The second mover advantage

There is a mythology out there that he who moves second has an advantage because you can see all of the mistakes of the first mover, and you get to position yourself where your competitor is not positioned.

Sound advice, great idea... unless you are competing with Apple...

When Apple moves the industry moves with it.They represent the classic example why the second mover advantage should only ever be a fall back position because you were not smart/quick/innovative enough to get there first.

I had a Blackberry. But this wasn't really the first smart phone was it. Looking back on it, it was more like a transitional device between what was (Nokia type stuff) and what was to come. (The iPhone)

Even when the iPhone came out, despite being a bit of a gadget freak, I hung in there with my trusty blackberry. But ultimately I switched. It was inevitable...

Today there are real smart phones every where. A dozen or so that look like the Google Android, a dozen or so that look like Windows 7 and a few other brands. (RIM is a finished force, they just haven't realized it yet)

But I love my iPhone. It does most everything I require, attaches me to the greatest mobile app store and enables me to listen to audio books, watch TV and listen to podcasts.

This is the problem with moving second. If you move second than you need two things in your favour. Dissatisfaction with the incumbent, and a very good reason for people to switch.

If you moved first all you need to do is continue to deliver outstanding products.

Microsoft moved first on the desktop and their product were good enough for the majority of the world to stick with them through several decades. Yahoo thought it was winning the directory game until Google appeared to teach them that they were actually in the Search business.

Think fast, find a niche, protect the heck out of it and drive it home with powerful marketing and services... beat playing catch up.

New directions at the blog...

After working internally with a consulting firm for the last few years I have recently stepped out on my own again.

My company works with engineering issues for asset intensive companies, but it also frees me up to do stuff on this blog as well.

So as part of my new found commitment to all things entrepreneurial, this blog is going to become a journal for my voyage, as well as a center for teaching what I have learned.

In particular I will be hitting on issues related to LinkedIn, Cold Calling, Contract strategies, the first 250k, and a range of other issues.

The focus will still be on consulting issues and problems, but I am changing the name from Consulting Pulse to my own name blog.

Sorry for the hiatus, glad to be back in the seat, and looking forward to the next few weeks.

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Where to start...?

It has been ages since I posted. Life has been busy, and so has work. Not much time right now.

I am testing the new template designer in Blogger, and I really like it. I knew staying with Google products would win out in the end. I no longer care about semantical differences between Blogger and others... for me this remains the easiest, quickest and most personal way for me to write a blog.

After the most grueling of political passages Obamacare has finally become the law of the land in the USA. The entire world watched on as those who were most likely to gain from these changes were goaded into near revolutionary actions by the conservative puppeteers. An amazing victory by THE populist politician of our age.

The iPad just became a reality apparently. I really want one of those. I will even overlook my long awaited ownership of a Kindle in favor of my new iPad. I haven't ordered yet, and I am not really sure why - but I really do want one of these.

Stern Hu was jailed after a closed door court session in China. Stern Hu was an Australian (ex-Chinese) national working for one of the big miners and negotiating with the Chinese. He was accused of taking bribes, held for months, and then tried partly in secret.

Shame on Australia for saying nothing, and shame on the company involved who sacked them as soon as they were found guilty, regardless of how flawed the system / process was.

The GFC seems to be getting better. I have to say that most of it was more about a state of mind than a state of existence. I have never been busier...

And lastly of course, remember my advice on the blogger template designer....

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This week on the web

I thought I would add a Tuesday morning post every week on some of the more interesting and intriguing stuff I have seen on the web lately. Let me know if these are of use or interest and I will keep doing so every week.

Software company completes fundraising using only LinkedIn - The big story that has everyone popping right now. The web is finally starting to come to grips with what B2B marketers and sales have known for 12 months. LinkedIn is THE place for B2B networking and marketing.

