The Big Idea

From Full Sterne Ahead

August, 2001
June, 2001
May, 2001
March, 2001
February, 2001
November, 2000
October, 2000
September, 2000
August, 2000
June, 2000
May, 2000
April, 2000
February, 2000
November, 1999
October, 1999
July, 1999
May, 1999
March, 1999
January, 1999
November, 1998

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June, 2001

Be proactive. That's it. That's this month's Big Idea.
No, I don't mean advertise aggressively, although that
can't hurt. I mean treat people to a freebie. The word
of mouth response is the best advertising you can get.
Here's a classic example from Marnie, the editor at John
Wiley & Sons who proof-read my latest volume of World
Wide Web Marketing:


To: Jim Sterne
From: mwielage@wiley.com
Subject: Something Kinda Cool!
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 12:01:56 -0400
>
> Hi Jim:
>
> How are you? Something really cool happened today that
> I thought I'd share with you...
>
> While I was proofing Web Marketing, 3E, I ran across
> the URL for reflect.com and thought I'd take a spin
> around the site. I played around for a while and wound
> up customizing some foundation to see how the site
> worked. I bailed before checkout because I never
> really had any intention to buy--your description
> in the book was cool and sparked my interest. That
> was about three-four weeks ago. Today, I got a nicely
> packaged little box from reflect.com with a
> complimentary sample of the foundation I designed. I
> immediately thought of everything I'd learned from
> your book and thought you'd get a kick out of the
> story. Considering how many sites lose customers'
> interest before checkout, I thought this was a pretty
> cool little marketing scheme... If I love the  
> foundation, they've got me!

Marnie told me. Now I'm telling you.
Works pretty well, doesn't it?

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May, 2001

Kristin Zhivago, my favorite CMO-For-hire says of the
following: "Refreshing approach, I must admit."


  > Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 17:45:32 -0500
  > From: marc@quickbrowse.com
  > To: kristin@zhivago.com
  > Subject: Thank God for no funding...
  >
  > Hi Kristin -
  >
  > Just a quick update on Quickbrowse.com, the service
  > that combines your favorite sites into a single page
  > for faster viewing:
  >
  > 1. We now show off 1001 (!) user testimonials on
  > our site - each one a user's answer to the question:
  > "What do you use Quickbrowse for?" The many different
  > applications users have found for Quickbrowse are
  > quite amazing.
  >
  > 2. We have just added the 101st (!) news story about
  > Quickbrowse to our press archive page. That might
  > make us sound bigger than we are. So we thought
  > we'd let you know the following:
  >
  > -NO, we're not a big Internet company with a huge
  > PR budget (actually we could never really afford
  > spending a dime on PR).
  >
  > -YES, we're only three guys working out of a small
  > one-room office, two blocks off the beach in Miami
  > (drop by if you come to visit)
  >
  > -NO, we never had fancy office space or the in-house
  > masseuse or in-house chef (not because we're so darn
  > smart or frugal but because we weren't given that
  > much investment money in the first place).
  >
  > -YES, maybe that's why we're still around.
  >
  > In other words, one could say we still exist because
  > we didn't get the funding we were hoping for. So
  > going on a spending binge never became an option
  > (I'm sure we would have done it, just like many
  > others dotcoms). Talk about dumb luck. Necessity
  > forced us to keep coming up with ways to keep cost
  > low. For instance, our system administrator, Robert,
  > telecommutes to Miami Beach every day (through the
  > Internet) from chilly Bratislava, Slovakia. We "met"
  > him in a chat room for programmers. For the longest
  > time, we didn't even know what he looked like. But
  > that's another story...
  >
  > For the testimonials and news stories, please go to:
  >
  > Testimonials: www.quickbrowse.com/testimonials/
  > Press: www.quickbrowse.com/press/
  >
  > Our, sometimes quirky, story is at:
  > www.quickbrowse.com/story/
  >
  > Please contact me if you have any questions.
  >
  > Cheers from Miami Beach,
  >
  > Marc
  >
  > ++
  > Marc Fest
  > Founder, Quickbrowse.com
  > marc@quickbrowse.com
  > ++

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March, 2001

I was one of several authors who got an e-mail from
Internet scribe Ellen Reid Smith. She was upset.

