Joel's Mutterings

If you could give your high school self advice upon graduation, what would it be?

juliaallison:

I’ve been asked to speak at a Manhattan high school’s commencement next week. Given that I remember little except that my own high school’s commencement speaker (a board member) was mind-numbingly boring and woefully off topic (classmates remind me that she spoke about death.

So … I’m asking you - if you could give your high school self advice upon graduation, what would it be?

Many a person says commencements are about beginnings however today you start the next step on a journey to a start. Will you be free to make your own choices, absolutely. Will there be great times ahead, to be sure. But with freedom comes the burdens of responsibility. No more can you slack off and know that someone else will cover you.

So this advice I pass to you as the best of wisdom from someone who has passed this way before.

A) Live life like everyday is precious. The next so many years may be the most care free and fun of your life.  Savor the day and walk through these days with your head held high and engaged in life.

B) Form friendships and know that some of these people will form the foundation of your life for years to come. Likewise enemies made from here on out may last a lifetime and they will reappear in the future when you least appreciate it.

C) Do not waste these years or the opportunities that they will present. Your future is out there for you to discover, enjoy life but do not party so hard that you miss the sign post pointing the way towards your bright future.

D) Make the best choices you can since from here on out your choices count and will make a difference in the future.

If nothing else, when all else fails think in terms of what you will say to your future self when you get there.

The Value of a Network

Someone to call when in doubt is great in a pinch, the ability to reach out and make something happen is salary enhancing to say the least, but knowing the right person at the right time is as our friends at American Express would say, priceless.

So what is the value of your network?

There are those who would say a network is only worth what it produces and others who are not sure if networking is worth the time involved. Some will pay lip service to the ideals of networking but still never find the time to network until they are dieing of thirst by the side of the unemployment highway.

Recently, Linkedin a well know if not always understood bastion of professional networking was valued as part of a round of funding at 1 billion dollars. With 23 million members one might argue that sets the value of each member at $43.48.

All mathematical fun aside, clearly one can not and should not put a price on ones network because each and every contact is of limitless value and the only real question is how to tap that value.

One of the questions I am asked most often is what one should do with Linkedin and other networking tools. It seems getting started is not hard but what to do once you have establish your network is anything but intuitive.

Here are some tips of what to do once you have established or re-established your network:

Spend some time every (day, week, month) keeping up with what is going on in the lives of the people in your network. In some cases this is done passively by reading their blogs, twitter posts, Facebook statuses or profiles on their social networking tool (Friendfeed is good for this) of choice. This allows you to stay current and interested in these people. I may not talk to my good friend William more then 5 or so times a year but I know what he is up to and when we do connect those connection are more meaningful cause I am not as out of touch with his life as I would otherwise.

Make the effort to stay in touch. If you keeping up with the lives of those in your network then finding excuses to stay in touch is not a big deal. Many day to day events are an excuse to reach out. Post a comment on their blog drop them a note to say you were thinking of them or share an article or link that you know to be meaningful or useful to them.

Connect your friends. Go out of your way to introduce those in your network to each other. I am always meeting people and introducing them to others who I think would appreciate, be able to aid or benefit from the other person. People like to meet people in similar or even allied fields of interest and you never know when fate will produce something great out of a not so chance meeting.

Review your network. Make sure you spend a little time browsing who is in your network. These are not baseball cards to be stored and not looked at for fear of devaluing them. No matter if you use a Rolodex ofbusiness cards or have more contacts in Linkedin then Ron Bates you need to review who you know so that you do not forget who you have met.

Be more willing to give then receive. Simply put if everyone asks and not one gives then it is a worthless network. However if everyone is willing to give what they can then the value of the network is limitless. What to you is a simple favor is priceless to someone and likewise that big need of your may be simply achieved by someone you know or is connected to someone you know. If you are know for what you do for others many more will be willing to help you achieve your goals. So spend sometime reaching out and helping others achieve their goals.

Do not stumble around in the dark. If you are using Linkedin or several other of the social networking tools you have the ability to know who you are dealing with. So take the time to look up those people you meet and if it so happens that you meet the cousin of a valuable member of your network make sure you point out the connection.

