checking out new software services

I spent some time this week going through my modest amount of LinkedIn connections (I have 326 connections, which is good for me but minuscule when compared to some of the heavy-hitters with thousands of connections.) My re-visit was sparked by an idea. I wanted to know how well I was acquainted with my contacts on LinkedIn. I suspected there would be an equal distribution of my contacts across 3 areas – Very Familiar, Somewhat Acquainted, Don’t Know Them From Adam.

Here is how I defined the 3 areas:

Very familiar – If I saw this person in a bar, I would have no problem pulling up a seat beside them.

Somewhat Acquainted – If I sent this person an email or called them, I would expect a reply sooner, rather than later.

Don’t Know Them From Adam – I only know their name from their LinkedIn profile.

As I went through my contacts, I was surprised to learn they fell into 2 groups, rather than 3. The distribution skewed towards the ends, meaning those who I’ve barely met and those who I know well. So, rather than an even distribution, I ended up with a distribution that looks like an hourglass turned on it’s side.

In an attempt to remedy that situation, I’m trying a little experiment. I’m combing my entire list of LinkedIn contacts – currently at 326 – and spending a few minutes on each person. Then, I’m going to send 5 relevant links to items on the web that I think they might appreciate.

The idea is to reach out and try to reduce the gap between my online relationships. We’re connected digitally, but not humanly. I’m going to use an alphabetical algorithm, starting at A and ending at Zed. If a new connection comes in after I’ve already passed that letter, then I’ll come back around later and visit them.

Initially, I’m going to try and complete 5 – 10 contacts a day. That should allow me to complete this in about 1 month. To simplify things, I’m skipping the people I know very well. If I know you that well, we are probably already talking too much anyway.

I’m not sure what type of response I’ll get. Hopefully I’ll find new information and discover some interesting personalities that I missed the first time around.

If you’d like to connect:http://www.linkedin.com/in/kylecraig

I had to write this post to keep up with everything. I’m transferring my paper list to this blog post.

If we share similar interests, please connect with me:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kylecraig

Facebook: facebook.com/people/Kyle_Craig/500057201

Twitter: twitter.com/MKyleCraig

My current blogs:

Mobile Bay Western Shore – mobilebaywesternshore.com

Innovation, Strategy, and Tech – Geekfluence.com

Social Media and Social Marketing – TheNewSouthernStandard.com

Music and Social Media – InfiniteFanBase.com

White Papers and Marketing – TheWhitePaperPlace.com

Cloud Computing – coming soon

Business Valuation – coming soon

Background

I had a conversation with my father over the July 4th weekend about the job market. Last year, he retired from a senior management position (Mill Manager) in a major manufacturing company (Kimberly Clark). He is considering going back to work in a limited capacity, maybe as a consultant or advisor to companies who are looking for an experienced professional.

He exhibited a bit of frustration over the weekend about the lack of jobs. He’s been contacted by several so-called ‘consulting’ companies, but for the most part, they seem to be selling other services like training and database access. For the past year, I’ve tried to get him to start blogging and create a profile on LinkedIn, but he doesn’t quite understand the full range of the medium. Or maybe I’m not doing a great job of articulating the benefits. Either way, he hasn’t done it.

Experiment

So, I’m going to try an experiment. I’m going to use Twitter and WordPress (this post) to help him locate a new job. The benefits of him finding a new job are two-fold: (1) He’ll have a new opportunity to use his experience and (2) He’ll truly understand the power of tech.

This idea is derived from Stanley Milgram’s classic small world experiment.

This will be interesting in several ways. I’m very keen on watching the path of the message through the web.

Second, I’m interested to watch how this message will cross industries. Most of my contacts are in the tech or social media world. I’m hoping that someone in the tech world is connected to folks in other industries, like the industrial market. I wonder if anyone in the industrial market is on Twitter?

I need your participation

Here’s what you can do. Send this post over email, IM, and Twitter to anyone who you think might help. It could be a recruiter, an HR person, or an company executive. Or, it could just be someone well-connected on the InterWebs. My contact information is below as well as a summary of my father’s qualifications.

