Newer, faster, shinier – these are all things that every product manager wants their product to be. Our hearts are filled with product lust when we see other products, in our space or not, that have the latest & greatest bells and whistles. Oh if only our product could have that cool new technology also. Hang on a minute, it turns out that our products might actually be more successful if they don’t have that cool new technology…Life Support For Products
If we can get over that new technology lust thing, then perhaps we can talk rationally about this. It turns out that if you really want to help your company’s bottom line, then what your product might really need is incremental innovation, not revolutionary innovation.I’m not a dreamer – I know that VHS tapes, typewriters, and CRT televisions are not going to be making a sudden comeback anytime soon. The harsh, cold reality is that the technology that your product is based on is eventually going to up and die one day. A product manager’s job is to realize this and to attempt to push that day off into the future as far as he / she possibly can.Harvard’s Dr. Mary Tripsas has looked into just how this can be done. She believes that product managers can work to proactively manage the innovation endgame.What this means for your product is that continuing improvements to extend the life of its technology, particularly once you realize just how attractive the profit margins on the old technology are, can be a wise business decision – and not necessarily a reflection of narrow-mindedness of a product manager who is unwilling to see the future.Making The Technology Jump – Or Not
Ultimately a product manger is responsible for the success of his / her product. When it comes to the technology that the product is build using, the product manager’s #1 goal has to be to find ways to extend the life of the product while still continuing to make the maximum amount of profit.As a new technology arrives on the scene, the product manager needs to keep the old product alive long enough that the company can design, develop, and launch new products that contain the new technologies. The key is to finding out HOW to go about doing this.Customers Come First
The secret to knowing how best to time your jump to a new technology is to watch your customers. Our customers come in all shapes and sizes and they all have different levels of tolerance for dealing with the risk that new technologies can bring to the table.What you need to realize as a product manager is that your customers are all going to be moving at different speeds. Sure, some will start asking about a new technology the first time that they read about it in a trade rag; however, the vast majority of your customers are more focused on running their business than what technology your product is built on.Generally, adopting a product that is built using new technology will require a little or a lot of investment on your customer’s part in order to be able to support the new technology. The larger the investment, the longer most of your customers will want to put off making it.How Product Mangers Can Balance Both Worlds
It is the responsibility of the product manager to come up with ways that your customers can gradually move into the future using new technologies on their own schedule.One way to do this is to borrow ideas from the new technology and start to incorporate them into the existing old technology product in order to extend its life. An example of this would be the Toyota Prius. It’s really a gasoline car that has a battery that it can use some of the time. The world is not quite ready for an all electric car and so by adding new technology to the type of car that we already have we will be able to get a little closer to the future.Old products can also be used to create a bridge that will allow customers to travel to the future. These types of products combine elements of both old and new technologies. I own a great example of this type of product: a hybrid VCR / DVD player. As DVD players started to take over the market, I was hesitant to get one because of the enormous investment in children’s movies on VHS tape that I had made. However, the VHS / DVD combo player was the perfect solution for me – I could continue to play my VHS tapes while at the same time I could start to buy DVDs.Final Thoughts
Product Managers don’t have to rush to incorporate every new technology into their products. Instead, understand your customer and learn when THEY need new technologies to be made available to them.In the end, a product manager needs to keep a careful balance between the technologies that his / her product currently uses and the new technologies that are arriving on the scene. Your career and the ultimate success of your company depends on the success of new products, but they have to be funded by making keeping your current products successful.Don’t think of your older products as being so-called “cash cows” that exist to be milked of their profits until they can be discarded. Instead, view them as stepping stones to future products that should be maintained and upgraded for as long as is reasonable in order to maximize profits while at the same time buying the firm time to get products that use the new technology right.Product managers who can balance the arrive of new technology with extending the life of products that use older technology will have have found yet another way that great product managers make their product(s) fantastically successful.