Get out and connect. It is not enough to connect over the internet. Having met a person once or twice they are much more likely to remember you and be willing to do something when the time comes. So get out and mingle with your network once in awhile (more then once a year). If you are staying currently with the people in your network you will never lack for opportunities to do this.

Feel free to keep up with me at: Twitter, FriendFeed, FaceBook, BrightKite (want an invite send me a note).

Getting Started

I would not say I know much about start-ups although I suppose I know much about getting started. My experiences is mainly in the nuts and bolts of starting up the operations of a business. Creation of bank accounts, telephone systems, HR issues, payroll, office space and the such. Most of my practical experience come from the creation of multiple production offices and companies.

There is of course a whole world of start-up experiences beyond these daily nuts and bolts issues.

Start-up’s have been much on my mind of late as I have been pondering what will now be next weeks ExecTec networking topic (if you are not already familiar with my networking efforts in LA I welcome you to learn more here).

Here is a part of the topic for this Tuesday’s dinner:

What does it take to start up a new idea? We all have ideas but few actually act on these ideas. There are many obstacles on the way to getting started and more then a few have fallen victim to the bigger issues of funding, intellectual property issues, prototyping, business planning and basic execution of an idea.

What are you in it for and are your partners in it for the same thing? Will your business be a life style business that allows you to gain income with little or no effort in the end or are you trying to create a cash flow business that will generate serious revenue? Do you wish to be rich or do you want to be master of your vision and company?

Is your idea compatible with VC funding or would you be better off with more traditional business funding?

What separates inspiration from conversion? Can you be sure your idea is worth the risk? What should be your first step? Is it even safe to talk about the idea?

Do you focus on the product, the funding or the sales?

Getting outside advice is critical the question is where to get quality advise without loosing your shirt or idea?

My dinner on Tuesday will be the first of a series of opportunities to join others in exploring the world of start-ups.

Amanda another ExecTec member will follow along on Thursday at her LA Agile & Scrum User Group discussing “How do you get a new idea off the ground?”

Andrew Warner is hosting his “Getting Your Startup Funded? Mixergy Forum the week after and if you did not catch his excellent interview with Dan Gould that he did in as a lead up to this event it is well worth a listen as well as some of the other materials he has posted on his blog.

Lots of good thoughts and lots of good opportunities to start getting connected!

Conflict is not bad

Heather Vescent in her blog brought up the issue of conflict and who found some clarity in Gallups Strengths Finder book which showed that one of her 5 key strength was “Command”. A strength that does not fear conflict but sees it for what it is.

I wanted to add my thoughts on Heather’s reconciling her relationship with conflict:

Many people confuse conflict with a lack of cooperation.

The concept of Fierce Conversations as a concept and as outline in the book by Susan Scott makes clear the value of not just agreeing for the sake of it.

Many people like meetings where they are managed to zero conflict. This is great for a cult but it really makes for a weak business. Diverse thought makes for a strong solution and a good manager evaluates all ideas not just those that are close to his/her world view.

I think when dealing with conflict it is always good to have some ground rules like dealing with problems and issues and not people. Just because someone prefers another path does not make them the problem.

Also being solution oriented and not problem oriented is always a better way to deal with conflict.

If people were more willing to approach conflict and engage in fierce conversations then we would get farther faster and with less pain.

Joe Mandese does not get social networking

I commented on Mr. Mandese’s blog post today where he clearly seems to miss the value proposition that Plaxo and other social networking tools represent.

 As social networking is a pasion of mine I responded as such to him. Feel free to find your way to his site and add your own thoughts or share them here.

Mr. Mandese,

Excuse the formality of this note but I see we do not know each other nor are we connected in anyway shape or form as far as I can tell (or perhaps we are but you clearly have no way to know).

I think you are missing the point. Plaxo and and other social networking sites such as Linkedin are valuable in and of themselves and not just as tools to be desired by an old media giant to help it in developing an open community. While I will agree with your assumed premise that the old media should be developing a more direct relationship with its consumers, I would say you the old school should be looking to expand your thoughts on the value of online social networking.

You come off like one of those executives who held out against email in favor of more traditional written communication. This is hardly worthy of an Editor-in-Chief who should be more of a thought leader then a technological stick in the mud.

Face it, the millions of professionals on Linkedin and the plethora of people socializing on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, Tumblr and many other socially based web 2.0 sites can not all be wrong.