Thanks for all your help. I’ll post details and follow-up as things progress.

- Kyle

(Note: He does not know I’m doing this, so I’m acting as an intermediary to filter out spammers and spambots. My email is mkcraig@gmail.com. If you have a serious inquiry, email me and I’ll pass his contact info along.)

A few details about the best-fit job:

- The company will probably be in the industrial or manufacturing market, although his functional skills could be applied everywhere

- Company size will probably be medium-large (employees > 100)

- He does not want to re-locate, but is willing to travel.

Career highlights:

- Expert knowledge of change management, organizational development, Toyota Way, “step-change” improvement

- Achieved 30% improvement in output/labor cost; 50% improvement in maintenance cost / output; 100 % reduction on outside suppliers in manufacturing mill

- 37 successful years with Fortune 100 company

- Performed turnaround of 2 major manufacturing facilities

- One turnaround became a company model and case study for “Organizational Design and Performance“

- Experienced in operational efficiency, labor/union relations, and productivity improvements

- Education – MBA, corporate Strategic Leadership programs, Executive Leadership degree(from Darden University)

- Awards – 3 time winner of Product System Excellence award

I’ve had 2 clients postpone their projects until later in the year. It’s not a great situation to be in, but it happens all the time with small business.

In this particular case, I’ve spent most of my time prepping for these 2 clients, which has created a vacuum in the ‘finding new business’ category. So, I’m now reaching out to everyone for some help.

I’m looking for new companies, either large or small, looking for a good marketing and tech mind. I’m flexible on the working arrangement and willing to travel.

Here’s my details from a high-level, I can provide more over email ( mkcraig _at_ gmail _dot_ com )

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My education is computer science with an MBA. My tech background includes software, semiconductors, and mobile. I’ve helped companies in other industries, including recruiting, real estate, media, and programming.

Here are the things I’ve worked on:

- Digital Marketing strategy

- Content creation

- Blogging help

- Business model research and evaluation

- Product development and launch

If you know someone who is looking, please forward them this post.

Thanks,

Kyle

For those who are interested in following the changing industry of buying and selling, you should be reading anything Chris Anderson writes.

He blogs here: The Long Tail

A recent articles in Wired discussed his latest thoughts and upcoming book: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

Dear Music Industry:

I read the recent news about the your latest music tax with great disappointment. Once again, you’re missing the point. Rather than accepting that the industry is changing, you are driving your bandwagon of self-importance straight into what I can only describe as a digital prairie filled with knifes, arrows, and people who will hurt you.

I’d like to share a point about my experience.

I am a music fan and I enjoy most types of music. Actually, I am a huge music fan. I read about music, I talk about music, I studied music in college and I am an amateur musician. I play guitar.

Like many guitar players, I started emulating my favorite players and I quickly discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan (SRV). Once the discover was made, I was hooked. Using the word ‘fan’ to describe my passion isn’t appropriate. Not only did I listen to his records, I absorbed everything I could about him.

At that moment, I morphed into the exact type of fan you should be targeting. I became – in all it’s glory – a SuperFan.

What exactly does that mean? To be a super-fan?

For starters, I went out and bought every single SRV album I could afford and started listening to them everyday. I couldn’t get enough.

[Sidebar: I can already hear your lawyers saying - "Exactly, you went out and bought more music, which is being pirated today. We're just trying to prevent future piracy."

My response: Don't interrupt me. ]

While I was listening to the albums, I did several things simultaneously. When I had money, I bought books, posters, and every piece of sheet music associated with SRV. Not only that, I told all of my friends, many of whom were also musicians and music lovers, about SRV. And I required them to become fans.

Later, after SRV’s death, I bought 2 Fender SRV signature model guitars.

Let’s re-cap those industries – the publishers (book and sheet music), photographers, and Fender all made money off my transactions. During my travels, I would go to Austin and spent my nights watching music at Antones, the famous club where SRV honed his craft. So, Antone’s, Miller Lite, and Jose Cuervo also made money from me.

