Analog vs Digital Business Management

Image by geekologie.com
We're living surround by an ever growing digital world.

Analog activities are becoming less relevant and replaced by their digital counterparts. The ultimate example of this is letters being replaced by e-mail. With 90 trillion emails sent on the Internet in 2009, who still writes a letter these days?

Why is analog still relevant and how can we leverage it to become more competitive?

1. We are analog

In spite of all this, we still process and react to analog signals using our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Writing a hand written note to a customer is a proof that you value their importance and it's a unique way to differentiate your business from your competitors.

Image by phototram via Flickr

Yesterday, I've went to dinner with my wife at Block House, a steak restaurant. The first thing the waiter did was to sign a card that said: "Your happiness is the reason I exist".

The analog unique signature represented that this person truly cared about us. Although the restaurant was at full capacity he still took the time to sign the card. Additionally, this employee knew his role inside the company. How many businesses can be proud of this?

2. Digital is overrated

Everyone can copy your digital signal but your analog signal is unique. This means that every "analog" interaction that you have with your customers is unique, so take advantage of it and engage your customers.

At the end of our dinner the waiter wrote a hand written note saying how important was our visit to the restaurant and he also invited us to show up again. This is what I call customer service and turning your customers into fans. Yes, it involves time and effort but simple things like this can make all the difference. How can you afford not to do this?

3. Back to the primitive

We're all desperate to be unique. Yet we use mass marketing promotion tools. Yet we use mass product distribution. Yet we use the same signature on all of our e-mails.

Think about this: if you send the same message to every client. If you treat every client the same how can you expect to be unique? Sometimes it's as easy as personalizing your customer service to treat every customer as an individual with specific concerns and features.
Image via CrunchBase

The industrial era is over. We're living the personalization era. You have to be global but still able to personalize your product or service. Think about Amazon. They've implemented a global operation that uses technology to understand each client specific needs to deliver target promotion campaigns.

I hope that you include analog approaches into your business and change the world.

This is Rabbit way!

What's yours?

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Business lessons from Marylin Manson

Love him or hate him. Marilyn Manson is without doubt one of the most controversial and inspiring leaders in the music industry.

The music industry is one of the most competitive and challenging markets to be in business. There's plenty of competition and a dying business model that makes the path to success a hard walk.

However, Marilyn Manson did succeed! Millions of records sold. Sold out concerts around the globe.

So, what lessons can we learn and apply into our business?

1. "It's always about being yourself"

What's one of the major questions that CEOs in any business are trying to answer?

How can my business stand out in the crowd?

Marilyn Manson faced the same challenge in the crowded music industry. How did he answered it? By being himself!

You're the only person in the world that can use your ability (Zig Ziglar). What better way to stand out in the crowd than being yourself?
I know that is far more easy to decide what you want to become than discovering who you are, but once you do it you'll become unique.

For me, it's all about taking my imagination and creativity, my love for sharing knowledge and apply it in business to make the world a better place to live.

What about you?

2. "Not being ashamed of being different and thinking different"

This is all wonderful when you're thinking about it but being yourself in the real world takes courage.

Being a teenager is no easy task. In that age you want to belong to something. This feeling goes along with us for the rest of our lives. Nobody wants to be alone.

When I was a teenager I started to get curious about what was the Bible's message and who's God? Soon after I started to study the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses who aren't a especial popular religion. But my love for God and his message sent me door after door talking to all kinds of people. Sharing what I've learn to them.
I remember that I was really scared that any of my friends found that I was a Jehovah's witness. Years later, not only because of that, but because I wasn't living the message 100%: i decided to leave Jehovah's Witness. But not God.

Then I discovered Marilyn Manson. This guy wasn't afraid to do and believe what he felt it was right, and let the World know what he was. Just like Jesus. Two different leaders but with one thing in common: both had the courage to let the world know who they are.

What about you?

3. "Take everyone's ideas and common morals, flip around, and make people look at them differently and question them"

This is the innovator's corner stone. Taking your creativity and transforming your ideas into something of great value to someone. That's what innovation is all about.

I have a wide array of interests and activities that I'm good at: technology, music, painting, writing, marketing. My challenge is to combine them into something the world has yet to see.

What about you?

