Archive for October, 2007

eBay versus Amazon and the Future of Online Selling

SmartBiz RSS FEED October 25th, 2007

eBay listing fees are going down and Amazon is soaring. What does this mean for the future of online selling? Plenty.

SmartTools: Copying Your Cell Phone to the Desktop With DashWire

SmartBiz RSS FEED October 25th, 2007

Keeping your cell phone up to date with contact information is tough -- let alone managing things like camera phone photos, ringtones or text messages. The answer? Do it on your desktop instead.

When ‘Free’ Works: Or How Radiohead Made $10 Million in 10 Days

SmartBiz RSS FEED October 24th, 2007

Rock band Radiohead made $10 million in a week shattering every preconceived notion about how its industry is supposed to work. Are you ready to break the mold in your industry?

Sorry!

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

Last week included a round tripper to Korea. Tomorrow at 4 a.m. I'm off for a month. The weekend in Vermont was perfect—such will not be the case when I return. So, I recovered from jet lag by hitting the fields—and continuing my landscaping from dawn to dusk. (More or less.) In any event, that dented the Blogging time. Sorry.

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My Hunch

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

While the Rockies and the Red Sox are battling in the World Series, halfway around the world the Airbus A380, courtesy Singapore Air, will make its first commercial flight.

Here's betting that when aviation history is written 25 years from now the Boeing Dreamliner will be more or less forgotten—and the A380 will get its own chapter.

I can hear the howls now—and I won't be around 25 years from now to pick up-pay off the debt, or if I am hanging in, unlike Peter Drucker, I damn well won't be prattling on about management.

In any event, hats off to recently maligned Airbus and the service fanatics at Singapore Air!

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Go, Coach!

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

Book Cover of Bo's Lasting LessonsI must admit that, though a fanatic football fan, I find that most coaches' books leave me cold. Not so the recent offering from legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler: Bo's Lasting Lessons (with John Bacon).

Consider: "I can't tell you how many times we passed up hotshots for guys we thought were better people, and watched our guys do a lot better than the big names, not just in the classroom, but on the field—and, naturally, after they graduated, too. Again and again, the blue chips faded out, and our little up-and-comers clawed their way to all-conference and All-America teams."—from the chapter, "Recruit for Character"

I'm also 97.23% behind this one: "I've always believed eye-popping innovation is not as important as perfect execution." (Not a bad reminder in these days when it seems as though there is but one word in the manager's dictionary—innovation. Have we already forgotten Larry Bossidy's Execution?)

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Lick-worthy!

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

Steve Jobs offers us this definition of terrific design: "You know a design is good when you want to lick it." (From Design: Intelligence Made Visible, Stephen Bayley & Terence Conran)

My "lick-worthy" candidate: my Western Digital 160 gigabyte external hard drive. It is sleek and black and austere—and though I haven't licked it, I have indeed fondled it.

(And hats off to Mr Jobs and company for stupendous earnings reported the day before yesterday. The company has been loved for "cool" and excoriated for not doing as well financially as Microsoft, a direct result of Steve's often unpleasant "I want it my way" mantra. Now Microsoft and Dell have a bushel of problems—and no obvious solutions since innovative leaps have not been their forte. Apple has stuck to their absurdly high new-product standard for decades, except in Jobs' absence, and, despite barbs and arrows and bad spells, it has paid off. Moreover, if innovation is your forte, when trouble arises your "fallback" is your forte.)

(Is my tribute to Jobs-innovation contrary to my tribute to Coach Schembechler-execution? Sure. So what? Scott Fitzgerald: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Bob Waterman found that one, and we used it as a chapter epigraph in In Search of Excellence. In Thriving on Chaos, I claimed that the #1 trait of a successful leader is "managing paradox.")

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More.(Design.)

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

Hats off ... again. Target's print ad: "Smart. Simple. Surprising. Great design from A to Z." (Literally, an illustration of an object—Ziploc is "Z," God bless them—for each letter in the alphabet.)

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No-No.(As You Know.)

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

In Korea last week I had a long discussion with a BigCo CEO about the Japanese and Chinese (and Koreans). While I think I passed the implicit test, I was reminded of the obvious: We far too often spout utterly useless words like "European" or "Asian." Maybe the Chinese and Japanese and Koreans share skin tint to some extent, but otherwise they have about as much in common as America and Albania and Afghanistan. Well, that's hardly the case, but you know what I mean.

Implication: Eliminate the use of terms such as "Asia"—as in "the Asian management style." Eliminate: as in zero, none, never, naught, zip.

