Category Archives: Thinking Aloud

April 28, 2016 · 3:27 pm

Another Board Meeting

Hopefully, you’ve missed the screed enough over the last couple of days to wonder why I haven’t posted.  I’m on the first full day of my annual golf trip with my happy band of a dozen brothers from various other mothers.  I’m reposting something inspired by this group way back in 2009.  A few things have changed – the social member doesn’t take the trip anymore (I can see how he might have got sick of the golf stories) and none of us hit the ball as far as we used to, but the love we have for one another has grown, as has the importance of what I wrote about in the post.  The original was called The BOA, and what I wrote then I believe even more now.  Enjoy.

I leave tomorrow morning on an annual trip I take to Myrtle Beach.  In theory, it’s a golf outing but it’s more of a 5 day stay in a rest home getting my batteries recharged.  13 of us go, 12 of whom play golf.  The other guy is a “social member” – most golf clubs have them – who enjoys the non-golf activities – cards, movies, and general guy banter.  Like “Fight Club“, the first rule is we don’t really talk about it.  However, what I can talk about that these are the guys whom I trust, to whom I can turn for advice, and who are honest – often brutally so – with me about everything from my golf game to my attitude.  For all of the social networking tools available out there, nothing beats the face to face contact with this group for me. There is a business lesson in this as well.

Every businessperson needs a “board of advisors” for themselves, not their business.  While your significant other is a great start, like a business BOA, you need multiple diverse points of view.   My group has a few lawyers, an accountant, a few “money” guys, a restaurateur, another digital media expert  – you get the idea.  Ideally, these are people who can get past how you say things and hear what it is you’re saying. They are comfortable enough with you to know that their candor will be taken in the open, supportive spirit in which it’s offered.  When their advice isn’t taken, they’re not offended and are smart enough to hold their tongues when it turns out their advice was right.

So off I go to meet with my BOA. I’ll try to keep posting over the next few days but if I don’t, please understand it’s because I’m in a Board meeting.  When is your next meeting? Do you have a board to gather?Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

April 19, 2016 · 9:52 am

In Control

One of the interesting parts of The New York Times’ editorial makeup is the public editor. In addition to writing a few times a month, the public editor‘s role is to “handle questions and comments from readers and investigates matters of journalistic integrity. The public editor works independently, outside of the reporting and editing structure of the newspaper; her opinions are her own.” Margaret Sullivan is leaving that role and penned her last column over the weekend. In it she cautioned the following:

The New York Times logo

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The old business model, based on print advertising and print subscriptions, is broken. A new one — based on digital subscriptions, new advertising forms, and partnerships with other businesses and media platforms — is in the works. There are hopeful signs, high ambitions and lofty plans, but certainly no guarantee of success.

I think we all recognize that. It’s interesting that the Times seems have reinvented itself as a digital media company that publishes a newspaper. That paradigm change affects everything – how content is created, the speed with which it’s made available, and most importantly, the business model. The Times isn’t the only organization to have done this. Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), for example, has always seemed to think of itself as a digital services company that has Major League Baseball as its primary client, and not just as Baseball’s digital arm. Having run a similar organization for a league, I can tell you that the differences in how business is done based on that thinking are stark. Perhaps it’s time you stepped back and had another think about your paradigm?

Ms. Sullivan also struck a cautionary note:

As partnerships, especially with Facebook, the social media behemoth, become nearly impossible to resist, The Times shouldn’t let business-driven approaches determine what readers get to see. In dealing with Facebook and other platforms and potential partners whose businesses revolve around algorithms, it’s critical that the paper makes sure the news that readers see is driven by the judgment of editors concerned about journalism, not business-driven formulas that may only reinforce prejudices.

In other words, be who you are and service your readers.  Don’t let others control you and broaden your thinking about the best way to solve your customers’ problems. I think that’s a good mantra for any business.  You?

Leave a comment

Filed under digital media, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , ,

April 12, 2016 · 11:22 am

Get Dirty

It’s amazing how much every business depends on technology.  Whether it’s as basic as email or as complex as cross-platform measurement and analysis, it’s hard to find a job that hasn’t been changed over the last two decades by the advent of various technologies.  That’s obvious for those of us who work with technology and technology-related businesses every day.  It’s less obvious for people in non-tech businesses or areas of responsibility such as accounting.

English: This diagram details the layout and w...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One thing I see happening is that we tend to isolate ourselves into our primary areas of responsibility.  We learn, for example, what good marketing entails but we draw the line at understanding the technology that drives much marketing activity.  We might write great content but we have little notion about what’s involved in making that content visible both to humans and to search engines.  It gets worse as you go higher up the food chain.  I’ve known plenty of managers or directors or higher-ups who not only don’t get their hands dirty but don’t wish to understand much of anything involved in the workflow.  They love to see the finished sausage but they refuse to see how it’s made.

We can’t allow specialization to keep us from knowing a little bit about a lot. I’ll give you an example.  I got a frantic call from a client years ago.  Their new website wasn’t showing up in Google and they couldn’t figure out why.  They had used an outside developer who was unreachable (I think avoiding them since they were kind of high maintenance) and wanted to fix the issue.  One look at the homepage code showed that the developer had used a “Noindex” command which tells the search engines to ignore the page.  It’s a common thing done in development and easy to spot if you know about it. I’m certainly no coder but by knowing a little bit about it, I could help.  Problem solved.

We need to know more than just our jobs.  We need to know a little bit of everything.  You have to get your hands dirty in many processes and speak the languages spoken elsewhere in your company – tech, finance, marketing, whatever. Does that make sense?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , , ,