My name is Andrew Scott Reid. As a Product Manager for Business Mobile Internet and Tablets at TELUS, I have an opportunity to use various tablets in my day-to-day. The last few weeks we’ve discussed tablets and the opportunities they present based on your business needs.  This week we will look at how to get (and keep) your tablets connected, and managing the security concerns when deploying tablets in your business.

Wi-Fi or 4G?

As we’ve discussed, tablets are mobile computers. While not entirely laptop replacements they are predominantly used with applications (apps).  Most apps used on a tablet require connectivity (Internet access) to sync in with a server, download fresh content, or allow access to a multiuser environment (such as GoToMeeting or Twitter).

Choosing the right connectivity can also mean looking at the potential revenue or productivity increase to your business by enabling more to be done outside the office.  For example, a company that deploys tablets to its field staff could enable real time scheduling of emergency jobs, enable estimates and payment from the field and reduce administration work by having forms filled out digitally and sent right into a back end system.  That company could easily see an increase in productivity resulting in more jobs completed each week.

Tablets offer two types of connectivity, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.  A cellular or 4G connection is enabled by a SIM card in the tablet, while the Wi-Fi enabled tablet provides the ability to connect with nearby hotspots for internet access.

So how do you decide which tablet connectivity fits your business? As with each element we’ve evaluated in building a tablet strategy, it starts by understanding the business needs.  The two common questions to ask are:

• How will the tablets be used outside the office? Will they be used to capture information, pictures or use apps that should be updated in real-time or can updates be done on a more ad-hoc basis?  If the business needs real-time updates, an “always on” connection like cellular may be the best option, while Wi-Fi allows for more irregular or ad-hoc updates.
• Which tablet fits the budget? Wi-Fi only tablets are typically less expensive hardware than 4G tablets, but need to be paired with a Wi-Fi hotspot (cafes, hotels), Mobile Wi-Fi device or smartphone that can create a Wi-Fi hotspot.  While 4G tablets can be more expensive upfront, they can offer more piece of mind with set monthly rate plans a business can budget for each month.

Mitigating mobile security risk: Getting it right from the start

Of course enabling all that access to tablets in the field can pose some security risks.  Security is a very complex and dynamic topic, unique to the needs and operations of every business, both large and small.  There some basic elements you can evaluate though to help identify risks and address them when deploying tablets? These fall into four key areas of vulnerability your business should consider.

• Theft and loss: Theft and loss are two of the common security risks from a user perspective, and they can be mitigated by device features such as a password enabled screen lock or password lock on certain applications. Although it’s an area to consider when planning a tablet roll out, it should have minimal impact on your device selection. Tablets have various software that can be loaded on a desktop or laptop to help back up the device as a precaution.
• Access control: Access control is the ability someone can have to access the device or information and apps contained on it as well as access your IT team or a backend system can have to help control it.  The common risks associated with access control are email and web browsing.  Managing access control can be as simple as ensuring users have the device password protected and enabling remote wipe features available with some tablets through their supporting desktop software.  More advanced access control to limit which sites can be browsed is offered by 3rd party applications such as Juniper Networks.
• Application and data: Building on access control, further application and data risks come from spyware and viruses.  While more common on laptops than tablets, the market has begun to see threats of these types permeating into Android devices and onto tablets.  Protecting applications and data can be addressed through on device applications for anti-virus/spyware and can also be addressed through 3rd party applications as ones we mention above.
• Network: Network security relates to how a business wants their information transmitted across the wireless network and what access they want to give tablets. Restricting wireless network access can be as simple as creating a closed user group or as complex as enabling a service such as TELUS Secure IP Anywhere. These levels on security and restrictions on how much access a device can have to the wireless network are offered by carriers typically as features that a business can ask to have enabled.

While these are just the basic elements, further understanding of the current IT threats in market and the common ways they are being addressed can help alleviate some of these concerns and increase your businesses comfort level deploying tablets.  See our IT Security series for more information.

Do you have a question about creating a tablet strategy for your business?  Leave a comment below, I’d like to hear from you.  I will be using the last post in the series to answer common questions that I hear from you and our customers on creating a tablet strategy for their business.

Andrew Scott Reid is a product manager for business Mobile Internet and Tablets at TELUS and consults with business clients on a regular basis, helping them establish the right mobile tablet strategy for their business.  Follow Scott on twitter: @andrewscottreid

Whether your work requires you to be creative or if it's simply a hobby for when you have some downtime, a number of apps for iPad let you get artsy on your favourite tablet.

Specifically, inexpensive apps let you paint, sculpt or write manuscripts or songs on your iPad.

You've probably heard quite a bit about Steve Sprang's Brushes – iPad Edition ($7.99), which lets you use virtual paintbrushes to create art on the screen. It has made the news many times and has even been used to create covers of magazines, such as The New Yorker.

And then there's Apple's GarageBand for iPad ($4.99), one of the best-selling apps for iPad that turns your tablet into a virtual recording studio.

But did you know there were apps for sculpting and another for writing screenplays?

Autodesk's 123D Sculpt (free for a limited time), for example, lets you mold and manipulate a hunk of 3-D clay on your iPad. A number of premade models are available to start, ranging from basic shapes (such as spheres or cubes) and human parts (a head or complete body) to animals (dog, owl, elephant, iguana) and dinosaurs to clothing and vehicles.

Use the onscreen tools and your fingertips to manipulate the virtual clay by pulling, pushing, flattening, smoothing, pinching, grabbing and bulging it.

Once you have something you like, you have the option to paint it, import various objects onto it such as hair, eyes and facial features, or feathers, fur, tattoos and more. Or you can even import your face from your photo album or take a photo using the iPad 2's camera and overlay it on top of the sculpture.

The iPad's 9.7-inch screen gives you a large canvas to work with, plus you can pinch to zoom in and out of the clay and rotate by swiping the background in a given direction. Anytime you mess up, simply tap to "undo" your last move.

When you're done, view your masterpiece in 3-D, change the background if you want, and then take a picture to save it, email it or upload it online. You can also record QuickTime turntable videos that can be shared or uploaded to YouTube and other media sites.

Whether you have five minutes or five hours, Autodesk's free 123D Sculpt is an accessible, yet powerful, tool that can help unleash your creativity -- without getting your hands dirty.

If you're better with words than molding shapes, a new iPad app called Storyist ($9.99) is similar to computer software that offers templates to help you flesh out a script – be it for TV, feature film, theatrical play or novel – so the writer can concentrate more on the story, characters and settings, and less on the formatting.

Storyist Software, which also has a product for Macs, has retained many of the features for its iPad version. This includes a powerful text editor with multiple font styles and sizes, colours, images, comments and header/footer options; familiar tab and return key shortcuts (for example, so you don’t have to keep typing out character names); customizable style sheets to help keep relevant info accessible; colour-coded index cards that let you jot down ideas and even see these cards next to your manuscript as you write; and support for multiple file types, including RTF, ePub, Final Draft (FDX), Storyist files and plain text.

