Business & Technology Reinvention

It's Not Enough

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:43:12 PST

This winter I had all my flu shots. Somehow that didn't make a difference because I caught a bug that knocked me out for 3 days and had me operating at half speed for close to 4 weeks.

On the worst day of this affliction (a work day) I went to a local walk in clinic. I expected to have to wait but instead was in and out in less than 5 minutes with a prescription in hand. The piece of paper led me to believe that whatever I had would get knocked down. The drugs helped for a time but it was clear there was no change to my symptom after taking the last pill.

I should have hedged by enacting the age old remedy for colds and flus - drinking lots of liquids and getting rest. The truth is that I didn't rest. The prescription and flu vaccines gave me a feeling of invincibility so I doubled down on the workload.

I learned a valuable lesson from this experience. You must always do more. I'm not just talking about colds or flus. This applies to business or personal issues. You can't rely on a thing like a piece of paper as the only solution to a problem.

It's all you need

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:41:57 PST

When I first started my career in sales and marketing in the 80's the one tool you absolutely needed was an American Express Card.

Often I was dispatched to open up a new geography for my company. In those situtations having the card was great, I could buy air tickets, book hotel rooms, hire translators, rent cars, entertain (I mean negotiate) with customers and local partners. I could get things rolling without having to see my banker for an increase in my credit limit before each trip or project.

Today with video conferencing, the Internet, netbooks and devices I don't know if the card is as important. There's much less travel and entertainment and more online connecting for rapid business development.

Today, the one thing I absolutely need to do business is....my Blackberry! But hey, I still pack my AMEX card...in case.

NYT Year in Ideas

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:46:50 PST

My favourite edition of the Sunday New York Times was published today. This is the article called The Year in Ideas. The piece is full of very cool ideas related to Business, Technology, Design, etc...

The idea I like the most is - Random Promotions, here's a quote:

“…we wrongly assume that people who are good at their jobs will also be good at jobs that are one rung up on the corporate ladder — so we promote them. But often the new job is so different from the previous job that the employee can't handle it. Now performing incompetently, the employee stays in place, dragging the efficiency of the firm downward. Eventually the entire economy becomes like the paper company Dunder Mifflin in "The Office" — clogged with incompetence. Is there any way to avoid this trap? Yes, by promoting people at random.”

What's your favourite?

Click here to read the entire article.

Hey are you there?

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:55:20 PST

David [10:45 AM]: Hey do you IM?

I'm sure you do but do you Instant Message at work?

I do and I find it to be a productive tool. It works particularly when when all I need is a simple answer. So instead of composing an email, sending it and waiting for an answer, I Instant Message for info, get my answer and move on to the next task.

Simple right? Not really! Much like with email there are subtleties. For example I've found that there are two styles to initiating IM chats.

The first style is when people type their query and hit send. This is done Twitter fashion...that is to say the message is brief one or two lines saying it all - for example:

David [10:45 AM]: Rick, can you send me the link to that article on the Chinese market?

Rick [10:50 AM]: Yup here it is http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-telecoms-get-glum-reviews-from-most-analysts-2009-10-21

The other style is a two step approach. This is when the initiator says hello first then makes the ask. Here's an example of how this style would work:

David [10:45 AM]: Hey

Rick [10:50 AM]: Hi whats new? Did you see that episode of Trauma last night?

David [10:59 AM]: Wow when the helicopter went down...intense! But I was working on a deliverable while it was on. Can't live without my Bell Aliant PVR! Can you send me the link to that article on China?

Rick [11:30AM]: Here it is

Can you tell which style is my preferred mode?

Its the first one - I prefer to get the ask out up front. It saves time - I get the info in 5 minutes not 45. I admit that sometimes I do the "Hey are you there?" when I see someone's status is away or when I think they are really there but cloaked. But its rare.

I believe IM should be approached the way email is sent - get the ask into the first three lines of the email and use the rest for additional info or back up.

Now imagine if you were to get the "Hey are you there?" in an email. I bet your mind would first try to establish if the subject is something important or is the sender just going to ask me about last night's episode of Trauma.

I'd think the latter and hit shift-delete right away. Wouldn't you?

Real leadership is....

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:51:24 PDT

Real leadership is...

