Saturday, 17 September 2011 6:17 PM
As an avid agnostic political follower, I am somewhat concerned at the lacks in our politicians at the moment. Granted it is an unusual political environment and an unusual time both domestically and internationally however you do get the feeling that both sides of politics are struggling with exception to a few pollies that seem to have convictions and the fortitude to put them out there.
Politics is the art of compromise. That is granted and I have to say I would absolutely struggle in politics because lets face it, to get anywhere you really have to be attached to the major political parties one way or the other and then you are guarenteed to be compromised on many issues. That is not to say that other walks in life are not full of compromise, its just about getting the right balance. In business, for example, there are plenty of times that you have to put forward a compromised or commercial position in order to achieve a mutually acceptable result.
With this in mind I thought I would share my top 3 business lessons for our ailing politicians....
1. You can't sell what you don't believe in! Whether you are the head of a business or a run of the mill sales person you simply can't sell what you don't believe in. This was an early lesson I learnt from selling cutlery door to door and pushing people for demonstrations. How can you be passionate about a product if you feel the product is not right for the client or is lets say simply inferior.
Politicians - take note. If you don't believe in the core reasons behind policies you will simply not sell it to the people. Does anyone else think that is why Julia Gillard is struggling to convince people on off shore processing, the carbon tax and a range of other policies? I also think people are very clear on Tony Abbott's position regarding climate change and the carbon tax.
Now if you are in a position of having to sell something you dont believe in; it's a pretty simple. Stop selling it or upgrade/change it to something you love and are passionate about. Now if that means you lose power or lose position perhaps you can win in it back by selling the right product that people can clearly see you are passionate about!
2. No Money, No Business. Someone said it right? "It's the economy stupid." Well in business it is simple, if your money in doesnt meet your money out you are simply out of business. This is no different in politics. If the country is bleeding revenue, jobs and opportunities there is simply no room for anything else than focusing on getting back in the black. I agree you must provide services to the community and build a better Australia however quite frankly the basics are getting the economy in good shape.
Right now there are a number of issues that are burning our politicians time, energy and willpower that are simply right out of whack with getting our economy in good shape. Why we have to hear about Craig Thompson, gay marriage and with all due respect a trickle of "illegal immigrants" is beyond me. Surely the livelihood of Australian industry, that provides jobs, which provides money and so forth is a critical issue to address. Surely evolving Australia's economy is a bigger issue than some of the hoo haa we have to carry on about. (Media listen up I am onto you next!)
3. Fear campaigns have a short fuse. We've all been exposed to fear campaigns before right? You know the whole "buy this or your head will explode in 30 seconds!" I can name a few industries that do the fear sell and there are plenty of cowboys in the I.T market doing the fear sell. However as logic would have it the market wises up and the doomsayers largely get discarded.
So pollies if you think you can get ahead pitching on the fear campaign; be aware that people will wise up very soon! This is highlighted with a few gents (no names mentioned) who are able to spout rhetoric, that Cicero would be proud of, but when pushed there is little substance to it...
There are plenty more business and life lessons for our politicians but what are your suggestions?
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Miscellaneous Stuff, Business, Announcements, Solutions | 1 Comments
Monday, 8 August 2011 2:52 PM
The digital age is brilliant however one of the things that does your head in when you are trying to concentrate and get things done is the constant barrage of emails, texts, calls, status updates, notifications and so on. It’s a great way to leave the office at the end of the day with a headache fully realising that very little was accomplished despite constantly working away all day even sometimes up to 10 hours a day with little breaks.
Imagine in the "old school" environment of no computers, a job where 90% of it was to write, send and receive letters to your colleagues, suppliers and clients.
An excellent economist article (http://www.economist.com/node/21525350?frsc=dg|a) recently spoke about innovation and ideas often being stimulated when people were away or on leave. It’s simply a case of having the mental space and time to go deep on a subject. I recently read someone liken it to REM sleep. That is; being able to go into a deep sleep to get excellent sleep and waken feeling rested. So in other words being able to have the time to concentrate on a topic or task and being able to go deep into so that the best results are produced. I believe the excellent company 37 Signals (http://37signals.com/) speaks about this subject very well after implementing a lot of rules to keep their developers and designers with minimal interruptions.
One of my favourite tricks in getting work done is to "go offline". It sounds a bit rogue doesn't it but actually it is just simply blocking out all the chatter that is going on so that you can focus at work. I actually have to be a lot better at this as I certainly don't do it enough and often end up spending Saturday going through work just to catch on things.
Here are some of the practical things I do to "go offline";
Outlook - I use 2010 so under the send and receive buttons I click the Work Offline button. This means that you can still access your emails and work away merrily without the constant distraction of new emails popping in. (And you know you just want to check each one right?) Another good one for Outlook is to turn off the message alert popup, the notification and the sounds each time something comes in.
