida Governor Charlie Crist recently left out the pro-life section he had previously included on his web site.

(He's expected to veto a controversial ultrasound bill.)

Hyundai left out the price on advertisements for its 2011 Sonata.

(You can request an e-mail, but you have to include your phone number and yes, they will be calling you.)

A friend of mine in sales left off his resume the position he held for more than a year as the National Sales Director for a growing technology provider.

(It went bankrupt and he returned to his previous employer.)

Steve Jobs left out the part of his talk about how easily the iPhone 4 connects to the internet.

(Too many bloggers in the audience were eating up the bandwidth of the local wi-fi.)

The main thing to keep in mind about what to leave out in your presentation, resume, business plan or other communication is not what you want to leave out, but what your audience expects you to leave out (or in). That will be noticeable in its absence.

Revolution in Words

2010-06-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

The way we use words was revolutionized by Johannes Gutenberg. Replication and distribution of ideas took on a whole new meaning. But the process actually wasn't Gutenberg's idea. It was the Chinese who first had the idea of duplicating a pattern with a press, but limited its use to copying silks and not books.

Is the iPad a revolution, or is it just duplicating a pattern?

Interestingly, Gutenberg died a financial failure, the object of numerous lawsuits for the rights to use the press. But he was successful by all counts in changing the world. His first printed work, the Bible, is the number one bestseller of 2010 (and every year).

~ Game Changers in Presentation History

Johannes Gutenberg, movable type printing press - 1394-1468

The best (top-rated) personal security software

2010-06-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

"The best things in life are free."

Sure, it's a cliche ...it's also true.

Every year, some of the best new software applications out there won't cost you a penny. Outlook is the de facto business e-mail standard and it's just plain clunky compared to G-mail.

In the security arena, this month's Consumer Reports again rates two of the best anti-malware apps at 54 (Microsoft) and 65 (Germany's Avira) out of 100. For reference, the top score for any security app is 67 (Symantec).

For the added benefit of a firewall, you can also choose Comodo's free app, just released in April, although CR scores the Comodo suite 30 points lower than the paid competition, and it's not compatible with Avira.

Anti-malware:

- Avira AntiVir Personal 9 (42MB)

- Microsoft Security Essentials (7.2MB)

Security Suite:

- Comodo Internet Security Free 2010 (61MB)

If the spam filter in your e-mail program isn't working well enough for you, CR also points to spamfighter.com as a good free alternative in that area.

Spend the money you save on a few good books.

Ten Breakable Habits (slides from my live presentation)

2010-06-02T09:05:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Ten Breakable Habits

View more presentations from Prospero Marketing Group.

What's a twitter/Facebook post worth to your sales pipeline?

2010-06-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

Are you investing the right amounts of time and resources in new media marketing? What's your measuring stick for getting the right mix? Here's a short survey with several insightful questions from my friends at ic stars for small business owners (and anyone else who is interested in learning more about web marketing trends).

Some of the questions address preferences on the frequency of dialog (i.e. pages or videos per week), or with summary vs. detailed reporting, and how much a qualified lead is worth. You can choose to participate with or without disclosing your company, and your input contributes to making this grassroots research more complete, as well as letting you know how the rest of the participants responded.

Whether you are just curious about the crowdsourced response or would like to find out more about what ic stars is planning to do with the final results, take a look at the survey and think about the significance of asking yourself these timely questions.

ic stars is an outstanding technology training program in the city of Chicago. Take a look at the kinds of things they are doing here.

Are you talking to me?

2010-04-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

When you're giving a presentation, do you start by doing your homework on who is going to be in your audience? It may not be who you think it is if you're not sure when your microphone is on (especially when you're the British Prime Minister).

I asked Accenture's Business Operations Director Bob Kress for his top suggestion on how presenters can make their speaking more effective. His first recommendation: be familiar with your audience.

