Archive for March, 2008

When push comes to shove, Bear Stearns has fallen because those in leadership were not doing their job. How could they be? The net worth just a year ago was valued at about $11.7 billion and today its bargain basement price is now $236 million: US$2.00 per share to be precise.

There’s no excuse. Leaders are paid to think about steering the ship, and just like the Titanic they were not paying attention, became over confident, and went down as fast as a boat sucking water.

On the flip side, when there’s trouble, there is someoneelse who may gain from such troubles. That’s why there are always people who do well during economic downturns. In the end we shall see if the choices by the US goverment’s leadership are just as misguided.

In the same USA Today, March 13th, there were two seemingly separate articles that once connected and defined the US’s future.

The first article has Bill Gates requesting that Congress increase the number of H-1B visas which would allow tech companies to hire more foreign workers at a time when Congress appears to be leaning in the opposite direction.

Gate’s case is that the US is facing a “critical shortfall of skilled scientists and engineers,” and that education improvements won’t meet the demand. Companies such as Microsoft, Google, HP and others are scrambling for workers, and since 2002, Congress has yet to increase this number. The result is that companies like Microsoft must create business units outside the US in order to hire the necessary talent.

As of today, Congress allocates 65,000 visas and with some exceptions, this number may reach 130,000. Those typical of H-1B visas have a Bachelor’s degree, are from India, and make about $55K per year.

The second article is about a two-year task force designed to address what it would take to increase the math skills of citizens in the US. The findings point out that students in the US have textbooks with between 700-1000 pages and typically feel as if they have not completed much after a given year in school. They often feel as if the next year is a repeat of the last.

In other countries, students have books with far fewer topics: the US having as many as 20 in a year, and spending more time on understanding a topic than just covering the materials. The result is that there might be a shift to a clearer path for students taking math in the future.

Now tie the two together and you can see how Bill Gates, you and I are paying for decisions made by educators over the years. We want better education and the result is not better, but just more. Our kids come home with a workload that is so heavy that my kids may spend 6 hours in an evening doing homework.

How much of it is translating to better students. The results speak for themselves. The US economy is one of the worst educated in the world when it comes to math and sciences, and yet our future is going to be based on math and science, because from nano-technology to the development of algorithms, business runs off math.

To some degree, where we went wrong is that the education system continually forgets that the product of education is not smart people, but people who can be productive. Ever meet that wealthy person who admits to not being a great student but who has common sense? Education has to make a radical shift to understand that well rounded and being a functioning member of society are both intertwined and when Gates stands up and asks for visas, he’s not making the request out of a need for foreign workers. It’s out of a response to an education system that’s broken.

I encourage clients, acquaintances, and friends to look at ways they can win at work and in life simply by eking out a win by a nose.  The concept comes from horse races that require judges to review a photo of the finish line to determine a winner.  In these cases, one horse’s nose edges over the finish line just ahead of its opponent. Of course, the winner’s “take” far surpasses that or horse #2, and I always enjoy seeing examples of winning by a nose successes in business.

A major pharmaceutical company’s VP shared with me that he and his team of 8 cover the eastern part of the US and throughout each year, they keep their target on hitting the numbers and surpassing them. Their counterparts on the west do the same.

At the end of one particular year, his unit hit 108.3% of target and the other group his 108.7% of the target. The result was that individuals in the OTHER group received a bonus of $25,000 per person, while this guy’s team got nothing extra.  The average pay range was $80,000 to $120,000, so to pull down an extra $25,000 is a substantial win.

In an another example, the executive at a firm in Texas had worked on a proposal to develop a building project within the state. His team was competing with one other company for the $3 million job.  The prospective client told this executive that his team lost the bid.  The conversation went something like,  “Both proposals were fairly even in price and  both you and the other vendor are well qualified. However, we chose the other company, because they used our logo throughout the proposal and they had a better graphic artist. On our end, the people who made the decision really liked that they customized the materials.”

$3 million dollars gone.

They put in a years work and a team of people to lose by a nose.

(MENTAL NOTE: People like stupid things such as their logo. No matter that you are the best thing since sliced bread.)

Killer!

For the past 6 years I’ve taugh at NYU, I’ve done one thing one thing that I think has truly influenced my life and the lives of all the students I’ve served. That is to create a sense of community. It was not my plan at first. It’s just what happened.

During my first class at the university, I told the students that I’m the only professor who flies into the city to teach and given that I don’t know anyone, I’m inviting everyone to eat with me if they wish.