Phone -The silent option on most phones is a good quick option however going into flight mode is a great way to stop vibrating alerts and pings that happen as data comes through to your handset.
Messenger/Skype/Browsers - Go Offline. Pretty straight forward right? :)
So that’s just a few ways of coping in these days of "digital barrage" particularly if you are like me and have to get out tender responses, development business and so on!
Comment if you have suggestions, ideas or want any other tips
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Miscellaneous Stuff, Business | 1 Comments
Saturday, 30 July 2011 8:40 AM
I often get asked about what motivates me and drives me in business. Its not one thing but many things really however I can often point to my Dad as a great source of inspiration and motivation. It wasnt always this way and certainly as a teenager I butted heads with Dad more than anything else however it is great to get to a place where you can really enjoy your father's company and get some pearls of wisdom. Like the joke goes (and I am para-phrasing here) "When I was a teenager my old man knew nothing, but when I turned 21 he had learned an awful lot."
Perhaps this piece is a little early for father's day or the like however I wanted to share three things my Dad taught me through advice and example which drives me on.
"Do you want to be a spectator or a participator." I don't think Dad ever repeated this to me ever but it was such a great call to action. Yes it is easy to sit around and talk and especially easy to critique what others are doing BUT what about having a shot yourself. I guess this is a bit mantra for me and certainly there are critics out there but at the end of the day they arent going to judge you on success or failure ultimately. (Unless perhaps you're in the arts :P)
"No regrets" Dad didnt say this in as many words but he did often talk about the things he would have liked to have a crack at when he was much younger if the times and circumstances had permitted. I suppose in the nicest possible way I didnt want to end up having too many regrets although I'm sure my Dad will tell you things for him turned out fantastic. :)
"If they are right; change. If not keep at it." This points back at the critics in lesson 1. Criticism can be hard to take especially when you are trying your hardest. But what I often try and remind myself is working hard is not the measure of success, it is simply only part of the recipe and so it is extremely important to listen to the feedback. So I've learnt to listen to every piece of feedback (criticism/hard words/abuse etc) and try to apply this rule over it. Are they right? If so change your ways. If not keep going. (the art of diplomacy helps greatly with the last part)
Dad has a wonderful trove of advice and opinions which I have appreciated over the years. Having a mentor who genuinely cares and wants to help is invaluable!
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Miscellaneous Stuff, Business | 0 Comments
Saturday, 16 July 2011 3:33 PM
Sometimes in the course of starting, growing, establishing, expanding, building, managing and (phew) setting up a business you can really forget what drove you to get started in the first place. In that daily striving for surviving and finally thriving; you can lose your mojo. I know because it happened to me!
Back in 2003, I made a decision to declare war on sloppy IT or sloppy IT services. You know what I am talking about; technical people not turning up on time, equipment going un-maintained, shockingly bad communication with clients and fellow colleagues, poor presentation, lack of standards, unprofesionalism and the list goes on.
It's a strange thing really because it seems to be a pretty uninspiring choice of action really given the subject matter but I think what really drove me too this was the ever increasing need for IT in organisations and a realisation that if things don't change pretty quickly businesses and organisations everywhere were simply just going to suffer.
The sad part about it all was that plenty of people simply just put up with this sloppy behaviour often because they had no expertise, the subject was foreign to them and they were frightened at the thought of challenging these behaviours.
So in any case I was determined to make a change. My team was going to provide the kind of service and systems that were professional, reliable and just about everything that was a major improvement on the status quo. The mission statement was to be the partner of choice with a special interest in small to medium businesses around Australia, because these poor folks were at the hands of some very sloppy providers.
7 years on, after founding TechFlare in 2004, I realise that whilst we have made some major impact there is still a long way to go particularly when, with the rigours of making ends meet, we have gone off the trail a little. I look back and shudder at how some projects have gone pear shaped, not due to a lack of desire but simply due to a cocktail of factors with the root cause of forgetting our major calling. This business is not about shipping boxes, completing Gantt charts, loading systems, installations and the many other tasks that make up the day to day rigmarole; this business is about providing outstanding service and continuing to build on the standards of amazing IT service and delivery.
Our GM, Martin who started 12 months ago, looked at where the business was going and brought up part of this subject when he talked about the lack of service delivery sales. That is the desire to engage with TechFlare on the basis of amazing service. Pretty soon it was back to the drawing board and re-focusing our attention on delivering excellent IT service and making a difference.
We are without a doubt a long way off where we aspire to be but it is nice to be reminded again of the real reason for existing and the sense of drive to take the company forward and hopefully the industry for many years to come. Onwards and upwards!
