Yes, hello, everything!

A long story

 

Way too many home appliances these days come with way too short a power cable. The shortest ones so short that they in practice leave the device unusable, unless you have an extension cord. 

The reason, naturally, is cost. I am sure that many initial product plans specify a longer cable, but the finance departments are literally cutting the cost and leaving us with stumps. And this will go on as long as the paying customers are going to take it.

Which is why I decided to give a special mention this week for the designer at Philips who managed to get this three-meter-long power cord uncut through the product planning process.

The Philips steam iron is such a delightful exception that I have already bought two and will very likely buy a similar one if I ever need a third (provided of course that it still comes with the designer’s cut). See? Thinking about the user makes sense also from the financial point of view.

 

A balanced life = less work?

 

An ad in the local newspaper caught my eye today. It was for a job as the managing director of a local service company, where the founder wants to move on to be the chairman.

Nothing wrong with that plan. It was the job requirements that made me wonder. The new CEO would be expected to work much more than the standard 40 hours a week. The candidate should also have a healthy and balanced life. Right. 

It was sad to see that some people still measure the value of work in hours – not exactly a job I would consider –, but the ad got me pondering the balance between work and play.

Running my own company, I enjoy being able to decide when I work and how much time I leave for other things in life. Working from home is practical and travel is under control.

Most of the time it is great, but every now and then I miss the action and envy my friends who have cool jobs in fast growing technology companies. Then again, considering how much they work and how little time they get to spend at home, I don’t.

I miss the action, but I don’t ever want to go back to over 100 travel days a year. I miss the action, but if long conference calls during my son’s few waking hours in the evening are the price, I am not sure it is worth it. I would like to upgrade my car, but I wouldn’t want wear a tie to achieve that.

What to do then, for the right balance? Work less and optimize the income to cover the essentials? Vary the work intensity in periods – a couple of slower years now, a new high-energy job after that? Work hard, but have long holidays?  

Would the company founder in the newspaper ad hire me if I demanded 10 weeks of holidays a year?

Would you?

 

Snow pumping

 

I spent some time at our local gym during the weekend, comparing snow removal devices. 

Plowing is the hottest alternative in multi-muscular fitness training these days. With a fancier name I believe it could be the next big thing in outdoor activity.

This week’s design award goes to Fiskars for their Snow Light pusher shovel.

At the first glance, there is nothing special about it, it looks like a big spade. But using the product for the real thing (there is plenty of it here right now) you quickly notice how well-designed it is. The balance is perfect, the shaft long enough for an ergonomic working position and the blade size just right, big enough for smooth working, small enough to remain light even with moist snow.

The only struggle now is to come up with that trendy name for the sport. How about Snow pump? Simply Snowing? Snömba? Lumia? Anyway, the equipment does not come any better than this.

A special price for poor design in the same category goes to this snow pusher from an unknown manufacturer:

It has poor ergonomics written all over it. It is too big, difficult to maneuver and the materials feel awful in the cold. And as a special treat, it has been over-designed with a hinge mechanism that opens when you don’t want it to, and does not when it should (actually, I really don’t know when it would need to).

It is a great example of a product where development time has been spent on wrong things, and useless features have won over everyday usability. I understand why the previous owner of the house left it behind.

 

No-how

 

Today’s fragmented ADHD society is tough for those who still want to concentrate. Opportunities there, disturbance here. E-mail overflow, Facebook updates, even good old phone calls every now and then, all proposing and demanding. Just a little bit of your time, sir.

I am having trouble contemplating today. So this blog entry is about the most important skill in business management – in fact, life management in general: Saying No.

To be able to do the right thing you have to rule out so many other things.

So what should you do, when you are asked to participate in one more concall where you are on mute and listen with one ear while you (try to) do other things? Would it be possible to click Decline?

What to do next time when the Big Customer calls and demands a new complex update to your product which you think is lean and easy to use as it is? How about No?

When the local Rotary club calls the tenth time and wants you to come and give a presentation in their meeting. Try No.