Networking is something you do for yourself and not for others. Today as Editor-in-Chief the world beats a path to your door but as my more notable brother (now that reference would mean more to you if you were part of a social network along with me but I assume given the unique nature of my last name you will get it none the less) there are friends and friendlies and the real difference is who you will be connected with when the chips are down and the job/title is not in play.

Simple put, when done correctly those in your online network are the people you are truly connected with. Perhaps you only really consider the few people you have connected with on Linkedin and Facebook as worthy of your connection but I somehow doubt it.

I would have respected you more if you had told those few advertising big shots that you were standing your ground and not playing into the system. It is as if you come off in a bad light for having pandered to what for them is a valuable tool.

To use your own words, the rules are changing and so are the times. I certainly hope you are wrong and that Mr. Roberts and Comcast see more in Plaxo then you do. Things are on the move and it is more important to ever to be connected both with one’s consumers if you are a media giant or with your network of valued connections if you are an executive in any business.

Now there are executives who to this day survive without email and without other technological tools and perhaps even flourish without them. However, they are the exception and to be sure one needs not look far or deep into their organizations before finding executives who do get these tools and do use them.

I will stand and defend your right to stay connected in the manner of your choosing, but I would argue that those who find a way to maximize their social connectivity using these new tools will win the day.

Joel Ordesky

Execution

Getting things done is something individuals everywhere struggle with. Often procrastination wins the day.

Companies similarly suffer from a lack of ability to achieve. However, where an individual’s procrastination is easily seen for what it is, in a company a lack of execution is often buried in excuses that make seeing the real problem impossible.

Why is it that the culture of execution is so hard for so many companies to achieve. No company sets out to have bad customer service but many clearly fail to deliver in that sector. No company lacks the motivation to achieve their goals and numbers but many of them do. No company seeks to go out of business but they do more and more.

You can blame the strategy of the leadership.

Or perhaps it is the quality of the management team.

Maybe a change in the market place could be to blame.

More likely struggling companies suffer from a lack of ability to execute. It is not that they do not want to achieve, it is simply they are not set up for execution. That which sticks to the wall in these companies is more luck then skill.

So what is lacking?

Often companies and managers grind the gears. Simply put they are constantly changing focus and goals and or they are not clearly communicating the goals through to the rank and file. I am always amazed that the business plan for most businesses is a closely kept secret. Clearly this is not good for execution of th plan.

Staffs feels no ownership of the mission and do not buy into the goals since they tend to shift like the wind.

Most companies quickly settle into a culture of corporate fire fighting or managerial mole whacking which does nothing to further execution.

Are you part of the execution solution or part of the problem? 

Digitial Hollywood Panel - The Revolutionized Digital Workflow Experience

I will once again be moderating at Digitial Hollywood coming up on May 6th.

The Panel will be:

The Revolutionized Digital Workflow Experience: Understanding How Information Technology, Broadcast & Entertainment Production Merge

With the world of broadcast entertainment rushing toward a file based workflow more and more the need to present a viable and undertandable digitial workflow is needed.

After all what is digital workflow really? Is it simply one step better then the age old sneaker net and does it bring a true value to the broadcast and entertianment space?

Joining me in discussing these and other issues will be: 

Steve Canepa, IBM, Vice President, IBM Global Media & Entertainment Industry: As Vice President, Global Media and Entertainment Industry, Steve is responsible for IBM’s overall results in the Entertainment, Publishing, Broadcast, Cable, Satellite, Sports and Advertising customer segments worldwide. He is also the founder of and a key leader in IBM’s cross-industry Digital Media initiative.  Steve has guided the marketplace strategy and solution offerings for IBM’s Global M&E Industry organization since 1995. He directs the worldwide sales of IBM’s broad portfolio of hardware, software and services and is responsible for IBM’s marketing activities, including all messaging and partnerships.

Tom A. Ohanian, Chief Strategy Officer, Signiant: Tom oversees the development, improvement and customer acceptance of all Signiant offerings with a special focus on exceptional customer experiences and continuous innovation. Ohanian is an accomplished strategist, designer, and inventor of digital media products and workflow solutions and was a founding member of Avid Technology. Drawing upon his 26 years in the media industries, his inventions and efforts in product creation and evangelization have led to the widespread adoption of digital nonlinear video, film editing systems and workflow strategies in addition to LAN and WAN digital media collaboration. He is an Academy Award® and a two-time Emmy® recipient.

