Last week I had the pleasure of presenting to the members of the Cairns Chamber of Commerce. I was asked to speak more of ‘the web’ rather than web sites per se.
This was a relatively easy topic (or so I thought) for me given it is the big issue we try to help our customers understand every day (and our organisation).
I have included the presentation slides below which kind of show some of the message.
The main theme for me was “are you paying attention?”
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I have used this analogy 3 times in the last 20 odd years. The first time was back in the early adoption days of PCs for the masses at home, the second with the birth and early stages of the Internet (although I seem to still use it for companies) and the 3rd time is NOW with Social Media and networking tools.
The analogy goes a little like this:
There is never a good time to get ‘into’ new technologies. Social Media is like a fast moving river. It has a course to run with many twists and turns in it. You cannot see the bottom nor know fully what traps might be laying inside it. There is no real start or finish it just runs.
You can see the other side, and while the other bank looks a little greener and there appears to be good things going on over there, you have yet to find a good bridge (read easy way) to get over there.
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One of the lessons I learned last year was that not paying attention to our culture when recruiting, was to the detriment of my business. (see point 3 of Riding across bumpy ground).
Over my holiday this year, I have reflected on how I used to interview staff at an Aussie pub I helped run in London. The other manager and I believed the best way to work out if they were a fit, was to interview them 1 night at the bar when we were ‘soft’ working and fill them full of beer.
We reckoned that you got a much better taste of their real self when they were ‘pissed’ than you did at some mock interview. And the truth of the matter was after we did use that style of interview we got a better fit for our pub. It’s called matching people to your individual culture.
At ireckon, culture is as important as at any other workplace. While we do like attitude and creativity, not all people bring it in the same way. Moreover, not all ways are ideal as the organisation evolves either. We need people that fit in our culture today and will add to it.
So how do I preview / post interview potential job candidates?
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Been sold, have the t-shirt and yes I have my new Blackberry Curve.
So not really one to get too hung up over phones it was a tough call on whether to wait and try an iPhone or not. I love the ‘play’ factor with the iPhone, but wasn’t fully convinced it was going to replace my old wee Blackberry as a functioning email device over here in Australia just yet.
If you have seen any of my odd frustrated Tweets about my slowly dying old Blackberry you would know it was time to replace or pull all my hair out. The curve site uses “Brains and Beauty” as the tag lines, of which I have few of either, so I just hoped it had enough for the both of us!
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