Last week I had the honor of hosting a true hero at our corporate function to which we invited over two hundred employees. The theme of our meeting was "Managing Through Adversity" and my co-host and I agreed that asking Mr. Tibor "Ted" Rubin to be the keynote speaker would be a special occasion. Our company has been going through many challenges lately and we wanted to provide seminar information and participation exercises in how to be successful managers through rough times.
Mr. Rubin is a 78-year-old gentleman with a heavy Hungarian accent. Not only was he a Holocaust survivor, he was a Prisoner of War in a Chinese POW camp during the Korean War. His actions in combat and during his time as a POW were praised by hundreds of his fellow soldiers.
He waited fifty-five years for the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was bestowed on him by President Bush in 2005.
Mr. Rubin's life story provides a dose of perspective for all of us who feel down and out from time to time.
In short, his is a story of survival. He and his Jewish family were taken from Hungary to a Nazi concentration camp when he was fourteen. He was freed by allied forces after fourteen months and vowed to repay the debt he felt he owed to America for his freedom. Mr. Rubin talks about his attempts to join the US Army, although he didn't speak English well enough to pass entrance exams, and finally making it through determination. He found himself in Okinawa and Korea in the Pusan region facing swarms of North Korean and Chinese soldiers. You can read and hear the rest of his story here. http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/rubin/index.html
Mr. Rubin explains all of his exploits in a self-deprecating way and with a sense of humor that takes the edge off the serious message of his life.
For our audience, the video of his story was moving and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. At the end of his presentation he fielded questions from the audience and, once again, put everyone at ease with his jokes.
Immediately after his speech, a spontaneous receiving line formed in the hall outside of the general session. Mr. Rubin shook hands with most, took pictures with others, and received more than a few hugs.
It was also my pleasure to have lunch with Mr. Rubin and his son, Frank, the next day at the hotel dining room. There were so many well-wishers stopping by that I was afraid the man wouldn't be allowed to eat his meal. But it is apparent that Mr. Rubin very much enjoys the contact and the opportunity to speak to so many "beautiful young people", as he repeated many times over the time he spent with us.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tragedy...
May God bless the victims and their families. We pray that our beloved Virginia Tech community will find comfort in Him.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
7 Sports in 1 Day
Last Sunday was an incredible Spring day in northern Virginia with plenty of sun and mild temps in the 60's. To take advantage of the weather I took my son Michael, who is now seven, over to a soccer field near our house to work on his soccer dribbling and shooting skills. With Michael, forty-five minutes of soccer drills without playing an actual game is plenty.
On the way home we saw a school mate of Michael's and his father playing basketball on one of the outdoor courts near the field. The father, Bill, told me that he was attempting to do what Pres. George H. W. Bush (Bush 41) challenged Americans to do back during his presidency - try to play seven sports in one day.
I don't remember that particular challenge made by Pres. Bush but I do remember he was fond of horseshoes, so I'm sure that was one of his sports. I haven't been able to find reference to it using Google or Yahoo. But the idea seems great regardless of where it came from. So I decided we'd give it a try too.
Now I should mention that if the choice were totally up to Michael, he probably would have opted to play inside or watch TV. But you can't let kids stay inside on a nice day, right? Lisa and I make it our job to keep the boys outside playing.
So when we got home we shot hoops in our cul de sac (2). Then Michael wanted to ride bikes so we rode around our street for a while and went on a ride around the neighborhood (3). I joked that next we would go swimming, but Michael called me out on that one. So we put on roller blades and went up and down the side walk. Only for a few minutes though - neither of us are strong bladers (4). Tee-ball and catch with the baseball in the back yard were next (5). We also played catch with the football and a little two-hand touch (6). Finally we took turns on our neighbors' trampoline (7). I think I'm a little heavy for it so I didn't stay on it too long. But it is more of a workout than I remembered.
The point of this is that it was easy to find at least seven sports/activities to do with my son. Kickball, badminton, tag, capture the flag, swinging, and monkey bars are other activities that are often taking place in our neighborhood. I should mention that my ten-year-old, Brett, was outside the whole time too. He prefers basketball right now because it's in season.
