Tabletature

So after a very busy 2 months which included the closing out of one company (through an M&A process) and ramping up of new responsibilities with my new colleagues, I finally have some time to return a number of writing projects including some overdue care and feeding of this blog. 

Innovation is in my blood.  At this point in my life, it's impossible to distinguish how much is original and how much is transfused, but the point still remains.  So in that spirit, I've been expanding my horizons a bit to see just how modern (meaning 3 years old or younger) technologies and services can help me in various creative endeavors.

It's no secret that I'm also a fan of speculative media (science-fiction for those of you in accounting).  It's always been one of the strongest sources of creativity and thought methodologies for me.  I've been active in one form of science-fiction or another as both a consumer and producer (which, if you search hard enough, will uncover the different outlets I've dabbled in whether it's original art, convention organizing, or just hanging out with my heroes from the golden age writers to 1960's and 1970's film and television personalities in the United States, and most recently in Japan).  So finding myself this weekend at a regional conference that I helped start 25 years ago, and having the time to commit some thoughts to ether, I figured I would actually try to write an article sitting amongst like-minded fen just using my tablet, while enjoying a coffee-based beverage that was clearly priced on syllabic content alone.

Clearly, I am no one's target market.

If the idea that functional portability and ubiquitous access frees the mind for expression, then the haptic geniuses at (insert tech giant here) clearly think that I'm a Baptist with cramps.  Just the act of typing on a displayed keyboard is a novel exercise in repetitive stress, to say nothing of touch responses that are delayed by ad-placement.  The aggressive spelling correction is a new joy in fool-speak (hence my apparent gastrological challenges on Sundays).  The random response of a capacitive touch interface offers new dimensions in non-linear sentence fragmentation.  Is this really the epitome of technology and innovation making our lives better?

A recent comment by Buzz Aldrin in MIT Technology Review metaphorically sums up my tablet-writing experience pretty well:  "I was promised Mars.  Instead, I got Facebook."

Technology has a wondrous purpose in advancing civilization, but if we lose sight of the fact that a sense of wonder is essential for continuous innovation and advancement, then creating technologies for technologies' sake is nothing more an addiction.  Compelling products and services address substantial functional needs that previously have not been met.

It's been an interesting experiment writing this article on a tablet, and it probably won't be the only article I write this way.  However, the until the bugs are worked out and until some genius figures out how to extract what thoughts I really do want to write about, I'll probably limit my tablet prose to Shakesmad-libpeare.

Diversification (def'n): Where Innovation and Survival Meet

The fear and angst of what is potentially (still) a global financial system death spiral continue to surround us.

Even in these turbulent times which are outside the experience of living memory, life does and must go on. The sun still is fixed in the sky, and the world is still tricked into seeing it rise with the dawn.

The fear and uncertainty of, and reaction to recent events, has created havoc in both corporate and consumer sectors. In the past two months, companies like McDonalds and Caterpillar have been denied credit (despite top bond ratings and solid balance sheets) to expand their operations. Capital plans at many companies have been shelved for indefinite periods, affecting jobs and growth across their supply chains. Individuals are being cut off from lines of credit depsite, in more recent cases, possessing prime credit ratings. Massive government interventions and injections of capital have been hastily organized to boost confidence and status quo in a financial system which, according to some experts, is not salvageable.

If that weren't enough, today is a day when the election of one head of state will have more profound policy impacts around the world than in any time since World War II. No matter who wins the White House this evening, the world is looking at an economic and business climate that is severely damaged, and will take years to heal.

So how does one prepare, let alone navigate through this storm?

The key to survival is the development and acquisition of diversified assets - not gold and silver (although they never hurt), but assets such as new skills and new pipelines of value (products, services). The development of such assets stretch individuals and corporations well beyond their current core competencies.

I recently gave the technical keynote address to my company's user conference in Boston at the Museum of Science. I spoke on the topic of "Everyday Innovation". While the talk was specifically focused on how our clients could use our software and methodologies on a daily basis, the larger issues of why went beyond the scope of the conference. 2009 is going to be a critical year for companies and individuals to get their houses in order for the next 3 years. (Ideally, you spotted the signs of dramatic change in 2007 or as late as October of 2008, and took appropriate action. If not, read on.) There is still a tremendous dislocation of individuals, communities, and companies waiting to be unleashed. Hunkering down and hoping the storms pass without suffering significant damage is not a strategy I'd recommend, yet I see it in people and businesses everyday.

