Keith Collins' True Marketing Experience

My business word cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:52:00 +0000

This is a great representation of all the key words that matter to my business life, TrueTalk and career

Try making your own cloud at Wordle its easy

Have you ever thought that time might be moving faster the older you get?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 22:46:00 +0000

This is not an uncommon perception, most people approaching mid-life begin to notice this and the common explanation is that your perspective of time is relative to your age. i.e. a year at the age of 50 is 2% of your life whereas at 5 years old it is 20% of your life.

That is not to say that the experience of time in the present has changed. An hour or day still seems the same duration as it is happening, or perhaps that depends on your activity at the time. Perhaps the urgency of life becomes more obvious when you begin to realise you have passed your expected mid-point.

Whilst thinking about this I began to consider the idea that this changing perception of time could be related to memory, which is based on your day to day experiences. As a test I asked myself how many experiences I could remember from yesterday.

There are only 1440 minutes in a day and you are probably asleep for roughly a third of those. So a good estimate would be a range between 250 and 1000 experiences per day depending on how “special” the day was. For this example let’s assume an average is 500 experiences a day and I am around 50 years old. On the basis that the volume of experience is related to my age, when I was 10 times younger at the age of 5 I should have memorised an average 5000 experiences per day.

If true this would imply that the brain is working harder when younger to store all these memories and that on reflecting back over the higher level of activity associated within a period of time it would seem relatively longer.

The mathematics for this type of relationship where the rate of new memories per day is inversely proportional to your age is logarithmic (assuming there is a direct relationship between perceived time periods and the number of new memories) and given a single point of reference (i.e. 500 memories per day at the age of 50) it is possible to calculate the rate at any point in life and the number of experiences over a whole life or between any two points in time.

Based on my own example it is possible to calculate that number of experiences on the first day of life would be about 9.25 million. The first 2 years of life would account for 61 million experiences and there would be about 95 million experiences in total at the age of 80. You can see that this describes a brain development where the brain fills up with experiences very quickly in early life and is 80% full by the age of 11.

Coincidentally I came across a film about baby brain development that described how at birth only 50% of the brain is developed, that is the ‘primitive’ brain that controls basic life functions. The cognitive functions which rare located in the cerebral cortex are undeveloped and the brain cells are not connected. As the new baby experiences life new connections are made to remember that specific activity and at the same time in the first 3 months of life the baby’s brain grows rapidly adding new cells and connecting them. Not only does the brain grow but so does the rate of new connections peaking at around 14 weeks into life.

The brain continues to make new connections based on memories and experiences for the rest of that person’s life but the rate this happens then begins to reduce, looking rather like a logarithmic chart. This chart shows how the physical aspects of the brain develop.

This is why the first 2 years of a baby’s life is so important as they effectively hard-wire most of their memory based on millions of experiences. If my theory is correct the first 2 years of life could amount to over 60% of all the connections ever made in the brain.

This theory also explains why it is so hard to remember experiences in early life, not only are your senses under developed and your understanding of life very limited during those early years but the sheer number of experiences before the age of 11 (unless you are still under 18) would make the identification of any specific experiences similar to looking for a needle in a haystack. The well-functioning brain can perhaps only cope with tens of thousands of experiences and these are prioritised based on frequency of use or more recent times.

To conclude the best advice I could give to those concerned about the remainder of their lives and to help slow down the pace of life is to experience more and pack more into your life - driving up the quantity of memorable experiences each and every day.

gotradelive word cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:25:00 +0000

Put 7 recent original press articles about gotradelive into Wordle.com to create a word cloud:

• CMSWire –gotradelive Brings Its Social E-Commerce Network to US3/27/12

• Wine Business Monthly – New Social Commerce & Commercial Trading Platform 3/26/12

• Sourcing Innovations – gotradelive: A LinkedIn eBay on Steroids for Small Business Procurement to Groupon To 3/26/12

• Destination CRM – gotradelive Establishes North American Presence 3/27/12

• TMCNet – gotradelive Launches Free Social & Commercial Trading Platform 3/26/12

• Social Sourcing Solutions – gotradelive: A LinkedIn eBay on Steroids for Small Business Procurement to Groupon To 3/26/12

• CMSWire – gotradelive Builds a Social e-Ecommerce Network for SMBs 2/21/12

gotradelive US launch PR

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:40:00 +0000

gotradelive Launches Free Social Commerce and Commercial Trading Platform Beginning with California

Easy-to-Use Commerce Networking Site and Mobile App Removes Barriers Between Buyers & Sellers to Accelerate Deal Flow and Multiply Customer Connections ....read full article

gotradelive Partners with Monterey Bay International Trade Association and TradePort.org to Bring Social Commerce to California Exporters & Importers

Combination of Social Networking and eCommerce Creates New Speed and Efficiencies in Selling and Sourcing around the World.....read full article

Already a few good write ups following interviews last week:

Sourcing Innovation "GoTradeLive: A LinkedIn eBay on Steroids for Small Business Procurement to Groupon To."
TMC net "gotradelive Launches Free Social and Commercial Trading Platform"
Wine Business "New Social Commerce and Commercial Trading Platform"

Hopefully a lot more to follow soon....

