FREEDyourMind

New Content, New Design, New Network, New Authors

Big changes afoot here at FreedYourMind. You've probably noticed the new design and the new picture over there in the sidebar so that in case someone ever tries to impersonate me at a conference keynote, you will know! (I don't usually run around in a tuxedo, I promise. That was taken at our company's Christmas party last year, which was James Bond-themed.)

Secondly, we've also been asked to join the Forbes.com network of business blogs, a big honor and an exciting development for us. They'll be running our content on their website, and we'll be running a few ads for them in exchange.

Finally, I've invited a few colleagues to start making guest posts on topics that are on their minds. We have a lot of bright people here who are out in the trenches every day working with all kinds of issues pertaining to e-business and e-commerce. But the title will still be FreedYourMind and not BlackmanYourMind or ToeplitzYourMind or KhanYourMind. So there!

New Year; New Blog

A new Year brings us a new blog.  Let me start by answering some questions.

Why?     Why not.

Why now?     A new year is a good time for a new blog.  According to the Chinese calendar, 2006 was the Year of the Dog, and 2007 is the Year of the Pig.    Time chose “You” as the person of the year for 2006.

2007 should be the year of the Customer.

Why “FREEDyourmind”?  It is time for us to free our mind from old ways of thinking about how we run our businesses.  We can move forward when we are not constrained.  We can innovate when we are not restricted.  We need to remember history, remember what we have learned, remember what we have seen, remember what we have observed and remember what we have counted.  What we measure influences what we do…how we allocate resources, how we prioritize our efforts, how we create future success.  Too often, our view is backward looking, at sales data, milestones accomplished, etc.  But to move forward, we must shift our thinking and free our mind to avoid re-creating the past.  We need to free our mind so we can move forward.

What will we talk about?  Whatever is on “our” mind.  But mostly, about the Customer and about the web.  About how the Customer should be the center of our thinking.  That the Customer is our biggest asset.  About loyalty — what it is, how we get it and how we keep it.  About satisfaction.  And about the web.