Turning Problems Into Profits

The Future is Now!...It's just not for everybody

2010-11-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

When we think of all the innovation that has happened just this past decade, and all of the innovation that is happening right now - the pattern of innovation success is clear.

If the people in your social networks aren't ready for the tsunami of change that innovation is bringing, you need to find new networks. For the future is Now!

The innovation success that is happening right now is changing the world in amazing ways. And it won't slow down for those who aren't ready, nor should it.

Think about this. There were only 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet.

We are on a steep trajectory of solving world problems that we can't afford to miss.
http://bit.ly/2x3Lbk

Here's the pattern of success I watch for. People will say:

1) "That's a crazy idea."

Lots of ideas are crazy, that's exactly where real game changers come from. Look inside that pool of crazy ideas and zoom in on the 'curiously crazy' ones. The ones where you say to yourself "that's so crazy I can't even understand it". The real game changers are right there!

2) "There's no way that will ever work"

My dear friend Dr John Atalla lived his entire life in the future of today. He invented "PIN" (what makes your ATM work) back when everyone said "there's no way that will ever work." and now ATMs are everywhere. http://is.gd/3pS5a

3) "Hey. That was my idea"

Was the iPhone your idea? Did your social networks tell you "That's a crazy idea."? Then go find new networks - as it's not for them.

The future is Now!....just not for everybody

That Curiously Crazy Idea Of Yours....

2010-09-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

One cold winter morning with a fresh blanket of snow everywhere, Michael & I went flying along the New England coastline in a retractable gear Arrow. As the blinding sun poured into the cockpit we didn’t care how cold it was outside. It looked like time had frozen as the trees for miles remained bent at the angle of last nights winds. At first it was meditative, then it was almost hypnotic.

Risk Is a Reality
As we headed back towards the airport, our pre-landing check jolted us back to reality. Despite our best efforts, our landing gear wouldn’t come down. We walked thru emergency landing procedure protocols, planning our “options”, envisioning how hard landing on the frozen stiff ground would be and remembering that foaming the runway is just to put out fuel fires.(it’s not a “pillow”)

Our eyes quickly turned to the only place that wasn’t frozen – the glistening, white-capped ocean. Michael asked me, as co-pilot, what I wanted to do. I said ‘let’s just keep flying’. He thought that was a curiously crazy idea. Afterall, gear-up landings are also called plane crashes. How could I be so calm in the face of such great risk?

Situational Awareness Is Amazing....
I told him, the plane flew fine. We were warm, happy to be flying, enjoying the view, had plenty of fuel which we needed to burn anyway if we were to have a gear-up landing. At that moment, I didn’t see any imminent risk. Better still, if my life was about to be totally disrupted, I was going to enjoy this ride.

If at all possible, that amazing view became ten times more amazing. Then something even more amazing happened. We stopped worrying. We had calculated our risk, set a good plan that we would commit to executing and accept that that’s all we could control.

With our minds in a good place, new ideas started flowing. We thought we had tried everything to fix the problem but in our jolt we clearly had not. We reached under the cockpit and jiggled a wire – the gear came down.

There's Always an Answer
These are the words I hear at MIT all the time. "There's always an answer" and there's no shortage of world-changing brilliance that has come out of that University.

It's also the one singular difference between success and failure. The only real failure is quitting. Everything else is just a result that is in direct correlation to our willingness to learn from it.

It's amazing what we find when we take an accurate assessment of a "risky" situation. Risk is a reality but focusing on it won't give you the answers you need to get out of it.

So commit 100% to that curiously crazy idea of yours, the idea you are the most passionate about and remember, there's always an answer!

Ohio Means Business!

2010-05-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to speak to a select group of MBA & PhD students that represent the top 5% of their class from three of the most prestigious Universities in Europe.

They are coming to learn what other successful Boston Entrepreneurs are doing right. It's the first trip for this group. But it's not an uncommon trek. Some of the brightest minds in the world seek out Boston as a place to entrench themselves in the ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship that thrives here.

Yet for all of the resources available to entrepreneurs who come to Massachusetts from around the globe, we still grapple with the "how do we get them to stay" challenge.