Globalization 2.0 : My first blog post on ecademy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:31:00 +0000

I first became aware of globalization as a phenomenon about ten years ago, when it started popping up regularly in strategic objectives handed out by corporate headquarters. However the idea of globalization isn't exactly new, it been going on for a long time, it's just that recently with the availability of the high speed internet in every corner of the world its evolution has rocketed ahead.

Until the last few years globalization of the world economy has almost entirely benefited large multi-national corporations, who could afford to put in place the infrastructure and organisation required to control their markets around the world.

The latest web developments like social networking and social commerce are starting to provide smaller businesses and individuals with the tools they need to operate globally. It's never been easier to 'go global' and there is a new category of business emerging referred to as the 'global small business'. Their size makes them nimble and their ability to embrace innovation quickly will be their main advantage when competing with the giant multinational corporations.

On their own a small business or even a global small business will not seriously challenge the big incumbents, who will resort to all sorts of tactics to keep control of their markets, for example leveraging their press and government relationships in support of their business interests.

Small businesses must collaborate to compete effectively and the basis of good collaboration is great communications, a common purpose and trust. Open and available global business networking platforms like ecademy meet some of the needs, but there are still gaps in the armoury especially when it comes to delivering the business, ecommerce systems that work globally are very expensive and complicated to install and outsourcing commercial processes to a managed service provider may lead you back into the arms of a large multinational, who will only be too pleased to take a slice of the precious margin.

The unashamed mention for my new business venture gotradelive is that we are helping to equip small businesses with some basic commercial tools that will help them trade more efficiently and remain in control of the process all within their own private networks.

I recently invested some time listening to the new MD of ecademy, Daniel Priestly, talking about the new direction he is going to take the business. Reinventing the 'e' in ecademy to mean 'entrepreneur' academy is inspired and I wish him well. The massive majority of entrepreneurs are responsible for starting and running small businesses and they will need all the support they can get and we all need them to be very successful.

Successful entrepreneurs will mean a dynamic and growing small business market sector, which will drive the economy and employment forward. As SMEs represent most of the wealth generation in every country their success will lead the global economic recovery. On this basis one would imagine that support for entrepreneurs and small businesses should be at the forefront of every government policymakers' mind when they are contemplating their challenges, let's hope they are not drowned out by the vested interests of large multinational corporations.

Gotradelive Real Live Demo - Selling £50 Note

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:56:00 +0000

This is a genuine opportunity to bid for and potentially win a £50 note.

The starting price is just £1.00 and the increments are set at 1p, so lets see how good the winning deal is.

This is no trick, but an honest incentive to get you to try out the Gotradelive system.

It's only possible to offer this deal because Gotradelive is completely free and there is no transaction fee or set up fee to be paid to a third party. Its your tool to run as you want.

To place a bid all you need to do is to register your name and email address - and choose a password.

Click here to register and bid

If you have any questions there is a brief 2 minute video introduction to the Gotradelive system on the registration page or here

Gotradelive is a new online trading platform will level the playing field for SMEs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:57:00 +0000

A free online B2B trading system for SMEs could help them cut costs and boost their revenue without having to make any investment.

October 15. London. A new trading system for SMEs, Gotradelive, gives smaller businesses the trading power of bigger corporations, helping them compete more effectively and run a tighter more efficient sales operation.

This cloud based platform (explained here) provides business networking as simple to use as Facebook and really useful buying and selling tools that will add a powerful string to any commercial bow.

Gotradelive gives SMEs the capability to market their products and services more efficiently. Its features allow businesses to create an online trade for sale or tender and invite their own selected audience to place their bids. It’s very easy to use and maintains the privacy and control which is lost when using a public auction site.

Founder and CEO Robert Doughty says it gives SMEs all the advantages of the trading portals and ebusiness systems that only multinational corporations can afford. “The odds are stacked against the SME and this platform will help them compete on a level playing field. It gives them better buying and selling power within their existing markets, and it helps them find and manage new market opportunities too.” says Doughty.

Farmers, for example, are often forced to dump perfectly good stock. But using Gotradelive a farmer can quickly remarket and sell a consignment of vegetables that has unexpectedly been rejected by a supermarket, maybe just because they were ugly. Currently, finding a buyer at the last minute would have been too time consuming and the farmer would have had to bin them. But using Gotradelive the farmer can set up an online sale in under 5 minutes, contact all their alternative customers and invite them to bid for these bargains. The farmer salvages some money for his crop and the buyer gets a bargain they would have not even been aware of.

