Your baby's ugly -- sage advise for entrepreneurs

Steve Baker, friend of mine recently posted this article that is really good, not just for us crazy entrepreneurs, but for everyone in the world today -- the last paragraph contains great advise for us all.

It takes an incredible amount of intense drive, determination and strong ego to breathe life into a business and create products from scratch, but it's also that same ego that won't let a business owner be objective about what their business needs to succeed.

The business is up and running at light-speed and management doesn't have the time or willingness to stand back and take an honest look at what they have created. They are too close to the problems to see them. Just like a proud parent, they have spent sweat and time creating this "baby," and they refuse to believe that it might be less than perfect.

I call this the "business parent trap." It is in this trap that business owners often create and introduce products that would not test out in the marketplace. There's an attitude of "Hey, it's gotta be great because I thought of it."

I've found that there are usually two basic things wrong with a business: the product (the baby) and the management (the breath).

So how do you assess your business? Are your employees going to tell you that you're headed in the wrong direction? Not likely.

Occasionally a consultant will be brought in to review the company's performance in a given area. Unfortunately, when management does bring in a consultant, they often are really looking for affirmation - not straight-forward constructive criticism. Unfortunately, some consultants are more than willing to "affirm for a fee."

If you're going to succeed, then someone needs to tell you if your baby's ugly or you've got bad breath. So here are some blunt yet truthful thoughts for your business, and perhaps you:

• GET OVER YOURSELF: Know yourself, trust yourself, believe in your self...then Get Over Yourself. You're really not the smartest person in the world. You built the business and know it better than anyone else, but no one else really cares how much you know.
• SPECTATOR SPORT: Conversation with you should not be a spectator sport for others. Remember that there's a huge difference between listening and merely waiting for your turn to talk. You hired your employees and perhaps a consultant because you assumed they had brains, so let them use them. Ask questions and listen to answers.
• JUST ANOTHER PRODUCT: Realize that even though you think that your new product or service is the greatest thing since the flip-top beer can, the world just sees one more product and must be convinced. You created this product and you know every function of it, but customers do not buy functions, they buy only benefits. Whether your product is a high tech internet service or a left-handed widget, you must show how it is uniquely beneficial to your customer. Functionality makes your products work, benefits make them sell.
• PAPER WEIGHT: If you have the skills to create a product, chances are that you don't have the skills to market and sell it. Many business owners think that marketing and sales are the simplest part of their business, so it is almost an afterthought. There is only one reason that inferior products outsell better ones; and that is successful marketing. Think of your marketing plan as the complete story book that sells your product. If your story book is a best seller, then your product will be a best seller. Without the right story that will build sales and distribution, your wonderful product is just another paper weight that is headed for a land fill.
• STAND BACK: Your competitors are not all stupid. Guess what? They think their babies are cute too, and they may tell better stories that make them look even better than yours. So stand back and look at yourself and your baby and try to look through the eyes of a disinterested party, because believe it or not, the world is a disinterested party.

Remember, there's a strong chance that you will not be in business in 5 years. As busy as you are, and successful as you think you are, you must set your ego aside and realize that there are things beyond your control.

The secret to success does not lie in knowing everything; the secret lies in knowing what you don't know, and finding those who do. I’ve been successful because I seek out constructive criticism, asking others to tell me my baby’s ugly…but tell me why.

Cloud computing -- continued

I plugged into a cloud computing webinar recently. I thought the meeting was informative for the first 30 minutes, and then it turned into a sales pitch for a tool to help create a private cloud. The supplier was Appistry (http://www.appistry.com/products).

Here are my takeaways:

• Cloud computing is the next step along the path in creating common, shared data centers. The major steps in this evolution are: dedicated data centers, virtualization of data center components (virtualized servers and shared storage), and now cloud computing.
• Some government groups are starting to use the cloud concept, but are creating "private" clouds by using their own infrastructure on configuring it to be a cloud environment to gain capital and operational efficiencies.
• Appistry claimed remarkable capital improvement efficiencies through developing a private cloud with their applications (CloudIQ Manager, and CloudIQ Engine). They referenced a benchmark study that resulted in an 80% improvement in capital utilization. Frankly, I find that hard to believe on a sustained rate. They also claimed very good operational efficiencies, which seem logical since the infrastructure would be normalized to standard configurations, in theory requiring less staff.
  