"When I'm presenting to any group, one of the most important things to understand is who the audience is and focus on their primary interests. If I'm talking to more senior people, I tend to use fewer slides and focus on business issues vs. technology. Matching the appropriate level of detail and relating it to the audience is a key piece of giving a great presentation. Using the right examples and stories is the way to make any presentation more memorable."

See the full interview in today's TechRepublic on how Bob has adapted the technology strategy at Accenture to a struggling economic climate.

Job Seeking Advice from Ivanka Trump

2010-04-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Heiress Ivanka Trump (now Kushner) has some refreshingly down-to-earth ideas in this interview that aired on FOX earlier this week. Of course, it's not easy to talk convincingly about hard work when you grow up in a life of privilege, but she certainly comes across as more credible than say, Paris Hilton.

The Economics degree from Wharton doesn't hurt the street cred either. Is she more eloquent than the Donald? You decide. My favorite is her job-hunting advice: "Are you counting on the interviewer to ask all the questions?" Kind of reminiscent of The Art of The Deal.

What we repeatedly do

2010-04-06T08:05:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite quotes (in fact, it's the first one in my new book) is from Aristotle, who said, "We are what we repeatedly do."

This makes a couple good points at once. First, it's not the exceptions and anomalies that are you. It's not that one piece of chocolate cake, or the one day you don't get your treadmill time in, or even the one time you are late to the office. It is what you do as a habitude.

Secondly, what you repeatedly do is usually up to you; which is both a freedom and a responsibility. As the apostle Paul famously points out, "That which I would do, I do not... wretched man that I am."

Some of the greatest things are very simple in the end (in fact, a lot of them are). I came across this stunningly practical site ("Habitforge" above) recently and hope you'll think it is too. The only caveat I would make is that when you break a habit, it needs a good replacement in order to make a lasting change. And since this is a free site, that doesn't cost anything extra.

* - A giant note of thanks to all of you who have downloaded the free PDF of the book summary from the TechRepublic site. It just went over 5,000 downloads last week.

When Your Job Depends on Your Presentation - my interview with Bill Keyworth

2010-03-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

As research director at Gartner, Bill Keyworth was consistently rated as one of the top presenters. Which is a good thing, because his job depended on it.

I talked with Bill recently about cloud computing and technology marketing for an article in TechRepublic magazine. He also described some of the underlying beliefs about why his largely technical presentations have always been so well received across a variety of audiences:

"One primary thing is keeping the visuals a support mechanism and not letting them become the presentation. People are going to remember a very small percentage of what you say even two or three hours later. So what is it you want them to remember? You want them to do something differently. Everything you do should be driven by that, including your visuals.

When I was at Gartner, every presentation got a feedback score that was posted, and not being in the top twenty percent was not good. If you weren't in the top half, you should start looking for another job. At first I had no idea why I scored so well, and then someone told me my strength was my credibility. I believed in management technology and processes, and I believed it would make a difference.

Some presenters can tell a great story but can't answer the basic question of how things are run, managed or controlled. They'll explain that those details are 'coming out in the next version.' For me, non-managed is an unacceptable answer. So even when people don't remember everything I said, my belief in the importance and necessity of those management answers comes through in the credibility of my presentations. It has to come from the heart."

You can read the full interview with Bill Keyworth in today's TechRepublic article here.

Bill's newest venture, the BSM Review, features a complete panel of experts from across the IT spectrum blogging on business service management.

REthinking the WORKplace - My Interview with 37signals' Jason Fried on Better Work and Remarkable Presentations

2010-02-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

One of the things I point out in Ten Breakable Habits is that the slides are not the presentation, and if adding visuals doesn't improve your presentation, don't use them. 37signals founder (Basecamp, Campfire, Ruby on Rails, etc.) Jason Fried talked to me recently about his web applications business and about what he's learned about presentation delivery over the course of his career as an international speaker.

Here's how Jason describes his speaking style:

"Something I've started doing more recently is speaking without slides, or if I use slides, they are just pictures with few or no words. There's certainly nothing where I'm reading or anyone is reading off the screen. I have a set of ideas I like to use for topics and I just run with them and see where it goes. I much prefer the question and answer part of things anyway. I want to be prepared, but I don't want to over-prepare or think too hard about it. I avoid getting to a place where I'm thinking about what I wanted to say."

