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September 30, 2003

Out of Brand Alignment?

Steven Overman, director of strategic effectiveness at Jack Morton Worldwide, recently wrote an insightful article about what he terms the "seven heuristics of brand-aligned organizations." Brand alignment is basically the balance of employees' and leaders' connections to organizational goals and how those goals are reflected by the practices projected to partners and customers. Overman's tactics and tips provide a handy roadmap that touches on the elements of brand clarity, coherence, and control:

• Brand from the inside out
• Engage everyone
• Catalyze conversation
• Be local
• Connect it to strategy
• Think systemically
• Engender empathy

Posted by Heath Row at 4:21 PM | Add Comment

Stats Attack

File under news you can't use? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans buy almost 3 billion dry-cell batteries every year to power cell phones, laptops, power tools, and other electronics.

I don't really know how to use that information, but I do know this: That's a lot of batteries.

Posted by Heath Row at 3:18 PM | 2 Comments

Office Surprise

Having just read Steve Barth's recent column about reorganizing your workspace, the new catalog from Topdeq could not have hit my in box at a worse time. Or more opportune.

Dealing in "European design for the American office," the office furniture and accessories retailer specializes in highly designed items created by Philippe Starck, Max Bill, Markus Beer, Norman Foster, Pierre Cardin, and many others. Flipping through the catalog is a fun office-redesign fantasy -- and an extremely tempting browsing experience. My stapler has never looked so mundane.

Posted by Heath Row at 2:32 PM | Add Comment

Placing Productivity

In his column in the October issue of KM World, Steve Barth describes his recent efforts to reorganize and redesign his workplace. The report on his progress hit some buttons with me: "There is a point at which a messy desk becomes a barrier to clear thinking -- not to mention a fire hazard."

Drawing some inspiration from a 2002 essay by Don Norman about emotion and design, Steve considers what settings are conducive to certain kinds of work -- and set up his office accordingly.

It's a useful exercise. Where do you do your best work? How do you work differently when you're in your office, a meeting, in a hotel, or at an airport?

Posted by Heath Row at 2:16 PM | Add Comment

Re:Conference II

Company of Friends member Renee Hopkins recently confblogged the Innovation Convergence gathering in Minneapolis.

Her report touches on the difference between creativity and innovation, how to calculate the return on innovation, idea management, and the role of the CEO. There's some useful material there, and Renee plans to post more as her notes gel. Thanks for being our eyes and ears!

Posted by Heath Row at 1:13 PM | Add Comment

Moving Beyond Ugly

The battle between PeopleSoft and Oracle is getting uglier. Now that they're in the discovery stage, PeopleSoft has been given permission to search a computer... that's on one of Larry Ellison's boats... that's currently anchored in the Mediterranean. In return, PeopleSoft has to give up some emails it had previously deemed "company secrets."

I think it's been a while since one of these hostile takeovers became so much like a particularly messy divorce, complete with a grumpy judge who already seems tired of the childish behavior of the litigants.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 1:01 PM | 1 Comment

Surveying the Landscape

The Families and Work Institute released its 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce today. Surveying large, nationally representative samples of employed workers every five years, it is the only study of its kind to provide 25-year comparisons, from 1977 to 2002, of life on and off the job. The 2002 report addresses women in the workforce, dual earner couples, the role of technology, work-life support, and free agency.

Among the highlights:

• Women are more likely to work as managers or professionals than men (38% of women versus 28% of men) and are better educated, with 62% of women versus 56% of men having completed four-year college or some post-secondary education.
• Fathers in dual-earner couples today spend 42 minutes more doing household chores on workdays than fathers in 1977. Mothers have reduced their time by approximately the same amount. The combined time that spouses in dual-earner couples with children spend on household chores has not changed over 25 years -- what has changed is how family work is divided.
• Nearly two thirds of wage and salaried workers use computers for their jobs daily. Employees who experience the most spillover from their jobs into their home lives rely most heavily on technology to stay in touch with friends and family.
• Employees with families report significantly higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than employees 25 years ago (45% vs. 34% report this "some" or "a lot"). And men with families report higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than women in the same situation.
• One in five employed people work for themselves. 30% of those workers are small business owners, and 70% are self-employed independents -- or free agents.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:56 PM | Add Comment

The Ongoing Evolution of Revolution II

In response to a previous FC Now entry, reader and Wharton MBA student Ryan says, "The health care industry's inability to meet its customers' needs seems to present a lucrative opportunity. But how it would be implemented is beyond me."

