Air: Necessary, But Unseen

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." --Anatole France, Nobel Prize-winning author

I have two ears and one mouth. I try to use them in that proportion.

But when I was in my 20s, it wasn't that way. It was with some pride that I was the first foreigner-- ever-- to work at Omron Japan, a huge company (http://omron.com/index2.html). I was surrounded by (it seemed all) 25,000 Japanese co-workers, and for a very long time I felt like the lightning rod in a fishbowl with an electric eel... with electric toasters soon to fall in with me.

As the days ticked by, I remember crescendos of panic-- perhaps the same emotions that grip all college graduates when they enter the real world: "What if I can't produce something of value right away? How can I show how I'm brilliant? Where should I look to uncover some lost revenue, or suggest a better process, or make changes to so I can show immediate worth? I gotta get going!"

At some point, my boss and the man responsible for my hire, Tsutomu Narita (later named President of Omron Electronics in 1999, photo insert), saw my struggles and took me aside with a sage smile.

"Richan, I want you to forget your western expectations of greatness. Yes, I expect great things out of you. But until two years have passed, you have only one job: 'Be like air-- necessary but unseen.'"

Like air? Unseen? Two years? Oh, the humanity.

I sputtered and protested that I wanted to do great stuff, that I was a brilliant engineer, that I was hired because he saw some existing value in me, etc.

But in the end I agreed to be malleable. Very humbled, I quietly studied Omron's product line.

And I learned I also had two eyes and one mouth.

I studied companies like Gould, Square D, and Cutler-Hammer. Then I studied switches, and then timers, then counters, then programmable logic controllers (PLCs). I studied pricing, markets, and marketing schemes. I took notes, clipped articles, made comparison charts, sales charts, and corporate charts. I studied the Wall Street Journal for competitor information and press releases. I studied London's Financial Times, and Singapore's Straits Times, etc.

In short, I kept a very low profile, proving 'oxygen' to company internal functions (like evaluating advertisements written in horrible English), but I kept quietly learning the basics of my industry before I began to reach upward. I was 'breathable' insofar as I was always available for questions from co-workers, whilst I quietly kept gathering information, per Mr. Narita's advice.

Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once.

And eventually it happened. Slowly I became an expert in competitors' tactics. In due course I was included in meetings all around the company, becoming consultant for all kinds of new products. I found I was at the right hand of product division managers, and spent about 25% of my time at the R&D facility counseling engineers and project managers of every stripe.

After my tenure spent steeping in the basics, my suggestions carried weight.

I was able to eventually make those great quantum leaps into the unknown... based squarely on the good footing obtained by quietly reading a dry catalog. It was because of this "planting and growing cycle" that I became a key player in pushing sales to over US$3.6Billion by the time I left... billions still accredited to me to this very day.

But that's the story. Few care to hear the details. Fewer still can understand them.

Another place? Another time? Another galaxy far, far away? Yes. Antiquated, irrelevant ethics? I think not.

My story can be told in simplest terms, in the words of the great Marvin J. Ashton,
"Listen... or thy tongue will keep thee deaf."

Cheers!

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is Under Construction

While I'm not quite Monk (of OCD Friday night television fame), I do like order and reason.

So I recall quite clearly the sweet-sour feelings I had when in Fuji, Japan years ago, I met a young man who would have driven Monk out of an upper-floor window. Unorthodox, daring, brazen and clever, David C. Kravetz of Murray, Utah (and Arizona) put apples and oranges together... and made us all like the blend.

Public relations and promotions were things for which he had a special genius, from starting a radio station, teaching volleyball and soccer at public schools, and "our public relations work was second to none. I was privileged to spend Christmas with him, and we 'did up the town' [Fuji] with banners, leaflets, newspaper ads, publicity shots with famous people (not counting two Santa Clauses), free distribution of candy, oranges, etc. He's a real man." (The Life of Myself, page -792H)

Not to be outdone-- even by himself-- David again shows that he's still got what "it" takes.

This time, though, he is staring into the mirror to face his own demons... and has started what promises to be the epic reality show-- paring down his nearly 500-lb (227 kg) bulk in the public spotlight.

