Richard Yong

Work Voyeurism - Perspective

Okay, so I live in an apartment right next to some office blocks.

I have a bad habit when it's late at night, of peering over at my office colleagues to see who is still at work.

Without fail, the lady in the picture (taken at midnight) is always there, even Fridays.

I decided it could only be down to a few reasons.

• She really really loves her work, it's everything she dreamed she would do when she grew up
• Her family will die if she doesn't work
• She is finding the cure for cancer
• She is stopping world poverty

I really really hope so...

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one - John Lennon

A quick one.

Know, learn and be a little more by Friday.

Do something. Not because you're told to, or because it's in your job description, but because it's the right thing to do. By your boss, by you and by your customers.

Some people might not be happy (the budget, the weather, 'management approval,' the policies and procedures, you know what I mean!).   But some people are almost never happy.

Let's share notes on Friday.

Flickr cred: Johnny Vulkan

You've got to find what you love.

Here are a few if's worth thinking about.

• If you were going to die in 15 years. Would you do anything different? What about 50?

• If you had a dream, are you still dreaming?

• If you  were going to be remarkable, what would you do?

• If you had the resources and the time to do anything... what would it be?

• If you could be a good person, who would you be?

• If you didn't have to please your parents/wife/children/friends/golf buddies, what would you do?

The power isn't in the if. It's in the question of the when.

I've got one more piece of advice from Steve.

Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Flickr credit: Voetmann

The problem with losing the big picture. Clickthroughs

A curious advertisement. A spinning lady. Is she spinning left, or right?

I clicked on an ad with that picture and was brought to the SAAB site. I'm sure the click through statistics are impressive. But that's what happens when you forget about trying to generate sales and start obsessing about generating clickthroughs.

Distracting someone on the net doesn't win you any friends.

Why not capitalise on the hard won clickthrough? How about a webpage about how the right and left brains work. Appeal to the two halves. Then invite them to see for themselves why a SAAB is so remarkable?

The ad didn't have my permission to take me to the SAAB site. I didn't even read the copy on the site. I'll probably never buy a SAAB.

But they got the clickthrough, so I guess an ad executive, somewhere, is punching the air in victory.

Are you ready?

20% of world growth came from the EU, US and Japan last year.

40% came from China and India .

48.7 million. The total number of Indian graduates in 2005.  To put that in perspective, the entire population of Australia is not even half that.

So... Are you ready?

• Are you ready to compete with the world, and not just your peers?
• Are you ready to compete with people who are just as smart, just as hard working, hungry for a challenge and willing to work for half the price?
• Are you ready for a changing world? It's going to change, even if you don't.

We idolise the old guard that lord over old businesses, because they've made it. And good for them. Those rules don't work anymore. Unless you're working towards something new, something better, you might just be in a holding pattern to replace the old guard. And if you're doing that, you might find there isn't much left to inherit.

Do you want to live in fear of losing your power base and have to fight to maintain the status quo? Or do you want to be out at the fringe, building a new power base and challenging the status quo with something new, something better, something good... Maybe even something remarkable?

So... Are you ready?

Flickr credit: squacco

The Value of Time.

Do you value your time? How do you value it?

It isn't in dollars per hour. It isn't in your wage or salary. It's in how much you value yourself.

Here's an experiment, pretend that your time is the most valuable.

Funny things start happening. You start and finish things that matter, you start making other people's time matter, you become angry about wasted time. Here are some changes that come from valuing your time:

• You refuse pointless meeting appointments.
• You stop surfing the net, you either work or you go home.
• You start treating every person you meet with the same intensity and focus, because it's your time at stake. Your measurement of the other person's importance no longer matters, only your time does.
• You stop killing time. Scary thought.
• You stop hanging out with people who don't care.
• You know the difference between up and down time.
• Life isn't about getting to Friday. Or 4 weeks of mediocre holidays.
• You start planning on how to do better work, but in less time.
• The only difference between work time and home time is that you play differently.

You start calling the CEO first. Chris Gardner started at Dean Witter Reynolds (American stock broker) and was given a client staff list, his manager said 'call every single one and offer our products'. Most brokers start at the bottom of the list, and don't call the CEO. Chris wasn't 'most brokers' and knew that by calling the CEO and scoring a meeting, he saved himself time. Chris Gardner knew the first rule of valuing his time, even at the bottom of the laddder. He's now worth squillions, and you might have seen his movie The Pursuit of Happyness.

Imagine all the remarkable people and businesses there would be if just a few started valuing time differently and started focusing on being awesome. I'll wager that people already doing this aren't worried about money. That's because remarkable businesses want someone remarkable.

