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Writing Your Plans

I just read a post on a private alumni forum I belong to that was titled: “Are Business Plans Still Necessary?”
Todd Smith, the author fellow Alumni of Thunderbird, actually made the point that they are a necessity and was posted by . Tod does think business plans are necessary. He adds a few interesting data points:

“Studies have shown that people who write down their goals earn 9X the income of people who don’t during the course of their lifetimes, yet only 4% of people ever do.”

I have worked most of my career in software start-ups and I couldn’t agree more! Writing your goals, strategies and tactics to achieve them is basic thing that commits someone to true purposefulness. In other words, you may derive completely from your original plans, you may have to revisit the plan, modify it from-time-time to time, but you won’t do it unknowingly. You will thereby develop a deeper sense of how well you are doing and where you are going. It’s what makes the difference between the 4% who do and those who don’t. It’s also what allows those who do to take control and what forces those who don’t to follow in their path (in my humble opinion).

If You Want To Lead, Don’t Be Afraid Of Leadership

General George C. Marshall served as U.S. Army Chief of Staff during World War II. In 1939, Marshall chastised his junior officers for their failure to disagree with him about his planning strategies. Marshall told them he did not want yes men on his staff; he wanted officers who were not afraid to question his decisions.

There is an important lesson in this story. At first, one could rationally say that a leader who wants to be challenged can end up constantly fighting his men and their challenges to him rather than leading and achieving actual operational progress. In the same way, one could say that subordinates who challenge their leaders can easily end up being chastised for that very reason.

Approaching leaders and leadership roles involves some risk because leaders yield power and can change lives of their subordinates for better or worse. But in that realm, there is an unavoidable chance of harm and success at the same time.

Effective leaders like General Marshall need a healthy dose of challenge because no challenge guarantees no feedback loop on their decisions when they were wrong. Every leader needs to adjust just as an artillery gunman needs feedback from forward positions on weather a shot come close to target or not, so he can adjust for wind or other variables he may not have visibility into from the top. On the other hand, a subordinate, should accept the risk of displeasing his/her boss when challenging him/her, the risk of being challenged back, the risk of angering his superior or even being fired. This is the only way you can establish a real dialog in trust with your leader with a healthy dose of challenge back-and-forth.

Good luck with the balancing act of shining back your “lights” at the top of the hierachy without turning into an Icarus.

Synomia Talks to BFM About Its US Launch TV at NASDAQ

« Synomia, c’est le fruit de la rencontre entre une équipe d’entrepreneurs et une équipe de chercheurs du CNRS » | BFM Business.

Steve and Woz Original Garage Worth Only $1.2M

Steve Jobs just passed away and his legacy is just starting to be fully realized. Online fan sites of all sorts already exist on the man and his legacy. Then I wondered, what happened with his garage. The one Jobs and Wozniak built the first Apple in. Well here it is:
http://www.allaboutstevejobs.com/pics/places/garage/garage.html
2066 Crist Drive
Los Altos, CA 94024

But wait, it’s only $1.2M!!!
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2066-Crist-Dr-Los-Altos-CA-94024/19621378_zpid/

Managed Home Energy, Automated or Not

Connectivity Week (Santa Clara, end of May 2011), is the yearly event in the Bay Area where the grid industries (utilities, power plants, transmission operators, cities) and the IT industry meet every year to discuss and make deals around the smart grid. This year Intel will feature the Intel® Home Energy Dashboard. This is not new. It was presented last year at CES. Like Microsoft, Google, and other consumer technology companies, Intel pushes ahead in its effort to enter the home with a system that gives average energy end-users control over their energy usage. This is a great leap forward which still leaves great questions looming. No Intel didn’t wait for appliance manufacturer to finally deploy connectivity and on-board energy management or for the utilities to finally deploy a smart meters made for the consumers, not for meter readers. They just deployed this:

The video shows a system that seems fairly easy to deploy (connectivity to appliances through plugs, communication through WIFI with all devices, the utility, and more). Ability to monitor, control, and optimize energy usage. For all the activity, though, there remain questions about how much consumers are willing to pay to better manage home energy and whether Intel or any other tech provider can make money helping consumers save money. Even ability to use this tablet PC-based energy dashboard as a video conferencing device with other users in other homes. But the question remains: are consumers willing to pay for a device that will still require learning and time to manage their energy usage, when they have spend the best part of the last 50 years consuming energy usually without having to worry about its cost?

