Effectiveness | Let Alone the Extra Mile

Effectiveness has been given a ludicrously simple, easy-to-understand definition in this blog as "getting the effect." If you can, do be clear about the effect you want to live with at the end of your effort. If you cannot, at least you should monitor the effect you are getting or leaving on others.

Whatever you do, you leave effects. If these effects are undesirable, unwarranted, then you get negative effectiveness. You effectively make enemies and drive away your customers.

"Go the extra mile," exhorts Andrew Carnegie.
These days, many businesses refuse to go even the last necessary mile.
Let alone the extra mile.

IKEA is DIY. That is fine because people are familiar with those pieces of furniture. Even for new, unfamiliar ones, they still have visual, easy-to-follow instructions. Even without such instructions, when pieces are few in number, people can still figure out which piece goes with which and so on.

You can open a Gmail, Yahoo mail, hotmail account in minutes.
You can make a Blogger, Wordpress blog in minutes.
You can open a Facebook, Myspace, Ning, Basecamp account in minutes too.
Yes, that's why they are there, at the top, with millions of users.

Can you say the same for certain mobile phones, home theatres, office softwares, even some sophisticated bikes?

If you are a retailer, will you sell someone a hand phone that s/he cannot set up by herself?
Will you sell them home entertainment systems that they have no clue about?
Will you sell them those office softwares that they won't be able to install?

Will you say that the clueless mustn't come to your shops?

If they cannot do stuffs for themselves, do they have some service or professionals to serve them?
If they don't, do you provide such services?

This is not the extra mile that Andrew Carnegie talked about.
This is the last necessary mile that a shop like BEST BUY is doing: "Geek Squad," "Walk Out Working."
Geek Squad install stuffs for you at your home, you walk out of their store with your newly bought phones working, etc. The effects : BEST BUY's competitors have gone out of business.


This represents a gold mine of opportunities for us to exploit.

NB. I left out dozens of quotes and examples not to clutter this post.

Innovation Seminars --- 3 - My Credentials

January 16, 2012

I was very innovative in Myanmar.

But let's just say, "That doesn't count." I agree, it's a totally different planet and a totally different existence.

So, let's just talk about what I can easily show you evidence of. I will limit the evidence to Singapore and to where I failed. I choose those situations where I failed not because I lack things to boast about but because I don't want to sound boastful. If I innovate even in failures, just imagine what I would do where/when I do well.

1. I envisioned popular Wing Chun classes in Singapore. In 2001. That hasn't happened yet. It may take about another decade.
2. I envisioned Bitnami Stacks.
3. I envisioned XAMPP, WAMPP.
4. I envisioned Amazon Web Services(AWS). That hasn't happened yet. It may take about 3 or 4 more years.

For these claims, you can ask Wing Chun instructors in Singapore, and my former colleagues at Crimsonlogic and Firium Solutions (Asia-Pacific).

Most likely, they will say:

1. I was no visionary.
2. I expect or ask for help a lot.
3. I had difficulty in what was child play for them. Here is the key that will unlock your company's future riches. What I want you to do will be child play for you. BEAUTIFUL, isn't it? As I've said, I was innovating even in these failures!

I envisioned Bitnami

"zip", "tar", "jar", "war" ... I didn't know these terms when I arrived in Singapore in 2001.
"classpath", "WEB-INF" ... I didn't know them either.
To run any software that our company was developing, certain pieces must be in certain places on my development PC.

When these pieces and places became a few too many, I whined and asked around: "Can't you just send me a zip? ... I'll just unzip that into the 1 folder whatever you call, and everything works, right? ... Can you pack all pieces in 1 zip?"

It's a newbie's wailing. But it is also 100% description of Bitnami Stacks!

Bitnami Stacks works like this:

1. Download Bitnami Djangostack installer/zip.
2. Double click it. Unpack it into the "/opt" folder.
3. Everything works.

I envisioned XAMPP, WAMPP, LAMPP

It is the same with Bitnami. I hated downloading dozens or jars for Java XML development, installing dozens of gems for Ruby development.

Now, XAMPP/LAMPP works like this:

1. Download the XAMPP/LAMPP zip.
2. Double click it. Unpack it into the "/opt" folder.
3. Everything works.

I envisioned AWS

Is that as easy as Google App Engine?

Or are both of them as easy as FTP or as email?

It's going to take both Amazon and Google a few more years to get there.

I envisioned popular Wing Chun classes

Well, I rest my case.
You should partner with "difficult," "demanding", "sophisticated", (or, in my case,) "dumb" customers to innovate, some gurus say.

Many customers are using these services

"Rabbit feels the rage, tiger feels pity, dragon feels the pain,"(as usual, I am quoting a weird source). Google it yourself if you dare ;-)

Only does a wood dragon feel such pain?

The wood dragon is the most creative of dragons, it will find ways and means to (ah, not solve) bypass!

Other customers will vote with their feet as well as with their wallet.

This is the last of Innovation Seminar Series. "USD 10,000 per week" is extremely cheap. You have seen my credentials.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!