...working 20 hour days for weeks to ensure that your staff and their charges are safe

...reacting to a crisis with confidence, even when you're in a never imagined scenario

...sacrificing of yourself so that a long time tradition can survive for the next generation

Congratulations (you know who you are), you made it through and I'm so very proud if you!

Where are you from?

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:43:57 PDT

Being relatively new to Atlantic Canada I'm asked where I'm from. I'm asked this since I'm hard to place, given my mix of Toronto and Montreal backgrounds.

I think you agree that our backgrounds impact our attitudes and responses in every day life. But what about at work? How does a past experience guide us?

The writing of this piece was prompted by reading an article in the Wall Street Journal called "A Class of Generals" The article is about West Point's Graduating Class of 1976. West Point is probably the foremost military academy in the world. The class of 1976 produced 33 generals now in senior leadership.

West Point is a leadership crucible where knowledge and experiences is solidified. We all can look back on our careers to find similar pivotal experiences that formed who we are and in a way where we're from.

Excluding my university years I can think of two "where I'm from" moments. Early in my career it was my first leadership role at ADP - more recently it was working at Microsoft. Both contributed greatly to how and why I get things done.

What are your leadership crucibles...where are you from???

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article (subscription may be required after the end of July 2009)

Click here for other posts about leadership

Send the CEO to Summer Camp

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:57:58 PDT

I've lived in some of the largest cities in the world - Mumbai, Montreal and Toronto. As a result I'm used to noise, pollution and high population densities. Some city dwellers must escape from time to time. Not me. When on vacation I prefer to be in other big cities like NYC, Paris or LA. I'm a inner city type of person.

When I was a kid our family spent the summer in the city. Before I was old enough to get a summer job, my parents would send us to summer camp. Actually it was a day camp at the local Y. Our days would be spent playing baseball or swimming. But we were less than five blocks away and went home every evening.

A recent experience made me think of summer camp. My daughter is Director of a summer camp in rural Nova Scotia. It's a six week sleep away camp in the country by a lake. We visit frequently. But yesterday was the first time we were there on opening day. Opening day is the day that campers arrive and get settled into their cabins and bunks.

These campers are young kids, some of whom haven't been away from home before. Scary stuff for kids and their parents. The first day away is a real test. But fear not, from the minute the kids step off the bus they're immersed in tight community. Kids get over homesickness pretty quickly because there's so much to do.

It was an eyeopener for me. I always thought that summer camp was just about doing things you could only do away from the city. For example - learn how to paddle a canoe. But the true benefits to the camp experience are deeper.

Campers learn independence, social skills, problem solving...all without the 7x24 presence of a parent. This doesn't happen by accident. Camp staff work long hours to make the experience a memorable one. The team running the camp is qualified, well trained, compassionate and always engaged/connected to what's going on.

I was struck that this camp experience is similar to what you would get at five star hotel. The five star hotel attends to each detail, the staff knows your name, knows your preferences and makes your stay a memorable one. Minus the bunk beds of course.

I can't help but wonder how many hotel CEO's ever went to summer camp. I bet that some did. But if they haven't, perhaps they should arrange for a summer camper focus group to get the insight to reinvent their customer experience!

Tech Takes Over

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:06:42 PDT

Parts of the tech industry are in growth mode in the midst of the current economic downturn. Surprising but true!

A recent article in the National Post by Karen Mazurkewich asserts that while Automotive declines in Ontario, technology takes over...particularly in Waterloo. Ontario is the centre of Canada's manufacturing sector and automotive in particular. Waterloo is situated about 112 km east of Toronto.

Here's a quote from the Post:

"Situated in the heart of the auto parts manufacturing region, Waterloo is the new tech capital of the country. In this former agricultural heartland, still heavily populated with stoic Mennonite farmers, the story is upbeat. The tech sector here generates more than $15-billion per year, and the employment growth rate is 7%, significantly higher than Ottawa or Toronto."

Wait, it gets better: "Technology firms in the Waterloo region employ 28,000 people, and there are at least 2,000 more jobs looking to be filled. The community now boasts 550 technology companies, including the region's anchors: Research in Motion (RIM), Open Text, the largest software company in the country; and Christie Digital Systems Inc., make of a high-end projection system, to name a few."

