Ten New Year’s Resolutions for the Collaborative Conferencing Industry

As we come to the close of yet another year of growth in our industry, it is a good time to pause and reflect upon how it all turned out and how we might improve next year.  To provide some assistance with this task and as a public service I’ve put together some New Year’s resolutions that we can all use. 

Now when I say “we” that would be the collective we, as not all of these resolutions are applicable to each and every one of us.  In fact, some of them might only be appropriate for single individuals or organizations.  To avoid embarrassing anyone I’m going to list them all together here in one place.  Each of us can pick and choose which of these resolutions we can follow and which are meant for “some other guy.”  I’m sure that by including all of them in a single large list that none of you will be able to identify those resolutions truly meant for a single person.

1. I resolve to shut up when our earnings reports are imminent or just past.  I also resolve to stop trying to take over all consumer media, and I promise not to hire Ellen Page for any more commercials.  While I’m at it I resolve not to reorganize anymore next year and I also resolve to start spending money on marketing conferencing products again.  And I will start really listening to those wacky Norwegians ‘cause they truly get this stuff. 
    
2. I resolve to stop launching new organizations that help me pretend to promote standards and interoperability and instead just start using some of the existing ones that everyone already respects.  I also promise to stop firing everyone and instead will look into making sure my firm’s sales commission and quota system is realistic and fair to my people.  And I promise to stop wearing my “Microsoft likes me best” t-shirt.
    
3. I resolve to come-up with and invest in a real marketing plan for my products instead of just having my employees constantly blog and post in social networks about how much better they are than everyone else’s.  I resolve not to call my products cloud based when people still need to buy cameras and gateways for their premises.  And I resolve not to write any more open letters.
    
4. We resolve to stop holding annual conferences that 12 people show-up to (11 vendors, 1 out of work customer) and claim that they are relevant to our industry.  We resolve to realize that our founding company doesn’t want us as a user group anymore and frankly no one else does either.
    
5. We resolve to look at our flawed business model and dwindling customer base and finally decide to just close our doors.  We resolve to realize the industry has moved past us and it’s time to stop reinventing ourselves and just do something else.  (Just so there is no one that thinks this unfairly harsh, this applies to multiple firms.)
    
6. As the CIO of my organization I resolve to lock all of my technology leaders in a single room and not let them leave until the promise of Unified Communications has been fulfilled.  I promise to join them in that room and personally make the tough decisions needed to break down silos, remove the people who were historically the technology “gatekeepers” and force them all to work together under a different, collaborative model.  I also promise to force my firewall guys to accept and immediately deploy industry standard firewall traversal instead of driving everyone insane claiming it is too risky.  I resolve that if I don’t have the courage to fire the people standing in the way I’ll hire that guy from the company above and have him fire everyone.  Finally, I resolve to start making personnel and promotion decisions based upon the talents of my people, and not based upon internal company politics.
    
7. I promise to stop selling the products I represent by touting features that I know don’t work yet.  I resolve to realize that “selling the roadmap” hurts both the industry and my firm’s reputation and I resolve not to continue to do this damage.
    
8. I resolve to listen to the experts that I hire – both my firm’s staff and the consultant specialists I bring in.  I resolve to deal with my issues of “power” and “narcissism” outside of company time, and let people who really know what they’re doing take a leading role in the decision making process.
    
9. I resolve to stop making critical technology decisions based upon country club memberships, golf course conversations, which firms do business with us outside of the technology sale, which firms got me free football tickets or any similar reasons, and start making technology decisions based upon which technology is the best one for my organization’s needs.
    
10. I resolve to take a look into the background and expertise of this guy who writes these fabulous articles and blogs and hire him and his firm as my expert partner as we transform my organization into one that leverages communication technology to exponentially grow our business.
     

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous new year.

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This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions. David has over 30 years of experience providing problem solving leadership and innovation in media and unified communications technologies for various firms in the corporate, broadcasting and academic worlds including  AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN, Morgan Stanley, NYU, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Chase. He recently joined Dimension Dataas their Principal Consultant for the collaboration, multimedia, video and AV disciplines.  He is also the  IMCCA’s Director of Emerging Technology. David can be reached at David.Danto@Dimensiondata.com