To help you get started, a few tutorial files are included in this iPad app. Along with a guide that walks through all the features, there are example files for a novel and screenplay (with formatting descriptions in each) and tips to working with images.

Users can opt for the virtual keyboard on the 9.7-inch screen (landscape mode might be more comfortable than portrait) or the iPad supports those external keyboards, if desired. You can easily import and export your work via iTunes (drag and drop), cloud services (including Dropbox support), email or wireless print off a hard copy using AirPrint and compatible printers.

While Storyist has a lot going for it, it's curiously missing a spell-checker and word count feature (the latter of which can be found in Black Mana Studios' Manuscript for iPad app). It would seem both of these would be critical while writing. It does have auto-fix, though, so if you type "robbes" it'll change it to "robes" automatically. Also, unlike other screenwriting apps, such as Screenplay, there isn’t a batch renaming feature – in case you decide to change your lead character's name from, say, "Maya" to "Mary" – so you wouldn't have to retype them all individually.

Storyist Software says these missing features will be available soon in a future update.

Overall, this iPad app is a great tool for tablet owners looking to create stories on the go for tomorrow's movies, TV shows or plays.

Back in July, I had a post about the importance of a business plan prior to starting your business.  Now that you’ve taken care of the serious part, let’s focus more on the fun part: naming your business.  Read on.

In two new books, Mother Teresa, CEO[1]and Lady Gaga: Born This Way?[2], the writers talk about what businesses can learn from these charismatic, successful, and remarkably different women whose passion for what they love turned them into two of the world’s most iconic people.

Mother Theresa was actually born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu and devoted her life to care for the poor.  Then there is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, also known as Lady Gaga, who devoted her musical gifts to the entertainment world. Unless you’re a trivial pursuit buff, their real names probably aren’t all that familiar.  What is remarkable about these two women though, is not the names that they are known by but rather, it is their amazing accomplishments that people associate with when they hear their names.  Your business name has to do the same.

The name of your business is fundamental. You need it to be pitch-perfect to leverage the unharnessed power in your promotional and marketing materials as well as your advertising copy. Most importantly, you need to consider the raw power of words when you’re brainstorming for the name of your brand new start-up. Think about it – would Lady Gaga be as easy to find on iTunes if she weren’t using her stage name? Don’t think so. Would Monster.com sound as alluring if it were called ireallyneedajobrightnow.com? Enough said. The point is that your business name needs to be clever, catchy and memorable or else it gets lumped into a bucket of generic names that people forget about.

The name should also be fairly short and without any awkward spelling.  You need to consider things like:

• Will my customers be able to search my business name online to find its hours & location?
• How will the name look as a web address?
• What if I wanted my name to spell out my toll-free number?
• Will my customers have trouble remembering how my business name is spelled?
• Does my business name mean something negative or inappropriate in another culture?

Adding a slogan to your name can also make your business more memorable.  How about something like The Future is Friendly?  Oh, wait, that one’s taken and images of cute, friendly critters come to mind. But it’ll apply to your new business regardless if you find the right name for your start-up.  Choose the right words and harmonize it to your business venture and you will likely be singing to the tune of success.

Brian Chan has been with TELUS for more than four years and specializes in small and medium business.

Do you have a unique name for your business and if so, how did you come up with it?  Share tips for others here.  For more tips on how to pick the perfect name for your business, check out our New Business Start-up site.

[1] by Ruma Bose and Lou Faust

[2] by Jamie Anderson and Jörg Reckhenrich of Antwerp Management School and Martin Kupp of the European School of Management and Technology respectively

My name is Andrew Scott Reid. As a Product Manager for Business Mobile Internet and Tablets at TELUS, I have an opportunity to use various tablets in my day-to-day. Following our discussion last week of operating systems (OS), today we’ll look at Windows based tablets.

Windows – an extension of the desktop?

While there has been some buzz in the market lately about the new Windows Mobile OS Mango (officially Windows Phone 7.5), tablets hitting the market carry the same Windows OS as laptops, typically Windows 7.  So how do Windows 7 OS tablets stack up against the key elements we’ve been discussing? In my opinion, really well, and Windows bring some refreshing differentiation, and piece of mind, to the tablet market for businesses.  This can be seen in both of the two elements we’ve been discussing - type of use and applications.

Applications have a different flavor to them on Windows tablets.  Unlike the other tablets on the market, Microsoft does not have a tablet app store.  While some might feel this is a disadvantage, from a business owner perspective this can be a boon.  This eliminates the worry of users adding games or spending time browsing through app and music or movie stores.  Issues of compliance that we discussed last week begin to disappear as users who would want personal use out of their tablet for cooking apps or exercise apps simply won’t have access to them.  The business however now has access to an entire market of business apps – everything built for Windows.  Applications that a business might install on their desktops or laptops can be leveraged on these tablets, such as MS Office or OneNote.  Through the use of VPN applications, full ERP suites that tie into back-end servers can be setup on Windows tablets, without the same volume of development work required from an Android tablet.

This leads to easier adoption by the employee, as   users will already be familiar with the user interface (UI) of the tablet, the icons, menus, etc.  This would significantly reduce the roll out process of tablets for the business and address the issue we raised earlier of change management for IT.  Since the tablet would have the same OS as a business laptop or desktop, the tablet can offer easier integration into the IT environment.

Rugged tablets are Windows tablets

The advantage of a Windows tablet isn’t limited to a more familiar interface, currently, Windows OS tablets are the only devices on the market that offer full ruggedness (mil-spec 810G).

Panasonic announced it is aiming to bring a rugged Android tablet to market by Q4, however a launch date has not been confirmed and there are still rumors floating as to whether it will be an Android Gingerbread or Honeycomb OS device.  Several North American manufacturers have been offering the Windows OS rugged tablet for years, such as Xplore, Armor and Motion Computing, predominantly into the public sector or for large enterprise.  This was partly due to demand and partly due to the cost of the device (averaging around $3000.00 per unit).

However Motion Computing has jumped out ahead of the pack by bringing to life a fully rugged Windows tablet in a more professional looking, slick form factor, with a price point in line with the current market leaders.  The Motion CL900 was launched last Thursday here in Canada with TELUS.  For additional insights on Motion Computing, read our interview last week with Michael Johnson, SVP of Product Development at Motion Computing.

So can Windows OS tablets be laptop replacements?  The devices are almost there but not quite.  While Windows OS tablets do bring familiarity and the standard applications businesses use, they are still tablets.  The ability to put the same kind of computing power as a user has in their laptop in the tablet form is something OEMs are still working on.  There is progress though, as enhancements to Windows tablets include USB ports and other features associated with laptops, not yet seen in the market. And while Motion Computing is leading the way with rugged Windows tablet offerings, other traditional laptop OEMs such as Lenovo are also launching more professional grade Windows tablets, increasing the potential for further growth into laptop replacements.

