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. 

Made in the USA - Management!!

USA! USA! USA!

Nice article from the Harvard Business Review this week.  The gist of the article is that research from Harvard has confirmed that American companies, and in particular U.S. Multinational corporations exhibit the best management practices in the world.  This is not news to me.  We are the country which perfected the Limited Liability Corporation and our successes span from world from Microsoft to Coca-Cola. 
 

It should also give pause to people who feel that we are a nation in decline.  Many of the worst managed companies are in the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China.   This gives me hope because it says that someone with a dream and a modicum of knowledge can grow a business into a worldwide player.   It should also be a cause for concern because if these nations actually learn how to manage their companies like we do they could crush the American Economy like a bug.  Being to optimist that I am, I think it is going to take a while for Russia to figure out that drinking on the job is bad for business. 

This week I am going to launch my web site and start having meeting with my local chamber of commerce and seeing clients.  I am pretty excited about that.  I think that I can help companies save money and improve their service.  I also hope that I can generate wealth and employment for my local community.  Frankly, it is time to punch this recession in the stomach and start doing business again.  It sounds a little crazy but if a bunch of us entrepreneurs try it just might happen.

We have lift off!

We are now live and on the web. 

Please visit our site at: http://www.goeeethree.com/

Look forward to seeing you.

Sometimes you can't fake it

Sometimes you can't fake it.

Software developers by their very nature are creative people.  Ask us to solve a problem, and depending on whom you ask you might get thousands of different answers ranging from something overly complex to something elegantly simple.  It just depends on the problem and the person solving the problem.  Business is much more complicated than engineering because we are not dealing with technological problems which tend to follow set laws of physics, chemistry, and mathematics; we are dealing with human emotions and money which can be far from rational.

This is why I enjoy reading the opinions and experiences of other entrepreneurs.  You can learn a lot from others.    Andrew Thomas posted an interesting blog about Lean Startups which had a very intriguing title “Fake it Before You Make It”.  In short, Thomas argues that before you even have a product to sell customers, the budding software entrepreneur should mock up some prototypes or wireframes to generate customer interest.  Then based on the customer feedback you build a product and close the sale. 

For someone who has been in the business a while, I rolled my eyes and bit my lip.  Thomas’ ideas sound suspiciously like vaporware.  For those not familiar with the term, it is that interesting sub-set of computer programing that exists only in the imagination of a sales person or marketing professional.  It doesn’t exist.  It doesn’t work and it is unethical.  Businesses and consumers have been swindled out of millions of dollars by vaporware.  In fact, each year Wired Magazine honors the most egregious examples ofvaporware nominated by its readers. 

Digging a little deeper into the blog post, the author clarifies his position saying snip:

“Just to be clear I nor anyone in lean startup is advocating deceptive practices or vaporware.”

This is good.  It is nice to see that people who advocate lean practices are not saying you should fly by the seat of your pants. 

I am still deeply skeptical of this “fake it,” approach.  I am going to be launching my own company website in the next two weeks.  It works and so does the software application I am selling.  It is not complete or perfect but it is good enough to start showing clients.  They can lease my cloud services as is or if they want to customize it they are going to have to pay for the iteration.  I also plan to add other features in the future like Microsoft Tag technology and a logbook application for over the road truck drivers.  Currently, these new features exist only on paper, but they will be added on to the existing application in a modular fashion. 

I think it is more important to the lean software development process to use scalable architecture and object oriented design in order to grow in a quick and sane manner.  That way it is not a big jump from prototype to working software.  In addition, sales people must be trained to avoid making promises and then forcing the software developer to keep those promises.  There must be a financial risk to someone who oversells your product.  Thus, if a sales person mocks up a Power Point or Visio document of  what my software can do to a client and I don’t know about it someone is going to be docked a few percentage points of commission.  Sales and technology must work together. 

I feel that I have put together a lean and mean company so I don’t have to “fake it” in order to close some sales.  I realize that I will have to do some prototyping and that on occasion a sales person is going to over promise.  That said, I think the best approach is to have a few stakes on the grill before I start selling the sizzle. 

The Cloud and Logsitics



This is the cloud

One of the more interesting things about going into business is that you receive a great deal of advice from all sorts of people.  From the bartender you visit on occasion to your parents everyone seems to have an opinion about how you should run your business.  I smile and nod most of the time listening politely and attempting to sort out which nuggets of wisdom are worthwhile.  It isn’t easy.  My bartender seems to think that fixing a good drink translates into being a good administrative assistant.  I have also been told numerous times that starting a business in this environment borders on crazy. 

