We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of exper tise. What we don’t have are leaders.

This is one of the finest things I’ve read in weeks.

A while back, I signed up for redbubble.com to buy a t-shirt or something. Right away I got this really nice (automated) email that actually seemed personal because it was actually “from” someone. It felt like I was communicating with a person rather than a faceless company. Why thank-you Jason Michaels for welcoming me to this community. But then I realized the ‘from’ address is ‘noreply’ and I felt duped.

I suppose this happens because of the way companies are organized internally:

• Marketing is measured by how many people they can engage in the company. So they like to send out emails.
• Customer service is measured by how many people DON’T engage with them. Any additional customer contact is an expense.

So the compromise is to send out emails, but do everything you can to keep them one-sided. I wonder how these companies are coping with their twitter/blogs/getsatisfaction ?

On a related note, MySpace no longer has a human face.

So I was particularly excited to have these two events transpire today:

The iPhone Upgrade

ATT finally got their act together and enabled their premier site to allow online upgrades to the 3GS. Fantastic, thank you AT&T, you were only a couple of days late. Anyway, I placed the order, goes great, no problems. But then 2 minutes later I get an email:

Thank you for your recent purchase on the AT&T Premier Online Store. We’re pleased that you chose AT&T as your wireless service provider.

Unfortunately, we cannot validate your credit card number. Please call us at your earliest convenience with a different credit or debit card number so we can complete your order: 1-866-499-8008, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

Oh great, 3 cheers for online ordering. Well I still want my phone so 2 minutes later I’m on hold listening to the same 8 bars of crappy jazz music playing over and over, interspersed with messages about how much they appreciate my business. Finally, after a full 10 minutes of hold I get to talk to a real person. Of course I have to tell them my phone number, again, I’ll never understand what the automated system does with the phone number I gave them earlier. She starts looking for orders and can’t find me.

“Sorry, it says you’re still elegible for an upgrade, so the order must have come through yet. Can you call back again in about an hour?”

Somehow I feel better sending this email reply the no doubt automated email address:

I just called, but they couldn’t find the order.
This is really poor customer service. I order stuff online all the
time, why don’t other companies have this hard of time. I’m trying to give you money!!

The Amp Assembly

My JBL Amp Assembly blew up a few weeks ago. Thankfully, I can buy a replacement part for only $120. So I called up the parts department today, part number in hand, excited to watch Jurrasic Park again and rattle the windows.

“Let me place that order for you…….Oh, sorry sir, my computer just crashed”

“Hmm ok, that sucks.

60 seconds later

“Sorry sir, I don’t think this coming back anytime soon. Can I call you back ?”

Why is this commerce stuff so hard!?!

It’s very impressive how quickly after the 1 year warranty on the electronics of my JBL Venue SUB12 decided to melt down. Not sure when it happened exactly, but one day I thought to myself, “self, there isn’t much bass going on here anymore, is the subwoofer still on ?”

RIP Subwoofer, Sept 2007-Sometime in the spring of 2009

So here is the key learning. If you are planning to create some business or other form of entertainment, you will need quality at some point to succeed. But what is more important than quality in the beginning is some intangible element that makes your project inherently interesting before anyone has even sampled it. That initial audience will give you the luxury of time to create quality.

I’ve heard this principle described in different ways in the software world: “Ship early and often.” But it’s interesting to hear this so well generalized.

On a related note, while reading this blog post at work, my CEO stood up and announced he just received a signed Dilbert cartoon from Scott Adams. More evidence, as Scott Adams says, that life could be an illusion.

If I were to return to Jamaica it would be for one reason: Blue Harbour

This place was amazing, and came totally by surprise. This was the one thing we had booked ahead of time, but information we were going on in no way did it justice. The views were amazing, the place was amazing. Full of history, totally comfortable. I was completely relaxed in a matter of hours.

The place sleeps something like 10 people. There is one main Villa and two smaller one room Villas. Meals are traditional jamaican food, homecooked by the staff who are super friendly but very non-invasive. On Christmas Day, we had the WHOLE PLACE TO OURSELVES.

For me, one of the most thrilling aspects was the history of the place. Blue Harbour was the Jamaican party house of Noel Coward, a English playwright and actor. I had no idea who this guy was, but some research proved enlightening (note: All this research was done after I returned, I was laptop free for two weeks)

• Years after the war, Noel Coward finally admitted to being in British Secret Service, MI5, just like his neighbor Ian Flemming.
• He was listed in the Nazi’s Black Book, which would mean had they invaded England, he would have been executed.
• Sir Noel Coward knighthood for his service during WWII was delayed from 1941 to 1969 due to his rumored homosexuality and party reputation making him too controversial.
• Was offered the role of Dr. No in the James Bond film of the same name, but replied, “No No No” to the telegram from Jamaica.
• Stewie Griffin of Family Guy is supposedly loosely based on him.

Which of course eventually led to this:

Good times were had. With four of us traveling together there was a good amount of concern that we might kill each other after week 1, but we managed to survive. A lot of that is probably due to the commitment to flexibility (read: refusal to plan anything) that ended up working quite well. This strategy also helped us easily absorb travel hiccups, such as me arriving 24 hours prior to them thanks to American Airlines commitment to quality.

We ended up seeing a good part of the island. Basically looked like this:

• 12/22 Flew into Kingston
• 12/22-12/23 Stayed at the Hilton by myself in Kingston drinking red stripe at the pool bar.
• 12/23 My companions arrive, and we drive to Port Maria on the north coast.
• 12/23-12/26 Blue Harbour (some serious Ian Flemming territory)
• 12/26-12/28 Random shitty hotel in Montego Bay
• 12/28-1/1 Spent New Years in an All-Inclusive resort, Riu
• 1/1-1/2 Back at the Hilton winding down and ensuring our bags are suitable for air travel.

I’ve got a few more things to say about Jamaica which I will probably spread across a few posts just to pad it all out. Stay tuned.

(via boston.com)

…Confused…

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
- Warren Buffett