Where HP went wrong

To round out our discussion of tablet operating systems, I would like to touch on the briefly lived HP TouchPad and webOS.  HP’s decision to no longer continue in the tablet market was based on poor market response to the device.  Just as businesses need to consider how and which apps they are looking to use, OEMs must ensure their devices are ready to support a large enough ecosystem to support a variety of tablet uses.  While I believe webOS did offer a solid operating system for cloud based computing, the apps available were very limiting.  Form factor also played a large role as the HP TouchPad entered the market as one of the heavier offerings and without a rear facing camera, a feature that’s been standard on mobile devices for years.  These are just a couple of examples of the importance, not only for businesses, but OEMs to ensure the tablet meets the key elements we’ve discussed.

Now that we’ve had a chance to look at all of the available tablet OS options, the last key elements in building a tablet strategy are connectivity and security.  Join me next week as we discuss the pros and cons of the various options.

Do you have a question about creating a tablet strategy for your business?  Leave a comment below, I’d like to hear from you.  I will be using the last post in the series to answer common questions that I hear from you and our customers on creating a tablet strategy for their business.

Andrew Scott Reid is a product manager for business Mobile Internet and Tablets at TELUS and consults with business clients on a regular basis, helping them establish the right mobile tablet strategy for their business.  Follow Scott on twitter: @andrewscottreid

LindaOJ here again and the question I have for you in this blog post is: do you have enough time to do everything you want to?

First of all, would you like to know who invented the clock? Maybe then we can moan at them (from afar) because too many of us today are clock watchers!

Nobody actually knows the reason why the day was split into 12 hours and each hour split into 60 minutes and then each minute into 60 seconds. The best guess is that it was the Babylonians who worked out that there were 12 full moons in a year which gave them a 360 day year. They also knew the relationship between the radius of a circle and its circumference, which split the circle into six segments. Dividing this by two gave them 12 segments, which also fitted well with their religious beliefs that the number 12 had some kind of special significance. Evidently the Egyptians discovered the Meridian Line, a line joining North and South, by observing that the shortest shadow cast by the obelisk would always point in the same direction, regardless of the season.

(source)

Interesting facts and as we come back into the 21^st Century we realise that we are not the first people to spend too much time worrying about what time it is and if there is enough time left in the day to complete all of our tasks.

When I am approached for tips on how to manage all of the activities involved in being the owner of a small business, I always ask: “do you have a planner on the wall?” You might remember the blog post when I mentioned this pertaining to having a home office. So, imagine you have a planner on your office wall and you mark every appointment & task you have to complete on there, an example might be:

• Emails
• Market Research
• Meeting Clients
• Lunch
• Shopping for office supplies
• Dentist
• Conference Call
• Supper
• Family time
• Movies
• Read a book

Notice there are a few gaps left just in one day, and there is no time allotted for networking or laundry, so these should be added to your wall planner. The purpose of this exercise if you fill out one whole month is to see where you might plan your time better, or if you are on track.

I believe if you can see something (as well as being told) you have a better chance of remembering, so an alarm on your phone works well, the wall planner just compliments it.

Back to my question: Do you have enough time in the day to do everything you want to do? If your answer is yes, I am hoping you will comment on this blog post and offer us some tips! If your answer is no then when you have read my blog you might have gained a few tips to help you.

I love the quote: “work smarter, not harder”. For me, that has been a work in progress. Some days I manage to work smarter and other days I work harder; I am not perfect and neither is anyone else. But we can improve on anything if we really want to so I am still trying different ways to get better at my time management.

We tend to lose track of time for many reasons and I really like this quote because it sounds a bit like me and many other people I know:

“Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.”
- Tim Berners-Lee

I enjoy my time browsing the Internet, whether I am reading the news, checking out information for my new book or even saying hi on the social media sites, and obviously replying and sending emails. There are times though when I get lost along the way. It could be I am working on something I am so interested in or has a tight schedule that I forget to check the clock and when I do I am amazed a couple of hours have gone by. This is when the challenges pop up. If I have spent too much time on a project that I enjoy and, in the back of my mind I know I should have been working on something else (maybe something I don’t look forward to) then I am behind in my schedule. But, for me, the joy of being the decision maker in my own business does mean I can modify my schedules to a certain degree and I manage my time in that area very well.

If I tell you how much time I spend on social media and you reply you do not have the time to do the same that is quite OK. On the other hand if you want to successfully navigate even just one social media platform you do need to invest some time in it. The trick is to spend a little bit more time in the beginning getting to know all about the task in hand, and for an example let’s use Twitter. Finding out how to use Twitter and not jumping straight in with tweets that may damage your credibility is money well spent! Remember time is money. Make time on your wall planner to build your foundations on Twitter and within a few weeks (and the time frame depends on your ability to learn) you will know how much time you need to dedicate to your tweets and it could be as little as 5 minutes or as much as half an hour.

But wall planners, alarms and calendars will not help you with your time challenges if you are not passionate about your work and dedicated to keeping your work up to date. We all get tired, lack motivation or feel we are not moving forward as fast as we would like. This is when we tend to moan and groan and can be heard to say, “there is just not enough time in the day!” We know this is not true, but it is an excuse for our inability to find the time to finish work that we find boring or are just not enjoying.

Another tip I found early on is to finish the so called boring tasks early in my day so that I feel at my best and refreshed from a good night’s sleep. The anticipation I feel knowing that once I have completed the mundane jobs then I can move on to my passion, which for me could be writing or speaking. If we put off these jobs unfortunately we will feel tired and lethargic and, once again, use the excuse there is not enough time in the day.

Watching the clock is another dangerous move. I know that feeling, when I am looking forward to lunch with someone and the morning is going so slow, looking at the clock and the hands are moving really slow and then you check your computer clock and that is exactly the same time as the clock on your wall. I don’t have a clock anywhere in sight when I am working, other than on my laptop. If I fall into the trap of clock watching I know it’s time to get up, walk around, have a coffee or juice and then I find the discipline to finish the task in hand, knowing my reward is lunch with someone whose company I enjoy.

What happens if we are working on a project and for some reason we are a few days overdue, maybe it is our clients fault, they kept on changing their mind about what they wanted us to do? This is a difficult one, but I would hope that somewhere in your plan for that particular workweek you had put aside some time for such a contingency as this. It may mean that you can’t go to the gym until later that evening, or you have to postpone some less urgent work for the next day. But in the great scheme of things you still have the same amount of time in your day, you are juggling around a bit to accommodate a client or other such work project.

We can all blame lack of time, not enough hours in the day, and we can work more hours, but then we find we are doing even more work and needing even more hours in the day! Maybe it’s about control, being unable to control time?

Another great quote which offers great food for thought:

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”

Time is precious. It is a gift—why not look at time as our friend, not blame it for going fast or going slow, but work with it as a partner and we might even feel less stressed. We all have the same amount of time in our days, it’s what we do with that time that counts.

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is the Social Sweetheart. She is President of Motivational Steps and Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org

Four competing startups faced a room filled with the most influential entrepreneurs, investors, and tech executives at GROW in Vancouver yesterday. The Under The Radar pitch session afforded young entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their business in front of 600 attendees of the GROW conference as well as a panel of Silicon Valley Angels and VCs. The startups had four minutes to impress the judges followed by a 10 minute question period.

