Blogs

A slow day at the Breaktech office today.  Everyone's off at the Edward Tufte conference in downtown Chicago.  I wish I was there, studying at the feet of the master for the first time.  If you don't know his work, you can check it out and his books here.  Edward Tufte writes and speaks extensively on visualization of complex data - presenting the problems of today in a historical context (with an array of historical solutions) that is truly eye-opening for those of us who think we are solving problems unique to the digital information age.

What a great day of touring we had.  We started it off with a trip to the Tskiji Fish market.  This is the place along the main commercial port of Tokyo where all of the seafood comes in for sale.  Japan consumes about 70% of the world's blufin tuna, and we had to get in around 5 AM to catch the daily tuna auction.

Also, about 450 different varieties of seafood are traded here.

Here is a glimpse at some of the technology we saw.  And yes, that is an abacus!

This is the first blog post from Tokyo.  As you may know, Breakthrough is visiting a large utility company on interest of a product that we have developed for one of our clients.  It is very exciting, and over the next few days I will be posting some photos from our trip here.

Recently, the economy has been a pretty unsettling topic of discussion.  Lots of fear, uncertainty and doubt abound in discussions held by the government, the media, and around the water cooler.  At Breakthrough, we have done several things to weather this economic storm, and I wanted to share some of those tips with this broader community.

1. Be conservative, but look for opportunities

Last year, Breakthrough was pretty flat from a staffing growth prerspective.  We looked ahead at the growing uncertainty in the marketplace, we listened to the messaging from our customers, and we did not bring on some additional staff as we had planned originally.  We found that with the arrival of some new business this year, we have had the opportunity to add some staff in 1Q09, which has been a great signal to our customers and staff that we are successfully weathering this storm.

2. Consider the contrarian approach

I believe in the philosophy of Warren Buffet, that we should look for opportunities where others are fearful.  These are the times when business opportunities are most accessible to the little guys like us.  Likewise, when the herd decides to shut down operations and dramatically cut costs, we believe in hunkering down with our team, keeping costs low, but protecting the jobs and people we have fought so hard to staff over the past 5 years.  It would be easy to let them go, but if 10 years in this business has taught me anything, easy is almost never right.

3.  Look to your people

In times where you are trying to make good hard decisions, look to your customers and your staff for input.  One of the benefits of this recession is that we are all in this together - we are all struggling with the same problems and we are all invested in a similar outcome, that is, the re-emergence of global business opportunities.  You will find many interesting ideas and perspectives that are not available to you in your corner office.  Embrace them, welcome, them, and factor them into your plans.

4. Don't worry, be happy

Lastly, don't let the doom and gloom of the daily news cloud the bigger picture: we are all living through a necessary adjustment with the way things were going.  We will all emerge from this together and find opportunities in the way things will be.  Our relationship with the government may change, opportunities with new customers will emerge and fade, but we will still be hard-working, smart people looking to make a living for ourselves and our families and improve the lives of our customers and their families.

Some things will never change.

Had a great night in downtown Dubai.  Ate sushi across from this amazing structure.  As much as I like the photo, it really doesn't do it justice:

We also went for a long walk along the beach/resort areas.  We saw some beautiful people at the Marine Beach Resort Club, and got to walk about 1000 yards out into the ocean for a great view of the coastal skyline: