For The Geek Who Has Everything.....

Direct from Richard Branson himself, for the geek who has everything...

Five minutes of uninterrupted suborbital flight!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1233987/Virgin-Atlantic-unveils-SpaceShipTwo-worlds-commercial-passenger-spaceship.html

Sure, it's in a hangar in the Mojave. And it's hard to wrap and definitely tough to "surprise" with but your favorite geek won't complain. Total project costs are $450Million so you may want
to search for a coupon first http://www.coupon.com/

Actually, the hard core geeks will want to build their own anyway.

So save your money & buy a copy of Drawing On Brilliance: ($30)
Most of these pics have never been seen before by the public!

http://theoccasionalceo.blogspot.com/2009/11/drawing-on-brilliance.html

In fact, reference this blog and we'll send you a personalized autograph that you can attach to your first edition copy!

But I caution you, the geek who has everything will spend hours and hours in quiet contemplation of the possibilities these pages will inspire.

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

" The iPhone was MY idea!"

True story!

Bob Eckert of New & Improved told me that he overheard someone say "The iPhone was my idea!" http://www.innovationblogsite.typepad.com/

And they meant it! The iPhone, or at least the need for the iPhone, was the idea of millions of people . Steve Jobs of Apple spotted that need and filled it. He took action - the right action. And he forever changed the way we live, work and play. http://www.apple.com/


How about you? Have you ever watched a commercial and seen something selling like mad - then find yourself screaming out loud "hey, that was my idea!"

Well, epiphanies never occur to couch potatoes. It takes action.

Two bicycle shop owners from Ohio solved a problem that no one else, from DaVinci to Galileo ever could. They certainly weren't the first to have the idea. But they took action - the "wright" action, and they forever changed the way we live, work and play.
http://www.aero-web.org/history/wright/first.htm


So what epiphany have you had? (remember, it's probably not just your idea) But you can be the one to take action and forever change the way we live, work and play.

Need some inspiration? Start here: http://bit.ly/czgNh

On Changing The World In Remarkable Ways

As posted on MassChallenge on November 5th, 2009 http://www.masschallenge.org/

At the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala in California I was a proud guest of one of the recipient’s Dr John Atalla who invented “PIN” (what we use to access our debit and credit cards) http://is.gd/3pS5a

But I was also proud to claim that I am from, educated in and now my own company is based right here in Massachusetts.

Do you know how many of these Lifetime Achievement Award Winners were either born in, educated in, built their companies in or discovered their inventions in Massachusetts? Over 50!

To Change The World in Remarkable Ways

Every one of them came to Massachusetts for the same reason - to change the world in remarkable ways. And every one of them did:

• By revolutionizing entire industries:
Rachel Fuller Brown, born in Springfield, MA invented Nystatin invaluable for controlling secondary infections from anti-biotics and donated all of her royalties to science. Charles Sumner Tainter, born in Watertown, shaped the future of the recording industry.

• By improving our quality of life and saving millions of lives:
John Sheehan, having taught for 31 years at MIT, synthesized penicillin. William P. Murphy, Jr born in Boston, built the first physiologic cardiac pacemaker. Forest Bird from Stoughton, MA introduced the world’s first mass produced pediatric ventilator.

• By raising the standard of living around the world:
Lewis Latimer, born in Chelsea, MA brought innovation to the process of manufacturing carbons which allowed incandescent lighting to become affordable for all consumers. Robert Rines of Boston, MA designed innovative technologies that enabled noninvasive medical imaging and now he fuels the same spark of innovation in children at the Academy of Applied Sciences that he founded.

• By forever changing, for the better, how we live our lives:
Vannevar Bush, born in Everett, MA and educated in Massachusetts schools was best known for his essay “As we may think” that pre-figured development of hypertext and other elements of the World Wide Web. Edward Calahan the Boston-born created the stock ticker used at both the New York and the Boston Stock Exchange.

• By growing the Massachusetts economy and creating millions of jobs:
From Charles Draper of Draper Labs to William Stanley of Pittsfield, MA who founded Stanley Electric now part of GE, to Milton Bradley with his namesake company that was headquartered in Springfield, MA to Amar Bose whose multibillion dollar company, Bose Corporation is right off the Massachusetts Turnpike.

A Culture of Sustainable Innovation

Massachusetts seeded a culture of sustainable innovation, centuries ago and it’s what continues to feed the global economy today. It’s where research meets capital. It’s where any one with a revolutionary idea has access to the right resources to support it. It’s where ingenious teams have always, and fearlessly, tackled those really big problems.