More fun than competition - An interesting and true perspective from Chris Brogan about success and competition in the wild word of Social Media. (Or any arena actually)

Xobni.com - Okay, so I am generally the last one to know anything about social media and new fangled applications out there. Xobni (Inbox spelt backwards) is an absolutely brilliant tool that allows you to easily search your MSOutlook, as well as including all your LinkedIn contacts. Very cool. Not enough to make me swear off Gmail, but still cool.

25 High quality new fonts - I am a big fan of design and try to learn as much as I can about some of the arcane practices associated with good design. My design blog of choice is Smashing Magazine and they often run posts with free fonts.

Believe me, it makes an impression when you are doing a presentation with fonts that nobody has seen before.

Why LION's are counterproductive to your networking efforts. One of mine, I liked the theme.

Please leave me some feedback on this post, if it provides you with some interesting information then I will try to do so every week.

Oh yeah, Please RT!! ;-)

Why your Big 5 employer will never get it...

I have been writing a lot lately about cash flow, leveraging IP, and generating passive income streams. No silver bullet here, no great enterprise has ever been started without extraordinary effort.

The world is filled with sole consultants and small agencies that have taken these tools and used them to turn their cash flow trickle into a stream that allows them to work on intriguing stuff, instead of hunting for billable hours.

Yet my entire time working for medium to large consultancies was just one long frustrating exercise trying to get people to buy into these concepts.

The problem is the model. people (Big 5 managers) are hesitant to rock the oat and challenge what made them big in the first place. And thats billable hours.

So instead of generating IP that will earn money without anybody turning up, their whole focus is on generating IP that makes it easier to sell billable hours.

Nothing wrong with that, except that it leaves a lot of potential revenue out there up for grabs.

I am sure there will always b a place for the Big 5 models.

But you have to wonder what happens when SAP style architecture gives way to a collection of small, easy to integrate, flexible SaaS systems?

Or when the remnants of the strategy consulting industry is outsourced, off-shored and democratized?

Or when the last vestiges of decision making processes are just a master card and a few pushbutton clicks away?

Or... when the army of solo consultants and small agencies finally storm the gates....

When things start they are integrated and complete, as they mature they become modular, flexible and diverse. Maybe their time has come?

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Doing one thing exceptionally well...

Being a generalist is good to give you somewhere to hide when specific sectors collapse. But it doesn't inspire awestruck devotion the way being able to play the guitar like this does. (you HAVE to check out that link to YouTube, it will change your view of what the guitar can do)



Tommy Emannuel is a guitar legend. The guy that even the guitar gods of this world speak highly of. Why? because he is a nerd. He lives in his guitar and has played so much his hands look deformed. But god is he good...

I play. Not well, but I can play. I picked it up in high school and just decided that nothing else was going to happen in my life until I taught myself how to play. (Same as how I learned Spanish)

But heres the thing.. I can play that song!! I picked up the beginnings of it from an impromptu lesson he gave on stage here.

Okay... so it doesn't sound quite like Tommy does it... but it still sounds damn good.

Good enough to stop the music at any party I play at, or turn heads in most rooms. I try to stop after it because Stairway to heaven just isn't a great follow up.

This is the benefit of being able to do one thing really, really well. it gets noticed. people sit up and realise that this is how it should be done. 

Whether you are delivering a course, serving wine, playing guitar (another Tommy link) or re-writing code. If you are good at it, really good, stop-still-and-watch-good, people get it. They appreciate it, and they tell others about it.

What is it that you do really, really well? Or what could it be...?

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Quotes and sayings from my time online

This is a little self indulgent, but I wanted to try to capture some of the quotes and sayings I have been thinking of over the past couple of years. 

Twitter, blogging and LinkedIn status updates have made us all learn how to be a lot more pithy than previously, and we are in danger of letting some of these great sayings people come up with disappear into the cyber ether.
On trust:

Trust is like a glass vase. It will withstand a few hairline cracks and still hold water. But once broken it can never be rebuilt again.

A relationship built on trust, once broken, is replaced by doubt, validation and dependence.

