The Ipad is affecting my life!

Ok so Apple is taking some heat right now on iPhone 4. A great deal of the heat is directed at Steve Jobs, which i guess is because he is who he is! However, i don't think he has bargained for the grief he is soon to take from Mrs. P, the 4 little P's, colleagues and friends of mine. I have a problem, i am addicted to the iPad, i find myself on it all the time. I could be blogging, reading blogs and tweets, networking, watching Telly,playing games, surfing anything on the iPad. It is without doubt one of the finest things i have ever bought!

This weekend i am up at St Andrews watching The Open, security will take my mobile off me when I enter but not my iPad. I will be blogging, tweeting, watching the Telly, even following on The Open app. Heaven!


The little p's always want to play on it, watch Disney etc and of course paint. Clearly they can't as daddy is on it!

Does anyone know a cure?

Cheers

Simon


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Integrity and Morals in Business

So here I am sat at my desk with steam coming out of both my ears.  Why I hear you ask?  I said....Why I hear you ask?  Thank you, do keep up!

A competitor of mine has emailed my entire sales team and most of my management team asking them to go to them and join their 'winning team.'  Now is it just me or is this not the done thing?  It seems to be the kind of thing that lacks any kind of integrity and/or morals.  What makes this even worse was that it was one of industry trade associations that provided the data and technology to send the blast.  There are some cracking companies that we compete against on a daily basis.  They are professional with excellent levels of service and even seem to have integrity.  Unfortunately there are some that are not.  I am sure this is the same throughout most industries.  Now the company that has sent this 'spam' probably thinks
that they have done nothing wrong, after all the mailing list was provided by a trade association.  Even so I just feel it 'stinks'!

There are so many places to find really good team members without directly attacking a competitor.  From Social Networking sites, job sites, recruiters, press, networking.  I am also a huge believer in making an excellent place to work so that the team are happy and talk about it.  Word will spread that such and such is a great place to work and before long, new good members will want to join your team.

I was talking the other day with Mrs P and I think the 4 little P's were in the car with us.  It was a conversation regarding Merchandise Mania and what makes us good at what we do.  I summed it up with the word 'Integrity' 2 of the little P's picked up on the word but could not say it properly.  (oldest little P is 5!) Eventually we agreed that it was a word daddy used at the office a lot and daddy should not talk about the office on daddy days!!(weekends)  So we stopped talking and went to the park!!

Integrity and Morals, Why do we bother?  Answers on a post card or via a comment below!!!!

Social Networking - Am I a Fan?

So yesterday I was with my Academy of chief Executives group ACE 2 at the Holiday Inn in Elstree. Our Morning speaker was a chap called Mike Nevin whose company, Alliance Best Practice does what it says on the tin. Looks at the best ways of bringing a team together to deliver a project in the most cost effective way whilst probably increasing the available skills by working with all types of Partners to make it happen! Very Interesting I thought! Fortunately the talk was not about this, but about the phenomenon of Online Networking. Interestingly about 95% of the room yesterday had some kind of profile on LinkedIn, about 95% of them used the free model and did not have a complete profile including myself. However having listened intently to Mike for a few hours I can see major benefits in putting myself and my company out there and using online business networking to increase exposure and perhaps help to further support our clients. I used to belong ot a group called BNI or Business Network International and there motto was 'Givers Gain'. That is, 'that I I give you business, you will want to give me business.' There is a lot to be said for this especially in a tougher economic climate than most of us are used to. It is important to note that selling on price alone is a recipe for disaster so being able to 'add value' to the proposition is what it is all about at Merchandise Mania. It seems like after yesterday one of the ways in which we can add value is by networking efficiently with our customers and prospects.

I know my next job is ensuring my profile on LinkedIn is complete!!!!