Disruptive Voice

The Right Tool for the Job

I am no webmaster. Ten years ago I played around with building web pages. But that was so I could understand the inner workings of web pages in order to be a better marketer.

Apparently, the fact that I am not a webmaster was evident in the design and layout of my blog. Apparently, the design of my blog was an embarrassment to my friends, colleagues and even my children – if you believe my ex-wife, who is a website developer and designer.

My talents lie in public relations and employing social media to promote ideas, products, solutions and companies. I can write—which is important in blogging—but cannot design.

The aesthetic appeal of a blog lends credibility to the author. Clean, inviting page design or compelling images have lured me to read an unfamiliar blogger’s post.

So I employed my critical yet talented ex-wife to re-design my blog.

How many times have you taken on a task for which you lack the skill set? Maybe you created a newsletter and focused on the content but not the look and feel. Maybe you launched a cool-looking website that has confusing navigation or lacks well-written content that explains what you do. Maybe you put out a press release and wondered why no media wrote about your company.

Knowing what you’re good at is critical to success. But knowing what you suck at is just as important. There is someone who loves creating whatever it is that you suck at doing.

Every home improvement do-it-yourself expert urges us to “Use the right tool for the job.” In business, the motto should be “Use the right talent for the job.” 

The Power of Niche Blogs

When candy powerhouse The Hershey Company decided to save a few bucks by substituting ingredients for real chocolate with fake chocolate, most consumers never noticed. But a niche blog, CandyBlog, follows the company that built its empire on the quality of its chocolate.

CandyBlog exposed the substitution of cocoa butter with oils from palm kernels, soybeans, sunflower and safflower, which led to a groundswell of negative media coverage, including The Today Show. One newspaper called Hershey’s use of misleading labels such as “made with chocolate” on its Mr. Goodbar, Milk Duds, and Take 5 candies “a blatant consumer rip-off.”

And the news just gets worse for Hershey, as eco-enthusiasts have jumped on t he bandwagon to point out that Hershey's use of palm oil contributes to deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. Outsourcing opponents point out that Hershey shut down U.S. factories to make fake chocolate in Mexico. Health advocates note that eating palm oil contributes to cardiovascular disease.

Niche blogs that follow specific industries have grown in importance. Through RSS feeds and content sharing on the Web, companies can either see a spike in interest about their products/solutions or get slammed and have their brands damaged in days.

For Hershey, the cost savings haven’t been worth the negative coverage. But they might have gotten away with the cocoa butter substitution were it not for a blog that caters to candy lovers. Don't underestimate the power of small, niche blogs.

Telcos must open their networks to survive & thrive

Venerable tech columnist Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal told a room full of telecom executives today that new mobile devices like the 3G iPhone and the G1 Google Android phone mark "a great moment of opportunity and significant challenge for the telecom industry."

With the transformation of mobile devices into handheld computers, telcos could be limited to being nothing but a network provider. Such was the prediction that Mossberg delivered to attendees of BroadSoft Connections in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Joining Mossberg was Jeff Cavins, who leads mobile app provider CallWave; Shawn Hardin, who heads social networking browser Flock.com; and Emily Green, the president of the Yankee Group research firm.

Mossberg began the session by holding up a humongous old Motorola portable phone to illustrate just how far mobile handsets and services have come. Part of the panel’s message was that telecom companies want to hold on to outdated business models, and consequently are being relegated to becoming little more than a pipe.

While telcos want to be part of the Web 2.0 evolution that is occurring, the changes are coming faster than they can alter their internal cultures to take advantage of new innovations. And, the panel said, telcos have to abandon their walled-garden approach to services that once made Internet pioneers like AOL successful, but eventually left them grasping for sustainability.

Green said telcos continue to focus on reliability at a time when consumers put up with mediocre service from mobile carriers in exchange for convenience. Choice, she said, is the dominant factor in consumer decision making.

Mossberg said so far Apple and Google have gotten it right: open the platform to innovation and let new, exciting things happen. For telcos to survive, they will have to open their networks to allow user-driven applications become part of the next generation of telecom services.