PGreenblog

Life's Philosophy; Science's Purpose

Much as I like to think and act exuberantly in the celebration of the abundance of life, I have days where I recognize that I’m 64 years old. Some of those days, I embrace the fact.   Some of those days I just feel it.

When I embrace the fact, I also embrace one of the things that the older among us can claim, that our younger brethren can’t yet.  I can contemplate not just the present and my plans for the future, though I do that always, but also the legacy that I’d like to provide as I leave my footprints embedded in time.

In the course of mulling this over a few weeks ago, in the midst of recovering from vocal cord surgery, I began to think about something that often comes up from my storehouse of memories – the work I did many years ago on 13^th century science and culture and in particular, a medieval friar of the Franciscan Order, Roger Bacon, someone, who when I was writing my varying tomes on the period and the man and on science in general, I began to believe and still do, might have been one of the greatest scientists in the history of our species. 

My purpose in writing about this is not to debate with you whether or not he was or is great – or, honestly, even to care what you think about that – or for you to care what I think about it. That is both a debate beyond the scope of this post and beyond any contemporary research anyone reading this (or writing this) is likely to have done. Its also one that regardless of outcome, won’t move the chain in human thinking one iota.  So please treat what I’m going to be saying about Roger Bacon and his role instead as a both data point and a metaphor for what I’m want to actually talk about.

Continuing on….

All this mulling led me to what I wrote years ago to understand my present behavior.  It gave me a little more insight into the legacy that I am trying to leave. But it reminded me of something else too. Something that perhaps we often forget in the course of our very lucky lives as people who have a shot at helping to transform the world we live in.

Here’s what that is:

The very hallmark of continued human social existence has been that each of us as a human, has an infinite capacity to create something that in some way, incrementally and on occasion profoundly impacts the continued existence of society and the human species.  It’s happened frequently enough throughout history, with the right combinations of people and resources, to so far, ensure, at least for now, the continued existence and even flourishing of humanity and the cultures and society associated with it, with all their problems, glitches, denial of opportunities, errors of judgment and action, and even criminality. Despite the bad, we survive as a species and grow.  Because the good always outweighs the bad, and over time, even if it doesn’t seem so, overcomes the bad. That tells you something – human beings, as a rule, are good, not evil, despite the cynics who would have you think otherwise. Complaining doesn’t solve problems – finding solutions to the problems solve them.

So, in the following paragraphs, please bear with me and take to heart if you can, what Bacon and (if I’m not being too presumptuous) I are saying about invention, the human spirit, the art of science and the abilities of each and every one of us as a human being to transcend and master the course of our own existence in a practical way, not just via some flight of fancy. Please keep in mind, as you read this post, Bacon’s speech is couched in religious terms (e.g. God the Creator etc.) as well they should be since he was a Franciscan friar in the 13^th century. But the content and the principles should be taken in a secular light. My voice, on the other hand, is not religious at all.

Here we go.

The 13^th Century – Cultural Optimism Drives the….Horse

Throughout his entire adult life at the core of his very being, Roger Bacon (1214-1292) believed that human beings had the ability to not only master the laws of nature but to even change them through invention and creation. His approach though wasn’t something carved from fantasy but was rooted in a rational science that was both derived from universal principles and supported via experimentation. In fact, he’s often called the Father of Experimental Science (a lot more important than the Godfather of CRM. J). This idea, completely radical for the 13^th century, was something that is now self-evident to us – the verification of hypotheses through observation, experience, methodological rigor and discovery.  You might think “bad start, Paul, what’s the big deal about that?” For the 21^st century, thanks to Bacon and his successors, it isn’t a big deal. It’s what especially contemporary scientists do. But in the 13^th century, this was revolutionary and would, if it gained popular credence, overturn the bulk of so-called scientific approaches at the time. Science at the time was based more on argument and natural philosophy, rather than a rigorous approach that used the actual practical testing of hypothesis to verify or deny the hypothesis.  To super-simplify (again, this post isn’t meant to be a highly detailed post on areas that I’m not an expert in; but I do know something of the era) the accepted approach to science when the 13^th century began, it was debating and arguing the hypothesis and the more “rational” argument won.  Experimental science changed that.

What made this so exciting was the 13^th century was a century that civilization began to advance with these kinds of ideas in mind for the first time at scale.  They were premised on a broad cultural optimism, which when articulated, said that each and every one of us was capable of what was called special revelation – a creative spark that could generate a new idea that could impact the course of things up to and including all civilization. Though God may have gifted us with that creative spark, the idea that was generated was generated via an individual human being’s thinking process. The advocates of experimental science were effectively saying, “Okay, we think that this idea has some merit. Let’s take it, test it and see if it works and if the results have applicable value.” This concept germinated in a Europe that was undergoing what might have been a renaissance before the Renaissance we know in the 15^th century.  The flowering of the arts and the sciences and desire to discover were given scale and, equally as good, funding, in places like the courts of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, who was the Holy Roman Emperor and his cousin, Alfonso X, also known as Alfonso El Sabio (the Wise) of Castile. These leaders weren’t just conquerors and heads of state; they were patrons who funded scientists, engineers, artists, philosophers and others who were generating new ways of looking at the world and who created new tools and products that would make the world more productive.  For example, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen was the sponsor at his court of Salerno, the leading medical school of the 13^th century.  Alfonso X, not only sponsored original experimentation and research, but also was a hands-on researcher himself.  His Libros de saber de Astronomia, which were astronomical tables that he and a research team he led compiled, were the industry-standard until Tycho Brae revised them in the 16^th century.  In conjunction with this research, scientists and engineers at his court invented a mechanical clock to measure time with more precision.

But the inventions weren’t just for a small group in a royal court. There were practical technologies that were created and applied to the larger world – and, were, in context of their era, far more important to the continuation and evolution of the species that the things that we tend to call “disruptive” or “innovative” today. (On a whole other subject, we throw around the terms “disruptive” and “innovative” far too much for things that are neither) For example, during that time, the leather yoke, far more flexible than the yokes of the past were used to drive horses, rather than the oxen used in the past to do agricultural work.  The results were spectacular.  Man, doing the agricultural work produced 45 foot-pounds of work per second.  Oxen with the rigid yoke produced 288 foot-pounds per second; the horse with the flexible leather yoke produced 432 foot-pounds per second and could work 2 hours longer than an ox – an work efficiency increase of 65% in the fields. 

The other agricultural breakthrough of the period was the widespread adoption of three-field crop rotation, a significant change from the centuries old two-field crop rotation. I won’t go into what this is in the interests of space but if you are interested, check the short and sweet explanation given here. Suffice to say, it protected and even replenished nutrients in the soil rather than just drained them.

A third breakthrough, which added to this agricultural boom, was the introduction of hydraulic power via the waterwheel (which also had huge industrial impact, too). For example, in Flanders, sandy marshland became fertile cropland as hundreds of waterwheels irrigated thousands of acres. 

The combination of these three breakthroughs, when applied to agriculture, led to grain yields increasing from an 11^th century high of 2.5 measures per measure sown to 4.0 measures per measure sown, which amounts to 100% increase in disposable foodstuffs.  Talk about disruptive!  Many more human beings got to eat more healthily thanks to this technological revolution.   I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but compare that to what I’ve heard called “disruptive” over the last few years. Uber.  Better taxis?  Groupon. Delivering discount coupons?  Not disruptive. Sorry.

But it wasn’t just the breakthroughs themselves that characterized this era. The 13^th century was also a period of self-revelation, when the human species began to realize that it was special.  It had the power to transform nature, not just react to it, as most animals do.  It also celebrated that special capability.

Let me explain it another way.

I would imagine that many of us, given our somewhat privileged existences and the commoditization of international transportation, have been to Europe and seen in one place or another gothic cathedrals – and if you have any sense of wonder whatever, have been in awe at the size, complexity and sheer magnificence of the creations.  Many of these, the first groups of them, were built in the 13^th century by cathedral builders who were often called master masons or architect engineers, with the express purpose of celebrating God and Creation.  But one thing that may not be as obvious is that in almost all of these timeless magnificent buildings, if you look at them closely, man is placed at the apex of creation.  Man is central to the creation of the building and to the celebration of God and capital C Creation. For example, the interior of the Cathedral at Reims was a maze that represented a holy pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  When a visitor to the cathedral solves the maze, they arrive at the center of the cathedral.  What that visitor finds at the center of these homages to God and Creation are not the names of any disciples, nor Jesus or Mary, but the names of the master masons that built the cathedral. These architect-engineers saw themselves as central to the creation of this New Jerusalem, this new and refreshed world of invention, celebration and abundance.  God, in this central area is portrayed on stained glass windows as an architect engineer with a compass in his hands. 

This spirit of creation and invention was infectious among at least a small group of people who had a significant impact on the health and well-being of the world that they lived in.  Witness my man Roger Bacon’s inventive mind – and keep in mind this is the 13^th century. This is a famous passage of his foresight that comes from his work Opus Tertium.

“Machines of navigation can be constructed without rowers, as great ships for river or ocean which are borne under the guidance of one man at a greater speed than if they were full of men. Also a chariot that can be constructed that will move at incalculable speed without any draught animals…also flying machines may be constructed so that man may sit in the midst of the machine turning a certain instrument by means of which wings artificially constructed would beat the air after the manner of a bird flying. Also a machine of small size may be made for raising and lowering weights of almost infinite amounts – a machine of the utmost utility. 

Machines may be also made for going in sea or river down to the bed without bodily danger…and there are countless other things that can be constructed such as bridges over rivers without pillars or any such support.”

What’s utterly fascinating is, in his “Letter Concerning the Marvelous Power of Art and Nature and the Nullity of Magic” Bacon claims to have seen all of them, except the flying machine, which of course shows up 300 years later in Da Vinci’s Notebooks.  Is that the case? I don’t know and I doubt anyone ever will. But what makes this incredible regardless is that even if he didn’t see them as a realized work, each of these imagined (or real) inventions has a practical purpose aimed at the betterment of the lot of humans on the planet at that time and in the future. In other words, he was applying a scientific method to providing invention that was practical i.e. of real applicable value to the advance of society.  Utility in the service of knowledge is essential.  There has to be some actual purpose to the creation of knowledge and for its verification. It isn’t created for its own sake. 

But you might argue, what about brand new fresh ideas? Aren’t they sometimes valuable and yet, unique and new so their application isn’t so apparent?

The answer to this is well put indirectly, by the poet, Charles Simic, in a recent New York Review of Books article entitled “The Prisoner of History”

“I live between two worlds, the one I see with my eyes open and the one I see with my eyes closed. Unlike other people, I regard the two as equals and trust my eyes as much as I trust my imagination.”

In other words, of course we have to continually try to imagine the new but it has to be in context – the context of the world as it is and as we imagine it to be with the realization of those new ideas. The key is “realization” – the practical application of verified ideas to solving a problem or advancing something in the real world.

This could easily characterize Roger Bacon, or any of the visionary thinkers of the 13^th century. Or any of us, regardless of era, who want to make what we imagine we can do, real, rather than just continue to imagine it. This is vision and imagination applied to real world problems and needs.

All of this – agricultural advances, cathedral building, Roger Bacon’s vision, reflected a broad cultural optimism. This optimism, a transformation of thinking about the place of humanity and individuals in the grandest scheme of all – the evolution of life, and the universe, drove a 13^th century technological revolution that increased the capacity of the human species to grow more safely and to utilize its gift more actively in a way that was unmatched until the Renaissance.

Roger Bacon’s contribution to this was the creation and initial application of scientific method to the evolution of science.

Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon, labored through life as an almost heretical Franciscan friar, persecuted by his own order, and died in 1292 at age 78, despite being imprisoned for a while by his own order. I’m not going to go into the politics of that or the life of Bacon per se, but instead focus on what he said and saw. Because what he did, reflects what each of us as an individual has the capability to do in his or her life. Personally, it affects how at least I’m thinking about what I might leave behind, even as I continue to concern myself, as most of us do, with my present and future.  I think it’s important because I also think we underestimate exactly who we are and what we are capable of because we get caught up in the minutiae of our everyday existence. We often forget not just the nobility of our own capacity but the actual tools and practices that are there to effect those proficiencies and possibilities. 

We are armed with:

• The knowledge of what the human species is
• Who we are as individuals
• The existence of a philosophical framework that gives us some context to work within,
• The ability to reason and
• Tools and practices,

Having all this makes us responsible at some point in our life to choose a way to use all of this amazing potential and engage with the world to realize that potential and benefit more than just ourselves.  We are each at different levels in our journey to figure this out and each at different degrees of commitment to actually trying to benefit others, rather than just intend to. 

I’ve reached the age where at least for me, I know what I want to do and how I want to do it and am beginning to consider what kind of memory it will leave when my time on earth ends.  It’s a bit frightening to be honest, because I don’t want to consider it, but considering it I am.

In that consideration, Roger Bacon has been a paradigm for me, because of how he thinks about knowledge, science and execution. 

I’ll explain.

The first principle of knowledge in the mind of Bacon was virtue.  That, translated into 21^st century lingo is that we have to be good human beings. Bacon understood that there is a clarity that goodness provides that allows one to understand truths – not necessarily or only big universal truths but scientific truths. A good person, because their intent is good, is prone to knowledge, because they are emotionally connected to doing good things.   His way of putting it:

“For it is not possible that the soul should rest in the light of truth, while it is stained with sins…Virtue therefore clarifies the mind so that man may comprehend more easily not only moral but scientific truths.” (From his 1268 Opus Majus).

But it goes further than that. None of us, and, I fervently believe this, are devoid of the potential for creativity.  We all have an infinite capacity to create and for applying that creativity in beneficial ways, what Bacon calls “special revelation” or what the incredibly underrated philosopher Philo Judaeus calls “a miniature heaven” in his “On Creation of the Cosmos According to Moses.”

In Bacon’s Opus Tertium:

“...Therefore, this way, which precedes special revelation is the wisdom of philosophy and this wisdom alone is in the power of man, yet supplemented by some divine enlightenment which in this part is common to all, because God is the intelligence active in all our souls in all cognition.”

Bacon is saying what I said – each of us has that divine spark, the potential to create but it also is a potential that has to be realized by the individual. God will not do it for you.  God grants you the capability and the broad opportunity to act on it.  You are responsible to realize your potential and then put it into action in a way that is beneficial. Again, Opus Tertium:

As God wishes all men to be saved and no man to perish and his goodness is infinite, He always leaves some way possible for man through which he may be urged to seek his own salvation…For this reason, the goodness of God ordained that revelation should be given the world so that the human race may be saved. But this way, which precedes revelation, is given to man so that if he does not wish to follow it, nor seek a fuller truth, he may be justly damned at the end.

Putting it simply, it would be a horrible waste of each of our lives if we don’t apply this gift in a way that benefits each of and all of us.

I know that this may be arcane for some of you (though, those that it is arcane for probably have stopped reading), waxing too philosophical for others, and maybe you think this is self-indulgent, which, admittedly, it might be.  But, aside for what I’m wrestling with as I enter the last third or, with a LOT of luck (and working out and eating right) 40% of my life, what Roger Bacon established in the 13^th century via his philosophical framework and the creation of experimental science and what the application of practical science led to with the technological breakthroughs and conjoined cultural optimism of the era, is one of the reasons we are able to continue to claim innovation and disruption and technological breakthrough and scientific achievement in the 21^st century.

So with that in mind, I’m going to go through one more thing (there is SO much more that I’m leaving out) about Roger Bacon concerning experimental science and then close this out with some of why this impacts me so, so much and how it has impacted what we all do, so that we can see things in perspective – or in the context of the biggest picture of all – the continuation of the human species for the sake of its own growth.

Roger Bacon and the Integritas Sapientiae

Roger Bacon’s approach to experimental science was driven by a framework and a methodology grounded in a deeply rooted philosophy that was verifiable through research and testing – or disproven as such.

In Bacon’s case the philosophy was defined by the concept of God as the Creator of all things in an orderly fashion. What that implied was that all things were related in some way via the laws that governed them. That meant that while God created the heavens, earth, man and woman, the trees and the fruit that grew on them – all of which were different in visible ways and fashioned for different reasons, they were related to each by the universal laws of creation and the Creator and governed by those same laws.

