If you’ve ever seen someone holding their cellphone up to a radio, in the air at a nightclub, or against their TV speakers, you’ve probably seen Shazam in action.

Shazam is an awesome little internet service/mobile app which can recognize a musical input, filter it through a nifty (and proprietary) algorithm, search the cloud, and spit out the name of the song being played into it. Perfect if you find your head bobbing in an elevator and need know which song Kenny G is playing.

I was happy to see that Shazam is starting to diversify their product by pushing for integration into new televisions, and partnering with cable networks and advertisers to add “Shazamable” links in media. Here’s the article.

This is fantastic.

Although I’m not sold on the necessity of the “second screen” (entertainment does not need distraction), I am excited for more players to jump into this potential market – imagine using google goggles to search a location in a movie, or siri to order Papa Joe’s straight from the commercial…

This is the hyper-networked society we will be living in very soon. Everything connected – possibilities endless.

To Shazam: Please use the money you make doing this to let me “Shazam” low-quality, re-mixed or music being played as a cover. I really want to be able to do that.

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4 months travel quickly.

I’ve finished my MBA.

Worked in a sustainable farming community.

Learned how to code in JAVA (kind of…)

Started work as a Management Consultant in the world’s top technology-oriented firm. Here’s a hint:  >

Looking forward to some more consistent updates. Not that anyone actually reads this but my mom. Hi mom!

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Leaders who put their passion into their jobs, who set lofty goals, and who encourage others to strive for them will always be remembered, and will always leave a lasting legacy in the world they leave behind.

This week two special leaders have left their posts, one permanently.

Although they moved people in very different ways, towards very different goals, both represented and embodied the brands that they lived for, or invented.

In the coming weeks, the true test of their legacies will be played out: did they prepare to pass on their mantles to other capable leaders who can move their causes forward, if not as memorably, at least as inexorably.

To Apple: best of luck – To Steve: Best of Health

To Jack: We will miss you whether we voted for you or not.

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I’ve been knocked out for three days with a nasty flu. I won’t be getting into any details here about it, but something interesting came to me in one of my non-fever hallucinating moments.

Lying in bed trapped is terrible.

There is nothing to do but think.

But, thinking is the one thing we often neglect to do on a regular basis. I’m not talking about everyday thinking here. I mean -Big picture – creative – outside norm – big t -Thinking.

Most of my thought energy on a weekly basis, even in planning, goes into the absolutely mundane: Schedule, assignments, social interaction, upcoming tests, projects-in-progress.

Almost none goes into the kind of thinking I should really be doing. The kind that will help me have ideas and start projects.

Without even really TRYING, while ill, I came up with:

-An awesome idea for an ipad game (watch out Angry Birds)

-A great solution for a project in mid-stream problems

-A new way to market myself and get my resume out there

-A blog post

-Another blog post (you’re reading it)

I’m now declaring a weekly “Sick Day”. One hour of my time devoted to non-essential creative thought. I really don’t want to wait until the next time I’m sick to be so thought-productive. And I really don’t want to be sick again period.

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This month’s edition of Canadian Business Magazine features an article in Business Education by Ken Smith, a Professor at the School of Business at Guelph University.

The article is entitled: The MBA`s Last Gasp

Mr. Smith calls into question the MBA as it currently exists. To be frank – I agree with him in many ways.

Here`s the response I sent to Canadian Business:

Ken Smith has written an article this week for “Canadian Business” Magazine which proclaims the MBA is an out-dated product. That it needs a reinvention.

Mr. Smith, an MBA himself tells us (in typical MBA fashion) that that the product life cycle of this graduate degree is in the phase of “Decline”.

He notes 3 observations which support his conclusion:

1.       There are lots of MBA students and programs out there. These grads have all been taught the same things. And yet, by and large, even if they know they are contributing to negative business activity (a la pre-2009 financial markets) they go along with their activity anyways (let’s not question the boss).

2.       Undergraduate degrees are approaching the level of sophistication of the MBA. Students want more from a graduate degree program.

3.       The world has changed in many ways since the invention of the MBA program and traditional curriculums (even case studies) are lagging far behind.

As a current MBA candidate (full time at that), I must defend… Mr. Smith, at least in his initial remarks and ultimate conclusion.

His observations are valid, if not in every case, then in many. There are many stagnant programs, and many more stagnant graduates and stagnant students.

However I differ strongly in my opinion of the re-invention of the MBA.

It is true, as Mr. Smith contents that the future of the MBA exists not in the stodgy old traditional programs, but those whose flexibility can offer leadership into a new era. But it will not be the schools that usher in a new generation of dynamic business graduates. It will be the students.

No school can keep up with the pace of business and the rate of change in its processes today. It is not feasible to expect an academic approach to “social gaming human resources tools”, or the business of “email classification and encryption” (to use two Canadian business start-up examples: Rypple and Titus).

