An Example of Incremental Thinking...

Three or four years ago, when I was still working at Cisco Systems, I was involved with a number of projects looking at next-generation communications and collaboration. At this point, we were well past the early technologies that we created in 1998. We were spending much of our time thinking about the new ways that people were interacting through Social Media, Interactive 3D worlds, and through Contextual Content. We thought about Mobility and Video and how this would change the thinking about a workspace and interactions with co-workers and customers.

And then one day, we went to a meeting with the group focused on new communication devices. The "next-generation" of IP Telephones. Throughout the meeting, they tried to tell us that they were creating new types of "end-points", but the focus kept coming back to telephone functionality. We tried to tell these engineers, designers and product managers that they needed to stop thinking about the device as phone-centric. We told them to think about it as being a communications portal, where voice was just one of the things it could do. Thinking about it as primarily a phone would only lead to an incremental set of features.

Much to my dismay, I saw this today as I surfed the Cisco homepage. After three years of engineering, and at least two years of watching the iPhone change the communications landscape, they still produced a phone.

Somewhere I'm sure there is a Product Manager with a spreadsheet showing a justification the ROI for making incremental changes. And that spreadsheet is probably right next to this new device that looks eerily similar to my Asus Eee PC netbook. And as Steve Jobs reminded us last week, "a netbook is not better at anything...".

Innovation is difficult. But I've found that breaking the mold of Incremental Thinking is even more difficult.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing bad vs. good things

Within the Exec MBA class of 2009, I'm sort of the outspoken "Internet Guy". There are others in the class that do work related to technology, but I'm primarily of the one that waves the flag for all the things the Internet could do...especially as it relates to changing business.

"The Internet" is a pretty amazing thing. It's been a lot of fun over the past 15 years to work on Internet-related projects. In terms of the scope of man-made things that have had as much impact on the world, I suppose it's right up there with democracy, the wheel, the assembly line, and the atomic bomb.

But sometimes I wonder if the pace at which the Internet moves and changes is a good thing for mankind. It's a pros and cons list that I think about quite often.

This video is a good reminder that sometimes we need to put the impact of the Internet on our lives in perspective. Yes, the Internet has allowed people to do some amazing things (collect the world's information, visit friends and family without leaving the house, learn things that otherwise we couldn't afford, connect with old friends, help the world's poor), but it's also changed our perspective on time and scope.

It's good to step back from time and time and put some things in perspective....

A Moment of Zen

I sent this out to my team several weeks ago, but for some reason I keep thinking about this.

Detroit Newspapers to end Daily Home Delivery

I mentioned in my LOB presentation that my first job was a newspaper boy. It was for the Detroit Free Press. I now work in technology. I've seen alot of things change due to technology, but this is the first time I've truly seen where something I created (Internet technology) actually destroy something I had previously worked on, on a major scale. It was sort of a circle of life moment for me.

Back in 1998, I started working on a technology called Voice over IP, which was going to revolutionize how people communicated using the Internet. My previous CEO, John Chambers, told an audience of Telephone Company CEOs that "voice will be free in 10 years", which was considered blasphemous at the time. I even wrote a book about the technology. And even though landline voice calls are now essentially free, it didn't eliminate people using a telephone to communicate with one another.

The power of the Internet does some amazing things, many of which we take for granted today. I've been very fortunately to have been on the leading edge of many of these changes, but sometimes the changes hit closer to home.

Maybe it's finally time to get my MBA..?..?

At age 36, with two young kids (3yrs and 2yrs) already consuming all my free time, I finally decided to go back and get my MBA.  Seems like a strange point in life for someone to make that decision, but there is some rhyme and reason to it, and a lot of history.  First, let me explain some of the history.

I can remember all the way back in 5th grade thinking that I was going to get good grades in school, go to University of Michigan, and then get my MBA.  It was a perfect fit for a Type-A, focused young kid.  And growing up outside of Detroit, surrounded by neighborhoods full of white-collar automotive managers, that was the mindset I had all around me.  Somewhere along the way, that path didn't exactly work out as smoothly as I had envisioned.

• Instead of U of Mich, I headed south to Wake Forest for warmer weather, a great school and a chance to play college baseball.  After four years, I was pretty sick of being in school, but just before graduation I took the GMAT just in case I decided to go back in a couple years.  
• A couple years into the real world, after some college friends went back for their MBAs, I looked into several programs.  But after looking at the "graduate salaries and jobs" listings, I convinced myself that I was already there in most cases and couldn't afford to stop working for 2 years.  
• After the Internet Bubble burst in 2001, I looked at several programs again.  After seven years, maybe it was time to look at something other than technology, and an MBA might just help me find that new path.  But once again, the timing just didn't work out to make the sacrifice of time and money.

In the fall of 2007, I was invited to be part of an Executive Leadership program at Cisco Systems (my employer at the time).  The program was designed to identify 50-60 high potential Directors/Sr.Directors within the company, and give them a 3-4 month project targeting a $1B/yr new market opportunity.  I was invited to assist one of the project teams as a technology Subject Matter Expert (SME), but was allowed to be part of every aspect of the program and have direct access to Senior Leadership.  Not only was it a tremendous opportunity to impact the company, but it gave me a completely different perspective on the breadth and depth of thinking that occurs at that level.  When the program ended, I knew that I needed to make the sacrifices needed to get myself into an MBA program as soon as possible if I ever wanted to have the skills to succeed at that level.  

Now the biggest challenge was going to be convincing my wife that we could make this sacrifice together, because it was going to take a complete commitment from my family to make this work.  Not only would it require huge commitment and sacrifice from me, but it was going to mean a difficult two years for her and our girls.