This is also one of the beauties of contemporary social media. It gives everyone who care to pick it up, a bull horn to serve their own purposes. Even today I’m probably too conservative in self-aggrandizing activity, but I’m working at it.

The article triggering the thought, originally is courtesy of Chris Guillebeau discussing what Hustling is.

Joey Roth created the artwork and I think you’ll agree, no words are needed beyond the labels.

(photo credit: Joey Roth)

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Every once in a while you come across a new book that just knocks the ball out of the park.  And, so it is with Charlene Li’s Open Leadership.  As an active proponent of social media I’ve read a number of books on the topic.  Yet Open Leadership is the first that has a presented a practical, pragmatic, and far-reaching discussion about how to integrate it into the fabric of existing companies.  Not only how, but why, and why now!

Someone looking to do a ‘power-reading’ of the book might tend to dismiss it as a social media ‘how-to’ manual after the first couple chapters.  There’s much more to it though.

Social media is the book’s consistent thread and is pervasive throughout. Yet it’s not about social media itself.  Social media is the contemporary reference to a broad sea change involving how we communicate.  This communication has made it as easy for the CEO to interact directly with customers as it is for the individual employee, and that employee with the CEO his or herself.  When it seems everyone can communicate with everyone else, how can you effectively lead anything? This is the crux of Open Leadership.

In a world where communication drives ever higher levels of transparency, mistakes are on a public plateau, and leaders are encouraged to let go.  Things move too quick for one, or even a select few, to respond quickly enough.  Imagine, developing a way to trust everyone in the organization to do what is right.

Lest this seem to utopian, Charlene provides a series of guidelines for how to introduce more openness to an organization.  For cases where the all-important ROI must be addressed, she provides some reasonable mechanisms for doing so.

At the same time, she provides structure for how to control, provide guidance for, increased openness.  Senior managers may be afraid to let everyone ‘go wild.’ To this, she provides the notion of sandbox covenants.  Provide employees, managers, even customers, guidance with how to interact…what the rules of the road are.

Once she completed the ‘essence’ of how to constructively introduce the openness of social media to the organization, the book seemed to get into second gear.

Open Leadership is about the need to be more collaborative, more open, more transparent, and evolving the relationships needed to make it work.  One note on transparency, openness, and ‘authenticity,’ Ms. Li actively talks about what these mean.  They’re not just buzzwords dropped about.  Just ‘what’ does transparency mean? Do you need to be ‘open’ about ‘everything?’

Most important, the 3rd segment of the book, is primarily about relationships.  Mind-sets. Traits. Trust.  And how each of these need to be considered as you look to evolve your organization.

We all know (or we all should) that the world’s pace has picked up a couple notches.  Everything is happening faster, more visibly, and involving more people.  You can fight it (and you will lose).  Or you can figure out how to thrive and take advantage of evolutions in communication, openness, and lead your organizations (regardless of your role) forward.

Toward the very end, she provides a number of good case studies, including the U.S. State Department, Dell, Proctor & Gamble, Best Buy, and the State Bank of India.

Fortunately, Charlene’s give us an excellent, constructive, guide to start working with.  If you’re even remotely worried, or perhaps just curious, about how social media really can work within your space, you need to get a copy to read.

In the interest of full disclosure, the publisher sent me an advance copy for review.  No other monetary consideration exists.

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A company’s president recently faced this basic question. The topic made for perhaps one of the most interesting, fresh topic, posts I’ve read in a while. So, do you sling mud too, or, ignore it, push forward, and take the high road?

Here’s something to think consider

Personally, I agree with the sentiment to avoid slinging mud. But there’s a difference between participating in the same behavior and standing up for yourself. In today’s social media world of broad transparency, you cannot afford to ‘not’ say anything.

Borrowing from a Harvard Business Review post yesterday, a happy coincidence:

"Customers also want to hear from the CEO. They want to know your product is better than your competitors’. They want to know you’ll still be in business to service that product a year from now. And they want to know you’re listening. Especially if you’re in a B2B business where purchases are expensive and the product is critical to your customer’s success."

Today, not defending your position can be hazardous. By default, others will assume it’s true. If you use the ‘old’ reasoning, that (1) customer that called you might suggest (10) others that won’t take an effort to actively call. They’ll assume what they’re hearing about you is true and, just leave.

Defend, state your response, and then keep sprinting forward. Defend your honor but don’t let your team get bogged down in the process.