To Bacon, this translated to eight clearly definable branches of science; the laws of each of them were discoverable with a single, universal method.  The sciences (for those of you interested) were:

1. Common principles of natural sciences and philosophy
2. Optics
3. Astronomy
4. Barology (science of weight and its relation to gravity)
5. Alchemy (actually chemistry not magic)
6. Agriculture
7. Medicine
8. Experimental science 

Bacon called these sciences the integrated sciences.  Each of the eight had a unique position in the pantheon of science but at the same time all eight played a central role in the body of principle and practice that gave the human species hegemony over nature – the ability to alter it to their benefit. 

What in the name of … do I mean by this? (Hey, don’t shoot the messenger).  For example, to understand agriculture, you had to know botany, soil testing, animal husbandry and horticulture. Your knowledge as an agricultural scientist had to span the interactions between climate, vegetation and animal populations. This allowed you to figure out how to improve the conditions that would benefit organic life.  Think about the example earlier of the leather yoke, horses, waterwheels, and three-crop rotation that disrupted all previous models for growing food and improved the lives of people everywhere by providing more food.  This was a systematic, practical, applicable science.

Science had a timely prudence too. For example, he was a strong advocate of military research because of the imminent threat of the Mongol Empire and Genghis Khan who he saw as the Anti-Christ.  By 1241, they had reached the Danube in Europe, so researching war weapons became paramount.  Based on both the Opus Majus and another of his works, De Secretus Operibus, there is evidence that he invented gunpowder (according to arguments made by several scholars).  He didn’t envision it as needed for bombs or bullets per se, but he did see it as something that would defeat the Anti-Christ, Genghis Khan.

This great achievement, the beginnings of a rigorous method for experimental science, was first proposed in both his greatest work, Opus Majus (translates to Great or Big Work, ironically), and in his less well known, Communia Naturalium. While its true value wasn’t realized until the 17^th century really, its seeds were planted in the 13^th century’s cultural optimism.

There is so much more to Bacon’s experiments. There is some evidence that he invented a telescope and a compound microscope hundreds of years before the accepted dates of their invention. He did what can be seen as seminal work in optics and in light and radiation. I could go on. But, to close this out, I want to focus on something I think even more important – his passion for finding the truth – in things, in laws, in natural law, in the universe and in life – and the lessons that I’ve learned at least in the search that he has helped guide me on for my life.

Roger Bacon, on truth and humility.

Bacon understood that truth wasn’t only the property of the renowned – all humans were possessors of truth and thus deserved the respect of their peers.  Without that humility, not only weren’t you acting as a human being according to what God provided to you, but you also were denying yourself the opportunity for learning some of the truths that are being made available to you.  Look at these passages in Opus Majus:

• “The wiser men are, the more humbly will they submit to learn from others; they do not disdain the simplicity of those who teach them.”

• “Just as man’s conduct towards God is regulated by the reverence required, so is his conduct toward his neighbor regulated by justice and peace and his duty to himself by integrity of life.”

• “It comes to pass that he who ceases to be a man by the loss of his goodness is turned into a beast.”

Lessons Learned

So, what does all this rambling on about Roger Bacon mean – at least to me?  Let’s bring it in.

Since I found out about Roger Bacon and was drawn to him, he has been a guidepost for my life – a hero that framed much of what I’ve done with my life.  He’s given me guidance in how be what I hope is a good person, a practical foresighted thinker, and someone who will accomplish something of value on the planet to be remembered by.

Guideposts

1. The universe is governed by a natural law that affects all things regardless of apparent differences. 
2. It is the continuous discovery of that universal natural law and how it works that drives and sustains the human species, whether or not its conscious goal.
3. Each human being on this planet, each of us, regardless of life’s station, has been granted an infinite capacity to create and is a possessor of truths that each of us can learn from.  Titles and position don’t matter.
4. With that creative capacity, comes to the responsibility to actively seek to use it in a practical way to benefit others – either the species as a whole or groups or individuals. We are granted the gift; doing something with it is up to us.
5. We each are able to gain more and greater knowledge if our purpose for gaining it is good (virtuous).  That means that we are best served as people if we are driven to do good for more than ourselves.
6. There is a rigorous method of going about applying that creative gift – proving what you think, regardless of where you apply it. Bacon’s desire to prove what he supposed and the method he developed, can appropriated by how we produce content, develop technology, and do anything else with our lives. For example, when I write, I am always able to defend what I say.  I’ve counseled those of my younger brethren who tend to be strong-willed and opinionated that they can write whatever they want, but they need to be prepared to defend whatever they say, which, to be blunt, many times they can’t. You have to be able to show that what you say is defensible by its truths.  If it isn’t or you can’t verify the argument, then don’t say it.

 

Our lives today were nourished in the wellsprings of prior centuries and the prior achievements of our forebears. On the one hand, we should respect that past, but we should never live in it.  Because if there is one other thing we learned, it is that our wonderful species is constantly evolving and changing and we have to both drive that change in order for the species to continue and respect that change as it occurs.

Roger Bacon was a major influence in teaching me all these things. I don’t know if any of this resonated with you. I don’t know if this was an exercise in sheer self-indulgence. I do know that the impact on me has been to make me think about what I do and who it impacts, act in a fashion that supports reason and truth as best as the flawed creature I am knows how, and at the same time, provides me with a moral compass. I hope that when I finally go, my epitaph does not read, “he was #1 in CRM” or “He was the Godfather of CRM” but instead it says, “He was a good person” or “He did good.”  Then I’ve fulfilled my life’s purpose and what has been my dream for many years.

Footnote

For an interesting look at the recent biographical material on Roger Bacon, take a look at this 2013 work that is fairly simple and probably a bit too speculative but good enough to give you a decent idea of who the man was.  The book is “Roger Bacon, The First Scientist” by Brian Clegg. (The link is for the Kindle version)  For anyone interested in Roger Bacon at all, it’s worth the read.

 

CRM Musings, Miscellany and Doings

CRM Musings and Miscellany: Short Bits

Every now and then I get a hankering to just do these short, pithy (there’s no lisp involved here) things rather than my usual long-winded posts.  This is the result of one of those hankerings.

CRM, BPMonline, Kiev

For those of you that don’t follow CRM Idol, shame on you!!  Actually, that wasn’t what I wanted to say, but what I was thinking. For those of you who don’t follow CRM Idol, BPMonline is a company, owned by UK-based Terrasoft, that was one of two winners in 2011, our first year. They are a company that has grown dramatically since then, being recognized by Gartner, Forrester and other analyst firms and individuals as a player in the CRM space. They also are an exceptionally warm and friendly company, run by Katerina Kostereva, co-founder and CEO and ably supported by a terrific young staff. 

Recently, I had the great pleasure of helping them celebrate the opening of their new office in a 7-story glass building in Kiev (they own it) with an incredible rooftop view of that historic (more than 1100 years old) city.  I was there for both an advisory day and to speak to customers – roughly 250 or so – who came from multiple republics in and around Ukraine (by the way, NOT “The” Ukraine. Ukraine). Even though I had a massive recurrence of an upper respiratory infection (long story) the night before, here is the speech I gave for your listening…pleasure…or pain if that’s the way you want to be about it.

The Onion on the Cloud

What can I say? I love this video.  No disrespect intended to HP (by me anyway. I can’t speak for the Onion) but this one is AWE…some! And about at the level of knowledge contained in a buzzword.

HP Offers 'That Cloud Thing Everyone Is Talking About'

HP Offers 'That Cloud Thing Everyone Is Talking About'

Salesforce Acquires EdgeSpring: News Almost Lost in the Marketing Cloud

I think you have a cogent idea of what I thought about the acquisition of Exact Target, salesforce’s marketing cloud acquisition that had the airwaves – social and traditional - buzzing and at times stinging. Lost in that – almost, since nothing salesforce.com ever does get actually lost – was their acquisition announced the following week of analytics platform startup EdgeSpring.  Note something here. I say analytics platform, not application or cloud service.  This is an important distinction for salesforce.

The reason is simple; they haven’t been able to compete with their larger industry brethren such as Oracle or SAP when it comes to analytics. That was the other great hole in the salesforce ecosystem. They have the Radian6 Insights Platform, which as cool as it is, doesn’t substitute native analytics that can be built to spec depending on what the purpose is.

That said, because EdgeSpring is coming out of stealth mode and has been immediately acquired, (run by a former salesforce employee now returning to the fold), its hard to say exactly what the quality of the platform is. I haven’t seen it, nor had I heard of it. But the idea is at least the right one for salesforce at this juncture. If the product has the capabilities, then salesforce continues to go down the path to becoming an all-encompassing ecosystem for customer-facing applications and services – which, for them, is what they need to do to fulfill their vision.

The Oracle-NetSuite; Oracle-Microsoft; Oracle-Salesforce Alliance

Everyone and their mother (if she is an analyst) had some hypothesis or speculative notion about this alliance. Here are some of the ones worth reading:

1. Frank Scavo, Constellation Research, On the Oracle/Salesforce “détente”
2. Dennis Howlett, Diginomica on the Oracle/Salesforce partnership
3. Stuart Lauchlan, Diginomica, on the Oracle/Microsoft alliance
4. Denis Pombriant on the Oracle/Salesforce deal
5. Larry Dignan, ZDNet on Oracle/Salesforce thing
6. James Staten, Forrester Group, on Oracle/Microsoft together at last
7. Esteban Kolsky, ThinkJar, on the whole Oracle-Microsoft-Salesforce-NetSuite shebang

These are good starts.  My opinion here would just be either corroboration of some of these or noise, so I won’t offer it yet. I’m also still thinking about the implications, some of which are not clear to me. So give me some rope (and time) to hang myself with. I’m sure I’ll speak to it at some point. Read these in the meantime.

Customer for Life:

Esteban Kolsky, one of the world’s leading analysts and one of my closest friends, and I had a discussion a few days ago on the nature of customer engagement and customer experience. Even though we have somewhat different metaphors that we present with, it is sort of scary how closely aligned our thinking is. Both of us had the same perception when it came to how to begin to think about engagement, experience and customers.  I’m going to give you all a short précis on what we discussed but please understand this is a mere representation of the richness of the subject matter. Maybe it will be my next book.  Then again, maybe not.

There is a strong tendency that companies, when they are planning their customer strategies and technology vendors when they are thinking about developing their enabling applications, tend to think about the customer engagement as a momentary one. That means that if I interact with a company about something and there is this intense emotional involvement, well, that’s engagement. Or, another variation would be if I talk to the company and finish the conversation (regardless of intensity) the “engagement” is over. But that isn’t the nature of engagement. In fact, engagement is characterized by the customer’s ongoing interactions with the company – an ongoing interaction that he or she (meaning, the customer) chooses to have. At any point in the life of that ongoing engagement, it can be intense or casual or intense and then casual, or something in between. The level of emotional involvement is the customer’s choice. The decision to continue the engagement is the key to it. The customer stays engaged because they want to have a relationship with the company that provides them with the results that they want to get from the company.  Keep that “ongoing” part in your head for a minute.

Customer experience suffers from the same kind of, though not identical, misperception. Most people think of the momentary experience – the one event driven experience that occurs as the interactions happen. It might be that it takes about 3 or 4 calls or communications of some kind for the event to start and end. That short-term experience is often what businesses are planning for and around.  That’s a limited approach and pretty much not the way to think about it.

Another way that customer experience gets shortchanged is when “the” customer experience is misidentified as being what I call a consumable experience.  A consumable experience would be the effect that the American Girl doll retail store has on your daughter when she goes there with her doll and gets her doll’s hair done, eats lunch with her doll, watches a play about her doll (or a doll in the American Girl line) and accessorizes her doll – for the price of about $400.00 for the visit.  It creates a memory for her that is unmatchable, no doubt, but it is only an aspect of the broader overall customer experience, as we have to think about it, if we’re building programs around it and strategies for it. The customer experience that goes beyond the event would include (for example inclusively but not exclusively):

1. The American Girl retail store experience (as outlined above) with your daughter
2. The storybooks and history and accessories associated with the doll which you can read about via print, or online and/or buy it in the store and/or online.
3. The ease of the transaction process for the “buyer” i.e. the parent
4. The type of customer service you get at the store, over the phone, via the web
5. The store associated interactions with you and your daughter that lead to follow-up activity of some kind – e.g. an invitation to an exclusive event related to the character of your daughter’s doll – and the history of your store visits.
6. The web presence of American Doll.
7. The availability of the products themselves when there is an interest in the acquisition (e.g. would you like to be told, sorry its out of stock – and available in two months – and then have to tell your daughter that?)
8. The ability of the tools to customize the experience (not the customization itself)

There is much more involved but you get the idea. This is an overall customer experience that in the long run leaves you with a feeling that you want to continue your relationship with the company – meaning buy stuff and do things for a long while to come. 

There is this saying (which I have to admit, I’ve had some responsibility in propagating) that “the customer’s experience is only as good as their last memory.” While that’s somewhat true, there are multiple nuances to this.  The most important nuance is this:

If your customer has had a long-term overall good experience or bad one, it will color the effect of the experience of last memory. Brush strokes color the pencil lines.  To put it in practical terms.

1. If I’ve had an ongoing excellent experience with the company and something bad occurs, I’m likely to forgive the problem or at least give it a lot of leeway without much impact on the long term as long as the problem is solved. If it isn’t solved, I’ll still be with the company
2. If I’ve had an ongoing average experience with the company, the issue is likely to carry more weight with my long term involvement than if #1 was in play. That means the problem better be solved or it will weaken my resolve to stay with the company.
3. If my ongoing experience has been poor, then the issue is likely to be the breaking point, even if resolved. Even if I stay, the slightest problem and I’m gone.

In other words same experience in the short term, very different outcomes due to the long term experience – which is the one that ultimately matters more.

Stuff I have going on

Just to keep you up to snuff and to get you going, some stuff I’m doing that I’d of course like your involvement with in some capacity;

