Filed under: Employee marketing, Random, Security | Tags: aegenis, branding, customer service, drew shearman, employee engagement, employee loyalty, fortinet, immunity, twitter
A few weeks ago I was sitting in my VP of products’ office when he pulled up a news clip from a Canadian TV station. The video showed a baffled news reporter trying to determine the story behind a many-mirrored Vespa parked out on the street. Meanwhile I sat baffled trying to figure out why Anthony was showing me this video. “There is a point to this, I promise,” he said.
Soon I saw it. The news camera zoomed on the license plate of the Vespa:
The reporter speculated that the personalization was short for “for tailgate” (a worthy guess, I might add) but we, of course, knew immediately that the “4TGATE” was short for FortiGate, the flagship product and new generation network security gateway developed by our company, Fortinet. Drew Shearman, soon revealed to be the Vespa’s owner, came out and explained to the news crew the inspiration behind the many mirrors and the story behind the personalized plate.
The first thing I did was drop an email to Shearman — who works out of our Vancouver office — and introduced myself and told him I was dying to know his story. Certainly he had to have been with the company since its inception, hence his incredible loyalty. Nope. He’ll be with the company just one year next month. More than that, Shearman works on Fortinet’s front line as a customer support engineer. He spends his days supporting customers, partners and even our sales engineers who call in with technical questions. In other words, he works hard.
I finally asked him: “Why?”
“The FortiGate is a great product and it is inspiring working for Ken Xie and watching how far he’s taken this company in a very short amount of time. My management is great and we have a great team dynamic in support,” Shearman said. “I get a lot of questions about what my license plate means. I just tell them it represents a great line of network security appliances and the amazing company that I work for.”
(Quick disclosure: Yes, I work for Fortinet marketing. No, this is not a fabricated quote.)
I continued to be baffled yet now I was also impressed. I swear I am not as cynical as I appear and I’m as loyal to my company as the next person. I’ll put in insane hours if need be and I take my tasks to heart. But it’s never even crossed my mind to do such a thing. In my exploration for answers I threw out a question to my Twitter followers. I wanted to know how far their loyalty to their companies goes.
The answers were varied and I initially found not one person who shared Shearman’s enthusiasm. The majority of the respondents reported back that they would only do something so permanent if they launched and had at least part ownership in a company. I compiled a sample of my favorite answers below:
Finally, I found a couple folks who share Shearman’s enthusiasm for their companies or their professions. My friend Mike Dahn, PCI guru and co-founder of The Aegenis Group, sent me this picture of his license plate:
And then Dave Aitel, founder and CTO of security company Immunity, sent me a picture of Kostya Kortchinsky’s tattoo — ink that several of his team’s members share in common as homage to the company:
I never did find anyone to admit to naming a pet after his or her employer. I’m sure that person exists somewhere; he or she is simply not in my Twitter network. Until I find ‘em, I will continue to be impressed with Dahn, the Immunity team and Shearman. It takes a special type of person to commit oneself so publicly to a company or a brand. Clearly these companies are doing something right to instill such loyalty in their employees.
It is complete coincidence that the folks who step forward with tales of loyalty work in the security industry. Have a tale to tell? A picture to show? A cat to admit to naming after your company? Leave a comment and I will include them in a potential follow-up case study on how these types of companies are bringing about such employee loyalty.
(Photo Credits: Vespa courtesy of Drew Shearman; PCI DSS license plate courtesy of Mike Dahn; Kostya Kortchinsky courtesy of Dave Aitel. All photos used with permission.)
Filed under: Random | Tags: consultant, contractor, error, marketing, typos, writing
I received the following unsolicited pitch from a marketing consultant:
i would love to chat with you if your scheudle allows re: possible consulting hours/arrangement at your conveniencere: web related initiatives, issues, projects.
i can be reached on my cell XXX-XXX-XXXX or if you could contact me by email, we could set up a tiem to touch base.
