How many computer devices do you have?

We just returned from our holiday visit up North and I observed something very interesting... My mom and stepdad are both close to 70; between the two of them, they have 5 computers and my stepdad also has an iPhone. He's really into his GPS in his car and he also has his car wired for wifi access which came in very handy on our 8 hour drive to visit my brother. My brother and his wife have at least 4 Macs and they both have iPhones. At one point, I looked around the kitchen and there were 7 computers and 5 iPhones.

Is this normal? I'm just curious if other extended families have that many devices? I'm not including our DS, PSP, Wii, 360, etc...

In preparation for the tablet invasion that is allegedly coming next year, I can't help but wonder when our handhelds, laptops, desktops, & tablets will all merge into something that can be resized when necessary. Perhaps we just carry a chip around that can be small when we need to make a phone call, but can enlarge to laptop, desktop or even movie screen size when necessary.

Workflow Management at the Speed of Light

Having worked on the client side most of my career, I've always been aware of the swiftness with which folks expect to get things done. It's a constant tug of war -- the people at the top (who don't have to actually DO the work) always want the work to get done faster. Whereas the people who are doing the work always wish they had more time to produce the work.

Now that I oversee process on the agency side, I'm realizing that a client's lightning fast demands force agencies to move even faster than the client; particularly because the approval process on the client side eats up valuable time for all - so the agency must over accomodate or risk under delivering. And this forces the ultimate challenge for the agency -- deliver to your client's rapid-fire expectations and maintain or improve the quality of the work you are delivering. It always amazes me that more people don't understand the complexity related to cramming 43 steps into a 3 day period. "That doesn't sound impossible"; sure it doesn't (keep telling yourself that), if that's the only thing you and everyone involved in those 43 steps has to do in the 3 day span. Multiply that 1 request times 20, 30, or 40 other assignments, and it is entirely possible that there are 1720 tasks or activities happening at the same time for one client.

In my previous role overseeing Marketing Operations on the client side, I spent years implementing a robust 3rd party application to help the Marketing department manage all the work. The system was considered the best in the marketplace and yet, from my current vantage point I have been able to recognize many of the shortcomings in the system. I've evaluated many applications at this point (dare I say all of them), and I don't think any one of them is the "end all be all" that they claim to be. I actually believe that the best move may be to develop your own customized solution that meets your business needs and follow one rule, KEEP IT SIMPLE.

The biggest opportunity I see, and I've been watching Google Wave for this very reason - is real time workflow management. Bear with me for a second as I describe what I've envisioned as a potential to the future of project & workflow management. Picture the air traffic control room at O'Hare in Chicago. There are multiple activities happening all over that airport: people coming and going; people waiting for friends & relatives; flight attendants & pilots moving from one plane to the next; airport employees managing luggage, and seat assignments, and disgruntled passengers. Now imagine if the flight status board was a computer that you had to physically log on to, remember your flight information, search for it, and dive deep into the system to actually determine when your flight arrives or departs. Most of the 3rd party workflow apps do exactly that. They want people, who are already strapped for time, to stop what they are doing and dive into the belly of the beast to retrieve the information they are looking for.

These systems are touted as time savers. They actually suggest you'll be able to reduce your headcount after you install it. I call b.s. on that. People don't have enough time to dig; so most of these apps are only moderately useful and in many cases, they're a hinderance to productivity.

My vision revolves around the Twitter/Tweetdeck/Facebook concept, using Google's search result methodology to help the most important information appear at the top (cue eye roll). As a project moves into the rapid-fire process of final execution, a lot more activity is happening within that project. Tasks are occuring faster and faster - so if that's the case, wouldn't it be logical that this particular project is one that should be easier for someone to access because more people are touching it? Wouldn't it make sense that this project should be automatically bubble up to the top of the leader board?

I recommend using the Facebook template idea, where every project has the same shell format; and then you use a Twitter-like activity stream that manages the communication regarding each individual assignment that is aggregated in a Tweetdeck matrix so that all the activities are easy to access based on level of activity on the leader board. The information is actually available in a variety of matrix views - all clients, one client, teams (creative or copy), individuals within the team; everyone will have their most pertinent information available to them depending on what view they access.