1. CRM Idol 2013 – CRM Idol is now underway. We are evaluating the references of the contestants who, once again, represent multiple countries and regions.  We have nearly 80 extended judges representing influencers in the vendor, buyer, media and analyst world. We have those fascinating emerging tech companies that are willing to take a bit of risk to potentially be the breakout CRM company of 2013.  For more on this go to the CRM Idol site (duh.)
2. CRM Watchlist 2014 – Unlike CRM Idol, this is for any company that a. wants to take a shot at being recognized as an impact player; b. is willing to make an effort to do so; and c. wants me to track them in 2014.  The enrollment period is still open and will be right up to October 31, 2013. The submission period for the questionnaire is November 30, 2013.  If you are interested in contending, please send me an email requesting the CRM Watchlist 2014 questionnaire and in return you will a. get the questionnaire; b. get the 172pp CRM Watchlist 2013 Yearbook; c. start being tracked by me; d. be put in a Google+ group that will activate in the late summer some time and where I will be more than normally accessible. However, given how much I have to do, my expectation is that if you request the questionnaire you’re going to submit the questionnaire and not just do it as a ruse to have me track you. Please don’t disappoint me. My email is [email protected] if you want to be part of this. So far, I have 113 applications, well ahead of last year’s pace, which led to 173 requests and 153 submissions. I’d love to have you. The company size or state of being doesn’t matter. But be aware that this is an impact award and small companies without much of a history have a tough time winning. Though there are 4 or 5 each year that do – based on as much immediate potential as history.  Plus, if you enter, I do track you. If that means anything at all.
3. 3.    CRM Evolution, August 19-21 – As I hope you know, CRM Evolution, put on every year by InfoToday/CRM Magazine, has been the premier CRM conference – the one industry gathering where buyers, vendors, and influencers co-mingle in a given year.  The networking for varying purposes is outstanding and the content is good and the energy is always high.  I have had the honor of chairing it now for my fifth year and never, ever lose the excitement.  It’s a great place to be.  I’d love to meet you and if I already have, to see you again.  Come.  It’s in New York at the Marriott Marquis Hotel August 19-21.  
4. 4.    The 56 Group website - Truthfully, I haven’t ever really needed a website. I have been blessed with the good fortune of not having to really sell or work hard at promotion. But there are a lot of things I have always wanted to do that I haven’t been able to do because I haven’t had any place to “go” that was mine. I’ve been a nomad, residing on many other sites, getting friends to graciously allow me to squat on their land, letting me rest on their real estate for a little while as I continued my travels without any place to call my own.  However, that will be ending soon.  With the amazing work of DRI Global, one of my favorite CRM focused consulting firms (they are in Lisbon), I am getting very close to launching a site far too rich for one person but one that has a somewhat different purpose than the norm. I realized, as my nomadic life continued, that I don’t want a virtual house; I want to live in a skyscraper, a condo building with other people. So my website, built in Joomla (because I know how to use the administrative back end) will be a place where any person or organization that is the in the customer facing world will have a home. Among other things: It will have a community platform that will allow a CRMish person/company to have their own facilitated (by them) community on whatever topical area they want; Selected people will be able to have a microsite for selling their wares with their own catalog and payment system; there will be a loyalty program tied to my services and products with points awarded for not only buying stuff but for participation in the CRM industry and for being socially conscious and/or philanthropic.  The site will be able to aggregate content of all types – including videos, audio assets, slideshows, documents, links, you name it. There’s even the capability to take premium and free online courses – and I can write them from the back end of the site. So be ready. The site goes through a run through this week and then it’s a couple of months or more of populating it and then, welcome to your community, if you care to participate. If not, well, I tried.  If you are interested in hosting a community, let me know even starting now and let me know what it is going to be about. The rules are: follow the rules of the site and facilitate your own community. While it’s pretty open, I do have the right to reject it out of hand or shut it down. But I’m easy. I don’t know if it will work. There are some interesting questions that aren’t answered yet and won’t be until the communities start.  But all in all it should be fun.  Lots for you to do. Registered members of any community can accumulate points in the system for the loyalty program.  WAY more later but feel free to let me know you are interested in facilitating a community on something related to CRM now if you like. Contact me at [email protected].   
5. 5.    SEAT 2013 – I’m guessing that you never heard of the Sports Entertainment Alliance in Technology (SEAT) conference.  This is between 300-450 sports executives who gather annually to discuss how to optimize their use of technology in sports. It’s CIOs, CMOs, VPs, and Senior Directors of team after team, league after league, sport after sport. There is a substantial discussion of CRM (2.5 day track) and this year I have the distinct honor of being the subject of a keynote interview for the CRM track.  Russell Scibetti, one of the best CRM practitioners in sports (he’s the NY Jets guy) and one of my friends, will be the interviewer. I expect, since I love sports, it will be lively and fun.  Just wanted to tell you about it, because I think it’s really cool. 

 

Lessons from and for 21st Century Leaders

Last October, I had the honor of speaking at the 2012 Pivot Con, a conference hosted by my dear friend and key social influencer Brian Solis. This conference held annually, is an affordable laid-back event built around intellectual conversation, without some of the more recent attendant pretense of, say, TED. Its more of a social business, social world focused conference with a technology bent and as a result of that, I got to hear some amazing stuff, and meet some amazing people and greet some wonderful friends. It’s not too shabby a deal. This conference has been on my bucket list for a long time so when I was asked to speak, and the circumstances worked out that I could, I did it, entirely at my own expense. Which is something I NEVER do – except if you happen to be a bucket list event of mine. And a friend named Brian Solis asks me if I would speak.

In any case, my topic was “Leadership in a Social Age” and I got to do it with Stowe Boyd, an eminence grise of the social world (meaning he’s a baby boomer with some golden thinking on the subject). I had met Stowe at Enterprise 2.0 a couple of years back and we got along just famously. That camaraderie continued when we re-met at Pivot.

To prepare for our 20 minutes on Leadership in a Social Age, which kicked off the conference, Stowe and I conversed for a while on how we each viewed it and on our thinking on each other’s views, which coincided without being identical. For example he had this concept of the “post-normal” (see both just below and the video of our presentation below for a more concise definition) – and I didn’t.  I do know we were well received.

That discussion benefited me a great deal and has had me thinking ever since. So I’ve decided to publish some of what I said at the conference, what Stowe said at the conference, and what else I heard at the conference and what I’ve been thinking since the conference, simply because I think there is merit in it. At least for me, its been eye-opening and made me think beyond my customer-focused stage to a larger stage. If you watch the video and I hope that you do, you’ll realize that some of Stowe’s work is incorporated into this thinking, as are other things that we didn’t present or hear at the conference. You’ll also hear/see some of my more time honored concepts, but the context is a little different this time.

I’m not laying claim to any fabulously original thinking or breakthroughs on how to be a leader in the 21^st century. I’m aggregating some of the better thinking and putting it into context and giving it a rudimentary container – I don’t want to call it a framework – so that it can make some sense, in part or in all.

Here we go:

Reasons for the Change

1. For the last decade we have been engaged in a communications revolution – how we communicate has transformed – the devices we use, the expectations we have, the formats that now exist to communicate, who and how we trust.
2. Our ability to communicate in a much broader way and with more choice in how we communicate and the technologies that we use to do it have triggered a transformation in now we create, distribute and consume information.
3. The amount of information available to us is both growing and its value is shifting. We are at a stage where the velocity of the information is an important a characteristic as the volume. The value of the information is most often contextual and timely, not universal or generic.
   This leads to a demand for insight, because people are expecting much more from the individuals and the institutions they communicate with. They expect more individualized treatment and their behavior is geared to getting that when it comes to the interactions they have with those individuals and institutions.
4. The difficulty for those institutions is that this is being done on a scale never before seen. So, in effect, Citigroup’s 250 million customers are each expecting personalized treatment. They want to be addressed as individuals, not demographics. They feel, because they are communicating with peers who they perceive are like them, that they can because that’s how they view those peers – even when they don’t know the individual they communicate with via the devices and channels they have.
5. Thus, we are seeing one of those rare transformations of an era of human history. The digital era replaces the industrial era, which replaced the agricultural era. Technology becomes a driver almost as much as an enabler. IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) in their 2012 Global CEO study: Leading Through Connections found that 71% of their 1700 respondents saw technological change as the most important external factor impacting their organizations for the next three to five years. That means IT of course, but also biotech, nanotech and other technologies that are disruptive to existing business models, organizational schemas, and operations. Social technologies also are top of mind. “The view that technology is a driver of efficiency is outdated; CEOs now see technology as an enabler of collaboration and relationships – those essential connections that fuel innovation and creativity.” This leads CEOs to see that the three most important areas for creating sustained economic value are (in order) human capital, customer relationships and products/services innovation. We are seeing the beginnings of more distributed organizations to handle these transformations.
6. Stowe Boyd calls this era post-normal which he defines as an era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (for more watch the video below).
7. But even with all these changes, we haven’t seen the elimination of hierarchies in business nor will we. As long as companies are governed by public laws and regulations, there will be people who are responsible and accountable to see that their businesses are compliant with those laws. Also, while all humans are created equally, they don’t perform equally nor have the same specialties. Even Marx’s tenets acknowledged that not all are equal – “from each according to his ability; to each according to his needs.” Capitalism as it has evolved has provided the opportunity to either embrace that positively or exploit that negatively.

Principles of Leadership

This digital era requires new qualities of leadership and new approaches to leadership because expectations have changed, as have behaviors.

The Leadership Perspective: “Stubborn on the Vision, Flexible on the Details”

From the standpoint of the longest view of a company, Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon says it best. The success of Amazon is due to the fact that Amazon has been “stubborn on the vision and flexible on the details.” This is a leadership perspective that is defined by both a profound idea on the direction and character of a company that is unbending, but at the same times retains flexibility because of the leader’s knowledge that the world and circumstances are always changing and require new and different approaches – though the long term outcome is never altered. This has been the hallmark of salesforce.com’s focus for well over a decade. They started with the idea that they were going to be the platform upon which all “your” business apps would be run. The changes in the world and circumstance dictated a change in the form that this would take i.e. a social business but the original vision never changed.

Customer Focused at all Levels

A.G. Lafley, the wildly successful now-retired CEO and Chairman of Procter and Gamble made a clear point that while there is a link between the inside and the outside, the results come from outside. So, a leader has to define what he called “the meaningful outside.” His mantra for that was “Consumer is Boss.” Twenty-first century leaders who are cognizant of the era that we are now in are aware that the customer both impacts and is impacted by business decisions and thus their conversations have to be around how that impact works in all domains of the business. The participation of the customer at multiple levels of the business is the mandate of those providing real leadership.

For example, Lafley created the structures at P&G that allowed customers to not only be an intimate part of the business processes of at the company but to co-market and co-create new initiatives with the company. He also required all aspects of the enterprise value chain of P&G to be “customer centered.” So for example, there were customer-centered supply chain KPIs such as pricing from the shelf back. There are customer communities such as VocalPoint, a community of connected alpha moms (each with a social network of other moms) that participated in P&G’s research. It has been so successful that is was spun off as a private company that now does the social research for many companies. There also is the Connect and Develop program for those customer and other innovators who wanted to collaborate with P&G on research issues and problems and even beyond that, there is FutureWorks (now called  P&G Corporate Platforms – a program for customers and others to co-create new initiatives, and if they are good enough, take them to market. That is what I mean by leadership that takes customer-focus to the core of business.

Value….and Values: Leadership Predicated on Mutuality

One of my mantras for the last nearly decade I’ve labeled the first law of CRM but it also reflects the approach of a 21^st century leader. It goes:

“Value and values are given and in return, value and values are received.”

What it means is that the basis for value for a company: revenues, profitability and pleasing the stockholder and the basis for value for customers - feeling valued, while the basis for value to a company and its customers, is not enough. A leader has to provide a set of values to the company that permeates everything it does at the primal level – imbued in the individual employee and “felt” by the individual customer.

Wichian Mektrarken, the CEO of AIS puts it this way – “its important for the employees to see the company’s values as a reflection of their own. Values are at the core of the social contract between the company and the employee” But in this post normal era, the values have to provide a foundational stability to the individual employees and customers in a time that is uncertain and volatile. In effect, the leader has to be the embodiment of those values and see that whatever infrastructure is needed to support those values is provided.

But so far, what I’m speaking about can be a content-empty vessel. Remember, the values have to be in response to the era that the company operates in. The lack of a value system at the company can be disastrous. The values need to reflect the requirements of the times.

For example, one of the most important components of 21^st century business – and one of the most talked about is transparency. We constantly hear and say that the customer is demanding transparency – which I’ve always defined as the providing enough information to make an intelligent decision on how someone wants to deal with an institution. But there is an inherent emotional aspect to this – doing this makes the company a trustworthy company – one that you are willing to deal with because you can trust them. Trust is the key currency for the 21^st century leader.

For example, Sandvik, an equipment manufacturer based in Sweden has been voted the most trusted company in Europe more than once. They are given that honor because they have something called the Power of Sandvik.

The Power of Sandvik is a value statement that is embedded into the deepest part of Sandvik’s DNA. It is not only a mission and vision statement, but it is a code of conduct and system of values that has specific operational and rules-based actions that are part of everything that Sandvik does for every single person who touches the company in any way, whether they are customers or not. At its most fundamental it is a leadership screed that says, we will be fundamentally visible to all persons and honest to a fault in all our dealings with anyone whatever. The leadership of Sandvik is driven by this and subject to it as well. So for example if you care to see what kind of money an executive is making and how they got to that – its available to you. Fundamental, straightforward transparency carried down through time by the leadership of the company and fairly distributed and openly available.

If you think this kind of credo and code don’t have a business benefit, think again. Sandvik has been one of the most profitable companies in Europe for years and during the midst of the recession, doubled their sales.

The role of leadership in this because it is such an important and mature part of the operations of the company is to in a way not only propagate this but enforce it.

Leaders have and create partners

There has been a well documented and certainly constantly intoned refrain about entrepreneurs – they are unable to give up any control of their businesses – and that is usually what prevents them from truly growing.

True leaders promote the concept and live the idea that employees, suppliers and customers are partners, not subordinates nor are they of a different species. Business leaders encourage collaboration among the disparate groups. Even more importantly to some extent, they empower employees to provide customers with answers and “things” they need, without having to deal with the chain of command and approvals process. They are trusted to to work with customers – regardless of what they do.

That means that employees can be empowered to make decisions on the spot in how customers get handled, nominate other employees for rewards, participate at some level in the discussions around strategic decisions etc.  For example, NASA treats its 18,000 employees as collaborators and allows them, through the use of internal collaboration tools, like wikis, etc. to participate in knowledge-sharing and decision making.  Here’s an excerpt from an IBM Institute for Business Value Case Study about NASA’s approach.

“NASA leverages wikis extensively to support and facilitate internal collaboration. Other internal collaboration tools include ExplorNET, which enables the creation of shared user profiles and launched 61 communities in its first 45 days of use. A Twitter-like tool for employee communication  has also been enthusiastically received. A growing number of mobile apps for NASA-only audiences are distributed centrally by the Center for Internal Mobile Applications (CIMA). By providing employees the means to collaborate at scale, NASA has made it easier to share success stories, locate expertise and increase productivity across the agency.”

They are talking about the tools but the tools are there to support the leadership decision to get that 18,000-strong collective brainpower involved in NASA’s continued evolution as an agency that serves the future of the United States. When your employees are your partners, they are imbued with the mission and the vision of the company because they feel as if they are part of it (get it? part-ner) not subordinate to it.

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That’s all for Part I. Part II will follow on the heels of this one. In that we’ll look at the idea of leaders of a lean open organization and what they do and what that means; adaptability in times of uncertainty; the willingness to take risks; what employee empowerment means; why hierarchical organizations in general aren’t going away, despite the occasional edge case – and why that doesn’t mean we are doomed to old forms of organization that can’t function – it’s a leadership question – and many other areas.

For now, you’ll have to live with this and watch this video of me and Stowe Boyd at PivotCon in New York in October.

Stowe Boyd and I Discussing Leadership in the 21st Century

Glass 4/5 Full: Life, Business and the Narcissism of Small Things

Last December I hit 62 years old. Being honest with myself (and since I’m writing this “out loud” – you), I have to say I wasn't thrilled by that because it’s a physical age where your mortality continues to slap you in the face.  My  seminal “recognition year” was when I hit 60 in 2009, where for the first time, I realized that I wasn't immortal – even if 60 is the new 50. That might sound ridiculous, of course we’re not immortal, but I assure you, its not. Intellectually I had always realized that. But, on my 60th birthday it HIT me. It NAILED me.  On my 61st birthday, which was 2010 the year my last parent, my mom, died, I realized that for the first time in my life I didn’t have a parent to wish me happy birthday. I cried.

Now that I’m 62, all this feeling of mortality doesn’t depress me or make me sad. I won't say it doesn’t concern me, because then I’d be lying. But much more than concern me, it makes me consider how I conduct my life and myself. How I live and what I have to do while I'm here. Thing is, that course of conduct impacts all facets of my life personal and business – since it’s a single life and I’m just one person – meaning I don’t have two codes of ethics, two bodies of principle, and two different personas depending on where I am.

I’m not going to delve deeply into all of what I’m thinking about but I will talk about one part of it – what I’m thinking about my place in CRM and some of the things that go on in the industry and about those who are participating in the industry. 

I don't try to kid myself.  I know that I occupy rarified air in the "big fish in a small pond" world of CRM. I realize that I am among its most recognizable names and I'm not too humble to say that I appreciate that even if I don't think it’s really merited.  But at the same time as I once wrote and have often said, if my epitaph reads "he was #1 in CRM" that's pretty pathetic. I need to do more and be more.

So let me start from here to let you know what I’m thinking. If this is too much, please tune out now and go elsewhere. If it’s okay with you, soldier on.

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Setting the Stage

When I was maybe 7 years old, my Dad was talking to me in the living room of our home in East Meadow, in New York and he said to me (this is an adult paraphrased version of what he told a 7 year old), 

"Paul, your mother and I brought you into this world, but you don't owe us anything. But because you're in this world, you owe it something.”

I’ve tried to live my entire life based on that. I have a really strong belief in justice and doing Good (with a deliberate capital G). I write with that in mind, I work with that in mind and I take risks with my career and life with that in mind. I think that in order for me to be genuinely happy I have to do things that are good for others. That’s what makes them good for me.