I hesitated momentarily but maintained my “no” stance. I fall victim to grammar and typos as much as the next person but if I am pitching for business or looking for a job I read my stuff upwards and backwards and sideways (which makes my glasses fall off, actually).
What do you think — would you even give this consultant the time of day?
Filed under: Random | Tags: customer engagement, customer service, technology, telco, telecommunications
Truth be told, my mom is a little stressed out right now, having just bought a new house and managing the move primarily on her own (insert “daughter doesn’t live local guilt here”). While I’ve made a couple trips home and plan to make another in the near future, I haven’t been there to deal with some of the day-to-day dramas, and her fight with Big Telco is one for which I wish I’d been present.
Last week I got a frantic, tearful voicemail from mom - “Honey, I just wanted to sign up for phone service. (insert sob) I don’t understand what is going on. This has taken ALL DAY LONG!” Being what I like to call “daughter of the year minus that not being close enough to help thing” I immediately called her back and tried to talk her down. Apparently when trying to secure phone service at her new house she learned that moving 1.5 miles away from her current home put her into a different Big Telco monopoly zone. Not a big deal, really, except for the trouble she got when she tried to make the switch.
Apparently the customer service rep was more focused on trying to upsell my mother to services that she does not need rather than helping to answer her questions about basic phone service. Worse than that, he was apparently speaking to her in uber tech geek speak and would not vary from his set script at all to answer her questions. So here’s my late 50-something non-technical only-uses-a-BlackBerry-to-play-BrickBreaker mother in tears on the phone because this guy is speaking to her as if she is a space alien. At first I thought she might be overreacting until I called and found that even my nerdiness had trouble keeping up with customer service’s script.
The point of this blog isn’t only to whine about Big Telco (hence why I omitted the name). I want to make a short but important point. Big Telco and other large branded companies need to take into consideration that the advancements of technology often happen faster than the advancements in some people’s ability to grasp said technology. It’s not even a generational thing — it’s an exposure thing.
Sometimes even I forget that there is still a vast number of Americans who aren’t exceptionally tech savvy. Living in Silicon Valley and working in network security does not necessarily help me stay connected to those folks (thanks Mom, for keeping me grounded). But I have to remember and, more important, large consumer-oriented companies must remember that these people are valued customers who are paying the same as we are, who deserve the same level of customer service that we do, and do not deserve to be made to feel stupid because their areas of expertise may not be related to high tech.
In the end my mom successfully got her phone service and I successfully lambasted a Big Telco customer service manager (after holding for 40 minutes to speak with him, that is). Her installation is coming up this week so I am hoping she doesn’t have anymore problems. More important than that, I am hoping that Big Telco and other corporations bear in mind the reality that their core customer demographic may not be us techy geek heads and that to truly service their customers and create brand loyalty, they need to actually provide customer service.
Filed under: Comedy, Random, Social Media | Tags: 3d ultrasound, humor, james spader, makemebabies, mashable, patrick marleau, snoop dogg, unnecessary
Move over 3D ultrasound — MakeMeBabies is here.
Or not.
This blog post is a bit off the cuff for me as I generally try to write about social media trends that impact business or are interesting to enterprise users, but I’ve been giggling over this for two days. On Tuesday, Adam Ostrow at Mashable wrote about MakeMeBabies, a service that allows people to “preview” what their children might look like. They can either upload a picture of their partners or choose from a gallery of celebrities or even grab friends’ pictures from Facebook and MySpace.
The thing is, I can see the use of this service getting way out of hand. Girls who used to sit around and draw hearts and smileys around a guy’s name will now be constantly uploading to and refreshing MakeMeBabies. Terrifying, really. More terrifying is this quote from the MakeMeBabies site that attempts to justify the service:
“Dating services and marriage agencies add value to their services by allowing visitors have extra fun or make a lifetime decision.”
After my eyes reduced from their ultra-widened response to this sentence I started laughing hysterically at the idea of having a guy show up to a blind date with print-outs of what our children might look like (it’s a digitized scene of Kate Hudson’s scary faux character in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days“).
