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NKY Women’s Initiative

Today I joined 399 other local women at the SOLD OUT Kickoff event for the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Women’s Initiative.  What an experience!  LUCRUM’s own Suzanne Lorch is the Chair of the Women’s Initiative.  In the last year, she and 50 other women who live/work/conduct business in NKY decided that the focus of the group should be “to help women Connect…Grow…Achieve”.

The programming over the coming months will include a monthly Happy Hour, mentoring programs and roundtable discussions.  Additionally, they are establishing an on-line directory for their members which will include other women’s groups and organizations with similar missions.

The Keynote Speaker today was Maribeth Rahe, CEO & President of Fort Washington Investment Advisiors, Inc.  She provided the group with her wisdom on how to succeed in business.  She provided the group with these 13 pearls of wisdom:

The Rule of 13

1. Be strong, not weak.
2. Always be willing to do what is right for your company, your clients, your colleagues, and your community.
3. Learn from experience – both yours and that of others.
4. Be open minded, flexible, and change-oriented.
5. Never settle for the status quo or anything expedient.
6. Learn to trust your instincts.
7. Earn your stripes, daily.
8. Measure your performance.
9. Support your team personally and professionally.
10. Be encouraging, not negative.
11. Celebrate success.
12. Say “Thank you”.
13. Think before your speak or act.

Thanks to Suzanne and Maribeth and all of the other wonderful contributors to the event.  Hope to see you at the next one!

- Jodie

10 Signs of Business Intelligence Partnerships in Your Organization

In today’s corporate and institutional IT world, much has been done to create “partnerships” between IT and the User Community more often known as the Business.  The users are the people that are responsible for keeping revenue coming in, expenses predictable, and ultimately, bringing in a profit to fuel the company onwards.  There’s many articles published in business and IT journals as to the positive benefits the organization receives when there’s alignment within a Business Intelligence initiative.  So, you’d think that we’ve already dissected and solved this problem and it’s now in the history books.

Not so.   Dilbert is alive, healthy, and very much well fortified in the “partnership” between IT and Business.

Here’s 10 Telltales from a person that has both a IT and Business professional’s perspective that you really do have a Business Intelligence partnership.

