We just completed the SWG analyst event. We took the position that this wasn’t a closing of the 2005 year, rather an opportunity to open up new possibilities for next year. This will come with BIG changes in the analyst group.
It is clear that SOA and Software as a Service are big issues for us in addition to the Open Standards road we travel on at IBM. I live in partner land, but I’m going to team with WebSphere a lot to begin the new year for messaging SOA to partners and why it matters.
Other opportunities are opening up to ISV and Developer Relations that only two years ago we struggled to get any visibility on. That is a pleasant turn of events.
On the developer side, all the acronyms will play, but AJAX seems to be wanting to nose ahead right now…don’t worry LAMP’rs, PHP’rs…lots of love left in the division still for you also.
The big personnel move was the retirement of Dave Liddell, whom I’ve had the pleasure of learning from for the last 5 years. Dave understood how to deal with the executives and the analysts from a big picture, without getting caught up in the weeds. He showed me lots of ways to deal with issues that I’m grateful for.
New at the helm will be Sarita Torres. This is my second go around with Sarita, as we worked together in the PC Group. She built a first class program for a division that was getting hammered by everyone, competitors and press alike. In the end, we had one of the best analyst programs in the PC industry and learned a lot of lessons. It is true that you have to try harder being number two….only we were really about number four back then. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to working together again.
So instead of coming out of our biggest event with a year completed, we have tons to do, more for me than any other meeting. I can’t wait.
Update: Now that a lot of social media pressure has cut the lunch/poop talk down, combined with multiple Twitter platforms, it has become a powerful tool. I find myself opening Twitter as my first site now to find out what is going on. I have refined it to include those people and topics that are meaningful to me and it gets me the information I need better than almost any other platform.
I get a lot of information from blogs still that I tweet or vice-versa and can know what is going on around the world on multiple issues. Again, refinement is the key.
I define the refinement requires that I only follow what is crucial to my interests at the time. Since what I’m following changes, so does my sources of information. That is why I’m not too worried about who or how many I follow, nor who or how many follow me. Attaining numbers is far different from attaining knowledge and information.
Platforms like this along help me eliminate bias which is killing former information platforms like the network news and print media.
I follow trends. I’ve seen much about this platform recently that has caused me to think about it. I use it sparingly and don’t post that much as I’ve always maintained that no one cares that much about what I’m doing with my time.
As an Analyst Relations Best Practice, I find that it is good to know what the analyst is doing to be on familiar terms with what they are doing. Additionally, when I can’t reach them, I direct message an analyst as a back channel and it is very reliable.
I often wonder this as Twitter follows Sturgeon’s Law. If you look at the comments of this blog, it laments that many talk about lunch, flights and bowel movements.
On the plus side, he notes: “Twitter is what we call an “Enterprise 2.0″ application; not only a web application which tells the world what you’re doing, but is highly influential in the way businesses run, keeping customers and partners informed and gaining feedback on services. ”
On the negative is: “Whilst it may be a next-generation application, I still struggle to see the point it makes, or the impact it has. With the API and development opportunities, it’s certainly made an impact in developing technologies such as Adobe AIR, but besides this I fail to see why I should continue to update mine; something I haven’t done in months.”
Recently TPTB declined $500 from Facebook to buy Twitter, so I’m wondering if they know something I don’t about its value. The jury is out for me other than as a tool to reach certain people, but I know that the hunter in me instinctually says look for cover, not expose yourself.
As always it is a good read and of importance to Analyst Relations. After talking about this subject to analysts before, during and after presentations and conferences, I’ve developed my personal pet peeve list.
His example was an executive using a sales presentation for a deck which happens about 387 out of 365 days a year.
With that lead in, here is the list of issues I’ve thought about having done or been a part of close to 1000 analyst presentation decks (likely over that number).
1. Carter is right, don’t bring your sales presentation to the table, instant credibility loss.
2. If you can’t get your message delivered in 15 charts or less, you likely have clarification issues.
3. Analysts (most people) look at the number of charts and immediately judge what point they are going to listen to before they check email.
4. Send it in advance and ask what is clear and what is important to them to get to the point. If you have to get through a couple of set up charts fine, but say that in advance.
5. No chart is golden, (many) could (should) be sacrificed.
6. Discussion about strategy and technology is a much better use of time than chart after chart preaching.
7. Don’t take offense in chartsmanship, most people aren’t that good at it.
8. If the analyst wants to go off the charts, be willing to go as long as you stay on topic.
9. Use A/R to speak to the analyst before the briefing/discussion/meeting/conference to see what is the analyst goal and actually make charts to answer the issues, not pound your chest on what your end of year rating is based on.
10. Accept criticism where appropriate, the analyst is right.
11. Never fail to have a chart to say, what do you think or are we on topic, message, right course or other to let the analyst offere advice or opinion.
12. Consider using web conferencing if your audience is over 10 people.
13. Personal opinion here – I hate powerpoint, it’s been used as a crutch for too long and we were able to get our job done well prior to it’s invention. Please someone invent the next tool.
14. A presentation deck has a life. Don’t recycle charts too long. I’ve seen analyst eyes glaze over with “I’ve seen this before blaring in neon” on their face.
15. Be aware of your audience. We at IBM run more conferences than months in the year by at least double. I’ve seen the same charts at multiple conferences where I knew their were the same analysts (this is a similar comment to 14).
16. Leave time for questions at the end. Don’t look at the time and gauge the number of charts you can cram into it.
17. Give the analyst a copy if you haven’t sent it to them upfront. Sometimes there are circumstances that prevent one from sending early (the executive didn’t finish until 5 minutes before the presentation, been there and done that double digits).
18. If there are multiple executives presenting, have them compare notes prior to the briefing so they don’t conflict or aren’t redundant.
Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy my career in analyst relations, it’s just that the uncertainty of the times makes for endless opportunities to prognosticate.
Economic Downturn Cycles
This is the low hanging fruit. Depending on the product set a company has or where it is on the technology lifecyle chart, it could be doomed, about to bust, ok for now, suffer in the second wave of non-buying or could surf into the annals of profitability.
Companies are clamping down on expenses buying and new technology investment. The easist things to cut go first like travel. So count the travel companies as first victims, except that they rely on technology so the companies they buy from get a deduction or a delayed deduction in the upcoming buying cycles. I wouldn’t doom them as we are going to travel, but suffer would be appropriate.
Older technologies fall in two categories. A lot of financial institutions have tons of legacy infrastructure that has to be maintained. There is a trade off in the cost to maintain vs. the savings gained by using newer technology. This is an easy decision on the lower security issues, but where privacy and security reign, don’t count on rip and replace. The other category is replace any easy system that saves money or has broken, cut out the rest.
My datacenter experience has been that no matter what you are promised, the cost recovery is rarely there for the first years of a new technology implementation. There is too much training, running dual systems for integrity, and of course the unknown.
The second slowdown wave is where contracts need to be renewed or lack of spending holds off sales. These companies could be parts suppliers or those who have customers who aren’t buying. That will be tough to tell as the first wave of immediate non buying will blend into this wave. Earnings statements should give us an indication of this wave.
Finally, there are companies who have technology that makes sense (SaaS could be an example) where they will be in the right place at the right time and iff (iff is if and only if for you JCL and OCL types) you can show value, save money or help a company make money. Everyone is watching their tails and hedging their bets so this is the sweet spot.
I thought of one last class, those companies who can manage to hang on long enough for the economy to turn around, but how many IBM’s, Microsoft’s, Google and Apples are there? This is a good question for Yahoo to answer.
Analyst or Meteorologist
Everyone cracks the joke that being a Weathernan person is a great job as you can be paid even if you are wrong half the time (jokes here range from William Ayers to global warming).
This is where a good analyst earns their mettle. How to forecast what is reality for which industry. Eventually, except for examples like unstopping drains, there is IT involved so it gets back to our industry.
Predicting is next to impossible, advising and reporting are key elements of the analyst value to us right now.
WHY
There is a bigger chance to be wrong then right here, so why would I like to be an analyst on this one? The challenge of finding out the answer is intruiging. It is the thrill of the hunt, not the kill. The endless amount of machinations of companies succeeding, treading water or drowning will happen at a rapid rate.
We’ll get to see who and what groups are what they say they are, the pundits. No pressure right?
As I’ve noted before, I’ve worked almost all sides of this. I’ve been in PR, in AR, I’ve been the content expert/spokesperson, the quiet informer (somehow deep throat just seems wrong) and I’ve been the writer.
This week, I’ve been at a customer conference where we have analysts giving supporting presentations on SaaS and the Cloud. Most are the typical IT analysts, but there is one from a consulting group (nameless except that Lou Gerstner worked for them before IBM).
I had private conversations with the analysts at the event and we couldn’t wait to talk about what we are doing in 2009 and how everything from the credit crunch to IBM relationships are affecting what and how we are doing.
THE PRESS
Conversely, there were press at the same event only one day (they didn’t really care about the event, just the story) and we had to sequester them for interviews and likely spent more time trying not to say something wrong or reveal more than what our goals were. In truth, the conversations we had with the analysts would have been above the technical level of most reporters, but that is why we tell the analysts. They help explain it to the reporters.
What a difference.
So knowing your constituency really matters. I’ve heard horror stories about when things got printed in the press that shouldn’t have been written. I almost got into that doghouse once, saved only by the fact that the actual mistake was committed by an incompetent PR manager who works at the company we sold the PC division to.
WHY I LIKE ANALYSTS MORE
It’s because of the depth and transparency of the conversation. Sure we get called to the floor more and are told far more often that we are wrong, off base, off message, off color, but when we go public, our messages rarely fail to improve.
The depth and breadth of the conversation goes from technology to economics to social implications. All of this is very enjoyable and intellectually stimulating.
I’ve stated before that technology is sucking more and more out of our personal lives. We check email, crackberry’s, internet, blogs, twitter too much instead of life.
Finally, work-related stress, while motivating in manageable doses, can grind down your health over time. Undue stress can lower your immune defenses, increase the risk of heart disease and bring on anxiety, depression and difficulty sleeping, according to the Mayo Clinic.
ENOUGH!!!! TURN THE FREAKING COMPUTER OFF! PUT THE STUPID BLACKBERRY AND IPHONE DOWN!
IT workers, particularly those that are in IT service delivery or are in operational/support roles are constantly trying to meet employer and customer demands. We’re tied to email and instant messaging, and not just on our computers — we’re now permanently attached to our Blackberries and iPhones and other smart devices. We’re expected to be available at all times, and to be responsive, no matter where we are or what time of day it is……our synapses are firing like a V-12 Ferrari.
This is something to think about. Work smarter, not harder or more. Employees – you’ll be more productive, Managers – you’ll get more out of your employees…
Parents – shut down the video games and have a conversation with your kids.
I haven’t blogged much lately, because everything that I want to say, Carter has covered, or has said better than me.
He points out the obvious errors of my ways though with these facts.
Question: I would read vendor AR blogs if they had relevant, useful, timely information (pick one)
20% – Yes, regularly
31% – Yes, occasionally
26% – Yes, episodically related to major news or announcement coverage
5% – No, because I do not read blogs
8% – No, because I do not have time
9% – No, because most vendor blogs are a waste of time
1% – Undecided
I’ve been reluctant to blog on category 3 as I don’t want to be the site for here’s the latest IBM announcement, you can go to IBM.com to see that.
The key is relatively useful and timely. The jury is out as to whether I’ve been useful, but timely is a very fine line for me. Here’s why:
Timely for me is way before the news, that’s when I want to get to the analysts. It shows the trust and the very personal relationship we have to hash out our future prodcts, pricing and plans. That is diametrically opposed to how to blog, being transparent about what you are doing.
So what’s a mother to do? I have found that I’ve been able to reach analysts via the blog, twitter, social media back channel for speaking to them. Heck, I’ve had analysts say to me that they didn’t want to wind up in my blog for me trashing their competition for timeliness. So it’s how you use it that counts. I’m use social media as an analyst relations tool and find it an advantage over my competition who don’t use it or use it out of etiquette.
I can’t argue the points above though. Carter as usual is right on. But then I break all the rules of good blogging anyway like staying on subject and consistency, so there you go.
IBM has not tackled SaaS the traditional way (CRM/ERP…BPO), nor has it (yet) offered a PaaS solution. Instead, we’ve enabled partners onto our platform, rolled out an appliance called the Blue Business Platform, offered some SaaS solutionsin the non traditional (CRM/ERP) space from some of our aquisitions like Sametime Unyte. Further, we have hosted virtually every SaaS vendor or application through our Services group….yes, even the market leaders we all know by name.
While I’ve personally been on over 100 analyst briefings for our SaaS offerings, it’s time to get to the customers and partners. We will be holding a SaaS event named Accelerating Business Value on October 15/16 in NY. Our story has been good and virtually every analyst we’ve spoken to has raved about our pricing structure, but now it’s put up or shut up in front of the buying audience.
Here is the tagline for the event:
Leverage Emerging Delivery Models to Accelerate Business Value – Bringing Line of Business Executives and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) Together.
The schedule is as follows:On Day One, “ISV Day” – Software vendors will
Hear about IBM’s strategy for Blue Business Platform (BBP) and how they can engage as an IBM business partner
Ascertain best practices from analysts and successful SaaS ISVs. Learn how to leverage IBM’s SaaS Partner program
Discover how to grow their SaaS business by adding Business Intelligence and Collaborative capabilities
Network with IBM executives and other IBM business partners
On Day Two, “Customer Day” – Line of business executives and IT decision makers will
Learn how alternative IT delivery models can radically simplify the deployment of IT solutions
Gain insights from CIOs, analysts and IBM partners who have already successfully integrated these new delivery models
See demonstrations of relevant Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions from IBM SaaS partners
Network with peer executives and subject matter experts
It’s very interesting when you put yourself out there to be judged. It was easy with the analysts as our story has been solid. But this is going to be like asking the best looking girl out for a first date. We’re putting our offering out there and inviting the top customers and partners to dance.