4. "Not take things for granted"

That's my version of being aware. If you ignore market changes your uniqueness will become less relevant.

Marlyn Manson certainly knew this. In each record he added, what we call in the business world, an incremental innovation. Something that his fans and music customers didn't expect.

5. "Everybody's got a presentation... look in a certain way to make people listen to you in a certain way"

Marilyn Manson knew that what being yourself isn't enough. Just like Coca-Cola. In the beginning Coca-Cola was a medicinal product but it wasn't making an impact. However, when Coca-Cola built a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was, it started making an impact in the World.

Being a great product or a great business isn't enough. You have to add a great image with the purpose of communicating what makes you different to really change the World.

I hope that you've enjoyed this business lessons from Marlyn Manson.

That's the Rabbit way. What's yours?

Thank you for reading.

Best regards,
Bruno Coelho

P.S: John Maeda & Becky Bermont wrote a great article on blogs.hbr.org called "Why Business Leaders Should Act More like Artists". It's an excellent read about the artist-business leader concept.

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Beat the Odds

Image via Wikipedia

In this highly competitive world of business it's easy to say that the odds are against you. In fact, when people say that they want to talk things over with their friends and family, they really want is to be talked out of their idea.

The truth is: there's always someone that's better than you. The question is: what are you gonna do about it?

In my point of view, you have to believe in your self and don't fear the odds.

Chris Moneymaker is a poker player that has win millions. But it wasn't always like that. In this video, Chris shares his story about how he beat the odds.



And what about you? What do you do when the odds are against you?

Stay strong,
Bruno Coelho

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True Leadership isn't about the Leader

Image by Hamed Saber via Flickr

Recently, I've read an article, wrote by Marshall Goldsmith, that I consider brilliant about Leadership. The focus of this article isn't about the Leader but the Team of followers.

The article has the following great quote: "The best leader, the people do not notice. When the best leader's work is done, the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'" .

This is the top level of leadership. Great leaders influence and persuade people to go from point A to point B on their own! Why we don't see this level of leadership more often?

Find out how you can achieve true leadership and change the world!

In order achieve true leadership, the leader has to let go of his EGO. This is could be a hard thing to do. So called great leaders around the world see their followers as blind and regular people and ask: "How can you serve me?". But true leaders respect and love their followers and ask: "How can I serve you?"

Without trying to make this a religious subject, since I'm not associated to any religion, I would like to take your attention to the most influential leader of all times. A leader that has truly changed the world and lives of millions of people: Jesus Christ. Jesus leadership model was to serve (Mark 10:45). This means leading by example and involves a great deal of patience and love for your followers. The Servant Leadership could be a leadership paradox for many, but I think the following article sheds some light on the subject.

Link

What's your leadership model?

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uCertify: Not another exam preparation software

Image by jackhynes via Flickr

The software development business is a fast paced world.

If you don't update your knowledge you'll easily become less relevant.

A certification can help you differentiate yourself in today's competitive job market, broaden your employment opportunities by displaying your advanced skills, and result in higher earning potential.

uCertify is a company that provides IT certification preparation PrepKits for all major companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Oracle, CompTIA, Cisco, Adobe, ISC-2, EC-Council, LPI and CIW.

They kindly offered me the opportunity to review one of their PrepKits. Since I've been developing web solutions with C# for 4 years, I chose the "Web Applications with C# .NET" PrepKit.

After I followed the uCertify plan, from beginning to the end, I felt much more confident about my .NET skills. I felt this way because not only I've refreshed my memory about important concepts and tested my knowledge with practice tests, but I also reviewed my performance so I could fine tune the areas that needed more work.

I invite you to come with me and discover what a uCertify PrepKit is all about.

This is not another exam preparation software. uCertify's preparation kits offer much more than practice tests.

uCertify offers a learning platform where you can enhance, test and take your knowledge to the next level.

This learning platform is based on a plan that is divided into four critical areas:

1. Study and learn
2. Practice tests
3. Track your progress
4. Enhance your understanding

Study and learn

An ancient Chinese proverb says tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

That is exactly what uCertify does in the Study and learn area.

uCertify's Study and Learn area

It involves you in the learning process by explaining the key concepts that you need to know to pass the final test.


