Archive for May, 2010
May 28, 2010 at 9:22 am · Filed under Workplace, Public Relations
Running a professional services firm is a constant guessing game of “What If?” While a vast majority of our clients are on retained programs, with set fees month after month, some are project-based. We are uncertain how the business will fluctuate month to month.
And as a growth business, we’re also engaged in a number of new business discussions. These are companies we’ve not worked with who wish to retain our services - or those of another firm. We need to plan the resources for each.
Our resource is the time of our professionals. And like any resource it is finite. There are so many hours int he day, and so many people working here. The math is quite simple. And before long, you run out of people and hours.
Like manufacturing, I can search for efficiencies. Less double-up in meetings. Smarter allocation of work from senior to junior professionals. Use of technology to suicken repetetive processes, whether that’s a report on the day’s newspaper headlines of a summary of work in a month.
But unlike manufacturing, I cannot pre-purchase machinery in advance of work orders. People aren’t as readily available and if they aren’t busy with clients, it’s a squandered resource. Yes, everyone can help with running and promoting the company. But that’s not the most effective use of valuable skills.
So most of the time managers in charge of an agency play “What If?” What if we secure the new client assignment? What if our existing client delays or cancels a major project? What if we have several people out sick? (Last week we lost seven people simultaneously to a virulent flu.)
Lately I’ve been silently planning for a major piece of new business. We’ve been preparing our strategy during the days, evenings and weekends. And initial signs are encouraging. That’s forced me to look at office space, technology, people, resources. In quiet I’ve found space for eight new desks, interviewed ten people and prepared a capital plan for new technology. And that’s all without the certainty of success.
The problem is, if you don’t play “What If?” then later down the track you’re forced to deal with “What Now?” In almost every instance I would prefer to be prepared. So it’s back to planning - but don’t tell anyone.
May 24, 2010 at 9:20 am · Filed under Social Media
How many of us have the tenacity and determination to leave Facebook? It’s like peaking over the neighbour’s fence. We see photos of the kids and who is in a relationship. We get a status update the moment that relationship ends. I’ve reconnected with high school students I hadn’t seen…well…since high school. And I’ve updated everyone in my network on the minutiae of my life (Ethan’s lost tooth, our holiday to the Gold Coast).
So why the growing movement? And why the global drive to deplete some of the 400 million users? Already the dedicated web site has 13,638 people willing to close down their accounts (see Quit Facebook Day). It all centres on privacy.
In a public forum like this blog, I expect all and sundry to visit. In fact when my FireStats show a decrease in readership I worry. Wasn’t I wry enough? Did I lack relevance? If it weren’t for the trawling public I’d be another lunatic speaking to himself in solitude. (Now I’m a lunatic surrounded by readers!) Same with Twitter. These are public forums.
The disappointment with Facebook is the public-private conundrum. My Facebook account is private. I don’t allow work colleagues in. For them, there’s Linked In. But Facebook allows me to select who I share information with - or so we thought.
In an attempt to monetise Facebook, leaders at the site have created trapdoors in each and every person’s profile. That allows Facebook to share your data with advertisers. They can then tailor their materials to your specific interests.
And more and more, Facbook makes it harder and harder to find these trapdoors and seal them shut. Just when you’ve navigated the maze of Options and User Settings, the list is changed and you’re required to re-enter the labyrinth. Amazingly people often give op - and leave their trap doors swinging in the breeze.
So the cutting edge of technorati have finally tired of the game. They’re unwilling to have their personal data sold and exchanged. And they’re leaving Facebook - if not in droves, then in dribbles.
For the public, it won’t take the protestations of the electrified elite. Instead one more blunder by Facebook and their site will become tomorrow’s MySpace. An erroneous advertiser shoots off a dating site offer to members of a religious site? Or Moms are urged to visit a swinger’s site? Or worse?
Sooner or later the hand that has fed Facebook will be bitten - and by then it will be too late. But for now the scurrilous behaviour of ever-evolving privacy settings is the clearest signal. Facebook cannot be trusted.
May 21, 2010 at 8:45 am · Filed under Globalisation, Australia
In my years in an office, I’ve never witnessed such a fast-acting and widespread contagion as has attacked our office this week. In a team of 16 there were seven sick. What was surprising was the speed and ferocity of the illness. Within a day I went from fully functional to flat on my back. This must be the contagion that scared the World Health Organisation. While we’ve not had tests to confirm, if it looks like a pig and acts like a pig, then this must be swine flu.