Look, you’ve heard me say this before – in person and on stage. I don’t like business. Never did. Never will. I don’t live for it. I don’t find it immersive – even though I work very hard. In fact, I have only two “business” principles.

1. Do well enough to make enough to support my family
2. Have my friend’s backs always.

My business credo doesn’t extend much beyond these principles.

But it does extend to my business – obviously – which is CRM.

As far as CRM goes, I think I’m a lucky person to be in this constantly growing industry. It’s the only industry that I’ve come across so far that has a genuine community. This community has its subsets and segments and some subsets have little knowledge of other subsets. But the social glue that defines communities is there in CRM among influencers, vendors, and practitioners. I’ve  been in the ERP world and never seen anything close to this.  There seems to be some elements of familiarity in vertical industries, though not community that I can tell. More than any other place, in CRM, there is a group of people bonded together by common practice who are consistently interacting at some level with each other. I’ve seen a similar thing in the social enterprise world too.  AND with the rise of the social channels and the technology around it, these two communities – the people who are engaged in the social thinkers and doers community and the “traditional” CRM thinkers and doers – have intersected as of 2012 so they appear at the same (and each other’s) events, hang out in the same watering holes, and blab on the same channels via the social web (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and more exotic networks like Pinterest).

But, like any communities throughout the history of mankind, there are the downsides to those continuous interactions. Petty jealousies, fights for positioning that are both ugly and ridiculous and a significant amount of purely negative ripping of others that gets either too personal or so general as to be useless appears. Harpy Behavior.  Intense nitpicking over minor little details to “differentiate” the nitpicker from the one being nitpicked. A harsh battle by the nitpicker on the little detail with an overwrought insistence that they are right. This is something Freud called “the narcissism of small things.” 

All of these things can reach a crescendo sometimes that is staggering in its noise, even more staggering in its doggedness and persistence and even more staggering in the useless results it gets.

So where is this going? Why am I bringing this up?

Negating the Negation (Metaphorically of course)

Why? Because I’m sick of hearing these negative things over and over from a few people who spend most of their time being negative about an industry that actually has done some good.  And, now that its worked out a lot of earlier kinks, provides some real return to the businesses that invest in it. So I want to address the different complaints, myths, and issues that have come up one by one and hopefully put them to rest because all they do is either perpetuate the myths or dishonor other human beings and neither of those things is all that helpful, now is it?

How to begin…….. Okay. People have to earn my distrust. You heard it right. People have to earn my distrust. That means, to put it simply, that if you are a human being that I’m meeting or know, I’m going to start by trusting you because I think that human beings are born good and that they stay good until some of them choose to become, let’s say, less than good. That means that if I truly believe that then I ‘m going to trust that goodness in you from the moment I meet you.

Naïve you say? Too simple. Yeah, well, I think I’m doing pretty well with that principle so far. My life has been on the whole a happy one with great parents who I miss every day, a wonderful wife of 30+ years, a fantastic slightly younger brother who I’ve loved from the moment he was born and a large group of genuinely good friends, some of whom are like family. I’ve had a rewarding career with the good will of the CRM industry behind it. This all allows me to be, I think,  a straight shooter. I have no qualms saying what I have to say privately or publicly, even at the risk of contract or career. Tough love is something that I practice but I never preach malice.

Never malice.

And that’s precisely what bothers me.

Problem #1: With Malice Toward All

I read blog posts, backchannel conversations, hear discussions every day that are literally entirely negative. They are spent not just tearing down the work that others do but also maligning their character. Typically, these discussions don’t support any positive solution. They just talk about how bad something someone is saying and that gets translated into insults to the person. Entire categories of people and companies – e.g. analysts, consultants, existing thought leaders, software vendors – are attacked, simply because they are analysts, consultants, existing thought leaders, software vendors.. All analysts are full of shit. All software vendors are malignant tumors, all existing thought leaders have nothing to offer. Sometimes it goes deeper. All institutional analysts suck is one I’ve heard over and over.

How does that work? These categories are descriptors, not individuals. There are good and bad in each of those areas. All analysts or institutional analysts don’t suck. They aren’t inherently bad as a category. There are some who are outstanding, some who are good and some who do suck. There are some who are outstanding that I don’t always agree with but, know what, they are as right as I am or maybe more so.

Problem #2: With Malice Toward One

I would venture to say it’s a good thing to have a career that you’re happy with and proud of. I would also say that one way to be proud of your career is that you’ve advanced it by presenting ideas, controversial and even possibly a little contentious, that bore out or made sense or allowed people to understand something more completely or better. Meaning, one way or the other, what you said made a difference.

But what I don’t get is why some think that the way to go about this is to denigrate other ideas in a personal way that ultimately makes the attacker look like a fool and a sad, insecure human being – in a public or semi-private forum. From a personal standpoint, I’ve seen attacks on me – not just what I say, but attacks that are personal – from people who have never spoken to me or even corresponded in 140 total characters with me. I don’t personally care all that much. I have pretty thick skin. But I’ve also seen attacks on younger industry people and on named individuals in both a public and semi-private setting that are literally bordering on cruelty. The form that it takes is an attack on something that person said or did and then an attack on their character from someone who has no relationship to that person.

Sadly, while this is by no means widespread enough to be epidemic, its happened enough that I’m regularly made aware of it. I think it needs to be addressed – which means its happening too much and is not an isolated thing.

No one I know has a problem with disagreement. But the personal attacks are uncalled for and actually undercut whatever legitimate argument the attacker has when it comes to the ideas that they disagree with. Always remember one thing. Discussion and disagreement on a concept can be healthy, if its for the right reasons, but a personal scurrilous attack is NEVER for the right reasons. 

Myth #1: Consultants Don’t Do Work, Only Practitioners Do

I remember a few years ago, I read a tweet (I think) from a well meaning person from a vendor who was at a panel that included three SCRM thought leaders and a practitioner that who had reached the status of a thought leader. This tweet said, in effect, “its great to hear from the thought leaders, but I can’t wait to hear from (practitioner thought leader) who is really in the trenches."

This is another  absurd discussion that I see time and time again which goes analysts and consultants aren’t doing  real work and that we need to hear from those who are in the trenches “doing the actual work”, and “getting their hands dirty.” That is arguably the stupidest of all the stupid constantly repeated mantras that I hear. What do those saying this think consultants do? Pontificate all day? (yes? you think that? Shame on you. Read Problem #1) Consultants are hired to work in the trenches with those in the trenches to help them figure out how to do the work to dig the trenches – and most of them take up the shovels to do that. I’ve done that work. Its hard and its political. You get into the companies that have hired you to help them figure out what the company needs and how far they can go to fulfill what they need. Keep in mind what I said, the people at the companies “doing the real work” HIRED THE CONSULTANT to help and the consultant then WORKS. There is no basis to say that they have less to say than those “who are really doing it.” Those who are really doing it are the ones who hired the consultants to begin with. 

Myth #2: Only Customers Have Anything To Say. They are Gods. Vendors Bite

Okay, we move on to the next broad senseless categorization. Software vendors are lepers with money. The way that manifests itself the most obviously is at conferences that the software vendor is pushed to sponsor. The general tone that the events planners are putting forth is “we want your money, but we don’t want you to say anything. The only way you can say anything is via your customers.”

Or another manifestation came earlier this year, when I saw a criticism of CRM Idol, which said in effect, “you know, its too bad. This was a missed opportunity because it could have given the award to customers who are the real CRM idols.”

No, it couldn’t. The award wasn’t for customers. It was for small technology companies who were struggling to get visibility in an industry dominated by larger companies and a very high number of other small companies who were crowding the field. Making that statement was akin to saying “You know American Idol is was a missed opportunity. Rather than give the award to a singer, they could have given the award to a true American patriot, who is the real American Idol.”

The logic being used about vendors and customers is about as flawed as it possibly could be. More dangerously, and not unique to this one misstatement, there is an underlying assumption about vendors and “customers” that is just outright wrong. It presumes that only customers are good  and vendors are not. It idealizes customers and demonizes vendors.

Reality is very different.  A software vendor as a supplier is doing the same thing that the companies they supply are doing. They are selling stuff to someone. They are also someone’s customers. Those they sell to are also someone’s suppliers. As a class of businesses, there is nothing inherently different about a software vendor’s business concepts, behavior, or purpose than their customers’ business concepts, behaviors, and purpose. They are all suppliers and they are all customers. They are selling stuff to others.

That leads me to a conclusion that I think needs to be stated outright. Vendors are not evil by nature and actually have a lot to offer. I know that you’ll go, “okay, I can live with that, I guess.” But here’s the corollary. Customers are not perfect by nature and have as much to offer as vendors – not more – as much.  Oh, gasp. How shocking. The real way to approach vendors and customers?  Both of them and each of them needs to be reviewed on their individual merits without presumptions based on their category.

So let me put it into a few slogans.
End the idealization of customers and the demonization of vendors.

End the cult of the practitioner and degradation of the vendors.

Treat each company, regardless of whether they are a vendor or practitioner as it should be treated – an individual institution with things worthy of praise and things worthy of possible condemnation.

Let’s level this playing field and stop the crap already.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

When I hit 60, 61 and now 62, I realized that I have one life and that I am going to carry out what my parents taught about owing the world something in a redoubled way while sticking to my “business” principles. That means trying to live a just life.

Let me be clear. I can’t stop anyone from doing what they do. These sad people will probably continue to maliciously attack others and to propagate self-aggrandizing myths about entire categories of people and institutions. I can only make sure that I don’t deal with them or support them in any way. Again, I have my friends backs.

Those who I think are unjust – meaning demeaning the dignity and goodness of other human beings -aren’t my friends.

Period.

Let me also be clear. This isn’t a “why can’t we all get along” discussion. That’s absurdly unrealistic. There is always going to be some element of acrimony in a world that doesn’t have perfect people. But as one of my all time favorite philosophical champions, Philo Judaeus, once said, “every man is a miniature heaven.” Thus, I think that human beings are self-perfecting and thus they can learn.

In the meantime, I’m going to live my life as it gets on into its last half as best as I can and do the right thing as often as I can. If you don’t like it or think what I’ve written is too touchy feely….well, truthfully, I couldn’t care less. I know what I have to do and I hope you know the same.

Peace out.

Choice, Circumstance, Context: The Hilton Hotel & The Vagaries of the Customer Experience

For whatever reasons, the hospitality and travel industries are amazing for providing an endless fount of stories. These stories could almost be called, in a strategic sense, individually customized services discussions - but that resonate with other people. Of course, while it does feel like these are stories of things that happened to YOU - and you only, truth be told, they really are easy to understand. Travel experiences (hotels, airplanes, trains) are built around what is a very emotional set of events. There are expectations that are pretty redundant from event to event, occurrence to occurrence. The expected quality of the service or event is about the same from venue to venue. In the case of a hotel it would typically be:

1. Easy check in
2. Recognition of elite status if you have it
3. courtesy regardless of status including things like eye contact
4. working room keys
5. clean rooms
6. working appliances in the rooms
7. efficient room service
8. Many other things
9. customer friendly design
10. Easy checkout

Needless to say, I can go on and on. But, its these things that as more than a sum total, that make up components of a customer's experience at a hotel. What the hotel chooses to do at these impact points can make or break how a customer thinks about the hotel, or more importantly feels about the hotel. If the bad is not just coincidental but is perceived as either a company policy or bad conscious choice, then there is a higher premium placed on the impact of the experience for the customer. I'm going to skewer the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan - use them as an example of exactly that - bad choice that seems to be either conscious policy or poor on the spot decisionmaking. Unlike the Ritz Carleton, or much of the Marriott chain, The Hilton, at least to me, has no more than a generic customer experience strategy. Walking in to the Hilton, my overall expectation was that it would satisfy my needs, not exceed them, because that is minimum standard that all hotels operate on, and I can expect faithfully when I check in the note. But this particular Hilton, made some small bad choices that led to a horrible experience, which because it was repeated with others in one fashion or another, had a bad business outcome.

Why Was I at the Hilton in NY?

Simple. It was for the CRM Evolution conference for 2011, which for the first time was at the Hilton on Avenue of the Americas, which, incidentally, is called 6th Ave, by any proper New Yorker. The conference, which lasted from August 8-11, pulled together a broad spectrum of very high powered influentials in CRM and smattering of social influencers, a significant number of vendors, the largest group of practitioners in the conference history. The unofficial number of attendees for the conference, which I heard from one of the principals was 500 in total. I chair the conference annually,and as long as the good burghers from Infotoday ask me back, I will be back. On a sidenote: They did ask me back for 2012, which I happily accepted. I really like chairing this conference). To put everything in a nutshell: The conference was a significant success, the Hilton Hotel wasn't. The Hilton was this year's venue and the reason for it was that both Internet connectivity and the treatment of meals was supposed to be a step up from the Marriott Marquis - site of the last several conferences. Let's just say it was and it wasn't.

The story….

My wife and I blew into town a couple of days early to catch Wicked at the George Gershwin Theater on 51st St where it has been running for eight years. I'll digress for a second and tell you this: outside of an iconic performance of "Man of LaMancha" which is seared into my soul for all eternity, this may have been the best musical that I've ever seen with only "Billy Elliott" competing and I've seen dozens of musicals. Okay, back from the commercial. In any case, this was a first for me, staying at this particular Hilton in NY. I've stayed at Hiltons and some I've liked and some have left little impression on me, but none has really gotten me p.oed before. Until now.

What Happened?

I'm going to number this sequentially.

1. As the conference chair, my hotel stay was placed on the conference master account. When I checked in with my wife, as I've done with literally every other hotel I ever have stayed at in the last 3 years or so, I gave my rewards program (Hilton Honors) number. They said to me, "Oh, well, because you're on the master account, you can't have the points." I found this a little puzzling, since I've literally NEVER run into that at any hotel I've stayed at including Hiltons and any Marriotts, nor has it been a problem on airlines. So I asked about it. He said, corporate" and let it go and didn't really want to talk about it. Bad start to a stay.
2. My wife and I then went to go to our rooms and I couldn't find the elevator for a minute so we went and asked a desk that seemed to be a bell captains or something like that but, like every other desk in the lobby where there was no real place to sit (except for the bar and its extension), the desks were unlabeled. A young guy there told us where the elevator was, asked for our room, offered 500 points. That seemed odd since I didn't tell him that we hadn't been given the points - until he hit us up for a resort properties seminar in the hotel the next day. Eventually, we managed to escape to the elevator.
3. When we arrived at the room, imagine our surprise that we had two double beds! Let's just say that we were obviously a married couple at the front desk. Even if they couldn't tell that we were married, they called us Mr. and Mrs. Greenberg, so you have to assume they knew that. They didn't give us a choice, nor did they say, "I'm sorry but the only room available had two double beds, is that okay?" Nada was said at all.
4. We decided to roll with the punches, and put on the lights in the room, which seemed unnaturally dark, probably due to the buildings outside blocking light, but hell, this is NY, what would we expect? Except that one of the lamps didn't work - the bulb kept fritzing out and then back on and out again. So we called customer service, which picked up after about 3 minutes. They sent someone up 10 minutes later and he checked and said, "the lamp has to be replaced." About 30 minutes later, there was a message flashing on the phone that I listened to which said, "sorry about the lamp. Someone will be up tonight or no later than tomorrow morning to replace it." Well, I guess the morning extends to about 2pm in Hilton time, because it wasn't replaced when we got back the following day from a traipse around the city to get ready to go to Wicked - and only because I called customer service again and told them it better be replaced by the time it got dark.
5. In parallel with all this, I needed to get Internet connectivity and, since I'm not elite at the Hilton, I realized that I would have to pay something. Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that if I wanted wireless connectivity it had three levels with actual high speed, which is typically what I need going for a stellar $18.99 a day. But the other two choices which racketed down to $13.99 by their own standard were considerably lower, making me think that what should have been one choice - high speed, for whatever price they want it to be - since its their prerogative - was a much smarter idea than the way they presented their Internet options. Though not a biggie.
6. That first night, we decided to order in because we were tired and went with room service as an option. After 5 minutes, room service picked up and promised our order in 30 minutes "or less." Forty-five minutes later, I called and said, "where's the order?" They promised it in ten minutes. Twenty-five minutes later it showed up. Food wasn't bad though.
7. Next day, I got ready to take a shower and I couldn't pull the handle out. After a futile call to customer service since we were trying to leave within the hour, I found the problem. Someone (I presume a kid) had jammed a stick underneath the handle blocking it from being pulled fully out. I broke the stick and it was fine. I would have thought they'd have checked the shower and used the water to wash the shower floor before we got there but I guess not.
8. Without giving you too much detail, lets just say it took them SEVEN HOURS to solve an important problem in the bathroom in addition to the one I solved with the shower. Yah. Seven hours after they promised they'd be right up. We left came back 6 hours later. It hadn't been taken care of, even though I had called them prior to leaving. It still took 2 more customer service calls to get them to solve it an hour after we got back.
9. We asked the person who cleaned our room to not do something. She agreed easily. Ten minutes later, when we returned to the room, it had been done. Ten minutes after we asked her to not do it.
10. The elevators closed really fast on people trying to get in and out. Sometimes by the time people got out, it was already closing. Seems to be a minor annoyance, yes? It would have been.
11. When we checked out, no one asked how our stay was - which might have been a good thing under the circumstances. It was a no eye contact, room number, see ya kind of checkout. Again, minor? Not by that time.

