OK Folks, Get In On This

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Hopefully you saw our Twitter Feed, and saw how Bonnier Corp created a media start-up incubator.

This is something to follow anyway, since it could be the source of your future employer or your own company.  But it’s something else I like to see – specialized start-up incubation.

I’d honestly like to see more of it, because a good, specialized incubator can focus more specifically on things the funders and others involved know about.  It can create more effective results – and encourages others to do the same.

So what specific areas do you want to see startups focused on?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Beam Me Up, It’s A Team Up

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Well I confess an econogeek like me is pretty excited about Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, and a few others were teaming up to make their own automatic payment system.  I’m excited because, well, it’s interesting and I like technology, and of course it promises to have lots of job potentials and opportunities.

Stephen Carpenter of Endorse.com laid out his thoughts at Venture Beat in a nicely categorized article that you should read.  He points out the data exchange advantages, the cost reduction, etc.  Two things struck me that are important for progeeks out there in finance and technology.

First, Carpenter notes frankly that consumers do NOT want a bunch of solutions to payments.  They want one, maybe two, and they want them to work.  Whatever happens out there in autopayments, at best I see 2 maybe 3 real alpha payments on top – and probably really 1-2.  Simply, there’s no room for too many, and even if a solution is just a frankenstinian combination of many solutions, it’s still one solution on the consumer end.

I think he’s entirely right, and the takeaways are:

  • If you work in mobile and electronic payments remember there can only be a few – maybe even one true – winners in this space.  If you’re not sure you’re going to be them, you need to keep your eyes open or prepare for acquisition.  If you are sure you’re working at the winner, then you need to go to a therapist to check your delusions of grandeur.
  • This market is going to shake out at some point.  Be ready for it.
  • This could accelerate further mobile adoption of various technologies.
  • What will amazon and other tablet makers do – since people may want to use said devices for payments as well since they’re omnipresent.

But there’s one other thing – and that’s the presence of Wal-Mart.

Now I’m no fan of Wal-Mart – you know that.  Sure I’ve wondered if they may go hip and high tech – and if it could save them, though it sounds like they’re doing better lately.  Indeed, this mobile move may be a good sign they’re trying to do more and be more upscale.

However, Wal-Mart seems to operate with a very extraction-driven methodology.  So my concern is their involvement in this mobile project could result in them looking more to slash costs and increase sales to the detriment of a larger, functional, long-term sustainable project.  The temptation will be there to get as much out of it as possible, and I can’t see their partners being as enthused.

So I’m concerned this project may turn into one of the failures, or shatter into several pieces, or have to go much larger to avoid the possibility of Wal-Mart trying to overuse it.  Yes, I know they’re going more high-tech, but I fear out of all of the members of this alliance, they’re the ones that may think too short-term.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

The Recruiting Nightmare #5 – Networking Nuttiness

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Fine, fine, so making job postings, evaluating them, and getting them out is kind of hard and challenging.  So a recruiter can rely on networking, correct?

It’s easy to assume that.  We hear all the time that networking is the solution to us finding jobs – and in many cases it’s right (well, partially).  So it has to be the solution for recruiters as well.

Not exactly.

Networking relies on you connecting with other people who connect you with other people and so on to finding the right recruits.  Sounds simple enough, right?

The problem breaks down in that whole “other people thing.”  Networking only works if the people in your network do it as well, and do it well enough.  As is noted endlessly in job searches, seminars, books, and my own writing, a majority of people aren’t too hot at networking.

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