The Power of Good Twitter Customer Service

We recently moved down to New Orleans from Arkansas and as a result had to open a new bank account because Bank of America has no bank branches in Louisiana. Since opening our new account at Chase, my husband and I have had a heck of a time closing our BofA account. We've made an effort to close all our automatic account charges to BofA, but frustratingly enough, a few of them would continue to show up and then our account would end up negative, we'd get an overdrawn charge, and have to move money from Chase to BofA to correct the issue.

We contacted BofA a while back when this was happening, and were told that we needed to get our account to a positive balance and then we could close the account. After doing that, we called BofA again to close the account and we were then instructed that the balance needed to be ZERO not positive, not negative, but zero. Our fear in doing that, was that the longer this goes on, the more likely another extraneous charge would show up and we'd end up with a negative balance again. Additionally, we had just been told 2 weeks prior, that we needed a positive balance, not a zero balance.

Here's where Twitter comes in. I posted my frustration on Monday of this week. Within 2 hours, I had received a tweet from @BofA_Help. We traded some tweets back and forth, I DM'ed them my phone number, and the next morning I received a call from the woman who had been tweeting with me, Kasey. Based on @BofA_Help's Twitter account, Bank of America appears to have 6 customer service reps in place to manage issues they find on Twitter. When I spoke with Kasey yesterday morning, the discussion took about 10 minutes; she had my account up prior to calling me so she knew who I was and likely saw the activity on my account. She assured me that she would close my account, refund our last overdraft fee, and FedEx me a check for the remaining balance, which I should receive today. She ended the conversation by saying they were sorry to see me go, but understood our reasoning considering there are no physical BofA's here and she said that she hopes we will consider their bank again in the event they do open branches in Louisiana, to which I said absolutely. In all honesty, we've never really had an issue with BofA since opening our account in California 8 years ago (BofA's online banking site is alot more user-friendly).

As for this experience, since this has happened, I've told everyone that I work with about it. All in all, I give BofA's customer service major kudos for empowering their customer service reps on Twitter the authority to act appropriately and swiftly to control the damage and rectify the situation. I'm willing to retract my original BofA post, and that's why I'm sharing this - much more positive experience.

Everything I need to know in business I learned from Howard Stern

I've been listening to Howard since I was 12 and I would drive to my dad's work with him. Every once in a while he'd listen to Howard after getting bored with NPR or some other AM station. My dad owned his own printing plant, so he definitely was a fairly savvy businessman and someone who I still to this day view as being on a pedestal that no other can touch. I would imagine even the mere mention of a female admiring Howard will turn a few folks off - some may even decide to stop 'following' me; and I'm OK with that. I suppose this is my coming out party.

I'm 40 now, so that means that Howard has been some sort of influence on me over the past 28 years. Wow. I've never really waivered from my loyalty ~ when he went through his divorce I think I had a little bit of trouble with him because I felt that he confirmed for me what I thought he wasn't. But he's brought himself back to superhero status in my eyes and here's why...

1. Howard is exceptionally loyal. He has had the same core folks with him for years upon years; Fred, Robin & Gary (some know him as bababooey) have been his trusted inner circle for well beyond my years. Even the folks who have only been with him for 20 or less years he stands behind, perhaps even to a fault - but I don't think so. It really is hard to find true leaders that are loyal to their subjects.

2. Howard is strategic & methodical. He could have easily jumped the shark (a John Hine reference) much earlier in his career opting for the quick payout. But he has taken his time - set his sites on the ultimate goal and been very calculating in his approach. I think of the Rolling Stones, who I love by the way, but who have so sold their soul to the merchandising devil they will never get it back. I will always love the Stones' music, but they're a different band to me now than they were before. Howard never sold his soul - if anything he demonstrates the opposite...

3. Howard has integrity. I'm sure this one will provoke the most angst for some. How could I possibly say that Howard has integrity. The joke is actually on those who don't know this. Howard stands for what he believes is right - no matter what. So, when he has a member of the KKK on; he does it because he believes unequivocally in freedom of speech and far be it from him to NOT allow a KKK member to speak because Howard disagrees with their viewpoint (and I know that he does indeed disagree). I believe that it's hard to be certain your position is the correct one if you don't actually hear the other sides point of view. I would imagine there are very few opposing points of view, if any, that Howard wouldn't at least listen to.

