Slightly Sensible - B&B Insider

Springtime Breezes

  

  

 delicious  

  

Last week's eConnections newsletter may have been a bit light on technobabble, but it sure drew a lot of inspired responses. I've posted excerpts from my newsletter at the end of this article - but it's the dozens of great reponses that got me jazzed up, things like Divye from India who wrote:

Mike,

I am a doc in a far away land (read- Suburban Pathologist in India) and 'god honest truth' it is thrilling to read your newsletter. I am not an engineer or a qualified geek, but I agree with- 'create/improve processes' and that 'creativity will improve the world'.

You see most of our diagnostic works runs like an assembly line- Raw material-patient samples and finished product-Test results on a report.

In between there are analyzers, Information systems, skilled manpower, improved processed, I/O systems, and responsible clinical managers creating/ improving processes.

Or Jack from Oz who wrote: 

Hi Mike,

Well since you asked ;-)   I have taken the rest of the year off, cancelled advertising, unnecessary subscriptions, renegotiated insurances and a few other things and suddenly discovered I have saved thousands of dollars. Working out the overheads for a lost year of business for me means I would have less
losses than if I continued on, with the attendant costs etc.
Since our business is 100% Internet business, run from home.......its no problem. IF someone breaks my arm to supply something, yes I will do it.......but I am not looking for business right now.
You may think this extremely weird but the rest of this year will see me doing some research on new products, take a trip or two to some trade shows. Over the next 9 months or so, there will be a shake out, some manufacturers may close up, some of our potential customers will also (some have :-() Next year will see the stabilised market appear......it may not be much of a market, or it could be quite good.....who knows?
I will be equipped hopefully to deal with it, having been researching over the rest of this year.
 I would suspect some of my competitors, who are simply box sellers and price cutters, will have gone too.....I have no sympathy for them. Many of them have lived high on the Hog, and have  a high debt overhead in the process, I saved for the rainy day..... ;-)
This will see a more stable market for me to operate in, with reasonable profit potential in the future, next year.
So......make sure your bilge pumps work! Trim your sails for the oncoming storm and skillfully steer your boat into profitable waters, in the future! :-)

Inspired - both of them - and there were so many others - made my week! Here's the eConnections from last week (you can subscribe yourself over at www.bb-elec.com).

Dear Readers, 

I don't know about where you live, but here in Illinois we just had one of those early-spring weekends that makes you smile, no matter the circumstances.

There's just nothing like a fresh spring breeze after a long, frosty winter to clear your head.

Forget the bailouts, forget your 401k has downsized to a 201k, and forget that our middle-aged sun is working on its 5 billionth birthday (in another 5 billion we'll have something serious to worry about).

Seem impossible? Try harder. There ain't a thing you can do on your own to solve those problems anyway.

Swear off CNN and spin up some Miles Davis instead. Quit reading USA Today and dust off a good book (Atlas Shrugged might be a timely read). Get off your treadmill and get outside and live a little.

Burying my head in the sand?

Nope - just a matter of focus.

In my little world there are perhaps a few hundred lives out there that I can directly impact. And some thousands more that I touch indirectly. That's where spend my energy. I'm not gonna save GM, not going to fix Wall Street and I'm not going to reform Lindsay Lohan, so I'm not going to spend my time worrying about them.

What have I been spending my time on?

• This month I've been tweaking B&B's product development process, a great effort between engineering, product management and operations. As customers, you will see the results.
• I've been working on our product quality processes (and if you've had a less than top notch quality experience with B&B I want to hear about it).
• I've started a new blog. http://blog.bb-elec.com/
• I wrote a new paper on wireless that I shared with you all last month and have been responding to your terrific feedback, such as:
• Paulo from Oz who wrote, "'10 Commandments of Wireless Communications' was well condensed, clearly explained and easy to understand. Well done Mike!!! It's a good help for those deploying wireless devices in old as well as new installations."
• Ted from a research vessel deep in the south Pacific penned, "Thou shalt continue to bring Mirth to my Draconian work shop of horrors. It sootheth my soul. Thanks, and Best Fishes"

I've posted the 10 Commandments wireless piece up on the blog. So if you missed it last month, and wireless is in your future, check it out.

What can you do in your world? Fix processes, or develop processes where none exist. Take on that instrumentation project. Add those next few I/O points to your SCADA system. Think of 10 things you can do to do more with less and make them all happen. There's never been a better opportunity to roll out your "A" game. Neither politicians nor bankers are going to revive the world's economy - it's you and I, and the ranks of creative geeks like us that are going to make that happen.

What projects are you driving in the face of slower spending?  I'd like to hear about them.

Happy (Springtime) Connections!