In a recent CNET article, Martin LaMonica, says: “Utility executives are acutely aware of the need to improve consumer engagement to make the grid more efficient.” and “At the same time, analysts say that better energy management in commercial buildings and putting sensors on the transmission line to improve efficiency is typically a much easier business case than residential systems. So why the rush into home energy management?”

Here is a question for you, what if the solution was rather in more automation of energy management. It seems to e that with a nice PC in the home (like the Intel dashboard is based on), sensors at every plug or in appliances themselves, it should be rather easy to reduce a good part of wasted energy use just by usage pattern detection such as: Turn TV off when it’s been without channel or volume flipping for more than two hours, or when the alarm system didn’t detect a presence in the room for an extended period. Allow fridge to cycle in a wider range of temperatures without kicking compressor back on between 3AM and 6AM when it’s obvious the door won’t open by a user. Turn heaters off when the alarm system or wall plug volumetric presence detectors haven’t detected a presence in a room for more than 2 hours. etc. etc.

In other words, why putting the onus on the consumer when there seems to be enough technology and data in the dashboard to automate some of the decisions? Any thoughts?

TSE and Commercialized Truck Parking

TSE (Truck Stop Electrification) is coming to a highway corridor near you. You may have never heard of it but this new service for truckers has been changing the road transportation industry’s future and is prompting many to re-think the road transportation entirely. Truck Stop Electrification is a solution to the problem of idling diesel trucks. Trucks idle at night on rest areas to run their AC and electrical appliances onboard. Anti-idling laws, costs, and environmental concerns have pushed the DOE and EPA to endorse and sometimes finance organizations like Shorepower, IdelAir, Cascades Sierra Solutions and others. All are promoting or developing solutions to make TSE easy : allow trucks to be equipped and TSE outlets to be available along their routes so they can plug-in to DC outlets at night instead of idling their large diesel engines for a few kilowatts to power a TV and AC on board.

Initial TSE services (IdleAir and Par’n'view) fell apart for lack of customers or high cost of operations. This led industry pundits to open the the larger issue of truck parking commercialization for debate. State highway authorities have gradually been closing rest areas around the country as tax revenues have fell. Laws have been enacted to commercialize these rest areas. Trucks are forced to park along highways and streets at night without any official parking locations for them. Truckers and fleets must still comply with mandatory rest periods and anti-idling rules. There are more trucks on american roadways every year and some areas (North-East) are particularly affected by the noiuse, pollution, and even dangers of trucks randomly parking with their cargos on side of the road and sometimes close to residential areas. Additionally, existing private truck stops have built their business largely around diesel fuel sales and they have fought to keep trucks coming for more. Parking is free at the 1,200+ US trucks stops but fleets are increasingly willing to pay for guaranteed reservable parking spots. In Europe early experiments of paid truck parking along highways show promise.

The future is therefore pretty obvious. Within the next decade, there will be a viable business around better truck parking for long-haul fleets. Truck parking with be commercialized because that is what is needed to offer the amenities truckers and fleets need while complying with government rules. It will be possible to reserve a spot at a truck parking location and idling won’t be necessary anymore. These parking spaces will come with amenities such as showers, food, restrooms, etc. It will be on and off highways. The question is just who will roll this out? How and what will be the business model that will successfully emerge from the various experiments under way? The solution will have to include all parties: truckers, fleets, governments (local and federal), existing truck stops, truck manufacturers, etc.

Please comment.

The Less Sexy Issues With Wikileaks

Julian Assange has a flair for PR sensation. His hair-dos and outfits always giving him the air of hybrid of The Matrix’s character Neo and an international reporter or adventurer on a mission. On the other side of the media war being waged, the institutional stiffness of the electric blue suits of Hillary Clinton, the grey dull faces of countless bureaucrats calling for his arrest, or even the sadistic grins of conservative pundits calling for Assange’s assassination on the air. We have a perfect cast for the Robin Hood story of the information age.