  > Dear fellow authors,
  >
  > I was disgusted by a review posted to my book's page
  > last night on Amazon.com.  But my disgust turned to
  > anger when I realized a group of eMarketers/authors
  > whom I respect, all received the EXACT same review.
  >
  > You can read the review in duplicate at:
  >
  >
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-reviews/-/AYGR1Q7GNEXES/104-9548536-4832735

  >
  > I've contacted Amazon and asked that they delete
  > the review from all of our book pages.  Sending
  > your own note to book-depart@amazon.com might speed
  > up the process.

I wrote back:

  > Interesting Ellen. But I have a dilemma - just
  > because somebody has but one opinion, lacks
  > creativity, and knows how to cut and paste - does
  > that negate their right to express themselves?

What's the big idea? Reputation Management. Your PR
department may be scouring the newsgroups and the
chat room archives to clean comments about you and
your products. But are they tuned into BizRate.com?
Epinions.com? and the many other places people are
rating you?

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February, 2001

While I was busy giving a lecture called, "How Much Do
You Need To Know?" at a DMA convention in Orlando, I
received a slightly disturbing e-mail from a fellow
Internet marketing author and speaker that made me
shake my head.


  > Subject: Shameless Log Rolling for [name withheld]'s
  > book
  >
  > Friends,
  >
  > I have a brazen favor to ask. The fully revised
  > version of my book, "[book title]" was recently
  > released. So far, both Amazon and BN.com feature
  > zero customer reviews. Anyone who feels in the
  > Xmas spirit of selfless giving, all I want from
  > Santa or anyone else this holiday is a rave review.
  > (No, I'm afraid I can't pop for a free book in return,
  > but I'll send you a Blue Mountain Arts thank-you card.)
  >
  > For those of you who did read the previous version,
  > this one is quite similar, only better and up-to-date.
  > For those of you that haven't had the pleasure yet
  > at all, take my word for it, it's really, really good.
  >
  > For any of you dubious about recommending a book you
  > haven't read, just consider the fact that this email
  > message itself is evidence of my powerful Internet
  > marketing savvy: the same strategy last time assured
  > me a 4.5 star rating on Amazon.


When Chris Locke does this sort of pandering in his snide,
in your face way, it's humorous. But this one strikes me
as just a touch sad.


What's the Big Idea?


The difference between marketing well and being
disingenuous is a matter of degree. Is it wrong to
post a review about your own book, pretending to
be somebody else? Certainly. Is it wrong to ask others
to write glowingly about a book they haven't read?


I'd say that integrity is more important that ever these
days. That may be why I did not reveal the name of the
above author. I don't intend this to be a finger-pointing
session. Besides, today's MailBits.com quote is: "A man
never discloses his own character so clearly as when he
describes another's." --Jean Paul Richter


I just wanted to acknowledge that there are lines we
shouldn't cross. In a land of grays and shadows, it
is incumbent upon us to find our own blacks and whites.

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November, 2000

Speaking of Information Week and their daily e-mail news,
www.informationweek.com/magazine one thing that keeps
me reading it is their Quote of the Day. (It's one of the reasons
I also love A Word A Day as well http://wordsmith.org/awad)

Several weeks ago, the QotD read as follows:

   >            -QUOTE OF THE DAY-
   > "We've got to make sure we don't create organizations
   > with a CEO at the top, a computer in the middle, and
   > lots of workers at the bottom," business-advice author
   > Robert T. Tomasko said.

It got me to wondering - why not?

Is it because we will relegate multiple tiers of middle
managers to the sidelines to languish along with wheelwrights
and slide rule polishers? Is it because we can't trust our
own programming?

In a world of empowered knowledge workers, workflow-imbued
intranets and all information available to all workers...
why not?

Do we still need team leaders? Sure. Do we still need to
have somebody calling the tactical shots to ensure the
strategy from on high can be realized? Yep.

But we no longer need layers of people whose job is to pass
information up and down the chain. And it's these very people
who are making it so hard for corporations to take full
advantage of the Internet. They feel threatened.
And they should.

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October, 2000

Think like a customer.
Wear customer-colored glasses.
Ask yourself:
  What would the customer do?
  What would the customer think?
   How would the customer feel?

Paula Lindrum filled out a Web form to those helpful people
at Sony:

   > Re DSC-S70 Digital Imaging Cybershot
   > I've lost my instruction book. Is there a digital version
   > online? If not, may I order a replacement?
   > Thank you.

