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Broadband Speeds: A Tale of Two Countries

Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future at Washington Post caught my attention. (Reg'n reguired.)

Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States -- and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world's fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.

Accelerating broadband speed in this country -- as well as in South Korea and much of Europe -- is pushing open doors to Internet innovation that are likely to remain closed for years to come in much of the United States.

While Japan and others push for faster broadband speeds and greater penetration of these speeds into consumers hands...and enjoy the benefit for growing opportunities for innovation in areas like health care deliver to name but one and the resulting job creation that comes from startups and small businesses that result from these innovations....sigh...we're considering here a plan to slow the pace of  innovations with a two-tiered internet. One-tier will offer prioritized handling of customers' traffic for an added fee. The 2nd tier will offer the same speeds....just not prioritized. Kinda like the difference in 1st class mail and 4th class mail. 4th class mail uses the same means of delivery as 1st class. The difference is...1st class mail is prioritized.

Guess who's economy will see growth over the coming years?

Cnet News on Net Neutrality.

YouTube video on Net Neutrality.

Wal-Mart Missteps with FaceBook

Whoops...as with its fake-blogging*, Wal-mart's made some awkward steps on another social networking resource: FaceBook.

Churbuck has some good commentary on Wal-Mart getting toasted for its FaceBook play...His post is FaceBook users resisting Wal-Mart's latest Web 2.0. (And in fairness,some of the comments were directed at Facebook, too.)

Borrowing a sports cliche', social networks develop best when you ...let the [community] come to you. They do when you have a brand like Starbucks.

ComputerWorld article link.

Starbucks' Addicts, FaceBook and Word-of-Mouth

Pete Blackshaw has a great post on all this: Calculating the Value of Starbucks Brand Fanatics (er, Addicts).

I've had some commentary on the value of FaceBook. Is it just another fad...what's its ROI, etc. Fair questions. I'm still assessing FaceBook. I'm sold on Starbucks.

Granted it starts with Starbucks products and service...and FaceBook provides an online meeting place for all their fanatics (er, addicts) to connect, share their addiction, find common interests, etc, etc all starting with their common interest in Starbucks.

But....BUT...53,000 members of a group that share a common addiction to your product/company/brand....that want to get to know each other and share profiles and stories and interests...that's a ROI I can live with.

And that's the power of Word-of-Mouth amplified, made easy with a resource like...FaceBook.

Disclaimers: I'm a member of FaceBook. I drink Starbucks at home. We bought one of their little, entry-level barrista machines to A. save money; B. Save my time. A family member works for Starbucks. It's all good. Pete and I connected with our membership  at WOMMA.

Mark White's Tips on Blogging

I have a few favorite blogging consultants. They include Mike Sansone at ConverStations, Debbie Weil at BlogWriteforCEOs and Michael Pollock at Blog Design for Small Business.

And to that list, I'd add Mark White at BBB: Better Business Blogging. Good content, very focused. Practical tips. Good perspective. I subscribe. You should, too.

I miss SNL

Last night I flipped on the TV and found yet another show looking back at SNL. This time it was the first 5 years. The stuff was just as funny as it was then.

There aren't too many shows I'll watch over and over. Friends, The Andy Griffith Show, Scrubs, ok Law and Order... come to mind. Movies like Shane (Sha-a-a-ane...I'm sorry...), Dodgeball, Animal House, , It's a Wonderful Life. I'll watch 'em every time. MY wife just laughs (especially about Shane).

Looking back at SNL shows...I'll watch 'em every time. I can't remember the exact quote but it was somthing to the effect of SNL was the first time comedians got to be comedians on TV. And it was live.

If you're wanting to create a product that builds lasting loyalty, start with authenticity, start with doing something unique. Your people are unique. Showcase them. Let their talents and personalities shine in the interactions with each other and customers.

Create a live show for with everyone in your company. If your offices are open Monday- Friday, call it It's Monday - Friday...LIVE. And broadcast it live to your customers. Monday - Friday. Or if it's 24 hours a day you serve customers, call it 24 Hours a Day....Live.

Just make it live, make it real, let them shine.

7 Dirty Words of Email Subject Lines

And 100 others you shouldn't use, either.

From MarketingProfs.

Here's the word we use in the email subject line that generates the highest open-rate: TIPS.

Here's a TIP that works with email marketing: Send it to people who want it like your customers or your prospects who've already opted in for future correspondence with you.

Don't buy lists of strangers to load their spam filter or interrupt their day with messages they never asked for. They can get that experience watching TV. The difference here is they'll remember your name from having to delete the email. It's more time-consuming than clicking through channels. And the memory won't be pleasant.

PS. If you're looking for an award winning email delivery service, choose SubscriberMail. They're included in the Inc. 5000 list for fastest growing privately-held companies. They're the best. We use them.

Disclaimer: SubscriberMail is a customer.

Recognition: The Biggest Driver for Performance

Performance Magazine offers a great article reminder by Bob Nelson of this same title: Recognition: The Biggest Driver for Performance. Mr. Nelson writes:

In my research 88.7 percent of today’s employees report recognition is very or extremely important to them. If you want to maximize the performance of those individuals that come to work for your organization, recognition is a key driver for obtaining that performance.

