There is also a related article – “Innovation: Trendy Topic, Hard to Do” that I had to mention, because the headline really hits home. I think the challenges that smaller businesses have is that they want to be innovative, but lack the ongoing support and sustain it.

While the article focuses on innovation in IT, the approach applies to innovation in general.

Many people also believe that innovation just “happens” – but it doesn’t. It takes a very systematic approach to maintain innovation over the long-term.

Katrina Lane, Chief technology Officer at Harrah’s Entertainment asserts that it’s crucial to manage the innovation process; it’s not something that will happen on its own. “There have to be strong metrics, timelines and processes, such as how you get to rollout. It’s not all research and dreamy,” she says. “Innovation is a systematic process. It’s like research and development. You have to manage your pipeline.”

In particular, there was a section that I wanted to share, listed below. The one sentence summary:
“The keys to making innovation a sustainable process, they say, include understanding the business inside and out, setting up a team dedicated to trying new ideas, and not being afraid to fail.”

The Building Blocks of Innovation
Consultants say the following elements are key to building an environment that can sustain innovation:

• Give employees the right to fail
• Spread responsibility for innovation throughout the organization, top to bottom
• Develop partnerships with other departments
• Create a central repository for ideas and experiments
• Establish processes and ownership

There has to be a good blend of providing enough time and resources for employees to innovate, but not in a vacuum so that they understand the real challenges of the business. The article also references the importance of shorter term innovations, which may be implemented with the shifting of existing resources, to future technologies that, while not applicable at the moment for a wide scale deployment, may help shape the future of the organization.

Technorati Tags: innovation, research

Andy Huckaba & I presented on social media for Lenexa Chamber of Commerce members today. We had a great turnout and there’s a large amount of interest about social media for small businesses. Thanks to everyone that attended and to the Lenexa Chamber of Commerce for organizing & hosting the event.

Andy Huckaba is the President of the management consulting firm Huckaba & Associates. Andy works as a facilitator, speaker, social media expert, and strategic consultant for companies and organizations in telecommunications, architecture, finance, banking, manufacturing, publishing, Internet development, advertising, healthcare and government. Past clients include Sprint, Hallmark, Yellow Freight, H&R Block, First USA and Bank of America. In his role as a City Councilman for the City of Lenexa, Kansas, Andy serves as the Vice-Chair of the National League of Cities, Information Technology & Communications Committee dealing with national technology policies that affect cities.

Dustin Jacobsen, Director of Social Media & Technology at Barkley, leads the agency on interactive, mobile, social and emerging technology projects. He works on a variety of clients including Sonic Drive-In, Build-A-Bear Workshop, 24 Hour Fitness and Blue Bunny Ice Cream. Barkley is one of the top-ten independent advertising agencies in the US.

Dustin holds a BS from Iowa State University and an MBA, magna cum laude, from Baker University. He blogs about all things marketing and technology at shakegently.com and is on Twitter at twitter.com/dustinj.

Technorati Tags: social media, Lenexa, business

The Cost Of Tweets And Pokes – Survey shows social networking sites are costing U.K. firms $2.3B a year, but they shouldn’t be banned.

The research firm found the use of social networking Web sites like Twitter and Facebook was costing British businesses 1.4 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) a year as employees “waste” an increasing amount of time on these sites.

The Über-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010:

Recent research provides evidence that there are business benefits to becoming an über-connected organization: Access to social media improves productivity. According to Dr Brent Coker from the Department of Management and Marketing at University of Melbourne in Australia, workers who engage in “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” are more productive than those who don’t. “People who surf the Internet for fun at work — within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office — are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” he says. “Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.”

Technorati Tags: social media, ROI

I’m not in the wine industry. Or the food & beverage industry, for that matter.

But, I do travel a reasonable amount and love to visit different wineries and breweries around the country.

On my last visit to wineries around Monterey County California, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed. Not because the wine was bad, but because of the wine tasting fees and the attitudes of several of the brands.

