Jim Collins

Had a chance to see Jim Collins present at IT Nation and this alone was worth the entire week. If you do not recognize Jim Collins name you most likely recognize his books like; Good to Great, Great by Choice, Built to last. And much, much more.

I thought about posting some of his amazing thoughts on business. However I really feel that you would be missing out if you do not read his books. Many of the finding in the books goes against standard thoughts in business. The unique thing about the books is that the findings are confirmed with facts over and over again.

If you are in business you would be doing a favor by investing in all Jim Collins books.

A great trip

We made a trip down to Disney world for 7 days. There were 6 of us. Jenifer and the boys along with Jenifer's parents. We started everything at the parks on October 30th for a half day. One thing that in my mind cannot be argued is the quality and attention to detail that Disney puts into the entire experience. We stayed at Radiator Springs (Art of Animation) where the entire Car's world was recreated.

You can see in the above photo that we spent Halloween at the Magic Kingdom. What a great night. We trick-or-treated Disney. This will be a Halloween that both boys will remember for life.

We then moved on to Christmas on November 1st. Most of the park was transformed overnight. We had character meals, went to all parks (Many twice)

Everyone went home and I stayed another 6 days for a conference. I am finally caught up from being gone that long.

I really wanted to hate it...But I didn't!

As you know I have been a fan of the iPad for some time. I recently had the opportunity to get a iPhone4s at no cost. I jumped in.

It is pretty much superior in every way.

1. Visual Voicemail. (Easy to see who it is from, simple to play and more)
2. Screen. (I had a larger screen on my Droid and the smaller Apple screen is brighter and higher resolution) I don't miss the larger screen at all.
3. Simplicity. Easy to use.
4. Mail interface is better! And yes, I tried all the free and paid apps for the Droid!
5. Messaging interface is better!
6. Siri. Sweet!
7. Touch response is better. Even the smaller keyboard works great (On screen)
8. I kinda like not having this huge brick to hold when making a call.
9. Speaker on this is great!
10 Apps are great!

The down side? A few.
1. Apple land is limited but controlled. If you want to work outside the box, this is not for you.
2. Widgets. No such thing on the Apple.
3. Battery. Look, I really have had this one day and by noon I was looking at 50% battery. I have spoken to other and they are not having the same luck.


I really wanted to hate this thing...OK I love it.

Thought this was great advertising

It was at least interesting and entertaining. Something lacking in lots of marketing lately.

A new perspective

I am in the process of re-reading Good to Great. It amazes me how my perspective has changed over the years. This book almost feels like a new read.

I now wonder how many other good reads that I may need to revisit. I think I will at least go back and look at some of the best and skim again.

Jenifer pointed out

That I have been such a Blogging slacker. It is true.

Sure, we have been busy with Larks games, summer fun and generally going here and there. Now that things are getting ready for school and things are slowing down I am making a commitment to get back to this.

While not blogging, I have been doing a lot of reading. Really reading information on management, company growth and innovation. Through all of this reading I have been impacted quite a lot when it comes to challenging things I thought I knew.

1. People are motivated by money. Statistics show that after you pay people well and you give them tasks that are not basic (Require thinking) that people are motivated by being autonomous, challenged and getting better. This in some way goes against all I thought I knew about sales and commission plans. However I am at a point in my career that this is true.

2. Good leaders of companies are not egotistical and showy. Again, statistics show that great leaders are out for what is best (Almost to a fault) are strong and are more than willing to take a back seat (While watching others excel). There are many examples of this. And sure some of the most successful leaders you can think of are showy, but for how long and did it last?

I have more but for right now this is a good start.

Macon Georgia

I spent a couple of days in Macon Georgia at Infinity Networks this last week (Yea, that is why I have been so quiet). What a great company down there. One thing that I have always known is how important company culture is. While knowing how important it was it is very hard to define and even harder to know when it is right.

Infinity Networks has it right. The people at this company without question are the most dedicated, engaged and loyal I have ever seen. The leader of Infinity Networks is Robert Betzel. He is where the Culture starts. However every employee there really shines the culture (Without exception)

One thing that I found out from that team is that Robert wrote a book about culture and I have just ordered it (You can find it here) It is called The Company Culture Challenge. I will give everyone the update once I have a chance to read it. I have no doubt that it will be great. I had a chance to see what that culture looks like, now I want to know how it was built.