You can see the whole interview with Jason in today's TechRepublic article here.

Jason's third book REWORK is due out next month.

Ten Breakable Habits comes out today

2010-02-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

If you've been looking for a good book on making better presentations, Ten Breakable Habits to creating a remarkable presentation comes out today.

This is not a book about how to speak more clearly. It's about how to communicate more effectively. It will change the way you think about presenting, and make your next presentation remarkable.

Here are some early reviews:

"In Ten Breakable Habits, Jeff analyzes the traps we fall into when creating presentations but more than that, helps us identify why we fall into them."

- Jason McClay, Senior Consultant, G2G3 Group

"I recommend it to anyone who wants to make their message more memorable, from the classroom to the boardroom."

- Michael Nicoletti, Senior Manager, IBM

"Anyone who wants to discover a better way to communicate effectively can benefit from reading Ten Breakable Habits."

- Joe Ryan, Partner, Open Systems Technologies

Is there someone you'd like to send a copy of Ten Breakable Habits? More people will be giving presentations in 2010 than ever before and this is the extra edge they need. If you're one of the first 100 people to order, you can take advantage of the Buy one-Give one offer and have a second copy sent to one of your customers, your boss, friend or colleague for half-price. There are also quantity discounts available if you're distributing to your sales team.

You can find the order link at www.tenbreakablehabits.com. There's also a free PDF of the summary article that came out in TechRepublic magazine in December (over 4300 downloads so far).

Opportunity Knocks

2010-02-09T08:44:00.001-08:00

Two of my friends at ic stars, Bea Elizalde and Sandee Kastrul, were featured in this Sun-Times story over the weekend. What a great program with a true pay-it-forward mentality.

Your Two Cents

2010-02-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

Remember "letters to the editor?"

It used to be you would type up a letter in response to an article, put a 15 or 20 cent stamp on it, send it in, and watch the next couple issues to see if it was published. It was a kick to see one of your comments get picked up, and ensured your continuing interest in getting the paper. Better yet if something you wrote actually made it to the "mainstream media."

Today letters to the editor are coursing toward the same fate as the daily newspapers they still appear in. With an internet story, you don't have to hope your response is printed. It just appears in the list at the bottom of the story within a few minutes. Along with all the other ways to participate on the web, this is huge.

Sellers like eBay and amazon know dialog is part of their business. They invite you to rate the product and evaluate the transaction and the seller. We've gotten used to this idea. If you wanted to, you could make voting, commenting and providing feedback into an avocation.

What does this mean for the way we communicate in a presentation? Some people are still inclined to give a presentation like a newspaper, ignoring the fact that their listeners are more interested in, and accustomed to, a dialog than being presented with information. Because there's no shortage of information. There's your opinion, and theirs. Remember it's a microphone and not a bullhorn, and your last slide is not the conclusion; it's the beginning of the dialog.

Why a green datacenter? I ask Tech VP Anthony Abbattista of Allstate Insurance

2010-01-27T12:47:00.001-08:00

Here's a new article out this week in TechRepublic where I talk with the VP of technology solutions at Allstate Insurance about the new green datacenter in Rochelle, IL. This new project makes use of several innovative technologies on a large scale ($50 million), and is up for a national award with the Green Building Council.

What's that noise?

2010-01-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

The company without the vast array of resources to fix your problem may be the best choice.

Having HD/Blu-ray doesn't make the sappy banter any more worthwhile to watch.

The TSA should not be diplomatically ignoring everyone named Umar.

Congress should not be making decisions about the Fiesta Bowl.

Fifteen minutes at 2 a.m. may be more productive than an hour at 2 p.m.

The kid without the Nintendo is often the most interesting to talk to.

What's distracting you?