For any of us wanting to whittle off a few bulky lumps here and there, we can hardly relate to what he must be going through. For the human oddities amongst us who rubberneck a bad automobile pileup, there's plenty more of Dave (and wife Julie's) dance with demon food to be had by reading his blog footprints:

http://hmrjournal.sumoflam.biz/2007/01/25/details-details-details--some-interesting-calculations/trackback.aspx

And for the pure few who just champion success... jot him a note.

Tell him that Monk Jr. says hi.

Cheers

Vista-wrapped Dog Doo

I'm pretty opinionated when it comes to anything made by Microsoft.

And my opinion is that they suck... they 'suck BAD.'

Admittedly I have found one or two fine products they've offered over the years (e.g., PhotoDraw), but about once every month I go to use it and it informs me that I've got to insert the Install CD again... because it just vaporizes on its own.

Oh well. You get used to their non-thinking ways.

Anyway, the other day I expressed to an experienced programmer (and recovering lawyer) how I thought the brand new operating system, Vista, was simply a marketing ploy by Microsoft to convince us to love something we'd otherwise dislike. I said, "Microsoft is largely trying to solve their own piracy problems, but they've put out the spin that Vista is good for us.

"It's like they took dog doo from your yard and put it on a plate... and with the pretty girls showing a big smile and colored balloons and a brass band they try to sell us on the idea that it's really GREAT stuff!"

He promptly disagreed, citing other's opinions (e.g., the press). Yes, I was surprised that a developer-- a programmer-- someone who is knee-deep all day long in code-- wouldn't detest the stuff by now.

However, it's my studied opinion (remember, I have nearly thirty years experience delving deeply into computers, with twenty of them working the insides of a laptop running some form of Microsoft products) that he's wrong. Microsoft is ill-conceived, horribly mangled, and ill-executed... and so far, no new release has ever done more than stick Band-aid over Band-aid over Band-aid. Here's why:

1. Microsoft operating systems have always been a hideous amalgamation of mistakes cobbled together by teams who hardly speak. Their versions (95, 98, 2000 and XP) are Band-aided by patches covered by security holes covered by revised routines that should have been done right in the first place. The company never should have released a product before its time, but it's their habit to continually do so.

2. Microsoft hasn't the ability to keep a straight course-- even internally. Just look at the products they themselves release-- Microsoft products from their own hands! Note that features are never consistent. SHIFT-TAB does something in one program, and something else in another. Even their menus-- which identical features would ostensibly operate the exact same way-- are unnecessarily different, like when pressing ALT+R for Properties. You get something that happens in Word, that doesn't happen in Excel, but "something else" pops up in Project. It's a nightmare of confusion.

3. Microsoft focuses on the "pretty" and "nice" stuff-- like those Macintosh-like highlighted, glowing buttons, and screen animations fading in and out... every one stealing valuable processor time and memory. The more clever the animation, the slower operates your program.

But, gosh, I forgot... the way they address their problem, yes indeed-- like with Vista-- is to yet again force us out to buy another "modern" computer with gaggles of memory and dazzling hertzes of speed.

It's like giving a safety rating to a car by putting airbags in despite it can't steer, stop, or handle.

Bottom line is that in my opinion, Vista (which in fairness I must yet try), was NOT made to solve our problems. It was conceived, constructed, and marketed to solve Microsoft's own piracy problems by interlocking software keys, registration, distribution, and CPU authentication... stuff that they should have corrected before it left the factory in the first place. But because they tossed in some glowing buttons and animated screens, and told us Vista will be wonderful-- as long as we toss out nearly everything and every device we've gathered in the past five years to make their lumpy, chunky, herky-jerky XP function properly-- we should embrace it.

That whole concept is dog doo.

No matter that everyone is still pretty much doing the same tasks we always do (e.g., writing reports, surfing the web, balancing our checkbooks), now we have to pay more money to do the same things.

It's dog doo for the masses, but gosh, ain't that screen pretty?

Cheers!

Tools Of The Trade

While in Japan, one thing that struck me was how tradesmen (say, carpenters) carried only a few basic tools, and yet created breathtaking structures. In their little toolbox were carried only a hammer, a wood plane, a few chisels, and a saw (Japanese-style, with teeth on both sides). Day in and day out these quiet men worked with these tools, growing more proficient.

Their skills increased, not their tools.

