Yes, hello, everything!

Pearls behind a link too many

 

I know I am a bit conservative with my media consumption – I still read printed books and occasionally even buy CD’s – and I understand that most people don't want to read long articles. Seen that, read some of it, clicked Like, now next. I can live that, but sometimes people’s superficial behavior on the web bothers me. You miss great things if you don't stop, search, discover and read on.

A good example is the Facebook post about the star violinist Joshua Bell playing at a metro station. It has been floating around for years, and why not, the story is interesting: Would anybody notice if the fiddler at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world?

It’s just that the post I have seen on Facebook is a poorly written summary of the event, and people don’t seem to care about finding out more. If you spent 30 seconds searching, you could find the actual article, which won a Pulitzer price for feature writing in 2008. Even listening to the whole violin performance is possible online (great background music for writing, by the way).

It is kind of ironic. A typical excuse from the people in the article for missing the exceptional free performance at the metro station was that they were too busy and had other things on their mind.

 

Competition is good for you

 

After the last week’s post about Invention Psychosis, I have been thinking about the importance of uniqueness in a product offering. When I was younger, I always thought that a product without competition would be every salesman's dream. It isn’t.

I have lately been selling advanced new technology. So new and advanced that the competition is difficult to define. It is a hard sell.

Instead of just naming the main competitors and then explaining why your product is better, you try to define the competition as fuzzy fragmented products, some older technologies, customers’ internal research and whatnot. Then you are faced with endless discussion about the benefits of your offering and how they could be quantified. 

I have seen this all before. Ten years ago, I was selling early versions of mobile antivirus solutions. There were no mobile viruses and justifying an investment to a potential future technology proved difficult time after time. We were like insurance salesmen without a real threat. It is a lonely job.

If a start-up claims to have a commercially viable product that nobody else on the planet has thought of, I would advise them to think again.

The fact that someone else is trying to solve the same problem confirms your idea is good. When customers understand why they are buying, the sales process is straightforward and you don’t need to start with selling a problem. Comparisons with other solutions sharpen your story, keep product development alert and make the goals clear.

I recently talked to a friend of mine who sells cars. Their sales are decreasing, they have low margins and no flexibility in their business models, and they are facing tough competitors from all over the world.

I would love that for a change.

 

Invention Psychosis

 

I today met a person with a bad case of what I call Invention Psychosis.

A long time ago, it used to be my work. For lack of a better process, I was the person in New business development to whom the switchboard connected people with “new ideas”. While listening to today's explanation about an incredible unique success product, it all started coming back to me.

A person affected by IP can be diagnosed by the following symptoms:

1. Inability to hear anything that contradicts the obvious greatness of the idea.

- Here is my invention, isn’t it great?

- The components seem quite expensive and sensitive for a product you plan to sell for outdoor use in developing countries.

- Yes, but isn’t it a great idea? 

2. Exaggerations and/or aggressive behavior from an otherwise timid person

- I have this great invention that you can easily sell in millions.

- That is great. Let me first explain to you how the IP review policy of our company works.

- I am sure you understand that I have to record all our discussions.

- Fine. You can start by recording how the IP review policy of our company works.

- I don’t want to patent my invention, it’s complicated, costs money and takes a long time.

- I understand, but our policy is not to review any ideas that are not protected by IPR.

- I will sell my idea to you very cheap.

- It is unfortunately impossible for us to evaluate the value of your invention without a patent.

- What is ten thousand dollars to a large company?

3. Obsessive selling to anybody even remotely relevant and failure to understand declining words

- You have to buy my idea.

- Thank you. We are not interested.

- You don’t understand what you are missing.

- Thank you. We are not interested.

- This is a very good deal for you.

- No thank you.

- I will call your boss.

- My boss will also tell you No.

- But you have to buy my idea.

 

The memories fade away. The IP case goes on with the explanation. I try to murmur that it is quite rare to come across a great business idea no-one else in the world has ever thought of...

 I’m glad it won't be me answering the phone.

 

Design (re-)cycling

 

Every now and then I bump into objects that I would like to own just to look at. That was the case with this fine handcrafted bicycle from the Netherlands. 

The structure, the details, everything on it made me want to touch. With a closer look it turned out to be manufactured of quality components too – the people from the Netherlands should know –, but who cares, when it looks so cool. I doesn’t really matter to me what the ride is like, I simply want one to behold.

I especially liked how the design manages to look modern and fresh while recycling retro cues from the past. Vanhulsteijn gets this week's design award. I hope they get the website fixed soon. I think it will be getting hits.

 

Cash flow in Paris

 

Some cities just have it.