Which brings me to another point. While we were outside we missed the Florida vs. Oregon basketball game on TV. We did catch the last ten minutes and overtime of the Georgetown vs. UNC game while we prepared dinner. But in five years, or even in one year, I think our time spent outside together will be remembered more than who played in the NCAA tournament.
I'm looking forward to more days like last Sunday. I've been warned that some day in the not too distant future, it will be hard keep the boys around home long enough to play seven sports.
On the way home we saw a school mate of Michael's and his father playing basketball on one of the outdoor courts near the field. The father, Bill, told me that he was attempting to do what Pres. George H. W. Bush (Bush 41) challenged Americans to do back during his presidency - try to play seven sports in one day.
I don't remember that particular challenge made by Pres. Bush but I do remember he was fond of horseshoes, so I'm sure that was one of his sports. I haven't been able to find reference to it using Google or Yahoo. But the idea seems great regardless of where it came from. So I decided we'd give it a try too.
Now I should mention that if the choice were totally up to Michael, he probably would have opted to play inside or watch TV. But you can't let kids stay inside on a nice day, right? Lisa and I make it our job to keep the boys outside playing.
So when we got home we shot hoops in our cul de sac (2). Then Michael wanted to ride bikes so we rode around our street for a while and went on a ride around the neighborhood (3). I joked that next we would go swimming, but Michael called me out on that one. So we put on roller blades and went up and down the side walk. Only for a few minutes though - neither of us are strong bladers (4). Tee-ball and catch with the baseball in the back yard were next (5). We also played catch with the football and a little two-hand touch (6). Finally we took turns on our neighbors' trampoline (7). I think I'm a little heavy for it so I didn't stay on it too long. But it is more of a workout than I remembered.
The point of this is that it was easy to find at least seven sports/activities to do with my son. Kickball, badminton, tag, capture the flag, swinging, and monkey bars are other activities that are often taking place in our neighborhood. I should mention that my ten-year-old, Brett, was outside the whole time too. He prefers basketball right now because it's in season.
Which brings me to another point. While we were outside we missed the Florida vs. Oregon basketball game on TV. We did catch the last ten minutes and overtime of the Georgetown vs. UNC game while we prepared dinner. But in five years, or even in one year, I think our time spent outside together will be remembered more than who played in the NCAA tournament.
I'm looking forward to more days like last Sunday. I've been warned that some day in the not too distant future, it will be hard keep the boys around home long enough to play seven sports.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Love gadgets, but not keeping up with them...
Somewhere along the line in the last seven years or so I fell out-of-step with keeping up with the latest technology tools and toys. Long ago I had one of the first programmable universal remotes and I set it up to automatically turn on my entertainment center, stereo, CD player, adjust volumes, and turn off all at a given time. I used it to its full extent. I'd like to say that I had the very latest in home entertainment equipment as well. And a constantly growing library of CDs. Today, not so much.
Today I have an even better universal remote - the Logitech Harmony 890 - and I haven't finished setting it up to manage all my devices. Worse yet, it's easier than ever to set this thing up. You just go to the Logitech website and select all of your components and the remote will be configured over a USB cable. I did define the devices, but when I tested the "boot up" process I ran into a sequencing problem and I just haven't taken the time to go back and fix it.
I'm also one of the last people in the US who doesn't own an iPod. It must be a sign of my age, but I just don't feel the need to listen to music everywhere I go. I don't have XM or Sirius sat radio either. You've probably guessed it but I listen to talk radio and books on CD during my commute.
PlayStation, XBox, PS3, Wii? Never got bit by the gaming bug. I know it could easily have happend to me. A timing issue. If the sudden rise in my discretionary income had crossed paths with gaming boom several years ago, I'd be as addicted as anyone. I think I just missed that wave. Not to mention that I've been busy with my two sons. Playing and teaching without electronic devices was intentional for us. But now they are 10 and 7 years old and the pressure to keep up with their friends' video toys is mounting. (BTW, I can't believe how many of my neighbors let their kids play "M"-rated video games. I just don't want my boys exposed to that world yet. Am I that far out-of-touch?)
