5 Things to do this year (Again)

Hallo to everybody again.

It's been quite some time since my last post. 6 months have passed with many things that happened and that kept me away from this Blog.

During these holidays though I read a bit and this picture made me remind the post I wrote 1 year ago (Things to do in 2014).

Were my resolutions also completely missed?

Curiosity killed the cat and I went immediately to check.
The answer was: yes and no.

I had listed targets so generic that could not be measured (except some quite general things) so, sorry to say, these were not resolutions nor things to do.
These were only good will thoughts.

In that list I made most of the mistakes that people can make when writing down such lists.

- The target was too far or not clear. Exercising is a nice thing. How much and to reach which level is something that people must have in mind. The result is that today I gained some kilos although I made more exercise than last year
- There is no idea of the consequences of these things. In a word, as these are things we never experienced before we cannot predict how better we will feel when these will be reached. And then, why should we suffer to get there?

What happened in reality was that I met people that changed a lot of small things in my life. I must really thank all of them (and I normally do personally) because today I am probably better than last year.
This is my first thing.
1) THANK PEOPLE THAT ARE DOING GOOD THINGS TO YOU. I hope I will meet more and more people that will be important to make me a better person.

On the other hand I have also questioned some people and found myself completely upset for some decisions. Paralelly then
2) TELL PEOPLE YOU DISAGREE BUT NEVER TAKE IT PERSONAL (...if it's not personal). This is something I need to work a lot, expecially not to "overheat" and to keep my pressure down.

In the last months the time that was left for myself was really minimal. I decided to spend it with my family, my children and my "better half". I neglected some of the things that I loved to do though but that I considered less important.
But now it's the time to
3) DO ONE THING YOU NEVER DID BEFORE. It doesn't matter if it's learning a new language, do paragliding, walk on top of the Himalaya or run the New York Marathon. Just find one thing and work to do it.

This will not be very simple as I am often travelling. My job, that I love, brings me a lot around the world, meeting different cultures in different places and keeping me away from my family.

Now, though, it's time to share some of this with them so
4) SPEND SOME DAYS WITH YOUR BELOVED ONES IN A SPECIAL PLACE. There are a lot of places that I visited and inspired me a special "flavour" to share with my family. Just pick one...

Last one, that seems obvious but it's not (at least it was not for me in this 2014)
5) LOOK AFTER YOURSELVES. If your body tells you something's wrong check it immediately. "What is always speaking silently is the body." Listen to it. Do not take it as granted.

That's all for today.

See you soon
Ciao

Three hours alone

In this paperless society I am still quite old style.

Looking at my desk I am always feeling guilty for the amount of trees that have been chopped to make the incredible amount of paper that I am using.
But I strongly believe that this is the Paper 2.0 society.
We have to use pencil and paper to clean our mind and write down our ideas. And we have to use paper to print books, especially good ones.
I know, I know... you may say I am so old since today tablets and E-books are there to avoid this but I cannot resist. In a book shop I need to see the book, to feel it, to open some pages and to buy it.
And again this happened this week when, waiting for a colleague of mine in a shopping center, I had the bad idea to enter into a shop.
I came out with four books that now I need to read.
The first one I bought is from Pietro Trabucchi. This is the second book from this psychologist, athlete, professor, writer (and I am sure I forgot something) that is following mostly sports linked to physical resistance: Marathons, Ultra-marathons, Cross country ski.

He is studying the effect of the resilience, of the capability of resist to stress in people that are apparently not gifted with extraordinary physical features but that can do extraordinary things.
I already briefly spoke about him in my Persevere blog.

The type of people we are talking about are Bruno Brunod or Kilian Burgada.

Resilience is the word and to explain it well I think that we must look at its roots.
It comes from the Latin "resalio". This word meant to try and go back into the boat after you have been thrown into the see. This effort to overtake the panic, the stress and go back into the boat is what we should try and improve. Because the good thing is that we can improve that and human beings were born with this capability.

BUT, what made me really thinking, was a brief interview to Bruno Brunod that was quoted in this book (Resisto dunque sono, in Italian unfortunately) that I would like to translate. Clearly I will not be able to pass some of the "italian small details" but also the original version was quite straight forward and simple.