A chapter of the Study and Learn area

uCertify will also prompt you to answer to a fully interactive pop quiz. This helps you to learn the technical terms, concepts and definitions etc., that are essential for the real exams in a test-like environment.


A pop quiz shows up while you're studying

Remember, that the real fight is won in the practice days not in the match day. So, the more you sweat in the Study and Learn area the less you will bleed in the Test area.

Practice tests

Practice is the best of all instructors - Publilius Syrus

The Practice tests area is designed for you to evaluate the quality of the work that you did in the Study and Learn area.

The pratice test area

The uCertify PrepKit comes with Diagnostic Tests that will help you find out how well prepared you are for the real exams and identify your weak points. This way, you can build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.

You can choose your preferences for the test such as the number of questions, the test duration and the passing score.


The first page of a diagnostic test

Depending on the test mode that you've chosen, the PrepKit engine will provide immediate feedback after each answer.


Reviewing the answer to a question of a diagnostic test

At the end of the test, the PrepKit engine will not only show you the correct and wrong answers that you entered but it will also explain you why the answer is correct or wrong.

The PrepKit also comes with 6 Practice tests that simulate the environment and type of questions that you'll find in the final test.

The Final test is designed to be your final preparation before the exam and the last challenge before you pass your real exam at the first attempt.

The Adaptive test is a special type of test. Like the suggests, in this type of test, the PrepKit engine will choose the next question based on your answer and difficulty level of the previous one.

The Custom test exits for you to test your skills according to your needs. You can choose your questions based on a topic, study note or case study.

Track your progress

You can't control what you can't measure - Tom DeMarco

The track your progress area is divided into 2 sub-areas: Test History and the Readiness Report.

The track your progress area

In the Test History sub-area you have access to your exam preparation performance over time.

Inside the Test History sub-area

It helps you review your progress with the help of a wide array of data:

• Number of tests completed
• List of all the types of tests you have taken
• The date on which you took a particular test
• The result for a test
• Your score in percentage for a test
• The uCertify remark for the test

From here you can review and take a retest of all or only the questions you have marked wrong in a test.

The Readiness Report sub-area , as the name suggests, tells you if you're ready for the real thing.

Enhance your understanding

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes - Peter F. Drucker

To help you take your knowledge to the next level, uCertify PrepKit comes with a section called enhance your understanding. In this area you will remember the exam objectives, browse through 210 flash cards containing key exam concepts, study notes, expert articles, study tips from the pros and a series of how to.

Conclusion

I'm thinking about taking a certification. To help me succeed I will definitely count with uCertify PrepKits.

uCertify have gone well beyond the call of duty delivering a learning platform where you can enhance, test and take your knowledge to the next level using a simple and intuitive user-interface.

uCertify gives a 10% discount for all BCoelho2000's Software Adventures. Just use the code UPG033.

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Be like Coca-Cola

"You cant climb the ladder of success with the dress of failure" - Zig Ziglar

How many times did you feel like everyone didn't understand how great you are?
You have the skills, the know-how and the will to win... but you're not making an impact. And if you're not making an impact... then no one knows who you are.

In the past, a great company also had this issue. It had a great product but it wasn't making an impact. It's name? Coca-Cola. It's impact in history? Legendary.

Let me show you how you can benefit from Coca-Cola's history, go from being great to be seen as great and change the world!

The Extraordinary Product

In the initial stage of it's history, Coca-Cola was a medicinal product. It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health.

Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence.

Coca-Cola was a great product but it was not enough to be legendary.

How does this apply to you?

Allow me to introduce a new kind of brand: the You brand! In the business world, you are a product. People want to buy your know-how, your skills and your services.

So, how can you drive your customers and competition crazy?

You have to focus on being a great product first. To build a great product I believe that you should focus on creating meaning in the world.

You can create meaning in 3 ways:

1. Increase the quality of life
Coca-Cola's primary goal was to create a refreshing and delicious drink that would increase the quality of life and bring happiness to their customers.



Recently, Coca-Cola is sending a team of Happiness Ambassadors around the world to visit 206 countries in 365 days. Their mission: Find out what makes people happy.

Just like Coca-Cola, your goal is to enter your customer's mind and discover what makes them happy.

