A Letter from Meetjohnsong

Unbelievably, this blog has now had more than 1,000 visits. Yeah, not viral by any means, but a steady readership that I did not expect when starting. Thank you.

Let me take this opportunity to give updates on some of my previous posts. First of all, after I blogged about my father, one of my sons looked online for his grandfather’s book, ”Born Out of Conflict”. To his surprise, he found an individual selling the book on eBay for nearly $200. It was a first edition with my father’s signature. You can imagine that my enterprising sons had the pen ready for grandpa the next time he visited.

As for the documentary idea, “Finding Love in America in Two Months for a French Girl”, Sabine has been on five coffee dates with one being somewhat interesting. Of course, it is still too early to know if any of her dates will turn into love. But if optimism and enthusiasm are contributing factors, she’s got a real chance with more than a month left. She remains smitten by the States, and now the Seattle area in particular.

Recently, my wife went to Las Vegas and bought a lot of clothes for me. I figured there could be two reasons for this: Either she bought so much stuff for herself that she felt guilty, or she was afraid that I would receive another intervention for the way I dressed. So far, no surprise meetings waiting for me. .

At ZeroDash1, we’ve really started to turn the corner on expanding our business. Our pipeline has grown, we’re landing bigger deals. All the while, our schmoozing tabs have gone down. Keeping closure in mind as the end goal is very effective.

John Goad finally did get his 3G iPhone after considerable frustration trying to get one for about a week. The hype was about being cool, which is so elusive and very difficult to manufacture. We need more cool in the corporate world, especially now with all the web 2.0 platforms. I’ve put my order in as well and should be able to pick up an iPhone tomorrow. I definitely will put at least a couple of Kayne West songs on it since I know who he is now.

Finally, I’ve been very concerned about the country’s growing deficit. The government can bail out banks (IndyMac), but who bails out the government? That was a rhetorical question. So, why won’t Mr. Obama or Mr. Cain address this issue? One wants to increase spending and the other wants to increase spending and cut taxes.

Thanks for all those who have commented directly and indirectly on the blog. I hope to continue to introduce interesting people, as well as some personal insights.

Ciao,
John

Reorganizing Effectively for Small Companies

In the corporate world, reorganizations are a way of life. As companies grow and try to maneuver through the ever-changing business climate, executives want to “streamline” and “restructure” to stay competitive as possible.

Large corporations usually hire seasoned experts to help plan and implement their reorganizations. Many smaller, growing companies, however, rely mostly on the internal management team for their restructuring. Since many of these smaller companies are still managed by their founders, such attempts at change often are planned with too much subjectivity.

When starting a reorganization initiative, the management team needs to clearly understand that the company or the business environment or both are changing – and that the company itself needs to change as well. Change is very, very difficult for any organization so changing for changing sake would be a big mistake.

Once the executive strategy clearly identifies a need to reorganize, there are a few important things to consider for small, growing companies.

• Start with the Organization Chart – without names: A common mistake that many smaller business management teams make is discussing a reorganization by “putting the names” of employees on the board first. A successful reorganization initially focuses on the functional roles without any names. This way the most efficient organization can be identified without being biased by personal attachment to certain employees.


• Be honest in evaluating employee abilities: Once this new organization is identified, some employees will naturally fall into the different functional roles. Others, who had been major contributors in the “entrepreneurial” years, may not fit so well within the new organizational chart. That’s common because many generalists, who excel in a small company’s non-structured environment, don’t have the specialized skills required to contribute at the same level moving forward.


• Don’t put a round peg in a square hole: Be very careful not to put unqualified people in important functional roles. As obvious as this may sound, I’ve been amazed by how often this happens. By putting the wrong people into the new organization chart, a company may be taking steps backwards, rather than moving forward as intended.


• Consider outside talent: It is critical at this point to consider outside talent to fill some of the functional roles, especially for smaller companies that have built their management team mostly from within the organization. Having an outside perspective is critical when reorganizing and moving to the next level of growth. This doesn’t mean that a company has to completely change its culture or perspective. The fact that a small company is reorganizing means that it has had some level of success up to now. However, gaining that different perspective, one that can see the blind spots of the founding team, can be the difference between ongoing growth or possible stagnation or worse.


• Remove "forced" titles: Out of this execise, sometimes there is a tendency to invent out-of-the-norm titles. Mostly likely, you're looking for that round hole for that particular round peg. Don't.


• Make changes in one swift move: The reorganization should not be an on-going process. Once the plan is formulated, act appropriately as soon as possible. No doubt there are rumors all over the office and absent of information, people tend to think the worse.

In summary, reorganization is an important part of corporate growth. For smaller companies, there are certain common pitfalls that need to be avoided. Planned appropriately, however, reorganizing can give a small, growing company an opportunity for expanded success moving forward.

