Kindle Not Competing with iPad

I was very happy to read yesterday that Amazon's Kindle is not being positioned to compete directly with Apple's iPad.  Rather than beef up the features it would need to position itself along side the iPad as a multi-use tool, the newest versions of the Kindle will increase it's advantage where the iPad is weakest: it will be much cheaper (starting at $139), lighter (8.5 oz), and thinner (1/3 of an inch), making it the most accessible and convenient e-reader on the market.  For more details check out this link.

I think this is a smart strategy.  We've seen countless brands try to compete with the iPhone to become the smartphone leader, and most of them fail because they try to compete with Apple at what it does best: develop innovative, high-quality products that can do many things pretty well.  By sticking to their original game-plan Amazon is ensuring that the Kindle continues to be the best e-reader on the market.

If the next few generations of Kindle continue to become cheaper and lighter I bet most iPad users will own Kindles too!

Social Media Blues

It's been really difficult to find time to blog for the last few weeks, and I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better.  I'm taking a couple of evening classes that have turned out to be more time consuming than I expected, plus I've taken on a slightly larger role at work.  Add in a little time for exercise (including the mountain bike I bought recently), and a very little time for relaxation, and I'm spent!  I definitely enjoy blogging, especially when inspiration strikes, but lately it seems like I've been rushing through it so I can move on to the many other things I need to accomplish. 

Really I've been having the same problem with all of my social media.  It was fun when it was shiny and new, but there are days and even weeks when it's hard to keep up.  I recently removed a few blogs from my reader in an effort to stay current on others.  My communications on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have slowed to a crawl as well.  I'm hopeful that at the end of the month my schedule will lighten up for awhile (I have 9 weeks off of classes!), but I'm not sure what to do until then.

Has anyone else had this problem?  How do you approach it?  Do you continue trying to keep up to date on social media, or is it better to take a break once in awhile?

What Is Your Goal?

I just finished reading The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement.   It was an assigned reading for an Operations Management class, and I wasn't looking forward to reading it.  After all, how interesting can a book about business operations be?

Turns out it was quite insightful.  Originally written in the early 1980s, it introduced the Theory of Constraints, a management philosophy that can help organizations to work toward their goal.  It made me wonder how many companies know what their goal is?  How many have identified their goal, but don't effectively work toward it?

Do you know what your goal is?  Are you doing everything you can to achieve it?

Deciding Who You Aren't

Monday I wrote a post asking why customers should choose you instead of your competitors.  It lead to lots of great conversations, particularly one with Mike Klassen in the comments section of that post.  (Not a surprise considering a previous conversation I had with Mike lead to one of my more popular posts.) 

Anyway, the discussions here and in LinkedIn got me thinking about how many companies try to be everything to every customer.  It's a nice idea, but it doesn't work.  In order to find your place in the market you have to decide who you are, and more importantly who you aren't.

• Are you high quality or low price?  
• Are you the fastest or the most reliable?  
• Are you the sexiest or the safest?

Lots of companies do a variety of things reasonably well.  But if you do just one or two things incredibly well then you'll have a much easier time distinguishing yourself from the competition.  Then you'll find customers that appreciate you for who you aren't.

Why You?

Why should someone choose you instead of your competitor?

Are you faster?
Cheaper?
Smarter?
Safer?
More reliable?
More flexible?
More effective?

If you can't answer these questions, your prospective customers probably can't either.

Outsourcing Should Be A Win-Win

My grandfather worked in the same factory for 30 years.  He worked his way up the ladder (and pay scale), and they paid his retirement benefits until the day he died.

Those days are long gone.  Retirement plans have given way to 401Ks.  Employee promotions are pretty rare.  Most companies view their employees as expendable.  Many employees see their employers as nothing more than a means to an end.

Employees often fear their job will be outsourced, and this can be very scary.  However, the best, brightest, hardest working people can see this as an opportunity.  Why should a talented worker be stuck in a dead-end job with company that doesn't care about them?  Instead the top performers can offer their knowledge and skill to a multitude of companies that are willing to pay for their expertise as an independent contractor.

When done effectively outsourcing should be a win-win scenario.  Businesses win because they have someone reliable handling their affairs.  Talented workers win because they work with businesses that understand the value they provide.

The only people that lose are the under-performers.