White asparagus season has come!

Zunächst die Blockupysolidemo. Die Demo war eine klassische Latschdemo mit einer Abschlusskundgebung. Die Teilnehmer waren vor allem bunt und friedlich und die Stimmung auf der Demo war ausgelassen. Die Polizei war dieses Mal nicht in einem Übermaß, wie bei den Blockupyaktionstagen letztes Wochenende, vertreten. Abgesehen von den üblichen Eingreiftrupps in Seitenstraßen. Standen nur vor der Bundesbank einige Beamte mit voller Montur. Diese blieben jedoch selbst im Angesichts der Bedrohung eines einzelnen Demonstranten, der sie mit einem Styroporgewehr imaginär beschoss, erstaunlich gelassen. Einer der Beamten konnte sich gar ein Schmunzeln nicht verkneifen. Allgemein waren beide Seiten bemüht sich nicht schon wieder gegenseitig das Leben schwer zu machen.
So konnte die Abschlusskundgebung der Demonstration auf dem Willy-Brandt-Platz mit dem Charakter eines alternativen Volksfestes stattfinden. Die Abschlusskundgebung, auf der Jeder mal loswerden konnte, was er so loswerden will, neudeutsch open-mic genannt, zeigte das facettenreiche Spektrum der Demonstranten. Vor allem aber wurde deutlich, dass die meisten schlichtweg keinen Schimmer davon haben, wie die Gesellschaft die sie kritisieren tatsächlich funktioniert. Geschweige denn wie Kapitalismus bzw. Märkte arbeiten. Während im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes im Volksfestcharakter Reden geschwungen wurden und unter Applaus, Parolen und Plattitüden ins Mikrofon gebrüllt wurden, war Gott-sei-Dank schon die Mehrheit der Leute nach Hause gegangen oder sonnte sich friedlich auf dem wieder eingepflanzten Rasen des ehemaligen Occupycamps. Die Organisatoren erklärten noch, wann wir das nächste mal solidarisch sein müssen und man konnte guten Gewissens nach Hause oder auf die nächste Party gehen. Alles in allem ein voller Erfolg jeder war solidarisch, friedlich und es gab keine besonderen Vorkommnisse.

Gegen 18.00 Uhr begann dann die von der TGB organisierte Demonstration gegen Erdogan bzw. eine Solidaritätskundgebung mit den Protesten in Istanbul teilzunehmen. Diese Demonstration war in vielerlei Hinsicht für mich spannend. Das wurde noch dadurch verschärft, dass ich wahrscheinlich der einzige Demonstrationsteilnehmer ohne türkische Sprachkenntnisse war.
Das war allerdings nicht so schlimm, da ein Freund der mich auf diese Demonstration mitgenommen hat für mich übersetzt hat und ich so die Slogans verstehen konnte. Außerdem war es unglaublich faszinierend das Drumherum zu beobachten. Diese Beobachtungen möchte ich mit euch teilen und diskutieren.
Ich selbst habe an der Demonstration teilgenommen, weil ich der Meinung bin, das Pluralismus wichtig ist und des möglich sein muss Meinungen in einer Gesellschaft frei zu äußern. Die Art und Weise wie in der Türkei gegen Demonstranten vorgegangen wurde und das Ausmaß der Gewalt, hat mich zutiefst traurig gemacht.

Ich muss auch einräumen, dass ich über die politische Realität in der Türkei wenig weiß in sofern bot die Demo für mich die Möglichkeit an Informationen zu kommen. Besonders wenn man sich überlegt, dass die Türkei immer wieder als EU-Beitrittskanditatin ins  Gespräch kommt und die Debatten darüber in der Regel auch zumeist von Unwissenheit gekennzeichnet sind.  Eine differenzierte journalistische Meinung hierzu bietet das DTJ (
http://dtj-online.de/news/detail/2382/die_proteste_sind_eine_chance_fur_die_turkische_demokratie.html
und http://dtj-online.de/news/detail/2413/die_neue_sprache_der_politik_gewalt_ist_keine_losung%E2%80%9D.html)
Leider war der Aufruf allein in türkischer Sprache, es ist also nicht verwunderlich,  dass kaum jemand der kein Türkisch spricht an  der Demonstration teil nimmt. Deutsch konnten aber alle auf der Demo und haben mir immer versucht zu erklären was gerade passiert, was gerufen wird und warum es gerufen wird.
Auch wenn es sich sehr befremdlich angefühlt hat unter einem Meer türkischer Fahnen teilweise noch mit Attatürkbild durch die Stadt zum Römer zu marschieren und auf dem Römerberg aus dem Lautsprecherwagen der Polizei türkische Reden zu hören.
Demoorganisatoren und Polizei waren sehr bemüht das Bild der friedlichen, ja fast schon harmonischen Demonstration aufrechtzuerhalten.

Das wurde besonders deutlich als ein Erdoganbefürworter laut schimpfend und wild gestikulierend den Demozug störte und die Ordner sofort deeskalierend einwirkten. Sodass der Provokateur und Familienpatriarch nur nachdem er in sicherer Entfernung  war das Bespucken der Demonstration andeuten konnte.

Alles in allem war es eine friedliche und angenehme Veranstaltung deutlich wurde das auch an den normalerweise strikt getrennten Fussballfans der verschiedenen Istanbuler Vereine gemeinsam Arm in Arm solidarisch gegen Erdogan demonstrieren.

Solidarität bedeutet also eine Verbundenheit mit den Zielen, Ideen und Aktivitäten einer anderen Gruppe verbunden zu fühlen.  Die wichtigste Voraussetzung dazu ist aber gegenseitiges Verständnis.  Zu diesem Verständnis in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit hat die Demo leider wenig beigetragen. Für den nicht-türkischsprachigen Sah es ein wenig aus, als wenn die türkische Nationalmannschaft ein EM-Spiel gewonnen hat. Zwar erklärt die FR (
http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/protest-gegen-erdogan–tuerken-demonstrieren-in-frankfurt-,1472798,23091224.html
) grob worum es bei der Demo ging und lässt die Organisatoren zu Wort kommen, erweckt jedoch den Eindruck, dass es sich dabei um einen gesamttürkischen Protest gehandelt habe. Die Pluralität des Protestes, sowie die komplexe Zusammensetzung in Istanbul geht jedoch dabei unter.  Genau diese gilt es aber zu verstehen, wenn man sich mit der Bewegung solidarisieren möchte. Welche Überzeugungen werden dabei vertreten. Interessante Punkte dabei sind z.B.: Die Rolle des türkischen Militärs, die Rolle der Kurden, Aleviten, Armenier, christlicher, religiöser und anderer Minderheiten oder Individuen, die sich durch Erdogans Regierung nicht mehr vertreten werden. Andere Artikel thematisieren nun die Rolle der Deutsch-Türken bei den Protesten oder den europäischen Geist auf dem Taksim-Platz. Die Artikel suggerieren, dass Taksim nicht soweit entfernt ist wie es scheint.

Mir ist vor allem bei einem Efes-Bier am nahegelegenen Kiosk klar geworden, dass die Türkei gar nicht mehr soweit entfernt ist und es uns allen gut tut uns gegenseitig besser kennenzulernen. Nachdem wir in Anspielung auf die Verschärfung der Alkoholgesetzgebung einen auf Erdogan getrunken haben, wurde mir  von zwei Demoteilnehmern zwinkernden Auges attestiert, dass ich gut integriert bin. Vor allem das Gespräch hat mich dazu bewogen diesen Artikel zu schreiben, dieses Gespräch gilt es zu suchen und weiterzuführen. Vielleicht sind wir uns in der Integrationsdebatte ja doch näher als manch einer glaubt. Mir zumindest ist es in dem Artikel schwer gefallen, zu definieren wer nun Deutsch, wer Türke oder Deutschtürke oder was auch immer ist. Die gesellschaftliche Realität ist wesentlich vielfältiger, als es bspw. Der FR Artikel darstellt. Und diese Realität verstehen zu wollen heißt solidarisch sein, denn nur wer versteht kann sich auch integrieren, identifizieren und solidarisieren.
Ich freue mich auch hier wie immer über Information oder Kritik.

I’ve had a few bumps along the way to get here starting with my flights! My flight was supposed to leave out of Phoenix at 10am on June 9th to LA. Well, last minute that flight got delayed until 6pm which meant I would miss my connecting flight. After a lot of stress, my flight finally got switched so I would fly through Philly to Frankfurt. While I got to Philly fine, my flight to Frankfurt was delayed about four hours.

So fast forward to me arriving yesterday. I got to Frankfurt safe and sound, but my luggage didn’t. It is now June 11th at 7:30pm and my bag is still not here! On top of that, the airlines don’t know where my bag is and I leave for Munich tomorrow! Let’s hope my bag makes it here tonight!!!

UPDATE:

My bag arrived yesterday night! Now I’m eating breakfast before heading to Munich!

Sure, airports might not give you the authentic experience that passing out in a shisha bar in Budapest would (that’s another story). But in a way they’re the essence of how a city or a country wants to be seen by the average traveller.

Apart from that, the airport terminal is a heaven for people watching— put a large number of tired and bored strangers together in a claustrophobic box where you can get charged for your mere existence, someone’s going to crack. Which is why yours truly doesn’t mind the 8 hour stopover, as long as it’s in a major airport with a healthy flow of fidgety people; I’ll be content to perch in a secluded corner and judge every one of them while I’m pretending to be asleep, which, incidentally, is really easy if you have Asian eyes.

You can always count on a certain type of people to be at the airport— the kind that would not only complain, but actually do something about their complaint. I’m not that kind of person. Shoot at me and I’ll probably complain about the caliber of the bullet and remain standing. Tackling you to the ground won’t even come up on my mental to-do list.