Trust is hard to gain. But once somebody trusts you they will give you take your advice, give you repeat work, and even defend your mistakes.

Trust is hard to lose. People will work hard to prove they were right to trust you. But once lost the results will be rapid and dramatic.  

Once you lose somebodies trust they will actively work against you. 

If you can create multiple relationships built on trust you have a lever big enough to move the world.

The oal of trust based marketing is to permanently reduce the time between client acknowledgement and action. 

On business:

No great enterprise has ever been created without extraordinary effort. 

If you cannot come to grips with the mechanics of running a business hen maybe the seeds of greatness are not in you. 

One of the problems with Social media is that there are lots of coaches who have never played 

Time Based Billing = Poverty + No time for you  (Or - you will never become a wealthy consultant selling hours only)

The role of the consultant is to create, find and spread leading practices. 

The worst time to get into a new service area is when everyone else is doing so. 

Every time I see homeless people I think - hope my career goes well. 

Winners never quit and quitters never win. But if you never win and never quit - you're an idiot (Norrowed from somewhere, no clue where)

There has been an incredible increase in the number of things I know nothing about. (Borrowed from a toilet wall when I was 23)

Curiosity killed the cat. Fortunately we aren't cats!

 On marketing:

I have never known it to be the targets fault that you missed it. (Zig Ziglar, I have adopted this one)

Leveraging past work is great! But repackaging the same thing to rip money off people who trust you is a con.

All business is personal. Don Corleone was wrong. Anything else is inauthentic. 

Want to be authentic? Do what you love. 

Be the news not the ads. Be the main story in the middle no tthe distraction on the side. (About PR)

Success = Scarcity + Value + Trust

Ideas are like backsides. Everyone has one and thinks every one else's stinks (No idea where I borrowed that from)

Ridicule is the burden of genius - Daffy Duck

Nothing is so commonplace has the wish to be remarkable - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

I'm sure there are a lo more but I cannot recall them right now. I will update this as I go along. I hope these quotes and sayings were of some value to you at least.

Enjoy your weekend!!

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Kidnapped by the FARC?

About five years ago arrived in Bogota Colombia near dusk.

As you leave the secure area you are greeted by a throng of shouting taxi drivers, pimps and who know what else.

I started to walk towards a guy who had been shouting my name. Almost immediately another guy grabbed my hand and showed me the placard he held with my name on it.

He then walked me out of the airport with my luggage, and bundled me into the back seat of a car where I was told to lie on the floor.

We then set off with a car in front and our car, with me lying on the floor, racing through the streets of Bogota.

All the while I was lying in the back seat with the distinct impression that I was being kidnapped by the FARC to become part of that countries greatest export - ransom notes.

As it happened I was with the good guys, and this was just the strategy for transporting people working with the military like I was.

The other guy at the airport was not related to my work and was just a random opportunist kidnapper. There are plenty of those around apparently.

The moral of the story? Working international is a pretty wild ride and your nationality is more of a problem than a help. Particularly if you immediately stand out as someone from a Western and most likely rich nation.

- Always have a driver pre-organized
- Always walk towards the guy holding your name, not the guy who read it and is shouting it out
- When you find the driver always ask who sent him (it is always a guy)

The journey to where I am today has actually had a few kidnap and near kidnap stories in it. As well as a few incarcerations for ridiculous reasons and even one cross border escape.

My view that I have taken away from all of this is, if you can work locally and earn a reasonable income, then do so. Not for any form of cultural cringe, I love to travel, but it is just wiser to work where you know who the bad guys are.

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Could you take out Dominos Pizza?

in entrepreneurial circles the Pizza industry is often used as an example of one that is totally commoditized. People generally don't care where they get their pizza from.

In fact, Pizza is a $30+ billion / year industry. There are approximately 69,000 pizzerias in the United States. Approximately 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year.

They taste about the same, the take about the same time to get delivered, and they even cost about the same.

But what if you took the model to pieces and reconstructed it.

