J. T. Pedersen » Education

Why Should I Hire You? There Are Only (2) Reasons.

JT — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:34:01 +0000

With so many people looking for work, seeking answers to win the next opportunity, this question is all too common. At the same time, the suggested answers vary wildly but, for the most part seem to miss the crux of the issue. Why should I hire you?

Consider these common responses:

I am:

Accustomed to a fast pace and will hit the ground running
Will be a valuable asset to your organization
Able to handle stress and pressure
Think quickly on my feet
Am a team player

Great! Excellent! Not!

These are, all, generally assumed to be true statements. Can you imagine hiring someone who can’t handle stress? Someone who won’t be a valued asset? These are almost “necessary truths”. Otherwise they likely wouldn’t be talking with you. Let alone thinking of hiring you. Any ‘one’ of these might be optional, such as thinking quickly on your feet. Let’s face it, some jobs just don’t seem to require mental agility.

But, if you weren’t any one of these, why should they hire you?

The reality, boiled down and brutal, is that there are two reasons someone will hire you.

You contribute to $$ revenue growth (make more money);
and/or,
You contribute to increased productivity (lower cost).

If you’re not either helping them make more money ($$) or improve productivity, they don’t need you.

Depending on the role, answers might be more like:

Hamburger Joint:

I’ve read the typical burger-flipper averages 3 burgers/minute. I’ve tried timing myself and can regularly do 5 burgers/minute…. That’s a 66% productivity improvement.

Executive Role:

Based on my understanding of the role and mutual expectations, I believe there are ways to improve revenue at least 10% while keeping costs from growing more than 3%.

In a pinch, if you’re asked and don’t know the answer, as a mature professional, you should be able to reasonably say:

As a [My New Role], my key focus will be delivering productivity and revenue improvements.

These are the sort of answers that will catch their interest—especially if deemed credible. Everything else is just nice fluff in my opinion.

(photo credit: Konrad Mostert)

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How Do You Learn?

JT — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:25:55 +0000

Someone asked me this question, last week. How do you learn? Struck me as not only a genuine question, but one I hadn’t thought about in some time.

How do you learn?

Prior to the advent of the internet, digital media, and ubiquitous connectivity (for most), we were largely constrained to three methods. Social (talk with people), reading, and video. There just weren’t too many ‘other’ options. Now, there’re so many it really is worth thinking about.

Digital mediums have dramatically changed all three of the traditional mediums. Social learning was largely limited to in-person face-to-face activity. These might be local business events, service club gatherings, or simply talking with a mentor or friend over coffee. Now, we have the ability to ‘talk’ continuously to folks through instant messaging, social networks, telephony (e.g. Skype) and more. We can ‘talk’ until our minds go numb. My view is that face-to-face cannot be beat—but it isn’t always possible.

Reading is—even as we speak—going through dramatic change. I love reading using all manner of textual and graphic presentation. Books, newspapers, magazines, ezines, online blogs, white papers—you name it. Here too digital is rearranging things. I really enjoy my Sony Reader (a PRS-505 if you must). Rather than print out someone’s whitepaper, I read it on my Reader. eBooks, typically half-price, are increasingly easy to find across all genres. In one hand, my entire library…and then some…can travel with me and takes up a fraction of the space in my computer bag than did that last hard cover.

And then, we have video. Heretofore we had the luxury of B-movie rated corporate training flicks. Our younger generations get to never experience a corporate training event being held up as a projector bulb burned the film, or the reels (know what a reel is?) had to be thread, or VCRs ‘ate’ a tape. And those were just the appetizers—the content themselves might’ve been passable if the production quality didn’t simply, well, suck.

Today, I note Apple’s iPad has—in under 30 days—broken the 1 millionth unit sold. Here is a device that will (potentially) further improve on all three of these ‘classic’ mediums. Text will no longer just be text. Soon, we’ll have texts with embedded visuals (static or video) we can click on that will further explain key ideas. Socializing online becomes even more ubiquitous with a device that can go anywhere and which even more people will have on hand. Video? We’re not quite at the point of an ‘Avatar’ display glass…but not quite transparent…the iPad does let you hand-carry the movie of your choice around with you while playing (didn’t see that coming 10 years ago, did you?).