So I do what probably most people in their mid-forties do and let the majority of tech devices go unnoticed, and give only the most highly acclaimed products a second look. DVR, for example, is something I was slow to adopt. Now I strongly believe that DVR is the greatest invention since the remote control.
I bought my first HDTV last year, after waiting out most of the hype. I went with the Pioneer PDP-5060HD 50" plasma. Absolutely fantastic product. It's tough to watch sports without HD now.
My point is that I'm not as easily moved to action as I used to be. But I like to keep up with what's available. I'm just not an impulse shopper who buys gadgets just for the sake of having the latest. The Apple iPhone will need to come "way" down in price and it'll need to go through several software patches before I'll consider it.
I do have my cell phone, with a couple songs on it. And it has a camera that can take pictures and record short video. It also has Sprint's On Demand TV content, but I haven't used it yet. I also use an EVDO wireless broadband card in my laptop. That I use.
I recently heard about this trick you can do to open a locked car door with your cell phone signal. Say you've locked your keys in the car. If you call home where the other set of keys are, and that set has a keyless entry fob like most sets of keys do, your friend at home can press the "unlock" button while you hold your phone up near the car. The radio signal will unlock the car. Things like that make me wonder about all the Location Based Services that must be at our fingertips thanks to cell phones. Marketing over the air is a whole new world I want to learn more about. Those are the gadgets and services that can improve my life.
So I'm going to start visiting engadget.com, cnet.com (more often), Make.com, technorati.com, and other sites that are known for sharing the latest in the world of technology.
Fast to learn, slow to adopt. I'm sure I fall into a specific segmentation marketing category for most companies. With age comes pramatism, I guess.
Today I have an even better universal remote - the Logitech Harmony 890 - and I haven't finished setting it up to manage all my devices. Worse yet, it's easier than ever to set this thing up. You just go to the Logitech website and select all of your components and the remote will be configured over a USB cable. I did define the devices, but when I tested the "boot up" process I ran into a sequencing problem and I just haven't taken the time to go back and fix it.
I'm also one of the last people in the US who doesn't own an iPod. It must be a sign of my age, but I just don't feel the need to listen to music everywhere I go. I don't have XM or Sirius sat radio either. You've probably guessed it but I listen to talk radio and books on CD during my commute.
PlayStation, XBox, PS3, Wii? Never got bit by the gaming bug. I know it could easily have happend to me. A timing issue. If the sudden rise in my discretionary income had crossed paths with gaming boom several years ago, I'd be as addicted as anyone. I think I just missed that wave. Not to mention that I've been busy with my two sons. Playing and teaching without electronic devices was intentional for us. But now they are 10 and 7 years old and the pressure to keep up with their friends' video toys is mounting. (BTW, I can't believe how many of my neighbors let their kids play "M"-rated video games. I just don't want my boys exposed to that world yet. Am I that far out-of-touch?)
So I do what probably most people in their mid-forties do and let the majority of tech devices go unnoticed, and give only the most highly acclaimed products a second look. DVR, for example, is something I was slow to adopt. Now I strongly believe that DVR is the greatest invention since the remote control.
I bought my first HDTV last year, after waiting out most of the hype. I went with the Pioneer PDP-5060HD 50" plasma. Absolutely fantastic product. It's tough to watch sports without HD now.
My point is that I'm not as easily moved to action as I used to be. But I like to keep up with what's available. I'm just not an impulse shopper who buys gadgets just for the sake of having the latest. The Apple iPhone will need to come "way" down in price and it'll need to go through several software patches before I'll consider it.
I do have my cell phone, with a couple songs on it. And it has a camera that can take pictures and record short video. It also has Sprint's On Demand TV content, but I haven't used it yet. I also use an EVDO wireless broadband card in my laptop. That I use.
I recently heard about this trick you can do to open a locked car door with your cell phone signal. Say you've locked your keys in the car. If you call home where the other set of keys are, and that set has a keyless entry fob like most sets of keys do, your friend at home can press the "unlock" button while you hold your phone up near the car. The radio signal will unlock the car. Things like that make me wonder about all the Location Based Services that must be at our fingertips thanks to cell phones. Marketing over the air is a whole new world I want to learn more about. Those are the gadgets and services that can improve my life.
