Should you base your new product or service development on your technical expertise, the things that you are good at, or on the needs of your customer, even if those needs are in areas where you have little or no strength?
Gimmicky applications of virtual and augmented reality make the headlines all too often. This year, the biggest challenge for the immersive tech industry is to move beyond escapism and start designing genuinely useful virtual experiences.
I am fortunate to have an amazing and motivated team. It takes a lot more than staying late, working weekends, or taking on an industrious project to faze them. But even highly motivated people need an extra boost of motivation on an on-going basis. One of the challenging parts of a leading team is being aware enough to determine precisely when that boost is necessary.
It certainly can, and it is a really strong buyers’ market for job candidates today. In the U.S., the number of unemployed persons per job opening has hit an all-time low, and employers continue to scramble more than ever to fill hard-to-fill jobs and retain those individuals who help to sustain and grow their business.
In the 1990s a group of developers at Microsoft came up with an innovative device for reading electronic books. At that time no such product existed as a commercial entity. The team was excited at the possibilities for this innovation and they sent the working prototype to Bill Gates. He rapidly rejected the idea. It did not fit in with the Microsoft business strategy and the product did not have the Windows look or feel. Microsoft missed the opportunity. Amazon went on to develop a huge business based on e-books and the Kindle.
It is critically important to know the truth. When we don’t know the truth, false ideas and beliefs take over. Before long, we start to believe something so far from reality it’s tough to come back. These fabrications can come from a variety of places; our parents, society, a crazy uncle, a former teacher or mentor, etc. While I’m not asking you to fact check everything you’ve ever been told, I don’t want an untruth to keep you from pursuing the most fulfilling thing a professional can do; leadership.
For the last several decades, we have been working hard at helping our company become an information age organization, finding new and better ways to distribute and display information. Having 24/7 access to email and web sites via our mobile devices, it’s hard to find any area in an organization that doesn’t provide access to information.