Category: Uncategorized

I have 6 3 1 0 (Zero) Gmail Invite(s) to give away.

Thanks to all of you who asked.

Too bad the last one bounced….

File Under: Gmail

Someday, I will get around to posting the OPML of who I read.

Doing a quick inventory of the people I read regularly, it turns out that the vast majority of them are in strategic sales and/or marketing professions. This should surprise a few people, given that I am, for the most part, a techno-dweeb.

The insights and views that these authors bring to me helps rattle my cage and gives me a perspective on the ideas that shape the business forces which affect my day-to-day life. And they also help me think differently (Sorry Apple) about everything I do.

How does this project affect my professional development? Does it contribute to my personal and professional brand? Does it help my company gain additional market share? Does it help us sell more? Does it contribute to our strategic goals, or is it a useful tactical device?

Whenever I work on anything, I consider many more things than I did before. Doing something because you love it isn’t enough anymore.

I look at my blog logs fairly often — I don’t get 100,000 a day like Eschaton.

Today, I found this:

CustName:   Us Gov Fbi
Address:    303 2nd st
City:       san francisco
StateProv:  CA
PostalCode: 94107
Country:    US
RegDate:    2000-10-07
Updated:    2000-10-07

They were looking at one of my more popular articles, on someone scanning my IP (I suspect Comcast).

What am I supposed to make of this?

…but two hours is a long-time for the main page of a major hotel chain to be down.

I will not name them.

This is a serious issue, as the error indicates that the Web serving layer cannot talk to the application layer that is creating the dynamic page data. I hate to see companies have this happen, and when it happens in the middle of the business day, you have to wonder if there was something that went very wrong within the infrastructure.

Some online systems used by hotels are also tied into the overall reservations system; if this is true for this company, then no one would be able to access the reservation status of a guest, book a new reservation, etc.

I hope for their sake that it is just in the Web layer.

Ok, this brands as people trend appears to be spiralling out of control. The Vision Thing posted more on a company that asks questions that tags brands as people.

This is a very unusual trend…considering that I worked for a company that is named after a real person.

Thanks to The Vision Thing, I was able to check my nerd score.

I got 87. I Rock! 😉

Jennifer Rice: Brands are Human.

Very interesting ideas, which I suscribe to. The people at a company are the ones that define the brand. If Microsoft was actually in the retail sector, wouldn’t that change them from being perceived as "bossy and arrogant, but we’re stuck with them like a bad marriage"?

Hmmmm….

Information Week (and likely other more technical sources) is reporting that Juniper and Cisco routers have a security flaw that will allow DoS attacks to be launched.

Likely you will see interruptions and hiccups as IT teams work madly to patch all of their devices.

Hans Henrik points us to an article discussing how the philosophy of a business leader should be a criteria during the selection process.

This is relevant to me, as the company I work for is currently conducting a CEO search. Now, based on my experience with the leadership of my company, I know some of the criteria that they are looking for. I just hope that the search committee also considers how the candidates envision possible upheavals in our industry over the bext 5, 10, 20 years.

One thing that never happens when a CEO is chosen is the interview by the staff below the board and the C-level. My company is very small; I would love the opportunity to listen to the CEO candidates speak to me as a member of the team he will lead. But that will never happen, as boards and C-level leaders are focused across and up; they very rarely look down, how a leader actually is seen by the people who make the company go.

I have mentioned that I am reading Execution, where Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan speak about how great leaders execute on strategies and ask the questions that need to be asked about how things get done. However, as all business books are, it is aimed at the MBA, director, VP and C-level players. What about the majority of us, the individual contributors? How do we make an impact on a company? What say do we have on the vision?

Being in a leadership position does not mean you are a great leader. Company leaders, how do you inspire your individual contributors on a daily basis?

Addendum: Tom Peters says it best. CEOs are idiots because….

20. Their egos distract them from the Real Work of Business.