Real Networking by Dan Katz

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-23T16:33:00.000-06:00

This year I am particularly thankful. It has been a year of challenges for me both personally and professionally. I am thankful to my family, which despite my best efforts continues to love and support me. I am blessed to have a wife, three children, two sets of parents, a brother, a sister and a large extended family of in-laws. There is no one in this world that has your back 100% percent of the time except for your family. For this I am eternally grateful.

I am thankful for my health. I lost a good friend this past year, suffered a severe cycling accident and have not taken my health for granted. If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything has taken on a whole new meaning to me.

I am thankful for all of my old business contacts that have supported me as both professionals and friends. I am always amazed by the benefits that are reaped in the business world by treating people well and with respect. I am grateful to have the types of business relationships that allow me to enjoy my work and provide for my family

Most of all, I am thankful that my life is on an upswing. The past year has held obstacles that at times seemed almost too daunting to tackle. With the love and support of my family, friends and colleagues I have had another good year and am optimistic for 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Dan

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. (football) Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. “

Erma Bombeck

Greatness

2011-11-08T13:50:00.002-06:00

“Greatness” is a pretty preposterous title for a blog post isn’t it? In all seriousness, who gets to decide what is or is not greatness? Actually greatness is an elusive word in and of itself. What defines greatness? Is greatness a comparison something or someone? Is there even such a thing as greatness?

I just watched a clip of a 12 year old boy who is being lauded as the greatest classical composer to come along in 200 years. His greatness comes in the form of the gift of music. He just hears it, can write it down and symphonies, piano concertos, and fugues flow from him effortlessly. I am sure that he looks at his work and thinks, “I can do better”. It begs the question, is greatness who you are, what you do, or a result from effort to achieve a goal? I’m not really sure, but I think it might be all three.

I would like to believe that greatness is achieved through effort. I am a classically trained musician and while I am not being hailed as the next Mozart, I do have some talents that allow me to play the music more easily than most. If I had never spent the thousands of hours of practicing, the talent I was given would have never amounted to anything. It was my years of practicing and dedication to my craft that lead me to become the musician I am today. Interestingly enough, in some circles I am considered great, and in other circles, I am considered not so great. Truthfully, neither is right.

In business we are all trying to achieve some sort of greatness. (OK, well maybe not all of us.) We look to achieve what others consider greatness. I think greatness is so fleeting that it needs to be judged from within our own selves. Yes, we all have deadlines and numbers we have to achieve. I am speaking more to how we handle our day. A receptionist and a CEO can both be great at what they do and it would be ridiculous to suggest anything otherwise. How do we bring ourselves to reach and step beyond our comfort zone? Don’t seek the label of greatness from others. Be the best you can be at what you do and seek the greatness inside yourself. Be the great building engineer. Be the great Manager, CEO or salesperson. Be the great store clerk. Define for yourself your own greatness, live up to your own standards. Don't worry about labels others give you. Achieve from within.

“I’d like those 20 minutes back please.”

2011-11-03T09:49:00.001-05:00

I am probably on hold on a telephone more than most people. In the IT industry, being on hold for support is more than a regular occurrence. What surprises me is how much of a lost opportunity this customer contact time is for most companies. As we all know, hold music was originally composed by military people in order torture their captors. (That’s a joke, please no angry emails) Why anyone would have hold music so terrible that you would irritate someone seeking help from your company. In this day and age of music that you can download, there is no excuse for bad hold music.

One of the fundamentals of running a business should be to capture your customer’s attention and make all aspects of their experience with your company amazing. Don’t overlook the details, embrace them. I am not a big fan of a sales pitch playing on hold music. If someone is holding, they are usually looking for help. My opinion is that if I am looking for help, the help should be taken care of first before I am sold on the next great project. Once you have helped me, I might be interested in what else your company your company has to offer. So, why not put something interesting and or fun on your hold music. With most phone systems, this is a very easy thing to do. Get an iPod and hook it up.

How about for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day, put on some Irish music. Why not try some “River Dance”, U2, Irish Pub Music….get creative and run with it. During the Grammy Awards, how about some nominated songs. During the Oscars, how about playing some memorable movie music? Change it up! At the very least, interesting hold music will keep your customers from getting annoyed with some boring tape loop. At best, your customers will remember that when they call, the experience of calling your company was a good one.

This will also set your organization apart from the crowd. Have fun with it. The customers will call up with new music and some will ask why it changed. Pick an obscure holiday. How about Boxing Day (Canada)? Put on some Rocky music just for fun. It certainly lightens the tone of the calls and allows everyone to have a good time with it.

