Welcome to TBW DiaReada!

Crazy Thoughts - Part Three - Introducing the TBW DiaReada!

2009-02-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

Good Afternoon All…or none…..
I have determined that this blog is nothing more than an online diary for me. If anyone does read this, crazy thoughts are my way of putting down my random thoughts on paper for anyone to read. You see, by definition a diary is to be written for a person to be read only by that person. Since I am writing this for anyone and everyone to read, I am coining a new phrase today…this will now become the Tech Bridge West (TBW) DiaReada. Hopefully that will spur some interest into getting someone to read this.

I guess blogs are valuable only if they give the reader something interesting to chew on. I also guess that The DiaReada’s previous entries haven’t been interesting, or there would have been more (or any!) comments. Well, let’s see if we can start a new trend today: People actually READ this DiaReada!

So how the hell am I going to get people to read this? Well, first off I am going to test LinkedIn. I will post a notice on my profile that I have started the DiaReada. If anyone has come here from LinkedIn, please reply back with two pieces of information; a comment that you have indeed read this and a link to your blog so we can both benefit from you taking the time to read all the way to here.

So, do I have anyone’s attention yet? Tech Bridge West was founded to help technical professionals communicate better with business professionals, hopefully to enhance their careers and become better networkers. Well, that idea, which I think is still viable, (is it????? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?????) doesn’t seem to generate any interest. I am also certainly not going to create any interest talking about myself. Also, there are so many blogs out there that the internet is saturated with blogs covering just about every topic imaginable. So, how can the TBW DiaReada be different? How about a contest? If you have actually read this all the way down here, then here comes the fun part……

TBW DiaReada is looking for topics to write on, anything that hasn’t been covered in someone else’s blog. It can be any topic, on any subject, and I don’t even care if it has NOTHING to do with communication. I want to make this interactive, so here’s the deal:

TBW DiaReada will award a gift card to the store of your choice for the best submission to the DiaReada blog. The amount will be determined by the uniqueness, originality and creativity of the submission. I will post all submissions on subsequent DiaReada blogs, so get going! Be creative! Win some cash! I’m a shameless marketer, aren’t I?

Cheers,

Kurt C Schneider

Chief Verbal Vomiter of DiaReada…yeah, it’s gross, but it does leave a lasting impression, doesn’t it?

Crazy Thoughts - Part Two

2009-01-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2009…well, a bit late, but whose reading this anyways? A new year equals a new start, right? Not if you are unemployed and currently looking for a job. Those of us who have tried to start up our own companies in the past few years to try and beat the economy are only now realizing that the economy wins…every time. Is it a dire time for small businesses? You bet it is. For a country founded on the success of small business, yes, even Wal-Mart was small at one point in time; it sure doesn’t look like small business will be the way out of these doldrums. Nope, this time it looks like our new government will be bailing us all out…or so we think.

For anyone out there who thinks Obama et al will be the answer to all our prayers, think again. The state of the US today is such that it will take years, decades even, to unravel the mess we have all had a part in getting ourselves into. Yes, if you project the economy out over the next fifty or so years Social Security will be bankrupt, Medicare will be gone, and we will all be working well into our 80s, except no one wants to hire anyone over 50. Admit it employers, you’d rather have a 20-something go getter on your payroll than an experienced 60+ person, wouldn’t you? Sure, no employer will admit it, but that’s just reality.

Ok, projecting out the economy until it looks so bleak everyone should just go out and kill themselves right now is not the answer. As a matter of fact, this daydreamer thinks that won’t even be a reality. The US Economy has shown over the past 200+ years an amazing way of correcting itself, just like the environment has shown over the past 50 years. Yes, it certainly makes sense to conserve our natural resources, but haven’t we been doing that all along? Look at China. They are using twenty times more fossil fuel than the US, but no one looks to them as the culprit..nope, that’s us, the good old USA, because we always put ourselves out there as a model for all others to follow. That model just won’t work anymore. There are too many countries out there that are doing it smarter, faster, cheaper and better than us, and we had better learn from them fast, or we will be working into our 80s.

