Prof Bruce's definitions

Money wrangler

A money wrangler is a company, usually large, that has found myriad ways to fleece its clients.

My cell phone company provided me with an ‘all you can eat’ one price, all inclusive deal that turned out to have numerous exclusions. They sure know how to wrangle money out of their clients with service level agreements that no one but a lawyer understands. That firm is a money wrangler, for sure.

by Prof Bruce March 15, 2010

Intricated

To intricate someone; to bring people on board or to get them onside with an idea or a proposal or an initiative of some type by getting them intricated into the process bit by bit, almost without their noticing that they are making a commitment.

When a group was trying to Bring Back the Ottawa Senators in 1990, a team that had not played in the National Hockey League for nearly 60 years, one of their key advisers, former US Attorney General, Elliot Richardson (now deceased) said: "First we'll get the League’s Board of Governors intricated then we'll get the (expansion) franchise!"

by Prof Bruce March 5, 2009

Twitterbug

Someone who spends a great deal of their time on micro blogging service, Twitter.

“Why are you spending so much of your time on Twitter? If you’re not careful, you’ll turn into a Twitterbug.”

by Prof Bruce November 9, 2009

anonymize

Today’s strict privacy laws require that you protect consumer information. For this and many other reasons, it is often necessary to anonymize a data set, a blog article, a media report or a case study. Anonomizing a story or a case study can also help protect a confidential source or informant.

“You are doing work for a private Foundation and you believe that their case would make interesting reading for your students. The only problem—you are under a confidentiality agreement. With their permission, you anonymize the information and data and write up their story on your blog—sans anything that can point back to the original.”

by Prof Bruce December 8, 2009

triangulating

Triangulation is a geometric method of locating a point by first determining two angles on a fixed baseline. It is used in times of war to locate hidden radio transmitters, ships on the high seas or aiming an artillery piece.

In business, it is used in a different way—CEOs, for example, triangulate on employees or other sources of information to be sure that they are getting accurate information which is mission critical to any enterprise’s longevity and sustainability. CEOs know that direct reports often tell them what they think the CEO wants to hear instead of the unvarnished truth. That is a reason why many CEOs like to speak directly to customers and suppliers—they disintermediate everyone else.

“Tom Sanders (played by Michael Douglas in the 1994 film, Disclosure) is a manager at tech company, Digicom. He is told by ambitious executive Meredith Johnson (played by Demi Moore) that the drives they are working on are failing at an unacceptable rate due to Tom’s negligence (in software design). Only by triangulating on Meredith (by checking with two independent sources) does Tom discover the truth and save his career—that Meredith had authorized a cheaper solution (they are using a lower level clean room) which is actually causing tiny specs of dirt to foul operation of their new drives.”

by Prof Bruce February 21, 2010

PAAS

You’ve heard of SAAS, Software as a Service, well make way for PAAS, Product as a Service. Customers are subscribing to services that regularly deliver products they need over and over again. This could create a whole new class of business models.

Instead of selling your product to one customer, once, you might be able to turn it into PAAS, ‘product as a service’—people would subscribe to your service and you would deliver the product to them, say, once a quarter. It could be anything people use over and over again— like hair gel, shaving cream, razor blades, perfume, face cream, hey, maybe even socks and underwear.

by Prof Bruce April 20, 2011