It took more than a week for the reply:

   > From: Custserv [mailto:custserv@info.sel.sony.com]
   > Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 12:13 PM
   > To: paula@lindrum.net
   > Subject: Re: DSC-S70 : Digital Imaging : Cybershot
   >
   > Thank you for contacting SONY.
   >
   > You may view the online manual at the following URL:
   > www.sonystyle.com/pdfs/3060522111.pdf
   > (when I tried the link, it was currently unavailable. If
   > it is unavailable when you try, please try it a few more
   > times)

Paula puts it as plainly as possible:

   > Why send a customer a URL that you know won't work?

But she finishes up with the brand killer:

   > I expect more from Sony.

Me too.

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September, 2000

Speaking of Jakob Nielsen... He responded to last week's
discussion about the iFeel mouse:
www.logitech.com/cf/whatsnew/new_products.cfm?52,10

  > From: "Jakob Nielsen"
  > To: "'Jim Sterne'"
  > Subject: RE: iFeel Mouse and your thoughts
  > Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 18:24:26 -0700
  >
  > It is about time we added more dimensions to the user's
  > main way of communicating with the computer. The traditional
  > mouse is no better than the cave people's club: you can
  > bang on things, but that doesn't make for a highly nuanced
  > dialogue. Force-feedback is one first step and will allow
  > users to know more than simply what pixel they are pointing
  > to. Another advance would be pressure-sensitive buttons,
  > so that you could steer the computer differently with a
  > hard or a soft click, depending on what you wanted it to
  > do. Drawing programs would be the first beneficiaries of
  > more flexible mouse operations - for example, you could
  > vary the line thickness or the color based on pressure
  > while drawing. But many other user interfaces could be
  > made richer as well.
  >
  > The old mouse is more than 30 years old. It's time for it
  > to evolve beyond age of the cave people. It's time for
  > computers to support a richer and more flexible dialogue.
  > It's time for the user interface to become more human
  > and less robotic.

Anybody out there working on something Jakob and I should
know about?

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August, 2000

Just feel this fine, smooth Corinthian leather...

Logitech is now offering up the iFeel MouseMan
www.Logitech.com/cf/about/pressRelease.cfm/220
It's their second try at force-feedback and it raises some
droll possibilities. Rather than diving straight into the
obvious but over-blown field of teledildonics, I'm thinking
about tactile navigation.

Links to major site sections could feel solid while links to
other sites have a disturbing buzz to them. Navigational pages
might feel slick while datasheets feel rough. All sorts of
standard tangible clues could work in conjunction with standard
Windows sounds.

It seems like such a large, unused datastream that it's a
shoe-in. Anybody want to come up with some de facto, tactile
standards?

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June, 2000

It's not enough to be OK.

The following showed up in response to the E-Metrics white
paper produced by Net Genesis and yours truly on the first
of May www.netgen.com/emetrics from Geoff Inglis,
Senior Associate Director of Added Value Analysis at BMRB
International www.bmrb.co.uk.

With a title like that, I was all ears (eyes?) and was not
disappointed. Geoff wrote in part:

   > In response to the excellence of your free document, let
   > me share something with you.  In the last few years I
   > researched the effect of Customer Magazines on customer
   > loyalty and was able to show that customers did in
   > fact respond to them with enhanced loyalty.
   >
   > Customers bought more products, learnt more about a
   > company's whole range, were quite happy to say that they
   > thought better about the organisation because of the
   > magazine, were more trusting of a company's objectives
   > etc, etc.
   >
   > There was one proviso.  To achieve these effects, a
   > customer magazine had to be excellent.  Being just 'good'
   > was no good, [ie non-memorable experiences had no effect].  
   > One had to delight the customer to get the reward of
   > positive word of mouth.

This from a man who pays very close attention to such things.

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May, 2000

Joel Rothblatt helps people write
business plans. Just before the April Internet World conference
in LA, he wrote and asked:

  > I was just curious why you didn't mention your
  > numerous speaking gigs at Internet World this week.

So I wrote back:

  > Well, Joel - you're the second one to ask
  > me about that.

Ann Handley from ClickZ had the exact same inquiry
not two days earlier. I wrote back:

  > I just like this thing being completely promotion-free.
  > My appearances are posted at
  > www.targeting.com/upcoming.html
  > and I guess I figure that's enough.

