http://

I’ve been sitting on this link for a while (click above), but it’s pretty interesting to note just how powerful and large Wal-Mart has become.  Many people have their own opinions on the superstore, but this does a pretty good job of just putting the info out there in a way that everyone seems to love these days, AN INFOGRAPHIC!

As an aside, in Toronto now making things happen and visiting family for the holidays.  Don’t expect another post until at least a few days into the new year!

I really dislike the word ‘entrepreneur’. It’s a word I’ve never liked for various reasons, and a word I specifically try to avoid. A quick jaunt to Wikipedia and you’ll see that entrepreneurship can be defined as “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods.” I think a key word in there is ‘innovation’. Is it innovative to perform a service that many also perform? Are you an entrepreneur if you throw up some Kijiji ads that you can paint houses for cheap? I think ‘business owner’ is far more appropriate.

I’d also like to emphasize that this is in no way a dig at people who focus more on fulfilling a need in the market than changing the world.  I have ridiculous amounts of respect for people who provide a great service or sell a great product.  Owning a restaurant is amazing and having been part of a family restaurant since I was in diapers, I have ridiculous amounts of respect for their owners and the mass wealth some have accumulated.  Do I think owning a restaurant makes you an entrepreneur?  No.  Do I think amassing a restaurant empire and expanding throughout your supply chain makes you an entrepreneur? Yes.  I’d say being an entrepreneur is something all business owners strive for but until you cross that somewhat arbitrary checkpoint, you can’t really call yourself one.

You could also probably successfully argue me into admitting that business owners are indeed entrepreneurs because there is always a certain amount of innovation required to survive in the business world.   There are a few high-profile, successful, and admirable entrepreneurs here in Halifax and Nova Scotia, but… they are few.

I readily admit that I am not an entrepreneur…quite yet.  I’m fine with that and it satisfies me every day to know that I’m helping other business owners and entrepreneurs achieve their personal goals.  Testimonials keep me going and are (duh!) a testament to Denote’s ability to make our clients more money and achieve goals.  Not to self-promote, but if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur reading this, we’d love to get in touch and earn a testimonial from you too.

I’ve proudly called myself a business owner since day one, but some of the things Denote Communications have been doing, some of the clients we’ve worked with, and some of the services we offer, are leading me to consider using that dirty E-word.  Denote Communications is still heavily centered around marketing, advertising, branding, and (most importantly) making our clients money.  It’s that last, and most important, aspect that has me ironically questioning whether ‘Communications’ effectively conveys what we do for business.  With the recent soft-launches of both our market research arm and our all-in-one business web solution, Denote is expanding into new and different realms containing a wider array of clients in need of wildly different things.

Rest assured, Denote is always there to satisfy.

We’d love the opportunity to prove it to you.  I’d love your help on my journey from business owner to entrepreneur.

So you’ve just started your business.  You’ve got your savings, loan, government handouts, etc., and a dream to make money.  I’m surprised at the amount of people who immediately think their top priority is a social media plan.  I realize this is industry specific, but unless your industry is providing social media services (a suspect business in itself, and I’ll explain why in a future post), I don’t see how it should even be in the top 5 of things that should concern you as a small business. (EDIT: I suppose some sort of public speaker or someone on a quest to Internet fame could prioritize this)

This is not to say that social media is not something to pay attention to, there are just far more important things to deal with.  The foremost (and arguably 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-most) important aspect is generating sales.  I have personally seen few examples of a tweet resulting in direct sales.  Sales should always be at the forefront of your business as without sales, your business is not a business…it’s a hobby.  Unless you’re really good at writing grants, that doesn’t cut it.

What I have seen, is Twitter building brand and establishing a presence so that people are aware of your existence.  In a short, free advertising.  Unfortunately, nothing is ever free and the time it takes you (even if you just schedule a bunch of updates) is not worth the time for most business owners.  In the time it takes for you to create (or even schedule) your updates, read what’s up with your followers, and interact with them, think of how your time could have been dedicated elsewhere into actions such as project management, sales, or account/relationship management.

You can outsource project and account management, but, theoretically, nobody will ever be able to sell your business as well as you can.  Whether it’s going into a coral of other hungry business people called a ‘networking session’, or having a beer with someone you have a genuine (potential money-making) connection with, as the face of your organization, you’re better off utilizing that face instead of a keyboard.

I would never excuse doing something like sales or account management to update my social media.  Again, I have spoken with far too many people who prioritize their social media presence higher than the most important things a business can have.  Your social media is not a priority, it doesn’t make people give you money.  It can make people be slightly aware of you so they don’t slam the door in your face, but it is definitely not a substitute.  It may be the way this company started, but I do not believe there will ever be a substitute to pounding the pavement and speaking to people.

