Learning After Doing

It Just Takes Once

Mark Cuban says "Success and Motivation - You only ahve to be right once!" For those of us motivated to exceed beyond most people's wildest dreams, I imagine there will be a lot of failures in our path. Cuban makes the point that failures really don't matter-all that matters is one success.

Where's Mom?

We were waiting for 'Mom; to come home from her girls' weekend in Chicago. We started googling and came up with this picture:

Check out FlyteComm to track a flight of your interest. And by the way, it looks like she's almost back to Atlanta!

Progress IS Moving

Often I am discouraged by a slowing or stopping in our progress towards "Winning" and "Greatness" because it can seem like nothing is happening in the company. However, I was reminded tonight that change, although at times slow, does occur. Let Osama Barrack's words, quoted by Barkley, challenge us when we are blinded to the fact the progress is happening:

"One of my favorite sayings is from Dr. Martin Luther King: 'The arc of the whole universe is long but it bends toward justice.' It takes a long time for us to sometimes step back and see the progress that's being made. But when we are able to step back, we can see that progress really is being made."

Wisdom: In Writing

Wisdom from the consultant for the family-business type culture afraid of getting the agreement in writing to back-up the handshake:

Civic Duty

Controversial yet interesting point regarding civic duty in Iraq and Afghanistan of their own people. We have an incredible system of government in which we should be active as our civic duty. For most, simply vote. For others, strike out and run for public office. Either way, we must act.

Who or What?

In a recent meeting with a customer, their Director of Business Development asked me a challenging question:

Is your company defined as low cost, service-oriented or innovative?

Quickly I answered that we are currently service-oriented with a move toward innovation. As Business Development Manager for our company, I know I was truthful about our current position. But for our future, I answered based on where I would like to be and where my team is attempting to lead us.

In the book Good to Great, we learned that we need to first define "who" and then "what". But defining the "what" has to happen quickly. I don't mean deciding on a strategy that will be set in stone forever. It is an itirative process that will change and take shape over time, constantly being revised and tweaked as we grow and progress.

But the "what" must be defined or the "who" that are on board will attempt to define the "what" in a vacuum. Certainly I can define our strategy as being an innovator, but We the Company must have that same strategy. There cannot be too much discussion on the Strategy because We must all own it and progress towards it together. Otherwise, my team will continue to strive for innovation while the balance of the team focuses on lean operations or service while sacrificing true innovation.

Naked Emperors

In journalism, they keep score by toppled empires and naked emperors. The profession's calling, as it were, is to question authority in its every form.

An interesting quote from Jack Welch in Winning during his monologue on Crisis Management. In many conversations recently, I have discussed the White House's seemingly poor Public Relations in regards to Iraq, the war on terror, installing the judicial benches and Condi Rice. Poor or impossible? How about very difficult and only handled best by those with outstanding charm such as Ronald Reagan? In my critique, I must remember Welch's bit of truth; the press wins when the empire is toppled. The White House, or any company for that matter, will continually battle the press for the public's perception.

Innovate or Die

Thanks to Tom Peters kindly providing his slides from a presentation to KFC on 22 Feb 2005. Here is an excellent quote in line with a previous post of mine on innovation.

“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency has helped many organizations weather the downturn, but this approach will ultimately render them obsolete. Only the constant pursuit of innovation can ensure long-term success.” —Daniel Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business, Univ of British Columbia (FT/09.17.04)

Extending the Bars

My former boss, Lee Bates, left the company in February to go after greener pastures. In his quest, he landed at Wireless Extenders where they have brought him on as the king salesman to get this infant off the ground and running.

I have not yet tried this tool, but hope to get my hands on a unit during our renovation of the house. It would be great to have better coverage inside my house. Currently, I get about 60% strength outside and probably 25% or less strength inside. Calls are garbled or dropped and it is very annoying to have to walk outside in the winter to talk on my business phone.

Now, for the business model: how will they ever get this thing mass marketed? Their website says "Order Now for Only $299.99". $300? Are they crazy? Most offices of decent size would need multiple extenders because the coverage area inside is approximately 2500 square feet. Why? Because "According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2003, the average size of the American home built was 2,137 square feet." Therefore, the real target audience is the home user. Not many home users are going to fork out $300 for this thing without ever seeing it or trying it for themselves. And companies covering this high expense for their employees, one at a time, would be a very pricey proposition.

My recommendation is to get the Wireless Extender in the hands of every IT and trade publication possible, then start targetting the personal high-tech sections of major newspapers and local news programs. They need to produce 500 or so and get them out as trial editions across the country fast. My first suggestion to Lee was to go to Russell Beattie and get his feedback.  Then, they need to drop the price to approximately $100 to make it affordable for someone like me to take a risk on the unknown.

The target audience could be a nice one as more and more people are considering losing landlines in favor of mobile phones. But without high recommendations and a more affordable price point, I think they have some challenges making this a mass market item.

Smoke some Crack

I've got to admit, I love this piece of equipment. I had the honker of a Crackberry 7280 before, and was ready to toss it in the trash, but 2 major things happened. First, my 2 1/2 year old hid the 7280 so I had to pick up a new one and the sales rep showed me a 7100. Nice move! Second, the company installed the Blackberry Enterprise Server. If I delete an e-mail on my Crackberry, it is gone from my Inbox. If I file it away on the Crackberry, it is filed away on my Inbox. Now, I don't have to worry about returning from the road to face 100's of e-mails. They are dealt with on the fly and I can dive right into things upon my return.

The only concern for me is that nobody makes a BlueTooth headset with noise cancellation. My 2002 Accord is too loud at 75+ to talk with any of the current BlueTooth headsets.