The Long View

Stealing WiFi

I've seen several pieces in the last few days about people "piggybacking" on others' WiFi connections. The most recent was a NY Times article.

I've been guilty of this myself. I was working with a client on an extended out-of-town contract, and always stayed at the same hotel. For some reason this hotel's wireless router was often unavailable, depending on what room I was in. However, the router at the Fairfield Inn just across the parking lot would come in fine, and since it wasn't secured, I'd go ahead and use that.

I got a real chuckle when I was at a business breakfast recently, and one of the speakers - a very nice, straight-up kind of lady - admitted getting in her car and driving through neighborhoods near her hotel to find an open WiFi connection to check her email when the hotel didn't provide that service! The image I had of this lady (who really looks like someone you'd meet in church) "war-driving" around a neighborhood was priceless.

First, I'm appalled that any business-friendly hotel would not have this service. Second, it goes to show how we can all be pushed to marginal behaviors by necessity.

Why do I blog?

A friend of mine (one of the dads in my son's scout troop) followed a link in an email to my blog, and asked if I got paid somehow to write this. I had to laugh at that, and explained that it actually costs me money for my TypePad account.

But I also realized that some people might legitimately wonder why I take the time to do these posts.

The first reason is (and I know there are many other bloggers out there with the same affliction) is that when I get a thought I think is worth sharing, my wife, my kid and my dog couldn't care less. (Actually, my dog will sit and listen to me while I explain some new revelation or insight, but I'm not sure she "gets it"). A blog is a "captive audience". This is the same thing that motivated me to write articles for programming journals years ago, and say "yes" twice when a publisher asked me to work on a book. Ditto speaking at conferences - captive audience.

Well, to be honest, at conferences you'll spot folks sneaking out to go to some other session, so they're not actually "captive", but enough will sit politely through whatever topic you are jazzed about at the moment to make it worthwhile.

Writing these entries also improves my own thinking on a particular topic. It's one thing to have an understanding of something, and another thing entirely to articulate it. You gain another level of understanding when you have to put your ideas into words, and to do so clearly and effectively. I won't tell you how many blog posts are sitting in the "drafts" folder, simply because I can't find a way to get across what I was thinking; usually a good indication that the whole idea is a little half-baked. Sometimes I need to read something or hear a speaker say something that relates to a potential topic before it crystalizes for me. Sometimes it never happens.

Then there is the "give back" factor. So many people have helped me in so many ways in my professional life, that I feel obligated to pass along anything that I think might help someone else. It's still going on, too. Now that so many smart people are sharing their thoughts, I frequently will pass along their observations, or encourage folks to check out their blogs directly.

Finally, there is always the hope that someone will read my blog and decide that I'm just the guy to hire or engage in some kind of project.

Hasn't happened yet, but we live in hope...

Technology as enabler

Once again, with feeling...

I've expressed the opinion several times in blog entries (and will say to anyone who gives me the slightest sliver of opportunity to riff on this) that technology is only as effective as the processes that it supports. I've said many times that I'd rather be running a company with outstanding processes and mediocre technology than a company with state-of-the-art technology and dysfunctional processes.

I started reading a book that's long been on my "must-read" list, and  - bang - in almost the opening pages is the empirical evidence for this observation.

In Good to Great by Jim Collins (and you really have to read it to get a sense of the depth of the five-year research that went into this book) he recounts a number of things that one might expect to have played a part in a company's transition from a good company to a great company, but in fact did not. One of these things was technology.

Technology and technology-driven change has virtually nothing to do with igniting a transformation from good to great. We did find technology to accelerate transformations, but we learned that technology cannot cause a transformation; it can never be a fundamental prime mover in a shift from good to great.

So, if you want to be where the action is, to effect change, or to try to achieve greatness in a company, it is definitely NOT in the IT department, writing code, maintaining networks or configuring servers, no matter how cutting-edge the technology. You have to be led and directed by someone who can formulate the goals and objectives the technology serves.

