Reflections of a Business-Driven Life
This is the main page which contains all postings. The reader can also choose a category: techdrivenlife, on life, on business, quotes, jokes, tidbits & reading reviews. A new category, EntrepreViews, talks on entrepreneurship and also answer reader's queries.
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Sunday, July 31, 2005 |
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A new Bizdrivenlife Compilation I have been blogging for almost a year now, and it has been a gratifying experience, and I have made many new friends. I will continue to blog, but blogging has one slight disadvantage — it is good to comment on everyday things, but I do find it difficult to separate some of the articles that I have written that I feel is not only relevant today, but of some enduring value. The blog’s design makes it hard for us to separate this, as every new entry you put in pushes the article downwards and after a few days, to oblivion, seldom read again. I have thus taken some of my articles which I feel is of great interest, and set up another site which contains the best selected posts I've done and redesigned to read more like an e-book. This is separated into four categories which you can also directly browse into — on business, on life, on technology, and on entrepreneurship. I will also soon a compilation of computer columns I write for the papers, plus a project management guide that I am working on soon. I hope you can browse on these articles and give me feedback. Some friends have wanted me to compile it into a download, and I will, but I feel I need to get more feedback from all of you. 9:40:28 PM  comment [] trackback []
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Friday, July 29, 2005 |
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The Brains and logic Behind Google (techdrivenlife)
Some nice trivias -- PageRank, the innovative way in which the Google technology is based (on how to rank websites) is actually named after Larry Page, who originated the idea. Reading it will allow you to get a better idea on how Google does it, and gives you insights on how to rank better in search engines, as the other competitors also have adopted similar technologies. 10:10:37 PM comment [] trackback []
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An Ergonomic Keyboard (tidbits)
This keyboard will ease your strain, for $495 . More here.
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Monday, July 25, 2005 |
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Risky Businesses, Good Businesses, Bad Businesses (EntrepreViews) There was a time when young when I thought that management and attitude were the cure-alls. Maybe I read too many inspirational stories in which your determination beats the odds. Now, maybe I am wiser, or maybe just older. After so many years, I have formed the conclusion many now knew -- sometimes, success just depends on luck, and sometimes, your industry and the economic scenario. You can be a great manager who happened to be in an industry where the situation is really bad, and no amount of talent or determination can turn things around. And many times, there are just so many bad managers who were just in the right place at the right time, and succeeded. So, the first thing you need to know before embarking on a business, is to know the industry you are in. Is it a conservative industry, or is it a risky industry. Is it in the period of growth, or just plain bad? For instance, for the last few years, you could be the best manager around, but no way you can turn around an industry like telecommunications, or computer hardware. In the last few months, you could be in oil industry when the prices zoom up, and you could be wildly profitable even if you make a lot of mistakes and waste. I have made some simplistic charts in which you can use to evaluate .... (more on risky businesses, good business...) 8:32:55 PM comment [] trackback []
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Forrest Lump Walks Across America (tidbits) Steve Vaught, who weighs 350 pounds, have decided to do something about it. He is planning to walk across America to lose weight and 'gain back his life.' His blog has gained a wide following. He has now gained a nickname Forrest Lump, as his plan is similar to that being done by Tom Hanks in the 90s movie, Forrest Gump.
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Sunday, July 24, 2005 |
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Professionals at Work? (tidbits)
Source: http://www.discreteautos.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=152> 9:15:28 PM comment [] trackback []
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Saturday, July 23, 2005 |
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Knowing How Many People RSS you (techdrivenlife) One of the important things when you have a website is to know your number of visitors. There are numerous sites that provides this. I use statcounter, which you will see in the lower right hand of my blog. However, in blogs, you also will allow people to subscribe to your RSS feed( Really Simple Syndication), which essentially allows them the convenience of pulling your posts to their own computer. When that happens, it will not register as a page view to you. So you may think you will only have 70 readers for that day based on the stat list, but you may have more -- it may be that 50 others are just getting your feed. I set that question to this site which answers technical questions, and Dave Taylor was kind enough to point me to the answer which is the Feedburner website. So, if you want to know how many people download your feed, check this site out. And, if you are downloading mine, please do change it to this new RSS feed so that you can also help me track my number!