  

My hope in attending the webinar was to get better insights into cloud applications for government applications without using owned infrastucture. This discussion didn't address this since Appistry is focused on selling tool to help create private networks. But, the benchmark data on capital and operational efficiency benchmarks (even with factoring in some realism in the claims) helps demonstrate the value of cloud computing in potentially lowering ongoing costs to manage IT systems. Once the security model is adequately addressed, this model will start to be the solution of choice for data centers and information systems.

10 qualities of mind for navigating uncertainty

1. Bring your full self to the challenge - Don't hide from the experience. Reinvent your leadership everyday. Develop a capacity for living in the moment. Let yourself experience the full emotional range. Change must begin with you.

2. Let your values by your guide - Your honesty, integrity, courage, and commitment to excellence may be the only thing certain in an uncertain world. Rely on your principles. They will prevent mistakes and help you sleep.

3. Live in a "world of not knowing" - Develop the capacity to learn in real time. Be gentle with yourself. Tolerate the ambiguity of life. Be clear about what you know and don't know. Befriend your anxiety about not knowing.

4. Clarify what you can and cannot control - In America, we see ourselves as the world's great problem solvers. But sometimes we can't control the outcomes. Learn when to take the initiative and when to be let nature take its course.

5. Live in the past, present and future - Keep perspective. "Realistic optimism" goes a long way. Stay passionate and optimistic yet honest about reality. Dreams can go a long way during tough times. Past lessons are our greatest teachers.

6. Befriend the chaos of life - Chaos is healthy - it's about life reordering itself. Face it head on. Chaos is the source of creativity and innovation and creates non-linear, business concepts that bring about our next generation of products.

7. Manage your bright and shadow sides - Expect to see both sides of your personality. Face up to your leadership shortcomings. Be aware of how stress brings forth your shadows. Get feedback from a friend, spouse, or partner.

8. Understand the diversity of people - Everyone sees change through his/her own lens. Some choose to hide; others act; still others won't stop talking. Listen deeply, tailor your response, and stay one step ahead.

9. Embrace the paradox of leadership - Uncertainty is full of contradictions and requires a multi-faceted response. Consider: tough empathy, urgent listening, reflective decisiveness, flexible firmness, and constructive impatience.

10. Build a culture of principles and performance - Focus on the higher purpose; teach people how the business works; lead by example; focus and align; obsess over customers; leverage core capabilities; be a leadership liberator; and lead brutally honest management teams.

Did you know? Interesting trivia...

A friend recently sent this to me. I thought it was very telling of the times we are living in.

• If you are one in a million in China, there are 1,300 of you
• China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world
• The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ...is greater than the total population of the United States --> India has more honor kids than America has kids
  
  
• The top 10 in demand jobs in 2010...did not exist in 2004
• We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist...to use technologies that haven't been invented...in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet
• The U.S> Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs...by the age of 38
• 1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a year
• 1 in 2 worker has been there less than five years
  
  
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online
• There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace. If MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th largest country in the world
• The #1 country in broadband internet penetration is...Bermuda. The U.S. is #19, and Japan is #22
  
  
• We are living in exponential times
• There are 31 billion searches on Goggle every month - in 2006, this number was 2.7 billion
• Who addressed these questions before Google?
• The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992 - today, the number of text messages sent and received everyday exceeds the population of the planet
• Years taken to reach a market audience of 50 million
  - radio, 38 years
  - TV, 13 years
  - Internet, 4 years
  - iPod, 3 years
  - Facebook, 2 years
• Number of Internet device in 1984 was 1,000
• Number of Internet device in 1992 was 1,000,000
• Number of Internet devices now is 1,000,000,000
• There are 540,000 words in the English language, about 5X as many as there were in Shakespeare's time
• It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century
  
• It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4 x 10^18, or 4 billion gigabytes) of unique information will be generated this year - more than was generated in the previous 5,000 years
  
• The amount of new technical information in doubling every 2 years - for students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that...half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study
• NTT Japan has successfully tested a fibre optic cable that can transmit 14 trillion bits per second along a single strand of fibre. This is equivalent to 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second. This technology is tripling every 6 months and is expected to maintain this rate for the next 20 years
• By 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain -- predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capability of the human species
  
  
• During the time it took for you to read this, 67 babies were born in the U.S.; 274 babies were born in China; 395 babies were born in India; and 694,000 songs were downloaded illegally
  

Comment collection / collaboration tool

I stumbled across an innovative tool this week that may be very useful for us at the GPO. The tool is offered by Mixedink. MixedInk takes a fresh approach to collaborative writing. It's a fun, democratic and elegant way for people to weave their best ideas together. (Plus, it's free!)