"Getting them to stay" is not a problem in Ohio.

In fact, for the fourth year in a row, more CEO's have invested capital in Ohio than any other state in the nation, delivering Ohio a Grand Slam victory in the national competition for the coveted Governor's Cup.

What can Massachusetts learn from Ohio?

http://blog.ohiomeansbusiness.com

Creating Products That Will Change The World

2010-03-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

Deep in a dumpster lay two hundred years of patent lithographs that the US Patent Office discarded when they went digital. Out went the handwritten examiner notes and fine ink drawings on patents by Tesla, Edison, Bell, Goddard, Farnsworth and Carlton - masters of innovation who lived in far more challenging economic times.

We have shared with the world 140 of these original hand drawn lithographs in a book Drawing On Brilliance. Most have never been seen by the public before. Each holds the secret to innovation success - how to build products that will change the world.

Accelerating Innovation With Search

Think about this. There have been a mere 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet. We are on a steep trajectory of success in solving global problems.

So drawing on the brilliance of the innovators who brought us this far,we can accelerate the rate at which we successfully build products that change the world. We see a great example of this when we study the success of controlled flight - success that eluded the likes of Galileo, DaVinci and hundreds who followed them. So what was it that two bicycle shop repairmen from Ohio named Wright did differently that would then serve to raise the standard of living around the globe? What approach did they take that centuries of geniuses before them did not?

Search! With no engineering degrees and limited financial resources they began a profoundly systematic search, (and without the benefit of the internet).

Dear Sirs (letter to The Smithsonian):

I am about to begin a systematic study of the subject in preparation for practical work which I expect to devote what time I can spare from regular business. I wish to obtain such papers as Smithsonian Institution has published on this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English language. I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine.
I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain success. I do not know the terms on which you send out your publications but if you will inform me of the cost I will remit the price.

Yours truly,

Wilbur Wright

Before building a single model they looked at centuries of prior art, dissecting the patterns of failure as carefully as the patterns of success as far back as Leonardo DaVinci. They used mapping, visualization, and had completed a painstaking analysis of as much available scientific information and technical intelligence as they could find.

How does starting with search ensure product success. By identifying the right problem to be solved, first! The problem with controlled flight was not weight and balance, like so many others had focused on. It was a pitch and yaw problem, something bicycle repairmen are experts at understanding.

Right Product, Wrong Customer?

A state of the art search is critical before any company enters into a new technology area. Results can provide a basis for making critical market decisions based on competitive intelligence. They will become a powerful navigation framework for any innovative product or process design and will keep development focused on the right customer.

When Chester Carlton, the inventor of the photocopy machine, spent years trying to sell his invention to large companies, but to no avail. But two small companies, the Batelle Memorial Institute and the Haloid Corporation (later to become the Xerox Corporation) eventually agreed to license the technology and manufacture the copier.

It then took Xerox 15 years before the first viable, user friendly model hit the market. And their challenges continued when the Arthur D. Little Consulting company report done for IBM advised that the Model 914 "had no future in the office copy market"

Yet in its first six months the Model 914 exceeded sales projections for the entire lifetime of the machine. The A.D. Little Report consultants had only done their research on mailroom managers and not the secretaries who became the primary customers.

Optimize and Monetize

Visionaries are by definition too early and with each passing, great idea they seem to only get more visionary. Most of Nikola Tesla's inventions were too early to be commercially successful in his lifetime. Yet many of them now form the basis of entire new industries and have helped create millions of jobs.

Is there a "Tesla" in your collection of innovations? Have you built a great product that is too early to be commercially viable? The true litmus test for commercial viability is when customers will actually buy the product and in some cases - even prepay for it.

Effective archiving allows a company to monetize that product development risk by legally safeguarding the IP until the market is ready to buy.

Or is there a brilliant process your company has perfected for your current industry that has an even more world changing impact when applied to another industry? Remember, Henry Ford repurposed a process from the meat-packing industry that allowed mass production of cars. And Yo-Yo Ma's cello bow measurement technique is now used to design every child's car seat in the world. Capturing this IP can foster even more of the cross-pollinating breakthroughs that have been the hallmark of product success.