My main assignment for the event was technology which resulted in the ETS. It was the opportunity to show new technology from each of our area’s and the Lab’s and combine it with an opportunity to interact. Early reviews from the analysts say it was a great success, especially because we had an open bar during the event.
My favorite demo was the Second Life IBM 3D web experience shown here to Mary Taylor by Katharine Frase. This was just way cool. I’m going to get into this as there is just too much opportunity. Not that the other demo’s weren’t great, as they were, but I got caught up in this.
Oh BTW, it was great to see many of my analyst friends and catch up. I even got an autographed version of SOA for Dummies…..more on that next week.
Steve Graham and Chris Wong was one of the 1:1 briefings I attended. I started to notice a theme with the analysts on the subject of Software as a Service which dominated the 1:1’s I was at. We need to define what the SaaS framework is going to be and have the competition design their work to fit into the framework. If we’re late, we have to fit into someone else’s. So we’ll either be the skeleton or the skin.
I promise that SaaS will be a big issue for us in the upcoming few months and we’ll have much to say.
For now, it was Chris jumping into the foray of IDR analyst briefings and he held his own. My job just keeps getting better getting to work on this type of strategy planning and getting good execs to work with.
Since I’m in ISV and Developer Relations, I attended the Ecosystem Breakout hosted by Buell Duncan and Kristof Kloeckner. When I think back on all the execs I’ve supported, Buell has to be one of the best. He understands the value of analysts, how to speak with them and not at them and he knows his area WELL.
Having the Head of Strategy supporting the story by explaining how and why the ecosystem is important to IBM is just frosting on the cake.
Needless to say, it went well and the partner message that we work with them instead of competing with them continues to resonate.
It looks like I’m photo blogging my way through this event. Here is Buell Duncan, Judith Hurwitz and Tom Kucharvy of Ovum talking about Software as a Service.
Here is Al Zollar, jet lag champion and others discussing very interesting subjects I’m sure.
I’m sure you’ll hear about what the analyst’s say about our meeting, but the prep was a job in itself. Here’s a shot of the prep meeting where Catherine Manley and Sarita Torres laid out the meeting for everyone. I ran this meeting 2 years ago, and it’s a job by itself let alone your regular job in analyst relations.
Rod Smith and Gary Barnett taped a video podcast for Web 2.0 to be published in a series that Amy Loomis is putting together…more on that later.
All this and we haven’t even started the main event.
After months of preparation, we’re ready for the big event. Here are the ladies getting everything ready for the IBM and the analyst teams. Kudos go to Monica Wells Grace and Tom Morrissey who stayed up until 3 am getting the schedules ready, and to the entire resource team without whom the event wouldn’t run.
Today begins the “big show” with all the IBM SWG GM’s who will cover their area’s and Steve Mills who is the host of the event.
I wish everyone good luck and Godspeed John Glenn.
Once again, I’m satirically inspired. This post is brought to you by a walk on a beautiful beach in Florida, in a winter coat. These guys were the only other beach walkers besides us. We were hoping for a Jimmy Buffet oriented post like “The weather is here, I wish you were Beautiful“…but alas, not this year as the weather didn’t cooperate.
We’ll make up for it with a huge family gathering and shrimp boil today to catch up on everything, which is always a pleasure as was Thanksgiving with my Mom yesterday.
And next week I’ll be in the other summer wonderland of Stamford Connecticut for the SWG analyst briefing we’ve put so much blood, sweat and tears into. At least it’s hunting and striper season when I get home.
We came to Florida for Thanksgiving to see the family and get away from the cold weather at home, only to find that it snowed in November in Florida….go figure. I thought maybe big Al paid a visit to discuss the issue.
I’m off to see the family for the rest of the week for the holiday, then will be at the SWG analyst event the following week. I’ll see many of you there.
MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.
MAY YOUR POTATOES ‘N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP,
MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS,
MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,
MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER
STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS.
Once again, in a show of misunderstanding about the meaning of Open, and a further misunderstanding about the where the future of license model vs. the implications of SaaS and where the industry is heading, the 8000 lb gorilla opens mouth and inserts body parts.
Greedy, Greedy, Greedy… or maybe Control, Control, Control
This will involve a different way of thinking, mostly because blogging to be effective gives up control, which causes fear and uncertainty in the realm of traditional communications. It’s going to be about managing the process of the message coming to and from communities rather than the corporate marketing machine. It’s also going to be about how to communicate and integrate with the various blogging communities.
These communities (ok for IBM in this case) include the technically inclined group such as IT analysts, the Investor and Investor Relations crowd, IBM watchers from the outside, and making sure that it doesn’t become a part of the spin machine from the inside. Yes, PR has a place in the blogosphere, but one must be careful not to use it as a place to post a press release. So the ability to work with the communities on behalf of the company while respecting the social rules is imperative to this cause.
We have some very technically capable bloggers, some that are more brand specific, and well respected company leaders, so there is no shortage of IBM bloggers, but other than developerWorks, we haven’t coordinated as much as evolved. We’re blogging, podcasting, delivering web 2.0 tools, but I sense there is more work to do.
Having started blogging for Analyst Relations at IBM, and over seeing it’s initial growth, being made lead by John Mihalec, I was able to develop the program for IBM in it’s infancy.
So the deal will be how to speak to bloggers as bloggers, and deal with them on this basis, even if they have a job title of analyst or something else. I also sense that it is going to morph from just blogger relations to social relations and deal with social computing, web 2.0 at the tools, technology and social levels, and much more.
It will be interesting to watch the evolution. Stay tuned.
My last moving detail was to bring over the fish tank, without killing any fish. This required having them be in a bucket of water for the trip between old and new house. I carefully placed it next to me to avoid any issues, and anticipating the call asking when I’d get home, I got out my cell phone.
I’m sure you can figure out the rest…one quick stop, and cell phone goes for a swim with the fish. Since there was crummy coverage where I live, I switched from Nextel to Sprint to finish out my contract. But I had the Jack Bauer, season 5/Habib Marwan season 4 special which is now a paperweight. Instead, I have a used basic phone to get me to the end of my contract without the extra charges they kill you with.
This is the second phone to take a swim for me, the other went into the bilge in my boat. It didn’t survive either. My son says they need to invent a phone that’s waterproof and Dadproof.
When you think of corporate culture or corporations, it’s hard not to mention IBM in that sentence. One doesn’t think usually think of having a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company as a facebook/myspace junkie, which ours is not, but I’m very pleased to find him with his own Avatar and living in Second Life which is well publicized in Business Week.
There is a range of CEO types from Corporate stiff to major geek (name your startup here) and a million and one flavors in between. I’ve been on record saying how good a job I thought Lou Gerstner did (an 18 billion dollar turnaround is nothing to sneeze at) and Sam is doing an equally good (or better) job, albeit different given the hand he was dealt being different than Lou’s.
What’s great about this is that he can cross over boundaries to understand Second Life and actually be in a virtual world is unknown to CEO’s in his class. How great is that. I think of the virtual reality/video games lifestyle as a generationally younger (probably hipper than me) characteristic, yet the head of a 90 Billion dollar global enterprise can understand and participate. One man’s opinion here, but I always saw how much he interacts with our customers to understand and work with them, and this to me is further proof he’s not an ivory tower hermit like some CEO’s.
I’ll still bet my son can beat him in From Dirt to Daytona, or Star Wars, Empire at War, but Sam could understand and talk to him (as he does customers – the big key here) about it with the fluidity he can with Services or System Z….
Pretty grown up for a 5 year old. Here are some details that describe it’s status:
Lotus Sametime 7.5, WebSphere Portal 6.0, and the upcoming IBM Lotus Notes “Hannover” release are all based on the Eclipse open source framework, helping to nurture a rich ecosystem of partners around these offerings.
Just last week Lotus announced Expeditor, a development platform for creating Eclipse-based and Web 2.0 applications that enables enterprises to integrate existing and new applications and deliver a personalized user experience across a range of devices.
The Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) is a resource for guidance on software development stemming from IBM’s contribution of portions of the Rational Unified Process to the Eclipse Foundation. It comes as no surprise that the EPF has emerged as a widely trusted source for developers worldwide, with thousands of downloads recorded since the first EPF assets became available in February 2006.
IBM this year contributed software to both Eclipse and Mozilla Corp. that allows developers to work with and debug Ajax applications.
Higgins, another new Eclipse project this year, is the code base upon which IBM, Novell and others will build commercial ID management software so that it can integrate and interoperate within organizations.
In May, the Eclipse Modeling Project was formed to focus on the evolution and promotion of model-based development. More recently, IBM partnered with Cisco, Intel and others to propose the COSMOS project, which aims to provide an extensible, standards-based platform upon which software developers can create specialized, differentiated and inter-operable offerings of tools for system management.
IBM, along with other storage industry players including Brocade, Cisco, CA, Emulex, Engenio, Fujitsu, McDATA, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems, announced the Aperi Project in October 2005 to promote the simplified management of storage infrastructures through an open source community. The mission of the Aperi project is to create a standards-based, open source storage management framework and to cultivate an open source community and ecosystem for complementary products, capabilities, and services around the framework.
I’m intrigued by a blog that James Governer wrote on Blogger Relations which he described as active tracking of blogs to identify and foster relations with influencers, traditional or not.
When I consider it for IBM (disclaimer, I am not the person who gets to decide this), the first question after what it is, is where does it sit (ok, the usual like mission, action, direction are assumed decided….defer to James here). We have dedicated disciplines at IBM for Public Relations, Analyst Relations, Internal, Investor, Community and so on.
Unless you are at my blog for the first time, you know I sit in analyst relations. AR has done more with the blogs than any of the other external communications functions. This is due to the audience we deal with, desire to move this forward by John Mihalec, VP of IBM analyst relations to name a few.
So one would think that it belongs in AR, but the Internal and Corporate folks (remember when IBM introduced its blogging strategy – Corp. Communications did it and has an extensive function here). So who’s to say? I’d seek advice here. If it is to attain equality to the other communications disciplines, it should be its own function. If we are to stay where the focus is right now, it falls under A/R.
James points out that any good developer relations function has to have a good blogging capability. Interestingly enough, I was in IBM developerWorks when we started the first IBM external blog site. So maybe it sits in development, it would depend on the mission once again. I’d say this one is doubtful as there are too many issues covered by IBM bloggers at this point.
We put up blogging at developerWorks as IBM is too large to notice the minutia, and the communications, which is led by the PR flaks in Armonk who can’t see past the major publications. This allowed us to put the site and develop such a following that dW was the defacto site for blogging for a long time as the nincompoops in corporate PR can’t get it together to understand what blogging really is.
I saw this trend far in advance of those enlightened New Yorkers. They were still stuck in the land of print (and online print) and never saw this coming and dW was put up right under their noses. It was sand in their gears that they couldn’t control everything and we produced vital messaging and forced them to work on our platform because of their moribund thinking.
IBM is a different animal as we are sometimes viewed as an octopus…8 arms in every direction, so anything we do usually has consequences in area’s that other companies do not even have products. SAP and Oracle have no hardware or Server divisions. Others don’t have dedicated Finance divisions, and still others have no services.
Typically, on issues such as this, we start slow and get our feet wet, then get into the pool….our entries have been somewhere between Greg Louganis and a cannonball so no telling.
I’ll end by quoting James as he writes it well…”How should corporate communications respond? In a word flexibly.” (see the comments earlier about the inflexibility of Corporate Communications).
Moving, on top of multiple analyst reports, on top of being on the planning team for the SWG analyst event, on top of hunting season starts Saturday, on top of my regular job…..has made me an inconsistent blogger, a blogging sin I know.
The good news is I’m finally coming up for air, and I can get back to life. Although moving in is a 6 month ordeal, most of the stuff is out of boxes (over 200) except of course the specific item I need at the moment which is either unpacked or put somewhere I don’t know and can’t find it.
The after summer onslaught of work was twice as much as last year. I ask others and it appears to be the same, there is more to do to just to hold your ground, then more on top to stay ahead.
The SWG analyst event is changing this year for us. More concentration on personal meetings and less main tent combined with more exposure to our offerings has landed me as the lead of the technology for the event. If you had one product, you’d have the demo, the messaging, the logistics, etc. But at IBM, we have one of everything, so keeping things straight tangles the mind by itself. Oh yeah, we have the SMB analyst event next week, so double your fun.
Throw in a couple of analyst reports that your group is microscoped on and I’ve got more on my plate than I have time for….enough kvetching for now.
On the good side, I’m taking my son on his first hunt this weekend, the opening day of deer season. We took the hunter safety class together and found that this group is one of the most ethical, safety and environmentally conscious oriented groups I’ve seen. All the actions are about preserving what we have and passing it on. What was very interesting was how they actually put it into action and not just talked about it. Keeping the herd and the landscape healthy was a major concern. If you don’t take care of the land, there is nothing in the future. Keeping the herd population managed makes for a healthier and stronger offspring. They even have a program to provide meat for the poor and the unsheltered.
Anyway, he’s amped about it as he’s already a good fisherman and he’s increasing his outdoor skills…
Next week is back to work and heads down to stay ahead, and better blogging.
Note: I had a great conversation with Ed Brill about using Notes as your blogging platform…type offline and replicate..I may go there
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I’m setting up an office in my den and I’m thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name’s Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don’t own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name’s Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don’t know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let’s just say I’m sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue “W”.
COSTELLO: I’m going to click your blue “w” if you don’t start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That’s right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What’s bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn’t it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
Usually, I wouldn’t view being in second place as something to brag about, but let me develop the thought.
The first point to this is that IBM is not a Software Company. Although we have a good Software business, we are about solving customer problems with a myriad of solutions. Unfortunately, upwards of 80% is legacy solutions that only works on an IBM mainframe. That is the big lie not told. I’m not looking to debate semantics here, we are a technology company, leader in Innovation, IT player, call it what you want here. I will say that customers have driven our business since Watson built it.