OK, you may not agree with my view of this new media drama but you can’t disagree that the argument is very “dramatic” indeed and rarely rational in nature. I agree with some Assange’s inclinations in that he does seems to want to defend the average citizen from what he perceives as institutional control of all information. I am not sure I agree with the methods anymore though. What threw me off was his big announcement of yet another leak on banks to come in a few days yesterday. Regardless of how important this leak will be, regardless of whether or not Wikileaks should leak it, I felt he had just lost an opportunity to create consensus rather than more fear and antagonistic reactions. He could have instead capitalized on the sympathy much of th public and some of the elites who felt the justice system has unjustly and sometimes illegally or violently dealt with him so far. I felt he started to miss the solution to the societal challenges he has highlighted by his work so far. I now feel he offers no real solutions.

Let’s backtrack a little. The Wikileaks phenomenon could not exist without a fertile ground of mystery around much of what our western democracies’ leaders and armies do in our names abroad. There will always be a need for confidentiality around wars and international diplomacy. Can anyone really disagree rationally. How could D-day be mounted to end WWII in total transparency for instance? But since the Patriot Act and the start of the Iraq war, the gap between the public’s perceptions and the reality of what is done and said in our name abroad has widened dangerously. It doesn’t take very long and hard look to detect the discrepancies between the justification given for war for instance and the actual actions taken by forces on the ground especially if you read comparatively media from two different countries. The public doesn’t necessarily go this far in their quest for truth but, over time, a sense of dissonance between what is said and what is done by our leaders appears to everyone. Some choose to blame it on Washington’s deal-making culture, democrat communism leanings, or dangerous dictatorial republican tendencies, etc. All in all tough, the simple fact is that everyone feels a bit manipulated one way or another. This is the perfect fertile ground on which a well orchestrated campaign of revelations like the Wikileaks revelations will grow in outsize proportions. Maybe it’s even needed since these revelations seem mostly true and genuine and these new truths are gradually plugging a lot of “holes” left by our government excessive secrecy, thereby cutting the air supply to the conspiracy theorists that thrive in the land of doubt and disinformation.

However, it seems that Julian Assange has an unprecedented opportunity to address the real issues with some suggestions for solutions rather than constant hopeless call for outrage at government tactics. If I could talk to him right now, here is what I would tell him and which I share with you, the readers, in attempt to start this debate on the grounds where I believe it really belongs:
“Julian,
Thanks for all you’ve done in the name of truth. You have shown unusual skills in your ramping up of this campaign and you have inspired many, including me, in your crusade for freedom of expression.
Please don’t forget that strength at rational thinking and knowledge is not enough to make sense of this world though. Human beings are essentially social in their essence. Society doesn’t work like a computer system. It’s a mix of system thinking and humanistic aspirations alone that makes all great revolutionaries. You need more of the second in my opinion. If you had honestly considered all the consequences of your absolutist crusade for transparency, you would have probably addressed a whole host of problem that you have not mentioned so far:
- Wouldn’t you agree that the same Internet anonymity techniques that have allowed Wikileak’s work can be used by criminals for reprehensible acts?
- How do you propose to avoid that Wikileaks is not used for public opinion manipulation in the future with fake leaks and allegations which Wikileaks or other media organizations won’t be able to dispel or authenticate?
- How do you propose to avoid that governments use the above dangers to strongly over-regulate the Internet (se Hadopi example in France)?
Please consider these questions carefully and tell me if you don’t think they are not worthy of a democratic debate? Regards,
Dan”

Back-to-Zero: Give your Brain a Creativity Break

I just got an email from Jerry Dollar an experienced international executive about to write his second book. He was looking for ideas on leadership. This is what I wrote the Jerry, I thought it was worth sharing with the world. Let me know what you think:

Hi Jerry,

Bravo for this exciting new project! Sounds like a good book idea at a time when the Internet is changing the way leadership shapes the world by allowing so many new leaders to emerge from the shadows and be heard on the global scene.