So first, let me say that most of our wine stops were great, and I recommend taking the tour at Chateau Julien (our favorite!) and stopping by to visit with the fine folks at Scheid, Talbott, Bernardus and Ventana Vineyards, to name a few. There were several wineries in Monterey County that I would have liked to visit but we just didn’t have enough time (Bernardus was the farthest South we got).

So, here is the my complaint: wine tasting fees.

I’m not complaining because I’m cheap, but I’m complaining because some wineries are trying to make money from wine tasting fees.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that businesses have to cover their costs. And I’m fine with covering costs, especially, if nothing else, having a wine tasting fee policy keeps people from stopping by and drinking without any intention of buying.

But, if there are tasting fees, they should either be reasonable enough that it’s a break even for the winery ($3-$5?) or applied towards purchase with a reasonable threshold (like $25).

Some of the wineries, which I won’t mention, had $10-$15 tasting fees that were not applied towards purchase. In my opinion, higher prices may be fine for reserve wines but not for wines that are in the $25-$50 price range.

If tasting fees are applied towards purchase, I’m pretty likely to purchase something to recoup my costs, but only if the threshold is low (i.e. 1 bottle, not a case). Some of the wineries had a high threshold for applying the tasting fees towards purchase.

For the wineries that charge for tastings, are they not confident enough in their product that they don’t think anyone will buy it once they taste it? If someone is tasting 5 or more wines, the chance is pretty good that at least one of the wines is going to hit home and the customer will purchase.

If the tasting fees aren’t applied and I’m on the fence on whether to purchase or not, I’ll usually thank my hosts and walk away. Why? Because unless something was great, there isn’t any incentive to buy, and I feel the winery already made some money off of me, which doesn’t sit well with me. Plus, there are so many great wines out there, and with limited space and funds, not everything makes the cut for the Jacobsen Estate cellar.

If there aren’t tasting fees and I was on the fence? I almost always make a purchase out of respect for the brands and their time. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I make a purchase at almost every wine tasting I go to. And if I don’t like anything they’re pouring, I try and find something else to buy.

But, what bothered me the most was how some wineries, when asked about tasting fees, simply responded “nobody provides free tastings anymore” and shrugged off my inquiry.

Maybe there was just too big of a disconnect between the wine makers and the storefronts? Or maybe, in this down economy, the sales people were more worried about making a quick buck and collecting a check vs. investing in a long term customer?

My favorite wine area to visit is Sonoma County (map).

Last time I was there, almost all of the fees, if there were any, were applied towards purchase, and the people were incredibly nice.

And guess what, I purchased quite a bit more wine.

Technorati Tags: wine, tasting, fee

Two-thirds of Americans (66%) believe ad agencies have at least some responsibility for the current economic crisis because they caused people to buy things they couldn’t afford

Come on, Americans. Don’t blame Ad Agencies for doing our jobs, which, if you forgot, is to convince you to buy things. Its not our fault that you bought stuff that you can’t afford.

Everyone who believes it needs to watch the SNL skit Don’t Buy Stuff

Technorati Tags: advertising, agency, pop culture, economy, economic, crisis

I read an article over the weekend called “Should you ban tech gadgets from meetings” by Chris Penttila from the January Issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

Do I think mobile devices should be banned from meetings? Not exactly, although I do think that some guidelines should be put in place and if you are too busy paying attention to your mobile device, it’s probably a meeting you don’t need to be at anyway.

Most people know that I’m a gadget guy that likes flashing lights (it’s an engineering thing) and I make an attempt to stay informed on what’s hot in technology. As part of my involvement in emerging media and mobile marketing, I usually have a handful of devices that I test, like the early iPhone, Google Android phone (G-1) and others.

With the latest devices from Apple and Google, I would say that the distraction factor has got significantly worse, because people aren’t just checking messages anymore but are surfing the web, watching video, checking their Craig’s List postings, etc. And lets not forget that March Madness is just around the corner.

When I read the article above, it hit home. I’m trying to be better about balancing an ever-growing influx of RSS feeds, email, text messages, Twitter messages (tweets) and Facebook updates (along with everything else that comes out) with information overload.