One additional factoid - David Myron, the jefe of CRM Magazine and sponsor of this conference told me that he's had more complaints about this hotel than in the three years preceding when the conference was at the Marriott Marquis, which was no great shakes either.

So, now, you have the chain of events. Let's look at what this means for thinking about customer experience - how it works in the minds of those that are customers - especially in emotional industries - like hospitality.

Choice, Circumstance, Context: The Concept

Customer experience is something that has been at the core of CRM since day one of its existence. Even though CRM had a decidedly left-brained bent and was based on a company's operational activities, at least its stated purpose was to improve the experience of the customer in his or her dealings with the company. It often failed at its stated purpose and instead, became identified with the use of technology to automate processes that would support the operationalization of sales, marketing or customer service. But its fundamental purpose never went away. Even disgruntled former CRM supporters admit that much these days. So when someone like me tries to place the Hilton experience in a CRM context, its always based on a simple reality. As an individual and as a CRM practitioner, what did Hilton do that p.oed me with the individual hat and how would I go about fixing it with my practitioner hat. What I've come to understand over the last several years, and like all of us, have probably always known, is that a few poor choices can enhance the negative feeling around what would be circumstantial instances because of the context that they were in when they occurred. To put it in terms that the Gunning-Fog Index would probably prefer:

When companies make consciously stupid decisions on how they are going to treat customers - when they have a choice - the negative impact of other bad things is amplified greatly. Why? Because they are framed by dissatisfaction to begin with.

That is simply what we mean by choice, circumstance and context. Do wrong with the things you have control over, and the bad things you don't have control over will bite you in the butt that much harder, because of the ill will you've generally fostered. Think about it this way. What if:

1. The Hilton had given me the points, which I had come to expect because of my experiences with other chains and even other Hiltons
2. They had asked me and my wife about their decision to give us two double beds, which is ordinary courtesy
3. The guy had just directed us to the elevator without trying to pitch us.

Three choices that the Hilton made in the early part of the checkin experience. Think about it. If you had a benign or good early experience, how would you have felt about a lamp that was out when you got there? If you weren't already irritated, would you have even paid attention to and thought about the ridiculous pricing tiers for Internet connectivity? The lamp wouldn't have been a source of irritation, it would have been a service request. The 3 tiers might not even have come to your attention beyond making a choice. It wouldn't have meant much at all. Now, the room service was a problem. Choice? No. Circumstance? More than that. But because of the three little irritations at the beginning setting the context, the room service lateness became a major irritation. What's interesting here is how they might have remedied it - and didn't.

Another story.

I was at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco for salesforce's Dreamforce 2011 conference last week. I was in the bar with Accenture CRM practice leaders and ordered some food. It took more than 30 minutes. When I talked to the bar attendant about it, she went and found out what was wrong, took care of it, had the food out in 5 minutes, and without any expectation on my part of anything else said, "I'm not charging you for it." Wow. Thank you. I like this place. Contrast that to the Hilton, who should have offered something. Free dessert, no charge, a free drink from the menu or something as an apology rather than the "I'm sorry" that they offered the first time it was late and the second "I'm sorry" the second time it was late. But they didn't. So rather than rectify a situation, they exacerbated the irritation that had been building due to the lateness of the food twice and in the context of a bad initial experience that day. Remember, the effects of small bad experiences in emotional industries like hospitality tend to be cumulative, not singular.

The Business Outcome of Bad Experience

So now you say, meh, what was that all about? All that explanation for so little a result? Let me tell you the business impact. As a result of an experience like this repeated multiple times in different forms (ask Ray Wang about his experience at the bar), CRM Evolution is no longer going to be at the Hilton. For the next three years, CRM Evolution is going to be back at the Marriott Marquis. Customer experience is, and always was, the foundation of CRM - and the business outcomes that are what makes it something that we've always thought important. But there is only so much of the customer's individual experience that is controllable by the choices that the company makes. But making those small choices and being sure that they are made as repeatable ones and at the same time, providing the environment to support the smart decisions so that the employees are making the right decisions by nature. Then other circumstantial things become less problematic because the contesxt is good. And then, maybe CRM Evolution stays at the Hilton. Ray, bartender story

CRM Idol 2011: The Open Season, Begins! Small Companies Let Us Know

Okay, everyone. Sit down and listen close....C'mon. Sit already. God, this is like herding cats. Shhhhhhh. I have a big announcement...or should I say WE have a big announcement. You'll understand what I mean in a minute if you just sit down and shut up.

Starting now, we are opening the doors for the first annual CRM Idol: The Open Season. YES! CRM Idol the Open Season launches today and it is something that will be here every year from here on. Something that....well let me tell you the story.

Why the Hell?

Because there are so many companies coming into the "CRMish" market, the market for customer facing programs and activities, there is little chance for smaller players to get much visibility among thought leaders, analysts, journalists, venture capitalists and even the general public. One company seems like another and they are all vying for attention. They either do their own public relations or hire public relations firms that are often, lets just say, until Brent Leary and my next public skewering of them, deficient in their public relations skills, sending ill considered emails that indicate no research done - and thus, the influencer, analyst, journalist, doesn't give it the time of day.

Know why not? Because each of us gets some 30-50 of these emails per week and because we want to have a life, we can't read or even respond to all of them. Consequently, it takes something special to get through to an individual who may be able to help the small company. The irony is that this small company may have a great product, but no one will ever know, because of the bad PR work or simply the overwhelming amount of possible competitors vying for attention.

There is another thing that makes it tough on all of these companies too. Many of them, rather than try to be smarter, get whiny. For example, when I issued my CRM Watchlist 2011 and placed SugarCRM on it, one SugarCRM competitor wrote this incredibly waah waah comment on the blog post that said something to the effect "why is it that when SugarCRM changes a palette color, they get coverage, but we add a workflow and business rules engine and no one covers us." This is a paraphrase. I can't do justice to the childish, petulant nature of the commment, but incidences like these turn off the switch when it comes to coverage too.

So all in all, partially due to the inability to provide something attention capturing, partially due to the complaining, but mostly due to the high volume of requests for demos and briefs which limit the influencers in making a choice, the small companies are not able to get the traction or visibility that they need to solidify their market position and make themselves known.

Until now.

What's going to be different? CRM Idol The Open Season.

The thinking behind what you are going to hear in just a few is simple. These small companies should have a chance. It isn't their fault that there are a million other companies out there trying to reach the same 100 plus people they are. It isn't their fault that the ability to penetrate the influencer's nearly impenetrable walls due to email/etc. volume, is beyond the skills of a goodly percentage of public relations professionals. And it isn't their fault that some of their colleagues/competitors are sucking their own thumbs.

Thus CRM Idol: The Open Season 2011 is born

What in Hell is It?

This is a competition that is easy to enter but difficult to win. But as long as you enter, you'll get something out of it. Its time to let the small companies who are out there, fighting for that visibility every day, have a chance at some of it, with some of the top thought leaders/influencers in the industry. It's also time for the thought leaders to be more available and do something to support those small companies out there. So here's the game plan. First, the format. Then the rules.

The Format

There will be two versions of this competition/show. One based in the Americas - which will encompass the United States Canada, Central and South America - and one based in EMEA - which will encompass Europe, Australia and Asia for now.

The Americas Version

FFrom August 15 through August 19 (Monday thru Friday) and then again, August 22 through August 26 (Monday through Friday), (thanks LuxorCRM for finding my date booboo), each day, from the hours of Noon to 2pm ET (thus, 9am to 11am PT) and then again 4pm to 6pm ET (1pm to 3pm PT), a panel of three judges will hear, each day, 4 companies who will provide 1 hour demos of their products. That will mean 40 slots in total - all in the month of August. The only criteria for getting the slot (the criteria for entry will be seen below) is that you ask for it first in a period that starts April 18.

After each demo is over, the judges will score/analyze the company and its product(s) and, this is the kicker, will jointly publish in all their venues and in media sponsor venues, a review of the company -giving each of the 40 companies the widest possible exposure. But be on your game. Because I'm not saying the judges will publish a good review. It will be fair, it will be honest, but it could be great or bad or in between. That's up to you as a company.

When all forty demos are done and each of the articles/posts have been published, there will be four winners announced. The winners are obligated (yes, obligated. Don't join the competition if you are unwilling to do this) to put together a 10 minute video that highlights what their company does and how their products work - it can be clever, funny, somber, boring or whatever, but it has to highlight what the company is like and how the product works. This video will go up on multiple venues (including a YouTube channel for this) and there will be an expanded set of judges. The 4 winners will be judged by the public - and a much expanded panel of influencers (between 10 and 15). The publics vote will count for 50 percent and the expanded panel of judges will count for 50 percent. Out of those four finalists will come one winner who will be the CRM Idol 2011. Not only will this be published widely in all venues, but the winner will get a choice of several prizes which will be announced at the time that the four finalists are announced. They could range from a significant speaking slot at a conference to a meeting with a venture capitalist/angel who might be willing to fund the company to a meeting with a key potential vendor partner. More to come on that later. The combination of the prize with the publicity and the exposure to a significant group of thought leaders all with an easy entry point if you meet the criteria should be worth any small CRMish company's time. Take a chance.

EMEA Version

This is pretty much the same rules (three judges, final video, etc.) but there are a couple of differences. First, it will be only 20 slots. Second, the dates for this as of now are TBD. But watch these venues over the next week or two.

The Entry Criteria

Because many of us are giving up a good chunk of the little free time we have in the summer to do this, this is going to be a hardnosed set of criteria - and woe to you if you take up a slot and don't qualify - seriously. I don't want to get self-righteous, but none of the judges have much time to do non-work related things in a given year and we're giving up two weeks of that to do this, so please do me a favor, only bother if you meet ALL the criteria.

Here they are:

1. The products you show must be commercially available when you show them. No betas. No alphas. No incompletes.
2. You must have 4 referenceable customers. We will most likely send them notes or call them to check, so again, please make sure that they know they are referenceable customers who may get contacted by us.
3. If you are a finalist, you must do the 10 minute video describing your product. Its your call how you do it. It has to be able to be posted on YouTube though. This isn't optional for a finalist. This is a mandatory rule. Otherwise, we can't pick a winner.
4. You must be in an area related to CRM somehow. This could be marketing, sales, customer service, enterprise feedback management, social software, analytics, knowledge management, community platforms, social media monitoring, etc. Customer facing or something that captures customer data. There's a wide range. However, the judges have the final say as to whether or not they think you meet the criteria.
5. Finally, your revenues need to be $12 million U.S. or under.

How to Enter

On April 18, we all will announce through multiple venues the opening of the slots. That means that anyone who meets the criteria who wants to compete should send an email to the email address that will be announced the date we open. In that, please send company name, information about the company and products, the names of the 4 referenceable customers and a contact at your company. Additionally, identify two slot times. If one is taken by the time you send it, then you will get the backup slot. If both are taken, then you're out of luck unless there are slots still available at the end of the slot availability period (roughly 10 days). It is first come first serve then for those who missed - meaning the judges will look at when the emails were sent and if you're early enough, you'll be offered remaining available time slots. If you don't want any of them, then you're out of luck.

The Judges

Finally, the esteemed panels of judges for each event. (click on their hyperlinks for their bios)

In the Americas

• Paul Greenberg
• Brent Leary
• Esteban Kolsky
• UPDATE: We've added, CRM LATAM thought leader Jesus Hoyos to the judges panel in the Americas. YAY! Click on his name for his bio.

In EMEA

• Paul Greenberg
• Laurence Buchanan
• Mark Tamis

Even More Judges....

As I mentioned before there will be an expanded panel of judges for the finals. But I was dissembling a bit. There will actually be two expanded panels of judges for the finals. First, a panel that will consist of roughly 10-15 key influencers which also may (this is still under final discussion) include a venture capitalist or two; and second, a panel that will consist of a like amount of appropriate larger and well established technology vendors and large systems integrators/consulting firms. In other words, those companies that the small companies would love to get in front of anyway. Sitting on these panels, especially the latter, are potential partners and investors.

These will be responsible for 50 percent of the decision on the winner of the competition.

But it doesn't stop there. Wide exposure is going to be the minimum benefit (unless something bad is written, then its not much of a benefit) and so we are bringing in media partners who will non-exclusively carry the entire competition from beginning to end and will be sites from which the popular vote is tallied.

The first media property in is MyCustomer.com, a wildly successful CRM related online digital media outlet in both Europe and the U.S. with, all in all hundreds of thousands of readers.

The 3 full panels - influencers, vendors/consulting and the sponsoring media properties will be announced on April 18 when the "first come first serve" slots open up. The final prizes which will involve, among other things, companies and individuals who are willing to give the winner a crack at getting invested in, will be announced in the midsummer before the Open Season....well, opens on August 14.

That about does it. I'm all written out. So be prepared for this. This could be a big deal. Hopefully this will be both the break that some of you are waiting for and also will show us some of the companies that we should have been watching but weren't. We can close the historic gap and have a great time along the way. Watch for the "sound of the opening bell" coming soon. Remember, first come first served.

Closing the Loop: A New Beginning

Mitch Lieberman, a SCRM thought leader, pointed out to me that I should release this post on July 6, 2010 because it would be one year to the day from my release of "The Stake in the Ground." What a cool idea. Thank you Mitch.

The headline is far more dramatic than the subject matter, sorry to say. But starting this month, now that the Gartner Customer 360 Summit is done, I'm going to be moving further in the direction I already had been planning to which will expand the scope of what I'm doing. I've been intending to make these moves since I finished the 4th edition of CRM at the Speed of Light. So I figured I'd tie up a few loose ends here, make a couple of incomplete announcements and then publicly set the bar to where I'd like to be, which I hope will make me publicly accountable too. If you don't care, don't read. If you do, read on.

Tying Up Loose Ends

Let me, if you don't mind, do some things in public that are G-rated, but important to me and, I would hope, important to the ongoing discussion around social CRM or Social CRM if it matters one way or the other to you.

The Social CRM Definition

Back in 2006 I created the CRM 2.0 wiki and recruited about 170 industry leaders and interested parties to help define what CRM 2.0 was. I thought at the time, naively as it seems to have turned out, that if the industry defined CRM 2.0 now Social CRM, then we wouldn't fall into the trap that we fell into with CRM when it came to self-aggrandizing definitions.

After about 3 years, I took all the extant material I could find, which incorporated all the research I did for the 4th edition of CRM at the Speed of Light, and all the materials from the wiki and I put together what I thought was a relatively democratic definition. I figured I had two years of research materials that were constantly being updated and ended up being an 800 page book. With the book materials, I had the benefit of 60 plus superstar experts in the industry who I respected giving their view on what Social CRM was in the context of their areas of expertise. I had the benefit of the participants who contributed to the wiki who were in the book in some cases and weren't in others. But, I thought, I had a fairly solid foundation for laying out a broad definition of what Social CRM was.

Based on that foundation, I presented the following definition that I published in its first iteration in my post last July "A Stake in the Ground on Social CRM", which, for good or bad, was accepted as a groundbreaking and seminal post - and the definition seemed to achieve some widespread acceptance.

Here it is:

"Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation."