I imagine that Waterloo is now the envy of every other North American city! Click here to read the entire article.

What I Learned from Hollywood - Part 7

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:19:38 PDT

Did you see that WALL-E won the the Academy Award for best animated film? For those of you that don't know WALL-E, it's a Pixar film about a robot that is left behind after mankind abandons earth.

Naturally for some people the message in WALL-E is an environmental one - save the planet! For others it's a love story. Yet others, including me, see the movie as an amazing example of what the talent at Pixar can produce. But what I really learned from WALL-E was something completely different...one person (or robot) can do the impossible!

WALL-E made me remember a time earlier in my career when I was on a high risk, long term, high impact, strategic project. Initially this project was a solitary pursuit, much like WALL-E's. In his story, he finds a plant during the course of his work. This plant appears after 700 years of cleaning the planet. This small live vegetation saves mankind!

I learned from WALL-E that one person (or robot) can do the impossible! So keep at it no matter what the odds and you will succeed!

Here are links to previous posts in the "What I Learned from Hollywood" series:

Part 1 - Heat

Part 2 - Scarface

Part 3 - Backdraft

Part 4 - Tin Cup

Part 5 - Jumping the Shark

Part 6 - The Last Starfighter

Making Lemonade from Lemons

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:36:15 PST

Seems like there are some interesting articles coming from the LA Times these days. One headline caught my eye - "About to do time? Meet your best pal" . Here's a quote:

"At a time when no job is safe, Levine is among a small but growing number of consultants who are poised to find work in the economic meltdown as prison life coaches to the perpetrators of Ponzi schemes, mortgage scams and financial swindles."

Levine is Larry Levine. He's an ex-con and consultant who bills six figures annually! He's the person to go to if you're a white collar criminal about to go to prison. But what does he provide that a top flight law firm can't? What's the value add?

The answer is that he readies you for prison, coaches you on what to do and what not to do... before you go inside. It's essential survival skills for incarceration. In many ways prison "do's and don'ts" are similar to those for a corporate environment.

For example - don't lie, don't snitch, always show respect, strive for a better work assignment, etc... Well maybe it doesn't compare to all corporate cultures, just the harsh ones.

What Levine does has much in common with what consultants and coaches do - help solve a problem. Like any successful business consultant he's got the first hand inside knowledge needed. He's been there before and can help you fix your issue right the first time. In Levine's case heeding his consel could mean the difference between life and death.

When I sat down to write this I thought of taking this piece into the direction of analyzing a growth opportunity but I think there's a bigger story here -

In an environment of increasing uncertainty and upheaval it's very uplifting to see someone (Levine) create a successful business despite a bad personal story, many setbacks and challenges. We can all learn from Levine's making lemonade when life served him lemons.

Larry, if you're reading this...you need to know that you've got the makings of a great business book...go for it!!!

It doesn't matter

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:05:26 PST

It's Academy Awards night and we'll be watching. I know, I know...in this dire economic environment, isn't there something less shallow and less celebrity oriented to write about?

We consider ourselves movie people. We would rather watch a movie than broadcast TV. So naturally we've got our thoughts on which of the latest movies should get recognized. But never mind predictions on who's going to win, there is a more interesting business story buried in the celebrity media buzz.

That story is the decline in TV viewership of the event and the plans to reinvent it this year to reverse the decline. The Academy Awards is considered to be recession proof by the sellers of advertising. Perhaps not anymore - according to the Los Angeles Times:

"The ABC network, in a move that reverses years of escalating prices and underscores the worsening economy, has shaved the cost of a commercial for Sunday's annual Academy Awards show, one of TV's most-watched programs. Once considered invincible to downturns, big events such as the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl, which attract tens of millions of viewers, can no longer command automatic rate hikes."

A graph from Nielsen Media Research (by way of TV by the Numbers) of Academy Awards viewership from 1974 to 2008 tells this story well:

Hmmm...it appears that a decline in viewership has been ongoing since 2001, including a resurgence in viewers in 2003 and 2004. All non-recession years. However, there were dips in recession years - 1981, 1987 and 1997. I bet that ABC would find that its ad revenues from those years' Academy events would have been even lower, much like this year's.