Indeed, this was most obvious when I bought a small pair of illuminated wooden toro (lantern) that astound me to this day-- the finest cut hardwood lattices mate perfectly with the cross-pieces. There are no gaps, no flakey little bits of wood, no slathering of glue, and incredibly, no corruption of any kind. After nearly 15 years the wood has not warped or changed in any way, except, perhaps darkened as belies the hard miles we both have traveled.

The lesson I learned is contrasted with the world in which I live.

First, I would do better to stay with a "tool" (e.g., computer software, camera, some process) until I have mastered it. Second, I'd do well to remember that "ease of use" by its nature will remove a certain degree of control. In other words, I've lost the ability to grow towards perfection because an "easy" feature invalidates some honed skill I've learned.

And third, I should remember that not all things I can do with new features or new products is something I ought to be doing. I found this out when I started digitizing old vinyl record albums-- about 300 in the collection. After the first dozen, it occurred to me that the time tradeoff wasn't worth the family time I was consuming.

Thus the lesson of life: We're at our best when we work to perfect our thoughts, our attitudes, and learn to hold our tongues and tempers. We, too, have just a few tools in our tiny mental toolbox (e.g., love, language, actions, perseverance, fidelity), and so much the better for our souls-- and our relations-- if we look to perfecting ourselves through perfecting these "little" skills.

Cheers!

Half Robot, Half Human

A little while ago a friend touted loudly the features of Vonage, voice over IP (VoIP), “A better way to phone for less.” Anything had to be better than normal Qwest (non-) service, so I gave it a look.

Fully automated companies can afford to offer great prices.

Qwest advertises, “’There’s No Comparison’ [to their phone and Internet service] for under US$98 a month!” Among other things, they’re right— on the face of it there’s no comparison to a price more than twice Vonage. There’s also no comparison in services (the other half I pay is for cable internet service), as Qwest provides only 1/10th Vonage features… not to mention all the free calling to Europe and Canada (and other places), calls which if I made, Qwest would bill me with glee. So Vonage installation went smoothly, and customer support people were actually helpful around the clock. Top marks so far for Vonage.

Fully automated companies complete orders fast.

Well, many wonderful customer support people (located in India or the Philippines) hear my problem, and counsel me to simply re-enter my billing information. I again check the accuracy of my data, and yet a day later I get an automated e-mail telling me the account number is invalid. Hey, guys, my payment works just fine. There’s apparently a glitch in their billing software.

Fully automated companies are fine until you fall between the cracks.

Today, however, I determined to get as high in the Accounts Management Department as I could. Then I demanded I keep in contact the person to whom I telephoned, Kerri Hellwig. Instead of trying to slither away behind company anonymity policies “Oh, you can just call Customer Service and talk with anyone,” she first gave her e-mail address, and told me she’d lead this matter to a conclusion. Six hours later she’s kept that promise having worked on the problem all day, although we’re slated to resume in an early Monday meeting to keep going. She painted a satisfying picture of various know-it-alls sitting around a glowing computer screen, inputting my payment information, and then watching extra digits insert themselves into the data. So it wasn’t me after all.

Fully automated companies are fine until you find a real person with backbone.

[To be continued…]

Marketers Unite

Marketing is not sales. Yes, they are similar. Both are related, but the work is different.

My work as a marketing planning guy is centered on helping companies unify, codify, and operate their plans forward. Many companies have good ideas for products, but other than hopes of "just get out there and sell it" really don't know precisely how to move things forward.

That's where I come in.

I'm surely no genius, and (per the latest blog entry regarding Dr. Matsushita) I can't see forward 500 years, but at the same time, I can help these companies... by first seeing what is being done by competitors; second, by coming up with plans and directing production of support items (e.g., catalogs, websites, infomercials) to help support sales; and third, by helping them stay on track once they've decided what they will do.

That last item I find is the most important... and the first to be discarded in our current world. A unified company via a unified strategy is an unstoppable union. There is monumental strength is waking up each day and knowing, precisely, where to start chipping.

So I often help companies remove "the idea of the week" syndrome and keep them on course.

Seems this is somehow novel that someone would plan the work and then work the plan, but there it is.

MAKE it a great week!