4. Howard is shrewd. He is a shrewd businessman. Who else would role the dice on their own career and leave a pretty lucrative gig for some unknown "satellite radio" idea? Howard bet his brand on that idea and I think it paid off. Sirius may not be the cash cow that Howard envisioned (what is nowadays); but it has offered him the freedom to be exactly who he truly is. I'm sure the persona he represents on the air is very different from his normal life. He's married; he has 3 daughters; and he's self conscious to the point of being recluse - all very different from who he is on the air.

Howard has always inspired me to aim for the stars but even more so, to identify what it is I stand for and never waiver. That approach has always served me well and for that I'm very thankful. Knowing him, he'll see this at some point and I sincerely hope he knows that I mean everything I say. Thank you, Howard. No matter what people say, there are so many of us who have been influenced by you in a truly profound way.

Conversation Friday - aka Empowering Friday

Yesterday, Michael Calienes came by the agency to speak with around 10 of us from within the agency and a few influential folks from the social media scene to discuss topics. Michael conducts what he calls Conversation Friday more frequently in Tallahassee, where he lives, but he was in town for the weekend and suggested that we gather for a chat.

What I found so interesting, was how powerful I felt, as a consumer and citizen in controlling my destiny in the future. Our discussion began around product placement - and how we felt about the Cisco product placement on 30Rock. We all discussed how product placement is acceptable provided it is natural. I mentioned the Project Runway where they went the LA Times and made clothing out of paper - I felt that episode went too far and Project Runway actually lost credibility with me. And what a sad sight to see that folks are no longer reading the newspaper but are now being forced to wear it... The points that were made were around how you can actually blog & tweet this point of view and get enough traction to actually make a difference.

This case in point was reinforced with our discussion around brands, products, and ideas that do or do not get it. If you're not paying close attention to what folks are saying on Twitter and beyond, then you don't get it. One person's frustration around a product can quickly spread to the masses particularly if their frustration isn't an isolated incident.

When the discussion turned to politics in New Orleans - a very hot issue in this town - we talked about the mayoral candidate pool. Is it possible for someone to actually win an election through social media (yes, we do recognize how influential the web was for Obama - and vice versa)? My point of view is that it's 100% possible if you have a fucking strategy. Just announcing you're the social media candidate and then flailing about on the internet is not going to win you an election via Twitter - if anything, it can do damage if you proclaim you're something that you clearly demonstrate you are not. We had some incredibly influential folks in the social media space at this discussion - Champ Superstar, Liz Money, Austin Lavin. They have alot of influence on the NOLA Twittersphere and with greater influence comes great responsibility. Could they choose a candidate they support and drive that candidate toward a successful election - I believe absolutely. Even down to the $$ drive, which we pointed out can now come from well beyond New Orleans.

It all supports the power that we all have for good or for not so good. The challenge, and this is where strategy comes in, is to put a plan together and to know what you will and won't do with your brand, your product, your election. I think it's really exciting that individuals have finally been given some power back - in the wake of our financial crisis compounded with the misdirection of our federal government, citizens will now be paying much closer attention to who is or isn't acting appropriately. And 'they' don't - they'll certainly be called on the carpet.

My thanks go to Michael for starting the conversation, Addie King for organizing the conversation, and everyone that attended for participating - I loved the dialog and feel pretty empowered. Here's hoping we do it again AND perhaps extend it to 2 hours.

John Winsor is badass

First and foremost, if you don't know who John Winsor is, here he is. If you've ever read my posts previously, I've got a deep interest/fascination with the crowdsourcing concept and John is one of my favorite forward thinkers in the space. He also works (err, worked) at CP+B, which is an agency I admire simply because they take risks and they push their clients to take risks.

I was at a local conference here in New Orleans this morning listening to a speaker and checking my iPhone's Twittelator app when I saw the following tweet posted by @AgencySpy.

"Crispin alums start their own shop, also in Boulder. It's crowd-sourcing
centric http://bit.ly/18qh7y"

My first thought was, well this can't be John Winsor because he just wrote a book with Alex Bogusky called Baked In, Creating Products and Businesses that Market Themselves. But low & behold it is John Winsor and I'm so psyched to see him pushing the envelope and taking a risk to see if a business grounded in the crowdsourcing idea can be successful long term. In one of my previous posts, I pondered whether there could be a day when a large majority of people are no longer employed by one employer, and instead are open for business to whomever is in need of our services, experiences, and expertise. John's new company, Victors & Spoils, appears to be provoking that concept even more.

