Conversations

Is the iPad a laptop replacement?

2010-07-21T23:11:56Z

Can the iPad be used as a laptop replacement at work? To figure this out, I kept my laptop off for a week after first deciding to get an iPad, setting it up, and leaving the laptop at the office. Part of the week I was in Manila on a trip, and during the other part my laptop stayed turned off in the office.

My general impressions? I didn’t miss the extra complexity of the laptop, but I did miss doing some key workflow related tasks that aren’t possible on the iPad:

1. Pros

• Singletasking: I found the lack of multitasking (until iOS4 is released on the iPad) to be actually refreshing. Focusing on one task at a time made it easier to get things done.
• Travel: The iPad is perfect for traveling and leaving the laptop behind. Battery life is outstanding. During my 18 hour trip back, I watched two movies, read an iBook, did some work, and only used up half the battery! And if you get the built in wireless data 3G version, you can work in more places without committing to a wireless data contract.
• Worklife: Using a tablet is truly “A New Day“ for working. How you sit, being able to work from anywhere with built in Internet access and a longer battery life, making it easy to pass around during group brainstorming, and not having a screen cluttered with too many things at once will change how you work.

2. Cons

• Emails and calendar: The Mail app doesn’t show flagged emails for follow up (essential to my system of never filing an email), you can’t search the full text of emails on the server, you can’t click on an original email to view the sent email, no iCal tasks show up, and .ics file import is lacking. Together, these have a major impact on my workflow, although I can use FMYI’s Activity Manager and shared calendar to get around this.
• Writing: Without a physical keyboard, typing anything more than a paragraph is a pain. A Bluetooth keyboard is a must if you plan to do a lot of writing. Copying and pasting URLs, critical to blog posts, is awkward.
• Sharing: There’s no videochat (at FMYI, we rely on it because of team members working around the country) and IM through push notifications is a bit clunky. And the biggest problem of all is you can’t upload documents easily to websites/web apps.

3. Tricks

• Get access to your laptop’s document folders by using services like Dropbox, MobileMe, or SugarSync. That way, you won’t have to use iTunes to sync individual files.
• Use web apps to collaborate especially if you have a 3G iPad. This keeps your team’s info in the cloud and accessible from anywhere. Check out FMYI, which blends a social networking site ease of use with project management, contact tracking, file/calendar/task sharing, and more. I may be a little biased, but we created FMYI for exactly this situation.

My conclusion? If you’re traveling for awhile and shut down the laptop, the iPad works well, but in the office, you’re not going to replace the laptop or desktop computer just yet. You can get close if you have a cloud based file and collaboration solution though.

Next: final thoughts on the iPad, tablets, and the future of computing in the workplace.

-Justin

Using the iPad away from the office

2010-07-06T12:49:45Z

So I’ve been exploring whether I can use the iPad for work. After I set up my iPad, my first experiment was to see if I could leave my laptop behind at the office for a week. The iPad served as my email, web, calendar, and presentation device at home, in between meetings, and during client visits.

How did it do? Remarkably well. The form factor made running around town a breeze. Not only did I save my back a little because of how much lighter the iPad is than a regular laptop, but I was also able to carry a smaller (man)bag. The simple iOS interface made quick tasks easy like checking email, the weather forecast, tweaking a slide, and finding the best route to my next meeting. A full desktop OS soon felt clunky. And the extra screen real estate is a big benefit over a small smartphone for extended work.

1. Pros

• The touchscreen interface is a revelation for web browsing. By touching the screen directly to navigate links, the experience is so much faster and fun than using an intermediary input device like a mouse or trackpad. The downside is the time your spend browsing aimlessly goes way up!
• It’s a pleasure to read PDFs, books, and presentations. You’ll find yourself curling up with the iPad going through all those work documents you haven’t scanned.
• The speed is outstanding. Combine the fast processor with the simple iOS interface, and you have a winner. Startup takes seconds, as does going from app to app.

2. Cons

• The lack of Flash makes it hard to watch embedded videos that haven’t been converted to HTML5. And company websites using Flash for navigation are worthless on the iPad. You can get around this using one of the tricks I mention below.
• Content creation isn’t ideal as we all know. There’s no multiple undo. You can’t upload files to websites using the Safari browser. Keynote is very limited for presentations. The touchscreen keyboard is a pain for typing more than a few sentences at a time and is missing numerous characters like a bullet (•). Either you have to keep things simple with your presentations, or you’ll need to do them on your laptop/desktop computer.
• Of course, being an early adopter means the device is a little rough around the edges. I had to return mine after some mysterious problems with the iPad restarting on its own without me touching it. Fortunately, Apple’s legendary customer service was a joy to deal with, and they replaced my unit with a new one. I also had some problems with syncing the iPad and having my apps deleted, meaning I had to reinstall them and set up the preferences all over again.

3. Tricks

• One of the coolest things you can set up is a VNC client like iTeleport. This allows you to access your work computer remotely from your iPad. You’ll be able to view Flash sites, email yourself a file, or run an application you don’t have on your iPad. Definitely a must have.
• Definitely get a case of some sort. The iPad is slippery and you’ll want one to prevent it from sliding off a table, and it’s a bonus to have it angled for typing.

My conclusion? The iPad is ideally suited for mobile work. You can confidently keep your laptop at the office. Having an iPad makes those long hours on the road or burning the midnight oil at home almost enjoyable. And it helps that you’ll never be far from music, videos, and books when you need a break.