Every time I come to Paris, I sooner or later end up thinking about buying a small pied-à-terre.

The process is always the same. I start eyeing apartment buildings, make mental notes on good addresses and imagine myself sitting in the corner café next to our own little place.

Then I start browsing apartment ads. And every time I am astonished by the price level. People from all over the world seem to have the same idea of a second home in Paris.

That is when realism strikes. I wouldn’t be spending more than a few weeks a year in the apartment and with it would come maintenance costs, bureaucracy and plenty of other things to worry about.

To make good use of the investment, I would have to rent out the flat on its idle times, which would mean more maintenance, more bureaucracy and further worries. What’s even worse, the apartment would then not feel like a home anymore, it would feel like a rental apartment.

Therefore, we rent.

This, I believe, is a major lifestyle decision. Should you concentrate on assets that secure your position (and your children’s) or look at optimizing cash flow? Save your money to do things when you retire or spend a little more to live today?

This thought was what I liked in the bestseller The 4-hour workweek when it came out a few years ago. The book is no literary classic, but it promoted in a fresh way short-term life balance over the concept of saving for a later day that may never come.

(As a side note: Looking at his web site now, it seems that Mr Ferriss has detached himself from his own philosophy. I doubt he can manage all his new books and the bazaar around them in just four hours a week.)

I am not saying that you should burn it all on vanities, but I vote for a little more cash flow right now. Pay the loans back a bit slower and spend some of it on travel, clothes, fast cars, art – whatever makes you happy (I count cars and art as cash flow because they offer instant gratification and only a tiny minority of items hold their value over time).

We put too much effort on collecting assets. With assets come worries and I don’t want to worry. Renting is worry-free and worry-free hours are valuable. So there you go – a piece of home-made life philosophy from a café in Paris: To live is not to worry about assets.

We’ll always have rental apartments.

 

ADHD (sales) people in today’s

 

Yesterday, I came across two things that again got me thinking how shortsighted and scattered our world has become.

Firstly, a booklet by the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA (unfortunately available only in Finnish) about the theatre today’s working class has to play in the workplace. Makes a funny read in a Dilbert kind of way, although it may be a bit long for the attention span of an average office worker.

If that is too much for you, then try this: a web site for – doing nothing.

It seems to be very difficult for many people to sit still for two minutes without touching the computer. On the other hand, it is not hard to believe at all. Doing anything uninterrupted for two minutes would be an exception in a modern office.

The current working style requires a specific kind of a person. We have been joking about how all the best sales guys have ADHD. To check if the joke really is valid, I took a look at a couple of web sites about typical symptoms of ADHD in adults. 

Here are some examples:

• tendency to overlook details
• hard time remembering conversations and following directions
• poor organizational skills
• trouble finishing projects
• underestimating the time it will take you to complete tasks
• act spontaneously without regard for consequences
• have trouble behaving in socially appropriate ways (such as sitting still during a long meeting)
• trouble staying motivated, getting bored easily
• talking excessively.

That’s how the sales people are, aren’t they? Independent, outgoing, open-minded and driven persons that see the big picture and are constantly looking for new challenges...

The amount of diagnosed ADHD cases in schools is rapidly rising. I don't want to downplay the problem, but I can’t help wondering if proposing ADHD as the reason why a pupil isn’t following the norm in the classroom is the easy way out for a school system that is unable to adapt. No need to change if you diagnose out the ones that don’t fit.

The good news for those unfit for the school processes is that they have a career in sales waiting. And as they have trouble concentrating, they probably won't stop to wonder if something is wrong with a work environment that rewards reckless behavior and racing thoughts.

What I am wondering now is whether the ADHD joke should be expanded to all work in contemporary working life. It doesn’t feel funny anymore. There must be a better way to work. If you read this far, maybe you feel so too?

 

Garbage. What else?

 

A friend of a good espresso as I am, I have through the years been experimenting with various espresso machines and coffee grinders. One thing I haven’t quite grasped is the success of coffee solutions with pre-prepared coffee buttons (or the “unique combination of premium quality Grand Cru coffees, smart coffee machines and exceptional customer services”, as the official message has it). 

I appreciate simplicity, but I have always felt that you lose a part of the makings of a great cup of coffee if you don’t get to feel the beans, smell the freshly ground coffee and analyze the combinations of roasting, grinding and brewing in search of the perfect crema. 

Now I am temporarily living in an apartment which comes with a Nespresso compatible coffee maker so I have been forced to get acquainted with its secrets. This is the verdict after a week of real-life experience.

