Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Posted on October 30, 2009 - by Nate

Data Multicasting: A VERY Brief Overview

I’ve been reading some techie docs lately on the power of data multicasting. Yes, I know it sounds incredibly boring, but it’s a valuable asset to have in the digital signage industry. In fact, there are only a handful of companies within digital signage that currently specialize in data multicast technology. To remain competitive, some will require adaptation and continuous engineering going forward. Many customers are asking for it, hence the education.

What is Data Multicasting?

Multicasting involves a one-to-many or many-to-many relationship and allows for increases in efficiency in use of network resources when it comes to packet distribution. Multicasting can use the following protocols: MOSPF, CBT, IGMP, PIM-DM, PIM-SM, and BGMP.

Multicasting can be used in the following applications:

• Network Configuration
• Content Distribution
• Shared Apps:
• Information Distribution
• Multipoint Distribution: which includes, but is not limited to anycasting, unitcasting, and broadcasting.

Posted on October 5, 2009 - by Nate

More Application Essays for MBA Programs

Yet another example of an MBA application Essay I’ve been writing.

Explain how your past accomplishments have prepared you for the MBA Program.

As an undergraduate, two friends and I explored means of funding our education. The resulting business venture was a franchised Dish Network retailer. From conception to implementation we were able to grow our small start-up to nearly 30 employees in less than four months. Although oftentimes requiring 18-hour workdays, our business was profitable within 30 days and gleaned first year annual revenues in excess of $650,000–a feat which helped us earn 2nd place at BYU’s coveted Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

During this time I also vigorously pursued a career in dentistry. Although I later learned I lacked passion for dentistry, the pursuit was a worthwhile endeavor which taught me a great deal about passion and work. As part of my pursuit toward dentistry, I enrolled in all the necessary undergraduate classes required for dental school matriculation. Compounded with these science courses, I also chose to remain a business management major. As part of my time spent as a hopeful dentist I participated in shadowing opportunities, including a self-funded, two week excursion to Honduras where I assisted a number of dentists, providing free dental work for the underprivileged of that country. Almost a month after returning from Honduras I excelled on the Dental Admissions Test (DAT), scoring in the 90th percentile.

Immediately following graduation, I even worked as a prosthodontist assistant. However, after several months of assisting, my eyes were opened. I realized dentists spent much more time working in their business than on their business. I also came to the realization that I had had more passion for my entrepreneurial pursuits than I did for dentistry. Consequently, after being accepted to several dental programs, I reluctantly declined the offers due to my lack of passion for the field. I am not one to recant progressive decisions, but I knew I would not be happy or passionate as a dentist. I had more passion for previous “means-to-an-end” businesses I had started than I did for dentistry. Knowing I would never be a leader in my field unless I possessed passion for my work, I knew I had to make the difficult decision of recanting the offers of acceptance. This was an extremely difficult juncture in my life and a defining moment.

Since my difficult decision, I have spent two years with Hughes-owned Helius, Inc.–a digital media development firm based in Lindon, UT. This firm provides software management solutions in digital media, digital signage, and corporate communications. At Helius, I have acted as the National Accounts Manager, working with both the sales and marketing team. I demonstrate and sell complex content management software solutions and help to manage market strategy for seizing customer opportunities.

As another current entrepreneurial side project, I also manage the largest digital signage industry portal at digitalsignage.com. This asset helps glean regular and viable leads for the digital signage industry worldwide. As part of the effort, I manage an industry-related news feed, write regularly on the site’s blog, and manage the litany of leads the site produces from its large user-base. Such leads are sold on a contractural basis to numerous companies around the globe, producing a nice residual revenue stream for myself and my parnters. Since the site’s official launch in early 2009, it has been the recipient of over 8,000 monthly visitors. In addition, with the help of two partners we have successfully gained banner advertising contracts with Intel, Visix, Deploid, and Hughes.

While my experiences may have ranged across very different fields, I believe my diversity of experiences, and particularly my pursuits of the “paths less traveled,” display my unique ability to succeed at virtually any task. In addition, my leadership acumen gained through entrepreneurial management, coupled with my love for learning, give me a very unique foundation from with which to build.

Posted on June 30, 2009 - by Nate

Another Fraudulent Bernie Bites the Dust

My dad worked for MCI for most of his career which later turned into WorldCom under the regime of Bernard Ebbers. Those who do not know the story of some of the largest frauds in U.S. history should at least know the characters involved. News reports today told the sad, but conclusive tale that another Bernie has bit the dust. 

Bernie Madoff, for over 20 years, ran the largest ponzi scheme known to man and now he’s behind bars for 150 years. Sadly, 150 years may not seem like justice to those whose lives have been completely devastated by his actions. I know personally that the Bernie Ebbers fraud caused a lot of grief for WorldCom employees, including those in my family.

I listened to a heated debate on NPR this morning regarding new regulation proposals to separate the power from the money on wall street. Something has to be done. Interestingly, the warning signs are always there. It’s just that no one suspects anyone in such a position of trust to be so moronic. I guess it’s our own fault for being nieve and turning a blind eye to the facts. Let’s just hope we can all get our act together and pull our head out. 

It’s events like this that make people tight-fisted, unwilling to invest in wall street, and keep the economy from booming. It may be super cheesy to quote Uncle Ben from Spiderman, but I think it appropriate: “with great power comes great responsibility.” The problem I see is that in many instances great power reduces requirements for accountability. Such was the case with these two sleeze balls. 

Posted on May 28, 2009 - by Nate

Will Google Wave Kill Facebook?

Google Wave is being introduced and will shortly take the place of email, gchat, and lifestreaming. But the biggest looming question is, will Google Wave be a Facebook killer?

I love Google apps. They are super useful, including Google Reader, Gmail, and iGoogle are great. I’m using Google Chrome as we speak. Google Wave is the next best integration of all three with it’s Google Wave application.

Google is positioning the new app as a kind conversation and collaboration system. It’s as logical as the jump was from mail to email, telephone to chat, or blogging to microblogging. Wave is described by Google as “equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” It sounds to me like a bit of social networking that may end up being a nice competitor for our Friends at Facebook.

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You’ll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch. Wave’s power will come from its extensibility and ability to integrate with existing activity sources like GMail, Facebook, and Twitter.

Wave is built on HTML5 and the Google Web Toolkit. What’s more, the team plans to make the source code powering Wave open source to encourage developer involvement in the project’s continued growth and evolution. If you’d like to get involved, head over to the Wave Developer Blog for API information and a look at what you can build with Wave.

These are at least 4 reasons why Google Wave Will Kill Facebook:

1. Google is Google. Have you seen the Compete.com #s for Facebook vs. Google? Facebook may be gaining, but Google already has a base of Gmail subscribers worldwide that could trump the monkey.

2. Facebook doesn’t have search. Imagine what the Google search algorithm mixed with Wave will do?

3. Google’s revenues dwarf Facebook. More money for diversification? I guess Facebook did just get the influx from Russia…

4. Facebook has apps, Google has applications. Think about it. Facebook is a good networking center, but I’m sorry Google just has too many applications that have more useful applications than Facebook.

These are some of my thoughts. What do you think? Will Facebook be killed by Google Wave?

Posted on May 16, 2009 - by Nate

Google’s Morphing Ranking Algorithm + Power of Generic Domain Names

I picked up a great post from randfish over at the SEOmoz blog a couple of weeks ago along with a report by Marketing Charts that coincide nicely. The SEOmoz post talks about how the Google ranking algorithm has changed, while the Marketing Charts post gives some great information on the benefit of generic domain names. Both posts were great reads and coincided with some of the work I’m currently doing at DigitalSignage.com. 

The SEOmoz post gave the following as the largest contributing factors to Google’s ranking: 

Domain Trust/Authority 

Anchor Text in External Links

On-Page Keyword Usage 

Raw PageRank / Link Juice 

The Marketing Charts report gives some of the reasons for generic domain name success: 

Memorable Domains attributes the strong performance of generic domain names to several factors:

• Because a generic domain name describes a product or service using the words people automatically associate with the topic, it encourages them to click more.
• The presence of search terms in the domain name leads to higher organic rankings or a
• better ad quality score in pay-per-click ad ranking algorithms.
• Search engines commonly automatically bold any word in the domain name that matches the search term, drawing attention to the listing.
• There is a potential positive impact of the domain name on ad quality score.

“generic name is an established brand or website with a strong awareness and trust factor for the product or service search terms in question. Even in such cases, a generic domain name has potential value in targeting very specific product or service search terms with an appropriate keyword-rich domain. The findings suggest that established brands should consider a generic name for minisites associated with a particular product, service or ad campaign.”

I just thought all these facts were interesting and some might benefit from me sharing them here. 

Posted on March 7, 2009 - by Nate

“Why We Buy” Part II

I’ve been meaning to get back to this: Paco Underhill’s quotes from “Why We Buy,” Part II. 

“In other words, stores, banks, restaurants and other such spaces must be friendly to the specificaitons of the human animal.” pg. 43

“Yet a huge part of what we do is uncover ways in which retail environments fail to recognize and accommodate how human machines are built and how our anatomical and physiological aspects determine what we do.” pg. 43

“We would rather look at people than objects.” pg. 44. This could apply succinctly to digital signage content creation. 

“Amenability and profitability are totally an inextricably linked. Take care of the former, in all its guises, and the latter is assured.” pg. 44

“If there is a display of merchandise, they’re not going to take it in. If there’s a sign, they’ll probably be moving too fast to absorb what it says.” [he was speaking of the instance when people immediately walk into any venue–which is why WalMart gave us “greeters”–he refers to it as “the transition zone”] pg. 45

In either case, store merchandisers can do two sensible things where the transition zone is concerned: They can keep from trying to accomplish anything important there, and they can take steps to keep that zone as small as possible.” pg. 47

 ”We discovered another misuse of the zone a few years ago, when we tested an interactive computerized information fixture that had been designed for Kmart by a division of IBM. It had a touch screen and a keyboard , and you’d ask it where men’s underwear was, for example, and it would give you a map of the store and maybe a coupon for T-shirts or socks. A terrific idea, executed well. It helped customers and spared the store from haivng to pay someone to stand behind a desk and tell people where boys’ sweaters were–seventy-two times a day.” pg. 48

“Placing the computers too close to the door had turned them into very expensive pieces of electronic sculpture.” pg. 48

“That teaches us something about rules–you have to either follow them or break them with gusto. Just ignoring a rule or bending it a little is usually the worst thing you can do.” pg. 49

“Allowing some space between the entrance of a store and a product gives it more time in the shopper’s eye as he or she approaches it.” pg. 50

“At trade shows, the booths just inside the door may seem most desirable, but they’re pretty bad locations” pg. 50

More to come…hopefully not in another 3 weeks like last time :) 

Posted on February 14, 2009 - by Nate

“Why We Buy” Part 1

I’ve been meaning to start placing my favorite quotes from Paco Underhill’s “Why We Buy” but have not had the time. This is the first in a several part series. Enjoy:

“We can tell you how many males who take jeans into the fitting room will buy them compared to how many females (65 percent to 25 percent).” pg. 17

“The butt-brush factor, we wurmised, was why that rack was an underperformer.” pg. 18

“Shoppers have been spooked by too-close quarters.” pg. 18

“Move the treats to where kids and little old ladies can reach them.” pg. 19

“Much of the signage was misplaced–common sense dictated that it be positioned to face the main entrance of the store, but we found that most jeans shoppers came upon the section from a completely different direction.” pg. 20

“My old colleagues in the world of academia regard what we do with envy and horror–envy because we get to do what we do and get paid for it, horror because we actually stick our necks out and are held accountable for the success or failure of our suggestions.” pg. 21

“Why not take the tools of the urban anthropologist and use them to study how people interact with the retail environment?” pg. 24

“To my surprise things that seemed logical and obvious to me were delightful insights to my clients. It was clear that I had stepped into a world of business where what I did had value, but I knew nothing of the consequences or, really the context.” pg. 27

“…the view from the register back into the body of the store is distinctly myopic.” pg. 28

“A store has more than one constituency, and it must therefore perform several functions, all from the same premises.” pg. 29

“If we went into stores only when we needed to buy something, and if once there we bought only what we needed, the economy would collapse, boom.” pg. 31

“…we are now generously overretailed–too much is for sale, through too many outlets. The economy even at its strongest can’t keep up with retailing’s growth. Judging from birthrates, we are generating stores considerably faster than we are producing new baby shoppers. Retailers are not opening stores in the United States to serve new markets anymore. They are opening stores to try to steal someone else’s customers. As the competition gets heated, there is a need for an edge–a science, if you will.” pg. 31

“The standard tools of marketing work, they just don’t work anywhere near as well as they used to. Many purchasing decisions are made, or can be heavily influenced, on the floor of the store itself. Shoppers are susceptible to impressions and information they acquire in stores, rather than just relying on brand-name loyalty or advertising to tell them what to buy. As a result, an important medium for transmitting messages and closing sales is now the store and the aisle. That building, that place, has become a great big three-dimensional advertisement for itself. Signage, shelf position, display space and special fixtures all make it either likelier or less likely that a shopper will buy a particular item (or any item at all).” pg. 32

“Finally, our studies prove that the longer a shopper remains in a store, the more he or she will buy. And the amount of time a shopper spends in a store depends on how comfortable and enjoyable the experience is.” pg. 33

“Marketing, advertising, promotion and location can bring shoppers in, but then it’s the job of the merchandise, the employees and the store itself to turn them into buyers. Conversion rate measures what you make of what you have–it shows how well (or how poorly) the entire enterprise is functioning where it counts most: in the store. Conversion rate is to retail what batting average is to baseball–without knowing it, you can say that somebody had a hundred hits last season, but if you don’t know whether he had three hundred at-bats or a thousand. Without conversion rate, you don’t know if you’re Mickey Mantle or Mickey Mouse.” pg. 36

“The average shopper spent two minutes in the cosmetics section. The average shopper who bought something spent only thirty seconds more. Now, the amount of time a shopper spends in a store (assuming he or she is shopping, not waiting in a line) is perhaps the single most important factor in determinging how much she or he will buy. Over and over again, our studies have shown a direct relationship. If the customer is walking through the entire store (or most of it, at least) and is considering lots of merchandise (meaning he or she is looking and touching and thinking), a fair amount of time is required…” pg. 37

“Here’s another good way to judge a store: by its interception rate, meaning the percentage of customers who have some contact with an employee…All our research shows this direct relationship: the more shopper-employe contacts that take place, the greater the average sale. Talking with an employee has a way of drawing a cusotmer in closer.” pg. 37

“Here’s a finaly measure, a real simple one waiting time. This, as we discuss elsewhere, is the single most important factor in customer satisfaction. But few retailers realize that when shoppers are made to wait too long in line (or anywhere else), their impression of overall service plunges.” pg. 38

“This finaly matter doesn’t involve any particular way to measure a store, but it’s a remarkable example of businessperson ignorance: they often don’t really know who their shoppers are.” pg. 39

“Smart retailers would reward employees who learned a little Japanese, German, French or Spanish–even just a handful of phrases would make a difference, as anyone who has shopped in a foreign country would realize. Restaurants should have menus in Japanese and German on hand.” pg. 39 ( I might ad, what about the digital signage?).

stay tuned for more coming up….

Posted on January 24, 2009 - by Nate

Chrossing the Chasm, Review III

I never did finish up my favorite quotes from the Geoffrey Moore’s book: Crossing the Chasm. I finished the book, but never finished with my favorite quotes. Here they are. Enjoy!

“The chasm separates not only visionaries from pragmatists- it also separates the companies that serve them.” 

“It is the move from being pioneers to becoming settlers.” 

“They want to do great deeds, and when there are no more great deeds to be done, they want to move on.” 

“Nonetheless, once you have crossed the chasm, these people can become a potential liability. Their fundamental interest is to innovate, not administrate.” 

“It is critical, therefore, that as the enterprise shifts from the product centric world of the early market to the market-centric world of the mainstrem, that pioneer technologists be transferred elsewhere–ideally, into another project within the enterprise, but if necessary, to another company.” 