Next point, there was a long time that IBM was the largest SW company, but that was when we had proprietary solutions such as SNA and based a lot of revenue on maintenance. What is interesting here is that the current leader is following the same path towards license based, proprietary offering. I’ve been on record that Microsoft is going down a similar path as IBM in earlier years and the market/customers will ultimately rule or change the rules (name your open std or platform here). They will then have to re-invent themselves as IBM has done a number of times. Further, Software as a Service and the related SOA capability will likely take us away from the packaged application tradition….speculation here on my part.
Nuther point, acquisitions are in vogue, and Oracle bought their way to their postion. IBM has made numerous acquisitions also, but they were based on a different model. I don’t want to debate this issue in this blog, but going back to a Lou Gerstner quote, “you make acquisitions to position yourself for the next wave of growth and to protect yourself from economic fluctuations”. That is a lot of what is behind the IBM strategy (my opinion only here) vs. what seems to be happening at Oracle who are buying marketshare (again, my opinion only). Many of their acquisitions are neither technically nor customer related to their core business. I realize you could argue this from a grand vision, but that is for greater minds or richer lawyers to do (or analysts).
So being number 2 isn’t really that bad. In fact, when you are dealing in the multi-billions, and when software is only a piece of your overall business (IBM has services, hardware and financing for those that didn’t notice), it’s a pretty good number. Given my statements on Microsoft’s issues, either IBM or Oracle (or SAP or some other) may be number one in the future. I wonder if you added up all the open everything out there if that was really #1?
IBM has entered into litigation with Amazon over violation of Patents. Here are the facts:
1. Some legal cases are complicated — but this one is very simple. It’s about IBM not being compensated for the use of its R&D. IBM spends about $6 billion on R&D each year, and we’ve had more U.S. patents than any other company in the world for each of the past 13 years. Last year IBM was granted nearly 3,000 patents for its inventions and innovations.
2. IBM has tried more than a dozen times since 2002 to get Amazon.com to pay for using these patents. Amazon.com has refused every time.
3. IBM has been a leader in sharing intellectual property in ways that foster collaborative innovation. But a key tenet of IBM’s IP policy is “mutual respect for intellectual property rights.” Other companies license and use these very same patents, and IBM is entitled to protect its inventions.
4. We would have preferred to deal with this without litigation… it’s not what we do. In fact, many companies have licensed these high-quality patents from IBM, as well as other patents, in “field of use” patent licenses. Those companies value the quality and innovation of these inventions. To not enforce our patent rights would be a discredit to those who have fairly and lawfully taken these licenses.
5. We did what we had to do to protect IBM’s interests. (yes it’s rhetorical, but facts are facts)
My personal view is that in drawn out cases, the only winners are the lawyers who bill. This will be complicated as IP law is a specialty that few are experts in. It appears from the early facts that IBM has a good case, as it also has had with SCO.
I’ve been a part of 2 separate IP cross licensing issues that started as patent infringements, once with a software company in Redmond and once with Cisco. What started out not on the right foot ended up as a positive for both companies so I know that IBM tries very hard to work these out if both parties will cooperate. This leads me to think that Amazon is not trying very hard, except to not cooperate.
These usually drag out over years and are not fun nor pretty nor are they a PR dream. I wouldn’t keep any hopes up for a fast resolution. I do know that having worked with the IP lawyers at IBM, they are some of the most competent and well versed groups you will find, so don’t look for any unturned stones on this one.
I’m sure there will be plenty of updates to follow, but if I had to pick sides, I’d like to be on the IBM version of this one. I’m sure that Amazon has a big team of lawyers also, but ultimately it has to be settled, in front of a judge, or by working together. There are too many instances of IBM trying to work these out…Amazon, are you listening?
Well, I finally made it. We’re swimming in a sea of boxes of the stuff we’ve collected for decades, despite trying desperately to weed out any unnecessary items for months prior to the move.
It looks like it will take months to fully get moved in. When you’ve moved multiple times and owned multiple houses, you just seem to collect stuff.
I’ll post some before and after pictures just to get a feel for it, but due to DSL (all I can get in the country) downtime, I haven’t been online much. Stay tuned.
Lastly, for the testosterone fix, I’m getting a John Deere Tractor on Thursday, complete with front end loader, 62 inch mower and rotary cutter (bush hog) and tiller.
Podcast: alphaWorks devotee segments with Bob Schloss, John Feller, Chieko Asakawa, Marshall Schor
Four interviews with software architects whose applications and teams have benefited through alphaWorks
There are times that it is good to clear your head, just so you can focus. I rarely get to watch TV anymore (not that it clears my head, but it does keep me from obsessing about work), but I’m a fan of 24. So here is the link to season six of 24.
Most disapointing to me is that the whole business of the Chinese capturing and interrogating, torturing, umm politely questioning Jack will not be explored. Way to wimp out.
I like this show because like life, there are good guys and bad guys, and we have to deal with situations that confront us.
Microsoft today sets a new record for 26 patches, many for security. I’m for getting my system working and secure, but the installation kills my productivity. How do you make something so faulty? (that’s my pointer to screw ups).
It’s not giving me a whole lot of confidence that my system will function right either. Why can’t we have something that works? Or better, let’s have an OS that hackers don’t find so easy to mess with, or find out why they hate the company that produces it so much they want to hack it. My choice at work is Windoze, I’m stuck with this at work. Home is going to be different if this keeps up.
Powerbooks are looking pretty good to my right now.
Today’s music themed blog brought to you by Kenny Loggins is about the explosion that happened next to my house last night. Fortunately, we grabbed kids, dog, sleeping bags and high tailed it out of dodge (actually in a Dodge Truck).
The story says that 17,000 had to evacuate Apex, my hometown…and 4 of them included my family. Here’s what it looked like last night.
Here is a map of where the explosion took place. If you look just above ten-ten road and US 1, you’ll find hillsford lane, where I used to? live. so the net is it happend about a half a mile from my house. As I type this from another town, I have no idea whether my house is ok or when I can go home, but the net is my family and I are ok, thanks to my neighbor Perry who woke us up after midnight.
So I have very limited access to anything, in fact I’m blogging from an empty room right now where I’ll be for who knows how long.But I’m Alright……….
While it was a tough test consisting of many Kata’s, weapons Kata’s, many self defense sets, line drill, sparring and teaching requirements, the best part about it was that my Mom, Sister and Brother-in-law took the time to come to the promotion. I usually only practice with other karate students and keep everything in the dojo (where it belongs), but I was able to share a side of me that they hadn’t seen before.
As with all my bloggerviews, I try to talk to interesting people. Up until now, they were from IBM, but I ventured outside for this one as it goes back to my roots. Although we grew up in towns not very far apart in Central Florida, Gina and I met at Core International in Boca Raton, which Gina describes below. We were both young and worked together with some other talented folks who have gone on to many tech companies.
She has gone on to a fantastic career at Ziff Davis, IDG, ABC, MSNBC, CNBC, SF Chronicle, and was the youngest Female CEO of a tech company. Just last week, she released iWoz, the story of Steve Wozniak, inventor of the Apple Computer which she discusses. In one week, it shot to number 20 on Amazon and is still climbing. I recommend that you buy a copy and enjoy both the story and her talent. For more information and updates, check out her blog at http://ginasmith.typepad.com.
Gina was gracious enough to grant this interview and while we covered the questions, we caught up on life since CORE, friends and family and life’s experiences. She has always been down to earth and I’m proud to call her a friend.
Describe your life travel from a hometown girl from Ormond Beach to be a famous Good Morning America (GMA) personality, CEO, and Author?
I grew up in Ormond Beach, FL. Not far from where you grew up in Winter Park, John! I used to sit on the beach as a kid and squint, pretending the hotels were high-rises and that the sand was snow. My dream was to grow up and live in work in a major city like New York, Boston or San Francisco. I wanted out and up. And I’ve been lucky enough to live in all of those places!
How did it happen? Long story, but here’s the gist. Remember how I was working with you at CORE International as a tech writer making 14K a year? Thanks a lot for that great salary. Anyway, one day I wrote a press release and the tech journal PC Week ran almost without a change. I wrote a letter to the editor (on peacock blue paper — I was 23!) and enclosed copies of my press release and the article, saying they should hire me if they wanted a journalist who understood technology. To my total surprise they did hire me about a year later, and I covered the Microsoft beat at PC Week in Boston from 8/8/88 to 1993. (author – here is the actual story from my clipbook)
After that, I just worked non-stop. I covered hardware for PC/Computing in San Francisco, started a magazine for IDG called E2 (which in turn started the tradeshow E3), did a radio show with Leo Laporte (On Computers), wrote a column called Inside Silicon Valley for the SF Chronicle for about a dozen years, a bunch of things. Constant working! Then, one day, a producer asked me to come on a show then called Macneil Lehrer to debate Steve Ballmer about Windows 95, which was about to come out. I argued that Microsoft was not pointing out to people that their 1 MB PCs were not going to be able to run it, that they would need new apps and so on. A talent scout at ABC in New York saw it, and I ended up on Good Morning America, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and Nightline for the next five years.
When did you know you had a talent for being in the media?
When the talent scout called me! : ) But I’ve always been a ham. And after talking tech to live callers on the radio about technology for so many years, I felt very comfortable with the subject when people like Diane Sawyer and Peter Jennings were throwing me softballs.
What were some of your experiences on GMA?
In the green room, where the celebrities wait before going on, I met such an amazing variety of people. I was able to ask the OJ Simpson trial jurors what they were thinking when they acquitted him. I met Milton Berle and told him a joke he laughed at. (Two atoms are walking down the street. One says, uh, oh, I think I lost an electron. The other says, are you sure? The first, says, I’m positive!) I was privileged to meet Harry Belafonte, whom my mother followed around for a bit as kind of a groupie in the 50s. And he remembered her! I met Bill Clinton, who was so impressive, so articulate and so much imposing and better looking in person than he was on TV. For Nightline, I had the amazing experience of working with Ted Koppel and his incredible producers. What they were doing over there was true broadcasting art. The night that show went off the air, something in journalism died.
What technology stories did you break that you felt were important?
I broke the first story on Windows 3.0 at PC Week, and also the first story about PM Lite (Presentation Manager Lite), which IBM was secretly producing to compete with Windows after Microsoft switched horses on them and started developing its apps for Windows instead of OS/2. I broke the first story about Pixar for the Chronicle. At ABC, I broke the story about those kids who committed suicide in Southern California, thinking they were going to reunite on a spaceship. I was the first to find the website they left. I broke lots of stories. It kind of became my specialty, to get THE story first.
Talk about your time as the youngest female CEO in the Tech industry.
It was tough. I was 33. Larry Ellison, whom I’d interviewed a few times, called me out of the blue and asked me to meet. When I arrived, he offered me the job as co-founder, CEO and president of his second business to build network computers (NCs). I said, “Why me?” He said of all the coverage he’d read on his network computer idea, I was the only one who seemed to understand it. He was right about that – I thought thin clients were the future and I still believe that. Anyway, he gave me a fat check and I restarted the company and renamed it NIC (New Internet Computer Company). We sold lots of computers and broke even – we never lost money – but though the idea was prescient, we were way too early. Lots of fellow journalists took potshots at me – assuming I was either a bitch or involved with Larry – but that is how it goes with women in power, I think. My husband was really hurt about it, but whatever. I used to tell people: If I were involved with (the then richest) man in the world, why would I be putting in 16 hour days? Ha! But in the end, it was the experience of a lifetime. I learned Mandarin (well, business Mandarin), traveled extensively in Asia for contract negotiations, managed a team of 70 people. And these were the brightest and nicest people you’ll ever meet. The NIC team was like no other. But when NIC went down at the dot com crash, an era was over me. That’s when I had my baby – Eric is now 3 – and I started once again doing both what I used to do and what I think I was born to do…. Write.
I finished The Genomics Age – a book that explains DNA sciences in plain English for business people – before Eric was one. That was my fourth book. My fifth is out now! It is the co-written autobiography of Steve Wozniak, iWOZ. (WW Norton 2006)
Where do you get your ideas for books?
When I am interested in something and I go to a bookstore and there are few or no books on the subject, I pitch a book. That’s how The Genomics Age happened. It is selling all over the world now.
You just completed the book iWoz. Talk about that book and Woz himself?
Steve Wozniak is unquestionably among the greatest living inventors today. He invented the personal computer, which so few people know. He was the first to combine a keyboard and screen with a computer – that’s the modern paradigm. To write the book, I met with him 54 times and interviewed him. Then, I took printed transcripts and used his words – he is a hilarious and plain-spoken guy – and wrote the book in his voice exactly. Some of his stories are just priceless. Especially the ones involving the early days with him and Steve Jobs building Blue Boxes, devices to make free phone calls. Also, the book talks about why Steve believes IBM overtook Apple with its IBM PC. Steve thinks the fault lied with the faulty Apple III, which was designed by committee.
What’s your next project?
You can see my series, Tech Tour, right now at www.techtour.msnbc.com. We are going city to city show-casing inventions. My next book is tentatively titled Five Threats to Global Civilization, but I am taking a bit of a break before starting that. I am also doing lots of work with Link TV, a satellite channel, on American Ramadan and other Arab-related issues. Most people don’t know this, but I am a major ethnic mix. My mother was half Muslim, my father was half Jewish and I was raised Catholic. So covering Islamic issues and other topics outside of science and technology is a real treat for me.
I received a comment from ARonaut (see below) regarding whether our new tactic of putting analysts with our partners without us being in the room to monitor what was said. Since not everyone read comments on blogs, I decided to blog it instead.
Here is a list of comments from both the partners and analysts:
“excellent opportunity to speak with analysts” & “best part was partner one on ones”
“was excellent on all counts, I like the transparency – Very important!”
