Implied Free

It used to be that if you wanted to access the internet in an airport that you had to pay for it through services like Boingo, or T-Mobile, AT&T, etc.  You can still pay for that internet access if you want, or you can access it through what I call, "Implied Free".  Implied free is telling the consumer that something is free, but it isn't really.  In the case of airport internet access, you watch an ad and then you get a half-hour or so, and then you can watch the same ad again, and get another half hour or so. And on and on it goes. It seems free, but it's not because we have taken our time to look at the ad and distract ourselves from doing something else. What is the cost to us? It's the cost of what we could/would be doing otherwise.  "Implied free" is not new.  Broadcast media was built this way and we now see the same for the "implied free" of ad supported streaming entertainment services.  We are just a moment away from walking into a coffee shop and receiving what appears to be an "implied free" cup of coffee, but we will have to show that we watched the ad, tweeted or create a Facebook status about being in the store and trying the coffee.  I personally don't mind "implied free". It feels active and full of choices.  If we can find the goodness in the approach, there is much we can do and have our consumers and customers join in to help.

Doing Something In All the Same Way...

If you ever want to do a study on business productivity, it would be fascinating to start with the amount of time and energy that is put into trying to get people to do something in all the same way. Think about that for a moment and in your own experience, how often you have had to have that conversation with someone or a group?  We all have done it.  We have to to win over the wills of individuality and streaks of independence to get people to conform to a a way of doing something so that we can have measurable and predictable outcomes. 

Software engineering and startup companies spend an enormous amount of time doing just this.  There have been books after books written on the subject and consultants have made millions of dollars on the simple premise of getting people to do the same things.  Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg himself is after this with his Open Compute Project.  He thinks he can be the one to create a new way of computing, sharing code and getting people to write code in the same way that can be transferred across countries, companies and time zones. This will require lots of people changing to conform to do something new, all the same way.

Making change happen in people is complex, hard, and many times frustrating and futile.  But, we have to do so.  We know that the boat moves in the water more efficiently and faster if every oar goes into and out of the water in a synchronized fashion. 

If the oars could do it by themselves, then it would be easy. It's those hands that are connected to a body that are connected to a brain that make it hard.

Business Tagging

"Kilroy was here."  That was a popular "tag", or graffiti back in the day.  Apparently Kilroy started in World War II and lasted for decades.  Now, we tag everyday.  We "check in" on Facebook or Foursquare.  We post or tweet a picture to prove we were someplace and in our own little way we are putting our"mark" on a place or an event. Business is one of the few places in life that we mostly just "pass through", without much emotional or historical connection.  

I remember watching a consultant pull out of the audience someone who was high ranking in his company.  He was the Chief Accounting Officer of a very large and prestigious company.  He brought him on the stage and interviewed him about his job, his impact, and the legacy he was trying to build within the organization.  The Officer felt pretty good about the what he was doing and that his legacy would stand in the company.  The consultant humored him and then asked, "What was the name of the person who had your job before you?"  The executive answered quickly.  The consultant then asked who was in the job before him? The executive stood their baffled as he had no clue.  The consultant made his point about legacy building within companies. 

If you work in a big company, ask the same about your own job.  Do you know two to three generations before you who was in the job and what they accomplished and left behind?  

If we run businesses, this is the time to stop and think about what "tag" that is indelible that someone can feel they will have always left behind.  Figure this out and you will have unlocked something special and certainly long lasting.

Immigration to the Future

There is lots of talk about U.S. immigration and whether or not we will figure this thing out and rewrite the laws to make sense for where America is today.  I didn't grow up with first generation immigrants, but Patti did and she saw firsthand what it was like to have the courage and drive to immigrate from one country to another, to make a better life for oneself and  family.  Living in Texas in the 90's and California today, we have met many immigrants and they are no less ambitious, hardworking and courageous than those who came through Ellis Island. 

Which brings me to a point to consider.

We are all immigrants when it comes to moving from the past to the future.  We come from a place of yesterday (as the Facebook posts like to remind us that we in my generation grew up without cell phones, Twitter, without flat screens, ipods, etc.) and walk into the future as unprepared and bare of belongings as the immigrant who goes to another country with nothing but the clothes on their back. And yes, this takes no less courage to not get stuck where we are, but instead to move forward into the future with optimism, hope and an open mind. 

The same is true with our businesses and our careers.  If we are not willing to immigrate to the future with all that comes with it, then we are, and will literally be, stuck in the past.

(for a further faith-based application of this post, you can visit: http://purposedworking.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-1186-immigration-to-future.html )

Bye Bye Anonymity, Part 1

It wasn't that long ago that we didn't have a clue who bought and used our products and services.  Think about it for a second; in walks a person to a convenience store.  She buys a single serve diet Pepsi and a bag of Lay's Baked potato chips.  And then she is gone. PepsiCo has no idea who she is and neither did the 7-11, where she bought both of them.  She had come and gone and both PepsiCo and 7-11 counted her as a positive sale.  All good, right?