So how do you learn? My preferences have always been to read, and to socialize. Video was a distant (very) third place. As all these mediums continue to blur, morph, and evolve, does it even matter anymore?

(photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/hvaldez1, Girl Studying)

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Two thumbtacks and a piece of string are all you need to do basic planning.

On a regular basis, I have the opportunity to speak with new entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own businesses. One of my key topics is how to successfully evolve an ‘idea’ into an actual deliverable, regardless of whether it is a tangible product or a service.

A basic product plan needs to clearly define your offering:
- What must it do?
- How must it do it?
- Where is it done?
- When is it done?
- Why?
Just as important, arguably more so, is what it is not:
- What must it not do (if only for now)?
- How should it not be done?
- Why not?
How you will get there:
- What resources are needed?
- How long will it take?
In my experience, when most people are confronted with the notion of doing a business plan, the natural reaction seems to be one of dread, reluctance, or denying there’s value in doing so. What I have learned, for anything more than the most basic of plans*, the only effective way to stay on your original course is to have documented what that course may be in the first place.

*As the psychologist George Miller demonstrated in his famous essay, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two,” the conscious brain can only handle about seven pieces of data at any one moment. [How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer, ISBN 978-0-618-62011-1]

Even if your basic product plan only consists of 7 basic components, you will invariably be required to evaluate new inputs along the way, forcing 1 or more of your thoughts to be swapped out. More often than not, you never return to the original process in quite the same way.

The person gaining the most value out of a plan is you. There is no requirement that the plan be 46 pages long, with a table of contents, index, and executive briefing. Sure, if you’re going to seek venture capital, you will need to provide a more-developed document—but not at the outset.

At a minimum, your plan might only be 2 or 3 pages long. The intent is to address the key points outlined above as well as others that might be important for your particular interests.

Now, we can start talking about the conceptual use of thumbtacks and string:).

At a very minimum, you need to define the Idea, your left thumbtack. Second, you need to define the finished deliverable, your right thumbtack. Between them, tie a string. Here you have your most basic plan.

As you develop your product, you are going to be faced with innumerable inputs. Many will be well-intentioned. For instance, Mom, who will likely never buy one of your widgets, will strongly suggest the color is all wrong.

Or, perhaps your sales people (including you) may come back from customer meetings with yet more declarations of ‘must haves’ for the new product you’re working on.

All seem good ideas, so you pin them on the board (blue thumbtacks). As long as these new ideas fit within your plan’s scope (within the string’s bounds of movement), they may be worth consideration.

Here’s where the ‘string’ comes in handy. You will continue to receive all manner of ‘all important ideas’ regarding how to improve your product. Some come from others, some from you (at 3am). Your plan (the thumbtacks and the string, together) lets you evaluate whether they’re able to be considered at this time or not.

Ideas that fall outside your plan’s constraints (red thumbtack) may be very good ideas. But they simply out too significant: they may take too much time; too many resources; or, require other building blocks come first. Red thumbtacks can be safely ignored, because they have been evaluated, and deemed inappropriate at this time.

Another interesting thing that happens as you develop your product. It begins to develop a legacy. In other words, as you move forward, your past decisions begin to constrain future decisions.

We can illustrate legacy as the passage of time (yellow thumbtacks). As we make decisions, as time passes and our plan progresses, the amount of flexibility is rapidly reduced. Ideas that might have once been readily accepted (blue) are rejected because (now) they fall outside the plan’s scope.

As your product (or service) reaches planned completion, the introduction of new changes or requests rapidly becomes untenable.

All of a sudden, it can seem that almost ‘everything’ gets pegged as a ‘red’ thumbtack.

Hopefully, if you didn’t before, you now agree that having a product plan is important. Not only can its use help keep you on track, it can help you sleep easier at night, knowing your decisions were well-founded and not based on a whim of the moment.

