Day 4 – New Website
It's been challenge to work on a website this week with eyes not quite working right.
I've been looking at what we have done over the past 9 years and it seems quite impressive. Our industry experience has clearly been Human Resources, Actuarial and Financial Services. However, many of our core capabilities could easily be applied to just about any industry… web applications, modeling, complex form/surveys, data migration, integration, project management, etc.
In fact we are launching products aimed at the small and medium business market that will maximize the human capital in your business inside and outside of the traditional […]
Day 3 – Testing My Resolve
Most New Year's resolutions fail due to a lack of resolve or persistence. People have a tendency to quit at the first signs of difficulty.
It is no different in business.
Whether you want to significantly grow your business or become a higher earner, you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and into new, uncharted territory.
Whenever I have done this in past, things come up to test your resolve. Some are small and some are big. It is no different today.
Monday I had enormous energy and positive outlook. I got a lot accomplished.
Tuesday I had a red eye and […]
Big Enough
Some companies will never be big enough. Some companies are too small. Very few companies are just the right size.
The only thing that matters is not your current size, but your ability to bring together a team to deliver a specific product or service to a specific customer at a specific point in time in the future.
The past does not really matter though it can be perceived to be proof of the future by many buyers. But the past is not today, nor is it the future.
The work can be done in-house, contracted out or through a consortium. The quality of […]
Great Customer Service Example
This morning I woke up with a very red and irritated left eye and decided to work from home. After lunch I realized it wasn't getting any better, so I decided to head off to the doctor.
Now I live between Okotoks and Calgary so I decided to head south to the Calgary Health Region's "Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre".
Now I always find it interesting how different a town is from a city, even when they are 15 minutes apart. We've normally found people in customer service to be just a little more friendly, genuine and less rushed (pound for pound) in […]
A New Beginning – Day One
We made the big announcement to our staff today. Hanif is now the Manager, Consulting Services and I am focusing on business development. He has a great team supporting him so I am not worried about letting go… really.
In reality most of the team is still doing what they did the day before and I am still here too.
But, it's like rearranging the furniture at home; a change brings something fresh and new to the room and its residents.
With my new found energy I tackled some architecture issues with one of my senior developers for one of the products we […]
If the Shoe Fits – 2
Quick update on the missing shoes affair…
Apparently there was an extra pair of shoes left at the end of the gathering (not mine as I did review the extras before I left and these were the wrong colour and style). So my aunt mailed them to the guy we thought had my shoes.
They were not his shoes.
I have the wrong shoes and he has the wrong shoes.
Who has our shoes?
I think I will turn this case over to Mulder and Skully as I am sure now that paranormal forces are at play. In the meantime I am closing […]
Letting Go and Growing
It’s funny how reading something about one topic can inspire a Eureka moment in another subject.
As I mentioned prior, I listened to an interview of Barbara Stanny by Andrew Barber-Starkey of ProCoach Success Systems on his web site. Now I am always looking for new stuff to read so I picked up a couple of books, one of them being “Secret’s of Six-Figure Women” (I’ll cover the book itself later).
The gist of the message I read was you need to let go (of your comfort zone) before you can move up the income ladder.
Well on the heels of my […]
Senior Cyborgs
Read an interesting online article at PCMag.com about robotics that people wear to help with limited mobility.
With advances like these and those in medicine, life is going to be quite different for those people reaching retirement in the next 10-20 years than it was for prior generations.
Check it out complete with pictures and video.
If the Shoe Fits…
A few weeks back I attended the funeral for my uncle and then went to my aunt's home afterwards. There was quite a crowd from all over.
Later in the day, when I went to leave, my dress shoes were missing.
Luckily, I had another pair of casual shoes in the car, or I would have been driving for two hours in socks.
Well, my relatives (my aunt, mom, and grandmother) tracked down someone who had left their shoes at the gathering. Apparently his eyesight is not too great and he noticed he had the wrong shoes about halfway back on the drive to Winnipeg (from Brooks, […]
The Art of Delegation
I’ve noticed something over the years that often happens to three categories of people in many situations:
- Managers,
- Subject Matter Experts, and
- Suckers.
Managers
Team members that report to managers are either unable or afraid to make decisions and have learned that they can pass the hard part off to the manager, who will take the work back because they are too busy and frustrated to deal with the problem.
Subject Matter Experts
Team members come to the subject matter expert with a problem. Instead of looking for ideas in finding a solution, they pass the problem onto the subject matter expert for resolution. The […]