Twixt Christmas and the New Year

2009-12-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

Today in this part of the country, the muffled stillness of deepening snow emphasizes the quiet pause after Christmas and before the commencement of the new year. Here's a timeless description of these between days from a collection of essays by British historian Hilaire Belloc. He talks about the importance of ceremony during this week to "modern men" in a "terribly changing time." This is part of that essay, first published in 1928:

"Now, you must not think that Christmas being over, the season and its glories are at an end...

In the midst of this season between Christmas and Twelfth Day comes the ceremony of the New Year, and this is how it is observed:

On New Year's Eve, at about a quarter to twelve o'clock at night, the master of the house and all that are with him go about from room to room opening every door and window, however cold the weather be, for thus, they say, the old year and its burdens can go out and leave everything new for hope and for the youth of the coming time...

While this is going on the bells in the church hard by are ringing out the old year, and when all the windows and doors have thus been opened and left wide, all those in the house go outside, listening for the cessation of the chimes, which comes just before the turn of the year.

There is an odd silence of a few minutes, and watches are consulted to make certain of the time, and the way they know the moment of midnight is by the boom of a gun, which is fired at a town far off, but can always be heard.

At that sound the bells of the church clash out suddenly in new chords, the master of the house goes back into it with a piece of stone or earth from outside, all doors are shut, and the household, all of them, rich and poor, drink a glass of wine together to salute the New Year.

This, which I have just described, is not in a novel or in a play. It is real, and goes on as the ordinary habit of living men and women. I fear that set down thus in our terribly changing time it must sound very strange and, perhaps in places, grotesque, but to those who practice it, it is not only sacred, but normal, having in the whole of the complicated affair a sacramental quality and an effect of benediction: not to be despised.

Indeed, modern men, who lack such things, lack sustenance, and our fathers who founded all those ritual observances were very wise."

Here's to a fantastic New Year in 2010.

Ten Breakable Habits (for a remarkable presentation)

2009-12-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

Here's an excerpt from this week's TechRepublic with a preview of my new book on presentations, coming out on February 12th. If you're looking for an easy way to get your next presentation to the next level, these are the first five of my ten recommendations for do's and don'ts:

1 - Stop: Being an information resource.

Start: Being the funnel, filter, and guru.

Put away the teleprompter. Presenting is more than giving a speech. You're changing data into information, knowledge, and with a little luck, wisdom.

2 - Stop: The train - there's no track.

Start: With the end in mind.

Invest the amount of preparation time in your presentation that will make it a winning experience for you, like an athlete whose first goal is self-improvement.

3 - Stop: Trusting the human ear.

Start: Polishing your shoes.

Don't keep it simple; make it simple. Transform a complicated thought or process into something that is easy to see and appreciate.

4 - Stop: Explaining your slides.

Start: illustrating your ideas.

The images you use will create lasting impressions if they connect with your words. We're a visual culture and need the combination of content and visual emphasis.

5 - Dont: Focus on everything.

Do: Build around a unique value proposition and an unrefusable offer.

The ability to define your message in terms of a UVP and UO is the central piece of making your presentation remarkable. Keep your other points ancillary to these two.

For a list of all ten breakable habits, see the article in TechRepublic's "10 Things" column here.

You can find more details on the book at www.tenbreakablehabits.com.

Christmas Cheer and Marketing - Good, Bad and Ugly

2009-12-17T11:15:00.000-08:00

In the early darkness of the morning after Thanksgiving it begins. The promotions leading up to Christmas are a harbinger of the general economy and the December campaign can bolster those lagging year-end figures, particularly in retail.

So effective marketing in the competition for those final discretionary dollars of the year is critical. Although the zeitgeist is one of generosity, the board of directors is looking up from the balance sheets and saying "You know that last dime? We need it." Are there marketers out there who are successful in appealing to both the rock and the hard place?

Some companies have seized the opportunity to be Christmas-friendly. In a recent survey of that category by John Stossel, the pole position is held by Bass Pro Shops, followed by Cabela's, Lands End, K-mart and Sears. Other businesses are more inclined to be snowy, frosty, wintry, festive, etc. in hopes of appealing to Obama's "no longer Christian" nation. Retailers will have all of January to figure out whether they offended the right people.