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Essentially what this site will do is allow you to put your RSS feed to them, and put their link into the web site. That being done, you can then go to their web site which also counts the number of times the users also downloads your feed.|
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005 |
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Overworking vs. Overworrying (On Life ) The other day, I received a comment that I looked younger than my years. Ok, so that was flattery, but it did made me looked into the mirror twice. But let us assume for once that it is true, and that set off a lot of wishful thinking and thoughts....
And I worry a lot….. This bad habit has been with me ever since I was small. I think too much, and I analyze too much, and I go into details and small things too much.
All this means that I should have aged quickly.
But maybe it is work that saved me. Everyday, a lot of challenges awaits, and I am excited to get up in mornings to start tackling the issues and solving the challenges. Problems hit me, but maybe because of too many things to do, I did not have too much time to think too much of bad misfortunes, or brood too much of things that is going to happen. Busyness… before you know it, 3 days have passed, and the big problem that was supposed to overwhelmed you have now shrink in size.
We worry when we have times in our hands. It feels our idle time like a vacuum. The best way to reduce worry is to make sure we don't have time for it.
Rather overwork than overworry.... ? What do you think?
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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 |
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Modern Day Magicians (On Life ) I am one of probably thousands of parents who are enjoying the latest Harry Potter book, The Half Blood Prince with their children. We took turns reading, and discussing various aspects of the book. The story continues to spin its magic.
The other gem was discussed by the teacher during apparition class. This is what he announced. 'Always remember the 3Ds when apparating. These are destination. determination. deliberation.
Step 1. Fix your mind firmly upon the desired destination.
Step 2. Focus your determination to occupy the visualized space. Let your yearning to enter it flood from your mind to every particle of your body.
Step 3. Move with deliberation.
This is not only a formula for learning apparition, but apparently a formula for getting things done, and accomplishing success.
The last thing I want to share was a feeling I had ever since Book 1 or Book2. How could these kids treat learning magic with such unseriousness. Isn't it obvious that at almost every turn, their very success and oftentimes, their very lives depend on their mastering the magic, and yet they treat it with such abandon? How could anybody, when presented an opportunity to learn magic, fail to make full use of it?
Eventually, however, I started to think -- it is not only them that had the opportunity to learn magic and did not make full use of it. We all have the opportunity,even everyday to learn some skills or new technology that when properly applied is the difference between success and failure, or between happiness and despair. We have in our hands, more power and more wisdom than the most powerful wizards to communicate, to learn, and to do modern day magic.
We have it all within us, and it is all around us, everyday of the week. Are we making full use of it? Do we, with all the technology and computing power we have, stupidly wish for antique tricks and incantations? Do we still fail to make it to become better and happier?
What do old wizards and witches have that we don't?
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The Death of the PC is Greatly Exaggerated (techdrivenlife) For the last few years, rumors and reports have circulated about the imminent death of the general purpose personal computer, as other devices were introduced. These range from the network computer, to TIVOs, to mp3 players, to game stations, and the personal digital assistant and the tablets. For sure, there are now more people with cell phones than personal computers, even if cell phones come almost 10 years after. However, the growth of the PC seems to continue to be robust, and according to IDC, worldwide shipments of personal computers rose 16.6 percent in the second quarter as surging international demand and price wars drove shipments to their highest quarterly growth rate in nearly five years. Market leader Dell Inc. distanced itself from No. 2 PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co. by posting 23.7 percent growth in the second quarter compared with 16.3 percent for HP. The top 5 computer makers in terms of market share were Dell ( 19.3%), HP ( 15.6%), Lenovo/IBM ( 7.6 %), Acer ( 4.4%), and Fujitsu/Siemens ( 3.7%). Gartner reported slightly different figures as it reported that worldwide PC shipments totaled 48.9 million units in the second quarter of 2005, a 14.8 percent increase from the same period last year. The market growth in the US, Europe/ Middle East/Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America were all in double figures. Whichever you look at it, it seems like the PC's death is still years away to come.