But I digress, big time! How will the USA heal itself of this potentially catastrophic economical collapse? I have a few suggestions, for anyone out there listening. No, I’m not a Harvard economics professor, nor have I graduated from the Warren Buffet School of Investing, although he’s even taking it on the chin these days. What I am is what many of you are out there, a small business owner who is trying to slog their way through this rotten economy while keeping their business afloat. So, here go my suggestions….

Spend more! Savings are overrated, and while we all watch our 401Ks turn into 201Ks and worse, why not put that money to work in something that is not related to the declining stock market? Property, real estate, is a great buy right now…it can’t go down much further. While everyone is defaulting on those ridiculous mortgages, it’s time for those who have some money to swoop in and claim our retirement assets once again. Look at it this way, you’re just taking your retirement dollars and putting them someplace else that is less risky.

My second suggestion would be to stop buying luxury cars. The amount of people in Southern California driving Lexus, Mercedes, Infinity, BMW, Hummer and the like is ridiculous. Does one need a car that costs over 50K to get them to the grocery store and back? What happened to the good old Ford, Chevy and GM cars that seem to sprout up all over the Midwest but not out here? We need cheap transportation that is ready to go when we are. The age of the luxury automobile has to stop now.

Well, that’s enough pontificating for one evening. Let me know if anyone out there is reading this. If not, I’ll just keep writing more and more crazy thoughts until someone reads it and says, “what a weirdo!” THEN I’ll KNOW I have something to say!

Cheers,

The Product Accelerator

Crazy Thoughts - Part One

2008-12-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

Hello to Anyone, No One or Everyone,

I have no idea, well, yes I do, of how many read this Blog, so it is pretty apparent that I can say just about anything on any subject and no one will care. I started this Blog because I felt people needed a forum to express their frustrations with communications. Pretty broad topic, huh? Well, I can whittle it down quite a bit for you. What I was really going after were those people who are 'socially inept', people who cannot start a conversation in a crowded room of strangers to save their lives. Those are the people I wanted to reach out to, because there is hope. You see, conversation used to scare the hell out of me, and still does sometimes, because I never knew how to start a conversation, or even more importantly, how to end one. I struggled, oftentimes in very awkward settings, trying to be 'nice' to a bunch of people I would rather pull my toenails out than speak to. I know there are may of you out there who do the 'politically correct' thing and talk to everyone, work the room if you will. But, if you had the choice, is the person you are talking to right now someone who you really care about? Or are they a means to an end for you. Ask yourself that question candidly.

Anyone who answers 'yes' to the question above is lying, period. Yes, we are social creatures, but we all will migrate to those who think like us, speak like us, share our ideas and have similar mannerisms to us. Speaking to anyone else is a challenge, even if you have the 'gift of gab', because you may end up talking to someone like me, who doesn't really want to hear what you have to say.

That's why I started Tech Bridge West, to give those people the tools and 'cheat sheets' to start a conversation with anyone, get out of it what you need, then get the hell out of there. It's really a simple process, and doesn't require a while lot of practice. There are certain skills that can be easily learned that will help you be the 'life of the party', get all the chicks (or studs) and generally have a better time in networking functions because it almost works like a game.

How do you do it? Well, for starters, head over to www.TechBridgeWest.com and check out the seminars. We focus on technical to business speak, but the principles can be applied anywhere. Check it out, and, if there is ANYONE out there reading this, shoot me a reply. I'd love to hear your stories!

Cheers,

Kurt C Schneider
Lead Product Accelerator
Tech Bridge West

Shaking Things Up

2008-11-03T20:31:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I just finished moving my office and am getting reacquainted with my computer, figured it would be a good time to share a short blog on shaking things up. Awhile back I read a book entitled 'A Whack on the Side of the Head'. It talked about doing something completely out of the norm to jump start your brain. That's where I think I have been the pas few weeks, I desperately needed a jump start. So, moving the office furniture around was in order. Boy, does that work!

