No Business on the Go!

I recently read a short blog posting by an exasperated frequent traveller around the highly dubious practice of doing business on planes, trains and auto-mobiles. His frustration was centred around the unethical behaviour displayed by these people and the lack of attention to confidentiality, privacy and information security.

I've had this experience too. I've had some moments where the person next to me is relaying confidential info on the phone within earshot - including passwords, personal information or personal opinion on a named individual. I don't do this personally, I try and avoid punishing my fellow travellers with my work life - but its seen as being acceptable by a lot of people, despite the potential negative consequences.

This post is really about what are the issues with this kind of behaviour and what are the potential negatives?

Confidentiality: This is the obvious one. If everyone around you can hear what your saying then there is an inevitable dissemination of information that can be relayed elsewhere - Twitter, Facebook etc. That information can travel quite a distance before you've even ended the call.

Security: Humans are the weakest link in any security system. Technical people can spend significant time developing security for IT systems just for a human to broadcast the password in a public area such as an airport. Once again that information can travel but it also gives an insight into the personal side of things. If you set your own password on a work system its likely that the same password is in use in your personal life. Taking your work password and trying it on PayPal is a reasonable approach to getting in.

Morally & Ethically: What does your conversation say to other people about your business morals and ethics? If you are criticising an existing customer, what does that say to others listening? If they were your client, would you do the same to them? There are a number of messages that this kind of behaviour gives off, and none of them are positive. It shows a lack of professionalism, respect and understanding.

What compounds this problem is when staff members are wearing company clothing, either a uniform or clothing with the companies logo on it. This means that any transgression is now attributable to the company - potentially bringing the company into disrepute. 

• How do you manage this if your staff are in a position to inflict any of the above on your company?
  
• The company contract of employment should include a statement around travelling on company business - ensuring that in-office etiquette is maintained outside of the office while travelling.
  
• Travel times for staff members should in the company diary with calling them whilst travelling prohibited except in an emergency.
  
• Staff members should not wear clothing with the company logo on it outside of genuine work related circumstances.

Staff travel policies are a good idea, this can include the dress code but can also deal with the claiming of expenses etc. The policy can be part of the employment contract if you feel its of pivotal importance but if you want a softer touch then it can be an aspect of the company handbook.

Regardless, the implications for the company are profound and directors should always take a defensive stance. Bad or inappropriate behaviour that can be attributed to the company is a PR disaster waiting to happen.

Windows 10: Upgrade or Avoid?

If you're not an avid follower of tech you might not even know that there is a new version of Windows on the way, Windows 10. If you're currently using Windows 8/8.1 then don't worry, you haven't missed a version. The number 9 is considered unlucky in Japan and therefore Microsoft has opted to go directly to 10 from 8.

Should you upgrade on day 1 of Windows 10 release?

Previous experiences with upgrading Windows has generally been that the educated users waited until at least the first Service Pack was released - to deal with the initial slew of bugs and issues. Microsoft has been running an extensive BETA program for Windows 10 which means that there should be less issues post-upgrade. The BETA feedback has been largely positive and I suspect that the transition to Windows 10 might be relatively painless for most users.

What if I don't like Windows 10?

Microsoft has long been criticised for making the whole prospect of downgrading Windows a complete misery. Lessons learned here and they have made it much more straight forward. If you don't like Windows 10 you will just be able to roll-back to the previous version.

What other improvements are in Windows 10?

There are a number of improvements but here are my personal selection from the list:

• Email addresses: You no longer need a dedicated Microsoft email address to create an Windows account, you can now use any email address provider you like.
  
• Cortana: A personal assistant within the desktop that uses voice to help you search, navigate and manage your on-line activities. Cortana will be released for mobile as well to help sync your data across all devices.
  
• Virtual Desktops: Windows 10 has a great function that allows you to create multiple workspaces and to be able to move between them effortlessly. It should make working within multiple applications much more straight forward.

What are the current issues users are facing?

There are some issues with Windows 10 for some user groups:

If you have older software applications in use it might be that the developers of those applications are not planning to update them for Windows 10. Its worth checking if the software providers are planning to update and to not upgrade until they have.

If you use your computer for your small business or other important matters then its safer to wait a few weeks after release before upgrading. There is still a lot of potential for loss of data or for software applications to not work as expected. 

If you didn't upgrade to Windows 8 and are still using Windows XP or Windows Vista then the Microsoft offer to upgrade Windows 10 for free doesn't apply. There are some bigger issues for Microsoft when upgrading from XP/Vista and therefore they are adding a fee. The range of fees is between £99 and £189 which is not insignificant and will come as a bitter pill for many people.

