A few things…

I spoke to a partner today; he was concerned about my health: Is the blog dead? First, there are far more ways you can get your daily dose of Vlad these days and it’s not all limited to the blog anymore. Every time there is a sigificant technological change some people will not follow; when I dumped my mailing list many people stopped reading my opinions but far more followed on the web/rss. Second, the community changed: I now dedicate more of my time to my own community (or rather, OWN community, and work on contributing more to the folks that depend on me for a living) and finally, Third: My company growth is skyrocketing and between that and the kid and the wife and the dog and the monkeys… the 24 hours get tight.

So when I said that Greg just asked for a list of things I’m thinking about or keeping an eye on. “There is too much going on, it’s nice to have a filter.” 

So here are a few things I’m thinking about today:

One common thing all fired employees have is the inability / unwillingness to be a self starter. When I think about everyone we’ve lost over the past year or so, one thing sticks out: Everyone was fired because they were no more valuable to the company than the day they were hired. The best people we have get a clue about what’s going on by watching what others are doing: They can either sit on their ass, fly below the radar, not get noticed and avoid responsibilities (which, hint: we can tell) or they can try to keep up and try to fix the problems they do see. When they do, they get promoted. When they sit on their hands I am no less inclined to keep them on day 823 than I am on day 3.

Do business owners really not know how hard they suck? I will say that this is something I disagree about with many of my peers. Perhaps because I’m a programmer and I know exactly where I’ve cut the corners. But seriously, if you closed your eyes and couldn’t picture at least 3 problems with your org you’re a damn liar. So the question really becomes: do you really need an external SWOT? My opinion is that no, you do not. (you might want to skip this section if you disagree) First, not only does this absolutely put the stamp of admission on your management’s bad leadership, it tells your employees that you need an external party to tell you what’s really wrong: which the SWOT will turn up by asking the very same employees questions about your business practices in the first place! Second, if you really feel that you need to solve big problems wouldn’t it be better use of time and money to fix your biggest problems instead of letting strangers pour through your financials and process documentation while you wait and see what they recommend? Third, even if you believe in SWOT as a concept then it’s something that needs to be done on a continuous basis, (at a 10K level you have to do it quarterly) and evaluation, testing, process enhancements and so on are continuous activities, not point in time audits by independent parties.

Microsoft Web Office – Lesson in business models dying: Just because something makes a ton of money (Microsoft Office) doesn’t mean it has a future and Microsoft is yet again going to have to dance the line between admitting they were wrong and not being too positive about what they have done as to detract attention from the still massively profitable Office suite, thereby dooming their new Web Office. Here is the nutshell: we were wrong about what the customer wanted, we fixed it but we’re going to be very hush about it because we don’t want the people to automatically disregard Office suite and in the process we’ll make it impossible to market ourselves against Web 2.0. There is a Microsoft marketing manager somewhere committing a seppuku with an office chair he imagines Ballmer will throw at him.

Fail. We’ve collectively lost our patience with technology that doesn’t work 100% of the time. These days it’s always on or it’s FAIL. Even if it’s free, even if its a technical marvel, even if it’s beta… if it’s not working 99.999999% of the time, it sucks. Meanwhile, the deluded IT managers with the 8 hour node maintenance intervals scoff at the notion that this is the future. Here’s a Zune HD for ya fellers.

Outlook 2010. 14 years later, I still can’t read my email without it freezing, crashing and burning. Thank god for the iPhone and Outlook Web Access.

Economy. Baby are you down down down down down. Everyone wants to debate it. Yet companies are growing while others are shrinking. At some point the external factors are simply an excuse for not doing what you should be doing (scroll up for the SWOT opinion) and the longer you debate it the less opportunity you’ll have to take advantage of it.

At the end of the day folks, it all comes down to accepting the fact that you’re in control. Embrace your freedoms and your abilities and do something with them. You can just shrug, ignore this, do nothing or do the same thing you did yesterday… and blow your life off to “gods will” or you could work for what you want out of life. Happy Friday.