These people would write a strongly worded email to a cooking show if they thought the host got the idea of al dente wrong. These people, unlike me, aren’t scared shitless about publicizing their opinions. And that makes me jealous, which is enough reason for me to hate them.  

Case in point, when I was going through luggage control in Frankfurt, I noticed a commotion at the other end of the room. I couldn’t resist the urge to eavesdrop, so I shuffled towards the surface counter, pretending that I had problems with putting on my belt.

I could tell at first glance that the man was one of those people. Clean shaven, slightly pudgy, middle aged, with slick tufts of greying hair sprouting from his head as if someone decided to use weeds in an avant garde flower arrangement and— the most telling feature— trousers that didn’t really reach his shoes, exposing his checkered socks.

Judging from the expressions of people working at the service counter, they hadn’t marked him out as one of those people yet. Inexperience killed many a career. They were deceived by his ostensibly harmless look, the triviality of his complaint, the calm tone of his voice and his soft English accent.

“I specifically told the luggage handler not the open this bag, but he ignored me!” He gestured at a slim, black Agnes B. travel bag. Some would call it ‘man bag’. An imaginary gavel sounded in my head.

“I’m sorry sir, but what can we do for you now?” Funny how German sounds harsh, but English spoken in a German accent sounds like finely strained milk tea and almost has a placating effect. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to work on the man.

“I don’t think you understand, I specifically told him not to open this bag! I demand he be made responsible!”

That’s how they complain. They insist that no, you can never understand their plight, and in virtue of that, you should just shut up and do as they say.

The woman at the service counter did not do this. Worse, she looked slightly bemused, which was all the man needed.

“Do you think this is amusing? I want to speak to the manager! This won’t go unnoticed…”

I moved away, not wanting to attract too much attention by lingering around for too long. In my mind I was already fantasizing about what could possibly be in this mysterious bag of his. Since I already made up my mind to hate him, I let my imagination roam free as to what kind of incriminating demon he could have stored up inside that slim, Agnes B. travel bag.

Maybe it was the ashes of his late mistress; maybe it was an embarrassing latex costume; maybe it was the severed hand of a Starbucks barista who put too much chocolate powder in his morning latte. The possibilities were endless.

It was at this point that I knew I had to find out what was in that bag, or else I wouldn’t be able to put my mind to rest on the 11 hour flight back to Hong Kong.

So I started to search for him. I tried to look as innocuous as possible, stopping at a bookstore and pretending to flip through that week’s Foreign Affairs— if I had to be a farce, I might as well be a sophisticated one.

I couldn’t find him anywhere, and since he couldn’t possibly have gone to another terminal in the last 5 minutes, I concluded that he must be in one of the four toilets in that part of the terminal.

And so I went into every one of them. Toilets say a lot about a country— at the very least, it shows how they want to be perceived. The average tourist might not bat an eyelid at the plethora of souvenir shops packed in the terminal like a cheap bazar, but there’s a good chance that they’ll use one of the toilets.

The toilets in Frankfurt felt clinical. Everything from the urinals to the walls had a dull matte steel finish; the mirror was the only reflective surface there and it made me feel extraordinarily self-conscious. I was about to leave the second toilet when I noticed a small sign that read Komfortkabine. The English translation was etched right beneath it— Comfort Cabin.

Since I’ve seen vending machines selling condoms and sex toys in other German toilets (see Munich airport), I wondered if the Komfortkabine was a tongue-in-cheek euphemism. I didn’t want to be seen going into it just in case it was for that kind of purpose, which was why I checked to see if the toilet was empty before going into said ‘cabin’.

It was no different from any other toilet, except that it had about twice the amount of free space. Maybe ‘comfort’ just meant a bit of breathing space in a cramped terminal.

When I left the toilet I saw a crouched figure on the ground outside— it was the man squatted over the Agnes b. bag, scribbling furiously on something. As I came closer I saw that he was writing on a complaint form, his thin, cursive doctor-esque handwriting snaking over the small piece of paper like his silent temper. The words flowed out of the allocated box, and onto the other side of the paper. I edged closer, craning my neck to see what was inside the bag.

I guess I could have asked him bluntly about the contents of his bag, but how do you start such a conversation? “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help noticing that you don’t want people to know what’s inside that bag of yours. Would you mind telling me what’s inside?” He might be the kind of person to do that, but I wasn’t— so there I was, circling him like a hyena stalking a larger prey for the first time.

He shifted his stance, and for a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of the contents of the bag— stacks of paper. Just stacks of paper.

He must have smelt my disappointment. His pen stopped scratching and he looked up, noticing me for the first time.

“What do you want?” It sounded more like a bark than a question.

“Nothing” I said it almost like an accusation. He looked slightly taken aback. I turned and left in a huff.

He had failed my expectations. Nothing, no matter how dishonourable or disgusting it was, that is written on paper could be incriminating enough, could justify my hatred towards the man, because both the written word and pictures are reflections, mere echoes of what had happened. Neither can provide the immediacy to justify my increasing hatred towards this man. And without that, I can only turn my hate towards myself; according to my watch, I had four more hours to do just that.

I stormed back into one of the toilets, and gratefully entered the Komfortkabin, relishing the extra empty space, gladly filling it with the scent of my spite.

Can You Say Sausage?

The history of the hot dog spans  far back in cultural history, way before it became an American culinary icon. It all started out with the sausage, and when you think about it, hot dogs are indeed sausages. The term deriving from the Latin term salsus for salted, was adopted into the Middle English term sausige and the French term saussiche which eventually in our English language was and is transcribed as sausage. The German term for sausage is wurst and easily explains why various sausages have the word wurst in them. Funny thing though, nothing is considered a hot dog, not even a frankfurter unless a bun is added!

Historical Origins Revealed

The first sausages recorded date back to ancient Greece and Rome in the  700′s BC where it is mentioned in writings of the making of sausages where roasted animal intestines were stuffed into stomach linings for feasts. In those days well into the present, salt was used as a preservative to keep meats from spoiling which makes complete sense why the term sausage would derive from the Latin term “salt”. In days before refrigeration, curing meat for long term storage was a necessity for survival. Making sausages were a great way of not only keeping a food supply handy for long storage, but also a way to utilize as much of animal without waste adding an additional food surplus for early civilizations. It is important to note though that sausages have been around before recorded history! A sausage is basically various/selected salted meats, organs, or blood ground and stuffed into an intestinal lining formed in a cylinder shape. A hot dog is much the same with the exception of the sizes a hot dog may come in as well as the meat being pureed opposed to ground as in traditional sausages. Even the skinless hot dogs are first cooked in a lining known as a casing, usually synthetic, then removed afterwords before the packaging process.

Coming to America

In American history, sausages first started seeing their first appearances with the arrival of immigrants, mainly from Germany in the early 1800′s. German immigrants sold their frankfurters from carts as early as the 1860′s in New York City along with rolls and kraut. The popularity of street vended sausages would only grow into an American icon for future generations into the present of America’s culinary culture.

Who Invented The Hot Dog Link?

The frankfurter from Germany is celebrated as being over 500 years old. The town of Frankfurt claims that their frankfurter sausage dates back to 1484. It wasn’t until 1852 however that The Butcher’s Guild of Frankfurt, Germany introduced the odd shaped sausage and gave it a name that represented their town. In 1805 however, 47 years prior to Frankfurt’s naming of the frankfurter, the people of Vienna, Austria were calling the same sausage type wiener ,essentially wien, which is the German pronunciation for Vienna. The master sausage maker accredited for the wiener apparently learned his craft in Frankfurt then returned to Vienna naming his creation “wiener-frankfurter” but was more commonly recognized in the region by the locals as the wienerwurst.

The Mystery of Who Bun It … Solved!

Some Truth Mixed With Myth: It wasn’t until 1880, nearly 20 years after sausage popularity had grown in the United States that a German sausage peddler would come into the scene and change hot dog history as we know it. Antoine Feuchtwanger had found a solution for his customers seeking to enjoy a freshly cooked sausage … gloves. He would let the customers put on a white glove while eating in front of his cart so as to not burn their hands. There was one problem, many customers often took off with the gloves and this proved costly to this St. Louis vendor. Being the brother-in-law of a baker and under his wife’s suggestion, he had buns made and split so sausages could be held without burning customers. The bun was born and now not a single hot dog is ever served without being accompanied by a bun. He called his product back then “red hots” instead of hot dogs.

The Truth: German immigrants had been eating their sausages in their own homeland Germany far before they ever came to America. In the 1860′s in New York City’s Bowery, German peddlers sold sausages with milk rolls on the streets commonly. So can one person be attributed to this handy method of consuming a hot frankfurter sausage without a plate? No. Sure, somebody probably did come up with it first, but it was probably in a small German cottage a long time ago and just caught on. We do have a mighty contender down below in the “hot dog stands” section. Check it out.

They “Mustard” Done Something to My Hot Dog

Ever wondered where and when the  hot dog and mustard trend started? Well it is said that the first hot dog to be slathered with mustard was in 1904 and provided by the R.T. French Company at the St. Louis World Fair. It was a huge hit and obviously has continued to be a hit ever since. Very few hot dog connoisseurs can imagine a hot dog without mustard. The R.T. French Company is now French’s mustard. Next time you pick up an old fashioned dog and see a bottle of French’s Mustard, you know your getting an authentic dog!

Behind The Famous “Hot Dog” Name

Some Truth Mixed With Myth: Whatever you want to call these small sausages, the actual term “hot dog” is believed to be in reference to the Frankfurt term “dachshund sausage”  due to the resemblance to the dachshund canine species. This term would travel with the immigrants coming to the new promise land (America) and be eventually tailored to the name “hot dog”. It didn’t happen right away though … it wouldn’t become popular slang until 1901 when a sports cartoonist named Tad Dorgan would hear the term “red hot dachshund sausages” as sausage peddlers tried to sell their product. He ended up drawing a cartoon of an  image of a dachshund dog in a bun covered in mustard. He couldn’t spell the word dachshund so he captioned it instead with “Get Your Hot Dogs”.

