The tribalism hurting your agile practice

My Agile Practice has changed over the years.

It has been a strange year.  Last year, I was talking about comfort food and sleeplessness.  Three hundred and sixty-five days later, I want to share a little wisdom I have gained along the way.  This week how disappointment can make you a better scrum master. 

I have deliberately not discussed politics on this blog.  The internet is filled with plenty of places on the political right and political left to discuss current events.  I have plenty of strong opinions myself but do not share them here because they are not germane to the discussion of Agile, Lean, and Scrum.  The world of business transformation is hard enough; injecting partisan political views seems counterproductive to me.

I come from the world of college debate and forensics.  It is a community centered in the “reality-based,” zones of academia, science, media, and government.  It is a skeptical community which relies on empiricism and rhetoric to persuade others. These same institutions are referred to by political conservatives as pillars of deceit.  A year ago, my smug self-assurance in my expertise took a severe beating. 

Over the last year, I have gotten much wiser.  I have rededicated myself to my profession.  I shut down my internet startup.  I even made an effort to listen to Nickelback to see if there was any merit to their music.  Suffice to say; it was the audio equivalent of eating chocolate frosting out of a tub with a spoon; including the stomach ache. 

The most significant notion revealing itself to me was the concept of epistemic-tribalism.  I felt that if you are “reality-based,” and gave people the facts of the situation, they would eventually come around to your point of view.  If this formulation was good enough for Socrates, then it was good enough for my agile practice.  I now realize this was naive.  People have deep emotional and political biases.  Stating the facts is not good enough.  When confronted with facts that contradict their worldview or place in the world, some people will reject those facts.  It is similar to the ideas of Wittgenstein who explained language was a construct and subject to games.  Furthermore, two people can look at the same object and see two different things.  The neat and tidy world based on objective reality and evidence fell away replaced by an effete world of conjecture resembling a postmodern literary theory class.  It was disorienting. 

If epistemic tribalism can happen in the realm of national politics, it is not too far of a stretch to see it manifest itself the cubical of an office.  Personal relationships are more important than sales.  Countless Quid Pro Quo agreements bind the office together and harm customer service.  Tenure with the organization is more important than accomplishment.  Finally, being likable is more important than getting work done.  It became clear to me that these things were happening.  I counted on the better angles of others instead of understanding the tangled webs of motivations.  To be a successful scrum master or agile coach, I had to accept office professionals could be nasty and brutish. 

So this last year for me, the political became professional.  Reason and empiricism are less useful tools for change compared with understanding the motivations and prejudices of my colleagues.  Epistemic-tribalism is a real thing, and you need to understand it in your organization.  Finally, it takes disappointment for you to set aside your prejudices and view your surrounding differently.

Until next time.

Change Happens, Damn it!

Change is never easy.

This week I experienced tremendous change in my agile team.  A technical profession was made an offer they could not refuse and they left my development team.  It was bound to happen sooner or later but I was not expecting it so soon.  It made me think about many things and put into perspective the last part of the agile manifesto which is responding to change over following a plan.  This week I want to talk about change and learning work within it.

I have mentioned the philosopher Heraclitus said, “No man can step into the same river twice.”  This pre-Socratic philosopher could be considered the intellectual god-father of Agile because a central portion of his philosophy is concentrated on change.  Other philosophers have discussed change, but Heraclitus was the first so he has a special place in my heart.

The initial founders of the agile movement when they created the manifesto were also concerned with change.  The world of technology changes too quickly to use old methods of software development.  When President Obama took office there were 150 million Facebook users.  Today, that figure is at over 1.1 billion.   The only way that Facebook could accommodate that kind of growth was revise how it did things from publishing code to managing its servers.  It takes an army of very smart people but Facebook has been able to do it because they have been able to embrace change.  This is why the web site can accommodate the blind and have over 50 different designations for gender.

Human beings evolved intelligence in order to better adapt to change however since we are evolved creatures we still have some more primitive traits in our behavior which makes it hard for us to accept change.  This is why Spencer Johnson made so much money with his book “Who Moved My Cheese?”  In the book he creates a modern fable about two mice named “Sniff” and “Scurry” and how they respond to the cheese in the maze they work in being moved.  Once he is done with the fable, Johnson sets about some concrete examples on how to deal with change in an organization.  The book was an instant smash and inspired a parody called “Who Stole My Cheese.”  I like both books.  I enjoy the original because it has some practical guidance about change and I enjoy the parody because it is a necessary to point out that change management never works in corrupt or greedy organizations.

As an agile professional, you are going to have to deal with cheese being moved and being the person moving it for you agile teams.  For instance, I was in a meeting and an executive was issuing orders on how we were to name things in the backlog.  Everyone in the room smiled and nodded like sycophants while I was openly frustrated.

“What’s wrong, Ed?” the executive asked with the empathy of a hangman.

“My cheese is being moved,” I replied throwing my pen down on my note pad, “I have been trained to name these things a certain way for six years and you expect me to change overnight by fiat,”

It was hard but now I have embraced the change and now I find myself correcting other people in the office when they do not name things in the same manner as that executive.

Change is not easy but admitting you have a problem with a type of change or the pace of that change is a step closer to embracing it.  You can then rationally step back and learn to work with that change in your situation.  Sometimes that means changing your behavior and other times it means changing how you do something.  In a world of constant change, you either adapt to those changes or you will be left behind.

Until next time.

History is NOT over! It is just beginning.

Not the same person who graduated from ISU.

It is a special anniversary of sorts.  Twenty-five years ago I walked commencement for my undergraduate degree from Illinois State University.  Five years ago, I received my Masters in Management from University of St. Francis.  I am very proud of those accomplishments but I confess what I gained from those educational journeys was not what I expected.  The web site LinkedIn has gotten into the act by having its major authors talk about what their current selves would tell their freshly scrubbed 22 year old selves graduating from college.  This week I don’t want to share advice but rather illustrate the radical changes which have taken place in the last 25 years.

Putting things in perspective, my senior year of college, was supposed to be “the end of history.”  The Berlin Wall had fallen.  Communism was in retreat.  The economy was in a downturn but we would not know how bad it was going to be until the college canceled the job fair.  Microsoft had just released widows 2.0 to the market place.  That did not matter to most of us college kids we had MS-DOS personal computers or Apple II computers to do our work.  The phone system in the dorms was so bad that we could not hook up a modem because each room did not have an individual line.  We were on party lines where if someone picked up a phone in another room it would disconnect the modem.  Silicon Valley made semi-conductors and not millions of start-up dollars.  Mark Zuckerberg was a six year old.

That was the world I graduated into.  My brilliant career in radio lasted 18 months and then I drifted around in retail and the casino business before finding my way at the age of thirty working my first entry level job as a Visual Basic programmer.  Over the last seventeen years, I have seen trends come and go.  I have witnessed the giddy and stupid days of the dot-com bubble.  I suffered through the economic downturn of the post 9/11 economy.  I saw the birth of Windows 95 and the flop of Vista.  I watched Microsoft transform from a smug master of the universe to the technical power house which wants to be loved.  All of this in my lifetime.

I think the most important thing I have witnessed is the birth and spread of the Agile Reformation.  It began innocuously enough with top project managers getting together at a ski lodge and to share ideas.  It ended with the agile manifesto.  Now fourteen years later, I consider myself to be a missionary of sorts spreading the word and trying to make business a little less oppressive.  Sometimes I feel like I am tilting at windmills and other times I earn a little victory.  As a whole, I am trying to change a business culture one step at a time.  I am also trying to build my own business at the same time.

I don’t think I could give any advice to my 22 year old self.  I doubt he would believe all the missteps failures and misfortunes he would experience would lead to the life I currently have.  I find it surprising myself.  At 22, I was going to be a disc jockey to rule the world instead I became a missionary quietly leading change in global business.  The future belongs to misfits like me and other innovative individuals who want to change the world.  I am glad you are along for the ride.

Until next time.

The Power of the Pivot

Sometimes you have to stop getting punched in
 the face to realize you need to make a change.

The life of a Scrum Master or Entrepreneur is filled with uncertainty.  Today’s sure thing becomes tomorrow’s dead end.  This is why I wanted to devote to this week’s blog to the power of being flexible.  In the parlance of Silicon Valley start-ups, pivoting is powerful.

According the Agile manifesto, responding to change is more important than following a plan.  This seems counter-intuitive at first but when you work in the software business for a while you understand why agile people say this.  I can’t remember how many times I have been involved in a course of action is a software project where I have been futility swimming upstream.  A slight course correction or change of approach would have sped up the project and led to success.  Unfortunately, project flexibility was not built into the project and as a developer I was doomed to work on a failing project.

If leadership was more flexible and willing to make changes in light of the current situation the chance of success might increase.  This is where we get the term pivot from.  I learned about it from a fantastic article from Vanity Fair about the purchase of Instagram by Facebook.  I highly recommend the article to anyone willing to learn about adopting to change.  In summary, Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom had numerous bouts of failure and frustration.  It was only after he pivoted his firm toward photography and filtering that he was able to find the success he was seeking.

I remember reading this article on a plan ride home from a corporate off site meeting.  I witnessed the new organizational chart and saw five people named project managers who I had personally trained to use Team Foundation Server.  I also noticed that I was not going to lead a software team.  I felt humiliated and my career was at a dead end.  I was filled with anger and frustration.  Something had to give, and it was clear to me that it would have to be my career at my old firm.  I got together with a few of my mentors in the agile community including Alan Dayley and they gave me the support and encouragement which I needed.  Within a month I had changed jobs and become an architect and scrum master at another company.  It is one of the few times in my career I can look back and say I did the right thing.

So my lesson is that sometimes you need to pivot to be successful. Blindly following a plan will lead to nothing be frustration and misery.  If something isn’t working try something else.  We invest too much into the sunk costs of our lives.  By pivoting or responding to change instead of following a plan, we gain a fraction of our lives back and learn to find success.  It is not as neat and orderly as we would like but in an uncertain world it is the only thing we have.

Until next time.

The Vision Thing

We have a vision.

Technology is a shambling monster of innovation and conflicting visions.  One week, we view the future being made in virtual reality with companies like Occulus.  The next week we view self-driving cars.  It is enough to make someone’s head spin.  I myself wonder about all the new innovations and changes taking place.  As an entrepreneur, do I ride the latest trends or do I follow my own trail.  This week I want to talk about where my head and heart take me.

The two biggest trends in technology are the increase in mobile computing with smart phones and the rise of cloud computing.  I have been watching both grow for years and I have been talking about it for a long time.   I think that Microsoft has been leader in the area of cloud computing with its Azure services while they have stumbled in the area mobile devices.  I think with the launch of the Surface Pro 3 that they will have a device which will knock some competitors on their behinds.

When I founded this company four years ago I saw these trends in motion and wanted to help small and medium sized businesses take advantage of these technologies.  It is not glamorous or sexy but it felt like a niche which I could fill.  This way a small business owner has the same powers and features as a Fortune 500 firm.  They can use mobile applications and the cloud to help grow their business.  I imagine a sales person for a small firm doing a sale punching a few keys on their cell phone and the transaction going through with minimal human intervention.

This is the dream of my firm and I look forward to making it a reality.  Please contact us today and we will show you how.

Until next time.

Graduating from BizSpark

Proud to have graduated from BizSpark

This week marks a special anniversary of sorts.  Three years ago I became a Microsoft BizSpark member.  This week I graduate from the program.  It has been a peculiar journey but I feel that I have learned a great deal.  I would like to discuss my experiences with the program.

I was between consulting jobs and was attending an ALM conference in Chicago when I asked if there was a program for a Microsoft professional to get Visual Studio in order to start building a software start-up.  I was quickly directed to the BizSpark program and I have not looked back.  I was provided with software licenses for Office and Visual Studio.  I was also given a network to share ideas and solicit for help.

It has not been perfect.  Sometimes I have felt alone in the wilderness of business.  The clients I thought I would get just by putting out a shingle have been elusive.  Still, I have been able to migrate from Visual Studio 2010 to Visual Studio 2013 and keep up on all the latest technologies.  I am now comfortable with MVC thanks BizSpark.  I have embraced Microsoft Tag until Microsoft decided to abandon the technology and thanks to NuGet was able to generate my very own QR codes to manage my business.

Plenty of ups and downs and BizSpark has been there for me.  Now I am officially an alumni of the program and I hope that I get an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of another member WhatsApp.  I understand that this is pie in the sky thinking but that was why I wanted to be an entrepreneur in the first place.

Feel free to contact us and learn more about our business.  I want to take time out to thank Doug Crets and the BizSpark team for sharing my work with others and keeping my focused on the end goal which is quitting my day job and putting other people to work.  I look forward to letting everyone know when that happens.

Until next time.

What real entrepreneurs have on their phone.

Applications for the Entrepreneur on the go.

I love my local chamber of commerce.  I love them so much that each year I pay them dues and attend many of the functions they host.  This week there was a bit of a kerfuffle on social media when they posted an article from thenextweb.com about the top 13 mobile applications an entrepreneur should have on their smart phone.  Crestfallen, I replied, “May-be you should ask one of your members who writes mobile apps?” They replied saying that I should write something up so this week on the blog for my regular readers and members of the Joliet Chamber of Commerce here are some of the web application I can’t live without and I am an entrepreneur.

