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Three years

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Today marks the third anniversary of this blog.  Thank you to all who routinely read what I share as well as to those who drop by every once in a while and hopefully get some value out of my ramblings. 

I have made 660 posts over the past three years, met some new people, and created a nice bit of content about life, marketing, startups, and the occasional but very popular recipe (who knew?) along the way.  

I blog to understand, share, and communicate.  It has been one of the more rewarding things I have ever done and look forward to continuing it for many, many years.

The case for case interviews

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I was asked a question today (via email) about case interviewing somewhat indirectly by someone going through the interview cycles with management consulting firms.  I weighed in along with a couple of others on what they are all about and how to best approach them.

I have been on both the delivering and receiving end of these types of questions during my time with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting (now mostly part of Bearingpoint).  Although we were not a tier 1 strategy firm like Mckinsey, Bain, etc. we did similar (albeit it cheaper) work and had many of the same approaches, methodologies, and operating models. Here are my two cents on how to best approach the case question.  Feel free to weigh in in the comments about your own experiences:

  • The answer is not as important as how you get there.
  • Case
    interview questions are an exercise in the employer understanding how
    you think and you showing off how you can apply a structured framework
    to solving a problem where you have minimal information    .

Take this example (one from my vintage):  How many plumbers are
there in the U.S.?  The actual number is not important but
think about how you would calculate this:

  • What information
    sources would you use, professional associations, unions, publications,
    blogs, etc.
  • How would you segment this population – professionals, handymen,
    weekend warriors, etc.
  • How would you quantify the size and
    growth of the population – demographics, trends like more building
    requires new plumbing/less building requires more maintenance, is this a
    different skill set or one that the same population can use regardless
    of need    ?
  • And so on…

Consulting is all about taking
imperfect data inputs, structuring them in a salient way, and extracting
some meaningful and actionable insight then managing the process of
using that insight to change strategy, process, or systems.

Slow posting here but busy over on the Gist blog

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Apologies for the slow posting here recently.  I have definitely not run out of things to say and have several posts about half written at this point.  I'll get focused and finish them off soon.

In the meantime, we've been posting quite a bit to the Gist blog and here are a few recent posts that I've written that you might find interesting:

Three reasons social media should be part of your business plan

Use retweet to introduce yourself

Gist is your virtual foot in the door

Nice outing in Redmond tonight

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Redmond is known for mainly one thing – being the home of Microsoft.  It is also just a few miles east of Kirkland and is where Marel I headed tonight on a date night.  Our first stop was Redmond Cycle for a bit of bike shopping.  Highly recommend this place as it was our first visit and Ernie greeted us warmly and helped sort through lots of options. 

We then headed on to Matt's at Redmond Town Center.  Yes, it is in a shopping center…but…it is worth the trip and, given the crowd that always seems to be there, many agree with me..  We have met the owners through friends and they deliver great food and a great experience.  Highly recommended.  We finished our evening at The Grape Choice in a downtown Kirkland.  A finishing glass of wine made for a nice end to the evening all before 9:30…

Has healthcare reform become a true ‘Abilene Paradox’?

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

This is not intended to be a political post but rather one of the few times over the past 15 years that I can reference something I learned in business school around group decision dynamics – the Abilene Paradox. 

I will never forget the "Road to Abilene" video designed to reinforce it.  What the heck am I talking about? 

Here's the short version pulled from Wikipedia:

The Abilene paradox is a paradox
in which a group of people collectively decide on a course of action
that is counter to the preferences of any of the individuals in the
group.

I agree that healthcare in the US is a wreck and, in many ways, the costs are obstacles to entrepreneurship and innovation.  How many people do you know that are staying in a job because they need the benefits?  But I digress…

Why are we spending the cycles of so many smart people and the enthusiasm behind a new President for something that is not in the line of sight for the American people?  My advice to President Obama and his really scary colleagues (on both sides) in Congress is to focus on the economy and jobs.  The political capital spent to elevate and drive healthcare reform has been substantial but the outcome is not something the American people want…now.  We may need it but it is not what is wanted as unemployment stays high and people are seeing wages flat or below where they were last year.

No one has invited me to the Oval Office (yet) to share my opinion but the further the party in power heads towards Abilene the more they will feel the wrath of the electorate in the 2010 mid-terms and the 2012 presidential contest.

Happy Thanksgiving…now unplug

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Off the grid mostly this week but wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

I have much to be thankful for including health, an amazing (and patient) wife, two beautiful girls, and a faithful dog not to mention amazing professional opprtunities and life experiences.

Life moves ever faster these days so please take a moment to unplug, reflect, and appreciate the things that matter most (i.e., not your number of LinkedIn connections).

Busy couple weeks

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Apologies for slow posting over the past couple weeks.  I've been bouncing around a bit as we continue to roll out Gist at a series of events around the US.  You can always keep up with me on Twitter – ReplytoAll as it is sometimes easier to do a short update while in motion.

Made some great new friends, recruited lots of new Gist users, and even had the chance to reconnect with some old friends.  A few more events through the end of the year including Defrag in Denver and Salesforce.com's big Dreamforce user event in San Francisco.  If you'll be at either, let me know and we'll connect.

So, what is Gist?

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Arguably, we have been perfectly vague publicly about what Gist is, what it is used for, and how it fits into your daily life.  This is due in large part to being in a limited release where we continue to add features, refine the product, and incorporate feedback from a phenomenal set of beta users. 

So the question remains, what is Gist?  Is it a contact manager, better contact management system, new way to think about CRM software, a new type of sales or business intelligence software?  I guess the answer is that it embraces a bit of all of these things focusing on blending how your contacts, connections, and all the associated content you share and they generate comes together for your use.  Kind of a whole new approach to personal relationship management that combines elements of all of the above.

I use it daily because a) I work there and b) because it fits with what I do – contact people, respond to people, follow up with people, look for a reason to reach out, etc.  Ultimately, Gist takes the broad set of people that you communicate with or desire to communicate with, aggregates information about them, and serves it up to you in rank order with you having to do pretty much nothing. Oh, and it really shines when you use it inside MS Outlook or Salesforce.com (supported in our most recent beta release).

Sound cool?  Watch this video for a more detailed product tour by yours truly and drop a comment or email to me – robertcpease at gmail dot com if you want to try the beta.