So check this out, John's new agency is crowdsourcing their logo design on crowdSPRING - seriously badass - they're putting their money where their mouth is. If Victors & Spoils does this right, and I think they will, they'll be able to really drive down their operational costs AND their overhead, by crowdsourcing assignments. And then, just when you think they're starting to crack one of the nuts attributed to the high cost of advertising (media placements is one I'd love to see them tackle!), they leverage that same crowdsourcing model to determine whether the concept or design is any good. So, rather than having a bunch of muckity muck brainiacs who think they know what customers will want/like, they will use their crowdsourcing business model to drive closer to the right concept leveraging the collective voice of the customer. It's incredibly powerful stuff, especially when you're trying to convince that really intelligent client of yours that the direction they want is wrong.

This is why I follow John Winsor. He truly believes in the power of "we" to make a better decision than the power of "me". I'm really looking forward to watching how this unfolds.

Is web 2.0 the new black?

Funny, I was reading this article today because I'm a huge Raconteurs fan. When I came upon this quote -

"The placements in TV shows these days are about as big a thing as you can do anymore," says Chisel. "It almost is the new radio. It's the new way people are finding out about a lot of music. And there are a lot of really great shows like 'House' or 'Mad Men' or 'True Blood.' We were assured by the people that it was going to be a poignant moment. I was happy and felt like it advanced the plot. A lot of people heard the song and we see people almost every night that that's how they heard [of] us."

Which got me thinking... Is the internet replacing TV as the dominant communication vehicle? And if so, is every other channel below essentially dropping a level in stature? So, TV is now dropping to radio level importance; and radio dropping to print level importance and print dropping to... 8 track level importance (moderately kidding).

Just a thought I had.

When will executive salary's recalibrate?

With all the news about the jobless rate hitting 10% following closely behind the Forbes richest list, I can't help but wonder when these absolutely ridiculous executive salary's will level off and become more reasonable. Maybe I'm completely naive, but in my opinion, if these execs would reduce their salaries to something that is more in line with what they actually need to survive year to year, their salary sacrifice would enable those same businesses to hire back some of our unemployed. The have and have not divide is getting wider and wider right now. The entire economy is deflating -- how is it that executive salaries are spared?

Am I mistaken? Am I missing something obvious?

How fast is too fast?

In my new position working on the agency-side, one of my big assignments is to make things run more efficiently and my other big assignment is to identify a systematic way to enable this efficiency and to help us go faster.

Based on my 8 week observation, we move really fast. I actually have a completely radical idea for creating a system that helps us move extremely swiftly, but it could potentially have us moving so fast that the only thing slowing us down will be humans and I don't know how much faster I can make a human go (short of pumping them full of caffeine). So, I'm wondering what the ramifications would be to making the process and the system go that fast. As much as we all want to be able to multitask, the fact of the matter is it's really hard to do 10 of the same things at the exact same time. For example, if I have 10 things to be proofed by 1 person, that 1 person cannot physically read all 10 at the same time. The only solution is to add another body. Unless of course, I identify things that a computer could be doing before it goes to the proofer so the proofer isn't proofing quite as much - spelling could be proofed by the computer; tone of voice cannot.

If the system moved that fast, would the humans rebel? Will they start to shut down because there's too much pressure to keep up with the system?

Crowdsourcing continues to get more sophisticated

I'll write more on this later, had to throw it on here...

Checkout this article in the New York Times from September 2, 2009"Groupthink, Inc". It refers to Quirky.com; a phenomenal little business idea that allows anyone to submit their product idea for $99 with the chance of being picked by the crowd for further development.

What a cool idea!

Who doesn't love to be validated?

I can't quit you, Google

I'm in a weird love/hate (stronger on the love side) relationship with Google right now. I have been thinking alot about how far we are progressing with computers and technology and how close we are to a Terminator like scenario where technology actually can outwit us -- I believe the NYT wrote an article about this just recently but I haven't been able to find it. With everything that Google knows about me right now, it has got me thinking 'what if Google wants to control the world' and what if their plan turned evil. With all the information I've provided to them about myself, they very likely know everything there is to know about me digitally. My social, my credit cards and bank statements, my employers past and present, my upbringing, what I'm interested in, where I shop, who I'm friends with, what my schedule tends to look like, etc. At this point, I've given Google all this information through a variety of forms - iGoogle, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Maps, as well as Google Checkout. And lets not forget Google Wave and Google Voice, both of which are just rolling out but show alot of traction and promise.

