Friday 7 September 2007

A couple of Stanford University students thought they had a pretty neat idea about a new fangled thing called the internet. They were doing their doctorates and thought that the method used by the then prevalent search engines, like Altavista, could be bettered. Rather than ranking results according to the number of times the item being searched appeared on a page, they reckoned that a ranking system based on the relationships between websites would produce better results. So the search engine called Backrub was born.

Fortunately Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to rename their creation otherwise we'd be telling our kids to research their school projects by "Backrubbing". Instead we have Google which was incorporated as a company nine years ago today.

Mr Page and Mr Brin's simple concept has evolved into a corporation with a stock market value of US$162B. Yup one hundred and sixty-two billion US dollars. Now how many US$162B ideas have you had? It's not enough to have a genius idea. The key is actually making things happen in the way that was intended. This statement of the obvious seems less obvious when you see reports of companies like the Royal Mail. Their premium postage service called "Recorded Delivery" may not be what it seems. An official intriguingly advises that "It is operationally impossible to keep records of items sent by recorded delivery".

Google's genius was not the original idea. It was following through, supported by a company philosophy that provides a meaningful and clear framework for action. The famous Google Ten Things are:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.

The mission/vision/values industry in companies chews up hundreds of hours in their creation, communication and, most of the time, in water cooler derision by those whose behaviour they're meant to drive. The Google way, albeit not perfect, shows that genuine simplicity can enable extraordinary results. I intend applying this approach to the following business concepts (all rights reserved):

* Fizzy Chicken - burpilicious low fat fast food
* Pimp My Pimple - the TV makeover show for teenagers
* My FaceSpace - a social network integrator utility

So Happy Birthday Google and what's three times US$162B?

Wednesday 5 September 2007

Kids safely delivered to school, there is now the space to focus on my own activities. The last six weeks have been great. Largely taken up with our holiday travels, meeting up with family and friends, and various outings. It is now time, however, to take stock of the opportunities ahead. Assess what needs to be done - tax return is heading to the top of the list. Resurrect memories of pre-holiday conversations - what exactly did I promise JS on the phone at the same time as I was digging out the passports? And take action.

This provides a host of distraction opportunities. Cups of tea are always a good one. Sorting out my office is another. I've been meaning to dig out that old bookcase from the garage. Surplus to requirements, it has been gathering dust and discarded items over the last year. It should fit in the corner of my office, provided I move things round a bit.

Two hours later, it does and it's great. A bit of a distraction from that focus thing. The moving things round a bit rapidly evolved into an a more significant range of activities. Deciding which books should be housed in the newly dusted bookcase became a wider assessment of which books deserve house room. And then the discovery that the shredder no longer shreds. And do I really need that unused Rolodex, much though I love the design? And ...

The random pile of stuff for the charity shop now totters along side the stuff for re-cycling next to the front door.

The vacuum cleaner is beckoned by the fall-out from the book sorting, furniture moving and the shredder waste bag. The noise associated with all my activities causes my wife, a fellow home worker, to move into a distant corner of the house. Ironic since I was resurrecting my office in a retreat from my summer invasion of her terrain.

The morning has gone. Along with four cups of tea, a houmous filled bagel and some difficult literary farewells (and some easy ones - The "Timewaster Letters" complies fully with the Trades Description Act). Much is left to do. The visit to the charity shop, the gym, keeping up with my Facebook social obligations and the kids return from their first day back at school. And some work stuff.

So my tax return has not been done. I know now, however, that it will be done more quickly and easily than if part of my brain was still occupied by office resurrection planning. I also know that positively channeled energy results in more energy and more action. Now if only I could think of what to put in my blog.

Monday 3 September 2007

It's the biggest thing on the internet. Unfortunately. It comes in wave after wave. It's annoying, boring and tedious. The evil spam. The email kind not the meat "treat".

Presumably there is a financial reward for generating huge volumes of emails and sending them randomly into the ether. If not, they would have dried up and gone away. Except for those that are aiming to infect computers and use them for ill got and gain. Or obtain some sort of weird thrill.

I had a quick scan at the emails that my spam filters caught. I also looked at those that evaded the filtering process. I couldn't work out the difference. Overall, however, they fall into three categories as the following example email subject lines demonstrate:

Category 1 - Tempting

You have new mail from Olga

Didn't I know an Olga once? Maybe I'd like to know an Olga? Lets have a look at what she sent me.

