Search results matching tags 'YAB' and 'our team'

The Wild Wild Web

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:45:00 GMT

The World Wide Web is a reflection of who and what we are and it isn't always an attractive image.

Increasingly, the web not only reflects the worst in man, it seems to be inviting it. Hiding behind apparent anonymity and gross corruption of the liberties afforded people by laws protecting expression - like the United States' First Amendment to its Constitution, people, say and do some terribly hurtful things - intentionally.

Removed of the "I'll bust you in your fat mouth" consequences attending face to face confrontations, people feel free to share whatever base thoughts that enter their heads.

Participating in public forums [pausing for a moment to reflect on how appropriate the term public forum seems when it conjures thoughts of well used public restrooms...] is a challenge for any person intending to share anything good of themselves. Avoiding being shaped negatively by the experience can be very tough.

Recently, I withdrew from a public forum I had supported for many years. In that forum, I sought to share good information and perhaps elevate the quality of discourse by simply not participating in exchanges that were hurtful, or those which offered no value.

How I supported that community deserves some definition. I paid for it - its servers, its hosting, its protection and its future. When its owners' server failed, I donated the parts and labor to fix it, while hosting the site temporarily on one of my own, in one of my centers. When FedEx, whom I had paid to ship the repaired server, broke it, I built a brand new one for its owners at my own expense. When hackers from Brazil attacked the site's ancient code, I built an applications firewall to stop them and bought a commercial variant for them. When its database, an aged example of how not to build a database, failed, I fixed it - more times than I can count. When the owners' email services failed, I provided free hosted Exchange services with all the trimmings - commercial anti-spam and anti-malware services and as many accounts and aliases as were needed. When the site, older than most, needed updating, I began development on a new site - again, for free. The list goes on and on... in other words, I supported the community in real ways - an obligation I felt necessary if one were to set a good example, and it was that example that I hoped would shape the forum for the better - it didn't work and I failed.

No matter what effort was applied, it wasn't enough. The forum, like so much of the web, descended into chaos and heated exchanges taking on the all too familiar divisive themes so prevalent in our modern societies. Instead of shaping it, the forum and a lot of negative energy began to shape me - making me angry, frustrated and unhappy.

It isn't that life is too short for that kind of thing, it is that life is too valuable and too precious to allow oneself to be so negatively impacted by something that should be fun, informative and entertaining.

At this point most people would pay perfunctory lip service to how much good the web has to offer, but I'm not going to. I started using and developing for the web and Internet before it existed commercially and I remember well what it was before it became a public pool - it was a better place; a nice neighborhood where tidy little homes lined its streets and it was inhabited by a gentle and kind people who were devoted to public service. Exposed to politics, vice, hate and spleen, the web has become something to approach with caution and a good football helmet.

The web is wild but there is no one to bust. When I was young, more decades past than most middle aged people can count, men were men. We made mistakes and when we took a poke to the snout for speaking out of turn, we knew we had it coming. We apologized for being "heels" and the offense was forgotten - truly. We didn't even hit back, because, we knew we deserved to be set straight. In many ways we felt better for having been handed a "sock" - we'd taken our pill and could move on. As we grew, we did the same - when a young man acted a fool, we were obliged to set him right - even if it meant we had to bloody his nose in the process. We didn't beat one another, we reminded one another - what was right and what was wrong and what would fly and what would not. When we were wrong, we faced it.

The web does not provide for that and "banning" is the virtual equivalent of backing down - something no man would ever do. Honor meant more than life - especially your own.

I'm not going to pretend to know the answers. I don't have any. I don't think the web is going to get any better and in fact, it is likely going to get worse.

I thought I would have learned my own lessons - about not being able to change much. Having soldiered longer than most people live, I used to think that I could make the world a better place. I was wrong and failed at that, too. What I did learn was that I could make the tiny world around me a better place. At that I did succeed at and my little company is a force for good - a nice neighborhood with tidy little homes and gentle people devoted to one another.

So as before, that is what I am going to do - make the tiny part of the world wide web around me a better place, and what I devoted to the public forums I once supported, I will publish here.

Guests will always be welcome, but they will be expected to act like guests in my home.