Just before I was to be introduced to my fifth Internet World
audience of the week, Joel came up, introduced himself and
asked again.

I had been talking to Bill Carmody,
Chief Marketing Officer at Seismicom, (integrated marketing
promotions) company, who had been introducing me throughout
the week. So I turned to Bill and asked what *he* thought
about putting that sort of promotional stuff into a content-
only, advertising-free, e-newsletter. I fully expected to
be sold on the value I was offering readers and why blatant
self promotion was a wonderful thing.

He said, "I've heard this Jim Sterne guy give a couple
of presentations and I know what *he'd* say..."

"Oh?" I asked, fully intrigued and wildly flattered.

"Ask your readers"

My response? "D'oh!" and a sharp slap to the forehead.

So - let me ask you:

Do you want me to include a brief bit about where I'll
be appearing and when my books are coming out and such?
Just click on the choice and hit send - I'll report the
tally next time:

   mailto:NoWay@targeting.com
   mailto:YesPlease@targeting.com

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April, 2000

Why on Earth does Web navigation have to be so hard? Why
do designers insist on sacrificing usability for art? It
doesn't have to be that way.

For a series of in-depth, breath-of-fresh-air, both-feet-on-
the-ground articles and insights into how to make your site
easier to use, there is no better resource than
www.useit.com from expert/guru/consultant Jakob Nielsen.

But for a real eye-opening experience in how the human brain
works, check out a company called Information Mapping. This
firm has been applying cognition studies to computer display
modalities for decades (more than three). Besides useful
courses and training sessions, they've hosted a nifty little
Web application that immediately shows you what their
approach can do for you and your information.

It's the "Show Me" Demo. It's a test. See how quickly you can
find a specific piece of information in a memo. A memo's not
a Web page? Think again. It's all about being able to find
things fast. It's about comprehension.

I love the "Show Me" Demo because it proves just how hard/easy
it can be to find what you want.

What's The Big Idea? Use the unique abilities of the Web to get
your point across. The "Show Me" Demo is such a wonderful example. Go take the test, see the difference, and then see how much money your company can save by using their methods.

The "Show Me" Demo makes my little marketer's heart go pitty-pat: www.infomap.com/method/showme

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February, 2000

Customer centric systems

You say you want to do Customer Relationship Management?
You say you want to have a single screen where any customer
service rep can access everything they need to know about
each customer in a key-stroke? Well, you've got two choices.

You can either implement a really wonderful layer of
middleware that allows the service rep's browser to
dip into all the systems you have that have customer
data in pico-second leaps of communication so the
rep can access all of it in real time ...(inhale)...
or... you can create a brand new data repository that
collects all of that data in advance. Guess which is
going to work better?

Oh, you still need the middleware. You'll still need
to collect all of that information from all of those
systems, but instead of worrying about reaching into
all of them in real-time, you only need to worry about
normalization.

Let's say you have a sales contact management system,
an invoicing system, and a customer care database in
each of four divisions. Let's say John Smith sends
you an e-mail from JohnSmith@Yahoo.com. Tell me, which
John Smith is this?

The big idea here is to think about ways to compare and
contrast customer records so you have multiple points
of comparison. Maybe JohnSmith@Yahoo.com let slip that
he was having trouble with your product while he was in
California for the first time - well, we can eliminate all
of the JohnSmiths who live in the sunshine state. Maybe he
mentioned which product or service of yours he was using.
That might help. Did he include his phone number in his
signature file? Excellent.

You begin to see the enormity of the problem.

Are you a smaller firm? When it comes time to implement
new systems of any kind, make sure you organize your
data and your processing around the customer, and not
around products or invoices.

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November, 1999

The Internet is a place for the exchange of ideas. In my five
years of exchanging ideas, I've only once exchanged a few that
caused an attempted character assassination. I wrote a review
of several Web sites in Inc Tech magazine, one of which I slammed as follows and then some:

   When it comes to home-page navigation, cleanliness truly is
   next to godliness. That lesson has not been learned by Krystal
   Kleen Karpet Kare, whose home page is nowhere near as
   pristine as its customers' wall-to-walls.

The owner of said Web site took umbrage. He also took a dictionary to my back side by changing his home page to include my photo and a description of me as "the epitome of a narcissistic, ostentatious, self centered person, yet he beats his drum so loudly he can not hear anything else around him."