The startups were asked pointed questions, examining competitors in the market and revenue models. The VCs were intent on learning whether the startups offer unique value propositions and are able to compete with established businesses. They needed to know how the startups were planning to gain users and asked questions about the data behind the business concepts.

Whether it’s pitching your business to investors or approaching customers with a value proposition, every business owner needs to keep in mind these three tips:

Practice your pitch—know your pitch backwards and forwards. You know your product, and you want to provide an accurate picture without sticking to a script. Know your talking points but read your audience, and be willing to improvise when necessary.

Anticipate questions—know your weaknesses. Investors are going to spot problems with your reasoning, and these are the questions they’re going to ask. Know your competitors and know your challenges and how you’re working to actively address them.

Demonstrate enthusiasm—this is your passion. You want to get your investors as excited about the business as you are. The best pitch won’t be successful if you don’t demonstrate your absolute love for your product.

How did the startups do? Although each startup provided a well rehearsed pitch, the undisputed winner was Unbounce. Unbounce is a self-serve hosted service that enables companies to earn more revenue from their online marketing spend by providing marketers the means to create and test promotion specific landing pages without the need for IT or other specialized resources.

Passionately pitched by cofounder and CEO Rick Perreault, Unbounce exemplified an anticipation for the questions VCs were going to ask and a true passion for their product. Demonstrating product traction was also key in the success of their pitch, and Perreault showed that his business has grown from 38 to 1500 paying customers within a year. Perreault showed a love for his product, strongly engaged with the audience, and demonstrated to investors that he is ready to scale the business to the next level, resulting in a tremendously successful pitch.

If you’re pitching your business to investors, remember that at the end of the day, they want to like your product. If you have a product as brilliant as they hope, you’re going to make them a lot of money. Appeal to them with a solid pitch and developed product and they’ll get as excited about your business as you are!

Martin Studzinski is TELUS team member with a focus on consumer solutions, with interests in design, technology, and education reform. Follow Martin on Twitter @martstudz for the latest updates from GROW!

Thinking about starting your own business? It’s never been a better time! Check out telus.com/startup for our essential startup guide.

What’s the elevator pitch for your business? How did you work to perfect your pitch before approaching investors?

TELUS today announced the release of the Motion CL900 Tablet PC, a highly mobile, connected tablet that runs the Windows 7 Professional operating system.  Purposely designed, developed and built for business, Motion’s innovative tablet supports mobile workers to improve efficiency, accuracy and overall performance while saving time and reducing costs. 

In celebration of the launch, we sat down with Michael Johnson, SVP of Product Development at motion computing.  Motion is a leading global provider of tablet PCs and supports mobility solutions for vertical markets, including healthcare, construction, field service and retail.  Below is a snapshot of our discussion.

In your opinion, what is the single most important decision you made early in your business development?

The single most important decision was recognizing that there is an underserved market for enterprise-class mobility solutions that utilize the high-volume attributes of commercial products, but have the added durability and functionality of purpose-built products without compromises in mobility. It’s a difficult balance between two opposing directions of product design, but when executed well, customers benefit from the most current technology that has the durability to meet the demands of an enterprise workforce.

We've seen an incredible wave of innovation over the past 20 years. How would you describe the current state of innovation?

It’s amazing to see how the technology industry has developed over the past 20 years – from the introduction of the internet, PCs and mobile phones to now having the internet on our mobile phones. PCs have gone from desktops to laptops to notebooks to netbooks to tablet PCs, which brings us to the current state of innovation. The slate form factor is exploding right now. We expect 24/7 access to our data and require a small, light and easy-to-transport form factor to access that data on – enter tablet PCs.

Everything from advances in OS’, applications, hardware, displays, CPUs, battery life, materials, etc. have provided the innovation needed to create these lightweight, powerful and mobile computing devices, and their uses and applications are endless.  

The tablet market has exploded over the last two years, in both the consumer and business market.  In your experience, how are customers implementing tablets into their IT strategy?  What is the business impact of tablets and does it differ between small and large businesses?

In business, tablets are a productivity purchase, and our customers are implementing them as a core element in their IT strategies in order to increase efficiency as well as employee and customer satisfaction, decrease time and cost and improve the overall IT infrastructure. Whether it is field service, retail, healthcare or construction – every mobile professional needs access to the critical information and data that they need in order to get the job done.
When properly deployed, this business impact is invaluable. Our customer base is made up of all sizes, industries and geographies. From a self-employed occupational therapist to a global leader in the beverage industry – all our customers share a tremendously positive business impact.

How do you foster innovation in product development in a rapidly changing market?

We’ve been in business since 2001, so we are very familiar with how rapidly the market changes. Not only do we employ a very talented group of people who bring innovative ideas and concepts to the table, but we also listen to our customers. By asking about their business needs and how those develop and change, we are able to foster innovation and stay on the cutting edge of the market.

What do you envision being added over time to your core product(s) that will either expand your brand or your market potential?

While we don’t comment on our future roadmaps, we continue to see rapid growth in tablet adoptions across our vertical market segments. As such, you should expect to see us expand our product offerings to better serve the growing base of tablet adoption in the enterprise.

Successful business people often reference the ways in which their personal experiences inform their work. Is this true for you when it comes to technology and if so, how?

We are all consumers in one form or another. When we get a chance to use products that are intuitive, thoughtful and relevant to our lives, we are truly delighted by the experience. It is that feeling that we strive for when we design our products.

What book is currently sitting on your nightstand?

The unforgiving minute: A soldier’s story.

My name is Andrew Scott Reid. As a Product Manager for Business Mobile Internet and Tablets at TELUS, I have an opportunity to use various tablets in my day-to-day. As we move deeper into the discussion of building a business tablet strategy, As a continuation from last week’s discussion of operating systems (OS), This week we’ll look at the Blackberry PlayBook and Windows tablet offerings.

In following last week’s discussion of the Android tablets and apps, another rising star in the tablet market, especially for business, is the BlackBerry PlayBook.  A lot has been said about RIM in the media the last few months and the company has seen some growing pains as they move into the tablet market and make acquisitions such as QNX (in April 2010), however the PlayBook does bring some pretty unique features, demonstrating RIM’s focus on the business market.

Multitasking at it’s best

The PlayBook’s User Interface (UI) has a very similar look and feel to the BlackBerry smartphone operating system (OS) 6, which is to be expected.  However, the acquisition of QNX brings to life a new OS for their tablet device, and with it a number of new and unique features, such as multitasking, the ability to minimize one app and leave it running while opening another.  I’m often asked “are tablets laptop replacements?” This multitasking capability brings the PlayBook closer to a laptop user experience and is the only tablet that will truly allow you to do this.

QNX also brings its Neutrino RTOS Secure Kernel processor technology to the PlayBook.  What this means, in layman’s terms, is minimizing tablet downtime, as the technology ensures the core functionality of the tablet’s processor gets top priority, while the rest of the device use is allocated to the rremainder of the processor.  For those who want a deeper technical description, it is available on the QNX website.  This technology is currently in use by large public sector organizations to ensure 100% uptime of nuclear reactors, defense systems and the like.  In a business device this means no stalls or crashes when trying to run multiple apps at the same time.