We had Robert Goddard, born in Worcester and educated at Worcester Polytech (WPI), who pioneered rocketry and space flight. And now we have Helen Greiner CEO of Droidworks and her iRobot Co-Founder Colin Angle. www.droidworks.com http://www.irobot.com/

We had Charles Page of Salem, MA and his induction coil that became a standard component in the automobile industry. And now now we have Desh Deshpande Chairman of A123 systems and a serial Massachusetts entrepreneur. http://www.a123systems.com/

We had Luis Walter Alvarez an MIT staff member who won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his research that resulted in a major revision of nuclear theories. And now we have William Swanson, CEO of Raytheon. http://www.raytheon.com/

We had Claude Shannon who came to MA for his Masters degree, stayed to earn his Ph.D., and created what experts call “a blueprint for the digital age”. And now we have Bill Warner, Founder of Avid and Wildfire Communications. http://www.avid.com/

We had Richard Fessenden who successfully transmitted the first wireless radio broadcast from Brant Rock, MA. And now we have Leo Beranek, CEO of BBN http://www.bbn.com/

Drawing On Brilliance

So after a year of researching a collection of 140 original patent lithographs rescued from destruction when the US Patent Office went digital, the pattern of innovation success was clear. I co-authored the book Drawing On Brilliance, with Randy Rabin to capture the process of innovation and to see how the masters took on those really big problems in an economy equally as challenging.

And to show how Tesla, Carrier, Westinghouse, Heddy Lamar and all of those great Massachusetts entrepreneurs shared the same challenges and successes that today’s entrepreneurs do.

What we found was that innovation creates millions of jobs, thousands of new companies, entire new industries and it can reignite a global economy. But sustainable innovation success means that a repeatable process exists, that there is a strategic plan in place with a mission behind it that matters to everyone.

And it means that these entrepreneurs have a readily available ecosystem of human resources they can draw on; people who are willing to share their own brilliance because like Greiner, Deshpande, Warner and all of the entrepreneurs out there today we don’t ever plan to stop - changing the world in remarkable ways.

Note: The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham launches an exhibit around the theme of this book on Dec 15. http://www.crmi.org/

Jackie Bassett is founder and CEO of BT Industrials Inc., a strategic management and technology consultancy where she helps CEOs of global 500 companies design and execute on their innovation strategies. She was one of the first 100 employees at Netscreen Technologies; which started in 1997; successfully IPO’d in 2001, and then was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4Billion. Her background is in investment banking having worked at State Street International. Her innovation strategy work has been in a variety of industries from Telecom, to HealthCare, to Clean Tech, to Digital Entertainment, to Biotech. She holds an MBA from Babson College and a private pilot’s license.
http://www.drawingonbrilliance.net/

Wanted: A billion dollar problem - willing to pay cash

You'll see this sign - in any economy:

Wanted: A billion dollar problem- willing to pay cash

It's the sign I saw in 2004 when Juniper paid over $4.1B for Netscreen with only $223M in revenues and less than 900 employees. Why? Netscreen solved the right problem.
http://www.networkworld.com/edge/news/2004/0209juniscreen.html


It's the sign we all saw just last year when a four year old company of just 60 people, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, was bought by GlaxoSmith Kline for $720M. Why? Sirtris solved the right problem.
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/04/21/daily26.html


It's the sign we saw this week when it was announced that Starent, with its $240M in revenue would be acquired by Cisco for $2.9 Billion. Why? Starent solved the right problem.
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2009/10/12/daily14.html


There's no secret to multi-billion dollar success anymore. We see it again and again and again...

Even the Wright Bros, who solved a problem no one else from DaVinci to Galileo could solve (controlled flight) and went on to create a multi-billion dollar industry; in an economy even worse than 2009's - the pattern of success was the same.


So no matter what business you are growing, no matter what product you are building, no matter what offering you are perfecting; STOP. And ask yourself, first......

Are you solving the right problem?

If you are, let nothing stop you. If you aren't STOP and immediately change direction. And this sign will show up at your door:


Wanted: A billion dollar problem - willing to pay cash

Cold Calling & Brain Surgery?

No - this is not a proposal on the future of Health Care (yet?)

I found a bio on one of my favorite social networking sites where a very talented professional, looking to change careers, described his breadth of experiences and capabilities - which was quite extensive.

Then he said "I can do almost anything except brain surgery or cold calling".

I would never have categorized the two together but maybe I should as it was very powerful and it made his point crystal clear.

*Most people dread both.

*Each is absolutely necessary when it really, really matters.

*No one does either unless they absolutely have to.

I don't do surgery but I do cold call - where it's absolutely necessary; when it really, really matters. I just don't call "cold".

Here's the difference. The plethora of social networking technologies out there today combined with increasingly intelligent search engines means no one should ever call someone without having a very clear picture of why this person would value the call.


Do you have an offer like Veep Mobile does "One World, One Internet, One Number"?http://www.veepmobile.com/ We are one world now and it's time to start acting like it is.

Veep Mobile, to me , is the technical version of "Mr Gorbachev, Take Down That Wall" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8


Or do you have a product like Hocoma does, that will radically improve the lives of brain-injured children? http://www.hocoma.ch/en/ Now that's worth a cold call!


So if you have a life-changing product or an offer that makes the world a better place http://www.betterplace.com/.....

The next time you start dreading that cold call, remember - it's not "cold" when it really, really matters.

Did you catch that? Paying customers!

There are paying customer lines longer than job interview lines - in this market!

It's true!