“this was probably one of the most high value initiatives of our IBM relationship so far”
“more time in each session”
“great one on one format; good opportunity for candid conversations”
I knew going in that there would be sticky subjects, which there were as there always is with analysts… like how big IBM is and how easy/hard it is to work with us on some things, what is the best model for SaaS, and others. That just made it real for everyone. We wouldn’t have been sincere if everyone was a shill for us and there weren’t any warts. So it worked because we talked real life experiences.
So net-net, it is a good model and we will use it again as it’s a forum for the open exchange of ideas and issues.
I’m live blogging from an analyst event in Waltham which includes partners. We are using a different tactic which allows the analysts to have 1:1’s with the partners behind closed doors, without us being there. Our premise is, that if our programs are good enough, we should be able to leave them alone and the programs and partners will stand up for what they are. This is working.
What is not working is 2 hours before the end of the day before the event (yesterday) 2 analysts couldn’t make it for real reasons, a funeral and some legal issues that needed addressing. This left moi holding the bag trying to scramble. As luck would have it, we were able to ask some local analysts to fill in at the last minute (thanks Anne Thomas Manes) and it went off without a hitch.
I’ve never had this happen before. Sure one here or there can’t make it or just doesn’t show, but you usually know well in advance. Since we solved it, I’ll point to my manager who not only helped out and my co-worker Amanda Kingsbury. Someone told me anyone can do good when things are going good. It’s how you perform when the chips are down that makes you worth your salt.
“Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose.”
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
“Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”
“I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.”
“The taxpayer: That’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t take the civil service exam.”
“Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
“If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
“I’ve laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it’s in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.”
“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”
“No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”
In an effort to keep our A/R team in Software Group as up to date as possible, we did another education call, this time on podcasting. We were joined by Steve O’Grady and Cote of Redmonk who presented on the subject, and members of our own communications team who do some excellent podcasts.
Besides having the education, we’re moving on to how we can use this in the A/R discipline. Among the usages are announcements, standards discussions and other related events where it can be either educational or directional. It becomes a piece of the informational package around a technology, standards or announcement info that can be downloaded.
We currently have a series that covers some analysts that we’ve done podcasts with on our Analyst Inputs and Outtakes, and hopefully, the creative minds in our a/r group will come up with more creative ways to use this and the other components of Social Computing. So far we’re blogging, podcasting, have a wiki and are part of the greater IBM social networking programs.
Aye maties, it be that time o’ year again, arrrrr. Talk like a pirate day. For you sorry landlubbers, here’s yer video ta learn the proper way to speak.
Time’s takin it’s tole on modern day pirates. The only vessel we’re a sailin’ is a desk. Arrr, the only booty to be raided and pillaged is the supplies treasure chest. Sixteen men an’ a copier mess — yo, ho, ho and a bottle of toner doesn’t stir the scuppers like ye ole days when there were dubloons to fight for.
Things not to do, let yer cell phone or any other treasure fall to the bottom of Davy Jones Locker in the head. Know whether the relief room is on the port or starboard, lest ye risk an embarrasin’ encounter. In a long meeting, don’t be the scurvy who floated the air mead….Save that for the poop deck. Get caught and ye walk the plank.
Avast! A Team Builders meeting off our schedule’s port bow! Scuttle yer productivity, mateys, and prepare to be bored-ed! To arms, me lads! The spoils of the snack machine shall be ours, to each in a fortieth share!Arrrr Scalywags, here’s some links to other pirate logs for tlpd.
Normally, I would have put this in the comment section, but it was an obscure discovery that I thought few would know and many might want to know.
I recently did a bloggerview with David Hill. In the course of the discussion, the thinklight came up. It turns on by pressing the function key (left bottom key) and the PgUp key (upper right key). A very relevant comment came up that it would be good to not have to use two hands to turn on the light. I saw this as a handicap issue for some, but it was pointed out that holding coffee (or a beer for some of you) in one hand makes it also un-accessible.
I sent the note to David as a design issue, and the following came back from one of his team members from the design center. I’ve used PC’s now for 26 years and didn’t know this:
Fn key lock function
The Fn key lock function gives the same effect as pressing and holding the Fn key and then pressing a function key. Start the ThinkPad Configuration Program. Click the Accessibility Options button, and click Enable for Fn key lock. You can also set up by typing PS2 FNS E at the command prompt. If the Fn key is not locked, you must press and hold the Fn key while pressing a function key in order to perform certain tasks. If the Fn key is locked, you can use the function keys as follows:
Press the Fn key once. Then press a function key. You can get the same effect as if you had held the Fn key down while pressing the function key. The Fn key has to be pressed again each time you want to use the function.
Press the Fn key twice. Then, for the rest of your session, you can press any function key without pressing the Fn key again.
I’ve been going about my business of analyst relations for a while now, but a recent event told me all vendors are not the same when it comes to this job.
We are in the middle of a Partner Survey with one of the big 3 right now, and we were sent a questionnaire to fill out. We dutifully filled it out, having taken up the better part of a week and a half of 4 persons time to do so. We answered in as complete detail as was asked and it came to 20 pages. We then had a 2 hour briefing to go over our program with the lead analyst. We figured that our questionnaire was self explanatory and decided to concentrate on the highlights of our program via a presentation, and to counter what we felt the competition would ding us on.
My first question was how would this analyst be able to read 14 twenty page questionnaire’s from the vendors. Reality set in for me as the analyst stated that we were the only company to fill it out, with possibly one other company that might. He explained that most answered the questions on the call. This to me was underperforming on the job. You have the opportunity to do what we did in highlighting your good points, and still have the answers to the program written out. Were I the analyst, I would have docked points just for style right there.
Maybe it’s naive of me to think this, but aren’t you supposed to do not only what is expected, but to try to give above and beyond? on your yearly rating report?
So here is what I’ve learned.
Not all AR programs are dedicated to Analyst Relations. Many companies have a communications person to do multiple disciplines. This to me is acceptable in a small company, but many of those other major vendors are multi billion dollar firms. You should have a dedicated a/r team if you are serious about analyst relations. I’ve worked in PR. It’s a balls to the wall stressed out job that leaves little time for other matters, especially at deadline time.
We have to go out of our way to answer what the analyst needs. When they ask us for information, we are obligated to get it for them, in a complete manner unless it violates corporate guidelines. We should be up front about that too if it is the reason for not answering. If they take the time to develop a questionnaire, or ask us questions, we need to find the answers or the right executive to answer the question.
We have to understand what the analyst wants and try to think outside the box to get that done, try to provide what they are looking for and make it easy for them to understand. You get a free pass for not knowing everything when you first take a job, but pretty quickly you had better understand what the area you are responsible for is and does. The analyst may not understand exactly how your group works, so you have to either find a way (or a person) to explain it, or figure out what they are looking for and find a way to get it.
Get the right executive who can answer the question. Don’t waste anybody’s time by just putting someone on the phone. Get the most qualified person to answer the question. Unless the analyst demands to speak to certain person, it’s not his/her responsibility to know your org chart.
Other rants about performing.
If you’re in an MQ, Wave or some other form of “bake off” comparison, figure out what your group does better and highlight it. Conversely, figure out what the competition does better and be ready to counter it.
Go a little further than the other guy. This goes with figuring out what the analyst is looking for. Present it in a factual way that shows your best side. Don’t just do what you are asked and think you are done. Anyone can do the minimum.
Skip the fluff. Analysts are smart people and know their subject, for sure a whole lot smarter than most AR people, and better than a lot of executives. They’ll see right through this one and yes, you are wasting there time. Save the marketing pitch for others.
So I’m calling out our profession (I’m tempted to say this loosely after what I heard this week) to do a better job. Just doing your job isn’t enough.
I like to watch human nature. Here are my observations. Bully’s attack the weak. No response to 8 separate terrorist attacks on US in 8 years starting in 1993 emboldens anyone to take the next step. They even declared war on the USA in 1996 with no response.
Cowards attack and run and hide, or surrender.
Hero’s stand for what is right and do the right thing, despite what naysayers will snipe at.
Here’s another comment on human nature, from the beginning of man (actually since the fall of Lucifer from Heaven, but I’ll keep it to man for non believers in God), there has been a struggle with good vs. evil and/or right vs. wrong. There is too much evidence permeating our archives of history to deny it. We all have to face it daily, you can look within yourself to see the internal struggle to know it exists.
The Parameters of Good and Evil
We judge based on what we are familiar with. Here is what the world generally views as the good side.
Here are three of the biggest mass murderers in history, who most generally view as evil.
Deliberately plotting to kill other innocent people without provocation or to protect oneself is evil (not to mention the 6th commandment). So I’ll put the act of 9/11 in the evil column. Now most don’t want to face this decision… that we shouldn’t judge. Worse, some want to politicize it or dream up conspiracy theory. But don’t most think that the murder of 6 million Jews as evil, or 10’s of millions of Russians or Chinese murdered at the hands of Stalin and Mao evil? So the evidence equates the hideous attack on the twin towers as evil with evil intent.
To many people are afraid to call evil evil, to excuse… or worse to forget. You have to treat a coward, a bully or evil the same. You must stand and fight back, to stay the course for right vs. wrong until you overcome and fully defeat it, or it will come back time and time again. So we either stop this evil or our way of life, freedom of religion, women’s’ rights, democratic society and yes, even the right to dissent will be gone, and we will wear burkas and cower to evil.
This is a tough fight that is not like a battle over borders. It is an enemy that peeks in and out of caves and safe houses. But we must overcome the political overtones and stay on the side of good and right, or suffer the fate of the alternative. Besides being evil, they clearly state that they want to kill Americans and all infidels (those that won’t convert to Islam). That’s all Americans (and other countries for that matter) regardless of race, creed, religion, gender or whether they are adult or child.
Not politically correct I know, but neither was 9/11. We have the chance to right a great wrong. Let’s not miss the opportunity.
7 more Windoze security updates today, bringing the total to well over 20 in just the past couple of weeks. I wonder if this happens to Sam, Mark Hurd, Michael Dell…they get paid a whole lot more than me per hour to sit and wait for updates.
Oil – went to $67.50 and it’s approaching a level that it could fall even more. This is good news/bad news right before an election. It was the main problem point in an otherwise good economy. So depending on your stance in the election, your point is either strengthened or weakened. One thing of note is a place in the Gulf of Mexico I’ve been following lately – area 181 that has more oil than we could need for a while. Combine that with the lack of hurricanes, diplomacy in Iran rather than threats to nuke Israel and summer travel being over, prices could go a lot lower. Environmental good news update, I found out that ocean floor oil seepage is far more than any oil spill, and nature has cleaned that up for thousands of years. Also, Katrina didn’t dump any oil into the water, though it did cripple oil production.
HP is under inquiry for board of directors leaks to the press leaks. Too bad, I thought that they were cleaning up the act. This looks more like “he looked at me, she’s on my side of the room, he/she touched me” kid fighting. All companies have issues and infighting, but you have to find a way to not air your dirty laundry. This is PR hell and takes the focus off of the good work they’ve done recently. Customers and analysts have long memories for this nonsense. This is a festering sore that has to be healed or will be a problem for a while.
The launch of Atlantis is on hold for a Fuel Cell problem. We need to keep making progress on our programs, but the reality is the moon mission is not being handled from the ISS.
The opening game for the NFL tomorrow night is the Steelers (fresh off of a Super Bowl Victory) vs. my team the MIAMI DOLPHINS! Ben or no Ben, everyone is picking the Steelers.
The same thing that Microsoft wants. Control of the Living room and the entertainment lifestyle. There will be announcements about a new iPod phone or a service but look at the Big Picture.
Here’s the big picture, check all that apply:
1.
2. check #1.
3. All of the above
Who is the largest Disney Stockholder? one guess.
So look for code talk about new products, but read between the lines at how “lifestyle” and “entertainment” will change and how Apple is looking to “help” the media experience.. Don’t fall (too much) for the iPod phone with some downloads or a touch screen iPod. Yes that would be cool, but those are only building blocks. Look for how they want to compete for taking over the entertainment center and work their way back to the office (with Intel machines). It will be with better content and delivery.
And what better known content than Disney? They’re pretty much the King of entertainment (I take exception to Eisner’s view of entertainment, but over the years they have been solid). Apple has a better media interface than Windows, and from what I can tell Linux too.
Apple has been very profitable with the iPod/iTunes model. Sell both the hardware and software by controlling the content. Offer better content and DRM is still a nuisance, but you’ll put up with it a bit longer as Apple milks the cash cow. Move that model to the living room and you have the media center hardware and can sell iTunes like Disney movies, working better or cheaper with Apple. Oh, and Jobs collects on the Apple and Disney side. Hey, I don’t blame him, he personifies the American dream. Wish I’d thought of it.
So on the 12th we’ll see if it’s another lame announcement about an lame iPod docking speaker, or selling move movies and hardware. Note, I’ll give Microsoft a D at their try at this; xBox, windoze media software and a large install base and a whole bunch of Wintel boxes…they shoulda had a much better share of the consumer marketplace.
After a long battle with an enemy that would fight to the death rather than surrender, Japan signed an unconditional surrender to end WWII in the Pacific Theater.
Unlike the battle in the European theater which had previously ended, the Japanese fought on even when the result was known to both sides. It was a greater honor to die fighting, and the ultimate dishonor was to surrender. The US had to make an ultimate statement to convince Japan of the futility of fighting on, that total destruction awaited them if they didn’t give up the fight.
There was much happiness in the streets that it was over, but much work remained. The Allied forces occupied western Europe and Japan for some 10+ years (and still have a military presence) to help rebuild them and turn both into economic success stories as they embraced freedom, democracy and capitalism. I wonder if these lessons will be learned in the middle east?
I haven’t blogged much this week as a very interesting experience happened to me and a number of people across the US. I have mentioned that I worked the storage industry 15 years ago. It was a small company in Boca Raton that capitalized on the success of the IBM PC. The company was bought out by the AIWA division of Sony and later folded. I lost track of most of my
co-workers, occasionally finding each other at trade shows, but a few of them contacted me via my blog. I’d been as happy not to see them as the people I knew in high school, they acted the same.