Next: keeping the work computer off for a week and using only the iPad for work!

-Justin

Setting up the iPad for work

2010-06-08T13:10:32Z

So I decided to take the plunge and pick up an iPad and use it for work. I opted for the 3G version. which gives me Internet access when I’m not connected to a Wi-Fi network. This comes in handy when traveling or giving presentations where Internet access isn’t available, such as workplaces that don’t allow guests to connect to their network or issues come up when trying to connect. In the past, I’ve used tethering between my laptop and a cell phone, and have considered wireless data devices that plug into a USB port. Both options are a bit cumbersome to set up, and the cost and contracts involved with the wireless data devices are a barrier to entry.

What I like about the iPad 3G setup is it’s fast to set up, there’s no extra USB device to keep track of, and there’s no contract. I’m using the entry level $14.99/month plan (up to 250 MB in bandwidth) which makes me judicious about when I use 3G service. For the most part, I’m using the iPad at the office, at home, or in other places with Wi-Fi like airports and coffee shops, but the 3G has already come in handy during a presentation at a restaurant and in an office. When I’m not connected to Wi-Fi, I’m typically only using 3G for checking emails and browsing the web. No Pandora or YouTube for me in my quest to save money on the data plan, and the quality isn’t that great when streaming video.

Setting up the iPad through iTunes takes some time, especially if you’re copying over a lot of audio, video, photos, and apps. It didn’t help that I originally had a lemon that kept restarting on its own. Thankfully, the Apple Store came to the rescue and replaced my iPad free of charge. Once that was taken care of, it was on to exploring what apps to install, and the best way to protect it:

Essential apps for work

It becomes quickly apparent that the apps made for the iPad’s screen are way better than running the apps made for the iPhone’s little screen. Definitely opt for the versions that take advantage of the full screen real estate on the iPad (look for “HD” or “XL” at the end of app names). I’ve been a little disappointed with the selection of productivity apps overall, but these are the ones I’ve found to be most useful so far:

• Documents: GoodReader (essential tool for viewing a variety of files), Keynote (beautiful way to present and create simple presentations), Pages, Numbers
• Communication: IM+ (unified place for instant messaging chats across multiple platforms), Twitterrific (clean design), TweetDeck (powerful features)
• Research: Pulse (fun news reader with quite a story), Bloomberg, Zinio (browse magazines and go green), iBooks
• Brainstorming: Adobe Ideas (Drew Bernard said it best: “I really like their sketch pad. I have tried all kinds of electronic sketchpads over the years Adobe Idea on the iPad is the first one that really works for me.“), SketchBook
• Utilities: Dragon (turns audio into text), Analytics HD (Google Analytics dashboard), Jumbo (calculator)
• Travel: Weather Channel, World Clock, Kayak Flights

Cases and bags

As opposed to cell phones (you need a case) and laptops (you need a bag), for the iPad you’ll probably want to get both a case (protection against scratches and more grip so the iPad doesn’t fly out of your hands or slide off a table which isn’t a problem with laptops) and a bag (phones can slip into a pocket, but unless you have Stephen Colbert’s iPad suit you’ll need a bag to carry the iPad around).

First, check out iLounge’s iPad accessory reviews. The number of cases reviewed will make your head spin. Fortunately, I’ve poured through a ton of them and came up with this short list for you:

• Cases: DODOcase (amazing Moleskine-style bamboo case!), Incase Grip
• Bags: STM Jacket, STM Scout, Timbuk2 Freestyle, WaterField Muzetto

In my next post, I’ll explore what happens when I leave my laptop behind and use the iPad outside the office.

-Justin

Obama: Information becomes a distraction

2010-06-02T23:32:54Z

Are we in an era of information overload instead of information empowerment? U.S. President Barack Obama recently said:

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,“ Obama said at at Hampton University, Virginia. “With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.“

Since we’re very focused on social media in the context of work here at FMYI, let’s take a closer look at this from that angle. A recent survey found that although 52.3% of U.S. workers agreed that social media helped them learn more in less time, only 37% felt they got more work done. No doubt we have more information at our fingertips that we can learn from; the question is, are we leveraging new ways of sharing information to achieve goals in the most effective way possible? I think there are three key issues at play here:

1. We need to manage the information firehose.

Think about all the streams of information you manage daily. Emails. Text messages. Instant messages. Social networking sites. Phone calls. Voicemails. Snail mail. Face to face meetings. Water cooler talk. Videos. We’re surrounded by content, and if we wanted to, could immerse ourselves in it 24/7. Being deeply involved in social media definitely exposes you to more content. But it takes time to filter, sort, read, scan all the feeds. It’s not a given that “social business” is also synonymous with “effective business” especially with workplace collaboration. We need ways to better aggregate all the streams and filter it down to only the most relevant items needing our attention.

2. We need to have more creative tools for innovation.

In terms of the workplace, it’s not enough to just launch brainstorming discussion forums for sharing ideas, or talk crowd sourcing but rely on simple voting mechanisms. Technology needs to help connect ideas with people who have the skills and experience to make them a reality, or provide guidance with suggesting ways to get projects done more efficiently, or set up meetings on the fly based on need, or provide intuitive dashboards that help interpret activity going on and where people can best invest their time.

