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To the Point/Summer/2006

• The power of a laptop
Who would ever have said that a laptop could be privacy’s Achilles Heel? But, when you think about it, stealing a laptop is easier than hacking into huge corporate and government computers.

What’s so amazing is that data from big computers winds up on $1,000 laptops. This is how confidential information on 26 million plus individuals was stolen from the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington. Why would anyone have all that on a laptop? Personal information on laptops left Fidelity Investments, Texas-based EDS and the New York office of Ernest & Young, LLP. All the thieves had to do was grab a laptop to capture what seems like the records of half the citizens of the country.

American International Group, Inc., the big U.S. insurance company, had a server stolen from a Midwest office. Servers were once fairly big; now they will fit in a briefcase. Lost was personal information on about 930,000 of our fellow citizens.

Someone seems to have figured out that holding a laptop for ransom could be a moneymaker.

Here are a few suggestions for avoiding such costly disasters:
• Don’t put sensitive data files on laptops.
• Have your laptop password protected.
• Don’t leave your laptop in a hotel room.
• Mark your laptop distinctively so you can always recognize it.
• Lock your laptop in the trunk of the car.

There are other precautions, but following these basics will go a long way to improving laptop security.

• What the iPod teaches us about business
Whoever expected the Apple iPod to become the most successful consumer product in history? It’s incredible popularity may have come as something of a surprise even to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. When he introduced it, he said, “Listening to music will never be the same.” He was certainly right about that. In fact, the iPod has left the big, expensive sound system people scratching their heads. They’re wondering what’s happened to their once robust sales.

But the iPod has quickly become more than a way to listen to music, as iPoders are downloading movies, TV shows, podcasts, college lectures, and just about everything else. At one college in Georgia, there’s a virtual iVillage, where students gather to exchange ideas and work together.

From a business perspective, it’s interesting to compare Apple and Dell, not in terms of their computers but how they see themselves. Dell takes pride in its custom manufacturing capabilities. Apple isn’t a manufacturer; it’s all about marketing. Rather than focusing on the manufacturing process, Steve Jobs is totally focused on the customers’ experience with Apple’s products. As one of his early employees who worked on the Apple II has said, “Steve’s strength was that he was always concerned with the end-user––how things look onscreen, what the case was like….”

As someone has pointed out, there is no “Cult of Dell.” Dell sells computers and Apple creates customers may be the best way to express the difference between the two companies.

It certainly seems to be working with the iPod. In a recent annual popularity poll of college students, the iPod topped the list on campuses across the country. That’s probably not too surprising until you realize that it put beer drinking in second place for the first time since the poll has been conducted.

It’s also interest to note that the iPod isn’t perceived as a gadget. There are no buttons, no switches, and no knobs. It’s all in the totally flat intuitive control. It becomes part of the user, not something that’s used.

What’s so interesting about the iPod? It sets the user free to conduct their lives when, where and the way they want to do so. Download the sociology lecture late at night, jogging or wherever.

Most important, the iPod is a work-in-progress. It will continue to evolve and become more a part of life. Some expect an announcement that the iPod will include phone, email, and PDA capabilities. There’s a suspicion that it may be right around the corner.

There are a lot of lessons here for businesses. First, a marketing approach forces the focus to what the customer wants. Second, staying on track evolves the customer relationship with compelling advances that build loyalty.

While we may never come up with something as dramatic as an iPod, we can learn from it’s success. Now that you’ve probably bought iPods for your kids, you might just want to try one out yourself.

• Finding the right customer-service people
We all know the importance of good customer service. In one Harris Interactive study, 85 percent of the respondents said they’re “somewhat” or “very likely to buy more from a company if they encounter good customer service.”

Finding people who are good at customer service isn’t easy. Here are several new sources of online testing that can help you pick the right person:

• The Customer Service Job Fitness Test evaluates skills and personality traits. Visit www.psychtests.com (go to Career, then Complete list of tests). Applicants take the test online and then you order the results for $10.
• The Profiles Customer Service Survey assesses qualities such as people skills, courtesy, persuasiveness and perseverance. Go to www.evaluationnslc.com and click Online Assessments.
• The Customer Service Diagnostic Questionnaire tests telephone etiquette, trust, rapport-building, active listening, problem solving and defusing anger. Go to www.saleshelp.com.
• The Customer Service Aptitude Profile covers personality traits that are critical to providing good customer service. Visit www.creativeorgdesign.com (click the Tests tab).

• Debunking management myths
We all need to have our thinking challenged.

In their new book, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management, two Stanford University professors do a lot of debunking. Here are several of the myths they attack: 1. Financial incentives drive good performance; 2. Those who move into a new market first have the advantage; 3. Layoffs are a good way to cut costs; 4. Mergers are always a good idea, and 5. Life and work should always be kept separate. If they say, “we,” as in “We have some new customers,” that indicates the employee views work as an extension of his or her family.


Sincerely,

Tom Helbach

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