This is difficult, I know, but it is crucial if you want to save time, money and energy for the things you really need to do. Or rather: the things you really want to do.

So let’s train a little. Say after me: No. Sorry, I can’t do that. No, I really can’t. Very interesting, but I am afraid I have to say No. No, I won’t be able to participate this time.

No. No. Absolutely not. No. No. Never ever. Nope.

This skill would be needed on so many occasions these days that I should probably write a book about it. I’m just afraid I don’t have the time. There are so many other things going on right now...

 

Risk taking with a helmet on

 

There has been a lot of talk lately about risk taking and entrepreneurship as a way out of the demanding economic situation we are facing. 

It is a great idea, but why would an individual risk everything on a start-up when all guidance is for not taking any chances? Investors are paying Germany and Switzerland for keeping their money safe, venture capitalists have practically stopped seed funding, and all large companies I know are cutting investments in future products.

The sentiment in the marketplace simply is against risk taking.

In this situation, you would expect the state to help those that dare to go against the flow. But the government investment programs, too, try to avoid the risk of failing and are distributing support money in tiny bits to everybody instead of making tough choices.

And it seems that the trend is only getting worse. Towards safer choices, that is.

I just had a discussion with the kindergarten personnel about why our son had no scarf when playing outside in the cold. For safety reasons, of course. Scarfs are not allowed.

And when the kids go out and play during winter time, everybody has to put a helmet on. I am not kidding, it is the safety regulation.

Can we expect a new generation of entrepreneurs and risk investors to grow from children that are only allowed to play with safety gear on?

 

Angry Manager (TM)

 

Why is it that obvious, easy things often become so hard in a company?

I just contributed to an email discussion that never should have started. This one was about a headquarter controller’s decision to only pay US mileage reimbursement to a European team member.

My part was once again to play the Angry Manager.

This is a business variant of the Good cop/bad cop routine. The operational guys get to keep their jolly work relationships while I handle all negative and awkward finance and legal discussions. 

The same applies when somebody from the upper management comes and ruins our day with bureaucratic restrictions when we have just agreed with the customer how to take care of the practical issues. I play management ball, others go back to work.

I have to admit that in a slightly twisted way I enjoy writing the Angry Manager emails, carefully selecting the right polite negative words.

Ideally the whole task should not exist. The sad thing is that have to play my part often. The obvious just does not seem to happen in larger organisations without shouting. 

And just for the record: we ended up using this name for the management concept years before Rovio launched their game.

 

An old new idea

 

Yesterday's post reminded me of an interesting business idea discussion from late 1990’s.

I was during those days tasked with collecting and evaluating new business ideas that could benefit from mobile phone technology. Every now and then, we presented a summary of proposed ideas to a steering group of wise men with plenty of business experience.

One time, one of the ideas listed was wireless electricity meter reading. It provoked a funny orgy of remembrance among the steering group.

The idea, it turned out, had been presented first time about twenty years earlier (over thirty years now), right after the first analogue portable phones were launched. And then again a couple of times on the 80‘s. And on early 90’s, and... In fact, every member of the steering group had been involved in meter reading discussions of some kind at some point.

The time was not right for wireless meter reading on that day either, but today, of course, it is a standard feature of all modern electricity installations.

Be careful when an old idea is presented to you as new. This time just might be the right time.

 

Forward-looking statements

 

I am not a resolution kind of guy, but a long holiday break and a new year’s celebration still makes one wonder how to improve things.

One thing I find tough in business development is bringing to the equation insight and know-how from the past without losing a forward-looking mindset. 

It is so easy to lean back on your enlightenment, dismissing every young idea with a sarcastic been-there-done-that attitude, while you should carefully guide the team away from the most obvious traps without losing the enthusiasm. It is a delicate balance that I feel I don’t yet fully master. 

So here goes for a new and improved 2012: I hereby commit to being open-minded towards all new ideas that never worked before. 

I also promise to try avoid unnecessary sarcasm in my business communications.