Like driving past a traffic accident, I had to slow down a to
see how much blood had been spilled - even if it *was* my own.

The site, the retort, the ensuring battle and the final outcome
are displayed for all and sundry at:

   www.inc.com/incmagazine/contest

So what's the big idea? Remember that the Internet is a great
place to communicate. What you say is up to you.

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October, 1999

Mark Gibbs forwarded the following pitch to me from
ClickTheButton because he has an eye for the interesting:

>   Hi,
>
>   Check this out! Go to www.clickthebutton.com,
>   and download the software they give away (average
>   time, < 1 minute). It will put a 'button' next to
>   the clock on your computer (or in your Apple Menu
>   if you use Macintosh).
>
>   Once you have the button, go to your favorite book,
>   movie, music or toystore on the web and find a
>   product you like. Then, ClickTheButton!
>
>   I don't want to tell you what will happen, but
>   you're gonna love it!
>
>   Let me know what you think (and pass it on)!

We'll *I'll* tell you because that's the kind of guy I am.
When you find a page that shows a product that interests
you, ClickTheButton and it runs around looking for the
same product on 30 different merchant sites. It then
reports back with price and availability from all those
other sites.

Apply that kind of thinking-outside-the-browser to your
industry and make a leap of usefulness. Then tell me
about it.


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July, 1999

uly's Big Idea comes to you courtesy of Siebel Systems.
No, they're not sponsoring this newsletter. If I had sponsors,
I'd have to produce this on a schedule and get every word
pre-approved. [shudder]

No - Siebel is mentioned here because I dropped in on Kevin
Nix who's a senior product director of their call center and
service products. Mr. Nix handed me a Big Idea:

                 Channel Portals.

Now, we all know that extranets allow your customers to
log into your intranet and place orders, check stock on
hand all that good stuff. But what happens if you have
distributors, dealers, value-added resellers, etc.? How do
you properly workflow a sales lead or a plea for help?

In their own words: "Siebel eChannel allows organizations
to route leads, opportunities, accounts, and service requests
to the appropriate channel using configurable business rules
and track their performance on all assigned items."

The Big Idea is that there *is* a way to share customer
relationship information and monitor your sales channels
so that everybody benefits

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May, 1999

You walk into your local dry cleaner and you're greeted like
an old friend because you've been going there for years.
Saunter into Nordstroms and get treated like the most important
customer they have, because they are trained within an inch
of their lives to do so. Walk into a fast food joint and you'll
get very efficient, very impersonal service. Head over to the
video rental store and be waited on by a nose-ringed, orange-
haired individual who didn't pass the test to work behind
the counter at the fast food place.

We have very different expectations of the various retail
venues we frequent. But not of Web sites. We have very low
expectations of the sort of help we can find in a Big Box
warehouse store. But not so with Web sites.

The fact is that CDnow and Amazon.com, and FedEx have the
level of expectation for all surfers on all sites.

I have spent 20 minutes in a major department store looking
for a human to whom I might give my money. I have been stared
at with bovine indifference while complaining about a troublesome
home appliance. I have been studiously ignored in a national
consumer electronics store.

I have accepted each of these slights with a sigh and written
them off as the slow but sure degradation of the work ethic in
America.

But show me one 404 and I'm livid.

There's a problem with the login routine? The .cgi script doesn't
work? Out of stock on an item? Server not responding? 'Scuze me while I take a moment to flame the webmaster.

It doesn't matter what industry you're in -- you are competing
with the best and the brightest. If you sell macramé drink
coasters, goat-hair ear-muffs, or home-made, French-lavender-
honey flavored nail polish, you are competing with Jeff Bezos.

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March, 1999

It is astonishing just how many tiny details must be just
right on a Web site to gain customer trust and derive customer
knowledge to create customer relationships.

Customers put up with ignorant store clerks, cold food, rude
service and shoddy merchandise. But when it comes to the Internet,
they've been trained to expect rapture.

When we first started using the Web (each of us, individually),
it was so wonderful just to see pictures from some distant
computer. Then we were thrilled to see personalization and
recommendation engines that responded to us by name.

Now, if there is the smallest spelling mistake, the slightest
hitch in the process, or one missing detail about a product
we want to buy, our whole opinion of the site goes pear-shaped
and the Brand takes a hit.

