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Hot Right Now II: Wearable Computing

Mar 092015

Initially announced in September of 2014, Apple today took the veils off Apple Watch. Unofficially dubbed the iWatch, the Apple Watch was shown off today by Apple CEO Tim Cook in San Francisco. The Apple Watch will be available to pre-order on April 10th and available to buy starting April 24th. Apple retail staff are being coached on how to couple the watch with iPhones.

While expectations are high for any product unleashed from the Apple labs, there is extra pressure on Cook and the Apple designers as far as Apple Watch is concerned. It is the first completely new product by the company since the death of Apple co-founder, and Cook’s predecessor, Steve Jobs. It has been four years since then.

In his presentation Cook cited the health apps, ‘tap’ communication capability and its appearance.

Coincidentally, Apple Watch is reminiscent and nods to Blackberry in 2 ways:

1- Like the early Blackberry PlayBook the Apple Watch relies on being paired to an iPhone for much of its functionality.

2- Apple has introduced a Gold Edition of its watch. Many may know that Blackberry has had a series of gold and gold plated high-end phones.

Here is the line-up of Apple Watches:

Apple Watch Sport, 38mm: $349 (US)

Apple Watch Sport, 42mm: $399 (US)

Sapphire and steel Apple Watch 38mm: $549 – $1049 (US), pries depend of the wrist band picked

Sapphire and steel Apple Watch 42mm: $599 – $1099 (US) and

Gold Apple Watch Edition: starting at $10,000

Likely the Apple Watch will soon be untethered and upgraded by Apple, but in the meantime what do you think of Apple’s latest “revolutionary” products?

Not Hot Right Now: Wearable Computing

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Jan 162015

2014 seemed to be the year that Wearable Computing would truly take off. Manufacturers like Google, Apple, Samsung and Sony were looking for leadership mindshare and revenue dividend in the fledgling market.

http://www.alighaemi.com/wp/?p=1645

As it often happens, hype and hyperbole dominated the market. While major projects and product announcements have come to naught, it is the smaller and less spectacular advances which have actually been market successes. Wearable devices with simpler and more focused functions (like for joggers’ heart rates, steps, balance, etc.) have become ordinary while watch-computers have not. Fujitsu has just announced a product, called FUJITSU Vehicle ICT FEELythm, which monitors drivers for pulse waves and nerve activity and warns them in case they are dozing off. Here it is: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2015/0119-02.html.

Case in point: Google has cancelled the manufacture and sale of the vaunted Google Glass.

True to corporate form the corporation is describing the move as ‘growing up’ and that the product will be back, but reading between the lines is simple. Not only the product and its price point of $1,500 did not reach critical mass given a lack of utility and application, but many bars, restaurants and cinemas had actually banned the device. Google Glass has moved out of the X division and not be considered a cutting edge undertaking. Whether it would actually come back is to be seen.

Google Glass

Whatever the case, it is undoubtedly a setback for Google and the wearable computing segment.

Hiring A Sales Manager From Within – The Internal Promotion Conundrum

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Dec 192014

When it comes time to choose a new sales manager one of the topics most discussed and considered is whether to hire internally or go outside.

On the one hand, companies need to provide a career path for their employees. Most companies have team leaders or salespeople who aspire to leading and managing teams of their own. Addressing those motivations and maintaining seniority or meritocracy are valid considerations. On the other hand, companies often feel the need to hire from outside to acquire a certain skillset and experience that is not immediately available within.

The most heated discussion happens when a successful salesperson aspires to or is about to be promoted into management. There is plenty of literature out there warning against hiring the best salesperson into a leadership role – and let’s be frank many do not do it simply because they do not want to lose the wins the salesperson brings in. There are also plenty of reasons (like career paths, motivation, respect, keeping knowledge and expertise from walking out of the door) to promote the person from within.

Personally, I have both been promoted from within and been hired into an organization as a manager. At times it was a difficult transition, but it worked out at the end. Having said that, hindsight is 20/20.

Salespeople, very successful ones anyway, are tireless, motivated, single-minded, hungry and do not give up. Not every salesperson on every team answers perfectly to that description. As I have written often a decent manager is flexible, sees and understand diversity and gives plenty of room to making the circle whole by responding to different direct reports’ needs and aspirations.

Will a single-minded salesperson make that transition into a successful sales manager? Maybe and maybe not. Then again, it is hardly guaranteed that an outside person would be a successful hire. Rule of thumb remains: hire a good proportion from within and supplement it at all times with fresh blood to allow the latest and greatest seep into the department from outside.

