Disqus - Latest Comments for mriffey

Re: Surface Book with Performance Base review: Microsoft’s new laptop kicks ass

Mark Riffey — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 11:05:25 -0000

Would appreciate some information about your experiences driving external 4K monitors, either directly or via the Surface dock.

Re: Union Officials: Glencore’s Promises to Reopen Were ‘A Sham’

Mark Riffey — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:56:31 -0000

You would think so. Then again, if I'm Seattle and have 3 downs on the 1 yard line and a tank for a running back.... :)

Re: Union Officials: Glencore’s Promises to Reopen Were ‘A Sham’

Mark Riffey — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:27:50 -0000

Thank you, Richard.

I think we have to expect them to act in their best interests, just as we (usually) do. If we don't expect that from them, I think we're kidding ourselves. We don't have to like their choices, of course:)

One thing I always wondered is why they didn't leverage the world class tooling and expertise they had in CFalls and create a market for those things. Not sure we'll ever know the answer to that, unfortunately.

Re: Union Officials: Glencore’s Promises to Reopen Were ‘A Sham’

Mark Riffey — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 12:10:48 -0000

This is what happens when you judge a company by what they say rather than by what they do.

Re: A Labor of Love – and Exactitude

Mark Riffey — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 18:14:16 -0000

Happy to see this:)

Re: How the Software Industry Redefines Product Management

Mark Riffey — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 23:28:45 -0000

A good piece, but I do have to differ with one comment: You'd have to look around pretty hard to find an "IT expert" who would call Staples' waterfall dev methods a "best practice".

Re: How To Change Windows 8 Product Key To Complete Activation

Mark Riffey — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 19:02:09 -0000

Or just type "Acti" from the modern ui screen and look in the results on the right:)

Re: How to fail like a boss.

Mark Riffey — Sun, 26 May 2013 16:12:54 -0000

Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) has a similar photo. Didnt stop him. Anyone who speaks has had at least one of those, probably more:)

Re: Disruptive Trends to Watch in 2013

Mark Riffey — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 00:07:31 -0000

Kodak invented some of the technology that killed them but internal politics doomed their versions of those products. Their problem wasn't innovation or creative juices, it was inertia.

Re: How #NBCFail Became 'the Most Watched TV Event in US History"

Mark Riffey — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:15:23 -0000

It isn't about blowing up your model as much as it is expanding it substantially. Sure, they'll eventually have to blow it up. In the meantime, they left a ton of money on the table and alienated a lot of would-be paying customers. The lessons they could have learned for Rio and Sochi...weren't learned.

Re: The Marginalization of Employees

Mark Riffey — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:12:14 -0000

Thanks for the HT, Eric. Had a long convo with my wife about this and the education "business" last night re: senior school management knowing the aspirations of their teachers (or not).

Re: Giving up a car in the suburbs

Mark Riffey — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:41:07 -0000

Working at home, I find less and less need for 2 now that our kids are out of the house - despite the lack of public transportation in our rural state.

Re: Hey world, win a badge for your town!

Mark Riffey — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:37:45 -0000

Some love for rural places would be cool too:)

Re: How to find that first big customer

Mark Riffey — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:04:53 -0000

You can always tell when people are paying attention to this kind of stuff. Folks - this comment is worth 10x the post. Knowing these things is just plain critical to growth.

Re: The Bitch Slap: Theory vs. Teaching

Mark Riffey — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:42:32 -0000

Dan Kennedy has for years said (paraphrased) "Tell em what they need to do, sell em the how."

Re: The Uberinfluencer and Bottom-Up Networks

Mark Riffey — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:30:28 -0000

Geoff,

I didnt mean those 3 guys are creating the noise. Its the other 500 replies per post I was speaking of:)

Re: The Uberinfluencer and Bottom-Up Networks

Mark Riffey — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:22:24 -0000

The Scoble-Godin-Brogan (et al) effect has to be considered as well. At some point, no matter how smart, insightful or cool those guys are, when someone sees their posts 219 times per hour (thanks to RTs, shares, etc) and then sees tons of comments fly by, you can't help but change the channel (eg: mute that post in G+ terms). Not sour grapes - they worked darned hard to get themselves heard at that level, but on G+ in particular the S-N gets particularly low as a result. If everyone quotes Seth, is everyone smart?:)

Re: What Lady Gaga can teach us ALL about business…

Mark Riffey — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:54:37 -0000

Scott, I had the same thought re: her vs. Madonna, but I think she's better at it than the material girl was:)

That aside, she completely gets her fans/customers and what they want. That table thing is a perfect example. Absolutely right on target to make that an example of the UCE:)

Re: Police: Stranded Scouts "Did Everything Right" - Local News Story - KIFI Idaho Falls

Mark Riffey — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:13:12 -0000

What they didnt mention is that while the inside of a car would be at -10, the inside of a snow cave would be about +28, possibly warmer. Notice no mention of frostbite, hypothermia etc? The story is about a well-prepared group of kids with a qualified leader having to wait for road crews to clear a road blocked by snowdrifts, not a bunch of Scouts roaming out unprepared into the snow, getting frostbite, etc.

Also BSA.org is NOT the Scouting website, it is the site of the Business Software Alliance. http://www.scouting.org is the place to go.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With You People?

Mark Riffey — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:22:46 -0000

> It's the combo of NOT using new media and FAILING at traditional media that gets me.

No doubt:)

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With You People?

Mark Riffey — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:53:01 -0000

Matt,

> Do you get a good measure of ROI with your radio or paper ads?

You can. Most dont because they dont know how to use those media.

> Are you able to reach the same audience from past campaigns – guaranteed?

Some of them, absolutely....because they're customers that you have contact info for. The rest, not so much, except for direct mail.

> Traditional media sucks for measuring ROI.

If you dont know how to use it, you're absolutely right (and most don't).

In the hands of the right people, traditional media is easily measurable.

> * Can you do with that with your radio spot? No.
> * How about your color magazine ad? Negative.
> * Your direct mailers? Didn’t think so.

People who answer no to the questions above dont know how to use those media. I suspect you know how to track response and sales from them, but answered no anyway cuz it fit the post a bit better :)

> I bet your local print or radio ad sales rep isn’t helping you spend less.

No argument there. Most are clueless.

Re: The Power of No

Mark Riffey — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:37:43 -0000

Saying no to unimportant (relatively speaking) things means you can commit harder to things you want / need to say yes to.

Definitely work the effort to develop (and hopefully master) this skill.

Re: Too much time…

Mark Riffey — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:58:41 -0000

We've chatted about this already, but it just hit me that there once was a 'Chevy II' (aka Nova). My dad has an old employee-only anniversary lamp from Chevrolet that has historic Chevrolet stuff on the shade (dates, milestone accomplishments). "Chevy" is all over it.

Re: Be Clever- It’s More Fun

Mark Riffey — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:44:58 -0000

Expectations are the key to people's overall reactions and they were defined by your tweet text promoting a free copy of the book.

If I say "Hey Chris, here's a free copy of Jim's book", I know exactly what your expectation is: a free copy of the book.

If I say "Hey Chris, look at this clever thing Jim K did to promote his book", that's a totally different expectation.

Was it cute? Sorta. Was it attention getting? Sure. Does it feel a little used-car-ish? A little, maybe.

Would a Third Tribe-r be encouraged to gain trust with their audience in this way? I have my doubts.

Angry? Not in the least. But it's not what you'd expect from a Trust Agent.

Re: The future…

Mark Riffey — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:36:43 -0000

It's far easier to sail with the wind than to tack against it. Especially if it's a hurricane:)