1. Lunch. OK, I’m writing this waiting for one of my manager’s to bring me a “sack lunch” turkey sandwich.   But I’m serious.   Lunch.   When’s the last time you have been to lunch with your business user?   When has he or she picked up the tab for that lunch?  Communications is the key to any Business Intelligence initiative since the information requirements are dependent on the external business environment most of the time and, in today’s marketplace, the environment is constantly changing.   Frequency and intimacy of conversation not only about last weekend’s loss of your favorite playoff team but more so what’s going on in business last week that is going to affect the kind of questions you are looking to “ask your data?”
2. Mea Culpa. Saying that you made a mistake…Rework, reloads, unsuccessful night refreshes…operating a business intelligence environment is not easy work.   There’s a lot of moving parts to a mature BI platform along with updates, patches, network traffic and internet dependencies and the like.   There’s got to be daily production huddle sessions, weekly project enhancement meetings, quarterly capital, budget and funding meetings, and annual business strategy alignment sessions.   All of these meetings have to be tightly integrated between IT and the Business in order for the Business Intelligence platform to prosper.
3. Monitoring & measuring. “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed” as the modified saying goes.   A mutually-agreed measurement and operational reporting system needs to be applied to any Business Intelligence initiative.  At least, the successful ones.   The partnership has proactively agreed to “what constitutes acceptable” in advance so that both parties can provide a seamless report card.
4. Social measurements, too. Not only do we want to measure “system performance” and other traditional IT operational metrics, one also wants to consider the social aspects of the platform.  Is everyone timely and present at the respective meetings?   Was everyone prepared with their part for the meeting?   Are the “partnership duties” getting deprioritized (this especially happens in the business side since the business operationally will pull the business people directly into business problems and not IT problems.
5. Cradle-to-grave Documentation. Documentation doesn’t mean to just put the information into a project plan when building the BI platform and then shove it into a drawer.  Rather, documentation of the business questions that are asked every day, week, month, quarter depending on the business problems involved.  The business is changing, thus, driving heuristic questioning.   Having an active collaborative environment to document these is extremely important to sustain the platform.
6. Executive sponsorship by both IT and the Business. Even though most of the activity is well beneath the executive offices, the business questions being analyzed and solved are most likely directly related to the profitability and the overall strategy and performance of the business.   So, do they go to lunch?   Do they understand that there’s a Business Intelligence Partnership?  Smile.
7. Show me the money!   Funding. How budgets get spread between IT and the Business can actually be the fundamental reason why a Business Intelligence initiative succeeds or fails!!!   There’s a lot to be said about the CIO that can navigate through today’s budget world.  How a CIO leverages both capital appropriations and current expense for Business Intelligence requires the involvement of the Business.  You see, building the environment with hardware and software and consulting services can all follow GAAP principles for accounting.   Where the difficulty lies is how to separate the operational overhead of running the BI platform along with the constant stream of enhancements.   If one doesn’t budget for the enhancements, the platform ends up slowly (or quickly in today’s economy) becoming antiquated.
8. A partnership of Innovation. Most of what IT does is not innovation itself.  They use innovative technology; although once deployed, it is an operational system that is supposed to run and run and run.  IT professionals are paid to execute, operate, and make budget….and most of the time at the lowest common denominator when it comes to operational availability and budget.    BI platforms are rich with innovation through new technology, of course, but more so through Heuristic Questioning about the business problems at hand that day.  Innovation comes through leveraging data and asking “Why?” and “What if?”   The BI partnership must have an innovation DNA in order to truly leverage the data to its greatest value.
9. Survived a reorganization or three? When, not if, the company/organization reorganizes, the Business and IT organization can change slightly or dramatically.  I have seen many a healthy BI partnership get destroyed over new org charts.   When you reorganize, the IT and Business leadership must have a Partner Summit of sorts in order to protect the operational care, feeding and ongoing plans of the Business Intelligence environment.
10. Internal public relations. I was with the famous Peter Drucker at the 1996 Cognos Convention out in San Diego and had a chance to ask him some questions.   Why can’t we get everyone to want to have their data in one location so we can get rid of all of these disparate spreadsheets?   “In the old days, man fought with swords, daggers, clubs, and ultimately, guns.   We are carnivores and that will remain.  Today, we fight with information.  We hide it, disguise it, hoard it, and mislead with it.   It’s our contemporary personal weapon of force.”  Based on some of the latest stories coming off of Wall Street, the CDO crisis, the Mortgage lending crisis, and the insider trader diabolical, and certainly the many Ponzi schemes that have ruined many a retirement savings plan, I have to agree with what Dr. Drucker said.  At the same time, I truly believe in the good of mankind, if the IT and Business groups have strong leadership, an active business strategy, and a general knowledge that if the team is rowing all at once you can accomplish more than if you are not, then the general support of a Business Intelligence platform will be a positive enabler for the company’s well-being.

There are probably 10 more ideas supporting a Business Intelligence Partnership with IT and the Business.  I hope that these Telltales stimulate you to advance your partnership!  Good Luck!

Politics and the Engine of Business

I know that an engine is a series of highly integrated and interconnected parts that have very small tolerances. And I know that oil is the main ingredient that buffers each surface and allows these parts to move very rapidly. And without this oil, the parts will be reduced to hitting each other. This creates heats and damage; eventually there will be a catastrophic failure and the entire engine will blow. Then you are left with a car that looks like a car on the outside but has zero functionality, save for the radio!