I agree. Actually, I'd agree 100%. 100% of the time recognition is extremely important to your colleagues, co-workers, family members, spouses, friends. Shoot, pets.  It's a basic, even primal, need to be recognized, acknowledged, appreciated...in a way that's important for us and for the work we do.

Just say thank you for someone's accomplishment. Go crazy and tell them how and why your appreciate their accomplishment, what role it plays in the group's success. Blow out the stops and recognize them in a group setting. We have a program called snitches. We snitch on each other's successes with projects and customers and sales. We do it at our company meetings. It turns into a feeding frenzy of recognition and celebration and laughter. One snitch  inspires another, inspires another.

Financially, it may be the least expensive investment you can make.

The trick, the challenge, is that emotionally...it can be the most expensive. Or maybe too often our emotional bank accounts are a bit tapped for this investment. ( How to deal with that challenge is the source of whole industries of experts. But you have to find a solution if you're a leader, want to grow, want your organization to grow, want your relationships to grow, want your life to grow.)

But back to recognition. Take a minute or two, quality not quantity, and recognize those around in a personally meaningful way...for them.

SubscriberMail makes the INC 5000

Now they're getting some recognition. SubscriberMail was ranked number 596 on Inc magazine's INC 5000, a list of the top 5000 fastest growing companies in America. And SubscriberMail is one of the 20 fastest growing companies in Illinois.

And the way they communicated this announcement, their ranking on  INC 5000 was, as you'd expect, in an email note to their customers saying SubscriberMail couldn't have done this without you. During the time we have focused on the email marketing space, we have been blessed with absolutely fantastic customers who have accounted for this growth, and a group of remarkable, dedicated team members....

SubscriberMail is an award-winning provider of email marketing services and technology. They're also one of the most customer-focused companies I've experienced. Their CEO and Founder, Jordan Ayan,  is what an ideal CEO should be: focused, organized, great listener, kind, patient, driven, family-oriented, funny, innovative, creative. I consider him a friend.  We're his customer. They've done wonderful work with us delivering solutions for our quirky needs.

We're delighted for them. Congrats, you guys! And we hope to see you there in '08, '09 at the latest.

Disclaimer: SubscriberMail uses our conferencing solutions.

Mattel's Toy Recall: Getting It Right?

Would Mattel have been contrite, publicly or privately, about their toys with lead paint had they not been caught selling them? Would they have changed their manufacturing to insure a safe, lead-free, toy without public pressure?

HBS Working Knowledge reprints a first blog entry of their professor John Quelch. It's titled, Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right.

It's an excellent post. He highlights some steps by Mattel to handle this crisis that deserve praise:

CEO took personal charge

Consumers are empowered to handle their recall (saves CRM costs, keeps dealer relations strong,)

Effective use of media to spread the recall's word. Among other methods, the company is using bold red ads on high-traffic Internet sites such as Yahoo.com to find owners of the affected products and drive them to the Mattel Web site for more recall information...

Ok. All good.

But where was all open communication prior to Mattel volunteering their consumers and their families health and safety to effectively serve, very effectively, much more effectively than the company it seems, as their quality control operation?

A reader on a Facebook conversation on this very topic commented she could buy a lead detector of less than $15.00. Why couldn't Mattel? You have to wonder how many discussions around the manufacture and sale of these toys took place within Mattel and their partners. And...a simple step like that or its effective equivalent within a large manufacturing operation never took place. Or maybe they did. Who knows? There's not a lot of transparency on this topic from Mattel.

Granted, these steps by Mattel are praise-worthy....now. But the shine of their halo is lost when these steps are taken...only when caught, it seems. Mattel seemed quite comfortable, until they were caught and exposed to the public, for selling toys with lead paint on their surface...again and again and in numerous markets.

And again, now that they're caught, they have stepped up well in several areas.

Would they have been so contrite and concerned for the safety of consumers and their children without being caught?

Guaranteed health insurance for the self-employed

Self-employed Floridians cannot be denied health insurance because of pre-existing health conditions this month.

Coverage can be obtained from insurance companies or HMOs that write group business for groups between 1 and 50 employees in Florida.

From Tampa Bay Bizjournals.

Interesting. It's a good start. I wonder why that program isn't available in Iowa?

Customers Will Have Their Choice...

and they'll have it now, thank you very much.

You knew it would happen. I didn't think it would happen this way or this soon. The iPhone's been hacked. Or in this case, it's been cracked. Hack-a-cracked. NY Times article: With Software and Soldering, a Non-AT&T iPhone (blog-friendly link)

No. No. The iPhone is great. People love it. It's a great big wow.

It's the network, silly, people are trying to leave. The ATT network that's forced on the users of iPhone with 2-year contracts, early-departure penalties, small print in their contract to blind you and network speed to sleep for.