"My mother grew me and other 4 children alone. Since my mother had cattle, we lived above Chatillon in the Zerbion mountain. In our home we had plastic on the windows since glass was too expensive. Until I was 8 (he was born in 1962) I lived without electricity. I was going to school, but I liked staying alone.... I was with the cattle when I read an old newspaper talking about Coppi and Bartali. I was shocked. I decided I had to be a champion as well so I went to the village and bought a bicycle. They screwed me though because they gave me something old and heavy. I realized this afterwards: I started immediately training alone. My basic training was to have a bag with bricks on my back and go up from Chatillon until the end of the road. Then waking to the top part where the cows were... Now many people would like to take the merits of my performances. I think that it comes from my life. Hard but happy. I read that Socrates once said "Let your children always be a little cold and a little hungry if you want them happy". Yes, Socrates said that but I do agree".

To sum up... no resilience can be trained if life is too easy and the sport environment can also help doing that beside giving clear help on the physical side.

It is for this reason and to make my life more difficult (just kidding!) that I am preparing the Cortina Dobbiaco Run.

30 kilometers in a breathtaking environment into MY mountains.

I will be needing a lot of resilience and training. But there is a quite complicated part of this kind of run that people often forget or do not take into account.
I think that the most difficult part in these long distances is to listen to your body and to the signs it will give you. You need to learn staying three hours alone, listening inside yourself. Listening to all the signs and giving yourself the right message to your body.

Let's see...

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy Easter.
Ciao

"Always pass on what you have learned." 5 good tips from Master Yoda

These days are quite hectic and full of things to do.

In this big flow of information, targets, flights and small things and with so little hours to sleep and rest I must admit I have thought about my Blog very little this week.

In reality when I woke up this morning, feeling a little bit like Sting waking up again in his clothes (sorry for this parallel that might seem a little presumption but look at this please...)

I had no idea on what to talk about this morning.

Then, a new friend of mine, saved my day. We were talking about the types of protections that men are creating to protect themselves.

Anger, Hate, Fear and Suffering.

That's quite close to what one of the characters that I loved most, used to say. Master Yoda.

I have then to pick 5 of his best quotes, the 5 that I think can give good pieces of advice to everybody.

Ah, I could not find who was the screenwriter for Yoda's part. It should be Lawrence Kasdan but I am not sure. What I am sure about is that he has created a gem on the cinema world.

1) Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

This is one of the basis of the psychology. We create an artificial shield to protect ourselves from what we fear and make us suffer. We need to understand what we are fearing and build a positive shield not to destroy but to positively channel the anger and not let the things go to the wrong direction.

In a word... Be a Jedi

2) (Luke) I can't believe it. (Yoda) That's why you fail

This idea was also taken by Guy Kawasaki on the video I posted on last week (see my Marketing in the facebook era Post)

To take step forwards you must "Believe to see" not "See to believe". Only if you fully trust on your ideas you'll reach the goal you've in mind.

3) If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are... a different game you should play

This, together with the next one, is the basic of what you need to get out of your comfort zone. It is impossible to go out of what you do, always, and make no mistake. People learn from mistakes. 

No mistake, nothing to learn. You're still in your backyard.

4) You must unlearn what you have learned

Again, that's the basic of moving to the next level. It's like if you're doing a sport since when you were a child. Nobody taught you how to do it. This happened to me with tennis. I am not a good player but I took some lessons with a master that changed some aspects of my game. I was getting worse instead of improving. Then after having practiced I became being better, and better and better.

To move on the next level you need to be prepared to do that, even if this mean to change what you've done since you were born.

5) TRY NOT. Do or do not. There is no try

This is by far my favorite. Don't be stopped by your fear of not being able to make it. The fear is just a screen that is between yourself and what you want to do.

Delete the "I'll do my best approach" and replace it with "I will do this".

That's all for today. I wish you a great Jedi week.

Ah, sorry... also the title was a quote from Yoda. Actually I found 6 good quotes and I did not want to skip one. I used that as a title but it is as important as the others.

Ciao

Everybody's got a weapon of choice

Quigley down under

I don't know how many of you have ever seen that movie.

It is some years old and tells the story of Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck), a cowboy and sharpshooter from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is a customized 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle. He answers a newspaper advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long-distance shooting with four words, "M. Quigley 900 yards," written on a copy of the advertisement, punctuated by several closely spaced bullet holes.

Once he moved to Australia, he grew his reputation (and his problems) thanks to his rifle.