I get it, the oil is like politics; it’s the grease that ensures the proper movement of the smaller parts to produce the much desired resultant.  However, I never cared much for the political side of the business.  But, let’s take a closer look at this, because I fear we get confused. When I rethink the above metaphor, what I really see are the following components:

•        An engine – well, this can be a company or organization or team of any sort
•        Smaller parts – I suppose this represents the individuals or groups or departments of folks. The bottom line is that the small parts ultimately consists of people.
•        Oil – In our example above, the oil is often referred to as ‘politics’. Let’s go with this for now.
•        The resultant – Here the engine has a purpose or outcome. This is the reason the engine exists; for a series of purposes. In real life, the engine delivers power that sparks momentum (pun intended!) and with this inertia we receive a change in location (we were here and now we are there). This change in location could be a sales goal or business strategy and so forth along the analogy vector.

However, is it really safe to say that the oil is politics? I’m not feeling that one, sorry to bust your nice metaphor. But, what really serves as the layer of protection between people? After all, this is what we talked about when we were praising the magic of the oil. How do people work together at a high rate of speed with very low tolerances between integrated points?  The answer is found in leadership. This is the true oil. Leadership creates the necessary layer of ‘protection’,  if that’s the best word to describe it and I’m convinced that it is not, that protects people.

Leadership must create a safe space where people can trust. A place where people can have the right conversations. It’s a mechanism that produces highly invested people who share the resultant at the highest level. It’s a bunch of folks that actually care and are stimulated to action by their passions of doing what’s right and not afraid to share this information by being vulnerable and accountable to each other. Its understanding that you will elevate yourself only after elevating the engine by achieving the resultant!

Now that that is on the table, we are still left with that term ‘politics’ or ‘acting political’. Don’t sell yourself short by just assuming some level of magic happens that covers off leadership and label it ‘politics’. Don’t say, well it’s political so we’ll have to wait and see. Don’t think that anything is too political. Call it how you see it… acting political is really done by people who are very short sighted. These folks think that they need to elevate themselves by elevating themselves. They don’t see the power that the shared engine can bring. So, acting political is really the process of adjusting what you say to fit your immediate audience.  Doesn’t that really resound with you after watching ‘politics’ on TV?

Bottom line is: “Let your yes be yes and your no be no!” In other words, do what you say and say what you do. Be a straight shooter. Be honest and accurate. Follow through – make your words powerful by embracing them with action.  Sometimes, this crazy world makes sense when one person makes a stand by seeing the issue and being genuine about it.

~   Scott Felten

Stories

What happens after we roll our applications into production? We are left with the stories?

It’s like raising a child, isn’t it? We spent so much time and pour our lives into the development of those much needed applications.  As we trade hours for dollars as we watch them grow…
A problem turns into an opportunity.
That opportunity turns into a solution.
That solution gets a sponsor and a team.
The team raises that young solution.
Suddenly it blossoms into a application…a production application!

It may have taken us weeks, months or even years, but we were given guardianship over that child for a period of time. As it grew, and that production day came closer and closer, we felt the awkward anxiety of letting go. Yes, we know the dangers out there waiting for our young application; potentially low chance of adoption, push back, rejection, even the fear of death.

That young application is safest in the test environment. At least we can control its exposure and limit its risks. But in our heart of hearts, we know that the application was build for production. We know that it was designed to take on the hardest of situations and out perform expectations – that this application will make an impact in the business; making things better, faster, cheaper!

That day comes and we let it go and watch it fly. For a period of time, we watch it closely and ensure its safety. We anticipate the missteps and try to head them off. We add to it and extend its capabilities as new challenges are seen. We pour more and more of our time and energy into that application.

Soon, it grows mature and reaches the stage of life where it takes on its own personality. It reaches critical mass and there is no slowing it down. That application forms new relationships and makes new friends.

Then in a cruel twist of fate, it forgets about you. After all, you have other children to raise. While we may look back in pride, our jobs demand we look forward with a combination of power, agility and leveraged experiences to make an impact for the future.