The iPhone's been hack-a-cracked to allow its users to choose the network of their choice. Customers want what's best for them, for their lives, for their goals. Give it to them or they leave.

Companies have 2 choices then for investments to insure customer loyalty:

1.  Long-term contracts and legal fees to insure them. Basically, you invest  in lawyers to force your customers to stay all the while building resentment and anger and insuring their departure as soon as 'they're legally old enough'. Adults hate being treated like children...and so this approach insures not only will they leave when given have the chance...but they'll stay gone for a long, long time.

2. Create a fabulous product or service. ( Customer Experience is the term du jour.) Take all that money you pay your attorneys and court costs, add your advertising budget, throw in a dash of patience with hiring great people and a whole lot of listening...and willingness to change to meet their needs. Bam. You have a sustainable business model, tremendous customer loyalty and no one hack-a-cracking your partner's product regardless the cost in order to leave you, while keeping their product.

Customers want what's best for them, for their lives, for their goals. Give it to them; they stay. Don't; they don't.   

iPhone customers are staying; they're just leaving the network. They want a network that's best for their goals, their uses of the product, their lives. And they'll have it now, thank you very much.

Links:

USAToday article, Google key word search: iphone unlocked.

From One Red Clip to Their Own Home

Great story, well-written with a wee bit of wit and style. Trading up from Red Paper Clip to White Picket Fence.

Here's the blog of Kyle MacDonald who traded one red paper clip into his home.

Took him 14 trades to move from one red paper clip to owning his own home. That's leveraging your assets. 

Maybe he's a future with hedge funds.

Then again, maybe it's important to deserve, then desire.

Open Collaboration? Not at the NHTSA

Today's theme seems to be about how collaborative resources can bring openness in conversation and innovation to an organization, its stakeholders and members.

NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seems to want to have none of that these days.

Interesting. One would think as consumers of national highway traffic, who'd benefit most from safety while doing so, and who likely would know what constitutes safety...we'd be most interested, most motivated, in collaborating  with anyone on the administration  of National Highway Traffic Safety.

And as customers who pay the bills of said NHTSA through our taxes...why wouldn't you want  to talk with us about what it is being done for our benefit?

The collaboration conversation with WSJ continues...

As collaborative work environments proliferate, so does the potential for irony and dark-humor grow. Levels of patience AND accountability will be tested and determined to be in short supply, most likely. Collaboration is about change. And collaboration may be one of the most upsetting, unsettling, innovative changes to sweep through organizations, new and old.

Collaboration's sweep through old-guard, mainstream media may be the most painful, awkward and...public wave of change through any existing industry.

A few weeks ago, I posted How Instant Messaging Brings Relief to the Office. In the post, I blithely linked to an article in the Wall Street Journal about collaborative work environments. The article was titled Instant Messaging Invades the Office. (You'll see the URL for this link ends with 'free'. Key term for open collaboration...More on that later) And it describes how IM is changing, reducing really, many of the stodgy hierarchical org charts of big and stodgy corporations. It's empowering everyone in a corporation for faster, more nimble interaction and with greater accountability. Org charts become meaningless when anyone can ping a CEO directly, and vice versa, immediately.

A couple of days later, I found a comment at the end of the article by the very articulate, passionate, accountable, dedicated publisher an author could find: Katherine Hirzel of Red Ape Publishing. ( Using a tired old cliche'...you'd want someone like Katherine with you in a firefight of any sort.) She shared with me some of the background of the story both on the phone and in her comments at the end of the post.

And in this conversation, a few ironies became painfully obvious.

Irony Number 1: The news organization that carried the article. The irony of the article's placement was lost on me in my haste to post that day. The article was placed in the WSJ. Wall Street Journal.  WSJ's online content is behind-the-wall of paid subscription. Online access to the WSJ is available only for paid subscribers*. (That's not the issue. I support profitable operations; paying subscribers sure help accomplish that goal and the goal of positive cash-flows. Creating exclusive content and and building commu nities around it is one business model, a great business model, even. My point, is the irony of a company whose business model's success stems in large part from creating a closed-community and dashing collaboration as a matter of taste having the audacity to write an article on open collaboration when it's anathema to their very being. )

They don't use IM. WSJ doesn't use IM.

If they do, they conveniently overlooked the opportunity to profile their use of this collaborative, hierarchy-busting tool within this venerable institution. And what a disservice that would have been to their readers...So, we can assume they don't use IM.

And IM is one of the easiest collaboration resources to incorporate. Certainly, it's one of the cheapest. It's free for us; we use Skype.

Irony Number 2. WSJ's community. The community of readers for WSJ didn't suggest the article on IM and collaboration. The idea of the article seemingly  didn't arise from within the hallowed towers of WSJ and their respected business reporters.

Irony number 3: WSJ, once it understood this IM thing... as a story source, needed expert with head-nodding credentials acceptable to its readers. Hence, 2 tier-1 b-school professors who consult with Fortune 500 corporations. And talk a bit about collaboration on the side, practicing some of it themselves.  It's kinda like hearing your over the hill rockers talk at your backyard barbecue about how they do rap, too. And then busta move...Yeah, huh. Interesting. Honey, is that pork ready?

