Creative Reaction

There’s a thought-provoking post over at Harvard Business Publishing, entitled Why It’s Not Selfish To Take Care of Yourself, which happens to be a great follow-up to yesterday’s post.

Perhaps the reason it resonates with me is that I need reminders to implement this kind of advice in my life. As a husband, father of five, homeowner, business owner and church member, I have my fair share of responsibilities. Add to that a multi-generational “martyr complex” in my family (”willful suffering in the name of love or duty”) and its easy to understand why I feel guilty about sitting and watching a movie or a football game.

I would imagine many business owners and entrepreneurs face similar challenges - that of overextending themselves for the sake of several good things, and yet to the detriment of all. (This should not be confused with actual selfishness - ”placing one’s own needs or desires above the needs or desires of others”)

Quoting the post, “if you don’t take care of yourself then you can’t really serve those who depend on you.” ”While it might seem noble in the short run to sacrifice the needs you have to cultivate your mind, body, and spirit, over time it’s a recipe for burnout.”

“The key is to very specifically identify how, by better meeting the expectations you have for enhancing your mind, your body, and your spirit, you are indeed making things better at work, at home, and in the community.”

So I dedicate this final thought to myself as I try to squeeze 20 hours of studying for a certification exam into my week:

“What have you done recently to take better care of yourself and strengthen your ability to perform well in the other parts of your life? In these stressful times, it’s more important than ever that we all do so.”

Following up on an earlier post on Business Productivity, taking into consideration the often unmeasured and therefore under-accounted benefits of productivity. The first point was to buy Macs. The next was buying employees larger monitors or second monitors.

In the post that eventually led to this post, Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.com does some math for us:

“(each employee) will save at least 30 minutes a day, which is 100 hours a year… which is at least $2,000 a year…. which is $6,000 over three years. A second monitor cost $300-500 depending on which one you get. That means you’re getting 10-20x return on your investment… and you’ve got a happy team member”

Also worth mentioning are studies by monitor manufacturer NEC (.pdf summary here) and Pfeiffer Consulting for Apple (.pdf summary here) which indicate even larger returns on investment.

NEC’s study has two findings which I find very interesting. First, if your employees are using a single 19″  (or smaller) monitor, you are adversely affecting productivity and “worker well-being”. Second, equipping employees who are less technically savvy with second or larger monitors, gives them an ever greater productivity boost than their co-workers.

As for the “best” size, it varies slightly according to the tasks, though for most, a single monitor of 24″ - 26″, or a dual monitor set-up with a pair of 20″ monitors is what the study finds offering the greatest productivity gains for typical office tasks; word processing and spreadsheets.

In my experience, for video editors and SFX artists, two 23″ monitors is assumed to be the bare minimum, and it’s clear that for other creative tasks, this would be a good starting point as well. So the next time your creatives ask for 30″ Apple Cinema HD Displays, buy them with barely an afterthought; the $1,799 monitors will pay for themselves many times over. In fact, the Pfeiffer Consulting report calculates a ROI of $5,875 - $23,500  within a year (!) depending on the salary of the creative professional.

Following up on an earlier post on Business Productivity, taking into consideration the often unmeasured and therefore under-accounted benefits of productivity. The first point was to buy Macs.

Being an Apple consultant myself, I’m almost blind to how much Macs improve productivity. I use Macs in practically every waking moment of my day, and my clients are Mac-only environments. It’s a no-brainer.

This article in CIO magazine lists a number of financial reasons why Macs cost about half as much to operate as similarly-equipped PCs, though it barely factors in the productivity gains, which are akin to the iceberg below the water’s surface.

It’s easy enough to find evidence of Macs requiring one-fifth to one-third of the man-hours compared with supporting Windows boxes. What few people notice is the downtime involved for the Windows users and the 2x - 4x more uptime for Macs!

Another study summarized here points out additional advantages in using Macs:

Mac OS X offers less “user interface friction” than Windows.

Mac OS X simply is faster when performing specific tasks compared to Windows.

The Mac OS X interface is more logical and intuitive.

It’s crazy to focus on the costs of hardware, software, support & training and not consider the value of ease of use and reliability (productivity) per creative times the creative’s salary per hour/day/week/month/year!

I mentioned this post, though from a very different perspective back on March 9th - (Fire the Workaholics). Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.com offers some excellent tips on how to save money running a startup, which could be applied to any frugal business.  It is full of practical advice about spending money what really matters; for example, not spending money on desks/tables, but happily paying $600 for a good office chair.