And this is one of the main scene when the villain, Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting.

"I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it."

Although it is true that you cannot be everthing for everybody you cannot forget the "business as usual", the gunfight for a cowboy, and keep well alive what generates the most of your business. 

But the only way to develop is to understand who you want to be. And the decision has to come both from listening but most of all from the ideas and your DNA.

The importance of listening is clear as well as the importance of implementing the signs you get from the market.

But this will not ensure you the development. You will be another one using the gun. Maybe a good one, maybe one of the best but still, one of the big group.

Unless you are very lucky, from the market you will be getting info about products as usual, i.e. what is available on the market with some minimal changes.

Everybody knows that, these kind of things only give you benefit on the short term. 

Great to keep your bread and butter alive. But not great to really differentiate on the market.

We should learn to listen and drive the discussion on a high level never entering into the specific points because, once you are drilling down too much you will simply look at the details. 

Looking at the reason why on that specific case you could not succeed. 

Looking at what was missing productwise or servicewise typical of a "me too" approach. 

And it is hard to change the world looking at the details and having a "me too" approach.

Giant steps forward will be made changing things because in today's market everybody's gaining access to everything. The old tactic of opening new market is today less and less winning as the new markets to sell the "usual things" are less and less.

So...

-To change things you cannot (only) listen to your customers although this will ensure you the day by day business.

-Knowing the process is the only way to dramatically change things. So, again, expertise, skills and some degree of risk are necessary.

-Ideas are ultimately worthless unless you activate them with focused and consistent actions

-Be the best on somehting and make people knowing you for that.

-Do not forget bread and butter. You may need that sooner or later.

Have a nice week

History SHOULD teach us nothing

Europe has been one of the main actor of the last 1500 years of history. Within Europe, Italy played an important role throughout the different times starting from the Roman empire, going through the Venetian republic and the importance of Florence in the Renaissance.
That's history and this is what has heavily shaped our italian (and European) culture up to today.

Facts are that Italy has the highest number of UNESCO sites included my beloved Dolomites (and I'd better not start talking about the wasted potential of this as only 4% of our GDP comes from tourism) and some of the laws, rules and habits are a direct consequence of what our beloved Roman ancestors discussed a couple of thousand years ago.

Everything has been already seen and tried and checked... as the great Shirley Bassey said, HISTORY REPEATING.

We have 2000 years of history!!!

And we know why things cannot work.
We know everything that has been already tried and why this is not going to generate what we expect. Therefore we need to find something new, something new out of very little choices since everything has been already tried.
This is what I call the "WHY NOT" syndrome. It is a very European type of syndrome as we come from a very "conservative" colture.
It is spreading everywhere and it's mainly appearing when salesmen are doing their presentations. Things changes though. Sometimes people that do not have experience have an advantage. They are free to do things without prejudice and preconceived ideas.

A salesman must be a visionary, someone with hope and dreams. Someone that is trying to break the current status quo trying to find something different.

Different countries
Different customers
Different solutions
Different products

And the hope, the dream and the optimistic approach are the main driver to make them spending hours in a plane or in a car, away from their families and their hobbies.

There are little things that can destroy this. It is like putting some sand into the gears. Little things that are making the whole system break down.
And the "WHY NOT" people are the worst enemies. People that already know that "it'll not work because..."

It's always easy to say that things will not work without saying HOW TO DO TO MAKE THEM WORK.

This is the basic driver for a salesman (and not only for a salesman). We must think it will work.

If we do our best to convince people that they can't succeed we will easily make it happen. With a bad result for the company.

Things changes and things have changes. Do not worry to try again and to risk. Don't take history as unique driver for your choice.

Challenge the "WHY NOT PEOPLE" proving that YOU CAN DO THINGS.
Being in the winter olympic period, follow this

Take your shot. And score.

Have a nice week end

For your eyes ONLY!!!

It is scientific. Men and women are different.

I really did not need scientists to tell me that.
Whichever man is capable to see the small drop of water in the sink that is making your wife mad... please raise your hand.
I think it's a phisical difference in our eyes. Colours and small details are simply seen in different ways.
Look at that example...

Even though I know that, during the Christmas holidays I volunteered helping my "better half" cleaning our flat. In a nanosecond I had a vacuum cleaner in my right hand and a sponge in my left one.
And I promise, I did my best, THREE TIMES.