3. We need to work in a whole new way.

Old habits die hard. The only way to create lasting change is to put yourself in an environment that is conducive for the change. Just like it’s sometimes hard to tackle a brainstorming project while in the office because of all the day to day distractions (necessitating an afternoon trip to the neighborhood coffee shop), in order to work more efficiently or generate new ideas we’ll need to embrace a more flexible work structure. President Obama himself has been a supporter of workplace flexibility. We’ll need to build communities around this concept, and build workplaces to maximize the results.

I believe achieving these is essential to the future growth of our economy. What do you think? We’ll be talking about examples in the coming months that illustrate the power of these solutions to mitigate the information overload we experience today.

-Justin

Can iWork on the iPad?

2010-05-27T14:47:13Z

Okay, so it’s impossible to shield yourself from the iPad hype. Especially for an Apple fanboy like myself. I mean, an entire episode of Modern Family revolved around it. I’ve read the mammoth Arstechnica and iLounge reviews. I’ve stalked early adopters on New Jersey Transit to take a sneak peek. It got to the point where my wife limited my iPad talk to one mention a day.

But let’s take a step back for a second. Leading up to Apple’s announcement of the product with all of the rumors circulating, I was most interested in the business case for the iPad. Why would someone want such a device, and how would it fit into their lives? Up until January this year, this space was mostly filled with netbooks for people who wanted smaller laptops to run Microsoft Office, check email, and browse the web. Sure, there were a few tablets still out there leftover from when Ja Rule was still popular. But by and large, tablets hadn’t caught on.

What is the iPad good for? Whenever anyone asked me about the iPad, this was my answer: inherently, the laptop is a compromise. When you’re at the office, it isn’t as fast as a desktop nor does it have as big a screen built in. And when you’re away from the office, out of the box, it isn’t as light, simple, intuitive, fast, always connected, and long lasting battery-wise as I want it to be. In my dream world, I’d have a 27” iMac at work for all my power user creation needs (design, video, multimedia library, MLB.tv), and everywhere else, I’d have a supremely portable, simplified, thin client to do basic work (email, presentations, word processing/blogs, spreadsheets, calendar, address book) and browse multimedia content for inspiration (music, videos, magazines, newspapers, books, websites) without carrying around a lot of paper.

So after my extensive research which was essentially an exercise in delaying the inevitable “buying a first generation device when it’s obvious you should never do that but you’re powerless to stop yourself,“ I took the plunge recently and ordered my iPad 3G. As the head of a hosted collaboration software company, I’m always looking at the next horizon for new ways of working digitally. It truly is a new day.

Since I couldn’t find that many blog posts out there reviewing the iPad exclusively from a work perspective, I decided to set out on an ambitious five part series (I’m prone to never ending blog post series on bootstrapping and Economy 2.0) to delve into my experiences over the course of a month of using an iPad for work. Along the way, I’ll be inviting a few guest commentators to weigh in with their experiences.

Although this is all probably just a ruse to finally convince myself to pull the trigger on an iPad, I figured others out there are wanting to know the answer to this burning question:

“What would happen if I never turned on my laptop/desktop for a week and just used an iPad?“

Stay tuned to find out!
-Justin

Ning and the importance of a free version

2010-05-24T14:23:18Z

Let’s talk about Ning. This is a timely topic since Ning has been in the news lately for replacing their CEO, cutting staff, and ending their free version. But occasionally we’ll get questions about how our service compares with Ning. We both offer platforms to create a social network for a group of people. Here are the main differences though:

Differences between FMYI and Ning

1. Ning is usually for public networking. FMYI is only for private invite-only groups, and we offer many levels of access permissions.
2. Ning was created for people to network and communicate with each other, like a more social version of older tools like Yahoo Groups, or Google Groups. FMYI is specifically for collaboration, meaning the team of people are working together to achieve goals, such as managing projects, tracking contacts, and sharing resources in the workplace, in a class at school (college, university, or other higher education environment), or as part of a membership/networking association.
3. Ning no longer offers a free version. FMYI has offered a free version for years, and always will.

This brings us to a big question: why does FMYI believe in a free version? We think it’s important to let people experience what we’re all about without a limited time trial period. It take a little time for you to get to know us in terms of inviting people in to your site, experiencing the free email and phone support we offer, and trying out all the features we offer as activity ramps up in your site.

We feel like the more time you spend with us, the more you’ll like us, and be interested in our upgraded features. But no pressure if you don’t want to upgrade, because you’re helping us to spread the word about FMYI with the people you invite into your FMYI site. And this viral word of mouth referrals are important for us to reach new clients. Tools like SurveyMonkey has had a commitment to providing support to their free users, and they’ve grown tremendously as a result of people spreading the word.

So if having a free version is great, why did Ning stop offering one? A company has to make money, and Ning is smart to focus on boosting their revenue. At some point, even in this age of cheaper cloud computing, the cost of hosting millions of free users starts to have a major impact on the bottom line. If the percentage of paying users is in the single digits, that makes it tough unless you have major venture capital (2% of Evernote users pay but they have $25.5 million in funding) or other revenue streams to fund the product (less than 4% of Google Apps users pay but 95% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising).

For FMYI, although we provide free support for all users, and free generates paying leads for us, our business development focus isn’t on the freemium business model. We spend most of our time generating revenue from our large corporate customers. This is key for the bootstrapping portion of our how we’ve grown over the years. It’s the notion that we try not to spend more than we earn. And we have a singular focus on providing a great collaboration platform, not on other activities that could distract from the quality of our service or our responsiveness.