At our company, most employees are offered a company sponsored BlackBerry or iPhone as well as a laptop. I think this is a great idea for several reasons, including the ability for employees to stay in contact while traveling, working from home, keeping current on technology, etc. And it’s a lot easier than trying to have employees expense part of their personal phone bills.

Is there abuse, with people using the company sponsored phones or laptops for personal use? Of course, but our IT department does a good job of trying to keep people in check when it comes to monthly bills, but isn’t overbearing into how you use them.

And, since more and more people have disconnected their home phone line, myself included, what was once your mobile phone has now become your home phone as well. The last stats I read on home phone replacement with mobile devices was 15-20% and growing. I still retain my personal cell phone for communicating with my family and friends and usually leave my personal phone at my desk during the day.

Here are a few things that I’ve done to benefit from mobile devices vs feeling tethered to one.

For anyone that receives a lot of messages on their phone (email, text, etc), the first thing that I recommend is turning off sound notification of new messages. No, not vibrate. Off. Why?

If something is so important that it needs your immediate attention (which I argue that few things really are), someone should call you, and you can feel justified interrupting your meeting to take the call. We’ve all been there. Emergencies happen and I’m not saying to go completely off the grid. If you’re between meetings, waiting for the elevator, etc, why not check your messages on your mobile device and burn up some of the excess time?

But, is it really necessary that you interrupt your meeting with your largest client to read a message from one of your old high school friends that they posted on your Facebook wall? I’m sure your employer would probably feel different.

And I would argue that vibrate is just as annoying as the personalized ring tones that you hear throughout out the day at the office (mine included, I’m sure).

This is where balance comes into play.

If I’m sitting at my desk, I only check my phone every now and then to view text messages, since I’m already viewing email and other messages on my computer.

I keep the visual notification on my BlackBerry, although you could argue that I could probably turn that off as well.

My work desk phone number is on my business card and email signature, but outside of that, I rarely give it out. If I give out a number, I give someone my mobile. Why? Well, my desk phone forwards to my mobile phone anyway, so if it’s important that you have phone number, you might as well have my mobile number. Most people probably wouldn’t miss a desk phones except for conference rooms and a few account service or other related service people that are on the phone all the time.

What else have I done to optimize my utilization of messaging services and mobile devices? I’ve tried to keep my time focused and don’t check email every time one hits my inbox (unless I’m expecting an important message, of course). Same thing goes for RSS feeds.

If I’m really trying to focus, I’ll close down my email and try to eliminate distractions completely. I’m usually only able to do this for an hour or so, but it helps to not be interrupted every few minutes.

How do you best utilize mobile devices and what boundaries do you put on meeting attendees or other events?

And yes, I’ve been busted sending updates to Twitter during church, but nobody’s perfect.

Technorati Tags: mobile, productivity, etiquette, BlackBerry, iPhone

Via SmartBrief on Leadership, a link today to an article called Innovation isn’t free.

In summary:

Many companies talk about their innovation needs “..right up until they discover it might require an investment in time, resources and people to create a more innovative company. The last time I checked, anything that is valuable requires some investment.”

“If you are planning to try to innovate on the cheap, don’t bother.”

The blog post is short, but a good read to get your innovation braincells moving.

Technorati Tags: innovation, product development

I wrote about the European incandescent-light-bulb-ban about a year ago.

According to ENERGY STAR:

If you have ever had to recycle the bulbs, you know how much of a hassle it can be. Since the bulbs have mercury in them, I hope that you don’t just throw them in the trash. I’ve been stockpiling the bulbs and waiting for a good time to recycle them and now is as good of a time as any, as we’re moving houses and need to move the bulbs.

According to Wikipedia (although no source is cited), only about 3% of CFL bulbs are recycled or disposed of properly.

The NY Times recently ran an article about Home Depot offering compact fluorescent bulb recycling, as the article states, “creating the nation’s most widespread recycling program for the bulbs.”

The article also mentions that 75 percent of the nation’s homes are within 10 miles of a Home Depot. With Home Depot stepping up to the plate, I’m hoping that others follow, such as Lowes. Menards (at least in MN) also offers free CFL recycling. Several other hardware stores also offer bulb recycling. Check with your local store for participation.

The EPA has a page on recycling the bulbs as well.

