Culture

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful…What is likely is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

—Warren E. Buffett (discussing when to buy)

I was at the HR Technology conference last week in Chicago, and I want to share with you a few thoughts about the tenor and mood of the vendors and attendees at that show.  If you off-the-cuff think everyone was walking around with a gun to their heads, you’d be wrong, full stop.

First and foremost, yes, people were incredibly willing to talk about the economy and the state of the nation in both financial and political terms.  That’s unavoidable.  We’re well into reality-land these days, and the question of whether or not things are going to get tighter isn’t a question anymore.  People were voicing their concerns to me in the plain light of day, which I found to be refreshing.  People weren’t holding their cards close to their vests; they were openly discussing how to weather the storm and trying to get their heads around how long it might last.  I think people realize that everyone is sailing in the same uncertain waters.

Some folks told me that they’re cancelling or deferring their remaining 2008 HRIT/ERP projects and putting 2009 in a holding pattern to see how things shake out.  I think it’s safe to say a lot of people are fearful, and when fear happens, the standard corporate organizational response is to flow into pure cost conservatism and horde.  I know firsthand, because I’ve seen it in spades in my former life.

But what impressed me the most is how many said that this is the time that they’re moving forward, in some cases very aggressively.  More people than not simply smiled and said that yes, times are rough and we have to hunker down, but we are in a fantastic place of leverage.  We can invest at bargain prices, squeeze software vendors for incredible deals, and at the end of this financial weirdness, come out of it ahead.  Ahead as a company, of course, but more importantly ahead of our competition, which is letting their fear compromise their strategic vision outright.

And let me tell you, this wasn’t one or two people with this outlook.  More people than I ever expected said they are investing now so they can reap the benefits on the back end of this financial storm rather than waiting it out and hoping necessary projects begin again sometime down the line.

Sometime down the line.

While some companies will wait for “sometime” to become “the right time,” other companies will carry forward and implement their next-generation of HRIT/ERP software applications.  And these folks not only will get a deal of their lifetimes, but they’ll also have strategic momentum when things open back up.  Their competitors will be just coming up for air, and meanwhile the more shewd organizations will be in full stride.

What are your thoughts?  Which way are you leaning as you look to close out 2008 and move into 2009?  Would love your thoughts in the comments or via email directly.

In the spirit of sharing our business on both general as well as local levels, allow me to take a quick second to announce that MiPro Consulting has won Metropolitan Detroit’s 101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For for the third year in a row.  We’re doing our share of high-fiving here in the office, and smallish football rockets have been seen whipping around at velocities completely inappropriate for indoor use.  That’s mostly my fault.

But anyway, yeah, we’re geeked.

(We’ll be handing out football rockets at the HRTech 2008 conference in Chicago, Oct. 15-17.  Stop by and see us at booth 1105.  You’ll also be able to get your mock election vote on and even win a trip to the 2009 Inauguration.  Don’t miss us!)

Say what you want about him, but Larry’s never been one to mince words:

"The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?

"We’ll make cloud computing announcements. I’m not going to fight this thing. But I don’t understand what we would do differently in the light of cloud."

Of course, Oracle has its cloud-based offerings and will only continue to grow that base and development budget.  Cloud computing, from and end-user perspective, really doesn’t mean too much: cloud or no cloud, what does it matter to the application being served to the user?  You still need some sort of network voodoo, some type of middleware logic to handle data interfaces and messaging, and of course the end-user application and platform OS or browser.  No matter if the infrastructure is on-premise or not, the user still has to interface with the app to accomplish his business goals – whether the app server resides in-house or in the cloud somewhere. 

It’s really a matter of technical semantics more than anything else.  Of course, on the the cost-benefit front, a cloud-based approach is favored by many due to lower support costs and increased portability and access.

I think what Ellison is getting at is the fad-like obsession the tech world has with trends and the hype marketing that surrounds them.  “Cloud computing” is a hair away from being found on cereal boxes, and I think it’s this hype cycle that Larry finds somewhat insane.

(Counterpoint: it’s this very hype that will drive tons of interest in Oracle’s cloud offerings and make Ellison’s numbers continue to glow, but that’s an aside.)

Of course, I find almost all enterprise software marketing almost totally insane, but that’s just me.  It’s all crazy, it’s all 60% gibberish, it’s all buzzword soup.  Why get ruffled now?  Software marketing reform should have happened years ago.  Anyone remember BullFighter?

One of the most difficult things to do is to walk away from an opportunity.  Even though you know in your heart it’s the right thing to do, it is always difficult.

A few weeks ago we made a tough decision that only recently demonstrated that it was the right course of action.

One of our trusted partners brought us in early to a consulting opportunity.  We continuously ask to be brought in early versus at the last minute so we can add value throughout the process, and in this case our partner obliged.  We were very pleased to eventually earn a verbal approval from the customer.  Soon thereafter, however, we found the customer’s legal counsel exceptionally challenging to work with in attempting to negotiate a contract.  (I am sure no one else has ever experienced this problem!)

After awhile we began questioning whether we were being too difficult or maybe just not flexible enough. After some internal discussion, we ultimately determined that we were being fair and rational, but we were also slowing the transaction down too much for our partner.  We made the difficult decision that to avoid harming them and even though they brought us the business, we would walk away (with our partner’s blessing), allowing our competition to take the deal so that our partner could close the business.

As you can imagine, we had a few interesting meetings that week.

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I’d like to share with you page 59 of Andy Sernovitz’s excellent book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, because it’s the page that’s worth the entire price of the book.

Back when I tried to explain what this blog was all about — and by extension, what our company is all about — I did some clumsy skirting of some the concepts I’m about to share below.  Sernovitz perfectly crystallizes my own mindset when it comes to marketing in an age where the old rules no longer apply, and I think this is some of the best advice out there when it comes to honest marketing and brand-building.  So here it is, and if you like what you see here, then I suggest buying and reading the whole book.  It’s fantastic.

There’s a lot of talk about radical transparency and naked conversations and how they are ideas that should fit into a culture and how companies are trying to adopt them as part of their brand strategy.  What many fail to realize is that transparency and honesty are mandatory, not “initiatives’ that show up as PowerPoint bullets in a planning presentation: if you don’t believe in them, or you think you can game the system, you’re wrong.  The conversation is already happening out there, and you can either be part of it or move into isolation.  Eventually, what you decide to do will be talked about by your customers, your employees, your competitors.  So you can join in, have some fun, and maybe learn a thing or two about your customers and how you service them, or you can fear the conversation and be marginalized.  Your choice.

Three-and-a-half years ago, when we started MiPro Consulting, one of the first things we did was define a set of core values. Before our name, before our logo, before even our mission statement, we defined a set of values that would serve as a guide, or compass, for where we took MiPro Consulting. Over the past few months we have been highlighting a core values in our employee news letter. In March I wrote about our first core value, PEOPLE. In the spirit of getting to know MiPro, I now share it with you.

People. Our first core value. Sometimes I am asked why our second core value Customers isn’t our first. I love that question!

When we started MiPro Consulting we spent a lot of time discussing not only what we were going to do but why were going to do it. The most consistent theme in those early days was to build a work place that was fun, passionate, and engaging. We knew that to be successful we needed to create and maintain a work environment that attracted the very best and the very brightest in the industry. (By the way, when I look at the team we have, it is clear to me that the formula is working!).

In professional services your product is your people. If you don’t have great people then you really don’t have much value that you can offer to your customer. So that is why People come first at MiPro.

Our recipe is pretty simple.

1. Create a GREAT work environment.
2. Use that environment to attract GREAT people.
3. Encourage your GREAT people to do GREAT things for their customers.
4. Doing GREAT things for customers yields more business.
5. Repeat step one over and over and over.
6. Never forget step one.

These are my thoughts on MiPro core value number one — PEOPLE. I would love to hear your thoughts.

-Chris Bishop
President, MiPro Consulting

Bear with me, because this might seem kittens-and-moonbeams, right out of the self-help aisle at Borders.  It’s not.

Recently, Fortune ran a piece asking all sorts of industry luminaries about the best advice they ever got — from their mentors, their bosses, their parents, whomever.  The entire article is worth reading, but what stuck with us in particular is Indra Nooyi’s blurb about always trying to assume positive intent.  It stuck so much that I hear it nearly every day.

Why?

If it sounds a bit too much Tony Robbins for you, hold on.  Take a second and think about it.  It’s deeper than you might think, because it requires conscious effort to break ingrained behaviors.

Assuming positive intent (or “APIing it,” as it’s known around here) is harder than it sounds — actually, much harder.  You have to think about it almost all the time at first.  It means that whatever life throws at you, especially as it relates to dealing with other humans, everyone would be better served if we all assumed that everyone is motivated by positive intent, instead of the other way around.

Which means we can’t just up and react.  Which means that we need a filter, at first, that we apply to discussions and events before reacting.  Which means that most of us have to re-wire ourselves away from what we’ve become used to.

Small or large, business life in general can be a battleground, and that stigma is well-deserved in many regards.  But to let that stigma create a blanket reaction tendency is a bad thing.  It’s cynicism hardening the otherwise eager intellect.

Next time you have a conflict at the office, client site or when someone acts a bit out of the boundaries of decorum, take a moment and try to remember to assume positive intent.  I don’t care if you have to take a deep breath, think of a grassy field, whatever.  Think before you react, and remember that maybe, just maybe, that person is acting out of positive intent, but just not in the way you would.

This may not cure all interpersonal or political business conflicts, but it’s a great place to start.

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