Professor Leverages Corporate Experience to help Students

Meet Jeff Gilles, a professor and so much more. He is a professor at Seattle University’s Computer Science department.

Jeff is a part of the wonderful higher education system in the Seattle area that is producing talented, capable young people for the vibrant local tech sector. There is a reason why so many Silicon Valley powerhouse companies recently have been opening offices around here – access to an educated, tech-savvy workforce.

For his students, Jeff brings more than just his academic experience and background. He had a long and prosperous career in the corporate world prior to landing on Seattle University’s campus. In fact, it was his job at Oracle that moved him and his family to Seattle from Iowa 22 years ago.

Later, Jeff turned into an entrepreneur by starting his own technology-based training company, Clarity, in 1992. Three years later, Clarity was acquired by ARIS and Jeff and I ended up working together.

Jeff joined ARIS as Vice President of Education and played various strategic executive roles leading up to the company’s IPO in 1997. “The whole growth thing was fun,” he said. “Having a part in helping new offices grow in New York, Washington DC, Denver, Dallas and others was very satisfying.”

Jeff had a vision for online training back in the late 1990’s. He knew that the internet would eventually be a popular platform for training. He spearheaded ARIS’ efforts in this field before the company was eventually bought by Ciber.

Jeff left ARIS in 2000 and enjoyed retirement for a little less than year. Apparently, his wife, Glenda, didn’t enjoy his retirement quite as much and asked him to get a job. Having solidified his golf swing during his mini-retirement, he looked for a job that would keep him in the tech field but would not be a huge time commitment -- like ARIS had been. The opportunity from Seattle University in 2001 seemed perfect.

“The students today are much more web and technology-savvy than even a decade ago when we were at ARIS,” he said, explaining that this allows him and his students to focus more on interesting applications of computer science rather than just the rudimentary elements.

Jeff has especially worked hard with the senior projects, which involve a group of students working with a local sponsoring company on a defined project. At first, the students are really confident that they can do what the projects require, he said. Then, as the project moves on, the complexity of working together and solving business requirements become somewhat overwhelming for them. Inevitably, the students pull it together and come up with interesting and effective solutions. “That’s been the most gratifying part for me,” Jeff said of working at Seattle University.

Local companies, such as Boeing, Areva, Mckinistry, among many others, participate in this program to help young students gain useful experience, as well as a way of recruiting new graduates.

Recently, my company, ZeroDash1, hired two of the recent graduates from his program. So far, we’ve been impressed with their knowledge as well as work ethics. I can see why nurturing such blossoming young minds could be so rewarding to this former corporate executive.

Looking forward, however, Jeff is pondering retirement again. But Glenda needn’t worry, he plans to stay out of the house playing music and golf. Jeff currently plays guitar in a 9-piece Swing Jazz band, Easy Street. The band will be playing at Tulas on August 31st from 3:00 TO 7:00PM. He promises fun times for all those who attend.

Jeff has always had a passion for music since his glory days in a high school rock band. He plans to get involved in a couple of other “duet projects” later this year.
As for golf, well, he has been my golf buddy for some time now (I mentioned our golf outings in a prior blog). Jeff’s quick wit and dry sense of humor makes a round of golf fly by. Nonetheless, we remain highly competitive when it comes to winning skins from each other. That is why, it is not so much Glenda who is worried about whether Jeff may retire any time soon… rather it’s me, his golf partner who can’t afford for Jeff’s game to get too much better.

Did You Get Your iPhone 3G Yet?

So, did you wait in line for your new iPhone 3G? Certainly, you would not have been alone if you did. The media reported long lines when these hit the store on July 11. In our field of digital marketing, being on the leading edge of “cool” is something many try to attain.

For me, the faster internet connection and easier synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Servers make this version of iPhone much more appealing than the first version. Besides, my Black Jack phone’s keypad has been sticking and its internet connection unreliable.

I also read a blog post by Kendall Kunz, CEO of Explorer Consulting, who cleverly suggested a correlation between adopting new technology and economic success for countries, companies and even individuals. Convinced, I looked forward to getting the new phone. I could be “cool” and be headed for greater economic success with just one purchase. Little did I know how difficult buying one of these would end up being.

On the day of the release, I had morning meetings and couldn’t join ZeroDash1 SEO Lead John Goad’s venture into the lines. He returned within the hour to say that the store had run out already.
Since then, John has continued to try to get the phone but to no avail. The Apple stores are getting daily shipments but attracting new long lines each day. The AT&T stores are getting weekly shipments and have run out early. Hum, who negotiated that deal for AT&T?

Poor John, he lost his old phone and really need to replace it. Me, I can wait. I’ve been uncool most of my life anyways. As a person in the digital marketing field, however, I’m surprised and impressed by the depth of this gadget phenomenon. "Twice as fast. Half the price", indeed. And apparently, difficult to buy.