So what's causing the dip in viewership if the point of origin isn't the recession? The Associated Press via the Huffington Post say: "The worst-kept secret in Hollywood this awards season has been how first-time producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, in a bid to build buzz and bounce back from last year's ratings nadir, are keeping their Oscars overhaul plans a secret....The academy has a problem here. The show is way too long, and the films this year are not spectacular he said. If this year's ratings are down, it could be the tipping point and they will have to make changes."

I don't know if I agree...with the assertion that this year's crop of movies is not spectacular. I do agree that it may be a tipping point moment for the Academy Awards. But it really doesn't matter. Thanks to the global economic crisis efforts to reinvent the program through format changes such as new hosts and the elimination of monologues may not make a difference.

Maybe people are too beaten down by the economy to watch red carpet questions about the latest over the top jewellery or fashion designers. Maybe they'll watch a pay per view movie or DVD instead!

Planes, iPods and...Lawyers

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:49:11 PST

This isn't about the iPod habits of lawyers at 30,000 feet! Occasionally I collect interesting news articles, with the intention of writing a post on each. Of course there's never enough time to write. So instead of having some of these links languishing on my personal task list, here's a sampling of three links that caught my eye and the insight to be gained from each:

Airbus A380 is a mixed blessing for LAX:

Summary: The LA Times writes about the giant A380 aircraft causing headaches at LAX. Here's a quote from the piece: "...the A380 requires special procedures because Los Angeles International Airport was not built to accommodate a plane of its size...Every time Qantas lands one of its giant Airbus A380s at LAX, parts of the nation's fourth-busiest airport come to a halt"
Insight: The A380 offers airlines improved fuel economy, longer range, better customer amenities. But one has to wonder what the true financial impact of this immense aircraft is. Impact to other airline flights in the air and on the group, their passengers and airport authorities operating expenses. Being the biggest may may not be better in this case
Click here to read the whole article.

The great iPod migration:

Summary: Fortune Magazine on the 100 million migration opportunity at Apple - iPod to iPhone. An equities analyst (Bernstein Research’s Toni Sacconaghi) speculates what Apple will do to drive more revenue from its iPod install base
Insight: I don't know if Sacconaghi's proposal to compel the 100M iPod users to upgrade through introducing lower cost iPhones (without a data plan and/or launching a smaller iPhone) is in Apple's product plan. But what an amazing upgrade opportunity. Need to track this one!
Click here to read the entire article

Billable Hours Giving Ground at Law Firms:

Summary: The NY Times writes that billable hours at law firms are down thanks to the economic crisis
Insight: This is an excellent description of the problem facing all professional services firms (Accounting, Consulting, etc...) as a result of the downturn in the economy. These lawyers have some great ideas to cope - flat fees instead of billable hours, commissions on savings and even payment plans. If you run a PS firm you may want to consider these options also
Click here to read the entire article

10 Things I'll Miss about Trade Shows

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:00:50 PDT

Dean Takahashi's of VentureBeat wrote a post about Sony Electronics holding a virtual trade show. here. Virtual sales calls and seminars are being done via the Internet, so I'm thrilled that a cost effective solution now exists for trade shows.

A virtual trade show has to be more cost effective, time efficient and highly targeted for both exhibitors and attendees. Sure enough Sony says: "...the virtual trade cost less than 50 percent of a real world event, not to mention that most of the virtual trade show material can be reused."
I'm certain we'll be seeing more of these events in the future. So here's the list of things I'll miss about being an exhibitor at real world trade shows:

Carpet rentals
30+ minute waits for a taxi at the Javits, Moscone, or LVCC
Fifteen dollar hamburgers at concession stands
Hunting the show floor for a "big kahuna" customer
Traveling with a trade show booth...as airline baggage
Arriving to the show/conference and discovering that new booth signage with the new branding was forgotten back at the office
Checking out attendee badges without being obvious
Crashing a corporate suite party without an invite and meeting the "big kahuna" customer
Booth tear down after 7 straight hours of booth duty, then missing your flight home because of long lines at the official shippers office
Handing out materials, and discussions with hundreds, if not thousands of people. People who will never be a customer. Then discovering the result of the show is 5 qualified prospects after 3 days.

But the one thing I'm really going to miss the most is the Gospel Brunch at the House of the Blues in Las Vegas.