Final thought, this is the ‘meat and potatoes’ of social media.  Whichever channel(s) you choose to employ, start building, developing, growing your customer relationships (B2B or B2C).  There are numerous examples where, when someone has been egregiously wronged, those they have relationships with come to their defense or otherwise help in mitigating damage.  Even if a claim is true, how you deal with it (hint: honestly<g>) can serve to further strengthen your foundation, your relationships.

(photo credit: Anry Ermolaev)

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Given current economic conditions it is hard to believe there may be a looming labor shortage in the U.S. Periodicals of all size and repute have discussed the topic. Just do a search (boomer “labor shortage”) and read a few articles to reach your own conclusion.

The short version, as soon as 3-5 years the U.S., due to increasing numbers of Boomers retiring, will be left with a smaller, less-experienced work force.

There are so many variables, the argument won’t have been decided for another 20-30 years .

Tied to concerns of a potential labor shortage are concerns involving knowledge transfer.  As the more ‘worldly’ move on, they’re taking their hard-won knowledge with them.  Those left behind will have to relearn everything themselves.  There is a potential loss of competitiveness from things like lost productivity, re-learning, and ability to recruit to meet needs.

Here’s a real-world example.

A friend of mine was an electrical engineer at Ford, calibrating transmission designs, when Ford did the infamous ‘Ford 2000’ program. The gist of the Ford 2000 program was the accelerated retirement/departure of older workers to give room for younger people to advance. New blood would give fresh life to a stale industry.

In the following re-organizations, my friend was assigned the ‘added’ task of doing transmission oil dipstick tube routing. You know, how does that tube go from ‘down there’ to ‘up here’ with all the kinks in it?  She spent a good part of the next year learning the INs and OUTs of dipstick tube routing.  Before the basic ‘design’ work is done, a lot of effort is expended negotiating with other teams (e.g. engine folks, A/C folks, suspension folks…) for the ‘air space’ her tube could pass through. How might an experienced Boomer have helped grease the process, pass on who to talk to, and how?

Of all the things that go on in the design of a modern vehicle, one can only wonder at the knowledge loss behind ‘routing oil dipstick tubes.’

In my experience, with companies of differing levels of sophistication, there is near-zero succession planning. Yes, there’s an increasing appreciation that boomers are leaving; the remaining work force is smaller; and, knowledge loss is a concern. But it typically is a tertiary concern at best, pushed aside by more pressing short (and long) term concerns.

I believe one of the best ways to drive knowledge transfers involves a combination of *structured support platform and *ties to compensation. There are tools to help support education processes; nothing new there. What typically is missing is the compensation piece. “What gets measured gets done,” as the saying goes. And, often, you can just as readily supplant ‘measured’ with ‘paid for.’

We all like to support grand ideas, support noble causes, and the like. But, within ourselves, the reality is that we all do these things for much more personal reasons. It may be as simple as we like to ‘feel good’ about ourselves.

The about-to-depart boomer, like any other ‘short timer,’ is increasingly self-minded once a departure date is identified. Interest in sharing what they’ve learned, since doing so doesn’t help them in ‘their’ job anymore, rapidly dissipates. To keep them engaged, to motivate them, requires creative thinking which often involves adjusting compensation to support what you want to achieve.

At the most basic level it comes down to ROI.  Is it worth a $30K bonus (an example), to make sure the people Bob is leaving behind, have the knowledge to continue being successful?  I’m interested in your thoughts and encourage you to comment.

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On one side, there are those who feel SaaS is defined by it’s technology platform, particularly whether it is single or multi-tenancy*. If you’re not using a multitenancy* platform, you can’t be profitable and you’ll fail. Period.

Just because a service provider does not have MT does not doom them to failure. If you have a very large scale customer, particularly in relation to the rest of your customer base, it may make sense to stand up a separate environment just for them.

The discussions have reminded me, a lot, of the old UNIX versus Windows diatribes 15 years ago. They were something along the lines of: Only UNIX for ‘real’ work; Windows for the ‘little people.’

If another major customer came along that might represent a 30% revenue bump, it just might make sense standing up yet another MT as ST instance for them as well. Is my business doomed? No. Very happy actually. Whichever path chosen, it would be economically driven.

On the other side, there is the belief that SaaS, regardless of the underlying architecture, is a delivery and/or business model. In other words, you the customer are simply buying a service.

