Weekend Reading: 17 Rules by David Russo http://bit.ly/apbFae
For entrepreneurs trying to form a startup, one of the first challenges they face that persists throughout the businesses life is how to find and keep talented partners and employees. From finding that first co-founder to finding the prolific programmers to fill your ranks later down the line, talent acquisition is always a major step in any business. Just look at some of the deals that have gone down in the Valley; Facebook didn't buy FriendFeed for their technology, that deal was mostly about getting FriendFeed's talented employees on the Facebook team.
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A new book from author David Russo, 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage, seeks to make this process more clear for businesses. Russo is the CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc., which is a consulting service that helps business executives build better team relationships. Their portfolio of clients includes American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. With his new book, Russo outlines the key strategies he has learned over the years as a consultant and human resources executive that has helped him and others create winning teams.
The book doesn't waste any time getting into its 17 rules; after a brief introduction the entirety of the book consists of one chapter per rule. The rules cover a broad base of topics, including the more straightforward rule #4, "Provide Ample and Appropriate Resources," to the more abstract rule #12, "Understand Human Capital." One of the key rules that sticks out to me is #3, "Cultivate Leadership, Not Management, and Know the Difference!"
"Whereas managers administrate, leaders have the power to influence, to motivate, even inspire, and those are distinctly different traits," writes Russo. "Indeed, true leadership is the ability to display attributes that make people want to follow."
Russo points out that leaders need to have passion, vision, and energy, as well as recognize that each employee has value to the success of the business. He likens this value to a tight end in a football game running "a crisp pattern" and distracting the defense despite knowing before the play that he's not going to be the ball carrier.
Another rule which will likely strike a chord with the startup culture is #10, "Make Room for Fun in the Workplace (Nurture Lightheatedness/Levity)." Anyone who has seen the popular workplace movie "Office Space" knows what a bland work environment can do to employees spirits, but I don't think we have to worry about startups not having enough fun on the job.
Aside from being passionate about the job they're doing, most startup employees are probably used to everyday being "casual Friday" and taking a brain break in a game room. Granted, not every experience is like this, but we all know that many startups are a very relaxed environment, which Russo says is very important for attracting skilled employees and keeping them happy.
Other important rules Russo includes on his list include knowing how and when to "cheerlead," acknowledging and rewarding efforts and contributions, and the lastly, telling the truth. While this book isn't aimed directly at startups, young entrepreneurs looking to lead their team to success should certainly take a look at this book.
One of reasons I would suggest it is that at times, young entrepreneurs who have little or no workplace experience are suddenly thrust into a CEO role. If your company takes off, you might be in charge of a lot of people very quickly, and this book will certainly help keep them happy.
Disclosure: A review copy of 17 Rules was provided to ReadWriteWeb by Pearson Education, Inc.
Photo by Flickr user madebytess.
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According to the latest evaluation of the nation's airports, America's fliers are mostly a truly disgruntled bunch.
They survey, conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, asked customers to report their satisfaction levels on six factors (airport accessibility, baggage claim, check-in, terminal facilities, security check and food and retail services), which they measured by asking about 27 more specific attributes.
And overall, the results were pretty bleak. J.D. Power says that while airport customer satisfaction is up slightly over 2008 levels, it still lags well behind customer satisfaction in other key travel categories, such as hotels and rental cars.
Large airports, for their part, have experienced a marked decline in customer satisfaction over the last several years, according to J.D. Power. Medium-size airports, by contrast, have seen little change, while customer satisfaction at small airports has risen.
But it's not all bad: even among the large airports, there were some stand-outs. Five large airports -- Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, and Charlotte -- earned very high overall satisfaction scores, and with a customer satisfaction rating of 705 (out of 1,000), Detroit topped the list.