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Comparison of Major Blogging Platforms ( techdrivenlife) Incidentally, I came across a forum where somebody was asking if it is possible to 'RSS' enable a website. Here is one utility and site that probably might do the job. And talking about Really Simple Syndication, you will probably be able to see in most websites having RSS feeds that you are given a choice between RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or Atom feeds. Here is a link that will inform you what is the difference between RSS and Atom. 1:19:18 PM comment [] trackback []
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Monday, July 18, 2005 |
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The Not to Do and Not to Know List (On Life ) I was talking to a good friend who was interested in many of the things I do. He asked me how much I bought my shoes for. I said I honestly don't know. My wife bought it for me. He asked me how much was the tuition of my children in that particular school. I told him I also don't know. He also asked me how much was the plane fare I paid for the last trip I took. I said the office got that, but also I didn't really know. He was looking at me curiously, and I knew I had to come up with an explanation. I told him I trust my wife to make these judgments, and if it is something I don't need to know, I told her she did not have to tell me. I said I had to remember too many things in the office that I did not want to cram to my head too much information ( see also Offloading your brain article ). Anyway, I know where to look for the information should I need to know. This attitude was probably inculcated from me from some of the books I read, particularly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. I like detective and mysteries, and read a lot of them since I was small. Sherlock Holmes, of course, is a classic detective well known for his observation powers, great memory, and clear logic. I remember there was a passage where they were talking about the planets of the solar system, and the stars, and after making the inquiries, Sherlock Holmes announced that now he knew, he would take effort to forget what he has been told. When asked by Dr. Watson why, he said that while knowing the planets were interesting, he failed to see what good it would do in his crime detection work, and therefore did not want to put his head to remembering these 'useless' facts. Not having to remember useless facts means his head could also remember the useful facts better, he said. The reason why these make a particular impression was that while I take particular care on choosing what to know and what not to know, I was not very good in the other thing that is important in the success of business and life -- which is what we need to focus and do. Our success is not only in what we know, but in what we do, and for the last 20 years, I have lead a labyrinth of the most busy life, more often putting in 70 hour weeks. I have always taken pride in my ability to do things, and do indeed get myself involved in a lot of things. I have had always much more things to do than I had time to do it, and thus, for the longest time, have been a great fan of pocket and electronic organizers in how to prioritize, and organize the list. But whether electronic or paper, no tool was ever good enough, and it seems that the mountain of tasks just keep getting more and more. Then just other week, I read an article that hit me. This was a Business 2.0 article on The CEO Handbook, which details some compilations Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson advice on business management. This particular advice stuck me like a bolt of lightning, and although it was something I had thought of before, it was simplicity itself in the way it was presented that jolted. Basically the advice is that if you are already upto your neck in work, the first thing you do is to come up with a list ( fair enough, I know that one). But it was a different kind of list. Instead of coming up with a to-do list, you come up with a Not-to-do list! The first thing therefore you should think about is not what you want to do, but what you can delegate others to do, or not to do at all!
This is quite obvious, but I hope I can get a vote from my readers that the simplicity itself of the advice really struck home! I am sure many of the readers here are entrepreneurs like, and as entrepreneurs, we take pride in our ability to do things better than the others. But as we grow the company, we have to let go, and let others take the job -- and the credit. I have seen many entrepreneurs who do not have time to grow, becase they don't let go. They want to do everything themselves ( because they think they can do it better), and thus perpetually is not able to find time to grow the company. So, the tools of business and personal success -- the not to do and not to know list. What do you think?
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Sunday, July 17, 2005 |
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Professionals at Work (tidbits) Here's a great link which tells a story on pictures (with humor) about Professionals at work. Incidentally, here's another existing trivia... The term FUD which is now increasingly used against Microsoft was originally a term used against IBM. The term “FUD” was coined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found, Amdahl Corp.in 1975. He contended, "FUD is the fear, uncertainty and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products." IBM people were reminding customers that “Nobody every got fired for buying IBM products” implying, of course, that you could get fired for buying Amdahl’s. Source: Naked Conversations
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How to Know your Page Rank and Link Popularity (techdrivenlife) If you want to know how good your website or blog is, especially in Google, you can go to this free site to know. Google terms it as PageRank and it is possible to query this. This will indicate how influential you are, and what is your probability to have a higher search ranking when people search for certain keywords. If you want to know specifically how many websites link to you, this site will also give you how you fare in statistics from 4 sites, Google, AltaVista, AlltheWeb, and Teoma.