Similarly, Gotradelive can be used for reverse trades or invitations to tender. The same farmer could invite a number of suppliers of fertilizer to tender for their next requirement, or maybe use it to find a new cost effective supplier of tractor tyres.

In these cases Gotradelive brings a new liquidity to the SME sector and creates value by making new trading opportunities possible.

Why SMEs Need a B2B Trading System

1. Global trading systems and software licenses are too expensive and complex to set up and use

2. Consumer auction style sites are insecure and the SME loses control of the sale

3. Large consumer audience based auction portals are expensive, and fees are disproportionate to trading margins.

4. Gotradelive is free, easy to set up and use: there are no transaction based fees and even usage costs are low given how easy it is to use

5. The trader still makes the sale or purchase and puts the transaction through their own accounts under their own terms and conditions of business.

6. Trade only buyers are more knowledgeable and don’t waste time – the trader controls the audience in Gotradelive

7. Trade only sellers are considerably more trust worthy and on Gotradelive the trader manages an audience they already know.

8. Gotradelive allows the trader to scale their business and still retain control.

9. There is an opportunity to create an event that will act as a catalyst for action – be it a deadline for sales or procurement

10. Gotradelive adds a vital weapon in the commercial armory which enables the SME to operate effectively in the global trading community.

Keith Collins' True Marketing Experience: Fred Greeno Launches Gotradelive to the World

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:12:00 +0000

Keith Collins' True Marketing Experience: Fred Greeno Launches Gotradelive to the World: Who is Fred Greeno? Watch the video and see him explain how gotradelive will give small and medium sized businesses another way of doing bus...

Fred Greeno Launches Gotradelive to the World

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Who is Fred Greeno? Watch the video and see him explain how gotradelive will give small and medium sized businesses another way of doing business online.

If you have followed my blog in the past you will won't have missed the lack of activity whilst I have been busy getting gotradelive ready for the market. Now it is ready, you will see many more posts from me as we go about spreading the word about the value we can bring to SME's around the world.

Please visit the site and register, there is no commitment, no cost and you can try it out with friends and colleagues - just for fun try finding out how much your colleagues will pay for the bosses car! Seriously though these tools which are available to anyone can really help companies improve their business, with more efficient ways of selling, buying and marketing to their private networks - and stay in control of the whole process.

The team is off to China tomorrow to kick start our Asia Pacific operations and we are totally excited about the prospect in store. Stay tuned to find out how we get on over the next few days.

Building a pipeline for TrueTalk

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:21:00 +0000

It’s time to focus on my own consulting business and the first thing to do is establish a pipeline of new opportunities.

If you are interested in discussing any marketing or business development challenges you are currently facing please let me know, hopefully with my experience I’ll be able to help you in some way and maybe you can join my pipeline.

I can be flexible to accommodate a wide variety of needs simply drop me a line if you’d like to set up a call or a meeting.
(email: keith [at] truetalk [dot] co [dot] uk)

The Apprentice Form

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 05:20:00 +0000

It is almost impossible to precede this amazingly insightful and hilarious form card for this year’s series of the Apprentice, but for the last few series David has produced this analysis with ever increasing accuracy and this year it is time to publish and share. No apologies for the many ex-Amstrad insider jokes but you’ll probably get them anyway (apart from Tony Massey – read ‘Duncan Goodhew’)! Thanks and credit to David Hennell for this work of .....

Blimey... give a guy a break! I Sky Plussed it and only finished watching the first episode 5 minutes ago.

Anyhow by popular demand, here's Hennell's tips to the runners and riders for The Apprentice 2010. Accept no substitutes... here's the real thing, the original and still the best (sorry, Mike!)

I'm going to do this in two parts, because I'm knackered. Let's face it guys, none of us are as young as we were back in Brentwood days (even if Thomas Power spends hours photoshopping the thousands of pictures of himself that then appear on every social networking site in an attempt to look as if he is... honestly, that man's *such* a cyber tart!).

Okay the boys. Far FAR easier to sort this lot out, compared to the girls. What is it, gentlemen, that makes us so transparent? Some perma-squirt of machismo? Speaking of which...

Dan "Lunch is for wimps" Harris (RIP). You'd think he knew plenty about sausages, given his fleshy-jowled look of a ginger Yorkshire butcher. But no. Management style straight out of the early 80s, so much so that he made Gary Meyer (Amstrad Australia's erstwhile MD for those of you who have forgotten) look like Gandhi. You just *know* his favourite film of all time is Wall Street.. he had to go, if nothing else because of his extraordinary "go on, sniff my gonads... you know you want to" way of sitting in the boardroom.