Let's brainstorm. How could it be implemented? Add a comment, and let's see what we come up with.

Posted by Heath Row at 8:34 AM | 2 Comments

Stress Much?

Doug Hall mentions an interesting DDB Needham Life Style Study that indicates that the number of people who feel that they are "under a great deal of pressure most of the time" has grown from 40% in 1975 to 72% in 1996. His advice for business people?

• Think of stress reduction as a tangible benefit.
• Make it easier to find out about, try, use and purchase your offering.
• Eliminate needless complexity and reduce meaningless product and service options.

How else can we reduce stress in the workplace -- and for our customers?

Posted by Heath Row at 8:28 AM | 2 Comments

September 29, 2003

Do-Not-Call List No Longer on Hold?

The back-and-forth waffling seems to be over. President Bush signed the do-not-call list into law today, paving the way for the FTC to establish the directory as planned -- and the FCC to enforce penalties because of recent federal judicial orders. We'll see if this sticks. I'm getting tired of the can call/can't call back and forth.

Thanks to FC Now reader Jon Strande for the pointer.

Posted by Heath Row at 4:50 PM | Add Comment

Thanks for Contributing

Many thanks to our book club host Charles Decker, who last week became our first special guest contributor to FC Now. The discussion prompted by Charles's posts brought out some interesting and empassioned debate.

Look for more special contributors in the near future.

As we promised, five randomly selected FC Now readers who commented on posts last week will receive complimentary, signed copies of Beans: Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad, co-authored by club host Charles Decker.

The winners are: Anwar Haneef, Mark Heyert, Earl Gray, Jeremy Pound, and Henry Neely.

Thanks to all who have contributed thoughtful and insightful comments in the past, and look for more promotions like this in the future.

If you haven't yet cast your vote for December's book club selection, come vote today, time's running out before the final vote is tallied.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 4:46 PM | Add Comment

Blame It on Microsoft II

David Byrne loves PowerPoint. Edward Tufte loathes it. And Cheryl Dahle suggests that there's more to off-site and planning meetings than slide shows and white boards. Plenty of parallel reads!

Posted by Heath Row at 3:36 PM | Add Comment

Blame It on Microsoft

Yes, Powerpoint presentations are a disaster. And in this article in today's NY Times, The Level of Discourse Continues to Slide, Dan Leach, who's responsible for PowerPoint at Microsoft, and should know better, says, "I feel like the guy who makes canvas and the No. 2 green viridian paint. I'm being asked to comment on the art show."

In fact, the main reason Powerpoint is so bad is that the program tries to force you to be bad. All of the autofill and template features encourage slide shows that are filled with bullets. The fact that you can't have a tiny teleprompter on your screen while your slides on the big screen encourages you to read every word on the page.

Both problems are easy to solve, but Microsoft appears to be too lazy to push upstream. As a result, we're doomed to yet another really bad powerpoint.

The answer?
1. Ban the software. Make people talk from the heart and then allow them to hand out their slides or a memo.
2. Ban bullets*. Let your people feature images or charts on the slides, but, c'mon, bullets are for the NRA.

*(he says as he types in numbered bullets!)

Posted by at 3:18 PM | 15 Comments

Giving It Your Just-Less-Than-Best Shot II

FC Now readers have been responding to the post earlier today about only making an 80% effort instead of insisting on perfection. Here are some of the highlights so far:

Carson: If we are currently aiming for 100% and regularly ending up with 80%, wouldn't it stand to reason that aiming for 80% would cause us to end up somewhere below 80%? I'm for shooting for 100%, but understanding that falling short isn't failure.

Allen: We should always aim for a 100%, but remember that as you move forward toward the goal, evaluate how you are doing. There will be times when an adjustment or complete change of course is needed. Abandoning a direction, project, or method of problem solving is just as valid a decision as forging ahead. Being open to change is the key to innovation and survival in business as well as in life in general.

Posted by Heath Row at 2:45 PM | Add Comment

The Urge to Converge

As a followup to the previous entry about divergent thinking, today's edition of the InnovationNetwork's email newsletter touches on convergent thinking as a problem-solving method.