And the funny part is, WSJ preferred these experts, with their creds pre-certified and pre-approved by the traditions and hierarchy of this closed community of subscribers,  over the experts who prove their creds every day by implementing and using the collaborative resources and going onsite to clients large and small who've seen the future and it's collaboration, baby.

The last irony, the punchline if you will in a dark way, is the author of the book, the Culture of Collaboration, whose work and thoughts have been referenced by journals embracing technology and innovation and collaboration, wasn't mentioned or quoted in the article. This, even though author Evan Rosen proposed the story to the WSJ based on the ideas in his book, provided four of the five corporate IM user examples included in the article, had numerous conversations with a WSJ editor, and was interviewed over lunch by the WSJ reporter. After publisher Katherine Hirzel protested that the WSJ failed to attribute Rosen's ideas, WSJ blithely allowed him to respond by letter and published his letter in the WSJ...in its closed-community site. Get it? A leading expert on collaboration wasn't included in their article on collaboration and they published his letter behind the gates of their closed community. Funny.

Who said WSJ doesn't have comics?

Updates. I noticed that the article that started this dialogue, Instant Messaging Invades the Office, has links at the bottom for related articles. No links to my original post are there. No links to the letter in reply, either.

*WSJ does offer some free content. And they do do promote this free content to bloggers in effect enlisting bloggers as summer interns helping to market the parent company's paid-content. I posted about it here: I'm an intern for WSJ.

Summer Storms Last Night

Thankfully a summer storm blew through last night out here in Iowa dropping temperatures, humidity and bringing some dramatic photos, too.

This was taken at around 6:30 last night.

Here's the rest of the pics at Flickr.

Have John Jantsch Answer Your Marketing Questions

You can ask  John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing fame, your most pressing marketing questions Wednesday, August 29 at 1 PM Pacific Standard Time ( 2 PM Mountain, 3 PM Central, 4PM Eastern) on an one-hour teleconference call.  The conference call is free to attend and free to call using the tollfree number available for callers from Canada and the US.  There's a toll number for callers outside these 2 countries.

This opportunity to have your pressing marketing questions and challenges answered by  the veterean small business marketing expert...celebrated author, blogger, podcaster John Jantsch is brought to you by QuickBooks Community. John's one of the resident small business experts QuickBooks Community makes available to its members (and to the public) and for free.  As John writes in his post announcing this opportunity to have him answer your questions:

Intuit is quietly putting together some great small business resources with the QuickBooks Community...

Yes, they are.

John offers near daily tips and resources and solutions and tried-true solutions for small business marketing success. He also brings on other marketing experts to bring their knowledge to his readers. You can get it all free at his Duct Tape Marketing Blog. You should sign up for his newsletters. That way his content is delivered to your door. ( Content means SOLUTIONS for you to use to grow your business. Let's be clear on that term here.)

REGISTER HERE. And have your marketing questions answered.

Disclaimers:

* John Jantsch is a customer with Conference Calls Unlimited.

* I blog at his Duct Tape Marketing Blog Channel.

* I am a Small Business Marketing expert at QuickBooks Community's Ask The Small Business Expert.

* Conference Calls Unlimited sponsors this call with complimentary use of the service.

Read Your Feed

Mike Sansone at ConverStations reminds us, bloggers and podcasters all, to read your feed. According to Mike it's like checking the window display in your store or counter.

Which reminds me I haven't checked my window in awhile....

Thanks for the reminder Mike.

Health Care Crisis: Google and Microsoft to the Rescue?

Google and Microsoft Look to Change Health Care. NY Times. Blog-friendly link.

Interesting. The article points out that Google is the default starting point for most health searches. ( Kinda vague, even for the NY Times. In this context, in terms of consumer action, what does the term default mean? Can you quantify most and define health services. But still, it's Google, it's search....ok, we can work with the sentence. )

The other sorta blanket-statement doing double-duty as a foundational assumption is Microsoft’s software animates more than 90 percent of all personal computers. ( ANIMATES? If there's one verb I'd never use to describe Microsoft's operating system it's animate...Other verbs come to mind like...Kill, slow, restrict, discourage...obfuscate, demean...Of course I'm writing this on a XP-system. Go figure. Microsoft. We love to hate ya. )

It's an interesting spin to say their initiatives would give more control to individuals...Ultimate control of these soon-to-be electronic records of the most personal and intimate details of one's being and our interactions therein...would be controlled and stored by the software animates more than 90 percent of all personal computers and the default starting point for most health searches. As Google keeps a record of our searches with it...they'd have a pretty good record of our own personal health-care initiatives.

What a treasure trove that information and its access would yield....

I don't see this as changing health care. If you can't afford health care...you're not going to search for it. No matter if your beta site promotes that [you] feel patients should be in charge of their health information, and they should be able to grant their health care providers, family members, or whomever they choose, access to this information.

Speaking of default...I'm wondering if Google Health will have a default setting marked yes for allowing it and its marketing partners to send you special offers...