Esponce QR Code Reader – I am a big fan of QR codes and using them to have pieces of paper communicate with the internet.  Esponse QR code makes this as easy as taking a picture on your phone.  What makes Esponce so good is that in addition to reading QR codes you can create them on the fly from your phone.  Finally Esponce offers a tracking service and a history of all the codes you have scanned.  Download the application here.

Ubersocial Pro Twitter Client - If you are on the go staying on top of your Facebook and Twitter reputation can be a full time job.  Ubersocial makes using Twitter and Facebook is a snap. You can follow particular users or hashtags update both Facebook and Twitter with one touch from your phone and be instantly notified when someone talks about your organization.  There is a pro version with advertising and then Pro version for $4.99.  Ditch the ads and pay for the pro version, you can thank us later. Download it here. 

Google Keep - It is hard to take notes and save them electronically.  Google Keep is a simple introductory tool to save notes on your phone of tablet.  If you find a web page you want to read later you can share it with Keep to read later.  Grocery or to do lists can be set up with a click.  You can even set up reminders to send e-mails or text messages to do something.  Even if you lose your phone or tab let you can access your Keep notes via the web.  It is not the biggest or must fully feature note taking tool but for someone learning to take electronic notes it is a great start.  Find it here.

Kindle Book Reader – Entrepreneurs spend a great deal of time traveling.  Lugging around books and magazines can be a hassle.  The Kindle reader app allows you to have an entire newsstand and bookstore at your fingertips the next time you are on a long flight. The reader automatically hooks into Amazon.com’s website and you can get the latest best sellers with a swipe.  For people who love to read or need to keep up this is a must have.  Download your version here.

Google Drive - Being an entrepreneur means sales presentations, demonstrations, and lots of travel.  It would be nice if your spreadsheets, documents, and presentations could be accessed in one place.  Google Drive makes this a reality.  The Google drive behaves like a regular hard drive but instead of physically existing on your phone, tablet or PC it exists on Google's servers safe and secure.  So if you change a spreadsheet on your tablet when you view it on your phone or PC the changes are saved.  This is easier to use and safer than a thumb drive. Learn more here.

Songza – All work and no play make the life of an entrepreneur dull.  Songza is a music application which helps find music for any mood or moment.  Instead of playlists and stations being managed by computers, Songza employees human being to keep the music selections fresh so if your tastes range from early sixties jazz bebop to the latest hits you have your pick of quality commercial free music.  I especially like the Space Age Bachelor Pad channel playing lounge music from the Mad Men era of history and College Memories 1980 – 1989.  Try out Songza an you will not use another streaming music service.

As an entrepreneur those are the application I have to have on my smart phone.  At E₃ systems we also make mobile and web applications which might help you.  Our first application is called Sully and it is an inventory management system which can produce Bills of Lading, Invoices, and packing slips from your phone, tablet or PC.  We also have an application named Tony which helps you track the care and maintenance of item in your fleet of vehicles.  It also works on a phone, tablet and PC.  This system will help you stay on top of insurance risks and maintenance warranties with the swipe of a finger.  To learn more about E₃ systems and our products please click here.

Kerfuffles are a good thing and I hope this one helps you find the applications to make doing business easier.

Until next time.

Is your business ready for the next SharkNado.

Are you ready for the Next SharkNado Attack

It you missed it last week of the biggest events on Twitter in a long time was the premier of the B-grade monster movie SharkNado on the SyFi channel.  As the title implies, it was a monster movie featuring man eating sharks which sucked up by a tornado and then dropped on the unsuspecting population of Los Angles.  News anchors from cable television, celebrities of all stripes, and political figures chimed it to remark how awful the film was.  It generated so much buzz that the network decided to rebroadcast the film early because the overwhelming demand.  There is a lesson here for any business person.  The web and social media can be a powerful thing creating demand for your business.  In this blog post, want to encourage you to be ready when the next SharkNado hits.

The universe of social media is composed of many services; Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit being the largest and most influential services on the web.  Facebook acts as a global community for everyone from your parents to people who are interested in dressing up as cats to go for contact.  According to Yahoo news, about 1.1 Billion people call Facebook the place they go to share information with friends and family.  Twitter is known as a micro-blogging service and users can only type 140 characters at a time.  What makes Twitter so popular is the speed of how information is shared and it is also relatively unfiltered so it is the tool of Occupy Wall Street and rebels in Turkey.  Rumors and misinformation swirl about but within this river of information are plenty of nuggets of information gold.  Watching Samuel L. Jackson root for team USA during the Olympics was extremely funny and I highly recommend Jack Tapper’s feed from CNN.  Finally, Reedit acts as a clearing house of blogs and photographs on the web. They also have an “Ask Me Anything” or A.M.A feature which has become the place for politicians and other thought leaders to try out new ideas.  For the sake of disclosure, I use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as my social networks to promote this business.