Convergence can help make sense of an overwhelming number of possibilities to narrow down choices to make an intelligent decision. Here are five action principles:

• Sort Ideas need to be grouped into meaningful categories.
• Order Possibilities can be ranked against pre-established criteria to create an order of preference.
• Adapt Once likely possibilities have been identified, they can be expanded and adapted to create even better ideas.
• Refine Likely possibilities need to be bullet proofed to find the weak spots and possible failure points.
• Select Ideas are only ideas until they are implemented, and to be implemented, they need to be "owned."

Posted by Heath Row at 10:03 AM | 1 Comment

The Things We Carry

At a recent Lunch Sparks workshop, members of the Houston CoF chapter participated in an interesting activity: the Purse Test.

Basically, this entails emptying your purse -- or briefcase or messenger bag -- and reassessing what you really need to carry with you every day. You can also make connections between what's in your bag and analyze what the items mean in terms of your work life, habits, and goals.

What do you carry to work every day? What does it mean about your work style? What could you leave behind?

Posted by Heath Row at 9:42 AM | Add Comment

Giving It Your Just-Less-Than-Best Shot

In a recent email sent to the Entrepreneurship & Small Business Company of Friends group, Peter Rees shares some information on the 80% Approach. Quoting materials from the Strategic Coach, Peter says:

You need light to drive a car, but you wouldn't drive by looking into the sun. Likewise, approaching a project with a 100% focus is a sure way to blind yourself. Chances are that you'll never evaluate your first results as 100%. What's more, you'll learn things on the way to your first results that open up possibilities and refinements you couldn't see when you started out. So even if you aim for 100%, you're never going to get it. This is a cause of many people's dissatisfaction and disillusionment. So what should you do? Go for 80%.

80% is more than mediocre. Aiming for 80% isn't settling for mediocrity for three reasons:

• 80% is better than nothing.
• You can have more than one 80%.
• There's no such thing as 100%.

What do you think? Is 100% success impossible to achieve? Should we aim low?

Posted by Heath Row at 9:21 AM | 11 Comments

September 27, 2003

Let's All Put the Do-Not-Call List on Hold

The simple way to win the skirmish over the do-not-call list (ABCNEWS.com : Embattled Do-Not-Call List Placed on Hold) is this: Whenever a telemarketer calls, answer with enthusiasm and put them on hold.

If we spread the word about this strategy, the industry will give up. With tiny margins, they can't afford the loss in productivity if only 10% of us are able to put the callers on endless hold.

Posted by at 7:34 AM | 8 Comments

September 26, 2003

FC Book Club - Use the Tools

While I have been talking a lot this week about the magazine's new book club, it occurs to me that many of you might want to know a little more about the five books you'll be voting on. What makes them special? What new points do they make? How can you use them to make your worklife a bit more enjoyable?

Bob Rosner has been writing a popular syndicated column called Working Wounded for several years now. His new book, Gray Matters, combines the irreverence for which he is known with a clever comic-book-style guide to navigating the rough waters of the workplace. It may be one of the few business books able to foster a serious dialogue between senior managers and their Gen-Xer staffs. Those don't come along every day.

It was actually the subtitle of The Map of Innovation that got to me: Creating Something Out of Nothing. How many times have we been asked to do just that, either to come up with a marketing plan in 20 minutes or to create the next big craze in ten days? The author of this book isn't another consultant but someone who has started a number of successful businesses, including DoubleClick. His well-told story about creativity and innovation has lessons for all of us.

There seems to be no end to the number of books preaching work-life balance, but Take Back Your Time means business. This collection of call-to-action essays about America's battle with time poverty will have you thinking twice next time you're forced to "multitask" just to get the basics done. The editor is the national coordinator of the Take Back Your Time Day, an event scheduled for October 24, when we will have already worked as many hours as our European colleagues will put in for the entire year. Just reading that makes me mad as hell!

I started Kara Swisher's hilarious take on AOL's takeover of Time Warner, There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere, and couldn't stop. But halfway through I realized that Swisher is reporting on more than just the little merger that couldn't; she's writing about the future of the communications industry. For those of us who read newspapers, go to the movies, or get our information from CNN, that is going to have a profound impact on our own future. I think that makes it worth more than a quick look.

