I was chatting with a co-worker about a Logic class she was taking. This brought back memories from my college days – I minored in Philosophy. It also led to the inevitable discussion about how one’s education applies to their profession. Many people assume that I acquired my Marketing expertise while earning my MBA. Likewise, people often assume that my undergrad and graduate studies in the Social Sciences and Philosophy do not apply to my profession, but they’re wrong. Here are 3 reasons why:

1) Empathy – Sociology

Empathy is the most important skill for Marketers.

Empathy is simply putting yourself in someone else’s shoes – like a potential customer or partner. For example:

• “If I was a potential customer or partner, what problems might I have and how might this company’s products help me? If they don’t help me, how do I improve them so that they do help?”
• “Looking at a competing product, how does it benefit me as a customer? If I had to decide between my company’s product and the competition’s, which one would I buy?  What can I do to ensure that my company’s product will win that decision?”
• “How do I best explain the benefits of my product to a potential customer in a way that meets their specific needs and solves their specific problems?”

This is what Marketing, and in particular Product Management and Business Development, is all about – determining what someone values and figuring out how to provide that value or communicate that value to them. If you don’t get Empathy, you won’t be able to do this and you won’t be a successful Marketer.

Let me say it again: Empathy is the most important skill for Marketers. Where do you learn Empathy? Not in a Marketing class. Don’t believe me? Look up Marketing on Wikipedia. Then search that page for “empathy.” It’s not there. The closest concept you’ll find to Empathy is Marketing Research. Marketing Research is not Empathy. Marketing Research does not necessarily put you in someone else’s shoes. If you’re not already in their shoes, you won’t know what questions to ask.

So where can you learn about Empathy? In a Sociology class. Sociology is great for Marketers because it teaches you how to understand and apply Empathy. You also learn how to keep your own background or biases from getting in the way of seeing other perspectives. The trick is making the leap from using Empathy to understand societal issues to using it for business.

2) Opportunity Cost – Economics (yes, Economics is a Social Science)

If you hear things like “What do we have to lose by giving this a try?” to justify a new product or partnership, then you know that this person hasn’t considered the Opportunity Cost.

Opportunity Cost is about allocating resources between competing projects. It is the cost related to the next best alternative. If you can only do one thing, which one are you going to do and what are you forgoing to do it? For example, you have to decide between the following:

• adding a new feature to your most popular product – Net Present Value (NPV) of $5 million,
• entering a partnership to resell someone else’s complimentary product – NPV of $8 million, or
• launching a new product that appeals to a new market segment – NPV of $10 million.

If you chose the partnership (perhaps because you wanted to get to market faster and thought it would be easier to implement), the Opportunity Cost is $2 million. It’s the difference between the new product which is valued at $10 million and the partnership which is valued at $8 million. As long as you understand the implications of this decision and have sound reasons for why you’re doing it (speed to market, easier to implement), then there’s nothing wrong it.

Once Marketers learn how to apply the concept of Opportunity Cost, they’ll make more informed arguments both for and against projects, develop stronger business cases, and make better decisions when choosing between competing projects.

3) Critical Thinking – Philosophy

Speaking of persuasive arguments, it is hard to be persuasive if you can’t think through both sides of an issue. Your brain gets a major work-out doing just that in every Philosophy course (particularly in the Logic class that started this whole discussion).

Philosophy is the study of the big ideas like why do we exist, how do you truly know something, and what is right or wrong. It is known for its critical, reasoned, and systematic examination of these ideas. These are extremely difficult concepts to grasp and every issue has multiple, nuanced sides. It’s enough to start yelling matches and to make your head hurt. Wars are fought over these very ideas. Just as in business, there isn’t always one right answer.

But there is a way to get to the best available answer. Philosophy teaches you Critical Thinking skills:

• how to ask the tough questions designed to get at the heart of an issue,
• how to think through complicated issues with multiple shades of grey, and
• how to see things from multiple perspectives while recognizing that your biases can often cloud your viewpoint.

Armed with these skills, Marketers make better decisions regarding what types of customers to target, what types of products to launch, or what types or partnerships to pursue.

Final Thoughts

Understanding and applying Empathy, Opportunity Cost, and Critical Thinking are essential skills for Marketers. I learned these skills studying Sociology, Economics, and Philosophy. I use these skills more frequently as a Marketer than those I learned in business school. So the next time you see a BA instead of a BBA or an MA instead of an MBA on someone’s resume, don’t assume that the person with the business degree will add more value. Otherwise, you might be overlooking someone that could add a new perspective and significant value to your Marketing organization.

I found this gem of wisdom on Lifehacker. My take-away is this: If you try to do everything, you’ll accomplish nothing. So focus!

Or, as infamous trial attorney Johnnie Cochran might say: “It the task doesn’t fit, you mustn’t do it.”

A typical day for me begins with the following before getting out of bed:

1) Turning off my alarm (iPhone 3GS).

2) Starting the download for the WSJ This Morning podcast (iPhone 3GS).

3) Checking the temperature (iPhone 3GS).

Once I get out of bed:

1) I get dressed to take my dog for a walk while listening to the WSJ podcast on my iPhone that has finished downloading.

2) I feed myself and my dog while continuing to listen to the WSJ podcast.

3) I connect my iPhone to some powered speakers and finish the WSJ podcast as I shower and get dressed for work.

As I leave the house to go to work:

1) I listen to music on my iPhone as I walk to bus stop.

2) While waiting for the bus I check my personal and work e-mail.

3) After checking e-mail, I play games and listen to music on my iPhone until I reach work.

It’s amazing how fast time seems to pass when you have so many productivity and entertainment options available.

Depending on what I’m doing that day at work, I might listen to music, Pandora, or local sports talk from Dallas (the ESPN Radio iPhone app is great) as I work.

At work I’m always connected to the Internet. Most of my collegues are located remotely or at another office. Work is done primarily via e-mail and chat. I’m on the phone no more than once or twice a day. I used the phone far more when I was doing Business Development.

My primary applications include Outlook, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Excel on a 10″ Dell laptop running Windows XP docked with dual 20 inch LCD monitors. I use Word and PowerPoint far less in product management than I did in Business Development.

I also keep Meebo’s web-based chat application open all day on a small USB monitor to access AIM, Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. I keep up with industry news using Google Reader and Techmeme.

Prior to heading home from the office, I start the downloads for a few ESPN podcasts which keep me company until I get home and walk the dog.

After I walk my dog and feed the two of us, I catch up on TV shows waiting for me on my DirecTV DVR or stream some music using my Apple TV.

I’ll typically surf the web and read the days news and tech blogs on my laptop as I watch TV or listen to music. I have a 17″ Dell laptop running Windows 7. I primarily use Google Chrome to browse the web at home.

I actually have print subscription to Business Week (it was free).

When I crawl into bed at night I set my alarm, plug in the charger, and turn on some relaxing tunes on my iPhone 3GS.

As you can see, the iPhone has been deeply integrated into my daily activities. I have a hard time seeing how I’d get by without it.

]]> http://randyweber.com/blog/2010/03/13/technology-and-me-a-day-in-the-life-of/feed/ 0 http://randyweber.com/blog/2010/03/06/technology-and-me-2001-through-2010/ http://randyweber.com/blog/2010/03/06/technology-and-me-2001-through-2010/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:06:13 +0000 Randy Weber http://randyweber.com/blog/?p=491 This is the first of 3 posts that have to do with technology changes over the last decade. I’ve been thinking about this since January but finally got around to writing it down this weekend. We’ll start with the basics – what I was using in 2001 and what I’m using in 2010.

Technology I used in 2001:

- Nokia cellphone for mobile and long-distance calls

- landline for local calls and Internet access

- dial-up Internet access

- company provided laptop with Windows NT 4 for work and for getting online at home

- basic cable

- standard definition 20″ TV

- cheap battery-powered alarm clock

Technology I’m using in 2010:

- iPhone 3GS for all calls, MP3 player, Pandora, yellow pages, maps, mobile web access, gaming, e-mail (personal and work), controlling my Apple TV, alarm clock, calendar, and contacts.

- NOTE: no landline

- cable Internet access with wireless router

- Apple TV

- Mac mini

- 17″ HP laptop with Windows 7 (personal)

- 10″ Dell laptop with Windows XP (work)

- Samsung Internet-connected Blu-Ray player

- 65″ Panasonic Plasma HDTV

- DirecTV with dual tuner HD DVR, NFL Sunday Ticket, and ESPN Game Plan (no premium channels)

- Hulu for catching up on shows that I may have missed

- Netflix for DVDs and streaming video (but I’m unimpressed with their streaming content, so I’ll probably cancel when football season resumes in Fall 2010)

- PS2 used primarily for Karaoke games

- Harmony remote that controls my Sony receiver, Samsung Blu-Ray player, DirecTV DVR, Apple TV, and Panasonic HDTV

I call BS on this. I worked for the other evil empire – Verizon – for 7 years. We used to get e-mails from our government affairs group every so often presenting the company’s position on various issues and encouraging us to write our representatives in support of these views. These e-mails were from “corporate”, not from our business unit. Never once did anyone from our business unit nor in our chain of command ever bring up one of these e-mails. No one cared. There was no pressure. I find it very hard to believe that it would be much different at a very similar AT&T.

…Nielsen management, after years of research, has finally come up with an adequate solution to cluttered e-mail inboxes and inefficiency in office environments: control-deleting the reply-to-all button from the messaging software…

…In a memo, republished by Folio, Andrew Cawood, Chief Information Officer for Nielsen Company, writes that the measure will “eliminate bureaucracy and inefficiency”…

But is this really the reason for the change?

…About half a year ago Mitchell Habib, Executive Vice President at Nielsen, managed to accidentally cc all Nielsen employees in a reportedly arrogant note to another employee, ending his e-mail with the now famous-in-certain-circles punch line “Who do you work for, and why do you think copying me on this is appropriate?”.

I suspect that particular blunder led to this strange situation.

Perhaps an e-mail etiquette class and paying more attention to what you’re doing would have been a more graceful solution. Though as was stated in some of the comments, I’ve seen the “Reply to All” button bring corporate mail servers to their knees on more than one occassional even leading to a termination in one case.

Today was my first day. It’s a great company with great people. I’m very excited.

Bronte Media references a post from Albert Wenger about small companies partnering with big Internet companies – Avoid David and Goliath Partnerships. The rationale:

Partnering with the biggest of the big on the other hand tends to be problematic because they are unlikely to be sufficiently responsive. […] So whenever possible, as a startup you should rely on mid size well established companies when it comes to strategic partnerships.

OK, I have lots of experience with this on both sides of the equation. All I can say is that there is some truth to this, but in general this is bad advice. At Verizon we worked with a few small companies and ended up essentially building their businesses and keeping them from dying during the dot.com bust. But I’ve also seen Verizon treat small partners poorly and likewise for other big companies that I’ve worked for. The key for the small player is to have a good contract that lays out how the relationship is to work and has sufficient penalties for not playing nice. Having an extremely responsive account management team also makes a huge difference.

Of course getting a solid contract is easier said than done. I didn’t like giving other companies much power over us when I was at Verizon. Likewise, the guys that were bigger than us didn’t like giving us much power. But if you can focus on win-win and genuinely add value to the bigger player, you can get to a place that works for both parties.

It’s worth noting that big companies in general don’t like doing deals with smaller players because of the risk that they won’t be around to fulfill their obligations. I was the guy that had the unfortunate task of delivering the bad news to hundreds of small guys that we wouldn’t do business with them and often the reason was that they weren’t established enough. Big guys tend to want to go with established players.

The thing that I think is most overlooked is that if the small guy can work a good deal with the big guy, it can make their business. It makes them a legitimate player and opens things up for additional deals with other large players and additional funding. This far outweighs the risk of the partnership not working out.

The message: Keep teams small, give employees freedom and a sense of ownership, don’t focus too much on the competition, create a culture of experimentation, and use technology to enable remote teams.

They quoted the NY Times as saying:

By breaking huge business units into smaller, nimbler teams, companies stand a chance of rekindling the creative spark that got them rolling in the first place. After all, “small is the new big,” as Seth Godin, a prolific blogger and author, puts it in his 2006 book of that name.

I couldn’t agree more. When I was working at start-ups one product manager and one engineer could get more done in a day than an entire scrum team at one of my larger employers could do in a week. This came with the added benefit of nothing being lost in the translation and the ability to rapidly make changes until you got to where you wanted to be. I miss those days. It was very invigorating and both myself and the engineer walked away with a great sense of accomplishment and ownership.

Now go and spread the word.

A former co-worker at Verizon who was new to the group once asked me what it takes to learn how to be in Partnership Development. At the time I didn’t really have an answer. It had seemingly just happened for me. But after much reflection, it didn’t just happen for me. In addition to some basic skills, I had a lot of help along the way. Here’s what I think it takes to be effective at Partnership Development (and Product Management):

1. Vision – ability to see the future and visualize possibilities
2. Persuasion – ability to sell this vision to your management and your potential partner
3. Negotiation/Contracts – patience and attention to detail necessary to grind out an agreement, the requirements/specifications necessary to implement it, and the perseverance to manage the partnership (product) once launched
4. Leadership – ability to inspire members of cross-functional teams and get them to share your vision in order to develop and launch the partnership (product)
5. Communication and Organization – ability to keep everyone on the same page and up to date

All of this starts with a mentor to help you master these skills.

Vision and Persuasion
My former boss Shane taught me how to see the big picture and to sell that vision as we cranked out a multi-stage e-commerce strategy for a wholesale distribution company taking the company from a crude web site, to a polished online catalog, along with e-commerce and customer support applications that were back-office enabled. He was a great mentor and a friend.

Negotiation/Contracts
My former boss Patricia mentored me on the intricacies of negotiations, term sheets, and the contract process leading to a handful of multi-million dollar deals and dozens of smaller deals. It takes patience, perseverance, and creativity. She too was a great mentor and a great friend. She created the Partnership Development executive in me.

The attorneys I worked with (Allison, Cody, and Mark) were very gentle with me and helped me through the contract process. I still consider them friends today.

Together, all of these kind people helped me to understand the value of and how to get to a win-win-win partnership (both companies win, along with the customer).

Leadership
My former boss Kendall taught me how to survive in a matrixed organization with the result being the successful launch of over a dozen new features in a 3-month window for an online trade show startup. She was very good to me. A great mentor and a friend. She’s the one that pushed me into a larger organization to beef up my Product Management skills.

My former boss Karl taught me how to lead large cross-functional teams. He was a great mentor and a great friend. He created the Product Manager in me and helped me develop the confidence to try new things resulting in multiple successful product trials and the launch of millions of dollars worth of new products.

The Communication and Organization skills seem to come from practice. Lots and lots of practice.

If there is a theme in this story it’s that you need people to help you on your way towards developing the skills of your profession. I was very lucky to have had some great bosses/mentors/friends along the way to help me grow into my Partnership Development and Product Management roles. Thank you.

I look forward to passing these skills on as I advance in my career.