Cheers

Long-term Planning... For A Better Society

In a conversation today with Bryant Eastham of Panasonic's Electric Works Laboratory of America (PEWLA) in Salt Lake City, I recalled a story I heard while working at Omron in Japan.

As Omron occasionally teamed technologies with companies like Panasonic, it was not unusual for us to brag a big about various personal encounters with notable and great leaders. Omron Chairman Dr. Tateishi Kazuma (1900 – 1991), with whom I spent a fair amount of time from 1986 until his death, was a dear contemporary of Panasonic's founder, Matsushita Konosuke (1894 - 1989). Since our offices were located in the Crystal Tower near Osaka Castle at Kyobashi, exactly across the street stood the Twin Towers of Panasonic (founded 1918, and also known as National, and Matsushita Electronics-- one of the world's largest electronics giants— founded by a visionary man). I've never heard this story elsewhere, so hopefully you haven't either.

As I best recall it, when Mr. Matsushita grew ill, news organizations beset Panasonic headquarters to grant interviews before the 95-year old leader passed. Newspapers, magazines, and media were granted organized access, but under the conditions that only one member of any publication was sent, that only one question was asked, and that each reporter stay no more than five minutes.

As each representative from world news organs filed into Mr. Matsushita’s hospital room, they politely asked their obligatory question, quickly scribbled the answer, and left.

The American reporter turned out to be a cub— with little experience in the world, and (from what I heard) little understanding of the greatness of the dying man before him. Yet the reporter managed to squeak out his single question,

“Sir, what are your long-term plans for the company?”

Mr. Matsushita paused for a long time before replying,

“Well… young man, do you want to hear the 500-year plan, or the 1000-year plan?”

It’s fair to say Mr. Matsushita was totally serious. I don’t know for a certainty that he indeed had a workable business strategy that actually ran to year 2989, but I can attest that Omron operated from a detailed 25-year operational plan. Every five years details were adjusted and with great fanfare 25,000 employees renewed efforts, all with a singular understanding of our work this year, next year, in ten years, and towards a better overall society through our efforts.

I've noted this vision is frequently absent in our western companies. Other than making a living, we're not focusing our efforts towards solving problems of community or society.

For example, Omron devoted a great deal of resources to solving ethical, social and philosophical position. (See http://www.jimpinto.com/commentary/omron.html#2) I recall when Omron spent millions to create Sun Taiyo, two factories created— entirely— to employ the handicapped. Each station is manned by someone whose physical challenges are minimized by customizing for their ranges of movement, and in some cases, production is improved by persons who have sharpened their senses, such as the blind woman who checked relays with her acute hearing for any signs of sticking contacts. The factories were surrounded by dormitories and included stores, supermarkets, nightclub and lounges. People who worked and lived there tearfully told how wonderful it was to actually fit into and benefit society at large with the impact they could make.

With vision, planning, and hard work, all of us can make similar impacts as did Dr. Matsushita, and Dr. Tateishi. It involves long-term follow-through, not typical wishy-washy on again/off again thinking.

Cheers! 今年も宜しく

The Eyesight of an Eagle and the Vision of a Clam

Today's headlines of Ford's violent thrashing and gasping to cope with slumping sales saddens me. It's not news, but business as usual.

While I have no love for planned obsolescence in engineering, Ford and all their Tier1's are fellow countrymen. I feel coming tensions in their marriages, see the faces of their pained children, and watch the encroaching reality of foreclosures, just because the dingleberries in management can't get it right.

I think back on my own experiences working in Asia, and wish others could see what I saw.

Let me explain...

"Tom" Tsutomu Narita of the huge international electronics company, Omron Corporation, hired me to work in Japan in 1980s. A young engineer fresh out of Brigham Young University, I had no real idea of the fortunes that lay ahead. Yes, riches and fame and success et cetera came my way during the next decade, but far more valuable were simple lessons of humanity in business. Lessons drawn from something as simple and as deep as not wantonly crushing the ant that walks past just because 'you can.'

For example, Omron experienced extremely hard times in the mid- and late 1980s. The worldwide depression downturns lasted for years. My western experience told me to worry about being laid off. Omron still sold around US$1Billion annually, but profit margins ranged from 1% to 3% for many heart-stopping quarters.

But President Yoshio Tateishi (also written Tateisi) with founder and aged Chairman Kazuma Tateishi stated that "ALL would stay– workers were as family. As the company fared, so would all," they said.

So I became part of an astounding show of support.

When 25,000+ workers in 40 factories around the world making over 100,000 electronic products showed their sincere appreciation by putting 'shoulders to the wheel’ with voluntary overtime, extra-mile service, ZERO defects (not a concept-- a reality), and even sometimes foregone paychecks, Omron prospered, becoming the 10th to 15th largest company in Japan.

Oh yes, we invested– gladly– to support the leaders who similarly cared for us.

Smirk all you like, but it happened because we felt loved, wanted, and valued... and somewhat secure. Times were rough but virtually no one was cut. And so everyone worked smarter AND harder, and results arrived.

Back to Ford for a moment longer: For those mis-trained in western ways of quarterly profits, easy layoffs, middle-management house-cleaning (and the idiotic practice of asking high-school-grade dimwits to run HR), all I can say is companies reap what they sow. In business, Ford's laughable 'Bold Moves' show that Americans often have the eyesight of an eagle and the vision of a clam. It's not about CARS, people, it's about PEOPLE, people.

The lesson is this: “Human Resources” isn’t a euphemism.

Tom Narita showed how to treat employees right, and I wish we'd dare make such bold moves in our culture.

Cheers

XTree, XTreeGold, XTreePro, and now ZTree... For Me

With the new year, it's official-- I've been using a laptop for 20 years!

When Toshiba introduced the first J-3100 series computer (with a 10MB hard drive), I didn't care how much it cost... I had to have one. I'd spurned the first IBM laptop (junk), and the Wang laptop (compatibility issues), so my desire was ripe. And my intuition was right-- despite the $7,000 price tag, that laptop changed my life.

October 1987 a friend from Germany introduced me to XTree, a powerful disc maintenance program that allowed all kinds of DOS disc operations. Keep in mind that at the time, the normal process to copy a single file required an exact string "at the C prompt" that looked something like C:\>copy c:\whattheflip a:\*.* /-n

Yes, I've seen a few changes over the years.

But the other day I discovered that my former power-tool still lived! ZTree aced Windows in the same way XTree aced the DOS operating system. The new ZTree delighted me to the point I installed the trial version, but contacted Kim Henkel (khenkel@zedtek.com) and bought it within hours.

Impossible to detail everything ZTree does, but believe me, it's an amazing program-- and even more earth-shattering and necessary than it was 20 years ago. Like you, I hate it when Billy Freakin Gates tells me with goofy popup window, "Whoah little fellah! You can't do that!" ZTree allows me to blow right past normal Windows limitations of all kinds as if I were in control.

What a concept.

For example, in a classic case of "Where'd I put that??" today I had to locate an important file in which I'd written the word "SymbianOS." But I wasn't certain where I'd written it, or under what conditions. So I wasn't sure what to open. The obvious suspects were MSWord documents, Notepad, WordPerfect 5.1 text-based processing files, but I also could have made a note in Excel, my appointment calendar, any of my five databases, as an embedded note in a jpg photograph, or even in the 1980s program TornadoNotes (aka InfoSelect).

It would have taken me hours to open two dozen user programs, and then "search" specific directories for files. In short, I was screwed. But oh yeah! ZTree to the rescue!

In less than three minutes (that's 180 seconds, stupid MicroSloth), I "tagged" 500 to 800 files in two or three suspect directories, and with one command search-examined every file irrespective of formatting, for any occurence of 'Symb' --and found exactly one. The one I sought by three minutes of complete control.

Most Windows sheep cringe when they hear the "ding" and see the little Windows "ERROR!" popup message. Mr. Gates has them cowed. But for those of us with an endlessly enquiring mind, who know something CAN be done, ZTree is not just another new shiny chrome wrench in your toolbox. It's puts a very godlike power in your hand.

Check out ZTree in a sample download at http://www.ztree.com/

My tip is to pay attention to the menu screen at the bottom. Note that the menu selections change when pushing CTRL or ALT. The power of this program might take you a while to master, but keep at it.

Trust me: After 20 years of using it, I can verify that it's worth every moment of your time.

And if you start using it today, by the year 2027 your blog will squeal about it, too.

Cheers!