2. Right a wrong

Coca-Cola works with local health officials and a variety of experts to educate communities on relevant health concerns, tackling such issues as polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and proper hygiene.

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation has pledged $2.5 million over a three-year period to further develop community HIV/AIDS programs in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.

3. Prevent the end of something good

The Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) is the The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation's flagship water program and is the umbrella under which all future water programs will fall. Launched in 2009, RAIN is a public-private partnership made possible through a six-year, $30 million commitment from The Coca-Cola Company. The initiative will provide sustainable, clean water sources, hygiene education and sanitation services to millions of people throughout Africa .

If you achieve this points you will turn customers into raving fans and your product into a legend.

The Unique Image

Coca-Cola's directors knew that a good product was not enough. They knew that Coca-Cola needed a new image if it wanted to change the world. And it all started with the bottle.

In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company launched a competition among its bottle suppliers to create a new bottle for the beverage that would distinguish it from other beverage bottles. A bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.



The contour bottle, as it's known inside the company, was born.

How can your brand achieve this?

You can improve your brand uniqueness if you remember these 3 ideas:
- Be yourself!
You are the only person in the world that can use your ability!

If you ignore what makes you unique and you try to be all sorts of things to please everybody, how can you differentiate yourself from your competition and offer a unique sell proposition to your clients?

- Be aware!
If you ignore the market changes, your uniqueness will become less relevant.

- Be loud!
Let the world know who you are and why should they care!

Use the medias that your audience use and tell them how they can benefit from using your unique attributes.

The Unmistakable Logo

As the Coca-Cola bottle evolved from a simple medicine bottle to a unique model, the brand image also had several improvements.

Coca-Cola's brand logo is one of the top most recognizable logos in the world, placing Coca-Cola high on customer's buying preferences. In fact, Coca-Cola is recognized by 94% of the world's population and is the most widely recognized word after "OK".

How your own brand and customers can benefit from a unique logo?
- Identity
Your logo should reflect who you are and show what makes you different.

Think about pirate's flags. Every pirate had it's own personalized version of the pirate's flag.

The colors of the flag held symbolic significance and importance. The early pirates sailed under the Red Flags. The color red in pirate flags symbolized bloodshed and a warning. They were a symbol that little or no quarter ( mercy ) would be given. The pirates were looking for an early surrender and an easy conquest through fear and intimidation.

Just like the pirates, think about the message that you want to communicate to anyone that sees your logo. Then choose the colors and symbol that best match your message.

- Visibility
If you don't make yourself visible no one will find you.

Place your brand logo in every outpost that you own. In every comment that you make. In every e-mail that you send.

This will increase customer awareness about your brand. The pirate's flag were hoisted high on the flag mast so it could be seen by everyone.

- Loyalty
If you effectively implemented the all of the previous ideas you have turned your customer into raving fans.

The brand's unique logo will be the key to the mind association between the product or service that you provide and your customers!

Conclusion

A great product isn't enough to change the world. Just like Coca-Cola, you need to realize this first. Then you need to add a unique image to your product, so your audience can see it as great!

I hope that you take this information with you, use your secret formula to build your great product, add a great image to it and change the world!

This is Coca-Cola's secret formula for success. What's your secret formula?

P.S: Understand your customers unconscious minds. Professor Gerald Zaltman worked with Coca-Cola to discover this key point.

This is me, presenting "Be like Coca-Cola"

P.S: This article was inspired by the extraordinary history of Coca Cola, the irreverent Guy Kawasaki, the one and only Ken Blanchard, the inspiring Zig Ziglar and all the wonderfull people that I was lucky enough to met throughout my life!

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TagSystem = Organization + Productivity

Finding files in the hierarchical structure of a file system can be a real challenge. The time that you spend looking for files could be used in more productive ways.

I've tried to organize better my file system incorporating methodologies like GTD. The results improved but I thought that they could be even better.

I needed something that was better than searching.

Let me show you how I improved my organization skills and my productivity.

The problem

The problem with the file system's hierarchical structure is that a file can only be associated in one folder. However, a file is typically associated with more than one context. And many times the contexts associated with that file are completely unrelated.

The solution

With a TagSystem you can achieve all this and more.