Sad Truth: The term “hot dog” was coined by Yale college students in the 1890′s and quickly spread throughout many other colleges in the same decade via college magazines. How did this term get coined? Hold your stomachs. It was because there was a time in American history where the hot dog sausage actually contained dog meat in them! You heard that right, dog meat. Now,this was not commonplace in the sausage making community, but a few were. You see, cheap and rather scandalous butchers would actually hire dog killers who would roam the streets with clubs killing canines and then sell it to the very knowledgeable butchers who would in turn hide it in the sausages. It was cheaper than pork or cow. These Yale students were aware of the sadistic and disgusting practice of their time, perhaps even some of them at one point being consumer victims themselves. It was rumored more than actual fact though and hot dogs became more of a rebellious type of snack that students would devour in devilish humor from the sausage food cart that catered at Yale humorously called “The Kennel Club”, but not due to the rumors but rather the school mascot, the Bulldog.

Sports Goes to the Dogs

It was in 1893 that the hot dog got a big boost in popularity due to sports. Baseball would usher the sausage into the limelight as the snack/meal for all sporting events Nationwide. It was at the St. Lois Missouri Browns Ballpark that hot dogs would be first served at a ball game. The trend took off from there and quickly spread across the country. Today there isn’t a ballpark without a hot dog vendor during a sports event, not even little league!

The First Hot Dog Stands in America

It was in Coney Island, NY 1867 where a German baker by the name of Charles Feltman started up probably the first hot dog stand in not only New York history, but American history. In order to help sell his baked goods, Feltman came up with the gimmick of adding  a hot sausage in between his baked rolls for 10 cents. His “sausage sandwiches” were a hit and made Coney Island history, if not American history. He went on to also convert his delivery pie wagons into roll storage and sausage boilers and took to the streets vending directly from his coal fired carts. Many have accredited Charles Feltman as being the founder of the hot dog in a bun. This may be the case, it most undoubtedly will be debated.

The Chicago Dog Is Born

It was in Chicago 1929 during the depression era that the Chicago Dog was born. It didn’t start out with such a proud name though. Originally called the “Depression Sandwich” by the Jewish owner of Fluky’s, Abe Drexler, the all beef dog was topped with lettuce, tomato, pickle relish, dill pickle, mustard, onion, and hot peppers. Since then the lettuce has been removed from the famous recipe, but the legend continues. I don’t know a single person that doesn’t visit Chicago without grabbing a good ole fashioned Chicago Dog.

A 40 minute train ride from Frankfurt can take you to the unique city of Mannheim

Mannheim’s water tower is the city’s main civic symbol.Luckily for me I was able to meet up with Bianca who showed me around her beautiful university (Mannheim university).
With many buildings resembling palaces, Mannheim is a student city with a history of many great engineers.Mannheim was a major target in both world wars due to its many factories and power houses.Today Mannheim is an analytical German student city with a completely linear street grid.

Unlike most German cities, the baroque city of Heidelberg was not bombed in World War II.Heidelberg is hands down the most beautiful city I’ve seen in Germany.After seeing so many German cities filled with gritty steel, bombed buildings, and shiny reconstructions, it was incredible to see what a well perserved German city looks like.Wandering around Heidelberg oddly reminded me of Prague, Rome, and Copenhagen.I even spotted my German dream mansionAfter spending hours wandering around the residential area thinking I was in the Altstadt, I finally made way for the downtown center and Heidelberg castle.Originally built in 1214, Heidelberg Schloss overlooks the city and river.In 1619 Frederik V known as the “winter king” reigned for a single winter before the House of Habsburg took the crown by force, ultimately leading to the Thirty Years’ war.Besides sounding like an episode of Game of Thrones, Heidelberg today is a major tourist destination.Although the effect of tourism in Heidelberg is evident, the authentic German character makes up for it.If you’re in Frankfurt, a day trip to Heidelberg is easy and encouraged.Heidelberg had some of the most beautiful mansions and houses I’d ever seen.During the Nazi regime, Heidelberg was a stronghold for the NSDP.Unlike Frankfurt or Mannheim, Heidelberg presented no threat and was used as an American garrison after the war.Today Heidelberg is a growing city with a great university and young/hip atmosphere.Heidelberg is definitely a city I wish I could live in…or retire.

Frankfurter Impressionen 2 – 075

6/10/13- 4am PST- San Francisco International Airport

I arrive at the airport eager to get through checking my bag, worried it would be over 50 lbs. (It was 51 lbs, but nothing taking a pair of vans out couldn’t fix) and get through the dreaded security. After a quick pat-down and having to run back after leaving something, I was through all of that in 20 minutes. Then it was time to do my least favorite thing… Wait (Spoiler alert: there will be a lot of this). I found myself some overpriced breakfast to eat, and after a short wait, that consisted of charging my cell phone and iPod, I was aboard a plane, heading to D.C. Now at this point, 6:05 AM, I am running on 45 minutes of sleep from the night before and 9 hours total in the past 72. Suffice it to say, I thought sleep would be no issue at all. Then I remembered… I’m 6’3″. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep on my 5.5 hour flight that was delayed, but even so, I arrived in D.C., tired and dreading my next layover.

6/10/13- 2:30pm EST- Washington Dulles International Airport

I arrive in DC with one thing on my mind: my 7 hour layover. How do you kill 7 hours in an airport. Walk around? Did a ton of that. Sleep? 25 minutes. Eat? Did that 2 times. Charge my iPhone? Now that’s a novel idea! This task proved harder than it should be. Why? because apparently in DC, all the plugs allow chargers to fall out. After a 5 hour search, I finally found one outlet that worked, so I parked it on the ground next to the outlet, read a book and let everything charge. I got a little emotional soon before take off while talking to my dad and leaving a few very important people voice mails, but I made it through the LONG layover and onto a plane headed for Frankfurt, Germany (Not Frankfort, Kentucky just to clarify). One on the plane, we learned the tarmac was jammed and there would be a ‘minor’ delay. 90 minutes later we were in the air. On this 8 hour flight, I got 3 hours (for those of you at home keeping score, that’s now 5.5 hours of sleep).

6/11/13- 1:20pm local time- Frankfurt International Airport

This is where I’m getting to the point of being delusional and the story takes a fun twist. While going through security in Germany, TSA took my toothpaste. Now normally I’d just keep a travel sized tooth paste with me, but all I had was a brand new tube of it. I usually wouldn’t try taking that through, but when the American TSA worker told me I was fine, I proceeded to leave it in my bag. The German TSA agent told me that it was too much and took that as well as some face lotion I use after I shave. The second I can deal with, but the toothpaste upset me. The TSA agent wasn’t too pleased when I asked him if I could squirt some into the plastic bag I stored it in and keep that. When he said no, I proceeded to ask him if I could use it one more time to brush my teeth and he said ‘I must take it.’ Even so, after a short flight, I arrived.

6/11/13 – 5:30pm local time- Bucharest, Romania

I met Dave at the airport and it was off to run some errands. We went to IKEA to pick up some stuff, then we went to the American Embassy… McDonald’s, where I had the best Big Mac meal ever. We soon after picked up the VBS supplies for the team to use, and headed home. Now that I’m at the Manary’s, two thoughts are racing through my mind:

1. How is exhaustion now somewhat eluding me?

2. How am I, a guy with a somewhat screwed up past, supposed to do big things in Romania for God?

I sat next to a guy on my flight to Frankfurt named Shaun. Shaun and 5 others were embarking upon a 3 week medical mission trip to India. There, they will preform medical help and spiritual help, as they will present the gospel. My hour long conversation with this stranger really encouraged me. While I was excited for this trip, that second thought continued to come into my head. It wasn’t until talking to Shaun and reading the first 8 chapters of the book “Greater” by Steven Furtick that I figured it out. God called me to go to Romania for a month. Not Philip of 2015, not Philip after seminary and not Philip of 2012. God called Philip of 6/10/13 to go. Am I scared? yes. Will this thought come up again? yes. Do I already miss people from home? absolutely. But am I ready? yes. God has uniquely equipped me for this task. Will it be just to encourage Dave and Melissa? I don’t know yet. All I know is God is calling me to serve Him in greater ways. Finding those ways isn’t my job. Obeying His command when He sends me is however. And while I miss home and the comforts it brings, God has a greater plan for me than even I can see. Pray for me that God will take over, and yes, that God will use me like crazy!

E-TRAINING STRATEGY BLOG
Day-1 Orientation on the job across sectors and industries

AUTHOR
TC Ramaraj (CBS) PhD MS B.Tech

CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION
Successful transformation of a corporation requires successful transformation of its employees. That is people who have committed their lives and expect to succeed and derive satisfaction from their efforts and in turn be productive part of a financially successful corporate entity whose top line and bottom line growth is a result of its successful training strategies. Even highly experienced and well qualified new employees require support to achieve their maximum potential in order to transform themselves and as a result transform the corporation. This support can be in the form of direct mentoring, on the job skill development and/or training. E-training strategies offer an avenue of opportunity for individuals to bootstrap their skills. These strategies also offer methods to go through a personalized assessment profile, to gain baseline information prior to commitment to the E-Training process itself.

IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN
Depending on the level of participation, an employee can achieve full development through E-training strategies, if the training is well structured and follows a path that is traceable, that offers consistent feedback, allows for positive reinforcement in the learning process as well as generates an inherent level of enthusiasm because of strategically designed training modules. So, design of training modules is an important aspect of E-training strategy. Improperly designed training modules may appear to lead employees to believe they are making progress or had made progress in going through the process without translating into realizable on the job performance and results that are measurable.

