From The Bad Design Files

Customer (to clerk): Excuse me, do you have any bathroom cleaning products?

Clerk: Sure, check over by the lime flavored beer.

What?

At best this is an innovative experiment that didn't get thought all the way through. At worst the employees are focused on the wrong things. If the latter is the case it's not that they don't care. Everyone wants to do a good job. It's just that they way to get rewarded in this organization is not by stocking the shelves in a way that makes sense.

Yesterday's Innovations

This public toilet still has a handle with which to flush the toilet.

Cisco I-Prize

On October 14th Cisco announced the winner of their open innovation contest. The contest was meant to solicit the next big ideas. Contestants proceeded through a series of reviews where they had to continually refine and pitch their ideas.

The winners were three European college students who proposed using Cisco's technology to manage energy efficiency.

On the surface everything seems great about the contest. It was cheap to run (<$50,000), is exciting because of it's focus on new ideas, and was supported by top management.

But something doesn't seem right. Cisco is big, about 60,000 employees. Since they are big they probably have some of the brightest and smartest people in the industry. So if they have the best and brightest why do they have to go outside for good ideas?

Some may argue that they need to go outside because staying if they only stay inside the culture they run the risk of only getting inbred ideas. This doesn't make sense because if the culture is only going to produce inbred ideas than there is no way in the world that this same culture is going to adopt and further an outsider's idea.

I'm not against getting ideas from the outside. On the contrary, I advocate shamelessly stealing good ideas from anywhere you can. It's just that I don't think getting good ideas are the problem.

Take Kodak for example, they invented the first digital camera but they are 4th in digital camera global market share. Good idea, bad execution.

So if successful innovation hinges on idea execution instead of idea generation and Cisco has the talent to develop good ideas in-house why do they go outside for ideas? Why would someone else know the marketplace better than them? While the Cisco I-contest is exciting, and serves as a good PR tool, it's not clear to me what problem the contest solves.

Innovation Speed Is Size Dependent

Being big means that you don't move as fast as you could when you were small. Take for example Yahoo's changes to their homepage. Scared of alienating anyone with website changes Yahoo is slowly making small changes.

This is in stark contrast to how you operate when you are small. When you are small there is no one to alienate so you simply make the changes and see what happens.

Both approaches are the right approaches to take and both have there drawbacks.

In a big company small changes mean big dollars so you need to make sure you know what you are doing (remember new formula Coke?). When you are innovating along the same s-curve the danger is low. Conversely because you are moving slow you are unable to see a disruptive innovation (ala Kodak who actually invented the digital camera).

In a small company you have no resources and no large install base so making changes is not as big deal. Therefore in order to survive you need to iterate rapidly in order to find a formulation that works. The drawback is that you may change too often for the likes of you customers or find a solution that is easily copied by the large incumbent. In either case you risk being vanquished.

Neat Idea

Throw some dried corn on a table and it's as good as sand.

Greg Eisenbach Was Hired

So a little over three weeks after getting caught in layoffs I found a new position.

Here's what I think I learned.

1. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK
   
   
2. Network before you need it.
   
   
3. A network requires regular care and feeding.
   
   
4. Networking is about the law of averages. Most people are not able to help. A few can. Networking is about getting to those few.
   
   
5. Companies that treat you well at interviews are nice to their employees.
   
   
6. Companies that want to know how much you make before they know who you are are not interested in you. Do not be afraid to let these companies go.
   
   
7. The way companies hire is poor at best. When I hire I try and make the candidate feel like a King. This means making the process clear and concise and being pro-active in communications. This means making sure that the interviewers are on time to meet the candidates. Also, if an interview is going to take more than 2 hours then I would throw in lunch either at the beginning or end.
   
   
8. The best response to the company when they ask how much you make is, "That's an interesting question. Why do you ask?
   
   
9. If they ask again (and companies that ask once will ask again) say, "I don't understand. Will you help me understand how you knowing this information will help me." They can not honestly answer this question.
   
   
10. The Devil remains in the details. Salary, while important, is not the whole story. The cost of employee benefits (especially health care) varies wildly by company.
    
    
11. Read and practice everything that Nick Corcodilos has to say. It's simple, but not easy.
    
    
12. Cold calling is the hardest and least productive approach, especially for higher level jobs. Being able to say, "I was referred by so-and-so" will open a million more doors.
    
    
13. The higher level jobs are not on Monster or Hotjobs
    

Whale Facts

Things that quite possibly only interest me...

PSST. Wanna Buy Some Land In Florida?
The Wall Street Journal reported on a survey results that show 40% of students and parents paid no attention to cost when searching for a college.1

But Is the Salary Double?
Melville, NY is 97% more expensive to live in than Lancaster, PA. Housing is 313% more expensive. This means that a $250,000 home in Lancaster is worth $750,000 in Melville.

Five Companies That You Didn't Know Were Private2
Toys "R" Us
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Gulf Oil
Levi Strauss & Co
84 Lumber

And They Also Sacrificed Chickens
A 10/3 Wall Street Journal headline: Some investors are abandoning stocks and bonds and seeking refuge in unusual alternatives such as champagnes, parking and exotic livestock


(1)http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122342389157013377.html
(2)http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/21/biz_06privates_The-Largest-Private-Companies_Rank.html

Company, Know Thy Customer

A company should know the customer better than they know themselves. The customer has literally hundreds of decisions they need to make in a day. What to wear? What to eat? Who's picking up Johnny at daycare? They have so many decisions to make that they spend little time thinking through some of the lesser problems that they have.

That's why it's so exciting to see a company offer a solution to a problem that I didn't really know that I had. The folks at Work-Fast have come up with a roller that weighs 50% less than traditional rollers. I never really gave any thought to the fact that my arms always hurt after I painted the ceiling, but now I know that I can fix that.