The employees went to any number of companies that include Fujitsu, Compaq (HP), ADP, Ziff Davis and Good Morning America, Disney, LSI Logic, IBM, Lenovo, NetApp, Ingram Micro, Gucci and a few who started their own businesses. (Sorry if I missed some of your companies, not intentional).
The interaction exploded this week with an innocuous note about a reunion, and the communication shot out of a cannon. People added a couple of people they knew until a big list of ex employees were chatting as if the 15 years never happened. It was quite interesting hearing about what everyone was doing, almost like an online college reunion (something I loathe). I read other’s blogs and personal pages. It seems as if everyone has move on to bigger and better things. Who knew that we had that much talent while we were scrapping against the big boys of the industry! Thank God we didn’t have a real reunion. I don’t want to have to restart the clock since I last saw them and we didn’t get together on purpose.
There was a common thread to most of the communications, that being the owner of the company whom I’ll leave at eccentric (and everyone else called a cheapskate). They all had a story about him, and many had multiple stories. It was genuine book material which is what the corporate attorney told me when we worked there. From day one, he kept track of the bizarre behavior and was in disbelief at the antics, saying to me once that he should write about this one day. There was the memo he sent that said to steal pens and safety clips at the bank to save money. The bad office memo of the day (that got read over the radio) happened when we were told to go home, and then had to make up the time we didn’t work.
Everyone opens and closes chapters in their life. I was hoping that this one was closed, but was mildly interested that it returned briefly. As it turns out, others also study the martial arts, some changed careers, there was a funny story about engineers setting up an electric eye cam with speakers in their back room to know when the boss was coming (who said IT guys aren’t creative), and at least one went on to stay and prosper in the storage industry. He told Hal and his henchman Robert Adamson that the reason he left was because of how they treated me when I left.
It brought me back to a different time in my life where I cut my teeth in a lot of PR techniques that I use today to get my job done. It’s stuff they never teach you in IBM PR, because IBM was never that creative. I amazed them when I got to IBM by doing tactical and strategic PR they had never heard of. The press described IBM PR as moribund. I was very creative at CORE and at IBM, as long as their corporate PR machine didn’t find out.
The story unfolded more this year, as I ran into the former owner of the company. While we had our differences, I decided to extend my olive branch and it was accepted. We discussed racing and life and he even commented on my postings and of the email remembrances. It was quite nice to see that through years, time and maturity (by some of the employees) we could reconnect as humans. Instead of employer/employee status, we were just guys at the track that day. I, unlike others could put his antics behind me, even a lawsuit because he sued everyone. I knew Adamson was behind it anyway.
One went on to be very famous (Gina Smith) and I was able catch up with at a conference and it was like we were still at CORE. She was quite gracious and we enjoyed the short time we could spend together.
Unfortunately, it is more than I can say for one of the employees who couldn’t let her emotions go, nor could she grow up. One whom I pity was a misandrist who wouldn’t take the olive branch, Sondra Arkin. The guys at CORE nicknamed her Barkin by this group because she was dog barking ugly. Of all the girls I thought I’d want to have a fling with at work, I could never bring myself to think about it with her. She went out of her way to not be feminine and it showed. Combine that with a whiny voice and she was a bag of unhappy and undesirable.
It is funny to me that both of the above two spent time working for me. I wrote a reference letter to PC Week to do what I could to help Gina. Little did I know that she would go on to be very successful. Conversely, despite any attempt to help Sondra, whom I also would have helped in her next endeavor were rebuffed. That is the way life turns out. She amounted to nothing. We all had a great time with everyone else in the reminiscing of our days at CORE and the stories about our encounters with the owner. Only one person couldn’t move on with life, but she wasn’t in the group chat anyway. No one likes a sore loser or a spiteful person, like Sondra.
Anyway, as for the rest of us, it was good to catch up based on the time we had spent together earlier in life.
For me, it was also good that it ended as quickly as it started. I’d closed them out of my life once and doubt that door will be re-opened again.
Thank God that these things end quickly and nothing else happened.
Read this letter to Steve Jobs for more on the heat/battery issue. What are we up to now, 5 or 6 million batteries? Some companies are using the same batteries and not having problems, could it be in the design?
Most of analyst relations for me right now is centered around Software as a Service and events, outside of the day to day partnering issues. We’re already planning the SWG A/R meeting, there is a Meet the Experts Partner/Executive day in Waltham, Ma., the SMB analyst event and any number of “mini” events including podcasts with analysts. Oh yeah, there is an annual report by one of the larger firms that will rate us against the other partnering programs, nothing to sneeze at there.
This weekend however, I’ll delve back into the world of martial arts as I test for my black belt in Jujitsu. While the translation is “gentle art/practice”, in reality it is anything but for me. I’ll throw someone or be thrown over a hundred times, test in wrist locks, arm bar’s, chokes, hold downs and escapes for hours. Needless to say, it will take my mind off of work.So assuming I survive, I’ll be back to my desk jockey position on Monday, albeit a bit worse for wear, but having accomplished a goal I set years back.
Here’s the definition:
jujitsu
Martial art that employs holds, throws, and paralyzing blows to subdue or disable an opponent. It evolved among the samurai warrior class in Japan from about the 17th century. A ruthless form of fighting, its techniques included the use of hard or tough parts of the body (e.g., knuckles, fists, elbows, and knees) against an enemy’s vulnerable points. Jujitsu declined in the mid-19th century, but many of its concepts and methods were incorporated into judo, karate, and aikido.
Not to mention that Tim is in the same Royal Society that Sir Issac Newton was the first member, but he has a lot of interesting ideas.
During this conversation with Scott Laningham of IBM developerWorks, Tim discusses his early history with the Web, opportunities and challenges of the present, emerging technologies, and his current project, the semantic web. He has a nice AJAX discussion on how and why he uses it.
This is part of the IBM developerWorks Podcast Series of interviews and discussions on topics vital to software developers. IBM developerWorks provides a wide range of free tools, code and educational resources to help developers build skills and deploy applications.The podcast can be found on developerWorks at this link.
I have a fond place for developerWorks as it hosted the first and for a long time the only IBM official blog page.
This is National Truckers Week. It’s not a job I could do, but they move the products across the country that is the hearblood of our economy. Thank a trucker if you bought something at the store. If you want to see an artist at work, watch one back his/her rig into a tight space.
Today is the day the 12th Imam is supposed to show, ergo the predictions of end of times and nuclear war are out there.I’ll be testing for my black belt in JuJitsu this weekend.
I’m trying to schedule a podcasting education session with the SWG A/R team for next month. Go to Analyst Inputs and Outtakes for our series and let me know if you are an analyst that wants to participate.
I have my T42 back, and thanks to the work of the IBM help center, most of my data was saved. Here is the synopsis?
Lost:
My Linux partition and data. Since it isn’t the standard image, I either have to rebuild it or forget about it. I got the Linux partition because I was getting tired of 6 Windoze security updates a day and software glitches and crashes. The Linux image that was available to me as a standard load was at best tough to work with. It didn’t have the right graphics drivers and the support was nonexistent as yet. I have to research this more and likely take a different Linux path than before.
Also lost was all of my “remembered” links and passwords and a lot of customization that I do to get the a machine to my liking. I’m a tinkerer and am finicky as to how I want it to work. This will take days if not weeks to get it to where I was before. Each time I visit a controlled place (inside the firewall at IBM for example), I am re-entering data. Some stuff I’ve had for so long, I can’t remember the sign in’s.
I’ll admit, as an option to Windoze when I retire, I considered Apple as it seems more stable and secure, it’s going to Intel, and my computer life is more media oriented at an increasing rate.
Saved:
All my music and podcasts, most of my recent data from the Windows partitition and anything that was on a server somewhere else of course.
Lessons learned:
Keep backing up, this saved me. Keep a spare computer as a back up and keep it current. Yes, your life is very disrupted when your computer crashes. We shouldn’t be that dependent on something so unreliable.
Disk and storage technology has changed in capacity (I once heard that 49 GB was the physical limit when I was in the storage industry) and size (cramming more and more into smaller disks), but is still mechanical and electrical, therefore the part most likely to fail.
Update: After I wrote this, I read this article from ZDNet, remarkably similar to my story, but I didn’t like the MAC failing also. Steve O’Grady also has recommended Ubunto to me also.
With all respect to Creedence Clearwater Revival, I work at home and there is a road being constructed in my backyard which has challenged me in a number of ways. I took this picture “out my backdoor”.
You’ll notice that the machine on the right is a compactor which rattles my house as it pounds the dirt, usually about the time I need to make a serious call with an analyst.
Next, I am trying to sell my house and had it on the market for a couple of weeks before they decided that this road needed building. Mind you, I’ve lived in this house for 10 years with no hint of a need for a road. The actual development won’t open for 2 more years so there wasn’t a real rush for it to be now other than bad timing for trying to sell my house and general disruption.
So I’ll wait until they are done and will re-list my house, likely for less than I could have sold it for.
On the positive side, boys like toys and I get to see big toys first hand. That part is fun.
I also get to view what could be the record for chewing tobacco. These workers also have an unusually high testosterone level, maybe Floyd Landis could use that defense?
Many years ago, I brought John Dvorak back to the ThinkPad design center for an interview with David. This is a room with more creative designs than most museums. Many items never make it out of this lab, yet they would make a lesser designer famous.
I never sensed that David yearned for fame, but it follows him nevertheless because of his work. If you’ve ever touched a Lenovo or IBM Personal Computer or Server product, David has touched your life, I’m guessing many hundreds of millions here. As you’ll read below, his design reaches out to you rather than you looking at it.
I always try to bloggerview interesting people, and this is as interesting as any I’ve done. While being quiet spoken, his thoughts and creativeness speak loudly. Go to David’s Blog to be informed. That was what I did and why I asked him to be a guest here.
I was speaking with Bill Howard at PC Magazine during his laptop roundup one year. He mentioned to me that while you see Dell’s or HP’s or whatever laptop in advertisements, if you go to the businesspersons working area or any airport’s premium flyers lounge, regardless of the airline, it is a ThinkPad convention. He said they were the best designed, most rugged and the most trusted laptop, enough said.
Briefly explain what you do for Lenovo, and is it the same thing that you did for IBM?
What I do for Lenovo is lead all of the design activity for the commercial products, ThinkPad, ThinkCenter, Lenovo 3000 and ease of use. I also am in charge of the corporate identity element for the company including building design, signage, storefront, business cards and the overall identity of the company beyond the products.
The job is similar to IBM except for the corporate element which has been exciting for me. We are designing a new Lenovo building in Perimeter Park near RTP. It is a new facility and I’m leading the architectural style and appearance. I’ve been working with an external architectural firm on the interior design, landscaping and courtyard.
What is your background and qualifications?
Early in my university education I was fortunate to meet a working industrial designer who brought in portfolio of products and talked about design of everything from household products to cars.
So I studied Industrial Design at the University of Kansas.
I worked for several years at a design consulting firm in Wichita, designing everything from underground trenching equipment to wristwatches. I worked with talented and interesting people there, but I always had desire to work in an environment where I had control. At a consulting firm, you might do a sketch (for example I designed a hand held spotlight) and then never see it again until it was a product. They changed the spotlight and it negated the design concept which compromised the product. I found that to be frustrating and realized that this wouldn’t work for me.
I looked for a company with strong internal design organization and a sense of history, and found IBM in Rochester MN, Interestingly, I took the job of a classmate from college who went back to school to get a PhD. I worked there on the systems product division, then known as the System 38 and 36. I led design for the AS/400 Advanced Series, which we changed from being beige, innocuous and drab products into powerful, black, purposefully designed servers. This design became pervasive throughout the entire server series from the initial 1994 product. The beige products were too “quiet”, we made design into bigger statement for the company.
What inspires you for your designs?
Design inspiration comes from many things, It comes from your own personal experience of using products, observing someone else using a product, market research, seeing interesting products at a store, a garage sale or a museum. It is difficult to pin down. I’m always looking at design and architecture, art and products to see what is interesting and why is it interesting.
The thinklight which I blogged about recently for example. It was an invention in my head which came out of necessity (link to Friday blog). My son had book light made from a small led and batter and I saw the “light”. It came from necessity and constraint which were the inspiration. When sitting on a plane, you had to disturb the passenger next to you with the overhead light, or open and shut the monitor part of the ThinkPad to see. Ultimately, I couldn’t see the keyboard in the dark.
If someone said design a computer with no restraint for example, I would be at a loss. Constraint would be logical, a cost, a reason or a solution to a problem.
It is more challenging to design something that has to be better or fit into a smaller box.
What makes a design work or be successful?
I think that it is difficult to pin down, It can come in many ways, There are examples of great design which solves a problem, but are not a financial success. The ThinkPad 701C butterfly was such a product. It had tremendous brand building success which people talk about today. It had an element of creativeness and innovation that lives on in the ThinkPad design today.
What designs have surprised you as being more successful than you expected?
I never anticipated that the original work on the AS/400 Advanced Series would be so significant in changing the landscape to the entire line of servers, It later extended to NetFinity now System X for example. At first they weren’t rack mounted and had the same design problem as AS/400, they were uninspiring. It did work and was functional, but they were not exciting. We worked on extending the AS/400 to Netfinity in terms of design…then everything followed suit and finally the entire server line had a similar look. I never expected it to go that far. We changed the Rack mounts as the beginnings of what they are today.
It was a big battle internally to get IBM to make the servers black…in fact it was a major controversy. Very early on in his tenure as chairman, Lou Gerstner came to visit the Rochester site, only his second visit, We had a room set up with the Advanced Series on one side and Beige Racks on the other. The plan was to bring him in and give him a history of the product, Then we were going to turn his attention to the advanced black model. The server folks thought it would be way to kill it and to “get David Hill out of the way”. Well, the entourage came in and the first thing Lou said was ” wow those are the coolest computers I’ve ever seen, you must have an industrial designer”. I stepped forward and said I’m in charge of industrial design and we had a nice talk about the product, then he left. Needless to say, that was the end of the beige/black issue.