And the result was...

She had to redo everything simply because the result was not what she thought was the minimum acceptable...
Well, let us say that her minimum acceptable is like the Pope is coming for dinner that very day (not an unrealistic option with our beloved Pope!).
So what happened?

- She was upset (to say the least)
- We lost time
- I have a good excuse not to do it again (that is a strategy too)
- I have a new topic to discuss in my Blog. DELEGATION

In my continuous journey to the "recherche du temps perdu" or better searching for the wasted time rather than lost, this is one of the main topics.
And it is an ART.
Delegate means to have everybody doing what they should do so you can do what you are supposed to do.

I know, everybody would like to delegate BUT...

-it takes more time to explain than to do it yourself
-nobody can do it properly
-the others don't have time either

So we keep on doing things and complaining that we do not have time (and maybe the others work much less than what we do).

In reality I think that there are three main reasons why we tend not to delegate:

1) we do not have clear which are the activities we must do.
What happens if I give away some of my work and I realize I have nothing better to do? The key point is that people must free their time to do what they are good at and what is strategic for the company (or simply what they are paid for)

2) we think that by keeping the knowledge away from the others you will become "irreplaceable".
Sorry to say, guys, BUT normally we can be replaced by someone else. And if your company grows on someone that cannot be replaced you'd better find another company before this "genius" finds one. Maybe it's better to keep your job reaching the results thanks to your extremely professional team.

3) we cannot set a "minimum acceptable" performance for the other's job.
Clearly we must understand that the others WILL NOT DO THE JOB LIKE YOU. It does not mean they will not reach the target but the WAY in which they will reach the target will be different. And we must accept this once we set a "good minimum result".

If you really want the skills of your team to improve, to develop new leaders within the group and to have everybody feeling they are INTO THE GROUP then start delegating.

- Identify who can do the job and tell him why
- Show examples of previous jobs
- Be sure people understand the objectives and the deadlines
- Give everybody the tools to succeed (this is what we want!!!)
- Let people work (and make mistakes) and support ONLY if required

and at the end... CELEBRATE!

Hard task... probably another target we should reach in 2014.

From my side, I promise I will improve on house cleaning... I am not sure I will be able to see the small drop into the sink but I will do my best. It is scientific... men have different eyes.
Otherwise I will start with ballet dancing...

Still have some hope with some practice

Have a nice week end!

Things to do in 2014

Wishlists and rankings.

I really do not like them and this time of the year, everybody is making their own "special recipe" with things to do to become a great man, a leader, to earn more money or simply to lose some weight.
I have seen a list of 26 (twentysix!!!) points required to be a better leader.
Probably the point number one should be "NEVER write a list of points to become a better leader".

But apparently to be a great Blogger you need to put down a list. And here I am.
In this Blog I want to list the things I would like to do to improve myself and, in all modesty, that I think everybody should try and implement.
Simple, clear and straight forward points.

Let us then decide how many of them though.
I think that 3 is the perfect number. Enough to remember all of them and to give most of the information. Also when doing my presentations I tend  not to list more than 3 things in one slide or to give three reasons why something works better than something else.
Trying to limit the number of items obliges you to think about what is really important.
It is clear that "give more time to your family" or "try to have an hobby" are good points to improve life quality. But everybody knows that and everybody tries to do this. So I took these things out of my list.
I managed to bring the list down to 4 points. This is the bare minimum.

4 things to do in 2014 to be a little happier.

1) Always follow what you think is right.

It looks something normal but it's not.
We must first understand WHAT we believe and what we think it's right. We need to understand WHO we are and WHY we are doing what we are doing. We need to leard how to communicate it and then stick to that.
If you want to behave differently you will not show your abilities and your best parts. You will be simply an actor playing a different role from what you really are.
Always remember: “If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way.”  

2) Mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body).

We need to keep our body fit. Not only doing some sport but eating properly. I was once told: "would you put gravel instead of fuel in your car? Well, by eating what we're eating today we are doing this with our body".
I sincerely think that we are overestimating our "healing capabilities" by not caring about ourselves at all. Until it's too late.
Then, once we are taking good care of our body let us focus on our mind. Read, listen and learn. Find one new thing to learn: a Language, a sport, a game, whatever, and do it.
Keep your "mind gears" well lubricated.