Nonetheless, we compiled a list of the airports that J.D. Power reports have the lowest customer satisfaction scores. Check out the list of the ten airports you should do your best to avoid:
Qualcomm's 7x30 offers stellar 3D and multimedia performance, coming this year (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Qualcomm's 7x30 offers stellar 3D and multimedia performance, coming this year (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Assuming E-mail is the original social network, this Web 1.0 tool continues to have a large role in how we communicate and share ideas. With the exception of the clear GMail/Buzz integration or the recent Outlook/LinkedIn tie-up, for the most part, e-mail has not been dramatically revamped to take advantage of today's faster-moving, highly featured social networks. But despite e-mail's longevity, some basic attributes of the form continue to cause trouble between contacts who haven't mastered their core functionality. One of the most troublesome, the infrequently used, but often abused, BCC.
Beware the BCC: Copying Can Make Us All Blind
- LouCypherBeware the BCC: Copying Can Make Us All Blind
- Mike FruchterMafia Wars is a very popular game on Facebook with thousands of players playing it at any given time of the day. It is a so called browser game in which the player takes on the role of a Mafia member with all sorts of options at hand from fighting opponents to running jobs, buying equipment, recruiting new Mafia members, buying properties and more. The Mafia Wars player levels up once enough experience points have been earned. Experience points are won by either running jobs, e.g. muggings or bank heists, or fighting other Mafia Wars members.
The two most important attributes in this regard are Energy and Stamina. Energy is being used to run jobs while Stamina to fight other Mafias. Each attempt at a job or fight reduces the available attribute and the player has to wait for the Energy and Stamina to replenish before continuing to do jobs or fights.
These points are replenished every five minutes (one point that is) to the current maximum defined by the player’s stats. This means that the Mafia Wars player has to log in regularly to spend the points to avoid losing points as points are not longer gained once the maximum has been reached.
That’s where Mafia Wars Autoplay comes into play. The Greasemonkey script is highly configurable and can be used to perform actions in Mafia Wars automatically. This ranges from jobs and attacks to leveling up and buying properties.
The script offers many configuration options to play Mafia Wars automatically. The developer has created a video that explains most of the settings which is recommended to watch so that the script is configured correctly.
Once configured correctly the Mafia Wars Autoplay script will take care of the rest and the player’s presence is no longer required. It can for instance run all night or day so that all points are spend and none wasted.
The script is very sophisticated and a great help for every Mafia Wars player. Installation is straightforward. The script is provided for the web browsers Google Chrome and Firefox. Firefox users need to install the Greasemonkey add-on first and then the Mafia Wars Autoplay script. Google Chrome users can directly install the extension.
Got additional Mafia Wars tips? Let us know in the comments.
Forget the debate over desiring Adobe Flash on Apple’s mobile platform — Flash isn’t landing on existing Windows Mobile handsets, either. The news is an about-face on Adobe’s part, as it originally planned to deliver Flash 10.1 to Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Adobe’s Open Screen Project kicked off last October and promised multiplatform mobile Flash support this year. Microsoft’s phones were part of that promise, and while Adobe couldn’t have known the details of Microsoft’s next-generation devices back then, it does now. The company has reportedly reworked its Flash strategy and is now deferring mobile Flash support to Windows Phone 7 Series devices.
Adobe is the second major developer in two days to abandon current Windows Mobile devices — just yesterday, Skype pulled its mobile client because it says it can’t offer a proper experience to its customers. Since the Skype reasoning is easily backed up by a horrendous issue out of the company’s control — the app can’t natively access the standard ear speaker of a phone — I’m inclined to understand its move. I don’t necessarily agree with it, since the issue is several years old and there’s no harm in leaving the download out there, but I do understand it. However, I’m baffled by the Adobe rationale — something just doesn’t wash. Here’s the quote that IntoMobile attributes to an Adobe representative:
“As for WinMo, we have made the tough decision to defer support for that platform until WinMo7. This is due to the fact that WinMo6.5 does not support some of the critical APIs that we need.”
The second statement only makes sense if Adobe just started coding Flash 10.1 for the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. Clearly, that’s the not the case because early public beta developer builds of 10.1 were seen running on Windows Mobile devices last May. Here’s a refresher if you didn’t see it — note that the device is a Toshiba TG01 which debuted with Windows Mobile 6.1.
So if there are some critical APIs that Windows Mobile 6.5 doesn’t support, isn’t it likely that Adobe would have known about them months ago? The answer is yes.
