Small companies sometimes don't get bigger

I've just been in Pakistan where there are thousands of small companies. As new Pakistani companies stabilise, they seem to reach a point where the owner can satisfy the demands of his (even extended) family ... and so he (and it is almost always a 'he') eases off into his comfortable lifestlye.  the company never gets big enough to take advantages of scale or to make real investment ... and sooner or later a technology or a new product comes along ... and the company fails.

So, the question you have to ask yourself is ... How do I keep myself and my staff hungry for more?  What gets them up in the morning?  What keeps them awake at night?  Am I sure we are not just coasting into oblivion?

(And a question for my Muslim friends.  is the pakistani situation a result of people treating this earth and their place on it as a waiting room for the greater world and greater riches to come?)

Make me happy, Infolinks

Infolinks is the organisation that puts adds on this blog (and lots of others) ... unobtrusively, of course. They are a model of customer service ... when they communicate with me they do so in a way that is always useful (they only talk to me when they need to) and always entertaining ... and they give me money. What more could I ask?

Well, since you asked (oh, it was me, wan't it) ... they could add to my future level of happiness by allowing me to ride a llama in any country where they are native. I'm sure that's not beyond them.

In the meantime, I suggest you check them out if you have a blog or website (www.infolinks.com) ... and see, in particular, how they operate.

Always ask ... Why?

Most of us are very busy ... sometimes too busy to think about all our activity and how much it is contributing to our longer-term goals. (Of course we all have crises to deal with but I'm talking here about our regular day-to-day activity.)

Why are we doing what we are doing. (We can ask later about how we are doing it!)

Always ask yourself the following question ...

Is this task really something that I want to, and need to, accomplish, or am I confusing activity with productivity?

To do ... or not to do

There are lots of 'to-do' applications around for your computer but many of them are little more than static lists of pending responsibilities. Teux Deux, though, is a slick, simple, and free online task manager that visually groups your upcoming chores by date, giving you a clear view of what you need to accomplish in the coming week. It was designed to be simple but visually appealing.

The site's interface works particularly well with the popular Getting Things Done method for enhancing productivity. Each date acts a bit like a folder, keeping all of the tasks for the day contained and compartmentalized, so you can focus on what matters most at any one time. If you have tasks with no specific due date, you put them in a ‘Someday' box on the main screen, so you can put them off without forgetting about them.

email is not dead

Technology is not one-size-fits-all. It is important to find what works for your organisation. This is especially true of communication technology where the choice has mushroomed over the last decade.

Is sending an e-mail more efficient than making a phone call?

If you just need to pass along information or ask a quick question and don’t need to discuss the topic, e-mail may be the most efficient way of doing so. E-mail also has the added benefit of leaving an 'audit trail', a record of correspondence.

If you find that you often need to call someone back to confirm information you previously discussed, or are often in situations where you cannot take notes, using e-mail would enable you to have all that information available in one place for quick reference. And now that we have email available on our smartphones, it is a much more flexible form of communication.

Hyperactive!

So the hype over the iPad is dying (or at least slowing). What does the iPad mean for productivity? Almost nothing. Eveything that can be done on an iPad can be done on a Netbook. Sure, the iPad looks great .. and 'instant on' is a real convenience ... but it won't improve your business!

So, as ever, sort out reality from hype .. and test out the words of others. People get paid lots of money to make new products sound really good. Of course, sometimes they are ... but more often than not the hype fails to stand up to your testing.

The second lesson is, of course, that your hype - when you talk about your own new product or service - should not overdo the hyperbole. Reasoned information is more effective in the longer-term.

Don't read the paper

Documents on your desk that have not been used for a month can be considered clutter. Clear them off the desk and recycle them – they are clearly not needed.

If concerned they might come in useful eventually, use document conversion technology to convert paper piles to digital files.

Stored electronically, the miscellaneous reports, presentations and memos that often clutter a desk, are easier to file, quicker to locate, take up less space and less time is needed when searching for them.