Today's sophisticated workflows and collaborative environments make it imperative that creative work be legally safeguarded yet remain accessible to as a private archive. This will also serve to optimize the value of your R&D budget, potentially increasing your company's balance sheet and adding measurable asset value to any future M & A.

We are on the cusp of a third industrial revolution that will raise the global standard of living yet again. Today we have access to an unprecedented amount of resources and we're collaborating like never before. And yet there is no shortage of global problems that need to be solved.

So go build that product that will change the world, by drawing on brilliance.

That Curiously Crazy Idea of Yours....

2010-02-16T08:39:00.000-08:00

On a day just like this morning with a fresh blanket of snow everywhere, Michael & I went flying along the New England coastline in a retractable gear Arrow. As the blinding sun poured into the cockpit we didn’t care how cold it was outside. It looked like time had frozen as the trees for miles remained bent at the angle of last nights winds. At first it was meditative, then it was almost hypnotic.

Risk Is a Reality
As we headed back towards the airport, our pre-landing check jolted us back to reality. Despite our best efforts, our landing gear wouldn’t come down. We walked thru emergency landing procedure protocols, planning our “options”, envisioning how hard landing on the frozen stiff ground would be and remembering that foaming the runway is just to put out fuel fires.(it’s not a “pillow”)

Our eyes quickly turned to the only place that wasn’t frozen – the glistening, white-capped ocean. Michael asked me, as co-pilot, what I wanted to do. I said ‘let’s just keep flying’. He thought that was a curiously crazy idea. Afterall, gear-up landings are also called plane crashes. How could I be so calm in the face of such great risk?

Situational Awareness Is Amazing....
I told him, the plane flew fine. We were warm, happy to be flying, enjoying the view, had plenty of fuel which we needed to burn anyway if we were to have a gear-up landing. At that moment, I didn’t see any imminent risk. Better still, if my life was about to be totally disrupted, I was going to enjoy this ride.

If at all possible, that amazing view became ten times more amazing. Then something even more amazing happened. We stopped worrying. We had calculated our risk, set a good plan that we would commit to executing and accept that that’s all we could control.

With our minds in a good place, new ideas started flowing. We thought we had tried everything to fix the problem but in our jolt we clearly had not. We reached under the cockpit and jiggled a wire – the gear came down.

There's Always an Answer
These are the words I hear at MIT all the time. "There's always an answer" and there's no shortage of world-changing brilliance that has come out of that University.

It's also the one singular difference between success and failure. The only real failure is quitting. Everything else is just a result that is in direct correlation to our willingness to learn from it.

It's amazing what we find when we take an accurate assessment of a "risky" situation. Risk is a reality but focusing on it won't give you the answers you need to get out of it.

So commit 100% to that curiously crazy idea of yours, the idea you are the most passionate about and remember, there's always an answer!

The Future is Now!...just not for everybody

2010-01-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

When we think of all the innovation that has happened just this past decade, and all of the innovation that is happening right now - the pattern of innovation success is clear.

If the people in your social networks aren't ready for the tsunami of change that innovation is bringing, you need to find new networks. For the future is Now!

The innovation success that is happening right now is changing the world in amazing ways. And it won't slow down for those who aren't ready, nor should it.

Think about this. There were only 360 years between Galileo's discovery of the sun's turning on its axis and the first moon landing. Then less than 100 years between a time when the world's roads were made of dirt and the invention of the Internet.

We are on a steep trajectory of solving world problems that we can't afford to miss. http://bit.ly/2x3Lbk

Here's the pattern of success I watch for. People will say:

1) "That's a crazy idea."

Lots of ideas are crazy, that's exactly where real game changers come from. Look inside that pool of crazy ideas and zoom in on the 'curiously crazy' ones. The ones where you say to yourself "that's so crazy I can't even understand it". The real game changers are right there!