At this point, I’m keenly interested in news from next month’s MIX10 event, where Microsoft will educate developers on the Windows Phone 7 Series framework. Armed with more information, I expect one of two things to happen: Developers will either voice their support for a two platform approach or we’ll see more announcements like those from Skype and Adobe — shops waiting on the new mobile train before boarding the platform.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Brewing a Better Web Video Experience
Forget the debate on desiring Adobe Flash on Apple’s mobile platform — Flash isn’t landing on existing Windows Mobile handsets either. The news is an about face on Adobe’s part, as it originally planned to deliver Flash 10.1 to Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Adobe’s Open Screen Project kicked off last October and promised multi-platform mobile Flash support this year. Microsoft’s phones were part of that promise, and while Adobe couldn’t have known the details of Microsoft’s next-generation devices back then, they do now. The company has reportedly reworked it’s Flash strategy and is now deferring mobile Flash support to Windows Phone 7 Series devices.
Adobe is the second major developer in two days that has abandoned current Windows Mobile devices — just yesterday, Skype pulled its mobile client because it says it can’t offer a proper experience to its customers. Since the Skype reasoning is easily backed up by a horrendous issue out of their control — the app can’t natively access the standard ear speaker of a phone — I’m inclined to understand their move. I don’t necessarily agree with it, since the issue is several years old and there’s no harm in leaving the download out there, but I do understand it. However, I’m baffled by the Adobe rationale — something just doesn’t wash. Here’s the quote that IntoMobile attributes to an Adobe representative:
“As for WinMo, we have made the tough decision to defer support for that platform until WinMo7. This is due to the fact that WinMo6.5 does not support some of the critical APIs that we need.”
The second statement only makes sense if Adobe just started coding Flash 10.1 for the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. Clearly, that’s the not the case because early public beta developer builds of 10.1 were seen running on Windows Mobile devices last May. Here’s a refresher if you didn’t see it — note that the device is a Toshiba TG01 which debuted with Windows Mobile 6.1.
So if there are some critical APIs that Windows Mobile 6.5 doesn’t support, isn’t it likely that Adobe would have known about them months ago? The likelihood is yes.
At this point, I’m keenly interested out of the MIX10 event news where Microsoft will educate developers on the Windows Phone 7 Series framework. Armed with more information, I expect one of two things to happen. Developers will either voice their support for a two platform approach or we’ll see more announcements like those from Skype and Adobe — shops waiting on the new mobile train before boarding the platform.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Brewing a Better Web Video Experience
Are you one of those iPhone owners that just uses the swipe and unlock feature on your handset? Your phone isn’t really “locked” by definition — unless you have a passcode enabled, anyone with a pulse and a finger could get at your phone data. A nose will actually work too, even though it’s difficult — as an iPhone carrying runner who wears gloves in winter, I sadly have experience in this matter. Now you could add a 4-digit passcode to help offset data theft if your phone walks away. Simply hit Settings, General, and Passcode Lock on your iPhone to set it up. That’s a start down the safety path, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could use a stronger, alphanumeric password? It turns out that you can.
UNEASYsilence points out the method that enterprise iPhone users have long since known — use the downloadable iPhone Configuration Utility, freely available for Windows or Mac on Apple’s website. The software is geared towards iPhone deployments in the business world, so there’s far more functionality than simply adding a secure passcode. But until Apple adds this functionality to the native iPhone OS platform — and I think they should — this is one way to make your handset more secure.
Once you’ve downloaded the utility, just connect your iPhone with a USB cable and then run the iPhone Configuration Utility. You’ll need to create a configuration profile by name and identifier like I did here.
Next, simply click on the Passcode setting in the utility to bring up the passcode configuration screen. You see that I went hog-wild in this example with multiple attributes, but all you need to click is the “Require alphanumeric value” box for a minimal boost in data security. Adding in other attributes like I have will beef things up even more.
After you modify the Passcode settings, you just need to install the configuration profile to your already connected iPhone. Find your phone’s name on the left side of the utility, click it and tap the Install button.
The profile is sent to your iPhone over USB and to complete the installation, you just follow the prompts on your device. Once installed, you can disconnect your iPhone and you’re good to go with better protection of your handset data. And if you ever want to revert back to the basic passcode — or none at all — simply connect your iPhone, run the utility and choose to Remove the configuration profile from your device. After the profile is removed, just hit Settings, General and Passcode Lock, then enter that old passcode one last time and you can disable the lock for good.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Apple Thinks Enterprise is Ready For the iPhone
Crossovers from Subaru, Toyota, Honda, VW, Ford, BMW and even Porsche offer SUV attributes, but with fuel economy to rival some of the most fuel-efficient cars.
Docstoc, the online document-sharing service aimed at small business users, is expanding the online store is it opened last summer to bring in individuals. The new service augments the partner marketplace, which is mainly intended for larger publishers in the small biz, legal and real estate markets, as well as the advertising DocStoc runs on the free section of the site, CEO Jason Nazar (image, left) told paidContent. The site is also adding tiered subscriptions. Users can sign up for a free “basic” membership, which lets them view all the site’s 8 million-plus documents. On the paid side, users can opt for the “pro” and “pro plus” rates.
In addition to viewing all the site’s docs, the “pro” level allows downloading that covers half-a-million docs, as well as access to 250-plus “premium” material. The “pro” rate costs $24.95 per month and also includes weekly “document packages.” The “pro plus” plan charges $11.95 per month—$143.40 annually—for all of the aforementioned benefits as well as unlimited online document storage and a completely ad-free experience.
Among the attributes of the new buying and selling system that are intended to attract a wave of smaller sellers, DocStoc will split revenues 50/50 with publishers and authors. On top of that, for the first 60 days an e-book goes on sale, DocStoc will let publishers keep 100 percent of the revenues. DocStoc will also let publishers and bloggers sell the documents from their own sites.
Like the larger document sharing site, Scribd, DocStoc believes it can capitalize on the wider adoption of e-readers. Unlike Scribd, which has been working on securing deals with major publishers like Simon & Schuster, DocStoc’s focus is a bit more narrow, which Nazar says allows it to target readers and sellers more easily.
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Entrepreneur Paul Buchheit, lead developer of a little something called Gmail, has an opinion piece up with an interesting take on the product design process. Entitled "If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good," it espouses the following central theory:
What's the right approach to new products? Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else.
The piece is a short and sweet read. Check it out here.
If you want to take control of your life, there are certain areas that require persistent tracking. In order to track your life and make appropriate changes, you need to know what’s going on and to do that you need to track what’s going on.
Some people need to get a handle on their time (tools to track time wasted online). Others need to better control their finances (tools for tracking expenses and budgeting). There are also other resources that other people need to track. These days there are tools that help in this task of tracking life’s intricacies but many of them are too complex for the needs of the everyday person. We need something simple that we’ll actually learn and use for it to be a help.
That is why I would like to introduce you to a new start up you can use to track your life called 1DayLater. The creators of 1DayLater originally started the project to help them track their valuable time as freelancers. It turned out to be a tool simple enough that anyone can use and benefit from.
In my opinion a useful tool has two attributes : usability and benefit. Let me show you how 1DayLater fits both of those attributes when it comes to tracking life.
The easier a website makes signing up and registering the better. Obviously they should take security precautions but when they make it so complicated that you need to consult a help file or forums just to figure out how to register, they need to back off a bit. 1DayLater made the process a cinch by asking only the basics (there’s also a line for your phone number but it’s only optional).
Once again, going with the “easier is better” philosophy, 1DayLater hits the nail on the proverbial head with the login process! Email-password, bing! You’re in!
Track Your Life With a Log!
Once logged in you are faced with the opportunity to begin logging your life! To begin with, you can start logging your time by hitting the “start timer” button. When you stop the timer, the time is automatically entered into the “value” field which can tell what kind of measurement you are trying to log. You can also manually enter measurements into this field. You can log measurements such as time, money and mileage. Then you can tag the lot with a label in the “project/client” field and add the date and a note to finish off the log. It’s all pretty straight forward.
