Modernization: Aren't Computers Already Modern?

After a five year hiatus, I am restarting this blog. It’s a bit crazy to think that my last post was about Marshawn Lynch, and Marshawn just returned to Seahawk football and plays for us tomorrow against Green Bay. The more things change, the more they stay the same!

While I was away from blogging I was helping Microsoft and its partners pave the way for their customers’ journey to the cloud. In the weeks and months ahead I hope to share some of the things I learned along the way.

Here are three main themes I expect us to be talking about this year:

Modernization: How can computing need modernization? In the movies, computers are always futuristic! We have seen many breakthroughs in computing but two really stand out: the personal computer (PC) and the virtual machine (VM). The PC moved us from hundreds of computers in the world to hundreds of millions of computers in the world. The VM disconnected hardware from software. I propose that modern computing started with the introduction of the VM. This wave was started by VMware, which was founded in 1998 and launched VMware Workstation in 1999 and VMware GSX Server in 2001. So the modern era started 20 years ago. Yeah, I know that the internet and the smartphone were also big.

Fragmentation: The big computer companies get most of the attention, but there are hundreds of companies on the front edge of modernization and more are starting every day. These companies often compete and collaborate and the same time and are going to be buying each other at speed for years to come.

Just Getting Started: The Amazonians are right when they say it is only Day 1. We are just getting started on this modernization thing and everything can change at any time.

I look forward to a vibrant conversation about these and many other topics in the days ahead.

Marshawn Lynch's Brilliant Media Strategy

People in Seattle love Marshawn Lynch.  We could take or leave the NFL (and their referees but that is another story).  Just go ahead and fine him for not talking to the media -- we will just love him more!  By next year this whole episode is going to be taught as a case study in how a highly public organization like the NFL should NOT manage a conflict.

Based on his recent performance, and the heightened media attention he is getting as a result of his media strategy, all kinds of companies should be lining up to get him on their team.

Here are my five best ideas for sponsors that should hire Marshawn as their spokesman:

NFL Players Association: Might as well start with something edgy!  I am not a big fan of unions, but this is just too much to pass up.  What if every time Marshawn spoke he spoke about player safety?

Polaris Project: On a more serious note, this organization was established 10 years ago to help fight human trafficking.  What could be more important to talk about?

Scholarship Junkies: OK, not so obvious, and not so heavy... how about an organization that helps kids from all parts of the community get more scholarships -- so they can go to college and not wind up with piles of debt.

Toastmasters: This one could be so much fun.  Marshawn could speak for everyone who has a fear public speaking.  According to a recent Gallup poll, public speaking is the second most prevalent fear by Americans (snakes is the first).   Interestingly, whites fear public speaking more than non-whites.  

Dale Carnegie: This one is also so obvious that it scarcely needs an explanation. But ever since the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" was published by Dale Carnegie in 1936, people have been learning how to lead others by remembering their names, appreciating them for who they are, and being courteous.  There is not a single mention of $100,000 fines as a way to change behavior!

So keep up the good work Marshawn.  We don't care how many times the NFL tries to change your behavior, and when you do decide to speak, make sure it is for something worthwhile.

Hiring Your First VP of Marketing

You have a great company, a product or service that sells well enough to have driven your growth so far, and a good team of A players in finance, operations, and sales.  Now you are thinking that your next critical hire is an A player in marketing.  So far the marketing function has been handled by some combination of you (president/CEO) and the VP of Sales, and has consisted of writing a blog, speaking and exhibiting at industry events, and networking.  Most sales still come from referrals and personal relationships and you want to make the selling process more systematic.  While this seems like just another one of those crossroads you have encountered many times -- I propose that it is quite different.

Bringing in professionals to run your company almost always means importing talent from larger companies so that they can help you pull the company up to the next level.  This is certainly true in finance and operations.  You want people that have been there and know what to build.  It can sometimes be true in sales, but in sales you are mostly looking for domain expertise that may not always be found in a larger company.  When it comes to marketing however, a senior person from a larger company may not work out.  And to raise the stakes a bit more, you will probably not know if it works out for a year or two.  That is a long time to be paying the big bucks without being able to measure the results.

Here are a few things that can go wrong:

Sales VS Marketing:  In the case outlined above, sales and marketing have gotten along great -- because marketing has been part of sales and hey, salespeople love themselves!  Your A player in sales will support the hire in pursuit of more leads, but the chances are pretty good that the departments will get out of alignment pretty quickly.

Long Lead Times:  Marketing takes consistent and repeated investment before it will pay off.  Some of the activities involved in the investment are just plain hard work including cataloging your products and services, inventorying existing marketing assets, mapping the competitive landscape, and developing your marketing voice.  A new senior leader may want to recruit people to do this work instead of grinding it out themselves.  This is often leads to disagreements on the budget and timeline to results.  

Turning the Dials:  Everyone wants to be on the cool new project and everyone wants to have a hand on the tiller, be in the driver's seat, or whatever your favorite metaphor is for being in charge.  A new marketing person may be one too many drivers for your bus.

An Alternative Approach

Build the Marketing Muscle First:  Use the resources at your disposal to do the heavy lifting of inventory, standardization, and categorization first.  These activities take time and effort but do not require a VP of Marketing.  

Develop The Strategy You Want:  Armed with the main bricks for your marketing foundation and some momentum separating the marketing function from the sales function, work with your existing team to develop a high level strategic marketing plan.

Recruit with the Roadmap in Place:  Now that you have your high level roadmap in place, you are more likely to find a marketing leader that fits with your priorities, expectations and budget.

In Marketing - Go Big or Cut Big

Every marketing dollar counts and should be spent wisely.  Return on marketing investment should always be measured.  Cutting a marketing campaign's budget by some small sliver, say 10%, makes no sense at all.  Any campaign not working should be cut all together.  Any campaign delivering the desired return on investment -- should be increased.  

Here are a two thoughts and one exception you might consider when evaluating marketing spend:

Go Big:  Double anything that is returning above your baseline performance threshold.  Graduate from measuring overall ROI to ROI from incremental new spend.  Grow systematically until the ROI curve flattens.

Fail Fast:  It should only take a few weeks to know if a campaign is never going to get to the baseline.  As soon as you know a project is failing -- kill it off.  The key is to make sure people know that good people can have failing ideas, and separate the campaign failure from person failure.  A list of new ideas to try with whatever budget is left often helps here.

One Exception:  When building a platform, some of the foundational levels may be necessary for the future performance of the platform.  An investment in certifications may enable bigger deals or higher margin deals.  All of the warning flags should go off when you find yourself justifying poor current performance in the hope of greater future performance -- but some campaigns should survive if they are necessary steps into the future.

So the next time you sit down with your budget, resist the urge to trim around the edges.  Go big or cut big.

Meaningful Marketing: 3 Must Haves

To some people the words "meaningful" and "marketing" just should not be found together.  I prefer to think of this as an opportunity instead of an oxymoron.  Rarely does a day go by without hearing someone discard ideas, thoughts, or proposals as worthless with a dismissive comment like "oh, that's just marketing".

Despite this flood of popular sentiment against the value of marketing, it is possible for marketing departments to do something meaningful.  Take Google Fiber for example.  Google and its fiber network in Kansas City is bringing super high speed internet connections to an entire community will have some engineering value, but really it is brilliant marketing.  Meaningful Marketing in fact.

Here is where I set the bar on achieving meaning in marketing:

New Revenue:  No way around it, Marketing must create new revenue.  This is the same measure everyone else uses, so I thought I would put it first.  Don't roll your eyes yet, the next two do propose less traditional measures of meaning.  And after this item I am not going to include "building the brand", "supporting the key messaging" or any other marketing mumbo jumbo.  In the case of Google Fiber, the 25% of the population in the Kansas City community that do not now use the Internet -- will clearly be a new revenue opportunity for Google.

Bi-Directional:  Just like the Cluetrain Manifesto said over a decade ago.  Marketing should be a conversation.  A full page advertisement is a megaphone blasting away at customers - not bi-directional at all.  The Google Fiber idea is bi-directional because Google will see what the customers decide to do with their connection.  Even if they do nothing, that in itself is a communication to Google.  Some people will say that a company like Google is not good at meaningful marketing because they have no phone number on their web site and no call center to call.  I disagree.  Google watches every communication customers send -- as they use Google's search engine -- and make daily improvements to the algorithm in response.

Intrinsic Value:  Finally, and very few people do this today, marketing should have some intrinsic value of its own - and that is value to the customer.  Marketers often think that even if their campaign does not drive revenue, it does support the brand, or generates goodwill.  This is not of value to the customer.  Google Fiber does have intrinsic value because a free fiber connection to the internet does benefit those that are connected.   

I am on the hunt for other examples of Meaningful Marketing initiatives.  Feel free to send them my way.

Cool or Fool?

Some time ago I wrote a post about the Apple Brand Promise where I proposed that the magic of Steve Jobs was making his customers feel cool for buying his products.  I still think people buy Apple products because of the way it changes how others view them.  People feel cool when holding an Apple device and not because it makes them more productive or smarter and clearly not richer, but because the Apple brand promise says cool people buy Apple devices.

Cool is almost impossible to fake, and there is no formula for becoming cool.  Just ask any rock band, super model, or San Francisco restaurant owner -- cool is as impossible to predict as stock price.  

Cool is also impossible to copy.  Fake Rolex watches will never be cool.  No one is going to remember the band that tried to be like A Flock of Seagulls.

Those who have been touched by the ferry godmother of cool all know down deep that the chances of becoming cool are about the same as winning the lottery.  Feel lucky if you win, but don't start thinking it was because you deserved it.

Which brings us to Microsoft.  Microsoft makes people productive and enables them to keep more of their money in their pockets.  It is rare that one feels cool with a Microsoft product, but who cares!  I will take smart over cool any day.  Smart matters, smart is lasting, people who are smart got there on more than the luck of the draw.  The Microsoft brand promise should be associated with smart -- not cool.

I think many of us have lost track of what the Microsoft Brand Promise is.  If you know, feel free to post a reply.  

When using W8 the other day (I mostly use W7), I did not feel smart or cool!