Ipad: game changing or a toy?

July 27, 2010 — andrewnim

The Ipad has now been on sale in New Zealand for a few days. And true to form it has sold very well. It is undoubtedly the “must have” item of the decade. But what for?

Well that is actually one of the clever things about the Ipad. Like Twitter it is game changing because it is creating a new type of platform around which people will and are constructing never before thought of usage. We are still working out where exactly the Ipad will sit in our technology use. In some situations it will do very nicely and others not so well.

Some examples:

  • Police use with the right apps loaded yes, great for maps/ reports/rap sheets. Put one in every car and watch them find new  ways to use them. 
  • Same with Customs. 
  • Ambulance crews.
  • Doctors. The communication capability between the two would be great especially with a camera attached (Ipad is lacking in this area).
  • Teachers, a return to the old chalk slates (hence the term is used sometimes for the Ipad) Or the old Roman wax tablets (an idea 2000 years in the making). great for filed trips.
  • The supply chain, dealing with orders.

Notice that these roles all have mobility? I still do not see it as a major tool in the office, at the price it will never be a replacement for a fully fledge laptop or desktop computer. It cannot multitask and is no good for laying out complex documents. The viewable screen becomes too small. Great for meeting notes and brain storming,  not for writing them up.

The price is an issue, I recently bought a 13 inch Mac Book pro. It is with out doubt the best laptop I have ever owned or used. Feather light and easy to carry around it does everything I need. And has far more real capability than an Ipad. For office/ creative use at least.

 

Ignoring the suggestions above, the Ipad will be mainly a device for consuming. News, books, videos the web infect information of many kinds.

A comment I read recently, summed it up: “for me the Ipad has replaced the TV as my means of consuming world events and news” 

Game changing indeed.

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Creative process for non creatives

April 28, 2010 — andrewnim

In a recent post on All Biz Answers Eric Brantner poses four reasons why small business owners may fail at blogging. I can attest that some of what he says was or is true for me. At least point 1 and possibly point 3. Time is an issue for the small business owner whether a freelancer or someone with a small number of staff. At least until you reach the size to employ people to do separate tasks. As a small business owner we wear many hats at once, marketing, sales, accounts, and support to name but a few. So how do we rationalise which one gets the priority? A little bit of business process.

  • Whats the objective of your business? To make money? I expect so, which means sales.
  • To get sales you need to do marketing, attract the customer.
  • Accounts is the tidy up, without the first two there is very little to do.
  • Support is actually part of good marketing, see it as such and use it as such. Every support call is an opportunity to get it right and increase the love.

Break it down

Marketing:  always the priority but it does not need to consume your time.

Sales: should consume your time but not stop you marketing. You want new and repeat sales right?

Accounts: find half to an hour a day to do the admin, but stay on top.

Support: its part of marketing see it as such not as a cost. It helps the repeat sales.

Marketing is mostly a creative activity, its about ideas and communicating them. Often these ideas are inspired by the sales and support activities. And often they amble around in your brain working themselves out in your subconscious. Then ping they pop up fully formed. And get forgotten because you are busy doing the sales or accounts. So in order to grab those moments of creativity lets take a note from writers.

This is going to be hard as it means forming a new habit (maybe). What is your morning ritual? Could you change it to have some quiet time to think about the last day and the new day?  Sit and just note down what ever comes to the surface. Then use your blog as the sounding board. Discuss the issue and the possible resolutions. When it is written re read it to proof. Then decide if you will post that or will you keep it as private.

One thing people forget about blogging, it is a journal, be honest, you do not have to share everything. But by using your company blog as a journal you use it as a creative tool to solve problems and to create your marketing and support to your clients. Thats a lot easier that making time for marketing and making time for blogging. Its also a lot more refreshing for your readers than just reading your sales copy. And because you are not (you may be) good at sales copy and know it you keep putting the blog off. After all you dont have anything to write about!

When actually you do and the real you may just be far more entertaining than you realise.

If you enjoyed this post, great, if not, okay. But I enjoyed writing it and I got something out of it, I just hope you do too.

Take it easy, watch the sun come up sometimes and take time to sit and think. Advice I need to listen to more.

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Busy Time

April 18, 2010 — andrewnim

I have not posted for a while, I seem to have been too busy with other things including a rather secret project called Suggler. The names not secret, just what we are doing. All will be revealed in time. I have also been attending events like Cloud Camp Auckland and talking to lots of people. Working on my business model some, and looking for opportunities. And as ever learning.