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And You?

tom@tompeters.com October 24th, 2007

"Foundation" is an intimidating word that brings to mind Bill Gates or Ross Perot. But how about Catalino Tapia? He came to the U.S. from Mexico 43 years ago, at age 20, with $6 to his name. He held a series of jobs, and eventually started his own gardening business. He owns his home in Redwood City, CA, south of San Francisco, and recently his son graduated from Berkeley's law school (Boalt Hall). In 2006, he started a non-profit corporation, Bay Area Gardeners Foundation. With a dozen immigrant gardeners on the board, the foundation this year awarded nine college scholarships @ $1,500 each.

Marvelous!
I guess you don't have to be Bill Gates, after all!
And you?

(The above story courtesy the San Francisco Chronicle, 10.15.07—I grabbed a copy last week on my way to Korea.)

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Des Moines, IA – Strategic Planning & Business Develp Mgr – John Deere

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 24th, 2007

Total compensation includes salary, bonus and comprehensive benefits. Financing can be one of the more challenging parts of a complex farming, construction or commercial landscaping operation. John Deere Credit was founded to offer financing solution

Meriden, CT – Sales Consultants – Enhanced Wireless

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 23rd, 2007

Enhanced Wireless is Sprint Nextel's largest exclusive authorized representative and we offer innovative wireless and data products and solutions for our customers. Headquartered in Herndon, VA, we are a rapidly growing best-in-class wireless dealer

Meriden, CT – Sales Consultants – Enhanced Wireless

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 23rd, 2007

Enhanced Wireless is Sprint Nextel's largest exclusive authorized representative and we offer innovative wireless and data products and solutions for our customers. Headquartered in Herndon, VA, we are a rapidly growing best-in-class wireless dealer

Individualism in Business

chris@tompeters.co.uk October 23rd, 2007

"There's no 'I' in TEAM, but there is a 'Me' if you look closely."—Ricky Gervais

At the risk of starting another sport blog-spat, I want to start by saying that I watched the English rugby team beat the French group and reflected on how often it is we see groups beaten, who, at least on paper, "shouldn't be." On the pitch, they are beaten by a team effort because they can't collaborate. My thought here is that, in the absence of a strong sense of collective aspiration, individualism kills collective effort, which, in turn, spoils the result. Is there any learning here for business leaders? We all talk the talk on the importance of good teamwork. But just how prevalent is it in our respective organisations?

We seem to live in an age of increasing comfort and selfishness. Most of us are fortunate enough to be hovering nearer the top of Maslow's hierarchy than the bottom. Yet we live in a society that seems to value celebrities more than teams. Prima donnas more than grafters. Individualism more than cooperative effort. The media try hard to turn team efforts into the individual virtuoso performances. Count how many post match/event interviews are spent with the interviewee shying away from the accolades and reminding the reporter that it was a team effort? Are we witnessing the sound-biting of performance? Is the neat icon/success package the only good story? Is great teamwork poor press?

It seems increasingly rare to find a true business "team." (Dys) functional reporting groups appear to be much more common. The more senior the group, the less likely they are to be collaborative. The old adage of "No one wins on a losing team" does not seem to be true in the boardroom.

What are the drivers of this willing acceptance of mediocrity? Do we trade results for an ego boost? Does a need for control force us to inhibit the threat of collaborative effort? Did we get to be senior managers for being individualistic? Will we only collaborate when there are more serious threats than most of us face every day? Will individual interest and greed always win ... ??? Investing in process and systems improvement feels more reassuringly tangible than investing in talent, it seems. An SAP R4 ERP system feels more likely to deliver ROI than "teamwork development." Even though the stats on ROI for ERP implementation are frightening, they are more tangible than the "soft" stuff.

Are managers just unaware how much better their organisations could be performing, so that they consequently fail to pay attention to the development of the team?

Should I buy SAP or invest in my team? Please give me some investment advice!

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Business Solutions Consultant – Verizon Business

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 23rd, 2007

Job Description To exceed assigned revenue and pipeline quota objectives by successfully identifying and closing high-end revenue opportunities requiring solutions offered by VerizonBusiness' hosting services. Requirements 5+ years as a successful sa

Cary, NC – Consultant – Prdt Mgmt / Dvlpt – Verizon Business

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 23rd, 2007

Job Description This person will be responsible for Product Management through all phases of the product life-cycle; including competitive analysis, concept creation, business cases development, defining business level and detailed requirements, prod

Business Solutions Consultant – Verizon Business

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 23rd, 2007

Job Description To exceed assigned revenue and pipeline quota objectives by successfully identifying and closing high-end revenue opportunities requiring solutions offered by VerizonBusiness' hosting services. Requirements 5+ years as a successful sa

Silver Spring, MD – Consultant- Database Analyst – Verizon Business

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting October 23rd, 2007

Job Description Perform database design, development, performance tuning and administration in a complex large enterprise data warehousing environment using Oracle, Teradata, MS SQL Server and PL/SQL; responsible for capacity planning and maintenance

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