HP's Garage Rules

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:35:06 PST

A few weeks ago I wrote of a list of top performer competencies. When I read today's post on Wired's Epicenter Blog about the twelve rules that served Bill Hewlett and David Packard (and their company - HP) so very well, I thought there would be value in linking to those rules also.

Here's HP's Rules of the Garage:

Believe you can change the world.
Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
Know when to work alone and when to work together.
Share tools, ideas.
Trust your colleagues.
No Politics. No bureaucracy.
The customer defines a job well done.
Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
Invent different ways of working.
Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
Believe that together we can do anything.
Invent.

In case you were wondering about the garage reference -- HP was founded in a Palo Alto, CA garage sixty years ago in 1939. Many assert that HP's very existence led to the technology powerhouse known as Silicon Valley.

My favourite rule is the first one....which one is yours?

The Importance of Social Networking

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:08:48 PST

Over dinner with friends, my wife and I provided a social networking talk of sorts. Ruth is a leading Food Blogger and I've been posting on this site since 2005. Consider us as true believers and practitioners of the value of open online conversations.

We embraced social networking after reading the Cluetrain Manifesto back in 2002. Our friends are starting to explore social network sites to help their business and wanted to know more. In actual fact they're skeptical of the bottom line benefits of getting engaged in online conversations.

Here are some of the points I used to convince them:

Connect with People (a.k.a customers) - Tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow a business person to connect with people, regardless of whether they are current or potential users of your product or service. These individuals are already online and having conversation with others, seeking advice and counsel to solve a problem. Being there at that moment will allow you to inexpensively convert that person into a loyal long term customer.

Get a Pulse for your Brand - Most conversations on these sites are searchable. You can very read what's being said about your company or its brands. For example you can word search on Twitter by clicking here.

Recruit - These sites are great sources for talented people to bring into your organization as employees. You can search candidates on LinkedIn for example.

Being there first (or second) - There is competitive advantage in being the first or second of your peers to build a beachhead in Social Networking. Customers already enlightened by Cluetrain will evangelize your product/service if you're part of the conversation. It becomes even more compelling as Social Networking crosses the chasm from early adopters into the mass market.

Many companies already have conversations with their customers and suppliers. Here are examples of companies getting in early by operating a Company Blog - Microsoft, GM, Google, Clorox, J&J. Or others engaged in Twittering - Carnival Cruise Lines, Jetblue, Dell.

Did we convince our friends of the many immediate benefits of Social Networking? I'd like to think so. But the reality is that for most business people, they see it as easier to invest time in more traditional pursuits with their customers. But for others, I expect that tools such as LinkedIn and Blogger will soon become as important to a company as their corporate websites, trade show booths or 1-800 numbers.

Judged by the Quality of Rivals

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:38:03 PST

Quantum of Solace the new James Bond movie got me to thinking about leadership, when in it, Bond says - "you're judged by the quality of your enemies." Bond's enemies are evil villans, in the real world...in business, we usually are just rivals.

Would you put your rival on board your team? This past week there was a news leak that President Elect Obama is considering his rival Hilary Clinton for the position of Secretary of State in his cabinet. Many leaders wouldn't bring on their rival into their team. They'd see the rival as a threat, a risk, someone who would go rogue when it suited their self interest.

Perhaps. In the real world, I believe that roles must be filled by the most qualified person...even if that person might overshadow the leader. I subscribe to the "A's hire A's, and B's hire C's." A good hiring decision is defined when that new hire (an "A" type) excels in the role and is rapidly moved into challenging and highly visible assignments. When this happens it means you've done your duty as a leader!

So how can you identify an "A"? MiniMicrosoft - the famous anonymous Blogger nails the definition of an "A" by stating (in a recent post):

"They can own a room: they aren't warming a seat but rather can take charge of a conversation and represent such a deep level of knowledge that they gain respect for what they say and earn a good reputation. Their focus stays on accountable results and this person can bring resolution and closure together.

Expert: They are sought after to be in meetings, for instance, so that good decisions can be made.

Results-focused: they are focused on getting great results and don't entwine their ego to particular solutions. They don't get defensive if their ideas are revealed to have flaws but rather delight in being able to move to a better solution.