If you're having a low spot in your week, or having a hard time getting motivated to do that task, try this Whack on the Side of Your Head; whichever way you normally set-up your computer on your desk, move it to the other side for a week. That will make the other side of your brain have to get in gear to do the things you otherwise would do without even thinking. Just that one simple exercise can help get that energy flowing again. Try it and let me know how your Whack on the Side of the Head works for you.

Cheers,

Kurt

Lessons Learned from the LA Angels

2008-10-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

Hi All, and Good Saturday Morning!

Actually, it's late Friday night, and I had just watched the Boston Red Sox come back from a 7-0 deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS. For those of you who don't watch baseball, if Tampa had won that game, they'd be on their way to the World Series. If Tampa does eventually go to the World Series, it would be shocking given that they had never had a winning record in their franchise history, and had just come off a miserable 2007 season with basically the same players.

Now, onto the other, more painful side. I'm an Angels fan; have been for 11 years, and what I have seen in three of the past five years is not only painful, but is a microcosm of how a business fails. This past year the Angels had the best record in the Major Leagues and lost to Boston in the first round of the playoffs, just like they had lost to that same team last year and two years before that. The Angels are a perfect example of the old 'penny-wise, dollar-foolish' adage. Throughout the year, their mantra was 'one game at a time'. The manager refused to let them think about the next game. While this made for a loose team, 'Hey, there's always tomorrow', what it did was to suck all the emotion out of the team. When it came time in the playoffs to ratchet it up, they had no emotion to go on. They were robots. They lost a game and said, 'oh well, there's always tomorrow's game'. Well, after losing the series, there was no tomorrow's game, and the Angels were left feeling numb. They had no emotion, no passion, and no focus that comes with those attributes. Good teams rise to the occasion. Poor teams melt. In business it's the same way; when the heat gets turned-up, the good teams play better, more focused, and see the goal at the end of the project, not just the end of the day.

The Angels would do well to learn from some of the high performing teams in industry; it's not what you did today that defines you, it's what you do over time that does.

Let's hope the Ducks get that message.........

Cheers,

Kurt C Schneider
Lead Product Accelerator
Tech Bridge West

Kind of Like a Diary for One

2008-10-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

I come to you today a little frazzled. I've been writing to this Blog for nearly two months and have yet to get a comment. That must mean I'm either doing something wrong technically, or people are simply not interested in what I'm saying. Let's take those two points separately.

If it's a technical issue, then I will spend some time with friends who have blogs to see how to get readership going. Hopefully I'll learn something in the process.

If it's the latter, then I'm hoping you can direct me a bit. I wanted to use this blog to help career professionals communicate better within the walls of their company. To help them get their ideas heard, and more to the point, acted on. I firmly believe in small and start-up companies needing a little push to get them past the hump of idea to market. That's why I started Tech Bridge West, to provide that push. So far we've helped companies get their products to the market faster, better and more economical than they would have otherwise done.

Let me know if there is anyone out there. I'm all for linking to other's blogs for the betterment of both, so bring it on!

Cheers,

Kurt

Taking Time Off for You

2008-09-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Next week I will be up in Big Bear, CA staying in a little cabin writing as much as I can without distraction. My expectations are to get many articles, press releases and maybe even a book out of it. When I get back I'll be refreshed and ready to network like crazy. So, what does this have to do with taking time off for you?

In the past ten or so years, employees of large companies started to take 'working vacations', or going somewhere where you can have fun, relax and recharge, but also would be available online or via phone if anything came up. Some people even make their vacations true working vacations.....see the previous paragraph. So, what happened to real vacations? The one where you really forget about work for a week or two and truly rejuvenate? In a corporate world where speed is everything, being away for even a couple of days could mean the difference between a successful or disastrous product launch. You might think with that logic I would recommend working vacations. Not so. Just the opposite. Take that vacation every year. It's there for a reason, to give you time away to spend however you want, away from work. Go do something fun with your family. G write that book you've been meaning to write for the past ten years. Do what FEELS good. That's how to make a vacation work for you.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to write a book.