I broke a CF bulb a few weeks ago and was happy to find out that the amount of mercury in a CFL is relatively small.

But if you do break a bulb, the EPA also has lists some directions to follow. The key item to remember is to leave the area for at least 15 minutes (and research via Google what to do next).

Technorati Tags: recycle, compact fluorescent light bulb, CFL, Home Depot, green

I stumbled upon a great list of called To Lead, You Have to Follow: 8 Traits of Effective IT Leaders

1. Leadership means focusing on the needs of others, not yourself
2. Leadership comes from your actions, not your title
3. Leadership makes you accountable, even if it’s not your fault
4. Leadership is not a 9-to-5 activity
5. Leadership takes trust from your followers
6. Leaders get their best ideas from their team
7. Leadership thrives on diversity
8. Leadership comes from continuous communication

You can click through for the full details, including examples.

Although the article uses IT examples, it can be applied to pretty much any leadership position.

Technorati Tags: leadership, IT, management

Let me start with my frustration with Best Buy. Several of my friends already refuse to shop there for various reasons. As if retail electronic stores don’t know already, the internet is slowly chipping away at their business, and most of my major items are purchased online, including my recent hi-def TV, which I saved about $750 by purchasing online from buy.com.

But, I like the convenience of picking things up locally when I can and getting a hands on review of products before I buy them is always nice.

If you will humor me, writing this is somewhat helping me cope with my frustration with Best Buy. I’ve had other negative run ins with BB, such as returning products under the “extended warranty” period which I so gladly purchased only to find out they won’t cover the original purchase price, only apply a depreciated amount towards a new product. Or, the time that we went to pick up an entertainment center which we were told was in stock, only to find out they didn’t and “the online inventory or even listed inventory tends to be off, so someone needs to physically check just to make sure.” But, I won’t go into those episodes, as you will find plenty of them on the net.

So, as the story goes, I have been putting off getting a camcorder because I hadn’t had enough time to fully research what I wanted to get. I had asked a few friends, picked up a review magazine and read a few reviews from sites like Camcorderinfo.com to learn more.

We were on vacation this last week and really wanted to capture some footage, so I was pretty much stuck with buying whatever I could get while I was in San Diego. I realized that I would have to pay more, in tax, if nothing else, but I was fine with that. And, considering that most of the camcorders I was looking at were $750-$1,000, I realized I would also be paying probably a 15% markup for this added luxury of picking up locally. And, once again, I was fine with that, because it was my fault for not looking into it sooner.

So, I decided on the Canon HG10.

As Canon likes to quote on their site:

“If you’re in the market for an HDD camcorder, the Canon HG10 is the best on the market.”
Camcorderinfo.com, August 2007.

It records at full HD (1920×1080), so I’m glad I have a new MacBook Pro on the way, because I’m going to need every bit of power it can provide to edit the footage. So far, though, I have been pretty happy with it.

Once I had decided on what I was going to purchase, I decided to check out some of the local stores. Best Buy was one that my sister-in-law was familiar with and had been to before. So, I thought I would give them a shot.

We went and visited the Best Buy store at Mission Valley (San Diego), and to my pleasant surprise, a few of the sales people actually knew what they were talking about. I like to go in to stores and test the knowledge of the sales people just to see what they know. As it turns out, they were decent. I wanted to do some more research and check out some of the other local stores before making a purchase. So, that night (Feb 1), I did some more research and found out that Circuit City had the same model on sale for $850.

I knew that Best Buy had a price match policy, so I thought I would give them a try. I called one of the Best Buys just to make sure and what I needed to do. The person I talked to after being on hold for 20 minutes told me that all I had to do was print off the product page from Circuit City that clearly showed the price, and they would match it.

Sounded straight forward enough, because, after all, there were several Circuit City locations close by, and surely they would match their price.

After being on hold forever (I called a few times before finally just putting on speakerphone and going about my business), closing time was drawing close. We packed up the gang and off we went to Best Buy with the printed page from circuitcity.com in hand.

We got there a few minutes before closing, but, to my disappointment, the open sign was turned off and the door closed. I was fortunate enough to get inside after talking with the door guy (there were still a bunch of people in the store), and made my way over to the camcorder section.