Double-ly exciting is that fact that this good idea came from a pretty mature (boring) product category

Triple-ly exiting is the fact that this is one of the first examples I have seen of a Chinese manufacturer trying to extend themselves upstream in the value chain by taking on product development, marketing, and sales. The other example I can think of is Lenovo. There is more competition coming

Hire Greg Eisenbach

Technical program manger with a successful history of managing innovation in both manufacturing and development environments. Has proven ability to shepherd programs through their entire lifecycle; from customer needs identification through order delivery. Uses creativity, belief in people, problem solving skills, and experience to be successful.

My Resume
Link

Cool Job Posting of the Week
Project Manager - Inactive Ship Operation (Link)

About to be Disrupted Company of the Week?
MEI is the leading manufacturer of unattended payment systems. (Link) They seem to be a very cool company, but no where on the website do I see anything about credit card or cell phone payment systems. However, business seems to be good with their products handleing over 2 billion transactions a week.

Employees Are More Mobil
This isn't that surprising with the rise in 401Ks and decline in pensions but a recent study by Beyond.com showed that 60% of the 5,500 professionals polled have switched careers twice in the last 5 years. I am going to fall into this category. (Link)

They Care

We went to Dutch Wonderland this year for the first time, Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park for the 2 to 12 crowd, and had lunch in the picnic area.

What struck me about the pavilion was the attention to detail for such a seemingly insignificant feature of the park. Notice that the shelter's ceiling is inlaid with wood and the cross beams are actually curved 2x6 laminate. This shelter cost way more than it could have, and that's the point.

The folks at Dutch Wonderland didn't want a cheap pavilion. They wanted the folks who brought there lunch, rather than spend a boat load in the park, to have a positive experience despite the fact that the park owners were missing out on the food revenue. So they made sure that they had a fancy picnic shelter.

When you do all the little things right they add onto each other such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Neat Idea

I love it when a company solves a problem that I didn't know that I had. When I went to buy some business cards I had the choice between the typical serrated edge and "clean edge" cards.

You never know if the advertising on the box actually translates into the product but I was willing to give it a try and I am sure glad that I did.

After printing your cards you "snap" them out of the matrix and you are left with a card that looks like it was professionally printed. Seriously, you can not tell the difference between these print at home cards and something that was done on an off-set press.

Obviously the folks at Avery are paying attention to the customer and as a result have a hit on their hands. I would never use the old style cards after using this product

Go Bills

How important is today’s Bills game to the people in Buffalo?

It so important that people lined up in a line more than a quarter mile long in order to get an antenna so that they could see the game on TV. The local cable company, Time Warner, expects to distribute more than 32,000 sets of “rabbit” ears to customers who can’t see the game on cable because of a legal dispute between the cable company and the station that is televising the game.

The Bills are 4-0 and off to their best start since 1992 and are giving the people something to believe in; something they desperately need.

The City of Buffalo is the nation’s second poorest city, second only behind Detroit. Erie county isn’t in much better shape, in 2005 a State review of the county’s finances resulted in the state to taking control of the county’s finances. Erie county’s poverty rate of 13.8% is more than twice the national average and the county’s population is decreasing.

Add four Super Bowl losses to the depressing economic news and it’s easy to see why Buffalo fans are desperate for some good news.

This is why the Buffalo Bills have sold out every 2008 home game at Ralph Wilson stadium.

This is why they routinely sell out 90% of their home games despite not making the playoffs in this century.

A win today means that the Bills count. It means the Bills are legitimate winners. And if they are winners then we get to be winners too.

Hire Greg Eisenbach

Week 1 Unemployment Thoughts:
My experiences of a job hunt after an unexpected layoff.
My resume.

Not That Bad
Except for the no money thing there is a tremendous amount of upside to unemployment. It's just pure work; no distractions, no excuses. I am getting a tremendous amount done.

Best Job Board Job of The Week
Space Environments Survivability Resource Engineer (Link)

Worst Job Board Job of The Week
Senior SCADA Engineer with Supervisory experience. Technical experience with RTU’s, SEL 2030, Novatech Orion 5Rs, Subnet solutions, Modbus and DNP protocols are some of the skills needed. A high level of organization is required. (Link)

Best Conversation of The Week
{While in the parking lot of unemployment school}

Man: Hey man, nice suit. How much you want for it.

Me: A million dollars

Man: A million dollars. What kind of suit is it?

Me: (smiling) A million dollar suit.

Man: (laughing) You da best. Seriously though, you look good in that suit.

Biggest Learning
There are some seriously nice people out there. I have gotten a ton of help from people I either don't know or only slightly know. You guys are the best. Thank You.

Want Better Products? Fix the Process

I came across the following on Monster.com:

Project Engineer

Description: Our client is a large well-established engineering and manufacturing company located in the eastern suburbs. Due to a substantial increase in orders they need to bring in a Project Engineer. This person will take the lead role in pushing new and existing projects through the engineering and design departments. In addition to managing the schedule they will also act as the customer liaison coordinating delivery dates and engineering change orders. Additional duties include coordinating with production. The ideal candidate will have a B.S. in Engineering and 2-10 years experience.

Language is very important in culture. Why are they pushing things through engineering and design? It insinuates that engineering and design aren't able to complete their tasks on their own. If that's the case, why not fix the problem and save yourself the labor dollars? Layering on another resource is not the answer.

Companies are very good at improving their operations. For example, every manufacturing plant is trying to improve throughput and reduce labor. Most companies are not good at improving their processes. In my experience the single greatest lever that companies have to improve their rate of new product introduction is an intense focus on the new product development process itself.

Those who remove the most internal obstacles win.