Conversely, what designs didn’t work/sell as well as you thought?
The Butterfly. I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d seen, but it was too good to be true, It combined everything about great design, utility and value with a compelling aesthetic attribute, but when larger flat-panel displays dropped in price, the volumes didn’t take off and the design was never extended.
If someone were looking to be in the design field, what advice would you give them?
Be prepared for tremendous amount of hard work which on surface may not get any attribution. Art schools are filled with emotionally charged people. There were only 8 people in my graduating class, and thousands in business school. You would find that the lights were on 24/7 in the design school. They are emotionally connected to what they are doing. You can’t cram for final on design of building. I once designed the interior of a tractor cab in college. You couldn’t cram for that. I would say that this amount of time follows you wherever you go. It’s hard to turn design off and on. Once, I bought a TV and painted the knobs because i didn’t like them.
Why did you become a blogger?
Design is a core element of Lenovo’s strategy. It spans behavior, aesthetics, emotional, ease of use and human factor. As people believe products become commoditized, design changes its value. For example, if you go to an electronics store, there are rows of toasters. Some are long, some black, some lay down, some stand up, some mount under a cabinet and many other designs. A corkscrew is another product with design differentiators. There are whole museums on this subject. Design is a way we differentiate.
It’s also about solving problems. A blog gives us chance of making people aware of design and features and solicit feedback on what they have, what they like and what they don’t like. What may be the next inspiration of new ThinkPad. Dialogue on the subject of design and the human factor to a company. Lenovo should be easy to approach and work with and a blog that supports this will help. Many blogs are corporate communications inspired and are sanitized, and not written by a designer….my blog will help bring us closer to user.
I’m also going to post about the design of motorcycles. I’ve been associated with them since I was 13…would Dell do that? It’s about me talking about design. The television show “American Chopper” is fun to watch because of the interaction between father and son. The design of choppers is mysterious.
I hope to put a human face to Lenovo, and make people think design matters.
I look at modern architecture in friends house, some homes are designed some are cookie cutter houses. It’s the same way in our industry. Some computers are designed well and some are not…read between the lines on generic computers and generic companies here.
What are you looking at (other that what is on your blog) for future Lenovo design?
We are in brand building mode. While we are strong in china, outside of china we are still growing. I want to make it iconic. We have several ideas that will do this. Perhaps at some point i may blog about it.
I know we’ve all seen the exploding Dell Laptop in the Japanese boardroom. This is not a time I’d like to be in the PR department at Dell.
Since I have some close ties to Lenovo, I asked if they had the same problems. If you read the Ziff article about how they are dealing with it, you see that they are not having any of the same issues. I haven’t heard anything about HP, but since they are high profile, I’m sure it would appear quickly.
I think the issue is bigger than the battery. It is the R&D at Dell, one of the lowest in the business. They buy what is out there on a just in time basis at the lowest cost. This doesn’t give you either time to do proper quality control or allow you to use much of your own development, also vital in problem solving.
When I was in the Technology Group at IBM, we OEM’d a lot of parts to Dell. I think at one point, a Dell computer was half IBM cost wise when you included Intellectual Property. They’ve since gone to other sources as the patents for PC’s have expired and offshoring is cheaper for parts. What I learned was their MO for cheapness. The PC industry has always had price as the main reason for buying, to the point of vendors losing money and going out of business, but you get sick of quality problems and go away if the product doesn’t perform. As I go on ad nauseam, consumers vote with their money.
Since I worked in the PC division, I have seen that things like software and Design do make a difference. Lenovo is not having these Dell problems because they are better machines with seemingly the same parts.The cost of this is going to be far more than the replacement cost. It is a perception cost on quality which they don’t need right now. They should also incur a greater R&D in house cost to ensure that the proper design and testing of parts are insured.
Dell has had it’s time at the top. Most will tell you it’s harder to stay at the top than to get there. IBM has reinvented itself many times, all companies have to. We’ll see….
Once again, a failed hard disk for me. It reports to me as a disk read error under diagnostics, but visually, it won’t boot for me.
I worked in the disk drive industry so I know the value of back up and did so of my data. I also did have a pre 2004 machine that I’m currently blogging from.
It has not spared me from the inconvenience of not having the information I need to work, and it appears that working remotely requires me to do the diagnostics to find out the specific disk error before anyone will help me. Sure they’ll assign a case number, but helpful, not yet.
Let’s hope I get this resolved or I’m going to be an unhappy camper. For now, I’m going to be a data disabled user.
Truly a turning point in the history of man with the ushering in of the nuclear age. Fortunately, it hasn’t been used again, but we’ve lived under the threat of nuclear “mutual self destruction” since then. Through the cold war to the bullying threats of North Korea and Iran, it stays in the back of our minds that the splitting of the atom is either an environmentally useful source of energy or a terrible weapon.
While many died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the second bomb did not strike it’s intended target so casualties were less than the first bomb), historians agree that it saved civilian lives by stopping the invasion of Japan by the Allied forces from fighting an extended battle. The Japanese have a proud history of being great warriors going back to the times of the Samurai, so giving up was not in the battle plan. Their will to perservere had to be broken or the invasion was inevitable.
I ran across an archive of the story dated August 7, 1945 from the Orlando Sentinel when going through my father’s archives, which even then didn’t describe the magnitude due to the secrecy of this project. We had to hide the development from our enemy and use our ingenuity to create it before Hitler had the weapon, our then greatest fear.It’s a good thing the NY Times didn’t know about it and publish the story prior to attack. Interesting that it describes the target as an Army city.
It is known that the fuse for the bomb fuse was radio proximity technology, which my father helped develop during the war.
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the
desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your
coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.
: )
12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was sunk after delivering the Hiroshima bomb on a super secret mission. So secret, it was days before it was even noticed missing.
When it was hit, 900 of the 1196 men went into the water. Less than 300 came out when they were sighted by accident and rescued after those horrible days. If you recall the movie Jaws, Quint told the story of what happened to the men. Although some died from the torpedo blast, most drowned or were taken by sharks. I always thought as a kid that being eaten was the worst way to go, but I was thinking Lion at the time.
I watched a show on the History Channel about this fateful voyage. Most of the men didn’t even know that they were delivering the “bumb” as Quint called it.
Here’s the description from the movie that tells the gruesome details:
Hooper: You were on the Indianapolis? Brody: What happened? Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte… just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named “The Battle of Waterloo” and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the shark go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark… he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin’ and the hollerin’, they all come in and they… rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us… he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened… waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, July the 30th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
Here is a picture of the Fat Boy bomb that was on the Indianapolis. I recently visited ground zero and the Hiroshima museum. It made it clear from the pictures of women, kids and old people who were being trained to fight as both sides anticipated an invasion.
Ground Zero where it was dropped:
Shortly after this, the bomb was dropped and the war in the pacific theater was over. God bless those men who made the ultimate sacrifice for peace and freedom. They saved millions of lives as the Japanese were preparing to kill or die in an invasion. Upwards of 2 million lives were saved.
Nagasaki was chosen as the next target as it was mainly occupied by military forces, so it was both strategic and civilian collateral damage was held back.
Further, evidence was found that the Japanese had their own nuclear bomb and tested it on the Island of Hungnam days after the “bomb” was dropped on Hiroshima. So this act not only saved millions of lives, it now appears to have stopped a nuclear war. Reporter David Snell has documented this.
DID IT SAVE LIVES?
If you look at the last battle before dropping the bomb which was Okinawa, it was one of the most bloody battles of the Pacific. Japan would have been worse for both the US and the Japanese.
There were also some 2 million Japanese soldiers fighting throughout the Pacific, China and Burma — and hundreds of thousands of Allied prisoners and Asian civilians being held in Japanese prisoner of war and slave labor camps. Thousands of civilians were dying every day at the hands of Japanese barbarism. The bombs stopped that carnage as well.
The Soviet Union, which signed a non-aggression pact with Japan in 1941, had opportunistically attacked Japan on the very day of the Nagasaki bombing.
By cutting short the Soviet invasion, the bombings saved not only millions more lives, but kept the Soviets out of postwar Japan, which otherwise might have experienced a catastrophe similar to the subsequent Korean War.
World War II was the most deadly event in human history. Some 60 million people perished in the six years between Germany’s surprise invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, and the official Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. No natural disaster — neither the flu pandemic of 1918 nor even the 14th-century bubonic plague that killed nearly two-thirds of Europe’s population — came close to the death toll of World War II.
Perhaps 80 percent of the dead were civilians, mostly Russians and Chinese who died at the hands of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Both aggressors deliberately executed and starved to death millions of innocents.
World War II was also one of the few wars in history in which the losers, Japan and Germany, lost far fewer lives than did the winners. There were roughly five times as many deaths on the Allied side, both military and civilian, as on the Axis side.
It is fine for Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama to honor the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims. But in a historical and moral sense, any such commemoration must be offered in the context of Japanese and German aggression. What the president forgot were these actions that were stopped at Hiroshima:
He forgot the Bataan Death March conducted by the peaceful Japanese war machine.
He forgot the Sandakan Death March
He forgot murder and cannibalism on the Kokoda Track.
He forgot conscripting women for sexual slavery in Japanese Army brothels.
He forgot the mutilation and murder of Dutch civilians in Borneo.
He forgot the murder and cannibalism of captured American pilots.
He forgot the murder of American pilots and air crew at Midway.
He forgot the bombing of the hospital ship Manunda.
He forgot the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur.
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan started the respective European and Pacific theaters of World War II with surprise attacks on neutral nations. Their uniquely barbaric war-making led to the deaths of some 50 million Allied soldiers, civilians and neutrals — a toll more than 500 times as high as that of Hiroshima.
The crews that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were seen by Americans as saviors for ending the war. But over the years, the morality of atomic warfare and the need for the bombings has been questioned.
Mr. Van Kirk joined his fellow crewmen in unwavering defense of the atomic raids.
“We were fighting an enemy that had a reputation for never surrendering, never accepting defeat,” he said. “It’s really hard to talk about morality and war in the same sentence.”
He continued: “Where was the morality in the bombing of Coventry, or the bombing of Dresden, or the Bataan Death March, or the Rape of Nanking, or the bombing of Pearl Harbor? I believe that when you’re in a war, a nation must have the courage to do what it must to win the war with a minimum loss of lives.”
Nowadays, many question whether those bombs were necessary. Given that they killed almost exclusively civilians and that the second of the two was dropped only two days after the first, many people have concluded that the attack was immoral. Today, the typical American is likely to react to the words “Hiroshima” and “Nagasaki” with a vague sense that our country did something wrong.
But the nuking of Japan was a moral act: war is hell for those who do the actual fighting, so those two bombs put an end to their suffering. This was true for the soldiers on both sides (even a Japanese soldier must have felt relieved to know he was going to survive unscathed). A purely theoretical model for explaining why dropping nukes was bad appeals only to those who have no skin in the game.
The Japanese war had already killed millions, most of whom were civilians. The two nukes killed 140,000. Do the math. It is a distasteful application of arithmetic, but it is an application that soldiers have to do all the time in their struggle to win a war.
Last week, IBM held the Idea Innovation Jam to develop ideas to move our company ahead. Included were all employees, their family and business partners. This was at least our 7th such jam over the years and it resulted in 75,000 people enrolled in the Jam; close to 28,000 ideas have been posted; and more than 2 million page views have been tallied.
We get dinged all the time for not being as hip as other companies, not being first (or best) to blog, but this is one heckuva participation in social computing. Along with our ever growing blogs and podcasts, I’d say we are making progress in this space.
Since I mentioned podcasting, I’ve combined with the communications team (ok they did the heavy lifting, Colleen and Stacy) but we’re starting an analyst podcast series called – Analyst Input and Outtakes.
I hope to have more analysts participate in the near future. I’m looking for likely candidates with an opinion on the industry, IBM or the competition….you know who you are.
I heard a lot about Mercury at the Rational Users Conference. How they had a good product but were having problems delivering on product promises…I’ll give them a pass there, all software and companies have issues.
It caught my attention not that they were acquired but by which company, HP of course. It is good in any number of ways that they did this. Sure Mercury is a big competitor of Rational, but if you’ve read any of my blogs, I like competition, it makes you better or your beaten. The fact that HP is strengthening it’s middleware to compete confirms to me that we are on the right track. You don’t copy a losers strategy hope to stay in business. I’m looking forward to the fight there.
It’s also good as it gives Rational some time to move forward during the HP/Merc aquisition and integration phase, always a time of slowdown while you evaluate how to integrate multiple HR, benefit, Accounting, manager redundancy issues to begin as one company. My favorite is marketing departments having to combine…talk about the department of redundancy department.
Companies acquire other companies all the time. Why I care about this one was that it was pointed out to me by a number of analyst’s that HP (specifically Carly) had IBM envy and specifically Lou (Gerstner) envy when they acquired Compaq. The reason given was for a play in the Services market that IBM had explored, developed and became the market leader. Now they are trying to be a middleware player. Back to trying who to emulate, IBM is a good role model if you do it right. I don’t see them as a Services force, albeit they are a player.
Not that Mercury was a bad acquisition, nor that trying to be a middleware player is bad either, but the 4.5 billion seemed excessive to me for a company that has problems like stock option issues, multiple acquistions recently, product delivery. Maybe I don’t know the rest of the story yet. Given they way overpaid for what they got out of Compaq (what happened to the iPaq sales?) it seems as though they pay too much for what they get.
Mark Hurd has done a great job fixing the screw ups that Carly created, but 4.5 billion is a lot of change….
I’ve known this one was coming for a while and I didn’t really know how to properly state the opening, there was too much to say.
Dave started Analyst Relations in Software Group, then honed it to one if not the best group there is. I haven’t done a bloggerview about someone I’ve worked for so this is a first also.
