Wonder If He Got a Gold Pen (or a gold mine): Bill Gates Retires from Microsoft

Today marks Bill Gates' last day in his office digs at Microsoft. And while he will continue on as advisor and Board Convener (if we can add EVOO to the lexicon because Rachael Frelling Ray uses it over an over and over, we can come up with gender-neutral language), he'll focus his energies on his foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A Computer in Every Home

Gates et al (see the picture of the original 11 Microsoft employees) didn't create the personal computer. However, their efforts were energized by their commitment to have a PC in every home. Mr. Gates wanted to facilitate communication between computers so that they spoke a common language and could easily pass information from one computer to another. Decades later, this vision helped to inspire MIT's One Laptop Per Child project, which seeks to put a computer into the hands of the world's poorest children (see Seymour Papert's groundbreaking Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas).

The Evil Empire
Not so happily, Microsoft was involved in one of the largest anti-trust suits in the nation for its anti-competitive and exclusionary practices. In May 1998, the U.S. Justice Department charged Microsoft with having operating practices that helped it maintain its monopoly in personal computer operating systems and Internet browsing software. This from NPR:

"The evidence presented in court today demonstrates that Microsoft used its
massive monopoly power to harm competition and to harm consumers," said Joel
Klein, head of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, outlining the
government's case against the company in 1998.

In the HR world, Microsoft's use of its own recently-downsized staffers to return immediately to work...and do exactly what they'd been doing before, working in temp roles indefinitely, gave us a new term--"Permatemp"--and had HR departments scrambling to create policies to routinely release temps before they set down roots (or expectations) and limit their opportunities for direct hire.


Bill's Second Life


While he's ramping down from his former day job at Microsoft, Mr. Gates will shift his efforts so that he will be spending only one day a week at MS and the bulk of the rest of his time at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on eradicating poverty, illiteracy and diseases such as TB and malaria. And having traveled and consulted in malaria and AIDS riddled parts of southern Africa, I can tell you this: Maslow was right when he said that higher order needs become subsumed by efforts to handle lower order, hide-bound safety needs.

Africa and other parts of the developing world will simply not be able to add their unique contributions to the world if the people have to keep burying their children.

For all the promise and challenge of Mr. Gates' tenure at the helm of Microsoft, his has been a story of vision and passion.

What Movie Most Inspired Me?

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" changed my life. When I went off to college, I was a very shy bookish girl from semi-rural Indiana. Late one Friday night, a dorm-mate suggested I go to the movie with her. I said "yes" and she got out spray bottles and started making toast!

This movie broke ground in a way none before had. It was the earliest winner in the midnight movie market and included incest, cannibalism, homosexuality and a host of other previously taboo topics that got people talking in college campuses around the nation. Though it was roundly panned by critics everywhere, in its 30+ years post release, it's still going strong and has made more than 100 times the initial investment. The movie helped launch the careers of Academy Award Winner Susan Sarandon, actor Barry Bostwick (played the mayor in Spin City), singer / actor Tim Curry (now in Spamalot) and made the singer Meat Loaf a household name (“Paradise by the Dashboard Lights”). Recently, it was recently included for preservation in the National Film Registry, a collection of only 475 films (as of 2007) by the Librarian of Congress.

What really got me thinking that first year in college was how the movie portrayed people who were pretty OK with themselves—they dressed and acted how they liked and weren’t held hostage by convention (or, um, normality). As a result, I loosened up quite a bit, started having fun with my fashion sense and choices in music and began enjoying my life while completing my degree.

I thank the makers of the movie and the stage play on which it derived, who were themselves mavericks. Because of my experience with this movie, I was able to consider interracial dating, refused to dye my hair when it started turning prematurely white (at age 25) and grew my hair into beautiful, thin, waist-length dreadlocks. I left a successful career and started a business 12 years ago to the tune of “you’ll never make it”…I’m still going strong.

I became a force of nature rather than someone who people just had to deal with (or not).

The movie was fun and freeing and made no sense. That, I think, was its power. That and being able to lob toast at a movie screen.

Do you keep talking?

I've noticed that people don't seem to want to take the hint when the call they're on with you is getting so old it's starting to grow hair. Subtlety doesn't seem to do it. In fact, I've spoken with bizexecs who think that the effectiveness of a call is directly proportional to how long it lasted. They seem tone deaf to the uncomfortable attempts to exploit an opening to end the call.

People seem to have trouble finding the end of conversations or sensing that the other person was ready to run. "If I can just keep her talking...."