Here are some other pre-12/25 strategies you may be seeing out there lately - see if you think they're effective:

Good
- Megabus is giving away 100,000 free seats on their Facebook page on trips booked for 1/6-3/20.

- Apple has a free Christmas music download set (20 songs) on iTunes.

- ELF Cosmetics is offering free shipping on any purchase.

- Joseph A. Bank is offering $550 suits for $180.

- Cepia's hot new "Zhu Zhu Pets" are under $8.00 each (and the rumors of toxicity are false).

Bad
- Verizon doubled its early-termination fee for smartphones last month.

- Joseph A. Bank evidently clears at least $370 on its normally $550 suits.

- Today, stores sold out of Zhu Zhu Pets within minutes of getting a shipment, pushing the eBay price up to $35.00.

Ugly
- The girls in Gap's seasonal ad saucily tell their parents they won't wear that (old stuff) anymore, and if they don't like it, they can "talk to the moose." (The only sign of seasonal cheer at the brick-and-mortar store reads, "Do the moose. Shake your caboose.") The moose video has already generated some spoofs on YouTube.

- Mitsubishi is running ads with the jingle, "We wish you a Mitsubishi."

On that note, I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. God bless us, every one.

______________________

Some of you have asked about the Discovery Channel's "Everest: Beyond the Limit" with John Golden's amazing summit climb described in my 10QatAtime interview with him in October. The update is that the episode was delayed but is now scheduled for Sunday 12/27 - see the link here.

Marketing Obama's Noble Steps

2009-12-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

Since the Nobel Prize committee's surprise decision in October to recognize President Barack Obama for the 2009 peace prize, a great deal of discussion has ensued around the reasoning in the decision. The arguments revolve largely around the timeline and general requirements for accomplishments, rather than plans or intentions.

Interestingly, the peace prize is an anomaly among the thirteen Nobel Prizes. It doesn't carry the "tested by time" caveat for qualification, so there is plenty of room for interpretation by the committee on what ought to be considered. The formal award statement describes the decision as recognizing Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," primarily through work toward nuclear anti-proliferation and a new international political climate. Also cited is his role in "meeting the great climatic challenges" in the world, echoing the 2007 award to Al Gore and his climate-change (formerly "global warming") panel. The Peace Prize is again unique among the thirteen Nobels in its presentation, as the only prize given in Oslo rather than Stockholm at the specific, and somewhat enigmatic, request of the dynamite inventor himself.

Curiosity about the field of nominations in which President Obama competed will have no doubt waned by the time nomination records are unsealed in 2059, but the field of past recipients into which he has been inducted is certainly a distinguished cast. Among the honored peacemakers are the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa. Notable achievements from the Cold War days came from both Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Lech Walesa's Solidarity. For his part, Mr. Walesa has been bold to note that on the basis of actual contribution, his award was harder earned. Critics also point out the absence of any recent Republican presidents, whose peace dividends have evidently not made the cut.

The next of what civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson called President Obama’s “noble steps” in the process is to travel to Oslo today to formally receive the award. In addition to the medal, the $1.4 million cash prize has already been promised by Obama to an unnamed charity. Based on the widely-reported costs of up to that exact amount for the President’s recent trip to Copenhagen, the cost of the Oslo trip might be better offset by a “donation” back to the taxpayers who are funding the trip, rather than another perceived federal redistribution.

Seth Godin's Top Ten for Business Laggards

2009-12-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

Is your business running on all cylinders in terms of new media? If so, you can bypass this one.

Author and internet übermarketer Seth Godin has written up an intriguing list of ten recommendations for businesses (and organizations or clients) that are web laggards. (It's the sick who need a doctor, right?) Those who qualify have:

- No real website
- No social media
- No permission assets
- No real cash

All ten of them are good, but these are my favorites:

- Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
- Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
- Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
- Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.

Here's a link to the rest.

Thanks, Seth.

