Nur Ahmad Furlong

Category: Strategy

  • Selling my Web, Strategy, Creativity, Productivity Books

    I’m not a big reader when it comes to novels and function in general, I just find the fantasy a bit of a waste of time to be honest. But when it comes to books covering practical knowledge on the stuff that matters to me, I’m a bit OCD.

    So i’ve been trying to clear out some of the books I haven’t been using in a while and I found a set of real gems from my Web, Strategy, Creativity, Productivity collection. Each of these books has played a major role in helping me get to grips with the range of subjects I need to keep myself informed on as a Web & Creative Professional.

    These books cover a wide range of subjects from Coding & Coding Standards, to Productivity, Time Management, Marketing & Communications Strategy, Web Strategy, Usability, Creative Thinking. The information contained in these books should be enough to get any web novice up to speed with the principles and methods needed to dive straight into the web industry. They’re also a great resource or reference for anyone working in this industry or teaching/presenting on these topics.

    1. The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World
    2. Six Thinking Hats – EDWARD DE BONO
    3. Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity – Edward De Bono
    4. The 4-Hour Work Week and Timothy Ferriss
    5. The Truth about Email Marketing – Jenkins
    6. rework – 37 Signals
    7. don’t make me think – Steve Krug – New Riders
    8. building findable websites – New Riders
    9. Introducing HTML5 – Lawson Sharp – New Riders
    10. Designing for Web Standards – Second Edition – Jeffrey Zeldman
    11. The Ultimate CSS Reference – Sitepoint
    12. A Designer’s Research Manual – Jenn + Ken Visocky O’Grady
    13. eMarketing eXellence – Chaffey Smith – Third Edition
    14. Starting & Running a Successful Consultancy – How To Books
    15. The Art & Science of CSS – Sitepoint
    16. Logo Lounge 2 – Rockport

    I’m planning on selling this entire stash to the highest bidder to make space for some new material.

  • Getting the most out of What We Do

    Last night I had a highly insightful chat on gtalk with @naeem who runs a number of successful online businesses and interest sites out of Johannesburg, South Africa. Naeem is someone I admire for being able to see a business opportunity around almost every corner, you can tell he’s been doing what he does for quite a while.

    He passed on a really great online business idea

    It was Something really simple and with potential to make some good dosh online, which got me thinking about the way I have been approaching my career. I’m not about to share his idea with the world to run off and make it irrelevant to me, but after coming across the following post written by Bud Caddell on whatconsumesme.com, I also re-thought whether just any good business idea would do for me.

    venn

    This Venn diagram gave me some serious food for thought in terms of how to go about sticking to what I do well, what I love doing and still making a decent living out of it. The post is entitled “How to be Happy in Business“. Apart from being a really well designed piece of informaton design, the concepts really hit me hard and also made me think back to my business ideas convo with @naeem. Would it do to get into just any type of business just to make money?

    Budd lists the 3 problems highlighted by the diagram:

    • We can’t determine how to make enough money from the things we want to do, and do really well.
    • We’ve found things we want to do, and can be paid for, but we’re not the best game in town.
    • We’ve come across things people want us to do, that we do well (or at least better than the competition) that we really don’t want to do.

    I’m the type of person that generally comes up with business ideas connected to a direct need I have, and also most times relating to something which I’m really interested in, which helps me get my head fully inside the whole development process. Ok so I haven’t really succeeded with any of my crazy business ideas yet, LOL, nor have I even progressed to prototyping phase with some of the more serious ones, but this means that something disconnected to what I love doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance of even featuring. Then comes the problem of monetizing what I’m really truely passionate about.

    Me gots lots to think about regarding this diagram!

    On the same little stroll around the interwebs, I also found a really great way of identifying my own special business model, and applying my efforts in that direction. Gina Trapini, “software and self improvement junkie” wrote a piece on Freelance Switch where she says,

    “While I do plan to make money as a freelancer, my ultimate goal is to generate satisfaction.”

    (While money is a part of that, so is learning, service, and creativity, so we’ll just use the umbrella term “satisfaction.”)

