Ivan J Alvarado

Why I don't like Linux

2006-09-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

You are probably wondering why I am commenting on technology in a marketing blog, you’ll find the answer towards the end of this blog :-). As you probably know by now, I am a technology fan. I enjoy building my own computers, installing and re-installing operating systems, playing around with the latest technology. I count myself among the smaller % of the population that likes to experiment with new technology.

Linux is cute, especially because it’s free and it has a pet penguin—but the downside is that it’s for geeks. It’s not user friendly. In the rush to make this the perfect operating system, they totally forgot about the consumer. The first time I installed Linux was in 1999, just out of curiosity and because there was so much talk about it. I tried three distributions before I finally was able to install one (Mandrake). Finally---after 48 hours!!! My happiness was short lived--- I found out how difficult it was to install new programs. I decided that I was happy with Windows and that I didn’t need Linux.

I installed Linux again three weeks ago (after a 6 year pause). Well, the installation went well and I was going oh, cool they got it right… or so I thought until I wanted to install my Sagem ADSL modem. I was disappointed that I had to do a manual installation, but decided to give it a shot. I tried using the instructions provided by the ISP provider, but that didn’t work—instructions are for a different distribution. So I restarted my computer and booted Windows. I downloaded the latest driver and the latest instructions. I went back, re-booted Linux and started the manual configuration again. Oh, surprise it doesn’t work. Aha, forgot to install a missing library. Ok, back to Windows, download the library, re-boot Linux. I lost about 6 hours trying to install the modem before I finally managed to do it. It took only 5 minutes to install it in Windows.

I don’t want to have to manually install programs. We are in 21^st century, consumers want to double click to install a program.

To add to the confusion there is a whole bunch of distributions, one claiming to be better or different or smaller or faster or more democratic than the other. Consumers want simplicity.

Windows is simple, user friendly. Why would anybody in their right mind want to change? There is no rational reason to change from Windows to Linux. Sort of feel sorry for those people buying the new Linux based computers in Wal-mart. Unless you are a computer expert stay away from Linux. The normal consumer has no reason to change. It looks like the Linux guys need to spend some time with real consumers and understand what they want, otherwise it will remain a niche product for computer geeks. Goodbye Linux, see you in 6 years.

Why I like marketing

2006-09-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

Marketing in its true sense is about curiosity, analysis and building. You have to be curious to get under the consumer’s skin; you have to have the analytical skills to take advantage of opportunities and the vision to build great things. In marketing we are intensely curious about our consumers; we spend a lot of time analyzing our brands and the market. In the end what we do is build things. We build brands, we build businesses, we build campaigns…

I guess my fascination with marketing goes back to my childhood. I was very curious – When I was four I took my mother’s favorite watch and a hammer and banged it open to find out how it worked (No, she was not happy). I liked opening up all types of mechanical, electrical toys to find out how they worked. Understanding how things worked help me develop my analytical skills. I spent hours building and rebuilding different things (Lego being my favorite toy of all times). As I got older that curiosity and passion to understand things developed into a desire to fix things. This is something that has stuck with me. I prefer to build my own computer vs. buying a pre-packed box. I prefer to fix the computer myself than take it to a “technician”. I love the intellectual challenge of finding a problem and fixing it.

Marketing is probably one of the most challenging areas in business. We are under continuous pressure to deliver, but it’s that stress (and adrenalin) that I enjoy. I like to understand what makes consumers tick, I like translating that knowledge into actionable plans, I like building brands and businesses. I love the challenge of building something new or better. The great thing about marketing vs. other disciplines is that you are in command, you create the strategy and can measure the results—The ultimate measure and a source of satisfaction is seeing how you have helped the business grow.

Whatever happened to passion?

2006-09-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

Some companies talk about passion, but do they really mean it? Other companies avoid the subject entirely. What is passion? Why should a marketer be passionate?

Analytical skills and good business sense are basic requirements, without them you cannot succeed in marketing. HOWEVER, what differentiates a great marketer from a good marketer is his/her passion for the business. Marketing passion is the desire to understand everything about your consumer and your brand, the tenacity to succeed, the charisma (another bad work) to infect others with enthusiasm. Passion is contagious, passion gives you energy to do things that you would otherwise not have the strength to do.