I dont think you should ever stop learning or seeking out and discussing new ideas. But some times you need to work out what you should be listening to and what you should filter out. Reading a blog entry by Seth Godin ( incoming ) I use the phrase ” The  Distraction Age”  which is a direct output of the silicon age and the communications age.  Too much too often and still too little. We place ourselves at the mercy of the marketers and lots of well meaning people and then expect to hear every thing they have to say and still manage to do what we need to and have coherent thoughts. Its like filling our heads with foam and trying to listen the the muffled voice of our own mind.

We will soon be at a point where we need a U Shadow. An almost AI which runs as a personal assistant and filteres everything, presenting us with only those things which we actually need to respond to and act on, yet still able to pull up relevant material we will need before we need it. And it will need to be mobile and siting close to us, or in the cloud and connecting to our mobile. That way we might not be so busy being distracted and more busy doing.

Until then its up to us to keep control and be our own filtering systems.

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End of year stock take

December 17, 2009 — andrewnim

There are plenty of sources which are busy providing end of year advice and check lists for things you need to do over the next few weeks in preparation for the new year. I have one much simpler piece of advice.

Relax enjoy the year end.

What? shock horror, did he say that?

Yes I did, now is a time to concentrate on family, customers, and staff. Now is a time to end the year on a good note. It is not the time to try and plan strategic goals and sales targets for next year. That should have been done last month, or better yet in the new year when those plans are a reality. If you try to do it now,  you are increasing your work load and will not truly be concentrating. You will make plans which have detail missing. Now is a good time to gather the reports you will need in January. You will make plans and then go off to enjoy Christmas, when you come back the plans will have faded and not seem quit so vital. This means that when you start the new year you will fall back into the pattern of dealing with the immediacy of the moment. Not actually working to your plan.

So wrap up what need to be done, spend time talking to clients and customers. Spend time with your staff. But most importantly take a break and spend time with friends and family.

You will find your self refreshed and full of ideas for new opportunities. Now is the time to sit down with you people and do some serious planning. Planning which will kick off the spirit of the year, planning which will be much more effective because you are concentrating on it. Set your goal of where you want to be next Christmas. Stick it up where every one can see it and create the plan to remind people and your self of the priorities. Plan in ways to avoid getting pulled into ruts and directions which don’t fit the plan. Review in an honest manner what were the good and bad points of the past year. What worked, what did not.

Break the planning into sessions over a day.

First: review, general discussion,

Second: lay down the outcomes for the planning, lead the discussion,

Third: make the plan,

Fourth, review, tidy and put it on the wall.

For the rest of the year, spend time once a week to review the plan and make sure you are keeping to it. But don’t be scared to change it if the situation needs it. But do be sure to understand and explain why you are making the change. Be sure it is a strategic change and not just a side alley.

So now that we have that all figured out,

Merry Christmas to all.

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The habits of time

November 10, 2009 — andrewnim

You cannot make more time, only work with what you have. One of the most required skills, but least well taught and practiced, is the best use of time. Prioritizing what needs to be done and when. I tell people “do one thing at a time” then ignore my own advice! It is so easy to get distracted.

But there is a problem which we need to deal with. Its called institutionalized bad habits. It begins when we are sat in a class room with 30 noisy peers and expected to concentrate on boring work while the other people sat at our desk want to talk about last nights TV program. We are not able nor trained to filter that and concentrate. Later as adults we realize all too late that we have a bad habit. We are pulled this way and that, reacting to new information and demands for our attention. There are some disciplines which require this ability. The military for instance. But they spend a lot of time and effort teaching their people how to absorb, analyze and then prioritize. It does not always work so they build systems to deal with it within the chain of command. This is not always possible in civilian organizations, especially small ones where individuals have a wide range of tasks to do.

Prior to the computer it was much easier, the pace of distraction was more limited. But now we have so many means of communication that we are constantly being tapped on the shoulder. Interestingly it is producers of some writting software who have identified this first. Some word processors now have a feature to hide the rest of your desktop. Other apps should follow suite. Working in a browser has become more and more common as more apps we use live in the cloud. Yet it can be our wost enemy as far as time management goes. Firefox created Prism which allows you to create a local instance of a web app. Its greatest feature is that it removes you from the browser and the distraction it affords.

