$110,000, Cessna's new Skycatcher!

Now the price within reach, are my 6 hour drives to New York a thing of the past with the new SkyCatcher, a single engine, 2 seat, 100 HP plane? Can it be anymore dangerous then riding a 1200CC motorcycle? Ignore the fact it is made in Shenyang, China and $71,000 less then it's US equivalent, the price has narrowed enough for me to consider the price/value quotient. Wait, we can't ingore that, that is the whole point of this Blog!

India's yearly economic growth rate averaged over 8% in the last four years. That trend that will double their average income in 10 years. I think we will see a lot of SkyCatchers flying around over there soon. In 2005-2006, Asia accounted for 58% of the international enrollments at US Higher education institutions. India, leading the pack with approximately 76,000 students in the US.

In the US, third grade reading scores slipped to below 2001 levels. Falling to 3rd place world wide.

Bottom Line: At $110,000 the new Cessna is a buy, and it could be my cure for my fear of flying. I hope my kids read this, maybe even get a little envious on how the price/value quotient on a global basis has changed the ingenuity playing fields, after all where are those new SkyCatchers going to be sold?

What is valued?

Changing our thanksgiving tradition, I served Jane and my 4 kids, 15,17,19 & 21 chicken marsala and broccoli rabe for lunch and chicken curry for our dinner. The reaction was surprising as we as a pack descended on the meal. With two home from college, it was interesting to see how years change the person.

I read the paper and news to the point of an addictive behavior. I see the angst and turmoil in industry and business, typically a reaction to a quarter by quarter or month to month basis as oil nears $100 a barrel. Living here in VT, I am surrounded by a sense of security and sustainability as companies like NRG Systems and Green Mountain Coffee compete globally and Orvis manages to “offshore” some of the tightest fly rods around.


Bottom Line: I have questions today, what makes good good? What makes great not good enough. Being from sales it goes down individual performance. How do others in the organization feel as special projects pop up and they not understanding how they are measured or how they impact the business? For me, job statisfaction and productivity came to mind.

Thanksgiving and a situation assessment ------>

A good friend called yesterday and I asked him if business value is enough, he said "I don't think so." That sent me back, but since I woke up this morning, I am back to the fundamentals. POWER who can make the biggest impact on today and personal value, where can I apply, to make some one's vision or miss on closer to home for them? The value of time, the most important element, in particular the timing when I decided to join thg, or who would of thought six years ago that I would be living in bucolic Essex, VT?

With the Thanksgiving this week, it is time to reflect inwards, for me, towards my family, to see how our mission and vision is aligned as a unit. We will under take our own situation assessment and use it as a way to develop onto the same page.

This holiday please feel free to share a situation assessment with your family, it could make you laugh or make you cry, and it is worth the time.


Bottom line; I am thankful for all those people in my life that put me in and gave me the opportunity to share this with each of you. I hope you print off at least one copy and share it with someone you love.

Trusted advisor relationships are not product centric.

Increasingly, Global 2000 CIO's are moving into the position from a business background and not a technology one. All are moving away from technical mumbo-jumbo into business discussions and for the topic of this discussion all are receiving hundreds of calls a week from well intentioned salespeople about a product or service will solve one woe or another.

I worked for companies who pumped out product after product, the proverbial, spaghetti on the wall. Unfortunately they were field tested when a sales person stuck a spec sheet in front of the client, because of a briefly mentioned business or technology issue yet to be solved. I talk with many product managers, many never spent a day in the field. Product pumping often starts at the top, one CEO went as far as saying lead with service X, if that does not sell, switch to product Y and if that fails move to service B. This particular company had a very high turnover rate and had up to 3 or 4 salespeople covering the account in as many years. So much for a trusted advisor relationship.

As a father of four kids, I hope that we all learn from experience. Here is what I learned;

Listen first and ask questions. Find out what the business issue is, find out how that ties to the companies vision and mission. Ask the person what they think the solution is, pull out the nuggets where you can add unique value and articulate your value.

Have product marketing talk to users about what is lacking in the market and build relevant solutions around those issues.

Have specific messages for each executive. Generic messages are just that. Know the business problems you are going to solve and defend your unique value with rigor and passion.

Boutique firms need to establish clear and concise value propositions that need to be clearly differentiated against larger competitors.

Bottom Line: Competitive advantage does not come from generic messaging. Marketing and sales campaigns must be aligned to problems and not products or services.

Personal business value at the activity level.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks as France's key public infrastructure systematically goes on strike. It's more concerning to see what is happening in the Middle East, as Pakistan looms on civil war, but this is not a political blog. It does show the importance of contingency planning and tying personal value to workers activities. Companies need to map job related activities to the importance and alignment to a companies mission and vision statements. I can't say it will prevent a country wide strike or civil war, it will create good will and increase worker productivity. It will go along way in building a stronger foundation if each activity is directly mapped to success.

In France, the waves that are planned on Nov. 13, 14, and 20th, are in the transport, energy and even the civil servants are planning a work stoppage.

The fundamental reason for this is worker angst, there is no personal value match to activities and worker discontent sits in. The affects could be as small as worker productivity for a few idle minutes, or it could be company or country widespread as in the case of France. The ability to measure, requires a plan at the activity level.

Bottom Line: Define at the activity level success factors. Articulate where and how that activity aligns to company mission and vision. Reward behavior that drives unproductive means out from every employee and activity they do.

Simple as ABC, if you dont compete you can't win!

Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is used to identify functional process activities, describe that process in regards to where it fits into the overall business objectives and it’s alignment to goals, mission and company vision. It is a more accurate management system than traditional cost accounting. Although hard to attain because of a lack of standards and metrics, ABC is more valuable because it identifies opportunities to improve business process effectiveness and efficiency by determining the "true" cost of a product or service. The key differentiation and silver bullet is that it must be mapped to corporate performance goals and be used as an initiative generator to fuel top line savings and bottom line growth.

Bottom line; You can’t cost if you don’t measure. If you don’t measure you can’t change. If you don’t change you can’t compete.

Getting more with more. The IT funding quagmire.

According to recent research, it is clear that World Class Companies spend more on IT than their peers. To build the case for an increase in IT funding, CIO's need to focus on developing their organization's key strengths . There are six key areas that should be considered:

Product Innovation
Project prioritization
Operational excellence
Brand mastery
Customer intimacy
Business strategy alignment
Aggressively outsource non-core functions.

IT investments should align to one of those disciplines. CIO's need to stop and inventory current practices to avoid wasting money on maintaining functions that are not core competencies. An increasing number of companies are asking third parties to take on tasks such as finance, human resources or indirect purchasing. I don't think there is anyone that can say that the accounts payable function delivers a competitive advantage. Taking out non-productive projects, programs and activities will enable self-funding improvements in the future.