Summary

The big picture here is that Windows 10 is a substantially better product than Windows 8 and with the host of new features and the very simple and slick interface it should appeal to the majority of users. Microsoft has clearly listened to the feedback on Windows 8 and has endeavoured to fix some of the more inhibiting issues, and even managed to make it look better in the process.

The Business of Diligence in Business

Due diligence: an investigation of a business or person prior to signing a contract, or an act with a certain standard of care.

There are a number of difficult but crucial aspects of being in business. I've always regarded recruitment and contracts as two of these - fundamental to running a successful company - but I also see them as being the most difficult for many business owners. It comes down to the approach and the discipline of each business owner to be as diligent as they can be to protect themselves and their company.

This post deals in brief with these two challenges.

Contracts

Unless your a lawyer contracts are always a challenge. Most business owners are time-poor and often spend less time than they should understanding what the terms and conditions mean inside of a legal agreement. It often leaves them with a vague understanding of the implications of any agreement they have entered into. Any agreement should be subject to review by a lawyer but there are a couple of things that a diligent business owner should do as a pre-cursor to entering into a new agreement:

[a] Don't take the other party at their word. Check that the company legally exists and that the directors are actually directors. There are plenty of sites now that allow a basic check on what legal status a company has and who owns and controls it.
[b] Ask for references. Its not offensive to ask a company for details of existing/previous clients that you can speak with to confirm that the company behaves in a reputable way, pays its bills and delivers a quality product or service.
[c] Talk in person and don't just work through email. Contracts are really for when relationships have failed, you just wont develop a working relationship with someone through email. Its important to work with people that you like - on any day when there are issues it's easier if you get on.
[d] Take your time. Wait for your lawyer to critique the agreement and don't be afraid to push back and ask for changes or revisions if its not exactly correct. Make sure you understand the nuances of the contract, especially if there are penalties or financial implications for your business.

The above points do not replace a lawyers input onto the problems created by contracts but they will give you a sense of the company your dealing with and the people involved - who have the potential to do tremendous harm as well as good to your company. Being attached to a client or supplier who does not deliver when required or pay when they should we can all do without.

People

Understanding who someone is really, what their skills and capabilities are, whether they are a good cultural fit for your company and customers and what they see as long-term motivation and goals is simply the most difficult thing for a business owner, especially a small business where hiring has a bigger impact. 

We're all familiar with the moment when we read a CV and mentally we say "This person sounds great!" but the question is what else can we do to understand if this person is the real deal?

[a] Talk to the person on the phone before you offer an interview or agree to meet. The interview instantly makes the interaction formal whereas a phone call often provides a different insight. Listen to the person, how they sound, their choice of words etc. Would you like your customers to have the same experience as the one you're having?

[b] Re-read the CV a few times and look between the lines. No one is ever as good as they are on their CV. Does the person's work history make sense? Does it follow a logical progression? Does it take them to the level you need? Do they seem motivated and dedicated to their careers?

[c] In terms of skills don't take their proficiency at their word. If you require a certain level of ability then test them to establish that their capabilities reach that level. Portfolio work is not a true indication on their ability as it is often create over long periods and through multiple iterations, not so good if you often work to tight client deadlines.

[d] Always take and check references. Not only does it give you the opportunity to qualify the person's CV, its also a chance to get an indication on the persons integrity and reliability. This is particularly important if the person is a representative of the company, sales person or someone in a position to enter the company into agreements with suppliers or clients.

Summary

Hiring someone is essentially bringing the company into an agreement to pay someone for their time and skills and shouldn't be treated with any less seriousness than a commercial arrangement with a client or supplier. Its common for small businesses to focus on the salary rather than the employment contract terms - as money is often an issue, but setting out a proper probation period, performance targets, reviews and delivery standards is as important. Ultimately its about getting the right person at the right price - its just about not obsessing over the price.

The overwhelming piece of advice I have is take your time, have a check-list and stick to it. If you think you're too busy for this and pay it little or no attention it will bite you on the ass. Its a false economy to deem these issues as minimal, successful people often cite contracts and recruitment as the bedrock of their success.

VR - Way Forward or White Elephant

One of the buzz technologies at the moment is the Virtual Reality headset ("VR"). The surge of interest started with the Google Glass experiment but close off the back of that came the full on Oculus Rift ("OR") headset. The OR was originally a Kickstarter project that quickly gained momentum and raised $2.5 Million which led to Facebook acquiring the company. Other corporates quickly moved to enter this space (Samsung, HTC, Sony etc.) and there are now 20+ VR technologies hitting the market, primarily aimed at the gaming consumers.