3) Semel in anno licet insanire (once in a year one is allowed to go crazy)

Do something crazy. One thing that you want to do and that you always postpone.
Do one of the things that you want to do before you die.

4) Celebrate the achievements

We are always setting our targets higher and higher and working hard to reach them. It is always a difficult road, paved with problems, hurdles and difficulties. But when you are able to win, when you are capable to go there you must celebrate. Have your celebrating time will allow you to be rewarded and restart full and motivated.


Here it is then. My first list and, in all fairness, I quite liked doing it.

Some of these points are included in this manifesto.
This is my present for a great and happy 2014.
See you soon

 

Tell me WHY

It's still a tough time. Though people start being optimistic and there is apparently some positive trend.
It is now time to push the throttle and continue promoting your strategy and ideas.

My recent posts always put the accent on the NEED of having a strategy and to continuously pursue it but are we sure that we know what a strategy is?

I have started having this doubt after a read a post of an ex colleague that was referring to a book written by Simon Sinek "Start with WHY".
Frankly speaking I didn't have a clue about who is Simon Sinek and then I read his BIO. You can find it clicking HERE.
Well, interesting guy and with good ideas and capable to communicate quite well.

Something to learn here!
Being curious, I immediately checked a TED Talk that he made and that you can find here

I can summarize this video in three titles:

1) What you do and how you do it is important but make you no different from the others
2) Marketing message is crucial... we must tell WHY you do things and find "linke minded people" to spread this message and "like minded customers" to buy your strategy
3) There is, according the "law of diffusion of innovation", a tipping point that will make your strategy going from "shared among friends" to "shared everywhere" (or almost).

So... does it mean that willing to have a great product and being the "best one" in the business IS NOT A STRATEGY? Is "WE WANT TO DO" not a strategy?

Well that's tough point to understand. That's a tough point to understand on a "me too" society, where going to a supermarket you can find 100 different types of shampoo.

But it is true. You can be in the business, even survive or grow in the business telling people how good you are in manufactoring products, the products as usual, and how good are your products but you will never be the leader.

It is not that simple though to BELIEVE in something.

Most of all

to clearly TELL PEOPLE what you believe
to PROVE PEOPLE what you believe is right
to PRODUCE THE TOOLS  (or products) that will BE ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
to TELL EVERYBODY that you have already "early adopters" that used it and it was good

need a team that is fully involved and that must be a "like minded team".
If this is not the case the message will always be diluted and without a clear and precise  message you cannot reach the tipping point. This famous 15% that will have your "early majority" users (1/3 of the market) start using your solution and paying back your investment.
People don't buy what you do but WHY you do it.
Products, technology, target markets are just ways to reach the strategy.

Ideas
People
Communication
Products

Ingredients are always the same
Recipe is different
Results will the different

Have a nice week end

Sorry... NO!!!

Everytime we are getting close to Holidays, things are always going crazy.

On the last weeks of the year it's time to make some reality checks and I hope to try and fix the last things.

In the "time management secrets", having a clear idea of:

1) where you want to go
2) when you want to arrive
3) how to go there
4) where we should check the developments
5) which are the results you expect

is crucial to define the priorities and therefore to identify WHAT is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to do and WHEN.

Writing down, better, handwriting down your targets is generally the best thing to do.

Handwrite is something that has been forgotten but implies some activities that allow your mind to properly concentrate.

All the preparation phase, taking pencil and paper and starting from the white paper obliges you to make an effort to imagine the complete picture.

When you start writing down, you must create the story, follow the Whole process and finally read it again.

And then... you can judge if your plan is ok based on...

 

 

And then, once you have a GOOD, HANDWRITTEN, SIMPLE AND WELL DESCRIBED PLAN what will happen?

Now another point comes out. It's like in the videogames.
When you destroy a monster, the next one is always more difficult.

Impelementation is now the point.
And implementation needs:

1) TIME
2) FOCUS
3) RESILIENCE

I think, or better, I HOPE that your working life is like mine.
I start the day knowing what I should do and then routine things happen. The famous activities URGENT NOT STRATEGIC.
You can infact divide the activities in

-URGENT STRATEGIC
-URGENT NOT STRATEGIC
-NON URGENT NON STRATEGIC
-NON URGENT BUT STRATEGIC

Having said that everybody should run away from the activities non urgent non strategic and focus on the strategic ones, the urgency always wins.