The point is not necessarily to make your hold music a focal point of your company, but take something that most of us would agree is a real downside to contacting a company, and make it into something fun and amazing. Enhance your company image and customer satisfaction and save all of us from the torture known as tape loop hold music.

Timing - In Business as well as Life

2011-09-06T17:09:00.001-05:00

As we all know, timing is everything in business. We all remember where we were on 9/11. It was a day we all shared collectively as a community, nation and a world. Timing is something we seek to control as we feel it is somehow controls us.

Back in 2001 I was running a growing business that was hungry for capital. Sales had been going through the roof. We were on the INC 500 list as one of the fastest growing businesses in the US. We had begun the process of working on the refinance of the line of credit with our bank. During this time, we had hired new salespersons. One of our new sales people had brought in an account that was in New York City. The customer had started to use us as their source for Cisco equipment. Within months they started ordering a significant amount of equipment from us. Enough equipment and services had been sold to the client that I suggested to the salesperson that we should go out and cultivate the relationship in NYC.

I began to look at hotels, airfares restaurants etc. We put it in the calendar the last week of August that we would fly to NYC the second week of September in the morning. Like all things when you are a manager, you sometimes feel like one of those carnival acts doing the plate spinning routine. This was no different for me. The company was growing, I was in a constant state of learning, creating and adapting to the new challenges of managing a growing business. The bank financing at the time held the largest set of unknowns for me in business. I have come to understand debt/equity ratios and what the P&L represents to a business, but at the time it was new territory for me. After a phone call with my accountant, he suggested I delay my trip for a week to get the books organized to present to the bank the 3rd week of September. Fate had truly intervened.

Only six months later did I realize how fate had saved me. Our plane was going to arrive Sept 10 in the evening in NYC. We were to stay at the Millennium Hilton Hotel. If you haven’t been to New York, it sits directly across the street from the World Trade Center and sustained massive damage on 9/11 and took almost 2 years to reopen. My client, whose office was three blocks south of the south tower, was completely blocked after the attack and subsequent collapse of the two towers. There is a picture somewhere of the front landing gear of one of the planes in front of their main door. There is a picture somewhere of the front of the hotel being sheared off by the collapse. Even ten years later, it is difficult to comprehend that we were supposed to be there on that terrible day. We had planned on the meeting taking place around 9:30 or so on 9/11.

While nothing in life is for sure, my salesperson and I were spared that day. We were spared not only from actual bodily harm, but spared the trauma of the horrible events as they had unfolded and traumatized millions of New Yorkers that day. On a rare occasion I will talk about my twist of fate for September 11th. The recent programming on television, along with the 9/11 tenth anniversary has brought this vivid and painful memory back to me. I can’t help but think how a simple yes or no decision could have impacted me and everyone around me. At the time, my children were six, four and two years old. In July, My wife and I had just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. There was so much future to be had, so many things to do. It took me a couple of years to even tell my wife about the twist of fate. It still gives me goose bumps to think what could have been.

The truth is that there is only so much you can control in this world. Much of our lives are left purely to fate. This could mean divine intervention to some. This could mean dumb luck to others. I’d like to believe it’s both. Whatever the reason, I was given the past ten years as a gift and hope I made the most of it. It is never lost on me how fortunate I am to have so much in this world. I am grateful for my family, my friends and life as a whole. Don’t ever take your life for granted, the present really is a gift. This September 11th I will stop to remember those whose lives were changed forever, as well as mine.

Erase the Tape and Start Over

2011-08-25T12:26:00.002-05:00

I have been reading many articles about Steve Jobs and his departure from Apple. What seems to transcend all of the articles is praise for Steve Jobs behavior, which during his career at Apple, was considered unorthodox and at times, considered absolutely mad. I guess Apple might be the definition of unorthodox in some circles. With mainstream competitors like Microsoft, IBM and HP, Apple’s competitors would create a product. Through a perpetual state of upgrades and improvements Apple would evolve their products to their final state. While this is proven business process for tech production, Apple always had a better way.

Steve Jobs, as described in all of the articles I have been reading lately, was never afraid to take an eraser to a project and wipe it out completely. At face value, it sounds like madness. Why not work on what you have and make it better. You can work on many things in this world, especially in the field of technology and improve them. In fact it is encouraged in our field to keep engineering a solution until it’s right. I am not here to dispute the wisdom of working through a project and improving it till we are happy with its results. To the contrary, refinement is what has to be done to get to the completion of a project. Steve Jobs genius is in his ability not to be in love with anything while it is in process or even after its completion. More importantly, Jobs courage to take something and throw it out and start over, whether it was finished or not, was his true genius.

