Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

The summer break was a good time for a bit of rest and reflection, especially given the down-and-up year we had in 2011.

Naturally for me, part of this time was spent with a couple of books borrowed from the growing office library – a couple others much harder going than this one here:

The Book	What we thought
“Great by Choice Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All” by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen	More food for thought

Having previously read “Built to Last”, “Good to Great” and “How the Mighty Fall” by Jim (and others) I was not disappointed with a few more points of insight the authors have added with this latest piece of analysis. read more »

As noted previously, we’re continuing the ongoing Autopsy 2 process to give some consideration about how we’re perceived in the marketplace, and (to the extent that it is different from how we wish to be perceived) what we need to do to move this perception.

Hence, it was with interest that I rocked up to today’s Brisbane session of the “Thought Leaders” breakfast series held by the AIM.

Perhaps I’m not too quick on the uptake, but it was not until the breakfast had started that I realised I had been lured into a session that was part real information, and part infomercial for a consulting/coaching firm that runs by the name of (you guessed it…) Thought Leaders.

Today our presenter was Darren Hill, on of their mentors.

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Food for thought, this morning, when I trundled along to a breakfast event hosted by the AMI, featuring Dr Don E Schultz of Agora fame, and author of a number of books (none of which, it would seem, we have previously added to our shopping cart).

Don’s main thesis is that:

1)  The “modern” approach to marketing emerged in parallel with the industrial age of society, and hence is based on similar principles (e.g. a Taylorist view of the world – which leads into a “command and control” focus internally, and a top-down mentality in terms of push-based marketing to “consumers” (how I hate that term).

2)  Given that we’re progressing from this Industrial Age into what’s been termed by a number of people as a “Customer Age”, Don’s view is that marketing also needs a transformation.

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Fuelled by Stephen’s glowing recommendation of the Thoughtworks presentation “Emergent Design & Evolutionary Architecture”, I went along to Neal Ford’s repeat performance in Sydney this morning.

The talk presented some very sensible sounding ideas on software “design”, and few more on “architecture”. Stephen has covered some points that stood out for him in his post, and here are a couple more that I consider worthy of mention or additional comment.

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This morning I was the most casually dressed person at a Thoughtworks run seminar called “Emergent Design and Evolutionary Architecture”. The seminar itself was extremely well planned and executed, despite the lack of effective air conditioning. The speaker was an American named Neal Ford, who Thoughtworks had flown out to Australia to speak at these events (there are two more, which you can catch for free in Sydney and Melbourne).”
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Here’s an interesting video (runs for an hour) promoting a new book “Glimmer:  How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World” by Warren Berger (and Bruce Mau).

Seems like an interesting book, so have thrown it in our shopping cart, and will review it sometime in 2010.

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Well, 17 hours ago I was awake for an IEEE-organised Webinar featuring Kent Beck (founder of Three Rivers Institute) titled “Software G Forces:  The Effects of Acceleration” – so I’m beat!  Just another long day in a software start-up.

However I wanted to get this blog post up before it slipped my mind (please excuse me for any lack of polish in this one!)

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After a mere five hours sleep and with a nose that was running faster than Usain Bolt I really should not have gotten out of bed, let alone drive an hour and a half to the Gold Coast to attend an all day AIM seminar. Yet I am somewhat masochistic and managed to drag myself out of my warm, safe bed and drove the hour and a half to the Gold Coast. After getting lost in Robina for half an hour I finally found the AIM office and managed to make it just in time for the first of seven presentations.
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