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Increasing your Blog Readers and Search PageRankings (Reviews) I happened to drop by this great site, written by Darren Rowse. He has just earned over $10,000 from Google Adsense for the month of May 2005. He has a site that teaches how to earn from blogging. Apparently, there are many techniques, foremost of course, is to increase your readership from both the quality and quantity of your posts -- but how do you get readers in the first place. Obviously, from being able to get the search engines to refer to your site, and to get your readers to come back. Once that is done, the more people who visits you, the more potential clicks your ads could get. I spent well over an hour on his site, and here are some of the great links. Also in this series is Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8. How to Keep First Time Readers to your Blog Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Also some great categories: Blog Promotion Tips, Search Engine Optimization Tips, as well as a link to a Search Engine Journal. I hope you profit from it as well as I did, not only in money, but in terms of insights. 12:22:54 PM comment [] trackback []
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Saturday, July 16, 2005 |
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Testing Creativity and Seeing Relationships 2 (tidbits) Thanks for all the people who took time to answer the first one, here's some more puzzles. 1. 57= H V 2. 11= P on a FT 3. 1000= W that a P is W 4. 29= D in F in a L Y 5. 64= S on a C B 6. 40= D and N of the G F 7. 76= T in the B P 8. 50= W to L Y L 9. 99= B of B on the W 10. 60= S in a M 11. 1= H on a U 12. 7= B for SB 13. 21= D on a D 14. 7= W of the AW 15.15= M on a D M C 5:16:18 PM comment [] trackback []
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Friday, July 15, 2005 |
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Testing Creativity and Seeing Relationships (tidbits) I remember solving this a few years ago, and I got an email that put forth this challenge again. This is a test to gauge your mental flexibility and creativity. In the years since it was developed, it has found that few people could solve more than half in the first day. Many reported getting answers long after the test had been set aside, at unexpected moments when their minds were relaxed and some reported solving it over a period of several days. Pls. don't answer all and spoil the fun. Post the answers only one at a time, and let us post it chronogically. That means if you know the answer to number 1, post it. If you don't know the answer to no. 2 wait till somebody answers number 2, before answering number 3 ( presuming you know)... Let us see if the comments will allow us to go to answer all 16.Example: 16= O in a P Answer: 16 ounces in a pound
1. 26= L of the A 2. 7 = D of the W 3. 1001= AN 4. 12= S of the Z 5. 54= C in a D (with J) 6. 9= P in the SS 7. 88= PK 8. 13= S on the A F 9. 32= D F at which W F 10. 18= H on a G C 11. 90= D in a R A 12. 200= D for P G in M 13. 8= S on a SS 14. 3= B M (S H T R) 15. 4= Q in a G 16. 24= H in a D
Have fun!