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Business | 0 Comments
Sunday, 21 November 2010 9:10 PM
Roosevelt once said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." I write this blog in reference to the businesses out there doing it tough and in particular reference to the many Australian and New Zealand businesses going into the quiet period over the next few months. (Retailers you are excluded and hope you have a whopping one)
So back to the FDR quote. Fear is a common feeling amongst the business fraternity. Why? Well let me tell you from first hand experience as someone who has run two companies for some time. Fear has been a fiend of mine over the last few years. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. Fear of not living up to expectations. Fear of letting the side down. The list could go on and on.
But recently I made a vow. No more fears only inspired thinking, optimistic analysis and real positive action. Fear leads to falter. You know the kind of feelings and depressed state of mind that doubts your strategy, your plans and even your right to be doing what you are doing.
So kill off fear people! As someone close to me said recently; "You can go out the front door or the back. I suggest we aim at the front." Makes me chuckle now to think of this. Of course you would always aim to succeed and not to fail but sometimes the old mind gets you tricked into thinking of all the things that could go wrong and you start subconciously planning for failure.
I am not suggesting that people act delusionly or keep rolling the dice metaphorically speaking. I just suggest ,like I did recently, everything should take stock of their circumstances and situation and then take positive planning steps to succeed. Everyone has a pathway to success and the only way we take the first step is putting aside fears and charging forward!
With that I wish all you fellow business people the best in the days to come and keep FDR's words in mind when thinking of the future!
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Business | 0 Comments
Saturday, 17 July 2010 4:18 PM
Systems. Without these, whether manual or automated, life would implode all around us and a new form of anarchy would exist. Well that's probably a little dramatic but you get the point right? Without a system success definitely isn't on the agenda. Take the ants. They have a great little system to ensure their colonies survive despite the seasons. Look at Spain's amazing football team (even if somewhat boring) they have a system that they follow and it is very succesful. It explains the great gap between the amateur and the professional from the coaching staff, backroom staff and playing staff.
So why I am blogging about systems? System = Save Your Self Time, Energy and Money. This applies to everyone. It doesnt take a genius to work out that doing something efficiently and in a consistent manner translates either more time, energy or money. Take a paper run. Would it make any sense at all to deliver papers one house at a time on foot taking the most inefficient route? Of course not. Equally so it makes no sense to store the most used products at the back of the warehouse or take the slowest vehichle to the race track.
So this is just common sense right? In fact people are very resistant to systems as I have found in the past. It is mind blowing to see how some people train, study, run businesses and organise events. I am often found scratching my head and trying to work out how these lovely people get the job done when they seem to want to it the most difficult way. Remember those clever Bill Pay adverts with the chap struggling out the pool when the ladder was right next to him or the person with all the luggage stumbling along when the walk aid was right at hand...
When I often ask these chaotic entities I often hear the same objections about systems and solutions -
* Its always been done this way.
* It takes too much time to work out a system.
* It costs too much.
* I dont have the time.
* It simply wont work.
* etc etc
There are plenty more excuses (or reasons) that people dont want to invest or at least more importantly investigate into systems. One of the most glaring obvious is that people do things for themselves and not the organisation or their peers. This is fair enough I suppose but it certainly isnt the right reason to improve things for all and sundry.
Systems dont have to be expensive, complex or time consuming. I'm betting if each organisation or person chose one small system and put it in place right now that everyone would have more time to spend on other things. Here are some examples -
People
* Get an intray
* Put all of your new bills and letters in the intray
* Allocate half an hour every week to review this and action as due
* File the paperwork away
This is hardly rocket science but the time and money this small system will save certainly will stack up over time.
Organisations
* Write down the goals of the business this year
* Break it down into milestones and objectives
* Email a copy of this out every week to every staff member including yourself with a progress report
* Request feedback and ideas
So once again something very simple but so effective. Imagine having everyone understanding the goals and seeing the progress being made. Wouldn't that improve efficiencies and energy and thus save time, energy and money? Kind of like having a big scoreboard that all your players could see during a match? Where the score shows up and how much time to go......
So systems can be implemented everywhere by anyone and let me repeat; they are not too hard, too expensive or too time consuming. One of my favourite parts of my job has been implementing systems in TechFlare over the last 6 + years. From our job system, invoicing, sales, quoting and to many more systems it has been a thrill where processes have been run and things work smoother, faster and certainly save us more time, energy and money. I will be extra excited when I have a large chunk of my team running off the iPad to improve their efficiencies and the quality of work. Being able to improve the speed of delivery of quotes, job sign offs, project delivery, number of meetings and reduction of printing and luggage is just some of the benefits that these devices can bring.
Happy to hear your thoughts and ideas on systems!
Adios...
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Business | 0 Comments