So, go buy a $1 box of thumbtacks, a $15 cork board, and a piece of string. Then, build you product plan.

Of course, this is closer to what reality will look like:)

(photo credits: JT Pedersen)

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Internet: Should it Win a Nobel Peace Prize?

JT — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:08:38 +0000

According to Wired, “‘The internet’ is in the running for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.(read)” Reading on, turns out Wired Italy has championed the cause.

The argument is not without some interesting thoughts. The internet’s enabling 220,000 tweets/hour during the Tehran, Iran, riots is one example. The ability to unlock information that would otherwise be censored another. The internet has brought us capability we had never seen before in the Age of Man. Certainly if the collective achievements of the internet could be singularly attributed to a person, or even a small handful, it would seem warranted.

But. The internet in many ways is the contemporary equivalent of the telephone. The same pro/con arguments can generally be applied for both internet and telephone. The telephone did not win a NBP that I’m aware of, should the internet?

At what point do we all stop capitalizing ‘it’? We do not capitalize every reference to the phone, cable, fax, or other significant technology development. The internet has always been a utility no different than our home’s electrical service. Novel at first, for sure, but no less a utility once it matured. Should a utility service be given a Novel Peace Prize? I nominate the electrical power grid first, in that case. No electricity, no internet.

The value of the internet exists because of the value each of us imparts to it. Without you, without me, the internet is nothingness. Like a forest, if no one is there to hear a tree fall, did it ever make a noise? In the internet’s case the answer is certainly, No.

The most clear answer though is already predetermined by Alfred Nobel himself. Directly excerpted from his Will, which laid out the underpinnings of the Peace Prize bearing his name:

One part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics;
One part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement;
One part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine;
One part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and,
One part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

One might argue, “…but things change. Surely Al would understand…” In response, he could have allowed for electricity, steam power, electric light, cement, sewing machine (now, where’d we be without that), the telephone (1876), or any number of other important innovations prior to his death.

But, he didn’t.

I believe, and Alfred Nobel clearly stated, it is the -people- and how they employ their minds, their tools, their innovations, that deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Does the internet deserve the NBP. No.

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Should You Evaluate Unemployment Rate Before Relocating?

JT — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:32:00 +0000

A bit off-target for my blog, I have seen this basic question come up at least four times in recent weeks. Many job seekers, increasingly hungry for work, have begun to adopt a, “I’ll work anywhere there’s work…” mindset.

This mindset certainly seems reasonable if you’re in Michigan. For the first time in 10 years, Michigan is expected to have positive job growth. Imagine. A new University of Michigan economic forecast, just out, is now being discussed. For a state that’s lost 855,000 jobs in the past 10 years (since June, 2000), 230,000+ last year alone, state job growth is forecast to increase for the first time. With only 20K new jobs expected next year, moving anywhere, somewhere, certainly seems a requirement for many.

The question may be where? And, how do you decide?

Should you consider the unemployment rate before jumping? The short answer is Yes. Among other things…

In my own search for work, I decided take a structured approach toward evaluating where to search. My wife and I gathered a number of statistics to support the process. For instance we obtained information on taxes, costs of living, unemployment, foreclosure rates, and likelihood of natural disasters. These were considered ‘needs’ and fully weighted (e.g. 1=1).

We also evaluated (somewhat subjectively) our ‘wants.’ These included an affinity for mountains (I’m a motorcyclist), inland waters/ponds/streams (my wife likes to fish), and so on. These criteria were half-weighted (e.g. 1=.5).

Much of the information is publicly available from places like www.city-data.org, www.bls.gov, www.wikipedia.org, as well as major online media outposts.

Everything was compiled into an Excel spreadsheet. When we looked at the ranked results, we were surprised. The top 3 states to look at were Utah, Virginia, and Colorado, in that order. Who would have thought Utah? We sure didn’t. Keep in mind, your results would vary based on your preferences.

One driver behind taking a constructive approach, were the calls we’d receive from friends, colleagues, and family pulling us in different directions. Rather than diffuse my resources too much, this has let me take a more sensible approach.

So, should you check out Unemployment before moving? Absolutely (and, a whole lot more)!!!

(photo credit: Sergio Roberto Bichara)

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Do You Have It In You…to be an Entrepreneur (Guts)

JT — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:56:31 +0000

This is the second in a four-part series asking, “Do you have it in you, to be an entrepreneur?” There are four key strengths that are must haves for an entrepreneur to be successful. Previously, I discussed the first of these, Passion. Here, we’ll discuss guts.

Passion
Guts
Team
Cash Flow

Passion. Guts. In past entrepreneurial discussions I have heard people use these two terms (or equivalents) interchangeably. But, really, there is a difference between passion and guts.

Here’s the difference. Passion is your love for what you’re choosing to do. It is what drives you forward, overcoming daily distraction, motivates you to stay up late (or get up early) to accomplish your dream. It’s the fire in your belly.

Guts, or call it fortitude, backbone, grit, perhaps even chutzpah, is the conviction underlying your efforts. When everything seems to be going against you; everyone’s telling you how wrong you are; the bank won’t give you money; or, you need to reconstruct your dream from scratch, guts is what keeps you on track.

Think of it as being firmly planted and the strength to keep from bending (too much) in the wind.

Do you have the Guts to stick with it?

Ok, so that sounds like something philosophical, detached from daily reality, that some guy at the coffee shop might tell you. So let me share a very practical example from my own life. Once upon a time…

My wife and I decided to do real estate investing and become landlords. Our intention were somewhat noble, as a means of making money and building our investments, we would provide good, clean housing to those who needed it.

The family we selected as our very first tenants were wonderful. We got along well and, for the first few months, everything worked as planned. And then, a month’s rent was late. No problem, she caught up in a couple days including the late fee. Then another month was late, and another, and each time the catch-up was later than before. We were bending in the wind…wanted to give the benefit of the doubt…but at some point it became a practical business decision: Do we let this continue.

Unfortunately, we had to evict our very first tenants. But the choices were simple. This was a business and we were not providing free housing. We had to know our limits, how far would we bend, and whether we had the strength to take the actions we knew to be necessary. Let me tell you, it takes some intestinal fortitude to evict someone, and then follow up in court.

So, yes, there’s a difference. Passion, you have to feel strongly about what you want to do. But you also need raw guts to stick to your dream and not let the wind blow you off course (or let customers/partners/others take advantage of you).

We’ve discussed Passion, and Guts. Next, we’ll talk about Team and Cash flow.

Photo Credit: Mitch Law

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Do You Have It In You…to be an Entrepreneur (Passion)

JT — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:08:54 +0000

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to speak in front of a group of 30, folks considering launching their own business or just having done so. Many are doing so because work is so hard to come by, others because it’s simply the right time to follow their dreams.

Starting my presentation, I wanted to address four key strengths that are must haves for an entrepreneur to be successful.

Passion
Guts
Team
Cash Flow

You Have to be Passionate

As a potential new entrepreneur, you have to ask yourself, “Am I passionate about what I want to do?” Do you truly believe in the product, service, or other offering that you are going to build and take to market?

Passion is, perhaps first and foremost, the most important trait for any entrepreneur. You have to truly believe that what you are going to do will add value for your customers.

A fire in the belly is what it will take for you to work the 12, 14, 16 hour days necessary at times to get your dream off the ground. That same fire will keep you moving even when best friends, family members, Mom or Dad, are telling you it’s all wrong, you can’t do it, you won’t succeed.

Beyond the doubters, you will face uncounted obstacles, distractions, and daily-living events. If you’re not passionate, if there’s no fire in your belly, these events will overtake you, remove the luster of your once-shiny idea, and make it harder to stick with.

Next, I talk about Guts, Team, and Cash Flow.

Photo Credit: www.sxc.hu #793479

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Chutzpah, Ideas & Product Development

JT — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:57:06 +0000

Ann Arbor SPARK hosts a monthly series, Starting Your Own New Business. The day-long seminar includes presenters on finance, accounting, marketing, product development, and other topics related to launching one’s own business. Below, is the high-level presentation for Friday, March 19, 2010.

