Category Archives: Strategy

Welcome!

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Carpe diem lashed out at me and I decided to start a blog on stuff I’m interested in. My initial focus is on business, productivity and strategy but I’ll also write about random topics like raising kids, working at salesforce.com, or sharing cool exercise and diet articles. I must admit I “leveraged” the first 5 posts from my days at Groupswim. I actively blogged before we were acquired by salesforce and I miss.  Please comment here or on any of the posts and I’ll respond; feel free to suggest topics as well.  I have no doubt it will be crickets in the beginning but hopefully it will get fun before long. Thanks and enjoy.

3 Ways to Make Your Company Extinct

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The current economic climate is challenging companies like no other. The advent of new technology and financial upheaval is only accelerating change. The internet and changing workforce demographics present both opportunity and challenge, but few companies are really addressing them. Industries like automobiles, newspapers, financial institutions and entertainment are prime examples. No company is immune will eventually need to take steps to address this shifting landscape or will go extinct. Here are a few mistakes that are easy to identify and cheap to avoid.

1. Rely on Email (Inboxychus)

The vast majority of companies continue to utilize traditional tools to communicate and collaborate. Do you know of many companies that don’t rely on email and sending documents back and forth? It is no secret that relying on email is both archaic and wholly inefficient. It is foolish to think that maintaining this reliance is anything but a drag on a company’s efficiency. The amount of information that workers in a dynamic environment need to function continues to grow, but the tools they have to access and manage it stay the same.

How to avoid extinction? Companies MUST invest in technology to help their employees better collaborate and communicate with one another if they really expect to get more from less. There are plenty of technologies to try including Chatter, instant messaging, internal communities, etc. You best start establishing priorities and get busy, or your employees will continue to trod around in the mud.

2. Bore Your Customers (Stagnasaurus)

Many companies communicate with customers and partners through emails and static websites. Consumers and business customers are accustomed to having information on-demand using Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and a host of other sources that have changed the way people find what they need. Companies not upping their game furnishing better information for their customers will soon be left behind.

How to avoid extinction? Invest in building a customer community or other web presence that is dynamic, searchable and easy-to-use. Some companies are even changing the way they market themselves. They offer products, services and community as the core of their offering, not just a “product”. When you buy a product or service from a company, you are forming a relationship with the company. The better experience the company provides aside from the core offering, the more likely they are to keep that customer and sell them more stuff.

3. Install Software (Technologicus Wrex)

It never ceases to amaze me how many companies are still out there insisting on purchasing software that “must” be behind the firewall. Like anything else, there are exceptions and I’m sure readers will pile on that this is crazy, but is it? The only two legitimate reasons to install software in a data center are security and performance. Well, I’ve got news for you. Both issues can be addressed without getting into the business of maintaining software.

How to avoid extinction? Invest in solutions that don’t require hardware, software, training, customization, etc.. Most business applications are now available through the Cloud and they are awesome. They are out there if you look hard enough, and meet 80% of your business needs. I’m willing to bet most of them are more secure than your data center.

Evolve and Thrive

These three areas are critically important for companies to improve in this environment. All are often ignored and difficult to pin down with a measurable business case, hence why they don’t get funding. In economic times like these, companies put off investments of this nature because the benefits are difficult to measure with precision; this is true. You could make the same case for management training. Companies invest millions of dollars training managers, but how can you measure if someone is a better manager? Finanical results, employee retention, and other kinds of metrics are used, but can they be linked back to particular training class or skill; I don’t think so. Most companies make a leap of faith that investing in their people and training will yield benefits in other areas. I submit the same logic holds to investing in the three areas listed above.

Where do you think companies should be investing to stave off extinction?

IT Must Learn to Bend or Business Will Break

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This is a blog post from ReadWriteWeb, where I used to write.

This current economic client is having a devastating effect on almost every business around. In order to adapt to changing conditions and opportunities, businesses will need to use flexible, adaptable systems to survive. The days of expensive, year long implementations of behind-the-firewall software will be few and far between.

I recently attended a Forrester Briefing and listened to comments from Peter Burris, who is very smart. They’ve done a host of studies showing that technology will be a growing part of how businesses compete and differentiate themselves in the future.

While systems and software used to be very “behind the scenes” and often transaction based, it is the case no longer. Consumers and businesses alike buy differently, consume differently, and recommend differently. Trends like social networking, video on demand, ecommerce will continue to force businesses to adapt to keep up with their customers. They cannot rely on systems that take years to implement and most don’t have the budgets to make large investments, at least for the next couple of years.

The growing focus on SaaS, cloud computing, application platforms, etc. are all responses to this growing trend in the market. There will be other solutions in the future for mobile, etc. that we haven’t even imagined. They all support the need for businesses to utilize systems that they can deploy, change and retire quickly. In my real job, I remember meeting with a venture capitalist who talked about how their firm looks for opportunities where they see lots of “wiggling”. He couldn’t describe what that really meant, or how one gets paid for wiggling; I thought he was a lunatic.

In retrospect, he does make one good point. Things happen quickly on the internet and in this changing global economy. When a business sees wiggling (or opportunities) either positive or negative, they need agile systems to respond. One size fits all software and packaging is going the way of the VCR. I think this will continue to grow in importance and focus as enterprises evaluate new systems and invest in new technology. What do you think?