So what does this mean to you a small or medium sized business? It means you also need a presence on social media web sites; at the very least Twitter and Facebook.  You can promote specials and talk about your business in an unfiltered manner.  If people like your content they will share your tweets and Facebook messages extending your reach.  It is also cheaper than advertising on radio, television, or newspaper.  This makes it a low cost means to promote your business.

We at E₃ systems understand this strange world and would like to help you.  We leverage Facebook and Twitter and can show you how to do the same.  Please contact us and we will show you how.  So the next time a SharkNado hits you will be able to use it to boost your business.

Until next time.

A Rave of Innovation

Lots of innovation happening...and it is sexy

There are many ways to get excited about technology.  Technology people being smarter than the average bear also like to argue about technology.  It is just the nature of working in the business and some feuds have gone on for decades.  One of the more interesting discussions going on right now is from the January 12th, issue of The Economist.  The magazine does not seem very bullish on the future of innovation in the 21st century.  I rarely disagree with the good people at the Economist but as someone working in the innovation trenches I think they are wrong.

The magazine makes a very convincing argument stating that the first forty years of the 20th century saw a huge increase in Gross Domestic Product and standards of living in the developed world.  Ice boxes gave way to refrigeration and refrigeration begat TV dinners.  They also illustrate that the growth of technology has not lead to the increase of median wages over the last fifty years.  Finally, they point to IPO and the Dot.Com bust of the last 20 years as proof that innovation and technology are two very different things.

Those things said and argued convincingly, I think they miss the point.  First comparing the early 20th century to the current time is a little foolish.  Women were not allowed to vote, Jim Crow laws were alive and well in the south, and quantum mechanics wasn't even conceived.  We were just beginning to reap the rewards of electricity and most of the nation did not have paved roads.  Change when it came was going to be dramatic and life changing.  Today woman can vote, Jim Crow exists but outside the realm of law and every technological device we use depends on quantum mechanics.  The world of the 21st century is as alien to the early 20th century as elderly people are at a rave. 

I do see some disturbing trends; first, organizational opposition to agile development methods.  Next, I find making every household appliance web enabled to be unnecessary. I also think that social media as epitomized by Facebook being treated like a get rich scheme is foolish.  However, when we look back on this period of history, I think you are going to see plenty of innovation percolating under the surface looking for the right moment to explode.  Just wait you have not seen anything yet. 

I say this because the expansion of cloud computing is going to make business intelligence faster and cheaper.  I also believe that mobile computing as epitomized by Android devices and Windows 8 is going to change the way we do business.  Paperwork is going to be digitized in a flash.  Managers can now manipulate their supply chains like a teen-ager playing a video game.  Finally, business standards can be spread around world at the speed of the web. 

I am glad that I am leading this effort.  I founded my firm to help businesses take advantage of these trends.  I want to help small businesses have the skills and agility to beat the big guys.  If I can make one more business hyper-competitive and able to grow then I have achieved my dream. 

This is an exciting time because business is learning how to use technology to do business better.  What that means is better profits, more employment, and growth.  I can't think of a better thing to be involved with.

Until next time.

Embrace the Cloud

Embrace the Cloud, you can thank us later.

Technology can be confusing and scary.  I spend much of my time explaining new technology to people and trying to ease their concerns.  Nothing causes more confusion than “cloud computing.”  This week, I want to explain what cloud computing is and how E₃ systems can help you use it to improve your business. 

Slate.com economics writer, Matt Yglesias unveiled a survey from Wakefield Research last week about public perceptions about cloud computing.  Some of the more interesting tidbits of information were, a majority of Millennials believe that stormyweather can interfere with cloud computing and 22% surveyed  confessed to admitting they have pretended toknow what the cloud is or how it works even if they didn’t.  After a good chuckle, I wondered if people had similar feelings regarding microwave ovens or color television. 

Here is the dirty little secret about cloud computing.  Most of us are using it and we don’t even realize it.  If you are using Facebook you are using cloud computing.  If you are using an iPod you are probably using cloud computing.  In fact, any time you are saving documents or files someplace other than your computer at home or work you are using the cloud.

