Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Archives for April 2023

Cloud Computing Is Awesome – But Not Always

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In aviation, being “in the clouds” is a universal flight condition referring to a pilot’s inability to see the ground.

It’s also a common lament of parents about the troubling coordinates of a teenager’s head, which might seem to be “in the clouds.”

In the 21st century, “in the cloud” is a reference that has established itself in the marketplace vernacular as the interaction and delivery point between providers of “cloud-based” digital applications and customers.

Cloud computing is the availability of incremental processing power that resides on an application provider’s servers, instead of your hard drive. For example, community-building technology, like social media platforms. When you post something on Facebook, you’re in the cloud. When you conduct online banking, sell a stock, or hail an Uber from your smartphone, you’re doing that in the cloud. If you use Google’s G Suite of office products, or Microsoft Office 365, all are cloud-based. And, of course, hooking up on Zoom, et al, are all meetings “in the cloud.”

No question, cloud computing is another example of technology increasing business efficiencies and leverage. And for small businesses, it’s been a godsend, because [Continue Reading]

Networking For Referrals: It Makes Business Easier And Life Simpler

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The act and practice of networking – for business or any other endeavor – is one of the great intangibles in life. Networking can help you get into a college, a new job, a business prospect – you get the picture. But none of this happens until you actually meet people.

In the marketplace, the business reason for networking is to get referrals. Ivan Misner is the Founder of Business Network International (BNI), the world’s guru of networking, and the author of a wheelbarrow-full of books on the subject. He thinks people who don’t get enough referrals just don’t know how to ask for them. I agree. Ivan has an excellent suggestion to help with this, and it revolves around the person called the “center-of-influence,” or COI for short. The COI is the connection between you and the person you want/need to meet, and whom you likely met while networking.

Ivan says, “Don’t make your COI do all your work for you. Help them out by asking this question, ‘Who do you know who…?’ and then finish the sentence with a description that fits what you need: your business, industry, product, service, etc.” Here’s an example: John, let me ask you a question, who do you know who buys advertising? …truck tires? …owns apartments?

Here’s a concept I call, “Blasingame’s Entrée Spectrum.”[Continue Reading]

America’s Banking System – Let’s Get Some Things Straight

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Right now, and likely for a while longer, there’s a lot of stuff coming out about challenges in the U.S. banking system. Sometimes it’s difficult to sort through the range of comments, from the smart to the stupid. But if you’ll give me five minutes, we’ll find some clarity so you can not only make better banking decisions for yourself and your business, but also for our country.

Watching a segment of a business news program recently, the conversation was about the impact on the banking system from the dramatic collapses of two very large San Francisco banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. One of the guests, a celebrity “financial expert,” made this statement about the future of banking: “America no longer needs 3,000 regional banks, since most of us do our banking online.”

This stupid comment pulled off the hat trick: ignorant, inaccurate, and dangerous. On its face, the statement is factually incorrect – no American bank sector corresponds to the number he used. It’s ignorant from a marketplace standpoint because it assumes all banking is done online. And in the Digital Age, when inaccuracy and ignorance come out of the mouth of a so-called expert in a single comment, it can become dangerous.

So, let’s establish some clarity and avoid the danger by thinking of America’s three commercial bank sectors in the context of [Continue Reading]

Are You Prepared For The Next Business Interruption?

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This year marks an ignominious 20th anniversary. On August 13, 2003, a single outage in the electric grid cascaded across eight northeastern states, putting 55 million people in the dark for days, and thousands of businesses out of business. The Great Blackout of ’03 was a catastrophic reminder that we’re all one nosy squirrel in a transformer away from an instantaneous, put-you-out-of-business event.

Two decades later, the evidence isn’t in favor of less exposure for the next 20 years. Consider this report from CNBC: “The FBI warned Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers.” And this one from the Department of Homeland Security: “Russian government cyber actors have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, nuclear and commercial facilities, since at least March 2016.” And more recently, experts allowed that the Chinese balloon that recently circumnavigated the U.S. could have been carrying an EMP, or electromagnetic-pulse device, that when detonated, essentially fries the electric grid below.

Prior to 2003, most businesses surveyed reported they were aware that a business disruption/interruption was possible, but incredibly, they also admitted they weren’t prepared for one. Thankfully, that response is different these days, as one of our recent online polls indicated. [Continue Reading]

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