Did you know that 85% of your earning power lies in how you communicate to the business world around you? How true is that, when you think back to your job interview, where you were offered your salary, based on how persuasively you communicated your value to the company that hired you? There is always room for improvement even with the best communicators in the business world. Learn some tips here about communicating to build your long-term earning power.You may be the business face of your organisation – certainly, in the eyes of your clients and other key stakeholders in your business – and as you ascend the career ladder, your communication skills will become even more important to you and the company that invests in you as an employee. You are more than likely going to be standing in front of a team of accountants, Board of Directors or investors, at some point in your job and career, communicating why your ideas should be considered and acted upon for the benefit of your organisation and that all important attentive audience.It is then no longer about how well you can interpret a P&L balance sheet that will drive your success, but your ability to win people over to you way of thinking and have them co-operate with you in achieving the common business goals or take action on what you communicate.Talk to anybody who has left a company of their own volition, you often learn that people don’t leave companies, they leave inflexible – or at worst – poor communicators, who they happen to report to. Consider what you are costing your organisation, if your communication skills are not where they need to be, not to mention what you might be losing in your pocket!What makes great communicators outstanding?A great example of an outstanding communicator is the US President, Barak Obama, who demonstrates a unique ability to get people to respond to his calls to action. Obama shows great presence and charisma in his communication style, which emanates through his powerful and engaging body language. He carries himself with certainty, calmness and purpose in all interactions, which enhances his sense of authority and draws people to him to hear what he has to say.In his voice, we hear clear diction on every word he says. There is plenty of vocal variety and an excellent use of silence and pauses to drive home his ideas into the minds and hearts of others.Obama is eloquent and articulate. He speaks in a language that inspires and includes, and he makes every person feel they are part of his world. This was demonstrated recently in London, when he shook hands with the police man on duty at the door of No. 10 Downing Street. Gordon Brown ignored the policeman! How would you view both leaders based on that micro-communication? Everybody matters in Obama’s eyes and he is about collaboration and inclusion and connection.Another great attribute of Obama is his willingness to take responsibility and admit and he has made a mistake – a sign of high emotional intelligence. He takes it on the chin and moves on. He can say “I made a mistake, it won’t happen again” and people seem to respect him more for that strength. After 100 days in office, there seem to be good rather than bad reports on his performance and the calibre of relationships he is building inside and outside his organisation and around the world.How do poor Communicators stand out?Unlike Obama, his predecessor, George W. Bush, displayed a high degree of focus on his own interests, and even when he did communicate, he left us all wondering what exactly did he say? His language and speech patterns were often poorly delivered and incoherent. They certainly didn’t display the rhetoric and standing of a statesman, but a poverty of language, with his notorious “Bush-isms” and his inability to communicate to his electorate and the international community.How would you rate your own communication skills?You may not have aspirations to reach the heights of great politician, but where there are people around, the same rules of engagement apply; if you want to enrich the working world of those you work with and increase your earning power, take a hard look at how people respond to you, and it should give you some indication of the calibre of your communication skills. Here are some additional pointers to help you become a great communicator.Great Communicators are aware of the impact they have on others.What do you think people see, hear and feel from you? People interpret your communication in your body-language (55%) and the tone of your voice (38%).Words and content only account for 7%. So, does you body language need opening up, smoothing out, calming down? Does your tone of voice need more inflection or clarity, diction, softness or authority? Do people move towards or away from you? It may be time to get some honest feedback in your work place and from yourself on how you measure up.Great communicators build great networks across their business contacts.There are multiple channels of influence you can build now, no matter what stage you are at in your career. Begin with your immediate accounting peers, the key influencers in your organisation, the Sales, Marketing, Operations team, and your most important clients. Make sure they know who you are and how you work. Create links with your industry peers, through the CPA organisation and use the powerful social networking tools, like Inquisix, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter to build an on-line network.It’s important to build your contacts wide and deep, and build a sphere of influence that will serve you as build your financial career. Your ability to reach out across a sphere of Influence, as you advance in your career will determine your future success. As is often said “It is not what you know, it’s who you know that counts, the higher up you go.”Great communicators