Scott Savage’s Blog

Google offer

Originally uploaded by Scott Savage

Every time I collect the mail I have this thought, there could be something here that will change my life. I little overly dramatic I know, but these days if someone goes to the effort of sending you a snail mail then it is something that needs to be filed away.

I know a job takes over 50% of your waking hours, but it is still amazing how much your job satisfaction affects every aspect of your life. Anyway my package was from Google, and starting Monday my life will be different.

Seth Godin is my favourite marketing guru, and he recently published a free e-book that has statements from 70+ great thinkers. For me, reading these statements was the perfect way to reflect on the past year and motivate myself for a big 2010.

There was one slide in particular that resonated for me. The ability to create a vision is a product management skill that I have really tried to build, but I never realised that by creating a vision you are demonstrating leadership. It is so easy to put vision in the “too hard” basket and let your daily grind expand to fill your day. A leader rises above this by setting a vision that resonates with those around you and motivates them to do the same.

In a down economy - particularly one that has taken most of us by surprise – things get very tactical. We are just trying to survive. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. What works today may not necessarily work tomorrow. Decisions become pragmatic.

But after a while this wears on people. They don’t know why their efforts matter. They cannot connect their actions to a larger story. Their work becomes a matter of just going through the motions, living from weekend to weekend, paycheck to paycheck.

This is where great leadership makes all the difference. Leadership is more than influence. It is
about reminding people of what it is we are trying to build – and why it matters. It is about painting a picture of a better future.It comes down to pointing the way and saying, “C’mon. We can do this!”

When times are tough, vision is the first casualty. Before conditions can improve, it is the first thing we must recover.

Vege Garden 17/12/09

Originally uploaded by Scott Savage

The tomatoes are now officially out of control (in a good way). They are loving our heat wave backed by storms and have really taken off. No ripe tomatoes yet, but there are a ton of green ones on the way. Even the jalapenos are taking off, probably because they now have a little more shade under the rocket. I think the new mulch layer has helped keep the moisture in during the heat of the day, and plenty of weeding and tying hopefully helps to make a difference too. No chemicals have been used yet, which is a huge benefit of growing your own produce!

New Roses

Originally uploaded by Scott Savage

Today we added 4 new white iceberg roses across the front of the verandah. They were on sale from Flower Power, 25% off. They are ok to plant outside of winter because they were potted, but we can’t move the other ones until July when they are dormant. We also put some lavender plants across the front of that garden bed, so hopefully they spread over the bed and the chip bark keeps the weeds at bay. The pile of soil is getting much smaller now. On the upcoming long weekend I will be doing some paving and putting in a vegetable patch!

Street view

Originally uploaded by Scott Savage

The garden is slowly coming together! I cemented in the edging (tumbled limestone pavers turned sideways), planted half of the hedges (other half will be planted once the cement is set) and put chip bark over the areas that will soon be garden beds. Unfortunately I can’t move the roses yet because they are still flowering and to minimise the impact it is better to wait until winter when they are dormant. I also glued a piece of cracked marble back onto the step. I am pretty happy with how things are looking so far, it will be good to see everything grow into place. Hopefully it won’t take long until I have to start trimming the hedges into shape.

Internet Cash Machine

The core promise of SaaS is that it will help you deliver services more efficiently. Instead of trying to manage software projects (which can easily get expensive and out of control) a company can outsource non-core development and deploy an SaaS solution almost instantly. In the current economic downturn many people have been watching SaaS vendors closely to see whether they struggle or thrive. On paper they are cheaper and allow businesses to focus on their core strengths, but would companies shun the risk and element of change in uncertain times?

There have been a few earnings announcements over the last couple of months that are proving the SaaS backers right. Salesforce is the biggest ‘flag bearer’ for SaaS solutions, and it has exceeded analyst expectations and posted a 43% revenue increase from the same quarter last year. The good news doesn’t end there however. Concur, Taleo, RightNow and many other SaaS providers are also posting record quarters.

 As you can see I have added my folding statistics to the right hand column of my website.
You can now track my folding progress! I am still going pretty strong having recently
cracked the 400k points barrier. I have a new celeron D computer coming online next
week, hopefully followed by a big increase as I set up some more computers at work.
Anyway I highly suggest some more people join up and start
folding with Overclockers Australia today!

Screenshot of the archived KGB Networks website in 2004

I decided to redesign my site and give it a bit of a less depressing look. I also removed the frames and implemented templates so the next updates should be a lot easier. Hope you enjoy it and please email me if you find any problems! Thanks!!

I am now officially on holidays, so today I fiddled around with 3dsmax and Macromedia Fireworks and created this desktop background. It is very light and keeps your desktop looking very nice and ‘clean’.

Click to download the full background image