People thought for a long time that gen Y was cool because they can multitask. Yes maybe they can or maybe they are just distracted. Multitasking is a myth. You only do something well when you are concentrating on it. Its called focus. Its essential to create true value and results. So decide when you are available to new information and when you need make time to focus. Turn off the incoming stream and put a sign on the door.

DO NOT DISTURB…..WORKING

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Free range ideas

July 29, 2009 — andrewnim

One expression I really don’t like hearing is people extolling others to “think out side of the box”. It’s often too late for that by the time this is being requested. It’s usually said to people who have actually been trained by school, parents, work and their peers to think in certain ways and do certain things. Fit in, do as you are told, be part of the gang, do it this way, do it our way. Some of this is needed, it gives us grounding and allows us to achieve as a society. But it needs to be offset by encouraging freedom of inquiry and analytical skills. We need to encourage young people to do what comes naturally: to question.

But that’s for the future, that may help our companies in a few years, but not now. Now we need to think about the staff both present and future. When you are next looking to hire a new employee what will you be looking for? Someone who will just fit in or someone who will stir things up a bit? I don’t mean hire a work place psycho, I mean someone who is free- range rather than battery reared. Some one who does not want to be a wall flower, but who is actively going to suggest new ways of doing things and is going to challenge when it is needed. Some one who is not afraid to say NO!

Not every organization wants or needs a blue sky thinker and i’ts the last thing you need in a small close knit organization. But you need someone who is happier with open fields and green pastures. However, and this is an important however, this one person is not going to be a catalyst for change unless you allow and encourage it. Which means you also need to encourage your other staff to do the same. It will not happen over night and does not need trips away for team building. You just need to get them to start thinking about how they do their jobs and give them incentives  if they come up with an idea that boosts your business. People generally are happy to tell you what is wrong with a process they are involved with, if it is one they have been given to follow. They are quiet happy to make improvements. You just need to encourage them. When people criticize see it as constructive.

If you want free range ideas you have to create a free range enviroment, not a box you then have to get them to think outside of. It means meetings which are informal and without hierachy; it means subtle continual changes in the way you interact in your company. You have to be brave and you have to learn to listen- really listen, in the same way you should be listening to your customers; customers you will get more of as your staff start solving customer problems and giving great customer service.

Posted in Collaboration, Ideas, people. 1 Comment »

What is IT?

July 1, 2009 — andrewnim

Here is something to think about: When someone says Information Technology, what do you think of? Computers? The Internet? Mobile phones? Do you think paper and pen?

I doubt it. But paper and pen are information technology, they may be old now but they are still valid means of passing information from one place or person to another. Which is at it’s fundamental, what Information Technology is all about. The Sumerians were the first to use codes or language to pass information, so in a sense they created Information Technology. But before them our stone-age ancestors painted on walls and invented language; the means to pass knowledge verbally. The Egyptians improved it by using paper rather than lumping rocks around and the Romans came up with the first PDA A wax tablet which could be used many times.All of these methods were constrained by time and distance. Information could only travel as fast as a man, running or riding. Until flags, fire, bladders (yes bladders), the telegraph and then the phone came along in that order. Finally news and knowledge could travel faster than a man.

As much as this was great for those in power it also caused problems. Not only did they know of unrest in the provinces, so did the other provinces. Rulers have always sought to limit access to information technology. But it has always found a way to get away from them. The printing press was the first real expression of citizen knowledge and power. People were empowered by the knowledge contained and more easily disseminated in a little book. No more asking permission to read a great tome in the chain library ( so called because the books are held captive by chains).

The telephone and the radio gave the next huge leaps in passage and engagement. But then the television arrived. Dictators rejoiced and knowledge slowly sank under the bilge called “reality TV”.Then came the internet. Rather than just viewing, people began using information. It has been said that this is a new age, with people creating as much as digesting information. That is not really true, people have always done this and found many ways to pass on that which they have created. The difference now is the potential reach for what they have created and how fast it can travel. Once again those in power find them selves troubled by the ease with which people create, receive and use information. Look at the recent events in Iran.