This space I can control and shape to some measure of good.

What Makes Great Customers Great?

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:49:00 GMT

We talk about our customers a lot - we are very proud of them and inspired by them as much as we are sustained by them.

Before we can share what makes our customers so great, I have to explain what customers are to are to us - colleagues first and always.

All of our customers "find" us through people we know and many are customers. By intent, we do not advertise and we do not have a yellow page ad, or listing. It's not that we don't welcome new business, we do, but we want more than just business - we want to build companies, or at least help to.

So customers as they have come to be regarded, doesn't quite cover what customers are to us. Customers are colleagues to us and very often they are dear friends.

Customer Colleagues

In our company we refer to the people that hire and retain us as Customer Colleagues. Our goal is to do our jobs so well that they no longer need us at all - and by doing business that way, our customers grow and that growth is what they need us to continue to service. As they grow we apply the same effort as before and the cycle of growth and the building of lasting value continues.

New Customer Colleagues don't always understand what we mean, or how it works at first, but they do trust the friends that brought them to us and we're never in a hurry. I'd rather wait years to add a new customer - until the time was right for both sides, than rush into a relationship that is inappropriate for a business. In short order, new customers understand what we mean when we say that all customers are colleagues. There is a lot of technology out here and a lot of technologists supporting it. There are very few technology companies that are also business development companies, which is what Liberating Technologies in fact is - the technology is a vehicle, or a fleet of them to be more accurate, which is used to transport businesses and people to higher levels of success. What separates customers from colleagues is that opposite customers technology companies place themselves and their success ahead of the customer. We do the reverse and by doing so, place the growth of our customers ahead of our own needs - and profit. By doing this we can assure that the greatest number of customers grows, and rapidly. As customers grow, they need more and in that growth is where we build our business.

The Best Colleagues Make The Best Customers

So what makes customers great? It's not as easy a question to answer as some would think, but it is worth a try, because frankly, customers that are colleagues deserve the mention. Great customers are not defined by revenue, or profits. That had to be said up front and set aside, because in business sometimes great customers can't pay, or they can't pay on time. Of course businesses, including mine, absolutely depend upon customers paying and at rates which are profitable, but payment cannot be the goal, or even near the top of things that make customers great. What makes customers great is best defined by a vision that holds that all things must grow - people, lines of business and most especially their own customers. Great customers do not look toward cost savings as a means to either stay in, or grow business. Great customers continually pursue new initiatives and grow their businesses. Just as with individuals, we advise, "when you need money, make more money!" Great customers do not fixate on costs, or revenue - they fixate on their own excellence and the excellence of their people and products. Great customers think in terms of decades and quarter centuries and their own personal impact on the course their professions will take long after they have retired and passed their businesses on to family and the team members that helped them build on their ideas.

Different Dreams, Shared Values

Great customers are simultaneously very different from us, and nearly identical. Their dreams and aspirations are different, but their view of the world is the same. They see the world as a place that not only can be made better, but that they are going to be one of the players making it better for all. Notice that I did not say that great customers are defined by what they believe and that such beliefs are the same as ours - such things do not matter. What does matter is that great customers believe that all is possible and that they can do anything they set their mind and energy to.

Patience is not just a Virtue, it is the Realization that Persistent Consistency Unlocks all Doors

Great customers never quit. They may get mad as all get out, but they never quit - so long as we never quit. Great customers understand that the world is not flat and that coming to understand that takes time and effort - often over many years. Great customers have very little idea of what technologists do, but they understand that great technology companies will persist and consistently deliver positive results.

Technology is an Asset Not a Cost

Great customers share our definition of what technology is - that which enhances human performance, or advances the human condition, or both. Any technology company serving the small and medium sized business market knows that most of their customers will have IT/MIS interests placed under an accountant. Accountants count for the most part and as such, technology is treated as a cost - as a necessary evil. This can be catastrophic for customers, but with the right technology company, this practice can be reversed and accountants brought into solutions which present IT/MIS investments as assets and sources of revenue. By serving customers as colleagues, technology companies can fulfill the vital roles smaller businesses need, but can't necessarily afford. Even the smallest company needs a strong CIO and CTO and a diverse IT/MIS team of engineers and developers; however, very few smaller business can afford them. There is an enormous opportunity in this need and by working as a company's IT/MIS team in a box, technology companies can serve in these vital roles - provided they are absolutely sincere about learning their customers' businesses and how they operate and make money. Great customers embrace this and come to see technology providers as members of their own teams. When this happens technology costs are converted and become assets that fulfill the needs smaller companies have.