Connecting to the Bridge

While PlayBook is not a connected tablet (it does not use a SIM card for access to a cellular network), it pairs with a BlackBerry smartphone for connectivity through a unique application called BlackBerry Bridge.  The Bridge brings the Personal Information Management, or PIM features of email, calendar, contacts, memo and BBM, of the BlackBerry smartphone to the PlayBook via Bluetooth.  The information shared via the Bridge is managed by a companys' Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), offering a level of email security.  PIM features can also only be accessed when the BlackBerry smartphone is within Bluetooth range of the PlayBook, and a user will be asked for the smartphone screen unlock code to access the information on the PlayBook.  As a result, no information is stored on the Tablet, helping to keep company information secure.

Of course users are not solely accessing email and calendar from the tablet, but also want to browse the web, stream video and use apps.  How can a business manage the use of these capabilities to expand compliance on the tablet? This happens by managing the connectivity.  The Bridge feature also offers a browser that can be managed by the BES, providing the same IT policies for the PlayBook as for a Blackberry Smartphone. This is not the only browser on the device though.  PlayBook has a second (although more main) browser that allows users to access the Internet via Wi-Fi, unrestricted by the BES.

The notion of compliance

As a business device, one of, if not the biggest, differentiators of the PlayBook is the notion of compliance.  Most businesses are looking for ways to allow tablets into their operations that either:a) are owned by the company that employees can use after hours for personal use, or b) owned by the employee and the company will help enable them for day-to-day office use, which can lead to concerns regarding the security of business information.  Through its unique access to email and other PIM functions, the PlayBook is the first tablet to bring this kind of compliance to the forefront, without the need for a 3rd party Mobile Device Management, or MDM software.  Although many reviews have criticized the PlayBook for the lack of a native email client, this so called deficiency actually helps to achieve compliance, which is considered a business requirement for many organizations. In fact, in July the PlayBook became the first tablet to reach Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certified, meaning it is the first tablet approved for use by the US Federal government.

What about applications?

While the PlayBook does offer a great fit for the core business needs we’ve discussed, the app ecosystem is still a little light. It is one that is growing, however, and RIM has openly stated they are looking at enabling Android apps on the PlayBook down the road.

From my perspective, the PlayBook is a fantastic piece of hardware.  It offers a slim and compact form factor for easy portability (fits in an outside suit pocket), while being packed with great media features.  The screen resolution is crystal clear HD, both on the device and when sent out via the HDMI port and is built with the enterprise in mind, where security and compliance are at the forefront of the design & features.  As mentioned in our first post, this is where the evaluation of your business needs becomes important, weighing the concessions of either going with a less secure device that has more to apps, or trading off the size of the app ecosystem for better compliance for your business. 

Do you have a question about creating a tablet strategy for your business?  Leave a comment below, I’d like to hear from you.  I will be using the last post in the series to answer common questions that I hear from you and our customers on creating a tablet strategy for their business.

Andrew Scott Reid is a product manager for business Mobile Internet and Tablets at TELUS and consults with business clients on a regular basis, helping them establish the right mobile tablet strategy for their business.  Follow Scott on twitter: @andrewscottreid

My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post with over 30 comments was: How to Focus, Wage War, and Just Do It Like Philip Knight (Nike Founder)

Today we're going to look at how a young man from The Bronx took a part time high school job selling ties and turned it into a multibillion dollar empire. This is the story of Ralph Lauren and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

Must Watch Video

"The best thing you can do is go away from this saying, ‘I can do this too,’ because it’s all possible and I’m living proof." - Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lifshitz on October 14, 1939 in The Bronx, New York) is an American fashion designer and business executive; best-known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand. His father, a house painter, changed the family name to Lauren when Ralph was a teenager. While in high school, Lauren worked at a tie store as a stock boy after school. He often sold ties to his classmates to earn a commission. He sold ties for $12 to $15 when even luxury ties didn't sell for more than $5.

After high school Lauren enlisted in the U.S. Army and then joined the Brooks Brothers clothing company as a tie salesman. He had a vision for creating a new line of ties but Brooks Brothers wasn't interested so Lauren found a tie maker in Cincinnati and started his own business.

Today his Polo Ralph Lauren company has almost $5 billion in revenues and employs close to 20,000 people. As of 2011, Forbes estimates his wealth at $5.8 billion dollars which would make Ralph Lauren the 173rd richest person in the world.

Action Item #1: Stick to Your Vision

Almost every single successful entrepreneur that I've profiled had a vision for their company when they first started out. They wanted to change how something was done in their industry. They looked at the world in a slightly different way and wanted others to join them. That vision can be fuel to help get you through the lean startup days. Don't stray from it to do something that might make you some short term money but isn't fulfilling and does not align with the vision you have for yourself.

When Lauren was getting started he approached Bloomingdales to sell his ties. It was a flagship brand that would rocket his company forward. They met with Lauren and told him they would carry his ties if he made them narrower and replaced his label on the back with a Bloomingdale label. Lauren refused and lost his big account. He went on to sell to other companies and had the last laugh when Bloomindales came back to ask for a second chance once they saw how well his ties were selling with their competitors.

According to Lauren: “Your vision is very important. You should know whom you’re selling to, what your marketing and advertising says about you, and whom it’s speaking to. Me personally, I don’t try to please everyone. I understand who I am selling to and I work towards that vision all the time.”

Action Item #2: Evolve Your Brand, Don't Reinvent It

Your business never turns out exactly as you thought it would. It's important to have a clear vision and let the tactics you use be flexible as you grow so you don't constrict yourself. A great way to expand your business is to evolve your brand and offer new products or services that you can sell to the same customer. The easiest way to grow a business is to sell more to current customers. The hardest way to grow is to try and find new customers. Always look to your customer base to see what problems they have and if you can offer anything else that might help solve them.

Lauren started out in the necktie business but quickly expanded into a lifestyle brand that people connected with. He wanted to continue to expand his business into new product lines but had to make sure that those products were consistent with the image and brand that he wanted to portray. Today you can wear Lauren clothing, buy Lauren paint, dry yourself off with Lauren towels, sit down in Lauren furniture, and the list goes on.

According to Lauren: “What I do is about living. It’s about living the best life you can and enjoying the fullness of the life around you - from what you wear, to the way you live, to the way you love. When you think of the blur of all the brands that are out there, the ones you believe in and the ones you remember, like Chanel and Armani, are the ones that stand for something. Fashion is about establishing an image that consumers can adapt to their own individuality. And it's an image that can change, that can evolve. It doesn't reinvent itself every two years.”

Action Item #3: Trust Your Instincts

You very rarely have enough information to make most of the big decisions you're going to have to make with your business. By the time you get all the information it's likely too late to act. So you're going to have to trust your instincts. Listen to the voice inside you and trust that you're doing the right thing. If you have a true passion for what you're doing then your instincts will rarely lead you down the wrong path.