What constitutes progress? What is measurable? What metrics do we use to define how performance can be measured? What is a baseline? How do we define it? How do we measure it? Is it necessary to provide continuous feedback to the participant? These are some of the many questions that may immediately arise.

REALISTIC SCENARIOS
Here comes the demarcation of training strategies depending on industry it is meant to address. Let us ask ourselves a few questions in this regard after proposing a set of realistic scenarios. To begin with, in this article, let us consider a single set of scenario and question.

Scenario 1:
As new employees are hired, and on day 1, some senior person from the corporation is requested by the training department to offer their wisdom to the incoming freshmen about corporate culture, corporate values, corporate goals and usually some catchy corporate mantra that promulgates the soul of the corporation.

Question 1:
Strategically, can this event be replaced by asking the new recruits to watch a video or watch a multimedia webcast? Will this multimedia webcast substitute for a hard body whose presence will probably be appreciated by the yet uninitiated audience?

That is the kind of serious question we need to address. Depending on the size of the corporation, size of the new pool of inductees, amount of resources available and the training budget, the day-1 training can happen in many different ways. Let us examine this question critically in a variety of corporate entities.

SMALL COMPANY AND STARTUPS
In the case of a very small company or a startup, probably the new pool of recruits is one person. The expectation is that the person would absorb as much as possible from the corporate website by the end of the 1st day. There may be assignments already waiting for that person to get on board. However, even in a small company, if the newly hired person is expected to follow certain procedures with respect to Environment, Health and Safety issues, follow approved protocols for regulatory purposes or follow approved protocols to be compliant, that person can pick up all the essentials from an E-Training strategy that optimizes training resources.

MEDIUM SIZED CORPORATION
In a medium sized corporation (< 1000 employees), the new pool of recruits usually is more than one person but less than 25. In this case, the day 1 training is a mixture of face to face corporate senior management motivating their new foot soldiers, some video presentations and E-Training modules to get the person up to speed on departmental procedures, compliance related requirements, electronic regulatory record keeping etc.,

Here the objective is to optimize training efforts so that a new team is energized and recruits are spirited away to their share of responsibilities. The effectiveness of training is easily tracked through surveys, feedbacks, on the spot assessments, quarterly reviews etc.,

LARGE CORPORATION
In a large corporation (< 10000 employees), the new pool of recruits usually is 50 to 100. Here, day 1 training follows very similar steps outlined above for a medium sized company, but the training may be spread out in multiple locations within the company. These locations may be geographically separated by cities, states, countries and in some cases continents, depending on the global nature of corporation. Because of the diversity of culture, language and location, standardization of the day 1 training may not happen unless some uniform effort is placed on the training process. A simple strategy is to keep the underlying content the same, but tailor the individual site centric training module that adds the local flavor.

MULTINATIONAL HOLDING CORPORATION
In a Global Multinational Holding corporation (10000 to 400,000 employees), the new pool of recruits could run into 100 to 1000 depending on the nature of business. They will be spread across variety of business segments, again across countries and continents. Strategically, the E-Training process is mixed with mentors who are part of the buddy system to encourage quicker assimilation of new employees

We have only scratched the surface by posing a single scenario and a single question. There may be other questions for this scenario we will care about and take a closer look at in the future. There are other scenarios that extend beyond Day-1 training that will be addressed in separate future analytical evaluations.

LEVERAGING CORPORATE WEBSITE
Every time I read a flashing news item about a corporation, I always make it a point to visit its website to see what an outsider can learn about its employee orientation and training process even before one becomes part of the company. This transparency can be easily leveraged as a valuable recruiting tool to attract top talent. Of course networking probably will shed more light on the company rather than some electronic blurb. Some times even this electronic blurb might be out of date, if the training department has not been paying enough attention to its content in coordination with HR and media relations.

But a well updated and current informational portal on the company’s website about its training programs is by far the best leverage for recruiting top talent.

GLOBAL TRAINING BUDGETS IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY
Every year, corporations spend Billions of dollars on training. For example, according to one well known survey the combined training budget in 2007 in US alone of all corporations was approximately $60B before the financial storm hit the global economy. If we were to scale up and include corporations from all continents, this number could easily surpass $200B mark across the globe. That is a mind boggling number for a training budget. As an interesting subset of this global projection is the question of what percentage of this global spend might be on E-Training and how much of it has been really because of well thought out programs which have been strategically evaluated for their impact on the employees, impact on the resources, impact on the budget and finally value creation for the corporation. In subsequent issues, we will examine this important aspect, the strategy for E-Training in a global economy. This may be looked upon across many different sectors including: pharmaceuticals, big consulting, pharmaceutical CROs heavy industrials, aerospace, automotive, technology companies at the cutting edge and Banking entities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TC Ramaraj (CBS) PhD MS B.Tech is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is e-training strategy. He has achieved a PhD in Engineering Science and a MS in Engineering Science from Arizona State University. He has also achieved a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He has been employed as a Professor, Scientist, Technologist and Consultant for various companies and has experience within the pharmaceutical, biotech, clinical research, education, engineering, aerospace and automotive industries. His clients or employers have included Huntingdon Life Sciences, Reuters Insight, Covance Laboratories, Hoffmann-La Roche, Wyeth-Ayerst Research, Pharmacopeia Inc, Tennessee Technological University, Garrett Turbine Engine Co and Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. He has geographical working experience in the United States of America and speaks English, German and Tamil. His service skills incorporates e-training strategy, client service and support, research and development, validation, project analysis and management.

To contact TC Ramaraj, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or alternatively please visit TC’s CBS Blog.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY

COLLABORATIVE PLANNING BLOG
Priority Issues

AUTHOR
Gary Gable (CBS) BA

In a previous article, I shared a structured, collaborative process for a team of stakeholders to identify issues to address in their strategic plan. The team used a silent brainstorming technique, writing each point on an index card or Post-it note, and then grouped the points by affinity, giving each group a category header or title. Next, our participants need to get the issues down to a manageable size so that strategies can be developed for those issues that are “key” or main causes. Here is a process to help determine the logical cause and effect relationships between the issue groups that have been developed in previous exercises. Knowing which issue groups are causes and which are effects of other issues will be a factor in setting priorities among them.

Collaborative Method to Sort the Issues

The process discussed here is the most difficult of all those to be discussed in these articles. First, arrange results from the earlier Issue/affinity exercise discussed in previous articles, into separate piles according to category with the title card for each pile on top. Assign a number to each of the categories. Then assign one pile to each person. If there are more or fewer people or categories, assign more than one person to a category or have one person work on more than one category, as appropriate. People work best with information with which they are comfortable and competent. You should allow, where possible, for people to choose the category they would like to work with.

Have everyone sit in a circle (preferably around a table) with their pile of cards facing out. Distribute one 3X5 index card to each person (one per category) and have each write the name of the category at the top of the card, with two columns below that. Label the columns “In” and “Out.” Explain that each person should look for how their stack of cards, i.e., issue category causes any of the other stacks to occur. Tell the group that if their own (issue category) stack of cards causes another to occur, they should write the number of that stack in their “Out” column.

An Example for the Group

It is normal for people in the group to get confused about the relationship between causes and effects. Sometimes, everything appears to cause everything else. To ensure that the group not only understands the relationships between causes and effects, but how these relationships relate to the group’s issues, you should facilitate the completion of one of the issue’s “Out’s” with the entire group.

After you have allowed sufficient time for the participants to fill out his or her card, each person should, in turn, explain his or her thought process for deciding on an “Out.” Let the group discuss agreement or disagreement with the categorization. 100% consensus is not necessary and sometimes counterproductive. Keep the session moving. A long session will disrupt momentum and will have only marginal benefits.

Results by the Numbers

After the “Ins” and “Outs” have been discussed for each stack, it is time to tally the results. Ask the group to count how many numbers are in the “Out” column (not the sum of the numbers but how many entries are in the column) and record that on the card. Starting with category number one, ask each person to call out the category ID numbers in their “Out” column. If anyone hears his/her category number called, he/she should place the number of the person’s category who is calling his/her number in the “In” column of his/her card. For example, if category number one is being read and category number one says that category number five is written in the “Out” column, category number five should place a number one in its “In” column.

Ask the group to count how many numbers in the “In” column (not the sum of the numbers but how many entries are in the column) and record that number on the card. List all the categories on a flipchart and record the total “Ins” and “Outs” for each category.

Main Causes

Explain to the group that the main causes will be those categories with a larger number of “Outs”, compared to “Ins.” The main effects will have a larger number of “Ins” compared to “Outs.” The process above should be followed very closely to ensure that the correct number of “Ins” and “Outs” are recorded. The next step will be to determine priority of the issue groups. Knowing which issue groups are causes and which are effects will be a factor in setting priorities among them. To determine a priority value for each issues group, have each person rate each of the issue groups, with a score of one to five, with five being the highest priority. Then, when you add up the scores of all participants for each issue group, the issue group with the highest total will have been scored as that with the highest priority, and so on.

Conclusion

It is normal for people in the group get confused about the relationship between causes and effects. There is a tendency in some groups to think that everything causes everything else, especially when it comes to issues that have been identified. I have presented a collaborative process for a group of stakeholders who are developing material for the strategic plan, to analyze which issues cause other issues, and which issues are caused by them. Differentiating between these two types of issues provides a handle to help the group and the plan owner(s) determine the priority among the various issues that have been identified. For the strategic plan, you will want to address the causal and highest priority issues with Objectives and Strategies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Gable (CBS) BA is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is collaborative planning. He has achieved a BA from Oberlin College. He has been employed as a Director, Strategic Director, Regional Manager and Consultant for various companies and has experience within the professional services, information technology, accounting and corporate training industries. His clients or employers have included KPMG, Arthur Andersen, Control Data Corporation, AT&T, Citigroup, Exxon Mobil Corporation, General Electric Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Merrill Lynch and United Parcel Service. He has geographical working experience in the United States of America, Germany and France. He speaks English. His service skills incorporate business performance improvement, performance analysis, problem solving, communications and collaborative planning.