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Thursday, July 14, 2005 |
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Blog Blog Blog (tidbits) 9:57:29 AM comment [] trackback []
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005 |
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Blogging becomes Mainstream (techdrivenlife) A few days ago, Microsoft announced that it would incorporate blogging and RSS into Longhorn. Now, IBM announced that two new corporate blogging tools will be added to the forthcoming Version 2.5 of its Workplace collaboration platform and Workplace Designer development tools. Version 2.5 of Workplace will ship with a Weblog component that allows users to create blogs with features such as archiving, permalinks, comments, search, and syndication, according to IBM officials. (cont'd)... 11:30:32 AM comment [] trackback []
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005 |
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Pouching Talents as a source of Competitive Advantage (techdrivenlife) One of the most difficult aspects of competition is the luring of talents. This is especially very true in the tech industry. In fact, it is almost common practice. In our country, we deal with Microsoft people that came from HP, IBM, Oracle, and SAP. We deal with IBM people that came from HP, Microsoft, and Cisco. The first Cisco GM here used to come from IBM, then the next one came from Microsoft, the present one came from HP. HP's GM came from IBM. The IBM PC group's GM used to come from Sun, and the present one comes from HP/Compaq. At any rate, little over a week ago, Dell lured away HP's Proliant Boss. Today, it is announced that HP hired away Dell's CIO. There just might be something lurking with Mark Hurd's (HP's CEO) decision there. The new HP tech guru, Randy Mott, used to be Walmart's CIO when he bought Teradata, a data warehousing software that is said to be a key to Walmart's supply chain. When Randy moved to Dell, he also convinced Dell to get Teradata, which is now being sold by NCR, Mark Hurds' previous employer. Far more than Mark hiring away his biggest customer before, it is now probably expected that HP will be implementing Teradata very soon for its own supply chain needs. HP's plan of course, is obvious: to out-dell Dell. This is a lament. Nowhere in the industry than in ICT where pouching is so rampant. Where is Innovation? 8:24:55 PM comment [] trackback []
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Monday, July 11, 2005 |
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Plantation Bay Cebu ( myCebu) One of most unique resorts I have been is right in Cebu, Philippines. Called Plantation Bay, it is a colonial style setting where you have a lagoon right in the middle.
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Points to Ponder 6 (on quotes)
Here are 2 great quotes on how badly people don't want to think. From Don Marquis, ' If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.' This is a great insight when you are really managing people who just want to coast through life -- the ones that just wants to feel good instead of accomplishing good. And a similar quote that expresses the same opinion, this time from Bertrand Russell, ' Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.' I love to think, and cannot imagine that some people hate it....Maybe we are just different people -- some people also love rock music the way I try to avoid it, or takes easily to excelling in sports, when i do have problems even just being good in some of them.
Here's a perceptive observation on how to really know what other people think of you.... 'To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad.'... Oliver Wendell Holmes. And finally a gem from the playright, George Bernard Shaw, ' The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.'
Similar Posts: Points to Ponder 5 Points to Ponder 4 Points to Ponder 3 Points to Ponder 2
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Sunday, July 10, 2005 |
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Cool! (tidbits) I'm not a car aficionado, but I have always been a sucker for great ideas-- particularly the innovative use of technology. I've just read this in the wiki about RFid, and thought that this was certainly cool! Starting from the 2004 model year, a "Smart Key" option is available to the Toyota Prius and some Lexus models. The key fob uses an active RFID circuit which allow the car to acknowledge the key's presence within 3 feet of the sensor. The driver can open the doors and start the car while the key remains in a purse or pocket. 5:57:53 PM comment [] trackback []
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What is important to me (On Life )
I saw this in an Ecademy post, and thought it mirrors more or less what I myself yearn for in developing proper attitude towards:
Fame - I like a bit of Fame, but not of the celebrity sort - more to do with being known and talked about in good terms.
Money - yes but only because I have to earn it - 'the game is the thing - the money is just a way of keeping score'
Power - only in terms of being in control of my own destiny rather than anything to do with power over others.
Influence - Yes very important - I get as much satisfaction from influencing and developing my staff as I do from influencing my customers.
But what is really important to me is ACHEIVEMENT - I use my business to fulfill that personal need more than anything.
That's me too!
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Saturday, July 09, 2005 |
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Business Failure highest in the First two Years (EntrepreViews) According to Small Business Trends, a survey noted that, across sectors, 66 percent of new establishments were still in existence 2 years after their birth, and 44 percent were still in existence 4 years after. It noted that most of the businesses do indeed have a higher rate of failure in the first 2 years. The sector with the lowest rate of failure was in education and health services, while the highest rate of failure was in information technology.
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Be Careful what You Write in your Blogs ( tidbits) Blogs are everywhere. Estimates today indicate there are more than 20 or 30 million blogs. Surveys completed in recent months by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly a fifth of teens who have access to the Web have their own blogs Blogs are where people vent their feelings, share their innermost thoughts, and also their secrets, and it is open to anybody in the world. It creates an issue that what you confide in your blog now may come back to haunt you in the future. There has been cases where a daughter who confessed allegedly of lesbian practices soon was easily traced to a father who wanted to run for public office. With the ease of finding exact information, and tracing, it is best that people be cautious on what they confide for all the world to see... <more>.