As many of you know, I am a part time musician. While I only have a minor in music, there is always a part of me that functions like a musician. Musician’s and others involved in the fine arts know the wisdom of throwing out something bad and starting over. Most of you know the biggest selling album of all time is currently, “Thriller”, by Michael Jackson. Did you know the second biggest selling album is The Eagles “Their Greatest Hits” (1971-1975). The Eagles’ attention to detail in their recordings is staggering. All of their arrangements, vocals, playing and lyrics seem to just flow when you hear them. I have heard multiple interviews with the group’s members, engineers and managers. Don Henley and Glenn Frye would spend a week meticulously working on a track till it was completely finished, they would listen to the song they recorded and if there was anything they didn’t like about the final version of the song, they would hit the erase button. This ultimately led to huge turmoil within the band and eventually lead to its breakup. However, it served the Eagles’ music well. Their songs are insanely great. If you don’t believe me, download a copy of “Lying Eyes” and tell me that the attention to detail isn't spectacular. The only way to achieve this kind of greatness is a willingness to hit the erase button. If it isn’t insanely great, why bother!

Remember as you are downloading “Lying Eyes” to your iPhone, iPad or iMac how brilliant these marvels of technology work and how brilliantly intuitive they are. While a computer company and a 70s rock band may seem totally unrelated, their creative process was identical. Have the courage to hit the erase button, be brilliant!!!

Recommendations

2011-05-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

I know this blog is supposed to be about “Real Networking”. There is nothing more real than making a connections with someone which is what this blog is about. Although most of my posts revolve around technology, the underlying theme is using technology to make connections.

Some of you may know that I am currently looking for a new job. In this economy and lack of bank financing available after 20 years of running my own shop I find myself in the ranks of job seekers. It has been a challenging, but interesting journey. One thing I have had to do professionally, which I haven’t had to do in almost two decades was ask for recommendations.

While the prospect of closing a two million dollar project may seem intimidating to some, this is the world which I have lived very comfortably for a long time. However, my initial anxiety over asking for recommendations snuck up on me. Ironically, with the advent of social networking, it is now much easier professionally to ask for someone’s recommendation than it has ever been previously. This, however, does not take away from the anxiety of asking for someone’s approval of work you have done.

In business, I believe that I have the reputation of being tenacious….that is code for sometimes I behave like a pit bull when trying to get a deal done. When you are the president of a company, you have an extreme amount of latitude to do almost whatever you see fit at any time. Herein was my conflict. While I have been a very tough businessman, now I have to ask for recommendations from people who I have worked with, and in some cases been a tough negotiator.

I used LinkedIn to ask for the recommendations and have been very surprised, and quite frankly, humbled by the people who have written the recommendations for me. It’s like the old adage, “you never get your first kiss unless you ask for it”. It is a wonderful feeling to get a recommendation, and in todays electronic age it is easier than ever to ask.

Often times we get hung up on what we do wrong, but never think about all the things that we do that are right. Ask for that recommendation, you’ll find it very rewarding.

Texting in Company

2011-05-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

I saw this on a friends web site. Praying for more human interaction. This is precisely what I like. Making a distinction between using technology to connect or using it to disconnect.

Texting in Company - Prayer Blog - Prayables

Balancing Technology and Self

2011-04-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

About one year ago I visited Japan for the first time with my family. The scale of the trip to go to Japan from Chicago was daunting. Although we have traveled extensively as a family, even internationally, this trip just seemed more complicated and tedious to plan. When we landed, my wife was so tired that she swears she doesn’t remember how we got to the hotel. Although we took a direct flight from Chicago, the flight time was 13.5 hours. When you add on the two hours in Chicago, and the 1.5 hour ride from Narita Airport to our hotel in downtown Tokyo, it was a very long day.

To say that it was worth the long travels would be an understatement. Japan is nothing short of a miraculous country to visit. The contrast and balance between the quiet and serene Japanese gardens and the hustle and bustle of their fully developed metro areas is nothing short of shocking. What we all were most surprised by were the Japanese people.

Obviously one of the purposes of travel is to experience the world outside the normal confines of day to day living. The contrast of the US and Japan’s architecture, culture, and way of life is remarkable. However, the contrast of the people of Japan was the most stunning. Never had I or my family ever experienced a people as kind as the Japanese people. There is no tipping in Japan as it is considered their pleasure to serve you. In the almost two week trip, we were constantly amazed by the Japanese people and their kindness along with their willingness to assist you in any way they could.

We were standing in the downtown Tokyo train station trying to decipher the signs to our next destination. A random Japanese person came up to us asking us, in broken English, if he could help. Almost everyone under the age of 50 speaks some English, and love to use it whenever they have a chance. The man not only helped us with the directions but walked us down to the correct gate for the train. Having traveled to New York City for years, and being nearly trampled for stopping to read a sign in the subway, this was nothing short of remarkable. These acts of kindness were the norm during our stay. On another occasion, I had left some Yen on a counter at the hotel and a man came chasing me down to the other end of the hotel to return it. There were too many other acts of kindness and generosity to mention.