 

The coffee is good, there is no denying that, and an espresso is easy to make without making a mess. That I guess is enough for many.

On the downside, it is incredibly expensive. You also miss the chance of testing all the local coffee houses when you let an impersonal multinational pick your coffee (selecting from ten different capsule types in the supermarket doesn’t really cut it for me).

And then there is the trash. I always suspected there to be a lot of unnecessary packaging, but the amount of residue was beyond all my expectations. In the picture is what you get from a package of ten shots. 

No matter how unique, premium and smart this kind of coffee brewing is claimed to be, it simply feels bad. George Clooney would do an ecological deed if he started to promote quality coffee grinders instead.

Designed, no doubt. No award.

 

Packages for grown-ups

 

My son wants to be the driver of the de-icing truck at the airport. While I suspect he will change his mind later, it shows how easy career selection used to be.

Then it all became complicated somehow.

There are so many career options these days, and once you enter the working life, you soon realize there are downsides to all the options too (although the prospect of long summer holidays as the de-icing man is quite tempting).

Companies with funny names and business models you don’t understand offer jobs with titles that don’t make sense. By the time you realize where you should work, the cool thing is already elsewhere and the millionaires have moved on.

And should you know what you would like to do when you grow up, you won’t have the time. There are too many things to balance and life is not just about work anymore. There are mortgages to pay, kids to play with. The time is never right.

In this sense, Nokia is now doing the Finnish society a new kind of a favor.  

There is amazing activity among the people I used to work with at Nokia. During the past months I have seen many interesting career choices and several new start-ups.

The reason are the farewell packages Nokia is offering those who leave after fifteen years of service for the empire. They are a better boost for the economy than all state entrepreneurship support activities combined. 

What the choices of my old colleagues seem to have in common is that nobody is interested in taking on a new job in a large organization. People with packages seem to be thinking small. They start their own, go coaching others, or bring modern business thinking to smaller companies in more traditional business areas. The tendency is to try to find jobs where you can make a difference, decide yourself and choose quality of life over remuneration.

This maybe a trend even amongst the younger people in the marketplace today, the so called Generation Y, but I think the main reason for this phenomenon is that my young and enthusiastic friends from the 1990’s now are experienced middle-aged professionals. They simply have learned to value other things in life. They have grown up and started doing what they really want.

Maybe knowing what you want to do isn’t that hard after all. You only need somebody to give you a year’s salary before you dare to start doing it.

 

Art in a dull place

 

If there was a contest for the world’s most uninteresting object (maybe there is, but nobody ever noticed?), I bet electricity distribution cabinets would feature high on the list.

Grey, square, common and uninspiring, the cabinets are the definition of dull. Everybody walks by several of them daily, but they typically go totally unnoticed.

When was the last time you took a good look at one? Well, I just did. The reason was this little cow:

 

The design award of the week goes to Helsingin energia for their Street galleries.

The project has been around for several years, but spotting one of these art displays on the street is still a pleasant surprise every time. The cabinets are still grey and dull, but at least there is now a reason to take a look. A little design thought results once again in a more pleasant neighborhood.

 

Rational dreams

 

I took a look at car registration statistics from last year. One fact struck me: Of all new Porsches sold in Finland, 60 % had a diesel engine.

I don’t have numbers from other countries (and it seems that Porsche itself does not report the diesel share), but I assume that something similar may be happening elsewhere, too.

This reminded me of discussions I recently had with a couple of local entrepreneurs.

The connection? Rational thinking diluting a dream.

The entrepreneurs first explained to me that they have great plans of growth and dream of becoming number one in their domain. It then turns out that after some strategy analysis they had decided on slow and sure organic growth and the vision was to be the biggest in the region. 

Don’t get me wrong here. These guys run a profitable business and have managed to give a job to a few people along the way. That is not bad at all. I just felt a little sad because realism had taken over and their plan had lost its enthusiasm. 

Imagine now a person who has always dreamed of owning a Porsche, saving money, looking at specs, drooling on pictures. And then, when the time finally comes, decides in the last minute to buy the diesel version, because it is less extravagant and easier to explain. The dream car becomes a polar bear killer that is not fun to drive.

Sign of the times? Big emotions and bold statements are clearly not fashionable.

Small local companies without growth plans are nice, but if it becomes the new company norm, we won’t be solving the society’s problems with entrepreneurship. The effect on unemployment will also be low.

Now this of course comes from a person who does not run a fast-growth business and owns no Porsche, but I dream of something bigger.

And what comes to the dream of owning a Porsche, I can only say that if I ever buy one, it won’t be an oil burner.