So I will set the scene first. Tonight I attended a special presentation of Picasso and his collection, at GOMA, in Brisbane. This presentation was for people associated with Queensland Leaders and was presented to us by the GOMA Director, Tony Ellwood.
Apart from the fact this unique exhibition of Picasso’s work and his own personal collection (well some of it), was a great exhibition Tony gave us an insight into the history of Picasso (view: BBC History) and some of the influences on Picasso and his artwork.
Picasso is different to many artists, in several ways;
- he made a lot of money during his lifetime, rather than his value being raised after his death.
- he tried, experimented with and successfully worked with many styles throughout his long career
- he collected art from many other artists, and respected and promoted art / artists throughout his life
While I am no Picasso expert, what impressed me most about this exhibition was the way he approached his art with an open mind and a desire to continually evolve.
So what sort of web designer would he be?
Systems are important for business. In previous posts I have mentioned that as we have grown we have tried to find ways to improve our systems constantly so that we can continue to maintain the service levels we aim to.
Any business owner knows this can be hard.
As your business changes sometimes you don’t change enough to see it at the same time, and have to keep stepping back to check what is and isn’t working.
Recently I was lucky to be provided some feedback by one of our customers that highlighted where the system had broken down for her, and that was worth gold!
Today I experienced it (I see it lots) at another business.
(more…)
So here is something which is hard for all service businesses. Losing a customer, or customers who want to cancel their subscriptions. Remember that customers who choose to go elsewhere, or just have no need for your service anymore are not necessarily lost forever.
We recently chose to use a Search Tool called Keyword Spy to do some strategic reviewing of a campaign. We subscribed for a couple of months, which was great, and got great value out of it.
But in good systematised cost control, my Chief of Search (yes that is his title), came and said we can cancel that sub for now because it isn’t needed at present. We regularly do this as we use possibly 50+ tools to keep up with a whole bunch of areas to do with Search Optimisation and Marketing, so hibernating the ones we aren’t using at present is part of the beauty of Software (or tools) as a Service (SaaS).
That is when the problem started.
(more…)
A lot of money is being spent again on web engineering for commercial success. During the lead up to when the dot com bubble burst every good idea got capital and the ‘web stars’ worked to engineer their destiny using a good idea and capital.
Many of them are doing something else or were up until the cycle started again.
Over the last 12 months or so the drive to engineer a site’s own commercial success has been fueled again. While companies, like ireckon, that provide development services can profit from this time (and I have no issue with profit), I still reflect on the logic behind it.
Everyone wants to be the next Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, Craigs List et alia. And while these sites are the oft-quoted ones there are plenty of other sites that have profited from the internet and converted great ideas to money. This leads to my main question:
(more…)
Do people actually care out there?
Are we all so busy that pride, focus, detail don’t matter any more? I know i have better days than others at taking care of the important details but the more places I look the more I see less attention to detail not more.
Is that what good - no I mean - really fantastic - service is? Just attention to detail? Is that what a good product is - something that has good attention to details and focus.
We are in the business of software, and it’s many intangibles, so I know how hard it can be to really make something fool proof, perfect and the best. In online speak there can’t be any perfect tool or product because as soon as our latest widget is released someone out there in cyber space has already hacked up a better product or widget.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try or care to do the best? Of course we should - we must!
What’s my point… well back on the road again the last few weeks and here is my summary of some of the things that ireckon could / should be different (in my mind anyway):
(more…)