Look at it from the other side. If you don’t have passion for what you do, you will wake up every day frustrated because you have to do something you don’t really like. That frustration will result in lower energy levels and lack of dedication. You will do the work because you have to do it, not because you love it. If you have to do it, you will only do what you have to do. If you are passionate about your business you will do whatever is needed to succeed.

I like the Starbucks example. I think Starbucks is a company that is full of passion to excel. It’s not only their passion for coffee, but also a passion for helping the communities they work in. I think that’s smart and it makes great business sense. You build a stronger bond with your customers and partners if they see how passionate you are about the business. Every coffee is served with passion, and you can feel it.

Unfortunately, many companies use passion only as a buzzword, but don’t really understand the value that passion can bring to the organization. A passionate employee is a loyal employee. He/she works longer hours than his colleagues, has an unending amount of energy, cares about the company, and yes, is outspoken! He is not afraid to clearly and honestly express what he/she believes needs to be done to grow the business. This can be frightening for people that are not as passionate about the company….

Companies that don't appreciate the importance of passion are doomed to fail. There will always be a Starbucks, a Nike, a Virgin waiting around the corner to take advantage of the situation.

Can do and why I like Apollo 13 (the movie)

2006-09-08T03:41:00.000-07:00

Apollo 13 is a movie I have watched I don’t know how many times. I am a space fan, so that explains part of the fascination. There are lot’s of movies about space, but what I think really differentiates Apollo 13 from the rest is the underlying theme. For me this movie is about doing things. You can see a positive “can do” attitude in every scene.

We can fly to the moon. We can fix it. Ed Harris telling this other guy “I don't care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do.”

“Can do” makes a big difference….

That takes me to my favorite quote of all time:

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win…” JFK

Any company that chooses this strategy will win. Set yourself a goal, innovate, get the resources, have a positive “can do” attitude and put all of your passion behind it and you will win.

Luck doesn’t play a role, it is only what we do that will ensure success.

How E-mail has made our life more complicated

2006-09-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

Let me start this blog with a real story. We were having a goodbye dinner with our Regional Vice President. This person was retiring after forty one years with the company. The conversation at a certain point turned to the subject of E-mail.

“When I joined the company in 1961 we had to send letters by mail (snail mail) to the US. The letter would travel 2-3 weeks to the US and the answer would take 2-3 weeks to come back. Then in the 1970’s they brought in a telex machine. It was very expensive to use, so we were allowed to send only very important messages, and we still relied a great deal on the normal mail system. Air mail became more popular so usually the recipient would get the letter in a week and we would get an answer back in a week or two. In the 1980’s our office got a fax machine. There was only one for the whole office and it was in the basement. Somebody would collect the faxes in the morning and distribute them to our offices. We then would answer them and our secretary would send it the next day. So response time was down to about 2-3 days. That increased to a daily frequency when we got faxes on each floor. Mid 90’s we got personal e-mail, however the connections were usually once or twice day. Now (2003) we are expected to answer the mails as soon as they arrive…"

Fast forward to 2006 and let me add my perspective. Technology was supposed to make our life easier, but instead in our over-communicated society it is getting in the way of getting things done. About a 1 years ago I got a blackberry, at the beginning I was really happy (I like new toys). That lasted for about three weeks. At 10 p.m. I get an E-mail from my VP saying. “Ivan, just finished reading your presentation. It’s great, but I would like you to make three changes on pages 8, 19 and 43. Please have it ready by 7 a.m. tomorrow.” Suffice to say that I didn’t get much sleep prior to my 8 a.m. presentation to top management.

In the end it is about not abusing technology. Because it is so much easier to reach someone, we tend to communicate in ways we never did before. I spend 2-3 hours per day answering mails, 10 years ago I could use that time for other tasks. Many of these mails are one liners. E.g. Hey, Ivan what’s the market share in the Czech Republic? >>Hi Eva, 84.3%. Eva’s office is about a 30 second walk from my office. What’s the result, the job needs to get done so the only solution is to spend more time at work.