With one of the most engaging covers in recent memory, Why Not? has the audacity to teach innovation by actually showing concrete examples. It's hard to read even a single page of this book without being challenged to think about everyday products and services in a completely new way. Like Edward de Bono's justly celebrated work on lateral thinking, I hope this book will find a permanent place on managers' bookshelves. Read the excerpt for some specific examples of the authors' playfulness.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Posted by Charles Decker at 4:59 PM | 2 Comments

RIP George Ames Plimpton, 1927 - 2003

George Plimpton died overnight. He was 76.

While he was better known as an author, actor, wit, and noted racounteur, Plimpton was also a damn fine businessman.

For decades, he edited and ran the highly-esteemed, but little read quarterly The Paris Review, running the literary journal on not much more than his own enthusiasm and funds. Despite occasional run-ins with $1.16 corporate balances, the Review still publishes today because of his efforts, intelligence, and ability to scramble, think on his feet, and never give up in the face of adversity.

In the process, he helped introduce to the world to emerging greats like Philip Roth and Jack Kerouac.

Plimpton once said, "There are people who would perhaps call me a dilettante, because it looks as though I'm having too much fun. I have never been convinced there's anything inherently wrong in having fun."

Plimpton loved his life and his work. We should all be so lucky.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 3:42 PM | 1 Comment

(T)Rusting Away II

FC Now reader Rob asks, "Do you know what the numbers are for the U.S.?"

I recently posted some interesting statistics focusing on how much American consumers trust the companies they do business with. But it's a good question: Do people in the U.S. trust their bosses and employers? Let's start by addressing other parts of the world.

In the UK, at least, about 75 percent of business people trust their bosses to treat them fairly. About two-thirds expect their employers to do what's right for customers and the wider business community. And just as many are proud to work for their respective companies.

Another project in the UK found that about 40 percent of workers don't trust their bosses.

According to a study done by the Work Network of Canadian Policy Research Networks (phew!), more than one in five employees do not trust their bosses.

In the U.S., numbers are slightly more difficult to come by -- and are slightly more divergent. Earlier this month, a report indicated that 73 percent of respondents would "trust their boss to baby-sit their kids for a night," and 58 percent said their boss was "at least trying to improve morale."

A 1997 study suggests that 51 percent of Americans trust their boss or supervisor "a lot" and that 41 percent trust their colleagues as much. 14 percent trust their bosses "not at all" or "only a little" while a chilling 54 percent trust their colleagues to that limited extent.

Another cited statistic holds that 70 percent of employees don't trust their bosses -- and that 80 percent don't think their bosses trust each other.

And a September 2002 Gallup/UBS Index of Investor Optimism Poll found that most employees trust their boss -- but not the people who run America's businesses in general. "The results also showed that the more actively engaged employees were in their business, the higher their level of trust."

I guess it depends on, well, which studies and stats you trust.

Posted by Heath Row at 3:41 PM | Add Comment

Where Women Want to Work

Earlier this week, I was pleased to see former Fast Company staffer Jill Kirschenbaum on television, as well as quoted in several newspaper articles. The reason? Now editor in chief of Working Mother magazine, Jill was talking about the recent release of their annual 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers list.

Among the top 10: Abbot Laboratories, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Eli Lilly and Co., Fannie Mae, General Mills, IBM, Prudential, S. C. Johnson & Son Inc., and Wachovia Corp.

Judging organizations based on representation of women, advancement, compensation, child care, flexibility, and corporate culture, the best companies seem to give substantial attention to work-life balance needs.

And the more I look at the list of employee services offered by the winning companies, the more I think that the list is probably also oriented toward working parents, not just mothers.

Posted by Heath Row at 1:48 PM | Add Comment

Card Sharks II

You may recall the playing cards used by the military to identify Iraqi and other leaders during the conflict overseas. TVNewsLies quickly responded with their loaded deck of "America's least wanted."

In the world of business, the Stacked Deck offers sets of "corporate America's least wanted." Featuring questionable leaders and executives from companies such as Adelphia, Enron, HealthSouth, and Merrill Lynch, the deck is a cartoony, trivia-ridden wakeup call.

But I'm more jazzed by Cubicle Cards, a company that helps business leaders spice up their workaday business cards. You can design and create your own professional trading card, complete with information about your experience and skills, performance stats, and so on. They seem oriented more toward job seekers than people in established positions and organizations, but I like the idea of a trading card instead of the average business card.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:14 PM | 2 Comments

Simulation Nation

Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology recently received a sizable NSF grant to develop a system that will convert remote-sensing data about wildfires into real-time, interactive models fire managers can monitor on laptop computers at the scene of a blaze. The visual model will predict a fire's behavior for the next hour.