To contact Gary Gable, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or visit Gary’s CBS Blog.

Siden Sidst – og hvem er ham der Motta!

Siden sidste gang jeg bloggede er der sket en del. Jeg har valgt at blogge under mit selvtitulerede “Nico Motta” – som stammer fra tidernes morgen under mit styrketrænings-regime. Kendt under LaMotta, er det sidenhen blevet cuttet ned til Motta, og jeg har taget det til mig. Motta er den person jeg forvandler mig til under et race, det er ham der tager kontrollen og ham der har fanden-i-voldskheden til at gå udover grænsen som Nicholas besidder. Når først racet gælder, er der kun en person der kan lave præstationerne, og det er ham Motta. Det lyder måske lidt sjovt, men jeg tror faktisk man nogen gange undervurdere hvad man er i stand til at præstere, fordi man holder på sine former. I Motta er der ingen begrænsninger, og hvad pulsen, lysten og ansigtet fortæller så kan han præstere på et lidt højere niveau end Nicholas!

Og hvad er der så ellers sket – Jo, jeg har fået ryddet en milepæl af dimensioner væk fra mit sind, og har endelig færdiggjort min Ph.D i molekylær biologi/biokemi – hvor jeg holdt mit Ph.D forsvar i fredags (7. Juni) foran en dommer-komite, og besvarede fyldestgørende på deres spørgsmål. Jeg sammenlignede i dagene op til forsvaret følelsen med et Race, og jeg blev i mit Race-mode under forsvaret! Jeg tror ikke de kunne have stillet et spørgsmål eller have bragt mig ud af fatningen på nogen måde. Focus Focus Focus – og jeg følte mig ekstremt godt til rette. Når man samtidig efterfølgende bliver gratuleret, og får samme besked fra formanden for opponenterne (komiteen), er der kun tilbage at smile, og sige TAK!. Det markerer samtidig afslutningen på 8-9års studier, og nu venter “The Real World” med alt dens ondskab, ansvar og oplevelser. Er jeg klar? Pas. Men jeg er helt sikker på at det sted jeg lander bliver det helt rigtige sted for mig – ellers må jeg igang med at gøre stedet til mit eget. Men indtil da er der heldigvis et lille projekt der trænger sig på.

Projekt FrankFurt Ironman

Om godt og vel 25 dage står den på Ironman nok engang, og Frankfurt bliver mit 3. møde med IRONMAN cirkusset rundt om i verdenen. De to første gange har jeg haft nogle fantastisk fede oplevelser, og jeg ser endnu engang frem imod et stævne fyldt med glade tilskuere, tændte kompetanter og 10 timer sprængfyldt med energi og oplevelser. Jeg har de seneste måneder fået kroppen op i gear, og er nu gået ind i den sidste skarpe fase for at stå knivskarp på startstregen. Denne uge har allerede budt på de første tunge træningspas, og jeg holder på med min egen tri-camp i denne uge, hvor jeg virkelig skal have banket mængde ind i korpus. Når jeg står på søndag, skulle jeg gerne se tilbage på en uge hvor mængde, volumen, intensitet og performance alle har haft deres at se til. Igår blev der således tilbagelagt 2.2Km Open Water Svømning, cyklet 175Km – hvoraf de sidste 60Km var i halv-ironman pace, og til sidst blev der løbet intervaller på stadion med 2x10min i AT og afsluttende et par 400m løb helt til grænsen. Av for en omgang, men kroppen har heldigvis ædt det hele og vist sig klar til mere.

Strategi – Planer – Performance

Med 25 dage igen er det vitalt at have strategien på plads, og jeg føler lige nu at jeg har præcis det der skal til for at leve op til mine egne krav. Det simple mål er at lave en sub10 timers tid i Frankfurt. Jo tak, det burde da være nemt Motta? Og så alligevel ikke – fordi det niveau jeg performede på sidste år til Challenge Copenhagen var helt vildt. Når jeg tænker tilbage på den dag, får jeg stadig kuldegysninger og bliver helt fyldt med gåsehud! Hvis jeg skal udvikle mig som triatlet, skal jeg ergo være en bedre løber end jeg var sidste år – og samtidig må jeg gå lidt på kompromis med cyklen. Hvis Frankfurt skal lykkedes, bliver det dog nødvendigt med en 4timer45minutters tid på cyklen – og det tror jeg fuldt ud på. Så for at summe lidt omkring strategien, så er jeg ligenu ved at rampe op for mængden, jeg kører specifikke træningspas, jeg har længde på og jeg svømmer en masse. Mit løb er ligenu på det bedste siden Challenge Copenhagen, og jeg har kontrol over tempi, puls og følelse når jeg løber. Og så er der mit allervigtigste våben – RACES! På lørdag skal jeg køre Burresø 111, som passer perfekt i distance som træningsløb, men også til at Motta kan lave noget brutalt. Jeg går helt klart efter en fantom-tid på cyklen, og jeg går også efter at nappe en PR på de 10Km. Måske ikke en PR der er på niveau med sidste år (44.36), men en PR for 2013. Den skulle gerne smage af 45min. Lad os sige det sådan!

Afslutningsvis vil jeg bare sige tak fordi du læser med, og smid endelig en kommentar på facebook eller herinde på bloggen hvis du er fænget af mine skriblerier. Jeg er vild med at udtrykke mig selv skriftligt, og vil prøve at blive bedre til at have mine små ramblings på bloggen, både i forbindelse med træning og hvad der ellers rør på sig i Motta’s liv!

Till next time: See Ya’

Sightseeing:
The city has a creative skyline that is more North American, imposing eye-catching shiny glass and steel skyscrapers, thus often been referred to as ‘Mainhattan’. It is famous for its historic architectures like, The Kaiserdom (Cathedral) and the Paulskirche, the cradle of German democracy. It offers a wide variety of attractions which comprises of close to 40 museums lining its riverside, the Old Opera, swaying greeneries in Nizza Garden, the forested Taunus mountains and bustling shopping markets.

Food and Entertainment:
Frankfurt being home to more than 3000 restaurants caters mouth-watering cuisines from 70 different countries. The city is also known for its exquisite gastronomy of delightful local delicacies which includes the national beverage ‘apfelwein’ or ‘Apple Wine’ served in elegant ribbed glasses. It is famous for its buzzing all-night entertainment of streets lined with Ebbelwei bars, clubs and old pubs hosting some of Germany’s best nightlife after Berlin.

Let it be on vacation or business or to visit the numerous trade fairs and exhibitions; No matter what your purpose of visit is! An excursion around this lively city filled with historical sights can make your stay a great experience.

TEAM CANADA- A Parents Perspective By Darla Isfeld

http://www.teamcanadadance.com

AUDITIONS ON JUNE 23rd 2013!

As I reflect on my experience as a parent who’s child is a member of the Canadian National dance team, I’d never dreamed that this would become as much of an adventure for myself as it was for my daughter!

Team Canada 2012- Germany Team

From the minute Katheryn’s letter of acceptance to the team arrived, we were thrown into a whirlwind of excitement. Getting ready to compete at the dance world’s version of the Olympics is no small feat. Putting together the best dancers from different studios who, for the most part, didn’t know one another except on a competitive level, could have been risky. But,there is no “I” in team, so ego’s were left at the door & everyone came together with a common goal. There were only 2 months to get everything  perfect, and it takes an extremely dedicated  group of choreographers, dancers, parents, volunteers, & seamstress’s to pull it off! Once rehearsals began, my iPhone lit up with a constant stream of emails & messages and it seemed like we were constantly planning, fundraising, or driving. My hat went off to the parents that drove to each practice from as far away as Chilliwack, as I was one of the lucky one’s who lived only 5 minutes away from the rehearsal studio.
As the departure date for Frankfurt drew closer, I began to observe bond’s forming amongst the dancer’s. I think it was around the time that the team jacket’s arrived and were donned that something seemed to “click”. No longer were they representing their own studio, they were representing Canada!
We drew a lot of attention at the airport in our maple leaf jacket’s. Many curious people asked us about the team and wished us good luck!

After a 10 hour flight to Germany (and a 10 hour time difference) there was no time for rest! The team had to compete first thing in the morning, and I admired how even though they were exhausted, they diligently practiced in the hotel parking lot for 2 hours!

1st day at the IDO World Championships. Performing Choreography by Joshua Beamish of Move the company.

Before the sun rose the next day, the bus left for the arena, and the kid’s broke into a spontaneous version of “Oh Canada”. Little did they know that our anthem would be played 16 times during the upcoming competition as they danced their way to the top spot on the podium.

IDO Ceremony- 23 countries present

The International dance organization put on a fabulous, well planned event. With 1500 dancers from 23 countries, the competition took place at the Fraport Arena, a five thousand seat basketball venue which they divided into half for the competition and half for rehearsal space. I remember fondly how we parents decorated our sitting area each morning with Canadian flags. As we sat together through those long days, we too formed a lasting bond as we laughed, cried, hugged, & cheered till we were hoarse. The stress and anticipation was felt by all as we anxiously awaited to hear if we had advanced to the next round, and what the final placings were. By the end of the competition, we were all a family, parents & children alike, brought together by our passion for dance.
It mattered not what studio we danced for at home, for during that week, Team Canada was a studio in itself.
I witnessed barriers broken unlike anything I’ve ever seen before in the lower mainland dance community, and I feel we are all better for it.