Ten Questions on Practical Technology Transformation with Antonio Hylton

2009-11-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

Any idea where the largest county* in the US is? You might expect it to be in the state of Texas, but that's not it. The number two county on the list also edges out Harris County, TX by just a bit, and that distinction is held by Cook County, Illinois.

The CIO of Cook County's massive infrastructure is the founder of Broadband Technology Associates, Antonio Hylton, and he is transforming the technology throughout a complex set of layers in the organization with his "Vision 2010" plan, including the city of Chicago and a total budget of more than three billion dollars.

In this interview with Antonio, which just came out in TechRepublic magazine (you really ought to be a subscriber), he talks with me about the dangers of technological procrastination and what it has taken to reach the point where he can get the ball rolling.

You can always download the PDF version of these articles from the TR site, as well as add your comments and perspectives to the list.

*the largest county is Los Angeles County, CA

Bravery and Honor - A Veterans Day Story

2009-11-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

This story was sent to me by my friend Rudy Rust, who was conscripted into the German army when he was fifteen years old, during WWII. It's about the way men think about bravery and honor, particularly in wartime. See if you think it is relevant to us today.

Bravery & Honor We Don't See Anymore

If you look carefully at the B-17 in this painting, you'll see how shot up it is. It was ready to fall out of the sky. You'll also see there's a German ME-109 fighter next to it. Here's the story behind this picture:

B-17 pilot Charlie Brown (yes, that's his real name) was flying his Flying Fortress with the 379th Bomber Group from Kimbolton, England. His plane, nicknamed "Ye Old Pub" was badly damaged by German FLAK and other artillery. The compass was damaged and they were actually headed in the wrong direction, deeper into enemy territory. As the plane flew over a German airfield, German pilot Franz Stigler was given orders to take off and shoot the British bomber down.

As Stigler neared the Flying Fortress, he couldn't believe what he saw. He "had never seen a plane in such a bad state." The tail and rear section were severely damaged, and the tail gunner was wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes throughout the entire plane.

Although he had plenty of ammunition, Franz flew over beside the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, who was clearly scared and struggling to control his damaged and bloodied plane. When he became aware that they had no idea where they were heading, Franz waved at Charlie Brown to turn 180 degrees around. He then escorted the stricken plane out to and slightly over the North Sea toward England. He saluted Charlie Brown and turned back toward Europe. When he landed he told his commander he had shot the plane down over the sea. He never told the truth to anyone. Charlie Brown and his remaining crew were debriefed and told their story, but were ordered never to talk about it.

More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who had saved his crew. After years of research, he found Franz Stigler, who had never spoken of the incident, even at his post-war reunions. The two pilots met in the US at a 379th Bomber group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive because Franz never fired his guns on that day.

When asked why he didn't shoot them down, Stigler said, "I didn't have the heart to finish those brave men. I flew beside them for a long time. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. I could not have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting a man in a parachute."

Both Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler died in 2008. Both will be remembered as brave and honorable men.

(l to r) German ace Franz Stigler, artist Ernie Boyett, and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown

Franz Stigler / Charlie Brown

Berlin - The Capitol of Freedom Twenty Years Later

2009-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Today marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the precursor to the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.

As a veteran of the occupied city of Berlin in the end of the 1980's, I would like to salute all of my colleagues and the many who went before us in preserving freedom within the Divided City and ultimately extending it to the East German Capitol and into all of Eastern Europe, liberating millions of people who had lived for decades behind the Iron Curtain.

After 20 years, the Cold War is to my children what WWII was to me growing up. It is history. But it remains a very real history to anyone who drove past the Soviet guards and winding concrete barriers at Checkpoint Charlie, through the "protective" wall that Walter Ulbricht declared "no one had any intention of building." It is a very real history to the many Eastern Europeans who were born during those years and knew nothing else.

By November 9, 1989, almost ten percent of the East German population had officially applied for exit visas. And on that date, they were all granted. After watching West German television (three channels were received by about 80% of the East Germans) for almost 40 years, the contrast of the black-and-white version of life gave way to a colorful reality beyond the ten-inch screen in the corner of the apartment.