We've been here before ...

VR is not new as a technology. Nintendo has already tried to bring VR to gaming, amazingly, back in in 1995! The Virtua Boy was a desktop gaming device that was revolutionary in its day and promised gamers a whole new paradigm for playing games.

It didn't work commercially. The tech itself left a lot of players with headaches - a problem that has not been resolved by the modern VR headsets. The games were interesting but the real limitation was that you couldn't play-on-the-go, something that Nintendo had pioneered with the Gameboy.

Why is it different now ...?

Actually it isn't. The tech within the new VR headsets is better in terms of construction and definition, the resolution of the OR is 2160x1200 which is very detailed by comparison to Nintendo's Virtua Boy. Outside of the fact that the resolution has increased, all the problems with the Virtua Boy persist:

• A lot of players still suffer headaches, this is due to in-balances with the players vision that the brain struggles with.
  
• Many people feel very self-concious whilst wearing the headset, its an uncomfortable feeling in a psychological sense.
  
• Despite the fact that the headsets are not desk based as per the Virtua Boy its still not possible to play on the go.

Way Forward or White Elephant?

There will always be a hardcore gaming market that will early-adopt this stuff and power the commercial development of both the hardware and the software. New technologies need to breakout into the mass market quickly if they're going to succeed, some can exist under the radar and ferment for a while, but most have 18 months to go mainstream or die.

The mass market is really about what players want under tight constraints in terms of time and money. My general thoughts are around the trip to work. If someone can pick-up and play on the bus for the 10-15 minute travel to work then this is where the real big number of potential players kicks in. I frequently see 50% of my fellow commuters involved in some form of mobile entertainment on the way to work - the liquidity in this part of the market is enormous. The VR headsets don't meet the limitations in this part of the market and therefore they need to appeal to the hardcore and console gamers.

My personal opinion right now is that this first generation of VR headsets are a white elephant. There will be a couple of years of hype and as with 3D movies at the cinema, the interest and the investment will dry up. Having said that, I don't see a 20yr gap between iterations like we saw from Virtua Boy to Oculus Rift. I can envisage maybe a 3-5 year hiatus and then the next generation of devices will probably be a more realistic proposition. I see it following the same trajectory as gaming on demand. The early entrants into the market OnLive and Gaikai are the good examples - OnLive launched and went bust, Gaikai never launched even after Sony acquired it. VR Headset technology is still somewhat in the future for most people.

Game of Drones

The media is awash with all sorts of drone related stories and hypothesis. As a new technology (and as with many previous new techs) it has a mixture of fans, supporters, detractors and conspiracy theorists. The long term benefits are clear to me. Safety applications, search and rescue, hazardous environment work etc. The current anarchy over drone use and some of the unacceptable uses we see in the media are a necessary pre-cursor to forming legislation that then allows the drone sector to orientate itself into an acceptable mode of operation for the masses. What does this mean for small businesses and those who stand to benefit the most?

New perspectives

There were clearly some small businesses that were going to latch on to drone use very quickly. Wedding photographers latched on to the idea of using drones and offered prospective clients the unique angles for their big day that only a drone can offer. Other sectors such as the building trade could view and assess buildings without the need for scaffolding and farmers could use drones to get a view of parts of their estate without leaving the farm house. Drones were capable of servicing these needs with little or no modification and piloting them was not beyond the man in the street.

Drones as part of critical infrastructure?

This is where the reality of drone use started to depart into the realms of wishful thinking. The media made a lot of the concept of drones in urban locations supporting critical infrastructure such as the emergency services. Drones flying defibrillators to heart attack victims appeared in the press. As a drone pilot and someone who has delivered a safety app into the emergency service environment already (REALRIDER) I cant safely say this wont work. Drone navigation in urban areas is fraught with problems, the smaller drones can't carry the payload required and there are existing laws that prohibit the drones operating in public areas. On top of all that the conspiracy theorists will have a field day with claims of surveillance by the back door. Don't expect to see this any time soon.

What can a drone deliver?

According to Amazon, a large parcel! When the Amazon news story first appeared it created a huge stir in the media but the reality is that this concept has some large flaws in it. The technical ones of battery life/range, payload, navigation etc. are all still there, Amazon did not conquer any of those. Other issues include what the drone does if it can't find you, what it does if you're not home etc. also detract from the business case. Lastly, drone interference is going to come into play. Bringing an Amazon drone down to take the payload is going to become a criminal enterprise in itself.  I suspect that Amazon has enough money and smart people to be able to think around some of these issues but I also suspect that we are still a good five years away from any kind of commercial service based around drone delivery.