The downside to all of this is that there is so much information we cannot deal with in meaningful ways. This makes it as useless as if it it did not exist. Worse it makes us miss that which we need to pay attention to. Information technology is about the information. The rest is just the delivery, its not important. Wether you get the message via email or letter is not important, its that you get the message. More it’s that you act on the information contained in the message. So take a few minutes, have a think about what you do and how you do it. Before you grab hold of the latest fad or upgrade, ask your self, “ does this help me deal with my information any better, does it improve my decisions and my outcomes?”. Be honest, because if it does not, you may just be about to save a lot of money and time.

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Three Pillars of collaboration

June 7, 2009 — andrewnim

It is my view that there are three pillars on which good collaboration sit. Without them it is destined to be, if not a failure, a very uphill struggle. Which may explain why so many projects suffer from drift and over complexity. It is my experience that applying agile methods to any collaborative project does in deed help support the three pillars. You could say it becomes the bracing which holds them straight.

Communication

First rule of collaboration involves actually talking to each other. If you are not talking, you are not collaborating. The problem here is  more often how you are communicating. By what means and how often, this depends on the nature of the collaboration. Email is suitable for some efforts and a disaster for others. I would not suggest trying to build a website or working as a team on a  marketing campaign  via email. Nor would I suggest doing a sale that way. It’s fine for delivering the invoice but not the discussion.

Now I have worked on projects which had people in different parts of the world and different time zones. Trust me when I say that such projects can be a nightmare without good rules and one person coordinating. Some  vendors of software and services will tell you how easy it is to “remote” work with their product. Well some of these products do help you communicate in “better ways”, but really the only way you are going to create good communication is to actually spend some time sat in the same room learning something about each other.

Honesty

Goes without saying right? Wrong! Honesty requires taking the blame for your mistakes, it requires being truthful to yourself, your colleagues and your customers. You are not going to know how honest someone is until the chips are down, or the cash has to be paid. The only way you can find out about someone’s lack of integrity is the hard way: through experience.

But there is some good news, you can take precautions such as  creating a strong team, who communicate well. That will create the required empathic connections to overcome problems. Respect each other and things should fall into place.

Consistency

This is not to be confused with boring or unimaginative. For example, if part of the team supplies creative services you want to know that they will keep supplying the same levels of creative output not have off days at an inconvenient time. Unfortunately we don’t always work at 100% so, when one person is working at a low, other team members should be able to spot it and help out by being supportive and encouraging. If your team has these abilities consistency will flow.

Consistency is about supplying an expectation to your customers, an expectation of supply and quality. Customers don’t like suprises, except nice ones. And neither do people involved with collaborative endevour, although they often get them. Which is when good communication and honesty come to the fore to save the day.

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Outside the box?

June 1, 2009 — andrewnim

Thinking outside of the box: The Cliche

I am sure you have heard this phrase far too often. I know I have, and all too often said by people who don’t actually do it. Something to consider is that its hard to have a different perspective when each day is similar, taken up by the same issues; reality for most small business owners. Same problems, same solutions. Just running the business takes all your energy. Having time and extra energy to think outside the box is something you put on a wish list. Probably under “someday in your GTD application” (no I am not going to write about GTD).

I am going to present an idea, one which does not involve asking you to make time to climb a mountain to get a different view or spend a weekend trying to cross a river with two oil drums and a piece of string (think out of the box and use the bridge!). But what I am going to suggest is that you put away that business guru book, that trade magazine or that white paper on increasing sales and instead pick up a work of fiction or a biography of someone you find interesting but was not in your business.

You see, I really do not believe you will be capable of thinking outside of the box unless you are engaging with other people who do not even live in your box. And when you do start to engage in that way, you will find that you no longer need to make a special time to do the thinking, it just starts to happen.

There is a whole bundle of theory and research that may or may not be correct about how our brains work. One theory is that we create neural pathways in our brain. Teenagers are teenagers because their pathways are forming and changing quickly. As we get older they start to get entrenched. Apparently, our brains are now trained to work in windows and folders on our computers. We have difficulty seeing the data represented in any other way.

So, if we engage in activities which create new pathways and don’t allow ourselves to trot into a business “cul-de-sac,” we should encourage our brains to stay active and that helps us begin to use the new sources of knowledge to create even more new pathways on the fly.

So off you go, find something which makes you think about anything other that running your business. Give your brain a vacation. It will return rested and invigorated. Though hopefully not too much like a teenager.

Happy thinking.

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