The pride I felt watching Katheryn on the podium while our anthem played and flag was raised was something I could never put a monetary value on- for it was priceless! Seeing her walk in the parade of nations amongst dancers from all over the world, I realized how lucky she was to have been chosen for this opportunity. It made every penny spent and every bit of effort worth it.

In closing, my thoughts return to an email sent to us from Team Director Bonnie Dyer on the eve of our departure to Germany. She wrote: ” A true champion is someone who is gracious if they win, and even more gracious if they do not. In years to come, medals & trophies will be misplaced, but the memories of your journey of training to dance on the world stage, meeting new friends, striving to do your best and being proud to represent your country- these are the memories you will carry with you forever”.
I think that says it all.

Darla Isfeld

Blog made possible by http://www.daniellelgardner.com, http://www.teamcanadadance.com,Key West Ford and Impact Dance Productions.

Follow us on Twitter: @IMPACTDancePro

ONLINE MARKETING BLOG
Use SEO to Beat Your Competition

AUTHOR
Michael Walker (CBS) MBA IMMS BBA

Before going back to the proverbial online marketing drawing board, a.k.a. grad school, I spent four years, from 1994 to 1999, buying and selling disk space on the Internet and managing other Internet entrepreneurs across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky. This was before the Web attained its current popularity. Yet, even then, the Web was competitive. Today, the Web is hypercompetitive as it moves ever closer to joining the mass media, if it hasn’t already achieved critical mass.

Hypercompetitive is when companies aggressively innovate new products and services, create and develop distribution channels, and introduce cost-cutting programs while copying each other’s innovations. This is happening all over the Web today, especially on the SERP’s page (search engine results page). Furthermore, a characteristic of hypercompetitive markets is that advantages do not last. For instance, no matter how good your Google text ad position is today, by tomorrow your position will change. Google text ad position is a moving target! Companies come and go as rivals displace one another with better SEO (search engine optimization) technique, or they use PPC (pay-per-click / paid search) to jump to the top of the SERPs page.

Nikonusa used SEO techniques to improve its Organic/SEO ad position on Google at a much higher rate than its primary online competition. The camera maker also displaced their top competitor on Google using specific keywords. In addition, 37 percent of all keywords tracked for Nikon now rank on the first page of Google. Using specialized research software that estimated Nikon USA’s average ad budget, I learned they paid $8196.00 for their paid search ad campaign in August 2010. Conversely, their paid search ad budget in August 2011 was estimated to have dropped to $1670.00. That reduction represents a 390 percent change in paid search for the same month, one year later. Yet their average ad position, for these periods remained unchanged, with an average ad position of third on Google, Bing and Yahoo (average ad position is determined partly by keyword usage). In other words, Nikon USA maintained its relative ad position and saved thousands of advertising dollars using effective search engine optimization.

You might not be surprised by this performance, considering that Nikon is a global brand and they use both paid search and SEO. To better understand the importance of this phenomenon, however, Ken Rockwell was also examined because his page rank is fifth, right behind sixth place Nikon USA. Page rank is different than average ad position. It represents a mathematical formula that defines a websites reputation on Google. Pages are ranked on a 0-10 scale with 10 being the highest rank. In this case, Rockwell’s page rank of fifth highlights the opportunity available to businesses, big and small, to use SEO to compete online at a very high level.

Additionally, Rockwell’s domain name is just four years old yet it took one of the top three spots on Google 4146 times, 3375 times on Bing and 1092 times on Yahoo. Nikon USA’s domain is fifteen years old and it placed on one of the top three spots on Google 4732 times, 3005 on Bing and 1008 on Yahoo. That is very close to a tie and Rockwell only uses SEO. Moreover, it is generally believed that older domains are always preferable since the page rank for the younger domain might cause the lower page rank. In this case, domain age was superseded by good optimization technique.

What is good SEO? Due to the constraints of this blog format I can only identify a few of the major steps one should take. For instance, make sure your website and blog structure are correct. In other words, an optimized website steers clear of any technical issues that might impede the search engines’ crawlers/robots/spiders from finding, reading and indexing your files, keywords, pages online. Avoid using frames since they box-in the search spiders. Use flash sparingly and never place important text content in a flash file (spiders can’t read flash). Create a website sitemap, use H1, H2 header tags on each page. Select appropriate keywords, use keyword rich URLs. Flatten out your directory structure by using as few sub-folders as possible. If you blog, and blogging is at the heart of good SEO, use keyword based URLs versus date based URLs, to name a few best practices.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Walker (CBS) MBA IMMS BBA is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is online marketing. He has achieved an MBA from Regis University, an Internet Marketing Masters in Science from the Full Sail University, and a BBA from Kent State University. He has been employed as a Consultant and Project Manager for various companies and has experience within online marketing, capital equipment and consulting industries. His clients or employers have included iMALL.com, Pro Data Systems, Stack Container Company, info2Technology and International Profit Associates. He has geographical working experience in the United States of America, Canada and Puerto Rico and he speaks English. His service skills incorporate online marketing, sales, sales training and project management.

To contact Michael Walker, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or alternatively please visit Michael’s CBS Blog.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION BLOG
Hello, Can I help you?

AUTHOR
Leland Jackson (CBS) MBA BS

How many times have you heard this when you called the customer service number provided to you in the instructions of your new software, your new desk, or your kids bicycle only to have that question followed by those lovely words, “Please listen carefully as some of our options have changed”? Of course that is followed by a black hole of numbers to press, words to enunciate, and total frustration on your part. You pound the 0 key in hopes of reaching a living, breathing, human being only to have the “voice” tell you that you have made an invalid selection please try again. You search the web site to try and find a ‘real’ telephone number so that you can let the vendor know how unhappy you are, but to no avail. So once again your frustration level hits new highs and your odds of ever buying anything from this vendor again diminish.

The Problem
We live in a time where everyone is looking for a way to cut costs, to meet financial objectives, to minimize premiums due to the spiraling cost of healthcare. And without a doubt, the easiest and quickest solution is to slash headcount. So we look around the office and determine that we can automate Sally’s job since all she does is answer the phone and direct calls. There was a salesman in your office just last week letting you know that ‘everybody in the industry is doing it and saving all sorts of money’. I mean, we can immediately save $30-35K per year and once the software is paid for that asks, “How can I help you”, that salary, plus benefits cost, goes straight to the bottom line. So what’s the issue? The issue is that your customers have grown to love Sally and they know when they talk to her that their problems will be taken care of timely and efficiently. And on top of that, she knows their names, their kids names, and can actually have a real conversation with them.

The Results
Your customers will tolerate this shift to impersonal service for a period of time, and depending upon your field of service they may actually put up with it indefinitely. The issue is those words “put up with it”. They won’t be happy. They won’t be satisfied. They won’t be raving fans of yours. They will simply tolerate it. And then when the new service company in the field comes along and offers personal service with a real person to answer the phone they will consider, and quite possibly make, a change. But you saved $30-35K per year and met your financial objectives for the quarter so your bonus is on the way.

A Better Choice
In today’s fast paced world of outsourcing, cost cutting, and technological advances there is still a group of people that need to be taken into consideration as you make your decisions. That group of people is known as customers. You know, the ones who provide the revenue so that you can run your company. The ones who tell their peers how amazing you are and how you always take care of their issues timely and efficiently. The ones who with a simple internet post can either advance your company or put it into a tail spin. Ken Blanchard, in his book Raving Fans, points out that we have become so accustomed to poor service that when we receive mediocrity we think it’s great. If we receive great service we go absolutely crazy and we tell everybody we know. So if your customers love Sally and she’s the first point of contact with them then “saving” $30-35K per year could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the long haul. Whereas keeping Sally at that desk and either working a little harder to find some places to cut unnecessary costs or perhaps adding revenue to the top line will be a better alternative.

Conclusion
Competitive advantage is what it’s all about today. I get that and so do you. You have to stay financially healthy and at the same time have an infrastructure to support your customers. While we live in a world of technological advances it is often times refreshing to hear a friendly “hello” when I call for support and know that I’m talking to someone who will help me. I sat in a restaurant just the other day, it was lunch hour and the place was loud, and needed to cancel a reservation I’d made at a hotel that I’m a Platinum Member in their rewards program. I dialed the number, I enunciated my responses, but due to the background noise the ‘voice’ kept saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand your response”. It would then ask me the same question I’d just answered and with each response that was ‘not understood’ my frustration level rose. It took me over fifteen minutes to get my reservation cancelled and not once was I given the option to talk to a person. It’s time to find another hotel and another rewards plan.

So before you make that snap decision that Sally is expendable think about all those customers, like me, who may love you but can’t stand hearing, “Please listen carefully as some of our options have changed”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leland Jackson (CBS) MBA BS is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is customer satisfaction. He has achieved an MBA and BS from LeTourneau University. He has been employed as a CEO, President, General Manager and Consultant for various companies and has experience within the healthcare, insurance, banking and financial service industries. His clients or employers have included Digital Transcription Systems Inc, Paperless Claims Inc and Diebold Inc. He has geographical working experience in the United States of America, Canada and South Korea. He speaks English. His service skills incorporate relationship building, customer service, financial analysis and customer satisfaction.

To contact Leland Jackson, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or visit Leland’s CBS Blog.

BA has previously confirmed that the Airbus A380 will operate the BA25/BA26 Hong Kong route and selected Los Angeles flights later this year. The airline has released seat plans for the A380 but has not revealed the full cabin specification for the aircraft.

BA is yet to confirm on which routes the Boeing 787 will first be deployed. However, it reasonable to assume that some of the first routes to receive the Boeing 787 will be transatlantic routes currently operated by the Boeing 787 aircraft which include Washington, New York Newark, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Calgary.