Turnarounds make for interesting reading

Some of the most interesting business stories I read talk about a company stepping back, and re-examining what they have and how they're trying to succeed with it. They realize that they need to re-shape their assets as a different type of product, use them to go after a different market, or both. Learning about that process is usually very instructive. Companies that succeed are sometimes lucky (right product for the right market at the right time). Those that fail often do so not fully understanding what went wrong. Even if they do have a good handle on the missteps, they don't often share what they'd do differently if they had it to do all over again - they're hopefully off starting another venture.

A story on Sandhill.com about the turnaround of Niku is a good one with plenty of lessons.

Writing Improvement

As a blogger, it should come as no surprise that I like to write. One of the reasons is that for me it's not easy. I started writing semi-professionally in the early 90's, and I'll never forget my first experience with an editor. I think I still have have the bruises (thanks, Lisa!).

I don't know how other writers feel, but I really like editors. They help me overcome my pathological aversion to the simple declarative sentence. Marcy, my wife, is a former graduate student and teaching assistant in rhetoric, so I have ready access to a tough editor in my own house!

One of the things I'm always on the lookout for is simple principles that serve to help raise red flags in my writing, and call my attention to something needing some more work. I recently had a friend and colleague review a whitepaper I was writing. She pointed out several extraneous uses of the word "that", and mentioned a former editor she worked with who constantly pointed this out in her writing. Sure enough, I've been able to remove at least half of the instances of "that" in my writing ever since. By the way, In editing this post, I removed about seven or eight instances of "that" from this paragraph!

Yesterday while spending some time on Wikipedia, I ran across an article containing a warning that it contained "weasel words". The link led me to a discussion of what weasel words are, and why they should be avoided in Wikipedia articles - they're a way of introducing opinion or bias into a piece of writing. I found the discussion applicable to any writing.

An example of some "weasel words" are:

• "Some people say..."
• "Some argue..."
• "Contrary to many..."
• "As opposed to most..."

In many cases, this is perfectly acceptable as what I'm writing is clearly meant to express an opinion or point of view. However, I'm often trying to convey clear, fact-based information, and an awareness of the effect weasel words have on my writing is important. The Wikipedia article goes on to explain some of these effects (quoting here from part of the Wikipedia article):

• Passive Voice. Weasel words are often in the passive voice, which weakens the effectiveness of written prose.
• Wordiness. Weasel words are sentence stuffing; they make sentences longer and less      information-dense.
• Convoluted syntax. Weasel words require some convoluted syntax to get a point across. "A square has four sides" is a simple sentence; "A square is widely considered as having four sides" puts the key point into a strange little participial phrase.
• Repetition. There are only so many times in one paragraph you can say "X is widely regarded to have done Y" before it sounds far too constructed.

I've added this list of words to my "red flag" toolbox. This will help me greatly in my self-editing. With a tough editor like my wife, I try to "do my homework" and keep her red-pen marks to a minimum!

You can read the full Wikipedia article here, which includes a pretty extensive list of weasel words.

Marketing Custom Software - Conclusion

I recently (ok, so it wasn't so recently - my apologies) started a discussion about how I would market my services as a custom software developer if I had a chance to do it all over again. In my first post I discussed the need for a value proposition, and explained that simply describing custom business software as my business doesn't begin to explain what that proposition is.

In my second post, I discussed some characteristics of a potential target market segment - business owners who fit Geoffrey Moore's category of "visionaries". To me, this market segment is attractive on several counts. First is that they see technology as a way of gaining a competitive advantage. This makes them more focused on the results rather than how they get there. Thus I will have greater opportunities to a) break new ground in development rather than working with or on a legacy system, b) employ the tools wth which I feel most competent and c) price my services based more on value. In addition, (and possibly most importantly for me professionally) because their vision is probably incompletely formed and rapidly changing, my reliance on "best practices" in software engineering will pay off handsomely, as I can keep up with the ever-evolving moving target that a project for such a client represents.

