One of my favorites movies of all time is Errol Morris’s Oscar Winning The Fog of War. It’s a collection of life lessons from former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. McNamara is an incredibly accomplished man having served as President of the Ford Company, Secretary of Defense (under Kennedy and Johnson) and as President of the World Bank. His lessons are unforgettable but what is most interesting is how war, morality and duty are uncomfortably woven together. I’m still totally unsure how I feel about the man. (Although I love his sixth lesson — Get the data — which could serve as a slogan for data-driven decision makers everywhere.)
What’s great is that you don’t have to take my word for it — the whole doc is on Google Video. You can watch it by clicking below. Enjoy.
For those of you who don’t know yet, I’m proud to be part of the team at Offermatica (recently acquired by Omniture). Here is what I’m sure will be the first in a series of shamless plug posts as I use most of my energy to get settled in SF.
The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling books for the week ending September 8, 2007 - 2 out of the Top 14 mention Offermatica:
So I’ve made my way to San Francisco and will be spending the remainder of the day preparing for my first night in my new apartment. For those of you who know SF, I’m living in the Inner Richmond. I’ve got great views of the park and am dangerously close to Tommy’s. Come and visit when you have a chance.
Tomorrow is my first day on the job at Offermatica — I’m excited and energized. More updates soon.
My good buddy Arun has been working ferociously on this new product from AOL — my.aol.com. If you have a moment, click on the link and visit the mgnet feature. mgnet is a recommendation engine with an innovative interface for selecting content relevant to you. It uses pictures as a way of getting at what you like and don’t like. Congrats Arun — this product is engaging and really fun to use. Although I’m not sure what it says about my character that I keep getting this picture of Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell recommended to me.
In the “another good idea I got from reemer department” comes a post about http://www.kiva.org. Simply put, kiva links up capital with entrepreneurs that need it.
Many moons ago I took a course with Reuven Brenner called “Creating Wealth and Prosperity”. It was filled with big picture thinking and I loved it. Professor Brenner is one of the most staunch free market advocates anywhere and has piles of data to back up his assertions. His course can largely be summed up by this quote from his book The Force of Finance:
“Prosperity is the result of matching brains with capital and holding both sides accountable…”
That accountability has traditionally come from a solid legal and regulatory framework. For instance, let’s say a company wants to borrow money to purchase a new factory. In Canada this business can purchase a factory with little fear that it will be expropriated by the government. If expropriation was even a remote possibility, lenders would require a much higher rate of interest on the capital that the company borrowed — to compensate for the higher risk. There are many other potential risks as well: currency fluctuations, corruption and inflation to name just a few. So in high risk countries only projects that can compensate for this risk through profit potential are funded.
Kiva.org eliminates this problem for entrepreneurs whose projects don’t have the profit potential to compensate for the high perceived risk of traditional investors. The projects on kiva.org are small but can have a big impact on the communities they serve. They can create products, services and livelihoods. Choose the project that most speaks to you and distribute a little capital.
As an Entrepreneur, I’m fascinated with the concepts that have come to be known as Business Intelligence. Fundamentally business intelligence refers to a data-warehouse filled with information from all areas of the company. The data can then be presented in reports tying previously disparate information together. Take it a step further and you can mine the data looking for relationships not yet uncovered. Pretty awesome.
The Analytic in me thinks this is a dream come true. After all, one should be able to focus clearly in on what metrics drive performance then monitor, manage and reward based on them. It takes the complex process of managing a company and simplifies it. It removes the messiness of human folly. What you’re left with is clean, gorgeous graphs, delicious drill-downs and sublime dashboards. It’s every executive’s dream come true, isn’t it?
Here’s the thing: Before you can develop any meaningful B.I. implementation, you have to know where you want to go. So start by developing a strategy. Then you’ve got to work on determining what really is going to drive that strategy. So one must work with one’s management team to determine the core measures that will determine success. Then comes the daunting task of getting everybody on board. One has to manage internal politics, expectations, fear and misunderstanding. All of a sudden, this B.I. implementation has turned rather messy.
My point is that, as hard as you try, there’s no simple way to run a company. The technology is only a tool to help you stay on track and support you in your decision making. It’s your job to get the right people headed in the right direction, quickly. Don’t look to B.I. to do that for you.
I had a friend visiting from Oxford this weekend and so we decided to head over to Toronto Island. After a hotdog, we went to check out the Frisbee golf course. As n00bs we brought a regular frisbee expecting to have our run of the course. Little did we know, but we were about to stumble upon the PDGA’s (Professional Disc Golf Association) Canadian Open. It’s a world I didn’t know existed.
For instance, did you know that they use these special discs? Most competitors carry at least three discs. A driver, midrange and putting disc. Each disc has a speed, glide, turn and fade rating. This site explains it as follows:
Speed - Speed is the ability of the disc to cut through the air. Speed ratings are listed from 1 to 11.
Glide - Is the ability to maintain altitude. Higher numbers mean more glide. Rated 1 to 7.
Turn - Tendency to turn at high speeds. Negative numbers are easier for beginners, rollers, and tailwinds.
Fade - Every disc will fade off in the same direction if allowed to decelerate. Higher numbers fade more than lower numbers.
They even have bags! Like regular golf bags but for discs!
As you can probably tell, I’m fascinated by this. And that’s just from 30 minutes of watching people play. Most fascinating was the total lack of irony out there. (Like the clip below.) This is a growth sport — mark my words: this is going to be huge.
I did a little self-assessment using some form of the Myers-Briggs personality test. I can’t believe how they’ve pinpointed so many of my traits. For those of you out there keeping score, I’m an INTP: Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking and Perceiving. If you can find one of those free tests out there, you’ll be surprised how much you can learn about yourself. It’s useful in figuring out what you’re likely to be good and not so good at. That way you can concentrate on your strengths and stop beating yourself up over your shortcomings.
Here’s a little self-serving quote about my mind (ha) from some web page (which may or may not be of dubious quality):
The mind of an INTP is both a finely-honed analytical tool and a playground of ideas. Its strongest function is introverted Thinking, which is supported by extroverted iNtuition. In other words, INTPs interact with the outer world intuitively, observing the big picture and its implications. They use their introverted T to process this information logically and abstractly, analyzing new ideas until they understand every aspect.
I don’t know if you find that interesting at all. If it was your brain — perhaps you would.
Also — I’m back on the blog after a prolonged absence. So tune in for ramblings about entrepreneurship, technology and music. I was suffering from blog fatigue. But I am no longer.
P.S. Listening to Skream - skreamizm volume one — some of the best dubstep I’ve heard thus far — but I’m admittedly new to the genre