Back to the internal promotion however. This new manager may be operating at two extremes with his or her new team. At the one end is choking the team with micromanagement and pressure. Experience (correctly) tells the new manager that hard work and intensity pay off. The manager demands to see that from the team. At the other end, the manager gives the team too much leeway and operates too often on faith. After all, the salesperson was self-motivated and went out there and made things happen. It would not be strange to expect that the sales team would act in the same way.

Again and again, we come back to keeping an open mind, understanding people and being flexible in approaching different people on the team in unique and personalized manners. That is the reality of sales teams and the material any manager must work with.

By the way, there is no other way. The sales team is now responsible for selling. The manager will be consulted and brought in. The manager will inspect and advise. The manager will become an escalation point and shoulder to cry on, but at the end of the day the manager cannot be the one doing the selling and must let go of the act of leading the sale to customers. It is obviously imperative that the manager quickly figure out what the motley of characters and personalities on the team need to make it happen.

*Things That Need To Go Away: not helping by putting them in the wrong position.

A Personal Value Statement Or Summary – In Addition To The Résumé

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Nov 152014

Do you want to ramp up your job search and potentially improve your chances at obtaining an interview? Consider creating a personal Value Statement or Value Summary to be sent and shared with your résumé.

Traditionally, the résumé is meant to get you an interview, while the actual meeting will allow you to progress to the next level to obtain the job.

Consider going the extra mile and incorporating the experience, skills and accomplishments you would convey at the interview in a Value Statement you would include and provide early on with your résumé.

It allows the hiring manager to expressly read what one hopes the résumé would convey. Moreover, it might even serve as practice for the actual interview conversation.

The content of the Value Statement would differ based on the résumé, experience and nature of the position of course; however, below is a technical sales sample of categories that need to be filled in with specifics.

Sales Strategy (specifics are the sales process)
External Customer Management (progress, commonality, building trust and commonality)
Internal Customer Management (working with colleagues and departments within the organization)
Relevant Industry knowledge (value propositions for SIC, Key Business Requirements and outcomes in targeted industries or product field)
Business Acumen (timeliness, sympathy and care for customers, prospects and other people, propriety and EQ)
Technical Acumen (knowledge of product, solution or other tools needed to do the job or mandated to be taught to others)

If You Cannot Beat Them…

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Jun 022014

After years of competition and mutual slagging what is left for Microsoft and Salesforce.com to do?

Why, make nice and “partner” of course.

In the past, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has opined that Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 8 is going to be the “end of Windows.” Windows 8 would render Windows “irrelevant.” Benioff’s pokes at Microsoft have only been second to his jabs at his mentor and investor Larry Ellison and Oracle.

Benioff recent opinion of Microsoft: “follower, not a leader.”

So, naturally, it comes as no surprise that that the two companies have… banded together. “We are excited to partner with Salesforce.com and help customers thrive in a mobile and cloud-first world,” said Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella. Salesforce.com will be available and compatible with use on Microsoft’s Surface tablets and Windows mobile phones.

Salesforce.com access and compatibility will be written into Microsoft’s Cloud Office Suite, Windows 365. The move should not be surprising. Nadella was hired to and has promised to further reorient Microsoft to the Cloud Computing movement. Microsoft has taken great strides in this arena with the aforementioned O365, Windows Azure and cloud versions of its other products. More recently Microsoft has announced an Office Suite for Apple’s industry-leading tablet, ipad.

The public and analysts seem to have forgotten that Microsoft and application developer SAP have a long-standing development and interoperability agreement. SAP apps are being written for Microsoft’s Azure environment, while the Duet Enterprise agreement has allowed SAP applications to connect to Microsoft solutions like SharePoint.

Several questions come to mind.

1- What does this deal say about the status of Microsoft CRM within Microsoft and the CRM world? Unit lead Kirill Tartarinov insists MS CRM is here to stay, but he would say that, wouldn’t he? Nonetheless, it is true that the only CRM offering that has slowed down Salesforce.com in recent years has been Microsoft’s and the product is one of several that are sold as a SAAS offering. Yet, rumours that Microsoft will abandon the low-margin application business have been around for years.

2- Will this deal cheapen Microsoft’s competitive brand in the Cloud by officially yielding leadership to Salesforce.com or be proof of Microsoft’s new age of ‘Cloud first’ thinking?

3- Is this deal even worth discussion in the first place? The fact that Salesforce.com is a Cloud visionary and Benioff and Nadella met in person suggests significance. Having said that, who remembers this Agreement?

