technology

Fun in Business?

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Fun

I have a indomitable spirit of Fun (ask my kids who I tend to embarrass & my friends who usually love it) & will always try to encourage that spirit in whatever I do. These days its easier to find Fun in business, well even online games are being included in ordinary day to day activities.  I have a habit of making sure that staff are entertained with a good laugh when things seem pretty serious or intense.  The relaxation & sometimes relief that occurs can often promote new ideas or just a different attitude towards the day’s challenges.  Having Irish genes I am also not afraid of making fun of myself to promote that laugh.  In other words I don’t take myself too seriously even when there are major challenges.  One of the best things for me about living & running a business in Ireland is that everyone has a sense of humor & having a laugh & fun (‘some craic’) is very much valued. I found a post in 37Signal‘s Signal vs Noise about fun & work:

You don’t have to work hard to work well. You don’t need sinister eyebrows or only 4-hour sleeps or a booked calendar to be serious. But somehow that image sticks so bad that we tend to view fun as the opposite of Serious Business Stuff(TM).

37 Signals

There was a great post on CloudAve by Hutch Carpenter ‘Reputation and Game Mechanics Are the Future of Social Software’ where he talks about social software & games:

The reason it’s provocative is that business is serious…business. And that goes for social software as well. Anything that smacks of addressing intrinsic human behaviors and motivations is suspicious on arrival for some. Just make my job efficient so I can get home.

What’s emerging on the social landscape is the notion of making contributions and sharing part of a richer, more engaging experience.

News flash! Turns out people like lighthearted competition, status, recognition and earning awards. Integrating these as a part of the experience, not as the entire experience, is a powerful basis for increasing people’s awareness and interest in a particular activity.

Hutch Carpenter

There are of course naysayers who look at the changing business landscape through different eyes, such as in this Guardian article, Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind: Greenfield warns social networking sites are changing children’s brains, resulting in selfish and attention deficient young people.

Arguing that social network sites are putting attention span in jeopardy, she said: “If the young brain is exposed from the outset to a world of fast action and reaction, of instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key, such rapid interchange might accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. Perhaps when in the real world such responses are not immediately forthcoming, we will see such behaviors and call them attention-deficit disorder.

“It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.”

Greenfield

However AmyJo of Shufflebrain counters this in a post Are Social Networks Changing Our Brains?

As a parent – and former Neuroscientist – I embrace new technology knowing full well that it will shape our brains. How could it not? We’re born to adapt — and our technologies are an increasingly big part of our environment. Rather than bemoaning this inevitable fact, I think it’s more forward-thinking and practical to embrace our brain plasticity, and learn how to use the technologies in a healthy, life-enhancing way.

AmyJo

I’m already sold on the innovations that are springing up in business but of course everyone has their take on it.  The other issue that needs to be considered is that there is no stopping the changes now, so if you object then good to work out a positive integration plan. 

Here’s a video that is most disturbing – fun/games gone to the extreme in the future?

Women’s Place in Business

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Women E1708291486616

Techcrunch recently posted an article ‘Silicon Valley: You and Some of your VC’s Have a Gender Problem’ by Vivek Wadhwa which has certainly stirred up the entrepreneurial community.  I responded in the comments:

I recently pitched for a Seattle dating site at TheFunded.com Showcase and noted that I was the only woman and older person amongst a gaggle of young male geeks. I am not a programmer but a passionate entrepreneur and being a woman & older does not diminish that. At the after party Adeo Ressi, the Founder of TheFunded.com, called me ‘a woman with balls’ because I didn’t falter with my pitch when I had problems with the mic & the powerpoint went crazy.
I find it best to ignore the fact that its a ‘young boys club’ out there because I believe that this is the only way I can stay hopeful and positive about our business. However it would be wonderful to see women venture capitalists or at the very least male venture capitalists who are enthusiastic about women entrepreneurs. I think women are often better organizers & managers & better with staff & teams & if they have a visionary ability too then they are real stars!!!

Pemo Theodore – February 10th, 2010 at 11:53 am UTC

Some paragraphs that caught my attention from that post are as follows:

An analysis performed by Cindy Padnos, Managing Director of Illuminate Ventures, showed that women are more capital-efficient than the norm and that venture-backed companies run by a woman had annual revenues that were 12 percent higher and used an average of one-third less committed capital. Women-led high-tech startups have lower failure rates than those led by men. And organizations that are the most inclusive of women in top management achieve 35% higher return on equity and 34% better total return to shareholders than do their peers.
Shaherose Charania, of Women 2.0, thinks it is because women have had few role models and mentors. Additionally, it is harder for women to obtain funding than for men. She notes that historically, women-led companies have received less than 9% of venture capital investments; in 2007, the proportion of funded female CEOs dropped to 3%.

Vivek Wadhwa

Vivek followed up this post with another similar called ‘A Fix for Discrimination: Follow the Indian Trails’ which elaborated on this issue & offered some solutions:

How do we fix the “hidden biases” and discrimination?  The experts I’ve spoken to have many great ideas.  They suggest we create role models, provide mentorship and financing, and teach entrepreneurship. Foundry group’s Brad Feld says that simple acts of encouragement from parents, teachers, and peers would make a big difference.  Cindy Padnos, of Illuminate Ventures suggested a solution that particularly resonated with me.  She says that women should follow the trail mapped by Indian entrepreneurs (no, not the American natives, but my kind: the immigrants).

In addition to establishing stronger networks for these groups, we need to have the CEOs and CTOs of all of our top companies volunteer their own time to help others follow in their footsteps. They need to do this because this is the best path to diversity and this diversity will enrich their organizations. And we need to have VCs mentor the women and minorities they typically ignore. They need to do this not only for social good, but also for their own survival.

Vivek Wadhwa

ReadWriteWeb also published a post ‘You Can’t Launch the Next Generation of Startups Without Women’ by Pamela Poole which also covers women in IT businesses:

What I want to emphasize here is that we’re reaching this point with the Internet. Since the last bubble burst, it’s become second nature to ordinary people, and many of us can’t imagine life without it. This means that, today, non-technical entrepreneurs are just as likely to come up with viable startup concepts as programmers are. Neither the startup system, nor the traditional support system for small, brick-and-mortar businesses reflect this societal change yet, so there is a void that needs to be filled or we’ll miss out on opportunities for innovation from unlikely sources.

Pamela Poole

I totally agree with these points, it is important that we share our knowledge & experience in business.  Pioneer means a person who is among those who first enter or settle a region, thus opening it for occupation and development by others.  Pioneers break ground and make it possible for others who follow to establish the territory.  So just as Indians now have a place & respect in The Valley, let’s pave the way for Women to share their entrepreneurial talents and establish some ground in The Valley too.  Let’s show them what we can do! 

Check out this great video “In The Valley” by Richter Scales at TechCrunch Crunchies.  Brilliant, enjoy…