This is a people who knew how to get along, and only wanted to help others. I have never seen such a thing. In the US, we can be so disconnected with others, their needs, and be selfish in ways manifested by indifference. I am sure there are drawbacks to their way of life, but by the end of the vacation, my wife and I were talking over dinner and she said to me that if we ever had the opportunity, she would LOVE to live in Japan.

The earthquake, tsunami and now nuclear nightmare occurring in this country is more than even the worst countries on the globe deserve. For Japan and its people to endure these almost biblical disasters is just beyond my comprehension. To see such kind people suffer in this way creates such sadness for me. Although Japan had some of the most cutting edge technology I have experienced in the cities, it was the peaceful balance of the culture and the calm along with their striking use of technology that made our stay most memorable. While they have smart phones, computers and 200+MPH trains, they had peace, serenity and kindness. Technology was a tool, but not a way of life. Balance is the hallmark of Japanese culture.

When you use your Smartphone to text someone, remember that the world still exists around you. Take the time to look up and if someone needs help, stop what you’re doing and help them. The text will still be there when you look down again, trust me. Our society in the US would be better if we tried to find the balance that the Japanese people have found. Put the technology down once and a while. There are tremendous opportunities to help people and bring real satisfaction to your life.

The Japanese people need us to look up from our computers, Smartphones and iPads and offer them help. There are now news articles being published by ABC, CNN etc. about the lack of American generosity in the relief efforts. With all the corrupt countries that are much less worthy of our help that we do help, there may be no society that is as deserving or would be as grateful as Japan. If you have the ability to do so, donate money to help the victims of the disasters in Japan. Let’s help a society that really deserves it.

A New Day

2010-08-02T15:03:00.001-05:00

A New Day

I just read a great quote and wanted to share.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” - Maria Robinson

Having run a couple of businesses for over 20 years, sometimes I forget this fact. As my mom always says, “what’s done is done”. In the technology business, this is the case more often than not. Is that a 9600 baud modem I hear?!? What is interesting about the quotation is that it doesn’t focus on the past to emphasize moving forward. It captures the essence of “why” we sometimes need to change. We are all working toward something right?…I said RIGHT?!?

Change for the sake of change, while interesting, is unproductive. To go back and analyze that change, while important, brings the usual “should have, could have, would have”.

The quote is really about long term strategic thinking. We often work in the moment. e.g. working tactically Working strategically allows us the luxury of changing the ending to the journey whenever we need to do it. By focusing on the ending of the story, it allows us to virtually start over fresh on what we are doing without having to relive the past. I have suffered greatly a few times for not changing the ending to my business journey. I have also benefited greatly from writing a new ending. Consider the experience of going to a movie. Imagine the movies you would consider seeing if halfway through you could decide the type of ending you wanted?!? How about the Godfather? Dare I say Marlon Brando in Drag?!?

Why would you worry about seeing a movie? You would be freed from any preconceived notion or past experience and would expand your mind to places you had never imagined. You would know that the ending is always what you wanted. Make your life that way! Don’t hang on to your past. It’s a new day. Find your finish line and GO!

Partnerships

2010-06-21T13:46:00.003-05:00

Now there is a word that is thrown around quite a bit….not just in business circles but in personal ones as well. With a 50% divorce rate and lawsuits in the business world a-plenty, it becomes difficult to understand what makes up a healthy partnership. From a personal standpoint, partnership is an area that I will leave to the likes of Dr. Phil and Oprah. Business Relationships?…Now that is something completely different.

In Looking at a partnership, it is much easier to understand what would work by looking at what doesn’t work. Partnerships that collapse tend to fall apart for some fundamental reasons.

Ground Rules. If you don’t set strict rules and parameters, you are doomed to failure. It is very silly to assume that in business someone knows “what you mean” in a partnership. As you know, it doesn’t work with your personal relationships, so why would it work in a business relationship. Clear rules and details make for a much more stable partnership. Interestingly enough, one the large Technology companies we represent has a real dichotomy of rules.

In the first case of becoming a partner with the company, there is an 18 page, and growing, contract of what is expected by both parties in terms of licensing, sales, reselling, where to buy and how you represent their products in the market place. In this very formal document, it is very clear what is expected on behalf of both parties. There is a time frame for this agreement and grounds for termination. While no one likes to deal with an 18 page document, it makes a very powerful statement as to the importance of the relationship to both parties. It also illustrates consequences for breaking the terms by both parties. It is predictable, consistent and offers measurements for continuing the relationship.

