Image by Joe Penniston via Flickr

     Have to give a short shout out to Disney for the recent launch of DisneyDigitalBooks.com  Disney Publishing released an online version of more than 500 books available as a service online.  Each membership looks like it supports up to three children.  The best quote came out of the New York Times business section by someone I know very well.

“For parents, this isn’t going to replace snuggle time with a storybook,” said Yves Saada, vice president of digital media. “We think you can have different reading formats co-existing together.”

     I like the idea of multiple learning platforms, and I was a big fan the the Disney books growing up, so I’m looking forward to seeing this site gain major traction.  Check it out, they have a limited evaluation, and the annual subscription is at a great price point.  For the full NYT article look here.

Image by global oneness project via Flickr

There is a story about a sales call that I did that has been passed around enough that I heard it as almost a legend the other day.  I am exaggerating a bit, but I was asked if I knew who the people were in the story.  Well, it my story, so with a little litterary license and changing names, dates, and places to protect everyone other then me, I will tell a story of the “How to get thrown out of an account in a few easy steps!”

     In a land not so far away, a sales region near you, there was a team, a team that legends are made from.  This team worked for a start-up storage company, a company on the path to greatness!  This company was little, but in the dawn of explosive growth, this team was new to each other, but fought like they had been in battle for ever side by side.  The typical battle was hard to get into, but once in the fight we were pretty much unbeatable.  The team was Steven (me) and Sean (name changed to protect Sean, oops).

     One day, this mighty team was introduced into an account by a weak partner, strong in revenue, but weak in the ability to do anything other then cause trouble.  What kind of trouble?  Registration issues, bringing in multiple storage vendors into the same account, and not being able to close even the easiest of deals.  This account was a simple, let’s parade our list of vendors by the Director of IT, of what?, a Zoo.  Yes that is right, lions, bears, elephants, etc. Zoo. 

     So we do our awesome “dog & pony” show, but the questions being asked are too clearly directed, both by our partner and by the customer.  We were getting sloppy second sales meetings vibes.  Towards, the end of the meeting, Sean and I are getting a bit jaded about the opportunity, and figure let’s at least enjoy our meeting at the Zoo.  This is how the conversation went:

Sean: (to IT Director) “Hey before we get out of here, any chance we could feed a lion?”

IT Director: (laughs) “No, but maybe you’d like to feed a giraffe?”

Sean: “Nah, a lion would be much more fun, how about a monkey?”

Steven: “Forget a monkey or giraffe, any chance I could club a baby seal?”

all: (silence)

IT Director: (in his head – did he really say he wants to club a seal?)

Sean: (in his head – STEVEN!!!! he doesn’t know you are sarcastic and kidding)

Steven: “I mean I’m pretty quick, I will be able to grab it before it sinks!”

IT Director: “Here let me show you guys to the door.”

     Needless to say, we didn’t win the deal, as the legend stands, we were physically thrown out of the Zoo, and a permanent ban is in place.  My name in on the PETA most wanted list, and Sean has to get family members to buy dog food since he is shunned in the animal community as well.  The real events, how it happened, where it happened, well kiddos, that is why it has become a sales legend.  The moral of the story, no matter how badly you want to club a baby seal, asking to do so will loose you the storage deal.

Image by tschaut via Flickr

     In my career I have worked for a Fortune 50 company, companies with less then 50 employees, private companies that have closed their doors, private companies that have been acquired, and the holy grail of private companies that went public.  What eludes me is how private companies, who are built on sweat equity, go from passionate intimate environments to painful work places. 

     I’m thinking maybe it is my fault, maybe I’m just not cut from the “corporate” cloth.  I’m willing to dive into this first.  About me, I’m what I would consider to be a young professional.  I have a formal education, I have over a decade of industry experience, however, a good portion of that experience has been working with every type of customer across the globe on the sales side, the implementation side, and the consulting services side.  Maybe it is my east coast attitude, being raised in NY, watching people sellout their mother to get a deal closed, taxis literally running each other off the road to get to the next red/green light faster, the march of ants that occurs during rush hour in NYC.  I’ve always taken that as a cherished attitude, and used to have a great sign in my office: “I wanted it done yesterday!”  In NYC this was just typical average passion and energy. 

     Maybe it isn’t about me.  Small companies, especially private companies have the ability to so agile, literally turning on a dime.  While this bring a tremendous amount of instability, it also allows stuff to get done.  Large corporations, while generally stable, get so bogged down with process and procedure that hiring, firing, developing, fixing, and just quickly accomplishing anything becomes almost impossible.  Many things are sacrificed for stability of the all might stickholder, oops, Freudian slip, I meant stockholder.  Sometimes being public is a curse.

     So, I’ve seen it go both ways, I’ve seen very passionate people working for some of the largest companies in the world, I’ve seen deadheads (not Jerry G. fans, but “deadhead” def. #6) working at start-ups, and of course the reverse of both exists in the largest version of the bell curve.  For me, I like being “David”.  So I’ll throw my world wide pants on, help another fledgling company spread its wings, and like all start-ups, if we fly too close to the sun too soon we risk failure, timing is everything.

Image via Wikipedia

     In Recent News, and as an outstanding announcement for travelers everywhere, Harley Davison motorcycles (with some caveats) can Guarantee a 50% reduction of tires in use on the road compared to traditional cars and trucks made by the Ford Motor Company.

Using the following math:

50% less tires compared to a baseline of traditional cars and trucks. The baseline is determined from the amount of tires touching the ground on a car/truck and the amount of tires that a vehicle of transport requires. For example, suppose that you need a vehicle to get you from point A to point B. Here’s how we calculate the baseline:

• Default Harley Davidson Motorcycle has only 2 wheels/Tires, add on 100% overhead for 4 wheel ability, plus an additional spare tire.
• Total tires required to get from Point A to Point B  – 2 tires on a traditional auto this number is 4 tires plus a smaller spare tire.
• 50% less tires means a traveler will only need to purchase 2 tires to get from Point A to Point B

 

In Similar News, NetApp releases “50% Virtualization Guarantee*”

50% less storage compared to a baseline of traditional storage. The baseline is determined from the amount of data to be stored and the amount of storage overhead that a system of similar protection and performance levels typically requires. For example, suppose that you need a system to accommodate 10TB of data. Here’s how we calculate the baseline:
•  Add on 100% overhead for RAID 10 protection; 2.6% overhead for rightsizing and formatting; and two spare drives.
•  Total raw capacity required for 10TB of data on a traditional storage system is roughly 21.75TB.
•  50% less storage means that the customer will need to purchase only 10.75TB of raw space with NetApp.

Obviously, there are other significant savings with NetApp, reduction in Hot Spares, Deduplication, etc.  I just thought it was funny that the baseline for storage chosen wasn’t another RAID6 based configuration, but comparison to a RAID10 deployment.

Also, that URL isn’t a typo, guarantee was in fact spelt wrong.

Posted on the Wright County Republican blog was a very interesting thought:

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Birk Plan

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in
a We Deserve It Dividend.
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000
bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals
$425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
We Deserve It Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000 .00.
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college it’ll be there
Save in a bank create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car create jobs
Invest in the market capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed
Forces.
If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( vote buy ) economic incentive that is being proposed
by one of our candidates for President.
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every
adult U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.
Sure it’s a crazy idea that can never work.
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in
Washington DC .
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

Good in theory, not sound in reality.  I think people clearly don’t understand the AIG “bailout”.  It is really more of a highly leveraged LOAN.  So the fundamental problem is loan, not gift, and high interest terms, and in the event of a default, roughly 90% of AIG would become owned by the government.

Regardless, it is a good read, and i got a good laugh about it, it would be a nice gift from the US Government, however, I’m not willing to accept the same terms.

Of course, I didn’t even bother to do the math, as it was pointed out to me.  If his math was sound, the plan was still shitty, but considering that his math is off by roughly 424,500 dollars per person, it is ludicrous.