Now the question remains; “What are we to do about this?” The answer is easy but it does draw against your heart. The answer, my friend, is that we are left with the stories, those fascinating stores of how we did it. Yes, some people call that experience, but who wants to hear about experience when they can listen to a story.

What are your favorite stories?

I’ll never forget leading a large government Oracle-based BI project back in 1998 when you couldn’t get an Oracle person for 100 lbs of gold. I brought in 4 network engineers – yeah you guessed it, they were Novel network managers. I trained one to be a DBA and the other three to be developers. What a time that was; gathering requirements, navigating the murky waters of government contracting, designing complex integration between the US Air Force and the US Navy, data architecture and applications development…and at the same time training four people in the art of Oracle! The point that I remember most was bringing that last person on board. You see, the contract stated that the person had to have a 4 year degree. Well, that last person had only an A.S. degree – well to be exact, she had two A.S. degrees. I remember it well; walking into the General’s office to get an exception. It had come down to that…asking a General! I walked into his office and after I gave my 2 minute context introduction, I said “Sir, this person has two 2-year degrees and the last time I checked…2 plus 2 equaled 4″. Then I shut my mouth and waited for what seemed to be a very long time and he looked me up and down and finally gave me the go ahead to move forward.

What attachment do I have with that application that is still in production today? My attachment is through those stories which make up the sum of my experiences. It is from these stories that I am forming who I am and amassing my worth.

Happy Story Telling!

~Scott Felten

A Secret from an Old Man

I graduated college in 1985 equipped with a B.S. in Mathematics and an excellent work ethic. My first position was working for Ross Perot at EDS. I was 21 years old, dressed in a suit and slung COBOL code and stacks of punch cards. I was nervous and insecure. Here is what went through my mind:

In the morning I thought to myself;  “Everyone else was smarter than me.” And “Everyone else is doing a  better job than me.”

Around lunch time I dwelled upon thoughts like; “They like everyone else better then me.”  And “I have to keep this job.”

On the drive home I would usually think; “I wonder what’s happening” And “I wonder who is out to get who and then of course when and how does that affect me.”

Of course I’d stay awake and think dreadful thoughts; “What would I do if I was let go” And “Where could I get a job fast, very fast.” The last thought of the evening was usually something like this…”Man, I gotta get a handle on this because these thoughts are killing me.”

When we are young there is a lot to learn. If only I knew then that I’d be in my career for 24.5 years and never miss a single paycheck or be without a job for even a day. Even more solid than that, I’ve never been without a career for a moment. Not that I knew then or even now what I’d like to do when I grow up, but my career found me.  My skills and talents and experiences guided me naturally to what I was good at and what I liked. Sometimes I strayed a bit off course, but was always lead back to my calling.

Well, back to the late 1980′s and my insecure thoughts. It was then that I met a man in his 70s. He sold encyclopedias door to door. He was smooth and conversation flowed from him effortlessly. He was gentle and kind and my wife and I were enamored by his seemingly command of life. I bought (and still have) a set of those encyclopedias and we spent an evening with him and his wife.  Of course we went to pick the books up and we stayed for 6 hours. He shared with me something that I will never forget and it changed my life. As a matter of fact, I share this nugget of wisdom from time to time when I see someone struggling with the same insecurity. You see, when he was 18 years old he broke 100k in commissions selling door to door and he never looked back. He told me about how he dresses in the morning to engage with people, how he gets their interest and holds their attention. How he genuinely cares for his ‘clients’ and how he wants to get them happily involved with his encyclopedias (not just sell them). He went on and on and we were riveted.

He asked about our plans and future, what we desired and worked for. We shared with him our dreams and our fears. I shared with him about my insecure thoughts and how most of the time I could handle them but at times I felt paralyzed by them. But it was what he said next that changed my life. It wasn’t anything magical or spiritual. It was simple. He said, “Well Scotty, you are only as secure as your ability to handle your insecurity. So, decide this minute that you are secure and there you go.”