I met with the founder of Mixedink Friday and got a complete demonstration of the tool. They are a small start up company that has developed this concept into a very user-friendly tool that is hosted in a cloud. This tool was used by Slate Magazine to allow the general public to create a proposed inauguration speech for President Obama (Mr. President, Give this Speech).

As the new administration moves to more open government, tools like this could play a big role.

GPO's Competitive Strategy

A colleague asked me for my thoughts on GPO's competitive strategy. He was working on a paper for his MBA and was looking for input from other GPO managers.
To address this question, I think we need to start by looking at the agency’s mission, and then examine our strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. From here, we can look at our strategy to remain competitive (and viable) in the market to serve our mission.

From the 2004 Strategic Vision document, our mission is stated as follows:
- To provide the agencies and organizations which make up the three branches of the Federal government with expert printing and publishing services, on a cost recovery basis, in order to avoid duplication and waste of government resources.
- To provide, in partnership with Federal Depository libraries, for nationwide community facilities for the perpetual, free and ready access to the printed and electronic documents and other information products, of the Federal government.
- To distribute, on a cost recovery basis, copies of printed and electronic documents and other government information products to the general public.

The vision was stated as follows:
- To deliver Federal information products and services from a flexible digital platform.

Competitive strategy
Our strategy to meet the opportunity and fend off the threats can be outlined.

1. We will understand the market we serve in light of our mission as outlined in Title 44.
This isn’t a new action, but one that needs to be carefully addressed given the rapid changes in technology, which translates to rapidly changing market needs. For FDsys, we worked closely with our end user community; librarians, agencies, congress. Focus groups and councils were formed to communicate with these groups to get their input into what they felt was needed in a new system, and to also validate that we understood them. These groups formed a good basis for candidates for beta testers. This process of involving the customer/partner is critical in successfully meeting market needs.

2. We will accurately capture requirements.
We have a number of examples, both good and bad from which to draw. Concentrated requirements working groups work well for this, with customer/partner follow up as required to validate these requirements are understood.

3. We must innovate.
Innovation is the process of devising a product or service that addresses the customer’s/market’s unmet needs. The output of the innovation process is a concept that, with a supportive business case, enters the product development process, where product design is completed and design conflicts are resolved. Practically speaking, a winning concept must also meet GPO’s success criteria. We need to maximize GPO's value through innovating solutions to meet or exceed needs, delivering solutions to position GPO to be the natural source for authentic Federal information.

4. We must organize in a way to assume a posture of serial innovation to efficiently meet new market needs as they emerge.
We need to have plans to continue to anticipate and understand GPO’s market needs and be prepared to address these with effective solutions in a timely fashion. Our organizational structure coupled with new policies (like our System Development Life Cycle process) and governance (Planning and Strategy board serving in an oversight role for strategic direction and capital investment planning) will support this, coupled with continued diligence into market assessment and active voice of customer work.

5. We must deliver.
We need to develop the integrity within the agency to do what we say we are going to do. This can be accomplished through prioritization of initiatives and through establishing effective organizations to implement projects to meet our goals.


Reference: GPO's Strategic Vision

FDsys goes live!

The initial launch of GPO's FDsys went live yesterday. This release includes the search and access elements of the system, introducing a vastly improved user interface over the GPO Access tool that has been in production since 1994.

The team has done an outstanding job getting a very complex system completed. In early 2008, the program management of FDsys was changed, moving GPO into the role of the prime contractor. Harris Corporation was ineffective at getting this difficult task completed. When this change was made, the team committed to delivering the first release in January. In less than a year, the GPO team contracted new subject matter experts, completed the system design, and led the development, integration, and test activities to launch this system. It was an terrific example of excellent teamwork and collaboration, doing whatever it took to complete the job on schedule.