Posted over at my 21Publish blog.
Getting Non-Tech And Tech Managers To Work Together
My partner over at The CIO Weblog, Prashanth Rai is addressing an interesting topic over at his personal blog on non-technical managers managing technical people.
As a person that has two engineering degrees but has been involved in management and business development for awhile, another interesting flavor is getting salespeople and engineers/programmers to work together. It is something that I face very frequently in my role at 21Publish.
Some things I would say about the sales & engineering linkage topic (some of which is generally relevant to Prashanth’s topic, even though what I describe is a peer-to-peer relationship versus a strict manager-subordinate role):
- have respect for the strengths of the different parties in the different functional roles
- know one’s own limits
- expand one’s knowledge about what the other party needs to do on a day-to-day basis to win and try to help where you can (or at least be supportive)
- remember that salespeople and business development folks are looking for opportunities to win customers and grow the business on a day-to-day basis (but they need to be careful of overselling)
- recognize that engineers like to build quality/foolproof stuff … salespeople people need to listen carefully to what engineers are saying on issues, etc. because what they are saying is often rigorous and precise
- at the same time, engineers need to recognize that salespeople need to boil things up, if only to be able to communicate with management associated with the sales prospect.
Update (8/4/05): A follow-on thought: salespeople should also try to tap into engineers and programmers for creativity. Getting sales, business development, and R&D to work together can spark innovation (or at least it can make for a fun environment).
Simply Cool Sounding
3DTV without funky glasses. Simply cool. In a past life I used to work as a signal processing engineer in the 3D/holophonics area (e.g., 3D sound projected out of two speaker systems). Can’t begin to imagine what this visual experience would be like.
Blogging Gets Out Of Hand
Robert Scoble, the Obi-Wan Kenobi of blogging, needs a break from the crazy back-and-forth on his blog (see the comments section for R-rated dialogue). His partner on the blogging book (Shel Israel) weighs in too on both attacks happening to Robert and attacks at the book blog, "Naked Conversations". Very understandable policy by Shel.
No fun. Unproductive. This is a good example of where I don’t want to the have the RSS feed to the comments section of a blog. It’s also an example similar to handling a heckler during a speech or when giving a presentation. The difference, however, is what do you do when it happens in your own "house" (to coin Shel’s words)? Maybe Robert needs to go to allowing trackbacks only … not ideal … but then the heckling can only occur outside his house …
Update (8/4/05): Fred Wilson and Jeff Jarvis on the subject.
Quality Or Quantity (Of Contacts) From “The Virtual Handshake” (Internet Stop 1)
I’m about a third of the way through the book, "The Virtual Handshake" … see some of my thoughts at Internet Stop 1 (at my 21Publish blog).
Blog Swarms On Dell This Morning?
My newsreader seems to be clogged up this morning about blogs and Dell (e.g., how one blog has affected Dell). Perhaps no use writing about anything else. Check these out:
Maybe for a little history on the subject, go to:
And maybe a little unfair (and totally unresearched), but Dell opened lower this morning:
And if one searches for "Dell Blog" on Google, one gets here.
Added (8/2/05): Shel Israel (new post)
Added (8/2/05): Robert Scoble (older post for more background)
Added (8/2/05): Steve Rubel (older post for more background)
Added (8/2/05): PC World (older article for more background)
Update (8/23/05): Dell responds. Jarvis comments. Fred Wilson targets Amazon next?
Will Be Interesting To See What Happens In Angel And Venture Investments In RSS Space
Interesting developments in the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) space. Interesting to think about how entrepreneurs, angels, and VC may proceed given the interest in RSS ads. For example:
- Via Randy Charles Morin, Google has filed for a pretty broad patent covering syndication of ads (and thus, RSS ads)
- Venture capital and investment activity (or buzz) has increased around RSS (e.g., here)
- While people may have their own perspectives on patents, whether the claims in the Google patent will be enforceable, and whether research-to-date indicates that non-core science, etc. patents demonstrate any signifcant appropriability of returns for the patent holder, angel and VC investors commonly ask entrepreneurs about intellectual property protection as part of due diligence – patents being one of the strongest forms of legal protection.
BTW – there’s no ads when you subscribe to my blog via my current Feedburner feed. 🙂
Tribute To Torsten Jacobi
I thought that my Friday post should be dedicated to Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging. Torsten helped to spawn blogger 2.0 in me as a blogger at The CIO Weblog, and Torsten also introduced me to Stefan Wiskemann who eventually approached me to join 21Publish (a hosted, group blogging service) as COO. In essence, I crossed the line to the "dark side" as a compensated blogger because of Torsten. I am also becoming more German every day because of these new relationships …
Torsten has some personal stuff going on this week (congrats BTW), so he’s unlikely paying attention to what I’m writing. That said, pay attention to what Torsten is writing. As starters, I think Torsten has two interesting and very personalized posts on entrepreneurship that are worth reflecting on (here and here).
#4 is classic Torsten as I know him … "Be realistic about revenues – even if you write bullish business plans."
Thanks, Torsten!