Discretionary Spending Dashboards
I love dashboards. Especially when they allow you to do comparative analysis. Recently New York Times published a dashboard to show how people spend their discretionary income in various countries across the globe.
I find it fascinating that US, which has about 4.54% of world population (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population), appears prominently and dominates every category listed. What happens to all the stuff that people spend their money on? Except for recreation and alcohol, I wonder what percent of other categories end up in landfills or clutter in homes.
Take a look and see how your part of the world is spending its money.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/business/20080907-metrics-graphic.html
Ergonomics of Innovation
Recently I came across an article on how to encourage innovation within an organization. The article by Hayagreeva Rao and Robert Sutton appeared in The McKinsey Quarterly (2008 vol. 4) titled “The ergonomics of innovation“.
Given below are the main points of the article. I think the main points can apply to any organization and even helps in improving personal life. Some ofthese points also tie in to another post I wrote about “Myths of Innovation”.
- Create a new blend of old ideas – You don’t have to reinvent the wheel but apply proven techniques from other disciplines/organization in your own discipline/organization.
- Set goals that count – Set concrete numbers, dates. Goals should grab attention, make people believe it is a worthy cause and move them to action.
- Name the problem – Naming the problem makes it seem more tangible, focuses energy, attention and generates pressure to deal with it.
- Get the “hard count” – metrics are needed to ensure people focus on every little thing that moves them towards the goal.
- Ask people to take small but effective steps – Focus on small things that have big impact. People tend to respond better to a series of smaller steps that are concrete and manageable.
- Use affordances – People need concrete, easily learned and implemented tools such as checklists. Use of such affordances will make it easy for novices to learn. Veteran employees won’t find it difficult to learn. Affordances should start with obvious problems and mundane solutions. Affordance (definition) – “a quality of an object, or an environment” that allows an individual to perform action” – Wikipedia
- Engage the network – Leverage external networks to scale rather than building out. Think of using web based or other networks to find support.
Link to original article:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/PDFDownload.aspx?L2=21&L3=35&ar=2197
Advertising & Fruit
When you buy fruit, what do you do before eating. You peel off any sticker(s), price or product SKU, wash the fruit if needed and bite into it.
Well…recently I bought some bananas and was about to eat one until I noticed the sticker on one of the bananas. It was not a product SKU. It was an advertisement for the movie “Space Chimps”. I was amused that now Dole is using the fruit for advertising! I haven’t gone to examine other fruits and vegetables but I wouldn’t be surprised if advertisers aren’t doing more of this.
I can see this concept can stretch too far and now any product that offers a surface for advertising becomes a platform for reach you. As it is we have too much information coming to us, do we really need our food products to be advertising billboards. Of course, cereal boxes, chips bags are already full of advertisements but I think this is a new trend.
I wonder how does a marketer keep track of such advertising campaigns! How do they track return on investment? That is some food for thought 
ILOG now part of IBM
Recently IBM announced that ILOG will be acquired and become part of the Websphere brand. The business rule engine market is consolidating and the cost for these products will rise tremendously as they become part of larger organizations. Fair Isaac’s Blaze reportedly costs over $25k/server. Hopefully this will generate fresh interest in JBoss Rules (DROOLS) and result in more adoptions.
Leadereview - another interesting business
A few months ago I wrote about businesses that are built around your passion and those that pay you to enjoy doing what you love to do. I was introduced to another business called Leadereview which reviews books on leadership and then sends you those books to read. Once you read the book, you get an opportunity to discuss the contents with the author as well as others in a group. This is not only a great way to pick up new ideas but a great way to network with like minded people.
Disclaimer: I am not a member of Leadereview group and don’t know the experience of participating in the discussions. I do think it is a neat idea to make some money while having fun.
Helium balloon law in California
Recently there is some legislation debate, in the state of California, on imposing a fine on sellers of Helium balloons if they sell balloons without a weight. The law makers are saying that balloons cause a problem when they get tangled in electrical lines and they want to fine $100 to anyone selling helium balloons without a weight on the string. I don’t know if the fine will apply to sellers or it will be expanded to include buyers.
While this may be a legitimate problem for utility companies, what is the cost for the taxpayers to pass a bill through legislation vs. the benefit it provides? Sometimes the work pipeline gets filled with similar tasks. We need to pay attention to the cost/benefit analysis so that we work on those things with highest impact.
If you want to read the news article, visit Wall Street Journal
Is Yahoo doomed?
