"Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what's there; few can see what isn't there" William H. Swanson

My sincere thanks to Mr. Swanson for his kindness in sending me a copy of his "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management". The above, Unwritten Rule Number 4, is taken from his powerful little book of wisdom. It goes on to state "Always think about what's missing; it's amazing what you'll find." At the end of his book he says "People sometimes ask me what I believe are the essential qualities of leadership. To me the qualities of leadership boil down to: Confidence, Dedication, Integrity and Love...true leaders don't just have these traits - they apply then and instill them in others." Great stuff! Exceptional book!

John Battelle has posted his interview with Google's Omid Kordestani, a good read...

Is Google a technology company or a media company?

We're absolutely deep in advertising, but let me clarify. The difference between us and our competition is that we innovate through applying technology. The angle of a media company is you're packaging content or advertising inventory. We look at ads as commercial information, and that goes back to our core mission of organizing the world's information. When people in the media world hear this, they say, "What are these guys talking about?"

What do you see as the future of advertising?

The measurability of online advertising will extend broadly to all areas of media. You have companies spending billions of dollars on television. As more and more consumers adopt technologies like TiVo, I think you'll be able to have much more useful forms of advertising -- more targeted, more measurable, and with new pricing models. Just imagine if we made it possible for our advertisers to quickly publish relevant ads that could range from the local plumber on one end to Super Bowl commercials on the other.

Read the entire interview here

Bob Shannon continues to amaze. This gentleman of exceptional skills and considerable gifts has decided to favor us with fresh servings of his smart writing. This time around he is posting must reads at Joel Denver's site AllAccess (free rr). Check out Bob's fine work "All Them Big Dogs" located in the Career Tools section of Joel's site. Thanks to Joel for adding this killer content and thanks to Bob for sharing more of his very cool pov. We can all learn something from Bob Shannon.

When Craig Newmark recommends a book, I buy it. Ambient Findability is by Peter Morville and Craig writes...

I just read the book, and recommend it. Peter deals with big issues that we're all struggling to grasp. the notion is that the web is place which is a network of places... and how do we think about that, or get around. O'Reilly tells me it is on back order, check it out here

Great to get emails from WCCO Stars Denny Long and Mike Lynch. Both of these gentleman are at the top of their game and they are each a joy to listen to. Via Infinity's RadioMat this morning I was able to catch Denny along with the great (and always uber-cool) Charlie Boone and news ace Bruce Hagevik. Also heard his royal highness The King having a discussion with my old pal and odds maker to the odds makers Morgan Mundane. Thanks for the tips Morg, I now need to run to the ATM. Great radio, it just does not get any better. My understanding is WCCO is #1 in cume and aqh share in the just released Arbitron, congrats and cheers to Wendy Paulson and the stars of her show. As Paul Drew often said "Being #1 requires no explanation"

Our new favorite hotel in the Twin Cities is Graves 601 Hotel, a fine property with the worst possible name. Here's a cut from Zagat...

“Cool comes to Minneapolis” via this “gorgeous” property whose “ultramodern” decor scheme and “dim lighting” make some think they’re “walking into the film The Matrix”; rooms outfitted with “comfortable beds”, plasma TVs, high-speed or WiFi access, baths with Hermès soap and “awesome” rain showers, and the “great bar” at Cosmos restaurant, are all “très
bien”

Our highest recommendation, a very cool experience indeed. Avoid the high rack rates and get a very good deal by booking via their site which you may find here

We enjoyed our stay at the property during a recent trip to the cities to catch the latest Cirque du Soleil production Corteo. We remain in the debt of Infinity honcho and mensch Wes Spencer who encouraged us to go and was our guest at our first Cirque du Soleil production many semesters ago. "It's a circus without elephants" he said.

Fortune's David Kirkpatrick writes...

I’m pessimistic that large old-guard media organizations will be able to compete effectively in such a software-driven world. The Yahoos, CNETs, Googles, and MSNs—coming as they do from their roots in software—are likely to have fundamental advantages. It will probably turn out to be considerably easier for tech companies to turn themselves into media companies than for media companies to become savvy about tech.
Of course, the old media can always buy or rent technologies that have been developed elsewhere. But those who develop their own will be the ones with a competitive advantage in a world of fickle consumers and constant change.

Ongoing expensive research and development will be critical, but the very concept is anathema to most media companies. Today’s big media companies try to differentiate themselves with the quality of the news, information, or entertainment that they deliver, not with how it is delivered. The problem is that now they need to do both.

David is correct. How serious a firm is will be reflected in their budgeting and spending for cap x, r&d and talent; the acid test of a firm's resolve will be revealed in the magnitude of these investments most importantly their tech investment. I give Infinity CEO Joel Hollander high marks for the major progress he has made in this area since the first of the year. Joel is reimagining - to steal from Tom Peters - an Infinity that is way different from the one Mel ran. Read all of David's writing, Big Media's Challenge - Taking on the Tech Giants, here

"Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy" Nicholas Negroponte

Vaughn Ververs deserves high praise for his post this morning "The Elephant In My Room"

For some, whether or not Public Eye speaks out on Memogate has become a litmus test of our seriousness, guts and honesty. I think that's sort of silly. Our mission at Public Eye is to facilitate discussion, answer questions and open up the process at CBS News, not to offer my opinions in a straight “ombudsman” fashion.

Still, the question comes up over and over and lurks just beneath the surface of almost everything we do. The reality is that this week’s change of leadership at CBS News brings the issue to the forefront once again. A new account of the episode, written by former producer Mary Mapes, is also due to hit bookstores shortly. So I’ll try to address it here, offer some of my personal thoughts and, hopefully, help to answer some of the questions.

Bravo Vaughn!

"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand" Thomas Carlyle

The page title says "Official Google Blog", the content makes mighty good reading, check it out here

It's official - I've been Flocked and I think I like it. Congrats to Flock CEO Bart Decrem and his gang. Rather than contributing extensions for Firefox they are using the Mozilla project codebase to build a totally new browser experience. Check out and download the developer preview version here. Read Bart's blog here. I remain a rabid fan of Firefox (presenting using Beta 2) but welcome the fresh pov. Good luck Bart & company!

"Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics" Military shibboleth

The above quotation I learned while in uniform; the latest writing by Robert D. Kaplan offers another version, one I rather prefer..."Amateurs discussed tactics, and rank amateurs discussed grand strategy, while professionals discussed logistics" (Imperial Grunts, pg 228)

My suggestion is measured media leadership is obsessed with tactics and strategy and too often fails to grasp or even appreciate the practical, real-world logistics now in play.

Andrew Odlyzko, Director, Digital Technology Center at the University of Minnesota, and 26 year veteran of Bell labs, serves up some interesting speculation, to wit

• Content is not king
• Streaming real-time multimedia is not the future
• Intelligence, costs and revenues will continue to migrate to the edges
• Rates of change: Technology - Fast, Consumer habits - Slow, Industry dogmas - Slowest
• Faster-than-real-time video file transfers: cater to human impatience, enable transfer to portable devices, enable far simpler networks and already dominate
• Flexibility of the Internet is enabling innovation that bypasses misleading industry dogmas
• Build it and they may come, but always in their own sweet time
• Painful restructuring in store (telecom)
• Industry hobbled by misleading dogmas (telecom)
• File transfer for local storage and transfer to other devices the most natural evolution
• Long historical tradition of overemphasis on content
• Connectivity has traditionally been valued much more than content
• Social connectivity very important but neglected
• Content...is big and important, it is just not as big or as important as connectivity

Please permit me to suggest these telecom issues are also relevant and merit attention in any serious discussions about measured media. Agree or not with Andrew, his pov is well worth your bandwidth and consideration. You may find his home page here

Lots of email regarding the earlier post on hiring. Chasing the same subject matter, here is an excellent point made by Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO, Fox News Channel via USNews.com...

What's the primary thing you look for when you're hiring?

I can't stand negative people. Negative people will bring you down. Life's tough and then you die, and the first 100 years in the ground is just the beginning. I mean, it's just not a good time to get depressed–it's gonna, it could get worse later. And if you can't manage to be positive in a job interview, chances are not great that it's going to get better anytime soon. If you run into people who are negative, and always telling you that the cat got ran over, and you couldn't get the car started and you've got a cold, the suits are idiots and life isn't fair, you know, you need to get away from those people because they will suck you under and hold you down and drown you. Read the entire piece Q&A with Roger Ailes here

My recent counsel to a young manager asking me what to look for when hiring...

21 hiring tips to help you to hire the very best talent

• hire on attitude (see Ailes above)
• hire smart people (as Bruce Johnson said "you will never teach someone to be smart")
• hire "over-qualified" people whenever possible
• hire "tie-breakers", the people with drive, initiative, tenacity and imagination
• hire folks preoccupied with today and tomorrow, avoid those who want "yesterday" back
• hire those that understand they are responsible for producing results without credit, without excuses or reasons
• hire the hard-working, those with a history of making things happen, those known to get things done (work ethic can not be taught)
• hire folks that answer "I don't know" when that is the most appropriate response in the interview, seek the intellectually honest, those able to make unvarnished candor effective
• hire those that former employers say "gave us their best efforts"
• hire people who are decisive
• hire people with a sense of humor
• hire people who say they love what they do and claim to have fun at what they do
• hire the curious, those that speak in the language of possibility, those with a dream
• hire those willing to admit their last big failure and share what they learned from the experience, always hire resilience
• hire those that respect flexibility ("Flexibility is the highest attribute of human intelligence" so said Bob Henabery or as Aristotle wrote, the ability "to entertain a thought without accepting it")
• hire those that grasp simplicity as the solution to complex problems
• hire those that do their homework, those that consistently take measured risks
• hire those who understand execution without urgency is, most often, action plagued by process
• never hire any person with a history of being "unlucky" (wise advice also from Bruce Johnson)
• pay attention to their questions and to their listening skills
• hire those that use plural pronouns in greater number than personal pronouns, seek those that speak using verbs

Finally, in the initial interview make every effort to let the candidate do 85% of the talking. Allow the candidate to finish a response, then wait, let the moment fill with silence and allow them to fill that void. Avoid the temptation to sell the opportunity and/or the company. Those activities are best left to the second or third interview. Immediately after the first interview write down your impressions, go with your gut - how does the candidate make you "feel?"

Andrea Mitchell's book is a fun, smart read especially if you work, have worked, or dream of working as a reporter. Bravo Andrea!

"To be a media company, technology is in the core of it – what you must excel at...Yahoo is all about content...I see us as a 21st century tech company that drives great media. I don’t think you can be one without the other" Terry Semel

My thanks to Scott Krisner for his coverage of Web 2.0 Conference from which the above quotation has been liberated. You may read Scott's summary of Terry Semel's session here, and his writing about Barry Diller's session here. Congrats to the O'Reilly gang for a simply great conference. See you in San Diego next March, more info here.

Mark Hall writes about the Diller session, specifically about the issue of "talent" being discovered via the new forms of online media, a good read which concludes with...

But as many others have noted, ad nauseam and better than I, the online medium is not at all about that. It's about conversation. Participation. Remixing. Democratization. It's about us talking to us. For all the many good things that come out of this new, collective medium, I am not sure it makes the best home for talented people, and their works. There are and remain other media that remain better suited for that: the short story, the novel, the film, the interview show, the essay to name but a few. (Oh, and digitization of those things and distribution online is just that -- distribution, not a new medium).

The point of all this is that the cheerleaders and operators of these new platforms should stop being so defensive when folks like Diller say it's not likely they'll become showcases for great, undiscovered talents. He's right. Concentrate on the other things that the medium is good for -- its ability to foster new forms of conversation; to allow us to find and to share information about specific things more efficiently than ever before; and to connect us and bind us together in new ways that harness our collective talents. Points well made Mark - bravo! Read all of Mark's post here.

A few words about the NAB Radio Show.

Seth Godin's keynote was a disappointment. For years I have admired and respected Godin. My sense is...while short on any original thinking, Seth is strong in the creative repackaging of important tenets and collected wisdom. His advice to the first tribe of wireless...make the product so exceptional that people talk about it...is one of the so-called basics of the biz and certainly nothing new. As this premise relates to broadcast, it may have been McLendon who first said it way back in the fifties "get people to talk about your radio station." Granted, word of mouth or buzz may be fresh new themes for some sectors but are, in fact, rather old hat for electronic media. Regarding Godin's statement that we are in the fashion business. Others including Drucker and Peters have successfully used fashion as a metaphor. During the eighties our film buyer at Midcontinent Theaters always said we were in the "business of the moment", that picking films was "exactly like picking hit fashions off the runway." While I would rate the Godin presentation low on any original content, insight or take away, I would give him above average marks for an entertaining presentation.

Lots of good discussion, all but a few of the panels were lightly attended.

Scott Donaton, Editor of Advertising Age, offers up...

THE LARGER MEANING OF DAVID VERKLIN'S VISIONS
Underscoring a Marketing and Media Industry Leadership Vacuum

Will someone other than David Verklin please stand up?

I mean, really, is there a single other human being who has been as much of a leader, visionary, a force for change and a voice of optimism in the marketing and media industries over the last 15 years? The answer is no, and that’s remarkable, as a statement on Verklin’s talents and as shameful commentary on the leadership vacuum.

Lack of public stands

I’ve heard many executives articulate the challenges facing their industries and offer daring, innovative solutions one-on-one. But most of them don’t have the guts or willingness to take a public stand, because corporate won’t let them or the industry wouldn’t rally behind them or rivals might twist their words to gain competitive advantage. The ideas go nowhere -- or, worse, are voiced only in the confines of trade -- association boardrooms, where they die with a muffled whimper.

To which Joseph Jaffe responds...

He continues to expound on the fact that executives “don’t have the guts or willingness to take a public stand” for a variety of corporate, legal and political reasons.
Finally, he ends with a call to action that “we need to recruit a few more just like him, explorers to map the way forward.

“Who’s signing up?” Donaton asks?

I am, Scott. I am. That’ why I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for 3 ½ years. That’s why I wrote the book. That’s why I am challenging you…as Managing Editor of one of the foremost advertising trade publications to recognize my efforts and make sure the industry knows about my message.

This isn’t motivated out of self-interest; it’s motivated out of passion.

It is why I am calling you out to determine whether you are just like the people you are criticizing, or in fact, if you are different. It’s easy to throw stones from up high on your pedestal. You have a mouthpiece and a megaphone…but along with that voice, comes responsibility as well.

Agree that we have leadership issues in the media and marketing communities, however, I do not agree with Scott's pov that one and only one qualified person (David Verklin) is speaking up and offering an engaging vision. At issue would seem to be "leadership by example" since talk remains cheap or at least requires less investment. Joseph is correct to raise his hand and call Scott out. Stay tuned.

Great trip to New York last week. More later this week.

Claude Hall, Mr. Vox Jox himself, begins another online novel, check out Chapter One of his latest "Hill Country" here