Google Wave – A Tool for Small Business?
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Google Wave
Google’s real-time communication and collaboration tool is now in invite-only Beta. Promising to re-define email and instant message-based communication, it looks like a very interesting product for business’ with remote workers and staff on the road, project managers and freelancers.
There’s been a huge amount of press building up for Google Wave over the last few weeks. 100,000 Beta users have invitations to try it out and there’s been frantic trading of invites on eBay. Haven’t seen a lot of substance in the British Press about it yet – I suspect this means they were way down on the invite list…
Check out the Google Wave preview clip
Make Your Job Descriptions as SMART as Winston Churchill’s
Churchill the Manager
Churchill drank a bottle of champagne at lunchtime and substantially more as the day progressed. I’m not advocating that of course, although it seemed to do Churchill no lasting harm either personally or professionally. But Churchill does have a lot to teach us about management when it comes to clarity and purposefulness.
I frequently wonder whether I have been clear enough about responsibilities and expectations when assigning work or delegating projects. Do the 14 bullet points in the job description I’ve just written really convey with clarity of purpose and with a clearly defined allocation of responsibility, the essence of the job. Does the job description actually get across exactly what I’ve hired the person for? And critically, when we review performance in six months time, did the job description give an unambiguous definition of success?
In August 1942 Churchill sent a telegram to General Alexander, his Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East. The telegram laid out the General’s job description without any room for misunderstanding:
Your prime and main duty is to take and destroy at the earliest opportunity the German-Italian army commanded by Field Marshall Rommel together with all its supplies and establishments in Egypt and Libya.
Setting SMART goals
Had Churchill been a student of modern management theory he would have recognised these as SMART goals.
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely
So how SMART was Alexander’s job description?
Specific – ‘Your prime and main duty’. Obviously General Alexander had a great deal of responsibilities across the spectrum of military management. However, Churchill makes clear that those, indeed any other factors, are secondary to the primary objective.
Measurable – ‘take and destroy’. Not much room for misunderstanding. If they’re not captured or destroyed then you haven’t finished the job.
Attainable – Churchill sets the direction of the strategy but does not detail the tactics required to make this attainable. It is implicit in his job title that General Alexander has at his disposal a military machine capable of planning and carrying out operations.
Realistic – the job description is challenging, but not unrealistic. The force under General Alexander’s command was realistically a match for the competition provided he could deliver effective leadership.
Timely – ‘at the earliest opportunity’. Don’t rush the job, but don’t linger. Wait long enough to ensure success; but don’t squander success through inaction.
What I really like about Churchill’s telegrammed job description is that it’s short. But in that one sentence is an incredibly powerful and accountable direction. I think we can all benefit from applying some powerful and accountable language to job descriptions in our business’.
Bridging the Gap Between Business Theory and Practical Implementation
I went shopping yesterday in Exeter city centre – my hometown in the south west of England. A much-needed pair of shoes, some books and a shirt later I was in desperate need of refreshment. While sipping my coffee and catching up on reading I was the recipient of marketing emails that I read on my phone.
Amazon emailed me about very relevant books I might be interested in; Wiggle tried to interest me in cycling gear; and 37 Signals sent me a newsletter loaded with customer case studies about their Highrise contact manager. After rapidly deleting these well thought out emails I remembered my bewilderment, and frustration, that small business’ – in fact, those very shops I had just visited, failed to market to me with even 5% of the sophistication of the marketing I later received. Not even the large book chain I shopped in has ever sent me any decent marketing.
So why are so many business’ not making the effort to get the most from their customers? How has the vast amount of marketing knowledge not filtered down into practical steps that any business can apply? Who’s doing it well, and what lessons can we learn from them?
RealBizTools is all about bridging the gap between business theory and business practice. What are the key tools for SMEs? What metrics & KPIs should every entrepreneur have at their fingertips?
Most importantly, how can you put this information to use in your business to increase your share of the pie?