I thought and said frequently that I thought it was awkward, it introduced a couple of new concepts - such as social characteristics - one that I'll be writing on more frequently in the coming period - but that all in all it was a decent enough job for a first draft. Kind of, in my mind, a release to manufacturing level draft.

Jokingly - yes, jokingly - I identified the final sentence "its the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation" as the "tweetable definition." In retrospect that was a big mistake. But I'll get into that in a minute.

Over time, that tweetable definition evolved from ...the customer's ownership of the conversation", to "the customer's control of the conversation."

What has been utterly staggering, eye popping, mind blowing and any other expressive statement that fits the bill, is that the "I was just calling it tweetable as a joke" part of the definition led to a series of sometimes direct and other times thinly veiled attacks. Some of which are no problem - they are disagreements. Others which are clearly personal. But the focus is always on the tweetable definition, not the definition as a whole - which contains the tweetable sentence, folks. The tweetable "its the customer's control of the conversation, while meeting the 140 character brainpower limit requirement, is not the definition. Just thought I'd say it again for the 4th or 5th time in this piece.

Some examples:

• There was big to do about the notion of the customer's "control" of the conversation. WTF...? What that means, in the context of the definition as a whole is truly simple. The customer has ability to affect business of a company in a way that is outside company's control via channels the company doesn't own. Period. This is not some statement about a neo-fascist control of the entire business of a company by the customer. It doesn't mean that the customer has a dog collar around the business, pulling it around while saying "Hey business, you're my bitch now." How stupid would I be to think that? No business that I've spoken to thinks that "customer control" means that. As I've stated countless times, businesses still have their own operational requirements and corporate objectives to meet. Customer behavior has changed over the past 6 or 7 years as has customer expectations. The idea of the "social" customer is just recognition of that change. Businesses have to respond to the change or they will suffer. I wrote 800 pages on it with the 4th edition of CRM at the Speed of Light and I defy any of those who disagree with me to come up with anything I've said in those 800 pages or outside them that talks about some absolutist control by the customer over the business. Its simply recognition of a power shift toward the customer in who can affect who more.

  BTW, Mike Boysen's recent great post on the issue of customer control really is what is sparking me to deal with this.

• The veiled attacks are the worst but then again - for example someone using the sequence that went something like this (This is a paraphrase) "Seeing SCRM as a philosophy or a strategy is esoteric." This was one of those veiled attacks, since I'm the ONLY person who uses philosophy and strategy in a sequence at all. So that's a bit low. But what is really the key here is how ANYONE can possibly think that strategy is esoteric? That is a dangerously wrongheaded view. SCRM is a strategy for customer engagement - which no one but apparently one person I think would disagree is a key component of corporate strategy in the 21st century. Don't call it Social CRM if you don't want. Who cares? But recognize that outlooks, frameworks, programs, and strategies for engaging customers are necessary components of business thinking and operations for contemporary success.

There are many other definitions of Social CRM out there that are every bit as good or better than mine. Mike Fauscette's for example. Take the one that you want or the pieces from the ones that you want. Create your own if that's the way you roll. But I need to do two things so I can, one year after I said I was going to move on, move on for good to where I need to be. So let me say the following:

1. Forget focusing on the "tweetable definition" as if its the whole definition. I said that it was tweetable as a joke. That last sentence is a. intimately tied to the entire definition and b. is not a literal statement but one that is a concentrated metaphor, explained by the entire previous part of the definition. PLEASE do me the honor of thinking of it that way. Otherwise, I feel cheap (Sniff. Sniff...)
2. So, given that, and now that I have to get past the "tweetable definition" thingee, I've made a couple of small tweaks to the definition that a. serves it well, given what I now realize I should have said and b. Puts the tweetable definition to rest. Here 'tis.

   "Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company's programmatic response to the customer's control of the conversation."

   Note the small tweaks. First, control now "officially" replaces "ownership in the last sentence. Plus I've added the word "programmatic" to that same final sentence. The reason for that is I realized that what was missing in the definition was the idea of a defining yet dynamic framework for that engagement. A strategy is not enough. You have to institutionalize the strategy and create a framework to execute the plan - i.e. a program. That's not an unimportant change. Plus, as far as ownership v. control - the latter is simply a more accurate term. Hopefully that gives you more to chew on. Enough from me on that.

   What I Need to Say One More Time

   I said it a year ago and I'll say it again. We have a job to do. SCRM is now at least a mainstream discussion. It doesn't mean that its suitable for all companies; it doesn't replace CRM; it doesn't mean that if a company doesn't have a holistic SCRM program that encompasses every aspect of it, it's doing something wrong. Piecemeal or partial programs are perfectly appropriate for many companies - as long as the implications are understood. If you read CRM at the Speed of Light's most recent edition, you'll note that each chapter can be an entity unto itself. While the book is designed to be a holistic continuum that stitches all the pieces of an SCRM strategy into place, you can draw on the engagement strategy that would affect sales or marketing or customer service or the enterprise value chain, or the cultural effect and, I hope still get some benefit from that. I worked hard to make the book work that way. Realistically, just as in traditional CRM, few companies ever adopted an overall program that encompassed a complete picture. They tended to focus - and tend to focus - in one area be it sales or customer service. How you go about crafting the strategy for that one area - with a recognition of its impact on other areas of the company - is still part of SCRM planning. But there is nothing wrong with implementing "pure" traditional CRM or even "pure" social media. What you think you need to do, you should do. The best that folks like me and others of our ilk can do is show you the big picture, the use cases, the frameworks, the potential pitfalls, etc. and give you some guidance. As much as we have a whole group of folks out there in the CRM/SCRM world on a self-aggrandizing mission, the reality is that its your business and your decision on how you want to support your current and future customers.

   That has a whole lot to do with at least my next phase, the one that I thought I would head into after I finished CRM at the Speed of Light, 4e. Took me a lot longer but I'm ready now. Much of what you see here will launch in August, some a little later.

   The Next Phase

   This is an expansion that has a purpose. I think its time to move the discussion to the level of "how do you do that?" Or, "how did you do that? But then again, I've thought that before too. A lot of good it did (that's kind of a Yiddish sarcasm).

   What has been incredibly exciting to me is that there is a significant body of knowledge out there waiting to be harvested that reflects the success of "SCRM thinking'. There are jobs that didn't exist in any significant way several years ago (e.g. community manager) that are now proliferating. There are books out on aspects of how to do pieces of SCRM from social marketing to traditional implementation to business strategy and SCRM is entering the curriculum as the foundation for some CRM courses. There are case studies that are examples of colossal success and monumental failure. These are companies that have attempted social solutions to customer service, sales, and marketing to one degree or the other.

   what I'm going to do is harvest that vast as yet untapped - or at least unorganized - knowledgebase and bring you the stories of success and failure from the perspective of the practitioner and/or the vendor and/or the strategist. In other words, I'm going to look at the real world attempts that are going on out there and then bring them into focus for those of you who are interested in learning from those who do - and those who teach.

   So my strategy for your engagement (and I hope enjoyment - nothing says I can't do this with a sense of humor) involves a program of expansion with a myriad of parts. Here's the plan.

   Two New Podcasts

   Thing is, I love podcasts and I think that we're spending an incredible amount of time blogging and little doing shows in this great medium. Aside from CRM Playaz, what do you listen to that reflects the CRM or SCRM industries? Name one. Well, my plan is to have two regular shows - one a revival of what I did a couple of years ago - Experience on the Edge and the other a new show called "The Real Deal."  Here's the plan:

   Experience on the Edge

   This show, replete with music and riffs will be my solo with a guest host occasionally. The idea will be similar to what it was when I last did it - in 2008 - which is an edgy take on the CRM industry including vendors - with their successes but also no holds barred razor barbs at them if need be. It will be in segments (still a little loose when it comes to what they will be but...) which will roughly break down to the

   1. The intro including music
   2. an opening commentary and what’s upcoming on the show 
   3. a discussion on news of the week
   4. Some thematic editorial
   5. Lists of Top 5 good or bad - hopefully listener submitted and finally
   6. a closing
   . This doesn't mean I won't completely deviate from the format and do a special show on something like attendance at a vendor show or something of topical interest. I will. I'll also have a guest host occasionally chosen by me from friends, interesting people or listeners.

   The Real Deal

   This one is a little more nebulous as far as the format goes. Rest assured, music will play a part in this one. No doubt. The big idea is that I will deal with how it is being done via case studies and who is doing it via interviews of people well known or not, who are doing the actual jobs or on the receiving end of the SCRM/CRM particulates. Will this show be segments - meaning say, a case study and then an interview associated with it? Maybe. Will it be a case study and an interview of some SCRM related person doing an SCRM related job? Maybe. Or something in between. Maybe. I haven't decided. Preferences out there can be put up as comments or sent to my email at [email protected].

   One thing of big general importance. These two podcasts are going to be carried exclusively (for now) on one or more of Robin Carey's Social Media Today properties. Why? Because I think they are terrific and not overwhelmed by the self-promotional efforts of some of the folks on the other properties. The SMT properties are compelling, get excellent traffic and are thematically clear. And Robin is just a great person, which has bearing on my decision. I'm thrilled and honored that they've agreed to do it.

   A New Blog - "Science of Business, Art of Life"

   I've made the statement many times that the only reason that CRM is interesting to me is that its the only science of business that attempts to reproduce an art of life. That would be the art that's involved in crafting good human relationships. CRM itself attempts to figure out an approach, a methodology and a program that will recreate how humans interact in good ways - but in what is a constrained business environment. This led me to thinking about the expansive nature of that statement "science of business, art of life" really is. It could be product reviews, business methodology, the underlying geometry of natural design, a discussion of psychology that extends beyond the usual Abraham Maslow "hierarchy of needs" that is out there once in awhile in a business environment. It could be how surrealism represented not only an artistic genre but a political movement. Etc. Hell, it could be about whatever it is feel like talking about - as long as the human psyche, human emotions, personal interactions and business consequences are somewhat involved. That gives me something of a wide range now, doesn't it?

   The idea is simply to write on big picture or smallest of the small issues in a lot less constrained way than, say, ZDNet or PGreenblog requires me. Katy Perry, anyone? No one? Okay, Woody Allen anyone?

   The CRM Playaz

   Needless to say, CRM Playaz remains near and near to my (and Brent's) heart. We're working on the best ways to take this full time to video. For example, we're thinking of doing a show using iPhone 4s Facetime video phone capability. Once. Otherwise, be prepared for a kick ass new "season" of our usual cogent but irreverent conversation including CEO Smackdown. More announcements later.

   Business Model Changes? Market Research/White Papers, Reviews etc.

   I've wanted to bring products to the market that were not the usual thought leader fare but more along the lines of market research. I've done it though I can't say, candidly, that I have a proscribed methodology that has a hyphenated name associated with it. What I do have is market knowledge and an extensive network and I know how to construct a valuable survey. That said, I'm going to partner with various people like Brent Leary, Esteban Kolsky, Denis Pombriant and perhaps the Altimeter Group folks (none of them know this BTW, but I can dream can't I?), to do joint market research projects - if, of course, they'll have me. And with others who might be interested - let me know this year folks if you can. I'll also "donate" my URL "www.socialcrmreview.com" to the endeavor so there will be site that can handle the content made available non-exclusively too. Things like case studies, or interesting (free) market trends analysis, or even potentially "for sale" information. This isn't a fully formulated idea but one that you can be assured I'll be involved with by 2011.

   SCRM and Government 2.0

   As the fall begins to hit and leaves begin to turn, you will be hearing more from me and my brother, who just did a star turn at the Gartner Customer 360 conference in his discussion on Virtual USA and SCRM in the Public Sector. We are going to put together an important venture to bridge the gap between Social CRM and the Government 2.0 crowds – and thinking.  Got you curious?  Stay tuned.  More pretty soon. Work is underway on the construction of our gameplan. 

   The University of Toronto CRM Center of Excellence/Institute for the Future of Business and the Customer

   This one is a big one to me. I've been asked to help spearhead the University of Toronto CRM Center of Excellence which will launch officially in the fall. I am on the Board of Advisors and am honored and excited to be a part of this. For those of you I've actually spoken to, this is a dream for me. Several years ago, I came up with the idea of creating what I was calling the Institute for the Future of Business and the Customer (IFBC). But I didn't really move ahead with it because I was so busy, I slated 2011 to make a serious attempt, though I did make several smaller and ultimately abortive attempts at it.

   Then along comes Frank Falcone, the Canadian CRM lead for Microsoft and boom, there is a permutation of what I've been wanting to get involved with for years! He convinced the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, to their incredible credit, to create a CRM Center of Excellence that would not only provide the curriculum of the future for CRM and SCRM, but also do the research to establish the frameworks, etc. in a neutral, agnostic environment. Wow. I will be heavily involved in this. More coming very very soon on this one.

   NOTE: While writing this I am watching Paul McCartney do a free live streaming AIDS prevention concert in Hyde Park in London. What amazes me is the power of music, McCartney and the Beatles. He sang "All My Lovin'" and then as he was, the cameras were panning over the audience and all these kids who could be his (and my) children or even with a stretch - grandchildren - are sitting there singing it word for word and CRYING - and I mean there were a lot of them crying, tears streaming down their face that weren't any older than maybe 25. They aren't old enough to remember the Beatles but such is the beautiful amalgam of music, history and emotions that it gets to the deepest part of the soul of any one of us as a human being, not as a member of a generation.

Following On More Than Friday: The Experts Worth Checking Out

Note: I'm actually on a vacation, just finishing an incredible cruise through the Mediterranean and now on Day 2 of a 3 day stay in Barcelona. All in all a dream vacation to tell you the truth. Best ever. But I HAD to finish this post. An addiction. If I left you out and I actually do follow you as an expert, I apologize and will update this list in the near future. Forgive me. I'm loving this trip to much to worry about the rest of it all. Also, please let me know who teaches you. Not just who you read but who teaches you something of value - and moves you forward. Either ZDNet or PGreenblog which will have this post will be great for the comments. Please.

There’s was this list going around a few weeks ago that seemed to be saying that somehow those on it were "the" SCRM Top 50 "experts." After seeing yet another list of another group of experts or influencers in CRM, I realized I'm having a problem with all of these lists. The problem isn't who's on the list, though about 20% of the people on it, I've never heard of - which is highly unlikely if they are influential. The bigger problem I have with lists like this is in this case is that a list like this is now calling the chosen ones on it, "experts." This particular list is saying that the top 50 SCRM experts are sorted by a combination of some sort of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn followers, friends and other connections. Hopefully, the use of the word "experts" here was a poor unconscious choice of words, because I'm hard pressed to understand how these criteria are linked to expertise.

Look, I have a really hard time seeing a combination of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn compadres as a measure of influence,much less expertise. How this T+F+L combo scrubbed with an algorithm or two qualifies someone as an expert, I'll never know. (hat tip to Groucho Marx). I just get the feeling that even beyond this list (no offense intended, list producers), we are reducing the value of expertise to something that means "someone will listen to you beyond your mom and/or dad." All it seems to need in the world of Social CRM is a comment in an #scrm hashtag or some SCRM related keyword in combination with retweets, Facebook wall posts and god-know-what on LinkedIn to be anointed the god of an industry. Now to the authors credit, they said in their post to not take the numerical order of the list seriously. Which I didn't.

Whatever.

It’s just not the way I roll. Or most of the people I know either.

Please forgive me if I sound somewhat grouchy, but I’m seeing lists like this everywhere that are based on some quantitative calculation that are then being acclaimed as definitive. Reality is that they aren’t definitive and they actually provide little value and more confusion than not.

Here’s my take on all of this. The value of an expert is that they are able to teach someone something in a way that the person learning can understand. In other words, not only do they have depth in a discipline or domain of some sort, but they also think about who their audience actually is and what they do and how they live and, most of all, how they think. The reality is that each person, regardless of their proximity to a particular demographic, thinks differently than the next person. They think in different metaphors. The expert – at least the experts that I think deserve that designation are those that think about that audience. They aren’t just people who spout stuff about a subject or who build up a big Twitter following or who have lots of Facebook friends. They are people who have an expertise that they can impart in the metaphors of their audience so that their audience really understands what they are trying to say. These are people who think about doing that too.