So, how to you get off the phone before you consider stabbing yourself in the neck with that letter opener your kids made you for Father's Day?

I start my conversations by setting the context for the call: "Janet, I'd like about 5 minutes of your time to discuss XXX" or "Hi Jim. You want to talk about YYY? I have about 5 minutes for that conversation right now and then I'll have to run." Creating the context at the beginning of each call makes it easier at the end to jump off: "Janet, that's my 5 minutes. Gotta dash." If it's a very short call, I don't make room for smalltalk "Janet, remember, I only have that 5 minutes and I'd like to really focus on how I can help you."

What are some of the worst things you can say in a work setting?

OK, you've mastered what not to say in your personal relationship (or at least you can sleep at night believing you do): "Yes, you actually do look fat in that"..."That receeding hairline does make you look older"..."You didn't mind me having drinks with my old boyfriend/girlfriend/hubster/wife"....

Nope. These kinds of comments don't garner much love and happiness and though the couch really does fold out into a bed as promised, a cardboard box on a steam grate would be much, much better.


Now, turning to work, I know that I've heard some stunning things in work and professional settings. Some are just silly and some are career killers. Here are a few of my favorites:

• That's not my job (from someone who kept telling me that he was promotion-ready)


• I got so smashed at that conference (from a woman who later said that the men in the firm didn't take her seriously)


• Can I touch your hair (this from a man I'd just, just met who was considering hiring me as his business coach. Use your imagination on what I might have said to him when he just stuck his hands into my hair...at a Starbucks...over a cuppa joe and a chai latte)

Now, dish. What are yours? Karma credits if you tell us how you found a helpful way to bring the poor schmuck back from the cliff's edge. Karma demerits if you tell us, with great gusto, how you pushed the silly fool over!


All the Very Best,

Lalita

Chime in here or at

Hoops and Ladders for Black Women?

I was talking yesterday with Darla Williams, a local attorney who had been interviewed and featured in the Indy Star's report Promising Black Women Face Barriers. I'd gotten on Darla's radar when I wrote a piece for the Indiana Minority Report about Black Hooliganism. In it, I recounted a disturbing business trend among some in black business "leadership." Elected officials and others create their own lists of "approved" black business people and encourage contract holders to do business with these people, regardless of the host of others who have built solid businesses. They use the power of their position to get contract holders to consider these people over others on government approved lists of vendors, particularly minority vendors. Coupled with this is the fact that some will offer to have you put them on your payroll so that they can broker business deals for you using their Rolodexes. One suggested that I pay him $5,000 monthly and 20% of whatever he brought in. I hoped he was joking. He wasn't.

Now, I'm a fan of free enterprise like the next kid, but there seems to be something a little off here. For businesses that have worked to gain their MBE, WBE or DBE certifications (which is onerous enough), having a separate list that one has to curry favor to get on (or pay for) seems to defeat the entire purpose.

In the article, Darla asserted that "One barrier in my personal experience is African-Americans creating barriers for other African- Americans," Williams said. "If they (black leaders) let you become a leader, you can only be one if you let the other black leaders exploit you. And if you don't, they blacklist you."

One commenter seemed to have it all sorted out: "black females have have special status in the workplace. all they have to do is claim racism and presto, they get the promotion. i've seen it happen too many times, quality, production and customer service go down the drain but the company gets a tax break. the really sad part is that truley capable and qualified people either get fired or have to work for this caricature of a professional. "

Really? Then Black women must be stupid because if "all we have to do" is make a spurious claim of racism to get promoted, we sure have been lying down on that particular job. Be sure to read the rest of the commentary thread on this one. The general tone goes to show that there is bias against Black women in the workplace. Nasty bias.

At one time I was in HR, worrying that I might be a "lifer." It didn't take long for the other white staffers and the secretaries to claim that I was hired for my race and gender. One even went to far as to say "we had to hire you." What was shocking was that I graduated with distinction from Purdue (and a host of other accolades) and have been blessed with an IQ in the 130's. Oh, yeah, and was the very department where (whether I liked it or not) every member had access to my resume, application and transcripts. Trouble was: they didn't care to find out that they might be wrong.

They didn't invite me to meetings (claiming that I was clearly too busy), held lunches where business decisions were made without my input and didn't invite me and they weren't above lying. One secretary claimed that I hit her...she was committed for psychiatric care after her accusations and behavior got even more extreme. The damage to my reputation was immense.

They didn't even want to consider that I had a right to be there. Very sad.