The cloud is nothing more than a metaphor dreamed up by networking professionals and marketing folks.  It represents computing with storage outside your local computer or network.  The data resides in the “internet cloud” on a remote server or database.  This is a positive development because this is a direct result of the explosion of personal computing and the web during the 1990’s.

Today on Gmail, a typical user can have up to Ten Gigabytes of data, which is a large amount of data.  So big that if a single e-mail was two kilobytes in size that would mean that you could hold over 5-million e-mails in your mailbox without having to worry about it filling up.    What makes this figure more fantastic is that the amount of space Google is providing each user is increasing by about 128 Megabytes a year.  In addition to those 5-Million e-mails a user can archive an additional 64,000 e-mails a year. 

Thanks to cloud computing we are dealing with big piles of data and they are stored on remote servers throughout the internet.  The raw power is staggering. 

So what does this mean to you the small business person?  It means that you can have the power and capacity of a large business with an IT budget of millions of dollars for a fraction of the price.  You do not need to spend thousands of dollars for servers and software.  All you need is a connection to the web and the power of the cloud is in the palm of your hand. 

At E₃ systems we take a lot of pride in how we have used cloud computing and the internet to make it easy for a small business to manage their inventory.  With our Sully 2.0 system, you can keep track of Bills of Lading, Invoices, Packing Slips, Shipping Labels, and Purchase orders.  Contact us today and we will show you how easy it is to use. 

The “cloud” is nothing more than a fancy way of saying the “internet.”  Many of us are using it each day and do not realize it.  What makes it so fantastic is that as prices fall, storage increases and raw computing power improves it is going to make our lives easier and more connected.  As a business person you should not be afraid of the cloud but embrace it. 

Until next time.

Our New Website

Dude Nice looking website.

Rebuilding a web site is a big deal.  It is not undertaken lightly and usually includes a committee of people attempting to be creative.  I hate redesigning web sites because everyone seems to know how a web site should look but many people do not understand how to make it happen.  This leaves me confronted with power point slides and Photoshop graphics with marketing people telling me that it should look exactly like the file they sent me.  Thoughts about cross browser compatibility and how the site should look on a mobile phone seem like secondary considerations.  It was a website redesign which finally pushed me over the edge and convinced me that I should be an entrepreneur.

It has been almost a year since I formally founded E₃ systems.  When I did I had a clean and easy to understand website which leveraged the latest web technologies and looked good on all the major browsers.  I decided to ignore IE6 because Google and Yahoo decided to. I was pretty proud of it but I knew as we were reaching our one year anniversary we needed a refresh. 

I took inspiration from Microsoft's MSDN website.  The good folks at Redmond are getting ready for the fall release of Windows 8 and are slowly changing over their web sites to have a more metro look and feel.  I decided that I should do the same.  This biggest challenge was finding an easy way to create the tiles and icons used in a Metro layout.  Searching around Microsoft's blog network, I was pointed toward a company called Syncfusion and they had a tool which manufactured Metro style tiles.  Armed with this tool I began the site redesign. 

To avoid making the swap too jarring, I decided that I would only change the front page of the web site and keep the remaining pages in the same format with Metro style flourishes.  I also wanted to make sure that users of the web site had access to all of our social media venues including our YouTube channel.  I also wanted to see if I could leverage the grid 960 css frameworks.  It was like putting together a complicated puzzle which would better appeal to our customers. 

The results speak for themselves.  The landing page contains all the information which old landing page did.  The social media icons are not as distracting.  Users do not have to scroll through the page to digest all the content.  It also looks good on tablet computers and PC's. 

Look over our web site and let us know what you think.

Until next time.

Sucking It Up for the Business

We made the cut thanks to everyone who helped.

One of my early mentors when I worked in the casino industry was a 30 veteran of Harrah’s Casino Lake Tahoe.  His name was Andy LaChapelle and he said this on the first day I became a pit boss at the punkie age of 26.  He said, “I have known people who get by on charm and cuteness their whole lives.  I have no use for them.  Sooner or later you are going to have quit being charming and cute.  Someday you are going to have to suck it up and know what the hell you are doing.  Then we can work together. “ 

It was a shocking message to a twenty something college grad.  Hard work and personal debasement was something expected of you.  You were expected to sacrifice for your career and may-be the pay-off would be respect from colleges and possible security.  For someone who was accustomed to being encouraged to achieve excellence to being expected to achieve excellence, it was a very swift wake up call.  It is also a message I have passed down when I coach speech and work with young people at my church youth group.