Flickr thanks to PrAsAnGam

The Spectacular Collapse of the Ivory Tower. Why Microsoft gets hugs and Lenovo doesn't.

What does social networking have to do with serious suit and tie business? Well, for one, everything. The ivory tower of senior management has collapsed. Those that come and play the social game, win. Those that don't... well you know what happened to the dinosaurs.

First let's examine some people who excel at the social networking game:

Seth Godin - Serial marketer, book writer, presenter and genuinely remarkable guy, takes the time to respond to his emails. Even ones from me.

Phil Harrison - Executive Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (responsible for showcasing the PS3 launch) has an ongoing dialogue with the blog, Kotaku. Even his chewing gum is big news.

Tim Ferriss - New Rich, writer of the Four Hour Work Week and constant adventurer responds personally to comments on his blog and his forums.

So if these remarkable people are so easily contactable, why can't I even get the contact details of someone at Lenovo above a customer service centre employee unless I make a plea on their forums?

We might find an answer if we start by taking a look at two different management team biography pages:

Lenovo - 'Lenovo Management'

Microsoft - 'Press Pass'

Similar. Same information. But different.

1. Lenovo doesn't want you talking to their execs. Suits and ties, their photos look like seniors taking yearbook photos.

2.  Lenovo doesn't want you talking to their execs. There aren't any email addresses, or any phone numbers to contact these guys. They're untouchables.

Microsoft on the other hand has personality, their CEO looks like he could be someones grand dad, the head of entertainment, J Allard looks like he actually likes entertainment. It's not called 'Lenovo Management' either, it's called 'Press Pass,' they're inviting you to talk to them. There is a form you can fill in if you want to speak with them too. Aces.

The bio's might not strike you as particularly different, but these small tid bits of information show a lot about how a corporation plays ball. Here are some real life examples:

1. If you call microsoft to get your xbox fixed, a human answers. If they wipe off all your signatures on your limited edition signed xbox while in repairs, they apologise and Bill Gate's signs your new one. They show they care. $250 billion dollars and they can still show they care.

2. If you call Lenovo, their sales team will pick up in less than 2 minutes, and take your credit card details in less than 20 minutes. If you call their service centre to get your laptop fixed? 25 minutes average  on the waitlist. 25 minutes before you speak to a human soul. They are over 40 times smaller than Microsoft.

What does this mean for businesses?

• Authentic communication. If you stick someone on a phone wait list for 20 minutes, don't tell them their call is important, it obviously isn't. Worst of all don't lie, I received an automated feedback email from Lenovo that was signed by Chris Askew the Senior VP of Lenovo Services. That's just insulting.
• Focus on your customer. No one cares about your processes, they just want results. Call centres have slowly become the blight of companies. In a youcan'ttalktoexecutives company, a call centre should be your biggest investment, it'll be the one time your customers speaks to a human voice in your company. What message are you trying to send your customer? Go away?
• Be available. Even if you just pretend. Invite communication. It sends a strong message when you leave a brick wall to communication. It's sending the message that you either don't know or you don't care. I'm not quite sure which is worse.
• If your customer likes you... they might not tell anyone.
• If your customer doesn't like you... they will tell everyone. With blogs, facebook, twitter, digg, consumerist... the avenues and audience become endless, and that is scary if your customer doesn't like you.

This post started out when I tried to track down Chris Askew, the Senior VP of Lenovo Services. I have been having stupid amounts of trouble repairing my three thousand dollar notebook. You can read about it here. At this moment, I still can't find Chris Askew's number or email. It got me started thinking about how different firms approach communication. I wanted to explore why some are petrified of customers talking to anyone in the company earning over $4 an hour, while others jump at the opportunity.

edit: to those that came from Seth's site, this blog is tangential, Seth's was to the point... Just show you care and the above goes away, real quick.  

Flickr cred: Esthr

TCO - Total Cost of Ownership, the other TLA about spending.

I only buy something if it adds some value to my life. One concept, stalwart to my buying decisions, is considering the TCO. The Total Cost of Ownership. The cost beyond the dollar price of buying.

So what are the costs beyond the dollar price?

• Maintenance
• Health
• Time
• Mental anguish
• Mental and physical clutter
• Opportunity

Before I sound melodramatic, I'll use the example of a car. If you buy a car, you need to spend time cleaning it, you might drive instead of walking or cycling, you need to maintain and fuel it. Some people have their cars as objects of desire, and the mental anguish from being in an accident or the car being stolen can be really high (remember your first car?)

I've always loved video gaming, but I secretly suspected that as a past time, it didn't really contribute to anyone or anything. I had been looking at the Sony Playstation 3 for quite some time, and was impressed, enthralled even. I could easily afford it, but I spent a long time debating the TCO.