Stuart "The Brand" Baggs. More Jo Brand than Nike, methinks, except far less intentionally funny. Overweeningly arrogant, blissfully un-self-aware. Offered himself to Alan on a sale or return money back deal in the boardroom showdown - if only his mother had had the benefit of an identical offer at his birth. Mind you, he ran rings round Dan the ginger butcher and did him up like a kipper in the boardroom, which if nothing else needs applauding as a mercy killing. He'll be great TV but there's no way in Hell Alan could bear him, not even on consignment.

Alex "New Labour" Epstein. Why New Labour, I hear you ask, when he's obviously such a good little corporate capitalist? Well for one, he worryingly resembles Gordon Brown after a fake-bake spray tan. And two, he's got that badly trained public speaking move that all New Labour wannabes have done since Blair to attempt to show sincerity. You know the thing, that masturbatory emphatic hand gesture a la Gareth Hunt Maxwell House adverts c. 1980, whenever you're trying to make someone believe whatever line of crap you're peddling. Apart from that, not one to get his hands dirty and won't last.

Raleigh "Training wheels needed on my tricycle" Addington. Bless him! That lip-quivering shocked speech at Dan, ending with a genuinely morally outraged finger-wagging cry of "Shameful!". I honestly thought he might burst into tears. Just too soft, too sheltered, too green and is just bound to get completely stabbed in the back by someone he thinks loves him as much as he worshipped his house prefect at Eton when as a junior fag, he was required to be on 24 hour call to butter the latter's crumpets.

Shibby "Trust me, I'm a doctor" Robati. I was briefly convinced he'd been expelled from a recent international cricket team for match fixing, but he's no fool, this one. He just looks like it's all beneath him and he doesn't seem to be that bothered. No doubt he'll do well as a surgeon with that languid doe-eyed arrogance he affects... or rather, doesn't. It's all natural, I fear. Out mid-season.

Christopher "Star Trek" Farrell (yes Mike, I agree with the otherworldly look our commando's got). Kept a low profile and stayed well-hidden - maybe he was a sniper? Came a little bit back to life in the boardroom where it looked like he couldn't believe his ears at the nonsense Dan was spouting. He's in good company... I couldn't believe his ears either. Maybe a dark horse, but I think too nondescript. Out mid-season again.

Chris "Investment banker is not always rhyming slang" Bates. The secret lovechild of Jamie Oliver and Ronan Keating and one of three, yes count 'em three, investment bankers in this year's show. It's mildly encouraging to see that some of the city bozos have got their come-uppance - why else would they sign up to the show? - as we enter double dip recession. He's a bit posh, but I think he has a little edge to him. My 2nd favourite of the boys (not that this is difficult among this bunch).

And finally Jamie "Mi casa es su casa" Lester. Okay so he looks like a Milwall soccer thug in a suit, but that's probably no bad thing as far as Alan is concerned. However, he was pretty much reasoned and professional - didn't you just love the way he took Stuart The Brand to task for acting like a hyperactive toddler after way WAY too much Sunny Delite? By far and away the best of the guys. Final three for absolutely definitely cast-iron sure.

I'll get round to the ladies tomorrow. Stay tuned, pop pickers.

Part 2

Okay, time for the fairer sex to be scrutinized. This is going to be much more tricky, because with just a couple of notable exceptions, the ladies seemed demure, retiring and nigh on invisible - it's time for gut-feel. Never judge a book by its cover was hardly a Brentwood catchphrase.

Speaking of which, did anyone else hear Alan's radio interview last week, set up for him to plug the new series *and* his new book, called "What you see is what you get". Good title, though hardly one to be applied to your average Amstrad product in hindsight... "A mug's eyeful" might have been better. Anyhow, the shock revelation was that Alan confirmed that he'd been asked to appear on Strictly Come Dancing - his comment unsurprisingly being "What a bloody load of old nonsense." What a complete tragedy - we'd all have given several years of our lives just to see Alan doing the Chigwell cha cha in sequinned shirt slashed to the waist.

Now Nick "The Silver Fox" Hewer on Strictly... that's a marriage made in heaven. I'm sure Nick could rapidly polish up his undoubtedly substantial lounge lizard skills and trip the light fantastic with the best of them - plus in his elegantly stealthy way, the man's a serious player... I know, I've seen him in action. Smoother than a baby's bottom coated in Teflon. I can definitely see him inveigling his way into the arms and charms of some lithe young professional dancer half his age... the red tops would have a field day. We should all lobby the BBC for next year. Seriously. Come on Thomas, you're ideally placed to sort out an online campaign with your legion of lonely businesswomen followers on TwitterCademyFaceSpace... we want to see the "Hewer for Strictly" petition.

Anyhow, enough of the musing... back to the girls and the easy ones first.

Melissa "Peroxide Nightmare" Cohen. Oh dear. The obvious pantomime villain of the piece so she'll be kept in for a good long while as the other one (together with Stuart the Brand) as the ones we love to hate. Opinionated, pushy, patronising and generally vile. She'll force her way into the camera foreground on every opportunity. With a surname like that, she may well be of the faith (or as Dave P would say, she's no schicksa, she's a Red Sea pedestrian) but that's not going to save her. The axe will fall in the second half.