What do you think about the importance of free versions?

-Justin

Five keys to collaboration success

2010-05-18T12:53:31Z

Thinking about rolling out a collaboration site at work? Been researching online workspaces but you’re not sure how to get one going? There’s a lot of buzz about the social enterprise, collaboration software, crowdsourcing, etc. But frequently there are obstacles to getting full user adoption. Here are some lessons we’ve learned at FMYI after six years of empowering teams to make a difference:

Download a copy of this presentation

1. Rally your team around a goal.

• Bring together people motivated to work together to achieve a goal.
• Make it clear what they are responsible for contributing.
• Focus in on how the collaborative effort benefits them.
• Get support from leadership and share the results of the collaboration.

Case study: A global hospitality corporation brought together green team members across hundreds of locations worldwide under the common banner of achieving their sustainability goals. They tailored their FMYI collaboration site to easily capture best practices and green team results. Everyone understood their posts would generate visibility for their sustainability efforts. Their CEO supported the initiative and had visibility to posts on the site, which gave transparency to the efforts of the green team and the VP of Environmental Affairs.

2. Cut the red tape by making the business case for internal stakeholders like IT.

• Focus in on how this specialized collaborative effort addresses a specific goal.
• Be sure to convey how your initiative is different from others.
• Make sure to address IT’s requirements and reduce their workload.
• Lean on your vendors to help provide technical and customer support.

Case study: A global media corporation rolled out an FMYI collaboration site focused on keeping everyone on the same page when it came to strategic planning. They wanted to make it easy to share information quickly, make changes to the site on the fly, and empower other team members to share information as well. This helped reduce the workload on IT by eliminating the need to deploy or customize another enterprise platform that was struggling to get user adoption. And FMYI addressed IT’s security requirements and provides all support needed, minimizing the burden on the media company’s team.

3. Make it as easy as getting back on the bike.

• To minimize the barrier to user adoption, set things up so the collaboration is as natural and familiar as possible.
• With the rise of social networking, embrace the spirit of those sites to enhance adoption.
• To create the conditions for maximum user adoption and stickiness, provide easy ways for people to collaborate together to answer questions, share updates, and get things done.

Case study: A global sportswear corporation is using FMYI to easily and effective engage over six thousand athletes to provide input and data regarding new products. With a userbase reflecting a wide range of computer skills, and the importance of getting regular input from a cross section of athletes, FMYI’s social networking site look and feel helped increase user adoption, made the transition from an older solution seamless, and reduced the need for support. FMYI’s collaboration features also made the site more than a data repository and enabled collaborative conversations to happen, creating a private social network for greater engagement and insight.

4. Give a helping hand right at the start.

• It’s critical to understand how you can help the team achieve its goals, and build the collaborative effort around that. This includes learning what motivates most team members.
• Involve key “change agent” team members in planning the rollout. They will give great input and assistance with getting others on board.
• Schedule a kick off training event (in person, virtual via webinar, or a pre-recorded video/slide tour) to convey excitement of the benefits in addition to showing how things work.

Case study: A multinational insurance corporation is using FMYI to help its salesforce improve results, track prospects, and manage clients. FMYI helped them understand the needs of its field force sales teams, worked closely with top agents across its salesforce, created customized template sites, and rolled out entertaining and approachable training sessions to engage the sales teams.

5. Like karaoke, you need to rely on continuous improvement.

• You can count on not getting it completely right the first time.
• Ongoing support for the entire team is important for input to refine things.
• It’s essential to have a solution that easy to update and change on your own.
• Incorporating sustainability can help increase performance.

FMYI provides all its customers free support no matter how small or large they are. This helps refine the features in our software. Configuration changes to FMYI sites are easy for site administrators to do without any technical knowledge, and updating pages in the site are intuitive for users. That way, the site stays relevant and useful over time. And FMYI’s commitment to sustainability means we minimize our environmental footprint, maximize our positive impact on our community, and empower our clients to do the same with built in triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit) features.

Click here to view and download slides illustrating these five keys to collaboration success.

-Justin

“Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast”

2010-05-05T13:45:21Z

A year ago, the Portland Blazers made it to the playoffs (and I was at the game), but didn’t get beyond the first round. (Sadly, this year the same occurred.)
A year ago, I walked into FMYI and made new friends; these friends have become family. We truly are the FMYI Family.
A year ago, I jumped onto a jet plane. Boy, it moves so fast.

Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast.

It has been an amazing flight and a whirlwind journey so far, but I can say that Most of the time - My head [has been] on straight…

Last week marked my first anniversary with FMYI. From the moment I got on this plane, it was “onward and upward” as Justin says.

What an amazing journey it has been so far, so much has happened…several new members joined the FMYI Family, we moved into a new office at The Leftbank Project, Version 6 was launched, rave reviews from our friends in the media, continued to improve upon our sustainability practices, launched A NEW DAY - our first ever brand video and a multitude of new clients are using FMYI to make a difference.

All this and undoubtedly much more occurred - thanks to the efforts and dedication of a great team.

Words of the year

Every year major news sources list the new “popular” words - I came up with my own list a few days ago. In a meeting last week, I did not say “FMYI,“ (I know, that is pretty impressive, for those who know me), but I used these powerful words…words of the future:

• Innovate
• Empower
• Human energy
• Sustainable
• Collaborate

Family

FMYI is not just a company. FMYI is not just a group of people who post messages, chat online and frequently have video chats. FMYI is a family of individuals committed to a common cause…making life easier for people around the planet.

