Yesterday I warned you about making an early iPhone purchase in a blog called Tomorrow's Lesson Today .
Never mind. I just visited my Apple Store and played with one.
I want one. I don't care if I don't have any service.
Actually, one thing I didn't warn you about is the error prone iPhone activation process (the carrier's fault, not Apple's) which is providing a buzzkill for new iPhone owners.
This morning I had a question for my local movie theatre. I was on their website and wondered why they weren't showing a major film, which was released yesterday. This movie chain has a monopoly in the area.
Great News. On their website was the ability to email a question.
Bad News. No one was on the other end to answer the question. I received an auto-reply stating that their normal business hours were Monday to Thursday 7am-5pm and Fridays until 12:00pm.
The email went on to state: "If you contact us during non-business times, or on holidays, a guest service specialist will respond within the next few business days." It goes on to say:
"If your request requires immediate assistance please contact the manager of your local theatre. Emergency phone numbers for Theatres are available by calling the local recorded showtime number listed here (website link).
What's wrong with this picture? (Pun intended).
Don't offer me email access and then tell me to call! You'd be better off not posting the email address at all. If you're telling me I have to call the theatre and talk to the manager, why not have the local managers monitor the email account on a rotating basis? After all, don't you think it's MORE likely that people will want answers to their questions on a Friday night or a weekend? (when people actually want to go to the movies?)
I'm just saying.....
I expect that the most blogged topic for today, will be the iPhone launch. The crescendo has been building for 5 months now, ever since Steve Jobs demoed the iPhone at MacWorld.
The TV ads have been fantastic. The amount of free buzz on the cable news outlets, late night talk shows and virtually every other media outlet has been phenomenal.
Combining the Internet, cell phone and iPod.... Genius.
Obviously the form factor and UI (user interface) is iPhones main draw. Apple has once again demonstrated its expertise in crafting a simple, straightforward touch screen interface, that pleases the eye and pleases the touch. After all, its what Apple does best.
They're introducing us to a new lexicon of touch commands; cover flow, scrolling, pinch out, double-tap - all cool, intuitive ways to access information and features.
Add to this many other eye-candy features, like a built-in accelerometer, which displays the images in regular or landscape form, depending upon which way you're holding the device and you have a real winner. And let's not forget REAL full feature web browsing.
If the pre-sales line ups are any indication, Apple has a real winner on their hands.
Except for one small problem. And it's called AT&T.
Yes friends, for all of iPhones built-in functionality, it's usability depends upon it's sole carrier, And that's the lesson all the avid fans will discover tomorrow, once the hype starts to die down.
No matter how cool the device, if I can't get a signal inside my house, I've just purchased a $500 paperweight.
And that is tomorrow's lesson today.
This morning I'm testing out a new Blogger feature - Polls.
Yes, I know it doesn't respect the blog design elements - Blogger is working to fix that. This is a Beta feature and I'm an early adopter.
I'd be interested in learning what you believe a CIO's biggest challenge is. If your first choice isn't on the list, please leave a comment.
As they say in Chicago, vote early and often!
Seth Godin made an interesting point today in his blog about the Verizon COO who turned down the iPhone.
The words that jumped off the (web)page at me were: "The iPhone/AT&T deal is almost certainly the exception that proves Godin's law of bizdev: No is the default answer. The spreadsheets and the marketing team and the CFO and the lawyers have no trouble at all defending the status quo, because, it's their status quo. They created it and they like it that way."
No truer words have ever been spoken.
And Godin's law of bizdev is the same reason that CIOs face such an uphill battle when it comes to making step-level changes within I.T.
To affect change, you have to convince business leaders that their status quo, is wrong or defective or deficient. You have to convince them, they're wrong.
If you can get by that hurdle, you next have to convince all their people of the same.
And finally, you need to overcome people's natural resistance to ANY change.
I'm willing to bet that an inverse correlation exists between the amount of I.T. change at an organization and the lifespan of a typical CIO.
It amazes me how little time businesses invest in selling a new initiative within their organization. Whether you're embarking on a new sales strategy, a new product launch or a new computer system, often times, we fail to address the natural forces of resistance.
Perhaps you believe the value of the initiative is self-evident - so obvious that only a fool wouldn't buy in. Or perhaps you'll proceed with the expectation that "once people understand, they'll be on board".
Think again.
Take a major ERP implementation for example. There's a reason that more than 50% of all major I.T. projects fail.
And it's not the software.
And it's not the consultants.
It's YOU.
Projects are only powered forward by the incremental effort expended to overcome the resistance to change. When projects are first proposed, images like the one at the top of this post dance around our heads. Won't it be great when we get this thing done?