If you haven't prepared for the inevitable dislocation, look in the mirror, and ask the following questions about yourself, or your company where appropriate.

Is my job secure?

What value do I bring to my organization?

Are my products or services desirable in a declining economy?

What would I do if I lost my job?

Do my skills apply to different companies or industries?

What skills will be most in demand in the next 3 years?

What products or services will be critical in a declining economy?

The answers to these and similar questions are based in part by knowing what trends in economies, people, and skills will emerge from the dislocation. History has shown that those people and companies who are flexible, and who can quickly develop and innovate skills, products and services while being self-sufficient in the process, will survive and prosper, even in a down economy.

When times get really tough for widget makers, it is not enough to simply make a better widget. Sometime you have to make a completely different widget, or you have to figure out a need that all your widget customers will have, and fill it. Sometimes, you even have to make your own widget obsolete.

How do you do this? Don't wait to do it on your own timetable, and don't limit your ideas.

If you wait until a crisis to innovate, I don't give you very good survival odds. Effective innovators practice their skills frequently, and on the simplest and smallest of challenges. They don't limit themselves to problems they know, but stretch themselves into areas of limited or no previous experience. I can't tell you how often I work with customers who are confounded by competitors who seem to come out of nowhere. After a review of a "threat's" patent or innovation portfolios, I usually discover that the competitor had been busy developing assets and technologies that not only competed with my client, but also had nothing to do with their core competencies. It wasn't the extra technology that made them more competitive, it was the ability to use innovation to repeatedly create value.

Creative problem solving, everyday, no matter how far removed it may seem from your day to day work, will help you adapt to the most difficult of circumstances. Learning one new thing, everyday as a matter of practice, will help build research skills that will be essential if you suddenly have to change jobs, venues, or major project / life goals.

Innovation skills can be practiced and applied to any situation. When the need arises to be a quick thinker and effective problem solver, the well-practiced innovator will be able to create diversified value that will help him/her meet the tactical needs of an immediate crisis, and clarify the strategic vision needed to acheive changing long-term goals.

Advice For A Valedictorian

So, after all these years, here you are.

All the homework is done, all the tests are taken, all the grades are in. You've done your chores and eaten your vegetables. You've survived the experience of living with your parents and your brothers. You've beaten everyone's expectations (except perhaps your own).

You've won.

You're about to take the podium tomorrow as valedictorian of your graduating prep school class, before heading off to University with full scholarship and chancellor's awards.

I, and many others who have come to know you are extemely proud of you.

The speech you give tomorrow (and possibly still have to write tonight) will likely contain observations of the past, acknowledgement of the present, and intelligent guesswork about the future. Your future from this point forward is your own to define, constrained only by the world around you (admittedly, that's an awfully big constraint). Having had the great fortune to know you since before you were born, I'd like to offer some totally unsolicited advice as you leave one contest behind, and move on to the next.

This picture has been making its way around the internet in the past few days. It's an image of the Mars Phoenix Lander on its way down to the surface of Mars. (You can just make out the lander at the bottom of the image, the tether lines in the middle, and the parachutes at the top. NASA has since released a cleaner image.) The image was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter circling high above Mars, sent to Mars well in advance of the Phoenix probe.

The implications of this image in technological and human terms are staggering. Thousands of people contributed significant portions of their lives to the moment this image was taken. Exactly none of them knew at the time they graduated high school that they would be part of something so unique. However, they likely followed guidelines, codes, rules and something more important than lucky numbers to get to this point.

I'd like to offer you one piece of advice as you step forward to do all the wonderful things you're going to in your life, and have no idea what they are at the moment.

Discover, and follow your passions. It's okay to have more than one, and later on in life, it'll be okay to move between them (or to new choices and career paths), but it is essential that you develop an idea of what you really like. That, is a very different question to answer than the typical "what do you want to do?" question which your peers and collegiate advisors will ask of you.

You're at a time right now (and for the next few years) where literally the world is at your feet. You have the opportunity to explore science, art, literature, theater, music, history, language, romance, and so much more at an intensity that only comes but a few times in many people's lives. The next four years are not just about facts, figures and grades. You've got a chance to discover your own sense of wonder. You're going to meet people at all stages of life: young, middle-aged, and elderly who will inspire you.

Leaders in all fields of study will come to speak at your University. Seek them out and listen to them. Challenge them with questions, and if you find you have none, ask yourself why (it's not a bad thing!).

Politcal movements (and their leaders) will stage events (protests) at your University. Avoid the urge to scoff, but beware the call to participate before examining all sides of current issues and events. The next four years are quite likely to be filled with worsening economic and socio-politcal trends. Learn, and act, with caution and your own intent - not someone else's.

Lastly, don't rush the next four years. They will fly by faster than the last 100 days. Take the advantage of learning from everything you can - not just at the University, but in town, at the surrounding colleges (some offer courses with inter-college credits), music halls, museums, and even the chances for travel. In my own youth, one of the most amazing learning experiences I ever had was seeing a special on PBS about Harold Edgerton, and on a whim, spending my last $17 to take a bus to Boston, head over to MIT and show up on his doorstep on a Saturday, to find him there, and get a completely private 3-hour tour of his lab, and his life experiences that went far beyond the documentary. That experience wasn't part of my course curricula. I still carry his lessons with me to this day.

Make the next four years your own.


When you're done, go forward and change the world.

Enjoying one day at the top...

About every ten years or so, my friend Sheila makes a personal, brief and insightful comment that gets me thinking for a long time (usually until she makes another, similar comment). In my early twenties, she told me that I was going to become a very interesting person. When I turned thirty, she told me that the best years of my life were about to begin.

According to any number of timepieces, calendars or cosmic clocks, I've recently turned 41. The past decade has marked the usual assortment of milestones (both good and bad) that one might expect on a journey towards the universal finish line. During the past 5 years, I've been part of a great turnaround story with my current employer. As a result, our company has very recently grown out of our offices in the north end of Boston, and we now find ourselves occupying the 39th floor of the Prudential Tower.

As with many cities, Boston's skyline is distinctive and highly recognizable by hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. Several skyscrapers (including the Prudential Tower) stand out as landmarks, and having a business at this address is highly coveted. The view from the Prudential Tower is something that relatively few people get to experience first hand. On my first visit to our new office, I made it a point to bring a camera and create a panorama to remember the vista I currently share with my colleagues from our position high above the city.


Our view from the east-facing side of the building stretches from Cambridge and points north on the left to 111 Huntington Street and points south on the right. I sent this picture to a number of my colleagues and friends, including Sheila. Sheila wrote back to me with a simple comment that, as with her comments in the past, has got me thinking, and will likely follow me for at least another ten years. Her comment was very simple.

Enjoy life at the top.

To me, that's a very powerful statement at this point in my life. A top implies a pinnacle, or a height which sits above a much larger landscape of places one could be, both physically and figuratively. It reminds me that what goes up, often comes down. As much as a journey worth taking holds the promise of rewards at its peak, ignoring the rewards the journey can offer along the way is mistake far too many of us make in our lives. We can choose to follow a path with the single-minded goal of getting to its end, or we can let the journey teach and enrich us many steps along the way.

So I decided to make it a point that today, October 24, 2007, I would enjoy as much as life had to offer me where ever I could during this day.

The first thing the day has to offer is that I am making a rare trip into our new office, which is a stone's throw (at least from the roof) from Fenway Park, where this evening, the 2007 American League Champion Boston Red Sox will host the Colorado Rockies in Game 1 of the World Series. I can't say that I've ever had a reason to travel to a city on the first day of a World Series before, and my new commute has put me in the thick of the excitement.

I'm still figuring out the new commute. I have a home in the western suburbs of Boston, and the move the Prudential Tower means that I'm now parking at Riverside Station and taking the Green Line into the city. The Boston subway system is the oldest in the nation and has a rich and colorful history. More recently, Boston was one of the last metropolitan transit systems to eliminate a token / turnstyle fare system for an electronic "stored value" system which was branded as the "Charlie Card" by the MBTA. The character of 'Charlie' is in reference to a famous folk song that told the unfortunate story of a man (Charlie) doomed to ride the subway on principle after being trapped by an in-transit fare increase.