What else? I started exploring every influence on SRV. I bought things related to Jimmy Vaughan, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Buddy Guy, and Robert Johnson and any other reference I could find. Any, then, I bought books and posters of those guys.

What’s my point?
The issue today with the music industry should be about infringement. It’s not about alleged piracy. I respect artists and they need to be paid.

The point here is that there are millions of SuperFans. And they are being underserved. In my case, I knew what I wanted and I made it happen. There are millions more who would welcome a little effort on your part.

You, as an industry, should no longer consider yourself in the music business. You need to be in the “Music Fan” business. More importantly, you need to be in the SuperFan business.

The technology exists to enable you to find and help these SuperFans. And you can figure that out how to make it financially feasible for everyone – you, the artists, songwriters, publishers, and the lawyers. If you can’t figure it out, I can recommend some very smart people to help unravel the mystery.

You can’t win with this tax thing. The entire industry knows you are struggling. With all due respect, you need to pull a seat up to the table, admit that you took a misstep, and figure out to create a new business model that doesn’t involve extortion.

May I recommend you track down Chris Anderson. Read this first.

Sincerely,

Kyle Craig

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article may or may not be true.

Disclaimer to Disclaimer: I make this public disclaimer not to take away credibility or soften it’s tone, but as a pre-emptive tactic for the apparently overworked lawyers at the RIAA and music labels.

Person Chris Anderson

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Twitter is creating an unprecedented conversation frenzy. I am a fan. I have found several people with brilliant things to say. It give me hope in humanity that there are so many smart people out there.

Despite the widening of my community brain trust, I’ve noticed a trend, which if not recognized, could lead to negative results. It’s based on the principle of Liking, Similarity, and Selection Bias.

Similarity and Liking describe the propensity of human beings to gravitate towards those who are most like them. Similarity creates the tendency for us to be attracted to people who share similar traits. We have a natural tendency to surround ourselves with people who dress, look, and think the same way we do.

But, this introduces a new situation. What happens to the people we don’t like? What happens to the people who are ‘un-similiar’ to our views?

Here’s what happens on Twitter – Click ‘Unfollow.’

Don’t like what someone is saying?

Simple. “Click!” No tweets for you.

The existence of the Unfollow functionality is a prerequisite for the success of the Twitter platform. I need some mechanism to disengage from people who are spamming, abusing my time, or otherwise not contributing to my brain trust. But how far can this go?

If an opinion is presented in an acerbic manner, what then? Should I discount the opinion because the person suffers from a communication deficiancy? Do they deserve an Unfollow? Does someone who can’t make a point in less that 140 characters need to be silenced by a mouse click?

The threat of exclusion over time leads to a decline in decision making. When a debate or idea is presented to the group, only the people with similar mindsets are listening. So when you decide that you are moving to South America, there are no dissident opinions.

I hope no one is planning a move to another continent, but there are subtler implications. When you ask your Twitter flock for information, you run into a selection bias (also called confirmation bias). The feedback you receive will coincide with the goal you are seeking. When all you have is a group of like minded individuals, everything becomes an excercise in reinforcement.

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Twitterer 1: “Is that a bunch of giants or windmills on the horizon?”

Twitter flock: “Giants.”

Twiiter flock: “I wouln’t call it a giant, but it’s not a windmill.

Twitter flock: “Definitely giants.”

Twitter flock: “I just took a sip of my drink.”

Twitter flock: “I would say that it’s threatening large beings, not exactly giants”

Twitter flock: “I just took another sip…”

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Suddenly, you’ve convinced yourself giants are on the horizon because there is no one around to question the premise. You’ve unfollowed them all.

It’s the exclusion from conversations that poses a threat. If people have a tendency for similarity and liking, how long until their decision making is flawed?

Will there be a long term trend to have a group of people who, after an honest but flawed use of unfollow, have limited themselves to unoriginal thinking?

I hope not.

Excuse me for now. I need to check with Twitter to see if I should drink this Kool-Aid….

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Note: I only discussed the use of ‘unfollow’ above. In only a slightly more complicated situation, the use of ‘block’ could also be used to effectively limit your flock.

