2008: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
2007: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 12
2006: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 12
"Right from the start, from the tendering process, you have displayed a level of utmost professionalism that has made Hugeobject simply a pleasure to deal with."
Posted January 26th, 2007 by Scott
Yesterday I attended a taping of the new game show on Channel Nine, 1 vs 100. As the replacement for “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, Nine are really hoping for big things from their new product.
Launching a new product can be both exciting and scary at the same time.
If you are in charge of the business, one really important question that you should be asking yourself before you launch is,
Are we ready?
In the software game, the answer is usually yes (otherwise you would never launch anything). Bugs can be ironed out as you go along, as rightly or wrongly, customers expect a few glitches in any new software.
Different markets however have different standards, with much higher customer expectations for getting it right first time, every time. Only the most trusting people would get on a new aeroplane that was “90% okay, just a few bugs here and there”!
What is the standard for new TV shows from major networks, and what is the role of the CEO in making sure they get it right?
Recent news stories have questioned the wisdom of Eddie McGuire attempting to run the network and host the show at the same time, suggesting that no-one could possibly have time for both.
Yesterday’s taping produced more of the technical glitches that have plagued the show since inception. Constant breaks to fix errors, questions repeated 2 or 3 times, as well as multiple contestants complaining of being ejected despite pressing the correct answer.
While the producers and Eddie all did an excellent job of keeping the audience and contestants entertained during the repeated mishaps, the end result was that filming had to stop for the day.
Over 200 people who had been sitting waiting patiently were sent home at 7:30pm with apologies. Some had been there since early morning, while most had been waiting from 2pm. All were asked to sign back up to a “priority list”, which offers no guarantees of a call back.
It is here that the role of McGuire as the head of the business becomes critical. Where is he best served - learning his lines for the next taping, or putting in place processes to ensure that the technical errors don’t happen again?
Someone has taken their eye off the ball over at Channel Nine, resulting in a show that is nowhere near ready to begin taping. McGuire has obviously made a strategic decision that the interests of Nine are best served with him fronting the show, but recent events would suggest otherwise.
Decisions like these pop up every day in business, and management need to make the correct choices. Focus on one thing or many things? Am I spread too thinly, or is the allocation of my time just right?
My opinion?
Focus on one thing and be great at it. Focus on many things, and be average.
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Posted January 22nd, 2007 by Scott
For people like myself, all news regarding the web found in newspapers, TV and magazines is old, stale and not worth reading. How long before this applies to other industries?
Take a recent article on Google in The Age as an example.
The entire article has been constructed from online sources that people in the industry already frequent on a daily basis. Anyone who works in web development already reads Michael Arrington and Matt Cutts, so why reprint?
Yes I understand that people other than web developers read The Age, and these people I am sure are also interested in Google. But the general point remains that at least for people who work in the industry, old media has been rendered completely redundant. RSS feeds have taken over from newspapers, and they are not ever coming back.
So what do I read instead?
Below is a summary of the current blogs that make my NetVibes page, but it is by no means an exhaustive list. Combine this with random link following, forums, networking, podcasts and online video, and you start to get the picture.
Signal vs Noise
A blog from the team at 37signals (the rock stars of the “software as a service” business model).
ThinkVitamin
General web development news
Techcrunch
A great way to keep an eye on startups
Sitepoint
Starting to lose some of its lustre, but still a decent source of web news.
A List Apart
An online magazine that posts infrequently (two articles a month), but maintains a high quality of content
Zeldman
Jeffrey…Jeffrey. Only just hanging on to the list here mate. Perhaps a few more posts about the web and less about your personal life might keep me as a reader for a little while longer.
WorkHappy
Killer online resources for entrepreneurs.
The Copywriting Maven
DM and copywriting tips and hints
New TeeVee
Online video news - frequent postings.
Signal without Noise
Startup and entrepreneur advice from VC Guy Kawasaki.
Carsonified
General business and web ramblings from the master of self-promotion, Ryan Carson.
Springwise
New business ideas for the entrepreneurial mind.
Paul Graham
Writes beautifully and insightfully on tech startup issues.
Seth Godin
I subscribe here just to make sure I don’t miss out on anything. There may be a couple of tribesman in Botswana that are NOT subscribed to Seth’s blog, but this is only because their dial up connection is on the blink at the moment.
Matt Cutts
All the news that is fit to print from inside of the Google machine.
SEO Egghead
SEO tips and hints. Worth a read.
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Posted January 3rd, 2007 by Scott
With the new year upon us, it is a good time for all companies to take stock of the health of their business. Here at Hugeobject we are in the midst of reviewing our performance for 2006, with a view to building a practical business plan for 2007.
Practical in the sense that it is not full of pages and pages of text, but is instead focused on tangible action items. Success is in the implementation, so by remaining grounded in “To-Do” items we are creating a business plan that is:
We expect to achieve a growth rate of just over 350% for the current financial year, so one of the aims for this year will be working how to continue that for the 2006/2007 financial year.
Whilst we have a huge number of ideas we would love to try (the sales and marketing aspect of the business plan is twice the size of any other section!), it is always great to find out from others what works, and what doesn’t.
Ryan Carson has written a great post on growing a business for people who have web applications (we have one, with more coming in 2007). Ryan asks the question whether web applications need $$ spent on advertising in order to be successful, coming to the conclusion that:
You’ve got to be prepared to spend cash to advertise your web app
Is this really a great insight? Well yes actually - it is.
Those of us in the industry have always believed that the power of the “blogosphere”, coupled with time and a few well placed links is all that is required to bring instant success. Ryan argues that even a feature article on techcrunch has failed to move his revenue in a substantial way, meaning that:
Building a financially successful web app takes hard work, clever marketing and advertising dollars.
This suggests that if we wish to replicate our growth rate of 350% next year, we need to build into the budget some advertising dollars for our web applications.
Excuse me while I go and adjust the business plan!
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