The people that I’m going to recommend here are those I look to for learning. They are the ones who actually teach me something. They don’t just rehash others stuff, they don’t spend their lives arguing their picayune niggling gripes about "definitions"; they aren’t in business to maneuver themselves into leadership positions. They don't backstab or spit at others due their own inadequacies. They've become experts because they've earned the recognition, not because they are trying to get it.

These experts have ideas that create the seeds of new concepts, or they provide unique frameworks in how they look at a subject, or they are able to advance a discussion in a way that didn’t seem possible twenty minutes before I read the article/post etc. They are thinkers who love ideas and love executing on the ideas. I look to different ones for different things. There are many others who I read that I enjoy but they aren’t the ones that consistently move me to another place in how I’m thinking about something. The ones that I’m highlighting are those that do make me think differently more often than not. I'm going to specify what each does - for me, at least. Others who aren’t on the list, please don’t take offense. Its quite possible I simply forgot to include you - and for that I blame a senior moment or two. Or I enjoy reading what you're saying and on occasion you too move me to new concepts and ways of thinking. But the ones here are the ones who consistently move me to change how I think and change what I think about, and they are my gods and goddesses.

I've listed them by category – The links to their name are to their blogs. Or barring that, to their twitter handle. They are in no particular order at all. All of these are regular or semi-regular bloggers or writers. These are not book authors who don't blog much. That means you won't see Joe Pine II or Lior Arussy here since they don't blog enough - even though they are expert when it comes to customer experience. Folks like them will get a separate post when I lay out the books that affected my life and impacted what I think in business. They also are not those who own the social sites or the aggregators, so you won't see Robin Carey or Bob Thompson here, both of whom are true influencers. Also, for those here, there are overlaps with some of these guys being experts in multiple categories but I’m only putting a person in one category. There is room for only so much knowledge between my ears before it fries my brain.

Social CRM

1. Ray Wang
- Ray is not only one of the most astute enterprise analysts I've ever met but he has a solid grasp of Social CRM and how to apply it in the real world which is something that is painfully needed in business now. He also has a heart of gold and a great head for business. He was voted the equivalent of the Analyst MVP two years running for good reason. He is one of the few must-always-read-even-if-you're-in-a-hurry pundits around.
2. Esteban Kolsky
- This man will frame you. Well, okay, so I'm taking some dramatic license here. He is a master at developing the kind of insights businesses need when it comes to SCRM and then creating frameworks that actually make some sense for businesses to apply. He does this on a solid intellectual foundation and a practical history as a former Gartner analyst. Plus he is really very funny.
3. Brent Leary
- He is the master at the application of SCRM to small business. Very few people can even understand how to apply CRM much less SCRM to small biz. Brent does both and straddles both worlds - CRM and small business as an influential. He can be found on the American Express Open Forum, BET, hanging out with Anita Campbell and of course among the glitterati of the CRM world too. Watch his real world examples of small business success carefully. Plus watch our show The CRM Playaz. Wicked.
4. Jeremiah Owyang
- A year and a half ago, Jeremiah was a social media rock star, now he's put the enterprise into his bucket and he's not only learned it but he's actually begun to master it. His insights into companies he's in touch with are not only priceless but actually usable when making technology decisions. I keep learning.
5. Denis Pombriant
- What can I say about Denis Pombriant. For all things SaaS, all things macroeconomic and all things SCRM, he's da man. He is the one who realized that salesforce.com was not only an upcoming company but would be something of a force of nature in the CRM and enterprise world. He called them a "disruptive innovation" when no one else did. Now he's talking about sustainable CRM companies - take heed.
6. Prem Kumar
- this guy is actually the chief SCRM evangelist at Cognizant - a company that is actually beginning to get it and Prem is a guy who totally gets it. He has a keen sense of the technology and a fine sense of the strategy.
7. Mitch Lieberman
- a former VP of SugarCRM, Mitch earned his way up to thought leader even when attached to a vendor. He is an astute analyst who sees SCRM with a depth of perception that most don't. What Mitch does uniquely is take an idea out there and then drive into it so deeply that you can see all the implications and questions that are contained in the idea. Plus he can do it with a sense of irony.
8. Martin Schneider
- Martin has achieved that rare consideration. He is a current vendor employee (senior director in fact) that actually transcends his company's particular interests. Not terribly surprising in his case, since Martin was a leading analyst in CRM prior to his sojourn at SugarCRM. (they seem to spawn these types at Sugar don't they?). He understands Social CRM strategy and writes short cogent pieces on what to be looking at when thinking "strategy." Not many do that - or write as well as Martin. Or can play in a rock band as well as Martin. He was even a pro at that!.
9. Mike Fauscette
- I've known Mike for 12 years (he co-authored my very first book with me on PeopleSoft in 1998) and he never ceases to amaze me. Currently the head of IDC's enterprise applications practice, he has perhaps the best grasp of social business in the industry and a laissez faire attitude that I love. He genuinely sees how business needs to run when it comes to CRM and SCRM because he was a practitioner himself and also worked for vendors. His experience is perhaps unparalleled among SCRM thought leaders. And that counts for a lot. Besides, the dude can really write.
10. Brian Vellmure
- Brian is a big idea kind of guy. Look to him when you want to know the difference between, say, traditional CRM and social CRM or understand a concept like. He makes it easy to understand and makes me think "why didn't I think of that?" constantly.
11. Michael Maoz
- Michael is the 800 pound gorilla of the 800 pound gorillas. He is the most utilized Gartner analyst, bar none, I hear tell, and there's a reason for that. He is foresighted - having figured on this social thing for the last 5-6 years. He is ruthlessly honest, not really worrying about anything but doing the best thing and the most honest thing for his clients. And he has a unique take on the social CRM world - one that's actually realistic, rather than some of the fantasies that are floating around. He is one of the few analysts who has truly gotten Social CRM and remained connected to an analyst firm. Michael is one of the Gartner analysts responsible for the new Social CRM Magic Quadrant that they are releasing, I think, at the Gartner 360 CRM Summit, that I'm speaking at multiple times - once with the subject of this particular paragraph. Coolio.
12. Mark Tamis
- Mark is a smart dude. He drills down deeply into concepts ranging from how strategies work (and differ in customer-driven enterprises to the depths of transparency and authenticity. He doesn't write enough but he writes really really well. Moves the needle.
13. Chris Carfi
- Funny, just as I'm writing this, Chris Carfi joined Edelman Digital as a leader of a group there that will handle Adobe and make sure they stay in the social age. There might be no one better suited than that. Chris is arguably the guy who coined the term "social customer" having developed his blog "The Social Customer" some 6 or 7 years ago; long before anyone else was even thinking of what that social customer might be. He is one of the few who started out in the social and CRM worlds simultaneously and managed to magically and accurately stitch the info. A long time compadre of mine who I think has miles to go before he sleeps in the words of the immortal Robert Browning.

CRM

1. Bill Band
- Bill Band, who has had years and years of industry experience is not an expert on Social CRM though he fully understands it. But when you're looking at traditional CRM and its practicalities and how those practicalities are evolving; well, there aren't many who can give you the step by step than Bill does. Forrester is lucky to have him frankly. I only wish he blogged more than he does.
2. Jim Berkowitz
- Jim is the "tool guy" for CRM. Want to get a unique take on vendor capabilities when it comes to enterprise software? JB is your man and reading him is the plan, Stan. (that so dates me.). Jim spends incredible amounts of time understanding how features and functions can be valued when it comes to enterprise software and the businesses that are going to apply it. If you're trying to understand the selection process, he's your man. If you want to know what tools to use, he's your man.
3. Mike Boysen
- Mike Boysen is an iconoclast. A kind of retro-iconoclast who places a great deal of emphasis on what works and what doesn't when it comes to CRM. While he's not convinced that SCRM is going to be the harvest of bountiful plenty that most of us think, he is convinced that it has it's place in the world of traditional CRM where he is an expert - and an expert with a wry sense of humor. A very wry sense of humor. Land on earth is the location for Mike and how he moves the discussion on CRM forward.
4. Don Peppers & Martha Rogers
- I'm only putting them under this category because they are key business strategists who have shaped the industry for decades and continue to make their mark - and I'm not sure where else to put them. They have been a team forever and they have a quality company that comes from quality thinking - and a quality staff. Not only have they been the creators of 1 to 1 relationship marketing - the forerunner of personalized insight and interaction, but they also sparked the industry discussion with their notion of Return on Customer (ROC) - which transcends ROI. Whether you agree with them or not on this (I do with modifications), they moved the needle and continue to do so with their 1to1 publications.

The Enterprise

1. Josh Greenbaum
- Josh is tough. Really tough. I've heard him at vendor conferences asking what are perhaps the toughest questions that vendors will get at any time during the conference. But the answers are translated by Josh in ways that provide what is one of the most coherent voices in the industry when it comes to interpreting the complexity of large enterprise software vendors and the practitioners implementations of the large "stuff."
2. Michael Krigsman
- Michael has a unique role in the world of experts and influencers. He documents failure so that success can be learned. What he's able to do, which no one else can, is identify problems that have damaged other companies and then provide a foundation for not committing the same mistakes twice. He is thorough, thoughtful and has the good of the industry and interested parties in and around it at heart. He is a must follow who helps the industry.
3. Vinnie Mirchandani
- Vinnie is best known for his blog "Deal Architect" (see name link) which covers all things topical and enterprise; but he is best represented by his other blog - New Florence, New Renaissance and his new John Wiley published book out at the end of this month - The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations - which takes a look at innovation and transformation in the business world from the perspective of a renaissance of new ideas. If he weren't a Tampa Bay Rays fan, he'd be perfect.
4. Dennis Howlett
- Dennis is a man of ascerbic wit, passionate belief and devastatingly accurate insight into the enterprise - and he has NO problem saying what he thinks often with a very sharp tongue. He scares companies but actually makes his readers (among them me) think. He is a powerful influencer who understands the enterprise software industry better than most - especially the financial/ERP end of it - and has the chops to prove it.

Co-Creation/Innovation

1. Graham Hill
- Graham is always one step ahead - he is an innovative and brilliant thinker, a no holds barred fighter for new business ideas and someone who makes you think, not about social business 101 but about social business 202. Thing is, he isn't just academic either. He has years and years of experience of doing this for companies. Years. Light years. Check out his Social Business Manifesto from last November, his very last Cust0merThink post. A critical post.
2. Wim Rampen
- Eighteen months ago, I didn't know Wim. Now I do. I'm glad i do, because he is also a key thinker in the co-creation/innovation, social business 202 world. Guy has a brain that must run hot because he is always applying the lessons of co-creation to real life. Not easy to do, given the infrequency of success that the combination has. But he is an optimistic guy who is a forward thinker that simply should be read.

Enterprise 2.0

1. Sameer Patel
- Sameer is an enterprise software industry veteran, who is not only one of the best writers on collaboration out there but also a keen observer of what's going on when it comes to trends. He is someone who gets down to the core of an issue or digs out a strength where others may just gloss over it. He is one of the clearest voices and strongest influences in the Enterprise 2.0 space.
2. Dion Hinchcliffe
- Dion is a superstar. Joining the Dachis Group in April hasn't changed a thing when it comes to his incredibly comprehensive, cogent blog posts - often for ZDNet (see blog link at name). He is someone who blogs less often but when he does, his blog postings are blockbusters. They establish frameworks, interconnections (e.g. between Enterprise 2.0 and SCRM), maturity models, technology models, you name it. What is astounding is how clearly he does it. He is a serious must read in this space. Deep, deep knowledge. Plus an aggregator of resources of the first order.
3. Oliver Marks
- Oliver, who is partnered with Sameer Patel in the E20 space is also someone who you need to read. He is an astute thinker who covers issues in the collaboration space as often as he covers techniques and approaches. Someone who gets down to the core and is scrupulously honest in his assessments with no agenda but reality.
4. Andrew McAfee
- While I'm always called the Godfather of CRM, Andrew McAfee is the father of the Enterprise 2.0 - and has been since his 2006 publication in the Sloan Management Review of Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration. Honestly, aside from his deep commitment to the Boston Red Sox, the man has nothing wrong with him. He is the guy who created the SLATE model of E20 (see the article) and made the idea of using social tools internally at a company, not just interesting, but de rigueur. Someone that you must pay attention to because what he says in his writings and books is just right and provocative. Just get a load of his latest blog posting on the iPad, which is awesome, ascerbic, funny and pointedly right. He sits on the curve in a way that makes the curve move ahead of itself. If you catch my drift. But that Red Sox thing.....

Journalists

This category bears explanation. These are the journalists, some who blog, some who write regularly for publications - all of whom have a leadership position in the CRM and SCRM world one way or the other. Each of them is a terrific writer as well as an original thinker. Each of them, to one degree or another, falls into that hazy space between journalist and analyst, meaning they are journalists with a well formulated opinion. Their advantage over analysts is that they write better. You should follow them. You have to. You NEED to. You want to. When I snap my fingers, you will. AND you will feel refreshed, as if you came out of a deep and satisfying sleep.

Oh yeah, since they aren't all bloggers regularly, I'm going to point you to their articles if need be in the link of their name.

1. Josh Weinberger
- Josh is flat out brillant, insightful, always on top of the CRM/SCRM industry and actually practically conversant with all the tools of the trade, ranging from the software that runs businesses to the B2C stuff we are now discovering might have business value such as Foursquare. Read anything you can of his. Just do it.
2. Chris Bucholtz
- Chris Bucholz makes the industry a bit stronger for his range of knowledge, his writing skills and his sense of humor. He is actually the former editor of InsideCRM now the editor and chief writer for Aplicor's Forecasting Cloud - a compendium of daily writings in CRM, ScRM and even some ERP as of late. But don't let his cogent thinking get buried in all the other writing. Even if he wrote alone it would be worth it.
3. Ginger Conlon
- Ginger is someone who tries to keep her profile low (she is currently editorial director of 1to1 Publications) but can't because she is so good at thinking about things. I asked her to contribute to CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th edition, because I think so highly of her. She is a veteran of the industry, though not very old, with a background as editor-in-chief of CRM Magazine in her past. AND she gets all the social stuff. All of it.
4. Marshall Lager
- Marshall is something unique in the CRM industry. A great writer, with a rapier wit who has made the transition from pure journalist to analyst/consultant without losing an iota of his writing skills - making him well qualified to get across the ideas that he has to.
5. David Sims
- This guy might well be the most literate journalist with an opinion in the enterprise software world - and possibly the funniest. Thing about David, who has been writing for years - for TMC as a columnist and blogger, CustomerThink, etc. is that he has strong opinions and is an original thinker, but he does it with a literary humor that both enhances and masks the insight. He is SO worth reading. I've been a devoted fan (and friend) for years of this man. You should be (both) too.
6. David Myron
- David is a tone setter. As jefé of CRM Magazine, and one or two other Infotoday properties, he is not only doing what superb editors-in-chief do (don't forget I have a degree and an editorial work history in journalism, so I know what it takes to be an editor-in-chief), juggling all the time, but his editorial content sets not only the magazine's pace, but often sets the industry's pace. Be aware, be very aware of what David says.

Analytics, Measurement

1. Michael Wu
- Michael is the Principal Scientist of Analytics (for real) for Lithium and its rare I read someone who understands analytics better and more...analytically than Michael. For example, he actually is looking at what makes for identification of a true influencer - rather than the gross oversimplification that's going on now with T+F+L = Superman as the going industry standard. He shows me something new in the world of analytics, without any overt Lithiumesque interest in the writings. Most recently he is distinguishing between communities and social networks in a two part post. Part 1 and Part 2. Gotta read this dude.
2. Jim Sterne
- Not only is Jim Sterne one of the granddaddies (metaphorical, peeps, metaphorical) of Web analytics - and the president of the Web Analytics Association, but he is now a pioneer in social media analytics, the current author of a successful book in the field called "Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment" and is a constant presence in the refining of these newly developed metrics.
3. Dr. V. Kumar
- Even though he's really more of an author than a blogger - in fact, I don't think he has a blog, I'm going to break my protocol and include him here because he had such a seminal influence on my thinking when it came to the measurement of advocacy. I always knew that Net Promoter Score, while a good start, was hardly sufficient for measuring the social customer's power in and value to business. When he extended Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to include Customer Referral Value (CRV) among other measures and asked four questions with number 1 being NPS - would you recommend this company to someone you know - I thought - 'ohhh-kay". But it was question 2 that was both an epiphany and a "duh" moment - "Did you recommend this company to someone you know?" that I knew that I loved this man. He is a distinguished marketing professor at Georgia State University, the executive director of the GSU Center for Brand Experience Excellence and a must read. His book is "Managing CUstomers for Profit" and its a great start to a new version of measure for social business.

