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Me, him and her

by Dennis Howlett on February 22, 2009

It’s been quite an exciting week so I thought I’d finish off with a pat on the back to me, one to my pal Vinnie and one to Anne.

A while back, Aaron Strout asked if I would answer a few questions and then posts a story in his ‘industry experts‘ series. I’ll take whatever kudos is going but this made me smile:

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Hah – funny that – I need a ton of dental work right now. Ask me in 3 months

ft1

Then I made a wee showing in the FT in a piece done by Francine, my favourite auditor. It’s a bizarre sensation being on the ‘other side’ of the publishing wall.

zdn1

Finally, as I write this, ZDNet promoted several of my stories to the ‘front door’ – and headlined the latest piece. That’s like being on the cover of a national magazine although in online terms it only lasts a few hours. As someone who writes, it represents a moment of satisfaction. In less self preening moments, I can only imagine it was a slow news day.

Enough self-congratulation and one handed applause.

My pal Vinnie is acknowledged as being one of the best in his field:

In the 2009 Black Book of Outsourcing survey, the consulting unit of Deal Architect is recognized as a top 10 boutique outsourcing advisory firm. It’s flattering and I want to thank all the folks who spoke nicely about us.

Vinnie and I go back. We’re both buy side people and strong customer advocates. Vinnie is not only super smart with a solid pedigree from PwC and Gartner, he’s one of the toughest, most generous and nicest people I know. I see that he’s torn into Oracle. It’s been a while coming. I might well follow up. ;)

Anne Petteroe became famous for fifteen minutes – which in internet terms is forever – when she founded a group that was in part responsible for Facebook backing off on its latest blunder. Her group garnered 100,000 members in less than 3 days, a gobsmacking achievement that saw her end up on national TV in Norway. Anne’s also a colleague in the SAP Mentor community and on ESME.

I’m blessed to have heroes such as Anne and Vinnie in my life.

BTW – have you noticed that Anne has a great face for TV while I have a great face for radio?

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  • Congratulations Dennis and Vinnie!
    I am honoured to have my name mentioned in the same post as two sources of inspiraton for me. Thank you thank you thank you.
  • If only Gwyneth and Kate had been inspired by those words Vinnie.... kudos on all counts.
  • Given the Oscars tonight, I accept the accolades by invoking Laurence Olivier's "interesting" acceptance speech in 1979:)

    "Mr. President and Governors of the Academy, Committee Members, fellows, my very noble and approved good masters ..my colleagues, my friends, my fellow-students.

    In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation's generosity, this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it--the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it--must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment, dazzling me a little, but filling me with warmth and the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow.

    From the top of this moment, in the solace, in the kindly emotion that is charging my soul and my heart at this moment, I thank you for this great gift which lends me such a very splendid part in this, your glorious occasion. Thank you."
  • Hi Dennis,

    Under the 'me' section you should add queen maker. There were other Facebook protest groups created, but Anne's tipped in large part because you wrote early and often about it.

    It would be interesting to see a minute by minute graph of how many people joined her facebook group, highlighting events like facebook invites, twitter and blog posts.

    Being an SAP Mentor almost implies that you are a good networker. I call it having the community spirit, which actually goes beyond it.

    The mentor initiative brings all of these great networkers together and enables us to quickly rally behind a cause and have an impact. I think that is what happened with Anne and the Facebook change TOS group.

    She said, I just invited all of my friends and twittered about it. Well all of her friends includes the mentors. Of all the SAP Mentors you have the largest megaphone and you used it early and often. That I think is what made Anne's group succeed versus the other protest groups that didn't get off the ground.

    I am just glad that I twisted your arm one and a half years ago to join the SAP Mentor initiative ;-)

    Keep it up, Mark.
  • Congratulations on a great week, Dennis. Your quote gave my FT piece the UK cred it needed. And I'll have to go over to Vinnie's site and give him hugs, too. So thrilled to be in your company. And looking forward to one of these days meeting Anne.
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