The dichotomy occurs in the way that it treats the day to day, or tactical relationships, with the organization's partnership with companies such as ours. For many years with this organization, they have preached about the “rules of engagement” with the client when both the vendor and reseller were involved with the end user. On a couple dozen occasions I have asked for a copy of these “rules” only to be greeted by a chorus of “well, there isn’t an actual document, it is more just how we try to do business”. Not surprising, this “rules of engagement” non written policy causes more problems in a week than any of the formal contracts do in a year. I recently had a meeting with the CEO of this multibillion dollar organization and asked the question about “the rules”. Turns out there aren’t any and no plans to create them.

It begs the question, “Why do companies do this, and what is the actual cost?”

Let’s start with the cost. To build a partnership, you need a relationship. Let me state that again. To build a partnership, you need a relationship. If you only have a relationship, you will never have a partnership. The partnership is formalization of the relationship. A partnership adds structure and formality to the relationship. The loss of trust and confidence our vendor absorbs every year is hard to imagine in terms of real dollars. Every time we engage with this companies sales force, we always keep our guard up. This is not good for them as a vendor, and it isn’t good for us as a reseller. However with no formal rules, and no consequences for breaking those rules, every single customer contact where we involve this vendor has to be treated with the possibility that anything can happen. From experience I can tell you that just when I think I have seen and heard everything, something new twist on bad behavior happens. I am not saying that the vendor is trying to behave badly, because they aren’t. What I am saying is that without rules and consequences for either party breaking those rules, no real partnership exists between the vendors sales representatives and our own, leaving it strictly to relationships.

The cost, while hard to calculate, is simple. Without partnerships, our company has to pick and choose our relationships with the vendor. In other words our company will only deal with the vendors sales staff that, we already know. Therefore any new sales representative that we deal with has to be treated with caution. For those representatives we know, most of the business flows through to them. The cost to the vendor is in lost potential business. If all the reps for both vendor and reseller had rules to follow which had consequences, there would be no reason not to deal with anyone inside the organization. Because the lack of rules exists, the potential loss in business would have to run into the billions of dollars.

What works? Rules that all parties understand and agree to up front eliminates any sort of “misunderstandings”. If it is written out, the rule exists. If it isn’t written out, anyone can do unilaterally what they would like. If there are no consequences the ambiguity starts with the salesperson on either side saying “why not, the other party probably would understand, right”? Even writing down that statement makes me queasy. Many a relationship has gone down the drain because of similar questions and statements to that affect.

Until you have a partnership, you have a relationship and are just “dating”. Put it in writing, "slip the ring on" and create a partner. The relationship will turn to a partnership, and you’ll have much more productive business opportunities.

Real Networking by Dan Katz: Cloud Computing#links

2010-06-08T14:11:00.000-05:00

Real Networking by Dan Katz: Cloud Computing#links

Cloud Computing

2010-06-07T14:27:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone:

Sorry for the extended absence. I have lots of travel and lots of exciting things to discuss.

I had an opportunity to sit in with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems at the 2010 Partner Summit in San Francisco last month. Along with twenty or so fellow IT executives, we all had about a half an hour to discuss anything we wanted with one of the most respected CEOs in the world. Wouldn’t you know it; one of the first questions put to the floor was this and I am paraphrasing “John, there is a lot of talk about “Cloud Computing”, can you tell us what it is exactly?”

What was interesting about his answer was not what he spoke of, but what he challenged us as executives to do. Mr. Chambers, through partnership with Cisco, challenged the resellers in the room to help Cisco and the networking world to help define this space. I’m sure by now everyone has heard the concept of “Cloud Computing”. In essence, “Cloud Computing” is the concept of removing from your network applications and tasks which can be better run by a company hosting the application for your organization. Simply stated, move part of your internal network into the Internet or “The Cloud”.

In its simplest form, “Cloud Computing” could be something as basic as moving your sales database on to a program such as Salesforce.com. In a more complex form something more dynamic and complex such as network management. Both examples fall under the category of “Cloud Computing”.

Here is the moment where I jump up on my soapbox so please back up.

The release of the iPad, in my opinion, is an absolute “game changer”. Why? The iPad is geared toward consumer based “Cloud Computing”….without the fancy term. I will speak more to this in an upcoming blog post.