I love how easy Google and all of it's products is to use. And I haven't stopped using Google as a result of my fear. I keep telling myself they'd never use my information against me - that's ridiculous. I'm no conspiracy theorist. On the flip side, if they're not going to use my information against me, what's the harm in giving them all this information if they can help me organize and manage my world? With all this information and knowledge at my finger tips, I still haven't found a way to aggregate, organize and manage all my info in a way that really makes sense and makes it easy for me to find what I'm looking for -- if I give Google all my information, they seem the most likely to help organize it in a way that will work for me.

Yet I can't help but wonder why they keep creating all these great applications and then giving them away to consumers? Is it just to hook us so we turn to them for all our application needs or is it something more sinister? As I said, I'm still using Google -- this hasn't scared me away completely, but once they have my information it will be very difficult for me to get it back from them so the longer I use them the more embedded we are together.

Crowdsourcing Backlash?

I love the idea of crowdsourcing. It's so exciting to see all the great sites popping up enabling crowdsourcing. Heck, Best Buy is actually crowdsourcing the job description for the Emerging Media specialist because they took some heat from folks based on their initial job description. At first I thought it was a bit overkill, but when I read through the idea and the crowdsourced submissions, it made alot of sense. So, of course in my mind, crowdsourcing is a great idea but I've been wondering what the potential backlash could be. Particularly if crowdsourcing really becomes the next wave of the future. Here are a couple potential negative outcomes I forsee...

1. People stop being able to make their own decision about things, even small things. At this point we are all so connected with our digital devices and I wonder if young kids who can easily ask their friends for their opinion via these devices will not learn how to make decisions on their own. I may be taking this to the extreme, but I'm talking in years to come. Not tomorrow.

2. People get frustrated with crowdsourcing overkill because businesses rely so heavily on the crowd to make decisions that people start to wonder 'why am I paying you for this' or 'why isn't the price going down if I'm the one participating in giving you all this direction'.

I still love the idea of crowdsourcing. I was wondering this morning if you could crowdsource a movie script or a TV pilot. TV in particular is so marginal these days (sidebar: Big Brother is in it's 11th season? WTF?!) they might actually develop something entertaining if they leverage their viewers to help shape the concept and the scripts. I just hope that businesses approach crowdsourcing judiciously -- I could see us reach the tipping point rather quickly if everyone jumps onto the crowdsourcing bandwagon and begins to use it for every dingdongdecision that they need. Knowing big business brands, this is what I anticipate - "how many 'plys' should we have on our toilet paper"; "what food should we serve next at our fast food chain"; "how late should we stay open", etc. There are wonderful benefits to crowdsourcing; particularly as it relates to creating a dialog with the group you are trying to serve, I just hope we don't overdo it and here in America, we are the land of overindulgent overdoing.

Give me something I can actually use!

Lately, when I am watching TV, I've found myself more and more distracted during the advertising. I either fast forward because I've DVR'ed it, or I surf online while the ads are on. I get frustrated with the ads entirely and I've noticed that ads that give something more to me, advertisers who give something more to me, get much more of my attention and subconscious appreciation. Seth Godin wrote about this in his blog as well. Providing people with real tangible value, and doing it prior to them becoming a customer - that is, in my opinion, how to hook them. Those that don't provide that value, and just try to disrupt at this point it is noise to me. Like Charlie Brown's teacher -- I don't hear it.

Websites are great for providing something more to a potential customer but I don't see alot of TV ads that really make me feel like they're giving me something more. The Hyundai ads come to mind; they're more than just an obnoxious car advertisement; they actually seem to care about me as a potential car buyer. If I were to lose my job, they'd help me out. Those ads have gotten alot of attention in the advertising world and rightly so; but it's interesting how there's been very little copying of that concept/model. I'm talking outside of the auto industry. Businesses need to continue to communicate their value to customers but if you're value is always the same time and time again, it might be time to shake it up a little and identify additional customer value propositions that are outside of your comfort zone. If you really want me as a customer, you need to give me more than what everyone else in your business gives to me.