The customer does not care, should not need to care, what the technology platform under the hood may be. Sure, if they’re big enough, it may be part of due diligence (just as looking at financials may be). For most SMBs though, it simply does not matter.

The customer needs a car. What’s under the hood, Rayovac or Duracell? Don’t care. Does it do what I want?

SaaS offers two-sided benefits depending on your perspective. As a service provider, we now have technology that allows delivery of a service with significant economies of scale, very flexibly, in a manner appealing to your customers.

As a customer, you benefit from those same economies of scale, consuming software services more flexibly, more simply, and without the hassles of ownership, maintenance, and perpetuity.

Sure, as a purist, I may like to argue in favor of MT as well. Guess I’m not all that pure;). What I do know, is most key decision makers are rarely technology purists. A sure fire way to stop a sales process in it’s tracks, is let it devolve into a discussion of ST vs MT and all the related minutiae.

From my perspective, keep it simple, it is: ‘Software’ ‘as a Service’

* Multitenancy is frequently used with or without a (-) hyhen, interchangeably.

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Consider these common responses:

I am:

• Accustomed to a fast pace and will hit the ground running
• Will be a valuable asset to your organization
• Able to handle stress and pressure
• Think quickly on my feet
• Am a team player

Great! Excellent! Not!

These are, all, generally assumed to be true statements. Can you imagine hiring someone who can’t handle stress?  Someone who won’t be a valued asset?  These are almost “necessary truths”.  Otherwise they likely wouldn’t be talking with you.  Let alone thinking of hiring you. Any ‘one’ of these might be optional, such as thinking quickly on your feet.  Let’s face it, some jobs just don’t seem to require mental agility.

But, if you weren’t any one of these, why should they hire you?

The reality, boiled down and brutal, is that there are two reasons someone will hire you.

• You contribute to $$ revenue growth (make more money);
  and/or,
• You contribute to increased productivity (lower cost).
  

If you’re not either helping them make more money ($$) or improve productivity, they don’t need you.

Depending on the role, answers might be more like:

Hamburger Joint:

I’ve read the typical burger-flipper averages 3 burgers/minute. I’ve tried timing myself and can regularly do 5 burgers/minute…. That’s a 66% productivity improvement.

Executive Role:

Based on my understanding of the role and mutual expectations, I believe there are ways to improve revenue at least 10% while keeping costs from growing more than 3%.

In a pinch, if you’re asked and don’t know the answer, as a mature professional, you should be able to reasonably say:

As a [My New Role], my key focus will be delivering productivity and revenue improvements.

These are the sort of answers that will catch their interest—especially if deemed credible. Everything else is just nice fluff in my opinion.

(photo credit: Konrad Mostert)

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There are a number of myths that often come up in these discussions.  Many are simply the result of people ‘wanting’ SaaS, the next new thing, to be more than it really is…too soon.

Consider:

Myth:  “There are no up-front costs.”

Unless yours is a new business with no existing processes in place, you -will- have noticeable (direct and/or indirect) upfront costs when adopting new solutions, whether conventional or SaaS. At the most basic, there are real costs in converting your business (data migration, customization, staff training, …) from a legacy process to a new one. The larger your enterprise, the more integral your offering will be to the customer, the more likely there -will- be upfront costs.

Myth: “Scale your service usage up/down as your business needs change.”

Just how literally you take this statement depends on the agreement you have with your SaaS service provider.  Many agreements, particularly at the larger, enterprise level, assume a certain minimal rate of usage.  Penalties may apply if your actual usage falls below contractually obligated values.  Agreements likely offer ‘motivation’ for you to consume more, not less.  Assuming this myth is true may cause your business significant grief.

Myth: “Get up and running in a week or two…”

If you’re a small business, moving from using Outlook Business Contact Manager to Salesforce.com, this may well be true.  But if you have larger concerns, large data volumes to consider, and need –any- customization or integration, or you’re adopting an entire AP solution, you may be happy to be up and running in a month or two.

Myth: “SaaS lets you realize an ROI in a few weeks, unlike desktop software that can be a year or two.”

Very few things if life are absolute, and this is one of them.  ROI all depends on your cost to adopt a new solution compared with the value it returns to you.  These sorts of statements, made without any sort of context, are simply unqualified.  I have seen examples of service implementations where I questioned whether there would ever be a real return on the investment. In contrast, I’ve seen conventional desktop based solutions that offered very real ROIs in just a few months.  Be careful with this one and make sure you understand the context.  Don’t just swallow the bait:).

