It’s not been Scoble’s week but I think he ends on a high. Anyone who reads my stuff knows I’m not always kind to Scoble. But this time around he deserves an almighty slap on the back. Off he trots with Shel Israel to pimp Naked Conversations (a damned good read BTW) at Amazon. Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogels (pictured here) gives him a hard time about facts and figures. Scoble comes back, saying Werner was rude but finally agreeing that he should have been better armed with facts and figures. And that he looks forward to a rematch.
This is soooo reminiscent of the earlier punch ups I used to have with Hugh MacLeod. (Help me out Hugh – can’t find the comments where you and I traded quips in maybe October/November see updates at end) I was constantly asking ROI, ROI, ROI and completely missing the point.
- First it is about ROi (little i is deliberate here.)
- Next it is not about predicting outcomes in the way Werner wants. It’s about getting involved with people who have influence on your business. Your customers. Your staff. Your partners.
- Then it’s about deepening and leveraging those relationships in a manner that helps you and your ecosystem to grow in what becomes a win-win situation.
- But mostly it is about change.
So to facts:
- Amazon has spent billions building up a business which includes many of the characteristics of blogging. Its’ ROI?
- I have spent less than $3,000 on equipment.
- I’ve devoted 10-12 hours of most waking days for the last 6 months, immersed in this activity
- It’s transformed (a bigger version of changed) my ‘business’ from being stuck in a declining MSM world to one where I get to make money from readers of all kinds. Heck – even as I’m posting this, someone from Vonage wants me to try something out.
- I’ve renewed many old acquaintances and created new. From all over the world.
- I am moving away from the feast and famine of freelance hackery.
- I’ve got a great quality of life
- I’ve got a great audience who are mostly polite and enquiring.
- I learn something everyday
- I don’t know how to scale this model but I will
- My ROi?
Anyone NOT want that life?
So where exactly is Werner incorrect in his thinking? Here:
Well it will certainly not happen because Shell and Robert convinced us with solid evidence of the tremendous benefits. If it does happen at a wider scale than it happens now, it will be because our customers have given us feedback that they think blogging is an excellent approach to interact with Amazon. Amazon will continue to innovate with involving customers with our sites, some of those may be weblog or wiki related techniques, many of those will be completely new approaches as people have come to expect from Amazon. We will do this because our customers want us to, not because “everybody else is doing it”.
- First sentence – not English – I think he means …NOT convinced…
- Second sentence – the presumption that customers will all know about social software. No-one knew about Amazon until Bezos showed everyone what web 1.0 could deliver. It was bugger all to do with customers. He had to tell them. Just like Scoble and others are doing today.
I’m not always going to agree with Scoble. The same goes for Hugh. But for goodness sake Werner, recognise the world is changing. I’m dealing with one of the toughest audiences anywhere on the planet. If I can make something of it, then I’m sure Amazon, with all its great technical history and execution behind it, can see something in having a go. The ‘not made here’ argument I’m hearing in the conversation sounds pretty lame.
My lesson of the day: figure out the difference between ‘rude’ and ‘blunt.’
UPDATE: Hugh sent me the link to one of our more strenuous tussles. Looking back, it’s funny – at the time, it was serious, irritating, frustrating, hair pulling, death inducing (at my end)
UPDATE 2: Here’s an embarrassingly stupid discussion I had with Hugh but one I’m sure will make sense to many Chartered Accountants. Thanks again Hugh.
UPDATE 3: the pic of Werner from his Flickrstream is almost as terrifying as the one on my old blog site.
Technorati Tags: blogging_accountants, client relationships, innovation