    She shares her personal “business model” in plain & simple terms, What’s important to her is more than just paying the bills while doing what she specializes in.

    Personal Business Model of Gina Trapani

    This particular concept highlights the importance of consantly tracking your activities based on what’s most important to you. Of course knowing what’s most important is step 1, having a plan to engage more in those areas comes next. I found in the last 2 months, tracking my activities in detail has given me huge insight in where the problem areas are. I’ve started taking a few steps in a new direction and these 2 posts/diagrams has helped wrap my head around the way forward.

  • VeloCITI Session #1: Getting our Values in order

    For the 15 start-up businesses chosen to be on the VeloCITI 2008 program, today, March 18, was a truly inspirational and profoundly introspective day.

    See more about What VeloCITI is?

    We started off at 9 waking up to cups of coffee and a round of congratulating each other for making it onto the program. It was great seeing the familiar faces from the bridging course 2 weeks ago and re-connecting. I feel this year will unlock some really special relationships and it seems it already has.

    We were introduced to Judit from PeerPower, our facilitator and mentor for the day who was later joined by Mignon(PeerPower). I think I can speak for all when I say we were rearing to go and eager to find out what the topic of focus for the day would be.

    Introducing ourselves

    First off we completed a quick introductions/interview exercise in which we each interviewed one of our VeloCITI peers and had to introduce them to the team. We then focused on setting some guidelines going forward in terms of rules of engagement and how we as a group think we would need to work together to produce the best results within the team over the next 7 – 8 months.

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  • Tapping into the power of strategy

    The importance of having a strategic approach to business cannot be understated. While many business people are content to keep going at it in the same way they always have, taking a step back and assessing what lies ahead, the challenges, the goals, the failures and successes is not always part of the process.

    Dr Jonathan Foster Pedley of the GSB posted with You Tube video his students developed to explain “What Strategy Is …”. Inspiring & Insightful.

    I also “stumble” across this article(Tapping into the power of strategy) written by Antoinette Tyrrell, strategy director at the Switch Group in which she says:

    Strategy means planning, doing, checking and replanning – while keeping your staff engaged in this process. To ensure it’s the most successful it can be it needs to cross disciplines; linking the silos in your organisation. This will ensure that each and every person in your organisation, no matter their department, is working towards a common goal.

    A business plan should be one of the key tools driving your strategy. I’m not talking about those dead never to be opened business plans developed merely to apply for funding, I’m talking about something which is dynamic and changes with the needs and growth of your company.

    The business plan covers the bigger picture and many times this is something we neglect to take a look at in the daily running of our businesses, what is the overall mission we are trying to achieve, and do our daily activities contribute towards that.

    Sometimes it’s good to get the help of an outside party who is detached from emotional involvement and can give you an outsider’s perspective.

    Antionette goes on to say:

    a strategy expert doesn’t have to come with an intimidating price tag. Look for a company that offers you someone who will immerse themselves in your business; someone who will go down the mineshaft, wear a hard hat, and get into the thick of things to find the answers you need. Great strategies are not developed behind closed doors or in ivory towers.

    Taking the concept of immersion deeper, it takes conscious immersion to pin point areas of focus. Many times immersion of the wrong kind, like that of the micro-manager hovering over everyone’s shoulders produces negative results. the type of immersion needed should allow for weaknesses to be uncovered. inviting a strategist on board and then trying to plug the gaps before he/she arrives might save some perceived embarrassment but won’t produce the results you are in need of.

    If you’re not willing to take advice from an outsider on your weaknesses, then you’re probably more likely to get stuck into certain static patterns which eventually reach deadlocks and don’t produce results.

    The term strategy has it’s roots in war, and was used to define the plan needed to win the battle. It’s a war zone out there when you think about how tight competition is and having an edge over your competitors means having a differential strategy.

    Strategy is also not about plans being passed down from the top through the hierarchical chain. It’s more about conversation and insight into what goes on on the ground. It goes without saying that all parties must be willing to talk and listen and to be transparent in their conversation.

    It’s the leader who is willing to employ someone more knowledgeable than himself that understands this.