What if instead of the standard 15 different pizza types, including the "build your own" type, you just majored with the 4 most popular pizza toppings? (Pepperoni, Ground Beef, Ham and Bacon)

And instead of all the different sizes and all the different bases, why not just one size. family Pizza only. Period! And make them opt out, not opt in. Make things like extra cheese and onions automatically included - at no extra charge.

Do away with the standard Pizza storefront. Just focus on deliveries. No retail staff. Only the call center, the cooks, and the delivery staff.

Get a selection of cartoons for the inside of the cartons. And change then every week. Sort of an inside joke for those who buy from your Pizza store.

But the real kicker, the real separation point is the business model. Instead of purely delivery, and extra helpings on already large pizzas, take it a step further.

Add a subscription service. Not cheap, lets say $80 per month. And for this $80 / month you get 2 free pizzas a week, with the lare drink bottle also. Not only that, but every three months put on a draw.

Give $10,000 away to three subscribers who have been with you for a minimum of 3 months.

I don't know about you, but I want to be a part of that community...!

A community that is primed to tell others about their unusual and enjoyable experiences buying pizza!

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Google, China and The Doubt Virus

Trust is hard to earn, when you have it people will endure minor mistakes and even the odd disaster. It is also hard to lose, but once lost the results are rapid and dramatic.

Like a glass jar trust can sustain several hairline fractures and still hold together, performing as it always has. But one large impact, or one hairline fracture too many and no force on earth is going to keep it all together.

It was the same with IndyMac, Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers....

Endless censorship, a loaded media and finally the breach of their security with "attacks" on their account holders. Google is a company that exists purely on trust. Trust that they can deliver the leading edge, most integrated, securest platform for the modern Internet. And if they cannot, they have no business.

The Chinese government doesn't trust its people and cannot survive in a society where people have full access and full choice to decide their own future. Their glass is already broken...

For us, the challenge is to stop the hairline fractures from even starting. To make sure that at every turn our clients are rewarded for having placed their trust in us. Excellent work, results that are expected or better than expected and timelines that are beaten continually.

The more you tune into trust the more you see it ebbing and flowing through all the worlds great companies, societies and institutions.

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The Purpose of this blog

Right now there are droves of people who are finding themselves out of work through no fault of their own.


Their once promising careers seem to have hit a road bump and they are wondering what the next steps could be....


At the same time there are consultants who have toiled in the field making money for other people for most of their lives who are wondering if they could also get a piece of the pie out there.


And lastly there are people who are running, building or working for successful and struggling consultancies looking for expert advice on how to take their company or career to the next level.


This blog is for all of them. 


Starting off, moving out, or moving up - all these themes are covered in this blog either by myself or by others who have a more in depth view of things.


After twenty four years consulting, covering more than 35 countries, three books, three businesses (some successful and some not) and a range of different managerial disciplines...I feel I am skilled and able to give this advice.


The promise - If I have never done it myself, then I won't try to advise you on it. Period. 


Feel free to contribute yourself by asking questions, I will try to answer them the best I am able to, and feel free to share your own experiences in the world of consulting. 


This IS the worlds most lucrative profession - bar none. What are you doing to take advantage of that?


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The tyranny of time

There has been an incredible increase in the number of things that I know nothing about.

Everything I learn shows me a whole panorama of things I have yet to learn. And as information flows more freely and faster, that is increasing every single day.

I have always held dear the thought of finishing my Microsoft advanced application developer certificate, or learning how to program in Ajax properly, or to become a really proficient practitioner in Human Error factors.... but I will probably never do any of these.

I just don't have the time. The internet lays the world out before us and tempts us to try to do it all, learn it all and have it all... but we can't.

Time is not a resource, it is a priority, I could learn Ajax, or finish the Microsoft thing, or even get into Human Error practices, but I have chosen a different set of priorities.

At least I realize that I am doing it... what about you?

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Taking blogging to the next level

I am really enjoying this blog. I think it is one of the better things I have done with my spare time in the last couple of years. It has inspired me to do lots of stuff I would never have done, and I have connected with a range of people I never would have before.