Medicare: Their stick approach

Medicare recently announced it will no longer pay for gross errors by members of the health-care professional community. Makes sense. You have to wonder why a hospital or physician is rewarded for gross errors in the first place.

The step's not of the carrot variety in changing behavior. It doesn't reward good behavior or incentivize good behavior in the care of the ill. As if you need incentives for that. If you do, maybe that's the problem.

But it does stop the rewards for gross errors in judgement and care.

Now that we've got your attention...maybe we can start looking at the unevenness of care as GoozNews points out:

We'll know Medicare is serious about improving quality while holding down costs when the nation's single-payer health plan for seniors figures out why the elderly in their last two years of life spend twice as many days in the hospital in New York and Mississippi as they do in Oregon or Utah.

Blackstone Group Agrees to Health Insurance for Janitors

Interesting articles.

BizJournals reports that the Blackstone Group agreed to SEIU Local 615's request to provide full-time work and family health insurance for janitors who maintain the private equity group's property in Boston.

On the same day, Forbes reports Blackstone Group reported its 2nd quarter earnings had tripled from the previous year, growing from $224 million for the 2nd quarter 2006 to $774.4 million for the 2nd quarter 2007.

Health insurance Premiums Rose "Only" 9.6%

Health insurance premiums in the Carolinas rose less this year than last year. They rose only 9.6% this year. Together with the increases for 2006, and 2005 of 10.9 and 11.8%, respectively, that means that by 2011 your health insurance premiums will have effectively doubled. (The power of compound interest and double digit increases.)

Can you afford it? Look at your health care costs now, and your household budget. Then ask yourself if you could afford it if your health insurance premiums d-d-d-d...doubled. Doesn't really matter, though. They're still going to d-d-d-d...double by 2011 compared to 2005.

Oh. And this rate increase will apply to individuals, group plans...and that assumes you don't age into a new demographic or god-forbid actually make a claim on your health insurance plan. Those 2 acts always guarantee faster and higher rate increases.  And as we age (yes, Dorothy, even in Oz, we age) these 2 events will occur with greater speed. Make that 3 events: age, claims, rate increases.

Healthy Behaviors: The 'stick' approach

Clarian Health Partners has begun charging employees up to $30 every two weeks if they fail to meet healthy standards for weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure.

What do you think? Penalties for employees who fail to meet guidelines..? How does a company assess who's an unrepentant junk-food junkie, the king of the couch potatoes or one suffering from health conditions which require prescribed medications whose side-effects include swelling, weight gain, etc, etc.

On the other hand, is it fair to charge higher premiums to members of a group plan for the lifestyle choices of other members?

As a CEO of a small company I'm not keen on getting into the personal and private lives of company members. I wouldn't be keen on joining a company who wanted to get up in my business, either.

We communicate clear expectations for everyone's performance here. That includes positive, enthusiastic, flexible, creative, energetic  attitudes. We'll help, if asked. If not, we leave it alone until it impacts our day. Then we communicate expectations and limits and offers of help to reach the first and avoid the 2nd. After that, people communicate their decisions one way or another.

Link from Kelly Montgomery at About.com's health insurance section.

World's Best Medical Care?

Maybe not.

Rainy Day Drive through Southeast Iowa

Me and the Missus, our lab puppy Auggie, took a rainy day tour through southeast Iowa today covering the communities of Eldon, Selma and Libertyville and the counties of Wapello, Van Buren and Jefferson.

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Here's the flickr set for the entire tour.

The target was the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa. The house was made famous by Grant Wood's painting American Gothic.

Here's the flickr set for the American Gothic House as it stands today, a rainy day.i

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iAnd here's the Missus' blipfoto of the day.

And lastly, here's Auggie enjoying the drive.

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Sports and Heroes. They still go together

Sometimes it seems the good don't get press. Especially these days in sports...the good seemed crowded out for press.

Eating lunch at my desk today I surf'd over to this post by Scoop Jackson at ESPN: Yes, there are heroes left in the sports world.

He profiles heroes, known and unknown, doing great things to help, to lead, to inspire. Most of them unknown.

Now's a good time for this reminder. Mr. Jackson, can you help get them a little coverage?

Take my identity. Please, somebody...

Henny Youngman was famous for his punchline of Take my wife. Please!*

Seems today we're saying Take my identity. Please!

Keith Shaw at the DEMOletter asks Why are we still giving up our identities so easily? He shares the story of a security company who created a fake FaceBook profile (I'm shocked, shocked! ) and sent out friend requests to 200 assorted FaceBook** members. 40%, 82 members, responded. These respondents gladly gave out their current address (78%), mother's maiden name...(Take my mother's maiden name. Please! ?), photos of families and friends, 84% listed their full date of birth....

But no one gave up their social security number....Good news. We're learning.

And as Keith writes...Most of us wouldn't give this information out to a random person on the street, but we're more than happy to do so via a random electronic ping.