On June 30^th, I had to experience one of those suck it up moments.  I wanted to share it with you.  For those who have been following me, it has been no secret that I have been attempting to earn a grant from J.P. Morgan Chase’s Mission Small Business program.  $250,000 would be a huge boon to our organization.  We could get some equipment, hire some people and finally devote full time attention to the business.  It would have been foolish for us not to take a chance. 

I have spent the last five weeks working with members of my board of directors to craft my submission.  It was a difficult back and forth and it took four revisions but I feel like we put together a good bid.  In addition, to our bid we needed 250 votes from Facebook to qualify for consideration.  Five days before the deadline we submitted our bid.  Then I expected, wrongly, to spend the month of July gathering votes so that when Chase makes their decision on September 15^th we would make the cut.  That was when I received a tweet from Chase which said the deadline for voting was June 30^th.  I had 35 votes and I would be locked out of the competition if I didn’t get more. 

I sent out emails to people.  I started spamming Facebook with messages and I leveraged every social media contact I could.  I even nagged my pastor to put out the word to his friends to pitch in and help out.  I had 55 votes and I had three days to get the remaining 200.  It was looking very bleak.  This was when I went on to Twitter to complain and discovered a hash tag where small businesses were swapping votes to qualify.  In a tit for tat fashion, I voted for someone in exchange they voted for me.  I got to meet all sorts of interesting people from shoe stores to consulting companies who work with business women.  I even made some friends in the process.  It was Thursday night and I had just over 100 votes. 

I went to bed with visions of failure and decided that after I worked a full day I would dive back into it on Friday night.  I met more cool people and was scolded by a woman running an organic business telling me not to be too eager.  I also used up my daily quota of 250 tweets.  I had 150 votes and as I shuffled off to bed I could see any chances of helping my business fade away. 

The next morning I got up.  I took my time showered and had some breakfast.  I knew it was going to be a long day.  I was going to need over 100 votes and I had fifteen hours to make it happen.  I started sending messages out via Facebook soliciting for votes.  After three hours, Facebook forbade the process and blocked me from sending messages.  This was when I dove into Twitter and began hustling for votes.  Saturday morning on the 30^th wasn’t so bad but as the day wore on tempers began to get shorter and people started getting more desperate.  It was madness. 

This was when a funny thing happened.  People began sharing my messages on Facebook and sending me messages of encouragement telling me they were not only voting but showing their support for us.  I had the matron of a major branch of my family put out an all-points bulletin to my cousins to cast a vote.   I was inching closer and I was at 190 votes.  The messages kept coming and people I worked with in the past began to pushing for me.  It was very humbling.  I had really abused my social network and the response was that network pitching in to help me reach my goal.  I do not want to do that again.  I certainly do not want to abuse that good will. 

It was eight hours into this exercise and I was still 20 votes short.  Many of the people still on twitter had already swapped votes.  It was pretty sad that so many good businesses could not get the votes they needed.  Finally, some new companies came on and over the next two hours we were able to swap votes.  It was 6:30 in the evening I had spent an entire day and I had gotten the necessary 100 votes to put me over the top.  I stuck around for another hour helping others and then logged off thanking everyone. 

Over three insane days, I had gone from 35 votes to 261.  I was now in.  I haven’t won the 250K grant but at least now I would be considered.  I could not have done it without the help of people on twitter and Facebook pulling for me.  I have a lot of gratitude for those people and a lot of thank you notes to write. 

For three days, I sacrificed my dignity and reputation to suck it up and make something happen for my business.  I get the feeling that this will not be the last time.  Some times during the process, I felt like a beggar pleading for the kindness of others.  It was humbling.  Still people believed in me and I was able to make a difference for my small company.

Now, all I can do is wait until September 15 until Chase decides if I am worthy of 250K.  If they can lose six billion dollars on some phantom bets on real estate stock then I think they can take a chance on a small business which actually builds something.  An entrepreneur can dream. 

So Andy LaChapelle’s wisdom lives on.  I sucked it up and sacrificed.  Now I have a chance to earn 250K for my business.  It wasn’t pretty but it was necessary.  I hope that the effort was worth it.  Thanks to everyone who chipped in and helped out.  It means a great deal to me. 

Until next time.

Change is good.

Windows 8 gets my attention like a great pin-up girl.

If there is any constant in the technology industry it is change.  Seven years ago Mark Zuckerberg was a misfit Harvard dropout with a clever PHP application. Today, he is the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company and a newlywed.  In my lifetime, telephones have gone from being dumb devices tethered to walls to portable computer weighing ounces which can call from anywhere.