So I'm going to start visiting engadget.com, cnet.com (more often), Make.com, technorati.com, and other sites that are known for sharing the latest in the world of technology.
Fast to learn, slow to adopt. I'm sure I fall into a specific segmentation marketing category for most companies. With age comes pramatism, I guess.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Update from Omniture 2007
About one thousand people representing dozens of companies and "25% of the global online marketing budget" were on hand at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City last week to discuss Marketing 2.0 strategies and Omniture products.
Keynote speakers included Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture, and Megan Burns who is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, Anne Holland, CEO of MarketingSherpa, and Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media.
Omniture is growing in leaps and bounds (customers and employees) and their recent acquisition of British Behavioral Targeting company - Touch Clarity - has made them a new global enterprise.
Products such as SiteCatalyst, Discover, and the new Genesis platform that use cutting edge technology to provide everything you need to know about every site visitor, and report on their usage make Omniture a favorite in the Web Analytics space.
All of the keynote speeches were excellent and geared to the topic of new trends in online marketing and web analytics. O'Reilly gave what was probably the most riveting presentation on the importance of online social networking in the future of internet applications. He's definitely seen everything over the last twenty years and I believe he is on the mark with his research on how much information is available about all of us on the web (and the wireless web) that we happily provide in the form of user created content. And the most successful websites will include such content to allow visitors to drive how the sites will serve the community of users. These networks that "get better the more people use them" are at the heart of Web 2.0. BTW, O'Reilly is credited for the term Web 2.0.
Read the Omniture Summit 2007 press release:
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070321/0229457.html
Visit O'Reilly Media:
http://radar.oreilly.com/tim/
Keynote speakers included Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture, and Megan Burns who is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, Anne Holland, CEO of MarketingSherpa, and Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media.
Omniture is growing in leaps and bounds (customers and employees) and their recent acquisition of British Behavioral Targeting company - Touch Clarity - has made them a new global enterprise.
Products such as SiteCatalyst, Discover, and the new Genesis platform that use cutting edge technology to provide everything you need to know about every site visitor, and report on their usage make Omniture a favorite in the Web Analytics space.
All of the keynote speeches were excellent and geared to the topic of new trends in online marketing and web analytics. O'Reilly gave what was probably the most riveting presentation on the importance of online social networking in the future of internet applications. He's definitely seen everything over the last twenty years and I believe he is on the mark with his research on how much information is available about all of us on the web (and the wireless web) that we happily provide in the form of user created content. And the most successful websites will include such content to allow visitors to drive how the sites will serve the community of users. These networks that "get better the more people use them" are at the heart of Web 2.0. BTW, O'Reilly is credited for the term Web 2.0.
Read the Omniture Summit 2007 press release:
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070321/0229457.html
Visit O'Reilly Media:
http://radar.oreilly.com/tim/
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Omniture Summit - 3/13 -3/16
I'll be speaking at the Omniture Summit 2007 conference this week in Salt Lake City during one of the breakout sessions.We'll be presenting our Sprint Nextel Customer Satisfaction case study. We've partnered with ForeSee Results and Omniture to create "micro segmentation" of the visitors to Sprint.com to identify their click-through experiences and match them to the online survey results they've volunteered to provide.
More here: http://www.omniture.com/summit07/slc
A recurring theme you will see in this blog is about focusing on the customer experience. Frankly, I know, that's what everyone says. But I believe you will see that C-Sat surveys, combined with an open customer forum at http://www.buzzaboutwireless.com/, added to increasing the functionality of the self-service side of Sprint.com are all part of a "Path to Loyalty" that we're creating at Sprint.com.
More here: http://www.omniture.com/summit07/slc
A recurring theme you will see in this blog is about focusing on the customer experience. Frankly, I know, that's what everyone says. But I believe you will see that C-Sat surveys, combined with an open customer forum at http://www.buzzaboutwireless.com/, added to increasing the functionality of the self-service side of Sprint.com are all part of a "Path to Loyalty" that we're creating at Sprint.com.
Friday, March 9, 2007
A new Forum at Sprint.com
The views of this blog do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Sprint Nextel Corporation. I'm providing these comments as an independent blogger who happens to work for Sprint.