Lastly, Security Products newsletter y'day listed Illinois and Montana as Hot Spots for Identity Theft. Judging from the above story many people would interpret this news as saying ...if you're pinged to be a friend from an anonymous/unknown source, don't worry about it unless you live in Illinois or Montana.

* Henny was an equal opportunity funny man. He made jokes at everyone's expense in his family, his community, his world. That included himself. Some of his jokes have a timeless quality about them. Take this joke:

Getting on a plane, I told the ticket lady, "Send one of my bags to New York, send one to Los Angeles, and send one to Miami." She said, "We can't do that!" I told her, "You did it last week!"

Still rings true.

** FaceBook. Personally, I like this resource a lot. But I've turned down all friend requests from strangers.

Transparency Comes to the VC Community

Whoa. Jeff Bussgang at AlwaysOn writes a bit about a little breeze of transparency wafting over the VC industry in the form of TheFunded.com and its newsletter and its efforts to be ...

a bit like what TripAdvisor is to travelers – entrepreneurs go online and report on their impressions of working with this VC or that one and the reviews are broadly posted to the community.

We don't run with VCs. They don't run with us. We don't share mutual interests at this point. However, it's an interesting story to see how this waft of transparency will be enjoyed by many of those in the VC world who've invested in firms bringing transparency to other communities.

And in all fairness, I've felt the same transparency breeze a bit coolish under my kimono at times. Other times, it's been a bit scorching when I've honored with transparency those who weren't ready for it.

Ultimately, though, it served its purpose. I needed to know who was ready. And those that weren't, I need to know that too.

Back to the VCs...money, power, access, priviledge, clubby community. It could be fun to read the stories from the members themselves.

IPhone great; Edge Network NOT

AP Technology editor Matt Fordahl points out iPhone's firing on all major cylinders and as long as you're in major wifi hotspot...If you're stuck with ATT's Edge network, described with the terms slurry and sludge...then um...you know...chill...go for a walk...or walk down to a wifi hotspot while you're waiting.

Matt points out the obvious: had iPhone partnered with a real network...this product would have scored 10 out of 10.

What's my point? ATT's EDGE network is likely a preview of coming attractions with a 2-tiered internet access plan.  ATT's one of the champions for undoing net neutrality. ATT wants to create a 2-tiered plan for handling internet traffic. Big customers, customers who can afford to pay a li'l premium to ATT will have their traffic prioritized...This plan, this 2-tier approach, won't slow traffic. It will only prioritize certain the traffic of certain content providers. ( I love how words can be minced. Their traffic is faster...but mine's not slower...uh. Ok. What does the term is mean to you? )

One would think...I would do anyway...and that makes one...that ATT would view Apple and its iPhone customers as a high-profile account, a high-profile partner and use it to showcase their priority handling of this traffic.

But then again, maybe they are.

Or maybe ATT's routing the traffic through their NOC in SF.

Customer Service: The Ultimate Strategic Weapon

At NetFlix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes.

I love it! I love this article. NetFlix is using ...customer service!!!....as a strategic weapon. As the video rental industry moves towards commoditization, like conference calling, the leader in the industry goes old-school, retro...even, in its business model. It's returning to....customer service as a way to differentiate itself.

It's eschewing pings for people, calls for clicks...emails in favor of live people.

We support this decision. We compete in a commoditized industry. We do it successfully by...using customer service as a strategic weapon.

I've had big thinkers dismiss our business model because all you do is customer service...I smiled when they said that. Like there's something else we should do? Oh how banal of us. All we do is do customer service...Yes. Silly of us, really.

Often, I'm asked ...What's our business model? My answer is We answer our phones. Then I'm quiet. I wait for a minute. I think they're expecting some dialogue about web 2.0 and social networks and customer experience and viral resources like blogging and podcasting. Those are important tactics/resources or overused buzzwords of the moment (customer experience and web 2.0). Our business model is We answer our phones...

What's unsaid are all the decisions made around that one sentence. The priorities, the communication, the obstacles removed, the communication of its importance, the rewards from doing so (many testimonials and the happy customers we attract), the power of making it fun, allowing the CSRs to be themselves, empowering them with the resources to do their jobs as adults and that some of the resources include trust and respect and autonomy and forgiveness.

And how that simple sentence We answer our phones communicates we make our customers a priority and we make it a priority to create a positive rewarding experience for everyone involved on that call: customers and employees, customers and company, customers and our colleagues who serve the customers.

It always makes me chuckle darkly to read how companies create a miserable experience for CSRs and all the employees in their company...and then think that stops at the door or the phone calls with customers. Like you can demoralize everyone in your company who touches your customers and all the time expect them to instead be a champion of your company and its ...policies. Funny. Funny as in dark, not funny as in lightness of being or joy.

I was asked recently about how we measure our customer service reps' performance. What are the metrics we use? There are 3: Answer the phones, make each  other happy, make the customer happy.

Answering the phones is the tip of the spear, if you will. All the work in throwing and aiming and practicing...is all wasted with a dull point. Answer the phones.