I can’t wait till somebody invents a chip that we can stick into our brains. Then all we will have to do is login into somebody else’s brain to get the information we need. No need to communicate anymore and I won’t have to spend 2-3 hours answering mails. (scary thought, huh?)

As a side note, I read an article about a phone retail company in the UK ( http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/19/e-mail.ban/index.html ) that banned e-mail. What was the result? People started speaking to each other, time was saved and productivity went up.

Marketing Accountability

2006-09-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting article in CMO magazine about marketing accountability. http://www.cmomagazine.com/read/columns/core062306.html

I also read a blog yesterday that touches on this subject. The thought is actually scary, it almost sounds like marketing as we know it is running the risk of becoming obsolete. This guy was basically advocating change marketing or die.

Marketing has always been responsible (at least in top class organizations) for delivering growth and profit and doing this with a reasonable return on investment. Marketing professionals have to have tremendous analytical power and have to use it to deliver outstanding results. They are responsible for the biggest investments and they must be held accountable. I don’t question this and will agree to have my head cut off for not delivering on what I have committed to deliver.

However, to say that creativity is no longer important, that execution is secondary, that all that counts is the return on investment of my next ad- is marketing heresy. There is no perfect formula or model to calculate the return on a given campaign or initiative. How can I forecast if that $40000 I will be spending on focus groups this month will deliver a 5% growth in volume and 7% growth in profit next quarter. Marketing deals with people not machines. I am going to a focus group to learn about consumers and get answers to questions. If I knew the answers I wouldn’t have to conduct the research.

I am a very analytical person and like to get into detailed numbers to understand my business. My first job was actually partly data analysis. I tried 7-8 years ago to set up a model that could help forecast growth based on marketing expenditure. You know something like, if I invest X dollars in advertising how many more tons/boxes/$ will I be able to sale. It didn’t work. Even 4 years ago I was challenging my media agency to come up with an econometric model to predict the effect that an X number of GRP’s has on awareness (and as result trial and sales). It sounded great in theory, it didn’t work in practice. I have not seen any model that accurately predicts what the out come will be. Everything is within a certain margin of error. Has anybody ever done a volumetric that was 100% right smack on the target? (If yes than I want to speak to you)

Why? Marketing is not a perfect science (and if somebody thinks it is please go work as a brand manager for two years and then let me know what you think). There are too many factors and variables. It’s like trying to predict the weather. Marketing needs to be accountable, but the goals need to be agreed and aligned with management in such a way that it is do-able.

So why are we so eager today to agree to ridiculous measurements that we can’t deliver on? I am afraid the reason is lack of courage and ability to have a dialogue with senior management. Why disagree when it is easier to agree. I am not going to be here next year anyways, so why argue with the boss, right? WRONG! You are making everybody’s life much harder. You are raising the expectations and you will not be able to deliver.

Why finding great marketing people in Eastern Europe is (still) difficult

2006-09-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

I got into a conversation with a friend of mine (a recruiter) the other day. He was telling me about a job he was trying to fill and how he was having difficulties finding the right person. We than got into why this was so difficult. This is not the first time I have heard this theory, but there is some truth to it.

The theory is the following. In general it is hard to find great people anywhere in the world. What has made the process more complicated in Eastern Europe is the pace of development and the time available to properly coach talent. What does this mean?

In the early 90's the first consumer companies started setting up shop in Eastern Europe. Almost all of the management positions were held by ex-pats. At the same time you had a lot of ambitious people that were graduating from college and wanted to see accelerated career paths. Some of these (the brightest) went to work for multinationals where they were properly trained and coached. Others went to work for local start ups or second, third tier companies.

Around 1999 and partly as a result of the Russian crisis a lot of companies decided to pull out the ex-pats and created a void that had to be filled with local talent. Some of these positions were filled by very qualified people (mainly the people that reported to the ex-pats). Other positions had to be filled with whatever talent existed in the market.

Some people advanced very quickly and became "Marketing Managers" right out of college, but never received proper training or coaching and lack the fundamentals to be able to run a business.

That's basically the theory, what can you do about it?

A couple of hints:

A) If you want to attract the best talent be prepared to pay for it. The best people are already in good jobs and they are paid very well. Companies wanting to attract the best talent should not assume that it will be cheaper to higher a senior manager in Eastern Europe. A good, senior manager in Eastern Europe is earning as much as his counterpart in Western Europe.

B) Check references, this is small part of the world everybody in marketing knows each other.

C) Find out who they reported to. If they reported to an ex-pat, you have a good chance that these people have the right skills. The best trained marketers are those that worked in top-tier marketing driven companies and reported to ex-pats in the early stages of their careers. People that report to locals that have worked for ex-pats are usually also well trained.

D) Just because somebody has a PhD (and there is a lot of them) don't assume that they are good.

E) I don't want to generalize and I certainly don't want to discriminate. As a rule of thumb the best trained people are those that started their careers in the 1990's. There are exceptions.

F) If you see a resume that shows a person jumping from one company to another every year, you can almost be sure this person lacks the proper skills.

Having said that and to ensure that I don't get blasted for the above. There is a lot of good talent in Eastern Europe. Theres is a lot of smart people, very hard working people they just need to be properly coached.

Would love to hear other opinions and experiences.

Where am I from?

2006-09-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

Where am I from?

That's a question that people keep asking me all the time. So I thought it would be appropriate to start my blog by telling you a little bit about myself.

I grew up speaking three languages English (with my mother), Spanish (with my father) and Croatian (with my grandmother). When I was a kid I was fluent in all three languages and could switch from one language to the other immediately- something that I think was always a weird experience for my friends whenever they came to my house.

I grew up in the US, Nicaragua and Sweden.

I have been in some the strangest places during very interesting times. I have lived through a 7.2 Magnitude earthquake in 1972 and a revolution in Central America. I have picked coffee and taught adults how to read. I have seen what a store looks like when there is nothing to put on the shelves, and have seen people stand in line for 3 hours to buy bananas and other "luxuries".

I have had my fair share of culture shocks, moving from a conservative Latin American country to Sweden. Moving from Western Europe to Eastern Europe.

I have lived in a country where the sun doesn't set in the Summer, and in the Winter there is only a few hours of light. I have also lived in a country where the average temperature is 32 C (89 F) all year round.

I lived through another revolution, this time in Eastern Europe. I was on Wenceslas square during the "Velvet Revolution" and had a unique chance to stand on the Berlin wall in front of the Brandenburg gate, telling an East-German policeman to leave me alone so my sister could take a picture of me. If I had tried to do that three weeks earlier he would have shot me. (Apologies to those born after 1989 since they probably don't know what I am talking about.)

I had the opportunity to work with China and India when I was still a student, importing and selling textiles. One of the best learning experiences of my life. I had to teach myself everything. It was a great time to be working with China. Things have changed a lot since then, but that's a topic for a separate blog.

I have worked for some of the biggest marketing companies in Eastern Europe and have had a very dynamic career. Most of my career has been focused on Marketing. I have worked with almost every country in Europe and had the opportunity to be part of the management team in all the companies I have worked. I've been given the opportunity to build some of the biggest brands in this part of the world.

I have moved 24 times in my life, I attended 8 different schools in 3 different languages.

I am fluent in 4 languages: English, Spanish, Czech and Polish. My Croatian is almost non-existent (the other two Slavic languages in my portfolio have destroyed one of my "mother tongues"). I can still read some Swedish and I understand Slovak.

And now we have decided to move back to the States....

It's not all fun. That type of life has its downside, you don't really feel at home anywhere, it's hard to maintain friendships and I have also seen my fair share of ugly things. However, despite this I would not change it for anything. I have had the chance to experience things that very few people have had the chance to see. I believe that as a result I am a more tolerant, more open person. I can understand the subtleties of complex issues and solve them in ways few people would. I am a do-er. A believer that change is impossible to stop and that everything is possible- it's just a matter of willingness and resources.

If you have gotten this far you probably understand why I try to avoid that question and stick to the simplest answer:

I am American.