Are you a Change Agent?

"You could not step twice into the same rivers; for the waters are ever flowing onto you." - Heraclitus

In her book, "The Change Agents - Decoding the New Workforce and the New Workplace", Liz Nickles discusses the fact that America in 21st Century still straddles the great digital divide. Workers on one side of the line working 24/7 from virtual offices, while others are still trying to program their VCR's and wondering what this 'internet thing' is about.

In this ever competitive job market; organizational changes; and the ever growing use of the web and digital tools to increase connectivity and productivity, her research is increasingly relevant. Nickles reveals the following trends:

• Lifestyle Entrepreneurialism: Entrepreneurs are starting younger. "I took an entrepreneurial approach to everything in life" said the co-founder of the now-defunct dot-net startup. The age of the internet has allowed young people to sidestep the traditional corporate ladder.
• Full Engagement: The new workforce never feel like they are doing enough; never thinking enough. Always searching the new boundaries, the new terrains.
• Convergence: The boundaries between home and work life blur and Change Agents like it that way.
• Getting a Life: The new workforce believe that work (even if it takes 18 hours a day) is just a job, and that they can and will walk away from it. In the book, Nickles quotes software designers who like to hike in Nepal every year. "You just won't see me in October because it is the best month to go hiking there."
• Early Retirement: The new Change Agents do not believe in working mid-pace until they are 65 and then retire. They plan to work 24/7, cash out at 35, ... then move on.
• No Prisoners: Nickles' Change Agents will do whatever it takes to move ahead. They'll make note sof enemies and squash them.

In these times of change, Nickles also has some good advice for the Baby Moguls, as well as for the Baby Boomers. This is a relevant book, especially for you reading this blog - a product of our 24/7 worklife!

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Cheap Technology - for Small Enterprises

Two articles caught my eye in this week's edition of BusinessWeek: The Next Cheap Thing and More To Life Than The Office. What these articles talk about are two ideas that have been around for a long time - that were perhaps ahead of their time.

"The Next Cheap Thing" talks about the use of 'thin client' devices, consisting of not much more than a keyboard, a mouse and a monitor that are linked to a 'server' with the capacity run the require applications and store data - remotely from the device. In this article, Stephen Dukker of NComputing talks about the price devices dropping from around $50 to the point where the "hardware would be essentially free". There are plenty of competitors out there in this market too.

"More To Life Than The Office" discusses Microsoft Office's rivals in the office productivity market. MS Office's (Word, Excel, Outlook, & Powerpoint) dominance in the market at around 95%, is being challenged by others that are competing on price and features.

So what's the connection? Why did these articles grab my attention?

These articles talk about how wonderful this cheap technology is for non-profits, schools, etc. And that is all great, but how do we apply these technologies to commercial enterprises.

Large commercial enterprises would not be interested in moving away from MS Office ... in the short term. MS Office would just be too hard (and expensive) to replace in most places. Not to mention that many comparable products are simply not good enough to fully replace the full suite of MS products used in most larger companies. However, the 'thin client' solution may have applications with certain company locations.

However, what I have seen of many small businesses, is that they simply need an easy to use cheap solution that does the job. A combination of a thin client set up with it's advantages, and suite of applications that support basic office functionality (Internet, email, word processing, spreadsheets, & presentation graphics) will provide a technology platform that will enable small business processes to be automated and thus drive improvement.

Check out a few options out there for cheap office applications:

• OpenOffice: Free office suite from Sun MicroSystems with about 40 million users worldwide.
• Ajax13: Free collection of Web applications that support some office requirements. Still early stages - but watch these guys, they are gaining about 10,000 new users per day (according to the BusinessWeek print edition)
• IBM Workplace: IBM's suite of office products with about 1 million users. Costs around $69.

Yes - there are other free word processing, spreadsheet, email applications out there. And if you are looking for a free web browser - Mozilla Firefox is the way to go.

... so with some creativity and know-how, you can maximize your productivity while minimizing your investment and cost of doing business.

. ... Now that sounds quite entrepreneurial - just what small business is about!!