Hot Right Now: Wearable Computing

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Apr 202014

Some of you may know that in the United States Google has begun selling its Google Glass to the public. After limiting it to a select number of testers and developers Google Glass was made available to the public this month – albeit for now in a flash sale – for $1,500 (US). The wearable device comes with Terms Of Service. Google Glass

As innovative as the Android-powered device is it is not the first such device.

In 2011, Microsoft had The Printing Dress. One could change and personalize the dress’ message or typeface. Microsoft’s The Printing Dress

Sony has been selling an Android wrist watch called Sony SmartWatch. Sony’s SmartWatch

These are not the only games in town however. Not to be outdone by mega corporations independent researchers and entrepreneurs have also jumped into the fray.

There is the AgencyGlass. Dr. Hirotaka Osawa of the University Of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan has developed a wearable device called AgencyGlass, which always projects an interested or happy eye contact. It is aimed at the employee who has to consistently interact with customers of co-workers. AgencyGlass

If all of this is decidedly too hi-tech for your personal needs or preferences there is always the Weibo ‘Wang Shou-Ying.’ Her ‘keyboard hat’ (scroll down to the middle of the page) is as technologically advanced as she allows her creations to be. Wang Shou-Ying

Rivalry, Dominance, Catching Up, Keeping Up And… Cat Fights!

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Apr 022014

Today Microsoft did what it was forced to do. It made Windows for mobile devices, with screen sizes of less than nine inches diagonally, free of charge. Microsoft acted both shrewdly and desperately by joining Google’s Android operating system in conferring its operating system for mobiles free to licensees.

Microsoft made the announcement at its Build developers’ conference in San Francisco in tandem with the announcement of the Beta version of Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft is offering a newer, and presumably better, product at no cost.

Microsoft first launched the current iteration of its operating system for mobile telephones in October of 2010. According to IDC, Windows Phone finished 2013 with a 3.2% market share for smart phones. The numbers would be even lower were all mobile telephones taken into account. In other words, Microsoft is all but invisible in the mobile world. Google’s Android holds a 76% market share. Apple’s iOS holds a 14% market share. Microsoft is neck and neck – or rather ankle to ankle – with Blackberry. Matters are worse considering how Microsoft paid $7.2 billion (US) for Nokia just over six months ago.

Microsoft had to do something to change the facts on the ground. The reality is that not only Microsoft is not registering on the mobile platforms, but also with the advent and growth of mobile devices its domination of operating systems overall is very much threatened. By some accounts Google is now the number one operating system provider in the world.

Microsoft has joined Google in providing its operating system freely to licensees in order to
Compete with Google and Android
Penetrate the consumer market, which Windows Phone has all along been aimed at

Nullify the anti-competitive effect of its purchase of a hardware maker (Nokia) on the very licensees it aims to (re)attract, namely Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony.

It is worth remembering that this would fundamentally be a risky move and negative precedent were this any other category of software. Unlike Google, Microsoft is actually a software company and relies on its endless lines of code for revenue. Having said that, Windows Phone is a mere footnote in Microsoft’s annual earnings’ statements. Additionally, and contextually, in 1995 Microsoft entered and dominated the web browser market in the same way. While the dominant Netscape was for sale Microsoft entered the browser market by offering its variety for free. The difference is that this time Microsoft is not competing against a for-profit organization, but is competing against a free operating system. As a side-note, Google’s Chrome is also the market share leader in browsers. In a bout of pragmatism, Microsoft’s Nokia unit is also offering an Android telephone.

Elsewhere, in Microsoft mobile announcements 8.1 also includes the beginning of a catfight with Cortana, a rival to Apple’ Siri, Android’s Google Now Skyvi/Iris, Blackberry’s Vlingo and the many other independent applications out there. The catch/trump card for Cortana is that it is powered by Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Windows 8.1 will also come with an Action Center akin to Blackberry Hub.

The software, like 8.1, is now in Beta and due for release later this spring.

http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2014/04/02/cortana-yes-and-many-many-other-great-features-coming-in-windows-phone-8-1.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/apr14/04-02build2014pr.aspx

http://www.nokia.com/global/products/phone/nokia-x/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

(Did You Know?) Adobe Sells Cloud Marketing Software

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Mar 262014

Let me take it upon myself. The ignorance is mine, I suppose. Did you know Adobe owns and markets cloud-based marketing software?

There is sarcasm in the preceding sentence of course, but the lack of awareness might be as much a weakness as strength. After all, Adobe’s publishing software and web content being so strong and de facto standard that anything else the company does is supressed in comparison. Ironically, Adobe’s marketing has always been strong given its ubiquitous presence and leadership in its space.

