Ready for a fresh perspective on Rebooting your growth, your innovation, your company–even yourself? Donna Sturgess, my fellow co-author from the best selling book,The Big Moo, has delivered that big time with her new book Eyeballs Out!
Eyeballs Out is an all hands on deck book, that gives you an all-access-pass into a remarkable private network of leading global marketers, who use immersions to discover new worlds and insights to grow their companies.
Donna takes us on a magical tour of innovation and intrigue, from the hectic flight deck of an aircraft carrier, to Fortune 500 innovation teams, to immersive experiences that you can do out of the office–you know, in the real world.
Get ready for new tools to pursue powerful visions, like full engagement, willingness to sacrifice, resilience, and flexibility in the face of constant stress. With actionable tips on how to locate and prosper from immersive experiences, Donna pushes us to take our first step on a revelatory journey, with a focus on empowering the people you work with–here's a taste:
1. Ensure that the whole operation has a deep understanding of the business strategy.
2. Clarify job roles with clear boundaries and performance expectations.
3. Commit to training—coach employees to take control and manage risks.
4. Empower people with the authority to get the job done.
5. Give support and encouragement as needed.
6. Request progress reports.
7. Praise and reward accomplishment and skill.
Fellow Rebooters will love Eyeballs critically simple message–you must get OUT–get away from your computer, your desk and get out of the office to discover new ways to reinvent business growth. And remember to never stop looking, never stop learning, and never stop performing at top capacity with eyeballs out.
Good news is, you don't have to wait to start your immersion journey. You can pre order the book and start following Donna on Twitter now–so join in on the conversation and start sharing your own immersion stories with her before your book arrives.
Start Up Princess–Plus 99 other smart sites for women.
By · CommentsEver wanted someone to save you a lot of time and show you the top web resources to help Reboot your business or your life? Here's a Reboot Media List that delivers what you need now. Thanks to ForbesWoman's Top 100 Websites for Women brings together one of the most comprehensive dashboards of Internet resources for people–and advertisers who want to target them. My favorites are Start Up Princess, Women Entrepreneur and 85 Broads–what are yours?
85 Broads: A member's only international network of 20,000 inspired, empowered and connected women started by female staffers at Goldman Sachs. Nice offering of blogs from members on work-life issues.
Alexandra Levit: A career blog by author and journalist Alexandra Levit that regularly dispenses wisdom on all things work.
Babble: A community for new parents with advice, recipes, news and resources, plus a witty blog called Strollerderby.
Betty Confidential: A fast-growing women's site that features celebrity news and lifestyle content.
Birds On the Blog: This London blog features career advice and breaking women's-interest news from 11 resident bloggers (aka "the birds"). All ad revenue from the site is used to fund the education of 5-year-old Ugandan twin girls, Princess and Perfect.
Bizzie Mommy: Very busy mom Stephanie Elie blogs about juggling her two kids and multiple businesses.
BlogHer: The premier women's blog platform is celebrating its fifth year this year–and it's still going and growing strong.
Brazen Careerist's Blog: Serial entrepreneur Penelope Trunk writes about work and life for over 40,000 subscribers. Her top piece of advice? Control your professional identity to stay employable.
CafeMom: An online community for moms that hosts parenting forums, games and blogs.
Care: A community and blog for the "sandwich" generation who juggle caring for their children, parents, pets and overall sanity.
CareerDiva: MSNBC.com career columnist Eve Tahmincioglu blogs about navigating the job market, networking, negotiating and more.
Catalyst: This website by nonprofit group Catalyst hosts research about women in business and an insightful blog, Catalyzing.
Common Sense With Money: Accountant and mom Mercedes Levy offers smart advice on budgeting, saving and where to find bargains.
Cool Mom: TV host and pop culture writer Daphne Brogdon blogs and posts videos to fuel the "momversation."
Corporette: A fashion and lifestyle blog for corporate women: lawyers, bankers, MBAs, consultants and "otherwise overachieving chicks."
Count Me In: This community for women business owners offers career resources, webinars, blogs and a network for female entrepreneurs.
Daily Worth: A personal finance and business site for women updated daily with money tips and blog posts. Their motto is: "We believe all women should be in charge of their financial health."
Dames Bond: "When dames bond, dames thrive" is the motto of this networking site for women in business. In addition to feature articles on advice, it features an extensive business directory of female services and businesses.
Deal Seeking Mom: With five kids, Tara Kuczykowski lives on a budget. She blogs about money-saving tricks, alerting readers to freebies, coupons and sales.
DivineCaroline: A curated blog platform for women, DivineCaroline hosts entertaining and thoughtful content about work, travel, style and relationships.
Dooce: With stunning pictures and crisp wit, mom and former Web designer Heather Armstrong chronicles her life and the world around her.
Escape From Cubicle Nation: Career coach Pamela Slim offers easy-to-follow marketing and business advice to help workers funnel their passions into their work.
Families and Work: The blog from the nonprofit group Families and Work Institute features thoughtful pieces on the changing workplace and family structure.
Feministe: A feminist blog that tackles gender issues with both humor and gravity.
Feministing: An online community and blog with a feminist perspective that analyzes how pop culture and mainstream media reflect modern women.
Frances Cole Jones: Former nonfiction editor and career expert Jones offers business advice and tips on workplace etiquette.
From The Gen Y Perspective: Emily Jasper blogs about career and workplace issues with the perceptive vantage point of youth.
Glam: This women's style site features beauty advice, must-have products and celebrity fashion trends.
Healthy Women: A go-to information source for women on all things health, with hard medical data and breezy lifestyle articles.
Hello Ladies: Calls itself "the intersection of feminism and life," and features breaking news stories, feminist essays and work-life advice.
Home-Based Working Moms: An online community and association for work-at-home moms with useful resources to help with the juggle.
Hybrid Mom: This community for moms features articles and blogs on parenting and work, as well as a digital marketplace where users can buy and sell their products.
InStyle: The official InStyle magazine website provides an insider's view on celebrity style and easy tips to get it yourself.
iVillage: One of the Web's largest communities for women featuring lifestyle stories and tips and a ton of active message boards.
Jane Has A Job: Jane Has Job is a blog and community hub for working women in their 20s and 30s. Their mission is to address the many challenges of a woman's life, recognizing that no two women are the same but do share certain desires and concerns.
Jezebel: Owned by Gawker Media, a must-visit blog about celebrity, sex and fashion that bites into the media's representation of women and critiques gender in pop culture.
Ladies Who Launch: An active and engaging site for female entrepreneurs that provides a resources for starting, building and running a business.
LearnVest: Easy-to-understand financial advice, information and tools for women hoping to take control of their financial lives.
Lemondrop: This edgy women's lifestyle site features posts on love, sex and beauty.
Lindsey Pollak: LinkedIn spokesperson and Gen Y expert Lindsey Pollak blogs about social media and work for the next generation of leaders.
Maggie Jackson: Author and journalist Maggie Jackson posts about the balancing acts of working parents and how technology is changing the way we live and work.
Martha Stewart Living: The digital platform of powerhouse Martha Stewart features inspired tips, recipes and guides to perfecting the home.
Minti: User-generated blogs discuss pregnancy, parenting, childhood and education.
Modite: Entrepreneur Rebecca Thorman writes with fury on the state of the Gen-Y generation, women and work.
Mom Invented: Tamara Monosoff launched this online community for entrepreneurial moms. It supports and inspires women inventors with business advice and product licensing opportunities.
Mommy Tracked: This "multi-tasking" website for modern moms provides a fresh take on motherhood with sharp columns and commentary.
Moms Rising: Members of this "motherhood movement" take to the site to rally behind family-friendly policies like paid sick days and parental leave, flexible work options and quality health care.
More: The Web presence of More magazine, the lifestyle title for women over 40.
Motherlode: New York Times' Motherlode blog by Lisa Belkin tackles studies, news and first-hand insight of modern motherhood.
Ms. Magazine: The Web presence of feminist frontrunner Ms. Magazine, the website boasts the most extensive coverage of U.S. and international women's issues.
Ms. Money: A personal finance resource for women that covers everything from investing and budgeting to debt reduction, all to give financial peace of mind to its users.
Mystic Madness: A blog for women that addresses personal development, relationships and work issues through the lens of self-improvement.
On The Job: A workplace blog from columnist and author Anita Bruzzese, On The Job tackles outsourcing, unemployment issues and procrastination with just the right quantities of journalism and snark.
One Louder: Microsoft staffing manager Heather
Hamilton blogs about marketing, recruiting and corporate culture.
Oprah: It's Oprah–she's everything–and her site is, too.
Our Bodies, Our Blog: A blog from the nonprofit group Boston Women's Health Book Collective that aims to educate on women's health issues through topical newsy content.
Parents Connect: Nickelodeon's community site for parents has the tagline "we're not perfect, we're parents," and features networking opportunities, vacation advice and a platform to swap parenting war stories.
Pink Magazine: The Web presence of Pink, the national women's magazine that addresses the needs, interests, ambitions and accomplishments of working women.
Pioneer Woman: Ree Drummond juggles homeschool, career and life on a ranch, and blogs her recipes, photography and family stories. Inspiring and delicious.
Protocol School: From etiquette expert Diane Gottsman, the site is a resource for manners and protocol in business. Gottsman says, "If you think business and manners don't mix, try talking with your mouth full."
Punk Rock HR: HR expert Laurie Ruettmann, one of CareerBuilder.com's Top Five bloggers, shares her insights into corporate right and wrongs–and how to get ahead without kissing butt.
Rachael Ray: The queen of 30-minute meals offers her unique brand of getting things done with a smile, and her site offers advice and features culled from her daytime TV show as well as must-cook recipes.
Real Simple: Real Simple magazine's Web presence is as no-fuss and impeccably designed as the print version. Stop here for lifestyle advice from these organizing, cooking and DIY experts.
Salon's Broadsheet: The women and pop culture blog from Salon is always entertaining and enlightening
and more than worthy of a bookmark.
Savvy Miss: A community for "real" women who are curious, fun-loving, philanthropic and intellectual.
Self: Self magazine's online presence and a destination in its own right for features and advice on fitness, healthy eating, stress-management and quick exercise tips.
She Finds and Mom Finds: Buying guides from shopping experts save busy women the trouble of pre-shopping research on must-have fashion, gifts and kid gear.
She Takes On The World: One of our picks for the 20 best marketing and social media blogs by women this year, She Takes On The World is an award-winning business and lifestyle blog for women.
Smitten Blog by Glamour: The community website of Glamour magazine, the site features magazine
content, a blog platform and community forums on fashion, love, work issues and fitness.
Start Up Princess: A resource for female entrepreneurs by female entrepreneurs through education,
encouragement and networking opportunities.
Style: Vogue's online home for fashion news, runway shows, trends, designers and insider industry tidbits. A great resource for women looking to update their working wardrobe, or to keep on top of trends each season.
Team Sugar: The parent site for all of the 'Sugar blogs that cover all manner of life, from work and fashion to kids to celebrities. Teamsugar is one-stop shopping for hip female-friendly content.
Tech Mamas: A tech blog for mamas, a mom blog for techies, this California-based site offers advice on software, hardware and marketing for the working-from-home set as well as marketers in the tech sector.
The Boss Network: A community of entrepreneurial women who support each other through conversation, online and event-based networking.
The Bump: The Bump, from TheKnot, is a community website for expecting and trying-to-conceive couples that offers support, advice and features to women and their partners.
The Football Girl: Melissa Jacobs blogs about football, "because women love football too." Her site features game analysis, exclusive interviews with players and fantasy football tips for women.
The Glass Hammer: An award-winning blog and online community created for women executives in finance, law, technology and big business.
The Juggle: WSJ.com's The Juggle blog provides news and views on work, caregiving and time management for working parents.
The Knot: A community website for engaged or recently married couples that offers wedding advice, registry information and planning features for women and couples.
The Nie Nie Dialogues: The world has been watching Stephanie Nielson as she's raised her family of four and miraculously recovered from a plane crash that burned 83% of her body. We can't stop watching.
TheBloggess: Jenny Lawson blogs about sex, love and motherhood, and whatever else comes to mind.
Total Leadership: Stew Friedman blogs for Total Leadership on improvement in all domains of life–work, home, community and self, advice all women can take to heart.
WAHM: An online magazine and resource for work-at-home mothers that includes features and advice on finding work, self-marketing and keeping the kids busy while you freelance.
WFN: The blog of Boston College's Alfred P. Sloan Work and Family Research Network is a destination for information on work and family balance and features articles on public policy and evidence-based information on workforce issues, talent management and the impact of work and family issues on business.
Woman's Day: Woman's Day is one of the most popular women's magazines on the newsstand and the website follows in its footsteps, providing thorough content with a particular slant towards recipes and home life.
Women Entrepreneur: The female arm of Entrepreneur.com, this site is a resource for current and aspiring women business owners, featuring in-depth profiles of success stories as well as up-to-date advice on funding.
Women For Hire: A hub of recruitment services for women, this site offers career expos, blogs and feature articles as well as an online job board that connects leading employers with professional women.
Women On Business: The goal of Women on Business is to expand the international network of businesswomen online by promoting conversation on common issues. It was founded by writer and consultant Susan Gunelius.
Women Success Coaching: A blog from success coach Bonnie Marcus, Women's Success Coaching weighs in on the many building blocks of empowering women in business, from assertive communication to self promotion to sensitivity training.
Womenetics: A networking platform for professional women that features daily content on business and personal relationships.
Women's e-News: A nonprofit news service covering issues of concern to women and their allies and provides a woman's perspective on changing public policy.
Women Fitness: Aims to improve women's nutrition and activity levels. "Wanting to look and feel good may feel shallow," they say, "but if it means reducing body fat and building toned muscles, it's a truly wonderful thing."
WomensForum: As one of the first online women's communities, it still boasts 8 million page views a month as a destination for working women.
Work Happy Now: A blog and newsletter from career coach Karl Staib, WHN focuses on developing career "superpowers" to find the job that's right for you.
Work It Mom: A community and blog for working mothers. Their philosophy is that if mothers share their experiences with each other, working women can successfully juggle career and family.
Work Life Fit: Resource for work life fit and flex scheduling for organizations and individuals.
Working Mother: The web presence of Working Mother magazine, the site features articles on the intersection of parenting and professional life.
Works by Nicole Williams: Author Nicole Williams curates WORKS, a resource for young professional women with a sophisticated voice.
WowOwow: WowOwow is a daily blog and newsmagazine written by an A-list cast of female writers and
entertainment icons who share their opinions on news and women's issues.
Yahoo! Shine: A women-only curated blog platform that serves up career advice, style tips, whatever's-in-your-fridge recipes and pithy takes on current events.
Email To Employees: What Do You Want?
By · CommentsCEO’s spend too much time and money trying to figure out what people want. Sometimes all they need to do is ask. People Reboots ask specific questions up front to quickly prioritize what's important to focus on in order to drive growth. People Reboots challenge traditional HR by developing a better way of finding, attracting, building, optimizing, motivating and incenting talent, while developing more collaborative teams that can drive business results.
My favorite question to ask during the Reboot process, that everyone should ask and evaluate, is: “What do we want now"? Smart CEO’s are doing less reading and thinking about this question and instead having real discussions with their people—and asking blunt questions. Melissa Raffoni recently offered up some of her insightful observations about what employee’s would like their leaders to do:
“I often have to remind the dedicated, smart CEOs I work with that leading takes time and energy. Directing the feelings, attitudes, actions, and behaviors of a team is a big task. Often, I also hear the secrets of these CEOs' employees, about what truly aggravates them and what they love about their bosses. To keep top executives on track, I've created this list of what employees want their leaders to do.
1. Tell me my role, tell me what to do, and give me the rules. Micromanaging? No, it's called clear direction. Give them parameters so they can work within broad outlines.
2. Discipline my coworker who is out of line. Time and time again, I hear, "I wish my boss would tell Nancy that this is just unacceptable." Hold people accountable in a way that is fair but makes everyone cognizant of what is and isn't acceptable.
3. Get me excited. About the company, about the product, about the job, about a project. Just get them excited.
4. Don't forget to praise me. Motivate employees by leveraging their strengths, not harping on their weaknesses.
5. Don't scare me. They really don't need to know about everything that worries you. They respect that you trust them, but you are the boss. And don't lose your temper at meetings because they didn't meet your expectations. It's often not productive. Fairness and consistency are important mainstays.
6. Impress me. Strong leaders impress their staffs in a variety of ways. Yes, some are great examples of management, but others are bold and courageous, and still others are creative and smart. Strong leaders bring strength to an organization by providing a characteristic that others don't have and the company sorely needs.
7. Give me some autonomy. Give them something interesting to work on. Trust them with opportunity.
8. Set me up to win. Nobody wants to fail. Indecisive leaders who keep people in the wrong roles, set unrealistic goals, keep unproductive team members, or change direction unfairly just frustrate everybody and make people feel defeated.”
To make this a top nine list, I would add “Show me where we are headed, what’s your/our vision of the future and why are we headed in that direction”? Get your People Reboot off to a smart start, by getting out of your office and start asking more honest questions with your people today—and create your own unique top nine list!
Need Help Innovating Inside Big-Fat-Slow Organizations?
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Take it from me, innovation within big-fat-slow companies is an extremely tough challenge without the right people, platforms and passion needed to make a meaningful difference in creating the future. Grow From Within is an incredible book, authored by Reboot friends Rob Wolcott and his colleague Mike Lippitz.
In Grow From Within, Rob and Mike outline the impactful ways global companies are harnessing internal entrepreneurs and how you can find the right model for your organization now. Having been lucky enough to be an internal entrepreneur early in my career–developing new innovative products, partners, divisions and spinout companies–I can tell you this stuff really works and you will enjoy this book!
Here are some of Rob's and Mike's key finding and insights:
Is It Time To Reboot Board of Director Recruiting?
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With proxy season upon us, it's time to Reboot the requirements we (boards and recruiters) use to define our director searches, in order to bring in fresh new talent that can help CEO's take their organizations to the next level of growth and market leadership. In this guest colleague post, Directorship Chairman, CEO & Editorial Director, Jeffrey Cunningham talks about additional must have director traits that I agree with:
While a “dream list” is not necessarily the right approach, given the complexity and multiple demands of board work, there are some “must haves” that all boards should consider. Here is a short list I have used in my own searches as a nominating committee chair:
1. Battle hardened not battle weary: Significant risk management experience, preferably in financial services, as CEO or at board level. Secondarily, involvement in a turn around or crisis situation of major proportions is helpful.
2. Bureaucracy cutter: Previous deep involvement with regulatory, media and other powerful constituencies and knows how to work with or around them.
3. Healthy not oversized ego: Comfort level with very strong personalities and the ability to work smoothly in that environment. Possesses a discriminating sense of what issues to weigh in on, when to raise objections and when to push management harder.
4. Trusted comrade: Someone with a proven track record of “staying the course” in times of challenge. You can be sure there will be some.
5. Ready for action: Collegial, personable, but possessed of a willingness to act decisively when needed.
6. Numbers and sense: Possesses a mind that can synthesize quantitative data very aptly, but combine this with an ability to read people and personalities, and act on both sets of data soundly and with conviction.
Seth Godin and I Want to Know–Are You a Linchpin?
By · CommentsIn today’s big-fat-slow companies there are good cogs and bad cogs—which type are you? Do you think you are indispensable? I doubt that you are…yet.
Want to become a trusted linchpin that people go to and enjoy working with? Then you must get Seth Godin’s best-seller Linchpin. Seth has once again delivered a gift that will allow readers to reboot themselves in remarkable ways. I recommend you skim it and then reread it slowly—honestly internalizing it, and taking it personally.
Linchpin is a major upgrade to the how-to self-help cook books on the shelves—with Seth taking you on a more realistic journey toward becoming a remarkably invaluable resource. My guess is that becoming a linchpin-in-training is a lot of work—because it is not a cookie cutter deal—you need to do it in your own creative and amazing way.
I know that Linchpin readers will become increasingly indispensable, by reengaging in work guided by their true passions. I also think that the people who invest in themselves and follow Seth’s sage advice will be a key part of the next-generation of innovators and leaders—because they will become independent thinkers and unique doers as they pursue their life’s work.
When I worked with Seth, and The Group 33, writing The Big Moo we had a lot of fun blending some of our best thoughts on how people can stop trying to be perfect—and just be remarkable. Now, when I’m Rebooting companies, I focus on three areas that have proven to have more meaningful, systemic and long-term impacts on the performance of an organization: People Reboots, Platform Reboots and Passion Reboots—with Seth’s help you can get started on rebooting your passion now!
Want to Reboot Your Meetings—Get A Map!
By · CommentsCommunicating more effectively calls for tools that help connect and interact with people. Easy to say—tough to do in meetings. Every day, thousands of meetings take place—inside big fat organizations—that are painfully regulated by a presenter clicking through a slide deck. Too often, the real (hidden) agenda for many is to just get through the deck—instead of accomplishing something remarkable. I’ve been guilty of this as well. Rather than insuring consistency, with everyone using “up-to-date” logos and company PPT templates, I find it’s best to be inconsistent. Many of us use things like flip charts to make things more spontaneous, creative or iterative—but it is not useful enough.
To reboot the same old meeting fatigue, I like to inject even more random tools, from Power Point (admittedly) and Keynote, to Post Its and flip charts, to audio, video and live web surfing tours, and my favorite, big white boards (preferably floor to ceiling size) to help visualize and develop ideas more collaboratively. White-boarding can be more engaging, but you can find yourself loosing people in complex discussions and drawings, because it does not provide the best platform for those who may need more structured discussions and ideation. What’s often needed is something everyone can gather around to discuss, and—absent a nice fire or a talking stick to pass around—I find maps often do the trick.
One group I like is Maga Maps. They develop collaborative maps (like this one) that can be hung on the wall, in all sizes, to help a team focus in on what’s important. Where slides fail to encourage collaboration, maps prompt people to get out of their chairs, gather around a single focal point and participate in an interactive discussion. I also like to leave the maps up after a meeting—often in the hallways—so people can continue the discussions and hopefully innovation long after the meeting has ended.
Maps don’t have to be fancy and formal like this one—you can simply draw it on the white board before the meeting. Try using maps for one of your meetings and see what happens to the creativity and energy in the room. If you are really brave, loose the chairs…and maybe even the conference room!
Ted Leonsis and The Business of Happiness
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One of my Reboot Rules deals with keeping your business fun for you and your colleagues. Without fun–most people at work are simply not happy. Unfortunately, happy talent is a secret weapon companies don’t invest enough in–especially big fat ones. It’s not easy to Reboot happiness–until now. Ted Leonsis has a new book coming out called “The Business of Happiness: 6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work.” He developed the book with another former AOL’er John Buckley and it will be released Feb. 8 by Regnery Publishing.
I sold one of my companies, Imagination Network, to AOL and Ted became our Chairman after the acquisition. I was fortunate to work for Ted as we expanded the new AOL games channels. Ted is a remarkable mentor, boss and friend and I appreciate his advice—he’s a motivator and one of the top creative business minds. In the book, Ted gives his take on being happy before, during and after success and how/why happiness needs to be a systemic part of a business.
But the book is more than just Secrets to Extraordinary Success, it is filled with great stories you will enjoy. And just as if you were sitting in the cafiteria at AOL having a cup of coffee with Ted, the book comes to life and takes you on an amazing journey with stories about his life, work and passions. From his early beginings, to the turbulent times that he (and many of us) experienced at AOL—you will be inspired and closer to understanding the business of happiness.
You will have to read the book to get the detail on the 6 Secrets, but here is a teaser to get you started:
- Your Life List
- Multiple Communities of Interest
- Finding Outlets of Self Expression
- Gratitude
- Giving Back
- A Higher Calling
For those of you who have not been as fortunate as me to actually work with Ted, here is your chance….. Pre-order Ted’s book now and enjoy his happiness/success secrets!
Would Sherlock Holmes make a good VC?
By · Comments We could use more VC’s, investors and board members like Sherlock Holmes—now more than ever.
Like me, David B. Lerner did not only enjoy the new Sherlock Holmes movie, but he was also inspired by how Holmes would be a sought-after advisor/innovator today. In this guest post, The Ideal Venture Capitalist: Top Ten Reasons Sherlock Holmes Fits the Bill, David says he “was struck by the realization that Sherlock would have made an amazing venture capitalist! ‘What a perfectly silly notion my dear Watson!’, he would no doubt have replied. But I would have to insist and say that VC’s and Angel Investors young and old would do well to emulate some of Sherlock’s best qualities. Here they are as I see them”:
1) Complete and Utter Attention to his Clients:
When he meets with someone, his total absorption in their presence is legendary. (He would, for example, never dare distractedly glance through his mail when receiving a guest- as many a VC are criticized for doing via their blackberrys). He also is incredibly respectful and courteous to his clients, always responding to their telegrams promptly.
2) Immensely Perceptive and Observant:
LP’s looking for capital efficient managers take heed! Forget about your GP’s spending money to perform diligence on entrepreneurs. With Sherlock as the Managing Director, he can tell you a person’s entire story and background after the first meeting! He takes the meaning of due diligence to another level entirely.
3) He’s a World-Travelled, Experienced Entrepreneur Himself:
Worried (as Hoegaerden is) about “sub-prime VC’s”? Holmes is no newly-minted, blue-blazered-stiff-of-an-MBA just off the VC conveyor belt with no life-experience. He’s traveled the world, has enormous wisdom and runs the 19th century equivalent of a garage start-up consultancy with Dr. Watson.
4) Massive Intellectual Curiosity, Great Erudition:
Here’s a VC who doesn’t rest on his laurels and past accomplishments. He is constantly learning, reading, studying and staying abreast of new trends, the news, the latest technologies. He is the first Western martial artist, a naturalist, an amateur chemist par-excellence and an early adopter of the newest technologies and techniques available.
5) Loves the Big Idea, Huge Risk-Taker & Admires Disruption:
Here’s a true innovator not content with following the herd and investing in the latest incremental fad. He himself is disrupting the law enforcement industry with his own super-lean startup! The bungling bureaucracy of Scotland Yard and Inspector Lestrade are no match for Holmes’ home-grown operation with a staff of two, (three if you include his landlady, Mrs. Hudson). He’s confident and capable enough to trust his own vision and therefore is ready to tackle the biggest, toughest, most elusive problems in the marketplace!
6) Great Mentor, Coach and Board Member:
He leads by example, has intelligently advised innumerable clients and has helped Watson hone his now considerable skills as a crime-stopper. He anticipates events, predicts how people will react and has a keen sense of danger. Such a mentor could help any entrepreneur with the sales, marketing and hiring process, not to mention with the design of an effective strategic plan. He would make a great Board Member.
7) Great Ear for the Customer:
When it comes to understanding the views of the man on the street, no one is better than Holmes. He’s as comfortable in the elegant drawing rooms of 221B Baker Street as he is on the vilest lanes of London, has roughed it in disguise many a time and is known to have eyes and ears throughout the city. He has no allegiance to class, no patience for pomposity and judges a person on their individual merits.
8) Driven with Enormous Energy:
Here’s a guy who loves his job, pulls all-nighters regularly and will take almost any meeting. He’s relentless and ultra-determined when trying to solve a problem and this is infectious to the entrepreneurs he funds and advises.
9) High Standards & Innate Sense of What is Right:
Holmes is always very exacting of Watson and those around him, but never more than he is on himself. He takes on each engagement with an enormous sense of purpose and sense of what is inherently right. As many have said, he has his own sense of justice that is at times distinct from the rather blunt and un-nuanced version often displayed by his lemming-like colleagues at Scotland Yard. A loyal teammate with an unfailing moral compass, he is an enormous asset to the companies in which he invests.
10) Sense of Humor:
Lastly, as Robert Downey Jr. exemplifies so well in the film, Sherlock has a terrific sense of fun and playfulness and mischief- rarely taking himself too seriously. It is always disarming and endears him to Watson and many of his clients. He is respectful and yet irreverent all at once.
What Are Your 2010 M&A Predictions?
By · CommentsI see a lot 2010 activity in mobile and video–what are your predictions? Here is a guest post from a good friend and colleague, Kelly Porter of Woodside Capital Partners with his Top Ten M&A deals for 2010:
Digital media M&A activity is expected to pick up in 2010—big acquirers have significant cash on their balance sheets, share prices are up, and many good acquisition candidates are on the landscape. With this in mind, I’ve put together the following list of 10 interesting Digital Media M&A deals for 2010. Some are longshots, some are slam dunks; all would create compelling new opportunities and possibilities. It’s a list that was compiled in recent weeks over coffee with some of the brightest and most connected folks in the valley. Without further ado, here are the deals we envisioned:
1. Google acquires Roku
YouTube arguably holds the highest potential of Google’s major growth initiatives, capturing about 38% of video viewing on the web and serving more than 1 billion streams daily. However, the average YouTube user watches about five hours of TV daily versus only 15 minutes of YouTube. Moreover, consumers face a firehose of difficult-to-find viewing options on the YouTube site, with some 20 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute. Most important, Google is having trouble monetizing all that video content and YouTube is bleeding significant red ink. Roku
would address all these issues plus extend the YouTube brand – via Roku’s set-top box. The Roku box currently streams content from sites like Netflixand Amazon VOD to a consumer’s television. Google could rebrand and supercharge the box with lots of cool new search features, interactivity, gaming, PVR functionality, a tier of Google-branded channels featuring popular YouTube content, plus add several tiers of channels from major studios, broadcast networks and cable networks. A freemium model could be deployed, with subscribers getting most content for free, and paying extra for premium tiers. Google could grow a potentially huge new revenue stream, plus the service would be a formidable competitor to the rumored Apple broadband TV service (Apple is reportedly talking to Disney and CBS about supplying content for the service). Some might say that Microsoft already tried this with WebTV; however WebTV never had the massive cross-promotion engines of YouTube and Google behind it.
2. Cisco acquires LinkedIn
Cisco’s pursuit of enterprise communications is important, and LinkedIn would be a natural and powerful extension of this strategy. LinkedIn is growing like wildfire, having nearly doubled its user base in the past two years and launched hot partnerships with companies like Microsoft, RIM and Twitter. Cisco’s acquisitions of WebEx, Tandberg, Jabber and PostPathwould be augmented by LinkedIn’s 53 million members globally, and some very cool and unique new applications could be created using the combined capabilities of LinkedIn and Cisco’s various divisions. LinkedIn’s estimated 2010 revenues are just over $200M and the company’s last fundraisingcame in 2008, with a valuation of approximately $1 billion. For Cisco, with a $138 billion market cap and $35 billion in cash and short-term equivalents, acquiring LinkedIn for a big premium to the company’s most recent valuation (which is what it would take to acquire LinkedIn) would use a relatively small amount of that cash and would create a meaningful strategic extension for Cisco in the social networking domain.
3. Fox Interactive Media / MySpace acquires Pandora
As many music services struggle, Pandora has reportedly skyrocketed to 40 million registered usersand is adding 600,000 new users per week. Pandora has become a bona fide internet behemoth, accounting for a reported 44% of internet radio listening, with half of that listening coming on mobile devices. One of MySpace’s great strengths is the social network’s music presence. In recent months, FIM/MySpace acquired imeem and iLike, but those acquisitions pale in comparison to a potential Pandora acquisition. A MySpace-Pandora combination would create formidable scale which would span multiple segments of the music industry—from coffee shop singer/songwriters to arena rock bands—and provide benefits to music consumers that are not available elsewhere. Pandora would also breathe new life into the MySpace brand, which has been lagging in the wake of Facebook.
4. Twitter acquires Twithawk, TweetMeme, bizz.ly, Skout and TwitJump
Some believe Twitter should sell to a larger company, but they are missing the greater opportunity. Twitter enjoys massive potential as a standalone company. It is reminiscent of Yahoo! in 1995—a single compelling product, lots of traffic, growth potential and buzz, and poised to dominate several markets—in this case, the markets surrounding all things realtime. These five acquisitions—although all young companies themselves—would extend Twitter in significant ways: business marketing (Twithawk); realtime news discovery and sharing (TweetMeme); realtime promotion, publishing and sharing (bizz.ly); realtime dating/connecting (Skout); and Twitter management tools (TwitJump). Twitter could organically grow these new capabilities from within, but acquiring them through M&A would be faster and would also bring new talent into the company. Most important, these markets would bring new revenues to Twitter, extend its network effects, and broaden its footprint—ultimately positioning the company more favorably for a public offering.