What I appreciate most is that it takes into consideration the often unmeasured and therefore under-accounted benefits of productivity. Few businesses calculate productivity gains (and losses), and without dollar signs attached to these measurements, they often go unnoticed. A business’ largest expenditure is talent (labor), yet without an emphasis on training, and without providing employees the proper tools and an environment conducive to getting work done, we might as well be grabbing fistfuls of petty cash and throwing them into a bonfire every few minutes!

I’ll just highlight a few items, then go into detail on each of them in later posts:

• Buying Macs (Apple hardware, Mac OS, Apple software)

• Second or larger Monitors for everyone!

• Providing Meals, snacks, espresso

(Keep in mind, we already touched upon hiring workaholics and why that’s actually a bad idea)

Something for us all to think about!

This post, dating back to 2003, is mentioned in a Hivelogic post that I mentioned early last month and I want to ensure that it does not go unnoticed. In Bionic Office, Blogger Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software) details his (successful) efforts in creating an office which optimizes productivity for software programmers and attracts top-notch talent. Very interesting reading, containing lots of practical and inspirational ideas, all of which can be applied to a creative business. Let’s hope that we all get to take part in designing an office at some point in our careers.

A recent study by Gartner Research finds that only 20% of IT money is helping businesses grow or gain a competitive advantage. They call the other 80% “dead money” since all it does is keep things running; in other words, it’s an expense.

Personally, I think their methodology is wrong, since there’s no attempt to measure the value of the systems in place, which may *already* be leveraging IT for success. It is possible that these systems already bring value to a business in terms of efficiency and service marketing.

The study, however, brings up some great points:

• IT managers must understand businesses.

• IT should take the lead, providing a strategy for a business.

• IT must demonstrate the value it brings to an organization.

The takeaway:
Everything IT Departments/IT Managers do must add value to a business, first in terms of a dependable infrastructure, then in terms of simplifying business (efficiency), and finally, in terms of providing a competitive advantage. (For creative businesses, this usually means better creative, faster.) Otherwise, you have something worse than “dead money”; you have dead weight, *dragging the business down*.

(Full disclosure - I am an IT Pro. I wrote this essay some time back because time after time I am brought in to a business to untangle IT messes which could have been avoided. The point is that the importance of networks and servers, especially in a creative setting, is often underestimated and managers tend to think of infrastructure as an expense, and not as a tool for success. On numerous occasions, I myself have chosen the “cheap” option, only to have it come back to bite me in the, uh, hinter regions, as they say.)

The Delta family wanted more space in their home. All the toys they bought their children could no longer fit in the bedrooms and there was little room to play. They decided they couldn’t afford to spend too much money, and they wanted a solution before Christmas, because they knew they would be buying more toys. They hired a carpenter who converted their garage into a family room just in time for the holiday. It wasn’t much, but the kids seemed to like it - for a few months, after which, it became another storage space. The family’s vehicles remained outdoors.

The Alpha family was also looking for more space. A relative strongly suggested hiring an architect, an idea which they initially fought because it seemed expensive. After making little headway with their own ideas, they relented and hired an architect.

The architect observed how they lived, and after asking scores of questions, made some wonderful suggestions. With some creative thinking, the Alpha family found that the proposed renovation qualified them for a loan. Once the project was complete, the renovation enhanced their lives so much, they could not imagine how they lived without it. Adding to their enjoyment was the fact that the increased value of their home exceeded the cost of the renovation by thousands of dollars.

Five years later, both homes, which initially were identical designs in similar neighborhoods, went up for sale. The Alpha family’s home, enhanced by the renovation, quickly sold. The Delta family’s home was on the market for some time, and eventually sold - once they re-converted the family room back into a garage - at their expense. Although the real estate values had increased 50% in both neighborhoods over the years, the Alpha family had a net gain of 80%, while the Delta family had a net gain of 30% - technically a loss.

Information Technology works the same way. Fast, cheap, or DIY solutions usually come at a cost in terms of lost time and unexpected problems, which make IT an expense. If on the other hand, you hire a consultant who will start with your business goals, form a strategy, guide your purchases, and provide expert installation, you are making choices that will allow IT to be an investment in your business.

So instead of thinking, “I cannot afford a consultant”, ask, “how can I afford a consultant?”

“I cannot afford” is an excuse; it’s a dead end. “How can I afford?” makes you think creatively. “How can I afford?” forces you to weed the wants from the needs. You will have to determine your business’ priorities. You will have to think how you might reallocate existing resources. You will have to think how investing money in one area could provide big returns in another area. Yes, creative business manager, now you are thinking creatively. If you spend wisely, not only will IT save you money, it will also bring in more money in the form of happier clients, new revenue streams, and competitive advantage.