Advice comes and goes but one thing remains the same; I hear all the time is “So you are going to be a web company like Facebook?”  I smile and say “Sort of,” and go about my way.  E₃ is a web logistics company on the cloud.  In other words, we help your warehouse or trucking company manage inventory and bills of lading without having to purchase software, servers, or developers.  Everything works over the cloud. 

Cloud computing has been around since the early days of the internet.  Anything that works over the web and doesn’t require software or hardware at your operation to run is running on the internet “cloud.”  E-mail could be considered the first “cloud based” application.  The term “cloud computing” came into vogue over the last three years as servers became more powerful and companies sprung up to lease server space to companies who didn’t have enough money for their own servers.  Nobody saw the importance of this except for developers’ at large companies who wanted to side step red tape and put together quick and dirty prototypes.

 It quickly became apparent to business leaders and accountants that the cloud was also a good way to save money because the cost of leasing a server on the “cloud” was less than the expense of purchasing a server, hiring a network person to maintain it, and the energy to cool it and keep it running.  Thus, the great cloud computing gold rush began as companies began to start leasing server space from these cloud computing providers.  According to the March 7^th 2011 issue of Business Week there are three big players in this market.  Microsoft, Google and Amazon own roughly 75% of the market and they are slugging it out to become dominant players.

So for a guy trying to keep his warehouse running where do you fit in?  The cloud was designed for people like you.  You understand freight and logistics.  You don’t need to know servers, software, or how to hire people who do.   If you know how to use a web browser you know how to use cloud computers.  You can save your files remotely in a secure location.  You can track your inventory online with either a web browser or smart phone.  Finally, you can rest assured that it is safe because cloud server farms are designed to be up and running 24/7.

That is why I started E₃ systems because too many trucking companies are using outdated systems or paperwork to manage the daily operation of their business.  Now, you don’t have to worry about purchasing new equipment or software because it runs on the “cloud.”  The cloud vendor is responsible for upgrading the equipment or software leaving you to run your business.  You are going to have modern up to date systems all the time.  This is going to give you a competitive advantage and if other people use our “cloud” based systems they can easily communicate with you.  This is mutually beneficial partnership which will make it easier for you to compete and more money. 

At the end of the day, that is why anybody goes into to business is to make more money and better service their clients.  So yes, I am a little crazy starting a business but with the power of “cloud computing” I think that I can help customers do more with less.

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.

Logistics is changing and you are going to need college grads...start now.

The future of logistics is graduating now.

Since I have joined Twitter, I have found it interesting to learn about other people and events taking place in my industry.  As fate would have it, I noticed two articles side by side that made me notice how things are changing in the logistics business. The first came from the Fast Lane Blog from the Department of Transportation and the other from Yahoo Finance about how young people thanks to the recession are becoming a lost generation. Both articles have a grim tone with a touch of optimism about the future. 

Yahoo Says:

About 60% of recent graduates have not been able to find a full-time job in their chosen profession, according to job placement firm Adecco.

It sounds oddly familiar to me because when I received my bachelor’s degree in 1990 a recession made finding work very difficult and a living wage next to impossible.  Fortunately, for this generation of college graduates there isn't a cover story on Time Magazine telling them they are lazy and worthless.   It seems like a tragic waste of talent that these people are having such a hard time finding work.    

This is where the Department of Transportation blog comes in:

Transportation is a great place to start when creating jobs.  Across all modes of transportation—from roads, bridges, and buses to airports, trains, and maritime—America will always need workers to maintain our transportation networks and build new ways to connect goods and people.

But it’s not enough to just create new jobs. With 50 percent of the current transportation workforce eligible for retirement in 2013, and significant technological changes affecting all modes of transportation, we must educate the next generation of workers.

In other words, many of the people in the trucking, shipping, and warehouse business are getting ready to retire.  There is also a lot of well qualified college grads out there that need work.  Supply meets demand.  What business doesn't want qualified workers who are driven and intelligent?  It is up to these companies to start hiring these people and training them before their work force retires and the institutional memory of their organization walks out the door. 

If these companies are going to hire these people then they are going have a few culture changes.  These new hires are not going to accept AS400 or green screen systems.  They are accustomed to web based or narrow client server systems.  They know how to Tweet, post information on Facebook, and use smart phones rather than fiddle with fax machines.  Finally, these new hires move information at the speed of the internet.  They are going to be a great addition to these companies. They are also going to demand new systems.  This is where E₃ systems will help.  E₃ has the products and experience companies need to get businesses to move at internet speed.