Written by Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
Wethern
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Making an assumption is a guess.
Making two assumptions is acceptable.
Having all based on assumptions is simply cheating.
Especially in business cases.
———-8<———-
Posts tagged business
Business meetings
If there are two possible ways to spell a person’s name, you will pick the wrong one. Corollary: If there is only one way to spell a name, you will spell it wrong, anyway.
Anonymous
Facebook tried to smear Google
Again a problem with Facebook that reminds me more a high school joke than a 50 billion company behaviour.
Many sources, among them Ed Oswald at beta news (full article here) and Sharon Gaudin at Computerworld (full article here), report that “[...] Facebook found itself doing damage control Thursday after it was revealed the company had attempted to create negative press for Google. Two employees of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller had endeavored to pitch stories over the search giant’s privacy issues.
News of the botched effort was broken by The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons on Wednesday night. Without specifying how, Lyons said evidence pointed to the social networking site as being the mysterious client of Burson-Marsteller’s, and the company admitted to doing so.
A spokesperson for Facebook said the company hired the firm in order to fight back against Google’s planned Social Circle, which uses some of Facebook’s data. In addition, it believes that the Mountain View, Calif. company’s efforts in social networking raise some privacy concerns. [...]“.
In love and business everything is admitted, but I think that especially if You have the kind of relevance Facebook has, a limit exists and cannot be exceeded.
Is the same old story told in security issues: a company should behave in a wise manner, either for ethics, either for investors.
And back talking others is for teens, not for IPOs.
This post as a comment here and here
Aiim social roadmap white paper
Aiim (site here), for over 60 years, AIIM has been the leading non-profit organization focused on helping users to understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes.
Now among other interesting articles, Aiim proposed a”[...] roadmap [that] is a tool to help organizations effectively develop social business processes and to help identify and address potential issues before they become real problems. [...] The social business roadmap consists of eight primary steps. Each step is briefly described here and is addressed in substantially more detail over the course of the document. Links to the eight steps take you to our wiki, where we discuss the “what’s next”, case studies, and your additional thoughts and feedback. [...]
Main steps are
[...]” (full article here, direct download link for white paper here)
In a complex contest like the one of “going social” I think that a rationalization effort is really important also to avoid smaller organizations getting lost into fuzzy and fancy words.
Road to success
The road to to sucess is always under construction…
Florian Bruckner
Norton’s Cybercrime Index: good thing or scary threat?
Austin Carr at Fast company (http://www.fastcompany.com/user/219225) reports that Symantec started a service called Norton’s Cybercrime Index (http://nortoncybercrimeindex.com/) aimed at advising users on threat level of cyber crime (full article at http://www.fastcompany.com/1729217/scare-tactics-nortons-cybercrime-index-tracks-internet-dangers-in-real-time-frightens-old-fo).
I think that could be useful in some way, but I I’m not quite sure of the final objective of the service, because of course is a matter of commercials and marketing.
I don’t think the average user could understand and interpret the level of threat he’s exposed by watching the site, but I’m sure that the below the average user will be scared by titles he cannot understand.
So at the end I would have expected a different approach from Symantec, but let’s see how the service evolves.
This post as a comment also at http://www.fastcompany.com/1729217/scare-tactics-nortons-cybercrime-index-tracks-internet-dangers-in-real-time-frightens-old-fo
Name spelling in business meetings
If there are two possible ways to spell a person’s name, you will pick the wrong one.
Anonymous
Why I bet that Apple future without Steve Jobs is as bright as the past
Many sites and authors (among them Matt Hartley at Lockergnome, full article at http://www.lockergnome.com/it/2011/01/17/is-steve-jobs-critical-to-apple/, Joe Wilcox at Beta news, full article at http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apples-future-without-Steve-Jobs-wont-be-as-bright/1295327829 and at http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/What-future-does-Apple-have-without-Steve-Jobs/1295286850 and at http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Steve-Jobs-takes-another-medical-leave-from-Apple/1295278306, Juan Carlos Perez at Computer world, full article at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9205362/With_Apple_s_Jobs_on_leave_many_questions_and_few_answers, Peter Sayer at Computer world, full article at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9205342/Update_Apple_CEO_Steve_Jobs_to_take_medical_leave_of_absence, Chris Foresman at Ars Techinca, full article at http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/01/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-back-on-medical-leave.ars, Matthew Humphries at Geek.com, full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/steve-jobs-goes-on-medical-leave-of-absence-20110117/, Mike Halsey at ghack.com, full article at http://www.ghacks.net/2011/01/17/steve-jobs-to-take-leave-of-absence-from-apple-for-health-reasons/) covered the anouncement of Steve Jobs leave for absence due to medical problems. Most of them also told that Steve Jobs is strictly related to Apple future in terms of positive impact. On top of this Apple shares declined after the announcement has been made.
In my opinion, Steve Jobs is very important for Apple because of charisma, innovation, leadership and vision. But times are different now form those when Steve came back and reseurrected Apple from ashes.
Apple is now a company with a stronger brand, that goes over the geeks and is more linked to marketing.
Apple is a strong company with cutting edge technologies and more patents that can turn in billion dollars ideas.
Apple has now an industrial approach for going live.
Apple has also grown or acquired lot of professionals and managers that can continue the business.
Apple also has a marketing and commercial model for applications selling that is something that is a step beyond also for new coming devices.
I don’t work for Apple (in fact I work for another very big company that is a competitor for part of Apple business), but I think the Cupertino company is stronger than ever.
With Steve at the helm also has the plus of a Guru, but without can continue the business without problems.
This post as a comment also at http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apples-future-without-Steve-Jobs-wont-be-as-bright/1295327829, at http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/What-future-does-Apple-have-without-Steve-Jobs/1295286850, http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Steve-Jobs-takes-another-medical-leave-from-Apple/1295278306, http://www.computerworld.com/comments/node/9205362#comment-716336, http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/01/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-back-on-medical-leave.ars?comments=1&p=21225850#comment-21225850, http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/steve-jobs-goes-on-medical-leave-of-absence-20110117/comment-page-1/#comment-3975084, http://www.ghacks.net/2011/01/17/steve-jobs-to-take-leave-of-absence-from-apple-for-health-reasons/#comment-1295892 and at http://www.lockergnome.com/it/2011/01/17/is-steve-jobs-critical-to-apple/comment-page-1/#comment-250537
Productivity tips
The guys at Project Management Knowledge give us some good hints on increasing productivity (full article at http://project-management-knowledge.com/top-7-project-management-productivity-tips).
Their hints in bold, the other my comments:
- Prioritize and Take Action: never postpone until you’re forced to do, because things unresolved cumulate. This does not mean to everything in one shot, but is to act when needed and in the priority you decide.
- Revisit Goal Setting Daily: Things change and so do your goals. No route is straight; at least it needs some corrections on the path.
- Get Your R & R: means rest and recreation (and that is really true, because if you’re working hard you need it to perform at best), but also means for me reality and reality (to mean that aiming at difficult objectives is challenging, aiming at impossible ones is frustrating. So always maintain your feet as much on the ground as you can.
- R & R Revisited: this is *rewards and recognition* and is valid also if you think of yourself only.
- Do what you hate: but not for too much time, otherwise (also if you’re over payed to do this task you hate) the little breach becomes bigger and bigger and you cannot deal with it anymore.
- Reinforce your boundaries: as you may know saying no it’s an art difficult to teach and even more difficult to learn. The easiest thing is to find a good balance between doing things only for you and being a subsidiary for others work.
- Stop juggling: Elephant is eaten one spoon at a time….
This post as a comment also at http://project-management-knowledge.com/top-7-project-management-productivity-tips/comment-page-1/#comment-6064
PM and his team
Daisy at Project Management Knowledge writes an article on the importance of team (full article at http://project-management-knowledge.com/tips-for-managing-your-ever-changing-project-team).
The importance of a team in a project is undoubtfull. Too much often there’s a superiority attitude where is said that when you have contents and determination you can overcome team problems.
Is not like this.
Having the right team is THE successfull key.
Unfortunately much of the attitude is reactive, meaning that too often you deal with team problems when you have people onboard (this because is very difficult to have a clear and objective evaluation of a person, since is easier for many managers to say good things instead of real things).
So what to do with your team? Each one of us has its own management style, but, adding to those reported in the article I can say:
Be honest with team, because they are part of the game. Most of the times they are the game.
Let them know what they really need to know (e.g. if you’re dealing with internal organizational problems, is not something they need to know).
Delegate to them, while maintaining control.
Be a unique thing externally and say the things before inside the team.
This post as a comment also at http://project-management-knowledge.com/tips-for-managing-your-ever-changing-project-team/comment-page-1/#comment-6001
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