Well, maybe not so good because while driving away from the store she opened the diet Pepsi only to find that it was flat and date expired.  She had already opened the chips and started to eat them, which were fine, but she was so upset with the Pepsi being flat that recognizing that Frito-Lay and Pepsi are the same company, she started finding problems with the chips to support her anger.  They were too salty, broken and the bag was not filled, or so she had made up in her mind.

A few minutes later when she gets to her house, she takes a picture of both the bottle and the bag (in an unflattering pose) and posts the pictures with some not so kind of words about both of them as well as 7-11 as the retailer.  This young woman happens to be a good and creative writer so her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts blow up and within the next 12 hours over a hundred thousand people are piling on with their complaints with the three companies. And to think, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, 7-11 never even knew her.

This is not a farfetched scenario. It happens every day, all day long.

If the first time we are going to get to know a customer is through a complaint, the shoe is already on the wrong foot.  Consider that we can get ahead of this type of introduction by finding ways to engage and lose the anonymity be inviting our customers into a relationship earlier and then keeping it alive with positive dialogue.

 More tomorrow on this...

(For a further faith based exploration of this post you can visit: http://purposedworking.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-1184-bye-bye-anonimity-part-1.html )

Scrub your Facebook and LinkedIn Friends!

I just got around to reading Bill Ayers' (you know, William Ayers, the supposed terrorist friend of Barack Obama) NY Times, December 6th, Op-Ed article. In his article he details his lack of relationship with President-Elect Obama and goes on to say, "President-Elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn't pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better". As I read his piece and heard him say, "Demonization, guilt by association and the politics of fear did not triumph, not this time", it made me think about the associations that we make throughout our lives that could come back to haunt us, even though they were innocent at the time. What is different than the past and if we fast forward to the future will be the scouring of our Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks of the future to see who our "friends" are and trying to use that against us? Will the next Presidential candidate have to account for all of the millions of friends that they have accumulated or do we need to now start thinking about who we let in our friend networks or not? I casually accept just about everyone who asks to be my friend on Facebook and LinkedIn. I don't pay attention to my MySpace page anymore as it got too cumbersome rejecting one named women who were significantly younger than me. But for Facebook and LinkedIn, who are both better controlled for spam, I tend to trust that because someone knows someone else or I might have tangentially known them in the past that I let them in. But, I have no way of knowing that someone I went to college with hasn't turned into a subversive type. How would I know what secret clubs and societies they belong? And, especially I would have no idea what activities they have financed overseas on those annual vacation trips out of the country. I just accepted a friend on Facebook who I worked with early on a Frito-Lay back in 1986. He was a little wild and crazy back then but it is hard to tell now. His profile picture has him surrounded by five children who all look like him, but how am I to know that these aren't genetically engineered offspring to throw me off and never have me suspect that he is a spy for a terrorist faction? It really is hard to tell these days. Now, that Bill Ayers guy, are we really sure that when they passed in the bookstores they weren't passing secret code books between he and President-Elect Obama? Sounds like we all should just accept that we are guilty by association until proven innocent and just go ahead and have as many friends as we want because it is going to come up some time no matter what.

100 Business Days Out: Day 15 - Virtual Candles

Day 15 out was my 46th birthday. I am going to be honest that when I woke up in the morning, I thought that for many a year, when my birthday was on a workday, that I looked forward to going to the office and hearing “Happy Birthday” a bunch of times. And there were years when there were cakes, surprises, etc. It was a nice thing, once a year, to have this happen. On this day, there would be no office and since I was out of town speaking in New Orleans, probably not a lot of recognitions. Wow, was I wrong. First, Patti had leaked to one of the attendees of the conference where I was speaking that it was my birthday, so I got a nice cake and a great rendition of Happy Birthday. But more amazing were the virtual birthday wishes that I received on Facebook. Either through writing on my wall or sending me messages, I got way more best wishes than I would have if it was just about being in the office. My birthday this year may have been the “biggest” since my 40th. What this tells me are a few things. First, I probably have a greater need for affiliation than I recognize or admit. Second, that I have lots of great friends. Third, that technology today continues to bring us closer and closer. While writing on someone’s Facebook wall is the not hardest thing to do and certainly is easier than a card or a call, it still takes effort and the fact that people who would have never done so prior, use Facebook to reach out and wish you the best on your birthday is one of those things that just makes the world go around better. For sure, my little bit of the world felt better for my special day. Thank you to all who remembered and reached out. You made my day.