One more cool video to check out.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Fonality's HUD for Executives
I've spent the last week learning this product. I really like it. It's actually affordable too.
Managing Change
This week I started a new job with AiTech. I'm very excited to be a part of their team. I have to admit that the whole experience caught me off guard. As a consultant to businesses I work with them to manage change all the time. In fact they usually come to me when they are on their way into a big change. So this experience has been really good for me.
I had heard grumblings of a possible buy out but those kind of rumors are always around in a small company. So...I tried not to get too caught up in them. We'd been down that road before and been all anxious for no good reason. I had not taken any time to think through the idea of working for another company. Especially because the owners of Superior had done a great job of keeping everything on the down low. When I heard there would be an announcement last Friday I had no Idea what was happening. Much less clue who would acquire us.
At first I was very excited. More customers to call on, more resources, more engineers, nicer office, smaller commute. After my first week, I'm glad to report that those feelings still ring true. I was most shocked by the challenge I had this week giving up certain responsibilities. For the last 7 years I've spent most of my time in a very autonomous state. Most decisions fell on me and I was used to making the call. An experience that I will always value. So, while I was grateful to have lots of new help this week I was also afraid that somehow I would not measure up.
People always say that the school of hard knocks is good for you. You learn to fend for yourself and make decisions. Yep...thats true. I'm not sure you always make the best decisions. But you make progress and thats important. I'm learning to trust the people around me that I just started working with. I'm learning to give up old challenges and take on new ones. I'm learning to trust in an additional group of engineers to carry out the projects we are proposing. Change takes most people by surprise so I guess I can give myself a week to adapt. I must say. I can't imagine a better fit for working with me than the team at AiTech. They did everything they could to make me feel comfortable this week. I even got a couple of nice new pens that gladly I have not lost yet.
I guess the best way to manage change is to give up some control. To allow everyone to be authentic. To start by trusting. Start by giving. Keep communicating. Thats what I'm going to focus on as we move forward. I'm excited to see what happens!
I had heard grumblings of a possible buy out but those kind of rumors are always around in a small company. So...I tried not to get too caught up in them. We'd been down that road before and been all anxious for no good reason. I had not taken any time to think through the idea of working for another company. Especially because the owners of Superior had done a great job of keeping everything on the down low. When I heard there would be an announcement last Friday I had no Idea what was happening. Much less clue who would acquire us.
At first I was very excited. More customers to call on, more resources, more engineers, nicer office, smaller commute. After my first week, I'm glad to report that those feelings still ring true. I was most shocked by the challenge I had this week giving up certain responsibilities. For the last 7 years I've spent most of my time in a very autonomous state. Most decisions fell on me and I was used to making the call. An experience that I will always value. So, while I was grateful to have lots of new help this week I was also afraid that somehow I would not measure up.
People always say that the school of hard knocks is good for you. You learn to fend for yourself and make decisions. Yep...thats true. I'm not sure you always make the best decisions. But you make progress and thats important. I'm learning to trust the people around me that I just started working with. I'm learning to give up old challenges and take on new ones. I'm learning to trust in an additional group of engineers to carry out the projects we are proposing. Change takes most people by surprise so I guess I can give myself a week to adapt. I must say. I can't imagine a better fit for working with me than the team at AiTech. They did everything they could to make me feel comfortable this week. I even got a couple of nice new pens that gladly I have not lost yet.
I guess the best way to manage change is to give up some control. To allow everyone to be authentic. To start by trusting. Start by giving. Keep communicating. Thats what I'm going to focus on as we move forward. I'm excited to see what happens!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Relationships Rule
As long as I've been in technology there have been companies trying to be a one "one stop shop". I find it interesting that this seems to be a real challenge to pull off over the long term. When I was with McLeodUSA I was selling phone systems and the other reps were selling phone lines. What I found interesting was that the success or failure of our selling together still ended up to be all about relationships. The other reps that could form solid trustworthy relationships with were very successful. Today the likes of Loffler in technology and ADP in benefits\payroll are making headway to become your "one stop shop" as a business.
Time will only tell if these strategies will work out for them. Now that the "recession" is at an end (depending on who you talk to) I think we will see more of these kinds of mergers happening in the technology business. I've spent the past 10 years building my own personal network of trusted technology resources. I often ask myself what it would be like if we all worked for the same company. I may get the chance to find out....who knows? Whatever happens I still believe it will be the quality of my relationships that rule my success or failure. I've learned that if I am working with a business partner and it seems too good to be true....it probably is. If I have red flags about their behavior, lack of action, treatment of my customer or me, I need to address it right away. If they are not willing to discuss or see my point it may not be a good fit.
I'm currently working on a project that involves multiple partner relationships. Needless to say we've run into some snags on the project. We met yesterday with the customer (who has been great to deal with) and made progress towards coming to an understanding of how we would all share the pain of what has gone wrong. It was not an easy conversation but it was extremely rewarding. I felt my relationship with my business parter and the customer grow stronger. This is what good business is all about.
My advice is to work with partners and customers who are interested in a quality long term relationship.
Have a great weekend!
Time will only tell if these strategies will work out for them. Now that the "recession" is at an end (depending on who you talk to) I think we will see more of these kinds of mergers happening in the technology business. I've spent the past 10 years building my own personal network of trusted technology resources. I often ask myself what it would be like if we all worked for the same company. I may get the chance to find out....who knows? Whatever happens I still believe it will be the quality of my relationships that rule my success or failure. I've learned that if I am working with a business partner and it seems too good to be true....it probably is. If I have red flags about their behavior, lack of action, treatment of my customer or me, I need to address it right away. If they are not willing to discuss or see my point it may not be a good fit.
I'm currently working on a project that involves multiple partner relationships. Needless to say we've run into some snags on the project. We met yesterday with the customer (who has been great to deal with) and made progress towards coming to an understanding of how we would all share the pain of what has gone wrong. It was not an easy conversation but it was extremely rewarding. I felt my relationship with my business parter and the customer grow stronger. This is what good business is all about.
My advice is to work with partners and customers who are interested in a quality long term relationship.
Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Microsoft Office 2010 Introduction
Here is a look at what is ahead for Microsoft Office. I'm really excited about this release because Microsoft is taking Google head on. Greater competition should lead to better products. I'll keep my readers up to date when I get the guts to install the beta version on my production laptop.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
How Citrix XenApp works
Sorry if I'm going a little bit crazy on the videos this past month. I'm finally having some time to catch up and share some of what we've been working with over the past few months. This is a terrific explanation of how application virtualization works.
Google's experimental fiber network
If Google pulls this off it could be really cool. It will be a game changer. Keep an eye out for updates on what will happen with Google fiber to the home. 1GB per second sounds awsome!
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