Since Ostrow was bold enough to cyber-procreate with Kate Beckinsale I figured I would do a little experiment of my own. I didn’t want to harm any real, accessible people in my experiment (nor did I want to horrify anyone I know) so I stuck to celebrities.
First up is the spawn of me and the man of my dreams, otherwise known as James Spader. I’ve been in celebrity love with him since I was a pre-teen so why not make a digital baby?
See, by doing this I learned something about James. He snorkels. I don’t — so clearly the kid got it from him.
Next up is a digital diaper wearer created by yours truly and my favorite hockey player (go SHARKS!), Mr. Patrick Marleau.
I’m actually disappointed that little Baby Marleau did not get any of Patrick’s hockey talent. Perhaps he (or she? I can’t tell… such a bad mother I am) will inherit my writing skills instead. Hard to visualize, however.
And finally, just for kicks:
I honestly just wanted to see if Snoop Jenny Jen would come out wearing her father’s low-brimmed hat.
With the experiment complete, I’ve learned that my children will not be cute, will have exceptionally large foreheads, and will all appear to view the world from behind a veil of unabashed cynicism. See, they get that last bit from me. *beams*
All in all, my little experiment with MakeMeBabies was a fun one. But I can’t see anyone seriously using this service (sorry, MakeMeBabies founders). Can you?
Note: My sincere apologies to Mr. Spader, Mr. Marleau and Mr. Dogg.
The last few weeks have been zany. After a whirlwind trip to Washington D.C. for the Gartner IT Security Summit I came back to find my car was burgled. Dealt with that and then began the flurry which was an incredibly challenging yet rewarding work project while also launching my new ZDNet social media blog. I was starting to settle into a groove and start writing on this blog again when WHAM (literally) my car got crunched (with me in it) and I’ve been dealing with those after-effects all week.
So, two things:
1) You might want to keep your cars away from me for the time being as I seem to have very bad “car-ma”
2) I am very sorry for the lack of original content
It is not my intention to solely use this blog as a push vehicle (er, maybe vehicle is a bad choice of words right now) for my Feeds blog but right now that’s about all I got. But look for blogs soon on my next steps in my goal to support women in technology, as well as best practices in analyst relations, and who knows what else might pop up.
In the meantime, please do enjoy the ZDNet blog. And don’t forget about me.
OH YEAH - recent ZDNet Feeds topics:
- The Associated Press plays role of Metallica in Napster-esque war with bloggers
- MySpace answers questions about redesign and reputation
- Corporate intranets via SaaS are the future but are not without risk
:-)
Filed under: Random | Tags: dexter, business lessons, business, branding, showtime, tv culture, success, michael c. hall, best practices
I have a new addiction. Not the arm-tapping or liquid sort, thank goodness, but a television addiction. Over the last two weeks I have done little else but sleep, work and watch “Dexter” — something that has become the butt of a few jokes in the Security Twit-terverse. I started season one last Tuesday. I finished season two on Wednesday night (only after frantically calling Comcast late Saturday night and adding Showtime to my cable package so I could immediately get more episodes “on-demand”). See? Addiction.
If you aren’t familiar with the show’s premise, Dexter Morgan (played by the amazing Michael C. Hall of “Six Feet Under“) is a forensic investigator for the Miami Metro Police Department and, well, a serial killer. I don’t want to include spoilers here so I will say what I always do when I can’t answer something: “It’s complicated.” Essentially, he only takes out the murderous trash that slips through law enforcement cracks.