Cheers,

Kurt

Welcome to the World of Speed

2008-09-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here in my rental minivan in a Best Western Parking lot at the Bonneville Salt Flats, thinking once again about speed. My radio is tuned in to the course commentator as he yells out mph well over 200, 300 and above. The interesting thing about this 'world' is not the speed, but it's the camaraderie of all the participants. Everyone wants their vehicle to go as fast as it can, but it's not a competition. It's about everyone getting their 'personal best' and everyone else cheering them on. Think of a marathon, where thousands of volunteers cheer on every participant, whether they are near the front challenging for the lead, or someone who is trying to complete a marathon for the first time.

The camaraderie here reminds me of the successful business team. Everyone has their area of expertise, but only when they all work together, pulling for each other to succeed, can a project be completed on time and budget. Think about it; are you in a company that wants to see everybody do their 'personal best', or is it all about you getting your 'personal best'? The answer may lead you to one of the keys to high performing teams.

Cheers,

Kurt

Speed Doesn't Kill......Lack of Speed Does

2008-09-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

Evening everyone. It's Sunday late pm out here on the left coast and I am getting ready to make the annual pilgrimage to the land where speed knows no limits. I'm talking about the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and Speed Week. If you've never heard of Bonneville, the place itself is pretty boring. It's one long (23 miles I believe) dried up salt bed. It's flat, it's hot, and it's where just about every land speed record has ever been set. And this week the 'amateurs' get a crack at setting their own personal best speed records. Anyone can come out, and, for a small fee, race their car across the flat and get an official time. People from all walks of life come out here, with some of the craziest vehicles you will ever see. Last year a guy tried to set a land speed record.......on a unicycle! On the other end of the spectrum there are cars that look more like bullets that are built purely for speed, and will get up there well over 600 mph. Now THAT'S fast!

So, why all the talk about fast? Simple. In life and in business being first or fastest to the market can be the difference between making millions and being an also-ran. You have a great idea for a product, you may even have a prototype or even a production run, but how can you get it out there fast? You need people on your side that understand how to do this, how to work the system to your advantage. Find those people, and speed to market will be on your side.

Open Innovation is Alive and Well

2008-09-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

...and living in Palm Desert! We just finished the 2008 Food Evolution Summit and I have to say, the scope of definition of Open Innovation is huge. Some rather large companies (General Mills, Nestle, Hershey to name a few) spent time on the podium telling the audienced of their successes, challenges and future of Open Innovation in their companies. The one point that kept coming up was that Open Innovation is here to stay, and will be the way companies will grow.

Organic Growth, or company growth from internally developed products, can only take you so far. Leveraging the talents and skills of outside entreprenuers will help a company grow in directions that would not have been otherwise possible with internal resources.

t's an exciting time to be an entreprenuer with Open Innovation. You may find yourself in a position to get the help and resources you need to get that great new idea to the market faster than you ever could on your own.

Cheers,

Kurt C Schneider

Lead Product Accelerator

Tech Bridge West

Hot, Hot and more Hot

2008-09-05T21:40:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

I'll be heading out to the Food Evolution Summit 2008 at the Desert Springs Marriott in Palm Desert Sunday. I drove out there today to deliver some literature for the event; it was 113 degrees. It got me thinking about the storage conditions required for all the restaurants' food in the resort, and how much energy is required to keep our food supply safe. In a world where sustainability is becoming not just a buzzword, but a way of life, I wonder how we can reduce the energy consumption for fresh food storage? Freeze Drying? RF? Any way that moisture can be removed, then added back without changes in taste, color or texture would net some enterprising innovator a fortune.

What other ways can we reduce our energy consumption for fresh food storage? I'd welcome your comments.