2) "There's no way that will ever work"

My dear friend Dr John Atalla lived his entire life in the future of today. He invented "PIN" (what makes your ATM work) back when everyone said "there's no way that will ever work." and now ATMs are everywhere. http://is.gd/3pS5a

3) "Hey. That was my idea"

Was the iPhone your idea? Did your social networks tell you "That's a crazy idea."? http://bit.ly/3AU3zM Find new networks! (and invite me to join you http://bit.ly/7AQqtY)

The future is Now!....just not for everybody

Make 2010 the year you change the world in amazing ways!

For The Geek Who Has Everything.....

2009-12-08T05:11:00.000-08:00

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!"

2009-11-16T06:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-22T02:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-02T06:31:00.002-07:00

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!

2009-05-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-12T18:26:00.000-08:00

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?

Innovate or "Detroit" ?

2008-12-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

HAWAII MOVES TO CAR 2.0 MODEL

With all eyes on Washington this week, Better Place, working with Governor Linda Lingle, announced a plan to help Hawaii move to the Car 2.0 model of electric cars powered by renewable energy. Hawaii, which has an annual $7 billion addiction to oil, has set a plan to reach 70% renewable energy by 2030, which we think we can help them reach faster. With renewable generation powering cool electric cars – like our Better Place Nissan Rogue demonstration vehicle – Hawaii will serve as a blueprint for the US auto sector's future.

While the United States debates a plan to spend $25 billion on Detroit's Car 1.0 model built on the internal combustion engine, China, Europe, and Japan are all quickly moving to the Car 2.0 model of electric drive transportation. In fact, the European Union just last week upped the ante, by announcing a $6.5 billion "European Green Cars Initiative" plan for European automakers to build safer and greener cars.

"What we have to do for the car industry is to help it transform into a more modern industry, more friendly to the environment and in fact adapting it to the new trends in overall demand," said European Union Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso when he announced the package. "We are not proposing an old-fashioned industrial plan for the car industry. We believe it is counterproductive to have this sort of thing."

Cheer up! Better Times Are Ahead

2008-11-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

As I prepare for the final 2 CEO dinners of our 2008 'For CEOs By CEOs: Turning Problems Into Profits' series I wanted to share with everyone these words of wisdom from Roger Babson.

In his 1932 book written around the time of the Great Depression, "Cheer Up! Better Times Are Ahead", he shares inspiring insights on business cycles and how to thrive in them. Babson provides this for all to read: http://tinyurl.com/56juu3

I have personally spoken to 1,000's of CEOs across the globe this year and it's times like these that show us who the " Warren Buffetts of This Economy" really are.

They are hiring! They are buying! They are self-funding! They are taking advantage of this very market to disrupt those dying industries that had long since stopped innovating. They are focused and fearless. They are navigating the rapids of change.

And their vision is clear - better times are ahead.

Show Me The Money!

2008-08-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

As CEO we don't have the option of being so "forthcoming" when people try to pitch us on - well, anything, as Cuba Gooding Jr did in the now famous clip from the movie "Jerry Maguire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7ir_6Hip1E

We can't jump up and down and scream "Show Me The Money" But there is one question we can ask of everyone who lines up outside our door. And they will either answer the "Show Me the Money" question themselves - or leave on their own.

Just ask "Where is the revenue model?"

I see this all the time and this is exactly where new products fail-at the very, very beginning!

I guarantee you they will reply with a wide variety of ways to package their idea, speak at length about the size of the market and download streams of excel spreadsheets. But none of that is the revenue model.

All of that is just a pricing model!

It's how that salesguy will buy the boat with his commission check.

It's how that technology guru will fund his private island in the South Pacific.

It's how marketing will justify a bigger budget.

Build, bundle, "market" and distribute is not a revenue model.

The only revenue model is "Who will buy it before I've built it - whatever the 'it' is".

So the next time someone hunts you down with the Next Big Thing, rather than roll your eyes in dismay, think about Cuba Gooding Jr 's rant and smile.

Ask "Show Me The Revenue Model".

Then just watch in amusement as they fumble through spreadsheets and charts dragging out all of the irrelevant data they can muster. "

Then you say no - You need to tell me "Who will buy it before I've built it?"