All one has to do these days is take a look around at a coffee shop to see how consumers are using computers. Look closely…. Right! Where did all the laptops go?!? Some people still need them and you do see them, but it looks like most of the laptops have disappeared. Actually the laptops are still out there. Guess what?!? The laptops have been shrunk down and are now called “iPhones” and “Blackberries”. Even at the Cisco Global Partner Summit, in my less than scientific observation, around 30% of the attendees may have been carrying around actual laptops. Like the rest of my colleagues, I just brought my Smartphone with me to conference floor. My laptop stayed in the room. It was perfect for about 90% of what I needed to do during the course of a day. EVERYONE had a Smartphone allowing them leveraging the power of “The Cloud”. I think the iPad is the natural extension of this trend. It is a no nonsense touch screen with focus on applications and services not stored on device itself. Unless you need to type out the next great American novel, or write code for your computer, most of us use the power of “The Cloud” all the time…..you just thought it was called something else.

Technology and Life

2010-02-09T08:56:00.001-06:00

When I started writing my blog “Real Networking”, I wanted to take a non-conventional look at Technology and how it affects our lives.

Today is my birthday (I’m 44) and the birthday wishes are flooding in from around the country and world from friends and relatives via Facebook and eCards. It is remarkable when you think how much technology has become a part of our social fabric. I’m sure we can all remember, as kids, running to the mailbox for the hallmark card mailed from our Grandparents with the obligatory $5.00 included. I remember grade school when we used exchange little valentines with our classmates. The world has changed quite a bit.

I received a call earlier this week that a good friend of mine had been diagnosed with cancer. This is devastating news for anyone. This news is the most difficult for my friend and his family. All of his friends were devastated as well. Our thoughts and prayers and love go out to him and his family for a quick and speedy recovery.

It is always difficult to gauge how to approach someone who is ill. Do you make them food, do you call, do stop by and visit? The answer to all of that is yes. However, there is a time to do those things and a time to allow people the peace and privacy that they need to spend time with family.

What I have found is Technology really can help bring people closer as well. I spoke to my friend as he was coming home from chemotherapy. In a bit of a haze, he told me some details. I have been getting periodic updates via Texts and was able to find out from him when he would be well enough to receive visitors. All of this was done, without the intrusion into his privacy that phone calls and visits require. A simple text saying that he was at the hospital for testing and would let me know later how things went was all I really needed. He didn’t have to explain his emotions to me; he didn’t have to explain anything. I know he wants to let us know how he’s doing, but on his own terms. This electronic communication also let me reach out and contact our circle of friends to let them know updates for which everyone was grateful.

Obviously texting or emailing is never a substitute for a hug or a handshake or a face to face conversation. It is something different. It allows for a passive form of love and caring that didn’t exist before technology became part of our lives. It allows someone to gently reach out without intrusion, much in the way that conventional mail does. This allows someone, like my friend, to feel in touch without giving up privacy. This allows all of his friends to reach out without intrusion.

I am looking forward to seeing my friend later this week to give him the love and support and a hug that he should have at a time like this. Strangely enough, texting him this week has made me feel more involved without burdening my friend when his focus should be on getting healthy. It has been a difficult week for me to deal with this news, but with some simple technology I feel as though my friend knows we love him and are here for him. I know that all of us can’t wait to come see him and give him a good old fashioned hug that even technology will never be able to replace.

“Would you trade Your Reseller for a Camcorder?”

2010-02-03T17:55:00.000-06:00

I used to have a copy of the aforementioned article hanging up in my office many years ago. I have researched a bit to find the article and can’t seem to find either the article or author. Obviously, from the camcorder reference, it was more than a few years ago that I found the article. I used to take copies of the article and hand it out to new salespeople that I hired. The message back them is the same as it is now. Business Partners are valuable. Make yourself valuable to your clients and surround yourself with valuable business partners.

The message from the article, in summary, was to make yourself valuable enough to a client that they wouldn’t exchange your services for even a $700 camcorder. At its face value, perhaps this seems a bit absurd….trade a business partner for a camcorder?!? How about something more current, how about a flat screen TV, a laptop computer, an iPAD?!? We all have people that we deal with in business who do nothing more than “order take”. Would I trade them for an iPad? I might. It really depends on if I consider them an asset to my company and specifically to me. Really it is whether they have value to me specifically and my ability to conduct my day to day business. Are they looking to line their pockets with a quick hit or are they “covering my back” when I am too busy to mess around with details? Do they stop me when I need to be stopped and do they help me move faster when I don’t need to mess with details? If they are a trusted business partner, they are hired for making me better at my job. The incremental dollar difference in dealing with someone who is an invaluable part of my business makes them a far more profitable asset than any extra markup, fee or hourly charge I receive while working with them. In nearly 20 years of running a business, I have never seen an exception to this rule.

This article speaks to the underlying value of any business relationship. Are you an order taker? Are you a commodity? Do you bring value to a client who would be hard pressed to replace you? If they do replace you, would they get the same quality business partner?

