When you put profit before principles you'll end up with neither.

   Bought a printer for your computer lately? I did. About a year ago I got myself a Brother MFC-6490CW. Sounds pretty impressive, and it even looks pretty impressive. But looks and sounds is about as far as it goes. When it comes to printing? Oh Brother!

   For the purpose of context, I do not print many things. If I generate in excess of ten pages a month, I'd be amazed. The occasional document and boarding pass. That's about it. 

   In light of that, I expected a long and happy relationship with my large impressive printer. But it stopped printing a few weeks ago. The printer indicated that it was out of blue ink. Fair enough. But as I wanted black printing, I didn't think that was much of an issue. However, I have come to find that many printer companies now force you to install a new cartridge to proceed regardless of whether you'll be using any of that color ink.

  Previously you could sort of fudge your way through having to buy one until there was almost no ink of any type left. The old way made sense. The printer did its best to sort you out with what it had "on-hand". Not any more.

   For those who may be unfamiliar with the economics of the printer business, it is a low profit business on printers but high profit on cartridges. Thus the new "engineering" to force additional cartridge purchases. It's a sort of document extortion. 

   This blog is part love letter to an inventor, or printer executive that wants to take over the industry. People want a printer that prints, even when the inks a bit low. Ideally that'll be a very sporadic condition. I'm virtually certain you can charge more, way more, for a printer that screams "I'll be ready when you need me!" 

   In the interim, I managed to unearth an old laser printer from the closet. One manufactured before someone led the whole industry into a "profit before principles" mindset. How regrettable that nobody stopped to think that when you put profit before principles you'll end up with neither. 

 

Success is like Sausage??? Tim has lost his mind!

   What the heck? How on earth is success like sausage? What do you mean?

   Well, I think success is very similar to sausage. With apologies to non-meat eaters, sausage tastes pretty awesome, just like success. But there are some things that going into making sausage that might make it a bit less appetizing if you really think about it. Same as success. What do I mean by that?

   When I was running Omega, before the big payoff, I had a business with over 300 people, and a $2 million dollar line of credit. Just to make it interesting the bank had a lien against my house in the event something went wrong. Yep, the place where I lived with my kids. One bad move and boom, goodbye villa, hello streets. 

   This is no pity party. But it is important to see success for what it is. An arduous journey to get past seemingly neverending obstacles while fending off the competition along the way. It can be incredibly fun and enjoyable. Except when it isn't. And if you want success, you don't get a button to select "fun stuff only". You get the spoils, but you also are in for the headaches and risks.

   So yes, success is like sausage, you'd be surprised what goes into it. 

   But don't let that stop you from taking a bite. 

In Defense of Antivation, and a way to profit from it. Yoo-hoo Microsoft...

   You don't have to be a technophobe to experience some dismay at the seemingly constant barrage of changes and alterations to technologies and programs that have become part of our daily discourse with the world. Let me tell you a secret...I want my antivation!

  Just when you feel the initial joy of mastery, the technology is re-engineered to be more user-friendly. Gasp! This puts us in the unenviable position of having to discard some hard earned work and begin anew. While I am hardly opposed to personal growth, having companies with whom I have formed a relationship kick dirt into the hole I was digging is a little annoying. Antivation please.

   This got me thinking. There must be an emerging market for some technological stabilization. With the baby boomer generation growing older, and in many cases already a bit impervious to change, this is a major opportunity. Microsoft could hang onto the code for Windows 7, for instance. Have a team tightening the code, making the software faster, more reliable and secure, and clawing away at consumer feedback on ways to simplify the whole experience. Then charge annually for licensing (fixed)  and support (a la carte), which I think will be a huge profitable growth area, with boomers aging. Um, antivation?

   The underlying technology need not suffer. As we inevitably move to 128-bit tech and onward, there would be plenty of room to make the program optimized for the new environment. Innoantivation?

   Frankly, I could apply this logic to phones as well. My Samsung Galaxy 3 is a joy. Love it. But I am curious what else of true value can be offered that would make me want to migrate to a new phone. Using the camera as an example, I only need 8 megapixels. The photos I shoot with the phone are capturing moments. Issues of pixelization etc, are not likely to factor in to me moving to a "new model." It handles e-mail, texting, web interaction, and a host of things I am only now unearthing. "Waiter, I ordered ANTIVATION, not innovation. May I please have the old version?"

   My central point is that with a large generation cohort getting to the "get off my lawn" stage of life, perhaps a new market is upon us. Antivation. Companies make the technology we're already used to better, (much cheaper development than "new and improved") and more reliable. If they want to expand the memory of the hardware model and increase the processor speed, great. Just don't fiddle with the basic design and interface. And, by all means, send me an annual bill to allow me the privilege of locking in my comfort zone.

   While I have not done any formal market research on this, frequent lunch and dinner chats with folks lead me to believe this is not some fanciful idea. It is a new bona-fide market. (In fact, at a recent dinner in Stockholm I listened to a smart, young university student questioning the same issue.) And I think it is growing, with a group of people who will pay the annual fee NOT to learn a new technology. 

   Before you (if you haven't already) dismiss me as being against progress. Think again. Innovation is NOT just what happens in the Silicon Valley, it is also how we use that technology in our life. Users frequently find novel, unexpected uses for technologies. But like everything, these need time to emerge, Burying the user side of the equation under your well intention, but unneeded, upgrade, is frustrating and actually counterproductive. I'm asking the large companies to engage in ANTIVATION both to accommodate what I think is a growing market of "what the hell is this" consumers, and an existing group of tech savvy people who would happily tweek the heck out of your existing app. Both of whom I guess would pay an annual "tick" not to be forced into re-engineering the technological ecosystem they've built for themselves.

   It certainly merits some thought. 

   Now get off my lawn!



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