The Mystic of the American Dream

As we just celebrated the Independence of America, I thought about how great this country has been for my immigrant family. All of us have excelled under its democratic system and entrepreneurial environment. In turn, this country, attracting the brightest minds of the world by offering a renowned opportunity called the American Dream, have benefited from its immigrants for more than 300 years.

A recent study, “American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness”, found the following:

• Immigrants have started 1 in 4 (25 percent) U.S. public companies that were venture-backed in the past 15 years, representing a market capitalization of more than $500 billion. You may have heard of some of them: Intel, Google, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems and eBay.


• Moreover, a survey of today’s private, venture-backed start-up companies in the U.S. estimated that 47 percent have immigrant founders.


• Of the more than 400,000 worldwide jobs created by immigrant-founded ventured-backed public companies, 70 percent are in the high-tech manufacturing sector.

Pretty amazing. Given the disproportionally high involvement in high-tech sector, the “immigrant impact” is likely to grow even more in coming years. What a great country!

Now, the scary part. The report revealed an increasing concern that current US immigration policy is jeopardizing our ability to attract and retain critical talent from across the globe. More than two-thirds of immigrant entrepreneurs agreed that U.S. immigration policy has made it more difficult than in the past to start a company in America. Two-thirds of the private companies surveyed who use H-1B visas (temporary visa to hire skilled foreign nationals) say that current immigration laws harm U.S. competitiveness. Forty percent stated that current immigration policies have negatively impacted their companies when competing against other firms globally. One-third of the private companies said that the lack of visas had influenced their company’s decision to place more personnel in facilities abroad.

So, why do those who yell the loudest about being “patriotic” support such un-American immigration policies? Why is the Patriot Act, passed to supposedly to protect our nation, putting it in such harm’s way?

On this Independence Day weekend, I wanted to do something for my country and encourage everyone to remember that the mystic of the American Dream is one of the greatest assets of this country. This powerful pull attracts the brightest and most ambitious from around the world to drive our businesses to greater innovations. Don’t let this 300-year-old American tradition be jeopardized by the simple polarizing slogans and dangerous short-sightedness.

What If Bill Gates Had Never Moved Microsoft to Seattle? Thank You Mr. Gates and Good Luck

Welcome everyone to the Seattle Duck Tour! The first part of the tour will be in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square district, where the original “skid row” was termed by loggers working in area. Now, manufacturing and retail are the pillars of the region’s economy. Yes, not sexy, but solid blue collar infrastructure…

… and now we are passing by the Kingdom, which is about to be demolished. This dome used to be the home of the NFL team Seattle Seahawks before former Seattle native and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bought the team in 1999 and moved it to his new hometown of Austin…

… this monumental stadium also used to be home of the Major League team Seattle Mariners before its move to Washington DC when the Nintendo ownership sold the team after the company decided to move its American headquarters from here to Austin, Texas…

…now, we are in the Seattle Science Center area, where the Space Needle still stands as the city’s proudest symbol from the 1962 World’s Fair. Also, you will notice the large structure there which is the Key Arena where the Seattle Sonics played up to this year. Now, the city’s last professional team is moving to Oklahoma City…

…we are now moving from land to the water part of the tour… this is Lake Union, a very industrial district with famous warehouses. Some developers had talked about developing this beautiful part of the city with condos and modern commercial buildings, but could not raise the funds for such a development. Over there, is Gas Works park…

…past the University of Washington here, is an area called Sand Point, where Microsoft founder Bill Gates grew up before starting his company in Texas. His mother, Mary Gates was a famous philanthropist in the area and his father a well-known attorney. It was rumored once that Bill Gates wanted to move his company to Seattle…

…as we conclude our tour of beautiful Seattle on this sunny, gorgeous day, let me share a few facts about the Emerald City. We have a population of about 1 million in the entire Puget Sound region with Boeing being the largest employer by far with about 65,000 workers here. Like many of our sports teams, the company “moved” its headquarters elsewhere in 2001, and there is some concern about the company’s commitment to keeping jobs here. For years, the local leaders have tried to lure some of the technology companies to the area from the Silicon Valley, as well as the Austin area. Not only was Microsoft once rumored to move here, but Amazon, Real Networks and a few other technology companies tried to open satellite offices here but closed them down recently due to a lack of technology-educated work force. Their failure, however, has been our gain as we have excellent traffic and one of the nation’s most affordable housing markets. We’d like to say we have the most affordable waterfront living in the country! Yes, Seattle remains one of the best kept secrets in the country…

,,,Thank you sir and ma’am for being on our tour today. As our only customers today, we can offer these special coupons for you to eat at Ivar’s…