I’ll say that I learned more about how to deal with situations, executives and yes…analysts by taking hard situations to Dave and getting help solving the problems. Dave gave me a great opportunity to come to Software Group from the old PC division to enjoy some of the best years of my working career.
Dave discusses some of that and much more below. Here is an insight to the Analyst Relations discipline and a history lesson of IBM SWG that you couldn’t get anywhere else. Enjoy.
The SWG AR group was at the height of its performance when Dave retired. It was never better either before or after his departure. We executed well and our performance stood on its own. We didn’t have to create and dress up reports to try to make them prettier than the other groups as it wasn’t his style (he knew what was meaningful to the execs who already had enough reports on their business to read). It was no-nonsense action oriented process that got results and generated loyalty. I was never more proud of the analyst group than when he ran things. There were never fire drills even when there was intense pressure from Mills or Gerstner/Palmisano and he was always under control and unflappable like no other leader since. While others deflected the pressure to the rest of the group, Dave acted coolly and handled both the executives and the emergencies appropriately. Mike Bizovi has come the closest to Dave with respect to handling pressure while keeping his cool, and he seems destined to be the next leader of the IBM AR group.
One thing we chose to leave out when this was originally written was that it was our goal and intention to influence analysts, and we were able to do so without them knowing it. We actively tried and were able to change opinions and reports by our actions and Dave knew how to get that done. This was our intent going into meetings regardless of whether it was the CEO of Gartner, Forrester, IDC or from a lower tier analyst who had only one executive which supported him and was background noise.
Dave made sure all of our interactions were professional and regardless of whether we cared or not, we treated them with respect. Overall, our group collectively knew who was influential and we made sure those analysts issues were attended to.
What was your career history with IBM. You didn’t just work for 38 years in Analyst Relations?
I have been extremely fortunate to have had five different careers at IBM – manufacturing, sales, product marketing, solution marketing and analyst relations.
Manufacturing began in Rochester, MN where also worked in tool design and product test before becoming a self-taught programmer, designing and coding (Fortran and Assembler) an online report generator that on one of the very first time-sharing systems using video displays. The only problem: I simply HATED engineering.
In Chicago I was a client rep for Motorola, and sales manager for the Chicago-based steel companies.
My timing to join the division staff in San Jose for IBM storage systems couldn’t have been worse — just at the time IBM collapsed in that market. I moved east to White Plains to lead US storage marketing just as IBM regained storage leadership.
As part of the original core team under Mark Morin (who retired the same day I did) we created in less than five years an industry-leading “start up” with over 1,000 employees, IBM Image Systems. When the market for image document systems eventually cooled (there are thousands of ImagePlusR still installed), Steve Mills had just been named general manager of Software Solutions Division and asked if I could start an AR team for him. The rest, for the next 13 years, is history.
Talk briefly about your decision to retire. I always wanted to go out on top, but Michael Jordan couldn’t let go on the other hand. To me, it was the perfect way to do it?
Flattery will get you anywhere. Seriously, I spent a lot of time worrying that the world-class AR team built in IBM software would not remain a leader, frankly because of me. Hubris is a tough enemy. It’s one that thrives on a history of prior success.
But my decision to retire really had to do with me. My wife had retired 6 years earlier. I looked at the life she was leading and said to myself, “Self, that looks pretty good. How about we go get some of that for us?” Seriously, it was time and I was fortunate to be able to do so.
You retired from IBM in March, what have you been doing since then?
Ironically, I’ve been doing AR. A couple of clients have asked that I help them with various aspects of their programs. That said, I’m not interested in taking on operational responsibility. That’s why I retired. But I also don’t want anyone to think that I’m hanging out a shingle to compete with KCG, Forrester or Lighthouse. They are much more into AR operations, training, evaluation and surveys than I intend to be. If I had to classify my niche, it’s giving advice to senior executives on how AR teams can best deliver the value those executives want from them.
But it would be misleading to say that it’s been all work. There’s also been a lot of travel. That got easier when the kids were grown, but it’s a lot easier now without a 9 to 5 job. A week here, mid-week there, both in Europe and the US. Like all of us, sometimes that’s pure “get away”, but often it’s with my Blackberry.
Now that you’ve had time to think about it, what are your thoughts about analyst relations at IBM?
It was a terrific opportunity to build a function and a team. We started at zero, or as the analysts at now-defunct Meta Group said when asked, less than zero, closer to minus infinity as it were. The IBM software executive team gave AR an extraordinary level of support – people, money, and most importantly, their time. I’d like to think that over the course of those 13 years that the executive support was not blind, that they had plenty of opportunity to inspect whether the AR team had consistently demonstrated good stewardship of the resources entrusted to it and delivered value for the investment.
I also think IBM software AR has provided a valuable work environment for many people – both those who came and stayed as well as those who joined the team for a while and moved on. Everyone had opportunities to learn. For sure, whatever it is that the AR team became, it was the contributions of those many people who made it so.
Can you share some thoughts on the history of IBM analyst relations and how it has progressed? What was the hand of Dave Liddell on the direction over the years?
The start-up days were tough, not just for AR but for what was to become IBM Software Group two years later. There were no good models for AR, so we had to invent one built on basics: earn the trust of both analysts and executives; be fact-based in a world of hype; and be relentless in everything we did.
Perhaps, especially in the beginning when almost all relationships between analysts and IT suppliers were adversarial, that struck me as nonsense, if not irresponsible for both parties. In the end, we both existed because the customers wanted us to do so. No matter what traffic in money and knowledge passed between us, it was dwarfed by what customers – our mutual customers – expected of us.
Analysts needed product and technology skills that came to suppliers as a matter of course and suppliers needed the perspective that analysts generated also as a matter of course. None of that is to suggest that there aren’t opposing interests between suppliers and analysts, but those opposing interests are only an element of a very complex set of relationships.
What did we learn from our experiences?
This may be putting it too boldly, but we learned that it is possible to influence thinking. It’s a lot of hard work, often over months if not years. It is done with facts in an environment of candid communication and trust. A funny thing happened along the way. The more the IBM team became successful at influencing opinions, the more the team learned to learn from those same analysts. That’s the thing about the influence of facts, trust and communications on relationships. They are bi-directional.
Other than the obvious of contract negotiation and other administrivia, what did (do) you see your relationship with the analysts and the analyst firms?
The facts say my role directly with analysts and analyst firms was rather minor compared to what the AR team did. My job was more about creating the environment in which AR could work, and do so productively. That said, in hindsight I’d say my most typical personal role was to be a bridge (either way) when there was a misunderstanding between the software team and an analyst or firm. Relationship management, even in strong relationships, takes lots of work by everyone involved. Maybe it’s fair to say I also did a lot of prodding.
An analyst once said to me that the key to his success was immersion in the flow of information. Everything that is going on in a segment leads to better understanding of some other part of the segment. In that sense, with the large number of markets IBM software participates in, the very large community of analysts following IBM software and the thousands upon thousands of engagements created an environment in which I too was in a huge information flow. Simply said, I could act as a bridge (over troubled waters? between analysts and IBM because of that perspective.
What are you doing now? Could you give information about your company?
I’ve wondered for a long time what it would be like to say “this is MY company”. It feels pretty good.
Silvermine Brook LLC (silvermine@att.net, 203-966-4433) is now in its second quarter of operation — lawyers, accountants, tax codes, annual meetings, quarterly reports, the whole 9 yards. It’s not that I haven’t dealt with all of that over the years, I have, but I’d expect that anyone who owns a company appreciates that there is just a different feeling when all of that is very personally about “your” money. Anyway, it’s a kick, it’s different, and there are no pretensions that this is anything but a way keep a hand in the game. Well, maybe there is one more thing. Now that I’m at home much more it gives me something to work at, along the lines of that sage marital advice “For better or for worse, but not for lunch”.
Catch all question. What did I miss that you want to say?
The decision to retire was not one made quickly, but it was one I discussed with the executive team for nearly five years. Part of it was me making up my mind about what I wanted next, but a good part was to ensure there was a team and a management system that could run IBM software AR better than I ever did. I left with the full confidence that the best years for the AR team were yet to come.
I guess they chiseled press releases on stone at some point to promote the invention of fire. Later, parchment must have been sent out to document the parting of the Red Sea.
But the industrial revolution gave us good tools like the printing press and the typewriter, fax machines and let’s not forget the copy machine from the Xrocks corporation which allowed us to mail press releases an astonishing 2 weeks prior to the announcement, embargoed of course.
Then came email, the internet, instant messaging…I’m not going out on a big limb here history wise. Now with the push of a button, bingo – news everywhere.
So what’s the point here? I like to see trends and be an early adopter where possible. There have been times I wait for the technology to stabilize before I expose my backside to any corporate or public lashings, but for the most part, I like to be or know about what the next advantage possible to be gained. I remember using MCI Mail in the mid ’80’s to beat the big companies to the story (then my competition was, gasp – IBM). I was talking to Bill Howard, Bill Machrone and John Dvorak of PC Magazine when it seemed like there were about 25 email users total in the business world.
Despite my daughter’s ability to overwhelm me in Instant Messaging volume, I did use it as a communications tool to reach analysts in the ’90’s before others caught on.
I’ve been beaten to the punch more times than not on new trends, but I give credit to those that catch on before me and I try to learn to do things in a newer better way. Social Computing is such a trend that offers the next new world to those who have vision.
I originally called this the change/death/other titles here of PR, but that will never die, only morph. Those that adopt the new media approach which is happening now, which includes but is not limited to (good lawyer speak there) blogging, podcasting, videocasting, wiki and the various other components of Social Computing will beat others to the punch. (I was later to this game than I wanted to be, but still ahead of many I’m finding out as I beat my head against the wall here sometimes.)
While there was no moment of truth type revelation about why this is, I’ll give Charline Li the credit to why big companies are not always the leaders on this, it requires giving up control. Now tie this into the above stated PR change issue, as control is vital to shaping the message or dealing with the other large major media outlets. The quicker more nimble folks who already embrace Social Computing are moving ahead and larger companies are trying to figure it out and sometimes try to control it. I will say that IBM is conducting perhaps the largest social computing exercise ever right now, but the control issue prevents any details here until it is complete. I hope to blog about it soon, and I hope to start an analyst relations practice/position about Social Computing, send your positive references in now about me as I’ll be canvasing soon for a new frontier that I think we need here.
So I know people who were naysayers to email, IM and other trends and look what happened there. Social Computing will change the messaging capabilities, the way we will work and exchange information and that train is leaving the station, be on it or miss the chance.
True drama includes the hero touching the whiskers of defeat and having to climb a mountain to overcome adversity to achieve victory. He should slay the toughest dragon. The outcome of the contest should not be decided until the end to hold the audience in suspense and to pull for the hero in his travails.
The tour had all of this. 11 different changes in the lead, a TDF record. Floyd Landis had the tour in hand in the most celebrated stage – L’Alpe-D’uez only to suffer total defeat falling an unsurmountable amount of time behind with a total collapse in stage 16 and the Col du Galibier. His mountain to climb was himself and the doubts of failure where some would give up and the Stage 17 the very next day with 5 climbs including the Cole des Saisies. He slew the dragons and pulled himself from 11th place, virtually out of the race to only 30 seconds behind in the final time trial. It was described by as possibly the greatest stage ever at the TDF. All this after he disclosed the fact that his right hip was dead and he will have hip replacement surgery after the tour.
On this final competition day, he rode the solo time trial like a champion and took the yellow jersey, with the race being decided on indiviual talent. So the Maillot Jeune goes to the man with the biggest heart and will to win. It was a great story with a hero, a mountain to climb, a dragon to slay and suspense to the end.
Now 19 of 25 leaders who have led after the L’alpe-Duez have won the tour, they rode over 89 hours over 3800 KM from speeds of 8 to 90 KPH. And it was the Star Spangled Banner that played in Paris for the 8th year in a row and the 11th time in 21 years.
IBM hasn’t ceded any space in the America’s or Europe and is doing just fine there, that’s not the point.
Where we are doing well is in the new farmlands of the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). According to the Economist, July 8-14, 2006 edition, Page 94:
GDP, Q1 2006, % of change from a year ago:
China, +10.3
India, +9.3
Russia, +5.5
Israel, +5.2
Brazil, +3.4
And, according to Boston Consulting Group in BusinessWeek the July 31 issue, BCG identified 100 emerging multinationals that appear positioned to “radically transform industries and markets around the world.” The 100 had a combined $715 billion in revenue in 2005, $145 billion in operating profits, and a half-trillion dollars in assets. They have grown at a 24% annual clip in the past four years.
I’ve been in countless briefings where it has been stated that we are doing well and companies are coming to us because we committed to open standards and software. It has been widely read that Germany has committed to Linux and development is picking up on open platforms.
What kills me is those that buck the trend. I was around for Token Ring, SNA, OS/2, Micro-Channel…don’t buck the trend. The markets decide by voting with their money. I’m not sure if it will be late software, SaaS, SOA security issues or just the overwhelming desire by people to want software to work and not care what their platform is as better written than I by Steve O’Grady.
So look out world, we see you growing and it shouldn’t be lost on those companies who want to succeed as markets ebb and flow that you need to be there. If you’re an analyst, count on us mentioning it, ask for proof.
I’ve been trying to get my house ready to sell and doing the startup and prep work required to move into a new residence. Needless to say, it has been far more that I imagined. One doesn’t realize the amount of “stuff” you collect in life. So mounds of trash later including software back to Win 98, I’m coming up for air.
It’s not that I haven’t been working, in fact I’ve been getting it done, but I’m going to be distracted tomorrow night when I watch the results of the next stage.
I’ve pretty much mentioned it in most of my TDF blogs so far. These are the defining moments in your career. In Formula 1 you look to Monaco as the jewel, Olympics for a lot of sports, Soccer/Futbol has the World Cup.
Winning the Tour is the overall goal, but the Yellow Jersey in Paris goes straight through L’Alpe-D’Huez. Stage 16 has a higher climb, but make or break for the winner should happen here. The Pyrenees were tough, but the Alps after 2 hard weeks of riding 6 hours a day are a killer.