I have one idea which you’re welcome to quote and has become a key pillar of my professional life ever since I developed it. I call it “Back-to-Zero”. I was working at large internet startup at the end of the 90s. We received over $150M in venture capital from several investment rounds it top European and US VCs and went from 50 to 350 employees and back down to 50 during my 2 and 1/2 tenure with the company. It seemed like we were never going fast enough, like we were never flexible enough. As a young Director of Channel Sales at the time, I felt strong pressure from each consecutive executive team (we changed CEO 4 times) to grow my department in a different direction. Additionally, I had to pressure my team in an equally erratic way. After a year or two of that regime, I felt I had to constantly force myself not to think too much, obey commands from top management and keep forging ahead in ever changing directions. It was hard and felt very awkward at times: Like the time I was asked to announce to a customer that the product they had signed a $250K contract to buy just didn’t really exist but that its replacement would b much better!

Then, I had a realization of sorts: my instinct to push on the breaks when asked to forge ahead in a direction that made no sense to me and my colleagues maybe wasn’t such a bad idea after all. In simpler terms: Taking a good night of sleep or even a week vacation to THINK when everything seemed desperate or when urgency was on everyone’s mind was something which could make a leader or a group of managers stronger. Not just because of the rest of course, but because ideas and creativity get shutdown by stress. When under stress, our bodies and minds shut-down essential functions one after another to ensure that only vital organs and vital mental instincts get our energy and stay active longer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol). However, unless you are involved in something illegal, business is rarely life-threatening like being chased by a predator in the wild is. Additionally, the best mental and social qualities of human beings ; those abilities which help us fight adversity and have made us the dominant specie over the ages, are really not of the kind of human qualities which an overly stressed existence leaves any one person or organization with.

“Back-to-zero” is like magic to me. For instance, imagine you finished a bad work day feeling like you are in a bind with no end to your struggle in sight. At that very moment you feel like the struggle ahead is going to be painful and laborious. Ask yourself if a little of the “Back-to-zero” medicine (rest, a short vacation, a day away from work, an outing with colleagues doing something completely different, etc.) wouldn’t help you get the kinds of ideas whom talented peers seem to have when all hope seems lost. Not just because you need to relax and rest, mainly because what you need when fighting any kind of adversity are ideas, good and new ideas especially. The kinds of ideas that only a rested and inspired creative human mind can have!

New ideas come from two things in my experience: rest and serenity + stimuli from unexpected areas. By this I mean that once you are rested, you need stimuli from things unrelated to your area of struggle. If you feel hopeless, it usually means you tried and and researched many possible courses of actions to resolve a problem already and have not succeeded. Therefore, trying to look again and again in the same area won’t help. Back-to-zero forces you out of your usual area of focus, your office, your company, your team, and allows you to look at things from an outsider’s perspective. Coming back in from a rest and a change of scenery, you will see everything in a different light. That new light will break the paradigms that plague your current approach and have left you without a solution. Now solutions are there for you to pick and try until you need a new Back-to-Zero break. Enjoy!

Hope this is helpful and let me know what you think.

State Department Warns Students Against Discussing WikiLeaks on Facebook, Twitter

Wow! The wikileaks saga continues to shake the world. It touches virtually all most essential issues of internet governance, freedom of expression, international politics, etc. This is now defintely going overboard and it’s going to reshape many political movements in the West. Regardless of where you stand,what do you think?

State Department Warns Students Against Discussing WikiLeaks on Facebook, Twitter.

4 Venture Capital Highlights For Oregon

A great article from Thomas Thurston about the entrepreneurial trends of Oregon: 4 Venture Capital Highlights For Oregon. Enjoy!

My take: I am among the mad entrepreneurs who agree that it’s time for a change in Oregon and that the sate needs to innovate and take more risk to foster real innovation and job growth in a number of sectors where it could lead instead of trail behind MA, NY and CA. Portland, is home to a growing cohort of innovators and experienced entrepreneurs with skills and knowledge to rival the best regional clusters in the software, clean tech, food, and new media sectors to name a few! Let’s unite and some kick ass!

Action-Oriented Consulting in Product Marketing and Business Development for the Energy and Information Technology Industries