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Sources and further reading:

“Why People believe Weird things,” Michael Shermer

“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, ” Robert Cialdini

“Decision Traps,” J. Edward Russo and Paul Schoemaker

The quest for the number one position is the desire of every business. Everyone wants the success and money associated with market position numero uno. Not everyone achieves that position. The reason why is rather shocking.

When a firms becomes a monopoly in a market, they are given the freedom to take higher profits and often are the leaders in innovation. They are afforded certain advantages for being the biggest. It’s the reward for the risks undertaken to get to first place. On the other hand, a negative public perception exists regarding monopolies. The news stories we hear about monopolies involve the word ‘lawsuit.’

Here’s what most stories don’t tell you – market dominance is not inherently bad. In fact, it’s good for exactly the reasons already mentioned – higher profits and increased innovation. It’s not bad to a monopoly.

I’ve observed that many small business owners believe they are operating in a commodity market or they accept that operating in an oligopolistic market is the only option (Def.: Oligopoly – Market with a small number of firms ). They want to be successful, but there seems to be a sad reluctance that business is business and they are in a “highly-competitive” market.

The main reason they continue to operate in this manner – lack of focus. They bring their business and move into a wide category and don’t find their differentiation.

The quickest way to discover this mindset is to ask them about their industry. They answer the question like they were a commodity. The description of their business is generalized and overly broad.

“We’re in advertising.”

“We’re in the restaurant business.”

“We’re in the software business.”

Those answers are all too broad.

Now, these answers could be conversational laziness. They just don’t want to go into the detail required to give a full explanation. More insight comes when you ask them about their competition.

They’ll respond with a handful of competitors. Normally around 3-4 competitors. I rarely hear anyone say “We’re the number one firm.” When I do receive that response, it comes across as fake. I get a middle of the road response – “We’re in with a few different players.”

The mindset of operating in an oligopolitic or commodity market forces you to react to external factors like competition and pricing. You aren’t executing on internal factors like customers and innovation. Being in a commodity business means you have no differentiation, thus no value, at all.

Oligopolistic markets have an inherent interdependence on each other. Price cuts in one firm’s offering will induce price cuts from another. New promotions lead to rival promotions. New products lead to new, shockingly similar, products. Over time it leads to a step-wise and predictable game of business Marco Polo.

One firm cuts their prices: “Marco!”

A few days later a competitor reduces their price – “Polo!”

It can all get rather depressing after a while. And, it will ultimately lead to mediocre performance and profits.

Here are some steps to help you clarify your thinking on this matter -

1) Have you released a new unique product/service in the past 1 year?

2) Do you continually receive new ideas from customers?

3) Have you had to cut your prices over 10% based on competitive pressures?

4) Are you considered the top firm in your particular niche?

5) What do your customers consider to be your one unique trait?

Answering these questions should help you determine if you are following the market or leading it.

In an effort to streamline things, I’m combining several of the trends into a single post. I have finished the book, and I realize that waiting to write about all the trends is going to be overly cumbersome.

Here’s Trend 6-8:

Trend 6: Outsourcing – This trend is something that I have a personal connection to. Way back in the 2000-timeframe, I paid a coder in india $50 to build me a website. The idea of hiring someone from India didn’t strike me as largely innovative. He needed work and I had a job. It wasn’t until I started talking with people about the project that I realized something was happening. The world was losing is geographic borders. I would suggest reading ‘The World is Flat.’

Trend 7: Google and the Dicing of Everything – The idea of search engines indexing all web pages is leading to an unexpected event – there are no more front doors. Depending on the rankings of your interior pages, it is very likely those interior pages are showing up higher in a search than the front page of your site. So, you are losing a small piece of control. You can’t be certain that each visitor is going to reach you in the same process, so you need to be sure that all visitors are informed, educated, and served by your website.

Trend 8: Infinite Channels of Communication – With email and web, you now have each person who is on your site acting as a conduit for your marketing message. Each visitor becomes another medium for you to transmit your message. Make sure each visitor becomes a good medium for your business.