The advantage the MBA offers, even as it is today, is the opportunity to connect and work with peers and local (and even global) businesses in an environment that leaves you free to innovate, collaborate, and even fail. Your horizons are unlimited as you undertake a program of education, and it is up to the student to expand those horizons themselves. As a student, I am the one who needs to be pushing my program to the limits of the new business environment, and forging a degree which will serve me in the industry I choose. It should not be the other way around – a school trying to educate me into an industry – even one I choose or to be a sheep in the existing program and classes.

The MBA student must take the opportunities presented to them in case work, research and projects in their stodgy old classes and apply them to today’s world. Or better yet, apply them to the world that will exist in the future when they exit their program with a degree in one hand and a resume in the other.

If the students are smart, and take this approach, they will be the ones with the jobs and the capital to re-invest (hopefully) in the future students of business at the school where they themselves made their mark. If the school is smart, it will adapt and learn from these students, and make preparations to adapt and learn from the next ones.

On an ending note; the image degradation suffered by the MBA by the behaviour of some of the professionals who hold the designation is fair. We should not shift all the blame to their bosses before the bubble burst.

We also cannot expect that the schools will repair that image through courses in ethics, governance and social responsibility, although this helps. Once again in this case it us up to us, both students and alumni, to initiate change.

Students across Canada have begun just that, and launched a program for collaborative stewardship and peer accountability through the Canadian MBA Oath. (www.canadianmbaoath.com)

Thank you, Mr. Smith, for raising the bar for us. Let’s try to take that breath, not as a gasp, but as he hopes, the first breath in a renewal.

What do you think? Is it time for some renewal? Who will be driving it?

Respond in the comments: It’s cool to share!

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I’ve recently been finding catching myself complaining. I complain about problems of service, about percieved defaults in programs at school, at advertisements I think are terrible, and about people who don’t live up to my expectations.

We all do this. We complain. We are complainers. Normally this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, our ability to set goals of Excellence, expectations, and to measure results helps us progress as individuals and as a society.

The key to this process however is progress. The process of complaining acheives nothing. Whether it’s in your head or in a bitch session with one or a few others, negative chatter goes nowhere unless it is acted on.

If a service or product doesn’t meet our expectations we should be enterprising. We should pick up a pen or pencil, a keyboard, or a mobile device and get our feedback to the places where it can be used to improve that product or service. As businesses begin to reach out to us consumers, we need to start reaching back. Let them know how they have failed to serve, or how their product has failed to please. You’re getting an effective release for your feelings, provided constructive value to the business, and doing yourself a favor by doing something productive.

Reflecting on this process personally is something that helps me alot. I have high expectations for myself, and when I don’t live up to them I want feedback. If it’s an exam or project, I want to know where I went wrong from my prof. If it’s a friendship or other relationship I want to know how I messed up from them. If it’s just me… I need to sit down and self-critique so that I can move forward with humility and with greater capacity to acheive excellence in the future.

If this is what I do for myself, why not do it for others?

Help the relationships you have with the world around you by providing constructive feedback in the way you yourself appreciate. Maybe the guy in the mailroom will rip it up, but maybe it will end up in the hands of an intelligent manager like yourself. You’ve created value not just for yourself, but for everyone else who enjoys that product/service/relationship in the future.

Keep your expectations, be enterprising, and help yourself and others reach for excellence in their lives and in their business.

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I just returned from an incredible week competing against the best and brightest MBA students from across the globe at the John Molson International Case competition. It’s the highest profile competition of its kind, and the only one which boasts competitors from every corner of the world. The competition is so fierce that Ivy League schools refuse to participate; a loss would tarnish their reputation and winning would be far, far from guaranteed.

The level of parity in the competition was amazing to behold. Every team probably could have beaten every other depending on the case, the judges, or the day. My team surpassed all of our previous practice performances, were on our game, felt supremely confident, but ultimately came up short.

Our record was a huge dissapointment. Everyone who competes at an elite level must have at least somewhat of an ego. I know I do, and I know everyone in Montreal last week does! You don’t even try out for such a thing unless you feel strongly about your abilities.

Feeling so confident and yet losing is a body blow to that ego.

Watching the level of strategic detail, focus and presentation skill of other teams provides a perfect opportunity to use that dissapointment to improve yourself. Seeing other competitors step up and deliver winning performances gave me insight into my weaknesses in analysis and detail focus, as well as tream time management and alignment.

We must be able to take dissapointment or failure (my team did not fail – but often I do individually!) even when undeserved, as an opportunity for personal growth. Identifying the strengths of others can help us fill in the holes in our own lives. Don’t feel unjustified or entitled: feel excited to move yourself forward in a new way.

