It's the people, stupid!

I was just reading an article about skype failing to meet Ebay's expectations. It seems that this aquisition was not such a good idea as it is not performing as much as expected. Mergers, acquisitions, fusions, partnerships... All the business development concepts more often fail than succeed. Why? here's my little explanation:

When you start a partnership with someone, you may have three different approaches:

it makes sense approach:
- I am selling flight tickets, you sell airport picks up => boom, let's partner and offer airport pickup once a ticket has been purchased
- I am selling coffee, you are selling music => let's have it together and create coffee shops with music you can buy on spot!
- I am renting ski chalets, you rent ski equipment => let's partner and cross sell our services

we like each other and we think we can go great things together approach
- You and I want to create a company. You're in IT, and I'm in marketing => boom, let's open up a business
- I define business this way, so you do => let's partner together on this

It's interesting to note that, for some logical reasons, we tend to go for the rational approach (approach#1): we have products that are similar/complementary, so let's work around this. The problem with this approach is that we do not take into account the people that are going to work together on the partnerhsip. And you can have the best idea ever, if the execution is less than average, then the results can be catastrophic. Were eBay and Skype 's company's cultures compatible? Future will tell. If you take the Apple+Motorola example (RockR mobile phone), the incompatibility was certain and the products failed miserably.

The other approach is probably what Google has been during over the last 36 months. Buying lots of startup companies with talented and entrepreneurial "geeks". Same people as Sergey and Larry in a way. I am not saying they buy the companies regardless of the startup itself, no. But I would bet that Google bets much more on the people "they are acquiring" than the idea.

I guess, the very best is to mix both approaches. If you manage to have complementary products and people with full compatibility, then you are highly likely to succeed.

A very complete article on this topic.

Take your time to be smart...

In most people's mind, making good decisions is difficult - and making bad ones is very easy.

That's not logic. As we usually have to make (easy or hard) decisions everyday, we should be getting better at it, right? Well,apparently not. We keep making mistakes and taking bad decisions on a monthly, weekly or daily basis (which one is it for you?). Two tips I would give to people having hard time making decisions: take your time and do not take any decision that does not make sense to you. The best way to take bad decisions is to rush and not follow your gut.

This applies to all kind of decisions. But take "starting a new internet business" for example. Although (and because) starting up a new internet business can be really easy, cheap and quite fast to implement, lots of people start on the spot, wasting their time, money and energy in chasing the next multi-million dollar idea. I would guess that the main reason behind it is the lack of rational thinking and lack of listening to one's gut. I have a business idea once a week, and usually, after a few nights sleep, I know that: my idea sucks/is not realistic/is not profitable and does not any make sense to pursue.

Next time to make a 'tough' decision, try to apply these 2 basic tips and see what happens.

An interesting article about dumb ideas.

I have to admit: I bought this book

Have you ever bought stuffs that you wish nobody knew about?

I recently bought the old "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie, a famous american writer for its self-help books ... It's a very interesting book giving you concrete tips on communicating and negotiating with people. At the end of each chapter, there's a two-line advice, easy to remember and apply - you have around 18 tips if I recall well.

Since I've bought this book, each time I have guests coming home, I always feel that I should hide the book. I just do not want my friends or even people I've just met to know that I have an interest in manipulating people... I mean, do not get me wrong: I am fascinated by the arts of communication and negotiation... but that is, i think, very awkward for people coming to my house, to see that I've studied the science of manipulation! Well, actually, it's not a book on manipulation... it turns out (IMHO) that this book teaches you basic education principles - and if your parents have done a good job, then a "so-what?" question should popup in your head at the end of each chapters.

I would still recommend it to anyone who needs a refresh on that particular and important topic.

Dead-Time Learning

It's been a few weeks since I have started organizing my life a bit differently, using what I would call the bi-tasking model. I've read several articles and heard several podcasts on productivity, banning multi-tasking. Well, I agree but to some extend only. Let me explain: During a whole day, we normally go through several phases that I categorize as follow:

1- Active Time: these are the times where you interact with people, concentrate on a given task or simply read a book. These phases require your full attention or it can be either dangerous (driving and talking on the phone....), very impolite (pretending listening to someone while watching a beautiful woman passing along) or simply unproductive (try reading a booking while watching tv...).

2- Passive Time: as opposite to the active phase, passive are moments during the day where you are doing something that does not require your full attention/concentration (cleaning the dishes, sitting in a bus, waiting your turn at the doctors..).

3- Sleeping Time

After looking at the use of my time, I realized that I was spending several hours a week in passive mode. I do clean the dishes :), I take the bus or train or plane at least once a week, I go (walk) food shopping, etc... During this time (that I now call the dead-time learning moments), I multi-task by listening to my ipod - I learn new things every day (currently learning spanish, thai, internet marketing classes and french history) by using these dead-time moments.

But be careful not to fall in the trap of keeping your ear-plugs day long. Connect with people is still the most interesting and valuable time you can have in a day.

Don't do like Balthazar Picsou (Scrooge McDuck)

I have just finished reading the book "The Millionnaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.

It's a book that tells you how rich and very rich people managed to accumulate wealth during their lives. They don't really tell you how to generate money, but rather how not to spend it. The big trophy is held for the millionaires, who during all their lives worked very hard, and spent very little. Accumulate is probably the most used word in the book and I find it AWEFUL. Saving is one thing, investing is another thing - but accumulating has this notion of total emptiness. I repeat, emptiness.

Start make sense of the money you just earned and give yourself a treat after reading this blog:

- Buy yourself a bestseller book and read it at the terrace of your favorite café
- Book a cheap air ticket for yourself+someone special
- Learn something new (spanish, climbing, kitesurfing ..)
- Buy flowers and send it to someone special
- Buy a new bike and start going to work biking!
- Buy a cooking book, go to the market (a real one) and cook a great dinner for your family in the evening

Anything you can think of, do it. Really, do it. Life is too short but it's never too late.

Making Money Online

Lots of new businesses bet on making money online with advertising as main revenues. Indeed, adsense from google made it very easy for anyone to earn a few dollars from the ads displayed on the side of a webpage. Making a living with adsense/ revenues from advertising is another story.

1- It's extremely hard is to attract people to your site, blog or podcast.
2- It's even harder to keep them coming back

=> If you want to make money online, do not create your site or blog or podcast. Instead, get your product or service right, and use social-network sites, classifieds and/or bloggers to sell it for you.

Tip: Testing online is cheap. Let's say you want to sell tennis rackets online, assuming to can have it at a cheaper price than retail of course... You may first post the rackets on craiglist and wait to see the response. If you receive 10 emails or phone calls the next day, it means the response is rather positive and you may start your business in real . However, if you receive no emails or calls, it might be that your product is in low demand and/or your price is too high. You would need to refine your offering and try it again.

Mind Blogging

It's been a while since I blogged. I guess, the main reason is that, when an interesting idea comes in my mind, I am not necessarily in front of my computer. That's the problem with blogging. I'd love to have a chip in my brain, scanning all my thoughts everyday, and i could decide what to "mind-blog" at the end of each day. Not that I love the idea of having a chip in my brain....

But really, I read at least 50 blogs per day, listen to business, tech and history podcasts daily for hours - so I assure you, lots of topics to be blogged on... But yet, it's been nearly 3 months since my last blog. Anyway, I'd like to share with you some of my readings and listenings:

Favorite Blogs:
Seth Godin
Tim Ferris
Guy Kawasaki

Favorite Podcasts:
The Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
Businessweek Cover Stories
Internet Business Mastery
Marketing Online Live
Diggnation (Video)
The GigaOm Show (Video)
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