Stoned:Surviving Business in an On-Demand World

© 2005 Tod Maffin Inc.

Feeling a little slow these days? You’re not alone, and it’s not just because you left the iron on this morning (sorry, but someone had to tell you).

Research at King’s College in London has discovered that the “on-demand” world of business is, frankly, making us dumb. Test subjects were asked to carry out problem-solving tasks while being bombarded with emails and phone calls. As a result, their IQ levels dropped an average of 10 points — even when they were instructed to ignore the interruptions. (Incidentally, smoking marijuana, on average, results in a smaller IQ drop.)

That’s right, you can perform more efficiently smoking a joint than sending an email (obsessive Doritos consumption aside.)

We’ve all felt it. Emails that pile into our inbox like a teletype machine that never stops. A voicemail line that keeps filling up. A cell phone we’re afraid to turn on. This on-demand world has gotten a bit out of hand.
Luckily, tools are beginning to emerge that can help us regain some control over our day.

One phone. No, really.

When you think about it, none of us actually call people. We call places. “I’ll call you in your office,” or “I’ll call you at home” or “I’ll try to get you on your cell.” It’s inefficient and makes everyone try to second-guess where you’ll be.

Solutions from companies like Mitel are starting to take advantage of IP-routed telephony so that now that important client only needs to have one phone number to reach you — and it will genuinely get to you, no matter where you are.

Here’s how it works: Your client calls your number. Since you don’t pick up at the office, it jumps to your cell phone. Turns out you’re just parking your car outside the office, but you take the call. Your client has no idea where you are. It’s irrelevant. You keep talking as you walk into your office. Then, with a single button-push on your office phone, it takes control of that call from your cell — passing the call through seamlessly, meaning you’re no longer paying for cellular airtime (and saving the old “I’m in my office now, can I call you back from a landline?” routine).

Shouldn’t business always be this easy?

One Dayplanner

My PalmPilot mysteriously died the other day. (Okay, I dropped it, but that’s not the point.) I tried to sync the empty Palm with the backed-up data on my computer and, instead, overwrote the backed-up data with the blank void from my handheld.

And so, I went retro. A single paper-based 8½x5½ dayplanner. And I’ve never looked back. No more categories, syncing, batteries, conflicts, or upgrades. The biggest upgrade I’ve had to do so far was to buy a new tab because I didn’t like the colour.
Again, shouldn’t it always be this easy?

One Network Partner

I’m always amazed at how many companies spread their advice and network help thin. They have one partner for network management, another that does their email, yet another that handles security and VPN issues, and more. At the least, this leads to missed opportunities in finding cost savings with hardware in your network. Find a single network partner that can bring all or most of the network services to bear that you need. Then, when things go weird (this is the Internet, after all; things always do) you’ve got a single person to call who can coordinate the right solutions for you and knows all the pieces of your network architecture.

The future of business isn’t always easy to forecast if you focus on the technology, because technology changes so fast and because creative geniuses keep inventing things that shouldn’t be capable of doing what they do.

But when you start thinking about how you can make your own day easier — from reducing the chaos of your day and endless phone calls to getting a quick answer from a real human being about your network — you realize the future of on-demand business is, ironically, simplification.

And if that always fails, there’s always a sale on Doritos at the corner store.

Posted August 24, 2005 Comments