I also made a post the other day on the value of networking, and some pointers on how it's done. Another advantage of business visionaries is that they frequently cross company and industry boundaries seeking others of their ilk. The way in which this is usually accomplished is through local business organizations, which also frequently host networking events, or events at which networking is a major component.

So let me put this all together into a rough outline of a marketing plan.

First I would develop a brief "pitch" that describes what my company does that would catch the interest of a visionary business owner or manager. This pitch must be something that conveys the message in 30 seconds or less. There is a template for this proposition that goes something like this:

• For (Target Customers)
• Who are (describe pain experienced)
• We (describe nature of service)
• That results in (describe outcome)
• Unlike (describe alternative service providers or products)

So in my case, the pitch may read something like this:

For aggressive, technology-aware businesses who are continually developing strategies to achieve and maintain a significant competitive advantage, we deliver custom information systems that allow the business to implement those strategies and change the game on their competition. Unlike vendors with common, off-the-shelf software packages, we work with our clients to understand and help them develop their unique vision and work cooperatively with them to ensure that the technology solution fully supports that vision.

Now I have a value proposition. I'm giving someone enough information to begin to complete the "Oh, then I'd call you when..." sentence. I'm also identifying my target market. Most business people are simply seeking incremental improvements. Visionaries are looking for quantum improvements, and I'm trying to let someone listening know that my services aren't right for the safe, plodding style of business management that is looking for another "me-too" solution. If that's what they need, they're going to be more comforable with NetSuite, Navision, SalesForce.com or other, less expensive off-the-shelf solutions.

The next thing I need to do is to NETWORK MY ASS OFF and listen, listen, listen and probe, probe, probe to identify people that are in this target market segment. If you think back to my post on networking, you'll recall that if properly done, networking is 90% listening. I'll show great interest in everyone I meet and find out everything I can about them. What are they doing? How are they doing it? What is their competition is doing? How arethey meeting that competition? What forces are at work in their industry that are making things difficult (and presenting opportunites)? I'll make a few notes or "keywords" on the back of the business card they give to me.

When asked about what I do, I will give them my "elevator pitch" above, then turn the conversation back to them. If I'm lucky, they will have a chance to hear the pitch multiple times as people may come into our circle of conversation. What is absolutely golden is when someone comes into the conversation, and someone else in the group introduces me, repeating a version of my pitch. Then I'll know that my pitch is working. If people (when given the opportunity) have difficulty explaining what I do, then I know that the pitch needs refinement. I'll even ask others to describe to a new arrival what I do. There's no better way to ensure that my message is getting processed.

Because I've become involved as an active member in the organizations that provide these networking opportunities - they might be a venture capital club, a CEO roundtable, a leadership council, the Chamber of Commerce - I'll have an opportunity to see many of these people repeatedly over the course of several months, gathering more information about them and their businesses. During this time, I'll continue to read (online through my handy feed aggregator) industry and business publications, and I'll make this a part of my daily routine. Whenever I run across something that is likely of interest to one of these contacts (whether or not they seem to be a prospect), I'll be sure to send them an email with a link to the online article. This can often develop into a fruitful email or telephone conversation.

This process will yield a "short list" of companies or business people that are clearly of the innovative, visionary sort that I want as my customers. Now is the time to offer to meet these folks informally for coffee or for lunch, and again, talk about their business. If I've cultivated a reputation of being sincerely interested in other people's businesses and their issues, and a person that is a can-do type and quick to volunteer to help get things done, people will very naturally ask for thoughts and advice, and sooner or later an opportunity to offer to do some paying work will arise.

Now, is this a lot of work? Yes. Is it a fool-proof method of generating business? No. Would doing this have saved my business? I don't know.

However, I do know this - this is much better than the marketing plan that I actually employed, which was none at all. Equally as important, I can't make refinements and adjust a marketing plan that isn't formulated and implemented, because I have no empirical information on which to evaluate its effectiveness.