Now it’s over, for the time anyway, and I’m going into a bit of withdrawal. Because there are five months and 26 days until season three begins I need to find a way to incorporate “Dexter” into my every day life. Since I am not a serial killer (I can’t even hurt a spider without a tearful goodbye) I had to find a more creative way to glean lessons from my kooky killing television hero. So, I give you: Why “Dexter” Would Succeed in Business:
1. Precision
Dexter Morgan is a perfectionist. His kills are clean and ritualistic. Simple. His actions are consistent. He prides himself on his ability to to lay out a perfect plan, stay meticulously on course and carry out his self-imposed assignments with a sense of control that will allow for little to no mistakes. His communication is always clear. If obstacles present themselves in the middle of his careful, um, execution, he does not slink away. He finds a way to either work around said obstacles or remove them from his path. He does all of this with a confidence and self-assuredness that helps to ensure his success.
2. Disassociation from Emotion
Dexter Morgan refers to himself as a “monster without feelings” at times. While he might be a little too hard on himself (as well all tend to be) he has mastered the practice of keeping emotions out of his decision making most of the time. As a matter of fact, I believe his ability to stave off feelings in his “business”-oriented thought processes directly support his ability to be precise. Dexter does not allow himself to be swayed by insecurity or guilt. He does not act out rashly toward people because he is having a bad day. He does not project his own self-assessed inadequacies onto other people. He is a beacon of assuredness who lives by a rule that his darkest emotions and actions stay hidden in the presence of others (unless you’re a murderer who has escaped the clutches of the police).
3. Dedication to a Craft (aka Your Work is Art)
There’s a sick beauty in the way that Dexter Morgan carries out his tasks. He is not only doing what he believes is his job, he has created “best practices” to follow each time to ensure high-quality results. To that end, every one of his kills is carried out with the same step-by-step method; an almost predictable fashion. The presentation, while disturbing, is almost artful. But his methodical nature does not mean that he never thinks outside the box. While sticking to what he knows works he always finds a way to add a new bit of flair to each assignment. What’s more important is that he doesn’t do all of this in an effort to impress others — he does it to be true to himself.
4. Careful Risk/Benefit Analysis
Dexter Morgan never makes a move without carefully analyzing the potential risks of his actions compared to the benefit that can be achieved by removing a malicious killer from Miami. You know, like we have to weigh the amount of our financial or labor investments compared to the desired outcome or ROI for our companies. It’s the same thing, really. Dexter goes through a series of questions while contemplating his next kill, such as “How do I obtain proof that this person really deserves to be dispatched? (aka “how do I get proof that this new tool will provide value-add?”). There’s also, “How do I avoid getting caught as well as not letting this distract me from my blood splatter analysis at work? (aka “how do I take on this new endeavor while not sacrificing my other pressing priorities?”). He does not make a move without this careful consideration. I recognize, however, that Dexter is in a better position than those of us who need to obtain multiple levels of approval for certain projects, therefore he has greater control over the benefit versus risk.
5. Loyalty
Finally, Dexter Morgan is loyal. It’s really hard to find dedicated employees these days, especially in technology. The average life-span, er, employment-span of an employee in Silicon Valley, for instance, is about two to three years. Dexter has been following a very strict code that his adoptive father, Harry Morgan, set for him some 20 years prior. He rarely, if not never, veers from this code and allows it to dictate most of his actions. His decision to let this code have a hold over him is purely out of loyalty to and respect for the dearly deceased Harry. Dexter isn’t begrudging about the code either; he has a lot of pride in his devotion to Harry and strives to meet these high standards. For that reason, Dexter would be a model employee, as he does not question the code nor does he challenge the code. He trusts the code and follows it to a tee.
There ya have it. Sure, Dexter is a little (?) twisted but his heart is in the right place. At the very core of it he possesses skills that would make him a valuable employee (if he wasn’t out slashing people in his spare time). I, myself, am going to aspire to be more like Dexter (not like that, remember what I said about the spider?). My career path — and company — will only benefit.
* Note: Neither this blog nor its author condone serial killing even to avenge death. This blog and its author do condone good business practices.
I thought this picture was hilarious. Maybe in part because I was there when it was taken and subsequently Photoshopped. But I think it’s a sign of good times to come this week at SOURCE Boston. Oh, picture shamelessly stolen from Raffy.