In reality, when projects are first announced, half the rowers are facing the opposite way! Fear of change, discomfort with the goals, fear of losing or changing one's job, learning something new, are all powerful resistance factors.
You wouldn't dream of starting a race with half the crew facing the opposite way - but companies do, everyday.
THE most important success factor for any corporate project involves getting your entire crew facing in the same direction, before you begin. You can do that with patience, understanding, training, education, coercion, rewards, threats or firings.
Successful companies vigorously address change management up front, before the race begins. And they continue to be vigilant throughout "the race", calling to task anyone who isn't pulling their weight.
The rewards are significant.
Not only will your project most likely be successful, you'll do it in less time and for less money.
To get you started, here's a Strategy and Business article which discusses the 10 Principles of Change Management.
Digg today is earning the wrath of its online community by indroducing a new comment system, without much testing or warning.
I find it interesting the Barack Obama campaign wants to reach out to those of us who don't have a computer.
It's a very smart move. It seems to me that his costs per "prospect" are pretty low. I suspect that over time he'll begin to reach out in progressively more expensive ways.
He started with:
1. Campaign Website designed to build and organize support.
2. Email campaign & updates
3. YouTube & Blogsphere, MySpace
4. Campaign Text Messages
5. And now, Ring tones!
His campaign hasn't gotten to the real spending yet, which include;
5. Mail campaigns
6. Phone calls
7. Radio ads
8. And the HUGE expense, TV advertising
It will be interesting to watch whether all the effort into "new media" will materially alter the traditional TV spend in the campaign. Will it result in more focused spend? Will it result in LESS spend? Could technology make candidacy more accessible to the average American?
And I wonder whether the candidates' websites (win or lose) will be a vehicle to continue the conversation with the American public, once the elections are over.
I hope so.
The latest trend on the Internet (and it's been happening for several years now) are sites devoted to aggregated web content. It seems to me there are four steps to the new Internet wealth.
1. Build an online community around a specific interest -shiny new gadgets, sports, politics, environment, fuzzy plush toys - just about anything.
2. Then build traffic by adding catchy article captions, reader voting and comments.
3. Charge advertisers on a page view basis to place ads.
4. Repeat (with new site & topic).
I wonder whether this is a sustainable business model, for a couple of reasons.
First, search engines continue to evolve and when they get to the point that they can return results based upon theme related RSS feeds, the content aggregators' efforts will be rendered moot. It's only a matter of time.
The second reasons is that, aside from aggregating content, many of these site offer little added value - no in depth insights, editorials or other original content - just catchy article titles, with a link back to the originating story or press release.
They are in the "look at me" business. That's exactly the magic behind Digg - except that they've introduced viewer "voting", increasing the visitor participation factor, making their site more "sticky".
I wonder about the effectiveness of the advertising on these sites. My gut tells me that over time there's very little click through and far fewer purchases. Marketers are attracted to theses sites because of the traffic. The same reasoning applies when they continue to buy traditional TV advertising or when they put up billboards on heavily travelled highways.
In an age of permission marketing and viral marketing, where consumers grant you permission to tell them about products and services they're interested in (and spread the word about your product if they like it), I wonder how much longer advertisers will continue to spend their money without seeing significant results?
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to add AdSense to my blog.
Have you ever met someone who's obsessed with opportunities? You know, people whose "radar" is always on the lookout for how things might be improved? Those obsessed with the questions "What if?, "Why not?", "Why are things the way they are?". It's really a constant state of wonder.
I am one of those people.
Whenever I see a sign, I ponder the reason for the sign's existence rather than what the sign says. I have no idea why. My brain just works that way.
One of my favorites is posted in the Pro Shop of a local Golf club. It reads:
"No Rainchecks if you tee off in the rain".
One can only imagine the customer conversation that caused the sign to be posted in the first place. Does this happen so frequently that it requires a sign? Couldn't the starter have mentioned to the golfer that it looks like rain - and explain the raincheck policy before they even walked out to the first tee?
How about displaying local dopplar radar in the Pro Shop, so when the weather is threatening, customers can make an informed decision?
Why not suggest the group have some coffee or a muffin in the lounge until the clouds parted? Even if the rain continued, at least you'd have sold them breakfast!
Those are the kinds of questions that trigger in my mind when I see signage like that.
For someone who operates in the Recreation and Hospitality industry, they're coming up short on the hospitality part. And there are plenty of other golf club choices choices available.
The sign might as well say: "No Idiots Allowed".
And that says as much about the course operator as it does about their customers.
To people like me, there's a big difference between what signs say and what they mean.
A couple of weeks ago, on a road trip to Canada, I became aware of an email campaign designed to boycott a major Canadian gas company, Petro Canada, beginning June 1st. The move was in response to recently soaring gas prices.