The TCO analysis of the Playstation 3 (you could apply this to a TV too!):

• Health. The late night, sedentary lifestyle of gaming can make you seriously unhealthy. This is against my values of living a healthy life.
• Time. If I game for a long time, it means I've chosen, consciously or otherwise, not to spend the time with my wife, my family or working on projects and my health.
• Encouraging more 'screen time,' I spend over 12 hours a day working on a PC, it's seems silly to swap to the next 'screen' after work.

Sure I could use it in moderation and still have a balanced life, but then I wouldn't be able to justify the cost per use, and therein lies the magic relationship, and the hook of deciding to own stuff. Just because you can afford it or like it, doesn't mean you should get it.

I caved. I'm only human! I ended up buying a PS3 for 50% off. I rationalised it by saying I could easily get my money back. Sure enough I started spending late nights, and long periods of time playing the PS3. The short story - I got fat. I wasted time reading game reviews and gaming websites. The cost of ownership was more than I could stomach, literally.

I sold it, made my money back (Cost Per Use = $0!) and breathed a big sigh of relief.

So what does TCO mean to you?

• Stop. Think. Before you buy something, consider the hidden, non monetary costs. Use the ten second rule.
• Use don't own. Most of us just want to get the pleasure of using something.
• Borrow or rent as an alternative to owning, especially things with lots of added ongoing costs like maintenance, repair or health costs.
• Enjoy what you do own, lots of people get worked up over repair costs or broken things. That's the price of ownership, and if you know that when you hand over your money, you're a step ahead.

* This is a follow up to the Cost Per Use post

** TLA - Three Letter Acronym. I hate acronyms, so the title is a little tongue in cheek.

Flickr cred: Kate_A

Are you a Taker or a Giver? hint: It's not about the Value Add

We tend to view success by wealth (what was taken) because it's a simple indicator. It's easy to forget what you need to give to get that wealth.

Why don't the hundreds of other mp3 players have the 80% market share of the iPod? Because Apple gave the consumers what they wanted, a small sleek portable extremely well designed and easily integrated player. Giving before taking. They didn't just create 'enough' they created something people wanted.

Ebay used to be a giver too, they supplied a great service that no one else had and people flocked to them. Now they've become a taker, and it shows in their tanking market share. I can just imagine a beady eyed MBA manager calculating the value of additional picture in your listing costing $0.10.Take without giving and your customers will punish you. If I was ebay, I'd make listing free and increase the ways people could pay.

IBM is an example of a turn around. They became a taker in the 90's thinking they could bull doze the PC market they were leading. Intel and AMD decided they could give more, and take less. IBM soon found themselves in a rut, they couldn't keep taking anymore. So what did they do? They gave. They totally changed course, and became a consulting firm. Consultant's don't get paid unless they give.

I heard a story about a local millionaire that said only two things matter in a successful business:

1. Look after your customers, and do it damn well.

2. Look after your employees, and do it even better.

Imagine the following employee:

1. John Doe only gives as much as he takes in salary.

Compare this to Jane.

1. Jane Doe does whatever is required, regardless of her title.

Who gets promoted? They guy nickel and diming and present valuing his time? Or the girl who isn't there just to do her job, she's there to do the right things.

People who take but don't give have to compete with all the other takers, the mediocre masses, the average. If you focus on giving, you're probably already selling a remarkable product or service.  You're probably also looking at your stakeholder's welfare before you even dare look at your bank account. You don't have to compete with all the takers anymore, because you're playing on a level above them.

Stop talking about 'value' and start asking the question.

Are you a taker or a giver?

flickr cred: kevinthoule

Playing at it.

It's almost instantaneous when you watch someone's eye movement, diction and body language that you know they aren't wholly committed or altogether there. We all have a finely tuned liar's meter, we suspect when someone isn't altogether there.

Gordon Ramsay (chef) loves to tell people that they are fakes or just 'playing at it.' While he's harsh, I like that phrase, a lot.

The problem with playing at it is that we are lying to ourselves about what we want to do. Instead of applying judgment and wise decision to life, it becomes about denial and playing the victim. The attitude problem of just playing at it seems to be infectious.

The opposite of playing at it, isn't working at it. It's playing. When you see people who are intense, focused and committed, they look, sound and feel different. They are authentic. They aren't just playing at it. They work hard, but they are also at play. 

Richard's been down with the flu, he hopes everyone out there with the flu is carrying on o.k. He's also in the middle of a few pretty exciting projects! Stay tuned!

flickr cred: carf