As you log your life, you can get a quick look at the activities you are logging. They are sorted by date and project / client tag (which you can assign your own colors to in order to have a visual to keep them separate here and in the charts in the analysis area). Here you also have the ability to edit the logs and delete them altogether. Very handy!
There is also a nifty chart showing off time spent on different projects. This could be key to getting an overall idea of where your time is going. I didn’t see charts for mileage or money so I personally hope they are also incorporated too.
All I am saying is that they are a new start up and are working hard on new features! For instance, they have released the ability to export data into a spreadsheet and are working out the bugs there. They are also working on the ability to output to invoices and mileage claims as well as some apps. As a new start up, they have been smart enough to offer a feedback forum to share what you would like to see them develop and a voting system to vote on other people’s ideas using Uservoice.
Right now 1DayLater is free but in the future there may be some features that will not be.
Let us know what you think about 1DayLater as a new start up. Also, how do you track your life?
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EMC has upgraded the hardware and protection attributes of its cloud storage Atmos product so it can store, process and protect more data faster.…
Back in November I agreed with Nivi over at VentureHacks to do a series on the ten most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur. This is the last post in that series.
This is actually an addendum to my list rather than “on” my list. That in itself will be controversial, I know. When Nivi published the series he titled it “the top 10 things I look for before I write a check.” As a result I felt compelled to add this final attribute because it matters a lot to me. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is perfectly correlated with what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
12. Integrity – The most obvious attribute that isn’t on my original top list is “integrity” or honesty. If I thought I could make a lot of money backing somebody that made money through low integrity I would personally pass.
I know that sounds trite but that is exactly how my firm talks about things in partner meetings. If we’ve seen a company present where we feel that the CEO is shady. It becomes a large part of the conversation in our partners’ meeting afterward. A few months ago we saw a CEO present who had personally made hundreds of millions of dollars in a financial services business and had a plan to capitalize on the current market conditions. A large part of our post meeting conversation was how we felt the individual seemed to be of low integrity. We thought he might actually find a way to make money again – but we decided he wasn’t the type of individual we could work with.
Another CEO presented to us from a company that was growing at a tremendously fast clip. We were super excited by their offering – they had patented technology in a field that we believe will continue to grow massively. During the final pre-term sheet due diligence we discovered that the CEO had had a felony arrest for a significant crime that he hadn’t disclosed to us. When confronted with this he told us, “Oh, I thought I told you. We certainly told every other investor we had spoken with. It must have been an oversight.” I called two other firms we knew he had been speaking with – he hadn’t disclosed it to either of them but both of them had found it during their due diligence.
As usual it wasn’t as much the initial crime that bothered me as it was the bending of the truth afterward that he felt comfortable with. I’m not sure how we would have responded if there would have been an initial disclosure – I’ll never know. Perhaps VC isn’t the vest route for this individual. It’s a shame because as a person I really liked and felt connected with him and his business seems to still be thriving.
I’m proud to say that most early-stage VCs that I know really do care about making money ethically. So consider integrity on my personal list of attributes required to raise money from a reputable, early-stage VC. I know that many media outlets would like to portray this in a different way but knowing many of these individuals I believe it is true for most. When companies start to make huge sums of money it’s always easy for the media to question the integrity of the company.
Unfortunately people with low integrity can be successful and can raise money from investors. I personally know a billionaire CEO who I wouldn’t put high on the list of people with high integrity but he built his company from scratch to become a very large enterprise. He is well respected (but not liked) in his industry and in his company.
He has a lot of money to spend on personal marketing so the story is written as he wants it to be. But I have seen his actions at close range and would not claim that they are high on the integrity scale. I’ve heard this about similar technology executives of some of the biggest names out there in history.
I also know him to not be a very happy man. Money can buy a lot of things but as the saying goes it can’t in and of itself buy you happiness. I believe that true happiness comes from a sense of fulfillment, giving and doing what your moral compass knows is right.
Better that you be this person, whatever level of business success you achieve in life.
(any guesses what the image is from?)
(Cross-posted @ Both Sides of the Table )
