To Arthur!!

So pretty much everyone knows that today is “Arthur’s Day”, our new pseudo-Irish holiday cleverly concocted  by the marketing folks at Guinness. Everyone seems to have an opinion and some of them have been quite cynical and scathing in their criticism of what they’re seeing as a manufactured publicity attempt by Guinness.

Come on people!! Give them a break! Put things in perspective! They’re not a government department or a bank! There’d not spending an ounce of tax payer money! In fact they’re spending millions of Euro on the whole campaign and well while they’re sure to sell a few pints it will no doubt cost a lot more to execute than will go behind the bars of 17:59 today.

Yes they’re trying to sell more Guinness! That’s their job! But with all the extremes that our poor country has been through this year, where is the harm in trying to inject some fun, humour and dare I say national pride back into our damaged country! Forget about the issues. For one day  forget about trying to blame the drinks industry in Ireland for the lack of personal responsibly that some people fail to strive for. In the debates about drink in Ireland, the drinks companies often stand up and acknowledge a share in the problem but its not their responsibility to shoulder the entire burden.

And when all is said and done, we can’t ignore that for millions of people around the globe when they think Ireland, they’re first thought is of the black stuff! Like usual, most Irish people fail to recognise the huge international profile that a tiny, tiny, tiny island like ours enjoys as a consequence of international recognition for brands such as Guiness.

So whether you decide to hit your local at 17:59 today or not, spare a moment to think of the legacy that’s given Ireland thousands of jobs, as well as a product enjoyed and saluted by millions around the world!

To Arthur….

Time to start failing!

In almost every aspect of Irish society, no one pays much attention to failure. Take sport – sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In a couple of days the fans get over it, pick themselves up and start to plan for next year. The less said about the failures in our political system and how little they affect those involved the better. However when it comes to business, even the hint of failure causes landslides.

At a recent business event, I was part of a group of 5-6 individuals where a young and eager web developer was explaining her latest business venture, a really remarkable idea, easily on par with many of the ideas coming out of Silicon Valley. Sure, in her eagerness, she was skating over many of the fine details that her bank manager no doubt would want, but the concept was brilliant. Her enthusiasm was refreshing and a joy to behold and gave me tremendous hope for the next generation of small business start-ups.

After she left, the group completely turned on her, laughing at her idea, her “naivety” and proclaiming that she was doomed to failure before she ever began. I should mention at this point that not one of the businesspeople present have any involvement or knowledge of the web based application business so their comments couldn’t really be construed as constructive; just dismissive and pessimistic. This negative, self centred, pessimistic attitude is one of the few things left that really make my blood boil!

We Irish love to take people down. We see it as our god given right to kick the stool out from under those people who we perceive are “getting too big for their boots!”. No one is saying that it’s great to fail, however in Ireland we have taken it to a whole new extreme and criminalised almost any attempt to try! Any business idea that’s seen as a little bit out there or anything that moves away from the status quo or long established ways of doing doings is ridiculed, scorning and proclaimed “doomed to fail”. What most people seem to not realise is the sheer and utter devastation that this fear of failure causes to the Irish business landscape. By putting such abject emphasis on failure, we’re taking away any encouragement for people to try!

This stigma that Irish people have attached to business failure that has cost us some of the great businesses who often find it so much easier to go to the UK or further afield where they don’t have to live in fear  of public scorn over nothing more than trying their best. It doesn’t have to be that way.

In America and elsewhere they treat failure in the way it deserves – with a level of respect for trying. In fact they have a great phrase that they use to describe business failures – the million dollar MBA. In other words they respect the fact that a business failure is not a cause for shame and embarrassment but a massive learning experience that will teach you more about business that any other opportunity ever will.

Without failures, it’s very hard to learn the hard lessons. Failure is not the end, it’s only the beginning.

Success is a journey, not a destination.

#tweetmeettues Update

An innovative initiative  by the purveyors of Cork’s Best Coffee, @cafegusto, whose website is here (remember websites?). Simple concept really, come along to their cafe on the Boardwalk, beside the Clarion Hotel on Tuesday anytime (most people hit there in the morning) and meet up with some of Cork’s Twitter community. Think of it as a chance to extend your conversations beyond 140 characters!

It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and take 20/30/60 minutes on a Tuesday morning to find out what’s going on around in the city in different business sectors. It’s social networking at its finest because that’s exactly what it is, networking that isn’t rammed down your throat!

Some weeks its all business, some weeks its all politics, some weeks its all nonsense but personally, I always walk away encouraged and recharged and ready to tackle the week ahead! Which to be fair might be the fault of the coffee!

UPDATE: And I forgot to mention that the very kind @cafegusto crew, provide two tea/coffees for the price of one to all the tweeps so a great opportunity to meet that person that you’re always offering to buy a coffee for!!

Think Fast!

Just finished watching another excellent keynote presentation from the king of culture shifts, Gary Vaynerchuck. You can catch it here. 

Gary’s talk covers the whole area of culture shifts and how life and business are changing faster than they have ever changed before in human history. He illustrates the point so nicely by taking a show of hands on how in the audience swore they’d never be on Facebook and now are and compares it to those who swore they’d never need a mobile phone…

Business these days is incredibly tough and so so difficult. Traditionally every business person is told that every decision should be based on control. Actions should be planned out in intricate detail and executed flawlessly. Control the message, control your customers, control your product.

Unfortunately that’s too slow and with the newfound ability for your customers and competitors to communicate at the speed of social media, its unrealistic. Business today is all about fast reactions.  In a global business environment, something can happen today on the other side of the world that can dramatically change your industry overnight.

How the hell can you survive in this environment?? Simple – you no longer control your business, you ARE your business. It’s time to start thinking on your feet, time to start trusting your instincts, time to understand your industry inside out, time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your business and act on them. It’s time to be different and time to try new things. It’s time to run your business without a fear of change, without worrying what the next guy is doing and instead basing on the capabilities that you know your business and your people excel at!

You’re not just competing with your neighbour anymore so so doing the same as them wont be enough. You need to be exceptional, you need to find that angle, that way of standing out. You need to rediscover the reason that you’re in your business in the first place.

Sure I understand the fear, the uncertainty but I also understand the rewards for those willing to take the leap.  It’s all about the right attitude.

Time to Think fast.

iTV is coming – RTE I want my money back!

So I’m by no means an Apple fanboy (even if I do occasionally rave about their products) but I’m really excited about the upcoming iTV which I honestly feel Steve Jobs personally designed for me! Thanks Steve, I owe you a pint!

See I don’t watch regular TV, old fashioned TV or whatever streams through that 42” flatscreen thingy that’s in the corner of my living room. I don’t watch or subscribe to SKY/UPS/whoever and don’t get me started on RTE1/RTE2. My TV is purely used for two purposes – streaming stuff downloaded from the internet and the occasional dramatic XBOX 360 session (again mainly online play via XBOX live.)

Having always had a great wi-fi set-up in the house, it was a great day when I discovered though the magic of my XBOX 360 that I could link it to my laptop and computer located in other areas of the house over the wi-fi connection  and watch the media files on them without having to go connecting cables or anything else. Then Apple TV arrived and well with a little white lie and an American credit card came the wonder of rent on demand movies through that magic silver little box that sits so tidily away in a corner.

See I’m a busy person who runs a very flexible and reactive business and lifestyle. Stuff happens a lot at the last minute so I really can’t live my TV life according to what some scheduler in Donnybrook thinks – sure let’s have LOST on Monday night’s. Monday night happens to be one of the busiest times of my week, reacting to what’s happened over the weekend!

So 90% of what I watch I download. Why? Three main reasons.

Reason 1: On demand. I need to be able to watch what I want, when I want. If I want to wake up on a Sunday morning and watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, so be it. That’s how music works doesn’t it – you’re in the mood to listen to something so you do! Why should TV be any different?

Reason 2: Catch-up. Remember the days of missing a show or being too busy to just watch it. I want to be able to stay in some Friday night, sit down and catch up on 3/4 episodes of a show I missed or couldn’t spare time to watch

Reason 3: Time delay/Spoilers. This is the main reason. For someone who’s life revolves around information, it’s just too frustrating to have to dodge spoilers online about stuff that’s happening on your favourite TV shows  just because here in Europe we can be months behind what’s happening in the USA. Information travels too fast and freely now to allow these sorts of programming decisions where Europe can be up to 4 months behind the USA. I love drama shows so spoilers can be a complete killer!

Enter the wondrous update to Apple TV, currently rumoured to be named iTV (yes I’m sure they have a problem with it and yes, it might be called something different in the UK). Rumours abound but seems like as well as being a technological upgrade to the Apple TV, we might finally get to see a proper iTunes type affair for buying individual episodes or season passes for series. I’ve never seen Grey’s Anatomy but I’d pay 99c to watch the pilot episode streamed to my TV at a time of my choosing to make my own mind up.

Now what could be exceptional interesting is the rumour that the iTV might be coming with a built in webcam! This streams from Steve Job’s announcement during the Iphone 4 launch that their new Facetime video conferencing app would be available before the end of the year on tens of millions of devices, implying as only Steve can that Apple would be incorporating it into their other device launches – hence this rumour. Personally I think it would be cool! Especially for sports! A little pop up corner box on your screen where you can see your buddy watching the same match? Awesome!

So I guess the only way to finish this really is with the following statement – if my TV is used exclusively for watching online video and downloaded content, why the hell am I paying RTE any money at all through my TV license? Pat, Ryan & Miriam – I want a refund!

But that’s a rant for another day!

Back to the Blog

Like most of us, I’ve succumbed to that most heinous of crimes MBS – Missing Blog Syndrome.

Thinks have been so crazy hectic with current plotting and scheming that the poor blog has suffered greatly. However after much self whipping and torment, there’s a new found dedication of daily posting.

I promise! No seriously! Why don’t you believe me……

Twitter – Stop f&%$ing up my logo!

So quick tip. Some people lately have been asking me why their twitter avatars are showing up  clipped on either side with the result that it looks like your logo is missed bits on either side. Same problem seems to occur in Facebook.

Some people assumed that their logo was just too big to fit. Strange thing is that ain’t it.  I’m not one for technical explanations but basically here’s the problem;

YOUR LOGO NEEDS TO BE SQUARE!

Don’t ask me cause it’s technical but the dimensions on the image need to be square, aka same width and height.

Easy fix if your logo is on a single colour background like white or black. Just open any graphics program, create a new blank image with the same colour background that is square and simply insert your logo in the middle! Hey presto a square image file with your logo in it. Then just go into Twitter and replace your current avatar with this new square one.

Simple but a solution to an irritating visual problem.

Evernote Meetup, Next Wednesday

So if you’re like me, you suffer from a near case of daily information overload then you must have heard of Evernote.

Evernote is the high tech equivalent of that filing tray on your desk where you throw all the stuff that needs to be read or filed away. Its an amazing utility that sits on your computer, phone or online and lets you clip stuff and save it to your own personal “box of stuff” for review at a later date!

Its chock a block full of useful stuff , I use it primarily as a web clipper. It has a handy little feature that installs in your web browser that when you spot something you want to keep – txt, images or whole web pages, you just drag your mouse over it, select, press the evernote button and hey presto its saved to evernote for you.

So if you’re a fanatical Evernote user, an occasional drop in, or  just curious, or well just fancy an excuse for some great coffee, join us on Wednesday June 23rd at 7.30pm in Cafe Gusto, Washington Street, Cork where we’ll be having a little hookup to share tips on staying organised and just generally talking trash!

Great opportunity for people who know nothing about it to find our how to use this amazing tool. You’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!

You can find out more and tick the RSVP here.

Taking care of customers

Amazing article here by Roger Overall, award winning photographer and general hard working hero on how “Nobody can compete with you”.

I constantly listen to people who have overdosed on business books talking about their USP or Unique Selling Proposition, the buzz word of the last decade. I really hate to be the one to burst the bubble but are you kidding me! Seriously, a UNIQUE selling proposition?? Unless you are in an industry of one, there is practically no chance that someone hasn’t though of it before! Choice is now nearly an infinite commodity and the majority of businesses in Ireland are now competing at some level with international competition whether they know it or not. Buying products and services online has just become way too easy.

The USP was popular  at a time when companies needed to reach large groups of people and convince them that their business had a defined edge over their competitors.  Lets talk for a second about the two most common phrases on planet USP – “quality” and “value”. If you are not providing value for your customers and not providing a quality product for them, get out now. Quality and Value are not product or service benefits any longer, they are basic expectations!

The problem with the USP is not that it’s ineffective, it’s that it is no longer the point and the way to reach customers. People are now wise to the sales pitch and actively waiting to defend themselves against it. Selling your companies products and service offerings is not the best way to go these days. So, why will your customers stick with you and why will new customers come your way? In the words of the great philosopher Roger Overall, because “Nobody can compete with you”.

No one can compete with the personal service that you offer or if you’re a big business then whether you know it or not your business has a personality that you can grow and nurture. The internet can never replace the phone call or face to face meeting. The focus is becoming smaller and more inclusive. If you can keep your primary focus on cultivating a loyal and fanatic group of customers, they are worth their weight in gold.

People are much more interested in relating to you or your company and what you can do for them these days. They are not impressed by how much better you are; they are impressed by how well you take care of their problem. If you can consistently deliver benefits to your folks, and get them to promote your product or service to their friends, you’ve got a perpetual profit machine.

No automated selling tool can ever replace hearing “I’ll make sure that gets done for you.”

Curiously Moving..

Delighted to hear from the Curious Wines Blog that the big move has been announced! For those of you who have been living in a cave (or drinking way way way too much wine!) Curious Wines are Ireland’s brightest and best purveyors of tasty alcoholic goodness, wine!

Headquartered in their secret lair in Bandon, West Cork, the Kane brothers,  deliver wine across the country that’s been ordered through their multiple award winning website, Curious Wines.  The warehouse is a great spot in its own right, a real boutique place for tip, top wines. Not since Roman times have wine and location been brought together in such wonderful harmony!

Now comes the news that the Kane’s are packing up shop in Bandon and moving to  the hussle and bussle of the big city… well Cork, at their new wine warehouse at the Kinsale Road roundabout.

Picture of the beautiful unspoiled venue before the Kane Brothers start interior “decorating”.

The move is sure to be a popular one for all round. More space for the lads to fill up with wine, more space with filled up wine for the rest of us! Easily accessible and located next to Smyths, I’m sure I wont be the only one dropping in on the way home for a couple of cases!

Now the only bother is sure to be packing everything up and moving from Bandon. I’m sure it must be a complete pain in the ass packing thousands of bottles of wine for a move, so I vote we all help the guys our with their big move by removing all that pesky stock from their current warehouse! Check out their amazing website here and treat yourself to some lovely winey goodness!