Two Heads Are Better Than One

I once worked for a company where I heard this saying a lot. I never agreed with it, and I would have to guess that most smart people are in total disagreement. Reading blogs earlier I came across evidence to prove, at least creatively, that one head is better than 2.

The reason for this may be a little hard to pin down, but for starters I would say that A) In a group some people are not going to speak up and B) any great idea will get marginalized by a committee.

So why do committees still exist when thy have proven to be less effective? A committee has never gotten fired.

BTW the ugly stock photo is on purpose – it has that great committee feel, no? And BTW2 that company I used to work for has struggled a great deal since I left.

Tech Bubble – No Way

There is a good amount of discussion on whether we are entering another tech bubble. I say that we aren’t entering a bubble although we are starting an economic cycle towards the web.

Think about it. Bubble has a horrible connotation, it means there will be a burst. With the Internet in the late 90s and real estate shortly after we did see a bubble (and the subsequent bust) but the ramp up was significant. I think we are entering another tech cycle and it probably will turn into a bubble, but not yet. And hopefully not anytime soon.

If you’re thinking of starting a web company now is a great time. They are rather cheap to start, investors are looking and there will be a lot of buzz in the next few years.

GOP Snubs the NAACP

You really have to admire the GOP for having the audacity to completely skip the NAACP debate in Detroit. The NAACP is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This isn’t a joke.

As you can see from the picture one candidate, Tom Tancredo, actually showed up. Probably a bit awkward for him.

The real question is why you haven’t heard of this from the mainstream media. Is it not newsworthy that Republicans don’t respect Civil rights and the advancement of colored people?

Please link to the picture of post about it on your blog.

Evangel-biz-m

This post is about company evangelism and is in response to a great article I found on news.ycombinator.com, 14 Qualities of a Co-founder. Coincidentally, I am experiencing relevant issues in projects that I’m involved in.

So, the 15th quality needed from a co-founder – evangelism.

It seems obvious, one of the founders needs to evangelize the product, but what does this mean?

It means viewing the company not as a job, but as a mission, especially outside of the office. It’s not about rambling on to your friends about your great company. You need to reach out into new communities that can help spread your ideas. The simple way to frame it is that you need to make people believe in your idea – no matter who they are.

Evangelizing your attempt to change the world is not the easiest thing to do, but you  can’t be taken seriously without it. Customers, investors and advisers can tell if you’re not an evangelist. If there is no evangelist the company is in trouble.

People that love to talk about cool ideas are a dime a dozen. Founders that talk about there world changing solutions are a bit more rare.

What is Business Development?

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a bit. Saeed’s post on the same topic helped me formulate some ideas.

Basically-

Business Development = Business (sales, creating transactions) + Development (product development)

The fact is that sometimes products have to change to meet customers needs. In the old economy the company produces a product, puts it on the shelf and hopefully it sells. Today, production is flexible and customizable, especially in technology companies. Customers expect a product made to their specifications.

Business Development is the process of finding the customer’s needs, communicating these needs to the production team and then completing a transaction which will see the product built. BDev is either product design with the customer involved OR sales through product design.

Any thoughts?

Better Than Product Placement?

Would this be called movie placement?

If you haven’t already heard, eleven 7-11 stores have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts in anticipation of the Simpsons movie being released at the end of July.  Obviousl, this is n extremely creative marketing campaign – my question is, who is promoting who.

I would guess that Fox paid 7-11 for promotion, but I’m not sure they should have. From these pictures you can see there is some serious detail in the store conversion (which cost a little money. You can also see the line waiting to get into the store to buy the merchandise.

It’s safe to say that the Simpson movie would do well solely because of the fan base built over the long TV run. If the movie is have as good as this marketing campaign, we could be looking at something remarkable.