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- February 4, 2006
The Passive-Aggressive Business
February 4, 2006Read moreEvery once in a while I come across a company that appears to comply with client desires, yet doesn’t really address them directly. It strikes me as a bad way to interact with customers, but I don’t think it’s always on purpose. Overburdened project managers forget to followup, and the employees who are doing the work are often isolated from the real business motivation. The result: what gets done is not to the client’s expectation, because that expectation isn’t communicated down the line to the people who do the work, and the cycle of discontent continues!
Sometimes, though, the passive-aggressive cycle is baked right into the business itself, because the executives who are running the show are thinking about their customers as revenue sources or cost sinks, not as people with opinions about how they’d like to be treated. If you think of your clients only as an exploitable resource to be fit into a spreadsheet, you’re not doing them any favors, and they’ll eventually get ticked off and leave. You need to actively meet people’s desires and interests, because they’re the ones with the money.
- February 3, 2006
The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
February 3, 2006Read moreI believe in exploring the extremes as much as possible, as this can provoke unexpected reactions that lead toward insight. One thing that’s been on my mind has been making money, so this reference to The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition was particularly ripe for the linking (via vowe.net).
The Ferengi are one of the fictional races from the Star Trek universe, and are portrayed as ruthless mysogonistic profiteers. There are 299 rules that are the basis of Ferengi society, which is to make as much money as possible. These were the sayings that I thought were applicable to my experience:
- Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.
- Always keep your ears open.
- Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.
- Wise men can hear profit in the wind.
- Good customers are as rare as latinum — treasure them.
- Free advice is seldom cheap.
- Knowledge equals profit.
- Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.
- Buy, sell, or get out of the way.
- You can’t make a deal if you’re dead.
- Never begin a business transaction on an empty stomach.
- You can’t free a fish from water
There are more of course, of increasing levels of nastiness; the ones I picked are the nice ones. While I don’t necessarily agree with the full implications of these particular statements, there’s a lot of truth in them. Worth considering.
- February 2, 2006
My Personal Hand Detail
February 2, 2006Read moreI’ve mentioned before that I’ve recently started getting my hair cut by an actual hair stylist. I had gone to barbers and stylists before for the cheap hair cut, and it’s always come out very bad. I figured I could save myself some money to cut it myself, relying on my graphic design eye to guide my hand. My hair is just another design problem to be solved! And apparently, so are my fingernails…
- February 2, 2006
Social Engineering Email Attack?
February 2, 2006Read moreLately I’ve been getting email on one of my unpublished email addresses. It’s the kind of fun mail that we all love, with email attachments of a mysterious nature. But what’s really mysterious is how this email address got “out in the open” to begin with.
- February 2, 2006
Happy Groundhog Day!
February 2, 2006Read moreThis is one of my favorite holidays, because:
- It’s steeped in tradition and ceremony!
- It involves large hibernating rodents!
- It’s one of those days of the year where you’re allowed to believe in the prognosticative powers of animals, and no one will think you’re (too) insane.
There’s a little more history behind this holiday than I thought; though Groundhog Day in the US is only about a hundred years old, it is derived from Hedgehog Day from Roman times. We just don’t have any hedgehogs here in North America, so we substituted the most convenient rodent. Additionally, the day itself is related to the Spring Equinox that occurs 6 weeks later; the wikipedia article suggests that the “six more weeks of winter” prediction is a bit of folksy humor, since Spring officially starts in 6 weeks anyway.
I haven’t really come up with a good way to personally celebrate Groundhog Day. Anyone have any ideas?