Joy "Oh shit! Jo is back" Stefanicki. It's not just me, is it? She does look scarily like mad Jo Cameron from Series 2. Anyhow, you just *know* she's going to be insane. Not axe-wielding psycho insane like Melissa above, but far more new-age, fair trade, crystal-waving, back-to-back whale-song on the IPod, navel-gazing, ear candling, lentil cooking and above all barking mad. Not in a million years is she going to make the final three, so it'll be back to her vegan wigwam in whatever tree-hugging commune she lives in (yes yes, I know she's from Birmingham, but I bet she could find one).

Laura "Fragile - handle with care" Moore. An absolute dead ringer for an 80s actress called Shirley Cheriton (Angels & Eastenders - and no, don't ask me how I know.. just google images), except brunette. She's only 22, and I'm getting this feeling of petulance and emotional fragility from her. A trained violinist apparently, I think she's going to be equally highly strung. Expect something to snap before long.

Paloma "Not Picasso but" Vivanco. Pretty much invisible in the first episode but just on a hunch, I'm expecting this one to have a short fuse and foresee tantrums ahead. I think she'll throw her toys out of the pram once too often and alienate others, so based on the most flimsy of evidence; I'm going to say not one to go too far.

Sandeesh "Thundercats" Samra. How can anyone possibly have that amount of hair? She's the antithesis of Tony Massey. Another near invisible girl in episode one, but reading her brief biography on The Apprentice website, it states that she "believes that keeping the customer happy is the key to success". A business truism, maybe, but not one that's going to mesh well with Alan. Had it been "hustling the customer into thinking he's happy" or "doing the absolute bare minimum necessary to ensure the customer doesn't get atomically pissed off", she'd have been a much more natural fit. I see this one as being rather too nice and idealistic to last long.

Liz "Too pretty by far to be related to Mike" Locke. Sorry, Mike. Not even in my most twisted fantasies can I picture this year's eye-candy in Union Jack socks on the back of a Kawasaki, so there's clearly no shared DNA there. Mind you, did you see shameless Uncle Nick schmoozing his way into her and Stella's (see below) good books by saying he was impressed with their figures? Told you, he's a sly one and I bet he'd like to share some DNA with this Louise Redknapp lookalike. At 24, she's the right age to be an apprentice, providing her corporate investment banking background isn't too "city boy" big business for Alan. I think she's going to do well, providing she's prepared to get her hands dirty. Final three material.

Stella "Investment banker number three" English. Another good candidate, I think. Hard to choose between her and Liz above. Liz has got youth on her side, but Alan's going to like Stella's whole "left school without a single GCSE" claim to fame - he always does appreciate that sort of schtick. OK it's not quite boiling beetroot in Brick Lane from the age of 8, but it's the next best thing. More liable to roll up her sleeves and dive in, so another contender for sure, but an apprentice at 30? I'm unsure.

Joanna "In with a chance" Riley. Offered herself up for team leader in the face of abject sloppy shoulders from the rest of the girls, so hats off to her for that. Actually did a pretty fair job as well - not the strongest personality, maybe but definitely pleasant and seems to have common sense. If her apparent general air of niceness doesn't prove to be her Achilles heel, this one's one to watch - I can see her making the final three.

So, I'm down to a final five (not that it'll ever go this way - got to keep some hate figures in for ratings purposes). However, Hennell's 2010 Top Tips for the best of the bunch are:-

Jamie Lester - Evens favourite
Liz Locke - 6/4
Joanna Riley - 5/2
Stella English - 3/1
Chris Bates - 5/1
25/1 the rest of the field.

Get your 50p's in now, but at your own risk. Be warned, I'm on a roll, having called a Yasmeena/Kate final with a Yasmeena win last year.

David

Personal Memories of Lord Sugar

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 08:20:00 +0000

After watching Lord Sugar take a trip down memory lane with Piers Morgan and following the launch of his autobiography ‘WYSIWYG’ a few days back I was reflecting on my own personal memories of Alan as my boss at Amstrad during the 80's and 90's.

These are 9 memories that - for better or worse - stand out for me from the 9 year's as a young salesman at Amstrad at the start of my 25 year career in sales and marketing.

1. The estate agent

Before the launch of the first home computer the CPC464 in 1984 Amstrad hired a small group of ‘boffins’ based at a small company in Brentwood. There was no room at the Tottenham office (and none us wanted to go there anyway) so for a few months we continued to work remotely. Then someone came up with the great idea of moving Amstrad to Brentwood and there was a large empty office block that seemed to fit the bill.