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Tech Companies are Starting to Mature (techdrivenlife) You know that the tech industry is maturing, because most of them have more cash now than they would like to have. Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Oracle ,Nokia, Yahoo, Google, Ebay, and others are all reeling in cash. Some used the cashto buy back stock, some declared stock dividends, some buy up companies, but only a small percentage of them are investing in research and development.
Does it mean that people are now hitting a blank wall on what to invent next? Does that indicate that technology industry is mature? 4:59:59 PM comment [] trackback []
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Friday, July 08, 2005 |
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Australian Millionaires Feel Poor (on life)
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The Internet Entreprenuers (on techdrivenlife) Here is a report from Forbes which shows how much are the 4 Internet pioneers worth today. The second line is of interest, and indicates how much stock they unloaded on the first year. Obviously, Google has had the best run this year.
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Thursday, July 07, 2005 |
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Some people fear Success (On Life )
For the last 20 years, I have yearned for success, mostly business success. Now I have some, I am also thinking about what price success? I have increased some amount of my assets and my income, but of course, it took a toll too. More and more, I find myself wishing that a little less responsibility and work ( even with less income) would actually be welcomed - something I had not wish when i was younger.
For the longest while, I was willing to pay a high price to move up. But now, maybe because of age, or simply because priorities change, I am starting to think that maybe I am content to be where I am instead of moving further up. Maybe age does mellow people.
I never thought I would fear success, and everything I have done and said in the past have been ' that success is good, and it is worthwhile to sacrifice for, and that we have to work hard to earn our rights to the stars.'
But maybe I am now at a time when I do fear success, and I am starting to understand how and why some people really were uncomfortable when you try too hard to push them up the corporate ladder. And I am finding out that indeed, many people have had the wisdom that sometimes material success is not what is touted to be, and it is right to fear not only its accomplishment, but also its consequent effects.
'If I am really successful then my friends will probably not want as much to do with me'
' There's something not quite right / nice about desiring vast wealth.'
' If I was meant to have.... then it would have happened to me long ago'
These are wishes that I used to think are not mature wishes, but more and more it is striking a chord.
Many people desire success, but mostly those that don't know its consequences and its consequent responsibilities. Many covet success or dream of success in a way like winning the lottery, or suddenly have a huge fortune bestowed by a previously unknown relative, but I think deep down they know it is not possible. But they are afraid of the success that will take away their friends, or their leisure, or something that they have grown comfortable with.
And more and more, I am thinking that they just might have a point.
Well, this is a blog about being successful, but maybe it just might be a good time to be a devil's advocate for once, to once a while pause and reflect.
Or maybe we just equate too much the idea that success is material wealth. Other than material success, what are the other things we should accomplish or are important in our life?
What do you think?
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005 |
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Seven Keys to Job Security (on business) Here is a great article on the seven ways you can do to prevent your job from being downsized, marginalized, or outsourced. The goal is to make your job more valuable. -- Sharpen your business skills. -- Get closer to the customer. -- Diversify your management portfolio. -- Align your job with the core. -- Be a person of ideas. -- Seek out complexity. -- Go vertical.
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How an entrepreneur Operates (entrepreviews) I saw this on a post at Multiply, which is a new ( one more!) business networking site, and thought it interesting that I would post it here. Incidentally, Multiply is a nice site, and I am trying to test blog there as well. ------ 2:45:30 PM comment [] trackback []
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Sunday, July 03, 2005 |
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A Great Time to Start a Business (EntrepreViews) The other day, I posted a link that quoted Joe Krauss as saying this is the best time to be an entrepreneur. Here is another article from well known blogger and venture capitalist, Paul Allen of Infobase Ventures ( Provo Utah) who says in his Connect magazine article, this is probably one of the best time to start a company. Other than what was cited in the previous article, Paul also stressed the advantages of lower costs of communication, the ease of getting customers worldwide, as well as the ability to network and recruit as major factors on why it is easier than ever to start a business. Honestly, I was originally drawn to Paul Allen's blog thinking that he was THE Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft together with Bill Gates. He names himself Paul Allen, the lesser , although he has accomplished a lot. I also salute him for his numerous efforts to teach in the university, his insight into business, as well as his outreach effort for his church. Its a great time to be an entrepeneur...