Seven years earlier, the Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan, presciently declared that Marxism-Leninism was headed for the "ash heap of history," and two years before the wall fell, he made his now-famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate. As one of the thousands of people in the audience along Unter den Linden that day, I must say that although it was powerful, its effect was still unimagined by most.

The wall came down in a quiet revolution, without a shot being fired. But in truth, many shots had been fired prior to November 9, 1989. The American forces in Berlin numbered under 10,000 in the face of 350,000 Russians and 150,000 East Germans. There were 382 American soldiers killed during the Cold War, one of whom, Major Arthur Nicholson, was shot in Ludwigslust by a Soviet sniper the year before our group arrived in Berlin. That same year, the LaBelle disco in downtown Berlin was blown up by Libyan terrorists. While 5,000 people successfully escaped into West Berlin in the 28 years the wall divided the city, almost 1,000 were killed in the attempt along the entire Iron Curtain.

In 1990, the year after the Wall fell, Senator Bob Dole made a speech at Capitol Hill that dovetails with Ronald Reagan's of three years before: "You have won the Cold War. Your underappreciated valor helped topple the Berlin Wall, and bring down dictators the world over... For the past four decades the world behind the Iron Curtain... looked to Americans for hope, and America looked to you to get the job done. Today, the free world says thank you."

And now, twenty years after the fall, Checkpoint Charlie remains a museum. May it stay that way.

(Here's a link to a great slideshow from Google.)

- I've added this excellent five-minute tribute video sent from one of my Field Station colleagues.

The Art of the (Amazon/Zappos) Deal

2009-11-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a memo out today from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh about his commitment to keeping his business-as-usual approach, and at the same time using Amazon to take Zappos to the next level.

The deal between the two online retailers was finalized over the Halloween weekend. If you missed it earlier last month, here's a link to my ten-question interview with Tony in TechRepublic.

Ten Questions with a Driven Climber: CIO John Golden

2009-10-20T15:36:00.001-07:00

My newest IT leadership interview with CIO John Golden is out today in TechRepublic. Along with driving the technology decisions behind insurance giant CNA, John also went through 23 surgeries to allow him to walk. Then, instead of just walking, he decided his rehabilitation also ought to include an expedition to the top of Mount Everest, and a couple of the other significant peaks in the world along the way.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Thanks to John for sharing his inspirational story and for creating the LiveActive Foundation. Watch for the full version to come out on the Discovery Channel next month.

VW is having fun with video marketing

2009-10-15T11:14:00.001-07:00

In "The Illustrated Man," Ray Bradbury describes videos and beer becoming the new ersatz for books and wine.

A year after its debut, YouTube was acquired by Google. Three years later, traffic is at over a billion videos - per day, that is. At the top of the list is: Charlie the finger-biter (here's an article with a complete list of the top ten).

What does this mean for business? The world's biggest company (VW) has undoubtedly made some significant investments in marketing distribution, but what about a shift toward content? What if, instead of investing a much smaller amount in creating a one-page ad (paying the graphic designer, photographer, and copywriter) and then paying Car and Driver to print it, the distribution were free? The savings could go toward a more elaborate message like "we are all about using 'fun' to influence people's behavior," and then depend on the viral spread to get over three million views in its first week at no cost.

Good idea.

The Newspaper Museum

2009-10-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, I was one of those entrepreneurial urchins with a burlap sack over my shoulder taking a daily walk through the neighborhood to unload sheets of inked paper on people's doorsteps. I still see a paper on the sidewalk every once in awhile but those days are likely numbered. As Conde-Nast sheds 68-year old Gourmet Magazine this week, Jim Tyree's solo bid appears to be the last hope for the Sun-Times.

Is that kind of shift in the crystal ball for phone carriers as well, to what David Pogue calls "the right thing?" AT&T has announced it will allow VOIP as a service on its iPhones, which will certainly spread to Palm and other smartphones faster than a gps app. Even more than GoogleVoice, this development promises at the very least to change the way we think about minutes and calling plans.

