FIRST Things First

A number of years ago, I served as a school board trustee and we decided to promote our children’s intellect and competitive spirit through competitive robotics programs.  It was through this endeavor that I came to know Debra Mumm-Hill, Pacific Northwest Director for FIRST.

FIRST’s charter is to nurture, promote and celebrate scientific and mathematical brainpower in our youth (my interpretation of their mission). Two weeks ago, while traveling, I met a local High School team en-route to the national Championships.

It was great to see these bright, shining future engineers/leaders who’ve been told it’s OK to be smart and whose “geekdom” is celebrated and encouraged. As our world becomes more technical, the answers to our problems more complicated, and our systems more complex, it is comforting to know people like Debra and the FIRST organization are developing the thinking we will need in the future.

Debra, thank you for developing our talent pool.

Image courtesy of Bytemarks on Flickr

Here’s to You!

Last night, the Portland business community – and our management team – raised our glasses to recognize the achievements of Prolifiq Board Chair Kirby Dyess.

Prolifiq Chair Kirby Dyess (right) and husband Carl Dyess

Tech America presented Kirby a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing her for-profit and community service work during her career with Intel, as an Angel Investor, and Board Director for public, private and government organizations. Kirby is the first female recipient of this very prestigious award.

Congratulations Kirby! Both you and your family have earned this recognition.

Comfort Zones

Last week, Prolifiq sponsored, exhibited and I spoke at the Digital Marketing for Medical Devices (West) conference and exhibition in San Diego. This was the second conference dedicated to the Medical Device industry by veteran life sciences conference organizers eXl.

This is the 2^nd “Digital Device” event and was well attended (~120 people, 75 life sciences companies) and included a bevy of content from all facets of the industry.  The event was very collegial and offered a high level of transparency with all speakers being very candid about their challenges, failures and successes.

A consistent theme is how dramatically and rapidly “digital” is changing how life sciences marketers work and are expected to accomplish.

As conference chair Philip Freed, Vice President US marketing, Maquet, said in an aside: “I tell all of my people they had better be comfortable being uncomfortable – if not they are in the wrong place.” Such is the nature of what this industry is going through.

So, today’s question is: “Are you uncomfortable yet?”

Art of the Possible

During a chance meeting with a family friend (who because of his humility and desire for anonymity shall be known here as TL) I was reminded of what is possible.

TL beamed telling me: “Today is the 37^th anniversary of my American experience.” TL and his family were fortunate enough to be evacuated from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon on April 23, 1975. Because their luggage (1 piece per family member) was blown off the roof by rotor-wash from the helicopter, TL arrived in America with no material possessions. At 16 years old – and not speaking any English – TL began a new life.

Today TL owns a design firm that is to performance apparel what Frog Design is to computers; his sister is the Program Lead for a major defense contractor; his brother heads a global civil engineering firm (his own) that designs BIG infrastructure around the world.

TL and his siblings are living examples of “the art of the possible” – what happens when optimism, ingenuity, drive and opportunity collide.

TL, thank you for all you do; and for the reminder.

Human Touch

Elvis Costello could easily have been talking about customer experiences when he penned:

“I just want someone to talk to

And a little of that human touch.”

We’ve all had that frustrating experience of a customer support line interactive voice response (IVR) system (voice jail) that makes it very difficult to speak with a human.

So I was struck by the blog post: “How come no one CRM’s me?”.

I was struck because we are often asked: “So how are you different from a CRM system?” Quite simply:

1)      CRM systems are – at their core – a database.  They are used to capture, record, and retrieve data about customers.

2)      Prolifiq is – at its core – a communications platform. It is used to engage with customers, augmenting a human experience with digital content.

Every toolbox has multiple tools and each is used for a different purpose. One needs tools to talk about a customer; one needs tools to talk with customers. The task determines which tool is needed when.