All the press articles like to use superlatives and forecast a scenario which may or may reflect the truth. Lately Yahoo has the target of such articles. Granted that Yahoo is trying to find focus in the current market scenario with Google leading the way. Microsoft’s bid put the wrong kind of attention on the company. Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo because Yahoo represents something to them. It is not like the company is worth nothing and Microsoft isn’t throwing its money.
I don’t really know how people inside the company feel but if they were to read the articles they may get the impression that the company is going down fast. This will likely make people jump ship to ensure that they have a secure job.
It may be healthy for Yahoo to go through such a cleanup process so that all the people who are not interested in the company can leave. Of course there will also be some collatral damage with loss of good passionate people who think they can’t fulfill their dreams at Yahoo. Others may leave just to avoid all the distractions at work of the uncertain future of the corporation and lack of direction in the day to day initiatives as senior management focuses on possible outcomes. The folks that remain have a change to re-focus and try to keep the company going. It is going to be an interesting year to see what happens at Yahoo.
Sometimes public perception can decide the fate of the company without any basis on factual data. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy of doom. Let’s see what happens.
Air Travel and associated costs
Recently I read an article saying that US Airways now charges $2 for a bottle of water on the flight. What I find really annoying is that you are being charged for every little thing or rather they are itemizing your charges.
At first it was charge for second checked baggage. Now you have to pay for even the first checked bag. Since the price is for 50 lbs, you need to be extra careful as it is really dependent on the mood of the person who weighs your bags. If you are a couple of pounds over, you could be asked to fork over more money.
I also heard from friend that another airline charges you $4 for a blanket. Though some people are joking that tickets will be priced per pound of weight (not the bags but the passengers)!
Why don’t they just raise the ticket prices and have the customer pay just a single amount. This will really allow customers to see the costs upfront and they will decide whether to go on that trip or not. I guess that will be bad for airlines as most people will get a sticker shock and decide to choose alternate modes of travel unless it is a must.
I guess airlines really need to reexamine the workings of their business and figure out how to be in business. After 2001, the 911 excuses could be used for ever. Now we have the rising fuel costs, I wonder what excuse will be use to account for the bleeding bottom line.
Please take a nap instead of a caffeine or sugar
All of us go through a mid afternoon period of dullness and often try to stay awake by drinking caffeinated drinks like coffee. There are many published reports/articles on the benefits of afternoon naps. Naps are much better for the body giving us energy and clarity to stay focused for afternoon work.
In many cultures, taking naps in the afternoon is customary and considered healthy. Virtually all businesses shut down during the rest period. Unfortunately the modern day working mentality says we should go go go and those who feel dull are wimps.
Many years ago I read an article documenting NASA sponsored research on pilots who take a nap on long flights. They found that those pilots who took a nap had better reflexes during landings. Similarly another article found that many senior executives now have couches in their offices for napping. Those who nap are much more effective and productive for the rest of the day. They are able to make much better decisions as a result.
I have always lived close to work and for the past few years, I worked from home. Having the freedom to take a nap or just lying down to rest and closing my eyes helped to get things done in the afternoon. Some of the tech companies allow their employees to take naps. Companies should consider providing some space for you to rejuvenate and they will get better results and more alert workers.
You may be one of those who likes to take a nap but don’t do it because you feel groggy after the nap. This could be due to napping too long. Ideally the nap should be between 20 to 45 minutes. You can read more about the nap cycle in this Boston Globe article: How To Nap
Enjoy your nap and become more productive. Time for my nap…..zzzz…..
LinkedIn worth a $1 Billion Valuation?
Many of you may be using LinkedIn already, if not, LinkedIn is a professional networking site. You connect with people you know and they connect with who they know. This way the network grows and now LinkedIn boasts that around 20 million people are in its database. All the people voluntarily keep their profiles up to date. If you want to reach a person in Company X, you find a path through your network of contacts each of them then relays your message until you reach the desired person. Depending on who is in your network it is just 2 hops and can take more hops if you don’t have connections to the desired party.
The company makes money by providing a job board and fees to getting introduced to unknown people. I don’t know how much revenue they have but according to an article on TechCrunch, the current round of funding values the company at a cool $1B. Now I don’t know if it is really worth that much. I think a lot of people signed up for curiosity thinking it will help in the future. Now whether they are actively using the network on a regular basis is unknown. In my personal case, I use it occasionally just to keep up with what my contacts are doing. I used the network very sparingly to reach someone. We will just have to wait and see if the company continues to thrive or the usage patterns tail off once the novelty wears off. Is this part of a new bubble? I don’t know.
PS I wanted to check something out on LinkedIn.com while composing this post but the site is presenting a blank page! Perhaps the support folks are busy counting money
Update 8.28 am: It’s back to serving regular content:
