Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

Running a transparent business can have it’s advantages – every time one of my kids says something in a public forum I can count on dozens of opinions coming back to my inbox. It’s nice to see that we are participating and being welcomed to do it at the same time, makes me feel really good about what we are doing here.

Today a few items hit my inbox about the conversation over SaaS reliability and the expectations of cloud services vs. onsite box. The comments over it were particularly interesting because it highlights a common fear that SMB has when it comes to the cloud services. Most sensible of people turn into paranoid freaks standing with the flaming torch at their gateway interface with Braveheart face paint screaming at the network packets:

“You can have my search, but you will never take our data!”

Ok, so that makes me laugh and cringe at the same time because puts people that should be encouraging the development and use of emerging technology where it makes sense to give business scale and flexibility. Instead, some of these people are drawing a line in the sand, putting their toys behind their back and trying to use fear and paranoia as a means to discourage the giant wave of innovation that is about to crush their sandbox and wash it out.

Folks, you can’t fight this stuff. It’s coming. You need to embrace it. You cannot hide behind the giant sand walls and the blue/white face paint, head in the ground pretending like nothing new or relevant is going on out there. The world has changed. Live it. Love it. If you can’t deal with the change then you’ve picked a wrong ucking profession.

My customers would never…

SMB consultants have this emotional attachment to their client base that Microsoft propaganda seems to have only deluded them into believing it exists – trusted advisor role. At the end of the day you have a business relationship with your clients and if you aren’t comfortable with it being just that consider just how trusted you will be if you don’t have their best interest in mind when delivering this advice.

Your customers will leave you if you aren’t doing what they want.

The big blue frustration…

This is specifically where I have the most beef with Microsoft. It’s not the licensing. It’s not the broken products, pullbacks, re-re-re-releases, security nightmares. It is not even being shamed into obscurity by all counts on the marketing. It is Microsoft’s refusal, as my largest partner, to take a lead in the new changed world. Instead of powering the next generation of computing with innovative solutions Microsoft is sticking to the foundation which has been crumbling for years and they are treating these new opportunities as the proving grounds for the third world B2 rejects and weekend research projects for the midlevel managers who have lost their passion and innovative thinking a decade ago.

It’s not that we chose to go in a different direction than Microsoft because we don’t like Redmond, it’s that our clients have dictated that they don’t want Just Microsoft anymore. Clients are riding the new wave where the Mac dominates the techno-social status reflection of an executive as much as a Presidential Rolex does. It’s a world where you have an iPhone or a Blackberry and you don’t care that its not the most secure or the most flexible/integrated solution available. It’s a world in which the applications, storage, management and communications are not confined to a single box, hidden behind a single firewall or tied to a single solution provider. As one of our clients recently said: “Screw better together, look how pretty this UI is. What does Microsoft have? That Windows 3.1-themed mobile experience from 92?”

As a solution provider, it is our goal to serve our clients and provide the solutions they demand that let them run their business in the way they envision it. Face it, clients are more tech savvy now and if you think you’re facing resistance you’ve seen nothing yet. Furthermore, if you think you can fight it with “we don’t do that” excuse you don’t stand a chance.

You are NOT the father…

Taking the punchline (video for foreigners, please watch it) from Maury Povich, you are not the father of the technology toddlers that you feel make up your client base. I know that the technical superiority and the fact that you’ve been paid to provide your advice comes with the assumed responsibility to shield the client from making a horrible mistake, but please don’t take it to the extent that you feel it is your duty or even your place to preach to your clients the ten commandments of how SMB IT should be done. Not because it makes you immediately disrespectful, but because that is not how you succeed in business.

As Samantha mentioned, and as we say around here every day, it is not our duty to change our clients but to provide solutions to them that they hired us for. Call it cowardly, call it the path of least resistance, call it foolish or even trend following.. we call it our business to stay on the wave and ride it.

Do you run a technology company or a correctional facility? Nobody is asking you to change the world, just open your eyes and help those that ask for it with the details on how to navigate it to make their dreams come true.

Oh, and here is the invoice for that help…

The other day I wrote about Zappos.com giving “$1K offer to quit” to someone that worked there for a week to test their loyalty to the company. Last night, I watched a full 60 minutes segment on the “Millennials” and frankly I found the whole piece very disturbing. I also found it far-fetched, nothing like the college students I interact with. One particularly bothersome excerpt:

“It is no longer a problem to have four jobs on your resume during the past year.”

“I can go down the street and they will treat me better and probably pay me more money.”

The generation of instant gratification is here. But man does it have a rude awakening ahead of it. First, I always like to look at who the bitch is (see Vlad vs. Microsoft) and who needs who more. In the coming superstorm of elitist entitled entry level employees, how much of their roles will be pushed towards automation and third world markets where people would love a job?

Second, the expectation that the grass is greener on the other side is in a direct conflict with the entrepreneurs sense of investment. Let us for the moment assume that the millennials are more technically savvy and demand a high starting wage. Let us also assume they work a job in the technology service arena, where the retraining is all but required every two years. Who is paying for the training?  That’s right, I am. And guess who gets the training, who gets the conference passes, etc? The people who have my best interest in heart, not just their own.

If you think you can only think about yourself and sustain your skills for the salary you wish, you need to show both loyalty and sacrifice. Either we’re both investing in each other or the exploitation is the name of the game.

“I have been told I am special, why should I sacrifice for the company and give it my all? I don’t want to wait for it, I want it now.”

Fantastic thinking. McDonalds commercial, right? Well, prepare to work there.

During 90’s McDonalds ran tons of commercials about getting what you want, NOW! And some apparently made this a chosen lifestyle.

The problem with that is that they likely also saved exactly $0 if not dug deep in debt. Guess what happens with your salary bargaining power, ability to switch employers, relocate, train for the new role or take a new contract when you’re up to your eyeballs in your instant gratification bills?

It doesn’t work like that. You are not special. You are not smarter.

You’re gullible. The business world does not tolerate quitters and slackers, it does not reward the path of least resistance, it does not embrace the Hakuna Matata you saw in the cartoons.