You know, I didn’t like to feel insecure. It really played out in so many ways that was destructive; from caving in during negotiations, to acting subserviently, to holding back when you really could have done it, not taking risks, gossip and so forth. The simple truth is that we really are only as secure as our ability to handle our insecurity. Decide that you are secure. Be confident. Take risks, work hard and never give up. For me, this was a transforming time. This position change was noticeable. I went from leaning backwards to leaning forwards. When those feelings of insecurity raise their heads, just stare them down with guts and say to them that you have mastered the ability to be secure.
~ Scott Felten

Career Planning: 10 Things That Really Matter!

I have three daughters who are nearing the age when they will seek careers. This is a bit scary for me but that is fodder for another blog. Today, I want to share with you some of the advice that I give college aged kids who are thinking about the future. No matter who you are and no matter what you plan on doing, if you want to succeed, you must make sure that you follow these strategies!

1.    Trajectory!  It’s not about where you are, it’s about where you are heading! I remember when I was making next to nothing and wondering what was going to happen. I knew I was working hard and that I had the ‘never give up’ work ethic (together this is called momentum). I knew I was in a field that was growing. But, I really wanted to make enough to support my family. My wife and I talked about my career trajectory. I was tracking up! As long as I kept my path point up, it did not matter where I was today. The most important thing is to keep that long term focus and to keep your plans rising up. Time will take care of the rest.  What affects trajectory…Aim and Momentum!

2.    Look the part!  If you look like a bum, you will get paid like a bum – and who can afford that type of income. Who is your boss’ boss and what do they look like? Find out and cloth yourself in their cloths. So, wear what your boss’ boss wears. Dress like the position you want to have in 3-5 years. 90% of people’s confidence in you is judged within 10 seconds of them meeting you.

3.    Never, ever give up!  There are times to change direction, but this is not the same thing as giving up. When faced with a challenge, take it and keep going – keep trying and persevere.  When you see the really hard problems and others are running, volunteer! What can go wrong – if you make it happen, you are a hero. If you can’t, well no one else was able to either.  Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!

4.    Learn baby learn!  One time I walked into the office of a general for a project that I was on. We had a short (and focused) discussion. He wanted things done right. I was prepared because I bought a book on how to do it. In my honesty I told him that I was going to do it by the book. I meant literally, I was going through this book section by section and I was going to follow it. He took at as that phrase goes… “by the book”. His reply, yes, I want it done by the book. I didn’t correct him. When we stop learning, we stop earning.

5.    Take responsibility!  There are people who I depend on. These people say, “I’ve got it” or “I’ll get it done”. These are the people that I will turn to every time. When someone takes responsibility they look different than those who don’t. Responsible people take the initiative and remain focused on the task. They understand that it’s not about them, it’s about the team, the project, the task. People who don’t take responsibility walk that gray area in-between, they ride the fence, they leave themselves outs and look to blame early. They portray that it’s really about them. If you want to be responsible, then make a decision to do so – it’s really that easy.

6.    You will never fail!  Understand that there is no way that you can fail. People don’t understand what failure is any more. Failure is when you give up and according to number 3, that can’t happen to us! We will learn many many ways how things don’t work. Don’t confuse this with failure. Be like a stamp and stick to it! When you find how something doesn’t work, this is also called learning. But as long as you keep on trying (number 3) and keep learning these lessons (number 4) and take responsibility (number 5) while dressing the part (number 2) and knowing that it doesn’t matter so much where you are now (number 1), you cannot fail!

7.    Be Humble!  My kids play a lot of soccer and one day they asked me to play in an indoor league. Now it’s been a long time since I played and I was pretty out of shape and everyone else was better than I. Well, I told my kids that if I scored, I would simply jog back to my position and act like I’ve done this before. That game I scored two! And while I was really excited, I did what I said, I acted like this was expected. When we are humble and give credit to others, without saying it we communicate “Of course I was successful, that’s what I’m about”. But the magic is that when people see/say this about us, it’s true in their minds. But, when we have to tell them how great we are, they don’t believe us.