5. Netflix acquires Flixster
Flixster—the movie-info sharing site with about 50 million unique users and a robust social networking core—is a near-perfect strategic fit for Netflix, providing both a marketing benefit as well as a critical social networking component. Netflix, with about 12 million subscribers (up about 28% from a year ago) is spending an attention-getting $27 per subscriber in acquisition costs. Flixster would help bring these subscriber acquisition costs down through its web presence, connection to Facebook and MySpace, and strength on the iPhone, where Flixster is the #1 movie app. Netflix’s future growth lies in adding new subscribers as well as increasing revenue from existing subscribers, and the company’s 17,000-title instant streaming service is a critical strategic component for its future; Flixster would be a core component in growing all of Netflix’s revenue streams. Rumors are recently afloat that Fox Interactive Media / MySpace is eyeing an acquisition of Flixster, but that deal is apparently not imminent. While there is indeed good strategic fit between Fox and Flixster, a Netflix-Flixster deal feels like an even better one.
6. Ticketmaster acquires Eventbrite
Eventbritewould be an excellent addition to the Ticketmaster portfolio, providing Ticketmaster with a new consumer market and Eventbrite with a deep-pocketed corporate parent that offers unparalleled distribution and marketing opportunities. Eventbrite enables an online presence for marketing and ticket sales for fairs, festivals, fundraisers and other events, rocketing from fledgling start-up in 2006 to projected 2009 sales of over $100 million, 3 million monthly uniques and 10,000 new monthly events. Ticketmaster’s savvy CEO Irving Azoff has shown great adeptness in growing revenues from $1.0 billion to nearly $1.5 billion in just the past four years, along with building substantial increases in the company’s free cash flow. Azoff would bring world-class managerial knowhow to Eventbrite’s high-volume, low-margin business. Ticketmaster has had its hands full seeking approval of the Live Nation merger; assuming that merger succeeds in early 2010, Eventbrite would be a solid next step in the company’s strategic growth.
7. DirecTV acquires Blip.tv
Comcast’s TV Everywhereonline initiative—which features about 12,000 titles from about 30 major content providers—was a shot across DirecTV’s bow and pointed to the need for DirecTV to launch a successful online distribution initiative. Blip.tvoffers DirecTV an immediate and valuable distribution channel for online broadcast, plus access to thousands of other programming assets from independent producers (which possibly could be used to program one or more unique channels on the DirecTV satellite TV service). Blip.tv currently manages 50,000+ shows and 3 million+ episodes. Views of Blip.tv programming have reportedly more than doubled in the past year, exceeding 85 million views during December 2009. The company has also attracted an impressive roster of advertisers including AT&T, Best Buy, Nikon, Chevy, Scion, Canon and Samsung. Blip.tv’s offering would need to be modified to distribute programming from major TV networks on DirecTV’s behalf (in order to limit distribution of those programs to DirecTV viewers), but that would likely not be a difficult modification to undertake. This would extend the audience reach for both companies.
8. Bing/Microsoft acquires Bit.ly
Bit.ly’s utility as a URL-shortener is far eclipsed by the strategic value the company brings to search: in November bit.ly shortened some 2 billionURL’s on Twitter, Facebook, email, instant messages and blogs, which means that the company has one of the best windows into realtime search across the internet. Twitter is often mentioned as the most likely acquirer of bit.ly, but an acquisition by Bing is even more compelling given the importance of realtime search to big search engines. Bing has gained impressive market share in the overall search market, but lags in realtime search. Bit.ly has grown out of nowhere in just the past two years to be one of the dominant companies in the social web. Given the growing importance of bit.ly, it would not be surprising to see a heated bidding war between Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft. A key mitigating factor is that Google and Facebook have recently rolled-out URL shorteners of their own.
9. Bing/Microsoft Acquires Foursquare
Called “Next Year’s Twitter”, Foursquareis a fantastically addictive and cool mobile startup that enables a person to share his location with a group of friends. Each time the person checks in from a particular location he or she earns a badge, and the person that checks in most from a particular location becomes the location’s “Mayor.” It’s this addictive game quality that has Foursquare growing exponentially, a la Twitter. This is a natural add-on to Bing Maps, and would further extend Microsoft into the social web with a mobile extension carrying significant ad sales and promotional opportunities. Given that Foursquare is one of the most exciting private companies on the digital mediascape, the company would command a big premium. Google is another natural acquirer of Foursquare, but a Google-Foursquare tie-up is less likely because of events surrounding the acquisition of Dodgeball, and the team subsequently fleeing Google to create Foursquare. Twitter could also acquire Foursquare.
10. LinkedIn acquires Yammer
Yammer is Twitter for the enterpriseand has grown rapidly since its September 2008 launch, attracting 50,000 enterprise members so far. Yammer would be an ideal extension of LinkedIn’s reach into the enterprise and would provide new revenue to LinkedIn via its freemium model (companies pay $3 to $5 a head when they upgrade to a premium account). Given Yammer’s market traction and compelling model, it is likely that other enterprise-related suitors like Salesforce.com and Oracle would also step-up in a bidding process for Yammer.