General boycott attempts had been made here in the U.S., but none to my knowledge against a specific company.
I was returning from a trip to eastern Ontario with my father when we decided to stop for lunch and to fill up the car. The gas station next to the restaurant was Petro-Canada.
"How much gas do you have left?" Dad asked.
"About 30 miles worth." I replied.
"Would you mind finding another station? We're boycotting Petro Canada because of the gas prices."
Earlier in the week, he had received a viral email suggesting that everyone boycott Petro Canada, in an effort to drive gas prices down. And so it was that we found another station. Upon arriving back in his hometown, I happened to notice a full page ad in the newspaper, offering $10 off Petro Canada gas, with any $50 purchase at a local drug store chain.
To my knowledge, that has NEVER happened before.
You have to love the power of email activism.
I am continually disappointed how slowly the Corporate world catches onto cultural phenomena. Take YouTube for example. Hundreds of thousands of video clips, (mostly amateur) uploaded daily for all to peruse. This massively popular trend has been mostly ignored by business (unless your business is hosting web videos).
Getting your message across in interesting and effective ways has never been easier, but if you scan your company's Intranet, what do you see?
If your company is very progressive, perhaps your CEO has a blog. Most likely not. Maybe your Corporate Communications department has produced some video, but I bet they distribute it on CDs. Company news, by and large, is presented in text form only - possibly with cute graphics (if produced by HR).
If you think about it, most of us feel that the communication is "complete" as soon as we hit the "publish" button.
There are several flaws in this logic.
First, how do you know anyone has read your text? And secondly, how do you know they understood your message? We're all so busy, that publishing the message becomes the task, not communicating the message.
When one considers that most of America spends 4.5 hours per day watching TV and that on average Americans will purchase ONE book per year, it seems to me that publishing yet another long "how to" manual or boring corporate policy in written form (only), just won't cut it anymore.
IVT (Interactive Video Technologies) offers products to address several of these issues. They offer a simple to use video creation/editing tool that allows you to produce videos, in conjunction with PowerPoint presentations. Their software can track who has seen the video, how long they watched it and the video can be combined with screen captures. Add this to a blog, FAQ, surveys or tests to continue the dialog or to test whether your message was understood.
Think of how effective your message could be if it were to "come alive" in video format and be surrounded by all that collateral material?
All it takes is a little imagination, a web camera and a cheap monthly subscription and you're in business.
So give some thought to effectively communicating, not just publishing.
I was interested to read an article on Slashdot which described a Brisbane Australia Hosting company's effort to build a data center from scratch - in 60 days!
Anyone who has built a data center knows how complex and lengthy (and secretive) a process it is. Yet, Pipe Networks, an "upstart" hosting company (only four years old) are going public with the challenge, posting updates in the company blog, listing their outstanding punch list and showing the progress on a webcam.
If you were a potential hosting customer, what marketing message does the Pipe Networks challenge send to you?
Personally, I love the fact that they're undertaking a step-level improvement over their previous DC builds. Secondly, I like the fact that they're doing it in a transparent way. If they succeed, they're heroes. If they fail, they fail publicly. Regardless, the challenge generates buzz about the company.
Have you ever worked for a company that took a bold public risk? A company that put their reputation on the line"?
Can anyone explain why the Corporate Podcasting Summit, held in Europe would be offering a CD of their conference speakers?
About 10 minutes ago, I downloaded Safari for Windows (beta). Steve Jobs just announced its availablity, speaking at WWDC a couple of hours ago.
Just read this article at TechDirt which tells how an Indian technology firm is now offshoring to Mexico.
I've talked to a number of friends about offshoring and am still waiting to hear a success story.
I'm willing to bet that the majority of I.T. offshoring decisions are made by CFOs not CIOs. While the $$$ savings are extremely appealing, the move is fraught with hidden costs. And it's not one that's easily reversible. Once you've dumped your entire I.T. department, you're now relying entirely on a vendor to deliver.
And what is your recourse if they don't? Sue the vendor? Cancel the contract? Hire another vendor? Rebuild your I.T. department from the ground up?
And in the case mentioned in the article, how do you defend against your vendor sub-contacting all the work out?
Answer: You don't.
For me, outsourcing strategic work on a large scale is a risk not worth taking - unless of course, I.T. is not seen as strategic at your company.
Linda Dillman, CIO at WalMart, (arguably one of the best cost control companies in the world) once said that she would not consider outsourcing. Their applications are simply too strategic and their monitoring and measurement systems too rigorous to be considered for such a strategy.
I tend to agree.
In a past life, while working as a Director of Marketing, I decided to move our catalog film production offshore. A Singapore based company (with a local rep) said they would create film for half the cost of my local supplier.