“Planet” is an interesting word to consider with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day just a few weeks ago and our commitment to Every Day being Earth Day as well as the triple bottom line.

FMYI is about making life easier for people around the planet to improve the world’s profits by using new technologies to communicate and collaborate. FMYI empowers teams to make a difference.

We can’t make a difference alone. We can only truly make a difference if we work towards a solution every day as a team and as a family.

Thank you to everyone on the team for making my first year full of energy and excitement. I’ve always believed that you should do what you love in life (I’m a big fan of the short film from 2000 - “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, directed by my friend Scott Stewart, based on Raymond Carver’s short story). That is what I am doing. Every day, I’ve been excited to be on this airplane. Experiencing this journey. Thank you to everyone for welcoming me into the FMYI Family.

This first year has been unbelievable. While so many great things have happened…I’m excited to spend the next years building on my experience and doing my part to take FMYI to new heights.

365 days in…and I’m just getting started…

Keep empowering [with FMYI],
(that’s how I roll)
-Graeme

Making Every Day Earth Day!

2010-04-22T16:48:26Z

Is today Earth Day? Yes.
Was yesterday earth day? Yes.
How about tomorrow? Yes.

At FMYI, we believe that every day is Earth Day. As Justin Yuen returned from Fortune Brainstorm: GREEN 2010 this past week, it reminded us of the importance for ongoing discussion and engagement around sustainability. We are excited to celebrate the 40th annual Earth Day; we can only truly make a difference if we work towards a solution every day.

When we talk about our sustainability initiatives and company core beliefs, people sometimes give us a confused look. I am sure many wonder why an online collaboration software company is so committed to sustainability. To help others understand the heart and soul of FMYI, we released A New Day earlier this year. In the video we call for change agents to stop working, start innovating and keep empowering. We believe in a new way of working that is characterized by innovation, empowerment and sustainability. Like the first Earth Day, this new way of working requires just one thing – vision. Forty years ago, Earth Day was just one day. In the past several years it has evolved into Earth Week. Now, with sustainability being incorporate by more and more of us into our daily lives every day is Earth Day.

The Planet
We are committed to the triple bottom line business strategy of people, planet and profit. We believe innovation is the key to our efficiency and that doing things differently and sustainably increases effectiveness and decrease long-term impact on the planet. We have not inherited the planet from our parents; we are renting it for our children. We want to leave it a better place for them.

As we celebrate this 40th Earth Day, here are some the ways we take action every day to be a more sustainable business and do our part to grow a vibrant green economy.

Educating Ourselves
Every member of our team continues to be empowered by Natural Step Network training and Northwest Earth Institute discussion courses. Through these activities we continue the discussion and engage each other around sustainability and how we can continue to deliver on FMYI’s commitment to the planet.

Energy Use
We recently achieved the City of Portland’s Climate Champions designation. Carbon offsets for the energy used by our servers and your computer provided by The CO2Stats Project. We’re also a member of the Climate Savers Computing initiative.

Transportation
Employees are encouraged to commute using public transportation or by bike. We offer discounts on car sharing through Zipcar, access to bikes, flexible telecommuting options, and provide monthly TriMet mass transit passes for eligible employees through the Lloyd TMA. As a member of the Zipcar for Business program we were recently selected as a Finalist in Zipcar’s first annual Portland “Wheels of Change” awards for our dedication to improving the sustainability of our business practices and reducing our carbon footprint.

Sustainable Innovation
With sustainability in our DNA (along with innovation and Human Energy, of course), we are excited to have been selected as a 2010 Sustainable Business Oregon Innovation Award winner. Presented by the Portland Business Journal and Sustainable Business Oregon, we look forward to receiving the award at the banquet on May 27th.

Even though we have made great strides in our sustainability efforts, we know this is not a race, but rather a march forward. We hope you will join us to make a difference on Earth Day 2010 by finding events in your community and continue making every day Earth Day.

Keep empowering,
-Graeme

Three observations about FORTUNE Brainstorm Green

2010-04-21T14:04:35Z

It’s been a week since I moderated my panel on sustainability employee engagement at FORTUNE Brainstorm Green 2010 and I’m still trying to digest the entire conference experience. Besides the beautiful setting and my “Hey, I’m from the Pacific Northwest” sunburn, I came away with three key observations:

1. Collaboration is at an all time high.

I have to say that the conference was unlike any other sustainability gathering I’ve ever attended. The level of discourse was frequently at the macro level, probably due to the preponderance of C-level executives in attendance, including Walmart Chairman Lee Scott and Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford. Ann Davidson at VOX Global had this to say:

“...the third annual FORTUNE Brainstorm Green conference had the feel of a high school reunion where the star athletes and cheerleading captains (in this setting, major corporate CEOs and capitalistic entrepreneurs) are now happily walking the halls with the class nerds (the tree huggers and animal lovers).“

I was struck by how much collaboration I saw going on, including references by corporations to what they’ve learned from partnering with NGOs and sustainability consulting firms. The atmosphere was all about thought provoking dialogue across stakeholders. And the Fortune Editors did a masterful job of facilitating the discussions to minimize speeches and get at pointed questions. The main message I heard was that corporations have learned that sustainability is good business, not just a values-based commitment. Because of these multinationals’ massive footprints, any improvements they make have major positive impacts on their industries. To his credit, Bill Ford said last year he could only attend to give his talk, but this year he wanted to attend the entire conference so he could learn more from everyone.