8.    Act like everyone is watching, all the time!  Our character is our sacred honor. It is the most expensive thing we have. If your actions depend upon who is watching, I guarantee that one day it will catch up with you and your character will be bankrupt. Don’t let this happen. From day one make an oath to yourself that you will always act in a manner that you would normally do when the big boss is around.

9.    Let your yes be yes and your no be no!  Politics is when you filter what you say so that you will influence your current audience. While it is ok to adapt your communication style and content to your audience to communicate different points, it is not ok to slant your motives to gain favor for one group at the expense of another. When people do this, it is poison and will kill the team and eventually your career. Are you the antidote or poison?

10.    Rewards follow performance!  I have seen many people’s career stall because they won’t move on something because it’s not their job or they don’t pay me to do that. I have actually had many people say they won’t go that extra mile because they are not getting paid for it. Well, until you understand that rewards follow performance, your prophecy will be self fulfilled. It takes performance and most times, continuous and consistent excellent performance to be rewarded. The person whose career excels is the person who makes high performance a standard.

When You Have Trust

The other day we had a technical team meeting where we were discussing access rights for a global solution that we have begun to implement but have a need to extend some functionality. Well, it gets complicated pretty quickly. To be honest, I started drawing out all the potential combinations of variables that can occur and I’m trying to lead the group through this thought.

Well, this one “rogue” guy (I think to myself) keeps bringing up an idea. I hear it but it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. So, I discount it and try to get the group to move on. He keeps bringing it up and won’t let it go. We all tell him that he sometimes has listening problems and to hang it up for a bit.

Does he do this? No. Not because he is really a “rogue” guy or because he enjoys making things difficult (I have encountered my share of these people), rather, James knows that he can trust the group. James feels the trust and sees it played out over time. James knows that the environment is mature enough to handle the truth. Remember that line, “You can’t handle the truth” from the movie A Few Good Men. There was no trust in that relationship – that is for sure!

James sticks to his guns and won’t let it go. He did so in an encouraging way, but forceful.  Finally, it dawned on us that he was right. Had James not felt the trust, he would avoid the conflict by either shutting down and ceasing to contribute or becoming defensive;  and we would not have the proper solution to the problem. Way to go James (you know who you are)!

By the way, I called him later that day and said thanks and that I appreciated the way he handled himself. I thanked him for putting the needs of the group ahead of the need for him to avoid unpleasant conflict. This was a highlight for both of us that day. We saved a few days time and money and walked away with a better solution for less money.

In a recent blog post I wrote “This is a key point (gaining trust) because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.” Conflict is a necessary part of a team. But healthy conflict doesn’t focus on people, rather it focuses on the topic at hand.

Did you ever experience a team that had conflict and someone when historical? Not hysterical, historical! You know; “…yeah, but remember when you did this and you said that and he said… and she said…”  This is because there was a lack of trust. When this happens, people focus on defense and of course sometimes a good defense is a good offense. Other times they shutdown and withdraw. Either way, that conflict is not healthy.

Conflict + Trust is healthy debate and leads to innovation!

Conflict w/o Trust leads to murder (of at least one’s character).

Go find someone to Trust.

~ Scott

The Data Governance Color Palette

It is no secret that people are different. My wife loves process and order. She is disciplined and pays attention to detail. I, on the other hand, love chaos and new things. I like to create and invent.

Then there are those accountant/analyst folks who love details and facts. Finally, there are those who are people people – the ones who pay careful attention to others and their feelings. True, these are simply attributes that we all have in varying degrees. But, it is no secret that we have some in big doses while others are very small.

So, what happens when governance groups are out of balance? What if we have a data governance group that is made up of ten people like me…loving new things and big visions with little to no attention to detail? Or, there are ten folks like my wife – loving processes and steps to implement. Not a whole lot of new out of the box thinking – but truly skilled in the art of process.