“WIthout them [the pioneers], achieving early market leadership is all but impossible.” 

“The key to leaving the chasm behind, however, is to stop custom developments and institutionalize the whole product, to build to a set of standards that the marketplace as a whole can support.” 

“There are two sets of people–high tech pioneers and pioneer salespeople.” 

“And they build fences and create laws (called procedures) and do all the things that created range wars between pioneers and settlers back in the Old West.” 

“…At the beginning of the chasm period, the organization is dominated by pioneers, with strong powers invested in a few top-gun salespeople and product managers. By the time we are into the mainstream market, that power should be distributed far more broadly among major account managers, industry marketing managers, and product marketing managers. This gradual dissemination of authority will ultimately frustrate the pioneer contributors, hampering their ability to make quick decisions and rapid responses. Ultimately, it will make them want to leave.” 

“The key to discriminate between account penetration and account development: the latter is more predictable, less remarkable achievement. It is also the more lucrative.” 

“Compensation for the pioneer salesperson should have the opposite characteristics. It should provide the bulk of its rewards immediately, in recognition of a single key achievement–winning the account.” 

“What the pioneer technologist does have a right to is a large share of the early market returns, because here it truly is the core product that drives success. The problem is that cash is typically so tight during this period that there is none to throw off in the form of a reward. So equity is the usual fallback.” 

“Like authors [pioneer technologists] are compelled to condust their craft regardless of whether anyone will pay for it.” 

“To sum up, improper compensation wastes dollars and demotivates people.” 

“[R&D’s] heroes are less like Einstein, who developed a whole universe out of his own head, and more like George Washington Carver, who discovered over three hundred different uses for the same peanut.” 

“Target the point of attack…assemble the invasion force…define the battle…launch the invasion, selecting our intended distribution channel and setting our pricing to give us motivational leverage over that channel.” 

Crossing the Chasm Review I

Chrossing the Chasm Review II

?ÅT? NÆd 

Posted on January 14, 2009 - by Nate

I bit the bullet: I’m now on Twitter

I’ve been following the Twitter craze on the blogosphere for quite some time now, especially with my intresest in mobile marketing. However, I never joined….until today. 

you can follow Nate Nead on twitter my feed is http://www.twitter.com/natenead

My reasoning for not joining was simple. 

1. I’m all thumbs. I work better with keyboards that allow for use of all my fingers (I mean isn’t that why I have 10, instead of two thumbs, so I can type?). 

2. I would rather call than text. 

3. I would rather be called than texted. 

4. Texting isn’t free. In fact texting is quite expensive. 

5. I like networking, but for some reason Twitter didn’t appeal to me. 

So, now that I have it. Feel free to follow me. I may not update as much as others. Like I said, I like full conversations, so blogging is more my thing. However, as I update on twitter, you can see the latest and greatest of what is happening in life and business…

Posted on November 7, 2008 - by Nate

Some Criticism for Wireless Ronin

A recent statement by the former CEO of Wireless Ronin, Jeffrey Mack, threw up a red flag in my mind:

“We are pleased to be recognized by this industry leading tradeshow which shows that not only do we provide award winning digital signage software and technology solutions, but our company’s creative solutions are also best-in-class in the digital signage industry. We have worked hard to develop end-to-end solutions for our customers and recognize that digital signage programs not only require cutting-edge, dependable software but also engaging and creative content.”

The reason this statement sets me off as a distasteful is because it would seem they are trying to be everything to everyone from the outset. Eventually corporations can work toward that, but initially they need to hunker down, focus on their niche, and milk it for what it’s worth before they branch out into other areas. Expanding product offerings is fine and dandy, but if it’s not as profitable as a core competency, then can it.

I recently read a book entitled Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers. One of the key components of the book was a very simple piece of advice, stay focused on the very focused niche in the market you are into. This is a very counterintuitive statement, but believe me it’s the gospel truth.

I see other companies like Scala, Helius, MediaTile and others sticking to what they know and what they’re good at. Perhaps that’s why their balance sheets don’t have numbers outlined by parenthesis and their CEOs are sticking around a while. Just a thought.