The challenges in working halfway around the world? Language, timing, errors and error correction. Every page had to be done twice. In the end, we never saved any money and we spent more time managing the process.
After all the hassle of getting the film produced correctly, an active volcano caused a disruption in air traffic from Singapore and we almost missed a printing deadline as a result! (Okay, I can't blame the vendor for that one.)
The following year, we were back with our former supplier.
After that experience, I can't imagine having the courage to let staff go and jump into bed with an offshore vendor.
So it has me wondering; Is "Offshoring Success" an oxymoron?
Want to discover where the leaders are within your organization? Just go through a big systems implementation.
In my experience, there's no better litmus test of leadership, than the effort of managing change in support of a major systems implementation.
Here are five reasons why your company might need to upgrade their systems. There may be many more, but I like to keep lists short. These reasons are listed in order of difficulty in managing change (from easiest to most difficult).
1. Real crisis (imminent demise). There's nothing that focuses your attention like imminent demise. When you have absolutely no other choice, it's pretty easy to get people "on board". It's far easier to jump from a second story window when the house is on fire.
2. (Believable) Manufactured crisis. I call this the "We fight them there so we don't have to fight them here" strategy. If your management team can create a believable doomsday scenario, it is far easier to overcome change in your organization. We can debate about the future credibility of management later. (I'm not endorsing this tactic.)
3. Compelling vision or market opportunity. Perhaps your company could grow substantially by conducting business globally, in multiple languages and currencies and your systems can't support that effort. If we do this, we'll get a "leg up" on the competition. Or perhaps you need to do it just to keep up with the competition.
4. Strategic operational improvements. If we only had visibility to our purchasing data, we could drop our costs by 10% (or improve cash flow or lower our inventories... you get the point). Operationally beneficial, but doesn't necessarily motivate all the troops.
5. Current course no longer an option. We can't get parts for our old mainframe anymore or the last APL programmer just retired. We have no choice. It's seen as a technical issue, not a business problem.
In most cases, ERP implementations are driven by reasons #3 or #4. And that's where you need all leadership, leading. And here's what good leadership does.
1. They take the time to understand the initiative and its importance (and perhaps internalize the benefits to their department or line of business).
2. They make it a priority (not just add it to a long list of projects). They identify what won't get done as a result of doing THIS.
3. They communicate with (not TO) their employees. They can answer the who? what? when? where? why? how? questions - or find someone who can.
4. They "walk the talk" - show consistency of purpose, ask about project progress. That which gets measured, gets done. They challenge those who aren't "on board". They lead by example.
5. They continue the dialog - not just a "kickoff" meeting, but quarterly (or milestone) updates as well.
6. They communicate expectations, expect results and hold people accountable.
ERP implementations are very stressful times for any company. As you manage through the significant change, keep your eyes open and you'll discover who your real leaders are.
And they can come from any tier in your organization.
My apologies to anyone who tried to download my free E-book on "ERP Lessons Learned". I've made a couple changes to the coding behind the buttons and all should work well now.
Here's another great video from Common Craft which explains Wikis for beginners. I love their presentation style.
If you enjoyed this video, you may want to check out a previous blog post Liquid Canuck: RSS Explained
This past weekend, I drove to Toronto. Like every major North American city, Toronto has invested millions of dollars in those electronic overhead traffic signs across the major traffic corridors.
The idea is to help warn travellers of major traffic tie ups, accidents, lane and exit construction closures, with the goal of improving traffic flow across the busiest travelled roads in the city.
I was driving across the top of Toronto when I encountered a massive traffic jam. As all six lanes of eastbound traffic were completely stopped on Hwy 401 by the Toronto Airport, I glanced up at the electronic sign for guidance. Here is what it said:
"Reduce idling. Save the environment. Save money"
I'm not sure how I was supposed to react to that. Park the car, get out and walk? No guidance whatsoever. No reason for the tie up. No suggested alternate routes. Nothing. Except, reduce idling. After an hour, I finally found my own way out of the mess - no thanks to the electronic signage.
But that's not the worst of it. Here are other (real) examples of messages posted on these electronic signs I observed this weekend.
"Speed Enforcement in Effect"
Damn! I came to Toronto on the day they check for speeders!
"Eglinton Ave 1 KM"
Does this street suddenly change locations from time to time? Why can't this information be posted on a standard painted sign? Like you do for EVERY OTHER exit?
And let's not forget the free driving lessons provided by other electronic signs....
"Check blind spot before changing lanes"
"Don't follow too closely"
"Wear your seatbelt"
Or my favorite:
"Test"
I might cut the local Highway department some slack, except these signs have been in place for almost a decade. By now they should have figured out how to use them effectively.
Perhaps the intern who posts the messages was out sick.
Or perhaps they should get their money back.