Leadership: pro-active leadership that convinces team members of the future direction and even helps to implement it. This is a big difference between those who can complain about the way things should be and those who can actually bring it
about.

Solutions, not problems: following up on the above, they aren't complaining about problems on the team but rather implementing and driving solutions.

Makes other great: the team benefits and grows from the person's contributions. Answers questions from the team, from support, from customers. Knows what the team delivers backwards and forwards. They are a good mentor.

Influence when they can, scare when they must: they have fundamental skills in influencing people, but if they need to flip into junk-yard dog mode, they can.
They don't give up and walk away but rather fight when they need to fight, escalating only when needed and with lots of justification.

Makes the boss great: if the team and your boss are succeeding because of you, of course you'll be succeeding too.
Not doing it for the promotion: if you're out for a promotion, don't do work specifically chosen to get the promotion. This is like meeting the Buddha on the road. If you come up with a pretty plan to justify your promotion, you've already lost it. Such plotting is obvious and actually detrimental to your career."

Well said!

Note - apologies to those of my former colleagues at Microsoft cringing at my quoting of MiniMicrosoft...sometime he writes inspiring stuff.

So...what do you do for a living?

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:44:21 PST

I wish the answer to that question was as easy as saying - I'm a fireman, or I'm a lawyer, so people could understand what I do for a living. But it's not that clear cut.

These days many jobs are a mix of professions and disciplines. Perhaps much of this is due to the change and convergence caused by technology. So why is it so difficult for some people to get what for example a Program Manager does? (Even my wife doesn't know what that means.)

Personally, I fit in this category of job. I've been fortunate that my entire career has been in the technology industry. Early on I was in sales, then moved into general management, followed by stints as an entrepreneur. Today, I develop long term strategy at a leading Canadian company.

But I don't think that a person outside my sector would understand what I do, the first time I explain it. Telling someone, say...a bank manager, that I do "market strategy" for a living, inevitably results in a puzzled look. I suppose a bank manager is too accustomed to meeting with teachers or accountants that when someone like me walks in, there's no box to check off.

The reality of what I do every day is - I apply knowledge and experience from financial, HR, technology, marketing and sales domains to create winning strategies.

Now do you get it?

Leadership Lessons from Obama and McCain

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:15:31 PST

Now that the elections (both in the USA and Canada) are over, what's a news junkie like me supposed to do? Go cold turkey? Nope, the answer is simple - read through the post-mortems and the pieces on "how they won/lost" on the Blogsphere and in the mainstream media.

The best material I've come across is a seven part series in Newsweek. It's an in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign, consisting of exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting from the McCain and Obama camps assembled by a special team of reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day."

The series is an entertaining read. But as I went through it, I found myself flashing back to the teams and organizations in my past where similar dysfunction and perfection was attained. I'm thinking that there's not much difference between the complexity of a Fortune 100 company or a Political Campaign. There's much to learn about what to do and not to do with regard to planning, strategy, people management and leadership from these politicians and their staffs.

Click here to read the whole series.

Harvest and Growth in 3D Graphics Software

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:19:02 PDT

I read Montreal Tech Watch to keep up with technology and innovation in Montreal. A recent post about a change in ownership of SoftImage caught my attention.

Based in Montreal, SoftImage (animation and 3D graphics software for movies and TV) was bought by Microsoft back in 1994 and made into a subsidiary for four years, before being sold to Avid in 1998. Last week SoftImage was acquired from Avid by its primary competitor Autodesk.

Montreal Tech Watch made a very pointed assertion about the deal:

"One troubling thing in this acquisition is the price paid for SoftImage (Note - $35M). The same company was bought by Microsoft in 1994 for $130 million, then was bought by Avid from Microsoft for $285 million in 1998. The difference makes it look like a firesale price, as if Avid did destroy SoftImage’s value 8 fold in a timelapse of 10 years....SoftImage had back then a star product, DS, the first and only non-linear video-editing suite. DS and the other video editing software has been Avid’s cash cow for the past 10 years, but they didn’t bring any further innovation."

I'm not surprised. Avid's approach defines a classic harvest strategy employed by many organizations. Harvest is when there is no product enhancement, coupled with reductions in costs, so as to maximize cash. Typically this is done when a product is late in its lifecycle and when there is limited opportunity for share or revenue growth. Harvest is also employed when a company isn't doing well and there's limited capital available.