This post, however, is about the announcement that SAP and Adobe have come together and SAP will re-sell the Adobe suite.

First, Marketing Software is especially hot and SAP is trying to keep up. Oracle has scooped up Eloqua and Responsys.

Salesforce.com has been punching above its weight and picked up Buddy Media and ExactTarget.

SAP too picked up Swiss e-commerce and marketing firm Hybris last year. Adobe’s commerce platform is to be re-sold by SAP and probably be adapted to the in-memory HANA technology. It all sounds good, but is this a change of pace for SAP – to re-sell instead of develop or acquire – or even anything substantive? After all, Bell Canada resells Cisco and Microsoft’s cloud products? I doubt whether these agreements register on any of these company’s earnings statements. Does anyone remember how Salesforce.com and Intuit partnered two years ago to offer each other’s customers applications for CRM and financials respectively? Imagine the potential for the leaders in front-end and back-end solutions for SMB to come together and compare said possibility to the whimper.

Time will tell if this is another press release-only statement or something more substantive. In the meantime, Adobe sells marketing software.

http://global.sap.com/news-reader/index.epx?category=ALL&articleID=22584&searchmode=C&page=1&pageSize=10

http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-marketing.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/03/31/intuit-salesforce-com-team-up-to-target-small-businesses/

The Ten Bullet Points Of Sales Coaching (As Part Of Sales Management)

Articles, Management 2 Comments »

Mar 202014

Whether your organization is sophisticated enough to have systematic sales training and learning for its salespeople or budget for occasional education inevitably, routinely and necessarily the sales manager has a role in coaching the sales team.

Sales managers are tasked with running the department and ensuring sales success. There is a core numbers and revenue aspect to the role. However, earnest and forward looking managers give attention to the team’s sales coaching.

This is easier said than done. Time is always an issue. There is not ever enough time in the day. There are multiple priorities. The numbers need attention, reports need to be created, understood and presented. Someone else could do it. It can wait, so on and so forth. And it is all true.

Nevertheless, sales managers need to make time for training. Here are ten bullet points on coaching in sales:

1- Allocating time to sales coaching is not neglecting the numbers. Coaching salespeople is elevating the numbers.

2- Coaching is not conducted in one way. It includes listening, asking questions, listening to answers and explanations, offering praise and understanding.

3- Coaching is better when conducted in progressive steps. If it is new or has been omitted for a while it is best that the ‘first’ time is dedicated purely to listening and open-minded learning. Only on second and third appointments the sales manager/coach may venture into offering feedback and actual training. The velocity and progression depends on the salesperson.

4- Attach coaching points to numbers and objective goals.

5- Create a schedule and stick to it. This is a matter of discipline and necessity. More importantly, it creates a non-confrontational atmosphere where coaching is part of the process and the job and not tied to any potential or recent missteps or weak achievements.

6- Allocate time for an exchange right after the side-by-side, conference call, meeting or customer visit. The points are fresh and one is not relying merely on notes and memory. Feedback and coaching happens here. Be as detailed as possible.

7- Different salespersons have different perspectives, strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledge them by stating them and working with them.

9- What is the plan now? There has to be actionable items between now and the next scheduled session. Have it in writing and share with the salesperson. A review of this should also be the starting point of the next scheduled coaching opportunity.

10- Commit to coaching and do not shortchange the time or process.

Do not miss:

Sales training is also motivational: http://www.alighaemi.com/wp/?p=459

One size does not fit all: http://www.alighaemi.com/wp/?p=266

Privacy On The Internet

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Mar 032014

One of the ironies of the Internet age and the subscription of the connected masses to Social Networking sites has been that surveys show that people want more privacy and increasingly understand the value of their information, while at the same time signing on to more social sites and sharing even more information in different formats like updates, audio, video, etc.

The reason is in plain sight. People like the features of Social Networking sites and what they offer, but simultaneously want their data to be private, protected and to retain control.

Here is an article and a video that are worth reading or viewing.

1- Ray Kurzweil, the director of engineering at Google, believes that his employer will soon know you even better than your spouse. By improving contextual understanding and interpreting the meanings behind what people are saying and doing on the Internet Google believes it will soon know you better than your life partner.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/robots-google-ray-kurzweil-terminator-singularity-artificial-intelligence

2- On a more light-hearted note, but certainly more immediate and no less sinister, here is a YouTube video that is food for thought.

Spooky Privacy Experiment

And yes, Google will know, and remember, you watched it (perhaps it is better to skip it then).

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