The space shuttle Discovery is pictured on Pad 39B waiting for launch on mission STS-121 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, July 2, 2006.
The Space Shuttle hasn’t had the best track record of late. Right now, they are doing a visible inspection of the tiles that allow for proper re-entry, protecting the Shuttle from burn up when encountering the atmosphere. If you recall, these tiles fell off the wing of the Columbia when hit by foam on liftoff, ending in disaster.
When comparing the shuttle pictures to those 3 weeks prior to take off, they found white spots on the wing. Presumably in a similar place to where the aforementioned tile problem occurred. Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be bird poop. Having fished next to the shuttle recently, I can verify that there are many birds in this area as it is millions of acres of undisturbed land purchased in the 60’s.
So, the bird poop can survive vicious Florida thunderstorms that delayed the launch numerous times, thrust that can launch the bulk of the shuttle from zero to 17,500 MPH in minutes and make it into space. Maybe they should use bird poop instead of tiles to cover the Shuttle.
These mountains look like sharks teeth, and that is what it did to the riders today. Even Lance Armstrong said he wasn’t a fan of the Col du Tourmalet.
In the end, it was an American, Floyd Landis of Team Phonak in the lead, with another American Levi Leipheimer finishing 2nd in the stage to finally have a good stage at the tour.
Stupid move of the race? Thomas Voekler attacking from the peloton to try and get to the leaders, only to hit the wall like a bug against a truck (lorrie) at top speed and fall back and back and back.
So much for the Pyrenees, a flat stage today, then off to the Alps for more manly riding.
Today is the first stage up the mountains in the Tour de France. In other words, this is the first real day of the race. Sure we’ve had the time trials, prologue and a few sprints, but to contest for the yellow jersey, climbing mountains is the strategy de jour for winning.
Remember back when you were a kid on your bike and think of the biggest hill in your neighborhood. It was the most grueling few seconds you had on two wheels. Now, do that for 6 hours at 100 times the difficulty and you get what 170 of the best bike riders in the world will face. Then do it everyday for a week strait, it is a new definition of pain. This is when you have to reach inside yourself and ask how bad do you want something….like a yellow jersey.
No Lance this year. We’ll see who the new victor over self and mountain will be. Today they clime the Col de Soudet at 1540 meters in height. A minor 1000 meter climb up the Col de Marie Blanque after that should kill off any pretenders.
But it is stage 15 up the legendary L’alpe-D’Huez that will define the men vs. the boys, don’t miss it.
It became apparent when we looked for bloggers at IBM that the key attribute that caused success was passion. When someone had passion, they were tenacious and more likely to succeed. It became clear very quickly that this applied to other things in life also.
Ever since I was young, my mother always grew flowers. She won first place all the time at the flower shows with her then passion, hibiscus. She also grew vegetables and pretty much when you say green thumb, you are talking about my mom. So passion is not a flash in the pan, it’s been some 60+ years that she has been at this.
Her latest foray into planthood has been with Day Lillies. She, my sisters and a lot of her friends have been buying day lilies on-line and from nurseries.
Legacy:
Just this past week, one of the local nurseries created a new day lilly, featured above and named it the Faye Simonds. Since you can buy these around the world, it’s as easy to get this in Florida as it is Australia from the highly acclaimed Ladybug Daylilies.
Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush have ships named after them. Most people die with no legacy. My father has an engineering scholarship named after him at the University of Central Florida. Now my mom has a day lilly forever linked to her, the Faye Simonds, legal registration and everything. It is a ruffled orange day lilly 6.5 to 7 inches in diameter and will be in the 2007 collection.
Takeru Kobayashi defends his title for the 6th year in a row by downing a new world record 53 and 3/4 hot-dogs in 12 minutes, narrowly edging out Joey Chestnut (50 dogs) and maintain his status as the champion eater in the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Sadly for the viewers, there were no “Reversals of Fortune”. There are 17,120 calories, 830 grams of Fat and 24,075 mg of sodium, versus a daily recommended intake of 600 in that many dogs. Tour de France.
Through 3 stages of the tour, there has been 3 different Maillot Jeunes or yellow jerseys….That’s the leader for NASCAR fans. It will be back and forth until stage 7, the time trial. That’s the first separation of the men vs. the boys. Three riders fell and broke collar bones in today’s stage, the scourge of tour riders. Muslims rioted in Paris again. Riots, work boycotts, whatever.
I’m a patriotic guy. I think the USA is a great country and a great country to live in. I love hearing the Star Spangled Banner at sporting events, love the USA, USA chant at the Olympics, I think you get the picture. Most people want to come here when they think of opportunity and to get ahead in life. Heck, they even call it the American dream. There are some who bash us, but that just let’s me know where we stand, no one bad mouths #2.
But to my real point. I would have been patriotic anyway, but this year with the loss of my father, we of course didn’t celebrate my parents wedding anniversary, June 14. It made me realize that it was Flag day.
Tomorrow is July 4th, America’s Independence Day, but also my Mother’s birthday. Patriotism comes naturally, even though I never put these dates together with my strong feelings for my country. It was bred in my family.
So as they say in the Lee Greenwood song, God bless the USA.
Authors note: I forgot to mention that June 14, 1775 was the birthday of the US Army also.
Editor: It should be duly noted that Joey Chestnut, American has eclipsed Kobayashi as the champion of the world in many categories, especially hot dogs. While I give Kobayashi credit for making the sport famous, but there always is a bigger fish. Joey has decimated the other eaters.
Once again, the 4th of July comes around and we have that time honored tradition of patriotism, no wait, fireworks, no wait…..YES, the Nathans hot dog eating championship at Coney Island. I told Steve O’Grady and Teressa Jiminez at RSDC that I’d be blogging this on the 4th of July, but I may not be blogging on a holiday, no one would read it, and how would you know not to miss this if I didn’t give any warning?
Of course, the undisputed champion is the waif – Kobayashi from Japan. His streak of winning this contest includes:
He of course has other records including 67 hamburgers in 8 minutes, 83 vegetarian dumplings in 8 minutes, 100 steamed pork buns in 12 minutes, 69 krystal burgers in 8 minutes and 17.7 pounds of cow brains in 15 minutes.
He does it by swallowing the dogs without chewing. He breaks the dog in half, eats it then dunks the bun in water and puts that down.
THE COMPETITION:
Kobayashi will be up against other competitive eaters like Eric Badlands Booker ,Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas who put down 37 dogs in her 105 pound frame last year and others who will try and lose to the Michael Jordan of eating. There is an outsider from America, Joey Chestnut who has downed 50 dogs in a qualifier.
DISQUALIFICATION AND HOW TO LOSE:
There is a point in which you can’t eat any more and that is like hitting the wall in the marathon. You just run out of space. Then there is the deadly “REVERSAL OF FORTUNE” in which the contents of your stomach come back to life. When I mentioned this to Steve and Teressa, they both agreed that the word reversal will never be the same and the visual will be with them for the rest of their life.
So, it will be broadcast on ESPN at 12:00 PM on July 4th, don’t miss it. It only lasts 12 minutes, but eating will never be the same for you.
I just read today in the Austin American Statesman that IBM has the fastest 3 computers in the world, and 243 of the top 500 fastest. Also stated was that we can do more when we need to.
I also read that Rational Application Developer tool set has achieved top rankings for the second year in a row, according to a market research study as reported by eWeek.
I sense a trend here, it looks like our technology and our programs are working well. I know that it has been IBM’s mantra to serve the customer, and much of that is relationship as well as good technology. I think we’re on the right track.
Well, it’s finally here, the crowning of the next king of cycling. The Tour de France start on July 1st, and fortunately for me, I have a DVR and can see it later on OLN tv…I just have to stay out of the blogs before I watch. It’s always funny to hear Bob Roll mispronounce the Tour dee France…
It was easy the last 7 years, we pretty much knew who was going to wind up with the yellow jersey, it was just a matter of when he wanted it to happen.
So will it be Ivan Basso winner of the Giro d’Italia, Jan Ulrich – the last Tour winner before Lance, Floyd Landis? Will it be Team Discovery, Phonak, Deutsch Telekom in the team championship?
The flat stages can be a bit boring, but the sprints at the end are good. The team time trials are a ballet of coordination and aerodynamics. The individual time trials are mano-o-mano, but the test of manhood is in the mountains. Anyone who has ridden a bike uphill knows it’s tough, but do it for 6 hours against the best in the world? The winner has a big set of stones.
Our WPLC (Lotus) announced Sametime 7.5 this week. I’ve been using it now for a while as a beta product. I use any number of instant messaging products depending on who it is and what they use. We at IBM use Sametime and up until now, instant messaging was IM to me, just another package to get work done. This announcement has the ability to change the direction of what IM is and how software can work together.
The fact that it is integrated into Microsoft applications, blackberry, Motorola Q and any Eclipse oriented environment changes things now. It just closed the world a bit for me. I’ve always wanted a one size fits all device and software that actually talked to each other. I view this as now headed in the right direction. We’ve even announced upcoming support for OSX Mac users. Don’t get me wrong that any one product should be a panacea, because I firmly believe that competition drives up quality and drives down price, but the point is to have things work together seamlessly.
Not trying to be a commercial here, but the audio and Video support brings in a whole new list of things to do on a device or through an IBM platform. Not that I think email is going away, but we are a society who wants things faster and better and Sametime 7.5 is a step in that staircase.
Note: Earlier this year, IBM announced that Sametime is connected to AOL, Yahoo and Google…I think most have heard of these companies.
Other Note: Good Technology also introduced a service for Domino users to remotely check email on any number of devices. Partners supporting your products and platforms are important factors for success (note to the micro channel marketing department there).
So more things appear to be working together, a good thing and maybe proof that our strategy for open standards is working. I find it interesting that IBM is reaching out into the Microsoft space to work with their software. I don’t think it’s as much an olive branch as it is a proof of what we are trying to do to get software to work together. It will be interesting to watch whether Microsoft closes the kimono more or opens up to us.
I can’t believe I’m the only one out here that wants to have things work together without getting a computer science degree first.
The executives call this Sam Time as Palmisano uses it to constantly stay on the ass of his direct reports. The best feature is DND which keeps people from bothering you and gives the appearance that you are there or in a meeting. Unfortunately, it is now used as a babysitter to see if you are working or not. Instead of a tool, you have to have it on so management can monitor you like a child, rather than trusting you to do your job.
With all respect to Thomas Friedman and his book, there are conditions that affect our ability to do our job sometimes. Technology has flattened things up to the point of social constraints.
For example, when we are trying to get a number of pre-briefs completed prior to an announcement, time has affected us. Mostly they are when we try coordinating a world wide event. We’ve dealt with the time zone issues via email and are able to live with a half day delay of communicating with the other side of the world, as long as it is straightforward. Every time you go back and forth there is the half day delay, but this is manageable. We even have a short window when we either get up early or stay late on both ends.
Now, it’s summer in Europe, and that means that many are taking advantage of the short periods of good weather (depending on how far north you live), so we come to a period where there are lengthy vacations. This changes the flatness of the availability. I’m not knocking vacation as the argument can be made that the quality of life is more important that 17 hour workdays. Half my family live in Europe and they think we Americans work far too much.
Nevertheless, it means there are certain geographies that can’t be addressed with the immediacy that the product owner desires.
A tangential issue of flatness occurs when we make a complicated announcement (I’m speaking for large companies and large analyst groups here) that can cross several ownership area’s on both sides. Analysts for the most part are very perceptive and ask deep and probing questions that affect other areas of our company, so we must bring in those respective areas….Again, geographical or political boundaries come into play. Then getting a hold of traveling execs or IBMers (I’ve Been in a Meeting) becomes an issue.
Conversely, we might be making a complex announcement that for large firms with specific areas, the analysts may not have expertise (or must also respect other analyst specialties or areas of coverage) outside of their focus. Small analyst groups can either be specific enough to a subject that the other information does not affect them, or are generalist enough (mostly they are educated enough and know more than us about a lot of our stuff) that this does not come into play. But put together a large company and a large analyst firm and you get complexity over a simple task.
Other speed bumps occur when an analyst (or the company person) shifts jobs or places. Then we have to try to hunt down the person(s) to solve the questions in hand.
Am I complaining? No way, that keeps us in a job to try and figure it out. But it just goes to show how technology can be overcome by social and people issues.
I’ve made the successful transition to a dual boot machine. I’m posting this blog from the linux side with relatively little content, but doing it in linux for the posterity of it.
Now I have to figure out the rest of of the OS, but I’ve successfully migrated my Lotus Notes as my first application.
I will have to go back and forth until I have all my data, some applications that are Windows only, that sort of thing…..but just like blogging, I’m off to a new frontier.
One of the things we did at the RSDC blogger meetup was sign a get well card for Grady. As you may know from his blog, he’s had medical issues and he was the original host of the meetup.
So all the folks at the meetup signed the card and we sent it to him….here it is at the beginning of the signing.
Just like why I’m blogging, I’m installing Linux. I figured that if I’m going to talk about it, I need to experience it.
Fortunately, IBM has a desktop install that I currently have underway, approximately 817 files to be downloaded and installed. The only issue for me is that I work remotely and I had to go into an IBM facility to load it. So I blog here from a cube farm in a building that is half IBM and half Lenovo.
But the good news is that I’ll work as much as I can from Linux, except for the Windoze only programs that I have to keep until I find a work around.
I’ll have to speak with Steve O’Grady to see how he migrated his iPod/iTunes to Linux, cause that’s one of the programs on the table for me.
Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the reasons I’m switching is the millions of blue screens of death I’ve experienced, the delay’s in operating system releases, the bugs, security, and some amount of arrogance. By the way, I’ve been at this since DOS 1.0, so I have experience with PC OS problems.
I also need to expand my boundaries technically. I can’t bear to sit back with the norm, it seems I have to push the envelope to test my abilities, hope I can pass the test.
Delusions of Adequacy 