After we’d done some initial reconnaissance, Alan and the whole of board of directors decided to visit the site and I collected the keys from the estate agent and very keenly showed them around all 9 floors. This was the first time I had met Alan and at the end of the tour Alan said to Jim his finance director, “you can loose the estate agent now”. Jim quickly rescued me by explaining I was one of the new computer team.

2. The importance of communications

After my cover was blown I got tasked with preparing the new offices ahead of the move to Brentwood. A couple of weeks before the scheduled date Alan paid a visit to inspect the progress of the work. After seeing that the decoration work was all on track he said words to the effect “I don’t care about the decorations and desks, as long as the phones, fax and telex are all working fine then I can be sitting on a orange box and the rest of the world won’t know, but if they’re not working don’t even bother to show your face!”

3. The printer lead

In early 1985 we launched our first printer the DMP-1, it was eagerly awaited and its first showing was at the CES show in the US. I was asked to organise a sample for Alan to take on his flight. As he was about to leave the office for the airport with the printer he turned to me and asked if I had remembered to pack the printer lead. Now the PL-1 was a non-standard lead that was supplied as an additional item and the nearest one was at the warehouse 30 miles away - I had completely forgotten about it. The reaction was inevitably to challenge me to get the lead to the stand at the exhibition before him or stick it where the sun don’t shine. Thank's to some fast work by Steve and Russell the lead made into Alan's luggage at Heathrow.

4. Pearls of wisdom

When selling a fantastically popular product it’s all too easy to get big headed and arrogant, and there wasn’t any room for that at Amstrad – save for Alan himself. So every now and then he’d feel it necessary to take people down a peg or two! One of his more illuminating analogies was the ‘Ferris wheel’ – when you are at the top don’t crap on those at the bottom as it won’t be too long before the situation is reversed.

5. The snow leopard

During the time when the PC business was really flying high – probably 1988, we were exhibiting at the Which Computer Show in Birmingham. Now we had done several exhibitions in previous years and the stands had all been swamped and totally manic. For this event we had really gone to town with a huge ‘double decker’ stand, 2 staircases, cocktail bar with water feature to host our guests and dozens of specially selected girls to look after everyone’s needs. When Alan arrived, just before the opening, I remember him strolling around and looking quizzically then asking “where’s the bloody snow leopard?”

6. The fable

I have no reason to believe if this is based on fact or not, however before we were all subjected to jack hammers creating a new lift shaft (a private one to the new 10th floor where Alan built his executive suite) there were just 2 lifts serving the office. So in the morning if you timed your arrival badly you could end up in a lift with Alan who was on his way to the 9th floor where sales was based. He apparently never said a word in the lift and the rumour was – if he spoke to you then your P45 was already waiting for you on your desk.

7. The recall trial

In the dark days of the PC business when the 2000 series was going horribly wrong I was loitering around Malcolm’s (Sales and Marketing Director) office with most of the other senior sales and marketing managers discussing what we should do about the situation. I was advocating a recall and exchange of the units out in the market, when suddenly I became aware that Alan was standing behind me. Turning around he began to test my resolve on the idea and as the pressure escalated I was acutely aware that my colleagues had all shrunk into the background and I was beginning to well up with emotion as I stuck to my guns. After what seemed like an eternity (probably not more than 2 or 3 minutes), Alan turns around and walks off telling me to get on with it and to make sure it solves the problem.

8. The Christmas party

This was the least extravagant of the parties I remember, down at the Post House Hotel on junction 28 of the M25. Times were tough in 1990 and my wife and I found we had the pleasure of sitting at Alan’s table for dinner. My wife was expecting our second baby within a few days and Alan struck up a conversation asking her if we had considered calling the baby Alan! He was sure it was going to be a boy and when my wife said we hadn’t decided on a name he suggested we think of something related to the number five in recognition of the new 5 series PC’s that we were pinning our hopes on! Given the amount of red wine flowing I guess this is the incident Alan would be least likely to remember. The first 2 letters of my son's name are Al, but he is definitely not Alan.

9. Déjà vous at the lawyers

Several years after I left Amstrad I helped out as a witness in the court cases against Seagate and Western Digital. They had supplied the hard disks for the disastrous 2000 series. The whole High Court and US legal system was an extremely interesting experience but the one moment that I remember which involved Alan was in the lawyer’s office in LA. There was a small group of us getting prepared in a large meeting room, I can recall Barry was there but can’t picture who else was there as the lighting in the room was very dim. Then Alan arrived and paced around the room with the immortal words ‘well isn’t this just like old times’.

Since those times the hard core of the team have stayed friends and regularly meet up to remind ourselves of the good old days - and of course to discuss Lord Alan's new celebrity career.

Five strategies for a successful global brand | In-Depth Analysis | Marketing Week

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:26:00 +0000

Five strategies for a successful global brand | In-Depth Analysis | Marketing Week

Alan Mackelworth on Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:39:00 +0000

My friend Alan eloquently providing some great advice on practical business networking and making the most of events:

Can a proposition be too good to be true?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:09:00 +0000

You can slice a huge chunk off your phone bill, by cutting your landline to mobile call (L2M) costs by perhaps as much as 50%.

