Welcome to 2014! I'm back!

Over the past couple of years life has gone thru several changes for me, thus I have been away from blogging like I did when I started in 2007. I am changing this now, and will blog both here and on my TMCNet Enterprise 2025 blog (http://blog.tmcnet.com/enterprise-2025/) where I will discuss technologies affecting the enterprise such as the Internet of Things (IoT), data centers, mobility and the consumerization and personalization of IT, unified communications, VoIP, video and perhaps a few surprises along the way.

On my personal blog here, I will write about my experiences and perspectives that will span my consulting and career experiences,  how marketing and product management have changed since my first product manager role back in the 80’s, and how baby boomers like myself have approached technology as it changes.  

My professional life revolves around technology as I have been involved in emerging technology since the 70’s when I was a real time operating system software developer and worked on unreleased products and custom software for various real time applications. I gained a love for being “in the know” on what was coming and I worked with and for experienced, smart and excellent managers who could not always deliver a roadmap on time or budget for any number of reasons (some could and did). I was fortunate to have great mentors along with way as well. My observations, participation and post-mortems taught me ways to predict, schedule, budget, and manage situations related to revenue connected deliverables for key customers.  I have heard just about every excuse in book for missing dates. 

Product management and marketing became my passion after I left software development and continues to be a prominent part of my professional life!

I feel blessed to have worked with great people, smart people, and all types of personalities from the “know-it-all” to the “avoid decisions at all costs” types. There is good and bad in each situation no matter how you look at it. I will share some experiences but put them into current perspectives 

Over the past couple of years I have taken on senior operations roles where I worked with each functional group and directly with CEOs and functional leaders to build strong foundational teams, culture codes, install repeatable optimized processes, and optimize communications amongst team members. The unfortunate part of my experiences is that some people lose their jobs along the way to “right the ship”. it is not always the persons fault, the roles change, scope changes, and personalities around people and process change. 

My blogging will share many of my experiences with the hope that I can help others improve their situation regardless of their roles. It’s interesting when a fresh face who has been around the industry for many years in several companies of different sizes can quickly identify issues, recommendations for improvements, and bring a wide variety of experience to the company.  I encourage your comments, dialogue and would appreciate sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+ when deserved and valuable.

Enough about me. My next blog post will explore how traditional product marketing, which is most company means creating outbound marketing collateral, sales tools and programs has evolved and now includes content and inbound marketing, marketing automation and social media!