There are many computer-based simulations to help business leaders manage change, lead projects, and develop leadership skills. But RIT's project seems to be extremely mission critical. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire!

Posted by Heath Row at 11:41 AM | Add Comment

(T)Rusting Away

According to a Kelly Services survey of 5,000 business people in Australia, 52 percent of workers do not trust their bosses. 47 percent believe that their employers do not have their best interests at heart.

Just about half, I know, but it's not really a vote of confidence for leaders down under, is it?

Posted by Heath Row at 11:25 AM | 1 Comment

Performance Anxiety II

Last month, Charles Fishman commented on some of the management mistakes made by NASA. In the current edition of IT Solution Journal, E.J. McIlwaine expands on the business lessons learned from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report. Among the key findings:

• Challenge Reliance on past success as a substitute for sound practices. Lesson Continue to look outside the organization and always question "how we do things."
• Challenge Organizational barriers that prevented effective communication of critical safety Information and stifled professional differences of opinion. Lesson Make people feel comfortable to deliver bad news so that it can be digested and acted upon quickly.
• Challenge Lack of integrated management across program elements. Lesson Be sure all managers know the direction of the organization and be sure they communicate regularly.
• Challenge The evolution of an informal chain of command and decision-making processes that operated outside the organization's rules. Lesson Avoid bureaucratic decision procedures that elicit avoidance behavior. Foster a pro-decision environment.
• Challenge The mischaracterization of the Shuttle as operational rather than developmental. Lesson Provide sufficient resources for projects and know the limits of your staff and production capacity.

Registration is required to access IT Solution Journal online.

Posted by Heath Row at 10:12 AM | Add Comment

September 25, 2003

An Interesting Seminar

Guest speakers from Kellogg, Brown and Root, and Bechtel made presentations. More than 200 business professionals between the ages of 21 and 35 heard lectures on topics related to entrepreneurship.

Sounds like a typical seminar, right? The difference is that this seminar was attended by the Entrepreneur Business Professionals of Iraq.

Hosted in Baghdad by the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade, the seminar also explored topics such as obtaining contracts from companies and investing in the stock market.

The speakers also fielded questions from the audience on these subjects.

“Everyone had questions,” Spc. Varetta Barnes said. “We had everyone fill out a comment form and leave any outstanding questions or issues on them.”

It's a start.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 5:02 PM | Add Comment

What Business Are You In?

While "Using Moral Imagination for Irreplicable Strategic Advantage", a white paper published this spring by David Lapin, CEO of Strategic Business Ethics Inc., doesn't really hone in on the strategic benefits of ethical business, it does contain some interesting ideas.

If organizations are able to use their "moral imaginations" to determine how their business activities can satisfy customers' deepest human needs, business can secure a strong competitive advantage. Lapin suggests that the success of such efforts is dependent on a company's values and ethics -- and whether the organization meets its employees' needs, as well.

One case study the white paper addresses involves Truworths International, a 300-store clothing retailer. When Truworths began to lose market share, executives took a look at what business they were really in. They decided that, instead of merely selling clothes, their fashions could help satisfy young women's desire for self-confidence. That realization led to changes in how they hired staff, how stores were designed, even what music clerks played. Everything concentrated on and communicated confidence.

What business is your company in? What basic human needs do your products or services meet?

Posted by Heath Row at 2:07 PM | 1 Comment

What the World Really Needs Is...

More office supplies?!

That's what Staples thinks -- they're sponsoring a contest called the Invention Quest, hoping to discover the next Post-It note or paper clip. If you have the winning invention, you win $25,000 and royalties on the product when they manufacture and sell it.

So what do you think? What other new productivity-gizmos do we need in our already over-cluttered lives? If you have an answer, tell us... then enter the contest.

Posted by Alison Overholt at 1:59 PM | Add Comment

FC Book Club - The Near Misses

What a chore. Choosing five books each month to feature for the magazine's book club from the multitude of management, leadership, careers, and professional skills titles that are released. I never thought it would be so tough. You're probably thinking, "Give me a job like that!"