Lauren never went to fashion school and only took a few business courses at a city college. On paper it looked like he was never going to make it. But he had the ability to trust his instincts and follow what the trends were in his market. He listened to his customers and gave them exactly what they wanted. As a result his business exploded. He continues to listen even now as his company brings in billions of dollars. At company meetings, for example, he offers his interns the opportunity to speak out. He wants to hear the opinions and tastes of the up and coming generation; they are the ones who will be deciding his fate down the road.

According to Lauren: "It’s about broadening your scope through history and living your life. Tune in and pay attention.”

True Story

In 1968, with the help of a $50,000 loan, Lauren founded Polo Fashions. He chose the name not because he liked the sport - he had never played polo before in his life. But to Lauren, the name symbolized power and style - an image he wanted his clothes to project.

According to Lauren: “I’ve always loved sports but it didn’t make much sense to call my brand ‘Basketball’ or ‘Baseball’ so I decided on ‘Polo.’ Of course I didn’t play polo but I liked that it represented a feeling of being international, European and yet very healthy American. It was the sport of kings. It was glamorous, sexy, and international.”

More Quotes

"The best thing you can do is go away from this saying, ‘I can do this too,’ because it’s all possible and I’m living proof."

"I’m totally involved with all of my products. Everything I make is my message and for years my goal has been to make the things I love."

"Back then when I mentioned Polo most people would look at me funny and say ‘You mean like Marco Polo?’"

What Do You Think?

Do you stick to your vision? Have you always trusted your instincts? What part of Ralph Lauren's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of Ralph Lauren articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.

Get more out of your mobile device by picking up a clever accessory or two.

Oh sure, you're well aware of protective cases and speaker docks that play your music without headphones, but what about business-related add-ons that could help expand your smartphone or tablet's functionality and increase your productivity?

The following are a couple of ideas to consider.

What's your type?

Not everyone finds it comfortable to type long emails or documents on a touchscreen smartphone or tablet. If you can relate, the Verbatim Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard ($59.99) is a foldable wireless keyboard that, when expanded, feels like you're typing on a laptop. A small stand pulls out of the body of the keyboard to prop up your device, so you can see what you're typing onscreen. When you're done, turn it off, fold it up and slip it into its carrying case (included). This wireless keyboard, which lasts up to 9 hours between charges, also has dedicated media keys along the left-hand side to control your tunes.

Back it up, buddy

The Iomega SuperHero ($59.99) is a two-in-one solution for owners: it's a charger dock you can place your iPhone in at the office or home and it also backs-up your contacts and photos onto a 4GB SD memory card (included) when paired with a free SuperHero app. If the iPhone (3, 3GS or 4) is ever lost or damaged, simply dock the new iPhone into the SuperHero and press the Restore button to repopulate the smartphone with contacts and photos. If desired, you can upgrade the card to more memory, such as an 8GB or 16GB of capacity. No computer is necessary. This silver dock is also small enough for business travellers.

What's the charge?

Speaking of travelers, the Cell Drive ($49.95 for 4GB, $59.95 for 8GB) is a clever accessory looks like a USB thumbdrive – and yes, it does let you copy files to and from a computer – but it's also a lithium-ion battery that can charge up a cell phone, smartphone, Bluetooth headset, GPS nav unit, e-book reader, ad more. A tad bigger than most USB sticks, this alternative power source can be a saviour when your phone or hands-free headset runs out of juice and needs a quick charge. The rechargeable 430 mAh/3.7v lithium-polymer battery provides more than an hour of continuous talk time and several days of stand by time. Along with a drawstring carrying bag, two adapters are in the box: one for iPhone (or iPod touch) and the other a micro USB for all other devices.

Touch of class

Ever found yourself taking notes on your smartphone or tablet during a meeting or presentation and realized an old-fashioned pen and paper might just be faster? You can have your cake and eat it too with Ten One Design's Pogo Stylus and the longer Pogo Sketch for tablets ($14.95 each). Each of these stylus pens have a thick, soft tip that lets you write, draw or tap on your capacitive digital device. Available in multiple colours, the aluminum pens also include a handy clip to attach to the smartphone and tablet. And keep in mind, they're also ideal for those with long nails or if you want to keep your gloves on in the winter months.

In October of 2010, I attended a talk given by Darren Entwistle, the CEO of TELUS. The talk was called The Courage To Innovate: Creating a Vibrant and Healthy Canada.

As Mr. Entwistle pointed out, despite the massive investments in health care, there remain many significant challenges. He pointed to evidence, for example, which indicates that the same number of people die every month in Canada as a result of errors in the health care system that die in a 747 crash. The latter gets enormous news coverage, as it should, but the former for the most part goes unreported and hence is unknown to the vast majority of Canadians.

Health care costs are increasing dramatically, due both to the rise in the prevalence of chronic diseases like diabetes, and the ageing population. There are, of course, benefits from prevention and innovations in drugs and treatments that can help. But one question we need to raise in this day and age is this: How can information technology play a role and what risks as well as benefits does this bring?

As Mr. Entwistle illustrated, Canada’s health care system is characterized by a network of medical centres which typically have their own independent technology systems and data centres. As a result, hardware, software and database hierarchies can be different across institutions, making the efficient and accurate flow of information a challenge for health care practitioners.

The transfer of health information, processes, and intellectual property across jurisdictions and regulators and between health care facilities is less than efficient, assuming the transfer of information takes place at all. He points to Toronto as an example, where there are about 25 hospitals, with more than 20 data centres, and over 20 patient record systems.

This diversity often results in the sub-optimal dissemination of health information as patients move between hospitals and clinics, and increases the risks to both the integrity/accuracy and confidentiality of the information as it moves across the health care continuum.

He asked the audience to think about what efficiencies would be achieved if this information technology infrastructure were collapsed into a single data centre and one standardized set of patient records, and highlighted the tremendous efficiency gains that could be reinvested into the system for applied research, better clinical care technologies for hospitals and clinics, nurses, doctors and positive impacts on related health care costs.

At the same time, this centralization would increase risks for privacy and security and so the trade-offs involved are not as straightforward as they might seem.

We need a technology infrastructure that allows for the efficient engagement of health care stakeholders across the health care system - both across institutions and geographies, as well as specialties. And we must ensure that patients have access to the best specialists who, in turn, have access to the most relevant and accurate patient information which allows for the best diagnosis possible and hence the right treatment.

These benefits cannot be underestimated, both for cost reduction as well as to reduce errors in the health care system, Mr. Entwistle said. “We use the web or smart phones to pay bills online, change a flight, or download music, but are not yet generally using such technologies to access health records across the health care system. This is changing, but this shift is also bringing both risks and benefits to the healthcare system that need to be carefully considered.”

Security Challenges for Mobile Device Use in Healthcare Facilities

There are many security aspects to consider within healthcare, but I thought a good one to start with would be to look at the deployment of mobile devices. I interviewed Jeff Curtis, Chief Privacy Officer at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, about the privacy and security issues which arise with the deployment of mobile devices into the healthcare environment.

As he put it, there are three key privacy and security junctures to consider (among many others):

• The introduction of a device into the environment (provisioning);
  
• the use of a device for administrative and clinical care purposes;
  
• and the decommissioning of a device from the environment.
  

In particular, he emphasized the changes being felt by the increasing use of personal mobile devices.

Provisioning of IT equipment used to be straightforward: the facility would purchase, deploy and support a standardized set of technologies for use within the facility. However, with the introduction of mobile devices, and especially personal mobile devices, this control posture no longer holds and therefore creates risk.

On the one hand, the ability to use a personal device at work (whether for personal use, business use, or both) yields both economic and productivity benefits to both the user and the hospital. Thus many hospitals increasingly allow personal devices to connect to the hospital network for both personal and business purposes (e.g. log onto the network, receive personal and corporate email, surf the internet, etc.). For existing hospital computer users, they might even be able to use their existing hospital system ID and password for access to the network or access to established applications like email. The device is (and remains) their personal property, however the activity taking place on the device during and after use at work is now of direct interest to hospital administration.

This potentially causes a number of privacy and security problems for the hospital and new challenges for users, starting with the hospital’s need to open up but also, increasingly, to ‘police’ the network to detect and control new devices attempting to connect.

Tomorrow: More from Jeff Curtis at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre about the privacy and security issues that come with mobile devices in the healthcare environment.

This summer, TELUS Talks Business bring you Security 360, a one-of-a-kind limited series on information security from Dr. Walid Hejazi, professor of international business at Rotman School of Management and a world-renowned expert on IT security. Dr. Hejazi has primed the TELUS-Rotman Joint Study on Canadian IT Security Practices on behalf of Rotman since its inception and has unique perspective and insight into IT security in Canadian business. Your comments and questions are welcome here.

Attention IT security professionals – your perspectives matter. For the 4^thstraight year, TELUS Security Labs and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, are partnering to conduct a study on Canadian IT security practices. It’s the only original Canadian research of its kind. Add your perspective to the research (input is anonymous) and you could win a BlackBerry Playbook and receive a complimentary copy of the results. Click here to take the survey: http//www.telus.com/securitystudy

I have a question for you today: is social media working for you—or, are you working for social media? Many small business owners have adopted social media platforms and are finding there is nothing at the end of the rainbow.

Let’s talk about Twitter, as this is a great example, which came to being on July 15, 2006. If you think about Twitter with respect to the first mover advantage you get the idea that the people who jumped on the Twitter bandwagon first are the people who are successful. On the other hand if that were true then no one after 2006 would have succeeded on Twitter.

I think people have ‘lost the plot’ where social media platforms are concerned! Whether you are working on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to name the most well known, you control your destiny and can make decisions, which will ultimately mean success or failure.

When you decide to start a small business one of the first things you are told is to work on a business plan, set goals (financial and otherwise) and do lots of market research. In essence you have work to do before you even start making any money. The majority of people who use social media expect instant gratification, have no idea why they are using social media and either follow like sheep or stand out like people who have no idea what they are doing.

Many people who found early success on Twitter did so because they did something different which encouraged people to follow them and want to buy their products or services, outside of social media.

Social media is about creating a presence online, building relationships, and creating awareness about who you are, what you do and why you do it. The challenges start popping up when some of the users insist there is no need to walk away from your computer screen and meet people face to face. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about Social Media. In my simple terms I believe it to be: finding ways to communicate with others, interacting and sharing information.  Ideally, and this works for me, where possible I meet people off line when I have built up a strong relationship with them. Obviously if you are a talented salesperson and can sell on the line you might well be successful, but the majority of people are not and fail to realise they are working for social media, not the other way around. How is this so? Taking Twitter as an example again, if nobody joined then there would be no Twitter! By staying there even though your business is not gaining from the exercise you are purely working for that platform to keep it going.

If your expectation of social media is purely to socialize with others, this is fine; taking the process a step further may not work for you as it does for others. Knowing why you are there, what you are doing allows you peace of mind to know it is working for you.

I use Twitter as a tool to get to know people, but if I relied on this as a way to generate all my sales then I would be out of business in a very short time. Sales can come from social media but in my experience you have to be in it for the long haul and have short and long-term goals.

If you use social media properly and build a strong foundation by clearly defining who you are, via your profile first and foremost, and then by your tweets and ultimately your followers, you will have succeeded. Whether that is your success or not is a decision you have to make.

Some tips I want to share with you that have helped me use social media in general for my benefit are:

• Knowing that I can change my profile whenever I want. This is useful if you are established on social media platforms and what to share information about events, products or services via websites. Followers are interested in this information, and by changing your profile now and then to suit this purpose it is a quick and easy way to share information without using the 140 characters on Twitter.
• Caring about others, whether it is offering tips on how to find a job, or where you found a great graphic artist. Being able to share with your followers how you build your success means you are open and this leads to trust.
• Following people back who are new to social media… everyone has to start somewhere. We all started with zero followers.

Take a look at your social media plan and if you have no plan, no goals, no idea why or how or when or what, step back and start again. Treat social media as part of your business and set short and long-term plans, which you can review, and revise over time. First impressions count in everything we do in life, but assuming you have not made a complete mess of your online reputation you can go back to the beginning and start all over again, if you need to.

I know that social media is working for me, and I do see instances where social media has people working for it. They sit there day after day encouraging more people to jump aboard, and this will continue to work for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. It’s all about choices, social media is not smoke and mirrors, it’s as transparent as a clear blue sky.

If you take a tip from me and start enjoying social media, as you do your business, you will not only feel happier and less stressed you will move forward with your initiatives and reach the success you are working hard to achieve!

“Fans, Tweets & Likes are vanity. ROI is sanity. It’s up to you to decide how crazy you can afford to be.”

- Lori R Taylor

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is the Social Sweetheart. She is President of Motivational Steps and Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org

Over the last ten years I have talked to hundreds of CEOs of small and medium-sized businesses in the Business-to-Business (B2B) sector about what works and what doesn’t in building a repeatable lead stream for their business and a marketing engine that delivers measurable business results.  I started to keep track of what CEOs were telling me and devised a list of the attributes of marketing programs that succeed.  My last post talked about how you would rate your website and whether it is helping or hurting your sales process.  Today’s post is about the importance of singular focus as the cornerstone of a marketing program that succeeds in helping you deliver business results.

Take a moment and think about the people you knew in school. I’ll bet there were kids that you remember as being:

• The smartest
• The funniest
• The most athletic
• The tallest
• The meanest

You get the idea. There were kids that stood for something. Likely one thing and it stuck. If they were tallest, they likely got picked for the basketball team. If they were the funniest, the teacher was likely asking them to pipe down.