As other airlines have done, and BA has previously done for new aircraft types, the Boeing 787 aircraft and Airbus A380 aircraft will be tested on passenger operated routes to Stockholm and Frankfurt respectively. The exact dates for these test flights have not been announced. However, it is reasonable to assume that rotations currently operated by a Boeing 767 may be used. (BA0902 London – Frankfurt 07:00-09:45 – BA0903 Frankfurt – London 10:55 11:40 / BA0780 London – Stockholm 13:25 – 16:55 BA0781 Stockholm – London 18:10 19:45). BA has also confirmed that the new aircraft will be tested on UK domestic flights.

BA has 12 Airbus A380 aircraft on order, with nine due for delivery by 2015 and options to purchase a further 7 Airbus aircraft. BA has 42 Boeing 787 aircraft on order, with 12 due for delivery by 2015 and options to purchase a further 10 aircraft.

HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT BLOG
Loyalty and Retention: Leading without a clue – following up on An anecdote from China

AUTHOR
Alp Altun (CBS) BA

In our first article, An anecdote from China, we highlighted how in a highly charged, fickle and fast-growing environment as China employee expectations need to be managed to settle a team.

We concluded with three takeaways:

1. Communicate clearly and setup a feedback channel. Never underestimate the cultural differences.
2. Timing in employee relations
3. Controlling as in Constant Steering

As yours truly was finding out the hard way, the devil is in the detail: execution.

How to execute without a clue?

So here I arrived about 13 years ago in China with loads of western knowledge and no idea on the Chinese mind. Trusting my bi-cultural upbringing I was expecting some exotic experiences in daily life in general and some peculiarities from time to time in my work – nothing to get stressed about.

Little did I know.

Having started at headquarters in Germany, China local management hired two Marketing people to follow up on our initial market research needs and to assist me when I would arrive 6 weeks later for my 6-month research and market entry project. I sent my research list and asked them to compile the information so we could hit the ground running when I arrived. Aside from the research we were preparing parallely the merchandising we would need in our market entry.

The first hints on the problems to follow came in form of questions on what I meant with qualitative and quantitative research. Obviously, there was a knowledge gap. The next thing was how many of the merchandising items we would want to buy when I had asked for indicative pricing. This question was poorly timed and was to show me numerous times how much transactional the society works.

When I arrived, I started anew. I reassigned tasks and asked in each weekly meeting for feedback and suggestions. Not receiving any, I concluded, wrongly, that everything was progressing smoothly.

Well, in fact, nothing that had a clear deliverable, process and deadline was progressing. At all. One of many, many aha-effects came when one particular research topic did not come to fruition after 4 weeks. We had delivered the whole new CI and done some housecleaning but the real meat was not visible. I asked the assistant what she thought the problem was. The answer left me speechless, something that does not happen very often. She replied that she had not worked on the task because she did not understand what she was to do. I asked her whether she had consulted with anyone else on this. She replied that if she, the expert, could not understand it, nobody else possibly could!

4 weeks, 4 meetings including kick-off and I do not know how many times the question “Is everything clear? Any questions left?”! Flabbergasted, I was fighting my urge to strangle the lady and jumping out of the window, scolding myself how I could not have followed up in more detail.

My two takeaways from this were:

1. Take nothing for granted. Structure, break down and follow up closely on the deliverables, in tiny chunks, without losing sight of the big picture or drowning in micro-management.

2. Communicate only the level of strategy that needs to be executed by the audience, the inspiration and vision can be much better transported in smaller meetings or face-to-face. Make sure that your team delivers the same downwards, link it to their goals.

Conclusion
We developed a project management overview, called the Master Plan, and broke it down by function/unit. Only top-level targets were handled there. Then, we developed a Master Plan for each division, this time in more detail, with SMART targets that in turn were broken down in Personal Achievement Plans that were directly linked with the performance review.

This way we ensured that all the strategic goals were worked upon by the whole organization without losing any detail in the downward delegation process. Our people on the ground knew what to do and that it was linked to an overall achievement plan that helped gaining an edge over the competition. So we had a coherent goal structure with the teams pulling in the same direction.

What were the differences that we felt we achieved?

1. ROI – Your return on investment is increased as no time- or money-wasting pet projects survive for longer than two review cycles. This helped getting more for each dollar invested. Being focused also helped navigating around more sensible personalities without anyone having to take offence.

2. The higher time needs in managing the company in this way were more than made up by the efficiency gains and loyalty we saw in the hightened productivity levels. We gained marginal retention difference as not everyone feels comfortable being pressed in a more rigid system but the overall atmosphere and sense of achievement were more reward than we had initially hoped for. People who adopted this work style were more satisfied, less stressed and more productive.

3. China in general has more transactional and commercial focus. Your driver, assistants and even maids will know how to squeeze a buck out of everything that we do not even dream of. This will be a topic in itself in a later article on How to press a drop of water out of a stone. In our case, I learned the number system before even knowing how to say good morning to everyone. Anything “fuzzy” such as corporate strategy and visions and ideals are at best looked upon with scepticism. After all – how much is a strategy worth issued by someone who leads without a clue?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alp Altun (CBS) BA is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is human capital management. He has achieved a BA, majoring in Marketing, Organization and HR management from Fachhochschule Wilhelmshaven (University of Applied Sciences). He has been employed as a CEO and Managing Director and has experience within the manufacturing, marketing, advertising, consumer goods and consultancy industries. His clients or employers have included ICSME (Shanghai), Escalade Sports (Shanghai) Co Ltd, Cristin (Far East) Co Ltd, Eidos Interactive and KMF Advertising. He has geographical working experience in Germany, China and Singapore. He speaks English, German and Turkish. His service skills incorporate management consulting, human capital management, organizational development and brand management.

To contact Alp Altun, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BLOG
Approach The New Year Prepared To Exceed Your Production Goals

AUTHOR
Carolyn Ashby (CBS) MBA BS BA

January is when many companies set annual goals for employees. Whether you are a veteran sales person or the new kid on the block, you should spend some time preparing for the rest of the year. My focus will be on annual goals but these principles are certainly applicable to whatever time frame is relevant for your industry.

First is the need to understand how your goals are measured. Companies change the way they measure production depending on their overall goals so, take time to determine what different activities you need to pursue to meet the new goals. For example, corporate goals may be set on new business development, ie. new contracts written of $10,000,000 or more. In this scenario, your company is looking to add new clients. Perhaps they are at a stage where fixed costs are covered and client portfolios are stable. A second corporate goal may be to generate $1,000,000 in net income. Here, the company is trying to grow their existing portfolios and add additional services to current clients in an effort to sell deeper. Often ignored is the length of the sales cycle which also changes over time with the general business cycle. It is harder to sell in a recession than when the economy is booming. Knowing where you are in the business cycle helps to determine what you need your conversion rate to be and how successful you are likely to be. You need to evaluate what you are trying to accomplish before you can determine your sales activities.

Once you have established what you need to accomplish, you must determine how to approach your business development activities and how to research your target market. This step is one that many people skip at their peril. Markets change and making corrections ensures better success. For example, your existing leads may now include target markets that your company is trying to avoid due to inherent instability, undesirability of those industries, fierce competition for those markets which reduce potential margins or, existing concentrations of those types of clients. You must not plan your sales activities in a vacuum; understand the reasons for the direction your company wants to go in before spending valuable time creating dead-end leads.

Your research should include an analysis of your competition. How are they approaching the market? Their approach is determined by their internal goals. Although you may feel you have a good grasp on who they are, understand how they are operating from a business development perspective. Do they using a consultative sales approach? Are they competing on price? Are they active only within certain industries? How can you counter their approach to your potential customers?

New business development starts with a comprehensive non-customer prospect list. This ensures that you capture the potential in your target market; identify companies which may have grown and eliminate companies who have not.

Resist the urge to just start making appointments; take the time to reorganize your list in several different ways to break the information into manageable chunks. For example, target a particular industry, geographic area or sales size. Be efficient but, do not overwhelm yourself. Companies like Dunn & Bradstreet and Hoovers have comprehensive corporate databases but do not ignore target companies’ websites, press and news releases, public records or industry association information.

Prioritize your leads making sure that you keep a variety of leads active at all times. It is always exciting to land that one large customer that makes your annual goals but, missing means you end up with zero production. The majority of your prospecting should be to companies that provide an average-sized deal. Know what your average deal size is and how long your sales cycle is, as this determines how many prospect contacts need to be made. Ask senior management to get a handle on these matters – it serves as a reality check for both of you. Count larger opportunities as windfalls and do not use them as an excuse to put off required monthly prospecting activities.

Using the previous $10,000,000 new business example, if an average deal is $250,000 and takes 3 months to close you need to convert 40 new clients to meet your annual goal. Breaking that down monthly, you need to convert 5-6 prospects over a 9 month period to meet your annual sales goal. If it takes 10 appointments to convert one customer you should be actively calling on 50-60 prospects monthly, 15 calls a week or 3 calls a day. The calls in the last three months count towards next year’s goals!

Do not ignore your existing customer base; a formal review of the services currently provided should identify opportunities. Make a written list of services and products that complement what they have to be proactive when you visit with them. Clients do not always come to you when they have a need. They may not know that it is a service you provide. Once completed, contact all existing customers and do a formal review. Sell into your existing customer base to supplement your annual production. .

If your goal is determined by net income, (say,$1,000,000) determine the most appropriate services or product mix that in combination will aggregate to that number. Knowing the margins on what you are selling allows you to focus on which add the most income and prioritizes your prospects. Take some time to educate yourself, your prospects and existing clients on additional products features and benefits. Adding value is always a positive.