So what is the reality?

In truth the reality is fairly underwhelming. Drones are still developing as a piece of technology, are not that cheap (but getting cheaper) and require some skills to operate. The real devil is the legislation (or lack of it). There are some obvious security, privacy and safety issues that the current legislation doesn't deal with - most specifically relating to operating drones within spaces used by the public. The government will need to legislate to ensure that drones are not a public nuisance, not a hazard to the public and do not facilitate criminality. 

Accepting that the above will take care of itself, the other challenge with drones is a human one. These devices are semi-autonomous and capable of making a decision based around the circumstances they find themselves in.  Humans are naturally suspicious and the potential for a disconnect between humans and the machines is likely. There needs to be a phased approach to using drones in situations where the public are involved and not just to force drones into society against public opinion. My gut feeling is that drones need some early positive impact, a quick win or two to calm the public perception before the drone arms-race creates a wholly negative feeling.

Should business owners learn to code?

It should be apparent to most of us that coding is becoming a desirable skill in the work place. So many things in our everyday lives have programmable or configurable aspects to them - phones, WiFi routers, web sites etc. The need for even simple coding skills is increasing and its a challenge for most businesses to get the right expertise and skills in-house and then to hang on to them.

The question is: If you own the business is it necessary that you learn to code?

What would be the advantages if you did?

(a) You would have an insight into the time and complexity that tasks requiring coding take, making planning and business decisions better informed.

(b) You would be able to brief staff better by using your personal knowledge and experience when describing work you require.

(c) You would be better able to capture requirements from your customers by being able to ask the right questions at the right level of detail.

(d) You would have the respect of more technical team members as you at least dipped your toe into this in an effort to gain understanding and be a better business leader.

(e) You are better equipped as a business person to understand and hire the best people for the technical work you require.

What are the dangers of doing this?

(a) This becomes a distraction from your core business responsibilities and other aspects of the business don't get the right level of your attention.

(b) You become presumptuous about your knowledge and abilities and start to think you are better than your technical team

(c) You try to apply code or a technical solution to problems that can't be or don't need to be solved with technology

(d) If you're not that great at it, it becomes more of a hindrance than a help.


What you get in benefits by learning to code is the ability to understand and interact with the technical part of your business in a much more influential way. Its true that within many tech start-ups its difficult for the tech guys to take the CEO or founder seriously if they don't code. Even if the coding only gets a bit beyond basic it allows the CEO or MD to express things differently to an audience that without the coding speaks a different language.

What detracts from learning to code is when the CEO doesn't have enough personal discipline to understand when they've reached their limit and then their involvement becomes a problem. A good coding CEO will feel the moment that they need to step back and say "You seem to understand where we're going, let me know what you need from me to make this a success.". 

Sindhu Joseph
CEO
Cognicor

Can you write code?
Yes

If you do write code, is it the most important skill you have to be an entrepreneur?
No, I value being able to code, but by no means it is my most important skill. I value being able to take risk, face challenges, understand my client needs and being able to convince them much higher than my ability to code.

As Sindhu Joseph highlights, coding is not a super-power. It does not avoid or replace many of the other aspects of running a business, its just another weapon in the arsenal of a 21st century entrepreneur.  Many CEO's of major tech companies can't code, they just had the vision and the drive to get things moving and the understanding of who they needed to take care of the tech.

Charles Delingpole
Co-founder
MarketInvoice

Can you write code?
I taught myself how to code when I was 16. I can build and deploy a reasonably sophisticated website in a few hours, and this has proved to be extremely useful over the years. It means that rather than having to find someone, describe in detail what to do, spent a money on something and then wait for it to come back and not have it work, you can have something up and running within days. So knowing how to code saves time and money and gets you better results.

When coding ability is added to other strengths of a small business owner it can be a powerful game changer over its competitors. It's a competitive advantage in many ways and can often make a business more attractive to new prospective customers. As Charles highlights in the comments above - because he can code he can own and maintain the vision of what he wants for his own business.

As you can probably tell my bias is towards coding and in recent years the number of ways of learning your first few lines of code has ballooned. There are now a lot of options in terms of on-line coding academies but in the first instance just check out youtube. There are a lot of coding tutorials for beginners and its free! It might just be the start of something that transforms your business.

Check out:

Codecademy

Lynda

Code School