I waste my time sometimes. It pains me to admit it, but I am not as efficient as I can be.  It is times like this that I update my social media.  I only do so enough to remain in people’s sight and minds, and on my downtime as a leisure activity.  Also, as Denote grows, we are beginning to have others manage our social media for us (we are assembling an AMAZING team by the way).  I believe after nearly 3 years, that we are also at a point where we can benefit from emphasizing brand awareness and it is time to take our organization to the next plateau.

Denote is not yet at a place where we can benefit from a comprehensive social media strategy, but our client experience has taught us that after a certain size, it’s a worthwhile investment.  Large brands, politicians, charities, events.  These are all great examples of types of organizations that can benefit greatly from engaging an audience on platforms on the web (You could probably defeat me in a debate over politics though).  When you get to the point where you’re large enough that you can sustain the costs of a comprehensive social media strategy, call us and we’d be happy to develop one for you.  Until then, call us and we’d be happy to help you out as much as we can anyway.  We’d love to find enough work for us to do that we don’t have to feel guilty just charging you for social media.

What do you think?  Is social media a waste of your time? (Think hard before answering that one!) Has social media directly made you money?  What industry are you in?  I’d love to learn!

Inspired by the APEC conference having just finished in Hawaii, I thought I’d make a post on an article I read a few days ago.

Interesting bit of news I read the other day and I’m sure I don’t understand it as well as I should, but China’s Guangdong province has given a 20% increase to worker’s minimum wage.

With the province’s heavy emphasis on manufacturing it could mean a number of things for both the Asian and Global community.  Though the 20% increase in wages will not have as large an impact as the percentage points indicate (the wages are already so low), I think it’s more of a sign of things that are already happening.  Look on the label of your shirt.  Chances are production has either moved to India or another South East Asian country.  China is making a push to exit its image as a manufacturing province and move towards higher end business.

What does this mean? Though still staggering, we are seeing fewer ‘Made in China’ labels and tags on the products we buy.  Already dealing with suspect quality and human rights standards, we’re going to see less manufacturing done in China and more likely in the South East Asian countries.  Having recently returned from Indonesia and Malaysia, and having spoken to several ASEAN ambassadors, I can attest that this is something the community has been working towards for some time.  Countries such as Vietnam are especially poised to take advantage.  With a special love in my heart now for Indonesia, I can only hope that they can take advantage of this opportunity and begin to slowly and solidly push towards developing a much needed middle-class.

Without having been to these nations, I don’t think Canadians can truly comprehend what is possible in terms of opportunities for these ASEAN nations. What is a bit more comprehensible will be the choices Western companies make in whether they keep their operations in China and eat the cost or pass it on to the consumer, move operations to places with cheaper labour, or even (unlikely in my opinion) shift production back to Western countries.  This isn’t exactly a pivotal moment, but it’s an obvious sign among many that things are changing in Asia and power is shifting ever so slightly.

As a Game Designer, there is one skill that trumps all others in importance. The skill of communication is absolutely invaluable when dealing with all facets of a game’s life cycle. How do you want the soccer players to move following a cross into the box? Should the Carolina Hurricanes play the trap more often than other teams? Do the enemies have a high skill in using lead pipes? If they do, does it follow that they can use similar blunt objects just as well? As a designer, you should know the answer to these questions and why they are so.

There are many different components of a team (art, design, programming, etc.) and as teams often shuffle from project to project, not all members are educated in how things have worked in the past or, given something like a sports game, work in the real world. A programmer’s job is to create the vision of the designer and work around problems and bugs in order to do so.

In the example of a baseball game, the average person would likely not understand the in depth strategy of defensive shifts and fielder positioning. It is not a programmer’s job (though it would be extremely welcome and beneficial) to discern that since Ryan Howard is naturally a pull hitter, the CPU should move their fielders to the right side of the field. What they need to be able to do, is program the CPU to do that after the designer has properly communicated and explained that fact. The programmer can worry about how they wish to develop a system to determine how the defense plays for certain players.

Perhaps, even with a properly communicated explanation of why Ryan Howard pulls the ball when he hits, and why the fielders would want to adjust for that, the programmer could set up a system that, given certain attributes, can provide defensive shifts for other players such as Jim Thome or David Ortiz. Taking it a step further, if they are aware of other resources such as batter spray charts, the programmer could facilitate a script wherein the designer could create a criteria for when an AI ‘manager’ would call for his players to perform a defensive shift. This could go miles in establishing both a way of establishing manager ratings, AI, and even offensive player tendencies.