Making Decisions and Conducting Interventions

Technology companies very often forget why they exist and few learn what information technologies are supposed to do for business and the people in them. Great customers quickly teach technologists what matters most and that ultimately, all information technologies have the same requirement - they must present information and products [not data] and that information products must allow people to make better decisions, and or conduct timely and effective interventions. Great customers understand that their most effective work with technologists is to define requirements, prioritize them and share their vision for how information is to be presented as a product - a finalized representation of the information they need in order to make decisions. In simple terms, never deploy technology for the sake of technology alone, and deploy technologies in a way that causes them to deliver information as a product that can be consumed. Great customers focus on finished products and they define it - then the technologist uses such products to work backward from there to enable solutions that produce them.

We all Do What We All Do

Great customers trust themselves. They trust great technologists to do what we do and they don't do what we do - no more than they want us to practice medicine, design buildings, or survey lands. Great customers let us work as great technologists and they respect our craft and science as much as we respect theirs.

Good Enough is Never Good Enough

Great customers are never satisfied, but they are always content and confident that their next initiative will be supported. Successful people and businesses are never satisfied with technology and they should not be. There are limits to technology and there are never any limits on what great customers aspire to do. Technologists have to accept that and not take offense when customers don't seem to be satisfied. People and businesses move at the speed of thought and that will always be well ahead of our ability to provide solutions. Customers understand this and they like to drive our processes in this way. We work best when inspired by customers that understand that all things are possible and what seems impossible today, will seem old hat tomorrow. So we're candid with our customers and share the truth that their ideas and understanding are ahead of our ability to bring technologies up to support them.

Anything Worth Doing May Be Very Hard to Do

Great customers admire technologists that continually work to do the impossible. They want and demand the best - of all things, be they people, or the equipment they use. Our customers understand that much of what they want does not exist yet and that we may have to invent it, build it and integrate it.

Nothing is Ever Finished

Great customers and great technology companies not only accept that nothing is ever finished, they create an environment that ensures that nothing is ever finished entirely - they are always growing and always building and new things always have to be added. In the coming weeks and months I am going to be reviewing each of our customers here and what makes them great and how they have made us better as technologists and as people. I'm going to share what we do together, how we do it and why we do it. I'll share lot's of pictures, some video and introduce you to the men and women that have done so much to inspire all of us and drive our pursuits of excellence.

Thanks for reading,

Lloyd

Why another Blog?

lketchum — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 02:21:00 GMT

I suppose it's a fair question to impose upon oneself - why, yet another Blog?

I guess because one has something to say - whether it is meaningful or not
may be another matter... One also assumes that others want to read what
one has to say and that is why this Blog is being offered. Many people who
matter to me have asked me to begin to commit ideas and solutions to some
type of venue that they can access and use as a resource.

I didn't think that was enough and I wanted to see if it would be possible to
present more of what our company [more of a unit, than it is a business organization]
has to offer. To allow people to see and perhaps benefit from what we do and
more importantly, how we do it.

I am perhaps the most blessed and fortunate man alive. The people I am lucky enough
to work with are amazing. Raw intellect and brain-pan volumes aside, they are just
good men and women - incredibly dedicated to individual and collective pursuits of
excellence. So good in fact, that most days, I am the one holding them back - which
brings to the fore their greatest qualities - loyalty, integrity and selflessness.

So this site, our "Libertech Community System" is devoted to them - here I will share
what we do - how we do it and why we do it. I want people to see how good teams,
populated with great people, can matter in the lives of so many and in so many small
and sometimes big ways.

When it [fill in your own blank] is all said and done, we all do our best when what we
are doing "matters." I've seen our people matter in businesses and in the lives of
people from all over the world - simply letting their work speak for them, our people
matter. What they do matters and I thought it was time we shared that.

Lloyd