Now think of companies that stand out in your mind. They likely stand out because of attributes you associate with them:

• The cheapest
• The best service
• The best quality product
• The only one that sells something in blue

Now think about how the things you talk about when promoting your company’s product or services. How focused is your approach to what you do and why people should buy from you? Listing everything under the sun on your website or in marketing material is hurting your customer’s ability to choose. People want less choice, not more, and a singular focus helps you win.

Here’s why your business needs singular focus….
   
1.    A multi-product, multi-strategy approach stretches already limited resources and means you end up with poor results.
2.    Helps you gain a position on the web that you can test with an audience you wouldn’t otherwise have.
3.    Allows you anchor your message to a single theme that you can test to see if it scales.

If you are still struggling with the best way to create singular focus for your business, consider this recent blog post by renowned marketer and bestselling author, Seth Godin, Delivering on Never.

If you start by choosing something you can commit to never doing in your business, it is a good way to position yourself and create differentiation from the competition.

If you still are not convinced about the power of a singular focus in marketing, consider this. Just trying lots of things to see what sticks is like throwing spaghetti at a wall.

• You can’t measure it because you are never sure what you are measuring and what the outcome is
• It looks messy and unappealing to your ideal customer

The most productive marketing programs are rigorous, highly analytical, strategic, and pragmatic.

The reason so many business owners fail to create focus in their business, is because it’s easier to say anything and be everything. But focus will improve your lead generation because the right customers understand immediately why they should buy from you and you make it easy for them.

Here’s a useful test: go online and do a search on a business solution or problem you need to fix in your business. Select the first three search returns that come up and view the sites with respect to many messages versus one. I guarantee the company that makes it easy to understand what they do really well will either make you start the buying process with them immediately, or you will move on. Either way you have shortened the sales cycle and saved yourself and the company time.

Do one thing really well and use it as the cornerstone for your marketing program and you will succeed.

Marie Wiese of Marketing CoPilot can be found online at www.marketingcopilot.com and is the author of the eBook, “Why marketing fails... and what you can do about it!” You can follow her on Twitter @mariewiese. Marketing CoPilot fills the marketing void for companies committed to building marketing that works. Marie is a 20 year veteran of the B2B marketing world and is currently the Chair of the Board of the York Technology Alliance in the greater Toronto region where she gets to interact with all types of businesses every day.

My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post with over 8,000 views was: How to Be the Expert, Market, and Stay Focused Like Calvin Klein

Today we're going to look at how a young man left the secure job that his father wanted him to take to follow his passion in the sporting world. He went on to build one of the most well known companies in the world. This is the story of Nike founder Philip Knight and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

Must Watch Video

"We had no master plan. It was totally seat of the pants." - Philip Knight

Philip Knight (born February 24, 1938) is the co-founder and Chairman of Nike. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Knight discovered he had a love for running and went to train with the legendary track coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. In addition to coaching, Bowerman was experimenting with creating new types of shoes and Knight field tested them on the track for him.

After graduating, Knight went to graduate school at Stanford and signed up for a small business class. He had to create a business plan in the class and thought back to Bowerman's shoes. In his business plan, Knight developed a blueprint for superior athletic shoes which could be produced cheaply in Japan. After taking a job as an accountant to make his father happy and hating it, Knight flew to Japan to find a factory to make the shoes. He returned home to create a partnership with Bowerman. They each invested $500 into the business and named it Blue Ribbon Sports (later changed to Nike). In its first year the company sold only $364 worth of shoes but Knight was determined to make the company work and stuck with it until it did.

Today Nike brings in almost $20 billion in revenue. Knight's stake in the company gives him an estimated net worth of US$12.7 billion, making him the 60th richest person in the world.

Action Item #1: Have a Clear Focus

As entrepreneurs it's often hard to stick on your path when you're not getting the momentum you were hoping for or when things seem to be falling apart around you. But almost every business owner has to go through those dark days to get to the light at the end of the tunnel and you need to have the faith and courage to stick to your vision and stay completely focused on doing what you set out to do.

As Nike grew, Knight had to decide what the focus of the business would be. Should he expand to get into the fashion business? Since he had such success sponsoring athletes, should he expand and start sponsoring other celebrities? Knight decided that for his company to continue growing he would have to have a clear focus of what he wanted the company to be. It would make it easier for him to make decisions and also allow his team to work towards a common goal.

According to Knight: "We wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour... We’re not in the fashion business... We’re in the sports business, and there’s a big difference.”

Action Item #2: Think of Business as War

The business world is very competitive and some industries are more cutthroat than others. If you're offering a new product or service that you're hoping will take customers away from your competition, expect that those competitors will fight back hard. Have a plan to beat them and to start winning their market share.

Being a former athlete himself, Knight loved competition and relished the chance to compete in the business world. Knight treats business as war and has instilled within his company a healthy dislike of its competitors. Always trying to one up his competition, when Reebok went to the expense of sponsoring the entire Atlanta Olympic games, Nike sponsored just the top athletes, but gained much more valuable coverage than Reebok. It was also his competitive streak that made him want to sign a 20 year old Stanford golfer named Tiger Woods before his competition could. It cost Knight over $40 million, but it was a price tag well worth it in order to keep this golfing prodigy out of the hands of his competitors. Nike is a very competitive organization and Knight wouldn’t have it any other way.

According to Knight: "Sports is natural, instinctive, competitive, and, in the end, rewarding. All of us at Nike get to earn a living in that world – a world that is easy to believe in... Business is war without bullets."

Action Item #3: Just Do It

The single thing that differentiates entrepreneurs from everyone else is that you went for it. You left the security of a steady paycheck to venture into the unknown for your chance to determine your own destiny. You need to keep this attitude in mind as you grow your business. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. You won't be able to do anything significant if there isn't a risk of failure.

Nike is known for its slogan "Just Do It" and it's a statement that accurately reflects how Philip Knight acts as an entrepreneur. He's always taking chances, is willing to fail, and pushes the conventional limits to accomplish his goals. A great example is his relationship with basketball superstar Michael Jordan. In 1984 Knight signed the young Jordan to a sponsorship deal. It was a big risk as Jordan was only 21 years old and was just breaking into the league. The idea of players being sponsored was also a new phenomenon and was a risky and unproven concept. The deal proved to be a big success for Nike and provided a huge publicity and sales boost for the company. If Knight was afraid to "Just Do It," if he had been afraid to make a mistake, the deal would never have happened.

According to Knight: "The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few."

True Story

In 1972, Knight decided that his company, Blue Ribbon Sports, needed a new name and a new logo. Knight liked the name "Dimension Six" but his staff disagreed. One employee suggested "Nike" after the Greek goddess of victory.

Knight then paid $35 to Carolyn Davidson, a University of Oregon student, to design the now famous "swoosh" logo. At the time Knight said "I don't love it, but it will grow on me." He was under a deadline to pick a logo so he went with it and a the new company was born.

More Quotes

"Ultimately, we wanted Nike to be the world's best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus."

"The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few."

"Everybody wants a certain amount of stress. Most people have too much, but I didn't want too little, either."

What Do You Think?

Do you have any problems to "Just Do It"? How do you stay focused? What part of Philip Knight's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of Philip Knight articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.