I sincerely thank you for the privilege of letting me take some of your time - and I sincerely hope that the things I write about provide you with something practical you can use in your professional lives. (Or at least provoking thought)

For those of you into blogging I am conducting a few experiments to try and get more subscribers to the blog . Like my Twitter experiment  (2,000 new followers in ten days), and the LinkedIn experiment  (closing on $1.5 million in revenues for my employer), I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

For those of you who are not yet subscribed to the RSS feed you can do so by using the orange buttons on the near column at the top, or by using one of the widgets on the side. Just click on them and it will tell you what to do.

If you are more interested in getting updates in your email then just enter your email address into the box on the near side and you will get a daily update of what has been posted that day.

If you already subscribe to the blog, or to the newsletter (which I need to revitalize lately... sorry about that) then please get involved with the conversation.

Feel free to add any comments you wish to on any post. If I am wrong tell me I am wrong, it happens incredibly frequently unfortunately. (Intensedebate.com is a great comments system)

And if you think the post would be of use to others then you can forward it by email by using the email icon under each post.

Also, you can get involved with other consultants, marketers and sales people in our Consulting Pulse networking group on LinkedIn . Seems to have a really good group of people in there at present.

I need to take this blog to the next level. It has been fun getting to this point and I am really very driven to take it a few steps further now.

So if there are issues that you think we should visit on the blog let me know. If there is something that you feel we haven't covered well enough please tell me, and make sure to let me know if there is any  way you think this network can offer more support and value for its members.

Again, thank you sincerely for subscribing, make sure to keep me honest and make sure that this blog continues to deliver the value that it should do.

This is the best profession in the world after all isn't it...

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The Noble Art of Consulting

It really warms my heat when I come across institutions like NESC. I have always loved the real generosity and philanthropic culture of the USA, and this organization stands out as another of the great ways that American businesses have organized to help those less fortunate than most of us.

NESC stands out to me among non-profit organizations  because the tap the well of experience available from  senior execs and corporate leaders as volunteer consultants for their client base. This means they are able to provide the best available experience to other non-profits throughout the world. Institutions such as the American Red Cross, Water-Aid America (Got my vote already), Queens Theater in the Park and other diverse and worthy causes.

Their entire business model springs from volunteer consultants, for what they say is a fraction of the cost of a commercial consulting engagement.(For top flight consultants, which sounds like a good deal to me)

They seem to work all through the area of non-profit strategic planning including branding, Executive search and recruitment, fund raising management and a range of other vital areas.

If you are in downtime mode right now for whatever reason, then I would suggest that an engagement via this organization will assist you to grow your professional network in other areas, gain some experience in areas where you may not work all the time and of course - get to support quite noble causes in the non profit sector.

My experience with non-profits is that many of them sorely need assistance like this. Assistance from industry hardened professionals who can thrust a bit of reality and high flight discipline into them. I hope some of you would consider this as a career option, even if a temporary one.

Selling to different roles requires different words

Win ratios start to pick up almost immediately once sales professionals and marketers realize that succesful sales is not about a script - rather it is about adapting to the person you are talking to. 

Here's something I have learned from the field of engineering and asset intensive industries. I am sure it applies roughly to each one of the industries out there. I have tried to identify the language, concerns and areas of interest that I have found relating to each level. 

Interestingly they are all similar, but they are represented with different word sets. 

(Note: This is talking about people like the EVP of Exxon, not of Joe's Pizza Barn.)

Its broken down into the levels that I generally get to speak to, feel free to add you own comments and concepts. 

1) CEO / EVP / Board Members

Interests (if they are worth their paychecks): Earnings per share growth, return on invested capital, book value growth, cash flow and market share. (As a driver for all of the others)

Some of you will note that issues related to safety and environmental integrity of operations are not there. My experience, sad but true, is that these issues normally do not rise to this level until something dramatic has gone wrong. A very reactive approach to managing these areas.