Making each other happy. We have a snitch program where we all share stories of great work, heroic accomplishments of each other...publicly, right in front of each other...oftentimes sharing who snitched on you. We've found our company meetings turn into a snitching frenzy when everyone's attention is turned to accomplishments and successes and sharing them with each other, about each other.

Making our customers happy. I can tell from conversion ratio and customer testimonials how well we all are doing with customers.

Answer the phones. Calls ring to my desk if they are unanswered by Customer Service or Sales Reps. I know how well we're doing with the first goal. But my phone never rings. (ok, it did in July once.)

Back to Netflix. They've prominently displayed their customer service number on their web site. As one media analyst said: It's interesting. Everyone else seems to be doing the exact opposite, making it near impossible to find a human at a company.

Yes, it's interesting putting the customer first, making it possible for their needs to be met, making it possible to connect with your company.

What other way do you have to differentiate yourself that's so completely unique to your company? Your people.

What's the rarest corporate asset? Great people. Maybe that's the problem. Too many companies take great people and motivate them to be something else.

Back again to NetFlix: Their call center isn't outsourced to India, etal. It's in Oregon. Why Oregon? Listening and empathy skills are better there. Is it more expensive? Maybe. It depends if you care about your long term prospects. If you do, then no it isn't. If you're decision-maker is concerned about their next quarter's bonus...they'll think differently.

PS. We're customers of Netflix. We love 'em. Now we REALLY love 'em.

Innovation Technique of the Week: Think Like Nostradamus

The next time you're stuck...ask your crew, your posse, your colleagues, your department...to Think Like Nostradamus. Predict the future. And...turn these predictions into a newspaper or magazine headline.

Great idea! And it's not mine...It's Gerald Haman's. He's the author of Innovator's Digest, runs a group called Solution People, works with organizations big and small to incite creativity and innovation.

What's Needed Now is Leadership

What’s needed now is leadership. The kind of leadership that leads to meaningful and lasting change has to be bipartisan and broad-based. Character also counts. We need men and women with courage, integrity, and creativity. Leaders who can partner for progress and are committed to truly and properly discharging their stewardship responsibilities.

That's part of a recent speech by David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office. In the speech he drew some easy-to-see parallels between our country and the fall of the Roman empire 1500 years ago.

The Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, but only about half that time as a republic. The Roman Republic fell for many reasons, but three reasons are worth remembering: declining moral values and political civility at home, an overconfident and overextended military in foreign lands, and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. Sound familiar?

Um....yes. It does sound TOO familiar.

Here's the text of the entire speech. 

Link from USAToday.

Love: the ultimate lock-in

Doc Searls says it all:

Earn and respect your customers' love, and the rest is gravy. Including the kind you can put in the bank.

There you have it.

FaceBook is a Niche Market

My friend Rodney Rumford claims that in a title of the same.

After reading it, I can't argue; he's right.

And it's not a bad thing. Niche Market isn't a pejorative term. It's another way to describe an online social networking resource whose most passionate members are those already passionate about online social networking...Hence, a niche market.

I like FaceBook. In the past few weeks there's been a rash of activity on it. invites going back and forth, groups being joined, who's recently done what...networking, staying in touch, seeing the threads of interests and activities...feeding that creative process, starting conversations, who knows the potential of FaceBook itself. It's really up to the members. Regardless, more possibilities will be realized from the conversations enabled at FaceBook. And that's the whole point.

100 resources for entrepreneur-writers

Whoa. This list at Bootstrapper for the Business Blogging Toolset: 100 Resources for Entrepreneur-Writers is...amazingly comprehensive. ( Only a few comments list resources not included. )

So much so, I'm going to look very closely at it, especially the categories for content and marketing.

10 things NOT to do with your business blog

I like this list of What Not to Do with Your Business Blog from Lee Odden at Online Marketing.

I may like it more as I see only 2 items I could improve on:

Why oh why must so many blogs make it difficult to subscribe? Get an RSS button up above the fold. [Ok. Makes sense. I'll change my layout.]

If you are gracious enough to allow readers to make comments, perhaps responding to a few might be a thought? [I've been investing more time with this.]

Comment spam...Lee encourages business bloggers to leave comments open, unfiltered, instantly published. I'm not keen on that idea. Here's why:

Spam, spam, spam. Not funny, haha, spam, but weird revolting, obnoxious spam. (Maybe that's my audience, I don't know...)

Registering to make a comment isn't a reward for your readers; you're right on that Lee. But it does let people know you take their comments seriously and that usually translates to ...serious comments. And then it comes down to personal preferences.

Thanks for the post Lee. Thanks for making the list 10.

PS. Lee, you now have one more subscriber.

Conversion Rate Demystified

Kevin Gold goes quite far in Demystifying the Conversion Rate. It's worth the read.

For me, bottomline, it's about sales. The conversion rate I'm most interested in is...conversions of leads into customers. Web site traffic is something we track and report. But we obsess over our conversion ratio: turning prospects into customers.

And Kevin's content can help us expand that pipeline of leads a bit.

Kevin also shares the average conversion rate here. Hint: it's bigger than 2% and less than 3%.