2. Snakes on a plane? Nope - snakes on a stage.

A priceless moment was when Julie Scardina of SeaWorld brought a few friends of hers on stage, and a 14-foot boa constrictor immediately took a liking to Andy Serwer, FORTUNE’s Managing Editor. It was a metaphor for the most polarizing moments during the conference.

When Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant took the stage, the Twittersphere lit up with posts accusing him of sidestepping the big issues. But arguably the most controversial sentiments expressed came from long time environmental writer and creator of the seminal “Whole Earth Catalog,“ Stewart Brand. Once he started talking about being pro-nuclear and pro-biotechnology, to many environmentalists in the crowd, it felt as if he had transformed into a snake right before our eyes.

I don’t know if I came away convinced, but it definitely took me down the path of questioning assumptions. And that’s what the conference did so well with so many thought provoking sessions on major polarizing issues. I’m looking forward to diving into Brand’s latest book, “Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto.“

3. Optimism for the future.

For the most part, attendees were optimistic about the future of sustainability and the prospects of creating a new clean economy. Bill Gross‘ eSolar was out in force, and I wish I could have taken Mission Motors’ electric superbike out for a ride. I had a great talk with the folks at Unisource about their innovative sustainable packaging. And I was also inspired by my chats with Herman Miller, eBay, and many others.

The intimate environment that the conference fostered helped make the conversations and breakout sessions more effective. I really enjoyed moderating my panel with Sodexo, Hyatt, NBC, and Ernst & Young. It was great to see so many great companies at our panel, including REI, Zipcar, Nordstrom, BMW, Chick-fil-A, and POET. My biggest takeaway from the session is how the trend of engagement is accelerating, and including more stakeholders including customers/clients/consumers. This definitely bodes well for FMYI’s approach to leverage our social media tools to make engagement more effective. I hope to post a transcript of our panel discussion soon.

For next year, it would be great if FORTUNE Brainstorm Green covers “elephants in the room” in more depth, such as this quote from Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard:

“Saving the economy by consuming more has to stop.“

Also, with all the old and new economy power brokers and visionary NGOs in the same room, I’d love to see FORTUNE create more “roll up the sleeves” sessions to help forge new innovative partnerships to accelerate our transition to a triple bottom line economy. This could include building a 2020 or 2050 vision for a truly sustainable economy across all sectors, figuring out solutions to reduce the barrier to entry to new markets, or how to create economies of scale to revolutionize sustainable products and services. We all have a piece in creating sustainable prosperity for everyone, and everyone has something to gain from realizing this dream.

-Justin

P.S. To read a great summary of the conference, read FORTUNE Editor and conference creator Marc Gunther’s blog post. Also, there’s video online of select sessions. And special thanks to Marc and Starbucks VP of Global Responsibility Ben Packard for giving me the opportunity to moderate a panel at the conference!

The five keys to sustainability employee engagement (and karaoke)

2010-04-09T14:36:57Z

As I prepare for my panel at Fortune Brainstorm: GREEN next week, sustainability employee engagement has been on my mind. What is it and what does it have to do with karaoke? First off, I should say that I’m a terrible karaoke singer. Get me behind a mic and I’m dreadful. So bad in fact, that after just two hours of off-key warbling in a karaoke lounge, my voice will be shot for a week. Fortunately, I can say that I’m a sustainability employee engagement pioneer, having been involved as a change agent for 12 years both as part of a sustainability action team, and as someone who shaped employee engagement strategy at Nike.

Simply put, sustainability employee engagement is empowering your internal stakeholders to create triple bottom line value. As we all know, there’s been a groundswell of interest and commitment to sustainability in the workplace building over the past ten years. But frequently, the percentage of employees within an organization engaged in applying sustainability to day to day responsibilities is small, confined to corporate responsibility/sustainability full time staff, and perhaps a few key employees involved with some aspect of compliance with climate change, recycling, labor practices, etc. Recently, a study showed that 86% of employees aren’t engaged by companies’ sustainability programs. Sustainability employee engagement is all about getting everyone involved with taking daily actions toward creating triple bottom line results. There’s a strong business case for doing it.

Which brings us back to karaoke. How in the world are the two concepts similar? Let us count the ways — allow me to present you with the five keys to successful sustainability employee engagement and bring down the house karaoke:

1. Create an inspiring vision for success.

Sustainability employee engagement: Create a vision of the ideal sustainable future for your organization so everyone has something to shoot for — and be sure to involve a broad cross section of employees to development the vision. The beauty of this kind of exercise is you’ll learn so much about your brand, what employees believe your organization stands for, and you’ll identify areas for triple bottom line growth. The Natural Step offers a framework for creating a vision.

Karaoke: Who are you ultimately trying to emulate? Beyoncé? Tim McGraw? Lin Yu Chun? Whoever you decide on, study the entire package and go for it. (Note: if you’ve developed your own unique singing style, dance moves, and lyrics, then you should be performing at concert venues instead of the karaoke lounge.)