A link in a comment on the Montreal Tech Watch article led me to a very insightful post on CGenie entitled: "Autodesk: Friend of Foe?". In it CGenies says: "Today Avid is a struggling company, losing money and fast. Even including this sale, their net loss for the quarter was around $66.4 million."

In comparison - "Autodesk is an unexpected tale in the software world. Founded in 1982, it is now in its 26th year and shows no sign of slowing in growth."

Autodesk embarked on a growth mission to "Democratize this software for all size companies so they can get productive. It's a combo of price point and functionality." To deliver on this, Autodesk undertook an aggressive acquisition strategy and purchased at least 25 companies (and products) since 1999.

In my opinion Autodesk's grand mission has much in common with successful initiatives by WalMart and Microsoft:

WalMart - "Saving People Money So they can Live Better": WalMart engineers this by consistently dropping price points so the widest number of people are able purchase more things. They succeed by wringing out lower operating costs from suppliers and operations (supply chain.)

Microsoft - "Help People and Businesses Throughout the World to Realize their Potential": Perhaps it's the old tag line of "a PC on every desk and in every home" that is more closely connected to Autodesk's vision. Microsoft developed its own products, then relentlessly evolved them to increase rates of adoption and decrease price points....while at the same time buying and integrating companies to add value to those products.

Having a clear, strong mandate such as Autodesk's, is what it takes to enable sustainable grow. If I was at SoftImage or in any other company that's capital constrained, but innovative, I would welcome being part of a successful cash rich organization such as Autodesk....at least until capital markets turnaround!

An Opportunity to Take Courses at Yale

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:23:02 PDT

I just received notice that Yale University has opened access to a number of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at the University. All you need to attend is an Internet connection.

Open Yale Courses provides high quality video of the most popular classes at Yale. There are courses in Astronomy, Biomedical Engineering, Classics, Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Religious Studies.

These are open to *anyone*. This is very cool stuff and I highly recommend you look into it.

The ones I plan on taking are:

Econ 159 - Game Theory: "This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere."

Econ 252 - Financial Markets: This course is taught by Robert Shiller, with guest lectures by Carl Ichan (Billionaire, Private Equity Investor), Stephen Schwarzman (CEO of Blackstone), "The course strives to offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century."

I must applaud Yale for doing this. Click here for more details.

Predicting Leadership Success

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:20:49 PDT

What's the key predictor for leadership success in business and government?

In many organizations it's prior success. Years ago, one of my supervisor's placed individuals in important roles only if they tasted success. Not just any kind of success, the kind that changes an industry. Another leader said that she only wanted key jobs filled by people who failed in an assignment (but learned from it). This is what "failing forward" means.

Reading today's endorsement of Barak Obama by the LA Times made me think that perhaps the support of peers or key influencers is the definitive predictor of success. Apparently Obama's newspaper endorsements outnumber his opponent by three times. The LA Times is part of a larger list that includes the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post.

The LA Times says this about Obama:

"Obama inspires confidence not so much in his grasp of Wall Street finance but in his acknowledgment of and comfort with his lack of expertise. He will not be one to forge far-reaching economic policy without sounding out the best thinkers and practitioners, and he has many at his disposal. He has won the backing of some on Wall Street not because he's one of them but because they recognize his talent for extracting from a broad range of proposals a coherent and workable program."

"Inspires confidence", "won the backing...", "talent for extracting from..." These are things that any business person would want in their performance review or promotion notice.

Perhaps endorsements do predict success. For example in the recent Canadian election the incumbent Conservative Party secured 18 endorsements and its main opponent secured just one. The Conservative Party won the election (although they are forming a Minority Government.)

Still, I'm thinking there has to be more to predicting leadership success than prior success and endorsements from influentials. Back in 2005/2006 I devoted a lot of time in my consulting business to innovation. So when a Canadian Federal election was called I asked each of the national parties for their Innovation Platform. Only one party responded - the Conservative Party, through their local candidate - Peter Kent.

Click here to read what I wrote in 2006.