Typically you’ll pay between 6p and 20p per minute for a L2M call depending on your deal with your incumbent telephone service provider. For many businesses it’s around 10p/min.

Part of the reason for this is that there is flat charge of about 5.9p/min for transferring between the BT network and the mobile network, the rest is down to your usage level.

By installing a Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) hub to your telephone switch you can route calls to mobiles directly out onto the mobile network and avoid the BT network and the fixed 5.9p/min transfer charge.

The FMC hubs are basically a rack of mobile phones with smart software to handle the calls, monitoring and reporting. They are not cheap pieces of kit, and require a site survey and installation to ensure that there is good connectivity to the mobile network.

BUT you can get the kit installed FREE on a managed service basis if you sign up for a year with minimum commitment of 20k mobile mins/month. The price per minute depends on the monthly volume commitment and ranges from 3.5p/min to 5.5p/min, which is close to halving your cost. Even at 20k mins/month that could be worth over £12k per annum SAVED.

I’ve been looking for the “gotcha” …….

Maybe signing up for an annual commitment? But why wouldn’t you if you’re going to save over £10k in the year.

It only applies to businesses making a significant number of L2M calls per month? Well it’s not difficult to establish what your usage is – just take a look at your last quarters phone bill to see the L2M usage and the cost per minute.

What if it fails? or the connection to the mobile network is dropped? Well the system fails over back to routing via the PSTN, more expensive but no lost connectivity. It can even offer a backup for landline to landline calls if the PSTN network fails.

Is it legal? Yes, a FMC hub is even being used by the Ministry of Justice and a number of police forces!

Does it work with all mobile operators? The connection service is provided by Orange and works with all other networks.

With so much emphasis on cost savings why doesn’t everyone implement this?
Is it too good to be true?

Live Auction Software

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:20:00 +0000

Who knows about live on-line auctions - software that makes it possible for second by second interactive bidding - or sniping? Appropriate for a limited B2B environment of 100's rather than 1000's of bidders.
.
Does the software already exist? packaged off the shelf- if so who is publisher / how much?
Is there anything especially challenging with this type of live interactive functionality?
If not readily available is it difficult to develop from scratch and who could do it? again what sort of cost & development time?

Is there anything I should know about auction software? Any gotcha's and/or what functionality do the large well known on-line auction houses have?

Initial feedback suggests there is a serious gotcha called serialization - making sure bids occur in the order they actually happen and that everything is visible to all bidders at the same time. This is apparently a real challnge due to the way the web works.

Please answer by commenting or on my LinkedIn question

Winning customers and loyalty the easy way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Getting your customers to shout good news about your business is absolutely the most efficient way of selling. Especially in todays market where everybody talks to everyone about everything (much of which is pretty unimportant) - it is wonderful to be able to scream about a great customer service story and marketing initiative I have just have had the pleasure of being a part of.

I needed to order a few business cards for Tuetalk and decided to use a very simple online tool that is very cost effective, namely http://www.streetcards.com/ . After placing the order on Thursday morning I set up a new email service on Friday and realised I should have used the new details on the cards so I contacted Streetcards to see if it was too late.

Check out their reply late Friday:

Hi Keith, sorry for the late response, we got your messages, it's been a busy day! We did in fact already print your cards but to celebrate that the sun actually was shining here in London this afternoon, we'll redo the order with the changes, as long as you spread the word of course, about Streetcards!

If you need anything else, we do offer a full design service and can print much more than just business cards, so do think of us if you want any other marketing materials.

Have a great weekend and thanks for your order!

Best
regards,

Design Director
Streetcards
020 8876 5466
http://www.streetcards.com/
http://www.streetdesigns.biz/
I expect to buy more cards in my career and it'll take a hell of sales pitch to tempt me away from using Streetcards in the future. I'd thoroughly recommend you try them too.

Peter Cochrane on evolving networks and the future of machines

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:44:00 +0000

Peter subtitles this - when the machines cme to our rescue. He certainly provides us with an interesting view of the future relationship between man and machine.

Part 2

Tale of Two Brains

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:15:00 +0000

A very amusing and very popular video about the difference between mens' and womens' brains:

Moreband

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:17:00 +0000

These guys have put together a great you tube video that spells out clearly the differences in bonding broadband and why Moreband (based on Sharedband technology) is the only real solution for bandwidth limitation in the access network.

Cassetteboy vs The Bloddy Apprentice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Absolutely hilarious edit of Sir Alan by Cassette Boy

Marketing Art or Science

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:29:00 +0000

Seth Godin makes a good point again, about Marketing being an Art and a Science.