Ten Questions with Tony Hsieh of Zappos

2009-10-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

OK, let's dig in our heels and get Q4 off to a great start. Tony Hsieh of Zappos has some valuable insights to offer us that point to his success with Zappos as a result of a simple focus on great customer service, and not being distracted by comparisons.

Whether or not you're selling millions of pairs of shoes and partnering up with Amazon, delivering customer happiness is a goal all of us in business ought to be shooting for. Frankly, this economy demands it. Link here to read the full interview in today's TechRepublic.

Do you trust the mob?

2009-09-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

One of my son's (jr. high) teachers told him he wouldn't be able to use Wikipedia as a reference source for his term paper.

The footnote was substantiated with citations, but an open-source reference couldn't be considered entirely legitimate for pedagogical purposes. OK, I can understand where this thinking is coming from, but the truth is I'm tending to trust mob-sourcing over traditional sources on some topics.

It does seem cheatingly easy to have such ready access to information and answers on any imaginable topic. When I was a kid I had to bike to the library (ten miles each way in the dead of winter!), head for the card catalog and start writing down the shelf numbers. Now the question is whether to look it up on your laptop or your phone.

What about the general legitimacy of "crowdsourced" information? Depending on what kind of information you need, there's a litany of different venues popping up where you can get a decent answer very fast, even if you still can't use it in your doctoral thesis.

Especially on questions where you are specifically looking for consensus or a majority vote on the "best answer," the web comes through in a pinch. How to decide when you need new tires? What dogs are good with kids? How do I simplify this equation on my homework? Sources like Yahoo! Answers, Aardvark, or even throwing it out to your twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook network may get you a better answer than your first pair of searches on Google or Bing. Write and tell me if you agree.

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Top 10 Twitter Rules

2009-09-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

Speaking of twitter, if you're a twitterphile/twitterholic with half a million followers, you already know what works for you. If you're still skeptical that there's any real value in conversations made up of 140-character sound bites, here are ten rules that will help you to keep it real in both your "following" and "followers" columns.

10 Rules for the Twitter Neophyte

(don't follow the white rabbit.)

* does twitter stand to gain from a "Facebook Exodus?"

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Healthcare and Twitter

2009-08-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

If you've been watching the news, you've seen a kind of grass-roots approach to politics in the recent proliferation of "town hall meetings" on healthcare. Rather than just a platform for lawmakers to describe their positions, these are advertised as forums for discussion. Healthcare is a perfect topic as it resonates with so many people on different levels, especially the notion of adopting a federal "one-payer" system, but the number of people taking the time to attend an open meeting in August is still remarkable.

With the new hyperindividualism of the web, especially the rise of social networking sites, we think differently about who's listening. Just a few short years ago, there was much more "rational indifference" to this part of the political process. Showing up at the polls or watching a primary debate were still a duty and privilege, but with no expectation that your voice would stand out from the buzz. Enter Twitter, where you can have anywhere from hundreds to hundreds of thousands (in short order if you're @Oprah) listening in at a given moment to whatever you can fit into 140 characters or less.

It isn't even that surprising that if we stand up at one of these meetings it may show up on youtube or even national news the next day. (Jewel thieves in London this week burst out onto the street and were immediately being recorded on cell phones of passers-by.) Better get used to it. Everyone gets their ten minutes of fame - anytime.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayinslee/ / CC BY 2.0

That footprint in the moon-dust

2009-07-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-07-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

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

Changing the rules

2009-06-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-06-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-06-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-05-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T10:03:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-03-03T07:41:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-02-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-03T17:44:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-29T11:08:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-01-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-12T09:19:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-31T12:31:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-27T11:11:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-28T06:23:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-09-18T08:04:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-15T07:47:00.001-07:00

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)?

2008-09-12T15:09:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-09-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-23T10:51:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-22T13:58:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T19:07:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-07-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

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?