Google | Grad School to Scale

Are People Important?

Much has been written about human business in the last couple of decades. Companies have attempted to make their work spaces more enjoyable and compassionate. Some have workout areas, flex time, child care and even some allow you to bring your dog to work.

I attended Carleton University’s Spring Leadership Luncheon and A.D. Dunton Award Presentation in Ottawa yesterday. It was great to see some people I hadn’t seen in a while and meet a whole bunch of leaders in Ottawa from all walks of business.

From Ottawa to Google

This year’s A.D. Dunton Award recipient was Dr. Shona Brown who is the Senior Vice President of Business Development for Google and former Carleton grad. She is very sharp and very funny. She talked a bit about her career and journey but gave us a snapshot of life at Google Campus in Mountainview, California.

Some highlights:

If you want to work at Google, be prepared to jump head first in to the team mentality. Very few decisions are made by a single person but rather by committee. Dr. Brown calls it controlled chaos. That includes when you are hired.

Your Ideas Are Encouraged

Brown confirmed that Googlers can devote 20% of their work time developing their own ideas. That’s one day a week or as she outlined, most block off a week here and a week there to get away from their day job to flush things out.

If the idea is strong enough, they may get one or two colleagues to help take it further. If the idea gets to the next step and through some stringent hurdles, resources are applied to see where it can go.

No Hiding

She added that Google is “a well financed graduate school to scale. It looks for passionate critical thinkers and hires smart generalists."

Often, senior management at Google gather staff and field open and tough questions. As Brown says “There’s no ducking”. If you build an open collaborative space, the bosses can’t hide in their office

Always In Beta

Google is a huge company that lives in beta but does not do it void of the bottom line. There is constant experimentation and in that, spectacular failures. Dr. Brown said one issue she wishes her company would do better is shutting down ideas that aren’t successful. The downside of living in beta.

What human things can you apply to your company that seem to work for one of the largest tech firms on the planet?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: google

Ottawa Business Summit | Clear As Mud

Coming up on February 3rd, I have the privilege of speaking at the Ottawa Business Summit.

Clearing Muddy Waters in Marketing and Social Media.

Hosted by Kathryn Schwab of PRceptive Communications

It also includes: Arash Mahin of VdoLife, Karen McNaughton from The Marketing Hub and Ottawa Business Journal’s Jim Donnelly.

Here’s an excerpt from Kathryn's website:

"This panel will speak about practical approaches to marketing and communications in the age of changing traditional media, the shifting landscape of new media and the muddy waters of social media.

The panel will discuss how business owners and managers should map marketing communications strategies to business objectives, choose the right “tools” to hit the right audience/customer, and look beyond the “band wagon” mistakes that many businesses are making.

In addition, the panel will bring valuable insights about traditional media relations and how it’s changed, why video is one of the fastest growing areas in marketing and what integrated marketing and social media really mean for SMBs."

Other speakers featured on this one-day power summit include:
Jim Treliving – the founder of Boston Pizza and someone you may know from Dragon’s Den, Stephen Beckta, Marie Boivin, Mary Cavanagh, Leslie Eisner, Pauline Fleming, Terry Ledden, Cara Rose-Brown, Garth Steele, Garry Watanabe, Rob Woodbridge and more to come.

The Ottawa Business Summit is February 3rd.

@knealemann
sustained engagement in the relationship economy

What Is Local To You?

Location Location Location?

In my twenty-five years of marketing and media, I have heard one phrase uttered more often than any other: Be Local.

It was how you differentiated yourself from national outlets.

Market and demographic were used to describe the audience, listener or reader. It wasn't about home or humans.

Local referred to the geographic location of a business and its customers.

I have realized that my view of "local" has changed. It is has become less about geography. It is more about what is local and important to me.

Buddies For Life

You may have attended university in another city. The relationships you formed during that time remain local to you. You may have moved hundreds of miles away and never visited the campus after graduation day, but all your touch points to that experience are still local to you.

Perhaps you love your car so much you have joined an online community devoted to lovers of that model and you have formed relationships with other owners and perhaps even planned outings and events. That is a community that is local to you.

Know Your Locals

It is crucial you realize this fact if you are running a business. It’s not enough to be in a market without activating the power of the local community. There is a chain of coffee shops here that is competing quite nicely with two major international chains, because they are local to us.

If you own a destination business - such as a hotel or resort, then it’s important to realize that your local community is anyone who wants to visit your destination. So you need to be local to them.

Emotion vs. Location

We need to keep finding ways to allow our growing online relationships a place to flourish that make it feel local to us.

The size of your community is boundless and what is local to you may have become more of an emotional and mental attachment rather than a spot on some map.

What is local to you?

knealemann.at.gmail.com

image credit: skagitriverjournal.com

Twitter 5am: Anybody Out There?

You Awake?

I am an excellent sleeper. I am one of those people who falls asleep quickly and sleeps through the night. My internal alarm clock usually goes off between 5:30 and 6am.

Not This Morning.

You’ve been there. Dreams integrate with real life and it takes a second to decipher which is which when you wake up. I was doing just that at 3:41am today.



Twenty years ago, someone would go make coffee and read something or listen to music or open some mail or do some work or exercise.

World At Our Fingertips

With the Internet in most homes, we can now also search the world at 3:41am. And with social media, there are other humans up at that hour doing the same who may be looking to share and converse with us. It's almost 9am in London.

I signed on to Twitter just before 5am (with fresh coffee). My journey took me to New York City, Miami, Victoria BC, Helsinki, Montreal, London, Brooklyn, Ottawa and Perth Australia.

We discussed travelling, computers, music, business and marketing.

What does Twitter do for you?

@knealemann
Let’s create experiences, not campaigns.

image credit: twitter.com/knealemann

The Work Begins Now

"Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington."
Barack Obama - Aug 2008

President Obama is in Ottawa today to meet with Prime Minister Harper and other Canadian leaders. It is a whirlwind tour of the Nation’s capital. There will be a brief press conference later this afternoon and the rest of the time will be spent working on serious topics.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
Barack Obama - Feb 2008

In the wake of the global economic situation it is interesting that the chatter about this trip has circled around seeing the President in the flesh. The entire downtown core is blocked off and Secret Service officials are blanketing the city like a fresh snowfall. But the bigger question is – do we need to see him or do we need him to lead some of the solutions facing all of us?

Fame and Fascination

"We live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained."
Barack Obama - Jul 2006

We are enthralled by celebrity. Obama is the most famous person on earth and it’s only natural that people would want to see him in action.

Despite the most historic Presidential election of all time won by one of the most charismatic political leaders in a decades, Obama himself has repeatedly reminded all of us that there is much work to do by all of us. This is not a U.S. situation, it is a worldwide situation. There is no time for pomp and circumstance.

Leaders and Laggards

"What Washington needs is adult supervision."
Barack Obama - Oct 2006

Strong leadership is enjoyed by most and some are meant to lead. It is not about a title or job description or education – it is about motivating others to work together on solutions.

It was amazing to watch the Obama camp embrace social media and empower millions of new voters to enjoy the freedom of having their voice heard and to make a difference.

Once the final morsels of confetti fell to the floor, the work began. Red carpets have been rolled way and sleeves are now rolled up.

Hope and Hard Work

"Faith is not just something you have, it's something you do."
Barack Obama - Dec 2006

I think it’s fairly safe to say that Canadians hope the President can inspire our leadership to work together across party lines and discard nick picky politics toward resolution. Perhaps the rest of us could do our part by getting to work rather than being concerned about a celebrity sighting?

Would you rather meet someone famous or be inspired by them?

km

cnet.com