One Word Defines it All

2008-09-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

As I slowly get myself back into the work mode after a long holiday weekend, I started to think what would be a useful tidbit of information I could impart to you in the shortest number of words. It didn't take me long to come up with the answer:

Passion

Yup, everything you do, say or don't say is a direct result of the passion you have for that task. You can't fake passion, you either have it or you don't. Do you get up on a weekday morning eager to get to work to help make a difference? That's passion. Do you spend the weekend coaching your daughter's soccer team? That's passion. In short, if it something we WANT to do, the passion flows from it. If it is something we HAVE to do, there is no passion.

Do you want to make a difference in the world? In your life? Your family's? The answer is passion. If you have passion for a task, nothing is insurmountable.

Now get out there and find your passion!

What you can learn from golf that you DIDN'T know

2008-08-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

I just got off the links this afternoon, and had a great time. Our group laughed a ourselves, at each other, cheered for each other, and by the end of the day really felt a connection to each other. That, my friend, is what golf is all about to me.

Every business professional says you can learn a lot about a person from how they conduct themselves on a golf course, like their temperament, attitude, focus and a host of other qualities. From playing golf for over 30 years (and still not getting below a 20 handicap consistently) there is one ting I have learned to watch out for that, for me, is the telltale sign of a good coworker or someone who is totally egocentric.

Here's the test; you and your cart-mate both hit your tee shots. (S)he's driving the cart. Which ball does (s)he go to first. yours or theirs? Did they even pay attention to where your tee shot went? I have golfed with so many people that are so wrapped-up in their game that they are nearly oblivious to anything else going on around them. It is so frustrating to hit a good shot down the middle, have your cart mate hit a shot int the rough and proceed directly to their ball, even if yours is closer. If I end up with a cart mate like that, you can be sure that will be the last time I play with them, or even try to do business with them. Their ego is just too big to get around.

I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks about this. Am I all-wet? Or do I speak the truth? Tell me about your golf-nightmare stories and maybe we can formulate the perfect anti-golf cart mate!

Cheers,

Kurt

Open Innovation and Cultural Consulting

2008-08-27T22:55:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

What do Open Innovation and Cultural Consulting have in common? Well, stay tuned here to find out, as Tech Bridge West will be teaming up with Schott Cultural Consulting to present a webinar on How to Use Open Innovation in a Multi-Cultural Market (tentative subject/title). I'm really looking forward to working with Kim Schott, as she has a program that will get you more business leads than you know what to do with, and can help you when you are ready to take advantage of the overseas market. Check out her website at www.SchottCulturalConsulting.com. More on the webinar as the details are fleshed out.

I am working today on an article on how speed, cost and quality affect the product development process. Imagine a triangle with the three points being cost, quality and speed. Traditional thinking says you can have two of the three at any time, but never all three. For example, you can get a product to the market quickly and of high quality, but it will cost a lot. Similarly, you can have a product that is high quality and low cost, but it will take a lot longer to develop and launch.

Of course, we at Tech Bridge West have figured out a way to get all three points of the triangle at the same time. How, you ask? Well, check out our website, www.TechBridgeWest.com and sign-up for the Press Kit. Once in the Press Kit area, look for the article called "Escaping the Bermuda Triangle of Product Development". Have fun with it and don't be shy; if you have questions give me a shout.

Welcome!

2008-08-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the initial Tech Bridge West Blog. I'm Kurt Schneider, and I am a Product Accelerator for the consumer products industries. What is a Product Accelerator, you ask? Well, through a series of seminars, coaching and in-depth business analysis, I can virtually guarantee to get your new products to the market 40% faster than your current development cycle, without sacrificing quality or adding costs. I've been in business since 2005, but have been doing this kind of work since 1986. I enjoy helping people get their new products to the market, whether it is a brand new invention or the next Coke.

I'm hoping to link with others in this field to share ideas, strategies and successes...oh, and yes, failures. I am happy to share all my 'secrets' with anyone interested. Just check out www.TechBridgeWest.com and let me know what you think.

I'll be sharing ideas on communication, team efficiencies and tips and tricks to get your products to the market faster. So, let's work together to be Product Accelerators!