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Camvine are a business that develop digital signage solutions for a wide range of customers. The secret to their success is a simple to use online management system. Its worth checking out if you need an easy way to manage a network of digital signage.

Having a bit of a push to get more fans on the Prat Perch facebook page.

Please take a minute to like our page.

Many thanks.

UPDATE: Thanks to your support we now have the address https://www.facebook.com/pratperch

Is a superstar more valuable than 100-non superstars? If you had the choice of either or, which would you go for?

Here is an article on the Harvard Business Review website that’s creating quite a stir on this subject. So much so that the author, Bill Taylor, felt compelled to publish a “part two” here.

With all discussions of talent and superstar behaviour, I feel people tend to miss the importance of context.

In different contexts (i.e. environments/cultures, plus general states of mind) individuals can excel or not. People need a opportunity and the platform / project / problem on which to demonstrate performance; either individually or within a team.

Individuals facing similar opportunities in difference contexts may not perform to the same level as before.

What I find particularly interesting is that someone who doesn’t perform exceptionally well at a lower level, can then surprise everyone by blossoming at a higher, in theory more challenging, level. One example I instantly think of from current Formula 1 motor racing is Kamui Kobayashi.

Environmental conditions are therefore significant in terms of empowering people to perform well; the talent, if there is any, is in recognising that argument and then having the guts to create an organisational structure where people can do what they are best at, appropriate to the task at hand.

This goes for every organisation you’re part of; business and social.

Well, that’s my view based on the research I did studing Talent development in some detail for my MBA dissertation. In the context of developing Formula 1 drivers, I found that there are distinctions to be made between “high-achievers” and others, however, invariably this was down them having massive opportunity to perform / practise their art (i.e. Gladwell’s 10,000 hours) and doing that within a cultural organisational structure that allowed them to fail.

Great topic … comments welcome.

The great racing driver Fangio would have celebrated his 100th birthday last week. Mercedes Grand Prix team released this video celebrating his life. Enjoy.

Here is an article I posted on the Prat Perch blog about how to drive a racing car fast(er).

Here is a link to my latest blog post on Prat Perch. It’s been an exciting few weeks so just sharing an update.

Nice article on the 100 year history of IBM. Particularly it focuses on an importance of strong relationships to sustaining market disruption; If people are happy you solved their problem with one technology, then if you have a good relationship with them and they feel you understand the problems their trying to solve, then they will be more willing to accept you providing them with new disruptive technology too.

Interesting perspective.

Team Lotus Formula 1 and GE get together

It looks like GE has decided to sponsor Team Lotus.

The nice thing appears to be that they are aiming to use F1 as a kind of technology showcase for the GE products.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this relationship as there is a lot of potential for both sides to gain much.

Being that it is GE, my anticipation would be this does have the potential to extend further than typical “partner” agreements, where one or either side sometimes pay lip-service to the agreement, people don’t really learn much from each other at all.

This relationship strikes me as potentially being something better, with my guess that in the future GE might even take a stake in Team Lotus if things work out well.

You read it here first folks! …

This is a good article by Elias Chelidonis. It tells the partial story of his internet start-up, although which one is not named. It seems like he had good success but in the end was a victim of that success. The lessons learnt and shared by people like Elias are really great. Each case is unique, each business unique but I try and learn from everyones story, and hope to give a little back to this community myself through my blog on the Prat Perch journey. Enjoy.

Read the article but his points are summarised below – yes there are 13 but you could argue some over lap …

1. Paid too much attention on web design – keep it simple
2. We had a solution for everyone, consumers, businesses, free users – be specific
3. We had very low prices. This was one of the most crucial mistakes.
4. Focused on growth and not profitability – focus on profit.
5. We did major changes in the user interface without asking our users first – don’t surprise customer. keep it simple.
6. Did not hire support team and did not have in place a good support platform – put support in place early.
7. Wasted time trying to be acquired – don’t bother.
8. Did not have a good backend system – be able to interrogate what’s happening in the business at all levels.
9. Did not keep in touch with our users – keep in touch via email.
10. Had too many features – keep to 4-5 core features

1. How fast your business can grow – Have option to scale instantly (i.e. per minute).
2. Be prepared for the unexpected – Backup
3. How service would be a year from launch date – be prepared to change

Here is a link to the recent Murray Walker documentary that was on BBC last Sunday night. Not sure how long it will stay live for on youTube but worth watching if you’re into motorsports and ever watched a GrandPrix on TV.

Great stuff.