When I got there, they first said that they wouldn’t match an online price and I needed to go to the customer service desk. Fair enough, I can handle that. When I get to the customer service desk, they said that they couldn’t match the price because Circuit City had already closed.

WHAT? You can clearly see the price online, which I so kindly printed off, based on the conversation I had with the Best Buy customer service rep from the local store. That, apparently, didn’t matter. They actually had to call the store and verify the price and availability. When the customer service rep said I was out of luck, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The customer service rep was nice enough about the ordeal, so I thought the supervisor would try and help me out. I mean, I called in advance just to make sure I had the info before I went to the store.

Apparently I was wrong. The supervisor was a complete jerk. She basically said, sorry for ya’. You will have to come back later for us, at best, to match the price you could get down the street, not to mention online. As I pleaded that I only wanted the same price I could get down the street, they said they couldn’t (or let me rephrase, wouldn’t) match the price of a direct competitor.

I also stated that I really had to pick it up that night, since we had plans the next day and if I didn’t buy it right then from them I surely wasn’t coming back later to get it from them.

She referred me to the details of the Best Buy price match policy that details all loopholes. Limited quantities? Of course all stores have limited quantities, especially for sale items. But, regardless of what the website says, even though you could view the online inventory as well as the store inventory online, they needed to call a local store to verify.

What if the competitor does not have the item in stock or has limited quantities of the product?
Sometimes a retailer will advertise a very low price for a product but have only limited quantities in stock. If the item is out of stock or the competitor has limited quantities of an item, it is not eligible for price matching. Likewise, if Best Buy has a product that is advertised as being limited in quantity it will not be eligible for price matching.

I have spent thousands of dollars with Best Buy over the years. Stereo equipment, home appliances, computer equipment, furniture and office equipment, CD’s, phones, gift cards for friends and relatives and the list goes on. Thousands. Not to mention the additional thousands of dollars of purchases that I used to drive there based on product recommendations for my friends and small business owners.

The supervisor couldn’t have cared less. Sure, it was the end of the night and they didn’t know me from any other Joe Blow off the street, but there was little empathy. Not even a lame attempt to try and keep me as a future customer after treating me like an idiot.

No, Sorry, but that is our policy and as much as I would like to help you out, I can’t. Nothing. Only if I wanted to complain about it I would need to call Best Buy corporate.

More along the lines of Even though we can clearly see the price for the exact some model at Circuit City and we have a price match policy, we want to try and screw you out of as much of your money as possible and encourage you to buy online and use price comparison sites like PriceGrabber.com where you can calculate the best bottom line price (shipping and tax included).

Sure, Best Buy didn’t have to match the price of Circuit City, even though in all good faith they should have, but even if they would have shown a little decency and humanity in the process, they might have been able to get me back in the store after a few months to vent my frustration of that particular incident. It is not like I was asking Best Buy to match an unreasonable amount from an unknown internet site. It was CIRCUIT CITY! The reason I didn’t buy it from Circuit City in the first place was because I have a rewards card with Best Buy.

As a side note, the online price at bestbuy.com was different than the store price. How big of a rip is that ($1099 in store vs. $999 online)?

Guess how much I paid for my Canon HG10 down the street, at, oddly enough, Costco? $799. A full $300 less. $1099 was the full retail price of the product to begin with. The online price is now around $699 (no tax or shipping for some stores), but this weekend $799 was looking like the best price around. The new model is coming out in March, so online stores are now closing it out (and thus, the appearance at Costco). I stumbled upon the camcorder at Costco purely by coincidence as I was looking for other stores that carried Canon products.

So, let me say it out loud. Best Buy, you lost my business and have one frustrated customer. And, you won’t get a penny more from me in the future. Not only because of your prices (which are especially high on more expensive electronics), but your poor customer service.

Was it worth it?

Next up is a call to Best Buy corporate. I’m a nobody with what some may call an over-the-top complaint, but I think it is valid.

Technorati Tags: Best+Buy, complaint, customer service, Canon+HG10, electronics, retail