2. Have a process.

Sustainability employee engagement: The New York Times Magazine recently had a feature on “Building a Better Teacher“ which focused in on not the subject matter knowledge needed to be an effective teacher, but the 49 classroom techniques required for getting students to focus and learn. Sustainability employee engagement is the same — you need to at least have a simple process for each team involved with engagement to do things like create ideas for improvement, put them into practice, measure the results, and spread them to other teams. Definitely check out the Northwest Earth Institute’s “Sustainable Systems at Work“ discussion course for an easy way to empower your teams to develop their process solutions.

Karaoke: It’s definitely about the entire performance, not just the singing. How will you grab the audience’s attention at the start? What hand gestures to use during the crescendo? Do you memorize the lyrics so you can look them in the eye during the big finale? Having the process nailed down will guarantee success. That and making sure everyone has enough drinks in their hands.

3. Build up your toolbox for scalability.

Sustainability employee engagement: It’s vital to have effective tools. Otherwise, the engagement won’t spread beyond the initial green teams. Having the right tools is the difference between isolated pockets of sustainability activity and generating widespread triple bottom line results across a broad cross section of employees. When I was involved with Nike’s Shambhala program in 1999, it was a wonderful series of offsites designed to catalyze sustainability employee engagement efforts across the company. 55 middle management folks created their own green teams spanning multiple regions and divisions. But what prevented the momentum to continue after the offsites ended and from spreading to more areas within Nike was the lack of a platform to nurture the innovation community, share best practices, manage projects, and track results. That’s why I started FMYI to build a tool to do just that for sustainability employee engagement and beyond. We have a template for engagement initiatives, and companies like Hyatt are using it to bring people together across the globe to achieve sustainability business integration. It’s wonderful to see FMYI’s passion for sustainability realized with all the sustainability-related initiatives using our platform.

Karaoke: Now, when it comes to karaoke, the tools may be different, but just as vital. Be sure to crank up the echo on your mic when singing to large crowds. And for maximum effect on your target audience, and to try out some new moves before a larger audience, book a private room.

4. Capture the results.

Sustainability employee engagement: Senior management is going to want to see results. Whether it’s metrics or success stories, make sure you’re capturing them along the way. This will help allocate more resources for engagement activities, attract new team members, and generate positive stories for sharing with external stakeholders. Above all, it’ll help you develop best practices for new projects. In an ideal world, each initiative would have its own living “Impact at Work“ guidebook like Net Impact’s.

Karaoke: This one is easy. While someone is up there signing, be sure to capture photos and videos to post on Facebook and Twitter. That way, their performances are immortal reminders of excellence for family and friends to admire for years to come.

5. Evolve constantly.

Sustainability employee engagement: There is no finish line. This is a process of continual improvement and innovation, which can be exciting for everyone involved. For example, how can the concept of a “CarrotMob“ be leveraged? What are ways to embrace social media for building a community of practice? New ideas, new approaches, new people, new goals. And ultimately, scalable triple bottom line results.

Karaoke: In order to keep your audience begging for more, and to keep things entertaining, you’ll have to figure out ways to evolve your act. Adding new artists, songs, and moves to your repertoire will pay dividends. And some day, you might be doing a karaoke performance on stage at the VMAs.

So perhaps this entire blog post was a ruse to make me feel better about my sagging karaoke skills. I guess it’s in my nature to turn challenges into opportunities. I’m sure you can sing better than me, which means it’ll be even easier for you to be a sustainability employee engagement change agent!

-Justin

Need help? Who you gonna call?

2010-03-23T16:28:38Z

Ghostbusters?
Sometimes, when I’ve called a company’s support line, it’s felt like calling Ghostbusters might have actually been a better option.

Just last week I was sitting in the eye doctor’s office for an 8 AM appointment - the first appointment of the day. I arrived early with paperwork in hand. Then I sat there for 20 minutes…waiting. Luckily, I had my iPhone to pass the time and catch up on other things since no one told me they were behind schedule. Whether it be at the doctor’s office, at Starbucks or on the phone with the bank or credit card company – we experience customer support and service daily in everything we do. Of course, we generally don’t think about the experience until it turns into a negative one.

We probably have all had negative customer support experiences. We walk out of the store or end a phone call and wonder what the heck just happened. It is common to wait several minutes or even hours listening to ever-awful hold music in hopes of speaking with someone who can actually help. When we finally hear a voice on the other end of the line saying something like “don’t worry, I’m here to help you” complete frustration has already overtaken me. Especially when the unresponsive tech company wants to charge extra for phone support.

Yes, we all know the frustrations people have. The FMYI team is on a mission to reverse this effect and make sure that our clients have a positive experience on each and every support call. We also strive to have great hold music (call us to find out!). For us a “help call” is an opportunity to interact with our customers and help them overcome their challenges. Most can be resolved immediately, and callers know that if complexity is involved, the FMYI team will stay the course with them until they are completely satisfied.

This has been important to us over the last 6 years and is a growing trend, including Apple’s success by offering free in-person and online support with the Genius Bar and discussion forums to Get Satisfaction. Even if we can’t be in the same place at the same time as our clients all the time, we use screen-sharing software and go the extra mile to do in-person visits and trainings to empower teams.

This growing trend is important to us. We truly care about you and see you as a part of our team. We enjoy working together and sharing ideas on how to use FMYI to best target and improve the triple bottom line - people, planet and profit.

At FMYI, we are collaboration specialists. Our team acts as your personal consultant examining your overall needs to help you get the most out of collaboration software. By working closely with you and listening, we gain great insights for product development to improve FMYI to make your life better – we are here to empower you as a change agent.