And also the human nature goes that direction as the "sense of satisfaction" that you have when you solve an urgent problem is one of the things that make yourself feeling happy.

But is this what you SHOULD do?
Maybe not
But this is what everybody ask you to do... quickly please.
Now we enter into "delegation" discussions that are probably too long to be dealt here.
The real point here is that we must start saying NO.

There are even discussions on how to make it. THIS IS one of them.

This is also another link http://lifehacker.com/a-scientific-guide-to-saying-no where it is explained how and why.

This is a difficult task. Not a question to be impolite. Just a question to TIMELY AND EFFECTIVLY reach your targets.

Have a nice week end with the SANTAKLAUS running in Pedavena. Warm up!

 

As time goes by

Saturday morning is MY morning.
I am using it to try and do things I like among which there's also writing on my Blog.

I had a chat this morning with a friend. We were complaining about the fact that in the three months we will be travelling a lot and we will not have time to do our things. To try and get a life.

Try to be happy.

This is the point. And trying to be happy, for you and also for people that are with you, is quite difficult.
And this is not a question of being selfish. Being happy is not equal to selfish and the things that really count for you will only benefit of this.
To be happy though, you must have time to dedicate to things you like. To yourself, to your family to your passions.

You will never make ANYBODY HAPPY if your not happy yourself. And the point is to try and fix things that are going against this.

But the time is always the constraint.

I am a strong supporter of priorities and choices. Probably this is a direct consequence of my technical and engineering background. Quite schematic.

But not being able to decide the priorities, and consequently what must be done first and what after, will take you away from your target.
Stop being driven by the events. Put yourself in the driver seat.

This is a big change for most of us.
Being in the driver seat is a difficult target though.
You must decide what to do and what NOT to do. You must learn to say NO.
You must take the responsibility to that and to make somebody upset.

But what's the other choice?
Well... The other choice is that YOU WILL BE UPSET.

Time management is therefore a sort of initial step to try and be happier.

Choose what to do and what to be.

Set your Targets. Work to get them... and GO THERE.

DO IT

I like a lot this manifesto

This does not refer to Work only. This refer to everything.
The base is always the same though.

DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO BE

Enjoy your week end
 

Too many choices... no choice

VERONA, one of the most beautiful cities of the world.
Besides the Arena, the Juliet balcony and all the "touristic attractions" what I like of Verona is the atmosphere. A mix of new and old, roman theater with Venetian style squares with "high Street" style shops.
And, clearly, the shopping part is one of the main attraction for "my better half"... my wife.

We were there with some friends and we decided to go and look for a restaurant.
I took out my mobile and started surfing and checking on Trip Advisor. Despite some recent facts that ruined the reputation of Trip Advisor, I usually choose the restaurant and hotels after a quick check there.
So... around Piazza delle Erbe...

this wonderful place where to have a drink, there are tens of restaurants and pizzerias. We looked at them, checked them and discussed whether that was a good one and at the end we ended up going to the usual one, the "Trattoria alla Colonna" that is known for its cotoletta.

This made me think about the incredible choice we have today in all the aspect of your life.

It is something that is creating expectations and a continuous sense of "not being satisfied" because the other choice was probably better.

But also there's a waste of time. What shall I buy? What shall I choose? Is it the right choice?
And this aspect is delaying the decision.

There is a great video of Barry Schwartz about this point that is explaning this effect quite well.

Clearly I am not as good as Barry Schwartz but I do basically agree on what he says. On every point he's raised. Even the Blue Jeans even though, I must say, my style is slightly different from his.

What I am currently experiencing is the same effect also on my work.

For a salesman having too many choices leads to not being able to focus on anything and always to try and find someone that had got something more.
People are not satisfied and stressed because they have too many things to sell and they're never enough.

-No specialization
-No knowledge
-No expertise

But also this is a bad sign of the current strategy of the companies.

Everybody is offering the same thing with some small little variations. Some details. Everybody swimming in the same red sea. Everybody eating each other and fighting on... price.

The  book "Blue ocean strategy" is a good manual to find how to get out of this deadly loop.

This is also part of the strategy. Product strategy, management strategy, development strategy.

Few things. Be different. Be happy.

 

Back to the roots

Pasta al pomodoro

Yes, Pasta al pomodoro is the food I mostly miss when I am abroad.