invest in themselves. Jim Rohn, an expert in the personal development field always told his clients to “Work harder on yourself, than you do on your business.” That involves taking a deeper look at how you communicate in your spoken and written skills.The most valuable skill you can develop is deep listening skills and awareness skills. Pay attention to the type of language you use. Is it appropriate to the environment? Are you making the obvious faux pas, using language that does not match your audience, too technical, too casual, i.e. with text message language in your emails?Do some research and find the right professional development vehicle that will help you on an on-going basis. Toastmasters International (not-for-profit) has an excellent programme for individuals who want to explore their communication and leadership skills.Great communicators adapt to other people’s styles of communicating.In the study of communication, experts speak of the “map not being the territory”, where your version of reality is very different from those around, so consider the reality of others and how they communicate. There may be grain of truth in their views, and seeing different viewpoint, you will always learn something and maybe discover your blind spots. We all have them.The work world is split between tasks and people, and some are more comfortable with one over the other. The real skill of a great communicator is to smoothly move between both the numbers and the people and build great relationships in the process.Great communicators have a reputation for being flexible, open and approachable.The more open and approachable you are, the better your communication skills and rapport you will have. This can be summarised as a sense of empathy, understanding and flexibility with others.Like Obama, you can make mistakes, but if you take responsibility for them, respect from others increases. When you have conversations with other, develop a reputation as somebody who talks about possibility and progress rather than what’s broken or impossible. Your language should be peppered with statements like “I am open to hearing your suggestions, I am going to give it some thought. How can we do this, change this, improve this? What do we need to do to make this happen? How can we take ownership of this?”Develop a reputation for being approachable and you create opportunities for support when times are tough or when you do become the boss. The big one is, let go of the need to control others and work on building trust. It’s far more powerful.And finally, take some time to study Obama’s style of communication. You can find plenty of video footage on YouTube. Read his books, if you want understand the man behind this outstanding communicator.

“It is best not to put all of one’s eggs into one basket!” This is most likely a statement that you may have heard many times throughout your life and when it comes to investing, this statement is a reality. Diversifying one’s investments is the main factor in making a success when it comes to investing. All of the people who have made great returns from their monies have been seen to develop investment portfolios that operate in different market sectors and we advise that you should do the same too!Developing a varied investment portfolio might include purchasing various shares and stocks that come from companies that operate in different business sectors. Methods used to achieve the desired objective may consist of buying government bonds, putting funds in money market accounts or maybe even into property i.e. buy to lets, houses of multiple occupancy [HMOs] and also the standard buying and renting out homes. The key is to invest in different market sectors.Over time all of the data shows that those who savvy investors who take the time to develop investment portfolios that are well diversified on average experience more stable & consistent returns on their investments this is when compared to those investors who happen to put their monies in one investment vehicle. By investing in those companies that operate in different market sectors [industrial, retail, consumer, business to business etc, etc] will mean that your risk factor is lower too.For example if you have invested all of your money in one company and that company’s shares goes down, you will lose some, a lot or all worst case all of your funds. Looking at this from another perspective if you happen to have invested in say shares from ten different companies and nine are doing well while one plunges averages say that you will still make some money or your losses will be minimized..A good investment diversification portfolio will include a number of fundamentals e.g. they will include stocks & shares, bonds, property and of course cash!! It may take time to develop a fully diversified investment portfolio. Depending on how much you have to invest at the outset you may have to start small say only investing in cash and then go onto invest in maybe property over times.This methodology may prove to be fine – however if you can split the investments that you make at the start – it will be a fact that your risk of losing your money will be much lower and as time passes you will see increasingly more attractive returns from your monies.The finance experts also say that you should spread your investment monies evenly among your chosen investments targets. Put another way – if you happen to start with an investment fund of £100000 & invest £25000 in stocks and shares, £25000 in property, £25000 in bonds & then decide to invest the other £25000 in a savings account that pays a decent amount of interest.This is the foundation to building a long term diversified investment portfolio and we see property to be one of the most tried to tested methods for delivering outstanding returns on ones investment funds.