Before calling on new clients, use all publicly available resources to better educate yourself and pre-qualify your target. Initially, take a few prospects and do additional research. Categorize every prospect as an A, B or C priority. The goal is to develop a list of no more than 50 “A” targets; any more becomes unmanageable.

Allocate time specifically to manage your prospect list. Make a regular weekly recurring appointment with yourself to work on your prospect list. This is the list that will be constantly changing. Keep it updated. Once a prospect is qualified move it to a qualified list and add a new name.

Qualifying prospects in an ongoing process. If you convert 5 or 6 “A” prospects monthly, you need to be move 5 or 6 properly researched “B” prospects to your list. If you take the time to manage your prospect list, you are in a position to replace the 6 converted clients with new targets and keep your pipeline balanced.

Happy Prospecting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn Ashby (CBS) MBA BS BA is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and her specialist subject is new business development. She has achieved an MBA from Marquette University, a BS from Cardinal Stritch University and a BA from Wilfrid Laurier University. She has been employed as Principal, Vice President, Senior Banking Manager, Commercial Lending Officer and Consultant for various companies and has experience within the financial services, healthcare services and other service industries Her clients or employers have included Comerica Bank, National Bank of Arizona, Meridian Bank, Wells Fargo and Company and MI Marshall and Illsley Bank. She has geographical working experience in the USA, Canada and Guyana. She speaks English. Her service skills incorporate business development and account management, interviewing and negotiating complex transactions, working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholder teams and new business development.

To contact Carolyn Ashby, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or visit Carolyn’s CBS Blog.

True to my imagined stereotype, the Frankfurt airport was sleek and clean and uncrowded (at least where we were) with easy-to-follow signage and just a yavol-nod from a young German guy who glanced at our passports. We went directly to the Lufthansa VIP lounge in terminal Z to hang out until our United flight to San Francisco departed. The Business Class lounge was up an escalator, and at the top: Nirvana. There was a sparkling bathroom with sliding glass doors and a hallway of private shower rooms. There were at least 3 of those self-serve cappuccino/espresso/whatever-hot-drink-you-want machines I love stationed around the vast lounge, with chilled bottled waters and glasses nearby. The buffet offered several varieties of premium German lager, juices and sodas, hard liquor and wine, Haribo gummy bears, Japanese snack crackers, chocolate donuts, sausage with sauerkraut, fresh fruit, apple sauce, and semolina soup. There were sections with leather massage chairs, and lounge chairs, and square chunky leather chairs with outlets to plug in laptops, free WiFi, a large flat-screen TV. Tall, pretty black women made the rounds picking up dirty plates and glasses and cups. The place was relaxing and efficient. Aaron decided he would like to live in Germany, mostly because of the unlimited pickles.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT BLOG
Protecting IP in Global Product Development- Strategies to overcome challenges

AUTHOR

Santanu Roymoulik (CBS) MBA M.Eng B.Eng

Global product development (GPD) presents challenges for IP protection. Industries need to establish what is core IP for them, balance legal procedural and technical controls, pay special attention to product architecture, establish collaboration and design work practices. This issue will focus on these challenges and give companies some guidance on overcoming these challenges while establishing an IP framework.

CHALLENGES IN IP PROTECTION AND STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THEM

ESTABLISH WHAT IS A CORE IP
In order to gain the benefits of collaboration while mitigating the risk of IP loss, it is necessary first to establish what IP is core, or would have a negative impact if shared. There is little return on protecting IP that has no impact, and it may even stifle innovation to do so. It is also, as we have noted, challenging to protect IP and so some focusing of resources is beneficial. Well-defined criteria and a very rigorous and structured process are necessary to select core IP. Again, there is a delicate balance between IP protection and stifling innovation and so this must be looked at with care. I recommend a top-down process , from the overall corporate strategy to the product strategy down to the product development strategy, taking into account the people, process and technology involved and available.

BALANCING LEGAL PROCEDURAL AND TECHNICAL CONTROLS
There are numerous challenges in protecting IP. Culture, local laws, lack of control, and lack of visibility impose significant challenges in both establishing and enforcing protective controls. Defining a comprehensive Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) strategy can be daunting, so seeking legal council from an IP protection specialist is advised. Legal issues such as trademark, patent or copyright protection and legal structures and laws vary widely by country. There are few legal protections for trade secrets in some countries. A company cannot rely upon legal procedures to protect their IP; they must also design business processes and implement technology to help protect their IP. These topics will be covered in more detail in subsequent sections.
Product Architecture

The architecture of your products can present a significant challenge or advantage for protecting IP in Global Product Development. Product architecture refers to the scheme by which the functional elements of the product are organized into physical elements. For many companies, product architecture is a byproduct of the development process. It evolves from concept through detailed development with no true owner. The risk to IP from poorly defined product architecture is manifested in two ways:

- The inability to easily segment the product such that portions being developed by a partner do not contain sensitive IP

- The inability to provide the design partner with defined interfaces at the boundaries of the portions for which they responsible

If a company has historically developed products with close-knit, co-located design teams, it is likely that the current product architecture is aligned with this type of development environment. Sensitive IP can be distributed throughout the entire product structure with no concern to IPP because everyone who touches the design data is internal to the company. It is only when moving into a distributed design environment that this integral type of architecture begins to pose a problem. If the GPD initiative is mandated and the product architecture is not aligned to support it, the company can either take the risk of losing control of sensitive IP or take the time to re-architect the product.

Even if the product is already segmented in such a way that the design partners are not responsible for portions that contain sensitive IP, additional risk still exists. In this case, the design partner may require detailed design data from neighboring portions of the product, which may contain sensitive IP; in order to make sure their design works in context and does not cause interference. The company is then faced with the decision to either provide the partner with this design context and take the risk of losing IP, or perform extensive integration of the partner’s design late in the design process and potentially lose the economic benefit of the GPD initiative in the first place.

DESIGN WORKING PRACTICES
When creating or modifying the working practices of your design process in order to take into account the protection of your intellectual property you must give careful consideration to the overarching outsourcing and partnering strategies that your corporation has in place. This guidance, set by the leadership of the organization, will provide you with the general framework that your working practices will need to operate within and will provide you with the definition of the types of partners, data and technologies that your processes and working practices will need to support. In general there are two main strategies for intellectual property control or digital rights management.

Be aware that the design of processes and working practices for the protection of intellectual property is but one part of an overarching plan to enable the protection of your critical intellectual property. You will need a plan that encompasses a well thought out corporate strategy, a capable suite of technology and tools, the correct set of documented processes and working practices and trained and skilled employees that can carry out the plan and work with the data on a day-to-day basis and not violate the rules that have been created.

SOME KEY CONSIDERATIONS THAT SHOULD BE LOOKED AT FROM A HOLISTIC PROCESS OR WORKING PRACTICES LEVEL ARE:

Does the protection of my intellectual property produce a less than optimal outsourced design process with my partners and vendors? And if so are the benefits of protecting the intellectual property worth the loss of time and cost? What is the technology cost for this protection as well and does the data’s value warrant the investment?

Can my process and working practices be designed and modified so that I can share my intellectual property with close partners and protect it from distant partners?

Are my products properly architected so that I can apply different design processes and working practices to different parts of the product depending on the type of intellectual property contained within it?

Are my processes and working practices making the greatest use of available technology in order to automate the control of intellectual property? Is technology being leveraged to protect intellectual property at the process and content level?

Are my employees and my partners employees properly trained to handle and deal with the control of intellectual property? Do they understand the different relationships that exist between our corporation and others? Do they understand the different levels of intellectual property that exist and what is considered critical for competitive advantage? Do they understand their role and the role of others within the process and working practices?

COLLABORATION WORKING PRACTICES
Most of the truly global companies doing global product development today do consider IP risk. Most have very substantial legal IP strategies in place and many are considering product development IP risk at a high-level. While the risk of IP theft cannot be eliminated without eliminating the benefits of collaborative product development, it can be mitigated through well-designed working practices. With the advent of more digital and virtual product development tools, it is now possible to design a collaboration environment with an external partner to minimize the risk of losing IP. We can call this “Design for IP Protection.” “Design for IP Protection” includes fundamental elements like designing the product in a modular manner, but also designing collaboration process in an intelligent manner, that focuses on the protection of IP. For example, sharing only relevant product data with external design partners and defining communication boundaries where needed. With digital development tools, this is an effective way to allow global companies to gain the benefits of collaboration while mitigating the risk of IP loss. We will examine effective collaboration tools for IP protection in more detail in subsequent sections.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Santanu Roymoulik (CBS) MBA M.Eng B.Eng is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is product development. He has achieved an MBA from the University of Michigan, a Master of.Engineering from McGill University and a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Indore. He has been employed as a Director of Product Marketing and a Director of Global Services and has experience within the information technology, industrial equipment, and medical service industries. His clients or employers have included PTC, Kalypso, Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath, Compuware, MSM and M3I. He has geographical working experience in the USA, Canada and India. He speaks English, Hindi and Bengali. His service skills incorporate global product development strategy, business process improvement and value identification and planning. To contact Santanu Roymoulik, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email.

Frankfurter Impressionen 2 – 074

We had champagne and celebrated my arrival, and then I slept for 14 hours.

My brother Chris and I (the look I’ve got going on is called ‘travel troll’)

My brother greeted me all-smiles at the door of his building (we decided he could stay home to clean up instead of picking me up at the train station…I was trying to be independent). His apartment, shared by his handsome room mate who was still away on vacation, is stunning–intricate mouldings decorate the high ceilings and grace the tops of large dark-wooden doors. The decor is modern but understated, and while the home is stylish, it still has the disarming quality of feeling lived-in. You can sit on the couch, cook in the oven, drink out of the glassware; without the apprehension of drawing a frown out of the host for leaving something dirty or out of place.

We had champagne and celebrated my arrival, and then I slept for 14 hours.