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Selling Technology to Small and Medium Business (techdrivenlife) Most technology companies now, from Microsoft to Cisco to Oracle to IBM and HP have a new mantra. Understand and know how to sell to small and medium businesses. That is where the growth is. It is not difficult to see why. According to US statistics, there are about 7,000 large companies there, 98,000 mid size companies ( less than 1,000 Here's an excellent suggestion from Marketingsherpa.com on some rules to think about when selling technology solutions to small and medium businesses. Rule #1. SMBs don’t buy unless they need it. Your marketing messages have to offer real solutions to their problems or relief of their business pains.
Rule #2. SMBs are typically resource constrained and they don’t have much time. When delivering product messages, you need to make your case succinctly, quickly, and compellingly.
Rule #3. Most SMBs lack dedicated IT support, so an OEM’s, or reseller partner’s, ability to support the product is key.
Rule #4. SMB companies are price-sensitive. Your product needs to be priced accordingly and have flexible pricing options that fit an SMB budget. And, you have to be able to demonstrate a quick ROI.
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It Matters Less Now Where you were Born or Live. (on business) When I look at now the list the successful people, you start to get a glimpse that people are succeeding all over the world. While we use to lament that we were not born or in the right place at the right time, as technology races to connect all of us, and make information available to all with internet, it is starting to look like circumstance or geography is becoming less of an issue in our ability to achieve our potential. Carlos Ghosn, a Lebanese, became a CEO in Renault, French company, but before that, made his mark in South America, and became a hero for saving Nissan, a Japanese company. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was said to have argued that the whole relationship between geography and talent has changed. Thirty years ago, if you had a choice between being born a genius on the outskirts of Bombay or Shanghai or being born an average person in Poughkeepsie, you would take Poughkeepsie, because your chances of thriving and living a decent life there, even with average talent, were much greater. But as the world has gone flat, Gates said, and so man people can now plug and play from anywhere, natural talent has started to trump geography. Now, it seems that it is better to be a genius born in China than an average guy born in Poughkeepsie.
It is harder than ever to hide talents, and increasingly, your success would be determined by what you can do , rather than to whom or where you were born.
Are we still blaming the our fate or circumstance, or should we start to think that technology has freed us from these restraint. Isn't that something to think about?
6:26:17 PM comment [] trackback []
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Friday, July 01, 2005 |
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A Great Lesson in Life (On Life ) Vivek Paul, who as CEO built Wipro into one of the outsourcing's heavy hitters, and ramped up its business from $150 million in 1999 to $1.4 billion in 2004 has left the company. He traced his great performance to an encounter with an elephant more than a dozen Paul was curious why an elephant tied to a small stake in the ground did not yank it up and be on its way. The animal's handler explained that baby elephants tied to similar stakes learn they can't break free. As elephants grow older and stronger, they don't test the stake again--thereby remaining trapped by what should be an obsolete restraint. "I said, 'By gosh! That's probably relevant to people as well,'" Paul said. Source: Vivek Paul's Elephant Trick 6:04:16 PM comment [] trackback []
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years ago, which helped him crystallized his philosophy in life.|
A Great Time to be an Entrepreneur (EntrepreViews) Joe Krauss, who has a great blog on entrepreneurship, and also founder of Excite, thinks it He says hardware is cheaper, software is more powerful yet cheaper if not free, there is a lot of outsourcing to global countries at lower cost, and it is a faster and cheaper way to advertise through blogs, Search Engine Optimization, and the like instead of expensive tv and print advertising. 5:18:45 PM comment [] trackback []
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Last update: 7/31/2005; 9:42:11 PM .
