Feb 1018
I’m watching the Women’s Downhill competition during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics this evening. I saw several women crash on the course, their Olympics dreams and year of preparation, go up in smoke. Business books are full of sports analogies, but for my part, I’m glad that the world of business is not really like the Olympics. Here’s how:
The Olympics are for the Young
Although there are a few 30-something and 40-something athletes, the Olympics are dominated by elite competitors in their teens and 20s. After a dozen years of competing, their careers are over. I’m grateful that after 18 years in the online business, I still have many years ahead of me. Perhaps I’m a late bloomer, but I feel like it’s really only in the last five years that I’ve really hit my stride and seen Matrix Group really thrive and expand.
In Business, Teams Rule!
Although there are a few relay races, the Olympics are dominated by the talents and achievements of individuals. In business, you can’t complete projects of any significant size and scope without a team effort. Take any redesign project at Matrix Group; these projects involve a project manager, an information architect, multiple designers, at least one front-end developer, at least one developer, and at least one tester. The work of one person affects every other team member and if one team members screws up, the whole project is threatened.
In Business, You Want a Lot of Winners
It’s easy to compare the world of sales with the Olympics: lots of competitors, one winner. But I would argue that the true race or competition begins once the sale has been made and implementation begins. Paradoxically, at this stage, you don’t want any losers. You want the client, the vendor, the third party partners, and the customers to all win with whatever widget, Web site or product you are building. Read the rest of this entry
Feb 1003
I was arranging lunch with a vendor and suggested Kora, the hip, new Italian restaurant in Crystal City. I wanted to e-mail my contact Kora’s address, phone number and a link to a Google map. Alas, the entire Kora site is in Flash, which is beautiful, but it’s not very user-friendly. The biggest problem? I can’t copy and paste the contact info to include in an e-mail and paste into Google Maps. I know, I know, it’ s not a big deal to retype the address, but I’m a picky consumer. I want to be able to copy and paste easily. Even better, I’d love a way to share the address page or just click on a map.
This got me to thinking. What are all the ways, big and little, that we make it difficult for our customers and potential customers to do business with us? Consider these examples.
Nov 0925
On my way to work this morning, I heard a story on NPR about how immigrants to this country have adopted the Thanksgiving tradition and made it their own. A Greek chef talked about how his mother made a Thanksgiving turkey but every other dish during the meal was Greek. The story reminded me of the importance of traditions.
We tend to think of traditions as part of our personal and family lives. But if we look closely, most companies have traditions as well and they bind staff to the company and to each other. Here at Matrix Group, over the past ten years, we’ve amassed a set of traditions. These traditions include: a pumpkin carving contest during Halloween, funny awards and a white elephant exchange during our holiday party, pie during the June birthday celebration, naming each server after a Star Wars character, and creating a special glass after an especially important launch. Read the rest of this entry
Nov 0904
A few years ago, Matrix Group was looking for a Network Administrator. We had been looking for 18 months with no success. The situation was bleak. The candidates coming in were awful, my team was overworked and desperate to make a hire, and recruiters were failing us miserably.
Then I attended a presentation by Barry Deutsch, CEO of Impact Hiring Solutions, an executive search firm. Barry’s presentation had such an impact on me and my company that Barry Deutsch is now a verb at Matrix Group.
When a job announcement is not pulling in the candidates we need, I tell my staff to “Barry Deutsch” the description.
Barry says that the top hiring mistakes companies make are:
- Failing to define the job properly, i.e., not defining what will represent success in the job.
- Falling victim to first impressions, i.e., the candidate looks good, talks well, she must be terrific.
- Desperation hiring, i.e., making an offer because you think it’s better to hire someone, anyone.
- Not asking deep and penetrating questions during the interview. This happens because managers don’t know how to conduct success-based interviews or lob softballs at the candidate because they “like” them.
- Failing to check references deeply. Many companies skip reference checks or don’t properly validate the claims by candidates. And if a candidate can’t provide references, RUN!
Ultimately, we all want to hire and retain top talent. Here is what Barry has to say about top talent: Read the rest of this entry
Oct 0913
When we moved to our new office in Crysta City, it meant reprinting all of our marketing materials. While it was simply a matter of updating and reprinting most of our collateral, we decided to redesign our business cards. Matrix Group Creative Director Alex Pineda wanted to update the design with the refreshed logo and show some more personality.
Here are some sample cards that demonstrate what we were trying to achieve.
Here’s my card. The front is purple so it’s easy to find on a cluttered desk or stack o cards. The corners are curved because Alex says the Matrix Group brand is curvey, node-y. The prominent elements are my name and title and the company Web address. You’ll also notice that my card has all the ways you can contact me: phone, fax, e-mail, blog and Twitter.
Read the rest of this entry
Oct 0906
Last Wednesday afternoon, I was harried and stressed. I was leaving for a conference on the West Coast. and if I didn’t leave the office by 2:30pm, the drive to BWI was not going to be pretty. But I had two people to call, five e-mails to write, three people to see and it was already 2pm. I decided to delegate a couple of the tasks to Ray, my new biz manager. Just at that moment, he walked into my office and I said, “oh, thank goodness you’re here.” Without missing a beat, Ray deadpanned, “You’re surprised I’m here? I’m always here. I work for you. My office is next door. I thought you designed it that way.”
With those few words, Ray turned my afternoon around. All my tension slipped away as I burst out laughing. I gave him a couple of calls to return, promised to make calls from the taxi, and headed on my way.
If you Google “sense of humor in the workplace,” you’ll get all kinds of posts about how humor is often NOT appropriate in the workplace. But I challenge anyone to tell me their dry, humorless office is a great place to work. Personally, I don’t think I would have survived the early MatrixMaxx software releases without Tanya’s dry sense of humor. And Eric made the recent recruiting process for a Project Manager enjoyable with his hilarious stories from working in a casino. Thankfully, at least one blogger, Elaine Ambrose, says that “(a) sense of humor will save your job and probably your life.” Read the rest of this entry
Aug 0911
I was working with a prospect recently and lamenting to my team that the organization felt like a bunch of stovepipes, with the VPs competing for resources and influence. I said something along the lines of “Arrgh, this organization is too small to be so silo’d!”
Then it hit me: the company had gone through a fairly large downsizing recently. The corporate culture was one I was more likely to find in a much larger organization because the culture had not adjusted to the new realities of the smaller organization! Ick. Read the rest of this entry