Also, imagine ten folks sitting on the data governance group that are those people people – they think of relationships and peoples feelings. Are these people going to be ‘enforcers’ of the rules and standards? Finally, how about those factual lovers? Can they implement?

We need to have a well balanced governance team that has the right amount of visionary ability plus the people needed to validate those ideas against facts and figures plus those important people people who can tell you how to craft that message and how to reach people plus those implementers, those who can frame the plan in all its glory!

Well, if you have been around governance groups at all, you have seen cases where the team is not well-rounded. There are just too many of the same type of people in the group – or one ‘attribute’ exists in a dominate individual which infects the entire team.

Consider the following:
Where the yellow are the folks who are visionaries, always thinking up new things, but don’t have much skill at details, working with people or process.

Where the blue are the folks who are based in facts and figures.

Where the red are the folks who are those people people.

Where the green are the folks who are highly skilled in the art of process.
I was thinking about these different attributes and what happens when we have an imbalanced group. What are the warning signs, what can we expect when we are unbalanced. In the above diagram, I list the three roles of governance at the top and the different attributes in the color bands. Crossing them are the things that seem to happen when that group is out of balance.

For example, I have seen this many times…a team that is unbalanced and mostly blue (based in facts and figures) spends lots of time to produce the “10 Commandments”, then they post them on the world for all to see. These are the folks who develop principles and standards with complete definitions and taxonomies. These become artifacts or works of art to hang up and be proud. But nothing happens after this? Why, because they needed the greenies!

Or take the unbalanced team in the yellow zone… lots of big ideas come from this team. We often see a tremendous amount of momentum out of the gate because they sold senior leadership who moved mountains to take advantage of these ‘game changing’ ideas. But, very soon their progress stops, more than stops – we simply never hear from those folks again. Why, because those ideas were not tested by the blue folks!
Another example is an unbalanced green team… they spend tons of time to put together standard operating procedures which stream line operations. But this group misses the mark because they didn’t have that spark that a yellow brings!

Finally, when those red folks who are so needed in the group are in the majority – we have to be careful that we don’t approach the governance from the touchy feeling perspective, where we may be more interested who’s feet we may step on.

I have only touched on four cells – there are twelve to consider. Think it through. We need all these attributes and need to have them in a balanced manner. Look for those warning signs and think about who is in your group. Do you need to bring about change? Start by knowing where you are, looking at where you have been, so that you can make those adjustments to take you where you want to go!

Happy Balancing!
~Scott Felten

So What Is The Deal With The Beachball?

Today I read in the Wall Street Journal Online that Microsoft has hired Jerry Seinfeld to star in a series of advertisements for the firm.  Seinfeld will reportedly be paid $10 million for the spots, which are part of a 300 million dollar campaign aspiring to reposition Microsoft as forward thinking, customer friendly, people savvy technology company.  The campaign is being launched in large part as a response to the growing popularity of Apple and the increased adoption of open source operating systems like Ubuntu Linux.

While I think Seinfeld is hilarious, I question the wisdom of this decision.  Certainly there are plenty of exceptionally bright people at Microsoft.  I am quite sure they have good reason to believe that Jerry can help to change people’s perceptions of the company.   I do believe that whatever he does will probably be entertaining.  For $10 million it should be.  The problem is that people don’t need Microsoft to entertain them, they need Microsoft to care about them – or at least appear to care.

Microsoft should have invested that 300 million in making their products more reliable and useful, and in offering unparalleled service to its customers.  With the resources at its disposal, surely the company could offer support services so remarkable that no one in the world could compete with them.  “Vista not working right? – We’re on it.”  “Spreadsheet locked up? – No worries because you are with Microsoft.”  “Need help with that flyer? – we’ll create a portal for you and walk you through it.”  “We are Microsoft.”  “We are here to help you do more.”  “We know that you have choices when it comes to software, and we want you to choose us.”  “That is why we work to earn your trust and keep your business.”  Can you imagine the buzz this would generate?  It would be huge.