Creative Biomass in MA had a line of paying customers for wood pellets at the site of their soon to be built mfg plant that was longer than the line for job interviews for the 30 new positions it needed to fill. Did you catch that? The plant hadn't even been built yet when customers lined up to buy! http://www.creativebiomass.com/


Self-funded Proxycomm launched in January of this year and now boasts over 9,000 customers and distributors. Did you catch that? SELF-FUNDED!!
http://www.proxycomm.com/

Check their Live stat and watch them grow - or better still, get a glove and get in the game by becoming a distributor.



Or look at all the innovative ways Walgreen's is changing how healthcare is consumed and delivered with their in store Take Care clinics or their onsite programs at major companies like Level 3 Communications. And the lines of paying customers just keep growing! Did you catch that? Paying customers.....


So if you think "waiting until customers start buying again" is a strategy for success, read on.

Customers haven't stopped buying - they're making choices about what matters and what doesn't. What they need vs what they don't. What they want vs what's just a really nice thing to have.

It's business as usual, from way back when there were no VCs and no "uncollateralized debt instruments" to trade in Ponzi scheme markets until the last fool cried "foul" because we ran out of fools. (but I digress)

So if you don't have a line at your door of paying customers, get a glove and get in the game!

Gotta go now.... phone's ringing, paying customers are calling. Did you catch that?

Everyone Driving Revenues Has Left The Building!

Have you noticed, yet?

Those executives responsible for driving revenues have "left the building"?
(If yours are in their offices all day, be very afraid...)

Customers are everywhere BUT in your company's building. In a world more global everyday there are unlimited choices - the customer is driving!

And that's what's driving every company's mobility strategy - it's hard enough to "find" new customers , but you can bet they are not in your building.

That's why you can never get a meeting with the CEO, no successful VP of Sales is ever by her phone and the best sales people are never in the office anymore ...

Those product vendors that 'get this' are racking up sales - in this market! Mobile products for the constanly mobile...It's not rocket science.

Here are just a few of the brilliant products I am seeing:

Need to 'web conference' from your iPhone?
http://www.callwave.com/landing/mobileVisualVoicemail.aspx?r=NONE

Want to do SAP approvals from your Blackberry?
www.3i-consulting.com

How about speaking to your Smart Phone and having it convert to text in multiple languages, in real-time? http://www.apptek.com/


Two questions for you:

1) What mobile products are you seeing out there?

2) Are you....still in the building?

2009 - The Year Of The "Every Day" Hero

2009's economic challenges, pale in comparison to the extraordinary circumstances some Americans have found themselves in this year.

First there was Captain Sully, the Hero of The Hudson and the entire crew involved in that rescue.

Then there was Captain Phillips, who gave himself to Somali pirates in exchange for the safety of the men on his ship and the entire crew involved in that rescue.

Every day, entrepreneurs navigate the rapids of an economy no one has ever seen before. They are adopting game changing business models, filling unmet needs, hiring new employees and retraining existing ones.

Here in the midst of all the bad news being broadcast is the opportunity for the every day hero to turn this economy around. Courage and leadership are the true bail-out plan that will rescue this economy.

2009 will be "The Year Of The Every Day Hero" and the entire "crew" involved in the rescue.

How Extraordinary Times Create Extraordinary Wealth

Each year in human history, dating back to Cleopatra, historians looked for patterns of extraordinary wealth and almost 20% of the names they came up with had come from a single generation. (think Rockefeller, Cabot, Vanderbilt etc.. and the Industrial Revolution)

As noted in Malcolm Gladwell's Book - Outliers: The Story of Success, when "all the rules of how a national economy had functioned had become broken" these intrepid men and women transformed an economy and rewrote the rules of success.

Our current global economy is no different, at least in this one respect - all the rules of how our economy had functioned are broken.

These are extraordinary times. This is our opportunity to rewrite the rules of success. We are each living in that very generation.

You can be one of the intrepid who will transform a global economy and create extraordinary wealth ~ Carpe Diem!

To join the community of contributions where everyone can add their new ideas, knowledge and insights, sign in to: http://drawingonbrilliance.ning.com/

So You Want To Be A Billion Dollar Company?

Not in this economy! Or maybe not ever - again!

I got a call from a friend tonite, VP of Bus Dev for a multi-billion dollar company. He told me they "just laid off 30% of their sales staff"

(You know a company is calling it "gameover" when they start laying off large percentages of sales teams.)

Many multi-billion dollar companies are cratering under the weight of their own inefficiencies in this recession.

But this isn't just another recession - a down cycle from which we will soon recover. This is a tectonic shift in how companies do business, forever.

How customers buy, what they buy and where they buy is changing faster than any company will ever again be able to keep pace with - as one company, sustainable enough to grow to become a billion dollar company.

Will 2009 be the end of the multi-billion dollar company? We'll see.

What I see for 2009 is billions of dollars in opportunities for millions of entrepreneurs!
Needs still go unfilled, compelling problems are still seeking truly disruptive solutions and now......

....there's an abundance of talent and creativity that's been unleashed from the vise-grip of those billion dollar companies.

Oh the irony! Corporations claim their greatest challenge is finding and managing talent.

Has our global economy outgrown the "billion dollar company" as a business model?