by Chip Griffin on August 6, 2011
When I was a kid one of my coaches told me: “you run like you have a refrigerator on your back!” And that’s likely true. A speed demon I was not. As a baseball player, I suspect there were times when my coach and teammates wondered if I’d be the first player ever to be called out after drawing a walk for failure to get to first base in a timely fashion. As a soccer player, I was the goalie so my running ability would remain hidden from the opposition.
So it will surprise many to know that I have turned into a runner. No, I’m not about to declare myself a competitive runner by any means, but I’m bordering on respectable (or perhaps just not embarrassing) for my age. Of course, if you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, you no doubt have picked up on my new running habit over the past few months as my runs have started showing up in those streams courtesy of the RunKeeper app I use on my iPhone to track time and distance.
Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on June 3, 2011
In communications and in business, too many people get hung up on measuring for the sake of measuring. Just because you can generate all sorts of metrics with impressive numbers and charts doesn’t mean that what you’re looking at will really make a difference in your ultimate success.
I tackle one specific element of this debate over on the CustomScoop blog today where I explore Ad Value Equivalency, a way that many communicators are asked to measure their success. My title gives away my point of view: “Don’t Get Stuck on Wrongway AVE.” You can click on over to see my full argument.
Take a little time to think about the things that you are measuring, being asked to measure, or asking others to measure. What do you do with that data? What does it tell you about your project or business? Why does it matter? Spend your time measuring what matters, not what looks good.
by Chip Griffin on June 1, 2011
I had a conversation yesterday that spurred me to think back to the “old days” of the World Wide Web. You see, I’ve been at this game long enough to remember Yahoo before it was at Yahoo.com. Most of you probably don’t know that it used to live at http://akebono.stanford.edu.
In any case, I took a dip into the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (a great tool for peeking at what web sites looked like on various dates in the past) to check out what some of my own early efforts online looked like.
I thought I might share some of my nostalgia with you — and then explain why it matters. Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 31, 2011
I get a lot of email. And a lot of that email reflects pretty poorly on the sender.
Some of the emails I receive wouldn’t even make the cut as amateur ransom notes. They are often laden with misspellings or typos. Frequently they fail to make a succinct point. They routinely seem to be disorganized thoughts. And they regularly get sent without the author paying enough attention to important details that would have eliminated the need for the email or at least changed its content.
It seems to me there are several fundamental causes for poor email: Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 27, 2011
I spent the past couple of days in some pretty lofty atmosphere. Not just because I found myself in the Mile High City, but because Eric Norlin put together another fantastic conference. Glue 2011 brought some really smart geeks to Denver to talk about the latest tools, tricks, and tactics that can be used to build interconnected web applications.
At CustomScoop, we interact with other services all the time, often through formal API’s, but also through more “hacked together” methods. It was great to spend time with other technology-minded folks who face some of the same challenges we do. I got to learn how they have built impressive, scalable architectures that help them be more effective. I was exposed to new services and technologies that we will likely deploy ourselves. Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 26, 2011
Last night I ended up at the bar of a mass production restaurant in Broomfield, CO eating unhealthy food of marginal quality while drinking club soda with some of the saddest looking pieces of lime I have seen in a while. No, I’m not a down-on-my-luck recovering addict, just a guy who really wanted to watch the Boston Bruins play the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the 2011 NHL Eastern Conference Finals.
Unfortunately, my hotel room here does not carry Versus. Nor did the hotel bar. From my experience as a hockey fan, that’s pretty common.
Naturally, as a tech guy, I thought I would simply fire up my laptop and watch the game using my Slingbox to watch my TV back home in New Hampshire. Alas, either because of typical poor quality hotel room Internet access or perhaps more likely because I’m in a hotel with a bunch of other geeks who tax broadband more than your average business traveler, the connection was so bad that it would be less painful to call my wife and ask her to set the phone next to the TV so I could listen to the game that way. Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 25, 2011
I like to think that I have learned a lot in managing business teams for nearly 15 years. One area where it is particularly evident – at least to me – that I have grown is in the area of collaborative planning.
When I first became CEO of a company in 1997, I largely kept my thoughts to myself as they were forming, bringing my team in near the end of the process when most of the big decisions had been made.
Even as a I started creating my own companies, I tended to follow a similar pattern. I would toil in silence working through my ideas and then present them to the group as a polished course of action.
My behavior stemmed not from a lack of trust or a hierarchical view of my companies. Indeed, I often would ask questions and solicit ideas in both group and 1-on-1 conversations. But I didn’t provide context or insight into how the answers mattered. Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 24, 2011
One of the hardest things I do for work is attend cocktail receptions. Yeah, I know, poor me. Go somewhere for free food and drink and casual conversation. It’s the same look I get when I complain about having to travel to Key West to speak at a conference in the dead of winter. But for those of you who travel a lot or who get invited to a lot of receptions, you understand my pain. You may not hate it to the degree I do, but you at least know where I am coming from.
Here’s why I hate cocktail receptions.
- I have a ridiculously difficult time hearing people talking to me. No, I’m not hard of hearing per se. Rather, I have a very hard time picking out one voice from among a sea of them. I can only ask someone to repeat themselves so many times before it gets really annoying and seems like I’m not trying to listen. People I know well understand, but the point of receptions generally is to meet new people or at least ones you don’t see regularly. Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 23, 2011
Many entrepreneurs assume that to be successful they need to be acquired or go public in an IPO. Netscape, Google, and more recently LinkedIn teach us this, it seems. High-tech companies, then, are often built to sell. That tends to mean a focus on revenues over profits. It drives fundraising activity, as acquirers and public markets like to see rapid growth that seems more feasible with fat bank accounts filled by venture capitalists. Hiring centers on finding talented people excited about the prospect of stock options.
And that’s a perfectly legitimate business model.
The “build to sell” approach represents an all or nothing proposition. Go big or go home. Boom or bust. Once infused with venture capital, the focus must be on a liquidity event. The pressure mounts to demonstrate double or triple digit growth. Sometimes this growth comes at the expense of smart long-term decision-making because the five year time horizon isn’t as important as the 6 or 12 month one. For the build to sell company that goes the IPO route, this pressure becomes even more intense as quarterly numbers suddenly get made public and everyone will be focused on whether those numbers are hits or misses. Read the full article →
by Chip Griffin on May 22, 2011
For the last couple of years, I spent more than 200 days a year on the road. That’s a grueling schedule that doesn’t lend itself to healthy habits – especially for someone like me who has a lot of friends in the restaurant industry and a passion for trying great food.
Despite the challenges – and some setbacks along the way – I actually managed to come out of those two years slightly ahead of where I started. When I shifted back to being CEO of CustomScoop on May 1, I was about 10 pounds lighter and a bit more fit than when I started at DCI Group in 2009.
But it is still clear that being home more is better for my overall health and wellness. In just over 3 weeks, I have already lost nearly 10 more pounds. I’m able to work out in my home gym almost every day. My home pantry is stocked with much healthier fare than what I would find on the road. I no longer face the near daily temptation of friends and food at fancy restaurants in major cities. Read the full article →