This video rocks

How did the sender know that my hobby and passion is geology?

Funny ecard

Excellent. I need some jokes I can borrow for my blog.

u are so nice, dear

This is so, so true. I implicitly trust where this link will take me.

I have numerous other examples of the Tempting spam category that I could mention. I think it best that I save you from temptation.

Category 2 - Improving

don't get left behind

Oh no. I'm at risk of getting left behind. I'd better see how I can keep up.

can you imagine that you are healthy?

I can. But what if there is something horrible lurking unannounced within my body. What does my nocturnal bathroom visit really mean? Did I have that mole yesterday? Needing to drink twelve cans of Red Bull every day is normal, isn't it?

hey man, stop throwing away your money

Come to think of it, our holiday was somewhat expensive. Actually very expensive for someone not in full time employment. And then there's all that back to school stuff.

become fit and happy again

When was it that I was both fit and happy at the same time. Oh yes. Childhood memories are always so, what's the word? Confusing? No. Misleading? No. Selective? No. Confusing.

I have numerous other examples of the Improving spam category that I could mention. I don't think you want me to go to those lengths.

Category 3 - Weird

cradlers

I have cradled many a baby, particularly two very special ones. Now they are twelve and eight, my cradling needs have diminished thank you.

mollison

I think there is a Mollison Way in north-west London. I'm not totally sure. The spelling might not be the same. In any case, I have no pressing need to go there.

effisant

It's words like effisant that annoy me. I'm enjoying a book and some smarty pants author sends me to the dictionary to discover how well read I am not. Frankly, you've turned me off.

kkuhsuos

Now you're just being silly.

If I want weird. I can just follow this link.

Friday 31 August 2007

Some people view the end of August as the end of summer. Others see it as the gate to the new school year. Football fans, however, monitor the gossip, rumour and minute-by-minute reports of which club may buy which player. The football transfer window closes at midnight tonight and the opportunity for dazzling commercial skill to mightily influence your team's season goes away until January.

Dazzling commercial skill? Not really what goes through football fans' minds. No. Which team got which player or which team didn't get which player or the sums of money involved and, most important of all, the success, or failure, of "my team". That's the stuff that matters.

All these things do matter and play through my mind as I grapple with the 38th year of supporting my team. It is interesting, however, to reflect on the very public displays of commercial capability provided by the transfer market.

Take the case of Daniel Alves of Sevilla. An extremely talented and accomplished Brazilian international right-back. He plays for a pretty good Spanish club on a pretty good deal. He, and his advisors, believe he should achieve better to fullfil both his footballing and commercial possibilities. The answer is, therefore, to move to a club playing at the highest level and with very deep pockets. Who could be better than Chelsea bankrolled by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich?

Take the case of Chelsea Football Club. Close to being the best team in Europe if not the world. Close isn't good enough. What needs to change? A few things including filling that troublesome right-back position but also not spending quite so much of Mr Abramovich's money. So how to achieve both? Why not sell one player to fund the purchase of another (Daniel Alves)?

Take the case of Sevilla. A successful team but not quite up there with the best in Spain (Real Madrid and Barcelona). To make the move up to the next level will require significant investment and risk. Keeping a player that no longer wants to be at the club is not helpful. Maybe selling at a huge price is the answer? Who better to pay a huge price than Chelsea?

Seems like fertile ground for doing a deal. You'd think ....

12 months ago Sevilla were reported as being prepared to sell Mr Alves to Liverpool Football Club for £12M. That deal did not go through. Liverpool did not match Sevilla's valuation - they were reported to be 15% off. This summer Chelsea offered £21.5M. 80% above Sevilla's 2006 asking price. But this did not match Sevilla's 2007 £27M valuation.

Reports in the press indicated that it was only a matter of time before Sevilla and Chelsea agreed a price. Geronimo Suarez, Mr Alves's agent, was confident that a deal would be done.

The day after Sevilla rejected the £21.5M offer, Chelsea signed Juliano Belletti, a Brazilian international right-back, from Barcelona for £4M. A good player albeit heading towards the end of his career.