Let’s use the case of a networking reseller as an example. In very frank terms, most of us sell similar products and services. Most of us have quality engineers who do quality work. With all things being equal, how is it that some salespeople/business partners have customers for decades and others can’t stay at a company for more than a year? The long term employees have become an asset to the company, and in return reap the benefits of a relationship.

This can be said about anyone in a work place. Would your boss replace you in exchange for a cruise, a TV or an iPod? The more you bring as an asset to the company, the more your value rises within the organization. Great people surround themselves with the best business partners they can find. You should do the same.

In a commoditized world, a box can be purchased everywhere. The knowledge and skill of a trusted business partner is very difficult to replace and even more difficult to emulate. We all have trusted business partners and or resellers. There are suppliers, consultants, manufacturers, accountants and lawyers with whom I have long enduring relationships. Even when their prices are higher, or there is a disagreement, I find these partners to be an asset to the organization. Would I trade one of these business partners for a 50 inch Sony LCD TV? Never! I know that the $2,500.00 TV doesn’t even approach the amount of money this select group of people has helped our organization earn over the years. Consequently, I tend not to worry too much about the price of their goods and services as by dealing with them, and paying a premium for their expertise, the company saves far more than the difference in fees of less qualified people. Our organization makes up for the added expense for these professionals by using their insight, knowledge connections and services to make great business decisions. You should as well. Your business partners will not only help your company achieve its goals, but even more importantly they will make you better at your job.

What’s Your Mission?

2010-01-06T11:13:00.001-06:00

I just watched a video of former AOL/Time Warner CEO, Gerald Levin apologizing for the “Worst Deal of the Century” in reference to the 164 billion dollar merger bettween Time Warner and AOL. That statement, in itself, is remarkable from a CEO. The statement is stunning for numerous reasons, but if you watch the video Mr. Levin talks about his former company not having a mission. He refers to it as a “culture”. If you know what he’s talking about, it’s being part of an organization with a soul.

Why is this important to Techno folks like us? The real question is what isn’t important about this to the IT departments of the world. If I were able to get back the hours upon hours I have spent speaking with a support engineer to get some piece of technology running, I could add an extra ten years to my life. My point is that, as technology folks, we spend a huge amount of time getting the individual pieces to work correctly. We spend almost no time getting the people who work with us and for us working together with an overall purpose.

We spend too much time looking at the trees and forget about the forest. Here is a suggestion. Start with a simple mission. You could choose something like “let’s create the best phone call return policy in the entire company”. It sounds small, but it IS a mission and does create a bit of a “we’re all in this together” approach to working in a department. Ta Da! Culture.

Culture is very elusive subject for most companies. It is elusive because most companies just take it for what it is. If you have ever entered an Apple retail store, you can almost feel the culture oozing from the store, the people and its products. This is not an accident. This culture has been deliberately created and fostered by Apple’s founder Steve Jobs.

Computers and companies can be cool…..really! For that matter, so can a department. One of my favorite types of customers to visit are the advertising firms. It’s remarkable how different they all are. Some are intellectually funny, and some are whoopee cushion funny. Each has their own personality, unique and complimentary to whom they are and the clients they serve.

It all stems from a basic mission. Do you know what the mission of your company or departments is? Do something unique. Do something daring. You don’t really want to be known as just the guy or gal who fixes computers….do you? Wouldn’t it be cool to be known as the best department inside the company because you and your colleagues along with being knowledgeable are great to deal with? Dare I say it….fun?!? Try setting up a twitter account for everyone who you service. Send them out a weekly “hey, did you know if you….. you computer would work better or check out this cool web site?” Simple but effective! If you don't know how to do it, drop me a line, I would be happy to help you get this going.

Carpe Diem! (Latin for “seize the day”) Make that difference! Change something! It’s a new year! Expand your horizons! Create a mission for 2010, even a simple one. Create the rabid following and appreciation for you and your co-workers that you deserve.

A Happy and Prosperous 2010 to all!!!!

Using Twitter the Right Way

2009-12-07T11:41:00.001-06:00

Is Twitter important?!? It depends who you are following. I have a myriad of friends who are now part of the ever expanding Twitter community. I have everyone from college friends to business associates who I follow and who follow me on Twitter. What does this get me? I’m not entirely sure.

Although we are all interested in how our friends are doing, I am not sure how much of a necessity it is for me to find out that the man standing in front of you at Starbucks smells like rotten cottage cheese. A great quote from the Host of “The Daily Show” John Stewart reads, “The Internet is just the world passing around notes in a classroom” really applies to Twitter.

I don’t need to know that you just had a great workout. I don’t need to know that you are proud of how well your daughter did during her ballet recital. Neither do the rest of you. Would you walk into a room with a bunch of people and make that statement? Of course you wouldn’t….well unless your mom was there and you were talking about her grandchild….always a captive audience.