To be fair, it is also true that normally there are people assigned to manage these areas on their behalf. Whole programs normally. 

Decision Criteria: If we want it, we'll buy it. 

2) Directors, General Managers, Managing Directors: 

Interests: Net Present Value/Costs, Cost effectiveness, Operational efficiency, LTIFR (Lost time Injury Frequency Rate), Whole-of-Life costs, sustaining market share, independence and robustness. (These levels are very focused on being able to act independently and removing dependence a lot of the time. 

Decision Criteria: If it carries obvious and rapidly realizable value, then we will buy it. 

3) Senior Line Managers

Interests: Whole of life costs, cost effectiveness, risk reduction, efficiency and productivity. 

Decision Criteria: It has to be able to realize benefits within 6 months (say) before we can consider it. 

Note: Managers are game changers in many organizations of this type. They have often large corporate structures under them and they are directly responsible for significant earnings and cost responsibilities.

But... from here down you start to get into the ego game. People are less likely to think about what is the best for the organization, and more likely to think about what will be best for them personally so they can climb the ladder. 

They have many ways to say no, and often no way to say yes. They are always wondering "what can you do that we cannot do by ourselves?". They confuse capability and resource capacity, and they are keen to have it seen that they did the work. 

The senior people are more than happy, on the other hand, to make it known that they identified the work - and got extremely capable people to do it for them. 

I hope this is of some use. Feel free to add your advice if it adds to or is different to this...

Just for the record

I have been consulting since I was 22 years old. I am forty now. Thats less than some but more than most.

But the quality of that 17 years is what matters, not the time period itself. Just as the quality of the experiences you have had in the last (say) 5 years are more important than the fact that you have been consulting for 5 years only.

I entered my first boardroom at 23 to advise them on optimizing their workforce. Let me tell you - you do not get much respect from industry leaders when you are 23 years old.

So I learned. I learned pretty fast, and from a young age.

I have built and sold two companies.(A marketing firm and a resume writing service) But I have also built two companies that went out of business. One engineering firm in Mexico due to security reasons, and one engineering firm in Australia due to incredible naivety.

Today I have worked in over 35 countries. I have written three books on engineering, and I speak regularly all over the world on engineering subjects.

My blog is a leading consulting blog, competing with big money and big name blogs, and I have built a relatively loyal newsletter subscription base of around 1000 people in 6 months.

I generally sell around 2 - 3 million in services only each year. The leaders of national institutions in the UK, Canada and Australia rely on my as a trusted advisor, and I run a paid mentoring network of about 130 people globally. Aside from my job I generate about $400,000 in revenues through other consulting activities.

Almost all of my work comes from repeat business, and I regularly generate 7 figure benefits for my clients. (Regularly...)

I am presently employed as the manager of a national consultancy firm in Australia. We have gone from 0 to significant revenues in 3 months. (Not to mention flow on effects that are approaching 7 figures now)

Have a look at my LinkedIn profile if you want some further clarification of the understanding I have of the consulting industry and the value I can help to bring to your career.

That's why I write this blog. Because there are people who can benefit from my insights into marketing, consulting, selling professional services, writing, and generating passive revenue streams.

There are also people who are very interested in learning how to travel the world on other peoples money, and do so while creating a powerful brand for yourself and delivering value to your employers.

And there are many many consultants who deserve to earn far more than they are earning, and I want to help them do that.

Thats my consulting-only track record. I hope that clarifies things a little further.

Tell us what you really think...

A tongue in cheek look at some of the more common double talk in business...

They say "be open minded" They mean "Do as your told"

They say "Your not fulfilling your potential" They mean "I can't believe your this useless"

They say "I'll look into it" They mean "Don't bug me"

They say "be open minded" They mean "Do as your told"

They say "I don't have the budget" They mean "If we want it we'll find the cash"

They say "You're arrogant" They mean "You don't agree with me"

They say "You should be more of a team player" They mean "Do it my way"

They say "It'll never work" They mean "Please don't make any changes"

Just passing the time... add to it if you can think of anything.