And the recipe is quite simple. I still remember my grandma preparing it.

A little bit of onion, one carrot and celery.

Then olive oil, tomatoes and basil.

You chop a slice of onion, the carrot and the celery together and you put it in the olive oil that is already warm. Few minutes with fire veeeeery low until the onion is light brown and then you put the canned tomatoes and you wait.

You see it starting bubbling, always at low fire stirring every now and then for some time until the oil starts been on the surface and the sauce is thick enough to be able to stay attached to the pasta.

Then the magic touch... Basil...

And that was starting at 8.00am and when I was child I had my milk and cereals with the pomodoro sauce bubbling in the background.

But that's Italy and I have a golden rule. NEVER expect finding something similar to Italy when you are abroad. And this is valid mostly for food. Not that the local foods are bad but the Italian food outside Italy is simply not the right one.

And once, a colleague of mine tried what I had told him to avoid. He tried to order a pasta al pomodoro during a business trip. I will not tell you what he received te comments that followed. But that was obvious. This was not their recipe. Not their cup of tea.

This allowed me to taste some delicious plates. Tajin in Morocco, Dahl in India even a well prepared Huggies in Scotland!

These were simply perfect. The right food in the right place.

Although the recipe is quite simple infact, to prepare the right Pomodoro sauce you need the right ingredients someone that has taught you how to put it together and experience.

This exemple came in my mind this week, during a meeting.

I had a meeting with my salesforce discussing about some opportunities they had.

One of the remarks I got from a lot of them was that we were missing some types of units because in one job they could not quote with what we had.

Always looking for what is missing and not arriving to the top of what is available. Being the best in a specific area is today crucial, more crucial that having everything and being one of the many swimming in a red ocean.

Most of the companies, expecially italian companies, must work as a corner store.
With their resources, that are limited, they must focus on one thing doing it very well.

And in today's world this is part of the strategy.

Clear cut choices. Unless you are a big name like NIKE, APPLE, SAMSUNG (but sometimes even if you are such a big name) you cannot be everything for everybody.

Simply identify where you can be the best, what you must have in term of tools and the IMPLEMENT everything.

IDEAS, TOOLS, PEOPLE

TOMATOES, A PAN AND MY GRANDMOTHER

Buon appetito

Who is gonna save the world?

During last years the "disaster theory" has been growing bigger and bigger.
We are threatening the world and we must behave properly in order to avoid the worst.

"Sustainability", "Environment friendly" all these words have been bubbling in all the normal things that we are using and buying every day.

What has happened then? Well, not very much.
We have simply done the USUAL THINGS a little better.
Is it the right way?

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got"

This quote is clearly not mine. Actually I do not know who said this and even Internet is quite confused on this.
However explains quite well the point. By doing always the same things, even a little better, we will NOT be able to take a great step forward. A step forward as great as we would need.

So what... you would say.

The secret is SPECIALIZATION. That's the key word.

Quite a strange word though.

To try and explain what I mean I usually think about this picture that was an old (time's running fast) ad by Pirelli.

Carl Lewis is wearing a great pair of shoes! They are surely shoes but are they the BEST ONES for what he's supposed to do?
Are we in the position to use equipments, whichever equipment we are talking about, that are the same EVERYWHERE in the world and for EVERY USE?

The answer is...
NO!
And even though it is clear that we cannot multiply all equipments taking into consideration all the uses and users, we must try to optimize them.

In a word, we must change something.

Recently, a Crowdspeaking program called Phoneblocks was launched.

 

 

This is a great idea, that has also been linked to environmental issues (I am not so convinced that there is a real envioronmental reason for that).

But the key point is, let us have a device that is doing exactly what I need and I like.
A phone that is SPECIALIZED in doing what I need and that I like.

In my working life I am dealing with hundreds of salesmen, engineers, of consultants and users that understand that what they are currently doing is not the best solution.

They are understanding the different solutions that I am giving them but then, when we are trying to see if this can be used according to the "normal" rules, we are not able to find a way to fit them. And then, going the "usual way" is the simplest, quickest and safest way.

After several years I spent trying to be a "missionary" and proposing something different to:

1) save a lot of money
2) save a lot of energy

I finally found the answer to the question "Who is gonna save the world".

Who dares to change the "usual way" to do things.

Difficult, time consuming, dangerous but incredibly effective.