Most of what I follow on Twitter and LinkedIn are companies, news sources and industry info. Mixed in with this lot are a few of my modern day heroes. People I admire because of their successes and because they make a difference in the world they live in. The commonalities seem to be that they have a passion for their work, for sharing this passion with other people and positively impact the people around them.
When to deliver that one-off large customer feature request
We’ve all been there. The customer from #$@! That demanding squeaky wheel customer who wants what you don’t have in the product today and they want it yesterday. The customer who pushes your limits on scarce resources – people, time and costs. Then sitting on your side of the table, there are equal pressures. The account team that commits you to the inhumanly possible to satisfy their biggest customer. The development team behind the front lines who wants to pull on the breaks because of the competing requests on their time. And yet somehow, between managing everyone’s expectations and a stellar team, you deliver.
Alchemy – The Perfect Storm
The premier entry in my blog came about as a perfect storm of ideas inspired by listening to 3 of the speakers at Tedx Toronto. Jon Dwyer (CEO Flax Energy), Susur Lee’s (Owner / Chef LEE & Bent) and Barbara Arrowsmith Young (Director Arrowsmith Program).
I don’t think the intention of these speakers was to present that Alchemy often comes from necessity – or a storm raging at the door. Maybe it’s just what my own current perspective wanted to hear. Though its food for thought that our own perfect storms tend to propel us towards innovation. And wouldn’t it wonderful if we could find a way to harness this ability to create before the storm occurs.