Do we all have ladders to climb? You bet: every one of us. Is there grease on the rungs for sum (added later: "some"...I meant "some")? You bet.

There's a Killer Weed in Lake Caddo!

Um, this really does have something to do with business.

Really!

I was sitting at Rick's Cafe Boatyard, having a leisurely lunch with one of my clients a dear friend. We were catching up on her business doings. She described her partnerrship: they were still ineffective in problem-solving and it wasn't going much of anywhere. One, for example, would point out a problem and then blame one of the other partners for it (ignoring his own performance). Another, knowing that reducing errors is a chief way to increase the bottom line in the business, just hasn't taken action to create the needed systems (for a couple of years).

Just when I thought it was going to get depressing enough that I was going to have to start drinking (and I'm not an imbiber), she said: "There's a killer weed in Lake Cadd0."

Brilliant!

I'd actually seen the news report she was referring to and knew that the sun hadn't completely baked her noggin. See, at the border between Texas and Louisiana, there's a lake that's gotten choked with what the U.S. Geological Survey calls the world's most noxious weed. Reports explain that it is "under siege by a fast-spreading, Velcro-like aquatic fern, Salvinia molesta, also known as Giant Salvinia." The South American weed, which can double in size in just two days, covers everything in the lake and everything under the weed dies.

Evil plants. Kind of like the Triffids. I digress.


Here's the thing: Texans have leaped into action (or as nearly as they can given the heat), spraying and hacking at the villainous vine, but to little avail. Even singer Don Henley, who has a small home on a nearby waterway, has taken action to protect the landscape on the Texas side of the waters. The Louisianans? Not so. Now the Texans are putting up nets to keep the green invader on the Louisiana side of the fence.

In reminding me about this recent story, she was telling me that she had exactly the same kind of ineffective action taking place: varying levels of awareness, blame, finger-pointing, ineffective action, taking sides.

This is why I really like this woman.

We were quiet for a while, watching the boats on the reservoir. Wanting to open up another subject, I asked her what she thought about the property tax situation in the city. Her response: "There's a killer weed in Lake Caddo."

And she quietly took another sip of her iced tea and watched the ducks fly out over the water

Why your business needs a blog….NOW!

Want to get from under the web radar? You’d like to expand the exposure of your website on the cheap, well you need a blog. Here’s why.

Every website needs a dynamic area and a static area.

This set-up creates a symbiotic relationship between the two. It’s kinda like having the institutional and the commercial areas of a city. The city hall and the downtown. Every city needs both and each zone needs the other. Together they add up to more than the sum of the parts. The Static being the brochure section, the mayor’s house, city hall. This area establishes who you are and what you do and your services etc. The other area is your happening, dynamic district. It’s SOHO, The Market, The Mall, Starbucks, Where the artists come and chat over coffee and crumpets , where connections are made and bonds are forged. Ideas are continuously disseminated. This would be your blog.

Once you have this set up, the blog does a number of things;
1. It rises your sites rank in Google hence people find you easier. This happens because Google targets key words as it relates to a certain topic, say “healthy living in Denver”. The more key words you have related to this topic of interest the higher you will rise over time in rankings. It’s that simple. It really isn’t rocket science all this SEO stuff just boils down to 2 words, keyword density. Density equals Mass over Volume. Have as much of the text mass of your site filled with a high volume of keywords. That’s how you become a heavy player.

2. It gives people a reason to continuously come to the site therefore keeping your brand… top of mind. Top of mind is prime mental real estate, as opposed to the back burner, which is equivalent to way way way beyond the wrong side of the tracks. You want to have people’s thoughts on auto-pilot to your brand/site/product when they think of a certain area of interest. All the big brands do this, they stay top of mind. The cheapest way to do this is with a web log that is refreshed frequently with relevant information.

3. You establish yourself as the ultimate font of information regarding your specific are of interest. Posting regular, recent and relevant info is the hardest part of maintaining a blog, but it is the most rewarding. This is what delivers the hits. Trust me.

The reason weblogs and the like have become so popular, is that they give your potential client a reason to trust you hence a reason to have you and keep you as a service provider. The blog has played a key role in personalizing the web. It is probably the most critical component for any small to medium size business to have as they seek to grow.

So go ahead, get going, start growing.

How to Choose a Domain Name for a Small Business » Small Business Trends

So you are ready to take the plunge, you want your website and you want it now. Be careful though about how you chose your domain name. It's gonna take a bit more than a GoDaddy account to get you the right piece of the wild, wild web.

How to Choose a Domain Name for a Small Business » Small Business Trends