I do this at my own company now and it has saved me millions of wasted hours and lost productivity.

It has also helped me discover two products that I will now launch at the end of this year (because they did bring me customers who were willing to buy it before I had built it!)

So...ask your next caller to "Show You The Money" ? (He just may !)

THE Question is......

2008-07-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Just about all of the social networking sites ask the question "What Are You Doing?" - that's a great question when seeking collaboration on a problem.

But at the end of the day, as a CEO, the real question is "What Did You Get Done Today?"

No-it's not about activity. Email is activity- avoidance activity, so we can avoid picking up the phone and really communicating by listening - which we will never be able to do in an email.

(Recommended Reading for the email obsessed: http://tinyurl.com/Luis-Suarez)

What did you get done today........ that brought you closer to where you want to get?

As a CEO I am asked this question by my peers all of the time "How can I balance the day-to-day with strategy?" and my answer to every CEO, every time and everywhere is THE question.

There are an unlimited number of distractions brought right to you by those that would steal your time. So when I find myself just spinning in "activity" I recognize it's a sign. I stop.

And I ask myself THE question. I may be in a tornado of activity but at the end of the day what would I post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, my blog or any other social networking site if I had to fill in a tiny box that asked:

"What Did You Get Done Today?"

There's THE answer!

It's Not Business - It's Strictly Personal - Are You Listening?

2008-05-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

A recent post by John Furrier, a Silicon Valley pioneer in social media & advertising and Founder of Podtech ,was entitled 'It's Not Business - It's Strictly Personal' (http://tinyurl.com/4x5efz) and he is right on.

2008 is proving that the customer is driving. In a global economy the customer has access to an unlimited number of choices. In an increasingly fragmented market, every CEO is looking to laser in on what segments of customers want, how they want it and how they can deliver it to them - ahead of the competition.

Digital advertising is that laser. It is both content and delivery. It's a marketing dream, or nightmare if you don't understand it. Buying has never been about the business. Buying has always been personal, the "what's in it for me?".

From interactive games to cell phone-based behavioral metrics delivered in real-time to viral videos, customers are telling us exactly what they want, how they want it - and how every CEO can deliver it to them ahead of the competition.

Don't let the technology confuse you. Twitter, You Tube, MySpace, Ning...these are listening devices and your customers are filling them up.

So as my fellow CEOs, the real question is "Are you Listening?"

Be Strategic...and Do It In 90 Days?

2008-05-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Do these sound like two conflicting goals? "Be strategic and do it in 90 days"

In our ever-increasingly competitive global business environment, this is every CEOs reality.

No matter whether you are a publicly traded company sublject to the psychology of stock market trends or a privately held company managing cashflows in a tight credit market, we are all in one business today - the business of speed!

It's speed to market - speed to delivery of what customers want - speed to revenue recognition.. ..

A colleague of mine had recently stepped down as CEO of her third sucecssful entrepreneurial company to be the "VP of Strategy" instead.

When did we start separating "Strategy" from what a CEO does?

Is customer demand for "stuff" so voracious that companies are just giving them what they want and worrying about whether it is the right move for the companies long-term succes or not?

As the very first Sales Director dedicated to the Carrier market (ok, Guinea Pig) for Netscreen back in 2000, I was strategic sales. But I still had a quota every 90 days and had I ever missed it, I wouldn't have been around for more than 2 quarters. Yet those Carrier purchase orders were pretty big - albeit the revenue "hockey stick" every quarter aged us all.

So in 2004 when Juniper paid $4Billion to buy Netscreen, on revenues that were a fraction of that number, Bob Darabant who led our small team of 5 Carrier salesmen, looked like a genius. (Not surprisingly he's CEO of Montego Networks now) http://www.montegonetworks.com/ . Juniper looked to acquire a strategic entry point into that half of the Carrier market that their competition did not already own.

In today's fragmented market CEOs not only can be strategic and do it in 90 days, they have to.
With the "right" strategy, the rewards are exponential in both the near and long term.

So yes, you CAN be strategic......and do it in 90 days!

So share your own succes stories. Where else has a CEO been successful at being strategic in 90 days?