When you want to engage in a conversation with someone it usually starts off with a question. “How are you doing”? The other person elicits a response. “TA-DA”… you now have meaningful dialogue. Simply put, this is what twitter should be used for in business. I am calling on everyone to use Twitter for good and not evil. I am always interested in what other people are doing and the challenges they face during the day. I already know everything about me. I want to know more about you. I try not to assume that I am that interesting, and neither should you. Chances are that you are very interesting, just not in the way you think you are. I am going to be trying a new experiment on Twitter and need everyone’s help. For those of you on Twitter, please sign up to follow my profile. I am on twitter as dankatz1 . When you sign on make sure to follow me for mobile updates. I will do the same on my end as well. For those of you who have not signed on to Twitter, now is the time. Its free, it won’t hurt and I promise you the information that we share will be useful.

Why will my information be useful? Because will not be my information. It will be your information. I would like to pose questions to those following me and share the responses. I want Twitter to be an open dialogue of those people following me so that we can all share information. I’ll even tell you what the first question is going to be. “What do you think is the coolest website on the Internet that no one knows about but should?” …Computer, Travel, business? Sign up and let’s start a dialogue. If you need help getting a Twitter account rolling, call me I’m always here to help.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T10:27:00.002-06:00

Thanks.

All too often this simple word is missed during business conversation. I know that during the day to day operations of my company, we say thanks in many non-verbal ways. We say thanks by continuing to do business with suppliers who do good work for the company. We say thanks by giving a raise to an employee who has met or exceeded goals during the course of a year. We give thanks to our customers by picking up the cost of freight or adding additional discount for continued patronage. The truth is that as human beings we assume, to our detriment, that everyone knows we are grateful for the things we receive from others.

Business tends to be very "black and white" and "by the numbers". As President of an organization, I find myself often dealing in absolutes. During thanksgiving, I always take time to reflect on the people who make our business possible. I am thankful for our manufacturer reps. who go to bat to get a deal done for a customer and help us in a pinch. I am thankful for our distributors who go the extra mile to get product and services out on time and get us a price that keeps us competitive. I am thankful for our consultants, who sit and listen to crazy ideas and turn them into a workable plan. I am thankful for our customers, who put their trust, and in some rare cases, their careers on the line, trusting that my company will do right by them. I am thankful for our employees, for without them there is no company. I am thankful for my friends, who, among other things, convince me to go for a bike ride when I need one. I am thankful for my family, who tolerates the endless hours spent working. I am thankful for my wife, who even when she doesn't understand what's bothering me, pretends she does and makes me feel better by doing so.

The world is a very different place than it was 18 months ago. There is much worry and uncertainty and instability. What makes this world manageable for me is that I have many wonderful people that make up my professional and personal world. If I haven't said it lately. Simply put.......

Thanks

Leveraging Technology in a Challenging Economy

2009-11-23T15:17:00.001-06:00

Technology can be a funny thing. On one hand, when there is extra money available, companies can't seem to buy enough technology. When money is short, companies will do everything they can to avoid purchasing technology. Ironically, this is the exact opposite approach that should be taken.
Having run a business for the better part of 18 years the time we find new technology the most helpful is when money is tight. How could this be you ask? Simple. Technology should always create revenue. This can be done in one of two ways.

1. Technology can reduce costs (i.e. doing more with less)
2. Generate additional revenue.

I'm sure you are thinking "that all well and good, but if I don't have money to buy anything, what am I supposed to do?!?" Actually that question is really part of the problem.

If you have don't have money, you need to generate more money by either cutting costs or raising revenues. Most companies, even Cisco Systems (a company we represent), offers an amazing array of financing options including 0% financing options. So really what you end up with is a very pure business equation. Is the amount of money that will be spent per month on technology generate an equal or greater amount of revenue through cost saving or additional sales. ...starts to make sense doesn't it?!?

First and foremost, I run a business. I have always treated internal decisions from the perspective of "if it doesn't make us money, we are not doing it". The trick when making a statement like this is understanding that by financing, or leasing equipment, the monetary impact is spread out over many months. It is unrealistic to think that by purchasing a $24,000 piece of equipment that it will generate savings or efficiencies in the first month to cover that cost. However, if you spread it out over a 24 month period with financing, the effect to cash flow is $1000 per month. Now with this information, the question to ask is...."will the purchase of technology bring us enough revenue gain to cover $1000 per month over the next 24 months? More often than not, the answer will be yes. You wouldn't put headcount in your company unless you knew they would pay for themselves over time..... You should ask the same question about you technology decisions.