Blog Comments FAIL!!

For the past couple of weeks the blog has not been accepting any comments. I have absolutely no idea why this is and I was wondering why everyone was so quiet.

I have changed the template back and forth, adjusted some of the stuff in the HTML of blogger, and triple checked my settings. And nothing woirked. I also checked out my COmments Tags - but the Google helpo was not very helpful on that score.

So as a stop gap measure I have installed Intense Debate onto the blog. Intense debate is supposed to help to facilitate conversations. You can post directly, as I understand, or you can reply to a comment that is already on teh blog.

You can also choose to subscrie to ansers to a particular blog post so if there is a raging debate going on you can see what is being said and have your 2c worth.

I seem to be making a few mistakes with the blog lately. Integrating blog broadcast into the newsletter using Aweber was a disaster, and now the comments debacle. (I was even accuse3d of being a prima donna recently because I didn't allow comments... aarrrggghhh!!!)

So please let me know how they go, I hope they will help us to facilitate stronger discussions - but they may even get in the way of people posting comments. Either way let me know and I will do whatever I can do to make it work out better.

I am really not extremely technical as is probably obvious by now...

Our LinkedIn news group

I am a member of a few groups on LinkedIn . I am also a member of a group called Super Groups, where people with groups larger than 2,000 members are invited to join.

It is an interesting bunch. A pressure group if you like. One of the strange things I have found is the collective view of news feeds.

Many group owners see news feeds as interlopers cutting into the market they have spent a long time trying to set up. Some of the groups have even disabled them and the discussion features! (Why anyone would want to belong to a group like that is beyond me)

For me - I see it differently. Our group  is a place for the members to network, not for me to advertise.

I have gone to great lengths to make sure that the news feeds in there are of high quality. Feeds that I myself subscribe to and RSS feeds that offer a lot of value.

Feeds like:

• Seth Godins blog. (Of course)

• Dan Roams blog - Digital Roam (Essential reading)

• The Long Tail

• A Topix feed on news subjects related to consulting

• A couple of feeds from Business Week

• A feed from the ChangeThis.com website, to get the regular update of their manifestos. 

• And a feed from the Australian online magazine Smart Company. (Great magazine by the way)

And the members seem to get a lot of use from them. They are regularly read, they seem to check them out when the daily updates go out. And hopefully they are getting positive benefits from them.

Why not? Why would I choose to close it up and subject them to me telling them all about what I can sell them only? Time will tell, but I am pretty convinced that this is going to be one of the things that sets our group  out as different among the many groups for consultants/marketers and sales people.

Buffet says we are at war...

I always stay tuned to hear what the great man has to say on anything related to the economy, investing or financial policy.

And he thinks we are at war.. Warren, welcome to the battleground!

Minor players in our economies have known this for a long time. We are watching as manufacturing work that used to support lower middle class lifestyles are transferred to countries where they now support a hand to mouth existence. (I hat this form of slavery)

Recent government activity to buoy the financial sector by taking stakes in the banking industry has received howls of protest. Yet we have been allowing unfriendly nation states to purchase up formerly private industry in the USA, Europe and Australia.

"Wealthy" nations continue to pump aid money into developing countries. Countries that are now sitting on nuclear stockpiles and their poor still live in desperate hopelessness.

Our cities are continually being challenged as tourist and business destinations by nations built on the back of horrific slave labor policies. And related to this, our citizens are taking financial decisions to live in cultures that will persecute them (severely) for a wrong word or action.

Don't get me wrong. I am a capitalist of the tallest order. In fact - I am all in favor of letting the market correct itself. But I am also no fool.

If we are going to compete on the same playing field then the rules need to be the same for everyone.

If we are going to live in a flat world, then the humps need to be ironed out.

Just a few thought on some of the more endemic issues facing us as we try to reshape our financial collective destinies.