This high-level presentation discusses:

Do you have what it takes…to be an entrepreneur
Key topics important for successfully moving the Idea for a product, through development, and ensuring it survives to reach fruition.

Business Ideas & Product Development

View more presentations from JT Pedersen.

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Kodak’s Zi8 – Initial Experiences

JT — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:27:13 +0000

Today’s a quick post sharing some of my first impressions after having picked up a new Kodak Zi8 camcorder. A number of you are in marketing, use Flip cameras already, or are just considering one of these new devices.

Chris Brogan, over at www.chrisbrogan.com, was one of the first folks to create any sort of ‘spark’ for me with this new class of device. Sure, by now we’ve probably all been to events with Flip cams.

They’re neat, cool, but the ‘value’ wasn’t quite there. Part of that I attribute to having a ‘good’ digital tape camcorder and being put off by the overall process hassles (record an hour, take an hour to download, then process, then encode, then…). Odds are, if you’re not a video aficionado you’ve had the same dying desire to repeat the experience. Not.

It wasn’t until I started paying attention to Chris’ vlogs and some of his various experiences (Flip, Zx1, Zx6…) that I really appreciated their value.

My initial start was a tad slow. To be honest, knowing small format cameras are subject to jitteriness, I had hoped for more from the embedded image stabilization software. Direct play back of handheld video using the supplied HDMI cable to my flat screen HDTV, didn’t impress me. But, I’ve evolved since then. In part, I’ve found new ways to hold the camera to help reduce jitteriness; it’s still a small camera though.

The next epiphany was getting the current version of Pinnacle Studio software. I tried making videos with some free offerings, and the free offerings are pretty incredible…but they still left me wanting. So, I picked up PS 14. Let’s just say, it makes making video—and posting to YouTube—the closest thing to a breeze you’ll experience today.

Here are two thoughts for you. One, it might not rival the quality a ‘formal’ camcorder can offer…it’s not expected to. (Though, use a small tripod and you’ll be hard-pressed to tell the difference.) If your ‘nice’ camera’s to big a pain to use, and you never have it with you, it doesn’t matter how nice it is. Second,

I’ve done more, had more fun with this camera in the past week alone (puppy vids, school concerts) than I have in the last decade with my ‘nice’ video camera.

Okay, so here’re some quick observations, then I’ll let you view my first short YouTube video afterward.

They’re frequently out of stock. Ready to buy one, I checked (2) BestBuys, Amazon, Crutchfield.com, and others—no one—had one in stock. I had to stop back after being told when the next truck would show up. All the other camcorder (e.g. Flip) had 3-4 or more in stock. Just no Zi8s. So, what’s that tell you?
Really like the SD memory expansion ability. I put a 32GB card (good for something like 6 hrs video) in it.
Get a spare battery; you’ll need it. Last’s for an hour and takes as long to recharge. So you’ll definitely want a spare.
Fits in my shirt pocket.
Comes with basic video editing software in the camera. Plug in to a (PC) USB port, it’ll automatically offer to install it (or launch it). So, you’ve always got ‘something’ with you to manipulate your videos.
Creates files in .MOV format. Found with the free tools, sometimes it took two software packages to achieve what I wanted. With the Pinnacle Studio solution, it’s one-stop shop.
The more you use it, the more you’ll like it, the more you’ll use it…the sooner a big new hard drive is on your shopping list.

Ok, so not really a ‘short’ post, but if you’re in the market for this camera, and the various features it has, you won’t be disappointed.

I put together this quick little video as a sort of primer, something useful for folks (looking for this breed dog), while learning how the whole production process works.

Let me know what you think. Its early, plenty to learn expected.

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Moving an Idea Through Product Development

JT — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:17:02 +0000

This high-level presentation discusses what are perhaps the most key topics important for successfully moving the Idea for a product, through development, and ensuring it survives to reach fruition. The target audience is new entrepreneurs considering business for themselves.

Moving An Idea Through Product Development (2 05)

View more presentations from JT Pedersen.

Starting Your Own Business