What do companies gain by supporting independent knowledge workers? Financially speaking, a company gets to hire a specific expertise with no increase in headcount, salary, benefits, or other salary related expenses (e.g. unemployment insurance, social security contribution, etc.). In companies that are pressured to reduce or maintain headcount this could be a great way to… Read More
Last July I decided that I wanted to change the relationship I had with my employer. I was starting to find my role limiting. I wanted more diverse work and more control over what I did. My CEO agreed and I became a contractor. Interestingly, we both gained financially. He reduced headcount, salary, and expenses… Read More
For the last week I’ve been in Puerto Rico visiting a friend. Guess what the most interesting part of my trip has been. Do you think it was the beach, or the forts, or Old San Juan? Nope. It wasn’t any of those. The most interesting part of my trip has been that I’m perfectly… Read More
This week I saw a posting on the Fast Company site about Craigslist. The post talked about how a segment on Nightline posited that the site is hurting the newspaper business. Craig Newmark, the site’s founder, said that “his site was serving customers in a way that newspaper classifieds can’t”. For those of you not… Read More
I recently went to the annual Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) conference for their Content Division. There were several interesting speakers, but a few of them really stood out. Dick Harrington (CEO, The Thomson Corporation) was one of those speakers. In keeping with my theme, I thought I’d share some of what he had to… Read More
What’s the point? When people hear the phrase “Manage to Change” they often think of something they begrudgingly do because they have to! It’s reactive. It’s often delayed. There isn’t anything fun about it. Me? I think of it more like surfing. Grab your board (no, I am not a surfer) and catch a wave!… Read More
Why am I starting a blog? Well …… Over the past 20+ years I’ve worked in eight different industries and watched several companies struggle through change. I was with AT&T right after it divested the baby bells. I was with Prodigy (anyone remember that?) when it was trying to create a commercially viable mechanism for… Read More