So while the Ghostbusters may have cornered the market on removing slime or a giant marshmallow man, we are here to help you, as a change agent, empower your team to make a difference using FMYI. We enjoy talking to you so give us a call (888.FMYI.COM ext. 1), or us. We also make it easy to reach out with a button at the top right of your site…Just click on “Support.”

Keep empowering,
-Graeme

Langfang, China delegation visits Portland

2010-02-17T00:25:44Z

I recently gave a presentation on Portland, Oregon’s sustainability commitment at the Lan Su Chinese Garden to a delegation visiting from Langfang, China. Bob Wise at Cogan Owens Cogan invited me to present as part of an EcoCity Plan project with HOK and Janine Benyus. It was great learning more about China’s green city, and to see such an impressive collaboration come together around the EcoCity Plan concept. And I was able to practice a little bit of my rusty Chinese skills.

Portland, Oregon's sustainability commitment

-Justin

Change Agents Unite

2010-02-05T23:18:42Z

Today is a new day. Last night, we premiered our first-ever brand video at a party in the Ballroom of our wonderful home here at the Leftbank Project. The FMYI team was joined by over 100 customers, vendors, friends, family, neighbors, and people watching the online stream of the event. We were also pleased to have local leaders including Democratic Candidate for Oregon Governor Bill Bradbury, Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, and Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder participate in the festivities.

Highlights of the evening included six announcements in line with our commitment to a triple bottom line strategy of people, planet and profit.

1. FMYI turned six on January 28th.

2. 400% growth in usage in 2009.

3. Revenue in 2009 more than doubled.

4. Doubled our team adding positions in Portland, Orlando, and New Orleans.

5. FMYI named a City of Portland Climate Champion.

6. “A New Day“ video.

We’ve dreamed of doing something like this for years. “A New Day” is a brand video about the heart and soul of FMYI. It tells the story of who we are as a company and what we aspire to provide our customers. It’s about a new way of working to get a job done, online, in a social and sustainable way.

As a celebration of change agents and what we’re all about, the video is the cornerstone of our marketing efforts in 2010 and beyond. There’ll be more videos to come such as funny stories showcasing “stop working,“ product tours, podcasts, case studies and other exciting activities promoting change agents and how they’re their using FMYI to make a difference in the world.

Here’s a toast and a big thank you to the FMYI community and a special shout out to the cinematography and editing talents of Ben Garvey for helping us create a video that celebrates the “soul glow“ of FMYI.

Onward and upward,

-Justin

Soul glow

2010-01-05T19:33:57Z

With the end of 2009 comes the final installment of my bootstrapping blog series (with a New Year’s resolution to blog more frequently and involve all our team members!). At the end of the day, you can plan, strategize, rationalize, work hard, and dream all you want, but so much of the startup experience comes down to intangibles. Luck is frequently mentioned as being a key ingredient. And you have to be in the right place at the right time. I’ll call all of this the “Soul glow.“

At the heart of your startup, you need an authentic soul. It’ll carry you through all the difficult times and elevate you to new heights during the good times. What is soul? I’m sure you’ll have a different definition, but to me it’s a crazy combination of passion, surrounding yourself with inspiring people, working in places with things around you to spark new ideas, a desire to collaborate with others to overcome challenges, having fun to stay sane, bringing meaning to your mission, and staying grounded with reality while reaching for goals that truly excite you. Balance is a key theme.

For me, starting FMYI in Portland was key in terms of livability and the balance between cost and work life benefits. For example, because of the public transportation system, bike paths, and urban growth boundary, commuting times are shorter here than other cities which helps the local economy. This helps reduce stress for employees and maximizes the productive hours people can spend at work. Much has been said about the population of cultural creatives in Portland. It’s important to be surrounded by creative energy and new ideas when starting a business to help you tackle all the challenges that stand in the way.

Passion is a key element in keeping the energy level high. We truly enjoy helping people collaborate more effectively and are excited that 2009 brings us closer to a tipping point. We’ve also surrounded ourselves by people who are great at getting things done in a collaborative manner, whether they’re employees or vendors. Our commitment to sustainability has been a differentiator for us and brings a greater sense of meaning to what we do. We’re doing the Northwest Earth Institute’s Sustainable Systems at Work course and had a lively discussion this morning about how we can continually improve and help others. Doing the course helps us get into a different frame of mind at work. NWEI definitely has a lot of soul!

And a key element is having fun since growing a startup is hard enough as it is. Working with great clients is the biggest factor, and is something we’re very thankful for over here at FMYI. Being located in the Leftbank Project building also helps with a brewery in the basement and a cafe featuring local/organic ingredients. Occasional karaoke sessions, although potentially dangerous, can bring some soul (literally) to the workplace.

So as I bring this series of blog posts on starting up a business to a close, I’ll raise a virtual toast to everyone that 2010 brings all of us a “soul glow.“ May all your hard work be rewarded, and your dreams realized!

Onward and upward,
-Justin

Links to the complete blog series on starting a business:
• Intro: “Head west, young man”
• Bootstrapping: These bootstraps are made for walkin’
• Growing: Grow with the flow
• Worklife: Does worklife balance exist in startups?
• Tools: Startup bliss using online tools
• Sustainability: Sustainable startups: the triple crown
• Soul: Soul glow