One hundred years ago the world was hit by a deadly virus.
The Spanish flu pandemic hit a world ill-equipped to handle maladies. Doctors were trained to Victorian era standards. Pharmaceuticals were nowhere near today’s grade. Masses of young men were barracked together in preparation for deployment to World War One. Add to that mix a fast moving flu and you have deadly consequences. Between 50 and 100 million died, and those most targeted were young and healthy. Today scientists are still trying to calculate the death toll.
Just 101 years later the World Health Organisation issued its strongest advisory possible for H1N1 - also known as Swine Flu. This fast traveling flu mutated from a fresh source - meaning any antibodies developed to previous flus were worthless. And just as in 1908 our office lost its young and healthy workers. While we were fine and working one day the next we were home racked with coughs, fever and lethargy.
Thankfully the strain hitting Sydney is nowhere near as lethal as 100 years ago, because if it was, I’d be dead.
May 20, 2010 at 2:07 pm · Filed under Leadership, America, Issues Management
I’m tough on myself. There’s a lot I don’t like. I’m too broad around the midsection and my forehead has some permanent wrinkles already. (And no, it’s not due to constant surprises!) Then I look back and think there’s more I’d like to change. Perhaps a different alma mater? Higher GPA in high school?
Too bad I never met US Senate-hopeful Richard Blumenthal.
This wanna-be elected official in Connecticut seems to have fabricated portions of his career. Here’s a great video taken in 2008 – look for the catchphrase, “…from the days I served in Vietnam…”
Seems reasonable, no? Problem is all of his experience was States-side following a record five deferments.
So. One lie. Is that all?
As investigators pour over Dick’s record (why is it always a politician named Dick?), more anomalies appear. He says he was captain of the Harvard Swim Team. Now that might have been plausible if Blumenthal actually was on the team. Seems Dick wasn’t on the team he purported to captain. Oops.
In the face of mounting evidence and criticism, Richard Blumenthal has wedged himself into the corner of denial, stonewalling and obfuscation (”Here’s a video link where I accurately cite my Vietnam experience”).
So now I think. If I could re-make myself a la Blumenthal, what might I change? Maybe I won the Bermuda’s Cup in 1982. Perhaps I was founder of a major national charity that helps homeless youth. Or could I have been considered as the first non-scientific crew member of the Atlantis Space Shuttle.
No matter what I’ll have lost four inches off my waist and restored my smooth forehead. That’s my mimunum entry point for re-fabricating myself a la Blumenthal.
Dick. Is that you?
May 12, 2010 at 7:11 am · Filed under Globalisation
This morning I’m in a Brisbane hotel room listening to Nick Clegg, leader of Liberal Democrats in the UK, on BBC TV after forming an alliance with the Conservative Party to form a government. The uncertainty of the last five days is over and finally England has a new Prime Minister. (It isn’t Clegg but instead David Cameron as his Conservative Party - aka The Torries - had more votes.)
Just yesterday the sitting Prime Minister, Gordon Brown of the Labor Party, had resigned. It was a last ditch effort to get Labor in a deal with the Liberal Democrats. Seems poor Gordon fell on his sword for nothing.
But while the machinations were underway in the UK, over in Greece negotiations were underway to rescue that failed economy. (Oh, and in the USA the worst environmental disaster is still spewing oil.)
All this uncertainty has made the stock markets around the world plunge. Seemed we were on the verge of GFC 2.0 (Global Financial Crisis).
So back in London - as their currency seesawed and the FTSE dove - it seems the Greeks did what history could never do. Today the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats are in government together.
My friend Phyllis is an animal lover who shares emails with heart warming photos. Today I received post-tornado images of dogs rescued. In one, the back seat of a car is covered with beagles and other dogs. In pops a cat - who is warmly welcomed. In the aftermath of a tornado, even a cat can find a home next to a blood hound. Is Clegg the cat? Cameron is definitely a hunting dog!
And whle the post-tornado photos does show species clinging together against instinct, in a few weeks the UK election tornado will pass. The cat would be smart to realise the love in transitory. Clegg is going to need to keep his claws sharp, as Cameron will come back to his senses and return to his hunting instincts!