In all seriousness however, more than 2,000 business books are published by the major houses each year, a great percentage of them in the fourth quarter. Knowing that our goal is to find books with special resonance for discussion groups, it limits my choices.

Some have already asked for the second tier -- the books that just missed the cut. In no particular order and with minimal editorial commentary, here are five additional titles that Fast Company readers should find compatible with the magazine's mission to lead better and work smarter.

Why Smart Executives Fail - Great research backs up this entertaining book about what we can learn from some of history's great business debacles. Smokeless cigarettes, anyone?

How Customers Think - Here's a book that's somewhat at odds with the traditional methods companies use to identify and incent their best customers.

The Iron Triangle - This book, about what may be serious conflicts of interest at the heart of our government, is a triumph of investigative journalism.

The Influentials - The authors of this book suggest that word-of-mouth marketing from "early adopters" accounts for much of what we buy, how we vote, and who we watch on TV.

Brag - A Fortune 500 communications expert offers solid advice on how to toot one's horn without drowning out the orchestra. Job seekers take note!

Have I missed one of your favorites? Feel free to weigh in. When it comes right down to it, we're all critics at heart.

Posted by Charles Decker at 1:16 PM | 1 Comment

Read Herring II

The defunct venture capital-oriented technology magazine Red Herring is back online. While the new editorial staff doesn't seem to be listed on the site, Rafat Ali of PaidContent indicates that Red Herring is now edited by Jim Daly.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:59 PM | Add Comment

Agar-ing the Future II

FC Now reader Rob points out a new study of two companies attempting to implement a customer-centric corporate culture that seems to back up an earlier report on corporate culture and change efforts.

Among the study's key findings:

• For staff to internalize a customer orientation, they must experience an unbroken chain of passionate, sincere, unified, and committed leadership from top levels executives to local managers.
• Interdepartmental connectedness is critical for effective implementation.
• It is important that customer-focused data is used across the organization by many stakeholders.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:25 PM | 1 Comment

Ranting and Raving

I woke up this morning, a man possessed. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on Web design, lying, permission, and change. I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself.

Posted by at 9:16 AM | 13 Comments

September 24, 2003

Jet Blue: Say It Ain't So

The news that JetBlue Airways has been sued by customers for disclosing passenger information is a terribly sad note on what had been a very upbeat business story. Two federal agencies are looking into JetBlue's admission that it violated its own privacy rules by handing over travel records on more than a million passengers to a Pentagon contractor.

The company did this in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, helping a private firm match its passenger records against another database to determine the passengers' Social Security numbers, occupations and family size in an effort to identify potential terrorists.

Should JetBlue get a pass, given the post-Sept. 11 environment and the threat for additional terrorist attacks? Or do you think JetBlue never should have violated its own privacy rules, no matter what?

Posted by Editor in Chief at 7:34 PM | 8 Comments

Customer-Managed Relationships V

Let's be clear: The DMA is totally clueless.

The do-not-call list rule is a GREAT THING for their industry. It eliminates the frustration, hatred, low return on investment, employee burnout, turnover, and just plain yuckiness of their industry.

This, like the record industry debacle, is all about fighting change with lawyers. They should know better.

Posted by at 5:25 PM | 19 Comments

Will Work for... Work II

While members of the Austin chapter of the Company of Friends, Fast Company's readers network, haven't seen Jeff Mills, the Dude on the Corner, out and about around town, a recent email exchange between local members has touched on the state of Austin's business community -- and the potential of Mills' job-search "strategy." Here are some of the highlights:

Jennifer Dockeray: I haven't met him or heard of him, but it sounds about right for job searching around here! My boyfriend almost took similar lengths to find work because the market is terrible. There are 100 applicants for every job, and most are "over-qualified."

KT Hernandez: It's bad enough that I almost did this. Literally, I was making up signs for standing on a street corner only a couple of days before I landed a job. I am forwarding his information to people who may be able to help him.

Don Jarrell: From his resume, I would expect that he is employable, and I am surprised that he is not.

As a job-search strategy, I think it is attention-getting, but in an iconic way. I don't think this is something that many people could emulate with success. I have to wonder if his chosen style of presentation has not taken on some life of its own. Perhaps he is not interested, at this point, in a low-profile position developing financial applications and tools.

Posted by Heath Row at 2:55 PM | 2 Comments