I’m an industrial engineer (as I may have mentioned a few times). My favorite concept from the Georgia Tech program was knapsack problems. Given a limited amount of space (like a building) how do you best fill it for maximum value. The simplest solution to most Knapsack problems is called the Greedy Algorithm. For each…
What is Service?
One of the fun things about writing a blog is that you begin to receive PR firm emails asking you to talk to this expert or that specialist. I started by sending them all to junk but overtime began to see them as a valuable source for understanding what the hot topics are. Monday I…
Social Media in Real Estate
Social Media is still the king of the internet. Real estate hasn’t figured out how to take advantage yet. Social Media is all about the free sharing of information for mutual gain. Said another way: you freely and voluntarily share your information for others to read so that they can gain some value. The sharing…
The Customer Profitability Conundrum
Customers are the lifeblood of your business. Without them you would have no revenue, no business case, nothing. Unfortunately they are also probably the most difficult part of your company to handle. Which customers do you keep, which do you turn away? Can you afford to grow quickly or is a slower method preferred? What…
Steve Jobs
I’m from Gen Y. I love technology, how things will be done in the future and interface design. I’ve never owned an iPhone but love iTunes and my classic iPod. No one has ever accused me of being an Apple fanboy. Steve Jobs was the greatest leader, innovator and individual of my generation. Thursday morning…
Are you corporate?
Blackberry or iPhone or Android? Do you care? Do you carry your own phone or a company phone? Do you care? When you have a problem to solve do you Google it or ask IT for help? Are you a Microsoft Word person or Google Docs? There’s nothing wrong with being corporate. Just like there’s…
Market Efficiency
The Chevy Volt was supposed to usher in the age of the electric car. How many have you seen on the road in the months that it has been available? The sad thing about innovative products that are supposed to open new markets is that for every iPod there are 20 failures. It’s not for…
The Quality Real Estate Department
Quality in Real Estate is not one of those topics that is discussed regularly. It’s a very tough proposition to define because real estate can be a very strange function. You have a fixed asset that you don’t own that supports every business function in the business. Changing the asset is extremely capital intensive and…
Death of Manufacturing
For some reason I thought this was a Harvard Business Review post as I was reading it but then I realized it was Seth Godin. It’s not like him to turn so dramatically from a staple of the way our world works – industrial jobs. There is a misguided belief that has been running wild…
A Sense of Humor
A little humor goes a long way, a lot of humor can fall flat (believe me, I know from many experiments in the field). The answer can’t always be to have none and go with the buttoned up approach. People don’t purchase just a process or a result. They buy what a person they trust…