The point is, the greatest ideas mean nothing if you can’t communicate them effectively.  Though everyone thinks of communicating their ideas to an audience, people rarely seem to think about how they can communicate their ideas to the people responsible for building the game.  What do I suggest (strictly my opinion) for people trying to get into design?  Take some English or communications courses.  The skills of oral and written communication are always in high demand.

One of the largest misconceptions people seem to have is that a great idea will land them a job in the video game industry. While there are a multitude of reasons wrong with that, one common problem I’ve seen is that people design games for themselves, not everyone else. While every so often you get lucky in having your own personal tastes directly lined up with everyone else’s, that’s not always the case.

In fact, great ideas can be a dime a dozen in the gaming world. It can’t be emphasized enough how not only a great idea is needed, but great market research, and proper implementation. I’ve experienced first hand that in our studio of about 100, there have been several awesome ideas…games I think I’d love to play. What many don’t realize is that there’s a bigger picture than, “Is the game fun?”. Studios, especially independent ones, can be made or broken on their releases. On more than one occasion, the poor sales of a single title have been enough to bring down a studio.

What is more important than simply having a ‘great idea’, is doing some market research into what people are currently playing, who your market is, and can your market sustain your product. Wow, it’s almost as if the sexy world of video games is the same as every other product. You may have come up with a way to make the best hang-gliding simulator game in the world, but how many people are going to pony up the cash to make the effort worthwhile and justify the cost of production and publication?

One of my favourite games of all time has been Trevor Chan’s Capitalism 2. In a world of First Person

Shooters dominating the marketplace, it takes very careful production and marketing to develop a new idea. Would gamers today appreciate the ability to play in a near fully functional economic playground? Would they appreciate the ability to dominate the world by cornering the global markets of strawberries and motorcycles, playing the stock market, or becoming the next Best Buy? Maybe they would. But would they still be interested once they learned that every aspect from the quality of their engines (influenced of course by the training of the staff in their factories or that of the factories they’ve sourced production out to, and the quality of steel being used), the distance of the engine factory to the motorcycle assembly plant, and even the economic impact of the city they’re selling in, affects their success? I think you’ve just cut a significant part of your market out.

With that said, some people absolutely adore that kind of control. The concept and idea of Capitalism is absolutely amazing, but it definitely does not have the mass market appeal. As such, a game such as this would likely only see the light of day if its production were kept extremely tight and a smart budget were developed. While I was unable to find sales figures on the critically acclaimed title, I can’t imagine it had sold the amount that other genres have.

Conversely, looking at the Call of Duty franchise, specifically Call of Duty 4, we have a game that has sold over 10 million units. How many people enjoy shooting? How many enjoy saving the world and killing terrorists? Well, judging by the sales numbers, many many people. A franchise like COD can afford to have more polish put into it.

Being a large fan of COD4, I also take note that the game itself isn’t that ground-breaking a game. The game is definitely scripted gameplay at its finest, but it is indeed just that…scripted gameplay. The story is amazing and engrossing, they do a fine job of immersing you into the game world, and the game mechanics are solid. COD 4 doesn’t challenge the user to solve puzzles using time shifting mechanics, become Liberty City’s most wanted in a near-completely open world, or become an entrepreneur in a fully comprehensive economic climate. It does something simple and ordinary in an absolutely amazing and stunning way.

By no means is this a shot at the COD series, but it is akin to listening to Pop music vs. Classical, an Art Exhibit or a 3D Eye Painting, or Ballet vs. a Striptease. They’re all entertainment, but some have far more mass appeal than the other.

Now more than ever, games aren’t just for gamers. They’re for everyone. I’ve seen some amazing ideas fall by the wayside due to the fact that not nearly enough people would appreciate them to justify the cost of production (I’m looking at you, point and click adventures). It’s a shame that this is the case, but it’s difficult to put developers and publishers at fault for wanting to ensure their own survival. In my opinion, the most important thing for a game to do is create fun. If you can’t create a fun experience for the people who vote with their wallet, no amount of ‘revolutionary design’ can make up for your failure.

Josh at Jorge Says No! has a great article on Vernon Wells’ ludicrous contract.  If Jays fans are complaining about not getting any big free agents, don’t expect them for a while.

Wells is set to make a meager $1.5 million this year before his contract explodes to $12.5 million in 2010, $23 million in 2011, and then $21 million until 2014.  All with a full no trade clause to boot.  In my opinion, Wells is a good player that has had severe injury problems.  As Josh states in the article, he is by no means an elite player.  The Jays are overspending and considering that Wells will make up just over 1/5 of what the Blue Jays have as their regular payroll (It’s just under $98 million this year), we better hope to God he opts out when he gets the chance in 2011.