We launched our new Sprint Online Community - BuzzAboutWireless (www.buzzaboutwireless.com) on March 1st. So far we've received a lot of feedback from visitors. The people who have posted messages mainly believe this is a good idea and express hope that we will fulfill our promise to be open and honest in the community.
We created the site to provide a forum for customers and prospective customers to share ideas, get information, read and submit product reviews and ratings, and to just "rant". The Rant and Raves forum has received the most attention so far. That wasn't unexpected.
Our hope is that be being honest we will build trust. This is not a Marketing scheme, it's being run by eBusiness people. If a visitor wants to describe the problem they have with Sprint service or with a given phone, we won't censor the message. There are guidelines for conduct and content, but we are striving to avoid a "sterilized" site. And the objective is to make sure someone in our Customer Service, Product Development, Billing, or Network team sees these posts and will take action where possible.
In one week we've seen 20K visitors averaging 3.9 pageviews each. It's a start.
We launched our new Sprint Online Community - BuzzAboutWireless (www.buzzaboutwireless.com) on March 1st. So far we've received a lot of feedback from visitors. The people who have posted messages mainly believe this is a good idea and express hope that we will fulfill our promise to be open and honest in the community.
We created the site to provide a forum for customers and prospective customers to share ideas, get information, read and submit product reviews and ratings, and to just "rant". The Rant and Raves forum has received the most attention so far. That wasn't unexpected.
Our hope is that be being honest we will build trust. This is not a Marketing scheme, it's being run by eBusiness people. If a visitor wants to describe the problem they have with Sprint service or with a given phone, we won't censor the message. There are guidelines for conduct and content, but we are striving to avoid a "sterilized" site. And the objective is to make sure someone in our Customer Service, Product Development, Billing, or Network team sees these posts and will take action where possible.
In one week we've seen 20K visitors averaging 3.9 pageviews each. It's a start.
Managing Through Adversity
Layoffs and voluntary separation packages (VSPs) have become part of the Sprint Nextel culture this year. It's been such a distraction that many teams have become paralyzed. Our department has been lucky in that we were relatively untouched by the downsizing. However, our favorite Vice President submitted his resignation two weeks ago and left promptly last Wednesday. He's pursuing a great opportunity, as many people do. One of our favorite Directors, my friend, is also leaving at the end of March. Another great opportunity, this time in San Francisco. More adversity for a large team.
As a Director myself, I know that it's important to remain "human" through all of this. People react differently to these changes and times of uncertainty. Many keep their noses to the grindstone and shuffle between meetings like dutiful "Bedouin nomads" as one employee put it. Others want continuous information and communication. It seems that gossip abhors a vacuum. So if you're not giving updates, updates are being given on your behalf, truth be damned.
Talk to people and broadcast information to the team. I've never gotten negative feedback for over-communicating.
As a Director myself, I know that it's important to remain "human" through all of this. People react differently to these changes and times of uncertainty. Many keep their noses to the grindstone and shuffle between meetings like dutiful "Bedouin nomads" as one employee put it. Others want continuous information and communication. It seems that gossip abhors a vacuum. So if you're not giving updates, updates are being given on your behalf, truth be damned.
Talk to people and broadcast information to the team. I've never gotten negative feedback for over-communicating.
Dipping my Toe in the Blogosphere
Guess it won't be long before everyone has a Blog site.
Some will seek fame or attempt to gain notoriety via their blogs. An incendiary soapbox, if you will.
I'd just like to have a place to share my opinion on a few things.
You know what they say about opinions...
Then again, we know that opinions can change with the arrival of new information. But there's a fine line between being open-minded and being wishy-washy. After all, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
Oh yeah, this is a great place for anecdotes, metaphors, and platitudes.
Welcome.
Some will seek fame or attempt to gain notoriety via their blogs. An incendiary soapbox, if you will.
I'd just like to have a place to share my opinion on a few things.
You know what they say about opinions...
Then again, we know that opinions can change with the arrival of new information. But there's a fine line between being open-minded and being wishy-washy. After all, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
Oh yeah, this is a great place for anecdotes, metaphors, and platitudes.
Welcome.
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