Peer Power Blog

Earlier this week the HTS management team took a field trip to cold and even a little snowy Minnesota to visit Marco in St Cloud.  Our mission was to spend time looking under the hood at a company that is extremely successful and has experienced many of the challenges we face on our path to growth.  Having been members together in HTG2 for years, we were welcomed with open arms and had an amazing experience learning and observing the team in action. We were particularly interested in understanding centralization of roles and functions - particularly around dispatch, helpdesk and managed services.  We were able to spend time with the management team and get the honest and frank realities of ... Continue reading

This week I was invited to attend an event in Minneapolis called TechPulse.  This was a customer facing event hosted by two HTG companies in the Minneapolis-St Paul area.  Same market, same basic SMB customer target, same basic business focus.  Big problem, right?  These are competitors.  You can't do an event together when you compete.  But for the fifth year these two companies made a decision that working together was the way to have more impact in the market.  Since joining HTG in 2006 - both have grown significantly and done extremely well.  They have figured out the power of peers.  They have made the decision that co-opetition is a powerful tool.  I was blessed to be able to lead a c... Continue reading

Then this post is for you because there are a number of award application opportunities open right now. Company awards are an excellent way to celebrate business achievement and shine a spotlight on your business. Try it and you might discover some of the bottom line benefits and the power of industry and local awards. This is often an overlooked tool in your marketing toolbox. Marketing consists of many techniques and channels from advertising and direct response to radio and trade shows, but you can take your small business to new levels by entering your company for awards. The trick is they don’t just happen. You have to apply, submit an entry or nominate yourself. Awards are not just for... Continue reading

This week I was in Chicago for the CompTIA AMM (annual member meeting) which is held each April to update the membership on what is happening and bring together the CompTIA membership for education and interaction.  I learned much this week as I participated in the event.  Todd Thibodeux and the CompTIA team really have evolved CompTIA into a very focused and well run machine.  Here are some of the key things I walked away with: The mission of CompTIA is extremely clear – capsulated in the acronym ECAP E – education in many forms – but really focused on training and educating all areas of the IT ecosystem C – certifications with A+ as the standard but now with 14 different cer... Continue reading

In January 2011 we experienced a very different set of experiences regarding our hotel stays in China. We arrived in Shanghai on January 6, 2011 and were taken by taxi to the Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel. We were greeted and checked in for a delightful two days in the city. We were located conveniently close to the Metro for the Science and Technology Museum and found the service and the staff to be very helpful. We stayed at this property using our Marriott Rewards Platinum Premier points.After two days in Shanghai, we took the train to Hangzhou where we were scheduled to stay 10 days at a different hotel chain. This was a fairly new hotel and we were booked using points through our ho... Continue reading