No deal for Sevilla. No deal for Daniel Alves. An acceptable deal for Chelsea.

It's clear that all is not well with Sevilla and Mr Alves as he did not join the team when they traveled to Greece for a key match against AEK Athens. Jose Maria Del Nido, Sevilla's president, is quoted as saying "Daniel Alves has shown a complete lack of respect towards his colleagues and the organisation by refusing to travel with the club that pays him."

Theoretically Sevilla could sell Mr Alves before midnight but it would be damage limitation rather than any considered strategy. Only Chelsea is ok with the situation. Only Chelsea demonstrated the basic understanding of what those children of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Think! Inc and Vantage Partners respectively call "Consequences of No Agreement (CNA)" and "Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)". What you and I might crudely call having options or a "Plan B".

This basic but fundamental commercial strategy is too frequently ignored in the headlong rush to work a deal. Or there is an the arrogant belief that, come what may, one side's negotiating power, skill or influence will prevail. Or there's not enough knowledge or it's too scary to contemplate possible failure and, therefore, alternatives. Or because the planning stuff takes too much time and just gets in the way. Or any combination of these factors.

Plan B is not a new concept. After all, just over 400 years ago management consultant Shakespeare penned the immortal phrase "To B or Not To B".

Wednesday 29 August 2007

My mother celebrates her 78th birthday today. There were celebratory comments, birthday cake (Cranks recipe, baked with my fair hands - honest it was the wholemeal flour and raw brown sugar that gave it the texture and dark colour) and X-factor standard tuneful renditions of "Happy Birthday" renditions. Additionally, her age triggered comments about and memories of gramophone records that traveled at 78 revolutions a minute.

This nostalgic moment in turn triggered thoughts about the vinyl albums stached away somewhere at the back of our garage. Unplayed for well over a decade. In any case, not capable of being played since our then 10 month old son decided that it would be fun to test the tensile strength of the pick-up arm on our turntable.

This in turn led to thoughts about our old analogue camcorder and the tapes that we know we can play as long as we can use the camcorder itself for playback. Not the most reliable method for long term viewing. We treasure the images of our children when they were very young more than being able to play my once treasured Top of the Pops compilation album featuring classics like "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" and "Back Off Boogaloo" - click on the links and you'll understand fully. We need to work out how to transfer to a current media format. And then keep current as formats and software programs evolve, shift and change.

The real challenge is staying on top of things and deciding which trend or trends to bet on. Would loading the images on YouTube be a good bet? Maybe relying upon Google's commercial interest in keeping YouTube going would be good? Or maybe Google will pull the plug if they do not get the right return on their US$1.65B investment? Or maybe the best thing is to cover the bases and chooses a number of options?

Realistically, what will happen is that for most people nothing much will happen until such time as the underlying problem surfaces. Then it may be that a solutions is readily available and cost-effective. Or shrugs of shoulders, possibly tears and a realisation that something has been lost for ever.

Tempting to consider the many parallels in terms of personal and societal development. Or maybe an interesting commercial opportunity not only on the technology front but also, and possibly more significantly, on an individual service level. I just need to have another slice of birthday cake and then I can think about it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

Monday 27 August 2007

It was tempting fate. Weeks ago, before the full extent of the autumnal summer weather was known, we arranged with friends to meet up for a picnic over the August bank holiday weekend. Ordinarily it should be sufficient for a bank holiday weekend to summon cold and wet weather. This summer, traditional bank holiday weather has taken over as the norm with household after household weakening and firing up the central heating weeks before it would usually be switched on. So contemplating a picnic was really a flight of fancy rather than any serious thinking. A nod to summer promises and delights rather than reality.

Last week the time came to plan the day. Prudently we agreed to meet up at the Albert Memorial. Not to provide any shelter from the rain as it is fenced off from the public. But to provide easy access to the open spaces of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park - maintaining the illusion that we would be dining al fresco - as well as the indoor picnicking areas in the nearby Science, Natural History and Victoria & Albert museums where obviously the weather would banish us.

But something strange happened. Maybe it was two negatives (v.poor summer weather plus traditional bank holiday weather) making a positive. The day was glorious as can be seen here.



A sky for the album and many thanks to F, H, B, T, C, F & M for a fabulous day.