Category Archives: Reality checks

August 8, 2008 · 8:31 am

Glass Houses

I’m sure not many of you are following the latest development in Torrent Spy saga out in LA.  Having already won a major judgment against Torrent Spy, the MPAA got sued for illegally obtaining emails from Torrent Spy from a former employee who hacked into the system.  The suit was thrown out using highly technical definitions (you can read about it here – it just makes your head hurt).  The decision is being appealed.

My point isn’t that the decision isn’t good, bad or indifferent.  What I can’t understand is the thinking of the individuals running the MPAA.  How is is OK to hire someone to steal information?  If a former bank employee went back into the bank’s computer and pulled up your financial records to give to an enemy, how is that fine because they technically had access and the records were where they were supposed to be?

The organization also said it originally believed the e-mails had been obtained legally. “It was only through discovery in this case that we learned that he had engaged in conduct that violated the law. We do not condone it, we repudiate it,” the group said in a statement.

You want to repudiate it?  Drop the damages you won in the suit.  Someone acting on your behalf broke the rules.  You need to call a penalty on yourself.

As businesspeople, we sometimes do things that we know, as human beings, are wrong.  We use “it’s business” to justify what is an utterly contemptible act committed to help our revenues, help our careers, etc.  How about we all try to do better?

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August 4, 2008 · 8:15 am

Patience

Big Brown won the Haskell Invitational yesterday.  For those of you not into horse racing, Big Brown won the first two legs of the Triple Crown this past May and failed miserably in the Belmont Stakes.  Yesterday’s win, while against a weaker field than the Belmont, was a win in a stakes race nevertheless and put to rest a good chunk of the doubts about this horse’s ability.

I bring this up because this is typical of what goes on in the sports world as well as the business world (maybe politics too but we don’t go there in this blog!).  An athlete or business person puts on some unbelievable performances and is elevated to “all time great” status immediately.  Maybe they repeat the performance for a little while at the same superlative level.  Then, they stumble.  The media, the public, maybe their peers give up on them.  They question if the prior performances were due to luck or drugs rather than ability.  Finally, like Big Brown, the former star puts on a good performance – maybe not at the superlative level of before but certainly good enough to demonstrate that the earlier performances were not flukes.  Big Brown is one example, Michelle Wie is another (although she really should have played in the Women’s British Open this past weekend and not against the men).  One can argue Dale Jr. is another.  I can cite a number of examples in business.

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that I believe in making rapid, informed decisions especially when dealing in areas such as digital that are constantly changing.  However, there is a difference between making a rapid decision and making a rash decision.  Rash decisions ignore prior facts and are delivered in a tone of “this is written in stone.”  Writing off anyone on the basis of a single poor performance is rash.

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July 22, 2008 · 10:25 pm

Keeping Current

When I was at the NHL, occasionally someone would ask me “what is the hardest part of your job?”  I think they were expecting I’d say something about the hours or balancing the demands of the 30 clubs and the various league departments, but that really wasn’t the hardest part.  Nope.  The most difficult thing then, and now, is staying current.  With all of the change that occurs on a daily basis in the world of digital media, I find that I spend, in 5-10 minute bursts, several hours a day doing nothing but reading newsletters, blogs, and web sites (not to mention several daily newspapers – you remember them) and trade magazines.

I’m sure many of you use an RSS reader of some sort to help get through the volume of things you read regularly.  I use Google Reader and I looked at the “trends” tab this evening.  Over the last 30 days, I’ve received around 14,250 items from my list of 66 subscribed sites.  Of those, I read 2,116, roughly 70 a day.  Of course, not many items come through on Saturday and Sunday so the total is really closer to 100 a day.  Those are the ones I read in depth – I had to look at every headline and decide if the in-depth look was warranted.  Obviously many of these items led to my reading other sites to which I don’t subscribe so they’re not in the previous numbers.

All that so when a client asks about trends or some new technology, I don’t stand there with my mouth agape.  Frankly, I feel like the more you do know, the more realize how much more there IS to know.  As I wrote before, it’s really OK not to know – uncertainty makes me want to chase down answers which is how I learn – but MAN!  The information deluge is overwhelming my mental levees sometimes.

Staying current is the most important thing one can do, whether a consultant, an executive, or just a citizen.  While I know folks who don’t like to let the facts get in the way of a good story, the reality is that most great decisions are made because someone gathered as much information as possible and did an excellent job of synthesizing it to draw a conclusion.  There are times when one doesn’t have much to go on and that’s when the value of experience really pays off.  But when it comes to information, particularly in rapidly changing times, the more the merrier!

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