Paying close attention to the details is not a luxury, it's a
necessity.

You must look at your customer relationships from your customers'
perspective. It's the only perspective that matters.

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January, 1999

If I need a quart of milk and it's late and it's raining
and it's cold, I'm not going all the way to the supermarket
where I can get it at the usual price. I'm going to the
neighborhood gas station/flowerstand/foodmart and pay
thirty cents more for the convenience. That store is
providing a service.

But if I'm buying several thousand dollars worth of
gear to be installed in my company chances are it's
not an impulse buy. I'll do y research and I'll choose
from one of various manufacturers and order from one of
various vendors.

But what if there were no distribution chain? What if
the manufacturer quoted a price - *the* price - the
*global* price? Then the former distributor gets to focus
on what they know best: service.

The first service on the menu? Consulting. Which one of
these products is best for my company? The local service
rep is going to steer me toward the product he services.
His competition is going to sell me on the models she
supports. Selling the product is no longer something you
do for the margin, it's something you do to build your
base of service customers.

This breaks the chain of distribution dependency.
Instead of the service provider contracting to sell
one manufacturer's products, they are free to choose
from whomever offers the best training, the fastest
parts delivery, the best factory support, and the
largest installed base into which they can sell...
services.

The Net takes the price war out of the hands of the
dealers and puts it in the hands of the customer. Sites
like www.compare.net and www.bookcompare.com
are going to pop up in every category. Service companies
will no longer be able to subsidize their services
with product mark-ups.

Is it the best way to run a distribution chain? Probably
not. Is it avoidable? Probably not. But the manufacturer
who sees this as an inevitability sooner will have the
best shot at coming up with creative new ways to win.

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November, 1998


Sometimes the clouds part and I can see a little further
than usual. Sometimes the fog is so thick I can barely
see my hand in front of my face. The tricky part is telling
the difference. The Big Idea this time has to do with the
need for whole new executive-level position in today's
forward-thinking company.

In the beginning, the technical team in the Information Systems (IS) department discovered the Internet. Six months later, the marketing department discovered the Internet and realized to its horror that the IS department had been representing the company online for the past six months. Engineers as corporate image
makers? Yikes!

There has been a tenuous relationship between the two
ever since. Who is in charge? Who controls the destiny
of the Web site?

What happens when your industry's biggest trade journal
'forgets' the embargo date and publishes your new
product announcement a week early? Marketing goes
to IS and says, "This *has* to go up tonight! We're
getting pounded on the phones by people looking for
content on our site!"

"But," sputters the IS representative, "you told us we
had another week to spell-check the content, verify all
the links, test the CGI scripts and stress test the
database. We haven't done any of that yet."

"So how long will it take?" asks marketing.

"It'll only take two days, but we have this payroll
problem that has all our attention right now and
our biggest customer is coming in tomorrow to inspect
our Y2K compliance," counters IS.

"So today's Wednesday. That means we could have it
up over the weekend, right?"

"Only if it's OK with you that nobody gets a paycheck
on Friday."

The problem escalates when both sides realize the other
will not budge, and neither has the power to call the shot.
Soon, the head of IS and the head of marketing are avoiding
each others' voice mails. Yes... there are unsupervised minors
at all levels of corporate America.

In today's world the only one who can solve a dispute between
IS and marketing is the CEO and that's the problem. No offence
to the business leaders of the world, but the Web is just too
complex an animal for CEO's to fathom.

IS handles the care, feeding, currying, and veterinary concerns of the beast, while marketing focuses on its training, socialization and psychological well-. That represents a huge amount of knowledge and the CEO needs to stay on top of running the whole damn zoo.

So what's the solution?

I call for a new position at the highest levels of
corporate America. The Chief Web Officer. Base the pay
on the money saved and the money earned via the Web.
This is the person who can hold the visionary torch, set
the standards, and make the decisions that effect multiple
departments.

There are signs that mine may not be a lone voice in the
wilderness.

At the end of a worrisome meeting of senior executives
at a multi-billion dollar client of mine, the CIO pleaded
for the immediate establishment of a committee to take
control of what had been dispersed, disorganized, and
indiscriminate Web development efforts. At the end of
the table, the CEO snorted and said, "How about we just
pick two people and empower them to take control of this
mess and make some decisions!"

I stood up from my chair and applauded.

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