The spur of the Green Line that I need to ride to the Prudential Tower stops at Fenway and Kenmore Station just prior to where I exit to complete my walk to the tower elevators. Today's ride was certainly more packed than usual as many of the local chapters of Red Sox nation wanting to be part of the excitement were flocking to Yawkey Way. This made for a very long commute and a rather cramped subway car. It did not, however, impede the trolley conductor from being diligent in collecting fares from folks entering the rear of the trolley cars who would normally be expected to walk forward and swipe their Charlie Cards or Charlie Tickets.

A number of the incidental riders likely heading in for today's festivities (young students) would get on from the rear of the car, and assume that the car was too packed for the conductor to hold up the trolley. They were wrong. The conductor soon announced that at the next stop, he was going to come back and count the Red Sox t-shirts he hadn't seen come forward to pay their fares and ask them to get off the trolley.

So as we rumbled and squeaked our way to the impending showdown, life began to imitate art in a way which could make Nick Reynolds come out of retirement. A number of the would-be fare evaders pulled out their cell phones and called ahead to friends (presumably living one or more stops ahead of us) trying to convince them to come down to the (upcoming) subway stops and pass a Charlie Ticket through the door when it arrived, allowing them to continue the trip to Fenway Park.

Through the miracle of modern communications, a small flurry of Charlie Tickets entered the car at the next stop, which made me reflect on why Charlie's wife even bothered with sandwiches for all those years....


Before long, I emerged from underneath the city, and made my way down Newbury Street, across Boylston Street and into the Pru, finally arriving at the 39th floor. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to be in New Mexico, but a last minute change from my client had kept me in Boston for once.

The last time the Red Sox won to the World Series …ok…the only time in my life (and the lives of several billion others) that the Red Sox won the World Series, I was in San Jose. I cheered along with the dozen or so from Red Sox nation who were trapped on business at our hotel while the Prince of Darkness was being fitted for ice skates. I had to settle for a Californian color commentary on the celebrations in Boston except where I could find low-bandwidth streaming video from WHDH or other Boston stations.

Now, at the start of another World Series, I’m not just in the area, I’m less than 2 miles from the park, and less than 12 hours from the start of Game 1. While I have a better chance today at getting a parking ticket than a ticket to the game, the lure of the ballpark, today of all days, is simply irresistible. My mind made up, I decided to experience opening day of a World Series outside Fenway Park.
In the early afternoon, I walked down Boylston Street, looped around Ipswitch Street, and soon was facing one of half a dozen or so surface parking lots that surround Fenway.

If you didn’t know that the eyes of the world were descending onto Landsdowne Street and Yawkey Way, the lack of any lot parking due to an invasion of satellite trucks might have tipped you off that something was up. There were trucks from all the New England and Mid-Atlantic media, Denver, FOX Sports, and rented rigs with armies of reporters, technical staff, make-up artists from as far away as Japan. (I stopped counting at 50 trucks.)

I continued my stroll, first up Yawkey Way, making a stop at the official team store to pick up some souvenir ALCS championship attire (knowing full well that I was paying exhorbitant prices for the priveledge of saying that I bought it at Fenway Park). I noticed something particularly interesting about the championship banners that adorn the ball park, and I realized that I had an opportunity to witness a very unique and all too rare transformation. I'll keep my insight a secret for now, but let's just say it fits with the season (especially in New England). I might come back to this topic after the World Series is over.

Coming around to the Landsdowne side (gateway to the Green Monster), I encounted a tent city of sorts. A line of over 600 people had formed almost immediately after the Red Sox won the ALCS several days earlier. An entire micro-economy had sprung up overnight providing the most hard-core of Red Sox nation with services and goods including tent rentals, wireless internet access, and media relations (at least based on the efforts I saw some fans go through to make sure they made it onto the pre-game shows).

Even the food vendors opened up early to accomodate the hundreds of hungry fans who would not pass up an opportunity to put down $75 for an obscured view seat.

Speaking of prices, a sausage and beer have gone up just a tad from what I remember you could get them for when the sausage carts were still allowed to go up and down the streets leading to Fenway.

Soon I had to head back to the office, but already I had enjoyed more simple pleasures in the last few hours that I might have all week if I hadn't received Sheila's simple reminder.

Years from now, I'll probably going look back on this day with far more romanticism than is warranted, except for a last part of this story which I'm going to leave as a mystery, but could be called "the garage of dreams"...



Thanks, Sheila.