Wild Rose, written by Ann Blackman, is a biography on Rose O'Neale Greenhow.  This woman was one of the leading spys for the Confederate Army. The quality of writing is lacking, but the learning experience has been good.  If you like American history, this one is a quick read.

R.O.G. supported the Confederate cause because she believe it in so deeply. Today her attitudes would be shunned by society; but during the period, she stood by principles and governing notions that were widely accepted by thousands of people. I found the book interesting because there aren't a lot of women spies in history.  She's a brassy woman. actually rather prickly.  This isn't a "must read," but it is good enough if you like the topic and have some time.

Growth Companies

The November 2005 issue of Inc. magazine (http://www.inc.com) is focused on the 500 fastest growing privately held companies.  I found the issue and feature article intriguing for a variety of reasons: it includes hot growth cities, break outs by vertical market and company size by revenue and number of employees.

When reading the company descriptions, I couldn't help but notice two common threads. First, there are a substantial percentage of small- and medium-sized firms that are government centric. Many of them are federal, but there were a few that were local and state government.  The point is, in spite of on-going media screeching regarding budget deficits, there is money to be made when working in information technology at all levels of government.

The second thread, which is much more intriguing, is that each of the companies listed is highly focused.  I find the topic of focus very interesting.  See my most recent column in eWeek's The Channel Insider (http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article2/0,1895,1872763,00.asp).

The idea of being a focused company lends itself nicely to the Thin Business Model^sm (TBM). TBM, undoubtedly, is the model of successful companies in the 21^st century.  It allows a handful of people to be fanatical about their core expertise, and either contracting or outsourcing every other function required to run the business.  Take a look at some numbers and you?ll see what I mean:

Merlin Technical Solutions        58 employees            Annual rev $88.2 m

Avail Workforce Mgt.              32 employees            Annual rev $36.6 m

PaySource                               62 employees            Annual rev $134.6 m

Banker's Healthcare Group      21 employees           Annual rev $31.9 m

There is no common thread among these companies, and the dozens of others highlighted in the Inc. magazine, to explain their fiscal success beyond being a focused, TBM^sm company. The Inc. story covers a wide number of vertical markets and the successes noted should not be brushed aside.  These companies have a business model that works.

I?ll be talking about TBM^sm quite a bit in this blog.  It is a concept I find very interesting in light of the aging baby boomers, fiscally strapped pension plans, and what technology can enable in terms of anytime, anywhere connectivity.

In the October 10, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek, Steve Hamm wrote a feature story about the top international professional gamer, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. The focus of the story was on gaming, the money involved in gaming and how companies are getting their hooks into it with sponsorships, hosting tournaments, broadcast opportunities, and specialized product development. The piece made numerous interesting points, but the one that caught my attention was the total business strategy Mr. Wendel, age 24, was incorporating into his gaming career.

"He's working to establish a worldwide brand, something no gamer has ever done.  He's licensing the Fatal1ty name (pronounced "fatality") to several hardware makers and expects to come out with a Fatal1ty PC soon. Down the line, he'll introduce hats, clothing, and even static-resistant shoes. 'He's beyond games.  He's the spokesperson for the digital revolution,' says Mark Walden, director of licensing at Auravision Inc. in Woodland Hills, Calif., Wendel's master licenser."

Branding is one of the keys of being a virtual employee.  Yes, Mr. Wendel really does his work in a virtual reality, but that is the exception for the virtual employee rather than the rule. What Mr. Wendel has accomplished is leverage his 15 minutes of fame as the top international gamer into a business that is sustainable over the long run. Down the road, when Mr. Wendel's winning streak has been forgotten, his contribution to the gaming community will continue. 

Branding is key to all good companies and there is monetary value that can be applied to a good brand. As you pursue your efforts in becoming a virtual employee, keep in mind that your brand is something to take care of, nurture and protect.

It has become increasingly apparent that the Thin Business Model sm is catching on.  Business 2.0 has run, over the last couple months, many articles that feature startups that are able to leverage the value of a good idea to generate significant revenues in short periods of time, without the attention diverting overhead of building a physical business.

While this is intrinsically interesting, it may seem that although this process works well for a company that is just starting up, it can't possibly work for established enterprises.  In fact, lots of people I have talked to go even farther: they assert that since an enterprise is established and has already made the investment in infrastructure, there is no need for it to even think in terms of virtualization.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

As Ray Kurtzweil points out in his new book (The Singularity is Near), the rate of change is accelerating.  Dynamics that used to apply only to semiconductors (Moore's law) now apply to processes that depend on those semiconductors.  In other words, the speed of business is doubling at roughly the rate that computing infrastructure is doubling: about every 18 to 24 months.

On its face this assertion may sound preposterous.  But a little reflection will serve to illustrate just how fast things are really changing and how that rate of change is starting to impact large companies.

For example, how many companies are outsourcing?  How many companies are asking for more time and greater efforts from employees?  The reason given is that markets are now ?hyper competitive.?  What that really means is that companies are seeing their markets erode as smaller,  more nimble, market  entrants capture high margin business.  As technology increasingly compensates for size, smaller entrants are going to capture more and more of any market.  Big companies will continue to squeeze what they can out of employees to keep up and then, when that isn't enough, will outsource functions to third parties.

There is another way, of course. That is for enterprises to adopt the same technology that gives the edge to small companies. Rather than trying to do things the same old way, but more of it, enterprises can use technology to enable current employees to do things better and more efficiently.  

That's where virtualization comes in.  Virtualization applies technology in ways that maximize its impact on the company's bottom line.  Rather than making choices about physical infrastructure or IT infrastructure, thin businesses sm choose IT every time.  They know that technology that places a presence close to the customer or that enables the company to tap the best brains wherever they may choose to live has a much higher ROI and quicker payback than a depreciable building.

For large companies that have already made big investments in physical plant, the choice will be simple: continue to support that overhead and watch cost pressures continue to increase or switch to a more nimble investment approach that focuses on virtualized processes.  It also goes without saying that a investment that has already been made is a sunk cost and should not influence future investments that the company may make.

The winds of virtualization are inexorably pushing the business world to a thin business sm model. The question is whether companies will sail with the wind or try to sail against it.