Peter lost to a very popular incumbent in the heart of Liberal Toronto in that election. In fact he lost big time. But he didn't give up. He learned from that experience, adjusted and won in last week's general election!

Here's what one columnist wrote about his very impressive victory:

"Mr. Kent didn’t give up. During this year’s election, he ran as the Conservative candidate for Thornhill, a Toronto riding that’s gone Liberal since its creation in 1996. Yet Mr. Kent crushed his adversary -- two-term Liberal incumbent Susan Kadis -- by more than 5,000 votes. "

I'm not saying that having failed in the past is the definitive predictor of leadership success. I think it's a factor. It's probably as important a factor as the endorsements of others. But in my opinion perseverance coupled with the ability to learn and adjust is what matters most.

The Ichan Report

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:36:42 PDT

I just added the Icahn Report to my Business Favourites list on the right hand sidebar on this page. Yes, that Icahn...Karl Icahn...the billionaire and private equity investor.

He's a blogger and I understand that he writes each post himself. I found the site through Kevin Meyer on the lean enterprise blog - Evolving Excellence. Meyer's focus is on Icahn's value of people and waste...that when addressing waste one should get to root causes before acting.

Personally I like reading Icahn's views on corporate governance and the insight he provides on his deals.

Check out the Icahn Report by clicking here.

Did you stack?

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:35:34 PDT

Last night was an exciting time for Canadian political and technology junkies like me. It was Election Night! In the past I would have simply turned on my TV and flipped between channels to watch the results roll in. Now thanks to the Web, there's way more real time information at my disposal.

So, I "Media Stacked." That is to say I surfed the Web, blogged and watched TV all at the same time. What did I stack?

Not much really...here's the list:

AliantTV tuned to the CBC and CTV
A Web browser tab open to Twitter's #CanadaVotes for real time updates
A second Web browser tab open to The Globe and Mail site for local and national results
A third Web browser tab open to The National Post's Live Results Webpage

An election law in Canada prevents media outlets from communicating election results before the polls close in most timezones. According to Elections Canada (the independent agency that conducts elections in Canada) - "it's important to ensure the vote results are not known in areas where voting is still underway". So things were very quiet on the mainstream outlets till later in the evening. But that didn't stop Twitter users.

Some of you may be asking - what is Twitter?

Answer - "Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets ) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length"

Basically it's scrolling list of opinions (good and bad), insight, and news. Last night Twitter was ablaze with tweets skirting the election embargo. I wonder if Elections Canada will investigate? Perhaps, but I think some of the best tweets were sent after all the polls closed. Check out the tweet stream for yourself by clicking here.

But there's more media stacking to be done...a U.S. Presidential Debate takes place this evening and Twitter set up Election 2008 with streams for each party...how cool is that!!!!

They Predicted It

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:52:32 PDT

I once worked for a senior executive at a leading software company that predicted the bursting of the Dotcom Bubble back in 2000-2001. In the midst of rising expectations he advised us to go liquid on all technology and telecommunications stock investments before it was too late.

We heeded his advice. Fast forward to 2008 and we're in a similar crisis. This time it's one that's related to debt and the worldwide financial system. I wonder what my old boss would say about current events? Could he have predicted today's scenario? Maybe, maybe not!

There's an interesting article in the Huffington Post today identifying individuals that "...issued warnings about the fragility of the financial system and sounded the alarm about an impending collapse before it all came crashing down"

It's scary to read how each (scholars, investors, politicians, etc...) precisely predicted current events and outcomes.

Here are the names:

Nouriel Roubini - NYU Professor
Warren Buffett - Investor
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Scholar
Byron Dorgan - U.S. Senator
Joseph Stiglitz - Nobel Prize winning economist
Paul Krugman - Professor, NY Times Columnist that just won the Nobel Prize for Economics

Personally, I'm already looking at their work to improve my predictive skills.

Click here to read the entire article.

Weathering the Storm

david@daviddaniels.ca (David Daniels) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:47:18 PDT

It's been a while since I've written in this space. But given the world wide financial crisis I thought I'd share the direction provided by a well know Venture Capital Firm (Sequoia Capital) to it's portfolio of companies on how to weather the storm.

You don't have to be in a startup to benefit from this great advice. Click here to here to view the presentation on TechCrunch. In my opinion the best info is on slide #47.