Michelle Munson, President and co-founder of Aspera, Inc., is co-inventor and software architect Aspera’s core technology, Fasp and responsible for overseeing the company’s direction. Aspera specializes in creating innovative data transport technologies that solve the fundamental problems of network data delivery. Before founding Aspera in 2003, she began her career with IBM Research as a software engineer at the Almaden Lab in San Jose, CA. Michelle has B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Physics from Kansas State University and a post-graduate Diploma in Computer Science from Cambridge University where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She was the 2006 KSU College of Engineering Alumni Fellow (the youngest recipient ever) and serves on the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council. She was a Goldwater Scholar, a national finalist for the Rhodes, and received national awards from USA Today and Glamour magazine.

Michael Pusateri is the Senior Vice President, Technology at the Disney ABC Television Group in Burbank, California. Responsible for Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology, Michael has been with Disney since 1995. Previous to that, he worked at Sony and National TeleConsultants designing television production facilities. In broadcasting, he has led the facility conversion from analog television to digital television and pioneered the use of video file servers as play to air devices on the flagship Disney Channel network. On the information technology front, he leads the use of weblog software, syndication aggregators, and wikis to rework internal business workflow systems.






Jake Winett, Global Industry Manage, Media & Entertainment, Communications Sector, Microsoft Corporation: As industry manager for the Media & Entertainment business in the Communications Sector at Microsoft, Jake Winett is responsible for driving strategy, messaging and business development of world-class software solutions for the film and television broadcast industries. Winett works with different business and product groups across Microsoft to combine technologies to help drive new and better ways for media & entertainment organizations to realize their potential in the new digital age. Prior to joining Microsoft, Winett spent six years as director of operations for Media.net Communications, Inc., a workflow technology company which delivers high-end real-time collaboration solutions to television and film production companies and studios around the world. Winett began his career in software development at ImMix (now part of Accom). He has also held software and product development positions at Autodesk and Adobe. Winett holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University Long Beach, where he graduated cum laude.

Paradigm Media Shift

One of my favorite Bloggers (bookofjoe.com) wrote a commentary on advertising in response to this Wall Street Journal Article about Pepsi dropping the agency handling their Gatorade and Tropicana brands in which he outlines 3 commandments for 21st century TV advertising:

1) Thou shalt not repeat a commercial within an hour of its last showing ? anywhere in the same time zone.
2) Thou shalt not spend a fortune making any one commercial or series of them, since they’re never gonna come remotely close to earning back their cost.
3) Thou shalt therefore realize, o corporations and ad agencies, that the future of your products lies in taking off the tunnel vision blinders and not just looking in different directions but seeing with different eyes. If you can’t do that from within, find them outside your corporate confines. Remember that reality goes not just sideways and forward and backward and up and down but moves as well in time. Use the fourth dimension ? or it will use and crush you.

Not bad for a blogging anesthesiologist, maybe Joe should give up pushing gas for something less meaningful to society.

Maybe Pepsi has been following Mike Masnick series (here, here, here, here and here) that speaks 4 truths that apply to more then just the web of which he was speaking.

1. The captive audience is dead.
2. Advertising is content.
3. Content is advertising.
4. Content needs to be useful/engaging/interesting.

Obviously NBC is paying attention since it formed a new NBC Universal production unit which is teaming up with an advertising agency to create programs around sponsors’ products.

Of interested for those of you not keeping up with the links in this topic should be that Omnicom the agency teaming up with NBC is the parent agency of Element 79 which Pepsi has dropped from the Gatorade and Tropicana accounts.

All this stands in interesting contrast to comments of Tim Robbins to the National Associations of Broadcasters last week in which he called on content providers to rise above the base [read as lowly] programming to help raise the nation to its highest level, as opposed to the lowest which he clearly believes we are in. Robbins challenged broadcasters to actually not think strictly as business people, but to lead the country through their programming.

Of course as the blogging anesthesiologist correctly point out the most important fact is that, “We click and leave now when we’re bored or when we know we’re about to be.”