Category: business

Prosumer UNM2PNM

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

A certain chapter in ‘Join the conversation’ struck a chord.

Chapter 5 – The Rise of the Prosumer.

To me this is the most compelling change in the business environment. JJ contends that business was so decidedly one-sided; lop-sided in favour of the supplier; the manufacturer; the marketer – that they completely overlooked the producing element.

Well JJ and startupblog agree that things have changed. The business world is now moving quickly from ‘producing stuff’ – to ‘providing infrastructure’. Infrastructure is becoming so cheap – consumers simply make their own ‘stuff’. We’re starting to consume the factors of production, not the factors from production – Prosumers.

Smart start ups ought to be thinking about what infrastructure we can provide, rather than what goods we can produce.

Mind RAM

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Our brains are computers. Just like computers we have both RAM and hard drive… even a bit of cache.

Everything humans build is a subconscious replication of organic machines. Which is why Articial Intelligence is moving in its current direction. It’s evolution baby.

So we need to command our brains the same way we do any computer. Hence, best practice is to only keep a few projects (programs) open at a time. If we don’t we’ll lose focus, get confused, freeze and have to be shut down! Just like all our PC’s do from time to time.

Every now again we need to assess our Mind RAM and just make sure we aren’t over stretching its resources. If we have to we should shut down some projects and focus. Just like our PC we’ll work faster – more efficiently.

     mind-ram.jpg 

If we have stuff open in our minds (old projects, tax returns, a mental diary) then we have to shift this stuff to a hard drive – whether it’s a notepad or PC doesn’t matter, just get it out of the RAM. Anything we shouldn’t be thinking about is RAM baggage. A mental cleanout is a must for high performance.

The difference between ‘Innovation & Different’

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

While watching entrepreneurs pitch their business earlier this week at the Pitch Club in Melbourne Australia, and colleague and I were disappointed at what some people believe to be innovation.

   

Shannon from Shannon says and I agreed that what many people call innovation is simply – different.

Here’s a clear delineation of the two which is a startup blog mashup of multiple dictionary definitions.

Different: unlike in form, quality, amount, or nature. Distinct or separate. Unusual or differing from others.

  

Innovation: a creation, new device or process. The result of study and or experimentation which improves the desired outcome / usage of said device, process or creation.

 butter-stick.jpg 

Sometimes we only need to understand the true meaning of our words to determine if we are ‘on track’.

Quote – Larry Page

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

larry-page.pnglarry-page.pngLarry Page said:

 

There is a phrase I learned in College called ‘having a healthy disregard for the impossible’. That is a really good phrase. You should try and do things that most people would not.

larry-page.png          ….squint to see Larry….

     

Chances are we’ll still fail to do the impossible most times.

If we don’t try we are certain to fail every time.

Office space

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Which space would we rather work in?

 This..    

cubicle-farm3.jpg 

or these?

 cool-work-spaces.png 

* click to enlarge

 

(the leggo dudes don’t look very happy to me) 

      

Sure some of these spaces are less efficient (read cost more). But it doesn’t have to be that way…. in any case, how cost efficient is an uninspired and bored workforce whose only thought is getting to the punch clock on time?

   

When our startups leave the kitchen, it doesn’t mean we need to act like the company we left.