Social Media

1. Brian Solis
- Hard not to think of Brian. He's a vibrant, visible presence and what I've always called one of the "Big 3" of social...whatever. (The other two are the aforementioned Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Brogan). He's easily one of most influential and most respected guys in the world of social media and is spending serious time putting thinking about Social CRM and what he sees as a successor to it, SRM. While I can't say I can fully buy into the SRM side of it, I do fully buy into Brian. Also, he is so active in social media that people forget that he is a highly successful PR guy and his blog PR 2.0 is actually fascinating. Plus he has a new book out called Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web which is a social marketing book more than a social media one. And really, really good.
2. Paul Gillin
- I've known Paul since he was the Executive Editor of SearchCRM about 7 or 8 years now. Not only is he an expert in CRM, but he is also an expert in social media from a standpoint that few others are. First, he has a B2B knowledge that is unparalleled in social media. Second, his expertise is eminently practical. Meaning he is not theorizing on definitions of things, he is telling you how to do something. Want to blog? Here's how, here is the supporting arguments on its behalf to your left brained boss, your right brained boss and your colleagues. Here are what you can and can't do...you get the picture. He has two books out now, The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media and Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! and a third coming in January 2011 on social marketing.He is also the only columnist I read religiously in B2B Magazine - even with my secular behavior.

Sales

1. Anneke Seley
-Anneke wrote a book on Sales 2.0 and she blogs on sales 2.0 and she knows sales 2.0 better than you do. She is a long time industry veteran with insight and is a delightful person. You'd think the latter is enough to make you want to make you read her blog but, honestly, her insights are the real reason.

Customer Service

1. Natalie Petouhoff
- I've known Dr. Nat for years. Many years. Though she's a lot younger than me. She is formidable. Tres formidable. While she is currently heading up all social media efforts at Weber Shandwick (good move, WS), she is still one of the foremost experts in "social" customer service that you will find in the world. She has a solid research background and methodology, an intuitive sense of what's right when it comes to treating customers well that overlays that, and is just a good person who is able to turn that goodness into something substantial and interesting. I'm not sure where her new position will take her, but I'll follow.

Marketing

I can't say that I really can find anyone that rocks my boat here though there are many that I read ardently. I think this is a transformational period and there's a lot of both good stuff and noise out there but I can't clearly distinguish one from the other yet, so I'm going to leave this category alone. Though some of my social media experts are also marketing guys - so just reiterate them.

Public Sector/Politics

1. Andrew Rasiej
- This guy is amazing. He not only runs PDF - the Personal Democracy Forum - one of the most influential progressive institutions in the country - with an activist bent - but also is one of the jefés of TechPresident, which could be the most significant political blog in the country. He's also a true New Yorker - acerbic and honest and an ardent Yankees fan. A perfect person.
2. Alan Weber
- This guy, now at Altimeter Group with Ray Wang, Charlene Li, Jeremiah Owyang and a host of other superstars, has serious chops when it comes to the comings and goings of the public sector and the future of government as it links to the new technology paradigms. I have to say that I almost envy his depth of knowledge, ability to extract information from sources and his analytical skills. Public sector ain't easy to decipher yet, somehow he does it.
3. Alan Rosenblatt
- Alan is the Associate Director for Internet Advocacy at the Center for American Progress - the most powerful progressive think tank in Washington DC (I sit on their New Media Board of Advisors). Alan is also a tireless champion for constituency engagement utilizing the new social tools to empower citizens. He blogs for multiple sites including TechPresident, the CAP blogs and the Huffington Post. The man has mad advocacy knowledge and skills and if advocacy is something you think is important, whether in politics or business, then Alan is your man. Just read him, and if you meet him, offer him a single malt and you'll get the conversation you're looking for.

Mobile

1. Sheryl Kingstone - Sheryl works for Yankee Group. She is the Yankee Group star (no disrespect to any other Yankee Group analysts when I say this). She is the analyst most responsible for "the Anytime Anywhere Enterprise" that Yankee espouses - which of course includes a mobile component. Sheryl has been one of my ongoing beacons for mobile trends for as long as I can remember -which of course means since she was about 6 years old. I trust her thinking and judgment.
2. Michael Gartenberg
- Michael has been a bastion of mobile insight forever and a little longer. He is now at Altimeter, was at Forrester and was always someone that people just listened to. Among them me. For me, in the mobile world, he (and Sheryl) are it. 'Nuff said.

Others

These are those who either defy classification or who's category doesn't include that many but are exceptional thinkers who are actually ahead of the curve.

1. Doc Searls
- Doc is in his own category - and that would be Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). In principle, VRM is an important addition to the scholarship of social business. It helps define the customer's individual behavior when it comes to all businesses that he/she interacts with - in reality or potentially. It dovetails from my standpoint with what I call the personal value chain of an individual customer. Doc, one of the authors of the seminal Cluetrain Manifesto, drives VRM like no one else. Whether or not it becomes the "movement" (the labor movement for customers) it should be, remains to be seen. But what doesn't remain to be seen is Doc Searl's importance in the social business landscape.
2. Thomas Vander Wal
- What can I say about Thomas Vander Wal? He is the father of folksonomy and social tagging. He is the person who developed the social stack that I use for my discussion of social characteristics in enterprise software (that is software mimicking human behavior). He is constantly evolving new ideas on how to humanize the software and business processes that are supporting 21st century business so that business is able to gain greater insight into their customer base. YO'd be wise to read him because if you do, you'll be ahead of the curve - one that your business needs to be ahead of.
3. Lisa Stone
I love this woman (you know what I mean). She is a co-founder of Blogher, recently named one of 2010's 100 most creative people in America by Fast Company and one of the most generally astute bloggers anywhere. I am a fan who simply loves what she does. Its also nice that she's the significant other my my dear friend and influencer mentioned above Chris Carfi, making me thrilled to know them individually and as a couple.

Vendors Who Have Blogs that Transcend Pitches

I'm not going to go into a breakdown of each of these except to say that please check them out. Each of them has a unique perspective that's interesting and transcends their merely mortal business interests, though clearly doesn't ignore them. In the case of SAP, they have so many blogs that I've chosen the properties of SMT that they are the chief sponsors for and have some of their staff writing for. Also, interestingly enough, I'm noticing that the blogs that I do follow in marketing are mostly vendor blogs. Not sure what to make of that except that the marketing industry is still working it all out.

Okay. All in all, I've got the links for you. Click and read. Follow the yellow brick road.

1. Lithium
2. Attensity
3. SAP
4. Infusionsoft
5. Eloqua
6. Radian6 - in this case, look at the bottom of the page for their extensive list of blogs and podcasts
7. SugarCRM
8. Aplicor

Thank You – Beyond Anything CRM

Every now and then, something strikes me rather deeply - deeply enough to emit an outright gasp of an unshaped, almost unrecognizable emotion. Some times it's flash of insight into a problem or idea I've been wrestling with for a long time. Sometimes it's a welling up of a feeling that leans in the direction of tears but because it's not clear whether they're tears of joy, sadness, or something far more profound but indiscernible, it's-not-quite-that either. The latter whatever it is can be triggered by anything from a movie to a real act of human kindness to a simple human gesture or look that I notice when watching someone else.

I don't exactly know why these moments trigger these ethereally shaped emotions but they do.

I had one while sitting on the plane from San Francisco back home to Manassas VA about 10 days ago. I imagine I can equate it somehow to SCRM or CRM or something but I think it would be an artificial construct.  I think as you'll see if you care to read this that it has everything to do with human relationships - at least my human relationships. But please bear with me and understand that if you want to take this any further it's gonna be kind of rough-edged because I have to grapple with explaining something that was momentary, fragmentary and yet is compelling me to want to publicly say it.

What happened was this. I was thinking about my trip which was highly unusual because I interacted or maybe intersected is a better word 4 vendors in 4 days and with 3 of them in 1 day. Invited to those events were a significant number of analysts and journalists, sometimes with one vendor for the first time - but the zillionth for the second vendor. In some cases, the vendors invited different people, but there was a large overlap that was apparent. I would say that 40% of the journalists and analysts were people I saw in that two days at all three events or at least two of the three.

My role varied from event to event. For SAS's Social Media Analytics launch, I was "Press" and there via the PR folks; at the SugarCRM SugarCon conference, I was a keynote speaker; at the NetSuite event I was an analyst. Once again a chameleon - fitting an appropriate budget line.

(Update: Since this was written a bit over a week ago – I’ve been in Seattle again and then to Microsoft Convergence 2010 in Atlanta)

But the experiences at these three events in two cities - Seattle and San Francisco - in a way had a certain oddly sublime quality to them. Not because they were great events - even though each of them was in its own way. But because I realized that these folks that I was interacting with were not just occasional colleagues who I saw here and there, but in many cases, friends - meaning people I enjoyed the company of and would have the backs of no matter what in life they chose to do moving forward. And it just smacked me that this was more important than whatever else I could extrapolate from the events. I hadn't planned on thinking about it that way. Whack. 

Some of this had to do with my last December 60th birthday which I was hoping to pass off as not all that significant but its made me think far more than I ever thought I would about how I conduct my life – at all levels. 

Anyway…..

The environment at these things is always very nice and because we're considered influencers we're treated well. Good dinners, private meetings with senior management, access to stuff, a nice pen once in awhile. But it struck me for some reason harder than ever before that these weren't just analysts, or journalists, or vendor reps. They were people that I actually cared about, people who, over the years, I had forged serious friendships.  For example, I've known Angela Lipscomb at SAS, their star PR person, for 8 years - and my relationship to her is not business per se - though there is always something of that - but absolutely personal and something I’m glad for. I saw Denis Pombriant at all three events - SAS, SugarCon and NetSuite and was just simply incredibly glad to see him - not just to bounce biz stuff off of him, but to find out how his wife and kids are - to see what he's up to – to be available to trade Marx Brothers routines. Or at SugarCon, Martin Schneider who I've known for 5 years. Following my keynote there,  Martin escorted me off the stage almost like a bodyguard so I could get upstairs to do a webinar for Pivotal without stopping and chatting. I thought it was kind of funny at first and then realized - hey, I'd actually trust him to have my back if it came down to something more significant- because I knew I could trust him.

I had dinner the night before I spoke at SugarCon with Mei Li, the SVP of Corporate Communications at NetSuite - just her and me. Why? Because I was one of maybe a dozen or so at her wedding and she is one of my closest friends - and a dear friend of my wife's too. This wasn't for me getting a contract with NetSuite. I don't care about those things. This was two friends catching up on what we don't care to speak to others about.

But it goes on and on.  I think that Brent Leary is not just my partner-in-Playaz but someone that I'm truly glad to know and will be happy to know for the rest of my life. Mike Fauscette, who runs IDC's enterprise business is someone I've known extremely well for 13 years and am simply glad I do - and will.

I have a batch of friends that I've gotten to know much more in the last year or so who I saw at these events - among them Ray Wang, who I consider perhaps the smartest enterprise analyst in the business - but that's not why I like him. I like him because he's got a great sense of humor and most importantly, a big heart. The guy actually gives a damn about other people. Esteban Kolsky, who is among the brightest people I know, also with a great sense of humor and I don't know who in the universe could possibly dislike him - he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Plus he has a take on things that others just simply don't. Iconoclastic with a good nature.

But its more than that. I see people at the conferences that I barely talk to but I know enough to give me some comfort that they are there. Brenna, who was John Roberts executive assistant and now Larry Agustin's at SugarCRM - this year I didn't even speak with her but have in all my past engagements at SugarCON - but I was comforted by the fact that this always very nice person was in the front row - meaning still there - again - listening to me speak another year. Are we close? No. Am I glad I know her. Absolutely.

On the opposite side of that same spectrum, there are those I knew “before…” Particularly my dear friend Nikhil Hasija, a key thinker on SCRM at Microsoft who I just did a joint presentation session with at Convergence yesterday.  Nikhil and I go back to 1997 when he was the star of a Lotus Notes practice that I was running. He is brilliant and I love him and his family to pieces.  Yet, here we are on a stage at Microsoft jointly presenting on SCRM.  Do you realize how lucky that makes me?  I get to do stuff with my friends – in fact, the way it’s working is that I get to make a living doing stuff with my friends. That is beyond even MasterCard priceless. 

It keeps going. There are the senior management of the vendors that I deal with. They’re busy folks. I don’t spend a lot of time talking to them. But, for example, I really like hanging out with Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s CEO.  He’s a cool guy and easy to like. Plus is very good at what he does. 

Keep in mind, I'm barely scratching the surface. Not only doesn't this little paean include those who weren't at the events but not even all of those who were. It doesn't include the friends that I have on Facebook - or at least those I've gotten to truly know. It doesn't include the AC - the Accidental Social CRM backchannel – which has about 20 people who I just think are awesome. It doesn't include Bruce Culbert, who is a member of my family as far as I'm concerned and has been a key CRM influencer for many years. It doesn't include my practitioner client friends - guys like Scott Rogers who I've known for 9 years and is a truly fine human being or....oh, jeez, I could go on and on frankly and wouldn't complete the list even at 1000 names. It doesn’t include the folks who were at vendors I used to deal with a lot and now are at the vendors I don’t deal with much – but they remain my friends – like Jeff Pulver who was VP of Global Marketing at Siebel and now is VP of Biz Development at Workday.   He’s truly my bud. Or John Taschek at salesforce.com who I read from afar for years and then got to know and am grateful I do.

Enough names though because I could easily keep going.

I realize that I'm treated exceptionally well wherever I go – well beyond the norm – for reasons that I wish I could explain but I can't. I'm not saying that to show some level of false humility - I really don't know why people do. But what I do know is that this year, once I passed that 60th birthday, I've had a number of these somewhat fragmentary but seemingly organized emotional wellings and a series of revelations that solidified my thinking about who I am, where I sit in this vast universe and what matters to me. All of these revelations and less identifiable emotional upheavals - especially this one - have been related to the personal relationships I've established in my life – wherever in my life. They've made me incredibly grateful to all these people mentioned here and countless others I didn't name. To all of them and to all of you who have read my stuff, who have sent and continue to send me these wonderful notes thanking me for what I do – you who validate me every day - thank you so much for all of that - and all of this. I don't know what I did to gain your trust and support but I promise you one thing - you have mine - always. I'll do everything I can to be available in any way I can to help. Please remember that - even if I have a bad day, I'll have your backs.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You've helped make my life, not just my day.

Compelling Compilation: Videos That Make the Case for Something

I figured I'd fling a few videos onto this page that make the case for something that touches Social CRM or the customer experience or whatever else I feel like putting up. :-)

#1 First up, a really powerful case for the transformation of communications via social media from John Dodge of PC Pitstop. Its called Socialnomics 09 and it just throws stats at you that makes you think that we're on to something.

#2 Next, a video that make you realize how much impact the use of technology in compelling ways can impact the brand experience with the customer. What Ross Ching did with this video is use the Ken Burns effect (making still shots seem to be moving) in combination with amazingly well done presentation of the lyrics superimposed on the photos/videos and as a result, you get a wow that makes you want to do business with Ross Ching.

Death Cab for Cutie - Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

#3 Finally, Derek Jeter's 2722 hit at Yankee Stadium to surpass Lou Gehrig. The important thing (besides me being the Yankees fan I am) is the crowd's interaction with Jeter. There is a powerful message that gets transmitted here - how the unique confluence of multiple individuals is able to interact as a "hive community" with a single human being. Even though the crowd is a structured but organic social organization it speaks with a single voice and communicates with an individual person in this instance. I'm not sure entirely how to think about this but its powerful when it comes to structuring a customer experience that can affect others. It also means that a "company like me" is a possible concept. It also means that the Yankees are by far the best organization in baseball and the fans are awesome! :-)

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