For the last several years, in an attempt to improve search engine rankings, webmasters have been actively recruiting links to their websites, usually in a quid pro quo fashion (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours). The end result is a large page of irrelevant links that has very little utility to your website visitor... and one that is viewed with much skepticism by search engines. Once you understand the power of Google's PageRank ("PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine. The project started in 1995 and led to a functional prototype, named Google, in 1998. Shortly after, Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc., the company behind the Google Search engine. While just one of many factors which determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google's web search tools." - a Wikipedia Entry), the quality of the sites linking to your website will become significantly more important to you than the quantity of links. Personally, I have found securing a link from the webmaster of another website to be an awkward and frustrating process. So, with that said, a more effective strategy includes the creation of blogs on sites like blogger.com (PageRank 10/10), accounts on sites like del.icio.us (PageRank 8/10) and entries on sites like wikipedia.com (9/10).

On Blogger, I post new blogs with valuable, relevant references to ThoughtLava by sharing our experience, knowledge and expertise. These links are then indexed by Google, Yahoo and MSN, creating more credibility for ThoughtLava.com. On Del.icio.us, ThoughtLava team members have created links to ThoughtLava.com using our optimized description "ThoughtLava - a strategic Internet marketing services and professional website design company". And, we have created an entry for one of our core Internet concepts - Anonymous Visitor Marketing - on Wikipedia.com. The Internet is fundamentally built on the concept of sharing information - which can vary widely between content, products, or services. So if you have valuable content to share (which of course you do), make sure that your website is positioned to be seen as relevant rather than rabble.

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 10:13 AM

Over the summer, a really cool application was launched by our friends at Google: Browser Sync. It enables me to maintain the organization of my Firefox Browser bookmarks within tab folders across all of the computers I use (see my Web 2.0 Quick List blog). It also syncronizes my cookies and passwords for easy recognition and access to the sites I use frequently. This is a wonderful organizational enhancement as it allows me to perfect the use of my browser from any of my computers. However, from an Internet marketer's perspective, it will cause some new issues/opportunities.

EXAMPLE: We have a client that is very interested in the Operating System used by each visitor to their website. In particular, when a Mac O/S visitor arrives, they would like present them with relevant information about their software and the Mac operating system (OS X). Once detected, that information is stored and accessed by the visitor's cookie upon subsequent visits. Here's the rub, if the visitor is using Google's Browser Sync and visits the site from their PC, the detected O/S will be a non-Mac OS (Windows XP, Linux, etc.). Does the existing O/S information get overwritten? What should happen?

We now have to create logic rules to govern whether we overwrite, ignore or append conflicting data accessed by cookies.

Is anybody else dealing with this issue? Any thoughts? Please comment.

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 10:08 AM

This will be quick! Really just want to make a quick list of Web 2.0 applications that I am using to stay productive by working as much as possible in a Web browser. It is really a hot topic for me (again) as I just took a working vacation in California with my family last week. The beach house we had rented had a wireless Internet connection, but for some reason, I could not get my pc connected. My wife's iBook connected immediately. So, rather than spend hours troubleshooting my PC, I commandeered the iBook (btw it is about 5 years old).

The first thing I did was download Google's Browser Sync plug-in (go to Google, click More - click on Google Labs - Google Browser Sync is second one from the top. This plug-in syncs a Firefox Browser on any computer (cross-platform). It syncs bookmarks, folders, tabs, stored passwords, cookies, etc. So, I installed Browser Sync and logged in. Within minutes, all of my tabs and tab folders were now available on the iBook (I should mention that I have been using Browser Sync on my other computers: Mac G5 and my laptop PC.). So, I could use my tab organization that I have spent months perfecting to quickly access all of the websites I use to do my job.

Tools I use to do my job:

Writely.com - this is for quick word processing with easy-to-use tables. It is collaborative (well mostly - a little wierdness occurs when working simultaneously with others on the same document).

Google Spreadsheets - this is a great, full-featured spreadsheet. It supports multiple sheets and functions from sheet to sheet. It does have limitations in the number of rows/columns that can be created

Gliffy.com - this replaces Microsoft Viseo - it is super easy to use and creates beautiful, printable visual documents. It is also colloaborative.

DabbleDB.com or GroupSharp.com - these are great database tools - really a toss up between the two - you will have to review their attributes to determine which is best for your application.

Google Mail - I eliminated Microsoft Outlook in favor of Gmail. The beauty is that my email lives on the Net. I am not tethered to a particular PC or Mac where it is archived. I can also easily access it on my smartphone (TREO 650). It also handles spam like a champ!

Google Calendar - I have my entire family using it. That means that I can access all of their calendars and see where we have openings. That way I don't miss the important things (like watching my daughter's performances).

TaDaList.com - this is a 37 Signals product. I like it because my family can collaborate on to-do lists and I can access from my smartphone. So, we have a family grocery list - where any of us can add items - whoever is at the store can access via phone and see what needs to be bought.

Backpack.com and iOutliner.com - Backpack is another 37 Signals product - it is a to-do list on steriods. I can create a to-do list with notes, reminders (sent to my phone), add images, etc. iOutliner lets me create lists with an outline hierarchy. Both are awesome.

All of the tools listed above are FREE! At least for the beginning version (as you start to find utility, you may end up with a nominal monthly fee).

My goal is to completely move online with all of the applications I use to do my job. I am missing the following applications: Photoshop, Quicken and Quickbooks are all that are left. Then, I am free to use a super cheap PC or Mac to do my work. If you know of any great Web 2.0 applications, please comment to this posting or send me an email. Thanks!

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 2:02 PM

This thought was triggered by an article in the February 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review entitled "Breakthrough Ideas for 2005". The article has a brief synopsis of 20 breakthrough ideas for 2005. One of those was subtitled "Seek Validity Not Reliability" and was written by Roger L. Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and director of the AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship.

Reliability versus Validity
In the above referenced article, the thrust was a challenge to corporations to balance the need for process-driven reliability with a quest for validity. Here is a key paragraph from the article, "Six Sigma, CRM, Sarbanes-Oxley, and most other corporate systems have one thing in common: They are reliability-oriented processes. They are intended to produce identical or consistent results under all circumstances, often by analyzing objective data from the past. For instance, a perfectly reliable poll would be able to produce the same result from ten random samples of voters. By contrast, a perfectly valid poll would be able to predict an election's winner." The article continues to illuminate the negative consequences of highly structured processes: loss of creativity/innovation. Here is a table from the article to add more clarity:

While the HBR article illustrates the negative impact of rigidly applied business processes, it does not provide a model to gauge the degree of structure to be applied for a specific business process. The purpose of this article is to provide such a model.

The NASCAR Perspective
Throughout my business education and career, I have tried to liken businesses and business processes to biological systems, thinking of organizations as organisms. Each organism has its own intellectual and physiological functions. This is the traditional model.

With this model, however, I have struggled with the questions of how much process to apply and to what functions? Instinctively, I understand that business processes are critical to success, regardless of the organization's maturity. They ensure efficiency and consistency. Unfortunately, the quest for reliable results through the application of highly structured business processes has a tendency to quash innovative thought.

I submit that "Excellent Companies" have evolved methods for balancing these competing, but essential components for success. They must sense that the traditional view of a corporation, as a "body corpus", is flawed.

The model I am proposing has an additional component: the machine. To put it in the context of NASCAR, you have the driver's attitude/ knowledge (Intellectual), the driver's physical skill/experience (Physiological) and the vehicle itself (Machine). To win at NASCAR, the driver must possess confidence in her abilities and strategy, she must have mastery of her vehicle and the vehicle must be perfectly tuned to the course.

Intellectual
Developing the confidence to win is the most challenging as it has the greatest number of variables. How does the driver feel today? Is she confident? How are her relationships? Does she have any dependencies? What does she fear? Does she buy into the strategy?

Physiological
Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, coordination and endurance. She has to be familiar with the course, with the performance characteristics of her vehicle, with the track conditions. She has to be capable of executing the strategy on the track.

Machine
Finally, if she has the right mental state and the physical prowess to achieve the strategic objectives ­ her car must meet the minimum acceptable performance specifications in order for her to execute the strategy successfully.

The Process Matrix
The purpose of this exercise is to identify which of the three aforementioned process areas require focus or review based on the maturity of your company and the respective industry. In the traditional model, the operational (Machine) and coordinating (Physiological) processes were treated similarly with maximum structure. The new model allows for a more moderate structuring of those processes that serve to coordinate the organization. This allows for human involvement. It is the freedom to alter intellectual and physiological business processes to accommodate exceptions that produces robust strategies, intimacy with customers, design excellence, creativity, jobs with meaning, corporate social responsibility and ultimately successful companies.

Type I Company
(new company in new industry)
This company should focus on the Physiological and Machine processes. The industry is new, so the idea was freshly conceived. Now is the time to focus on execution. However, the intellectual processes (e.g. SWOT analysis, Short Term Strategy, Long Term Strategy, etc.) should be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that you are on course.

Type II Company
(new company in mature industry)
This company should focus on the Intellectual and Physiological processes. The industry, and therefore the "Machine", has been around. The operational characteristics of this industry are widely known and perfected. Your competitive advantage will come from thinking differently and refining your company's coordination (how you control the machine).

Type III Company
(mature company in new industry)
This company should focus on Intellectual and Machine processes. The industry may be new, but a mature company may need to alter its thinking to compete in this new space. It will also need to define core machine processes like production, shipping, delivery, order processing, etc. The maturity of the company is an indication that it has decent Physiological processes (e.g. sales training, employee reviews, logistics, goal setting, communications, prioritization systems, compensation systems, etc.). However, it is important that they be reviewed in light of the new pursuit.

Type IV Company
(mature company in mature industry)
This company should focus on the Intellectual processes. Both the company and the industry have been around. The company clearly has operational prowess and solid coordination skills. And, it is likely that this is also true of its competitors. The area where the company can still secure competitive advantage is in differentiation, line extension, new product/service development, alternate uses for existing products/services, etc. This is the realm of Intellectual processes ­ designed for breakthrough thinking.

Regardless of where your company falls in the matrix (mature or new), once you identify the areas of focus, you simply apply a set of rules: if intellectual - minimum structure, if physiological - moderate structure, if machine - maximum structure. It is not complicated!

What's the Point
The point is that people perform tasks in three areas: Intellectual, Physiological and Machine. Rather than a binary approach to how much process/structure to apply ­ it should be graduated to maximize the potential for human creativity and innovation where appropriate. This article is intended to help you determine where to place your focus and how much structure to apply to the relevant process or processes.

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 8:57 AM

In many parts of the world, people still band together in primitive tribes. They work in unison and do whatever is necessary to survive. Life is harsh. When they make mistakes, they die. We are lucky in that for our modern tribes or companies the consequence of failure is rarely death. Of all similarities between tribes, primitive and modern, it is the ability to maintain battle readiness during times of prosperity that is most critical.

When the living is easy, the opportunities to work in harmony under stress are infrequent. Teamwork skills soften. There is very little need for personal sacrifice, as success is abundant. However, when times turn tough, it is common for individuals to believe that they will be insulated from risk. If they continue doing as they did in prosperity, they will be fine. In modern tribes, people may deny that times have changed. They are offended when asked to make personal sacrifices for the good of the tribe. They believe that the tribe will always succeed and has an obligation to take care of them. They are unaware that it is their obligation to preserve the tribe and that this duty cannot be delegated. They fail to recognize the relationship between the tribe's continued success and their future success. When that approach is adopted widely by a tribe, it may be fatal.

Companies perpetuate the scenario above when they don't help their employees make the connection between performance and the bottom line. Employees are often insulated from the harsh realities of business (i.e. maintaining profitability, managing accounts receivable, etc.). Managers allow deadlines to shift without demonstrating or understanding financial impact. It is common to understand the potential financial impact and priority of each activity/project to be performed. What seems rare is to know the expected budget (i.e. hours, pro rata share of company resources, opportunity cost, etc.) required to perform each activity or complete a project. Many times, the interlocking aspect of an activity is poorly communicated (i.e. someone needs to hang drywall before someone else can begin painting). These are the things that are really important. They are controllable. Whereas, the outcome of a specific project is often a gamble. So, the question is what are you doing to demonstrate the costs and potential loss associated with an activity/project to your employees?

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 8:57 AM

What you do and how you do it is more important that what you say. We have known that intuitively all of our lives. That's why we have phrases like "He talks a mean game", "Put up or shut up", "Practice What You Preach" or "All Talk". Parents talk to children about setting a good example for others. Celebrities must consider their behavior as role models, whether they accept the responsibility or not (Google "Charles Barkley and role model"). When what we say is in sync with what we do, we become authentic.

People respond favorably to authentic people whose defining characteristics are extraordinary and positive. We want to be around them. We all can think of exceptional people who live or lived authentically. Occasionally, celebrities and politicians provide good examples of authenticity. People like Jimmy Stewart, Catherine Hepburn, Whoppi Goldberg, John Wayne, Jane Fonda, Pat Tillman or Dr. Martin Luther King. What we like is that we can count on their exceptional qualities, their consistency. What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG)!

While companies are not people, the principle remains the same, we gravitate toward those that operate authentically in an excellent and positive manner. Most companies continue to follow traditional branding advice: if you say what you want people to think about your company with enough frequency, customers will believe it (i.e. Volvo = Safety). This advice is sound as long as the company can back it up! In the late 1990's, the Web gave people an opportunity to experience company behavior on demand, with ease. As a result, many companies struggle with this axiom.

In the 1980's, Sprint spent close to a billion dollars on those "pin drop" commercials. The word they wanted to own in the customers' minds - "Clarity". By the way, their fiber optic network did bring exceptional clarity to our everyday telephone communication. Now, roll forward to the mid-90's. Sprint had several large divisions: Long-Distance, Local Telephone, Broadband, Mobile, etc. Each began building websites to maximize the opportunity for their division. In some cases, a division would attempt to use their website to sell the products/services of another division (e.g. the long-distance division created Web pages to sell the mobile division's products/services - a.k.a. Sprint PCS). This led to massive confusion. Sprint customers expected clarity, but the experience betrayed the brand position. I know because I was there!

Every company is creating unspoken messages, however, they may not be aware of it. Sprint's behavior, from their retail stores to flaws in their mobile network to their websites, created unintentional, inconsistent messages. The remedy is to act with clarity in every way possible.

We are extremely proud of and honored to work with an exceptional and authentic company in Arizona. The company is Vantage Mobility. They perform van conversions for people with disabilities. Their conversions are sanctioned and supported by Ford, Chrysler, Dodge and Honda. When you enter their headquarters, you'll notice the door is wider than normal and the lack of thresholds (improving accessibility for people in wheelchairs). You'll also notice a significant percentage of their workforce is disabled. Last year, we completed a relaunch/revitalization of their website: www.vantagemobility.com. During the design phase, their VP of Sales and Marketing, Mark Roberts, recommended that we create an application which would allow people to install a Vantage Mobility icon on their desktop to serve as a quick link to the website. The purpose was to make it more accessible for people who have difficulty typing. The point: everything they do is with the single purpose of making our world more accessible to those with disabilities. Vantage Mobility is authentic.

Is your company authentic?

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 6:39 PM

The Balanced Scorecard was created in 1992 by a couple of Harvard guys (Kaplan and Norton). It changed the way people look at the success of a business. Prior to the concept, people evaluated performance exclusively in financial terms. In addition to financial measurement, the Balanced Scorecard provided a framework that included measurements for Internal Business Process (to satisfy shareholders and customers, what business processes must your company excel at?), Customers (to achieve your company's vision, how must you appear to customers?) and Learning & Growth (to achieve your company's vision, how will you sustain your ability to change and improve?). This represents a major step forward, to which we should all be grateful.

Here is the problem with the approach. It can take more than a year to reach consensus across a set of 15 or more metrics (called Key Performance Indicators). I have participated in this process a couple of times in Fortune 500 companies. While cathartic, it requires tremendous energy and commitment. And, in each case, after we moved to the execution phase, we had considerable difficulty keeping a large number of metrics in our heads each day. I imagine that is true across the board. This makes the Balanced Scorecard a great theory. One that needs to be improved upon for practical, real-world success.

We use a concept called Business Drivers and Operational Drivers. I don't know who to give credit to for having created the Business Driver concept, but thanks! Essentially, Business Drivers are those things your organization can impact that will increase revenue (i.e. if you are a pharmaceutical company, a new malady that you can create a wonder drug to cure will not qualify as a business driver as you cannot, hopefully, impact the introduction of new disease). An example of a common Business Driver is "Increase the number of qualified leads/prospects". Operational Drivers are those things your organization can impact that will decrease costs. An example of a common Operation Driver is "Decrease the cost to support an order". Together, these two driver types result in profit. It is your responsibility to balance them properly.

We limit our clients to no more than five Business or Operational Drivers (sometimes we bend the rule). We have also found that any reasonable person can probably draft the business rules for any company or organization with 80% accuracy. In our practice, it typically takes less than an hour for the exercise.

The reason it is so important and worth discussing, is that it gives everyone affiliated with the organization (internal employees, dealers, consultants and suppliers/vendors) a clear picture of what you need to do to succeed. That means that every program developed internally or externally should be squared with your drivers (with the ability to measure success). Then, you can establish goals for each driver and determine if a particular program is performing as expected.

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 6:39 PM

The promise of a virtual office has arrived, but it's kluge! The funny thing is that there is a lot of physical stuff involved with going virtual. If you are willing to deal with it, you can effectively operate from anywhere in the world. Whether you're a corporate executive with a million frequent flyer miles or managing a growing business from home, this blog will give you a few thoughts on how you can use new technology to do more in your day, with less personal expense and an enhanced quality of life.

We're all busy, so let's jump in:

Topic 1: The Tabbed Internet Browser
The number one tool in my arsenal is a tabbed Internet Browser (Firefox or augmented Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0, [IE 7.0 promises tabs - click for updated information]). I like Firefox because it allows me to create multiple linked folders for different types of work modes or tasks. For example, I have one folder labeled "Virtual Office". It contains a shortcut to my Internet Mail, my company Intranet, my company Project Management System, my company Issue Tracking System and my favorite Search Engine (Google). I can open each one on an as needed basis, or I can open all at the same time. The key is that these sites will be loaded into individual tabs, so I can flip between them like they are applications on my desktop (i.e. a word processor, a spreadsheet, a Web browser, etc.). This is a great productivity enhancer - eliminating the wait for pages to build or rebuild and always returning to the spot where I left off.

I have five major linked folders (note: this could change tomorrow - always evolving). We have already discussed the "Virtual Office" folder. The others are "Client Tools", "Clients", "Reference" and "Personal". These are effective for me, but they will likely be different for your business. Thought Lava is a Marketing/Internet consultancy. While we are often hired for our expertise in integrated marketing and Web strategy, we do the implementation as well. Thought Lava is an LLC with a distributed work force. To manage our work load and meet deadlines cost effectively, we manage people all over the world for Web development, design and content creation. I tell you this so you can put the following comments in the proper context.

SIDEBAR: If you haven't read the book, The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman - stop reading this, get up and go get it now! It is critical for understanding just how powerful the notion of being virtual is today and will continue to become in the very near future.

When I do have the opportunity to meet with clients, I often work with them using my laptop, a projector and the Internet. My "Client Tools" folder contains the four Web-based tools in individual tabs that I use most often to help them break through barriers. The most important is a tool for note taking and online collaboration after we've concluded our physical meeting. It promotes online meetings. Obviously, meeting online removes the costs associated with travel, and it gives me more time in my day to be productive (I can work right up to meeting time and get back to work immediately afterward). The image below is a screen capture of my Firefox tabbed browser:

My "Clients" folder maintains all of the Web-related links associated with each of our clients. That might include links to competitors, to their existing Web site, to sites they admire and to a site we have in development awaiting client approval. My "Reference" folder has links to must have resources - like an online dictionary, a free conference call site, a voice over IP application, etc. My "Personal" folder contains links to financial institutions, health related sites, utilities, etc.

This is simple, basic organization with a productivity kicker! Best of all, the tools required are FREE and the ability to improve is in your head!

posted by John-Scott Dixon, President, ThoughtLava at 3:37 PM