Microsoft could create a community of users supporting one another and leveraging technology to do it.  They could tap into the collective wisdom of the crowd to make improvements and to drive innovation.  They could build loyalty and trust.  They could exploit the weakness of other providers which is the perception of risk by removing risk from their own products.  If Microsoft was the safe, secure, trusted choice in the mind of the consumer, then the consumer would be willing to pay a premium.

They could have stores, mobile help, seminars, online support, help lines, surveys, blogs, and more… instead they will have very funny commercials.

Apple has had success because of innovative products, beautiful design, and smart campaigns geared to exploit the perceived weaknesses of Microsoft.  It is not that Apple is without flaw.  They have a very closed system.  They don’t always play nice with consumers.  They are expensive.  Recently they have had some high profile mistakes with the iPhone and Me.com.  They are not perfect, but they are smart.

It is my opinion that the smart thing for Microsoft to do would be to invest in the consumer and not the endorsement of a celebrity – even if it is Seinfeld.  Maybe they will get Lloyd Braun to sell some software from Mr. Costanza’s garage.  SERENITY NOW!

What do you think?  Is hiring Seinfeld a brilliant idea or big waste of time?

RYZing Trend

When I was in grade school, I used to spend a lot of time drawing pictures.  I would draw my name in various font styles.  I would draw airplanes ( usually F-16’s) streaking across the sky.  I would draw bugs and trees, people and monsters, mountains and rivers… and shoes.

I remember being in 1st grade trying to draw a picture of my John McEnroe style NIke’s, sometimes altering the color of the swoosh – which we could only get in red and light blue back in those days.   I later gravitated toward doodling Adidas logos in differing color schemes.  Then came Air Jordan’s, which I must have drawn and redrawn 1,000 times – usually in Carolina blue and white.   I remember imaging how great it would be if I could just make my own shoes.  Surely they would have been sweet kicks.  I would have made a million dollars, bought an island, opened a skate park, hung out with Dan Marino and had my own show with Alyssa Milano.  Alas, no such luck…

However there may be hope for the doodling, daydreaming, youth of today…

NPR featured a great story this morning about Oregon based shoe manufacturer RYZ.  Similar to the T-Shirt company Threadless, RYZ relies on “the crowd” to design its shoes.  No big marketing department.  No R&D.  No long design cycles.  No focus groups.   No big advertising budget.  Oh… and none of the overhead that comes along with those things.

Nope, instead of all that, the company relies on the community of visitors to its site to create its products and then to vote on which designs should be produced. The winning designer receives $1,000 and a 1% royalty based on sales – a fraction of what it would typically cost to design and produce a pair of shoes.   Better still, the process – which would take up to 12 months in a traditional shoe company – is as short as 6 weeks.

RYZ is succeeding by using technology to involve consumers in the process – an important trend for all businesses to embrace. The company is successfully leveraging the internet to generate interest in its products, engage consumers in the the design process, and tap into the collective wisdom of the crowd to pick the right products to produce.

More and more businesses are utilizing community based design as a strategy for success.  Because of the global reach of the web, innovation can now be driven in large part by the user community.   Consumers want to be in control.  They want to be engaged, and they want companies to listen to them.  Technology makes this all possible.

As this trend begins to permeate into other segments of the economy, this will create new and exciting opportunites for collaboration between companies and clients.  From what is on television, to what is in the grocery store, to which concerts come to your city, to what your kids get for Christmas.  The world is more and more about the wants and needs of the consumer.

Do you think your business is just too complicated to embrace this model?  Think again.  In a global economy with seemingly infinite options, engaging the consumer is no longer an afterthougth.  Rather it will become the central thought for business success.

How could you begin to tap into the collective wisdom of your clients and that of the world to transform your business?

Crowd Sourcing Turns Business On Its Head : NPR

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