Sleep: It really isn't over-rated

Sleep. It's importance in enabling us all to make good decisions, to have patience, to listen well, to think a bit broader, to focus on more details, to juggle all the challenges and responsibilities, to laugh with our families, with our colleagues....it really isn't over-rated.

Who faces those challenges with less support than small business leaders and managers and employees?

Go to bed early. Turn off the tv, turn off the computer, turn off the reading light. Tell your family you're going to try out this new thing called sleep you've heard about...7-8-9 hours, maybe, you're going to give it a whirl. Then see how your day is when you wake up. Try that for 3-4 days in a row...Sky's the limit. It's possibly a whole new world.

Good post with good links on this subject at USAToday. 

What you can learn from Non-profits...and they from you

Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends posts What Small Businesses Can learn from Non-Profits and Vice Versa. She shares thoughts from 4 other experts:

Technology guru Ramon Ray

Brent Leary of CRM Essentials

Andy Birol, author of “The 5 Catalysts of 7 Figure Growth

David Wallace, CEO of search marketing firm SearchRank

They all have good points, points we'll consider. My favorite was Brent Leary's:

As loyalty creation becomes even more important to survival, small business owners and entrepreneurs would do well to look at how non-profits are leveraging new technologies to stay connected and more in tune with customers and prospects.

Yessir. You are so correct, there.

The one point that left me scratching my head was a comment from David Wallace:

A decent CMS, for example, if custom designed, can run in excess of $10,000.

Isn't a blog a bit better than decent for managing content, comments, trackbacks, etc? This site runs me $14.95 a month and a few hundred more from our excellent graphic designer Blue Sheep Studios. So, maybe some may consider a blog as unworthy of the designation of CMS. I disagree. But a blog's a great way to judge the DNA of your community members for community participation.

Thanks, Anita, for another great post.

Cash [Flow] is King

Rhonda Abrams at the Strategies Blog in USAToday reminds us of the obvious (so obvious it's often overlooked) Surviving is All About Managing Cash Flow. Besides being a reminder, her post lists 6 steps to take to help make sure Cash [Flow] is King.

GM: Can't win for losing

A recent study out by J.D. Power & Associates found Buick placed 3 of its models among the highest -rated brands in the study. And one of the models, the Regal, shared top place with Lexus. The study covers a 3-year period from 2004 and ranks the models based on the number of problems reported by their orginal owners.

And that's good, right? Finding your brand rated among the top brands in the world, is good, yes?

Well...yes and no.

It IS a great achievement.

But, um, GM doesn't produce either of these 3 top-rated models at this point. According to this article in the NY Times...The Century, Park Avenue and Regal are gone; the Rainier sport utility is still in dealerships, but production has ended.

Sigh.

GM: Can't win for losing.

Expanded health coverage for students

My first thought is...how 'bout expanded coverage for everyone? But one step at a time, I guess.

This article from USAToday last week outlines plans to allow students with physician-designated illnesses of a debilitating nature to leave school for up to one year and maintain their health insurance coverage through their family plans. Federal law requires coverage for family members who are fulltime college students until they are 24. This change would only effect their status as students when faced with a debilitating illness.

I still think somewhere in all this discussion...and all this money...is a solution for health insurance and quality health care for all, student, rich or poor, retired or not, children, adults, everyone. It's such a huge...what, industry, challenge, problem, crisis, sometimes kafka-esque drama...that progress has to start somewhere, likely in baby steps, chipping away towards a solution. Leaving large groups of our neighbors and family with poor health and no opportunity to improve it is a legacy we'll all regret.

Blogging Grows Iowa's Economy

Mike Sansone at ConverStations points how Iowa bloggers help grow Iowa's economy. He lists 13 Iowa bloggers that bring income as a result of their blogging to the state's economy, not including himself for which he credits blogging for bringing him customers in 14 states and 5 countries, plus speaking engagements. (Mike rocks as a speaker...BTW)

Full disclosure: I'm listed there, too.

I like how Mike localized the power of blogging, made it personal, made it real-world,  with these examples. (Mike's good at that. He coaches business leaders on how to use blogs). The terms around blogging can be a bit nebulous:  networking and blogosphere and buzz and online communities and conversations with your customers...can be a little abstract when you use them to discuss the benefits of blogging. How does this post or posts...benefit my business...? is the question asked. (I ask it regularly of myself...) And then you see a post that profiles the reach of blogging, its power to share your message with consumers and readers and communities...far beyond any other resource. Certainly it's  the most inexpensive means to spread YOUR message.

Thanks, Mike.

Last question: And, you're  not blogging because you DON'T want to expand your message to reach new markets? If you realize the silliness of that question and the answer...then get in touch with Mike Sansone. 

What if YOU could generate the ads YOU want to see?

Rohit Bharbava, Influential Marketing Blog, posits this question: What if Consumers Could Generate Ads They Want to See?

Funny. As if advertisers and their clients would allow that to happen...'cause if they did, and it came time for the advertisement, like it seems most of the