Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a roundtable luncheon at the Chicago Tribune. The topic was small business in Chicago, and while IBM itself is anything but small, we do routinely work with small businesses. I know, the market perception is otherwise, but across IBM, the Express Advantage offerings -- hardware, software, services -- are all designed for companies with less than 1000 employees, and our own tools like Lotus Foundations or LotusLive scale down to single and double digit numbers.
In some ways, I was at the lunch to hear what was on the minds of small business owners and advocates throughout Chicago. Though I was invited in part because of my contributing columnist role in the Chicago Tribune's TribLocal Highland Park, I chose to lead with my IBM executive identity only as I was introduced to the Tribune reporters and other guests. Eventually, I was outed by an editor who thought my name looked familiar, and, interestingly, from that point forward, I was like a new best friend to many of the journalists...more than some generic corporate suit from IBM (note, as you'll see in the picture, I chose to go with a modern interpretation of "IBM executive" -- khakis, iPad, etc. -- to try to reset some stereotypes. The other corporate exec who was there -- well, let's just say he also brought his media relations manager...).
It was interesting to represent "IBM" as a whole in this setting. It was the first time I was, well, a bit anxious about the whole back of my business card, with references to planetlotus.org and OpenNTF. I hesitated over words like "cloud computing", though almost everyone in the room had a familiarity with social media. One interesting wrinkle was that few had contemplated it in a business-to-business context, mostly thinking about social media in the business-to-consumer space. Perhaps some opportunity comes from that.
There was much swapping of business cards, connecting up on LinkedIn and Twitter, and invitations for coffee. 30 people I had never met before, never even heard of before in all but one case, now wanting to connect. When the invite came, I didn't really think of it as a networking event -- I thought I was going to talk to the reporters. Instead I found myself immersed in a rich tapestry of multi-vector thought, around issues of the day -- for the community, the industry, and the future.
When you have lunch with a group of people who set out on their own to run their own small businesses -- or who work with those people all the time -- you are going to hear some passionate conversation. ... Well. The enthusiasm was palpable.
But, of course, small business affects more in American society than small businesses themselves. Jason Rosado's business is coaching other small businesses. Ed Brill, IBM director of product management for Lotus software (NOT a small business), helps craft tools for businesses of all size. Jerry Furby, executive vice presdient of business banking at PNC Bank, helps entrepreneurs to launch. So there was a lot to listen to and consider -- and I know the journalists in the room came away with a lot on their minds.
So, thank you to James Janega for the invitation. It was well worth the trip downtown, and hopefully it is the start of the conversation, not the end of it.
Link: Chicago Tribune: Trib Nation small business community conversation >
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Lorraine Herr http://Herr-Design.com | 8/26/2010 10:49:29 AM
I was particularily bemused by Ed's gorilla marketing effort to alter the image of Big Blue by dressing casually and toting an iPad. It is nice to know that IBM has a sense of humor.
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Jason Rosado http://www.DistinctiveCoaching.com | 8/26/2010 12:57:30 PM
Ed, thank you for the great summary of the event. I think you have an interesting perspective coming from the one of the larger (if not the largest) organizations in attendance.
I look forward to connecting and getting to know you and many of the other attendees as well!
All the best,
Jason
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Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 8/26/2010 1:01:38 PM
Ed,
Glad to see you involved in the small business community. Small businesses are the driving force of the economy in every country. Yet when it comes to commitments by companies to the small business market it is lacking. Even Microsoft which made it mark as a provider for small business is losing that focus. I see some changes in IBM towards the small business market which is good, but it has to be a long term commitment and only time will tell how committed IBM is.
I have been involved with the Technology Innovation Center here in Evanston (named by Forbes as one of the "10 technology incubators that are changing the world") for close to 20 years and successful small businesses is the result of good business practices not about technology. At the center, we try to instill that ideology into the small business start-ups. After 20 years, over 45% of the companies that graduated from the TIC are still in existence compared with less than 5% in the general small business population. Starting and running small businesses is a totally different animal that being in the large corporate world. I have seen so many individuals from the corporate world starting a small business and applying their corporate background resulting in total failure.
I hope to see more of IBM in the small business market.
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Karen Lilla http://www.ibm.com | 8/26/2010 2:26:46 PM
So glad you stepped away from your Mac to participate in this discussion, Ed. I agree with the sentence that Janega called out "...Instead I found myself immersed in a rich tapestry of multi-vector thought, around issues of the day -- for the community, the industry, and the future." That's the whole reason why I have willingly participated in similar discussions in the Boston area. The feedback and discussions rewarding on so many levels.
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Tim Savigar http://www.prism-interiors.co.uk | 8/27/2010 7:18:08 AM
Ed,
Interested to hear your perspective on SMEs. I use Lotus Notes/Sametime to run my business.
I have a suite a databases that give me full coverage from orderbook through to project delivery. The application workflow sends e-mails, tasks and contacts to mail files that are accessed by operatives mobile devices via traveler. Customers have access to live info via our web interface.
Now if you could put fax back on to the server and integrate voice in to sametime (I have run Asterix on a NLU2 { Link } ) I have all my infrastructure/unified comms needs in one box. Perfect for the SME.....
Just to complete the picture - if you can get symphony to read real time info from Notes databases (I know you can copy data from a view) - then I can get rid of MS office and run my reports from the notes client too......
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Michael Sobczak | 8/27/2010 8:15:10 PM
Hey Ed,
Will we ever see SMB/Express pricing for Lotus Connections or IBM Mashups?
- Mike.
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Lisa Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 8/30/2010 12:50:16 PM
Awesome, Ed! Thanks for coming out!
What reaction did you get when you mentioned you were with Lotus? Had the people there seen the Lotus Knows ads?
I met Ed Brill at a Lake County Tweetup event, and was glad I could convince him to come to our small business lunch this week.
Ed's take-away was our point: "...I found myself immersed in a rich tapestry of multi-vector thought, around issues of the day -- for the community, the industry, and the future."
That's what we want for our journalists and our participants. If you put that many smart people into one room, good things happen.
And we're always looking for other news topics to build future "multi-vector thought" conversations around.
-- James Janega
Trib Nation Manager
Chicago Tribune
jjanega@tribune.com