Our egos can and should take beatings from time to time. Modesty and humility are hallmarks of great leaders. By embracing moments of humility we open ourselves to new potential in our lives and increase our empathic ability. Have you suffered loss? So have I. Look what you can do with it.

Use your dissapointment to offer up new direction – do something great. Don’t just sit there and pout.

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As my MBA progresses, and I settle into the lifestyle of projects and classes, I find myself starting to have more time to think. The program is a fertile ground for ideas to take seed, as we encounter new concepts, ways to analyze and people open to share their deep experience.

I love ideas. The bigger, the better. And I have great ones.

But not many people would actually know it. I am certainly free with sharing ideas, but then only those of you I talk to frequently will know it. People aren’t aware of my ideas because hardly any of them ever happen. If this is the case what’s the point? It’s a nice mental exercise perhaps. Maybe “some day” some of the ideas I have will get done. But really there is little practical reason, here and now, if I don’t act on anything.

Clearly, from my past posts, this is a big theme for me. But it’s really the crucial factor in the success of anyone.

I like to call it “The Gap”. There is a gap between the conception of an idea… and the execution of that idea. I believe most of us have problems closing that gap.

The gap is filled with doubts, distraction, and false feelings that your idea isn’t good enough.

Our biggest problem is dealing with those feelings, and bringing execution close enough to your idea that you can do it.

This dark place is talked about by a lot of leaders. Seth Godin calls it “the lizard brain”, Stephen Covey calls it “dependency”.

I call it the gap. And I want to jump it to make my ideas come alive.

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If you haven’t yet seen David Fincher’s new movie about the creation of Facebook, “The Social Network”, you should. In fact, go now.

I was skeptical of the timing of its release, and worried that it was all hype. However, “The Social Network” delivered in all the ways I expect in a good film – and in one additional extraordinary way.

The dialogue was great, the characters were real, and the visuals were fantastic.

The extraordinary thing about this film, from a business and personal perspective, is that it moved me. It moved me to think, and it moved me to act.

“The Social Network”, intentionally or not, has a theme woven through it which is prominently being played out in today’s business world:

Do Something, Now.

In the movie, Mark has a desire to be well-known, to get into the exclusive Harvard clubs.

His idols are the young men in these clubs who have money and connections and who make use of them liberally. They advance through social networks and get their work done through other people.

This is the “old school”. This is the way things have worked for a long time, where social leverage was essential to get ahead, and mass production of second-rate products could be achieved through hiring unskilled, untalented workers.

When a group of these students ask Mark to work on a project for him, things change in his outlook. Their meeting sparks an idea; The Facebook. An exclusive club, for university students only, wich would eventually come to change the world’s social landscape.

Mark then embodies the “new school”. He uses his talents, his passion, his hard work, and the new leverage of a web connected world to create an incredible product.

In the end, the “old school” can only sit back and sue, using their unconnected networks of family lawyers and academic directors, to try and take back what they had already lost.

I came away from this movie breathless. A 24 year old man, Mark Zuckerberg, had created a company worth 14 billion dollars. More than monetary value, he had produced something which changed our world. And he did it at school.

I’m at school. I’m 28. Where is my product? What am I changing?

In the new world we live in there is no time to wait for networks to develop, skills to enhance or time to start something new. We have to do it. We have to be moved by our passions to create lasting value.

Mark did it. He’s probably younger than you? What did he have that you haven’t?

My answer: nothing but the will to do it.

So why not?

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What matters more to you: the real facts or data relating to a subject, or your own experiences and outcome when faced with the the situation described by this data?

I know for me, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s the experience. And I’m betting that for most people this holds true.

In fact… I have had many, many encounters with people for whom this is the law.

This week some comments in Organizational Behavior brought me back to this thought.

We were talking about hiring practices: most people have never been hired based ona  structured interview, or with any of the tool;s that exist out there. Most people hire, and have been hired, based on the gut feeling of a manager.

The numbers say do not – under any circumstance – do this. It will end badly.

There are so many situations in our lives where it doesn’t matter what the facts say: we believe the experience that we have lived.

I think we can all personally help ourselves out a bit and check the facts. We can personally try not to let our experiences, positive or negative, affect the way we live our lives or do business, and focus a bit more on the facts.

Where this principle, that experience overwhelms even known facts, is especially important is when dealing with others. Whether as a business looking for a customer, or a manager listening to an employee, we must validate the experiences that people live, regardless of the way facts bare them out in the end.

A customer who buys a broken mp3 player is not likely to put a high amount of trust in future purchases, even if he is in the 1% who ever buys a broken one.

A person whose trust is violated by a religious leader is not likely to look kindly on religion, even if on average, those leaders behave no worse than anyone else.

Even when their beliefs contradict the data, we should be sensitive to the lived experiences of other people, because frankly, I hope others are sensitive to mine.

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