Because TV advertising is such a passive medium, it's hard to create an engaging ad that provides additional value to a customer and gets them to actually do something with it. You can educate them/make them smarter but most of the time the engagement will need to come in other ways; online, mobile widgets, twitter activation, etc. The great thing about Twitter or Facebook is that it is relatively new in comparison to traditional media so it's naturally more disruptive and attention grabbing. But it also helps brands and businesses take their customer relationships much further. Does it matter that TV advertising doesn't do that? Maybe not, but I hardly pay attention to ads anymore which makes me wonder how relevant they are and how relevant they will be if they don't give people more than just background noise.

I get my morning news from Twitter

These past few weeks I've noticed a change in my morning media ritual. In the past, I always had CNN on in the background and watched the morning news while I surfed the internet for a while or worked out on the treadmill. Lately, (particularly with the completely overblown MJackson news), I've found myself forgetting to turn the TV on entirely and instead, I am on Twitter reading the news stories that folks post. Most of the news I have on Twitter is business news related to my profession, but I find I'm learning alot more about the things I actually care about. Occasionally, NYT breaking news will come through my email in the event there's something I need to know about from a national or global perspective, but I actually wonder if broadcast news will be the next to tumble after newspapers. There certainly is an overwhelming number of news programs -- do we really need ALL of them?

How I landed my new gig...

It's been a while since I posted lately. A long while. The truth is, we are in the midst of some major changes for my family so it's been hard to give the 'ole blog the care and feeding it needs.

My husband was accepted to vet school at LSU for the upcoming Fall semester, so we've been trying to determine how to make all the pieces work so he can pursue his dream. I've spent the past close to 9 years working for Walmart where I've been given the incredible opportunity to learn and grow. I've been fortunate enough to move up the chain fairly quickly to Senior Director of Marketing Operations; I helped lay the infrastructural foundation and implement a system to manage all of Walmart's marketing initiatives. In some ways, I feel like I should have been paying Walmart for all the on the job learnings I've acquired.

In the midst of all of this, I've taken a fair amount of lumps. Perhaps it's equivalent to what anyone would take in a job - but for me, it's worn me down a bit and I haven't felt that fire and drive that I used to feel. As a result, I began to look around in the Louisiana area to see if there was anything that might be a good fit for me and would really excite me again.

How does one go about finding a job in Louisiana when living in Arkansas? I tried to reach out to executive recruiters and got one response from a gentleman at Egon Zehnder. He was great, but told me he probably wasn't going to be able to help me find something in New Orleans. So, I took to the internet and did all the research I could. I searched for the best places to work in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I read their city papers online. I started to ask the folks I've worked with. Honestly, the biggest success story belongs to LinkedIn. I must admit, having Walmart as my employer definitely helped open some doors. I sent alot of messages via LinkedIn to people and surprisingly enough - they actually responded to me. Not only that, but they responded with advice and referrals. I must have contacted at least 20 - 30 people in Louisiana via LinkedIn, and I'd say 75% of them responded to me.

There are two key things that impressed me about my job search - one is the power and ease of using LinkedIn to help me search for my next gig; and the other is how incredibly helpful and forthcoming everyone in New Orleans has been. What I heard the most from the folks down there is "we need people like you in this business community".

I was referred to my upcoming employer, Peter A Mayer advertising, by someone else in the advertising business. He recommended I contact them because they might need someone with my skillset. I sent them an email and within that week I heard back. We started a dialog that eventually led to me accepting a position.

I share this now because I've realized in my search for solutions that I truly control my own destiny and no one else is going to tell me what path it is I should take. In many aspects I'm crazy to be leaving the safe and comfortable place I've created for myself at Walmart. But every once in a while you need to shake things up a bit and for me, I feel the time is right to thank Walmart profusely for everything it's given to me and try something a little crazy.

I start August 1st at PAM - so stay tuned!!

The Secret to Their Success

There's been a lot of exciting new things happening lately, even in the midst of this recession. Things like iPhone, Twitter, Hulu, and more recently Bing, the PalmPre which everyone seems to be fawning over, and of course, Google Wave - which I blogged about below. These are just the ones that pop to mind, there are a ton of other technologies and ideas in development. And all of this has prompted me to think about open source. Many businesses that have been around for a long period of time are absolutely petrified of people being able to take their secrets and capitalize on them. Yet, these more recent technologies are not just OK with others having the ability to access their trade secrets, but they're inviting folks to take their idea and make it better. iPhone has allowed anyone to create an app that can be downloaded through iTunes; Twitter has done the same thing -- there are many other applications that have been developed to utilize the basic Twitter concept in new and exciting ways, Google Wave hasn't even been released yet, but Google has unveiled it to all the geeks who are interested in playing with it and making it better. Even Zappos is a fascinating case study in sharing - Tony Hsieh is notorious for his open source style of management and leadership.

This is crowdsourcing at it's finest and it's fascinating to watch. Whereas, a business like Coca Cola keeps their trade secret recipe locked up in a vault with only a select few that know what is actually in Coca Cola, newer businesses are willing to share their work with others in order to collectively make it better.

It's definitely made me wonder - who is right? Is it better to guard your business secrets with your life or to share them; which could potentially lessen your own personal earning potential.

Doing the Wave across the globe

Have you heard about Google Wave, yet? It's a personal communication and collaboration webbased app that's a huge developmental step forward for email from the same folks who brought us Google Maps. I'm not sure it's going to get widespread adoption because it's a completely new way of communicating and the masses may not think they need yet another way but it has the potential to push antiquated email toward extinction if enough folks really embrace it.

I have been wondering whether it could be used at the enterprise level to help manage and share information among functional teams and cross-functional teams. It's a combination instant messaging, email, Twitter, and potentially digital asset/knowledge management system. I haven't actually played with the application yet, but from what I've seen this just may be possible.

For now, it's the buzz at the intergeek level...

Reading a Wave - Who's Blogging What
Hands on With Wave: Weird and Quite Wonderful - CNET
Google's New Wave - Reuter's
Wave: Google's Take on the Future of Communication - VentureBeat
Google Wave First Impressions - Information Week
Google Wave: Our First Hands-on Impressions - Read Write Web
Google Wave - the New Facebook? - Gerson Lehrman Group
Google Waves Me Back to Blogging - Four Elements blog

Apparently I'm not the only one thinking about how Google Wave could be applied at the enterprise-wide business level...

Google Wave Surfing the Future of Collaboration The Forrester Blog
Google Wave Will Cause Some Big Ripples in the Corporate World - CapGemini Blog

A Capitalist Flashmob in Animated Action

Preserving corporate culture for sustained growth

I'm doing some research regarding the importance of corporate culture and how to perserve a small business corporate culture while continuing to grow the business. While some may consider culture to be a bunch of mumbo jumbo, a strong corporate culture can really be critical to a businesses success and in particular to retaining top talent.

It is hard to maintain the culture as a business grows unless you commit to it's maintenance and that requires commitment from the top to the bottom. If the top doesn't commit to it, the bottom will see the job as nothing more than that, a job. Committing to your culture's maintenance can be a huge competitive advantage and can save the business alot of money. I encourage you to crunch the numbers; how much does it cost to keep an employee; and how much does it cost to hire a new employee? Make sure you include the softer costs of the new hire coming aboard - time it takes to get up to speed, potential risk associated with a 'misfit'.

Spend the time to clearly defining your corporate culture and rallying your employees to participate and contribute to it's continued existence. What does the culture mean to each individual employee? Based on that, what are they willing to do personally to help make sure the culture remains? Here's a tough question: how do you justify the need to change and evolve without inadvertently suggesting the culture needs to change? In that case, I suggest clearly defining the WIIFM's - What's in it for me for each person in the company. Smaller businesses must commit to that time and focus.

Here's the research I've pulled together. As with many of my posts, this will be a work in progress...

Recommended reading:
The Secret of a Winning Culture: Building High Performance Teams -
Good to Great, Jim Collins - For those who aren't familiar with this book, this is an executive mainstay on every bookshelf and Mr Collins just published a new book which is also listed here.
How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In, Jim Collins
Inc Magazine: The Zappos Way of Managing, Max Chafkin - Great article published in the May 2009 issue on how committed Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos is to their corporate culture.

A Corporate Culture Worth Keeping - Small Business Guru blog
Corporate Culture Definition and more... - Answers.com
Corporate Culture in Your Small Business video - Small Business TV

1. Fun & love to come to work
2. Teamwork (no cowboys)
3. Allowed to take risks and fail

Corporate Culture: Can Your Company Think Differently And Tolerate Diversity? - Small Business Coaching and Transitions blog

Includes a list of Four Deadly Corporate Culture Mistakes

Small Business Corporate Culture - Ezine Articles