I did Physics at University - but also Art at School. I loved Art but thought science was a better career move. Funny that I landed up doing marketing, or maybe a good compromise.

Time to get going again

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:37:00 +0000

A few friends have suggested I should start posting again - especially as I am going to want to drive consulting business for TrueTalk.

So much has happened since my last post - I left Sharedband a year ago and have been working for Stone Computers until recently. (Note to myself to write a couple of posts on my time at Stone, and an update on where Sharedband is now).

Currently I am working on a number of new business ideas and looking around for consulting projects to keep the wolf from the door. I have been developing the proposition for TrueTalk consulting and believe that today there is real demand to understand the value marketing brings an organisation. Not just the tactical comms stuff (which is important) but the whole picture of the customer experience.

Without understanding of the true value of marketing the temptation in today's economic climate is for CEO's and CFO's to cut budgets and resources. Even if cuts are unavoidable it's extremely important to understand how to optimise what is available.

So I am going to pitch a service that gets a dialogue going with customers and partners first so that it's possible to paint that picture with the right perspective.

What’s happening to broadband bandwidth

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:30:00 +0000

People can't seem to understand there is a difference beteeen the access network that is the copper loop from the exchange to the customer and the backhaul from the exchange to the ISP network.

I will try and clarify what this means in terms of capability and cost.

The Access Network:-

With the exception of cable network (owned by Virgin Media) almost all the copper connections from an exchange to the customer premises are owned by Open Reach (apart from an area around Hull).

These are leased to BT Wholesale or Local Loop Unbundlers (LLUs) on an equal basis. There is little chance of seeing fibre deployed in the access network for many years to come - as this means £ billions of capital expenditure and lots of road digging. Therefore most customers will have to use the copper already in the ground.

There are physical limitations mainly due to cross talk that mean many people may not get more than 4Mbps bandwidth from one copper connection – at 4kms from an exchange even ADSL2 degrades to that level. Also note that the more people that take up broadband then that increases the level of cross talk – reducing performance.

There are some new software technologies available that enable lines to bond together – (disclosure: like my own company Sharedband ). This will help people scale services to meet their need for more bandwidth in the access network.

The performance is a physical limitation of the copper loop and the equipment deployed at the exchanges not financial engineering by ISPs or even BT. There is no congestion in the copper from the exchange to each customer.

One ISP with 200k customers (Plusnet) in a recent article explained their cost structure in detail and revealed that the cost of the access network was on average £8.50 per customer per month – regardless of how much each copper line is used.

The backhaul:-
From the exchange back through the central pipes to the ISP when provided by BTW or in cases when using an LLU service the ISP has to organize their own backhaul infrastructure. Note: LLU availability tends to be limited to more popular exchanges.

The backhaul pipes are always shared (unless you pay a lot of money for an uncontended service) always fibre and the more data that flows down these pipes the more congested they become unless their capacity is increased – which costs more – either to BTW or in building your own infrastructure.

The PlusNet figures show that on average the cost they are paying for this backhaul today is around £3.50 per customer per month, however that only allows for an average usage of 5Gb per customer per month. It also shows that the maximum bandwidth of their central pipes for their 200k customers is about 3500Mbps.

Therefore if the adoption of new bandwidth hungry applications like iPlayer grow in popularity then they will need to add more capacity to avoid excessive congestion – and therefore they will need to increase prices or more likely charge customers on a usage basis.

There are other costs for peering and transit etc but these are small in relation to these other costs.

Remember:
1) There is no such thing as a free lunch!
2) You only get what you pay for…

Sharedband Press Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:33:00 +0000

Last week Sharedband released three great press stories:

1) We signed a reseller contract with BT Wholesale, who will market and sell our products and services to ISPs in the UK
2) A great customer case study, based on a reprint of a story by Talk Internet about the use of Sharedband at the British SuperBike Grand Prix to help journalists upload their stories and photos.
3) Our new alliance status with Netgear as a global solutions partner.

All together they make a great story – not only did BT give our technology fantastic credibility but also a straight forward route to market. The customer angle clearly demonstrated we have a solution for a real problem and the alliance with Netgear was a truly global partnership.

After ringing a couple of dozen editors I was in no doubt we’d get some coverage – but I really hadn’t bargained for such a super uptake. Here are some links to articles and posts published by last Friday:

Techworld.com Peter Judge
Lightreading.com Ray Le Maistre
Telephony Ed Gubbins - also on Communications direct
PC Pro Barry Collins
IT Week & Computing & WiMax news David Bailey
Tech.co.uk Anne Lagerkvist
ZDNet David Meyer
Digital Trends – Christopher Nickson
Comms Dealer
ThinkBroadband
Telecom Paper – can’t read without subscription
Newswireless.net: Guy Kewney
ISPreview
One Stop Click
Broadband - Finder
Satnews.com
Blogs
Broadband Genie
The Hermes project
Tech Taxi