I spend much of my time struggling with these changes; Enitity Framework, MVC, and HTML5 are just some of the monsters I grapple with to stay current with latest technologies.  I feel like I am being pulled like taffy.  As a technologist, I have to do this because if I don't I will relegate myself to unemployment. 

One trend I have been noticing is that mobile phones and tablets are becoming more powerful.  This power means that tasks which used to require a bar code scanner and a computer can now be done with a mobile device.  This is why to ignore mobile application development is something that developers do at their own peril. 

This is one of the reasons why I am so excited about JQuery Mobile and MS Tag.  The former makes it possible for a web developer to build mobile applications and the later makes bar code scanning obsolete.

In the next ten years, you are going to see smaller and smaller devices doing more and more.  Personal computing is going to resemble carrying around a notebook or clipboard.  If you have any doubts about this just look at the gamble Microsoft is taking with its Window 8 operating system.  While it works on a desktop or laptop it is really made for tablet devices and phones. 

If I am going to survive, I am going to have to learn the Metro way of doing web development and building applications. 

Change is constant and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Until next time.

The Summer of E3

Looking forward to the Summer of E3.

I hope that everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend.  I also hope you took some time out on Monday to remember the people who sacrificed everything for this unofficial kick off to summer.  For E₃ systems, it is a chance for us to snag our first customers and start the process of growing our business.

I am going to take some time to visit some clients face to face.  We will also be prospecting our rolodex heavily.  Finally, we are going to participate in J.P. Morgan Chase's small business challenge.  We are closing in on our one year anniversary and I am pretty proud of what we have done so far.  First, we have constructed a cloud based inventory management system which is easy to use.  We have established a presence on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.  Finally, we have started to embed into the community being known as the scrappy technology start up in Joliet. 

This is a good time to be an entrepreneur.  According to Logistics Management magazine, just under one third of supply chain companies are looking into using software as a service or cloud based computing.  In addition, these companies are looking to spend less than $100,000 to try and meet this need.  We are perfectly positioned to serve this market. 

Looking back to my summer vacations when I was in college, what strikes me about those periods was how I used the time to emotionally reset and focus on future goals.  This summer I am going to repeat that pattern as I emotionally recharge from the launch of Sully 2.0 and make a point of seeing some customers.  The change will do me some good and help drive some sales.  2012 is going to be the summer of E₃.  I look forward to sharing it with you.

Until next time.

The Lake Wobegon Company

A bad day at the ball park. 
Where does one find major league tallent?

One of the joys of being on Twitter, is that you stumble upon all sorts of interesting ideas.  Some of the most news worthy items comes from the Harvard Business Review.  This week two though provoking blogs were posted by Bill Taylor discussing talent inflation in the technology business.  In short CEO’s in SiliconValley will pay big bucks for the correct engineering talent. 

As Mark Zuckerberg said in the article snip:

"Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good," he argued when asked why he was willing to pay $47 million to acquire FriendFeed, a price that translated to about $4 million per employee. "They are 100 times better."

In other words, dad’s teach your kids SQL because they have a good chance to make as much money as a Major League closer. 

I am deeply conflicted about this.  I do not have Zuckerberg’s money.  I also am starting out from a very different place than he did.  As I grow my company, I need to hire good people because if I don’t it is going to affect the quality of my customer service and product.  So how do I find top performers without having to break the bank?  I don’t know the answer to that question but I do have clues. 

I will lean on my college’s Delta Mu Delta honor fraternity for business students.  When I was inducted as a graduate student I met a lot of sharp people who want to succeed.  I could use them.  They may not be the rock stars that Zuckerberg is chasing but they could grow into that role.  Also, I will be auditioning developers and leaning on my network of recruiters to help me find the right talent.  Again, I may not get rock stars but if I have a diverse team of programmers who work well together and are just as committed as I am, I think we can take over the world. 

Talent does matter but let us not get crazy.  My Chicago Cubs have spent lots of money over the last ten years and it still hasn’t broken there ugly tradition of losing.  I would rather have some misfits and malcontents with talent and something to prove that a roster of all stars any day.  I suppose that means I want a Lake Wobegonecompany where the weather is always nice and everyone is above average. 

I understand this is not realistic but one can always dream. 

Onward and upward.

Not a bad week.  The site is working and in staging.  I have my Facebook Page, my Twitter Account, and LinkedIn Page.  Not a bad way to go into a holiday weekend. 

Coming soon a discussion of logistics and cloud computing.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day.