Freakonomics...

One of the most interesting books I have read. New York Times journalist Stephen J Dubner and heralded maverick economist Steven D Levitt looks at how economics really work. I believe we can use this same thinking in everything we do, especially in undestanding why and how people purchase goods and servicies,

Though we generally understand in the way the world to works - somewhat related to the Economic courses we attended in school/university - the book sheds light in how economics actually work. Freakonomics works on a number of premises.
1) Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life.
2) Conventional wisdom is often wrong.
3) Experts use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda.
4) Readers' gullibility should never be underestimated.

The link to the authors blog: Freakonomics

New Auction Culture

Very interesting article on the growing auction culture we see today. The question is "How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell, and Get Things We Really Want."

With the advent of e-Bay, and the many auction sites, to sourcing processes in large businesses, to sites like LendingTree.com -- bidding for services and products, where either the highest purchaser or the lowest supplier is selected - is becoming the norm. Can this same process apply to everything we do? Can this same process apply to the way we do business, the way develop products as well.

The link to Daniel Nissanoff blog, author of FutureShop

5 Tips for Electrifying Presentations

Adapted from a recent BusinessWeek article titled "How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs"
A leader must be a company evangelist and brand spokesperson.  Whatever the product, a story is a story and the goal is to win customers.
1/ Sell the benefits
Sell the experience. What it means to the customer.  It is not about the technology, but what the technology can do for you.  Customers don't care about the cool technology, but the cool benefits.  Like with the new DLP technology in a HDTV -- cool technology - what is the benefit?

2/ Practice, Practice, Practice
Don't take anything for granted - review and rehearse the material.  Spend at least two times as much time as the presentation - on review and practice.

3/ Keep it Visual
Use a few bullets. Each slide should be highly visual. 80 slide data rich (heavy) presentations are very boring and will tune out the audience very fast.
A Jobs example: If he's discussing the new chip inside a computer, a slide in the background will show a colorful image of the chip itself alongside the product. That's it. Simple and visual.

4/ Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm
Be passionate and show enthusiasm.  You genuinely got to believe in your product or service.  Believe it is the best and be enthusiastic about it being the best!

5/ "And One More Thing..."
At the end of each presentation Jobs adds to the drama by saying, "and one more thing." He then adds a new product, new feature, or sometimes introduces a band. He approaches each presentation as an event, a production with a strong opening, product demonstrations in the middle, a strong conclusion, and an encore -- that "one more thing!"

Work: Web-site

This site was designed for a friend of mine. If you are looking for a place to have a wedding - this is the place. There aren't many places that get better than this.
Visit the website at www.EglesNestEvents.com
[Click on image below to see more...]

Jim Collins' Good to Great - highlights

1/ First Who... Then What

Executives who led transformations to great companies "first got the right people on the bus and then figured out where to drive it."

2/Confront the Brutal Facts

Good to Great companies infuse "the entire [decision-making] process with the brutal facts of reality."

Creating a climate where truth is heard:

- Lead with questions, not answers.

- Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.

- Conduct autopsies, without blame.

- Build 'red flag' mechanisms.

** Winston Churchill established the Statistical Office during WWII to feed him facts outside the normal chain of command.

3/ The Hedgehog Concept

It is simple, a crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles:

- What you can be the best in the world at?

- What drives your economic engine?

- What you are passionate about?

4/ A Culture of Discipline

"The Good to Great companies at their best followed a simple mantra: 'Anything that does not fit with our Hedgehog Concept, will not do.'...The challenge becomes not opportunity creation, but opportunity selection."

5/ Technology Accelerators

"When used right, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it....You can make good use of technology until you know which technologies are relevant."

Recent Work: Logo/identity

This is logo I created for Trajectory Partners - a business consulting firm out of Richmond Virginia. (www.trajectorypartners.com -- I did not build the web-site for them).
[Click on image below to see more...]

Recent Work: Web-site

This is the screen shot of the prototype site. We will be in production soon. The site layout is done via a CSS file.
[Click on image below to see more...]

Web 2.0 better defined

This is a very good article that gives one more understanding of what Web 2.0 is all about.  Some of the concepts are not new, but more a realization that it is now viable to use and build.  Though the article is centered around teaching and learning it does give you an idea of what it is all about.
Social Software:blogs, wikis, trackback, podcasting, videoblogs
MicroContent: APIs, Web Services, and even Banner-ads
Openness: Flow of microcontent between domains
Folksonomy: new form of metadata - like tagging. Drawn on the "Wisdom of crowds"

The link to the article: http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0621.asp