Myth: “Everybody has an internet connection now.”

It is easy to assume that ‘everybody’ has a good internet connection available to them.  Just because ‘we’ may have good bandwidth doesn’t mean our customers do.  Depending on where you are in the world costs can vary dramatically even today–if broadband always-on connectivity even exists.

For the foreseeable future, I believe connectivity will remain SaaS’ Achilles’ heel.  Understanding the 3 underlying components, bandwidth, ubiquity, and availability, as they specifically apply to your intended offering and customers, will dictate which platform to choose (thick or thin).

A fourth dimension may also be the level of compute intensity required and where it may occur.  For instance, video gamers playing online may require a hybrid approach (hence consoles).  Connectivity lets them share data while high-quality graphics are generated in response and rendered locally.  Other solutions may allow for raw input data to be uploaded, processed on SaaS servers, and retrieved later.

Myth: “… vendors earn their revenue monthly—they will do everything to please and retain their customers."

Whether conventional (increasingly relying on ‘subscription’) or SaaS, companies have a tendency to focus on the ‘new customer;’ winning their business; and, slowly paying less attention to ‘already won’ customers.  It is human nature.

Worse, it is not uncommon for companies to become somewhat neglectful of existing customers because they’re viewed as ‘locked in.’  Part of this is supported by multi-year contracts that, barring blatant negligence, are unlikely to be broken.

You can be just as locked-in to a SaaS provider, just as dependent on them, as you can an installed suite of software.  SaaS does not offer any special protection over this behavior.

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More than prior puppies I’ve had, Tigger has an incredible ability to attract followers and become a local celebrity.  Some of her litter mates have inquired as to how she’s been able to attract such fanfare.

According to Tigger herself, here are her Top-10 steps for obtaining celebrity

1. Look cute
2. Find high-traffic areas; like corner coffee shops, store entrances
3. Frequent, repeated visits, so they know to expect you
4. Video spots, YouTube can help
5. Social media participation – Facebook posts are good. Fan page
   probably over the top though.
6. Post pics to Flickr
7. No biting, minimal barking—not a problem for us Swissies
8. Posturing (sitting puppy, puppy’down-head between paws, tail wagging)
9. Occasional bathing for lustrous gotta-touch coat.
10. Have a nut-job for an owner
11. BONUS: This is the big one—Love others as much as they love you!

Hope you’re ready for a Grrreat! weekend,

Tigger!

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When evaluating SaaS vendors, it is important to look beyond their solution offerings, beyond ‘features and benefits,’ and at the vendor itself.

Building on an earlier article (Selecting a Vendor—Things to Consider), there are some additional things to consider:

Financial

Regardless of a firm’s size, employing a SaaS provider is not without up-front costs. It can range from customization (e.g. workflows) to simple opportunity-costs involving staff retooling. You want to be sure you’ve not just spent a large % of your budget only to have the vendor abruptly close their doors (giving you a glorious opportunity to explain why you were caught off-guard).

Financial standing also directly impacts the SaaS vendor’s ability to scale to meet your own (and their other customers’) growth. Insufficient working capital directly impacts the vendor’s ability to invest in new equipment, servers, storage, and bandwidth.  Earlier this week I posted a question on LinkedIn asking about readers’ top-reasons their SaaS vendors failed them. Arguably, each of the top-5 could be directly related to poor infrastructure re/investment or training–in other words having $$.

On the flip side, responding to RFP/Q/Is, I remain amazed at how infrequently customers asked even a single question about the vendor (us) or our finances. Sure, some do, but it was hardly the majority.

Presumptive Security

Here we are talking about a potential SaaS customer presuming a vendor’s security is adequate because of their size, customer base, or the like.  Presumptive Security: two words that say a lot. It is important for customers to pay specific attention to the security instruments a SaaS vendor may provide them (just one facet of the ‘security’ picture).

Certifications that may sound impressive (particularly to the less informed SMB), like a “SAS 70”, are often restricted to -select services- provided by the vendor. Further, they are an internal assessment which does not extend to include the potential customer. A complete security assessments must look at the—vendor and customer—security environments together as a whole.

In subsequent post(s), I’ll spend some time talking about ASP vs. SaaS and multi-tenancy vs. single.

(photo credit: Achim Sondermann)

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