Powerpoint - Do's and Dont's

Collection of some great atricles I've read so far:

10/20/30 rule: Guy K
Bona tempora volvantur--by Guy Kawasaki: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

Breaking the habit:Dharmesh Shah

Net-Net: we need an alternative to Powerpoint! Entrepreneurs of the world - help! And be sure to follow read the articles above when you pitch your biz case in PPT :)

HOWTO: streamline sales structure in a complex organization

This link (subscription reqd) talks about HP's Mark Hurd making the changes necessary to streamline a sales structure:

Eliminate unnecessary layers, clarify accountability

Thus began one of Mr. Hurd's biggest management challenges: overhauling H-P's vast corporate sales force. Last July, Mr. Hurd eliminated a sales group that sold a broad portfolio of H-P's products. He divvied up the workers among H-P's PC, printing and corporate-technology businesses to give the salespeople a chance to master the specific products they sell.

Specialization means better sales

H-P's corporate salespeople were responsible for hawking a broad portfolio of products and typically didn't specialize in any one product area. They reported to a group that operated independently of H-P's product-based business units. As a result, the three units also had little control of the sales process -- even though a big part of their budget went to the sales group.

Change compensation structure to include revenues AND MARGINS!!

In November, Mr. Hurd changed how H-P salespeople are compensated. Sales commissions were linked to how much revenue the sales teams generated. But, with his eye on the bottom line, Mr. Hurd also linked commissions to the profitability of the products sold. At the same time, H-P directed salespeople to use just one type of software from Oracle Corp. to track the sales pipeline. That move enabled Mr. Hurd and other executives to get an uncluttered view into the sales deals being chased at any one time.

Limit number of accounts, especially the named accounts

H-P narrowed the number of sales accounts that each salesperson was tied to, with the goal that each person would call on three or fewer accounts.

Consistency in collaboration process

...[conference calls] they occur every Monday, so salespeople could be on the road meeting customers the rest of the week.

From Gizmodo:

We Heart Apple, Bose, and Dell - Gizmodo



Forrester Research has discovered that the top three “trustworthy” electronics manufacturers were Apple, Bose, and Dell. Microsoft scored lowest in both perceived growth and trustiness while Sony is floating somewhere in the middle.

Michael Goldhaber's work is stuff to pay attention to!

The Attention Economy: The Natural Economy of the Net

The Cow in the Ditch: How Anne Mulcahy Rescued Xerox - Knowledge@Wharton

Excerpts from:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1318


Mulcahy, whom Fortune this month named the second most powerful woman in business, nearly didn't have the chance to muse on Wall Street's impatience. When she became Xerox's chief executive in 2000, her company didn't look like it would live long enough to deliver any kind of profits again, whether quarterly or annual.

At the nadir of its troubles, Xerox's cash reserve dwindled to nearly $100 million -- almost nothing for a firm of its size -- while its debt ballooned to almost $19 billion. At the same time, it discovered accounting improprieties in its Mexican subsidiary, setting off a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Customers and employees began to fall away. And all this occurred against the backdrop of a weakening economy. "It was alarming how fast things began to unravel in late 1999 and 2000," she said. "We thought we had coined the term 'Perfect Storm.'"

A cold call to Warren Buffett didn't work as well. Buffett took the call and invited her to dinner in his hometown of Omaha. She flew to Nebraska, aiming to sound him out on investing in Xerox. Her chance came over dinner. When she finished her pitch, Buffett replied, "You know, I never invest in technology companies."

"So I decided we were going to do all of our [profit and loss statements] on a geographic basis. Is it appropriate in this day to have geographic P&Ls? I don't know, but I'll trade off organizational design for clarity and accountability any day of the week. I took out a lot of layers and think it was instrumental in improving performance."

SAP picks up the staff who wander off the Oracle acquisition trail

says Computerworld.

Claiming staff have left in huge numbers from Siebel, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, McBride said SAP has gained plenty of talent from Oracle's long list of acquisitions.

"The SAP ecosystem has been greatly strengthened; we receive an inordinate number of resumes so we are picking up the inside truth," she said.

ex-PeopleSoft execs are doing OK!

Stumbled upon this article that talks about
PeopleSoft diaspora - 2005-08-15.

Here's a sample of Former PeopleSoft executives who've landed on their feet:

Executive, PeopleSoft Job, Current Company, Current Title
Kevin Parker, co-president and CFO, Deltek Systems Inc., CEO
Philip Wilmington, co-president, OutlookSoft Corp., CEO
Guy Dubois, VP-International, Cramer, CEO
Ram Gupta, EVP of products and technology, Plateau Systems, director
Michael Gregoire, EVP, Taleo Inc., CEO
Robin L. Washington, SVP of finance, Tektronix Inc., director
Murray Creighton, SVP-Asia-Pacific, Taleo Inc., Asia VP
James Shaughnessy, general counsel, Lenovo Group, general counsel and SVP
Craig Halliday, president-Japan, Mincom, EVP
Brian Hearing, VP, Authoria Inc., VP
Les Wyatt, VP, Harris Broadcast Communications, VP
Bruce Johnson, VP, Certus, CEO
Heidi Melin, VP of marketing services, Hyperion Solutions, chief marketing officer
Kevin Horigan, VP of Public Services, OutlookSoft, SVP
Kara Wilson, VP of marketing/communicatins, Network General Corp., chief marketing officer
Paul Pronsati, VP of operations, Taleo Inc., operations VP
Bill Hewitt, VP of global marketing, Novell Inc., SVP and chief marketing officer
Gary Conway, VP of corporate marketing, Nextel (Sprint Corp.), marketing VP

MVNO woes


The recent happenings in the MVNO world is mystifying - continued investment for the same demographic and the same piece of pie. As Om points out here, it apparently talks at least $500m to even begin investment in this area.

Wonder how much of that costs can be reduced by an MVNE such as Visage?

Build-it-yourself cell phones

Tired of waiting for phones to work like you want them to? Look no further!

Ray Ozzie Memo

One of the foremost software thinkers of our time changing the course of one the most important companies in the history of software.

Here it is - uncut!

Enjoy.

Breaking News: Microsoft will offer Office as a service


From the WSJ:

Microsoft Corp. is creating online services coupled with its two major software lines -- Windows and Office -- that are designed to open new opportunities for the company to sell subscriptions or advertising associated with its software.

The offerings include Office Live, an online version of its Office suite of business productivity applications. The service is designed to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to set up and maintain Office than it is today.

This is a direct response to Google+Sun, which Larry Page declined.

In another thrust, Microsoft plans to offer elements of its MSN online service to Windows users under an online service called Windows Live. The Windows Live service will house Microsoft's Messenger instant-messaging service, a new Web mail service dubbed Kahuna and Microsoft Spaces, the company's service for creating the online postings known as Web logs, or blogs"

This seems like a resurgence of Active Desktop circa IE 4.0?

Halloween Mind Teaser

A buddy sent me this link.

Can you find the 3 differences in these two pictures? I have only found 2 so far.


Happy Halloween!

Hype!

A few months ago, I plunged into a new world of communications. Immediately folks I worked with threw jargons at me - SIP, Wi-Max/Wi-fi, IMS, IPTV, VoD and on...

This article on LightReading does a good job of demystifying the hype and reality.

VoIP Investments

Om comments here that (VoIP) Forecast Calls For Pain VoIP revenues per Frost & Sullivan are peaking at $4B by 2010.

I agree with the assessment that VoIP will continue to be a second line and not a primary replacement of the PSTN line unless bundled in some form of a triple play offering. The only fly in the ointment here is that Comcast (very visionary) has although rightly put this as a phone service (not a VoIP service), they continue to charge a price premium than a Vonage which does not make sense.

True value from triple plays is by offering new services - not just consolidated billing - to justify the price premium.

Management gets analytical, and why IT needs to wake up


Amazing that how the same principles apply to large and small companies. HP's Mark Hurd has a candid interview here. Guess what I like - start with the end goal (3 year plan), work backwards, put metrics in place and then go from there. Funny how matrix structures have a way of destroying accountability, strategic thinkers devoid of execution and lack of appreciation of systems.

I used feel back for IT folks complaining about business users, but now I see why - the problem is on both sides.

IT treat business users are a necessary "pain-in-the-ass" constantly demanding change just when everything is "stable", so they retaliate by making things as hard as possible, like punching in a 5 digit code before every non-local call.

Reality is that there is an awareness problem. IT people - get out of your cubes and sit with the business users.Spend time understanding how users use tech, and help them. Then see how the appreciation flows your way. Good luck!

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog ? Telecom’s continuing death spiral

Ran into Larry Grey of Grey Sparling PeopleSoft Expert's Corner in San Ramon yesterday. He's started a company called Grey Sparling Solutions Inc. with a couple of ex-PeopleSofters.

The classic pattern of all new companies is to include some form of blogging as connectors to the marketplace, and Im glad to see Larry starting off the right way. Pick these guys if you are a PeopleSoft customer and want to continue to leverage your investment with additional innovation in 8.4x, 9x be damned!

So you got a raise?

Hilarious!
Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!

Think of men as hunters and women as farmers in India?

Read the autobiography of Sudha Murthy, the "real" founder of Infosys...
WWW
Nithin on ? Story of Narayana Murthy And Sudha

Infosys loses sales head, 4 others to follow

Per this report
CIOL : Executive Track : Basab Pradhan quits Infosys