With a TagSystem you don't have to worry where to store the file in the file sytem. You only have to set all the contexts or tags associated with that file. Example: "Productivity, Blog, Article, Pictures".

The implementation

I'm using Tag2Find to implement the TagSystem solution and it works like magic!

Every time a new file is stored in your hard drive, Tag2Find shows you a dialog so you can easily insert the tags associated with that file.

The fun part begins when you start searching for the files that you've tagged:



Once you start entering a context, all files associated with that context appear. Need to access it in your file system? Right click it and choose "Open in Explorer". Need to refine your Tag Search Results? Simply enter more contexts.

This way you can stay organized and escape the hierarchical file system hell structure.

What about you?

How do you keep your file system organized to improve your productivity?

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Search 2.0 - Find the information that matters

We're living in the Information Overload Era.

Let's face it: there's no way you can keep up with the rate of new information that knocks on your door every day.
New e-mail messages, new RSS feeds, new podcasts, new blog posts, new Twitter messages, new Digg submissions, new LinkedIn updates, new Flickr photos... you name it!

Being able to find the real interesting stuff is the real challenge.

Search engines, like the almighty Google, have definitely provided answers to this problem.

However I believe that today we have resources to enhance the quality of our search results.

Enter Search 2.0.


The real interesting information in the world spreads like a virus.

It works like this: You've found a cool site and you tell 5 friends about it. Each friend talks about the site to another 5 friends. And it goes on and on.

In Marketing, this behavior is called Viral Marketing.



The Dark Knight Marketing Campaign has used this technique to promote the movie. So has Cloverfield.

So the point is: the cool and interesting information travels from people like you to people like me, and vice-versa.

How can you leverage this?

Today there's so many social networks where people trade photos, links, experiences... One of the most popular social networks is called Twitter.

Image via CrunchBase

Because every message that you sent via Twitter is public: you can search all conversations via twitter to find the real cool interesting information!

Just go to http://search.twitter.com and start searching for the topic of your interest!

But I already got my list of RSS Feeds!

You have to free your mind! RSS feeds are cool! I also have a list of RSS feed of my favorite authors. However, there's a lot more going on in the web besides your favorite author's articles.

You can't imagine the list of great articles that I've discovered using search queries like http://search.twitter.com/search?q=business+model.

And guess what: you can subscribe to your search queries via RSS and get notified every time a new result appears. Top that!

Why should you care?

If you're an entrepreneur:
- Time is a critical resource. Find the cool interesting stuff as soon as it is found!

If you're a company:
- Monitor what customers/fans say about your brand
- Check what the competition is doing

If you're in the marketing business:
- Be notified every time someone searches for a product or service that your company sells and make the call to action.
For example: Monitor search queries for management software and reply directly to your potential customer. This way you will instantly find yourself talking to an interested customer.

Guy Kawasaki has written a great article about how you can use Twitter as a tool and has online magazine rack” of popular topics called AllTop.com.

How are you using the Search 2.0 to find new cool stuff?

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Software Tools Paradise

I love software.

I believe that software has the power to change the world.

I believe this not only because software has been solving our problems for years but also because software is beautiful.

Why?

Because software does exactly what we tell it to do. And it does this over and over again. Forever.

So, it's not a surprise that I love small software tools that make our day great.

I've found a list of more that 20 programs that do a lot of cool things. They aren't world changing or paradigm-shifting applications but they are still cool!

From "Recovering closed applications" to "Closing all open files before ejecting a drive". From "Allowing only one instance of a program to run" to "Making all windows but the active one transparent".

You can find these and a lot more at 1 Hour Software!

Do you know more cool lists like this one?

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Software Communications Group Launched

I've talked about how we are making presentations everyday and how critical it is to know how to deliver our message to our audience and persuade them.

Since I realized that, I've been studying how we can take our communication and persuasion skills to the next level.

I'm also a great believer in the power of knowledge sharing and how it can enable us to evolve beyond our own boundaries and beyond our own individualities.

So today a new group is born.

It's called Software Communications.

This group's goal is to help you successfully deliver high impact software communications, persuade your audience and change the world!

Share your knowledge, your know-how and your experiences with us!

I invite you to join Software Communications today!

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