I’d like you to picture the class for a moment. The first class had 18 students from 17 countries. Two were from Italy. No one in the class knew each other prior to taking the class.

So at lunch we all filed down the hall, Jumped into an elevator and made our way to a local restaurant. During the walk you could see people talking with one another and sharing stories about where they lived and what they did for a living. A block later, we all entered a comfortable eatery where they sold everything from pizza slices, salads and specialty meals.

The group all stood on line together, bought their food together and then, having created one long table, ate together. The person in front of me at the first table was from Italy, to my right Afganistan, left Japan. We all then just talked and talked and talked.

Every so often I would look down the table to see everyone else talking in their broken English to others. A pretty incredible site.

A week later during the next class, I mentioned again that I’d be eating at the same place, and once again everyone repeated the same routine. From then on, there was no need to mention lunch plans for future classes. Everyone was becoming friends and lunch time became an opportunity to strengthen ties.

I knew we had something here so I tried something different. I then had, on the week before the last class, a dinner with the group. I believe it was at Ruby Foos uptown where a group of about 13 people had dinner together.

At the last class, you could see what had happened. A class had become a social engagement where not only did they sit together, they had become so connected that when class was over, after 8 hours, it took over 50 minutes for the class to disperse. They were hugging and kissing one another goodbye.

I knew this connection needed to be continued.

So without out any social networking sites around that we could use personally, I set up a page on our website that enabled everyone to maintain phone numbers and contact indformation. Little did I know this would grow.

The new lunch-time tradition continued with the next group of students taking the class, and once again the connections were made. This time however, for the party, I invited the last class also, and many who were still in the country made the trip to a Mexican place down near Soho. (I actually have no clue where, because at this time in my travels to NY, I was still pretty new. 70 hotels later and several years later, I could tell you exactly where I am.)

The next year I added another class so the group started to swell and the formula continued to bring people together. The email invite grew and so did the replies. Yeses and nos. But the nos were not what you’d think. They were, “I’m back home in Sweden, Brazil, China, Columbia, Austria, and I wish I could be there. By the way, this is a picture of my new baby.” Calendars came from Japan every year from a student that is a manager in a huge printing facility. Stories about life experiences always arrived.

And everyone said, “Keep me on the list.”

This past week, we had another one of those parties and with 200 people on the list, more than half living outside the US, we still had 30+ people show for dinner and dancing. That’s not the incredible part given people’s busy lives. It was that in as much as I was the host, the group connnected without me. They were already friends through the connection of class.

In addition, at this last event, I found out that 3 ladies since class have become best friends from F I V E years ago. I had students from my first class show and tell me they’ve kept in contact wtih others. During class one person offered another a job.

I knew I needed to step it up a notch and in our Innovation and New Product and Service Development class, Adam, I call him Morpheus, said he would help convert our database in to a full working social networking site. And the class became excited.

They wanted to know where people lived so they could visit them while traveling. This is definately a traveling group. They wanted to have phone, email, address, and pictures posted as our own way of connecting.

As an expert in new media, Adam and I started emailing and even though I’m pretty tech savvy, he showed me sites that Iand tools that blew my mind.

Bricabox, a social networking site that allows you to customized the experience way beyond ning.com. A great site. Bricabox, I believe, is meeting the new needs of individuals to not be connected to millions, but to the right people. I know quite a few people who are pretty connected in Linked in and have not done anything with the information. Facebook is great, I’m thered tood howeverd I don’t have time to post and poke and chat. I don’t just visit the site. I need to be pushed.

Adam then pointed me to other sites such as Frappr.com where you can map those that are part of the group. The list of things that can be done is amazing.

From my perspective, I learned once again the value of having strong thinkers around me. Others that bring not only new ideas, because everyone has ideas, but have the ablity to strategize and then deliver on desired outcomes.

Adam told me the other day, “It’s funny; I get better ideas from my 24 year olds than I do the 34 year olds. They just see the world differently.”

So in our little microcosm I’ve taken away some really good thoughts.

1. That most things start out small.
2. That people want to be connected and will connect.
3. That the right type of connection breeds friendships.
4. That in a world that’s changing so fast, no one person can keep up. (Thanks Morpheus…BTW the firm he works for is Morpheus Media.)
5. That when you do something well, you’ll be suprised at the outcomes.

To me this whole experience has been life altering. Thank you to all who’ve come into my life.